6/6 AP World History LEQ Essay: Ottoman and Mughal rule

The Prompt

The Essay

Throughout 1450-1750, empires and states expanded, especially formally-nomadic, Turkic empires based on the religion of Islam. These empires and states conquered vast lands, taking advantage of the weakening of Mongol Successor states (like the Ilkhanate) from the fractured empire and consolidating power based on military power and the utilization of religious innovations, such as tolerance or enforcement to foster internal stability and security. This was especially demonstrated through two of the major Gunpowder Empires, the Ottoman Empire and the Mughal Empire, who facilitated empire expansion through the use of military power and technological changes, and administrative methods to centralize power and to legitimize rule. While methods of administrative centralization such as the enforcement of financial systems sometimes backfired in centralization, gunpowder empires like the Mughal Empire and the Ottoman Empire used military power and administrative centralization to a great extent to consolidate their rule and legitimize power through the use of military innovations like gunpowder to expand their empires and the use of centralized tax systems to maintain their states. Gunpowder empires like the Mughal and the Ottoman Empire used powerful military power such as technology like gunpowder to expand the span of their empires. This was demonstrated through the initial conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman Empire used special cannons designed by a Hungarian individual to blast down the walls that had protected the declining Byzantine empire, eventually getting to Constantinople and conquering the city (under Mehmed II), naming it Istanbul. The Ottoman Empire also challenged the Balkans with its reach, showing its significant presence in Christian regions of Europe facilitated through the mastery of gunpowder technology. This showed the consolidation of power and rule through the showing that gunpowder technology allowed for Gunpowder Empires like the Ottoman Empire to significantly and rapidly expand, challenging defensive technology like walls and conquering territories, placing them under the control of the sultan. In addition, as the Ottoman Empire posed a legitimate threat to Christian regions of Europe, this demonstrated the power of the Ottoman Empire as it showcased an Islamic presence in Europe far since Al-Andalus, enabled through gunpowder weapons and Ottoman utilization of such weapons to expand. The use of gunpowder was also shown under the Mughal Empire’s consolidation of rule. The Mughal Empire expanded further into South Asia, especially in India, conquering some of the Rajput Kingdoms. This demonstrated the consolidation of rule under military technology because the Mughal Empire took advantage of gunpowder technologies as an example of military technology. With the placement of significant Hindu kingdoms (like the Rajput Kingdoms) and regions under the administration of an Islamic-based empire, this displayed the consolidation of rule and power with the expansion of its empire enabled through gunpowder despite later policies of religious tolerance unlike the strict enforcement of religion in other empires. Therefore, both gunpowder empires utilized military power like gunpowder as a technological innovation to expand their empires, consolidating rule through increasing the span of territory placed under their imperial command. Gunpowder Empires like the Ottoman and Mughal Empire along with powerful military technology, utilized powerful administrative structures through tax systems in order to consolidate rule under their empires. The Ottoman Empire used centralized administrative structures through the tax-farming system. Through allowing for individuals to bid on the ability to collect taxes, sending some of the taxes to the empire, this allowed for the establishment of an administrative structure to collect funding and revenue for state interests, such as the use of a state-sponsored military system like the Devirshime system. Tax money from the tax-farming centralized administrative structure was used to fund the Janissaries that came from the Devirshime system, which gave the Ottoman rulers a meritocratic standing military force based on loyalty to the ruler, allowing for the use of this military force to bypass the decentralizing power of hereditary elites and allowing for the consolidation of power and rule. Economic methods of centralized administration were also shown under the Mughal Empire, such as through the Zamindar system. Through allowing for local elites to continue to maintain some of their power as long as they collected taxes from their people, sent to the Mughal Empire, this still maintained a degree of centralization through the ability to efficiently collect state revenue from the civilians of the state in areas in South Asia, showing the consolidation of rule through this centralized administration. These taxes were utilized in the funding to construct the Taj Mahal for a ruler’s favorite wife, as an example of monumental architecture, which allowed for the consolidation of rule through showing the legitimacy of a minority Muslim ruler over a Hindu majority, demonstrating the ability for the ruler to collect taxes and revenue to allocate for the construction of monumental architecture that inspired awe in civilians. Therefore, the Zamindar centralized administrative system of taxation ensured the funding for the state project of the construction of the Taj Mahal, allowing for the consolidation of rule through legitimizing Muslim presence in South Asia and showcasing the ability for rulers to operate centralized financial structures, leading to the consolidation of power and rule in the Mughal Empire. Therefore, both gunpowder empires utilized forms of taxation to consolidate rule through the maintaining of their presence and power allowing for centralization. Although centralized administrative structures like economic systems and military power through gunpowder technology all allowed for the maintenance and continued expansion of empires to a large degree, structures of collecting financial revenue sometimes backfired on the ability for empires to maintain centralized administrative power, leading to corruption. This was shown through both the Mughal and the Ottoman Empires through the tax-farming and Zamindar systems. Tax-farming eventually led to tax farmers collecting more taxes from civilians, allowing for tax-farmers to keep more amounts of money to themselves once they turned in the required amount to the state. These amounts of money were utilized to build their own standing armies and for them to consolidate power, leading to the challenging of the sultan’s administration and centralized power, showing that although the tax-farming administrative method was utilized to centralize power through establishing stable revenue to use to fund a standing military force for the sultan, this system later led to corruption with tax-farmers extracting more revenue in order to keep their own funding to build up their own standing forces, challenging and destabilizing the Ottoman ruler. Similar effects were also observed with the Mughal Zamindar system, with the local elites extracting more revenue from their people in order to build up their own standing forces which challenged the power of the Mughal ruler. However, administrative centralization was also challenged through the continued expansion of the Mughal Empire south into India. This expansion drained the treasury of the Mughal Empire, and this, coupled with succession crises, showed the limitations to administrative centralization due to domestic/internal instability, eventually leading to the decline of the Mughal Empire. Therefore, economic systems attempted under centralized administrative structures sometimes led to corruption for the Gunpowder Empires, leading to corruption and eventual decline despite initial centralization of power, consolidation of rule, and expansion of empires.

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