Land Empires

c. 1450-1750

Objectives

Explain how and why various land-based empires developed and expanded from 1450 to 1750.
Explain how rulers used a variety of methods to legitimize and consolidate their power in land-based empires from 1450 to 1750.
Explain continuity and change within the various belief systems during the period from 1450 to 1750.
Explain the effects of the development of state power from 1450 to 1750.
Explain how social categories, roles, and practices have been maintained or have changed over time.

Gunpowder Empires

Fort Bourtange, a star fort completed in the Netherlands in 1593, gave guards a panoramic view of attackers. Massive bombards, like the Tsar Cannon cast in 1586, smashed defensive walls.

The Military Revolution

Ming musketry volley formation

Ottoman artillery

Imperial expansion relied on the increased use of gunpowder, cannons, and armed trade to establish large empires in both hemispheres.

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The Military Revolution

Sunni, Shi'a, and Sikh

calligraphic representation of 12 Imams along with the name of the Prophet Muhammad

Rulers continued to use religious ideas, art, and monumental architecture to legitimize their rule.
Political rivalries between the Ottoman and Safavid empires intensified the split within Islam between Sunni and Shi’a.
Sikhism developed in South Asia in a context of interactions between Hinduism and Islam.

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Sunni, Shi'a, and Sikh

the trio of Islamic gunpowder empires: Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals

Mughals

Babur, founder of the Mughal empire

Mughal Emperor Akbar training an elephant

dragging siege-guns uphill during Akbar's attack on Ranthambhor Fort in 1568

Akbar II seated on the Peacock Throne (c. 1811)

Land empires included the Mughal in South and Central Asia.
Political and religious disputes led to rivalries and conflict between states.
Recruitment and use of bureaucratic elites, as well as the development of military professionals, became more common among rulers who wanted to maintain centralized control over their populations and resources.
Rulers continued to use religious ideas, art, and monumental architecture to legitimize their rule.
Rulers used tribute collection, tax farming, and innovative tax-collection systems to generate revenue in order to forward state power and expansion.
Many states, such as the Mughal and Ottoman empires, adopted practices to accommodate the ethnic and religious diversity of their subjects or to utilize the economic, political, and military contributions of different ethnic or religious groups. In other cases, states suppressed diversity or limited certain groups’ roles in society, politics, or the economy.

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Mughal architecture

Mughal Empire

Ottomans

Süleymaniye Mosque, Istanbul

Suleiman the Magnificent (r. 1520–1566)

Janissary drawing by Gentile Bellini

Sultan Mehmed II allowed Orthodoxy to remain active after the fall of Constantinople in 1453.

Ottoman execution by elephant of defeated Christians in Serbia

Ottoman siege of Esztergom (1543)

Land empires included the Ottoman in Southern Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.
Political and religious disputes led to rivalries and conflict between states.
Recruitment and use of bureaucratic elites, as well as the development of military professionals, became more common among rulers who wanted to maintain centralized control over their populations and resources.
Rulers continued to use religious ideas, art, and monumental architecture to legitimize their rule.
Rulers used tribute collection, tax farming, and innovative tax-collection systems to generate revenue in order to forward state power and expansion.
Many states, such as the Mughal and Ottoman empires, adopted practices to accommodate the ethnic and religious diversity of their subjects or to utilize the economic, political, and military contributions of different ethnic or religious groups. In other cases, states suppressed diversity or limited certain groups’ roles in society, politics, or the economy.

audio pronunciation guide:

Ottoman Empire

Safavids

Isma'il was reported to use the gilded skull of a defeated enemy as a wine goblet

court of Shah Abbas I the Great

capture of Tabriz and the parading before Abbas I of the severed heads of Ottoman soldiers (1603)

music hall of that Ali Qapu palace

Land empires included the Safavids in the Middle East.
Political and religious disputes led to rivalries and conflict between states.
Recruitment and use of bureaucratic elites, as well as the development of military professionals, became more common among rulers who wanted to maintain centralized control over their populations and resources.
Rulers continued to use religious ideas, art, and monumental architecture to legitimize their rule.
Rulers used tribute collection, tax farming, and innovative tax-collection systems to generate revenue in order to forward state power and expansion.

audio pronunciation guide:

Safavid Empire

The Reformation and European Wars of Religion

Jesuits at the court of the Mughal emperor of India, c. 1605

The Protestant Reformation marked a break with existing Christian traditions and both the Protestant and Catholic reformations contributed to the growth of Christianity.

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The St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of French Protestants (1572) was the climax of the French Wars of Religion, which were brought to an end by the Edict of Nantes (1598).

The Reformation and European Wars of Religion

Russia, Prussia, and Austria

Russia

Peter I, the Great (r. 1682–1725) elevated Russia from a weak state on Europe's eastern fringe to a Great Power as he modernized and Westernized the nation.

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