class 4 - land empires vs sea empires C15-C18🏴☠️ Flashcards
Europe times/eras
500 CE ~1450 = Medieval Europe (middle ages)
~1450 - 1800 = Early Modern Europe
1800 -> = (late) modern Europe
Why the surge of Eurasian empires in C15?
key event = rise and fall Mongol Empire C13-C14
- Genghis Khan (1206-1227) = known great nomadic conqueror (e.g. also ..de Hut)
- largest contiguous ldn empire in world history
- conquered more land in 25 years than the Romans did in 400 years
1294 = fragmentation of the Empire
most power in long 13th century
Mongol Empire success factors + after conquest
succes =
- brutal military tactics (shooting arrows from horse)
- finest horsemanship (rather than camels + could live from horses if necessary)
After conquest =
- religious tolerance
- pro trade
- diplomacy
- travel
cities across Asia opened to international commercial (first ‘‘international free trade zone’’, kind of NAFTA)
1294 powervacuum
diversion Mongol Empire + declines ca. 1350
-> Tamerlane (1370-1405) steps into vacuum
- takes chunk of Mongol Empire
- last great nomadic conqueror who tried to rule entire ‘‘world island’’
- fought with multi-ethnic army, was undefeated
- fighting was highly destructive (5% world population)
- large infantry + gunpower fighting
- ?Eurasia under one empire?
- Tamerlane died on the way to China, which he wanted to conquer
impact of the Mongol-Timurid empires
4 major consequences
decline led to 4 major Eurasian developments:
- Muslim empires: established from Mediterranean Sea to Ganges River basin in Indian subcontinent
- Russian Empire: conquers Siberia to the pacific Ocean
- Ming and Qing dynasties expand westward
- European voyages of exploration
the big picture
2 types of imperial expansion C15-C18
- land empires = Islamic, Chinese, Russia (Behemoth as metaphor)
- sea empires = European (Leviathan as metaphor)
there were asymmetrical empires, there was a multipolar world
- land empires: all empires were connected together + empires were unity: e.g. law and taxes, still no equality (privileges for some) = contiguous
- land empires: indirect role with clientage, maintained local rulers and indigenous systems of rule =
non-contiguous
both: sometimes recruitment nomads, sea pirates into their ‘‘sovereign systems’’
Behemoth + Leviathan (the Bible ofc)
+ Hobbes and Schmitt
God is telling Job that there are no more powerful creatures on land or sea than the Behemoth and Leviathan
- Behemoth = land
- Leviathan = sea
BUT: still creatures of God
Hobbes’ Leviathan: modern state as the most powerful artificial creation on earth, only undermined by the power of God
Schmitt (nazi): world history is a history of the battle of the sea powers against the land powers
main point
- asymmetry:
- Behemoth isn’t Leviathan
Islamic empires C15-C18
- key features
- empires
= land empires
three major Islamic empires peaked in C15-C16
- Ottoman Empire (anatolia, present Turkey) = 1299-1922 (took over Byzantine + Mesopotamia etc.)
- Safavid Empire (Persia/Iran) = 1501-1736
- Mughal Empire (Indian) = 1526-1857 (Babur: descendents Genghis Khan)
key features:
- Mughal and Safavid: quick and lage military victories in the founding moments -> rapid expansion -> necessary to construct strong centralized state to adminster and control
- Mughal and Safavid empires: fast decline from early C18 (did not stick around, but Mughals stayed in India until England came)
- multiethnic empires
- Ottoman Empire lasts longest and exerts most influence in early modern period (had most extent in south-eastern Europe (e.g. battle in Vienna)), won from Safavid somewhere
*1700 India: also posts of European sea empires
Chinese empire C15-C18
Ming dynasty (1368-1644) and Qing dynasty (1644-1911)
!violent transition in between these dynasties: early-middle 17th century wars + ethnic cleansing (25 million deaths)
Chinese empire expanded across Central Asia into Mongolia, Turkestan, and Tibet
key features:
- highly developed bureaucratic structures: centralized and efficient government administration
- Ming, especially Qing were internally really stable, directed by capable rulers, building on long-established institutions (state exams), not much corruption and nepotism -> widest ranging central system
*important role confucianism - until 1433 might have expanded into a maritime empire in addition to land empire (e.g. Zheng He and Treasure Fleet)
*it was unclear if it was going to become a sea empire or not - need to defend land empire against threats by Mongol and Turkic nomads, especially in northwest
- established elaborate overland cash tributary system: states paid tribute (sometimes only once) to Chinese emperor to be able to do business), was eco. profitable, form of gov. trade
*Chinese empire as Middle Kingdom: highest in the universal hierarchy (paying tribute depended the place further in the hierarchy)
!Was Chinese mode of IR
deathliest century until C18
C17:
- thirty years war (4-8 million)
- Ming->Qing (25 million)
only geevenaard door wereldoorlogen
great wall of China
built primarily under the Ming dynasty (is way older though)
purpose to defend the land empire (Northwest)
2400km border long (nl only 1000)
the Russian Empire
- land empire
founded by grand prince of Moscow: Ivan 3 achieves Russian independence from Muslim rule under the Golden Horde khanate (1480)
Ivan 4 (the Terrible) established conquest east and south, centralized power at cost of the boiars (royalty), crowned himself the Tsar (1547)
Romanov dynasty conquers large territories in the east: Siberia, winning access to vast natural resources, C17-onward
gains to the west: Kyiv
but mostly eastward, (hired ?Kozark?/mercenaries)
key features
- gradual construction of centalized state (first a feudal system): from C18 Russia a bridge between Western Europe and Asia
- Peak power under the Romanov dynasty, especially its modernizing tsars
- unique tributary system based on fur pelts (e.g. sable) (held people hostage until they gave them pelts, how many had to be offered depended on how many male adults (was rather instable: pelts became rare (hunted out of existence), eventually monetary payment instead
modernizing Tsars Romanov dynasty
- Peter the Great (1672-1725): on the basis of western European standards (came in NL, and England in disguise to gain knowledge)
- plaque in Czaar Peterbuurt
- quite difficult to come in disuise: was probably the talles European at that time - Catherine the Great (1729-1796): longest ruling female leader, made it strong (golden century), expanded, great founder Russian enlightenment, many lovers
Europeans start exploring maritime trade routes
Marco Polo (1254-1324):
- at first, Europeans explore land routes to the East:
- Mongol Empire had opened up more East-West routes
Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) (most elaborate sea routes, whilst Ibn had largest when considering land and sea)(Spain)
- from 1492 Europeans sail across the Atlantic Ocean
Vasco da Gama (1460s-1524)(Portuguese)
- from 1497 Europeans sail across Indian Ocean
first wave of European imperialism
+ three ‘‘crests’’
- early modern period 1492-early C19
- Marxists: moment of the first accumulation of capital
- 1492-1648: expansion under Spanish and Portuguese hegemony
- 1648-1770: expansion under Dutch, French, and British hegemony
- 1770-1815: contraction: first wave of decolonization (Americas); British remain hegemonic
*second wave: ca. 1870-1914 (scramble for Africa, new imperialism)
