4.5 - Heimler | Coconote

Hey there and welcome back to Heimler's History. If you've been following along at home, we've been in Unit 4 of AP World History. And the main theme of this unit is the establishment and the growth of sea-based empires from 1450 to 1750. Now as these empires were established, you didn't think it was going to have no effect on social hierarchies, did you? I really feel like the answer is no. That's correct me from that side of the screen. One of the major effects of the expansion of sea-based empires throughout the world was the changing of social hierarchies. If you have no idea what that means, then stick around. I'mma splain it up real nice for you with some gravy on the side. Let's get to it. Okay, social hierarchies. What does that mean? It just means that in a given society, people are ranked higher or lower depending on their wealth or their status. So what I'd like to do in this video is to visit several places throughout the world in 1450 to 1750 and do two things. First, we're going to look at how their social hierarchies are structured. And second, we're going to look at the kind of conflicts that occurred within those social hierarchies. And when it comes to social hierarchies, we're not only going to talk about the sea-based empires, we're also going to talk about the big land-based empires in this period as well. So let's begin with our friends in the Ottoman Empire. Their social structure was built around a warrior aristocracy. And these folks began competing for power with the ulamah, who were the Islamic scholars who held the power. Also, if you'll recall from Unit 3, there was an elite squad of soldiers in the military called the janissaries, and they began to yearn for power. too like a bunch of thirsty zebras, and in some cases they staged coups to overthrow the sultan. And one of the reasons there was so much unrest during this period with the Ottomans is because they suffered from a string of very incapable sultans. And that reality gave rise to a power shift in the sultanate. It was during this time that viziers, who were advisors to the sultans, began to consolidate power for themselves. And if that sounds familiar, it's basically the subplot to Aladdin. The sultan is a man-child who plays with toys instead of wisely administering his kingdom, and Jafar is the shrewd and cunning vizier who does all the real decisions. Now as far as I know, Aladdin isn't a true story, so please don't use Jafar as an illustrative example in one of your essays. Okay now let's talk about the place that women and minorities held in the Ottoman social structure. And in terms of minorities, let's talk about the Jews. And in case you didn't know, the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492. But isn't there a children's rhyme about that? In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue and the Jews were expelled from Hispania too. Anyway, this population of homeless Jews found sanctuary in the Ottoman Empire, especially in Istanbul. Even so, they were still made to pay the jizya, which is the tax that people who were not Muslim had to pay, and they were confined to certain parts of the city. Now as far as women in the Ottoman Empire, they did not have much direct power. But many of the Sultan's wives and concubines vied to promote their sons into positions of power. This was known as harem . not politics. So in this way, a particular group of women in the Ottoman Empire could wield extraordinary power. Because as we learned in my big fat Greek wedding, the man may be the head, but the woman is the neck, and the woman can turn the head whichever way she wants. Alright, that's enough about the social condition of the Ottomans. Let's go over to the Qing Dynasty and check in with them. As I've mentioned before, the Qing Dynasty was established in 1644 by the Mantu people from Manchuria. And as is probably obvious, they were Manchurian and therefore not Chinese. So... in establishing their empire the Qing did retain a few distinctively Chinese institutions like the civil service examination and the bureaucracy. And partially this was to legitimize their power in the sight of the Chinese population that they ruled over. And as is probably clear by that statement, the majority of China's population was... you know, Chinese. And specifically they were Han Chinese. And the Qing, to put it lightly, weren't that into tolerating Han culture. Now if you didn't work for the government, you could kind of wear anything you wanted. But if you did work for the government, it was a different story altogether. If you worked for the government, men were required to wear their hair in the traditional braided queues of the Manchurians. And if Han men refused to wear their hair in queues, they would get a formal reprimand from the government. And by formal reprimand, I mean they would execute the man. And it's at this point that I thank the good lord that I do not live in the Qing dynasty. dynasty. Just by virtue of being bald, I might be seen as an agitator and killed on the spot. Now you might be wondering what is the big deal about hairstyles? Well their hairstyles was part of their culture and people don't willingly give up their culture to people who rule them. And as a result of this resistance and other kinds like it, the Qing ended up massacring hundreds of thousands of Han Chinese. So there's certainly some social troubles over in China, but let's go see what's happening in Europe. There, the top of the social hierarchy was troubled as well. Up top in Europe was the royalty and then under them was the landed aristocracy, the nobility. rise of absolutist thinking during this time, the nobility and the royalty began to seriously conflict. Do you remember our good buddy Louis XIV, Mr. I am the state? He won that battle in France by draining the power of the nobility and forcing them to relocate to his palace at Versailles so he could keep a close eye on their behavior. Over in Russia, we can also see tensions in the social hierarchy. In Russia, the social hierarchy went like this. The boyars were the folks at the top of the social heap, under the Tsar of course, and they were the landed aristocracy. Under them, you had the merchants, and then bottom of all, you had the peasants. And during this time, much of the peasantry sank into poverty and debt and became serfs. And this meant that they worked the land of the nobles without much hope of ever leaving that land because of their debts. Now one of the main conflicts in Russia was between the boyars and the tsar. The boyars opposed the expansionist policies of Ivan the Great. IV, who summarily entered into armed conflict with these nobles and won. As a result of this victory, Ivan confiscated their land and forced them to relocate to Moscow, where they lived under Ivan's great lidless eyes. And finally, we need to visit the Americans. Over here was a... completely new social hierarchy occasioned by the introduction of Europeans to the West. In the Americas it was a social hierarchy based on ancestry and race, and if you want a name for it, it was called the Casta System. And the Casta System was organized thusly. On top were the Peninsulares. which is to say those who were born on the Iberian Peninsula, which is to say Europe. Next down were the Criollos, which were Europeans born in the Americas. Next down were the Castas, who were those of mixed ancestry, and the Castas made up a further hierarchy within themselves. First was the Mestizos, who were mixed European and indigenous ancestry. Second were the Mulattos, who were of mixed European and African ancestry. Third were the Zambos, which were of mixed indigenous and African ancestry. And at the bottom of all were the indigenous people and the Iberians. the African people themselves. And the caste system probably sounds a little familiar. It was a lot like the Hindu caste system in that whatever caste you were born into, that was your caste for life. And this was true for the caste system because your ancestry was determined by your birth. However, one major difference between the two systems is that in the caste system you could marry up into different levels. But that didn't happen very often. Alright, that's Unit 4, topic 7 of AP World History. I'm here doing my best to help you get an A in your class and a 5 on your exam in May. So if you're looking for that kind of help, then subscribe and come along. There's a lot more to Unit 4 than just this video so if you need to catch up then click on this link right here and you can see the whole playlist. If you want to join the community of extraordinarily generous people who keep this channel running by their monthly contributions then you can support me here on Patreon. Heimler out.

I really feel like the answer is no. That's correct me from that side of the screen. One of the major effects of the expansion of sea-based empires throughout the world was the changing of social hierarchies.

If you have no idea what that means, then stick around. I'mma splain it up real nice for you with some gravy on the side. Let's get to it. Okay, social hierarchies.

What does that mean? It just means that in a given society, people are ranked higher or lower depending on their wealth or their status. So what I'd like to do in this video is to visit several places throughout the world in 1450 to 1750 and do two things. First, we're going to look at how their social hierarchies are structured. And second, we're going to look at the kind of conflicts that occurred within those social hierarchies.

And when it comes to social hierarchies, we're not only going to talk about the sea-based empires, we're also going to talk about the big land-based empires in this period as well. So let's begin with our friends in the Ottoman Empire. Their social structure was built around a warrior aristocracy.

And these folks began competing for power with the ulamah, who were the Islamic scholars who held the power. Also, if you'll recall from Unit 3, there was an elite squad of soldiers in the military called the janissaries, and they began to yearn for power. too like a bunch of thirsty zebras, and in some cases they staged coups to overthrow the sultan. And one of the reasons there was so much unrest during this period with the Ottomans is because they suffered from a string of very incapable sultans.

And that reality gave rise to a power shift in the sultanate. It was during this time that viziers, who were advisors to the sultans, began to consolidate power for themselves. And if that sounds familiar, it's basically the subplot to Aladdin.

The sultan is a man-child who plays with toys instead of wisely administering his kingdom, and Jafar is the shrewd and cunning vizier who does all the real decisions. Now as far as I know, Aladdin isn't a true story, so please don't use Jafar as an illustrative example in one of your essays. Okay now let's talk about the place that women and minorities held in the Ottoman social structure. And in terms of minorities, let's talk about the Jews.

And in case you didn't know, the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492. But isn't there a children's rhyme about that? In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue and the Jews were expelled from Hispania too. Anyway, this population of homeless Jews found sanctuary in the Ottoman Empire, especially in Istanbul.

Even so, they were still made to pay the jizya, which is the tax that people who were not Muslim had to pay, and they were confined to certain parts of the city. Now as far as women in the Ottoman Empire, they did not have much direct power. But many of the Sultan's wives and concubines vied to promote their sons into positions of power. This was known as harem .

not politics. So in this way, a particular group of women in the Ottoman Empire could wield extraordinary power. Because as we learned in my big fat Greek wedding, the man may be the head, but the woman is the neck, and the woman can turn the head whichever way she wants.

Alright, that's enough about the social condition of the Ottomans. Let's go over to the Qing Dynasty and check in with them. As I've mentioned before, the Qing Dynasty was established in 1644 by the Mantu people from Manchuria.

And as is probably obvious, they were Manchurian and therefore not Chinese. So... in establishing their empire the Qing did retain a few distinctively Chinese institutions like the civil service examination and the bureaucracy. And partially this was to legitimize their power in the sight of the Chinese population that they ruled over.

And as is probably clear by that statement, the majority of China's population was... you know, Chinese. And specifically they were Han Chinese.

And the Qing, to put it lightly, weren't that into tolerating Han culture. Now if you didn't work for the government, you could kind of wear anything you wanted. But if you did work for the government, it was a different story altogether. If you worked for the government, men were required to wear their hair in the traditional braided queues of the Manchurians.

And if Han men refused to wear their hair in queues, they would get a formal reprimand from the government. And by formal reprimand, I mean they would execute the man. And it's at this point that I thank the good lord that I do not live in the Qing dynasty.

dynasty. Just by virtue of being bald, I might be seen as an agitator and killed on the spot. Now you might be wondering what is the big deal about hairstyles?

Well their hairstyles was part of their culture and people don't willingly give up their culture to people who rule them. And as a result of this resistance and other kinds like it, the Qing ended up massacring hundreds of thousands of Han Chinese. So there's certainly some social troubles over in China, but let's go see what's happening in Europe. There, the top of the social hierarchy was troubled as well.

Up top in Europe was the royalty and then under them was the landed aristocracy, the nobility. rise of absolutist thinking during this time, the nobility and the royalty began to seriously conflict. Do you remember our good buddy Louis XIV, Mr. I am the state? He won that battle in France by draining the power of the nobility and forcing them to relocate to his palace at Versailles so he could keep a close eye on their behavior. Over in Russia, we can also see tensions in the social hierarchy.

In Russia, the social hierarchy went like this. The boyars were the folks at the top of the social heap, under the Tsar of course, and they were the landed aristocracy. Under them, you had the merchants, and then bottom of all, you had the peasants.

And during this time, much of the peasantry sank into poverty and debt and became serfs. And this meant that they worked the land of the nobles without much hope of ever leaving that land because of their debts. Now one of the main conflicts in Russia was between the boyars and the tsar. The boyars opposed the expansionist policies of Ivan the Great.

IV, who summarily entered into armed conflict with these nobles and won. As a result of this victory, Ivan confiscated their land and forced them to relocate to Moscow, where they lived under Ivan's great lidless eyes. And finally, we need to visit the Americans.

Over here was a... completely new social hierarchy occasioned by the introduction of Europeans to the West. In the Americas it was a social hierarchy based on ancestry and race, and if you want a name for it, it was called the Casta System.

And the Casta System was organized thusly. On top were the Peninsulares. which is to say those who were born on the Iberian Peninsula, which is to say Europe.

Next down were the Criollos, which were Europeans born in the Americas. Next down were the Castas, who were those of mixed ancestry, and the Castas made up a further hierarchy within themselves. First was the Mestizos, who were mixed European and indigenous ancestry. Second were the Mulattos, who were of mixed European and African ancestry.

Third were the Zambos, which were of mixed indigenous and African ancestry. And at the bottom of all were the indigenous people and the Iberians. the African people themselves. And the caste system probably sounds a little familiar. It was a lot like the Hindu caste system in that whatever caste you were born into, that was your caste for life.

And this was true for the caste system because your ancestry was determined by your birth. However, one major difference between the two systems is that in the caste system you could marry up into different levels. But that didn't happen very often.

Alright, that's Unit 4, topic 7 of AP World History. I'm here doing my best to help you get an A in your class and a 5 on your exam in May. So if you're looking for that kind of help, then subscribe and come along.

There's a lot more to Unit 4 than just this video so if you need to catch up then click on this link right here and you can see the whole playlist. If you want to join the community of extraordinarily generous people who keep this channel running by their monthly contributions then you can support me here on Patreon. Heimler out.

Transcript for:4.5 - Heimler

Transcript for:
4.5 - Heimler