Comparing Land-Based Empires

Compare methods, not empires

• Compare the methods by which various empires increased their influence from 1450 to 1750.
• The object of the comparison is methods — so the paragraph is organised by method, and empires appear inside each one.
• Two empires described in turn is the standard way to fail this objective.

Four methods the unit has given you

• Military: gunpowder, cannon, armed trade, and professional forces.
• Administrative: recruited bureaucratic elites who owe the centre their position.
• Ideological: religion, art and monumental architecture. Fiscal: tribute, tax farming, innovative collection.

The same three problems- staff, revenue, legitimacy- solved differently by each empire

Empires shaped and were shaped

• The CED's review sentence: empires achieved increased scope and influence around the world, shaping and being shaped by the diverse populations they incorporated.
• The second half is the one students drop: incorporation changed the empire too.
• Ottoman recruitment from Christian populations and Mughal accommodation of Hindu elites are both cases of being shaped.

Keep the maritime story separate

• The CED also reviews the interconnection of the Eastern and Western Hemispheres made possible by transoceanic voyaging.
• That belongs to unit 4, and mixing it into a land-empire comparison muddles both.
• Land empires expanded overland and taxed populations; maritime empires expanded along coasts and taxed trade.

A methods-comparison routine

• Choose two empires from different regions and two methods from the four.
• Write one paragraph per method, with both empires inside it.
• Close by naming which method mattered more for each, and why the difference existed.

Write from two methods that extended the state

• The Ottomans recruited boys through the devshirme and trained them as officials and soldiers.
• The Mughals used zamindars to collect land revenue.