The Rise and Decline of Land Empires Galleons and Caravans Giorgio Riello Wednesday 7 January 2015
Empires and Connectedness Empires might appear to work against connectedness. Yet, empires can also be seen as a force of connection: - by pulling together people belonging to different ethnic, and cultural communities - by imposing administrative systems in the form of laws, levies, taxes, etc. - By expanding and sometimes culturally integrating peoples into empires. - Empires are global as they have universal ambitions.
Empires and their Uniqueness Empires are often seen as ‘large islands’, each of them characterized by a unique history. - Can we talk instead of a common history of early modern empires? - Can we talk about a ‘theory of empire’, a general framework that explain empire as a general category?
https://www.cmich.edu/colleges/cst/MGA/Pages/World-GeoHistoGram.aspx
Empires: A Working Definition ‘The nation-state proclaims the commonality of its people – even if the reality is more complicated – while the empire-state declares the non-equivalence of multiple populations… The concept of empire presumes that different people within the polity will be governed differently’ Cooper and Burbank, Empires, p. 8.
Categories of Empire - ‘Gunpowder empires’ is used to describe the Islamic Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal empires - ‘Tributary empires’ extract resources from the people they conquer. - ‘Nomadic’ vs ‘agrarian’ empires, the latter having an economy based on agriculture, the former on forms of nomadic pastoralism.
Categories of Empire The ‘mirror-empires’ model. “those societies inhabiting the warmer, more densely populated and productive hinterlands of Eurasia regularly sought to recruit and co-opt warriors from the northern forests” Thomas T. Allsen, ‘Pre-modern Empires’, in Jerry H. Bentley, ed., The Oxford Handbook of World History (Oxford: OUP, 2011), p. 1 (online)
2. Early Modern Land Empires Mongol Empire Tumurid dunasty Yuan and Ming China The Ottomans Safavid Persia Mughal India The Russian Empire The Habsburgs and the Holy Roman Empire
Elegant Gathering in the Apricot Garden, Ming dynasty, ca. 1437.
Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman Empire Ottoman miniature painting Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman Empire Ottoman miniature painting. Topkapı Sarayı Müzesi, Istanbul
Portrait of Babur (1483-1530) Portrait of Akbar (r. 1556-1605)
Portrait of the Emperor Charles V, by Titian, 1533 Portrait of the Emperor Charles V, by Titian, 1533. Museo del Prado, Madrid.
Administration The Mughals allocated areas (jagirs) to mansabdars, agents of the ruler in charge of collecting land revenue due to the state. The Ottomans used instead the timar system, distributing land to the cavalry soldiers. The Ming Empire succeeded in creating an effective structure of Government through a system of mandarins and local administrators.
Janissary in a European Costume book, 16th century Ottoman Janissaries and the defending Knights of St. John, Siege of Rhodes, 1522
Universal Empires ‘‘Empires have no neighbours which they recognize as equals, that is, as possessing equal rights” Herfried Münkler, Empires: The Logic of World Domination from Ancient Rome to the United States, p. 5.
Suleyman the Magnificent
Shah Abbas of Persia
The Sheikh Lotf Allah Mosque in Isfahan, Iran; constructed during the reign of Shah Abbas I (1587-1629).
Shah Jahan r. 1628-58
Shah Jahan seated on Peacock Throne. Tempera painting Shah Jahan seated on Peacock Throne. Tempera painting. India, Mughal period, c. 1605-58.
Empires and Connections Trade and Commerce Foreign relations
Jahangir's Dream (c. 1620) by Abul Hassan showing Abbas I (left) and Jahangir ( right)
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The Rise and Decline of Land Empires Galleons and Caravans Giorgio Riello Wednesday 7 January 2015