Unit 3: Land Based Empires

China

The Yuan Dynasty was crumbling from the disease and they increased taxes leading to the Red Turban Revolt
Yuan Dynasty was over thrown by the Ming Dynasty 1368-1644

Led by Zhu Yuanzhang/Hongwu
The Ming dynasty focused on keeping outsiders out and didn’t care about expansion outward
They concentrated their resources on protecting themselves from their neighbors
They tried to bring culture back to pre Yuan Dynasty where they had civil service exams and neo confucianism
Their capital, Bejing, was made to be as exclusive as possible
The elite embraced Chan Buddism(Zen Buddism) focusing on peace and tranquility
They still traded when people came to their doorstep but culturally focused inwards
They still had great commodities
They fell because there was an ice age which made the peasants mad and revolt
The peasants led for one year calling themselves the Shun Dynasty
The people to the North of China were barbarians called the Manchus and they took the opportunity and took over China

The barbarians who took over China called themselves the Qing Dynasty, trying to appear as pure and insiders, not outsiders
They expanded

They force their neighbors to pay tribute to them
They set up a government with the continuation of the Mandarin class who come in power using the exams
They use race to make a social hierarchy since the Machus are only a small amount of the population overall in China
They make the Manchus at the top and force people who are Chinese to shave their heads making them inferior to the Manchus
These guys traded with Europe but with even more restrictions than the Ming Dynasty
They didn’t want Christianty to spread within China
People in Europe were desperate to trade with China though because they had a lot of stuff
They didn’t want to trade for European products, only gold and silver, since they didn’t want any cultural spread
They made a big deal about the Mandate of Heaven and Confuscianism, basically they wanted to keep power
Emperor Kangxi saw that the Europeans were doing science and wanted to do it but the emperors who followed him didn’t like the idea
China in 1750 turned its back on everything foriegn with their focus being on showing strength inside

The Mongols destroyed the Abbasid Caliphate but allowed them to keep power symbolically
Centuries later, once the Mongols fell, the Ottomans took over this Islamic Empire and all other neighboring Turks

The Persians were their biggest enemy in the Islamic World
- The Persians were Shite while the Ottomans were Sunni
Their leader was named Osman
Western Rome collasped over 1000 years before this time period but the Eastern Roman Empire AKA the Byzantine Empire remained in power
Their capital was constanipole

The Ottomans established themselves in Turkey and then took advantage of the crumbling Byzantine Empire and took over it
They used cannons to take over its capital Constantinople which was impossible to conquer
They heavily relied on gunpowder so it was known was a gunpowder dynasty
They renamed Constantinople to Istanbul
Constantinople used to have a patriarch who was the most powerful person in the Greek Orthodox Religion who fled to Italy during this invasion
Instead of getting rid of that religion, the Sultan who took over appointed a new patriarch with even more power
As a Muslim, he still tolerated this religion
He forced loyalty from this patriarch though, so he had a method to rule while appealing to the people through the patriarch

While he still did tolerate it, he did not let any Europeans live in Istanbul and converted the most famous church into a mosque
He used Greek Scholars to help him rule and made a powerful government
He made investments in trade and infrastructure for his empire
He “protected” Jews and Christans calling the Dhimmi, not hurting them, but not allowing them to have weapons
He taxed the Dhimmi for not being muslim and treated them as second class citizens
They moved onto conquering the Balkans in Eastern Europe from 1299-1451
The leaders are called Sultans and their goal was to become the new Roman Empire
They built the most powerful army by kidnapping Christans in their lands and trained them elite soliders with political power
This force was called the Jannesiaries
They were raised the be Muslim and be very loyal to the Sultan
They were elite slaves but their kids couldn’t retain power, only new Christan Converts could become elites
Timar System
- A millitary lord is given a chunk of land and they had the power to tax the people and give a chunk to the Sultan
- Most people were poor, there was no middle class
- This led to a lack of economic innovation and creation
Salim the Grim, a ruler of the Ottomans captured the route to Mecca, making it the most powerful Islamic Empire at the time.
They also controlled the three most important cities, Jerusalem, Medina, and Mecca