Strayer 19 Dealing with "the West"

24/2/2013

Hope you find these topics as interesting as I do.

BP1: How did European expansion in the nineteenth century differ from that of the Early Modern Era?

Europe in the nineteenth century utilized immense new resources created by the Industrial Revolution to drive its expansion.

European states were more powerful in the nineteenth century and were able to field more military resources in their imperialist competition with each other.

To a greater extent than before, in the nineteenth century Europe integrated other parts of the world in networks of trade, investment, and sometimes migration. This eventually generated a new world economy.

Unlike the early modern period, in the nineteenth century European expansion brought with it a new culture of modernity—its scientific rationalism and technological achievements, its belief in a better future, and its ideas of nationalism, socialism, feminism, and individualism.

On another note, Strayer uses (and I'm semi-paraphrasing here as the book's not in front of me) "millennial religious movements". I think it unlikely you know what that means. So look it up. As a mean old history teacher, I'm likely to assess your understanding of that. Remember "transubstantiation" and how that bloodied your nose? (Is that a pun?)

Don't ignore images, charts and maps. Look at the image on the WHAP page, that's the way I feel about reading.

10 Comments

Bingham

24/2/2013 05:13:45

BP2: What differences can you identify in how China, the Ottoman Empire, and Japan experienced Western imperialism and confronted it? How might you account for those differences?

Well, this is the heart of the chapter. A very non-Eurocentric consideration. By the way, this chapter is ripe with interesting comparisons. Using your knowledge of thesis statements, what comparison essay prompt could you write drawing on the information in this chapter? So, anyway...

Both China and the Ottoman Empire became more reliant on Western finance than Japan.

Both China and the Ottoman Empire experienced occupation of some of their territory by Western military forces; Japan did not.

China, the Ottoman Empire, and Japan all were forced by Western powers to sign unequal treaties or capitulations, but Japan eventually was able to renegotiate its treaties in its favor.

All three launched modernization programs, but Japan’s was more thorough and more successful than those of China and the Ottoman Empire, turning Japan into a modern, united, industrial nation.

A number of factors can explain the differences in how they experienced Western imperialism, including;
the amount of internal strife within each state,
the strategic and economic importance to European powers of the Ottoman Empire and China as compared to Japan,
and the relatively late and accidentally lucky (fortuitous) timing of Japan’s interactions with Western powers, i.e. later in the timeline.

Steffannie Alter

24/2/2013 07:03:15

What accounts for the massive peasant rebellions of nineteenth century China?

China's bureaucratic state didn't enlarge itself to keep pace with the growing population and was therefore unable to perform functions like tax collection, social welfare, and security effectively. The central state lost power to provincial officials and local gentry who were often corrupt and treated peasants harshly, giving rise to gangs and peasant rebellion.

Christina Hong

24/2/2013 07:19:01

How did Japan's relationship to the larger world change during its modernization process?

•escaped its semicolonial entanglements with the West, launching its own empire-building enterprise
•successful wars against China and Russia established Japan as a formidable military competitor in East Asia and the first Asian state to defeat a major European power
•to Europeans and Americans, Japan was an economic, political, and military competitor in Asia
•for subject peoples, the rise of Japan and its defeat of Russia served as a model for modern development and an ally in the struggle against imperialism
•thousands flocked to Japan to study its achievements

•gained colonial control of Taiwan and Korea and a territorial foothold in Manchuria
•defeat in Russia at the hands of the Japanese triggered a revolution, and some Poles, Finns, and Jews liberated themselves from the Russian Empire
•Chinese reformers and nationalists learned valuable lessons for themselves through their experience with Japan
•in the Islamic world, Japan's victory over Russia was considered an "awakening of the East"

Christina Hong

24/2/2013 07:34:11

What lay behind the decline of the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century?

•Napoleon's invasion of Egypt
•parts of the empire such as Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania achieved independence using a newfound sense of nationalism and support from the British or the Russians
•central Ottoman state was unable to raise necessary revenue as provincial authorities and local warlords gained greater power
•Janissaries became reactionary defenders of the status quo and their military effectiveness was diminished
•the centrality of the Ottoman and Arab lands in Afro-Eurasian commerce diminished as Europeans achieved direct oceanic access to Asian treasures
•competition from cheap European manufactured goods led to urban riots protesting foreign imports
•a set of capitulations gave foreign merchants immunity from Ottoman laws and legal procedures, exempted them from internal taxes, and limited import and export duties on their products
•foreign representatives granted these privileges to Ottoman citizens, and hundreds of them received a privileged status, removing them from Ottoman control and enhanced European penetration of the Ottoman empire
•Ottoman Empire began to rely on foreign loans to finance its efforts at economic development. Being unable to pay off interests its debts, its revenue-generating system succumbed to foreign control

Christina Hong

24/2/2013 07:47:03

In what ways did the Industrial Revolution shape the character of nineteenth-century European imperialism?

•productivity of industrial technology and growing affluence created the need for extensive raw materials and agricultural products
•industrial capitalism produced more manufactured goods than needed, leading to a significant increase in exported goods, particularly to Asia, which showed little interest in European commodities up until the nineteenth century
•began to find it more profitable to invest money abroad than at home
•imperialism provided potential social benefits--solving class conflicts while avoiding revolution or serious redistribution of wealth
•mass nationalism emerged following the unification of Italy and Germany
•the industrial era provided new means for expansion, such as the invention of steam-driven ships, the underwater telegraph, and the discovery of quinine

Victoria Wren

24/2/2013 09:19:28

What contributed to changing European views of Asians and Africans in the 19th century?

1. the industrial age promoted a secular arrogance among Europeans
a. was sometimes combined with a sense of religious superiority
b. Europeans increasingly despised other cultures
c. African societies lost status
i. earlier: were regarded as nations, their leaders as kings
ii. nineteenth century: became tribes led by chiefs in European eyes
d. new kind of racism, expressed in terms of modern science
i. scientific “proof” of some peoples’ inferiority
ii. creation of a hierarchy of races
iii. view of race as determining intelligence, moral development, and destiny
iv. view that inferior peoples threatened Europeans with their diseases
2. sense of responsibility to the “weaker races”
a. duty to civilize them
b. bringing them education, health care, Christianity, good government, etc., was regarded as “progress” and “civilization”
3. social Darwinism: an effort to apply Darwin’s evolutionary theory to human history
a. regarded as inevitable that the “unfit” races should be displaced or destroyed

Patrick Song

24/2/2013 14:45:52

"In what ways was japan changing during the Tokugawa era?"

- The Samurai class evolved to a more salaried bureaucratic or administrative class, but still maintained their devotion to daimyo lords and warrior code of lyalty, honor and self-sacrifice.
- Japan underwent agricultural changes like growing more rice and engaging in a variety of rural manufacturing enterprises.
- Japan was the most urbanized country in the world.
-Edo was the worlds largest city with a population of 1 million people. Wow amazing 1 million people... >.>
- Influence of Confucianism encouraged education and generated a remarkably literate population.
-Tokugawa era provided a solid foundation for Japan's remarkable industrial growth
- Merchants prospered and supported urban culture while daimyos didn't really like it. As a result merchants had money but lacked social class. On the other hand samurais had high class but became indebt to lower more "inferior" merchants.
weird huh?
- Corruption became widespread.
- mounting wave of local peasant uprisings and urban riots expressed the grievances of the poor. kinda like the french revolution in a way o-o where the poor people got fed up with the rich aristocratic people and revolted and stuff. o-o

patrick

24/2/2013 14:49:50

er meh gerd 80 days till whap exam D:

The Illustrious Anna

25/2/2013 13:27:05

All right, guys. This is where it gets.... a-complicated. Well, not really. I just felt like quoting Rango.
Here's a lot about Japan in song form. I did this really late, so don't be too judgmental, a'ight?
Because the tune makes my dad want to jump off a cliff, I will only post it upon request.

'Kay, here goes:

The second half of the 19th cent.
Nippon became imperialist
It was a feat that
China and Ottoman could not do

For a while the Tokugawa
kept the daimyo from going to war
This internal peace was from
1600 to 1850

This led to a burst of growth
Urban and commerce and economy
With literacy; they made a base
For many and industry

Famines, rebellions in 1830s
Perry & black ships in '53
Meiji restores in '68
and government projects in 70s

western clothing in court - '72
samurai crushed in '77
80s - the government sells itself
and Iro Hirobumi studies abroad

PEASANTS! in '83 and '84
taxes and prices are high and they're poor
women - no politics in '87
new constitut. in '89

'94, '95 - Sino-Japanese War
by 1901 labor moves. are no more
Anglo-Japan. tol'rence means they Great Power
'04-'05 oh look, fighting with Russia

Primary schooling in 1905
Korea annexed in 1910
and you'll never guess what; 1912
The Meiji emperor dies!

The Illustrious Anna

27/2/2013 16:33:13

Did I chase everyone off with my sorry excuse of a song? Come back! Here's a margin question.

In what ways did various groups define the Ottoman Empire during the 19th cent?

• The Young Ottomans, made up of a number of low-level officials, military officers, writers, journalists etc. thought the empire was "backwards" and believed it needed to turn from despotism to a constitutional regency. They saw the empire as a secular state whose people were loyal to the dynasty that ruled it, rather than a Muslim state based on religious principles.
• (?) The Ottoman rules, however, thought the empire should be a despotic state that favored the ulama.
• The Young Turks, mostly civilian elites, saw the Ottoman Empire as neither a dynastic state nor as a pan-Islamic empire, but as a Turkish national state (based on ethnicity, not faith).

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Strayer 19 Dealing with "the West"

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