3.2 - Land-Based Empires Administration

• Legitimize power


  Methods rulers use to communicate to their underlings who is in charge
• Consolidate power


  Methods rulers use to take power from other groups and claim it for themselves
• Ways rulers of land-based Empires from 1450-1750 legitimized and consolidated power


  1. Creation of large Imperial bureaucracies

  2. Expanding militaries and creating elite cadres of military professionals

  3. Using religion, art, and architecture
• Bureaucracy


  • Collection of government officials that ensures laws are kept throughout the Empire
• Example of bureaucracy from Ottoman Empire


  • Dev Sheer system - Enslaved Christian boys trained to work in Ottoman bureaucracy
• Example of using religion to legitimize power


  • European monarchs claiming to rule by divine right
  • Aztecs using human sacrifice rituals
• Example of using art to legitimize power

  • Qing Dynasty Emperor Kangxi displaying Imperial portraits
• Examples of using architecture to legitimize power

  • Palace of Versailles for French monarch Louis XIV
  • Inca Sun Temple in Cusco
• How Imperial rulers financed militaries and architecture

  1. Systems of taxation

  2. Mughal Empire's Zamindar system

  3. Ottoman Empire's tax farming system