Heimler's History - Unit 4: Establishment and Growth of Sea-Based Empires (1450-1750)

Main Theme

• Focus on the growth of sea-based empires from 1450 to 1750.
• Impact on social hierarchies and the conflicts arising within them.

Social Hierarchies Defined

• Hierarchical ranking based on wealth or status.
• Changes in social structures due to the expansion of empires.

Ottoman Empire

• Structure: Primarily a warrior aristocracy.
  • Competition with the ulamah (Islamic scholars) for power.
  • Janissaries (elite soldiers) sought power; sometimes staged coups.
  • Weak sultans led to power shifts.
  • Viziers gained power, akin to the storyline in Aladdin.
• Women and Minorities:
  • Jews expelled from Spain in 1492 found refuge in the Ottoman Empire but paid the jizya tax and lived in specific areas.
  • Women had indirect power; Sultan's wives and concubines could influence power through harem politics.

Qing Dynasty

• Establishment: Founded by Manchu people in 1644.
• Retained Chinese institutions like civil service exams to legitimize rule.
• Han Chinese majority faced cultural suppression (e.g., mandated Manchurian hairstyles).
• Resistance led to brutal massacres of Han Chinese.

Europe

• Social Hierarchy: Royalty at top, followed by landed aristocracy (nobility).
• Rise of absolutism led to conflicts between royalty and nobility.
  • Louis XIV in France centralized power by weakening nobility.
• Russia:
  • Hierarchical structure: Tsar, then boyars (nobility), merchants, and peasants.
  • Peasants fell into serfdom due to poverty and debt.
  • Conflict: Boyars vs. Tsar Ivan IV, resulting in relocation and land confiscation.

Americas

• Casta System: Hierarchy based on ancestry and race.
  • Structure:
    • Peninsulares: Born on Iberian Peninsula.
    • Criollos: Europeans born in Americas.
    • Castas: Mixed ancestry, further divided:
      • Mestizos: European and indigenous.
      • Mulattos: European and African.
      • Zambos: Indigenous and African.
    • Indigenous and African people at the bottom.
  • Similar to Hindu caste system but allowed for upward mobility through marriage, though rare.

Conclusion

• Topics covered in the lecture are part of Unit 4, topic 7 of AP World History.
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