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Gunpowder empires
The gunpowder empires, or Islamic gunpowder empires, is a collective term coined by American historians Marshall G. S. Hodgson and William H. McNeill at the University of Chicago that refers to three early modern Muslim empires: the Ottoman Empire, Safavid Empire and the Mughal Empire, which flourished between the mid-16th and early 18th centuries.
McNeill expanded on the history of gunpowder use across multiple civilizations in East Asia, Europe, and South Asia in his 1993 work The Age of Gunpowder Empires. Vast amounts of territory were conquered by the gunpowder empires with the use and development of newly invented firearms, especially cannon and small arms; together they stretched from Central Europe and North Africa in the west to Bengal and Arakan in the east. As in Europe, the introduction of gunpowder weapons also prompted changes such as the rise of centralised monarchical states. As a result, the three empires were among the most stable of the early modern period, leading to commercial expansion, cultural patronage, and the consolidation of political and legal institutions.
According to G. S. Hodgson, in the gunpowder empires these changes went well beyond military organisation. The Mughals, based in the Indian subcontinent, inherited in part the Timurid Renaissance, and are recognised for their lavish architecture and for having heralded in Bengal an era of what some describe as proto-industrialization. The Safavids created an efficient and modern state administration for Iran and sponsored major developments in the fine arts. The sultans of the Ottoman Empire, also known as the Kaysar-i Rûm, controlled the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and hence were the recognised Caliphs of Islam. Collectively, their power, wealth, architecture, and various contributions significantly influenced the course of Islamic world history.
The phrase was coined by Marshall Hodgson and his colleague William H. McNeill at the University of Chicago. Hodgson used the phrase in the title of Book 5 ("The Second Flowering: The Empires of Gunpowder Times") of his highly influential three-volume work, The Venture of Islam (1974). Hodgson saw gunpowder weapons as the key to the "military patronage states of the Later Middle Period" which replaced the unstable, geographically limited confederations of Turkic tribal confederations, which prevailed in post-Mongol times. Hodgson defined a "military patronage state" as one having three characteristics:
first, a legitimization of independent dynastic law; second, the conception of the whole state as a single military force; third, the attempt to explain all economic and high cultural resources as appanages of the chief military families.
Such states grew "out of Mongol notions of greatness", but "[s]uch notions could fully mature and create stable bureaucratic empires only after gunpowder weapons and their specialized technology attained a primary place in military life."
McNeill argued that whenever such states "were able to monopolize the new artillery, central authorities were able to unite larger territories into new, or newly consolidated, empires." Monopolization was key. Although Europe pioneered the development of new artillery in the fifteenth century, no state monopolized it. Gun-casting know-how had been concentrated in the Low Countries near the mouths of the Scheldt and Rhine rivers. France and the Habsburgs divided those territories, resulting in an arms standoff. By contrast, such monopolies allowed states to create militarized empires in West Asia, Russia, and India, and "in a considerably modified fashion" in China, Korea, and Japan.
More recently, the Hodgson–McNeill "gunpowder empire" hypothesis has been called into disfavour as a neither "adequate [n]or accurate" explanation, although the term remains in use. Reasons other than (or in addition to) military technology have been offered for the nearly simultaneous rise of three centralized military empires in contiguous areas dominated by decentralized Turkic tribes. One explanation, called "Confessionalization" by historians of fifteenth century Europe, invokes examination of how the relation of church and state "mediated through confessional statements and church ordinances" lead to the origins of absolutist polities. Douglas Streusand uses the Safavids as an example:
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Gunpowder empires
The gunpowder empires, or Islamic gunpowder empires, is a collective term coined by American historians Marshall G. S. Hodgson and William H. McNeill at the University of Chicago that refers to three early modern Muslim empires: the Ottoman Empire, Safavid Empire and the Mughal Empire, which flourished between the mid-16th and early 18th centuries.
McNeill expanded on the history of gunpowder use across multiple civilizations in East Asia, Europe, and South Asia in his 1993 work The Age of Gunpowder Empires. Vast amounts of territory were conquered by the gunpowder empires with the use and development of newly invented firearms, especially cannon and small arms; together they stretched from Central Europe and North Africa in the west to Bengal and Arakan in the east. As in Europe, the introduction of gunpowder weapons also prompted changes such as the rise of centralised monarchical states. As a result, the three empires were among the most stable of the early modern period, leading to commercial expansion, cultural patronage, and the consolidation of political and legal institutions.
According to G. S. Hodgson, in the gunpowder empires these changes went well beyond military organisation. The Mughals, based in the Indian subcontinent, inherited in part the Timurid Renaissance, and are recognised for their lavish architecture and for having heralded in Bengal an era of what some describe as proto-industrialization. The Safavids created an efficient and modern state administration for Iran and sponsored major developments in the fine arts. The sultans of the Ottoman Empire, also known as the Kaysar-i Rûm, controlled the holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and hence were the recognised Caliphs of Islam. Collectively, their power, wealth, architecture, and various contributions significantly influenced the course of Islamic world history.
The phrase was coined by Marshall Hodgson and his colleague William H. McNeill at the University of Chicago. Hodgson used the phrase in the title of Book 5 ("The Second Flowering: The Empires of Gunpowder Times") of his highly influential three-volume work, The Venture of Islam (1974). Hodgson saw gunpowder weapons as the key to the "military patronage states of the Later Middle Period" which replaced the unstable, geographically limited confederations of Turkic tribal confederations, which prevailed in post-Mongol times. Hodgson defined a "military patronage state" as one having three characteristics:
first, a legitimization of independent dynastic law; second, the conception of the whole state as a single military force; third, the attempt to explain all economic and high cultural resources as appanages of the chief military families.
Such states grew "out of Mongol notions of greatness", but "[s]uch notions could fully mature and create stable bureaucratic empires only after gunpowder weapons and their specialized technology attained a primary place in military life."
McNeill argued that whenever such states "were able to monopolize the new artillery, central authorities were able to unite larger territories into new, or newly consolidated, empires." Monopolization was key. Although Europe pioneered the development of new artillery in the fifteenth century, no state monopolized it. Gun-casting know-how had been concentrated in the Low Countries near the mouths of the Scheldt and Rhine rivers. France and the Habsburgs divided those territories, resulting in an arms standoff. By contrast, such monopolies allowed states to create militarized empires in West Asia, Russia, and India, and "in a considerably modified fashion" in China, Korea, and Japan.
More recently, the Hodgson–McNeill "gunpowder empire" hypothesis has been called into disfavour as a neither "adequate [n]or accurate" explanation, although the term remains in use. Reasons other than (or in addition to) military technology have been offered for the nearly simultaneous rise of three centralized military empires in contiguous areas dominated by decentralized Turkic tribes. One explanation, called "Confessionalization" by historians of fifteenth century Europe, invokes examination of how the relation of church and state "mediated through confessional statements and church ordinances" lead to the origins of absolutist polities. Douglas Streusand uses the Safavids as an example: