Chapter 14 Part 2

This half of chapter 14 talks about a lot of conquering and domination. The Russians were mentioned for a significant part of this chapter. The Russian Empire what particularly different than the British, Spanish, and Portuguese empires. The British, Spanish, and Portuguese had their colonies in America become independent for a long time, but the Russian Empire did not fall until the Soviet Union itself fell. What played a large part in the transformation of the Russian Empire was that of the influx of Russian settlers. The settlers weakened a lot of the long-standing economies. Also, the nomads were highly recommended to abandon their usual ways but that required paying fees and getting permission to get across the agricultural lands. The Qing Dynasty also had a lot to do in this chapter because they conquered a lot of land as well, like central Eurasia for example. Although the Qing dynasty were not dictating the lives of the people that lived in the land they conquered. They did not force people to convert religions and respected the beliefs of other cultures like Mongolian, Tibetan, and Muslim peoples. The conquests of both China and Russia completely changed central Asia. Another empire that was mentioned was India's Mughal Empire. They hosted interaction of Muslims and Hindus in South Asia. Mughal's emperor Akbar tried to make everything as comfortable as it could be for Hindus, as they were the majority of the people that he ruled. A lot of things that he imposed were restraining Islamic ulama, and removing taxes that non-Muslims had to pay. Akbar made a lot of changes to accomodate everyone that he ruled but there were people that had different opinions. Aurangzeb changed Akbar's original policy completely and enforced Islamic supremacy above all others. The last empire is the Ottoman Empire which went from a small empire to one of the most powerful empires in history. The Ottoman Empire showed everyone the power of the Turks that was growing larger and larger everyday. They even conquered Byzantium when Constantinople fell and they became very famous for it. I find it interesting that all these empires rose and fell in different ways and were located in different parts of the same continent. It seems that a lot of the most powerful empires were created and destroyed in Asia. I find that these empires stand as a sign to everyone that empires never survive forever. As strong and successful and powerful they may be, empires always end up falling.