What Motivated Russian Empire Building?

Empire Building in Asia, 1450 -1750

WHAP/Napp

Cues: / Notes:
I.  A Russian Empire
A.  A small Russian state, centered on the city of ______, was emerging after two centuries of Mongol ruleàRussian expansion brought numerous Poles, Germans, Ukrainians, Belorussians, Baltic peoples into the Russian Empire
B.  Attention was drawn first to the grasslands south and east of the Russian heartlandà______pastoralists raided Russian agricultural lands and sold many people into slaveryàconcern for security was paramount
C.  To the east across the vast expanse of ______, Russian motives were differentàhunting, gathering, herding peoples posed no threat but “soft gold” of its fur-bearing animalsàpelts in great demand on world market
D.  Russian Empire, stretching to the ______, took shape in the three centuries between 1500 and 1800
E.  Modern weaponry and the organizational capacity of a powerful state brought the steppes and Siberia under Russian control
F.  Russian authorities demanded an oath of allegiance to the ____ and yasak or tribute paid in cash or in kindàin Siberia, this meant furs
G.  As in the Americas, devastating epidemics accompanied conquest
H.  Also pressure to convert to ______
1.  Tax breaks, exemptions from paying tribute, and the promise of land or cash provided incentives for conversion
2.  While the destruction of many mosques and the forced resettlement of Muslims added pressures
3.  But Russian state did not pursue conversion with the single-minded intensity that Spanish authorities exercised in ______America
4.  Tsarina Catherine the Great actually established religious ______for Muslims in the late eighteenth century
I.  The most profoundly transforming feature of the Russian Empire was the influx of Russian settlers
1.  By the end of the 18th century, settlers overwhelmed native peoples
2.  Many of conquered peoples were Russified, adopting the ______language and converting to Christianity, even as their traditional ways of life – hunting and herding – were much disrupted
J. The wealth of empire – rich agricultural lands, valuable _____, mineral deposits – played a major role in making Russia a great power
K. Also on the front lines of the encounter between Christendom and the world of Islam and straddling of Asia and Europe was source of a long-standing ______problemàwas Russia European or Asian
L. Bordering on virtually all of the great agrarian civilizations of outer Eurasiaà turned Russia into a highly militarized state
Summaries:
Cues: / M. Size of empire reinforced highly autocratic character to hold its vast domains and highly diverse peoples togetheràUnlike Western Europe, conquered near
N. Russian Empire remained intact until the ______of the Soviet Union in 1991
II. Empire Building Elsewhere in Asia
A.  Turko-Mongol invaders from Central Asia created ______Empire, bringing much of Hindu South Asia within single Muslim-ruled political system and also OttomansàBut regional rather than global in scope
III. China
A.  While in the 15th century, China declined opportunity to construct a maritime empire in ______Ocean, as Zheng He’s massive fleet was left to wither away, in the 17th and 18th centuries, built another kind of empire
B.  Pushed deep into central Eurasia
C.  Undertaking imperial expansion was _____, or Manchu dynasty (1644-1912) à ironically, rulers were foreigners of nomadic origin, hailing from Manchuria, north of the Great Wall
D.  It was largely security concerns that motivated this empire building
E.  Eastward movement of the Russian Empire likewise appeared potentially threatening, but this danger was revolved diplomatically in the Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689), which marked the boundary between ______and China
F.  Borders of contemporary China are essentially those created by Qing
G.  Central Asia was transformed from trading network to impoverished region
IV. India and the Mughals
A.  Muslim in religion and Turkic in culture, claiming descent from Chinggis Khan and Timur, Mughal conquests of much of ______in sixteenth century provided India with a rare period of relative political unity (1526-1707)
B.  Ruling dynasty and 20% of the population were Muslimsàrest were ______
C.  The Mughal ruler, Akbar (ruled 1556-1605), accommodated Hindu majorityàreligious ______àremoved special tax (jizya) on non-Muslims
D.  But the Emperor Aurangzeb (1658-1707) reversed Akbar’s policy of accommodation and sought to impose Islamic supremacy
1.  Forbade the Hindu practice of sati, in which a ______followed her husband to death àsome Hindu temples destroyedàreimposed jizya
V. Ottomans
A. Beginning around 1300 from area in northwestern Anatolia, the Ottoman Turks swept over much of the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeastern Europe
B. By 1453, Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks and was renamed ______
C. Ottoman [Muslims] policies in dealing with Christian and Jewish populations resembled Akbar’s policies toward the ______majority of Mughal India
D. Turkish process known as devshirme (the collecting or gathering) which required Balkan Christian communities to hand over young boys who were required to learn Turkish, converted to ______, trained for either civil or military service in elite Janissary unitsàmeans of upward mobility within Empire
E. Even though the Ottomans were tolerant within their bordersà seizure of Constantinople, the conquest of Balkans, naval power in the Mediterranean, and the siege of Vienna in 1529 and again in 1683 raised great ______in Europe
Summaries:

Questions:

·  What motivated Russian empire building?

·  How did the Russian Empire transform the life of its conquered people and of the Russian homeland itself?

·  What were the major features of Chinese empire building in the early modern era?

·  How did Mughal attitudes and policies toward Hindus change from the time of Akbar to that of Aurangzeb?

·  In what ways was the Ottoman Empire important for Europe in the early modern era?

1.  In which neighboring region(s) did the Russian Empire gain the most land during the Romanov dynasty?
(A) Poland
(B) Baltic States
(C) Black Sea region
(D) Siberia and Central Asia
(E) Scandinavia
2.  How did Russia tend to fit into the emerging global economy in the period 1450 – 1750?
(A) As a source of serf labor transported to till the soils of Western Europe
(B) As a market for grain grown in the New World
(C) As the primary Old World destination of the silver being taken out of the New World
(D) As a supplier of grain, timber, fur, and other raw materials to the West
(E) As a center of industrial development based on export of finished goods
3.  Which of the following does NOT belong in a list of regions under Ottoman control at the height of their rule in terms of territory gained?
(A) North Africa
(B) Middle East
(C) Anatolia
(D) Spain
(E) Balkan peninsula / 4.  Which feature of the expanding Russian Empire in the period 1500 – 1800 was NOT a feature of expanding Western European empires in this period?
(A) Russia held military dominance over less technologically sophisticated peoples.
(B) Multiple ethnicities fell under the rule of a single monarch.
(C) Territorial expansion was a major goal.
(D) Natural resources and agricultural products were extracted from the newly absorbed lands.
(E) Expansion was mainly carried out over land and not sea.
5.  Religious tolerance, Hindu-Muslim intermarriage, and abolition of the jizya head tax are all most closely associated with which Mughal ruler?
(A) Selim II
(B) Akbar
(C) Babur
(D) Aurangzeb
(E) Shah Jahan
6.  Which of the following belief systems had little to no following in India by 1750?
(A) Hinduism
(B) Islam
(C) Jainism
(D) Christianity
(E) Confucianism

Excerpt from Fordham.edu: James M. Ludlow: The Tribute of Children, 1493

ABOUT a century before the capture of Constantinople, when Amurath I was on the throne, his vizier suggested to him that he had a right not only to one-fifth of the spoils of battle, but also to one-fifth of the captives. "Let officers be stationed at Gallipoli," he said, "and as the Christians pass by, let them choose the fairest and strongest of the Christian boys to become your soldiers." Thus was formed the famous corps of the Janizaries. To keep it up, the agents of the sultan went once in four years to all the Christian villages under Turkish control. Every boy between six and nine years of age must be brought before them, and the agents carried away one-fifth of the number, carefully selecting the strongest and most intelligent.

THE advice of the vizier was followed; the edict was proclaimed; many thousands of the European captives were educated in the Mohammedan religion and arms, and the new militia was consecrated and named by a celebrated dervish. Standing in the front of their ranks, he stretched the sleeve of his gown over the head of the foremost soldier, and his blessing was delivered in the following words "Let them be called Janizaries [yingi-cheri--or "new soldiers"]; may their countenances be ever bright; their hand victorious; their swords keen; may their spear always hang over the heads of their enemies; and, wheresoever they go, may they return with a white face." White and black face are common and proverbial expressions of praise and reproach in the Turkish language. Such was the origin of these haughty troops, the terror of the nations.

They are kept up by continual additions from the sultan's share of the captives, and by recruits, raised every five years, from the children of the Christian subjects. Small parties of soldiers, each under a leader, and each provided with a particular firman, go from place to place. Wherever they come, the protogeros assembled the inhabitants with their sons. The leader of the soldiers have the right to take away all the youth who are distinguished by beauty or strength, activity or talent, above the age of seven. He carries them to the court of the grand seignior, a tithe, as it is, of the subjects. The captives taken in war by the pashas, and presented by them to the sultan, include Poles, Bohemians, Russians, Italians, and Germans.

These recruits are divided into two classes. Those who compose the one, are sent to Anatolia, where they are trained to agricultural labor, and instructed in the Mussulman faith; or they are retained about the seraglio, where they carry wood and water, and are employed in the gardens, in the boats, or upon the public buildings, always under the direction of an overseer, who with a stick compels them to work. The others, in whom traces of a higher character are discernible, are placed in one of the four seraglios of Adrianople or Galata, or the old or new one at Constantinople. Here they are lightly clad in linen or in cloth of Saloniki, with caps of Prusa cloth. Teachers come every morning, who remain with them until evening, and teach them to read and write. Those who have performed hard labor are made Janizaries. Those who are educated in the seraglios become spahis or higher officers of state.

Thesis Statement: Comparative: Empire Building: Russia and Spain

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