Changing Social Hierarchies 1450-1750 [AP World History] Unit 4 Topic 7

Changing Social Hierarchies 1450-1750 [AP World History] Unit 4 Topic 7

Changing Social Hierarchies 1450-1750 [AP World History] Unit 4 Topic 7

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In this video Heimler explains how social hierarchies were strained and changed in the period 1450-1750. In the Ottoman Empire, viziers gained power because of a string of weak sultans. Also, a group of women, specifically, the sultan’s wives and concubines, gained power through what’s known as harem politics.

In the Qing Dynasty, the Manchu rulers oppressed the Han Chinese. One of the key contentions was the requirement for the Han to wear their hair in Manchurian queues.

In Europe, Russia’s social hierarchy was under strain too. The boyars fought with Ivan the Terrible for power, a fight which Ivan ultimately won. Also in Europe, Louis XIV, under the influence of absolutist thinking, stripped the nobility of their power and kept them under close surveillance in his palace at Versailles.

And in the Americas an altogether new social hierarchy was formed based on ancestry and race. At the top were the peninsula’s, followed by the criollos, followed by the castas. The last of these made up the Casta System which was a hierarchy of the American population who had mixed ancestry.

If you. have any questions, leave them in the comments below and Heimler will answer forthwithly.


Content

0.07 -> Hi and welcome back to Heimler’s History.
1.48 -> If you’ve been following along at home, we’ve been in Unit 4 of AP World History.
4.55 -> And the main theme of this Unit is the establishment and development of sea-based empires throughout
9.37 -> the world.
10.37 -> Now as these empires were established, you didn’t think it would have no effect on
13.54 -> social hierarchies did you?
15.059 -> I feel like the answer is no.
16.35 -> That’s correct, me from that side of the screen.
18.33 -> One of the effects of the expansion of sea-based empires was the changing of social hierarchies
24.01 -> all throughout the world.
25.01 -> And if you have no idea what that even means, then stick around: Ima splain it up real nice
27.1 -> for you with some gravy on the side.
28.939 -> Let’s get to it.
29.939 -> Okay, social hierarchies.
31.169 -> First, what does that mean?
32.169 -> It just means that in a given society, people are ranked one higher or lower than the other
35.86 -> based on things like status or wealth.
36.94 -> So what I’d like to do is visit several places throughout the world during 1450-1750
41.46 -> and do two things: 1.)
43.5 -> look at how their social hierarchies are structured, and 2.)
46.1 -> talk about the conflicts that occurred within them.
51.05 -> So let’s begin with our friends in the Ottoman Empire.
58.269 -> Their social structure was built around a warrior aristocracy.
61.62 -> And these folks began competing for power with the ulama which were the Islamic scholars
65.489 -> who held the power.
66.489 -> Also, if you’ll recall from Unit 3, there was an elite squad of soldiers in the military
70.33 -> called the Janissaries.
71.33 -> They too began to yearn for power like a bunch of thirsty zebras.
75.53 -> And in some cases they staged coups to overthrow the sultan.
78.47 -> The reason there was so much unrest with the Ottomans is because during this time they
81.579 -> suffered from a string of incapable sultans.
84.229 -> Now this reality gave rise to a power shift in the sultanate.
87.99 -> Viziers, who were advisors to the sultan, consolidated much of the power in the empire.
92.18 -> And if that sounds familiar, it’s because that was basically the subplot to Aladdin.
94.92 -> The sultan is a child who plays with toys instead of administering his kingdom, and
99.38 -> Jafar is the shrewd and cunning vizier who does the real decision-making.
102.939 -> Now as far as I know, Aladdin isn’t based on a true story, so please don’t use Jafar
106.68 -> as an illustrative example in your essays.
108.869 -> Okay, let’s talk about the place minorities and women held in the Ottoman social hierarchy.
112.75 -> In terms of minorities, let’s talk about the Jews.
116.16 -> The Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492.
118.82 -> Isn’t there a children’s rhyme about that?
121.38 -> In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue, and the Jew were expelled from Espana too.
127.079 -> Anyway, the homeless Jews found sanctuary in the Ottoman Empire, especially in Istanbul.
132.24 -> Even so, they were made to pay the jizya which is the tax that non-Muslims had to pay, and
137.66 -> they were confined to live only in certain parts of the city.
139.58 -> As far as women in the Ottoman Empire, they didn’t have much direct power, but many
143.91 -> of the sultan’s wives and concubines vied to promote their own sons to positions of
147.8 -> power.
148.8 -> This is what’s known as harem politics.
150.47 -> So in this way, this particular group of women could wield some significant power.
155.58 -> AS we learned in My Big Fat Greek Wedding, “The man in the head, but the woman is the
160.82 -> neck.
161.82 -> And the neck turns the head whichever way it wants.”
164.03 -> Alright, that’s enough about the social condition of the Ottomans, let’s go over
166.73 -> to the Qing Dynasty.
168.62 -> As I’ve mentioned before, the Qing Dynasty was established in 1644 by the Manchu people
173.02 -> from Manchuria.
174.02 -> And as is probably obvious, they were Manchurian and therefore not Chinese.
177.55 -> So in establishing their empire, the Qing did retain a few distinctively Chinese institutions
182.83 -> like the Civil Service Examination and the bureaucracy.
185.98 -> Partially this was to legitimize their power in the sight of the Chinese population they
190.12 -> ruled over.
191.12 -> And as is probably clear by that statement, the majority of China’s population was,
195.06 -> well, Chinese.
196.25 -> And specifically, they were Han Chinese.
198.92 -> And the Qing weren’t really into tolerating Han culture.
202.31 -> If you didn’t work for the government, you could wear traditional Han clothing if you
204.81 -> wanted.
205.81 -> But if you did work for the government men were required to wear their hair in the traditional
211.53 -> braided queues of the Manchurians.
214.2 -> And if Han men refused to wear their hair in queues, they would get a formal reprimand
218.04 -> from the government, and by formal reprimand I mean that they would execute the man.
221.28 -> And it’s at this point I thank the good Lord that I did not live in the Qing Dynasty.
225.41 -> Just by virtue of being bald, I might be seen as an agitator and killed on the spot.
229.25 -> Now you might be wondering what the big deal is about hair styles.
231.89 -> Wel the hair style is a part of a people’s culture, and people don’t willingly give
235.25 -> up their culture to foreign rulers.
237.12 -> And as a result of this reality, the Qing ended up massacring hundreds of thousands
242.19 -> of the Han who resisted their rule.
243.54 -> So, certainly got some social troubles in China.
245.48 -> Let’s go over to Europe.
247.11 -> There, the top of the social hierarchy was troubled as well.
249.62 -> Up top in Europe was the royalty, and under them was the nobility, which is to say the
253.9 -> landed aristocracy.
254.9 -> Now, with the rise of absolutist thinking during this time, they royalty and nobility
258.31 -> began to seriously struggle for power.
259.96 -> Do you remember our good buddy Louis XIV, Mr. “I am the state”?
263.35 -> He won that battle in France by draining the power of the nobility and forcing them to
266.97 -> relocate to his palace at Versailles so he could keep a close eye on their behavior.
271.18 -> In Russia we can also see tensions in the social hierarchy.
273.9 -> Over there, the structure went like this.
276.85 -> Boyars were the folks at the top of the heap (under the tsar, of course), and they were
280.13 -> the landed aristocracy.
281.27 -> Next you had the merchants.
282.43 -> At the bottom of all, you had the peasants, who were, of course, the most numerous.
284.78 -> During this time much of the peasantry sank into poverty and debt and became serfs.
289.42 -> And this meant that they worked the land of the nobles without much hope of ever leaving
292.78 -> that land because of their debts.
294.34 -> Now the main conflict I want to mention was between the boyars and the tsar.
297.67 -> The Boyars opposed the expansionist policies of Ivan the IV, who summarily entered into
301.67 -> armed conflict with these nobles, and won.
304.26 -> As a result of this victory, Ivan confiscated their land and forced them to relocate to
308.17 -> Moscow where they lived under Ivan’s great, lidless eye.
312.29 -> And finally, we need to visit the Americas.
314.33 -> Over here it was a completely new formation of social hierarchy occasioned by the introduction
318.27 -> of Europeans to the West.
320.28 -> Here it was a social hierarchy based on ancestry and race, and if you want a name for it, it
324.58 -> was called the Casta System.
325.85 -> And the Casta System was organized thusly.
328.51 -> On top were the peninsulares, which is to say, those who were born on the Iberian peninsula,
332.75 -> which is to say, Europe.
334.15 -> Next down were the criollos which were Europeans born in the Americas.
337.88 -> Next down were the castas, who were those of mixed ancestry, and the castas made up
342.08 -> a further hierarchy within themselves.
344.44 -> First the was the mestizos who were mixed European and indigenous ancestry.
348.67 -> Second were the mulattoes which were mixed European and African ancestry.
352.76 -> Third were the zambos which were mixed indigenous and African ancestry.
356.49 -> And then at the bottom of all were the indigenous and African people themselves.
360.96 -> And the casta system probably sounds a little familiar.
363.19 -> It was a lot like the Hindu caste system in that you were born into your particular caste
366.88 -> and that was your caste for life.
368.11 -> And this was true for the casta system because it was strictly based on ancestry.
372.49 -> However, one difference between the two is that under the casta system you could marry
376.63 -> into a different section of the hierarchy, but that didn’t happen all too often.
378.8 -> Okay that’s Unit 4 topic 6 of AP World History.
381.49 -> I’m here doing my best to help you get an A in your class and a five on your exam in
385.47 -> May.
386.47 -> So if you’re looking for that kind of help, then subscribe and come along.
387.95 -> There’s a lot more to Unit 4 than this video, so check out the others linked here.
392.44 -> And if you want to support this channel and receive video transcripts and follow-along
398.97 -> notes for these videos, then consider supporting me on Patreon.
402.02 -> Heimler out.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mghQQHJIfO8