Shifting Power: Internal and External Factors (1900 Onward)

Russian Empire

  • Internal Factors:
    • Slow modernization and resistance to political/economic reforms.
    • Brutal policies like Bloody Sunday (1905) led to unrest.
  • External Factors:
    • Lack of economic investment caused military weakness.
    • Losses in Crimean War and Russo-Japanese War.
    • WWI participation strained internal factors.
  • Results:
    • Bolshevik Revolution (1917) led by Vladimir Lenin.
    • End of Russian Empire, beginning of Communist Russia, exit from WWI.

Qing China

  • Internal Factors:
    • Ethnic tensions, food instability due to population growth.
    • Unfair trade conditions and rebellions like the Taiping Rebellion.
  • External Factors:
    • Pressure from industrialized nations, Opium Wars, and spheres of influence.
  • Results:
    • Nationalist revolution led by Sun Yat-Sen (3 principles: democracy, nationalism, livelihood).
    • End of Qing China, beginning of the Republic of China.

Mexico

  • Internal/External Factors:
    • Dictatorship under Porfirio Diaz, favored elites.
    • Foreign investment by the United States (banana republics).
  • Results:
    • The Mexican Revolution (1910-1930) led by Francisco Madero, Pancho Villa, and Emiliano Zapata.
    • Redistribution of land, new Constitution in 1917, creation of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI).

Ottoman Empire

  • Internal Factors:
    • Young Turks pushing for modernization and Turkish cultural dominance.
    • Failure to modernize/industrialize, unfair trade, foreign investment.
  • External Factors:
    • World War I: sided with Germany and lost, leading to the empire's dissolution.
  • Results:
    • The Turkish National Movement led by Mustafa Kemal (Ataturk).
    • End of Ottoman Empire, beginning of the Republic of Turkey.

A Nuanced Argument

  • Evaluate the extent to which the Turkish National Movement was a turning point for Turkish society.