Between 1450 and 1750, numerous land-based empires arose throughout Asia, Central Asia, Europe, and Africa. Land-based empires such as the Ottomans, Safavids, and the Mughals were able to expand based on acquiring gunpowder that had traveled from the Song dynasty along the Silk Roads. The collapse of the Mongol empire left a power vacuum and huge areas of land unprotected. Additionally, the devastation of the black death in Europe created labor shortages which ultimately led to the collapse of feudalism. This in turn allowed powerful rulers to expand their authority. Rulers from 1450 to 1750 consolidated and legitimized their power through the centralization of their governments, arts such as religion and architecture, and tax collecting.

Centralization of government, which most commonly entailed the recruitment of elites to run the bureaucracies and the training and development of military professionals, allowed rulers to consolidate their power and control over their populations and resources. The Chinese civil service system, or an examination system that used test scores to decide whether or not the people who took the test can become paid officials that run the government’s bureaucracy, was revived during the Han Dynasty and continued throughout the following dynasties. The civil service system is an example of centralization in which workers receive pay by contributing to the strong, single government that recruited them through exams. It gave the Chinese empire stability for more than 2,000 years. Every Chinese that was not born into a noble family of the high class worked towards achieving higher social status. In the centralized Chinese dynasties, social mobility was granted only to the ones who worked for the ruler. The civil service system that all Chinese regardless of birth and place was the single outlet for social mobility in Chinese society. This curricular uniformity and centralization had an extremely powerful effect on Chinese society, and the major impetus for this uniformity was the meritocracy promoted by the civil service examination system. The merit system encouraged bureaucrats to turn to each other and their bureaucracies for stability; this bond in which all government officials worked towards a centralized goal of placidity and social advancement is beneficial as severing the political ties may create the potential for bureaucrats to steer actions toward their preferences that contradict the goal of achieving the public good. This system of centralization that was set by emperors of China was not only salutary to those who did not have a prestigious birth but craved an improved life but also to the emperor who demanded loyalty and cooperation as the emperor himself was unable to consolidate the power of controlling such a big region. The Chinese civil service, which manifested centralization, then became a model used by the rulers of empires throughout Eurasia as it was efficient in consolidating their control.

To consolidate power, rulers also used tax collection systems to generate revenue to forward state power and expansion. One example is the taxes that the Ming dynasty levied on the Chinese citizens to complete the public projects of building the Grand Canal and the Great Wall. The taxes were what were used to pay for human labor to complete the projects since compulsory policies on infrastructure building may lead to a rebellion that would have showered the empire only with unrest and turmoil. The string of rulers of the Ming Dynasty wisely utilized the taxes to construct the Grand Canal, which connected the north and the rice-producing south. This not only helped the Ming rulers unite the huge regions of China but also allowed the northern Chinese residents to meet their food needs; this physical unification led to population growth in the north and the consolidation of the Ming emperor’s power. Recuperating the remains of the Great Wall helped the Ming rulers protect the dynasty from northern and western attackers that will weaken the strength of the Ming Dynasty by diminishing the power of the military and by seizing the authority of the Ming emperors. Therefore, levying taxes to build public projects is one way that rulers used to consolidate their rule.

Furthermore, rulers used religious ideas, art, and architecture to legitimize their rule. One example is the divine right that European rulers claim. The divine right of kings, in European history, is a political doctrine to defend and legitimize monarchical absolutism. It asserted that kings righteously derived their authority from God and could not, therefore, be held accountable or faulty for their actions by any earthly authority. Through the divine rights claimed, the kings can legitimize their power as well as assert authority in matters of both the church and the state. For instance, King James I of England and Louis XIV of France were the foremost exponents of the divine right of kings; therefore, they continued to profit from the divine-right theory as civilians lionized them for the divinity that they proclaimed. This is similar to the Chinese mandate of Heaven, a Chinese political and religious teaching that was used in ancient and imperial China to justify the rule of the emperor. All examples prove that religious ideals can assist rulers in legitimizing and consolidating their power.

Sanctioned by examples of both the east and the west, rulers of periods 1450 to 1700 from both hemispheres have been proven to have consolidated and legitimized their power using centralization, tax collection, and religious appeals.