What the exam asks
- Multiple Choice (Section I, Part A): Stimulus sets often feature court chronicles, outsider travel accounts (like European ambassadors in Constantinople or Isfahan), or imperial art. Questions regularly test whether you can identify a source’s point of view (POV), purpose, historical situation, or audience, or explain how those factors limit a source’s reliability.
- Short Answer (Section I, Part B): Question 2 (primary text) or Question 3 (visual source, such as monumental architecture or ruler portraits) frequently asks you to explain how a specific feature of the source reflects an empire’s method of legitimation or administration.
- Document-Based Question (Section II, Question 1): To earn the Sourcing point (1 point), pick at least two documents and explain how or why each one’s POV, purpose, historical situation, or audience matters to your argument; naming it is not enough.
- Long Essay Question (Section II, Question 2): Broad comparative prompts ask you to evaluate how different empires consolidated power, requiring you to support a comparative thesis with specific evidence (e.g., comparing Ottoman devshirme with Manchu bannermen).
Core ideas
Comparing imperial consolidation (c. 1450–c. 1750)
To build a strong comparative argument, group imperial methods into four categories: military expansion, bureaucratic administration, cultural/religious legitimation, and the incorporation of diverse populations.
| Empire | Military Expansion | Administration & Taxation | Legitimation (Art, Religion, Rule) | Incorporating Diverse Populations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ottoman | Gunpowder artillery; elite Janissary infantry corps | Devshirme (recruiting Christian boys into bureaucracy/military); tax farming (iltizam) | Sunni Islam titles (Caliph); Süleymaniye Mosque; miniature paintings | Millet system granted religious communities autonomy in exchange for the jizya tax |
| Safavid | Gunpowder corps (ghulams) created by Shah Abbas I to balance Qizilbash cavalry | Appointed Persian bureaucrats to replace tribal chieftains; state control of silk trade | Mandatory Twelver Shi’ism; monumental architecture of Isfahan | Enforced religious uniformity; persecuted Sunnis, though Armenian Christians managed silk trade |
| Mughal | Gunpowder artillery paired with fast-moving cavalry | Mansabdari system (ranked military-civilian officials paid via zamindar tax collectors) | Taj Mahal; Akbar’s syncretic Din-i Ilahi; miniature paintings | Under Akbar, abolished jizya and married Rajput princesses; Aurangzeb reimposed jizya |
| Qing (Manchu) | Eight Banners military-social organization; gunpowder weapons | Retained Ming civil service exam and dyarchy (paired Manchu and Han officials) | Mandate of Heaven; Kangxi’s imperial portraits surrounded by Confucian texts | Required Han men to wear the Manchu queue hairstyle; forbade intermarriage |
| Russian | Gunpowder infantry (Streltsy, later Westernized army); Cossack frontier expansion | Table of Ranks under Peter the Great (merit over boyar birth); heavy taxation of serfs | Divine right linked to the Russian Orthodox Church; Winter Palace in St. Petersburg | Absorbed Siberian Indigenous peoples via the yasak (fur tribute) system |