AP World History Unit 3: Land-Based Empires

3.1 Land-Based Empires Expand

Gunpowder Empires

• Land-based

• Adoption of gunpowder weapons —> Expanding geographically in time period (often with military)

• Mongol Empire ——> Gunpowder Empires in control

• Ottoman Empire:

  1. Most significant Islamic empire

  2. Sunni Muslim

  3. Collapse of Mongol Empire —> Rise of Ottomans

     • Control of Dardanelles choke point

     • Adoption of gunpowder weapons

• Safavid Empire

  1. Shia Muslim state

• Delhi Sultanate ——> Mughal Empire

  1. Muslim

  2. Ruled by Akbar

     • Tolerant of religion

     • Masterful leadership —> Mughal becoming most prosperous empire in 16th century

• Decline of Mongols —> Han ruled Ming Dynasty —> Manchu ruled Qing Dynasty

  1. Manchu were not ethnically Han like the rest of the Chinese population —> tension within country

Shia vs Sunni Islam

• Shia: Muhammad’s successor must be a blood relative

  1. Safavid

• Sunni: Successors can be elected

  1. Ottomans

Rivalries between states

• Continuing expansion —> eventual clashes between empires

• Religion and Politics —> Clashes

• Ottomans vs Safavids

  1. Shia vs Sunni

• Songhai vs. Moroccans

3.2 Land-Based Empires: Administration

Legitimizing and Consolidating Power

• Large Imperial Bureaucracies

  1. Expanding empires —> expanding bureaucracies

  2. Applies to all major empires in this time period

  3. Ottoman Devshirme: System in which Ottomans staffed bureaucracy with highly trained individuals, many of which were slaves

     • Christian boys enslaved and educated to become bureaucratic officials or serve in the military

• Military Expansion

  • Ottoman Devshirme —> Christian boys becoming janniseries

• Religion, Art, and Architecture

  1. Ruled by divine right of kings (Europe)

  2. Human Sacrifices (Aztecs)

  3. Kangxi Imperial Portraits (China)

     • Convinced Chinese that Kangxi was their legitimate ruler

     • Kangxi depicted with Traditional Confucian values to appeal to Chinese

  4. Palace of Versailles

     • Massive size and grandeur gave feeling of power and authority

     • Forced French nobility to live there and weakening their rule (consolidating power)

  5. Inca Sun Temple

     • Walls and courtyards covered in gold

Financing Imperial Expansion

• Zamindar System (Mughals)

  1. Muslim rulers and Hindu population —> suspicion on rulers

  2. Local land rulers (Zamindars) employed to collect taxes around empire —> expanding imperial authority, consolidating imperial power

• Tax farming (Ottoman Empire)

  1. Highest bidders allowed to tax high amounts from groups of people —> rich government, rich tax farmers

3.3 Empires: Belief Systems

Religions —> Expansion of state power, challenging of state power

Christianity in Europe

• Dominant belief system —> shared cultural trait (pre Schism)

• Roman Churches had immense power in Europe

  1. Constructed large architecture to display wealth and power

     • St. Peter’s Basilica

  2. Needing money —> sale of indulgences, simony

     • Simony: putting church positions for sale

     • Indulgences: selling of absolvement of sins

• Great Schism of 1054 —> Culturally split Europe

  1. Eastern Orthodox Church (Eastern Europe)

  2. Roman Catholic Church (Western Europe)

• Protestant Reformation

  1. Martin Luther: Catholic Priest who disagreed with actions of Church

     • 95 Theses: Complaints of Catholic Church nailed to the church

     • Access to printing press —> Ideas easily spread across Europe —> Splitting of the Church (Protestant Reformation)

     • While other reformers also opposed the Church, Luther was successful due to access to the printing press

• Catholic Reformation/Counter Reformation: Changing of the Catholic Church to address complaints

  1. Council of Trent —> Dissolvement of corrupt practices (indulgences, simony) (change)

  2. Reaffirmation of previous beliefs (continuity) —> Permanent split in Church

• Effects of Split Church

  1. Various rulers either remained Catholic or switched to Protestantism

  2. Religious division —> Religious wars

Islam in the Middle East

• Sunni Ottomans vs Shi’a Safavids —> political rivalry —> intensified Sunni Shi’a split

Changes in South Asia

• Belief systems emerged to bridge gap between Islam and Hinduism (change)

  1. Sikhism:

     • Blended religions of Hinduism and Islam

     • Continuity of religious beliefs (belief in one god, reincarnation)

     • Change of religious beliefs (Absolvement of caste system, gender hierarchies)

  2. Bhakti Movement

     • Variation of Hinduism that supported mystical experiences (similar to sufism)