4.3 State Consolidation and Imperial Expansion

Period 4 – Global Interactions, c. 1450 CE to c. 1750 CE

Empires expanded and conquered peoples around the world, but they often had difficulties incorporating culturally, ethnically, and religiously diverse subjects and administrating widely dispersed territories. Agents of the European powers moved into existing trade networks around the world. In Africa and the greater Indian Ocean, nascent European empires consisted mainly of interconnected trading posts and enclaves. In the Americas, European empires moved more quickly to settlement and territorial control, responding to local demographic and commercial conditions.

Moreover, the creation of European empires in the Americas quickly fostered a new Atlantic exchange network that included the transatlantic slave trade and transpacific exchange network. Around the world, empires and states of varying sizes pursued strategies of centralization, including more efficient taxation systems that placed strains on peasant producers, sometimes prompting local rebellions. Rulers used public displays of art and architecture to legitimize state power. African states shared certain characteristics with larger Eurasian empires. Changes in African and global trading patterns strengthened some West and Central African states, especially on the coast; this led to the rise of new states and contributed to the decline of states on both the coast and in the interior.

Key Concept 4.3.II.A has been clarified to specify Ashanti and Mughal empires.

Illustrative examples, religious ideas:

• European notions of divine right
• Safavid use of Shiism
• Mexica or Aztec practice of human sacrifice
• Songhay promotion of Islam
• Chinese emperors’ public performance of Confucian rituals

Illustrative examples, art and monumental architecture:

• Ottoman miniature painting
• Qing imperial portraits
• Mughal mausolea and mosques, such as the Taj Mahal
• European palaces, such as Versailles

Illustrative examples, differential treatment of ethnic and religious groups:

• Spanish creation of a separate República de Indios
• Spanish and Portuguese creation of new racial classifications in the Americas, including mestizo, mulatto, and creole

Illustrative examples, bureaucratic elites or military professionals:

• Ottoman devshirme
• Chinese examination system
• Salaried samurai

Illustrative examples, competition over trade routes:

• Omani–European rivalry in the Indian Ocean
• Piracy in the Caribbean

Illustrative examples, state rivalries:

• Thirty Years, War
• Ottoman–Safavid conflict

Illustrative examples, local resistance:

• Food riots
• Samurai revolts
• Peasant uprisings