AP World History - Unit 3: Land-Based Empires

Major European Developments

  • After 300 years of development, Europe become the dominant world power
  • Revolutions in European Thought and Expression:
    • 1300s: Europe had been Christian for over a thousand years
    • As countries began to unify and connect more, especially with countries who had preserved their history, Europe expanded its worldview and explored its past and 4 cultural movements happened

The Renaissance

  • As trade increased, people moved to the cities and an influx of money was experienced - a lot of money went to studying the past
  • Humanism: focus on personal accomplishment, happiness, and life on earth instead of living for the goal of salvation
    • Afterlife remained dominant in the Catholic Church
  • Arts have a comeback
    • People could afford art again - Medici family patrons of Michelangelo and Brunelleschi
    • Artists focused on realism - Leonardo da Vinci and Donatello
  • Western writers have an audience
    • mid-1400s: Johannes Gutenberg invents the printing press - made books easy to produce and affordable, and accessible to everyone
    • led to more literate people

The Protestant Reformation

  • Catholic Church was one of the most powerful organizations in the Middle Ages - power in politics and society - undisputed authority
  • Church capitalized off its many followers with indulgences: paper faithful could purchase to reduce time in purgatory
  • Nobles and peasants began getting increasingly frustrated by the church’s exploitation and noticed its corrupt nature
  • Martin Luther: German monk who published his list of complaints against the church - most significantly proposed salvation was given directly through God, not through the church, which significantly reduced the church’s influence
    • Pope Leo X: excommunicated Luther when he refused to recount his idea
  • Christianity split - Luther’s ideas led to many others to come forward
    • Lutherans: Luther’s followers - separated from Catholic Church
    • Calvinism - John Calvin: predestination - only a few people would be saved by God, great influence in Scotland and France
    • When the pope refused to annul King Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon because a heir wasn’t produced, he declared himself the head of religious affairs - presided over Church of England/Anglican Church
    • Jesuits - Ignatius Loyola: prayer and good works leads to salvation
  • Catholic Reformation (16th century)
    • Catholic church attempts to remedy some of their controversies and regains some of its credibility - still wanted authority and control
    • Council of Trent: reinstated pope authority, punished heretics, reestablished Latin as only language in worship
    • Caused wars

Scientific Revolution

  • Expanded education led to world discoveries
  • Copernican Revolution: Nicolaus Copernicus - discovered earth and other celestial bodies revolved around the sun and the earth rotated on its axis
  • Galileo: built off Copernicus’s theories and proved them - forced to recant by the Catholic Church and put under house arrest
  • Scientific Method: shift from reasoning being most reliable means of scientific meaning to scientific method (theory, documentation, repetition, others experimenting)
  • Tycho Brahe, Francis Bacon, Johannes Kepler, Sir Isaac Newton
  • Led to Industrial Revolution, and many rejecting the church - atheists (believe no god exists), deists (believe God exists, but is passive)
  • Deism: became popular in 1700s - God created the earth but doesn’t interfere in its workings

European Rivals

Spain and Portugal

  • Spain became very powerful, supporting exploration, expansion of Spanish language and culture, and having a large naval fleet
    • Under Charles V, Spain controlled parts of France, the Netherlands, Austria, Germany, Spain, America
    • Under Charles’s son Philip, the Spanish Inquisition to oust heretics was continued, the Dutch Protestants under Spain revolted to form independent the Netherlands - lost a lot of money in mid-17th century and was poised to be defeated by England and France
  • Portugal focused on dominating costal Africa, Indian Ocean, Spice Islands - lost control to Dutch and British

England

  • Henry VIII never succeeded in having a male heir - his daughter Elizabeth I became Queen
  • Elizabethan Age (1558-1603): expansion, exploration, colonization in New World - golden age
    • Muscovy Company: first joint-stock company - British East India Company
  • James I: succeeded Elizabeth in 1607 - England and Scotland under one rulership, reforms to accommodate Catholics and Puritans failed
  • Charles I: succeeded James in 1625 - signed Petition of Rights (limiting taxes and forbidding unlawful imprisonment) - ignored it for the next 11 years
    • Scottish invaded England out of resentment for Charles in 1640 - called the Long Parliament into session (sat for 20 years), which limited the powers of the monarchy
    • Parliament raised an army, under Oliver Cromwell, to fight the King after he tried to arrest the
    • Parliament defeats the king and executes him - began the English Commonwealth (Oliver Cromwell known as the first Lord Protector)
  • Oliver Cromwell: intolerant of religion, violent against Catholics and Irish - highly resented
  • Charles II: exiled son of Charles I invited by Parliament to reclaim the throne as a limited monarchy after Cromwell died (Stuart Restoration)
    • Agreed to Habeas Corpus Act: prevents people from arrests without due process
  • James II: succeeded Charles II after his death - highly disliked, fear he would make England a Catholic county - driven from power by Parliament (Glorious Revolution)
  • Succeeded by his daughter Mary and her husband William - signed English Bill of Rights (1689)

France

  • Unified and centralized under strong monarchy after Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453)
  • Largely Catholic, but French Protestants started to emerge (Huguenots) and fought with the Catholics
  • Henry IV: issued Edict of Nantes (1598) (environment of tolerance between religions) - first of Bourbon kings who ruled until 1792
  • Cardinal Richelieu: chief advisor to the Bourbons who compromised with Protestants instead of fighting with them
    • Created the bureaucratic class noblesse de la robe, succeeded by Cardinal Mazarin
  • Louis XIV: reigned from 1642-1715 - highly self-important and grandiose, condemned many Huguenots, never summoned the French lawmakers, appointed Jean Baptiste Colbert to manage royal funds - France almost constantly at war to increase empire
    • War of Spanish Succession (1701-1714): Louis’s grandson was to inherit the Spanish throne, so England, Roman Empire, and German princes united to prevent France and Spain from combining

German Areas (Holy Roman Empire?)

  • Holy Empire was in present day Austria/Germany - weak due to the mixed dynamics, rulership, and religion of the surrounding area
    • Lost parts of Hungary to Ottoman Turks in early 16th century
    • Devastated by Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648)
    • German states were gaining power by 18th century
  • Peace of Augsburg (1555): intended to bring end to conflicts between Catholics and Protestants
  • Thirty Years’ War: began when protestants in Bohemia challenged Catholics - violent and destructive
    • Peace of Westphalia (1648): German states affirmed to keep the peace

Russia

  • Russian leaders were overthrowing reigning Mongols in late 15th century

  • Moscow became centre of Orthodox Christianity

  • Ivan III refused to pay tribute to Mongols and declared them free from their rule - lead Russians, later Ivan IV did too

    • Recruited peasants freedom from boyars (their feudal lords) if they conquered their own land themselves
  • Ivan IV (Ivan the Terrible): strong leader feared by many - executing people who were threats to his power

  • Battle for throne after Ivan IV died without an heir - Time of Troubles (1604 to 1613): killing those who tried to rise to the throne

  • Michael Romanov was elected by feudal lords until 1917 - Romanovs consolidated power and ruled ruthlessly

  • Peter the Great: ruled from 1682-1725 - redesigned and adapted Russia in to westernized fashion

  • Catherine the Great: ruled from 1762-1796 - education and Western culture - serf conditions were of no importance to her

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Islamic Gunpowder Empires

  • Ottoman Empire precedes 1450 - founded by Osman Bey as the Mongol Empire fell
    • Eventually invaded Constantinople in 1453 and ended Byzantine Empire (Constantinople now named Istanbul)
    • Ottomans were Islamic and solidified rule over territory from Greece to Persia to around Mediterranean into Egypt and northern Africa by giving land (timars) to Ottoman aristocrats to control
    • Employed practice called devshirme: enslaved Christian children and turned them into warriors called Janissaries
    • Selim I: came into power in 1512, led much of the empire growth, made Istanbul centre of Islamic civilization
    • Suleiman I: succeeded Selim I in 1520, build Ottoman military and arts - golden age from 1520-1566
    • Took over parts of Hungary, but could not successfully take over Vienna
  • Babur: Mongol leader who invaded northern India in 1526 - Mughal Empire (dominated for next 300 years)
    • United entire subcontinent
    • Akbar: succeeded Babur from 1556 to 1605 - united India further with religious toleration, did give Muslim landowners (zamindars) power to tax
    • Hindus and Muslims lived side by side in a golden age of art and thought - under Shah Jahan, the Taj Mahal was built
    • Aurangzeb: emperor who ended religious toleration and waged wars to conquer rest of India - Hindus were persecuted
    • Europeans arrived in early 17th century to trade and spread ideas - after 1750 is when Britain turned into an imperial superpower

Africa

  • Starting in 10th century, wealth accumulated from trade - Songhai, Kongo, and Angola became powerful kingdoms
  • Songhai:
    • Islamic state
    • Sunni Ali: ruler 1464-1493 - navy, central administration, financed Timbuktu - fell to Moroccans
  • Asanti Empire: arose in 1670 - avoided invasion and expanded its territory
  • Kongo:
    • King Alfonso I: Catholic, and converted his people
    • Mostly destroyed by previous allies Portugal
  • Angola:
    • Established by Portuguese around 1575 for the slave trade
    • Queen Nzinga resisted Portuguese attempts to further their control for 40 years

Isolated Asia

China

  • Ming Dynasty was restored until 1644 after kicking out Mongols in 1368
  • Built huge fleets in early 15th century to explore Asia and Indian ocean - Zheng He: famous Chinese navigator
  • Economy started failing due to silver currency inflation, famines in 17th century, peasant revolts
  • Qing warriors were invited to help Ming emperor but instead ousted him in 1644
  • Qing/Manchus ruled China until 1911
    • Not ethnically Chinese so had to affirm legitimacy - displayed imperial portraits with Chinese historical items
    • Kangxi: ruled from 1661 to 1722 and conquered Taiwan, Mongolia, central Asia, Tibet
    • Qianlong: ruled from 1735 to 1796 and conquered Vietnam, Burma, Nepal
    • were both Confucian scholars
  • Did not interact a lot with surrounding nations, protected their culture

Japan

  • Shoguns ruled Japan in 16th century, but Christian missionaries came in and Jesuits took control of Nagasaki - westernization
  • Tokugawa Ieyasu: established Tokugawa Shogunate (Edo period) from 1600 to 1868 - strict government that instituted a rigid social class model
    • Moved capital of Japan to Edo (modern-day Tokyo)
    • National Seclusion Policy (1635): prohibited Japanese from traveling abroad and prohibited most foreigners
    • Japanese culture thrived - Kabuki theatre and haiku poetry became popular

Resistance

  • Key rebellions in 17th and 18th centuries:

    1. Ana Nzinga’s Resistance (Kingdoms of Ndongo and Matamba) - 1641-167
    • Resisted Portuguese colonizers
    1. Cossack Revolts (Modern-day Ukraine) - 17-18th century
    • Resisted Russian Empire but were eventually defeated
    1. Haitian Slave Rebellion (Haiti) - 1791-1804
    • Resisted France and eventually achieved independence for Haiti
    1. Maratha (India) - 1680-1707
    • Resisted Mughal Empire and defeated them starting the Maratha Empire
    1. Maroon Societies (Caribbean and Brazil) - 17th-18th century
    • Resisted slave-owners in Americas and avoided attempts to be recaptured and sold
    1. Metacom’s War (US) - 1675-1678
    • Resisted British colonists over unfair trade practices
    1. Pueblo Revolts (US) - 1680
    • Resisted Spanish colonizers and their encomienda system, but victory was temporary

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