Introduction: Ottoman empire, Russia, China, and Japan
Common problems
Military weakness, vulnerability to foreign threats
Internal weakness due to economic problems, financial difficulties, and corruption
Reform efforts
Attempts at political and educational reform and at industrialization
Turned to western models
Different results of reforms
Ottoman empire, Russia, and China unsuccessful; societies on the verge of collapse
Reform in Japan was more thorough; Japan emerged as an industrial power
The Ottoman empire in decline
The nature of decline
Military decline since the late seventeenth century
Ottoman forces behind European armies in strategy, tactics, weaponry, training
Janissary corps politically corrupt, undisciplined
Provincial governors gained power, private armies
Extensive territorial losses in nineteenth century
Lost Caucasus and central Asia to Russia; western frontiers to Austria; Balkan provinces to Greece and Serbia
Egypt gained autonomy after Napoleon's failed campaign in 1798
(a) Egyptian general Muhammad Ali built a powerful, modern army
(b) Ali's army threatened Ottomans, made Egypt an autonomous province
Economic difficulties began in seventeenth century
Less trade through empire as Europeans shifted to the Atlantic Ocean basin
Exported raw materials, imported European manufactured goods
Heavily depended on foreign loans, half of the revenues paid to loan interest
Foreigners began to administer the debts of the Ottoman state by 1882
The "capitulations": European domination of Ottoman economy
Extraterritoriality: Europeans exempt from Ottoman law within the empire
Could operate tax-free, levy their own duties in Ottoman ports
Deprived empire of desperately needed income
Reform and reorganization
Attempt to reform military led to violent Janissary revolt (1807-1808)
Reformer Mahmud II (1808-1839) became sultan after revolt
When Janissaries resisted, Mahmud had them killed; cleared the way for reforms
He built an European-style army, academies, schools, roads, and telegraph
Legal and educational reforms of the Tanzimat ("reorganization") era (1839-1876)
Ruling class sought sweeping restructuring to strengthen state
Broad legal reforms, modeled after Napoleon's civic code
State reform of education (1846), free and compulsory primary education (1869)
Undermined authority of the ulama, enhanced the state authority
Opposition to Tanzimat reforms
Religious conservatives critical of attack on Islamic law and tradition
Legal equality for minorities resented by some, even a few minority leaders
Young Ottomans wanted more reform: freedom, autonomy, decentralization
High-level bureaucrats wanted more power, checks on the sultan's power
The Young Turk era
Cycles of reform and repression
1876, coup staged by bureaucrats who demanded a constitutional government
New sultan Abd al-Hamid II (1876-1909) proved an autocrat: suspended constitution, dissolved parliament, and punished liberals
Reformed army and administration: became source of the new opposition
The Young Turks, after 1889, an active body of opposition
Called for universal suffrage, equality, freedom, secularization, women's rights
Forced Abd al-Hamid to restore constitution, dethroned him (1909)
Nationalistic: favored Turkish dominance within empire, led to Arab resistance
The empire survived only because of distrust among European powers
The Russian empire under pressure
Military defeat and social reform
The Crimean War (1853-1856)
Nineteenth-century Russia expanded from Manchuria, across Asia to Baltic Sea
Sought access to Mediterranean Sea, moved on Balkans controlled by Ottomans
European coalition supported Ottomans against Russia in Crimea
Crushing defeat forced tsars to take radical steps to modernize army, industry
Emancipation of serfs in 1861 by Alexander II
Serfdom supported landed nobility, an obstacle to economic development
Serfs gained right to land, but no political rights; had to pay a redemption tax
Emancipation did not increase agricultural production
Political and legal reforms followed
1864, creation of zemstvos, local assemblies with representatives from all classes
A weak system: nobles dominated, tsar held veto power
Legal reform more successful: juries, independent judges, professional attorneys
Industrialization
The Witte system: developed by Sergei Witte, minister of finance, 1892-1903
Railway construction stimulated other industries; trans-Siberian railway
Remodeled the state bank, protected infant industries, secured foreign loans
Top-down industrialization effective; steel, coal, and oil industries grew
Industrial discontent intensified
Rapid industrialization fell hardest on working classes
Government outlawed unions, strikes; workers increasingly radical
Business class supported autocracy, not reform
Repression and revolution
Cycles of protest and repression
Peasants landless, no political power, frustrated by lack of meaningful reform
Antigovernment protest and revolutionary activity increased in 1870s
Intelligentsia advocated socialism and anarchism, recruited in countryside
Repression by tsarist authorities: secret police, censorship
Russification: sparked ethnic nationalism, attacks on Jews tolerated
Terrorism emerges as a tool of opposition
Alexander II, the reforming tsar, assassinated by a bomb in 1881
Nicholas II (1894-1917), more oppressive, conservative ruler
Russo-Japanese War, 1904-05: Russian expansion to east leads to conflict with Japan
Revolution of 1905: triggered by costly Russian defeat by Japan
Bloody Sunday massacre: unarmed workers shot down by government troops
Peasants seized landlords' property; workers formed soviets
Tsar forced to accept elected legislature, the Duma; did not end conflict
The Chinese empire under siege
The Opium War and the unequal treaties
Opium trade a serious threat to Qing dynasty by nineteenth century
Chinese cohong system restricted foreign merchants to one port city
China had much to offer, but little demand for European products
East India Company cultivated opium to exchange for Chinese goods
About forty thousand chests of opium shipped to China yearly by 1838
The Opium War (1839-1842)
Commissioner Lin Zexu directed to stop opium trade
British refused; Lin confiscated and destroyed twenty thousand chests of opium
British retaliated, easily crushed Chinese forces, destroyed Grand Canal
Unequal treaties forced trade concessions from Qing dynasty
Treaty of Nanjing, 1842: Britain gained right to opium trade, most-favored-nation status, Hong Kong, open trade ports, exemptions from Chinese laws
Similar unequal treaties made to other western countries and Japan
By 1900, China lost control of economy, ninety ports to foreign powers
The Taiping rebellion
Internal turmoil in China in the later nineteenth century
Population grew by 50 percent; land and food more slowly; poverty strained resources
Other problems: official corruption, drug addiction
Four major rebellions in 1850s and 1860s; the most dangerous was the Taiping
The Taiping ("Great Peace") program proposed by Hong Xiuquan
Called for end of Qing dynasty; resented Manchu rule
Radical social change: no private property, footbinding, concubinage
Popular in southeast China; seized Nanjing (1853), moved on Beijing
Taiping defeat by combined Qing and foreign troops
Gentry sided with government; regional armies had European weapons
Taipings defeated in 1864; the war claimed twenty to thirty million lives
Reform frustrated
The Self-Strengthening Movement (1860-1895)
Sought to blend Chinese cultural traditions with European industrial technology
Built shipyards, railroads, weapon industries, steel foundries, academies
Not enough industry to make a significant change
Powerful empress dowager Cixi opposed changes
Spheres of influence eroded Chinese power
Foreign powers seized Chinese tribute states of Vietnam, Burma, Korea, Taiwan
1898, they carved China into spheres of economic influence, each a different province
The hundred-days reforms (1898)
Two Confucian scholars advised radical changes in imperial system
Young emperor Guangxu inspired to launch wide-range reforms
Movement crushed by Cixi and supporters; emperor imprisoned; reformers killed
The Boxer rebellion (the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists), 1899-1900
Local militia attacked foreigners, Chinese Christians
Crushed by European and Japanese troops
Collapse of Qing dynasty in 1912
The Transformation of Japan
From Tokugawa to Meiji
Crisis and reform in early nineteenth century
Crisis: crop failure, high taxes, rising rice prices all led to protests and rebellions
Tokugawa bakufu tried conservative reforms, met with resistance
Foreign pressure for Japan to reverse long-standing closed door policy
1844 requests by British, French, and United States for the right of entry rebuffed
1853, U.S. Commodore Perry sailed U.S. fleet to Tokyo Bay, demanded entry
Japan forced to accept unequal treaties with United States and other western countries
The end of Tokugawa rule followed these humiliations
Widespread opposition to shogun rule, especially in provinces
Dissidents rallied around emperor in Kyoto
The Meiji restoration, 1868
After brief civil war, Tokugawa armies defeated by dissident militia
The boy emperor Mutsuhito, or Meiji, regained authority
End of almost seven centuries of military rule in Japan
Meiji reforms
Meiji government welcomed foreign expertise
Fukuzawa Yukichi studied western constitutions and education
Ito Hirobumi helped build Japanese constitutional government
Abolition of the feudal order essential to new government
Daimyo and samurai lost status and privileges
Districts reorganized to break up old feudal domains
New conscript army ended power of samurai; rebelled in 1877 but lost
Revamping tax system
Converted grain taxes to a fixed money tax: more reliable income for state
Assessed taxes on potential productivity of arable land
Constitutional government, the emperor's "gift" to the people in 1889
Emperor remained supreme, limited the rights of the people
Less than 5 percent of adult males could vote
Legislature, the Diet, was an opportunity for debate and dissent
Remodeling the economy and infrastructure
Transportation: railroads, telegraph, steamships
Education: universal primary and secondary; competitive universities
Industry: privately owned, government controlled arms industry
Zaibatsu: powerful financial cliques
Costs of economic development borne by Japanese people
Land tax cost peasants 40 percent to 50 percent of crop yield, provided 90 percent of state revenue
Peasant uprisings crushed; little done to alleviate suffering
Labor movement also crushed; Meiji law treated unions and strikes as criminal
Japan became an industrial power in a single generation
