Prompt:
During the medieval and early modern period, a number of empires and absolutist states emerged stretching from Europe to East Asia. These include but are not limited to Qing China, the Russian Empire, the Ottoman Empire, the France of Louis XIV, Spain, and England. Using any two of these for the purpose of comparison, discuss how these states/empires were organized and expanded. In what ways were they similar and where did they differ? How might we explain these differences? You may focus on politics, economics, the military, education, or another perspective you would like to explore. Remember, this is open book/open note so feel free to bring in whatever materials you think might be helpful.
Answer preview
Ottoman Empire had a flexible and pragmatic political perspective that was often used to negotiate when it was unable to establish sovereignty. This is different from the imperialistic political view of the Russian Empire. In the Russian Empire, imperialism was used to expand its economic power to the neighborhood while in Ottoman, pragmatism, and flexibility often lead to defeat. For instance, the Empire had its last military achievement in the 16th century during the invasion of Cyprus (Duranoglu and Okutucu, 2009). Additionally, the education system in both empires was different. In Ottoman, it was complicated due to different ethnic groups and the influence of the Islamic religion, while in the Russian the system was based on Christianity.
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