World History I

Chapter 12: Sultanates, Song, and the Mongol Super Empire: Contrasting Patterns in India, China, and Inner Asia
600-1600 CE

56: Mon, Apr 6, 2026

Please post in the forum for the day a short essay in response to this question:

The rulers of large territories faced common challenges in establishing, structuring, and maintaining power in central Asia, India, and China. They each needed to raise armies for conquest or against invasion, pay their expenses, and avoid popular uprisings by dissident groups.

• How did these different cultures (Mongol, Indian, Chinese) acquire the means (funds and personnel) to sustain their bureaucracies?
• What systems did they devise to control subordinates?
• How did they depend on imperium, auctoritas, or licentia in different ways to maintain their power?

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