27: Russia and Japan: Industrialization Outside the West Flashcards
Holy Alliance
Alliance among Russia, Prussia, and Austria in defense of religion and the established order; formed at Congress of Vienna by most conservative monarchies of Europe.
Decembrist uprising
Political revolt in Russia in 1825; led by middle-level army officers who advocated reforms; put down by Tsar Nickolas I.
Crimean War
Fought between 1854 and 1856; began as Russian attempt to attack Ottoman Empire; Russian defeat in the face of Western industrial technology; led to Russian reforms under Tsar Alexander II.
emancipation of the serfs
Tsar Alexander II ended rigorous serfdom in Russia in 1861; serfs obtained no political rights; required to stay in villages until they could repay aristocracy for land.
zemstvoes
Local political councils created as part of reforms of Tsar Alexander II; gave some Russians, particularly middle-class professionals, some experience in government; councils had no impact on national policy.
trans-Siberian railroad
Constructed in 1870s to connect European Russia with the Pacific; completed by the end pf the 1880s; brought Russia into a more active Asian role.
Witte, Sergi
Russian minister of finance from 1892 to 1903; economic modernizer responsible for high tariffs, improved banking system; encouraged Western investors to build factories in Russia.
intelligentsia
Russian term denoting articulate intellectuals as a class; 19th-century group bent on radical change in Russian political and social system; often wished to maintain a Russian culture distinct from that of the West.
anarchists
Political groups seeking abolition of all formal government; formed in many parts of Europe and Americas in late 19th century and early 20th centuries; particularly prevalent in Russia, opposing tsarist autocracy and becoming a terrorist movement responsible for assassination of Alexander II in 1881.
Ulyanov, Vladimir Ilyich (Lenin)
Better known as Lenin; most active Russian Marxist leader; insisted on importance of disciplined revolutionary cells; leader of Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.
Bolsheviks
Literally, the majority party; the most radical branch of the Russian Marxist movement; led led my V. I. Lenin and dedicated to his concept of social revolution; actually a minority in the Russian Marxist political scheme until its triumph in the 1917 revolution.
Russo-Japanese War
War between Japan and Russia (1904-1905) over territory in Manchuria; Japan defeated the Russians, largely because of its naval power; Japan annexed Korea in 1910 as a result of military dominance.
duma
National parliament created in Russia in the aftermath of the Revolution of 1905;progressively stripped of power during the reign of Tsar Nicholas II; failed to forestall further revolution.
Stolypin reforms
Reforms introduced by the Russian interior minister Piotyr Stolypin intended to placate the peasantry in the aftermath of the Revolution of 1905; included reduction in redemption payments, attempt to create market-oriented peasantry.
Kulaks
Agricultural entrepreneurs who utilized the Stolypin and later NEP reforms to increase agricultural production and buy additional land
terakoya
Commoner schools founded during the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan to teach reading, writing, and the rudiments of Confucianism; resulted in high literacy rate, approaching 40% of Japanese males.
Dutch Studies
Group of Japanese scholars interested in implications of Western science and technology beginning in the 17th century; urged freer exchange with West; based studies on few Dutch texts available in Japan.
Perry, Matthew
American commodore who visited Edo Bay with American fleet in 1853; insisted on opening ports to American trade on threat of naval bombardment; won rights for American trade with Japan in 1854.
Diet
Japanese parliament established as part of the new constitution of 1889; part of Meiji reforms; could pass laws and approve budgets; able to advise government but not to control.
zaibatsu
Huge industrial combines created in Japan in the 1890s as part of the process of industrialization.
Sino-Japanese War
War fought between Japan and Qing China between 1894 and 1895; resulted in Japanese victory; frustrated Japanese imperial aims because of Western insistence that Japan with draw from Liaodong peninsula.
yellow peril
Western term for perceived threat of Japanese imperialism around 1900; met by increased Western imperialism in region.
