Overview of All Land-Based Empires (Outside Europe)
Unit 3: c. 1450-1750
Ottoman Empire
1299-1923
Key Ideas:
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Located in the Middle East, capital at Istanbul (Turkey)
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Controlled Turkey and most of the Middle East at its height
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Believed in Sunni Islam
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Recruited soldiers & administrators by enslaving Christian boys through a program called devshirme
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Sultan Suleyman I (r. 1520-1566) was the "great" emperor: Conquered lots of territory & oversaw flourishing arts & literature
Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent (r. 1520-1566)

Suleymaniye mosque, a representation of monumental architecture meant to legitimize the rule of the Ottoman Sultan

Safavid Empire
1501-1736
Key Ideas:
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Located in Persia
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Capital at Tabriz then at Isfahan
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Believed in Shi'a Islam
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Had a strong military run by military elites called qizilbash
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Shah Abbas (r. 1588-1629) was the "great" emperor who consolidated Safavid power & oversaw construction of large palaces
Mughal Empire
1526-1857
Key Ideas:
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Located in India
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Capital kept moving around: Agra, Fatehpur Sikri, Delhi, Lahore
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Believed in Islam
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Made accommodations for its Hindu-majority population: Emperor Akbar abolished the jizya, a special tax that all non-Muslims had to pay, but Emperor Aurangzeb reinstated it
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Had Hindu tax farmers called zamindars
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Had 6 Great emperors before the empire's decline
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Babur (founder), Humayun, Akbar (the "great" Mughal emperor), Jahangir, Shah Jahan (who built the Taj Mahal), Aurangzeb (who reinstated the jizya)
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Akbar the Great, the greatest Mughal emperor

The Red Fort, a Mughal fort built by Shah Jahan. It represents monumental architecture meant to legitimize one's rule

Ming Dynasty
1368-1644
Key Ideas:
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Sought to remain isolationist from European contact to protect Chinese culture from foreign influence
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Restricted the activities of foreign merchants
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Had a declining economy
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Changed paper money to silver bullion, but that largely failed
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Many pirates raided the city
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Fell in 1644 to the Manchus (from northern China, near China-Korea border)
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Manchus came to help Ming Dynasty quell a peasant rebellion, but they instead took power after quelling the rebellion
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Qing Dynasty
1644-1912
Key Ideas:
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Founded by Manchus, natives of Manchuria (northern China, near China-Korea border)
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Forbade cultural contact between ethnic Chinese & Manchus
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Even though Manchus were foreigners, they hired Chinese to run the government through the Confucian civil service exam
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Had a strong military that conquered lots of territory
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Emperors Kangxi & Qianlong conquered most of Central Asia
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Very isolationist from European influence
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Banned Christianity in 1724
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Restricted trade to just a few cities (until foreigners started carving spheres of influence in 1800s, more on this in Unit 6)
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Tokugawa Shogunate
1603-1868
Key Ideas:
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Located in Japan
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Capital at Edo (Tokyo)
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Originally had a feudal structure
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Emperor at the top; Provincial rulers (daimyo) below them, warriors (samurai) below them, and peasants at the bottom
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VERY strict in isolationism to protect their Japanese culture
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Restricted Christianity
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Restricted Japanese from traveling abroad
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Restricted foreigners from trading there
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Only the Dutch could come at the port of Nagasaki, where the Dutch taught many things to the Japanese & corrected their textbooks with correct info
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Songhai Empire
1464-1591
Key Ideas:
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Located in West Africa
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Previously controlled by Mali Empire
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Sunni Ali established autonomy of Songhai Empire in 1494
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Capital at Gao
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Profited from trade in West Africa & Niger River Valley
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Had a navy patrol the Niger River
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Promoted Islam
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Askia the Great (1493-1528) was the "great" emperor who conquered more territory & gained more influence in West Africa
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Fell in Battle of Tondibi (1591) against Moroccans as the Moroccans were armed with guns (given by the Europeans)