(LBE) Land-Based Empires 1450-1750 Module Overview

Land-Based Empires 1450-1750 Module Overview

Introduction

The Early Modern period was the periods from 1450 to 1750 where land-based empires of Asia, Latin America, Africa and Europe developed and expanded. In each of these areas, a variety of internal and external factors contributed to their rise, expansion and fall. With these empires, religious and philosophical influences will impact the way groups of society with view themselves and their interactions of society as far as social, political and cultural implications. As the period advances these land based societies will interact and influence not only one another but also new areas as they expand on their ideas and beliefs.

Much of Africa followed its own lines of development between the beginning of the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. The rise of the West and the Western-dominated economy, however, was a powerful force in influencing the course of African history. The Atlantic slave trade predominated in economic affairs after the middle of the seventeenth century. The forced removal of Africans had a major effect in some African regions and was a primary factor contributing to the nature of New World populations. African culture became one of the important strands in the development of American civilizations. Despite the rise of the West and the slave trade, nearly all of Africa remained politically independent and culturally autonomous. Among the important trends, Islam consolidated its position in sub-Saharan and East Africa, while in many parts of Africa, independent states formed and expanded.

The Mongol invasions of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries destroyed theoretical Muslim unity. The Abbasid and many regional dynasties were crushed. Three new Muslim dynasties arose to bring a new flowering to Islamic civilization. The greatest, the Ottoman Empire, reached its peak in the seventeenth century to the East, the Safavids ruled in Persia and Afghanistan, and the Mughals ruled much of India. Together the three empires possessed great military and political power; they also produced an artistic and cultural renaissance within Islam. They contributed to the spread of Islam to new regions. All three dynasties originated from Turkic nomadic cultures; each possessed religious fervor and zeal for conversion. They built empires through military conquest based on the effective use of firearms. Each was ruled by an absolute monarch and drew revenues from taxation of agrarian populations. There were differences. The Mughals ruled mostly non-Muslim peoples, the Safavids mostly Muslims, and the Ottomans a mixture of Muslims and Christians. The Safavids were Shi'a Muslims; the others were Sunni.

Most Asian peoples, except in the islands of Southeast Asia, were only marginally affected by the European arrival. India, China, and Japan were not fundamentally reshaped by the West. The peoples of East Asia developed new political and social strengths while following a policy of isolation in response to global trends. Vasco da Gama's voyage to India had opened the way to the east for Europeans, but it soon became clear that Europeans had little to offer Asians in exchange for their desired products. Asians were not interested in converting to Christianity. Asian states were too strong to be conquered by Europeans, but the latter's sea power allowed control of spice exports and regulation of some parts of the Asian trading network. The Europeans participated in the existing economic and political system, rather then attempting to capture it.

This unit also presents the dramatic transformation of Europe between 1450 and 1750 from a sub-region of Eurasia to a dynamic global powerhouse. Here will be considered some of the internal changes that enabled the nations of Western Europe, in particular, to assume such preeminence. This transformation occurred simultaneously and on multiple levels. Also, this unit considers state-building and social and economic change in Russia under Peter I and Catherine II.

• Religious transformation. The Protestant Reformation, launched by Martin Luther in 1517 in Germany, successfully challenged the monopoly of the Roman Catholic Church on western Christendom. The printing press, recently introduced to Europe from China, advanced the ideas and texts of the Reformation throughout Europe.
• Political transformation. Powerful nation-states evolved with the resources and institutions to advance national interests abroad. At the same time, two models for political order emerged, represented by the absolutist monarchies of France and Spain and the constitutional monarchies of England and the Netherlands.
• Economic transformation. The emergence of capitalism is evident in changes to the structures of banking, finance, and manufacturing. Adam Smith advocated a free market economy, with prices and wages determined through competition.
• Intellectual transformation. New technologies and new scientific discoveries of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries fueled debate about the nature of the universe and called into question the authority of the Church in such matters. This discussion eventually led to the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, an intellectual movement that raised important questions about the nature of humanity, religion, and political authority.

 

Essential Questions

• Explain how and why various land-based empires developed and expanded from 1450-1750.
• Explain how rulers used a variety of methods to legitimize and consolidate their power in land-based empires from 1450-1750.
• Explain continuity and change within the various belief systems during the period from 1450 to 1750.
• Compare the methods by which various empires increased their influence from 1450 to 1750.

 

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