Chapter 26: The New Power Balance, 1850-1900

Question 1

Who was Commodore Matthew Perry?

Answer 1

a US Navy commander who became the first foreigner to break barriers that kept Japan isolated

“Matthew C. Perry (born April 10, 1794, South Kingston, R.I., U.S.—died March 4, 1858, New York City) was a U.S. naval officer who headed an expedition that forced Japan in 1853–54 to enter into trade and diplomatic relations with the West after more than two centuries of isolation. Through his efforts, the United States became an equal power with Britain, France, and Russia in the economic exploitation of East Asia.

[…]

[The] Japanese, who were aware of China’s recent defeat by the technologically superior Western powers in the Opium War (1839–42), decided to agree to Perry’s terms as a way of stalling for time while they improved their defenses. In February 1854 he reappeared in Edo (modern Tokyo) Bay—this time with nine ships—and on March 31 concluded the Treaty of Kanagawa, the first treaty between the two countries. The pact assured better treatment of shipwrecked seamen, permitted U.S. ships to obtain fuel and supplies at two minor ports, arranged for a U.S. consul to reside at Shimoda, and opened the way for further U.S. trading privileges. Perry’s success demonstrated the inability of the Shogun, Japan’s hereditary military dictator, to enforce his country’s traditional isolationist policy; the Japanese were soon forced to sign similar treaties with other Western nations. These events contributed to the collapse of the shogunate and ultimately to the modernization of Japan.” https://www.britannica.com/biography/Matthew-C-Perry

Question 2

Who surpassed Britain as the leading industrial powers?

Answer 2

The US and Germany

Question 3

Who had the largest rail network?

Answer 3

The US.

Question 4

What type of regions were railroads built in besides industrialized countries?

Answer 4

Those with abundant resources.

Question 5

Why did steamships become more efficient?

Answer 5

Steel hulls replaced wood ones, technological improvements led to better propellers and more fuel efficient engines

Question 6

What did Japan do to build their railroads?

Answer 6

Borrowed British engineers

Question 7

What was the significance of railroads?

Answer 7

increased commerce and trade, colonization, negative environmental impact (deforestation, mining)

Question 8

What was the purpose of the Suez Canal?

Answer 8

It shortened the time to get from Europe to Asia. It was built in Egypt, so it was important that the British controlled it.

Question 9

How were ships around the world coordinated?

Answer 9

Entrepreneurs developed a form of organization known as the shipping line to make the most efficient use of these large and expensive new [steam]ships. Shipping lines also used the growing system of submarine telegraph cables to coordinate the movements of their ships around the globe.

Question 10

How did technology to make steel increase in versatility?

Answer 10

William Kelly discovered that air forced through molten pig iron turned into steel without additional fuel, Henry Bessemer improved this and lowered the price to 1/10 of the cost in the Bessemer process. Steel was made from scrap iron and phosphoric iron ores, which increased steel production.

Question 11

How did the chemical industry develop?

Answer 11

Synthetic dye was created, ruining natural dye producers like India indigo plantations. Explosives, such as dynamite were created.

“The synthetic dye boom started with mauveine, the purple dye discovered in 1856 by 18-year-old chemist William Henry Perkin. Within decades synthetic dyes were available in almost any shade you could imagine—bringing with them a fashion revolution, but also environmental consequences.” (https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects-and-stories/chemistry/colourful-chemistry-artificial-dyes)

Question 12

What did Thomas Edison do?

Answer 12

He developed and popularized an incandescent lamp in 1879-80 and created the first electrical distribution network in 1882, among many other inventions and improvements.

Question 13

What was the significance of electricity?

Answer 13

It wasn’t as environmentally damaging, energy was cheaper, the standard of living improved, and productivity increased

Question 14

What was the impact of interconnected economies?

Answer 14

They prospered and fell together, a diversity of goods was produced (mass consumption), and less industrialized countries were more vulnerable to market forces (produced raw materials)

Question 15

What caused migrations in the 19th century?

Answer 15

Irish famine, persecution of Jews in Russia, poverty and population growth in Italy, cultural ties between FB (foreign born?)/US, availability of steam ship

Question 16

Who migrated as indentured servants and what is the significance of this?

Answer 16

Asians. Indentured servitude filled the void left by the abolition of slavery.

“After the abolition of slavery, newly free men and women refused to work for the low wages on offer on the sugar farms in British colonies in the West Indies. Indentured labour was a system of bonded labour that was instituted following the abolition of slavery. Indentured labour were recruited to work on sugar, cotton and tea plantations, and rail construction projects in British colonies in West Indies, Africa and South East Asia. From 1834 to the end of the WWI, Britain had transported about 2 million Indian indentured workers to 19 colonies including Fiji, Mauritius, Ceylon, Trinidad, Guyana, Malaysia, Uganda, Kenya and South Africa.” https://www.striking-women.org/module/map-major-south-asian-migration-flows/indentured-labour-south-asia-1834-1917

Question 17

What happened as a result of larger city populations?

Answer 17

Municipal governments provided social services.The poor continued to live in the worst conditions.

Question 18

How were men and women divided?

Answer 18

In “separate spheres”- women were primarily wives, mothers and homemakers, men were primarily breadwinners and participants of business and politics. Girls were typically taught embroidery, drawing, etc. with no monetary reward while boys were typically prepared for the business world

Question 19

Who did the separation of genders affect the most?

Answer 19

Women. They had to raise kids and work, and were vulnerable to abuse as domestics.

Question 20

What revolutionary ideas came about?

Answer 20

Socialism- questioned the sanctitiy of private property and labor unions- organizations formed by industrial workers to defend interests.

Question 21

What did Karl Marx see history as?

Answer 21

a long series of class struggle/ conflicts between social classes, the latest of which was between the bourgeoisie and proletariat

Question 22

What did Marx found and what was the workers’ response?

Answer 22

The Working Man’s Association, workers turned to voting and labor unions.

Question 23

What is an anarchist?

Answer 23

A revolutionary who believes in abolishment of all private property and government

Question 24

What is nationalism?

Answer 24

A political ideology that stresses membership in a nation over being a subject in a monarchy

Question 25

What elements were crucial to national identity?

Answer 25

language, territory, and culture. People were united and political leaders could use this to their advantage.

Question 26

What was nationalism associated with until the 1860s?

Answer 26

liberalism, a middle-class ideology that called for freedom from government restraits, equality in law, freedom, rights protected in docs, religious toleration, separation of church and state, representative assembly

Question 27

Who was against Italian unification?

Answer 27

The Pope and Austria, who controlled 2 Italian states

Question 28

How was Italian unification accomplished?

Answer 28

Count Cavour started a war with Austria, uniting the n. Italian states. A constitutional monarchy under King Victor Emmanuel was created. In the South, Guiseppe Garibaldi overthrew the Kingdom of 2 Sicilies.

Question 29

Who led unification in Germany?

Answer 29

Prussia- they had advanced industrialization and a modern army

Question 30

How did unification in Germany occur?

Answer 30

Chancellor Otto van Bismark started a war with Austria, forming the N. German Confederacy. He didn’t take land from Austria, and attacked France in the “Franco-Prussian War,” unifying Germany.

Question 31

What states did Germany face conflict with and why?

Answer 31

Loraine and Alsace. They considered themselves French but spoke German, and were a major industrial center.

Question 32

What changed foreign and domestic affairs in Japan during this period?

Answer 32

Matthew Perry demanded trade ports to be opened, creating the Treaty of Kanagawa. There was a civil war, in which the Japanese tried to overthrow the Shogunate, resulting in the shogun stepping down.

Question 33

What was the Meiji Era?

Answer 33

Japan industrialized and modernized, taking cues from the German army, British navy, US education system, etc.

Question 34

What was Social Darwinism?

Answer 34

Herbert Spencer and others took up Darwin’s ideas of “survival of the fittest” and applied it to human society. It justified racial differences and poverty.

Question 35

Why did France fall 2nd place to Germany in influence of European affairs during this period?

Answer 35

They had a slow population increase and were divided between Monarchial Catholics and republican anticlerical views

Question 36

What was the Alfred Dreyfus affair?

Answer 36

A Jewish officer was falsely convicted of spying for the Germans, which reawakened anti-Semitism.

“The Dreyfus Affair was a political and criminal justice scandal in France that went from 1894 to 1906. French artillery officer Alfred Dreyfus, of Jewish descent, was convicted of treason in 1894 and sentenced to life in prison. In 1896, evidence arose that a French Army major named Ferdinand Walsin Esterhazy was the one responsible for Dreyfus’ alleged crimes. Dreyfus was not granted another trial until 1899, and the second trial divided French society between pro-Republican and anticlerical supporters of Dreyfus, and a pro-Army, mostly Catholic group who maintained he was guilty. The fascination with the case traveled to the United States, which covered the scandal in numerous newspapers over the years. Dreyfus was ultimately exonerated in 1906 and he was reinstated to the French army, but his case remained a notable example of antisemitism in the criminal justice system, showing how the press and public opinion can potentially manipulate a criminal case.” https://guides.loc.gov/chronicling-america-dreyfus-affair

Question 37

Why did Britain fall behind in influence in European affairs during this time period?

Answer 37

Splendid isolation

“For most of the 19th cent. Britain was diplomatically isolated, having what Palmerston called ‘no eternal allies’ to whom she owed favours. The obverse of this, of course, was that no other country owed favours to her. This was the context of Canadian premier Sir Wilfrid Laurier’s description of Britain’s situation in February 1896 as one of ‘splendid’ isolation, arising, he claimed, ‘from her superiority’. Others at that time were beginning to doubt this. Joseph Chamberlain in particular feared for the future of the British empire if it could not find an ally in Europe, and negotiated with Germany. That came to nothing; but early in the new century Britain did abandon isolation, at least partially, through a treaty with Japan (1902), ‘ententes’ with France (1904) and Russia (1907), and then, of course, involvement in the First World War.” https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803100524374

Question 38

Why did nationalism hurt Austria-Hungary?

Answer 38

They had diverse ethnic and linguistic groups. The Balkans tried to control, and they were Slavs, which caused tensions between Russia and Austria-Hungary. They annexed Bosnia as a result.

Question 39

What contributed to the instability of Russia?

Answer 39

Ethnic diversity- they had the largest Jew population despite anti-Semitic laws and massacres, many Jews fled to the Americas

Question 40

What was the Russo-Japanese War?

Answer 40

A war in 1904-1905 over access to Manchuria. Japan won

Question 41

What happened in China during this period that affected its international trade relations?

Answer 41

The French and British took advantage of their disarray to demand treaty ports. The British took over customs, free import of opium.

“Opium Wars, two armed conflicts in China in the mid-19th century between the forces of Western countries and of the Qing dynasty, which ruled China from 1644 to 1911/12. The first Opium War (1839–42) was fought between China and Britain, and the second Opium War (1856–60), also known as the Arrow War or the Anglo-French War in China, was fought by Britain and France against China. In each case the foreign powers were victorious and gained commercial privileges and legal and territorial concessions in China. The conflicts marked the start of the era of unequal treaties and other inroads on Qing sovereignty that helped weaken and ultimately topple the dynasty in favour of republican China in the early 20th century. Contributing to the start of the Opium Wars was the failed British trade mission of 1792-93 known as the Macartney Embassy.” https://www.britannica.com/topic/Opium-Wars

Question 42

How did Empress Dowager Cixi’s attitude toward foreign influence on China change during her nominal period of influence from 1850-1908?

Answer 42

She once encouraged construction, but later opposed railroads and foreign technology that could bring foreign influences, associating with the Boxer Rebellion

Question 43

What did Japan force China to do in the First Sino-Japanese War from 1894-1895?

Answer 43

evacuate Korea and cede Taiwan and the Liaodong Peninsula, pay indemnity.

“First Sino-Japanese War, conflict between Japan and China in 1894–95 that marked the emergence of Japan as a major world power and demonstrated the weakness of the Chinese empire. The war grew out of conflict between the two countries for supremacy in Korea. Korea had long been China’s most important client state, but its strategic location opposite the Japanese islands and its natural resources of coal and iron attracted Japan’s interest. […]

[…]

In the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which ended the conflict, China recognized the independence of Korea and ceded Taiwan, the adjoining Pescadores, and the Liaodong Peninsula in Manchuria.

China also agreed to pay a large indemnity and to give Japan trading privileges on Chinese territory. […]” https://www.britannica.com/event/First-Sino-Japanese-War-1894-1895

Question 44

What was the Boxer Uprising?

Answer 44

antiforeign riots in China; mobilizing against it as a pretext, Japan and Russia competed for the mineral-rich Chinese province Manchuria.

“Boxer Rebellion, officially supported peasant uprising of 1900 that attempted to drive all foreigners from China. “Boxers” was a name that foreigners gave to a Chinese secret society known as the Yihequan (“Righteous and Harmonious Fists”). The group practiced certain boxing and calisthenic rituals in the belief that this made them invulnerable. It was thought to be an offshoot of the Eight Trigrams Society (Baguajiao), which had fomented rebellions against the Qing dynasty in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Their original aim was the destruction of the dynasty and also of the Westerners who had a privileged position in China.” https://www.britannica.com/event/Boxer-Rebellion