Unit 3: Land-Based Empires (1450-1750)

Unit 3 compares the large land-based empires of 1450-1750: the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal 'gunpowder empires', the Ming and Qing dynasties in China, and the expanding Russian Empire. Focus on how they expanded (gunpowder weapons and cannons), how they administered diverse populations (bureaucracies, tax farming, military elites like the Janissaries, tribute systems), and how rulers legitimized power through religion, monumental architecture, and art. Know the religious conflicts of the era, including the Sunni-Shi'a split between Ottomans and Safavids and the Protestant Reformation in Europe, as well as syncretic movements like Sikhism.