AP World History 1450-1750

• Expanded extremely fast with the help of gunpowder weapons

• Conquered Constantinople in 1453 and renamed it to Istanbul, lead by Mahmud the Conquerer.

• Were Sunni Muslims, but also religiously tolerant of Christanity, Catholicism, and Judaism.

• A system used by the Ottomans to divide their empire into different millets/nations that were semi-autonomous but loyal to the Ottoman government

• The Ottoman population was religiously diverse, so Jewish, Christian, and Catholic people all had their own nation. The Ottomans are a good example of religious tolerance.

• Christian/Catholic dominance was growing in Europe during this time period. When Spain and Portugal expelled Jewish people after the reconquista efforts to diminish Muslim presence in the area, the Ottoman empire accepted Jewish migrants in their empire.

• An Ottoman policy of kidnapping european christian boys, converting them to islam, and training them to work at the palace, be a religious scholar, work as a scribe, or be in the military.

• Those who ended up in the military were known as the Jannisaries

• Top performers in the devshirme system were appointed to elite positions in the Ottoman bureaucracy (many grand viziers were from the devshirme system)

• Started by Shah Ismael, expanded fast with the help of gunpowder weapons

• Were Shia Muslims and made being a Shia Muslim mandatory (not religiously tolerant)

• Shah Ismail would execute Sunni Muslims in the Safavid empire who resisted conversion (up to 20,000 were killed). This intensified the Sunni vs Shia conflict

• Babur, the first Mughal emperor, established the Mughal empire in Northern India after conquering the Delhi Sultanate

• The Mughals expanded rapidly using gunpowder

• The Sunni Muslim elite in the Mughal empire ruled over a primarly Hindu population, causing tensions that eventually weakened the empire before the British took over.

• Akbar the Great was different becaus he was tolerant of all belief systems in the empire. The high point of the Mughal empire is under Akbar.

• The Mughals also had conflict with the Safavids because of the Sunni vs Shia conflict.

• Built the Taj Mahal

• After the fall of the Yuan dynasty, the Ming dynasty rose as an ethnically Han(chinese) dynasty, and restored Chinese values like confucianism.

• Foreign Manchus from the north expanded and took over the Ming dynasty using gunpowder weapons. They called themselves the Qing dynasty.

• The Manchus kept some Chinese influence, like the civil service exam along with confucian and Buddhist values

• Government positions were reserved mostly for Manchus while ethnically Han Chinese people were not allowed entry into the bureaucracy.

• Sikhism began to grow in South Asia as a combination of Islam and Hindu doctrines

• Retained several important doctrines from each religion like monotheism from Islam and reincarnation from Hinduism

• Discarded the gender hierarchies of Islam and the caste system from Hinduism

• The tax collecting system in the Mughal empire

• The Zamindars were elite landowners who were granted authority to tax peasants living on their land on behalf of the imperial goverment

• The right to tax subjects of the Ottoman empire was awarded to the highest bidder

Empires like the Mughals, Ottomans, Manchus/Qing, and the Safavids legitimized their power through…

• the formation of large bureacracies

• The development of strong military professionals & the use of gunpowder

• Religious ideas, art, and monumental architecture

• Innovations in tax collection

• Suleiman the Magnificent was the greatest ruler of the Ottoman empire. The empire reached its greatest territorial extent under his rule.

• Implemented legal reform that standardized and organized various aspects of Ottoman society, including taxation, criminal law, and administrative procedures

• He commissioned several architectural projects, including mosques, bridges, palaces, and public buildings

• Suleiman engaged in diplomatic relations with various European powers, often using diplomacy to achieve his territorial and strategic goals

• Caravel: portuguese ship used by Henry the Navigator, it was smaller and faster which allowed for better navigation

• Fluyt: Dutch trading ship

• Europeans adopted technology from Islamic and Asian worlds like compasses, astrolabes, and lateen sails

• The economic system that characterized imperial european states during this time period

• Occurs when a state organizes the economy to maximize exports and minimize imports

• A joint stock company was a business entity in which multiple investors pooled their capital to fund commercial ventures.

• Each investor purchased shares of the company, entitling them to a portion of profits and losses. Joint stock companies spread the risk of investment, which helped the financing of large-scale projects, such as overseas exploration, trade expeditions, and colonization efforts

• Some examples of joint stock companies during this time period are the Dutch East India company (V.O.C) and the British East India company

• with the leadership of Prince Henry the navigator, Portugal was the first to gain power in West Africa and the Indian ocean

• Vasco de Gama, a Portuguese explorer, was the first to sail all the way around Africa, providing a maritime route to the Indian Ocean

• Set up multiple trading posts along the coast of Africa and South Asia

• Portugal colonized modern day Brazil and created large scale plantations reliant on slave labor

• sponsored Christopher Columbus’s exploration, who was the first to find the Americas, leading to the opening of transatlantic trade

• Spain set up colonies in present day Mexico, Central America, and in the Carribean. The spread of disease to the Americas weakened the Incas and the Aztecs, which allowed the Spanish to take over

• Spain had a relatively limited presence in the Indian ocean, except for the colonization of the Philipines.

• Hernan Cortes conquered the Aztecs and Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca empire

• Manila galleon trade was centered in the Phillipines

• Manila is the capital of the phillipines under Spanish colonization

• Spanish galleons (ships) were used to carry silver from Mexico to South East Asia to be used to purchase luxury items like porcelain, silk, and spices

• France established a presence in Canada, which helped them gain access to the fur trade with indigenous people.

• France established a colony in modern day Haiti called Saint-Domingue

• They had some trading posts involved in Indian Ocean trade but were not as dominant relative to other European powers like Portugal and the Dutch.

• sponsored exploration into the Americas, held colonies along the eastern coast of North America

• England’s first colony in the Americas was Jamestown

• Established a frew trading posts along the coast of India

• The Dutch had an extensive presence in the Indian ocean. They set up multiple trading posts, especially on the spice islands

• They had a powerful navy that protected their trading posts and colonies and helped them establish dominance in the Indian Ocean

• The Dutch did not have a strong presence in the Americas

• European arrival in the Americas introduced diseases that indigenous people had not built up immunity to, making them devastating to indigenous populations

• Smallpox, measles, and malaria were introduced to the Americas

• European settlers brought wheat, olives, grapes, rice, sugar, and bananas.

• Crops from the Americas like maize and potatoes were introduced into Eurasia. Their population greatly increased because of their richer diet

• Enslaved people introduced foods like okra and rice to the Americas

• Plantations in the Americas were established to cultivate cash crops (sugarcane, coffee, cotton, etc.)

• Europeans introduced pigs, sheep, cattle, and horses

• Horses were extremely useful because they were used for agricultural work and allowed indigenous people to hunt more effectively

• small communities of free Black people, mostly made up of runaway slaves.

• When European leaders tried to stop these maroons from developing, Queen Nanny lead a military force of resistance and eventually won recognition for maroons in the 18th century

• The Mi’ta system was a system of labor distribution established by the Incas that required citizens to build things like roads or houses

• It was adopted by the Spanish when they conquered the Incas, making indigenous people work in silver mines for very little pay.

• The purchaser has total ownership over enslaved people

• Chattel slavery is race based and hereditary

• More men than women were being enslaved because plantation/mining work was physically demanding, so African demographics were significantly affected

• a laborer would sign a contract that bound them to work for a period of time, and they were free once the contract ran out

• People often became indentured servants to pay for their journey from Europe to the Americas

• used by the Spanish to divide indigenous Americans among Spanish settlers

• Indigenous Americans were forced to provide labor for the Spanish in exchange for food and protection

• Nothing to do with land ownership and everything to do with controlling the indigenous population

• Indigenous laborers ere forced to work on fields of large plantations known as haciendas

• This system used land ownership as the main vehicle for controlling the indigenous population

• Religious syncretism: a blending of some Christian beliefs with indigenous beliefs. A good example of this is Vodun, a blend of animistic African beliefs with christian doctrine and practices

• Creole languages: languages that developed as a result of the fusion of European, Indigenous, and African languages.

• The casta system was a new social hierarchy imposed by the Spanish based on race and ancestry

• Europeans were at the top of society, Indigenous Americans in the middle, and Africans were at the bottom of society

• This sytem eriased the previous cultural complexity of native society and replaced it with a euro-centric social system

• Boyars made up the aristocratic land owning class in Russia and used to have extensive influence in the administration of the empire

• When Peter the Great (an absolute monarch) rose to power, he eliminated to boyar class in order to keep the power all for himself.

• Slaves went from Africa to the Americas

• Cash crops and natural resources like cotton, corn, tobacco, wheat, and timber went from the Americas to Europe

• Finished manufactured goods like guns and textiles went from Europe to Africa (Africa often recieved less imports than they were promised)

• The Catholic church was extremely corrupt (people could pay to get their sins ‘forgiven’ and people bought their way into positions of power in the Church)

• Martin Luther lead the reformation and spread his ideas with the help of the printing press: he rejected the religious hierarchy and believed that the bible was the true source of faith

• The council of trent encouraged the reform of the Catholic church

• The pope decreased in power, and the protestant reformation encouraged the questioning of political power

• The Thirty Years' War was a devastating conflict that took place in Europe from 1618 to 1648, primarily within the Holy Roman Empire.

• It originated from religious, political, and territorial disputes between Catholic and Protestant states, as well as conflicts over the balance of power in Europe.

• The war involved numerous European powers and resulted in widespread destruction, loss of life, and significant political and social upheaval.

• The Treaty of Westphalia, signed in 1648, ended the war and established the principles of state sovereignty and religious tolerance

• The inquisition’s purpose was to extend Spanish power with the justification of stopping religious heresy and spreading christianity

• Those convicted of heresy faced harsh punishments, execution was common.

• Strict roman catholicism in Spain devloped

• Took place in all Spanish domain, including in Europe as well as Spanish colonies in the Americas. Many Native Americans were put on trial for following indigenous religions.

• a ressurgance of science (biology, chemistry, etc) that was much more prominent in Protestant countries

• Deism: God created science, so studying science does not go against christianity/catholicism

• Prominent figures include Copernicus (popularized the heliocentric theory), Galileo (disproved Ptolemy’s theory that earth was the center of the universe), Isaac Newton (proved the calculations for gravity)

• Converted to christianity to improve relationships with Portugal, who they traded Gold, Copper, and Enslaved people with

• Trade with Portugal helped the Kongo become very wealthy

• As the demand for enslaved people increased, Portugal began kidnapping people from the Kongo for the slave trade (called slave raids). This lead to a deterioration of their trade relationships.

• Also known as Anglola to Europeans, the Kingdom of Ndongo was a powerful state until the Portuguese colonized for the slave trade

• Queen Nzinga effectively resisted the Portuguese for 40 years but eventually fell and the Portuguese took over