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II. Imperial expansion relied on the increased use of gunpowder, cannons, and armed trade to establish large empires in both hemispheres.

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II. Imperial expansion relied on the increased use of gunpowder, cannons, and armed trade to establish large empires in both hemispheres.

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A.  Europeans established new trading-post empires in Africa and Asia, which proved profitable for the rulers and merchants involved in new global trade networks, but these empires also affected the power of the states in interior West and Central Africa.

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Rulers used a variety of methods to legitimize and consolidate their power

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Rulers used a variety of methods to legitimize and consolidate their power

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D. Rulers used tribute collection and tax farming to generate revenue for territorial expansion

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Rulers used a variety of methods to legitimize and consolidate their power

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Rulers used a variety of methods to legitimize and consolidate their power

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C. Recruitment and use of bureaucratic elites, as well as the development of military professionals, (Ottoman devshirme, Chinese examination system, Salaried samarai) became more common among rulers who wanted to maintain centralized control over their populations and resources.

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Rulers used a variety of methods to legitimize and consolidate their power

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Rulers used a variety of methods to legitimize and consolidate their power

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B. Many states adopted practices to accommodate the different ethnic and religious diversity of their subjects or to utilize the economic, political and military contributions of different ethnic or religious groups.

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Rulers used a variety of methods to legitimize and consolidate their power

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Rulers used a variety of methods to legitimize and consolidate their power

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A.Rules continued to use religious ideas, art, and monumental architecture to legitimize their rule:

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Key Concept 4.3.II.A has been clarified to specify Ashanti and Mughal empires.

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A state has political legitimacy when subjects choose to recognize its authority because it has some intrinsic validating quality. Notions used by states to legitimize their rule in this period (1450-1750) are examples of important continuities of state-building we have seen since the River Valley Civilizations in Period I. Religion and art continued to be closely connected with the political power of states.

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Empires expanded and conquered new peoples around the world, but they often had difficulties incorporating culturally, ethnically, and religiously diverse subjects, and administrating widely dispersed territories. Agents of the European powers moved into existing trade networks around the world. In Africa and the greater Indian Ocean, nascent European empires consisted mainly of interconnected trading posts and enclaves. In the Americas, European empires moved more quickly to settlement and territorial control, responding to local demographic and commercial conditions.

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Moreover, the creation of European empires in the Americas quickly fostered a new Atlantic trade system that included the trans-Atlantic slave trade. Around the world, empires and states of varying sizes pursued strategies of centralization, including more efficient taxation systems that placed strains on peasant producers, sometimes prompting local rebellions. Rulers used public displays of art and architecture to legitimize state power. African states shared certain characteristics with larger Eurasian empires. Changes in African and global trading patterns strengthened some West and Central African states — especially on the coast; this led to the rise of new states and contributed to the decline of states on both the coast and in the interior.

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The divine right of kings is an important political ideology in Western Europe. It maintains that the king’s authority comes from God and, as such, the king is accountable only to God for his actions. Thus it supports the idea of absolute monarchy in which the monarch’s power is not checked by any earthly agent.

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An Ottoman miniature painting showing the fall of Limassol Castle on the island of Cypress in 1538.

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An Ottoman miniature painting showing the fall of Limassol Castle on the island of Cypress in 1538.

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The sacrificial system

Obsidian blades used to remove the hearts of victims in Aztec sacrifices.

of the Aztecs was notoriously violent. Many sacrifices were aimed at maintaining the empire’s economic and social stability and the calendar year was full of systematic sacrifices performed by groups of different tradesmen at specified times