Gunpowder Empires PERSIAN Chart Key

ERA: 1450 – 1750 / Ottoman Empire / Safavid Empire / Mughal Empire
POLITICAL
  • Leaders/groups
  • Forms of government
  • Empires
  • State building/expansion
  • Political structures
  • Courts/laws
  • Nationalism/nations
  • Revolts/revolutions
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  • Turkic group called the Ottomans dominated other nomadic groups
  • Led by Osman
  • Built empire throughAsia Minor and parts of Europe
  • Mehmed II conquered the Byzantine Empire
  • Extended the empire into Syria, Egypt, and North Africa (Arabs)
  • Janissaries helped choose sultansusing military and political power.
  • Extensive bureaucracy
  • Grand vizier
  • Problems with corruption & bribery in decline
  • Monarchs not as prepared
  • Called “sick man of Europe” but lasted for 600 years
  • Force in European politics until the late 1800s
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  • Challenged the Ottomans for leadership of the Islamic world
  • Sail al-Din began a militant campaign to purify and reform Islam and spread Muslim teachings among the Turkic tribes and the region.
  • Isma’il led Turkic followers to victory; proclaimed shah
  • Later shahs fought to bring Turkic chiefs under their control; became warrior nobility
  • Abbas the Great – made use of the youths who were captured in Russia (educated and converted them to Islam); became backbone of military forces
  • Extensive bureaucracy
  • padishah
  • Fear of succession of rulers led to violence oppression
  • Confinement of rulers led to unprepared princes
  • Isfahan fell to the Afghanis; bloody struggle for power ensued; battle-ground for neighbors and nomadic raiders
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  • Founders were displaced princes in search of a new kingdom
  • Babur struggled for control (he lost his original kingdom)
  • Akbar – one of the greatest leaders of all of history – had a vision of empire and mission to unite India under his rule.
  • Built a military and administrative system
  • Problems with corruption & ineffectiveness in the bureaucracy and military (and lack of funding for both) factored into the decline
  • Reversal of Akbar’s policies towards Hindus led to conflicts between Muslims and Hindus.
  • Civil conflict and internal dissent = factor of decline
  • Centralized political power broke down; left openings in many parts of India for foreign intervention

ECONOMIC
  • Agricultural, pastoral
  • Economic systems
  • Labor systems/ organizations
  • Industrialization
  • Technology/industry
  • Capital/money
  • Business organizations
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  • Economy geared for warfare and expansion
  • Peasants - food source for empire
  • European spice trade cut into Ottoman profits.
  • Merchants and tax collectors lost critical profits.
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  • Network of roads and guarantees of safety for foreign merchants and travelers
  • Encouraged trade with India, China, and Portuguese (later Dutch & English)
  • Encouraged the growth of handicraft production and trade
  • Economy – constricted (less market oriented and more backward even to the Ottomans)
  • Did not keep up with European technology (trade & crafts)
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  • Cotton textiles = great demand by Europeans (started by the British)
  • Major overseas destination for Asian products in return for Indian cotton textiles
  • Head taxes on non-believers fell on poor Hindus, who could not afford them &caused resistance.
  • Breakdown of the central government led to economic exploitation of Indian artisans and peasants by local lords and foreign and local merchants (namely the British)

RELIGIOUS
  • Belief systems/ teachings
  • Philosophy
  • Holy books
  • Conversion
  • Key figures
  • Deities
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  • Protectors of the Islamic heartland; scourge of Christian Europe
  • Subjects largely Christian initially, then became a minority later
  • Empire founded and extended to spread Islam through jihads
  • Religious leaders and legal scholars part of bureaucracy
  • Had to deal with the Sunni-Shiite split (Ottomans supported the Sunnis)
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  • One of the most enduring centers of Shiites within the Islamic world
  • Origins with Sufi mystics and religious preachers
  • Highly militant strain of Islam
  • Red Heads
  • Mullahs
  • All religious leaders were required to curse the first three caliphs and mention the Safavid ruler in the Friday sermon.
  • Teaching in the mosque schools – planned & directed by state religious officials
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  • Policy of reconciliation and cooperation with Hindu princes and population pursued by Akbar (policies below)
  • Abolished the jizyab (head tax)
  • Promoted Hindus to the highest ranks of government
  • Ended ban on the building of new Hindu temples
  • Ordered Muslims to respect the cow (viewed as sacred by the Hindus)
  • Attempted to promote his new faith, Din-i-Ilahi, but it ultimately failed.
  • Rise of Sikhism; followers initially tried to bridge gaps between Muslims and Hindus but were persecuted

SOCIAL
  • Family/ kinship
  • Gender roles/relations
  • Social and economic classes
  • Racial/ ethnic factors
  • Entertainment
  • Lifestyles
  • “Haves” & “have nots”
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  • Extensive bureaucracy
  • Religious leaders and legal scholars
  • Janissaries grew in political power, displaced the aristocrats
  • Peasants and laborers used and abused for additional taxes and crops.
  • Merchant and artisan class
  • Ottoman sultans grew distant from needs of subjects as the empire increased in size and wealth.
  • Patriarchal society
  • Restrictive practices for women (seclusion and veiling)
  • Wives of rulers had more power and influence.
  • Ordinary women could trade, lend money, and invoke protections in Islamic law.
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  • Warrior nobles were assigned villages, whose peasants were required tosupply them and their troops with food and labor.
  • Most powerful warrior leaders part of the imperial (empire) administration
  • Army slave boys captured in Russia (similar to the Ottoman janissaries)
  • Elaborate court rituals
  • Etiquette and decorum governed social interactions
  • Civil strife and breakdown of services hurt the peasantry.
  • Artisan or skilled class of workers (engineers, stonemasons, & carpenters)
  • Patriarchal society
  • Restrictive practices for women (seclusion and veiling)
  • Wives of rulers had more power and influence.
  • Ordinary women could trade, lend money, and invoke protections in Islamic law.
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  • Ruled mostly non-Muslim population
  • Muslim and Hindu aristocrats were granted peasant villages for their support in return for cavalry and responding to emperor demands.
  • Local leaders left alone in return for loyalty and taxes
  • Established living quarters for the homeless
  • Tried to regulate he consumption of alcohol
  • Encouraged widows to remarry
  • Ended child marriage
  • Prohibited sati
  • Eased purdah restrictions
  • Wives of rulers had more power and influence.
  • Power of women at court increased; ordinary women decreased.
  • Reversals of Akbar’s policies on women (4 above)
  • Restrictive practices for women (seclusion and veiling)
  • Female babies not wanted (dowry costs)
  • Civil strife and breakdown of services hurt the peasantry.
  • Polo matches
  • Ox and tiger matches
  • Games of pachisi (life-sized boars with palace dancers as chips)

INTERACTIONS
  • War/conflict
  • Diplomacy/treaties
  • Alliances
  • Exchanges between individuals, groups, & empires/nations
  • Trade/commerce
  • Globalization
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  • Defeated the Byzantines and captured Constantinople using gunpowder & siege warfare
  • Naval power grew
  • Golden Horn
  • Coffeehouses
  • Defeated at the Battle of Lepanto, rebuilds fleet quick
  • Blocked Western style ideas and innovations as empire declined
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  • Battle of Chaldiran between Shiite and Sunnis (Ottoman Sunnis won with the use of gunpowder)
  • Used European advisors and weaponry (cannons, training, & muskets)
  • Abbas I established the empire as a major center of international trade; built a network of roads and rest houses; provided safety for merchants & travelers.
  • Encouraged trade with India, China, and Portuguese (later Dutch & English too)
  • Foreign threats from nomadic raiders and Ottoman and Mughal armies led to decline of territory
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  • Babur crushed the last ruler of the Muslim Lodi dynasty of Northern India while severely outnumbered (12,000 to their 100,000).
  • Used gun carts, moveable artillery, and cavalry tactics
  • Babur defeated Hindu warrior-kings at Khanua and eventually large portions of the Indus and Ganges plains.
  • Major overseas destination for Asian products in return for Indian cotton textiles
  • India fell behind the West in the areas of science & inventions.

ARTS
  • Art
  • Music
  • Writing/literature
  • Philosophy
  • Math
  • Science
  • Education
  • Architecture
  • Technology
  • Innovations
  • Transportation
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  • Converted Saint Sophia cathedral into a grand mosque
  • Applied knowledge of Byzantines into architecture
  • Aqueducts
  • Suleymaniye mosquebuilt by Suleyman the Magnificent
  • Minarets
  • Built mansions rest houses, religious schools, hospitals, & gardens
  • Guild standards
  • Persian & Arabic languages, but later Turkish language used
  • Poetry
  • Ceramics
  • Carpets
  • Avoided Western knowledge
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  • Persian language
  • Isfahan (square-like with shops, mosques, government offices, arches, and gardens); styled with vivid ceramic tiles, geometric designs, floral patterns, and versus from the Quran, gardens, and reflecting pools
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  • Babur wrote one of the greatest histories of India, was a fine musician, and designed gardens for his new capital at Delhi.
  • Cotton textiles
  • Expanded painting workshops
  • Taj Mahal
  • Fed Fort at Delhi
  • Mughal architecture – blend of Persian, Hindu, and Islamic traditions (Islamic domes, arches, and minarets and their balance with Hindu love or ornament of white marble, semi-precious stones,and floral and geometric patterns)

ENVIRONMENTAL
  • Location
  • Physical
  • Human/environment
  • Migration/movement
  • Region
  • Demography
  • Neighborhood
  • Urbanization
  • Settlement patterns
  • Disease
  • Cities (2 major ones)
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  • Anatolia (Turkey)
  • Origins with the Turkic nomadic cultures of thecentral Asia steppe
  • Constantinople (Byzantine Empire)
  • Built empire through Asia Minor and parts of Europe
  • Extended the empire into Syria, Egypt, and North Africa (bulk of Arab territory)
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  • Iran & Afghanistan
  • Origins with the Turkic nomadic cultures of the central Asia steppe
  • Tabriz (city captured by Isma’il)
  • Conquered most of Persia
  • Isfahan (capital city)
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  • India
  • Delhi region of the Ganges plains
  • Origins with the Turkic nomadic cultures of the central Asia steppe
  • Expanded into northern and central India
  • Delhi (new capital city for Babur)
  • Delhi, Agra and Lahore (chief Mughal cities)
  • Calicut (city known for cotton)

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