What the exam asks
- Multiple Choice (Section I, Part A): Expect primary sources—such as royal decrees, diplomatic letters (like those of Queen Ana Nzinga), or colonial military reports—asking you to explain the cause of a revolt or compare it to state-building processes in Unit 3.
- Short Answer (Section I, Part B): You may be asked to identify a specific group that resisted state expansion and explain how their resistance affected imperial governance.
- DBQ and LEQ (Section II): This topic frequently serves as crucial evidence or a counter-argument (one route toward the complexity point) in prompts about empire-building, coercive labor systems, or political centralization between c. 1450 and c. 1750.
Core ideas
1. Internal challenges to state centralization
As rulers consolidated power through heavy taxation, bureaucratic control, and religious uniformity, diverse social and political groups within empires fought back to protect their autonomy.
- The Fronde in France (1648–1653): French nobles and parlements (law courts) rebelled against royal centralization and rising taxes imposed by Cardinal Mazarin during the minority of King Louis XIV. Effect: The revolt failed, convincing Louis XIV to strip the nobility of political power and centralize absolutist rule at Versailles.
- Cossack Revolts in Russia (17th–18th centuries): Fiercely independent steppe warriors and runaway serfs rebelled against Tsarist expansion, taxation, and the tightening of serfdom (such as Stenka Razin’s rebellion in 1670–1671 and the Bulavin Rebellion in 1707–1708). Effect: The Russian state crushed the uprisings, tightened control over the frontier, and gave nobles even greater power over Russian serfs.
- Maratha Conflict with the Mughals (1650s–1707): Hindu Maratha warriors, initially led by Shivaji, resisted the expansion and religious policies (such as the reimposition of the jizya tax) of the Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. Effect: Prolonged guerrilla warfare drained the Mughal treasury, effectively ending Mughal dominance in central India and establishing the Hindu Maratha Empire.
2. Indigenous resistance to colonial expansion
External expansion by European maritime empires provoked armed and diplomatic resistance from indigenous states and societies.
- Ana Nzinga’s Resistance (1620s–1660s): As ruler of Ndongo and Matamba (modern-day Angola), Queen Nzinga fought Portuguese encroachment and slave raids. She allied temporarily with the Dutch, offered sanctuary to runaway enslaved persons in fortified camps (kilombos), and converted to Christianity to gain diplomatic leverage, successfully preserving Matamba’s independence during her lifetime.
- Pueblo Revolt (1680): Indigenous Pueblo and Apache peoples in New Mexico, led by Popé, rose up against Spanish forced labor (encomienda), tribute, and aggressive Catholic missionary efforts. They killed 400 Spaniards and drove the colonizers out for 12 years. When Spain reconquered the area in 1692, it reduced forced labor and tolerated more indigenous religious practices.
- Metacom’s War / King Philip’s War (1675–1678): The Wampanoag chief Metacom (called King Philip by the English) united indigenous groups in New England to stop English settler encroachment. Although the indigenous coalition destroyed a dozen English towns, English colonists and their indigenous allies defeated them, largely ending major indigenous military resistance in southern New England.