worldhistory
Russia, Qing China, Central Asia, Mughal India (1450 - 1750)
Russia
Westernizing elites
Russia grew as an Asian power, pressing against China, Persia, India, and the Ottomans
Vast size, a militarized society, and an autocratic monarchy to hold diverse lands together
Built an adjacent land empire, not overseas
expanded while the modern state was forming
Unusually long-lived empire
Siberia & steppe remain integral after 1991
Asian Empires
Regional, not global, reach, unlike Europe
No catastrophic disease collapse among the conquered people
Did not transform imperial homelands
Showed high civilizational energy and created major cross-cultural encounters
Qing
Qing (Manchu) dynasty, 1644 - 1912
non-Han origin, but rulers mastered the Chinese language
Confucian statecraft
Defeat steppe powers
Fear of a new Mongol threat
Long military campaigns
diplomacy with Russia
Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689)
Clear differences from assimilation: respect for Mongol, Tibetan, and Muslim cultures
nobles & monks exempt from common taxes & labor
Tight limits on Han migration into Mongolia to keep it a military recruiting ground
No massive Sinicization
Some officials imitated Chinese ways
The queue hairstyle was imposed and resented
Mughals
Empire from Central Asian Muslim, Turkic elites claiming Chinggis and Timur descent
Rare political unity (1526 - 1707)
Muslim rulers & the majority Hindus
Akbar (1556 - 1605) inclusive rule, Rajput marriage alliances
Hindu elite, support for temples
Support widow remarriage, discourage child marriage, restrict sati
Toleration, restrained ulama, abolished jizya on non-Muslims
House of Worship for interfaith debate, Akbar’s state cult stressed loyalty to the emperor
Blended Indo-Persian-Turkic style
Persian artists welcomed, Ramayana into Persian, Persian classics in Hindi & Sanskrit
Scholar Ahmad Sirhindi opposed syncretism as a “renewal” of authentic Islam