Dbq The Development Of Monarchical Control: Early Modern Era

Alex Bryant
12 January 2023
APWH
Mr. Stevens
The Development of Monarchical Control: Early Modern Era During the feudal post-classical era, peasants resided on ‘common land’ owned by higher, noble classes. Due to their needs being met, and ignorance of the other, better ways, they could live their lives, they were content with these feudal common land beliefs. As time progressed into the Early Modern Era, people began questioning everything. A plethora of inventions were introduced, bringing Europe out of the dark ages, and advancing other nations' knowledge through newly created ways such as Gutenburg’s printing press. This printing press not only allowed for the spread of ideas, but it made scriptures more affordable; cheap enough for even

Different empires used culture in different ways. For example, the Mughal’s demonstrated a relative tolerance for outside cultures whilst east Asia focused more on a pure internal culture, disregarding external influences. In Document 1, we can see that due to their foreign culture, the rajapous are being exploited for their natural ability to fight if they do not pay tribute. The author of this document claimed that the only reasons that the Mughal’s accepted such people was due to what they could bring to the table. The use of culture to strengthen power is also seen in Document 6 depicting the Chinese education system. Ming China followed Confucianism during this era. The reason these people were forced to read these four books regarding Confucious before they even knew the characters was so that once they learned them, they would only know of Confusism. Had they been taught before, they may have had the ability to read scriptures of other followings; or foreign culture. During this era, spread of foreign ideas was exactly what China was trying to avoid. The purpose of this document is to point out

The first document that supports this is Document 2. We can see multiple edicts issued by the Chinese Emperor. The most notable is the fourth, which tries to get law-abiding peasants to team up with him against the “obstinate”; or the stubborn ones willing to revolt. These laws strengthen the emperor’s position and ultimately cause the peasants uprising power to wane. Another document that supports this is Document 3. This document shows how the French ruler disregards the lives of the ones below him so long as he and his empire continues to prosper. These feudal castles he was referring to were doing nothing but costing him money, so in his eyes, why should they persist? This shows how the French ruler was strengthening control over his lower classes. Document 7 also demonstrates this claim by describing the role of the lower class. The author is saying that god has created everyone with differentiated status for the sake of humanity's needs. They are saying that through this differentiation comes a great ruler that unites everyone for the greater good. The most likely purpose of this document is to stress the importance of having an absolute monarchy, and how it is good. The author most likely wants to convince everyone that what they are doing is correct, and attempt to spread it around, showing the strengthening of a