Lesson 1

• 1. The position of the sultan was hereditary. When a sultan died, his son was his successor. This practice led to power struggles, and other sons were often executed. A centralized administrative system was needed because the empire became larger and more unwieldy. Each local pasha reported to the central government in Constantinople.

• 2. The Ottomans created great architecture, especially magnificent mosques with imposing domes and minarets. They also produced beautiful pottery; rugs, silk, and other textiles; jewelry; and arms and armor. Their concentration on the arts indicates a populace that had the money and the leisure to buy and appreciate beauty for its own sake.

Lesson 2

• 3. The size of the empire was doubled.

• 4. The Ottoman Empire allowed its subjects to practice the religion of their choice, but the Ṣafavid dynasty required all of its people to convert to the Shia form of Islam.

Lesson 3

• 5. Although Akbar was Muslim, he adopted a policy of religious tolerance. He had a Hindu wife and appointed Hindus as lower-ranking officials in his government. His appreciation of religious diversity led to a great exchange of knowledge and trading opportunities, which contributed to the prosperity of the Mogul Empire.

• 6. Mogul society's attitudes toward women of affected Indian women in both good and bad ways. On the one hand, Mogul women's active role in politics transferred to some degree to Indian society. The Moguls tried to abolish suttee and child marriage (though they did not succeed). On the other hand, the Mogul interpretation of Islamic law placed restrictions on women that many Hindus adopted.

21st Century Skills• 7. The siege lasted about seven weeks. Ottoman forces conquered

Constantinople because they had massive cannons and vastly more troops than the city (eighty thousand invading soldiers versus seven thousand defenders).

• 8. Some students may counter that his insistence that every citizen convert to Islam was not very principled because a leader of high principle would allow his subjects to practice their own principles and beliefs. They may say that it was Aurangzeb's narrow-mindedness that led to revolts against his authority—revolts in which people died—and that a principled ruler would try to protect his people. Others may agree that a ruler of high principle should insist that his subjects share his principles. They may say the deaths were the rebels' own fault.

Exploring the Essential Question

• 9. A student playing a resident of Hungary in 1526 may say that her life changed for the worse because friends and family members were killed in the war. Or a resident of Hungary in 1550 may say his life improved because so many more goods were available and the standard of living rose. A resident of Istanbul in 1650 may say her life is worse because the punishment for buying coffee is death. A widow in Delhi in 1700 may say that Aurangzeb's law against suttee saved her life, but someone else in the same place and time may say he can't live with the fact that he was forced to convert from Hinduism, his family's religion for generations, to Islam.

Document-Based Questions

• 10. He observes that "the riches were half diminished." The rulers had lost their wealth and taxed their people to make up the difference. As their income declined, the people began cheating when they bought and sold goods. Chardin's perception that the Safavid dynasty began to decline after Shāh Abbās II's death does not agree with Lesson 2, which says the decline began nearly 40 years earlier, after Shāh Abbās I's reign.

• 11. It implies that the government by then was neither just, moderate, nor well regulated according to its laws, though it had been on his first trip.

Extended-Response Questions

• 12. Students' answers should include the fact that each empire had a strong military and up-to-date weapons. Each hired local people to help run the bureaucracy. Each, at least early in its reign, had enough money to build public works that improved citizens' lives and thus won their loyalty. Each, at least originally, tolerated the religious and cultural practices of its new subjects in lands it took over.

Reviewing the Enduring Understanding

• What are the characteristics of an empire? (Answers may include such characteristics as a vast territory; many subject peoples; a single, powerful ruler; and a powerful military.)

• What characteristics do empire-builders possess? (Answers may include such characteristics as ambition, energy, vision, greed, intelligence, courage, a need to dominate others, and a love of adventure.)

• What motivates empire-builders to expand their power? (Answers may include such motivations as a desire for wealth, a desire for territory, a desire for military glory, and a desire to spread a religion or a culture.)

• What conditions might encourage the growth of an empire? (Answers may include such conditions as the presence of an extraordinary person to serve as an empire-builder, a religion or culture, sufficient resources of food and money, a motivated and well-organized military, and the weakness of surrounding countries.)

• What conditions might limit the growth of an empire? (Answers may include such conditions as an exhaustion of resources, boundaries too extensive to defend, the encounter with rival empires too powerful to defeat, economic problems, the death of an empire-builder, and the weakness of successive rulers.)