Changes in Social Structures (1450-1750)

Introduction

• Focus on changes in social hierarchies during 1450-1750.
• Emphasis on state responses to ethnic diversity and the rise of new political elites.

Responses to Ethnic Diversity

Treatment of Jews

• Spain and Portugal:
  • Expulsion of Jews after the Reconquista (1492).
  • Fear of Jewish influence on converted Christians.
  • Jews fled to Portugal, eventually expelled due to Spanish alliance.
• Ottoman Empire:
  • Sultan Mehmed II invited expelled Jews.
  • Jews contributed economically and culturally.
  • Relative tolerance but not full equality (required to pay jizya tax, live in designated areas).

Qing Dynasty

• Established by the Manchu people, outsiders to China.
• Maintained sharp divisions between Manchu and Han people.
• Han people barred from high positions, forced to adopt Manchu hairstyles.

Mughal Empire

• Under Akbar the Great, demonstrated profound tolerance.
• Abolished jizya (later reintroduced).
• Funded religious structures for all major faiths.

Rise of New Political Elites

European Maritime Empires

• Expansion and global trade led to new elites.
• Example: Spanish Casta System in the Americas:
  • Hierarchical structure based on race and heredity.
  • Peninsulares (Iberian-born) at the top.
  • Creoles (European descent, New World-born) below.
  • Castas: Mixed ancestries (e.g., Mestizos, Mulattoes).
  • Enslaved Africans and Indigenous people at the bottom.
  • Erased native cultural complexity.

Struggles of Existing Elites

Russian Boyars

• Aristocratic landowners with historical power.
• Peter the Great undermined their power:
  • Abolished the rank of boyar.
  • Required state service for employment.

Ottoman Timars

• Land grants to aristocrats for government service.
• Timars brought wealth and power through taxation.
• 16th-century Sultan policies converted timars to tax farms, reducing aristocratic power.

Conclusion

• Social hierarchies and state responses to diversity shaped by political, economic, and cultural factors.
• Importance of recognizing shifts in power dynamics and the entrenchment of new social systems.

Additional Resources

• AP World History review guides for further study.
• Click to explore more topics within Unit 4 of the curriculum.