AP World History Modern

Unit 1: The Global Tapestry (1200 to 1450 CE)

1.1 Developments in East Asia

• Sui and Tang Dynasties: Reunited China after centuries of war.

• Song Dynasty (960 CE):

  • Built upon stability, advanced the government.

  • Unique government for the era with a large bureaucracy based on merit.

  • Meritocracies: Formed based on abilities, not wealth or nobility.

• Civil Service Exam:

  • Reemerged during the Tang and Song Dynasties.

  • Chinese men spent years learning Chinese classics, such as $Confucius’ Analects$.

  • Based on abilities, exams awarded greater power and influence, positions in government.

• Economic Development: Stability of Tang and Song dynasties allowed for economic development due to new technologies, regional trade, and growing dominance.

  • Examples: Gunpowder, champa rice, coal, paper, porcelain, silks, etc.

• Grand Canal: Linked southern Yangtze River with northern Yellow River, promoting interregional trade.

• Social Structure: Based on hierarchy.

  • Emperor > scholar-gentry (nobility) > peasants > merchants

  • Patriarchal society (men > women); foot-binding practiced.

• Japan:

  • Religion: Shintoism.

  • Literature: Tale of Genji.

  • Feudalism: Shogun, daimyo, samurai; Bushido code.

• Korea:

  • Adopted Confucianism, Buddhism, civil service exam.

  • Lacked social mobility.

• Vietnam:

  • No hierarchical society.

  • Life dominated by villages, family.

  • Limited impact of Confucianism and Buddhism.

1.2 Developments in Dar al-Islam

• Islam's Founding and Spread: Founded and spread in the 600s; Muhammad believed to be the last prophet of Allah.

  • Built upon principles of Judaism and Christianity.

  • Blended religion and government, unlike Judaism and Christianity.

  • Islamic world referred to as $dar al-Islam$ (“the house of Islam”).

• Islamic Expansion: Across North Africa & Middle East.

  • Military expansions under Umayyads.

  • Trade connections spread Islam.

• Tolerance and Taxation: Muslim caliphates conquered, tolerated different beliefs as long as non-Muslims paid a tax (jizya).

• Al-Andalus (Islamic Spain):

  • Central city of Cordoba was the biggest, most advanced city in Europe at the time (Middle Ages).

  • Architecture of Cordoba & the iron work of Toledo directly related back to this era of Islamic expansion.

• Women in Dar al-Islam:

  • Enjoyed more freedom than counterparts in the Christian world.

  • Could divorce, own land, pass on property to descendants.

  • Conservative elements later saw increased role of harems, facial coverings.

• Caliphates and Islamic Powers:

  • Umayyad and Abbasid caliphates helped develop and spread Islam from Spain to India.

  • As Abbasid caliphate falls to Mongol invaders, new Islamic powers emerge in 1200 to 1450.

• Egyptian Mamluks: Slave soldiers that won political control of Muslim states; established dynasty in Egypt and Syria from 1250 to 1517.

• Seljuk Turks: Ruled parts of central Asia and Middle East from 1000s - 1300s – migrated into Persia (now Iran).

• Delhi Sultanate: Central Asian Turkish warlords established Muslim kingdom in northern India, stayed until conquered by Mughals.

1.3 Developments in South Asia

• Religious Influences: Predominantly Hindu, but also impacted by Buddhism and Islam.

  • Hinduism:

    • Polytheistic faith, best known for belief in samsara, or reincarnation; vast majority of Indians are Hindu.

    • Very decentralized.

  • Islam:

    • More monotheistic and cohesive (political leadership + religion).

• Spread of Islam: By 1450, Islam spread to northern India and helped the Delhi sultanate create a stable regional empire.

• Trade Routes: South Asia saw many world religions because they were on both land and sea trade routes.

• Hindu Caste System: Hierarchy of power that was religious and inherited across generations.

  • Hindus born into caste had to remain in that caste until their death (then hopefully, reincarnate higher up).

    • Brahmins: Priests, scholars.

    • Kshatriyas: Rulers and warriors.

    • Vaishyas: Traders, merchants, farmers.

    • Shudras: Laborers.

  • Outside the castes are “untouchables” – oppressed, marginalized.

  • Promoted stability, although it also allowed for stagnation that emerges when there’s no competition for power.

  • Generally, a woman within the Hindu caste system had more in common w/ men of her caste than women in other castes.

  • As Islam spread to the region, social roles became more gendered.

• Post-Empire Kingdoms: After fall of Maurya & Gupta empires, South Asia broke into various kingdoms.

  • Rajput Kingdoms: Hindu, emerged in northern India – kept any centralized power from forming for hundreds of years.

    • Their competition allowed Islamic armies to start expanding into Afghanistan and Pakistan.

  • Delhi Sultanate: Emerged from this expansion as a powerful kingdom for nearly 300 years.

    • United by Islam, funded by Silk Road.

    • Delhi sultans held off the Mongols from expanding into South Asia.

• Southeast Asia

  • Before modern states in SE Asia, various land and sea empires that helped unite people politically, economically, and religiously

• Khmer Empire: Powerful state in Southeast Asia, lasting from 802 - 1431 ce

  • At peak, contained much of present day Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam

  • Capital, Angkor Wat, originally a Hindu temple, but developed into a vast Buddhist temple

• Srivijaya Empire: An Indonesian Hindu empire based on Sumatra – important center of trade between China and India, helped expand Buddhism and SE Asia

• Majapahit Kingdom: Smaller Javan Buddhist kingdom, controlled shipping lane to China in Strait of Malacca

• Economic and Cultural Benefits: Southeast Asia benefited economically and became very diverse because of the Indian Ocean trade routes

  • Trade routes also spread Islam, Buddhism to SE Asia

  • Islamic merchants and sufi mystics/missionaries brought Islam to Indonesia – it’s still the biggest populated Islamic nation in the world today

1.4 State Building in the Americas

• Mississippian Culture: Modern-day southeastern U.S.; known for large earthen mounds that prove they could build large monumental structures

• Maya and Aztec: Dominated Mesoamerica

  • Maya:

    • Thrived in rainforest of Yucatan peninsula

    • Kingdom of city-states who collaborated for mutual benefit

    • Large temples, cities, trade networks

    • Built accurate calendar, complex writing, pyramids

    • Collapsed around 900 CE due to internal conflict and lack of food

  • Aztec:

    • capital of Tenochtitlan (Mexico City) – enormous, 200k people; built pyramids in cities to demonstrate power and authority; built chinampas (floating gardens)

    • practiced human sacrifice in temples

      • People sacrificed = captured in battle or tributes given by neighbors who wanted to avoid attacks

      • Sacrifices to sun god, Huitzilopochtli, to keep the sun rising daily

    • Blended polytheistic religion & political rule of region

    • Militaristic culture, thriving merchant class, promoted education for men

• Inca: dominated north-to-south along Andes Mountains in South America; clear contrasts with Aztecs

  • Much more united monarchy, vs. Aztec city-state empire from Tenochtitlan

  • Aztecs had a vast trade network, Incas believed in state-led economy

  • Aztecs had city-states pay human tribute; Incas required labor tax called mit’a – roads to capital of Cuzco built by Incans who would work for 1-2 years

    • Not slaves – paid taxes w/ labor instead of money

  • Aztecs had no written language; Inca created system of knotted strings to record numerical info called quipu

• Animism and Polytheism:

  • Both the Aztecs and Inca were animistic and polytheistic

  • Animism: religious belief that objects, weather possess a spiritual essence

  • Polytheism: belief in many gods – both Aztecs and Inca have hundreds

1.5 State Building in Africa

• Tribal and Clan-Based Societies: Africa was largely tribal or clan-based; clans are kin-based networks where many people in the community are related

  • Led by a chief, these smaller communities work with and have conflict with other communities in their area

• Emergence of Empires: 1000 ce and later, empires emerge, bringing unity, complexity to regions they controlled

• Ghana: 300 ce - 1000 ce, western Africa; traded gold for salt with the North African Berbers (middle-men w/ Europe)

• Mali: Mansa Musa, famous and powerful king, built mosques and libraries in Timbuktu (capital).

  • Islam unites the kingdom

  • Mansa Musa travels the trans-Saharan trade route on his hajj to Mecca, exposing those along the way to Mali’s wealth and power

  • 1200 - 1400 ce (replaces Ghana)

• Songhay: 1400 to 1500, replaces Mali (later collapses because of the slave trade)

• Swahili Coast: region along eastern coast of Africa; city-states united in trade & variations on Bantu language they share

  • Largest city-state of Great Zimbabwe protected by large wall

• Ethiopia: eastern kingdom was lone Christian kingdom in a region converting to Islam (north Africa)

• Shared Characteristics: African societies have many shared characteristics

  • Family & communal activities centerpiece of culture

  • Music, dancing common forms of entertainment & venerating the dead

  • Most didn’t have a written language, so passed on history, literature, culture through oral tradition

  • Griots: storytellers, could make kings famous for generations

1.6 Developments in Europe

• Post-Roman Europe: Western Europe dominated by small kingdoms and regional powers since fall of Rome By 1200 - 1450, larger & more powerful states uniting the region

• Feudalism: Political, economic, social hierarchy that organized land, work, and peoples’ roles

  • Monarch owns the land & grants it (fiefs) to elites called lords

  • Lords grant some of their land to other individuals, vassals

  • Vassals owed food, labor, military service to lords

  • Kings, lord, church hired knights to protect wealth, power

  • Serfs were not slaves but were tied to the fiefdom

    • Practiced three-field system, rotating wheat + beans + letting land lay fallow during harvest

• Regional Kingdoms: 1200 to 1450 - regional kingdoms of France, England, Holy Roman Empire became solidified; each power was tied to Catholic Church and used feudalism

• Holy Roman Empire: (later Germany) = regional kingdoms with powerful princes, but church had lots of power vs. the central government

  • $Concordat of Worms$: Pope of the Catholics could appoint bishops in the HRE, but kings got to veto those choices

• English Kings: were checked by nobility when King John forced to sign the Magna Carta, giving people more rights to trials and taxation, English parliament

• Warfare and Conflict: Competition for trade, land, resources → war; Hundred Years War, England vs. France, created early nationalism, ended feudalism

• Islamic Expansion: Predominantly Christian Europe saw the spread of Islam up Iberian peninsula as a threat

  • Charles “The Hammer” Martel” stopped Islamic advance at Battle of Tours in southern France

  • By 1492, Catholic Church had expelled Muslims from Spain in the Reconquista

• Crusades: Catholic Church started Crusades to take back Holy Land from Muslims

  • Also attacked Orthodox Christians in Constantinople

  • Crusades failed to win back Jerusalem

  • Weakened Catholic church, strengthened regional monarchs

  • Slowly awoke Europe to science and mathematics of Islamic world

• Developments by 1450: By 1450, Europe saw increases in literacy, urbanization, connection to rest of world

  • Before this, only literate people in Europe were monks and church officials

  • Increased drastically by Gutenberg’s printing press

• Renaissance: Renaissance, or “rebirth” – European cultural, artistic, political and economic activity following Middle Ages

  • 1300s to 1600s

  • Renaissance promoted rediscovery of classical philosophy, literature, art

  • Global exploration at this same time opened up new lands and cultures to European commerce

1.7 Comparison from 1200 to 1450

• Government and Political Structures:

  • Song China used large bureaucracy to rule; Japan was feudal and regional

  • Abbasid Caliphate uses religion to solidify power; Western European kingdoms separate from power of Catholic church

• Trade and Connectivity:

  • Swahili coast very interconnected to trade routes; Western Europe slow to develop & outside the trade

  • Silk Road connected Song China and Abbasid Caliphate; again, western Europe is left out :(

• Agricultural Techniques and Population Growth:

  • New agricultural techniques promoted larger population

    • Three-field crop rotation in western Europe

    • Champa rice in China

• Unification and Religion:

  • Islam united new groups of people

    • Mali kingdom in Africa

    • Abbasid Caliphate in Middle East

  • Religion spread along trade routes

    • Islam → Africa, SE Asia

    • Buddhism → E Asia, SE Asia

  • Increased religious diversity

    • Song dynasty China (intro’d to Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism)

    • Northern India (Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam)

• Religious Divisions and Conflict:

  • Divisions in faith caused conflict

    • Catholic vs Orthodox Christianity (western vs eastern Europe)

    • Mahayana vs Theravada Buddhism (how “open” should it be?)

Unit 2: Networks of Exchange (1200 to 1450 CE)

2.1 The Silk Roads

• Increased Demand: Empires were rapidly expanding = more goods demanded

• Luxury Goods: Rich wanted goods the empires couldn’t afford → most trade routes focused on luxury goods, such as sugar, gold, porcelain, and silk

• Trade Network Expansion: Profit-seeking merchants built off of old trade technology, but made a much bigger trade network

  • Caravanserai (roadside inns / travel stops)

  • Bills of exchange, banking houses

• Trading Cities: Trading cities like Kashgar and Samarkand grew massively as merchants exchanged goods from all over

• Textile Production: Textile production dramatically increased in Eurasia and China

  • Song China’s economy grew w/ increased demand for silk

  • Relied on peasant and artisanal labor to fuel commercial economy

• Spread of Ideas and Religion: Merchants carried ideas as they spread goods
  * Religions spread via trade routes, especially Buddhism, Islam, Chinese customs

• Spread of Disease: Disease also spread along Silk Road, including the bubonic plague (Black Death)

2.2 The Mongol Empire

• Mongol Origins: Originally a pastoral people in Central Asia, until leadership of Chinggis Khan (Genghis) consolidated Mongols into a fearsome fighting force

  • Acquainted w/ horses, bows – could travel quickly

  • Siege weapons to bypass castle walls, taken from conquered

  • Rumors of their destructiveness → many cities surrendered

• Largest Land Empire: Largest contiguous land empire in history – from Eastern Europe to Russia to Abbasid Caliphate (Middle East) to Song Dynasty China

• Khanates: When Genghis died, Mongol empire split into four khanates

  • Chagatai: Central Asia, where Mongols began. Not much changed here

  • Golden Horde: Beginnings of Russia; far away from everything. Mongols let people pick their own rulers as long as they paid tribute; leads to rise of Moscow; Mongols lasted longest here

  • Yuan Dynasty: China; Kublai Khan led; took on many governmental procedures & positions already in place, but kept Mongols and Chinese separate (no intermarriage)

  • Ilkhanate: Mongols took area by capturing Baghdad in 1258, cut off Abbasid Caliphate & ended Golden Age of Islam; many Mongols converted to Islam, but Persia mostly remained unchanged

• Religious Tolerance and Women's Status:

  • More accepting and religiously tolerant (let everyone practice their own religion freely)

  • Treated women relatively more fairly than most empires, but still considered inferior

• Pax Mongolica: Revolutionized trade with huge contiguous empire

  • Easy to trade, no borders or foreign raiders

  • Trade across Mongol empire so serene that this era became known as the Pax Mongolica, or Mongol Peace

  • Standardized weights and measures across much of Eurasia

  • Technological transfers – Greco-Roman and Islamic knowledge came west to Europe

2.3 - The Indian Ocean Trade

• Largest Sea-Based Network: Largest sea-based trade network from 1200 to 1450

• Bulk Goods: Traded “regular goods” in bulk & lower cost

  • easier to carry lots of cargo on a ship than a camel

    • Ex. timber, frankincense, ivory, sandalwood

• Monsoons: Sea travel could be unpredictable; knowledge of monsoons and monsoon winds vital to trade

• Maritime Technology: Improvements of maritime technologies like lateen sails, dhow ships, and the astrolabe helped sailors navigate safely and consistently

• Diasporic Communities: Diasporic communities set up by merchants, which introduced their cultural traditions into other cultures

  • Arabs and Persians in Eastern Asia

  • Chinese merchants in Southeast Asia

  • Malay communities in Indian Ocean basin

• Coastal States: States formed from Indian Ocean trade on coasts

  • Swahili Coast: in East Africa – city-states, combined Greek, Islamic, and Bantu African influences

  • Sultanate of Malacca: controlled the main water passage to China from Indian Ocean – got super wealthy taxing Chinese merchants

• Exchange of Ideas: Like the other major trade networks, Indian Ocean trade fostered exchange of ideas

  • Religion spread along trade routes

    • Buddhism to East and Southeast Asia

    • Islam spread across Europe & Asia

• Famous Travelers: Famous travelers used trade routes, and their stories spread knowledge of the world

  • Marco Polo traveled to China, worked under the Khan

  • Ibn Battuta traveled dar-al-Islam & wrote about it

  • Ming admiral Zheng He expanded Chinese tribute system through Indian Ocean, all the way to the east coast of Africa

2.4 - Trans-Saharan Trade Routes

• Connecting Africa: Trans-Saharan trade route transformed Africa by connecting it to larger parts of the world across desert

• Technology: Technology helped increase trade here

  • Camel saddles helped traders (usually Berber nomads) ride camels for long periods of time without injury

  • Caravans: groups of traders traveled together for protection from desert raiders

• Goods Traded: This trade route carries salt, gold, slaves, and cowrie shells (used as currency)

• Religion: Biggest religion that spread on this route was Islam

  • Islamic caliphate (Umayyads, Abbasids) took over many states in north Africa

  • States that weren’t taken over probably converted voluntarily, with encouragement of Arab Berber traders

• Empires: Empires with valued goods (gold, salt, etc.) expanded rapidly due to increased trade

  • Mali, Ghana, Songhai

• Mali's Wealth: Mali in West Africa became one of richest empires in world due to gold supply

  • Mansa Musa, Islamic king, went on pilgrimage (hajj) to Mecca, gave away so much gold that he drastically inflated the economy

2.5 - Cultural Consequences

• Spread of Religions: Merchants carried their traditions with them. Three major religions spread; Buddhism into East / Southeast Asia, Hinduism into Southeast Asia; Islam into Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia

  • Due to trade with China and India, Japan adopted Buddhism & blended it w/ traditional Shinto → Zen Buddhism

  • Buddhism spread by travelers, especially Xuanzang, Buddhist Chinese monk who traveled & observed across East Asia

  • Neo-Confucianism developed in response to Buddhism. Buddhism got pretty powerful in China and Confucianists wanted to get back into power, so they adapted a few Buddhist characteristics back into Confucianism. (It’s more “religious” than normal Confucianism)

• Examples of Religion Spreading:

  • Hinduism traveled through SE Asia; Angkor Wat (Hindu temple) in Cambodia

  • Islam spread in sub-Saharan Africa; Muhammad was a trader, so Muslims encouraged it; Great Mosque of Djenne in Mali

• Technology Spreads: Technology spead too!

  • Papermaking: much lighter, easier, cheaper

  • Paper money: encouraged trade

  • Gunpowder: originally made by pacifist Daoist, used as fireworks, but repurposed into weaponry, used by China, later Europe

• Travelers and Exploration As trade routes, it became safer and easier for the average person to see the world and report back

  • Ibn Battuta: Muslim Berber from Morocco; traveled 75k miles, from Spain to China; since he’s Muslim, lots of his writing compares different kinds of Islam around the world

  • Marco Polo: Venetian, traveled Europe, went to China and worked under the Mongols (Yuan dynasty); traveled Silk Roads

  • Margery Kempe: born in England; religious mystic; traveled all of Europe, completing pilgrimages to holy places such as Jerusalem and Rome. Wrote the first-ever English language autobiography!

2.6 - Environmental Consequences

• Bubonic Plague Bubonic plague spreads through infected rats off ships from Indian Ocean trade

  • “Black Death” comes from swollen glands in a person’s neck, armpits, thighs that turned black

• Impact of the Plague: Plague started in China around 1300, swept into Europe via trade routes – decimates 1/2 to 2/3rds of population

• Biological Warfare: Mongols used biological warfare to spread plague to Europe

  • Loaded infected people into catapults and launch them over walls to weaken city, make it easier to capture

• Crop Diffusion: Many crops diffused throughout these roads

  • Bananas: originated in SE Asia; Arab traders brought them everywhere across Indian Ocean, especially Africa

  • New rice varieties (champa rice) spread from SE Asia to China through tribute system

    • Drought resistant, early ripening = perfect for Chinese climate

    • Staple of Chinese diet, contributed to Song population growth

  • Citrus originated in Southeast Asia, spread through Indian Ocean and Silk Road to the Mediterranean

2.7 - Comparing Economic Exchange

• Diffusion: The 3 big trade networks → cultural, technological, and biological diffusion between societies
  * Buddhism along Silk Roads
  * Hinduism in Indian Ocean
  * Islam in trans-Saharan trade routes

• Commercial Innovations: Commercial innovations → higher volume of trade
  * New trading cities

• Existing Methods: Transport methods & commercial methods that already existed helped grow trade as well
  * Caravanserai, credit, money-based economies

• Types of Goods: Types of exports were very different across routes

  • Silk Roads traded luxury items; Indian Ocean traded those, but also traded more common goods in bulk (land vs. sea transport)

• Increased Demand:

  • Chinese, Persian, and Indian merchants expanded the supply of textiles and porcelains for transport

  • The demand for luxury goods increased in Afro-Eurasia

  • Production of iron and steel expanded in China

Unit 3: Land-Based Empires (1450 to 1750 CE)

• Land Empires vs. Maritime Powers: Despite periods of vigorous territorial and economic expansion, the great land empires failed to participate in the commercial revolution led by the countries of northern Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1700 they still covered vast areas, but in the following century the three Muslim empires the Mughal, Safavid and Ottoman-declined as the commercial and military power of the Europeans expanded.

• Characteristics of Land-Based Empires:

  1. Focused on land-based expansion and administration – not interested in overseas expansion

  2. All were absolute monarchies / autocracies

  3. Each had slightly different systems of administration, taxation, or military technology

  4. Conflicts primarily with other land-based powers

  5. Little history of state-sponsored naval activity or overseas merchant trade

     • Exceptions: Ming sponsored major naval expeditions.

• Major Land-based Empires:

  • Asia:

    • Ming and Qing dynasty China

    • Tokugawa Shogunate, Japan

    • Mughal Empire (South Asia; modern-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh)

    • Safavid Empire (SW Asia, modern-day Iran and Iraq)

    • Ottoman Empire (Turkey, SE Europe, North Africa, and Middle East)

  • Africa:

    • Songhai empire of Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Gambia

  • Europe:

    • French Empire

    • Russian Empire

    • Holy Roman Empire (Germany & north Central Europe)

    • Hapsburg Empire (Austria and south central Europe)

  • Americas:

    • Inca empire (western South America)

    • Aztec (Mexica) empire of Mexico

3.1 - Expansion of Land Empires

• Gunpowder Empires: AKA gunpowder empires – they were first to employ large gunpowder armies

  • Early gunpowder weaponry was a highly technical craft; you need a large skilled population to cast metal parts for weapons & a resource pool to manufacture gunpowder

• Use of Gunpowder: Gunpowder first used by Song Dynasty China, but Islamic empires (Ottoman, Mughal, Safavid) and Qing China were the first to use them extensively

• Gunpowder-Fueled Expansion:

  • The Ottomans conquered Constantinople and brought an end to the Byzantine Empire, renamed it Istanbul and made it the center of the Islamic World in 1450 - 1750

  • Qing China expanded territory into Central Asia

• Friendly Attitudes toward Merchants: Empires had generally friendly attitudes toward merchants and a reduction of existing taxes

  • Mughals abolished the jizya tax on non-Muslims

    • Especially helpful b/c they’re a Muslim minority ruling over a Hindu majority

  • Ottomans had notably lower taxes than some empires they conquered, such as the Byzantines

    • Makes them more popular among conquered people

    • Plus, they’re religiously tolerant, too!

• Toppling Weakened Empires: Many empires toppled previously existing empires who’d weakened over time

  • Byzantine Empire → Ottoman Empire (Eastern Europe)

  • Mali → Songhai (Africa)

  • Timurid Empire in Persia → Safavids

  • Yuan Dynasty → Ming Dynasty

• Weakening of Nomadic Empires: Nomadic empires often weakened after initial conquest

  • Limited experience governing settled, landed sites

  • Failure to adapt to local customs

    • Ottomans + coffeehouses

  • Lost a fighting edge and distinctive identity, especially now that horses were no longer the most important weapon on the battlefield

3.2 - Governments of Land Empires

• Military Establishments: Some empires relied on military establishments to administer imperial bureaucracies

• Ottoman Devshirme System: Christian children were recruited & received a military and academic education, and later assigned to fight in the janissary elite corps, or to work as administrators in Istanbul

  • Initially positions weren’t hereditary, so empire couldn’t build up another power base to rival the sultan (ruler)

  • Problems arose only when the Janissaries were allowed to pass their position to their children in the late 1600s

  • Later on, Janissaries become a local power in competition vs. the sultan

• Feudalism in Japan: Since 1100s, Japan had a feudalist system, similar to Europe in Unit 1

  • Military dictator (shogun) as main government, distributed lands to daimyo landowners

  • Samurai: military class who offered service to daimyo

• Tokugawa Era Transforms Samurai: In Tokugawa era Japan, end of Sengoku civil wars + unification of Japan → samurai lost traditional warrior roles

  • Tokugawa shoguns gave them new bureaucratic roles, including administering land

  • Not enough positions for all samurai; some became ronin

• Ottoman Religious Toleration: Ottomans used religious toleration to their advantage with subject populations

  • Jizya tax for non-Muslims required, but otherwise had many freedoms

  • Millet system: each religious community was allowed its own laws, religious leaders, and got to make their own decisions (some autonomy)

• Monuments and Rule: Many leaders built large monuments to reinforce rulers’ connection with established religions, emphasize military power, promote trade, or display wealth

• Religion and Rule

  • Inca and Mughal empires used religion to reinforce rule

  • In Cuzco, elaborate religious ceremonies conducted at gold-covered sun temple, in full view of subjects; reinforced Incan rulers’ connection to sun god, Inti

  • Spanish later tore down the temple and constructed a church on top of it to symbolize the victory of Christianity over Incan empire

• Mughal Architecture: In Mughal India, mausoleums reflected traditional and Persian Islamic architecture

  • Best-known example is the Taj Mahal, an empress’ tomb

    • Covered in excerpts from the Quran, reflecting the fidelity of Mughal rulers to Islam

• Divine Right of European Monarchs: European monarchs claimed right to rule by divine right in the name of the Christian God

  • Does not mean the rulers themselves are divine; instead, they ruled as God’s representative on Earth

  • Reinforces their authority – you want to question GOD?

• Palace of Versailles: in France, built by Louis XIV to keep the nobles in line by having them live part of the year in Versailles, and staging military demonstrations in front of them + foreign delegates

• Tax Collection: One major element of an empire is to collect and redistribute money and other forms of tribute

• Taxation Systems:

  • Sometimes there were particular classes of people within an empire who were tasked with collecting taxes

    • Salaried samurai in Japan

    • Zamindars of Mughal empire – local Hindu princes given the task of tax collection to incorporate them into the government
      One of the ways to keep a Hindu majority happy

    • Governments sometimes sold rights to collect taxes in a practice known as tax farming (most famously, in Ottoman Empire)

• Ming Dynasty and Silver: In Ming empire, Spanish trade led to abundance of silver coin, so government decided to collect all taxes in silver

  • Monetized the economy (movement away from bartering)

  • Made it easier for government to pay for services and support bureaucracy

  • Eventually, the continued increase of silver supply → inflation (rise in prices of stuff)

• Zheng He Voyages: Ming emperor Yongle sends his admiral Zheng He on seven voyages across Indian Ocean to expand Chinese tribute system & demonstrate might
  * Reach as far as East Africa
  * Canceled after Yongle’s death from Confucian backlash in gov’t

3.3 - Belief Systems of Land Empires

• Protestant Reformation: In 16th century, the Protestant Reformation attempted to reform practices and beliefs of Roman Catholic church

  • Began with Martin Luther, nailed 95 Theses to a church door, challenging church corruption (such as indulgences) and other practices

  • Led to a greater questioning of Catholic church’s authority

• Spread of Reformation: Reformation ideas spread through widespread use of printing press, making info more accessible

• Consequences of the Reformation:
  → creation of Protestant denominations across Europe, elsewhere
  → Increased religious pluralism & rise of secularism
  → Political conflicts (Catholic v. Protestant), Thirty Years’ War

• Catholic Counter-Reformation: After Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Counter-Reformation addressed corruption
  → Helped reinforce the traditional church hierarchy

• Jesuit Missionaries: After this, Catholic church sought new converts through Jesuit missionaries
  → Led to spread of Christianity in other regions, such as China

• Mughal Religious Movements: several popular religious movements → Sufis: Islamic mystics who offered a more ecstatic form of worship; more spiritual and emotional, encouraged missionaries

  • Bhakti movement: started with Hinduism, promoted a direct and emotional devotion to a personal god – more monotheistic than traditional Hinduism

• Rise of Sikhism: Sikhism forms in South Asia; combines elements of Hinduism and Islam

  • Monotheistic, led by Guru Nanak

  • Emphasizes equality, social justice, community service

  • Challenges the caste system in India

  • Later persecuted by Mughal rulers

• Sunni-Shia Conflict:

  • Conflict between the two sects of Islam, Sunni and Shi’a

  • Initial division: who should