Ottoman devshirme

• Non-Muslims in the Ottoman Empire were organized into religious communities called millets​. Each millet was allowed to maintain its own religious traditions and educate its people – as long as it obeyed Ottoman law.

• Non-Muslims in parts of the empire had to hand over some of their children as a tax under the devshirme ('gathering') system introduced in the 14th century. Conquered Christian communities, especially in the Balkans, had to surrender twenty percent of their male children to the state.

• Although members of the devshirme class were technically slaves, they were of great importance to the Sultan because they owed him their absolute loyalty and became vital to his power. This status enabled some of the 'slaves' to become both powerful and wealthy. Their status remained restricted, and their children were not permitted to inherit their wealth or follow in their footsteps.

• Some of the youngsters were trained for government service, where they were able to reach very high ranks, even that of Grand Vezir. Many of the others served in the elite military corps of the Ottoman Empire, called the Janissaries, which was almost exclusively made up of forced converts from Christianity.

• Janissaries played a key role in Mehmet's conquest of Constantinople, and from then on regularly held very senior posts in the imperial administration.

  • • 1610-Anatolian Revolts resulted in:

      • • Janissaries could marry

        • Janissaries could own businesses

• 1826-Janissary corps dissolved

  • • With it, the Sufi order attached to them ended

Salaried samurai

Tokugawa social change during peace:

• Tokugawa authorities was to reduce the numbers of armed professional warriors, so they pushed daimyo and samurai to become bureaucrats and government functionaries.

• encouraged daimyo and samurai to turn their talents to scholarship, a pursuit that their martial ancestors would have utterly despised.

• As they lost their accustomed place in society, many of the ruling elite also fell into financial difficulty

  • • Their principal income came in the form of rice collected from peasant cultivators of their lands. They readily converted rice into money through brokers, but the price of rice did not keep pace with other costs.

    • daimyo and samurai lived in expensive and sometimes ostentatious style—particularly daimyo who sought to impress others with their wealth while residing at Edo in alternate years. Many of them became indebted to rice brokers and gradually declined into genteel poverty.

• TED Ed-A day in the life of a teenage samurai - Constantine N. Vaporis

Mexica practice of human sacrifice

• the Mexica believed that their gods had set the world in motion through acts of individual sacrifice.

  • • By letting their blood flow, the gods had given the earth the moisture it needed to bear maize and other crops.

    • To propitiate the gods and ensure the continuation of the world, the Mexica honored their deities through sacrificial bloodletting.

    • Mexica priests regularly performed acts of self-sacrifice, piercing their earlobes or penises with cactus spines in honor of the primeval acts of their gods.

    • The religious beliefs and bloodletting rituals clearly reflected the desire of the Mexica to keep their agricultural society going.

• Mexica priests also presided over the sacrificial killing of human victims.

  • • Mexica placed much more emphasis on human sacrifice than their predecessors had.

    • Mexica enthusiasm for human sacrifice followed from their devotion to the god Huitzilopochtli. Mexica warriors took Huitzilopochtli as their patron deity in the early years of the fourteenth century as they subjected neighboring peoples to their rule.

    • Military success persuaded them that Huitzilopochtli especially favored the Mexica, and as military successes mounted, the priests of Huitzilopochtli’s cult demanded sacrificial victims to keep the war god appeased.

    • Some of the victims were Mexica criminals, but others came as tribute from neighboring peoples or from the ranks of warriors captured on the battlefield during the many conflicts between the Mexica and their neighbors.

• Believed the ritual was essential to the world’s survival.

  • • believed that the blood of sacrificial victims sustained the sun and secured a continuing supply of moisture for the earth

    • thus ensuring that human communities would be able to cultivate their crops and perpetuate their societies.

European notions of divine right

• Absolutism stood on a theoretical foundation known as the divine right of kings.

  • • This theory held that kings derived their authority from God and served as “God’s lieutenants upon earth.”

• There was no role in divine-right theory for common subjects or even nobles in public affairs: the king made law and determined policy.

• Noncompliance or disobedience merited punishment, and rebellion was a despicable act tantamount to blasphemy.

• absolute monarchs always relied on support from nobles and other social groups as well, but the claims of divine-right theory clearly reflected efforts at royal centralization.

• The most conspicuous absolutist state was the French monarchy under King Louis XIV (reigned 1643–1715)

  • • once reportedly declared that he was himself the state: “l’état, c’est moi.”

    • Louis surrounded himself with splendor befitting one who ruled by divine right

    • Known as le roi soleil (“the sun king”), he was the center of attention at Versailles

Songhai promotion of Islam

• Initially

  • • Islamic monarchy

    • Upper classes in society converted to Islam

    • lower classes often continued to follow traditional religions.

      • • More than 90 percent of Songhai subjects were non-Muslims

• Askia Mohammed sought to make all of the empire [of Songhai] one big Muslim community

  • • begins process of Islamization in sub-Saharan West Africa

    • Sharia Legal and social reforms were introduced

      • • justice was administered according to Muslim Sharia principles rather than traditional African laws

    • Islamic judges were appointed in all the large districts of the empire

    • built mosques and opened Islamic schools

    • encouraged sufi missionaries to work on the periphery of the empire

Qing imperial portraits

Introduction

• Like the Yuan and Jin dynasties, the Manchu Qing dynasty faced many problems as a foreign ruler in a massive empire.

• Created artwork to express both their Manchu heritage and convey a Chinese identity

• In addition, the emperors’ portraits were used to express their ideas about world rule and as a source of Diplomacy

Chinese Identity

• Emperors depicted as Confucian scholars who are well versed in calligraphy, the classics, filial piety, and have good taste

• Continued tradition of formal court portraits, but incorporated Manchu dress motifs into the clothes

• Used historical events or famous paintings to tie their identities to Chinese history

Manchu Identity

• Portraits of emperors engaging in hunting or wearing military armor

• Reflects the Manchu marshal virtues that the Chinese did not value in a leader

• Part of a larger Manchu nationalist movement that included creating a comprehensive history of Manchuria

Buddhism

• Qianlong painted as bodhisattva Manjushri.

• Represented him as a universal ruler

• Paintings look exactly like those of Tibet, but with Qianlong’s face superimposed

Costume paintings

• Yongzheng and Qianlong depicted as various ethnic peoples from around the world

  • • Emperor Yongzheng as a Mongol noble

• Possible connection to European masquerade balls

  • • Emperor Yongzheng as a French noble

• An expression of their concept of world rule

Incan sun temple of Cuzco

Sapa Inca

• The Incas considered their chief ruler a deity descended from the sun. In theory, this god-king owned all land, livestock, and property in the Inca realm, which he governed as an absolute and infallible ruler.

• Inca ruling class venerated the sun as a god and as their major deity, whom they called Inti.

  • • also recognized the moon, stars, planets, rain, and other natural forces as divine

The cult of the sun

• In Cuzco alone some four thousand priests, attendants, and virgin devotees served Inti

• temple attracted pilgrims from all parts of the Inca empire.

• lavish decoration, including a golden sculpture of the sun encrusted with gems.

• imitation garden in which grains of gold represented a field, which was planted with stalks of maize fabricated from gold

• surrounded by twenty golden llamas with their attendants, also sculpted in gold.

Mughal mausolea and mosques

Peacock Throne

• 1635 Shah Jahan, the emperor of Mughal India, took his seat on the Peacock Throne.

• Seven years in the making, the Peacock Throne is probably the most spectacular seat on which any human being has rested.

  • • Shah Jahan ordered the throne encrusted with ten million rupees’ worth of diamonds, rubies, emeralds, and pearls.

    • Atop the throne itself stood a magnificent, golden-bodied peacock with a huge ruby and a fifty-carat, pear-shaped pearl on its breast and a brilliant elevated tail fashioned of blue sapphires and other colored gems.

    • Yet, for all its splendor, the Peacock Throne ranks a distant second among Shah Jahan’s artistic projects: pride of place goes to the incomparable Taj Mahal.

Taj Mahal

• Built over a period of eighteen years as a tomb for Shah Jahan’s beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died during childbirth in 1631

• a vast allegory in stone symbolizing the day when Allah would cause the dead to rise and undergo judgment before his heavenly throne.

  • • Its gardens represented the gardens of paradise

    • the four water channels running through them symbolized the four rivers of the heavenly kingdom.

    • The domed marble tomb of Mumtaz Mahal represented the throne of Allah

    • the four minarets surrounding the structure served as legs supporting the divine throne.

    • Craftsmen carved verses from the Quran throughout the Taj Mahal.

    • The main gateway to the structure features the entire text of the chapter promising that on the day of judgment, Allah will punish the wicked and gather the faithful into his celestial paradise.

European palaces, such as Versailles

• built in the 1670s by Louis XIV at what was a royal hunting lodge near Paris

• palace at Versailles was the largest building in Europe, with 230 acres of formal gardens and 1,400 fountains.

• Louis did not want to wait years for saplings to grow, he ordered laborers to dig up 25,000 fully grown trees and haul them to Versailles for transplanting.

• All prominent nobles established residences at Versailles for their families and entourages.

  • • Louis strongly encouraged them to live at court, where he and his staff could keep an eye on them

    • ambitious nobles gravitated there anyway in hopes of winning influence with the king.

• Louis himself was the arbiter of taste and style at Versailles, where he lavishly patronized painters, sculptors, architects, and writers whose creations met with his approval.

• nobles living at Versailles mastered the intricacies of court ritual and attended banquets, concerts, operas, balls, and theatrical performances, Louis and his ministers ran the state

  • • In effect, Louis provided the nobility with luxurious accommodations and endless entertainment in exchange for absolute rule.

• From Versailles, Louis and his advisors promulgated laws and controlled a large standing army that kept order throughout the land.

Mughal zamindar tax collection

• Akbar (1556-1605) centralized the Mughal Empire

  • mansabs - land revenues granted to military officers and government officials for their service

  • Zamindars - a local official in Mughal India who received a plot of farmland for temporary use in return for collecting taxes for the central government

    • mansabdars - 70% of the officials holding land grants appointed under Akbar were Muslim soldiers born outside of India

    • Rajputs - 15% of the officials holding land grants appointed under Akbar were Hindu from northern India

      • • a key component of Akbar’s policy to consolidate power

Ottoman tax farming

• Suleiman the Magnificent Reestablished a land grant system in exchange for military service

  • Similar to the Theme system established in the Byzantine empire

• Anatolian Revolts ended in 1610 led to tax reform

  • • Tax Farming/”timars” in Turkish-tax farmers paid specific taxes, such as customs duties, in advance in return for the privilege of collecting greater amounts from actual tax payers.

    • If a timar could not pay his tax for a number of years in a row, the timar was taken away from him and given to someone else

      • • • Ends hereditary landowning aristocracy

    • Peasants could appeal to the Sharia courts (staffed by the ulama which required lengthy training) if they believed they were being over taxed

• The timar system lasted until the Tanzimat Reforms (1839)

▪ Mexica tribute lists

▪ Ming practice of collecting taxes in hard currency

Law Code

• Muslims = Sharia Law

• Hindu = according to Hindu customs/scholars, or villiage customs

• 1579-Akbar made himself the legal court of last resort

  • • God's infallible earthly representative

Administrative Districts and method for collecting taxes

• Mansabdari system-administrative system introduced by Akbar

  • Extra revenue to the state: The entire land became state-land and officials realised the revenue drawn from it

• Rajputs-Mughal alliances were a key component of Akbar’s policy to consolidate power

• Zamindars-a local official in Mughal India who received a plot of farmland for temporary use in return for collecting taxes for the central government

• Muslim-Hindu reconciliation = Akbar ended the jizya

• 1679- jizya tax restored on most non-Muslims

Official Language

• Persian-was the dominant and “official” language of the empire

• Urdu-spoken language of the elite

  • Nastaliq-written language (Perso-Arabic script)

• Various other languages spoken among Hindu population

Standardized Currency

• Rupee (silver)

• Dam (copper)

transportation and communications networks

• The empire had an extensive road network, which was vital to the economic infrastructure,built by a public works department set up by the Mughals which designed, constructed and maintained roads linking towns and cities across the empire, making trade easier to conduct.

• Trading Posts

  • Portuguese

  • English

  • Dutch

• Alcohol - Mughal courts desire for wine and alcohol opened the doors for European trade relationships.

  • Key to negotiations for Europeans

military to protect trade

• Mansabdari system used for military organization

• Technology:

  • firearm-equipped infantry and field artillery

  • bans- metal cylinder rockets

  • Grenades

  • Rapid firing multi-barrel guns

Professional bureaucracy to govern over diverse people within a single region

• Before Akbar, Mughal power had not been consolidated. Babur (founder of Mughal ruled from Kabul, 1526-1530) Humayun (r. 1530-1556) were preoccupied with war and military campaigns

• Mansabdari system-administrative system introduced by Akbar

  • “Mansab” (payment)-was given to civil and military officers

  • 33 categories of the mansabdars. The lowest mansabdar commanded 10 soldiers and the highest 10,000 soldiers. Only the princes of the royal family and most important Rajput rulers were given a mansab of 10,000.

  • The mansabdari system was not hereditary.

  • Varna system prevailed in the mansabdari system.

Religious Toleration

• Akbar (r. 1556-1605) allowed free expression of religion

  • Ibādat Khāna (House of Worship)

  • Attempted to reconcile the differences of all religions.

• Aurangzeb is viewed by many in India today as religiously intolerant because of his persecution of Sikhs in the Punjab, and treatment of Hindu’s and their temples.

• Millets-existed through much of the Mughal period.

  • Protected religious communities

  • Retained their laws, traditions, and language

• Din-i Ilahi (Divine Faith)

  • • a syncretic religion established by Akbar in 1582

    • intended to merge Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, Jainism and Zoroastrianism

    • triggered a strong orthodox reaction by Muslims

Economic Policies

• commercial expansion

  • • encouraged traders, provided protection and security for transactions

    • levied a very low custom duty to stimulate foreign trade

    • rahdars -- bands of highway police enlisted to patrol roads and ensure safety of traders

• Mughal era proportion of Global GDP

  • 1600-22.4% of Global economy (2nd in world only to the Ming)

  • 1700-24.4% of the world’s economy (largest in world)

Use of monumental architecture and art

• Ibadat Khana (House of Worship) in 1575

  • • to gather spiritual leaders of different religious grounds so as to conduct a discussion on the teachings of the respective religious leaders

    • invited scholars belonging to various religion such as Hinduism, Islam , Zoroastrianism , Christianity and even atheists.

• Fort at Agra

• Fatehpur Sikri

• Mughal School of miniature Paintings

  • • originated in the reign of Akbar

    • The origin of Mughal style is was a result of synthesis of indigenous Indian style of painting and the Safavid school of Persian painting. Mughal paintings were a unique blend of Indian, Persian and Islamic styles.

Law Code

• “Grande Ordonnance de Procédure Civile” of 1667 (Code Louis)

  • Comprehensive legal code attempted to regulate civil procedure

  • it prescribed baptismal, marriage, and death records in the state’s registers, not the church’s, and also strictly regulated the right of the Parlements to remonstrate.

• The Code Noir (Black Code): 1685

  • Defined conditions of slavery

  • Forbade the practice of any religion other than Roman Catholic Christianity in colonies

  • Ordered all Jews out of French colonies

• Parlements-French provincial appellate courts. France had 13 parlements

Administrative Districts and method for collecting taxes

• “Over 30 Provinces;” "Departments" divided into Cantons

• Jean-Baptiste Colbert as Controller-General of Finances in 1665

  • Tax farming instituted under Richelieu, but ended under Colbert increasing size of bureaucracy

  • Reorganized taxation-shifts power from regional governors (chosen by king) to Intendants (chosen by Controller-General)

• curtailment of municipal privileges

Official Language

• French among upper class

• Latin within the Roman Catholic Church

• In France at the time of the French Revolution (1789), half the people in France could speak French

Standardized Currency

• French Franc

  • Gold and silver, copper

    • Debasement common

  • Foreign coins also used

transportation and communications networks

• Versailles: Louis XIV understood the importance of the theater of politics and, as a result, sought to build a palace that would be the ultimate stage setting for his political drama

• built roads and canals

military to protect trade

• The state declares a monopoly on violence

  • • Prohibited private armies

• Louis XIV appointed himself to sit atop the military chain of command

• State military:

• 1659: 30,000 troops

• 1666: 97,000 troops

• 1690: 400,000 troops

• 1710: 350,000 troops

Professional bureaucracy to govern over diverse people within a single region

• Royal Council or High Council: 17 ministers were summoned during Louis XIV’s reign (Appointed)

• Colbert was the most important advisor

• Activities: taxation, censorship of books, prisons, military

• Louis XIV also minimised threats to his authority by requiring powerful provincial nobles to attend court at Versailles, where they were they became occupied with mundane activities and intrigues.

• intendants (tax farmers) were forbidden from administering the area from which they hailed

Religious Toleration

• Edict of Fontainebleau (1685)-revoked Edict of Nantes (Edict of Nantes granted Huguenots religious freedom)

  • • Approx. 200,000 Huguenots left France, taking their money, skills, and knowledge.

    • Louis XIV pressured to back off religious persecution because...

• Edict of Versailles (commonly known as the Edict of Tolerance) in 1787: gave non-Catholics (Protestants) in France the right to practice their religion

  • did not proclaim freedom of religion across France

Economic Policies

• strengthened mercantilism

• reduced internal tariffs and increased external tariffs

• established a tariff-free zone within France called “The Five Great Farms”

• established the French East India company (1664)

Use of monumental architecture and art

• Versailles