Compare and contrast the causes and limitations of expansion of the empires of Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

A. Limitations of expansion in Africa and the Americas
1. expanding states of fifteenth-century Africa and the Americas were
fragile
2. invaders stopped expansion
a. European conquerors conquered the Aztec and Inca states easily
b. Ethiopia barely survived in the sixteenth century, eroded by
Muslim invaders and waves of pagan, pastoralist immigrants
c. Songhay fell to invaders from Morocco
d. Mwene Mutapa survived into the seventeenth century, fought
off would-be conquerors from Europe, but dissolved gradually
and ingloriously into numerous petty states
3. other limitations
a. Ethiopia had limited agricultural land, needed access to trade
routes, river systems to south with large populations
b. Zambezi River Valley, Great Zimbabwe was landlocked, had
altered trade routes and decline in navigability of rivers
c. West Africa / Songhay Empire had limited long-range
communication; adverse Atlantic winds/currents
d. Kongo suffered the loss of control over slave trade to
Portuguese, leading to decline
e. South America / Incas use of mass executions and other
methods of subjugation resulted in the alienation of subject
peoples and allies
f. Mesoamerica/Aztecs loose administrative control, fragile alliances,
alienation of tributary peoples with excessively rapid expansion
B. Limitations of expansion in Eurasia
1. it was hard for a great Eurasian empire to survive in the aftermath of
the Black Death
a. which jarred economies and felled manpower
2. empires of nomadic origins failed when required to adapt to new
military technologies
3. Russia had open, flat expanses of land and widely scattered populations
a. contributed to an environment in which states could form with
ease but only survive with difficulty
b. most came and went quickly, vulnerable to external attack and
internal rebellion
4. Turkish expansion had been kept at bay by Mongol supremacy
a. had been a traumatic challenge to Islam
b. Black Death had also battered the Islamic world
c. began a slow recovery
C. differences in Eurasia
1. most Eurasian empires were in the recovery process and growing while
Africa and the Americas were fading
a. Russia and Muscovy
b. Turkish empire was stoked by new manpower that prepped the
Islamic world's potential for expansion
c. Ottoman empire had renewed strength and great location