Untitled Flashcards Set

China's self-image became detrimental to its development. With the mindset that they were still “The Middle Kingdom,” and superior to others, they continuously rejected foreign influence. This made it more likely that they would be exploited through the rejection of economic and political ties, particularly with Western nations. Other nations modernized prior to China, particularly through industrialization, because of their ignorance to change. These developments that other countries are going through have accelerated industrialization, militarization, and economic growth.

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1. Gradually, the central state lost power to provincial officials and local gentry. Among such officials, corruption was endemic, and harsh treatment of peasants was common. An official report issued, “Day and night soldiers [went] sent out to harass taxpayers. Sometimes corporal punishments [were] imposed upon tax delinquents; some of them [were] so badly beaten to exact the last penny that blood and flesh fly in all directions.” European military pressure and economic penetration during the first half of the nineteenth century disrupted internal trade routes, created substantial unemployment, and raised peasant taxes. This combination of circumstances, traditionally associated with a declining dynasty, gave rise to growing numbers of bandit gangs roaming the countryside and, even more dangerous, to outright rebellion. Beginning in the late eighteenth century, such rebellions drew on a variety of peasant grievances and found leadership in charismatic figures proclaiming a millenarian religious message. The culmination of China’s internal crisis lay in the Taiping Uprising, which set much of the country aflame between 1850 and 1864. It was a different kind of peasant upheaval as its leaders largely rejected Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhissm alike, finding their primary ideology in a unique form of Christianity.

The Mandate of Heaven promises peace as long as the correct ruler is in place. When that leader’s time is over, and their reign is supposed to be over, issues occur, such as natural disasters, rebellions / uprisings, etc. 

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1. By the 1830s, British, American, and other Western merchants had found an enormous, growing, and very profitable market for this highly addictive drug. 

The British were offended by the seizure of their property in opium and emboldened by their new military power. In turn, a large naval expedition was sent to China with the intent of ending restrictive conditions under which they had long traded with the country. The first Opium War began, in which Britain’s industrialization might proved decisive. The Treaty of Nanjing that ended the war in 1842 largely on British terms, imposed numerous restrictions on Chinese sovereignty and opened five ports to European traders. The British forced the Chinese to change their ways and allow trade upon British terms. 

Lin Zexu was given a task that was nearly impossible. He could not have handled it better. In established Confucian fashion, Lin undertook his enormous task with a combination of moral appeals, reasoned argument, political pressure, and coercion, while hoping to avoid outright armed conflict. It was an approach that focused on both the demand and supply sides of the problem. In dealing with Chinese opium users, Lin emphasized the health hazards of the drug and demanded that people turn in their supplies of opium and the pipes used to smoke it. 

China was no longer the center of civilization to which barbarians paid homage and tribute, rather, just a weak and dependent nation among many others. The Qing dynasty remained in power, but in a weakened condition, which served European interests well and Chinese interests poorly. Restrictions imposed by the unequal treaties clearly inhibited China’s industrialization, as foreign goods and foreign investment flooded the country largely unrestricted. Chinese businessmen mostly served foreign firms, rather than developing as an independent capitalist class capable of leading China’s own Industrial Revolution. 

Chinese authorities were not passive in the face of their country’s mounting crises both internal and external. Known as “self-strengthening,” their policies during the 1860s as well as the 1870s sought to reinvigorate a traditional China while cautiously borrowing from the West. Self-strengthening as an overall program for China’s modernization was inhibited by the fears of conservative leaders that urban, industrial, or commercial development would erode the power and privileges of the landlord class. The general failure of “self-strengthening” became apparent at the end of the century, when an antiforeign movement known as the Boxer Uprising erupted in Northern China. By the late 1890s, people were organizing a variety of clubs, study groups, and newspapers to examine China’s desperation and to explore alternative paths. They admired not only Western science and technology but Western political practices that limited the authority of the ruler and permitted wider circles of people to take part in public life. The Qing dynasty response to the new pressures proved inadequate. More extensive reform in the early twentieth century, including the end of the old examination system and the promise of a national parliament, was a case of too little too late.

Colonialism is the policy or practice of acquiring full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it economically.

The Raj is the ruler of India while under British rule

Sati is a former practice in India whereby a widow threw herself on to her husband's funeral pyre.

The British East India Company was a joint-stock company that traded with India, Southeast Asia, and East Asia from 1600 to 1874.

The Taiping Rebellion was a civil war in China that lasted from 1850 to 1864. It was a revolt against the Qing dynasty, led by Hong Xiuquan, who claimed to be the younger brother of Jesus Christ. The rebellion was fought over economic conditions and religious conviction

The Opium Wars were conflicts between China and Britain and France that took place in the 19th century. The wars were fought over Britain's desire to continue the opium trade, which was prohibited by the Chinese government. 

The Treaty of Nanjing was a peace agreement signed in 1842 that ended the First Opium War between Britain and China. It was the first of several "unequal treaties" that gave Western powers economic advantages over China.

The Boxer Uprising was a violent anti-foreign rebellion in China that occurred between 1899 and 1901. The rebellion was led by a secret society called the Society of the Righteous and Harmonious Fists, or the "Boxers.”

Conservative modernization is the process of adapting to modern needs while preserving core traditional values.

A Sphere of influence is a country or area in which another country has power to affect developments although it has no formal authority.

Extraterritoriality is the application of a country's laws outside of its borders. It can also refer to the immunity of certain people or entities from local laws

The Hundred Days of Reform was a reform movement in China that lasted from June 11 to September 22, 1898. The movement was an attempt to modernize China's economy, government, and society

“Sick man of Asia”  first referred to Qing China in the late 19th and early 20th centuries which, experiencing internal divisions and social upheaval at the time, was taken advantage of by the great powers.

The Tanzimat Reforms were a series of Western-inspired reforms that took place in the Ottoman Empire from 1839 to 1876. The reforms were intended to modernize the empire and address internal and external challenges. 

Young Turks were members of a revolutionary party in the Ottoman Empire who carried out the revolution of 1908 and deposed the sultan Abdul Hamid II.

“Sick man of Europe” refers to a European country experiencing significant economic decline, social unrest, or political instability, most commonly used historically to describe the Ottoman Empire during its period of decay in the 19th century, signifying its weakening power and impending collapse within Europe.

The Meiji Restoration was a political revolution in Japan in 1868 that restored power to the emperor and ended the Tokugawa shogunate. The Restoration marked the beginning of Japan's modernization and industrialization.

A Diet is a meeting of estates or representatives, or even a legislative assembly.

The Zaibatsu is a large Japanese business conglomerate.

Defensive modernization is a strategy countries use to strengthen their military and economy to defend themselves against external threats. It can include adopting Western technologies and practices while maintaining cultural identity.

Colonial rule created conditions that facilitated and increased cash-crop production to the advantage of local farmers. For example, British authorities in Burma acted to encourage rice production among small farmers through the ending of a prohibition on rice exports. This provided irrigation and transportation facilities, and enacted land tenure laws that facilitated private ownership of small farms. Under conditions like these, the population of the Irrawaddy Delta boomed, migrants from Upper Burma and India poured into the region, and rice exports soared. Local small farmers benefited considerably due to their newfound ability to own land, build substantial houses, and buy imported goods. For decades in the late nineteenth century, standards of living improved sharply, and huge increases in rice production fed millions of people in other parts of Asia and elsewhere.

British colonial authorities in India facilitated the migration of millions of Indians to work sites in Trinidad, Jamaica, Fiji, Malaysia, Ceylon, South Africa, Kenya, and Uganda to work as indentured laborers, receiving free passage and enough money to survive in return for five to seven years of heavy labor. Others operated as independent merchants. Mines were another source of wage labor for many Asians. In Malaysia, tin mining accelerated greatly in the late nineteenth century, and by 1895 that colony produced some 55% of the world’s tin. Operated initially by Chinese and later by European entrepreneurs, Malaysian tin mines drew many millions of impoverished Chinese workers on strictly controlled 3 year contracts. Terrible living conditions, disease, and accidents generated extraordinarily high death rates.

In precolonial Africa, women were almost everywhere active farmers, with responsibility for planting, weeding, and harvesting in addition to food preparation and child care. As the demands of the colonial economy grew, women’s lives increasingly diverged from those of men. Among the Ewe people of southern Ghana, men almost completely dominated the highly profitable cacao farming, whereas women assumed near total responsibility for domestic food production. The colonial economy provided a measure of opportunity for enterprising women, particularly in small-scale trade and marketing. In some parts of West Africa, women came to dominate this sector of the economy through buying foodstuffs, cloth, and inexpensive imported goods, while men controlled the more profitable wholesale and import-export trade. Such opportunities sometimes gave women considerable economic autonomy. Women of impoverished rural families, by necessity, often became virtually independent heads of household in the absence of their husbands. Others took advantage of new opportunities in such mission schools, towns, and mines to flee the restrictions of rural patriarchy. 

Colonial rule served, for better or worse, to further the integration of Asian and African economies into a global network of exchange, centered in Europe. In many places, the process was well underway prior to conquest imposing foreign rule, and elsewhere it occurred without formal colonial control. Nonetheless, it is apparent that within the colonial world, far more land and labor were devoted to production for the global market at the end of the colonial era than at its beginning. Second, Europeans could hardly avoid conveying to the colonies some elements of their own modernizing process. It was in their best interests to do so, and many felt duty bound to “improve” the societies they briefly governed. Modern administrative and bureaucratic structures facilitated colonial control; communication and transportation infrastructure (railroads, motorways, ports, telegraphs, postal services) moved products to the world market; schools trained the army of intermediaries on which colonial rule depended; and modest health care provisions fulfilled some of the “civilizing mission” to which many Europeans felt committed. Third, a major breakthrough in modern industrial society occurred in the colonial world. When India became independent after two centuries of colonial rule by the world’s first industrial society, it was still one of the poorest of the world’s developing countries. While the British did not create Indian poverty, they did not overcome it to any substantial degree. Scholars continue to debate the reasons for that failure: was it the result of deliberate British policies, or was it due to the conditions of Indian society? The nationalist movements that surged across Asia and Africa in the twentieth century had their own answer. 

To European colonizers, education was a means of “uplifting native races,” a paternalistic obligation of the superior to the inferior. To previously illiterate people, the knowledge of reading and writing of any kind often suggested a power that was almost magical. Within the colonial setting, it could mean an escape from some of the most onerous obligations of living European control, such as forced labor. More positively, it meant access to better-paying positions in government bureaucracies, mission organizations, or business firms and to the exciting imported goods that their salaries could buy. Moreover, education often provided social mobility and elite status within their own communities and an opportunity to achieve, or at least approach, equality with whites in racially defined societies. In the long run, however, the educated classes in colonial societies everywhere found European rule far more of an obstacle to their countries’ development than a means of achieving it. Turning decisively against a despised foreign imperialism, they led the many struggles for independence that came to fruition in the second half of the twentieth century. 

Christianity was widely associated with modern education, and, especially in Africa, mission schools were the primary providers of Western education. The young, the poor, and many women were all oppressed groups in many African societies. They found new opportunities and greater freedom in some association with missions. 

Before the British takeover, little sense of commonality united the many diverse communities who practiced Islam, such as urban and rural dwellers; nomads and farmers; artisans, merchants, and state officials. But the British had created separate inheritance laws for all Muslims and all others for all Hindus. As some anti-British patriots began to cast India in Hindu terms, the idea of Muslims as a separate community, which was perhaps threatened by the much larger number of Hindus, began to make sense to some who practiced Islam. In the early twentieth century, a young Hindu Bengali schoolboy noticed that “our Muslim school-fellows were beginning to air the fact of their being Muslims rather more consciously than before and with a  touch of assertiveness.”

African peoples had long recognized differences among themselves based upon language, kinship, clan, village, or state, but these were seldom clearly defined. Boundaries fluctuated and were hazy as local communities often incorporated a variety of culturally different peoples. The idea of an Africa sharply divided into separate and distinct “tribes” was a European notion that facilitated colonial administration and reflected Europeans’ belief in African primitiveness. When the British began to rule the peoples living along the northern side of Lake Tanganyika (in present-day Tanzania), they found a series of communities that were similar to one another in language and costumes, yet they governed themselves separately and certainly had not regarded themselves as a distinct “tribe.” British attempts to rule them as a single people, first through a “paramount chief” and later through a council of chiefs and elders that resulted in their being called, collectively, the Nyakyusa. By requiring people to identify their tribe on applications for jobs, schools, and identity cards, colonial governments spread the idea of tribe widely within their colonies. These ethnic identities were found useful by Africans, especially in rapidly growing urban areas. Surrounded by a bewildering variety of people and in a setting where competition for jobs, housing, and education was very intense, migrants to the city found it helpful to categorize themselves and others in larger ethnic terms. In many colonial cities, people who spoke similar languages, shared a similar culture, or came from the same general part of the country began to think of themselves as a single people, thus forming a new tribe.

The Ottoman Empire was unable to prevent regions such as India, Indonesia, West Africa, and Central Asia from falling under the control of Christian powers. The Ottoman Empire’s own domains shrank considerably at the hands of Russian, British, Austrian, and French aggression. The central Ottoman state had weakened, particularly in its ability to raise necessary revenue, as provincial authorities and local warlords gained greater power. In addition, the Janissaries, the once effective and innovative elite infantry units of Ottoman military forces, lost their military edge, becoming a highly conservative force within the empire. Competition from cheap European manufactured goods hit Ottoman artisans hard and led to urban riots protesting foreign imports. A series of arguments, known as capitulations, between the Ottoman Empire granted Westerners various exemptions from Ottoman law and taxation. Like the unequal treaties with China, the agreements facilitated European penetration of the Ottoman economy and became widely resented. Such measures eroded Ottoman sovereignty and reflected the changing position of that empire relative to Europe. 

China as well as the Ottoman Empire were able to become semi colonies within the informal European empires. They were unable to replicate the industrial economies of the Western world, or the strong states required to fend off European intrusion and restore their former status in the world. As both China and the Ottoman Empire proceeded in efforts at defensive modernization, the goal was to preserve their independence.

Ottoman reforms began in the late eighteenth century when Sultan Selim III sought to reorganize and update the army, drawing on European advisers and techniques. Even these modest innovations stirred the hostility of powerful factions among both the ulama and the elite military corps of Janissaries, who saw the conflict with both Islam and their own institutional interests. Selim was overthrown in 1807 and then murdered due to such strong opposition to his measures. Subsequent sultans, however, crushed the Janissaries and brought the ulama more thoroughly under state control than elsewhere in the Islamic world. Decades later, more far-reaching reformist measures, known as Tanzimat, took shape as the Ottoman leadership sought to provide economic, social, and legal underpinnings for a strong and newly re centralized state. Factories that produced cloth, paper, and armaments; modern mining operations; reclamation and resettlement of agricultural land; telegraphs, steamships, railroads, and a modern postal service; Western-style law codes and courts; and new elementary and secondary schools were all new departures that began a long process of both modernization and westernization in the Ottoman Empire. Even more revolutionary were changes in the legal status of the empire’s diverse communities, which gave non-Muslims equal rights under the law. The declaration represented a change that challenged the fundamentally Islamic character of the state. Mixed tribunals with representatives from various religious groups were established to hear cases involving non-Muslims. More Christians were appointed to high office, and a mounting tide of secular legislation and schools drew heavy on European models while also competing with traditional Islamic institutions.

After the military coup of 1908, the Young Turks made an attempt to redefine the Ottoman Empire. They did this through exercising real power, which led to secularized schools, courts, and law codes. They permitted elections and competing parties, established a single Law of Family Rights for all, regardless of religion, and they encouraged Turkish as the official language of the empire.

Japan experienced a burst of not only economic growth, but commercialization and urban development as well. By 1750, it became possibly the most urbanized country. Samurai started to move more into the economy, leaving behind the militant life. Merchants were able to prosper in the commercial environment, and the influence of Confucianism encouraged education, as well as a large literate population. In fact, 40% of men, and 15% of women were able to both read and write.

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1. A political change was the overthrowing of the Tokugawa shogunate as well as the institution of power to the Emperor back in Kyoto. In addition, the end of the daimyo and institution of governors to rule parts of Japan occurred. A social change was the end of the Confucian based society, therefore everyone was made commoners under the law. Japan also established numerous enterprises, more than Europe or the US, and later sold them to private investors in order to increase industrialization.

 Japan was able to overthrow and rebuild its government without mass violence and destruction, contrary to China and other countries. 

Fukuzaawa Yukichi advocated for education for girls, gender equality (for certain matters) and the end of prostitution and concubinage. Feminist movements rose in the 1880’s where Kishida Toshiko, a leading feminist, took a 2 month speaking tour in which she talked to massive crowds on gender equality. However, most laws put into place did not increase fairness and equality for women and certain laws further suppressed women's rights. 

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Japan embraced the larger world, especially Western culture and ideas. Japan was able to escape from being a colonial part of the West, so it instead started its own colonial empire. A strong military presence was established through victories over China and Russia. Japan also gained control of Taiwan, Korea, and China’s Shandong Peninsula; Both Europeans and Americans saw Japan as an “economic, political, and military competitor in Asia.” 

Japan quickly agreed to Western unequal treaties in order to avoid having the same fate as China, seeing China’s fall from grace by refusing the west. Rather than fighting the west while being behind in Industrialization, Japan focused on modernizing themselves to build power, which led to them becoming a dominant power.