Cultural Interaction and Gunpowder Empires in Eurasia

Expansion and Isolationism in Eurasia
How did approaches to cultural interaction shape empires in
Eurasia?
Introduction
In 1279, under the leadership of Kublai Khan, the Mongols
ousted the Song dynasty
and completed their conquest of China. As they
took control, they established the Yuan dynasty,
with Kublai Khan serving as emperor. However,
Mongol rule over China was relatively short lived.
Within 100 years, the Yuan dynasty would be
forced out by Chinese rebels.
Under Mongol rule, the Chinese became
increasingly angered by policies that favored
Mongols and foreigners. This anger and resentment
eventually resulted in unrest. Around 1350, small
states in China began to emerge to fight the

Mongols. Chinese leaders turned to military force to
advance their interests and establish regional
power. Some leaders were members of the upper class, and
others were religious
leaders or bandits supported by peasants. By the middle of the
1350s, these Chinese
powers were united in their campaign to get rid of Mongol rule.
The years of ongoing warfare spurred military innovation
among the Chinese.
Although the Mongols had access to gunpowder weapons, they
did not develop new
technologies. In contrast, the first large cannons in China were
manufactured by the
Chinese rebels. While the term “Gunpowder Empire” is often
associated with the
Ottoman Empire, the Safavid Empire, and the Mughal Empire,
the Chinese
advancements in gunpowder weaponry has led some historians
to regard Ming China
as the world’s first gunpowder empire.
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Eurasia?
In this lesson, you will learn about three countries in Eurasia
that used gunpowder
to expand and maintain their control: China, Japan, and Russia.
You will consider the
rise and fall of the Ming and Qing dynasties in China. You will
examine the unification of
Japan under the Tokugawa. Finally, you will explore the growth
of the Russian Empire
during the Romanov dynasty.
Section 1. China Under the Ming and Qing
Between the 14th and the early 20th centuries,
two dynasties governed China: the Ming and the Qing.
Both dynasties took power during times of upheaval.
To restore order, they established strong, centralized
rule and revived traditional Chinese values, including
Confucian ideals.
The Ming Revival By the mid-1300s, China was in

turmoil. The Mongols’ hold on power had became
unstable. Disease and natural disasters had weakened
the Mongol grip. Additionally, feuds broke out within the
government, leaving the
countryside unprotected against bandits and rebels.
As life became more dangerous and difficult, Chinese peasants
grew increasingly
frustrated with the incompetence of their rulers. Led by Zhu
Yuanzhang, a peasant
uprising successfully invaded the city of Nanjing. In 1368,
aided by gunpowder
weapons, Zhu and his army captured the city of Beijing, the
Mongol capital in China.
After destroying the Mongol palaces and forcing the Mongol
rulers to retreat north, Zhu
took power and established the Ming dynasty. This name comes
from the Chinese
word Ming, which means “brilliant.”
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Eurasia?
The new Ming emperor set out to restore traditional Chinese
rule. He revived the
state examination system used to select officials for the civil
service. This system of
tests was based on the Chinese classics, especially the works of
the philosopher
Confucius. Under Ming rule, Confucian scholars were again
elevated in Chinese society.
Classical art and literature were held up as models for artistic
expression.
The emperor also reformed the tax system and distributed land
to Chinese
peasants. Under the Ming, agriculture prospered. New crops
such as sweet potatoes
and corn, brought from the Americas in the 1500s, increased the
food supply. As a
result, the Chinese population doubled under the almost three
centuries of Ming rule.
Trade and commerce also increased, although Ming rulers—in
traditional Confucian
style—favored agriculture over business.
During his 30-year reign, Zhu Yuanzhang, also known as
Emperor Taizu, brought

stability to China. However, he was also a despot who ruled
with an iron fist. While he
recognized Confucian scholars’ role in administering effective
government, Zhu viewed
the scholar class as dangerous and sought to curb scholars’
power and ensure that
they were working exclusively on
his behalf. Fearing threats to his
power, he had thousands of officials
executed for suspected
wrongdoing. In one instance, he had
the prime minister and 30,000 of his
followers executed for a plot to
overthrow him. He described his
actions this way: “In the morning I
punish a few; by evening others
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Eurasia?
commit the same crime. . . . Day and night I cannot rest. . . . To
be a ruler is indeed
difficult.”
Ming Expansion In 1402, the emperor’s son, Yong Le, took
power. Like his father, Yong
Le continued to strengthen the Chinese state. He also built a
new capital at Beijing,
which was enclosed by high walls and featured a great palace—
called the Forbidden
City—at its heart. In its grand design, the new capital
symbolized the power of the
Chinese empire. Beijing’s location also allowed the emperor to
focus on the ongoing
Mongol threat to the north.
Later Ming emperors also rebuilt the Great Wall, an ancient
defense against
nomadic invaders from the north. Construction of the wall
represented a major change
in Ming military strategy, from offence to defense. In the past,
Ming military campaigns
to the Mongolian steppe had been costly and failed, despite the
Ming’s advanced

gunpowder weapons.
In addition, Yong Le expanded China’s influence overseas. He
sponsored a series of
great ocean voyages under the command of Admiral Zheng He.
Between 1405 and
1433, Zheng He led a large fleet on seven voyages to Southeast
Asia, India, Arabia, and
Africa. He met with foreign rulers and brought back exotic
goods, including zebras and
giraffes. The main purpose of the voyages was to increase the
flow of tribute to China.
For the Ming, the tribute system demonstrated Chinese power. It
bolstered their
age-old belief that China, which they called the “Middle
Kingdom,” was the center of
the world.
Although the Ming voyages were great successes, the
government ended sea travel
in the 1430s. The expeditions were expensive, and China
decided to focus attention on
defending its northern border against Mongol invasions. The
decision also reflected the
conservative Chinese view that other cultures were inferior and

had little to offer China.
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Eurasia?
Increasingly, the Ming rulers looked inward and isolated China
from the rest of the
world.
The Qing Dynasty Ming rule lasted for nearly three centuries.
By the early 1600s,
however, the Ming dynasty had grown weak and corrupt.
Famine and peasant
rebellions ravaged the country. To the Chinese people, the Ming
had lost the Mandate
of Heaven, the traditional right to govern.
In 1644, rebels invaded Beijing and overthrew the last Ming
emperor. Ming officials
sought assistance from the Manchus, a confederation of tribes
from Manchuria, to fight
the rebellion. However, the Manchus took advantage of the
Ming dynasty’s weakness

and seized the capital instead. They established a new dynasty,
the Qing, which means
“pure.”
The Manchus’ rise to power was anything but sudden. In the
1610s, they had
begun to raid Ming territory. At the time, the Manchus
depended largely on cavalry
forces, whereas the Ming fought with firearms. Despite this, the
Manchus were able to
defeat the Ming in battle thanks to their tactical maneuvering
and the Ming’s ineffective
use of gunpowder weapons.
As the Manchus conquered Ming territory, they took gunpowder
weapons from
Chinese arsenals and recruited Chinese soldiers who knew how
to use them. Over time,
and after some defeats, the Manchus began to develop a method
of fighting that
incorporated their highly skilled cavalry as well as gunpowder
weapons. Combining
these different forms of fighting was essential in helping the
Manchus ultimately
overcome the Ming.

By the time the Manchus officially formed the Qing dynasty in
1644, they had been
gradually building their power in China. Though the Manchus
had long been influenced
by Chinese culture and had adopted many Chinese customs, the
Chinese still saw them
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Eurasia?
as foreign barbarians. Because of this, the Manchus met strong
resistance to their rule.
Over subsequent decades, however, they brought all of China
under their control.
To remain in power, the Manchus adopted policies that were
both tough and
generous. On the one hand, they forced Chinese men to submit
to their rule by wearing
their hair in the Manchu style, with a shaved forehead and
braided hair. They also kept
control of the military by reserving the top positions for
Manchus.

At the same time, the Manchus showed
respect for Chinese traditions. They preserved the
overall structure of Ming government and ruled
according to Confucian principles. They supported
the state exam system and allowed Chinese
officials to hold high positions in government. They
upheld the values of classical Chinese culture. In
this way, the Manchus gradually won acceptance
from the Chinese people.
The Qing dynasty also benefited from having
two outstanding emperors. The first, Kangxi, ruled
from 1661 to 1722. Under Kangxi, the Qing defeated the last of
the Ming dynasty in
1683. His grandson, Qianlong, gained the throne in 1735 and
held power just as long.
Both men were wise and capable rulers. They expanded the
boundaries of the empire
and brought peace and prosperity to China. Qing China became
the largest and richest
empire in the world.

Isolation and Decline As in the past, most of China’s wealth
came from agriculture. But
trade and commerce also played an important role. Like good
Confucian rulers, the Qing
officially discouraged trade, while allowing it in limited form.
They restricted European
traders to the port of Canton, in southern China, and showed
little interest in European
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Eurasia?
goods. In 1793, Emperor Qianlong
wrote to King George III of
England: “Our Celestial Empire
possesses all things in
abundance. We have no need for
barbarian products.”
Nevertheless, the Qing agreed to
exchange Chinese

goods—including silk and
tea—for silver from the Americas.
As a result, China’s economy
continued to grow, and so did its population. Between 1650 and
1800, the population
rose from 150 million to 350 million, more than one-third of
humanity. However, China
could not sustain such growth forever. In the 1800s, it began to
experience food
shortages and famine. Once again, rebellions broke out and the
dynasty faltered.
In some ways, China’s success under Qing rule also contained
the seeds of its
decline. For centuries, China had relied on its traditions to
ensure stability, prosperity,
and power. But as global interaction increased and the world
began to change, this
conservative approach hindered progress. China rejected new
ideas in science,
technology, and economics that might have brought increased
productivity and wealth.
Similarly, because China entered a period of sustained peace in
1760, there was no

drive or need for military innovation, and the strength of its
armed forces declined.
This reluctance to change left China vulnerable to the growing
power of Europe.
The Qing dynasty lasted until 1912, but as a result of its
policies, it was increasingly
dominated by Western powers in the late 1800s.
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Eurasia?
Section 2. Tokugawa Japan
While the Ming dynasty ruled China, another strong dynasty—
the Tokugawa—took
power in Japan. In the 1600s, the Tokugawa unified Japan and
brought a long period of
peace and stability to the country.
A Feudal System For centuries, Japan had been a feudal society,
much like
medieval Europe. Local lords, known as daimyo, controlled
large landed estates. They

relied on armies of samurai warriors to defend their land and
settle disputes with other
lords.
At the top of this feudal structure was the emperor, who claimed
descent from a
mythical sun goddess. But real power rested in the hands of the
shogun, a military
leader who ruled on behalf of the emperor and demanded the
allegiance of the daimyo.
In theory, the daimyo respected the shogun’s authority, but the
system was unstable.
Because power was decentralized and allegiance based on
military strength, a lord
who grew strong enough might challenge the shogun and seize
power himself.
In the late 1400s, civil war broke out when a series of weak
shoguns lost control of
the state. For the next century, the daimyo, backed by their
samurai armies, battled
each other for power. This period of warfare was known as the
Age of the Warring
States. It was during this era that gunpowder weapons were
widely introduced in

Japan.
Gunpowder weapons had been used in Japan previously— albeit
by the Mongols
during their failed invasions in the late 13th century. During the
1400s and early 1500s,
merchants and travelers brought some guns from China to
Japan. However,
gunpowder weapons, particularly guns, did not gain wider
attention—or use—until the
arrival of the Portuguese in 1543.
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Eurasia?
In September 1543, a Chinese ship with a few Portuguese men
onboard landed on
the Japanese island of Tanegashima. The men were introduced
to the island’s lord and
demonstrated how to use the strange oblong objects they were
carrying called
muskets. Intrigued, the lord bought one or two guns and then
decided that they should

be manufactured on iron-rich Tanegashima. A local blacksmith
was tasked with
creating copies of the musket.
News of this weapon spread around Japan.
Muskets were soon manufactured in many parts
of the country, and saltpeter for gunpowder
became an important import from China. Within
decades of the musket’s introduction, thousands
of guns were being produced annually in Japan.
Daimyo eagerly sought these new weapons as
the conflicts of the Age of the Warring States
intensified.
By the late 1500s, a series of powerful
daimyo had emerged. Aided by muskets and
field artillery, the first two each defeated their
rivals, consolidated their power, and worked to
unify Japan. But it was a third lord, Tokugawa
Ieyasu, who finally ended the wars and united Japan. In 1603,
he became shogun. He

created a dynasty and a government that ruled Japan for the next
250 years.
Tokugawa Rule To ensure stability, the Tokugawa rulers formed
a strong, centralized
government. They established controls on the daimyo and on
Japanese society that
allowed them to govern effectively. Scholars have referred to
the Tokugawa system as
centralized feudalism.
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Eurasia?
To curb the power of the daimyo, the Tokugawa rulers created a
secret police force
to root out opposition. They restricted the production of
gunpowder weapons,
prohibited their import, and controlled the production of
gunpowder and ammunition.
They banned the construction of new castles. They also
restricted the movement of

samurai and forced the daimyo and their families to live as
virtual hostages in Edo, the
capital city now known as Tokyo. This arrangement placed a
great financial burden on
the daimyo while curbing their power and helping ensure their
loyalty.
The Tokugawa also established a rigid social structure,
consisting of four social
classes. At the top was the warrior class of lords and samurai,
which made up about 7
percent of the population. Next came
farmers, considered the most productive
part of society. Artisans made up the
third social class. At the bottom were
merchants. An elaborate code of
etiquette laid out rules for the dress and
behavior of each class.
In principle, social mobility was rare in
Japan. This rigid structure was designed
to ensure social order and respect for
authority. In this way, it helped reinforce Tokugawa rule.

Chinese Influence Long before the rise of the Tokugawa,
Japanese society and culture
had reflected Confucian values from China. As an island nation,
Japan had never been
conquered by China. However, Japan was still heavily
influenced by Chinese civilization
and culture.
As early as 500 C.E., Chinese culture was making its mark on
Japan. However, the
Japanese did not simply adopt Chinese culture; rather, they had
their own interpretation
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Eurasia?
of it. Over time, the Japanese combined Chinese customs with
their own traditions to
form a unique Japanese culture. For example, in the mid-500s,
some Japanese adopted
Buddhism, which arrived from Korea via China. Yet they did
not abandon their original

religion, Shinto. Instead, each religion thrived and embraced
elements of the other.
China’s influence on Japan greatly increased after Empress
Suiko and Prince
Shotoku came to power in 593. In particular, Shotoku
encouraged the Japanese to
embrace cultures from mainland Asia, especially from China
and Korea, and subsequent
rulers did as well. Knowledge of mainland culture came from
Japanese travelers
returning from China, as well as from items sent from the
mainland to Japan.
Sometimes, it came from Korean workers who settled in Japan,
bringing their
knowledge and skills with them.
In addition to Confucian thought, the Japanese borrowed their
political structures
from China. Previously, Japanese rulers shared power with the
leaders of clans
throughout the nation and depended on them to govern. This
began to change under
Shotoku. He created ranks for government officials based on
Confucian ideas. In 604,
he issued a set of guidelines called the Seventeen Article

Constitution, which stated
that the emperor was the supreme ruler. Later in the 600s, the
emperor took control of
the land from the clans and redistributed it. By the 700s,
Japan’s government was very
much like China’s, with centralized leadership supported by a
large bureaucracy.
Between the 600s and 900s, China continued to influence Japan
culturally. Japan
sent officials, students, translators, and monks on ships across
the sea to China. These
people often remained in China for years before returning home
with what they had
learned. As a result of these contacts, the Japanese acquired
new ideas about
government, the arts, architecture, and writing.
During the Tokugawa era, various art forms native to Japan
flourished. Kabuki is a
form of theater that combines elaborate costumes, music, and
dance. It became popular
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Eurasia?
in Japanese cities. Visual artists created beautiful woodblock
prints showing scenes
from urban and rural life. Writers and poets explored new forms
of literature, including
short verse called haiku.
A Policy of Isolation Leads to Decline Not long before the
Tokugawa took power,
European traders and missionaries had arrived in Japan. At first,
the Tokugawa rulers
remained open to foreign influence. They took an interest in
Western goods and
welcomed new ideas in science, mapmaking, and
shipbuilding. They even allowed Catholics to set up
missions. They became alarmed, however, when the
Japanese began to convert to Catholicism. Religious
intolerance spread in the form of expelling the
missionaries and cracking down on Christian converts.
This xenophobia, or fear of foreigners, started to
affect commercial exchange when the government also

began to restrict trade. By 1638, it had expelled most
European traders, limiting trade to just one port. Only the
Dutch were allowed to visit, and only once or twice a year.
The government also prohibited the Japanese from traveling
abroad and outlawed the
building of large ships.
For the next two centuries, Japan was effectively isolated from
the rest of the world.
This policy of isolation was beneficial in that it helped the
Tokugawa rulers preserve
Japanese traditions and maintain control. But the negative
impact was that it also
prevented Japan from gaining useful knowledge from abroad.
Like China under the
Qing, Japan did not benefit from developing ideas in science,
technology, and other
fields that would have helped the country develop. Ultimately,
this lack of progress left
Japan vulnerable to foreign powers.
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Eurasia?
Additionally, Japan did not have modern weaponry to defend
itself. After restricting
production of firearms to prevent the daimyo from obtaining
them, the Tokugawa
government had minimal need for such weapons. Restricting
access to information
about new gunpowder technology from abroad became a
priority. The government
maintained a monopoly on firearms, but over time, production
more or less ceased.
By the 19th century, many, including the shogun, began to
worry about Japan’s lack
of modern weaponry. They feared that another country would
try to gain control of
Japan. Attempts to restart weapon production were made but
largely failed because
the weakened Tokugawa government could not obtain the
necessary funds. In the
mid-1800s, foreign powers,
including the Dutch, French, and

English, repeatedly attempted to
open the country and develop
commercial relations. Then, in
1853, lacking the defenses to
resist, Japan was forced to open
up to foreign trade by U.S.
warships.
Subsequently, violence erupted over whether Japan should expel
foreigners or
continue to open. However, those seeking to rid the country of
foreigners realized that
they did not have adequate means to do so by force. Some then
turned to overthrow
the Tokugawa government. As this movement gained power, the
last shogun resigned,
ending the Tokugawa period.
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Eurasia?
Section 3. The Russian Empire
In the 1500s, Russia formed a powerful state and began to
expand its territory.
Over the next few centuries, it built a great empire that
stretched across Eurasia. Unlike
China or Japan, however, Russia made efforts to modernize by
adopting Western ideas.
The Rise of Russia The origins of the Russian
state go back to the late 1400s and the rise of
Prince Ivan III of Moscow. At the time, the
Mongols still controlled Russia, but they were
divided and their power was waning. To
maintain control, the Mongols allowed Russian
princes to govern their own cities in return for
tribute payments. They also allowed Russians
to practice their Orthodox Christian faith,
which helped bolster Russian identity under
Mongol rule.

Ivan III—also known as Ivan the
Great—came to power in 1462 and began to
conquer lands around Moscow and build up
his strength. At this time, Ivan III was a
tributary of the Mongols. However, the Mongols were in
decline. Their population had
been reduced by disease, and their military remained dependent
on cavalry forces and
failed to effectively employ guns. These weaknesses enabled the
Russians to take large
portions of Mongol territory. By 1480, Ivan III had thrown off
Mongol control, although
some Mongol elements remained a threat until 1502.
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Eurasia?
Over the next two decades, Ivan the Great continued his
conquests. With the aim of
uniting Slavic peoples, he tripled the size of Moscow’s territory
and made it the

dominant power in Russia. He also began to call himself czar,
the Russian form of
“caesar.” He saw Russia as the “Third Rome”: the heir to the
Roman and Byzantine
empires and the defender of Christianity.
Ivan the Great’s successors continued to expand the Russian
state. The most
powerful of the early czars was his grandson, Ivan IV, who
gained the throne as a child
in 1533. During his reign of about 50 years, Ivan IV took three
steps to strengthen the
central government and modernize Russia. First, he conquered
Mongol lands to the
south and east, incorporating them into Russian territory.
Second, he instituted reforms,
including a uniform code of laws, to make the state more
efficient. This was especially
important given the difficulty of controlling Russia’s expanding
territory. Third, he
fought feudalism and took steps to curb the power of the boyars,
Russia’s landed
nobility. In turn, he increased the power of military leaders who
were loyal to him.

In centralizing power, Ivan IV also worked to strengthen the
military. When he
ascended the throne, the army was largely a cavalry force. To
support a more modern
military, Ivan IV expanded the training of Russian soldiers to
include skills such as
engineering and gunsmithing. These developments laid the
groundwork that enabled
the formation a permanent infantry force, field artillery force,
and combat engineer
corps.
Ivan is best remembered, however, as a cruel tyrant who
terrorized Russian society.
Midway through his reign, he became obsessed with threats to
his rule. Suspecting that
the boyars were plotting against him, Ivan established an
oprichnina, territory directly
under his control, in an attempt to further reduce their power.
The oprichnina enabled
him to force boyars from their land, reducing their political and
economic power.
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Eurasia?
Within the oprichnina, Ivan had a personal bodyguard of up to
6,000 men drawn
from the lower gentry. Known as the oprichniki, this bodyguard
was loyal to Ivan. It
functioned as a secret police force that arrested, tortured, and
killed those suspected of
resisting or challenging his authority, including its own
members. For example, in 1570,
Ivan and the oprichniki sacked the city of Novgorod and
executed people of all classes
because he questioned the city’s loyalty. Ivan and the oprichniki
conducted a reign of
terror, earning him the nickname Ivan the Terrible.
Rule of the Romanovs After Ivan’s death in 1584, his son
Fyodor became czar. Fyodor
was a weak ruler, however, who failed to
mend the divisions caused by his father. In the
early 1600s, after Fyodor’s death, Russia was
engulfed in a 15-year period of civil war

known as the Time of Troubles.
In 1613, however, a new czar, Michael
Romanov, came to power. Gradually, Russia
began to recover from the social divisions Ivan
had created. The Romanov family would rule
Russia for the next 300 years.
Under the Romanovs, Russia continued to
expand its empire. It moved east, taking in the
lands of Siberia—a huge portion of the Asian
continent—and extending Russia’s borders to the Pacific Ocean.
Siberia was rich in
resources, including furs. During the 1600s, Russian colonizers
settled in Siberia and
established a lucrative fur trade.
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Eurasia?
The Modernizing Czars The Romanovs continued to reform and

modernize the Russian
state. The leaders in this effort were Peter I, also known as
Peter the Great, and
Catherine the Great. Their rule marked the golden age of
Russia’s enlightenment.
When Peter took power in 1682, Russia was still largely
isolated from Europe. But
Peter was determined to open Russia up to the West. He took a
long journey through
England and France to absorb new ideas. He visited factories
and museums, and even
worked for a time in a shipyard. He returned home with plans to
transform Russia into
a modern nation.
Peter also sought to gain access to a coastline. At this time,
Russia’s only seaport
was at Archangel on the White Sea, along the northern coast.
Gaining access to ports
on the Black Sea, the Caspian Sea, and especially the Baltic Sea
was seen as crucial for
Russian trade. In 1696, he defeated Ottoman-backed forces to
gain access to the Black
Sea, and in 1723, Persia ceded Caspian coastline in exchange
for military aid. However,

it was taking territory from Sweden on the Baltic Sea in 1721
that changed Russia. It
emerged as a European power.
The territory gained from Sweden became “Russia’s window
into the West.” There,
Peter built a modern new capital named after himself—St.
Petersburg—based on
European designs. He brought in European advisers and
specialists, set up schools to
teach technical subjects, and established an academy of sciences
to promote new
learning. Under his rule, Russia built factories and roads and
established a professional
army and civil service on the European model. The government
required officials to
dress in the Western style and to shave off their beards.
Russia’s modernizing efforts continued under another ruler,
Catherine II, who led
from 1762 to 1796. She was also known as Catherine the Great.
Like Peter the Great,
Catherine also founded schools and supported the arts and
sciences. She promoted
Enlightenment principles of justice and good government. But

like her predecessors,
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Eurasia?
she was an absolute ruler who governed with an iron fist,
allowing few freedoms and
forcing Jews into a limited area called the Pale of Settlement.
The End of Monarchy By the time of Catherine’s reign, Russia
faced a looming crisis
that would eventually bring down the czars. For more than a
century, Russia’s serf
population had been growing. When Catherine came to power,
there were about 10
million serfs serving the crown, the state, the church, private
owners, and industrial and
mining enterprises.
Although this system had ceased to exist in western Europe by
the 14th century,
serfdom first emerged in Russia during the Time of Troubles.
Fleeing famine, peasants

went to towns and cities to find food. With a decreasing number
of laborers to tend to
the fields, Russian leaders decided to tie peasants to the land.
Initially, serfs had some rights, but as landowners gained
power, serfs lost what
little they had. Ultimately, they had no rights
and lived in terrible poverty. By the
mid-1700s, they were regarded as property.
Those who worked in industry were treated
like machinery that belonged to the
business. Sometimes serfs revolted, but their
uprisings were brutally repressed. For
example, in 1762, Catherine sent troops
with cannons to force serfs to end an
industrial strike. In 1800, around half of all
Russian peasants—around 10 million
people—were tied to the soil.
Although Russia was taking steps to modernize, its social
system was still mired in
the past. Russia was the last European country to outlaw

serfdom, in 1861, and by
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Eurasia?
then it was too late. In 1917, a revolution erupted and brought
an end to the Russian
monarchy as a result. The Romanovs’ attempt to modernize
Russia had been too
concentrated on science and technological developments and
ignored socio-political
developments. This unbalance brought about the last of the
European revolutions.
Summary
In this lesson, you learned about three powerful empires that
ruled in Eurasia during
the period from 1400 to 1800. These empires responded to
outside influences in
different way.
Cultural Interaction The Russians modernized by opening up to
the West. The

Chinese and Japanese held fast to their own traditions and
resisted cultural change.
Political Structures All three empires built strong, centralized
states to govern their
territory. They created official bureaucracies and codes of law
to make government
more effective. Nevertheless, most rulers—such as the Russian
czars—held absolute
power.
Economic Structures Trade and commerce became increasingly
important across
Eurasia. However, both China and Japan turned toward
isolation. In doing so, they
greatly restricted foreign trade. They also lacked access to new
ideas and innovations
that would support development.
Social Structures Eurasian states imposed class structures
designed to maintain
social and political order. But rigid social systems, such as
those in Japan and Russia,
left empires unprepared for change.
19

IT 549 Scenario Assignment Module Three Guidelines and
Rubric
For the Module Three assignment, students will be provided
multiple scenarios that contain hypothetical situations
pertaining to authentication and security
protocols. Each of these situations will require the student to
critically assess the situation and propose appropriate actions to
be taken. This allows students to
make practical application of the knowledge gained pertaining
to authentication protocols, which will assist in the development
of statements of policy for the
information assurance plan.
Prompt: Explain the threat in each of the following types of
authentication and provide a solution for each scenario below:
database of passwords.
against a database of hashed passwords.
key in challenge/response protocol.
who hashes it and compares it against a database of doubly-
hashed passwords.
Guidelines for Submission: Your responses for each prompt
must be submitted as two to three paragraphs and as a Microsoft

Word document with double
spacing, 12-point Times New Roman font, one-inch margins,
and at least three sources cited in APA format.
Critical Elements Exemplary (100%) Proficient (85%) Needs
Improvement (55%) Not Evident (0%) Value
Threat and
Environment
Meets “Proficient” criteria
substantiated with justification
to support rationale
Response explains the threat
and the likely threat
environment that exists within
each of the given scenarios
Response minimally explains
the threat and the likely threat
environment that exists within
each of the given scenarios
Response does not explain the
threat or the environment that
exists within each of the given
scenarios
40

Solution
Meets “Proficient” criteria and
the solution is substantiated by
evidence based research
Proposes a solution that will
provide the highest l ikelihood of
resolving the situation
Submission proposes a solution
that will provide the highest
l ikelihood of resolving the
situation but requires more
research and evaluation of the
threat and/or l ikely threat
environment
Submission does not propose a
solution that will provide the
highest l ikelihood of resolving

the situation
40
Articulation of
Response
Submission is free of errors
related to citations, grammar,
spelling, syntax, and
organization and is presented in
a professional and easy-to-read
format
Submission has no major errors
spelling, syntax, or organization
Submission has major errors

that negatively impact
readability and articulation of
main ideas
Submission has critical errors
that prevent understanding of
ideas
20
Earned Total 100%

Cultural Interaction and Gunpowder Empires in Eurasia

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