Challenges to State Power [AP World History] Unit 4 Topic 6

Hi and welcome back to Heimler’s History. We’re still in Unit 4 of our AP World History curriculum, and if you need to catch up, you can check out the playlist linked in the description below. In this video we’re going to talk about how as empires grew during this time period, which is to say 1450-1750, they experienced resistance to their influence.

Some resistance came from the empire’s own people, some resistance came from the colonies established by these empires. Basically it boils down to this: mo’ territory, mo’ problems. Let’s get to it.

So we’re going to talk about two flavors of resistance to imperial expansion. The first is the general resistance that any empire would face when it conquers people. The second is a specific kind of resistance that came from the enslaved communities of the empire.

So let’s start with the general resistance we can observe during this period. As Portugal expanded its empire into Africa, they experienced resistance from some of their allies. One of their allies was the ruler of Ndongo, Queen Ana Nzinga.

Her kingdom was plagued by slave raids from Portugal and attacks from neighboring tribes. So she entered an agreement with Portugal in which the Portuguese agreed to cease the slave raids and offer protection against her neighboring tribes. And this isn’t something you’ll be tested on, but I can’t help myself but mention it.

During her talks with the Portuguese, Queen Nzinga proved herself to be a pretty powerful woman. The Portuguese brought in chairs for themselves and a mat for her to sit on. This, of course, was the way they communicated social dominance.

Seeing the arrangement, Queen Nzinga ordered one of her servants to get down on all fours and act as a makeshift chair for her. And from that makeshift chair, she talked diplomacy with the Portuguese representatives. Mmmm.

That’s some tasty sauce right there. But even after their agreement was made, the Portuguese couldn’t help themselves from continuing to take land from her kingdom. So she allied with the Dutch and incited a rebellion against the Portuguese and continued to resist their influence for decades.

Okay, let’s look at some Russian resistance. You may recall that Russian peasants who worked the land were known as serfs. They were tied to land owned by the nobles and provided labor without pay or with next to no pay.

The serfs were practically slaves because whenever the land was sold, the serfs were sold along with it. And as you can imagine, a system like this could only go on so long. And in 1774 there was a fierce show of resistance to it.

Southwest of Moscow near the Black Sea there was a haven for runaway serfs. These folks were called Cossacks and they happened to be skilled fighters. Well, in 1774, they rose up in rebellion against the system of serfdom perpetuated by Catherine the Great.

And this became known as the Pugachev Rebellion. This group of serfs managed to gain some ground, but eventually they were crushed by the superior power of the Russian state. As a consequence, Catherine clamped down even harder on serfs in order to prevent another uprising.

Something similar happened in the Mughal Empire, except it was fueled by religion. Recall that the Mughal emperors were Muslim but the majority of the Indian people were Hindu. Eventually there was group of Hindu warriors called Maratha who rose up to resist what they felt was an invasion of their beliefs.

In this case, the uprising was successful. They brought the Mughal Empire to an end and established the Maratha Empire in its place. Over in the Americas there were similar uprisings against empires.

You know I’m starting to think that as a general rule, people don’t like being conquered. In the Spanish colonies of North America, the Pueblo and Apache Indians fought against the Spanish in what became known as the Pueblo Revolt. The Indians had grown tired of the Spanish trying to force conversions to Christianity and so they killed hundreds of Spanish colonizers and burned their churches to boot.

However, about ten years later, the Spanish came right back and reconquered the territory. In the British colonies, we have what’s called Metacom’s War. This was the final large-scale attempt of the natives of North America to rid their land of the British.

The British, however, won a decisive victory and subjugated many of the remaining natives. And since we’re here in North America, let’s talk about the more specific flavor of resistance to imperial expansion, namely, the rebellion of enslaved people. African slaves had been growing in number in the British colonies for years.

And the general attitude of their enslavers was this: enslaved people, because they are a lower order of human being, are content with their servitude. But the Stono Rebellion of 1739 kind of put the kibosh on all that kind of thinking. Twenty enslaved people gathered at the Stono River in South Carolina.

Fed up with the conditions of their servitude, they raided a warehouse where they killed the white workers and put their heads on the steps outside. They moved through towns killing white people as they went. And all the while they were chanting, “liberty.

” Eventually this little gather grew to about 100 and they fought with the British for a week. Ultimately the British won, and as a result they made life much harder for their enslaved workforce. So that’s the differents kind of resistance to imperial expansion that you need to know.

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