APWH CH 28 - Russia & Japan

Holy Alliance

alliance between Russia, Prussia, and Austria in defense of the established order; formed by the most conservative monarchies of Europe during the Congress of Vienna.

Decembrist rising

unsuccessful 1825 political revolt in Russia by mid-level army officers advocating reforms.

Crimean War (1854–1856)

began with a Russian attack on the Ottoman Empire; France and Britain joined on the Ottoman side; resulted in a Russian defeat because of Western industrial might; led to Russian reforms under Alexander II.

emancipation of the serfs

Alexander II in 1861 ended serfdom in Russia; serfs did not obtain political rights and had to pay the aristocracy for lands gained.

zemstvoes

local political councils created as part of Alexander II’s reforms; gave middle-class professionals experience in government but did not influence national policy.

trans-Siberian railroad

constructed during the 1870s and 1880s to connect European Russia with the Pacific; increased the Russian role in Asia.

anarchists

political groups that thought the abolition of formal government was a first step to creating abetter society; became important in Russia and was the modern world’s first large terrorist movement.

Lenin (Vladimir Ilych Ulyanov)

Russian Marxist leader; insisted on the importance of disciplined revolutionary cells.

Bolsheviks

literally the majority party, but actually a minority group; the most radical branch of the Russian Marxist movement; led by Lenin.

Russo-Japanese War

1904; Russian expansion into northern China leads to war; rapid Japanese victory followed.

duma

Russian national assembly created as one of the reforms following the Revolution of 1905; progressively stripped of power during the reign of Nicholas II.

Stolypin reforms

Russian minister who introduced reforms intended to calm the peasantry after the Revolution of 1905; included reduction of land redemption payments and an attempt to create a market-oriented peasantry.

terakoya

commoner schools founded during the Tokugawa shogunate to teach reading, writing, and Confucian rudiments; by mid-19th century resulted in the highest literacy rate outside of the West.

Matthew Perry

American naval officer; in 1853 insisted under threat of bombardment on the opening of ports to American trade.

Diet

Japanese parliament established as part of the constitution of 1889; able to advise government but not control it.

Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895)

fought in Korea between Japan and Qing China; Japanese victory demonstrated its arrival as new industrial power.

Yellow peril

Western term for perceived threat from Japanese imperialism.