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Chapter 4 • Political Transformations, 1450–1750 239

came in 1591, when a Moroccan sultanate, eager to wrest control of the valuable
trans-Saharan trade routes, decisively defeated the forces of Songhay, aided by its posses-
sion of gunpowder weapons, which the Songhay forces lacked. As the Songhay Empire
fragmented into many smaller states, the age of large West African empires was over.

CONCLUSIONS AND REFLECTIONS
Comparing Empires

Finding the Main Point: What were similarities and differences between the
strategies and consequences of imperial expansions between 1450 and 1750?
Comparison is an essential feature of world history. We see more clearly when we
juxtapose related events or processes against one another. The empires of the early
modern era offer many opportunities for this kind of seeing.
At one level, these empires had much in common. Like almost all empires both
earlier and later, they were the product of bloody conquest against substantial resis-
tance. And all of them, with the exception of Songhay, were created and sustained
by gunpowder weapons, which were just beginning to take hold across the world.
No wonder they are sometimes called the “gunpowder empires.”
These conquests caused enormous human suffering everywhere. A Christian
eyewitness to the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople wrote of his beloved city:
“The city deserted, lying lifeless, naked, soundless, without either form or beauty.
O city, head of all cities, center of the four corners of the world, pride of the
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Romans, civilizer of the barbarians. . . . Oh, what a loss!” But while Christian
Europe lamented Ottoman conquests, Christian conquests in the Americas also
caused great suffering, as expressed in this Aztec poem: “We wander here and there
in our desolate poverty. . . . We have seen bloodshed and pain, where once we saw
beauty and valor; we are crushed to the ground; we lie in ruins. There is nothing
but grief and suffering.” 31
Even after initial conquests, all of these empires experienced revolts or rebellions
from their resentful, exploited, or oppressed subjects. Cossacks, fiercely independent
warrior communities in southern Russia and Ukraine known for their horseman-
ship and military prowess, frequently contested the growing power of the Russian
Empire even as they assisted Russian conquests in Siberia. The Mughal Empire was
rocked by the revolt of the Maratha Confederacy in the late seventeenth century. In
the Spanish territory of New Mexico, the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 was a response
to brutal Spanish policies of conquest, forced labor, and persistent attacks on Pueblo
religious beliefs and practices. The rebels killed some 400 Spaniards, drove another
2,000 out of the territory, and destroyed many of the mission churches. Their
leader, Po’pay, declared, “The God of the Christians is dead. He was made of rotten
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wood.” For twelve years the area sustained its independence, seeking to revive
traditional ways of living, until it was reconquered by Spanish forces in 1692.
Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample.
Copyright © Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers.
Distributed by Bedford, Freeman & Worth Publishers. For review purposes only. Not for redistribution.

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