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European, East Asian, and Gunpowder Empires Expand

Gunpowder Empire: Large, multiethnic states in Asia that relied on the use of firearms to conquer and control territories

Europe

• Social Organizations and Interactions

  • Monarchies: A single person, the monarch, rules as the head of state, often for life and through hereditary succession

    • Tudors → England

    • Valois → France

    • Queen Isabella + King Ferdinand → Spain

  • Absolutism: Unlimited centralized authority and absolute sovereignty, as vested especially in a monarch or dictator.

  • Increase in the power of the middle class at the cost of priests and lords

• Politics and Governance

  • Conclusion of the 100 year’s war between France and England

  • Overseas exploration and colonization were beginning

• Interactions with the Environment

  • End of plagues

• Cultural Developments

  • Increases in literature

• Economic Systems

  • Many European states were becoming wealthy

• Technology and Innovations

  • Gunpowder

  • Invention of Gutenberg printing press

    • Led to increases in literature

Russia

• Social Organizations and Interactions

  • Stroganovs: Major Russian landowners (kinda like lords in Europe)

  • Cossacks: Fierce peasant warriors

• Politics and Governance

  • Capital was located in Europe

  • Viking invasions

  • Ivan IV - Ivan the Terrible

    • Took control of khanates of the Golden Horde

    • Expansion relied on gunpowder

    • Allowed Stroganovs to hire Cossacks to fight local tribes and khans (Mongols)

    • Took control of Volga River

  • Continued expansion after Ivan IV

    • Fur traders + militias defeated Indigenous groups

    • Spread all the way to Alaska by 1741

• Interactions with the Environment

  • Efficient location for trade with Europe and other cultures farther East and West

• Cultural Developments

  • Culture influenced by Mongols, Vikings, trade with Europe and other regions

  • East Orthodox (Christianity)

    • People in conquered land converted

    • However, local religious leaders continued to have influence

• Economic Systems

  • Maritime trade w Persia + Ottoman Empire after control of Volga

East Asia

💡Compare the Ming and Yuan Dynasties

• Politics and Governance

  • Song Dynasty → Ming Dynasty in 1368

    • Ming rulers stabilized East Asia for nearly 300 years (~1650)

  • Ming Dynasty → Qing Dynasty in 1644

    • Manchu: The Manchus are a Tungusic East Asian ethnic group native to Manchuria in Northeast Asia (~Northeast modern-day China)

    • Emperor Kangxi: Ruled Qing Dynasty (1661-1722)

      • Took control of parts of Taiwan, Mongolia, and Central Asia

    • Protectorate: A state that is under protection by another state for defense against aggression and other violations of law

      • China imposed a protectorate over Tibet (~North India)

    • Emperor Qianlong: Ruled Qing Dynasty (1736-1796)

      • Poet

      • Military campaigns → West China, causing mass killing of local population

      • Caused instability in the region that remains today

  • White Lotus Rebellion: Failed peasant uprising during Qing Dynasty

• Cultural Developments

  • Japan and Korea experienced developments similar to those in China

  • Ming Dynasty renewed the Great Wall of China

    • Mongols didn’t maintain it

  • Uighurs: Muslim population in China

• Economic Systems

  • Portuguese and other Europeans arrived in China during the Ming Dynasty to try to join the Asian trade network

  • Qianlong launched failed campaigns against Vietnam and Burma, draining the Empire’s treasury

    • Limited trade w Europe to recover

    • British asked for more trading rights, unsatisfied

    • China sent letter to British saying they have no need for British goods

  • Corruption at end of Qing → High taxes on population

Islamic Empires

Islamic Gunpowder Empires: Ottomans, Safavids, Mughals

• Social Organizations and Interactions

  • Christian boys were often forced to serve

  • Women in the Safavid empire were allowed to mostly participate in society

  • Hindu castes in the Mughal empire

• Politics and Governance

  • Took advantage of power left by collapse of Mongol Empire/Khanates

  • Europeans fought internally, leaving no competition for these Empires

  • Tamerlane violently took over areas in central Asia

    • Empire collapsed due to the lack of an effective government/political structure

  • Mongols vs Islamic forces across the region

  • Ottoman empire collapsed during WWI

    • Had a strong navy

  • Decline of the Mamluks

  • Safavids → Lack a good navy, but on sea

  • Conflict btwn Ottomans and Safavids

    • Religious (Branches of Islam)

    • Economic (Trade route disputes)

• Interactions with the Environment

  • Most gunpowder empires had access to the sea, but stuck to land-based trade routes

• Cultural Developments

  • Spoke a Turkic language

  • Ghazi Ideal: A model for warrior life that blended cooperative values of nomadic cultures with the willingness to serve as a holy fighter for Islam

  • Encouraged learning and art

  • Istanbul became a center for Islam

  • Safavids → Sufis + Shi’a Islam

  • Ottomans → Sunni Islam

• Economic Systems

  • Mughals (Modern day India) traded textiles, tropical goods, spices, and stones for gold and silver

• Technology and Innovations

  • Gunpowder Weapons

    • Canons

      • Ottomans used canons to establish the empire’s capital

    • Artillery

• Decline:

  • European forces defeated the Ottomans in the Battle of Lepanto

  • Safavids spent a lot of money without a way to regain it, draining their economy

  • Corrupt Mughal leader couldn’t keep up w external military innovations while also wanting to rid the state of Hinduism, creating rebellions. The British took control

Empire Administrations

Centralizing Control in Europe

💡Compare Louis XIV and Emperor Kangxi (Qing Dynasty)

• Social Organizations and Interactions

  • Gentry Officials: Upper class, nobles

    • The use of officials to establish and enforce laws helps legitimize the rule of a monarch

      • Justices of the Peace → England

      • Intendants/Tax Farmers → France

• Politics and Governance

  • Divine Right of Kings: The right to rule is given by god

  • English Bill of Rights: Granted and assured individual civil liberties

  • Absolutism: One monarch has complete control of the state

    • Louis XIV → France

    • Louis wanted to keep an eye on nobility and distract them from their loss of power, so he forced them to move to Versailles

Reigning in Control of the Russian Empire

💡Compare Ivan IV and Sundiata

• Social Organizations and Interactions

  • Nobles/Landowners (Boyars) at the top of social hierarchy

  • Serfdom → Serfs at the bottom of hierarchy

• Politics and Governance

  • Ivan IV wanted to keep an eye on nobility → Confiscated their land and forced them to move to Moscow

    • Modern Russian “secret police”

  • Internal conflict

    • Church → Preserve traditional values and beliefs

    • Boyars → Regain power

    • Tsar Royal Family → Keep power

• Cultural Developments

  • Peter the Great (I) defended Orthodoxy

Centralizing Control in the Ottoman Empire

• Politics and Governance

  • Devshirme: Christian boys were forced to serve in the Ottoman Government

    • They were educated and formed elite forces in the army

    • Some forced to control and administrate new/conquered territories

    • Forced to be extremely loyal to Sultan

Centralizing Control in East and South Asia

💡Compare Shogun rule to the rule of the Daimyo

• Social Organizations and Interactions

  • Daimyo: Japanese land-owning aristocrats

    • Samurai: Armies belonging to Daimyo

• Politics and Governance

  • Chinese Ming Dynasty attempted to erase all traces of the Mongols

    • Reinstated Civil Service Exam

    • Revitalized the Bureaucracy

  • Daimyos began to unite Japan

    • Nobunaga → Portuguese firearms used to unite ~1/3 of Japan

    • Hideyoshi → United almost all of modern-day Japan

    • Ieyasu → Power shifted to him in Tokyo, and he was declared Shogun

      • Period of Great Peace: His successors continued to rule

    • Tokugawa Shogunate (~1600-1870)

      • Centralized Japan (it was feudal)

      • Reduced power of Daimyos to essentially landlords

  • Akbar established fair rights for all in the Mughal Empire

    • Autonomy to govern with your own cultural laws

    • Zamindars: Paid government officials

      • Given money/land

      • Built their own personal armies with soldiers loyal to them with their salaries

• Cultural Developments

  • Ming Dynasty enacted a national education program focusing on art

  • Emergence of Sikhism in the Mughal Empire

• Economic Systems

  • Qing Dynasty raised taxes as bureaucracy became corrupt, and ended peasant rebellions

  • Japanese samurai paid w salaries, giving them economic power

  • Zamindars in charge of collecting taxes, construction, and water supply

    • Some grew wealthy and corrupt

• Technology and Innovations

  • Guns and gunpowder in Japan gave Daimyo the ability to defeat one another and unify Japan

Legitimizing Power through Religion and Art

European rulers (in general) used divine right to justify their rule (Monarchs derive their authority from God, therefore going against/opposing the monarch is going against God)

• Peter the Great (Russian Empire)

  • Seized the land near the Baltic Sea from Sweden, gaining St. Petersburg, a warm water port

  • Made St. Petersburg the capital to keep an eye on the Boyars

    • Boyars: A member of the highest rank of the feudal nobility

  • Architects organized the city, forcing slaves and prisoners of war to drain marshes and build government structures

  • Winter Palace: Palace designed by a European to demonstrate Peter’s admiration of the West and its rulers

• Askia the Great (Songhai)

  • Promoted Islam (mad official religion) to unite empire

  • Made a lavish pilgrimage to Mecca

  • Utilized bureaucracy to bring the empire together

• Shah Jahan (Mughal Empire)

  • Taj Mahal: Built as a tomb for his favorite wife, also functions as a mosque

  • Combined arts of Islam with local arts to create beautiful structures that demonstrated the power of the Empire

• Ottoman Empire

  • Renamed Constantinople → Istanbul

    • Continuity: Remained key in Silk Road trade

    • Continuity: Coffeehouses continued to thrive, despite being frowned upon by Islamic law

  • Suleymaniye Mosque: Demonstrated power

  • Restoration of Cathedral of Saint Sophia, turned into a mosque

• Louis XIV (French)

  • Versailles: Large palace built by Louis XIV in order to watch nobility and distract them from their lack of power due to his absolute monarchy

    • Show of power due to extreme cost and size of building + furniture

    • Made nobles compete for his attention, to do things like watch him wake up

Financing Empires

💡Compare Ottoman tax farming to Songhai’s zamindars

• Russia

  • Industrialization - attempt to increase revenue

    • New industries owned by the state (ex. shipyard, mines, etc)

    • Private industries also encouraged (ex. metallurgy, gunpowder, paper, etc)

    • Western naval engineers brought in to build Western styled ships

  • Industrialization failed → Raised taxes, now per capita (per person) instead of per land unit

  • Peasants became more oppressed than ever

• Ottomans

  • Tax Farming: Management of taxation is assigned to a third party (local officials and private tax collectors), and they receive a percent of the collected money from the contractor (emperor)

    • Some grew wealthy and corrupt

  • Agricultural villages struggled to pay taxes and fund the military

• Mughals

  • Zamindars began to keep some tax money, eventually growing wealthy and corrupt

• Ming Dynasty

  • Wealthy families were responsible for collecting the taxes in their region

    • Mainly land taxes

    • Paid in grain and silver

  • Collected tributes from other states

• Aztecs/Mexica

  • Collected tribute from other states

  • Citizens paid taxes, collected by an official at each capital

• Songhai

  • Collected tribute from other states

Belief Systems

Protestant Reformation

• Feudalism → Centralized Government caused many issues for the Roman Catholic Church

  • Corruption sparked multiple reform attempts; all unsuccessful

• Theological Disagreements: Arguments based on different opinions/interpretations

  • John Wycliffe: Priests are unnecessary for salvation. Translated bible to English for masses who couldn’t read Latin

  • Jan Hus + Hussites (Followers): Agreed with Wycliffe; labeled “heretics” and burned

  • Babylonian Captivity: Papacy (office held by pope) in France instead of Rome, giving the French influence over the church

  • Church failed to stop the Black Death → Suspicious

• Martin Luther: Church practices/traditions violated the bible - Made 95 Theses (list)

  • Indulgences: Paid escape of repercussions of sin

  • Simony: Selling church offices

  • Many German leaders saw this as an opportunity to free themselves of the power of the pope

  • Became major divide within the Church

• Calvinism: John Calvin helped reform religious community.

  • Elect: People predestined to go to heaven

    • They ran the community

    • Encouraged people to work hard and reinvest their profits

• Anglicanism: King Henry VIII wanted a son, and his wife “wouldn’t give him one” (bro didn’t know his genes were the issue), but the pope refused to annul his marriage. He started his own church, free of the Roman pope; Anglican Church

Orthodox Church and Russia

• The Church united Russians, so Peter the Great got rid of the patriarch (head of the church) to incorporate it into the government

• Tsars ruled with divine right

• Raised age to become a monk, so men would first join the military

Counter/Catholic Reformation

• Roman Catholic Church fought back against reformation

  • Inquisition: A judicial procedure and institution used to combat heresy, apostasy, blasphemy, and witchcraft

    • Use increased

  • Jesuits: Roman Catholic order of priests and brothers, also known as the Society of Jesus, that are committed to serving the faith and promoting justice

    • Began missionary activity throughout the Spanish empire, Japan, and India

  • Council of Trent: Corrected abuses and reaffirmed marriage, along w increasing education of priests

• Successful, and spread further w Spanish, French, + Portugese colonies

Wars of Religion

• Peace of Augsburg: (1555) Allowed each German state to choose whether its ruler would be Catholic or Lutheran

• Edict of Nantes: (1598) King Henry IV tried to unify France by becoming Catholic. He issued Edict of Nantes, which allowed religious toleration

  • In 1685, Louis XIV revoked it, causing negative social and economic effects

• Thirty Years War: (1618-1648) Catholic vs Protestant conflict

  • Peace of Westphalia: Allowed each area in the Holy Roman Empire to choose:

    • Roman Catholicism

    • Lutheranism

    • Calvinism

    • Gave the states more autonomy

Islamic Religious Schisms

• Ottomans

  • Justinian law code replaced → Shariah

• Mughals

  • Tolerated all religions

    • Sikhism: New syncretic religion that developed as a mix of Hinduism and Sufism (Islam)

• Safavids

  • Shi’a Islam caused conflict w/ Ottomans

Scientific Revolution

• Scientific thinking became popular in Northern Europe → Renaissance

  • Thinking based on reason instead of faith

• Empiricism: Collection of data to back up a hypothesis

Comparison in Land-Based Empires

💡Compare the decline of the Mongol Empire to the decline of Mughal India

• Politics and Governance

  • Soldiers

    • Ottomans: Slave soldiers with more loyalty to sultan (Janissaries)

    • Safavids: Slave soldiers with more loyalty to sultan (Ghulams)

    • Aztecs/Mexica: Slave soldiers taken from tributary states

  • Warfare

    • Ottomans vs Safavids

      • Religious divide (Shi’a vs Sunni)

      • Territorial claims at border

    • Safavids vs Mughals

      • Control over resources

  • Centralized Bureaucracy

    • Chinese Dynasties (Ming + Qing): Civil service exam selected the best educated men to be part of the bureaucracy

    • Ottoman Empire: Devshirme provided the sultan with educated, loyal soldiers who were also trained in economics, politics, etc. and served in the bureaucracy

    • Safavid Empire: Persian bureaucrats enlisted by shah (sultan)

    • Songhai Empie: Educated bureaucrats employed by sultan

• Cultural Developments

  • Religious conflict weakened the Gunpowder Empires

• Economic Systems

  • Unable to compete with European trade → Decline

  • Taxation

    • Mughal: Zamindars collected taxes from peasants in their regions

    • Ottoman: Tax farmers paid a fixed sum of money to the government, and got it back by taxing the peasants, collecting goods and money

    • Aztec: Collected tribute, sometimes in goods but often human sacrifice

    • Ming: Taxes had to be paid in paper → rice → silver

• Technology and Innovations

  • Failure to keep up with military tech (ex. naval)