Changing Social Hierarchies: Class and Race from 1450-1750

Changing Social Hierarchies: Class and Race from 1450-1750: AP World History Study Guide

Hey there, future historians! Ready to dive into the ever-shifting social hierarchies of the early modern period? Grab your time-travel tickets as we explore a world where class and race were as juicy as a reality TV drama. Picture the social ladder with all its complexity, shifts, and struggles. From the glittering courts of Europe to the vibrant societies of Asia and the tumultuous Americas, the 1450-1750 period had everyone jostling for position. Let's climb up (or slide down) that social hierarchy together! 📜✨

In Europe, society were like a high-stakes game of chess—knights, bishops, and lots of pawns. The noble class wore their fancy titles and landowning rights like designer labels. Meanwhile, the clergy prayed and slayed (metaphorically, of course), and the commoners did the 9-to-5 grind, only without the 9 or the 5... or any labor laws, really.

But plot twist! The rise of the merchant class threw a wrench into the Feudal system. These merchant Mavericks were raking in the dough through global trade and commerce, making the old guard of nobles as nervous as a cat at a dog show. They brought new opportunities for social mobility, turning the class structure into more of a roller coaster than a staircase.

Ah, the Americas, where social hierarchies were more tangled than your earbuds after being in your pocket. When Europeans arrived, they didn’t just bring their swords but their rigid racial categories. Europeans topped the social ladder, followed by mixed-race groups like mulattoes (European and African ancestry) and mestizos (European and indigenous ancestry), with Africans and Indigenous peoples often at the bottom.

In British North America, segregation was the name of the game, with social classes firmly kept apart. However, in Spanish and Portuguese colonies, it was a whole different ballpark. Procreation policies led to a hue of new social classes – the castas – with the social pyramid looking like a pyramid scheme of who’s-whiter-than-who.

The Gunpowder Empires—Ottoman, Mughal, and Safavid—weren’t just about booming cannons; they had complex social layers too. In the Ottoman Empire, the Sultan was the top boss, dishing out rewards like Oprah hands out cars. Below him, you had bureaucrats, scholars, and a sometimes rebellious military group called the Janissaries who loved to stage a good coup.

Religious tolerance was surprisingly trendy in the Ottoman Empire. Jews and Christians found a semblance of peace, though non-Muslims had to pay the jizya tax—a sort of, “live here without converting” fee.

Meanwhile, in Mughal India, Akbar the Great was the ultimate social harmonizer, even abolishing the jizya tax and supporting Sikhism, a religion that blended Hindu and Islamic ideas. Women, like Roxelana in the Ottoman Empire, enjoyed some upward mobility, with rare cases climbing from slave to queen. Talk about a medieval Cinderella story!

Skipping east to China, during the Qing dynasty, the Manchus ruled the roost, despite being a minority. They enforced some hardcore cultural flexes, like the queue hairstyle: a long braid that men had to wear to show loyalty. Imagine it as the world's strictest dress code! The Han Chinese, the majority group, faced systemic bias and often resorted to drastic measures to fit in, including—but not limited to—mass murders of dissenters refusing Manchu customs.

In Russia, the social pyramid stood tall and icy. The Boyars ruled as nobility, wielding more power than a Marvel villain. Yet, unlike the rest of Europe, Russia clung to serfdom, where peasants—more numerous than snow in Siberia—were tied to the land and could be sold with it. The merchants trailed behind the Boyars, but nowhere near the peasant masses at the rock-bottom of society.

The 15th and 16th centuries were a rough gig for European Jewish communities facing heightened anti-Semitism. Ferdinand and Isabella's Spain kicked out their Jews faster than an unwanted guest at a party. These expelled communities, known as Sephardic Jews, spread across North Africa and the Middle East. In contrast, Ashkenazi Jews, fleeing from Eastern and Central Europe, would continue this diaspora into the 20th century.

Surprisingly, the Netherlands became the edgy, tolerant cousin of Europe by welcoming Jewish migrants, particularly in its booming financial sector. Yet this acceptance came with its own set of targets, scapegoating Jewish communities during economic downturns.

Fast forward to the 17th and 18th centuries, where reason and individual rights were the new rock stars of the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution. These intellectual movements nurtured ideas of democracy, human rights, and all-around brainy things, leading to slightly improved tolerance for Jews and other minority groups. But don’t get too comfy; anti-Semitism persisted like a bad Twitter trend.

Phew! What a ride through the class and race roller coaster from 1450 to 1750. From the nobility of Europe clinging to their feudal perks, through the mingling (and mangling) of races in the Americas, to the rigid social protocols of the Qing dynasty, and the Boyar-dominated icy heights of Russia, we’ve covered it all. Remember, history can be a complex play, but understanding these social changes helps us grasp the story that shapes our world today. Now, tighten your time-travel belts and let’s ace that AP World History exam, one social class at a time! 🚀👑