Chapter 31 Societies at Crossroads

Question 1

Muhammad Ali

Answer 1

• energetic general who built a powerful army and ruled Egypt
• most effective ruler of Egypt
• invaded Syria and Anatolia
• drafted peasants
• hired french and italian officers
• launched industrialization programs for cotton textiles and armaments

Question 2

Capitulations and Extraterritoriality

Answer 2

• agreements that exempted European visitors from Ottoman Law
• provided them with powers of extraterritoriality(right to exercise jurisdiction over their own citizens according to their own laws
• instruments of economic penetration
• European business people established tax-exempt banks and commercial enterprises
• permitted foreign governments to levy duties on Ottoman ports

Question 3

Mahmud II

Answer 3

• Selim’s cousin
• became sultan and ruled for over 30 years
• his reforms were viewed as a restoration of traditional Ottoman military
• had conflict with janossaries

Question 4

Abdul Hamid

Answer 4

• Ottoman sultan
• attempted to return to absolutism, nullified constitution, and restricted liberties
• was opposed by Young Turks

Question 5

What were the causes of the Ottoman Empire’s military decline? What was the main effect politically?

Answer 5

• weren’t expanding anymore, lost territory, had outdated training, technology, tactics, and strategies,and janissaries brokedown

Question 6

Which former Ottoman state became an independent and powerful rival?

Answer 6

• Egypt was a big threat to Ottomans
• Muhammad rose to power
• Britain intervened
• Ali made Egypt autonomous with ottoman empire

Question 7

What were the main ideas behind the Tanzimat? Who most strongly opposed it and why?

Answer 7

• it attacked Ottoman law in attempt to recover Ottoman sovereignty
• opposed by conservatives bc it undermines history, tradition, and religion of the empire

Question 8

Zemstvos

Answer 8

• elected direct assemblies subordinate to the tsarist autocracy
• each class nominated representatives as a local council of sorts
• some power was given to the people but was still limited under the stars

Question 9

How effective were the Young turks at reforming the Ottoman empire?

Answer 9

• vigorous reformers
• called for universal suffrage, equality before the law, freedom of religion, free public education, and freedom of women
• dethroned Mehmed V Rashid
• wanted to maintain Turkish hegemony
• also wanted Turkish to be official language
• as determined as they were, they were not very successful

Question 10

Crimean War

Answer 10

• Russia expanded into Manchuria, Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Mediterranean
• when Russia’s expansion led t interference with the Balkan provinces of the Ottoman this posed a threat to the balance of power in Europe
• Russia was against many countries/empires/kingdoms: Britain, France, Kingdom of Sardinia, and Ottoman Empire
• the war demonstrates Russian weakness
• Russia had humiliating defeats which caused tsarist autocracy to rethink social order

Question 11

Trans-Siberian Railway

Answer 11

• 5772 miles of railway from Moscow to Vladivostok

- opened siberia to new settlements and industrialization

Question 12

Pogroms

Answer 12

• jews were targeted during these riots that were allowed by tsars
• caused many jews to migrate to flee the persecution

Question 13

Bloody Sunday

Answer 13

• Tsars opened fire on workers who rebelled to try and get more rights instead of giving them more rights

Question 14

Soviets

Answer 14

• urban workers created new councils after Bloody Sunday so they could better organize strikes

Question 15

Soviets

Answer 15

• urban workers created new councils after Bloody Sunday so they could better organize strikes
• elected delegates were members of the soviets

Question 16

How was Russian society very different from Western Europe’s in the 19th century?

Answer 16

• Europe modernized and industrialized much faster while in Russia serfdom still prevailed and was largely an agricultural society

Question 17

To what extent did emancipation improve the life of the serfs or of Russian society?

Answer 17

• labor obligations slowly died out but they didn’t gain many political rights and had to pay redemption taxes on lands they believed was rightfully theirs
  some recovered from this debt but others never paid it off
• slight increase in agricultural production

Question 18

How else were industrialization and its effects similar

and different for Russia relative to Western Europe?

Answer 18

• Industrialization in Russia was different, as the motivation for developing industrially was for political and military gain, and the driving force behind industrialization was government policy rather than entrepreneurship
• Industrialization also started out slow in Russia, and surged in the last two decades of the nineteenth century.

Question 19

What were the ideas of the intelligentsia, especially the anarchists?

Answer 19

Social tensions that arose from industrialization caused protest by groups whose goals became more radical. Peasants were upset because they had little land, and mobile dissidents spread rebellious ideas throughout cities. At the center of the opposition to this industrialization was the intelligentsia, which was a group of university students and a class of intellectuals. Their goals varied, but they generally wanted significantly political reform and social change. They took ideas from western European socialism, and worked towards a socialist system that would go hand in hand with Russian cultural traditions. The anarchists were opposed to all forms of government and thought that individual freedom could not be realistic until the government was abolished. They wanted to put all authority in the hands of local governing councils elected by universal suffrage.

Question 20

How did Tsarist govt. respond to dissent?

Answer 20

As activists tried to spread their ideas, peasants couldn’t understand their speeches, but the police could. This caused Tsarist authorities to banish or imprison these idealists. They also resorted to repression, censoring publications and sending secret police to infiltrate and break up dissident organizations. Tsarist officials also launched a program of Russification to repress the use of languages other than Russian and to restrict educational opportunities to those who were loyal to the tsarist state. However, this only motivated the revolutionaries more.

Question 21

What were the leading factors for the revolutionary turmoil of 1905?

Answer 21

The assassination of Alexander II, who had emancipated serfs and launched political and social reform, as well as a disheartening defeat in the Russo-Japanese war resulted in the turmoil of 1905. Revolutionary turmoil paralyzed Russian cities and forced the government to make concessions.

Question 22

Treaty of Nanjing

Answer 22

• britain forced china to accept at end of opium war
• British no longer have to trade with Hong merchants
• Chinese pay 3 million to british as a result of the debts incurred by some of the Hog merchants
• Peace and friendship between China and Britain: full security of its persons in each other’s land
• China gives Britain access to trade in the following Treaty Ports
• Hong Kong given to the British in perpetuity
• China pays 6 million dollars to British as a result of imprisonment of British merchants, soldiers; 5% interest if not able to pay on time
• China pays 12 million silver to British for war expenses
• China releases British subjects in confinement
• Any Chinese imprisoned for helping british will also be released
• Fair tariff established and will be clear for all to see
• British and Chinese officials are on equal footing
• When England gets its first installment of $, they will remove their forces from Nanking

Question 23

Hong Xiuquan and Society of God Worshipers

Answer 23

• inspired and led Taiping rebellion
• called for destruction of Qing and radical reforms
• taiping reform program
  - contained many radical features that appealed to discontented subjects
  - abolition of private property, creation of communal wealth to be shared according to needs, the prohibition of footbinding and concubinage, free public education, simplification of the written language, and literacy for the masses
• his followers made up the society of god worshippers
• they took nanjing and made to capital of their taiping rebellion

Question 24

Empress Dowager

Answer 24

• Former imperial concubine who established herself as effective ruler of China during the last 50 years of the Qing dynasty
• Encouraged the shift to regional armies to defeat the Taipings

Question 25

Self-Strengthening Movement

Answer 25

• Most imaginative of the reform programs
• Empowered with imperial grants of authority that permitted them to raise troops, levy taxes, and run bureaucracies, several local leaders promoted reform
• Sought to blend Chinese cultural traditions with European industrial society
• Holding to Confucian values and rebuilding an agrarian society, they also built shipyards, constructed railroads, established weapons industries, etc.
• Brought only superficial change
• Did not bring enough industry to bring real military and economic strength to China
• Also encountered obstacles in the imperial government,
• Cixi diverted funds intended for the navy to build a magnificent marble boat
• Movement foundered on a contradiction: industrialization would bring fundamental change to an agrarian land, and education in European curricula would undermine the commitment to Confucian values

Question 26

Boxer Rebellion

Answer 26

• Antiforeign uprising supported by Cixi
• Violent movement spearheaded by militia units calling themselves the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists
• Referred to as the Boxers
• Organized to rid China of foreign devils and their influences
• Went on rampage in Northern China, killing foreigners and Chinese Christians
• Besieged foreign embassies in Beijing in summer of 1900
• Armed force of British, French, Russian, US, German, japanese troops quickly crushed the movement in bloody retaliation for the assault

Question 27

Why did the British turn to opium trade?

Answer 27

The British turned to Opium as they were seeking alternatives to silver bullion to exchange for Chinese goods. They were looking for increased profits. The East India Company would grow the opium in India and then ship it to China, where company officials would trade it for Chinese silver coin. The coin then flowed back to British controlled Calcutta and London, where company merchants would use the coin to buy Chinese products in Guangzhou. Trade in opium was illegal, but expanded and continued for decades because Chinese authorities did not really enforce the law. Eventually, Chinese officials became aware that China had a trade and drug problem, as opium trade drained large amounts of silver from China and created social tensions in southern China. Government authorities began to take steps to halt the trade, causing British merchants to lose money. They tasked the incorruptible Lin Zexu with destroying the opium trade. He succeeded in this, but his policy sparked a war that would be a humiliating defeat for China.

Question 28

What did the opium war demonstrate?

Answer 28

British commercial agents were outraged by Chinese action, and turned to military retaliation to reopen the opium trade. This resulted in the Opium war. On water and on land, this newly industrialized British army dominated, and they encountered little resistance. The war demonstrated Britain’s superiority on sea and on land. The Chinese only sued for peace after Britain began to threaten to strike the Grand Canal with their gunboats. China experienced similar military setbacks throughout the second half of the 19th century.

Question 29

What were some of the actors causing discontent in China that would fuel rebellions?

Answer 29

Along with increasing foreign intervention in China, internal turmoil contributed to the discontent in China. Increasing poverty and discontent within the peasant class was a factor that played into large-scale rebellions. The amount of land that was under cultivation was growing slowly, and population growth began to strain Chinese resources. The concentration of land that belonged to wealthy elites further intensified peasant discontent, along with corruption of government officials and increasing drug addiction. This caused rebellion to erupt in China.

Question 30

What were all of the features of the Taiping reform program?

Answer 30

The Taiping reform program contained many radical features that appealed to discontented subjects, including:
Abolition of private property
The creation of communal wealth to be shared according to needs
Prohibition of footbinding, concubinage
Free public education
Simplification of the written language
Literacy for the masses
Some leaders also called for the establishment of democratic political institutions and the building of an industrial society
Equality between of men and women
Prohibited sexual intercourse among their followers, including married couples

Question 31

What were the outcome and consequences of the Taiping Rebellion?

Answer 31

The radical nature of the Taiping ensured that the Chinese gentry would side with the Qing government against the Taiping. The Qing government established regional armies staffed by Chinese instead of Manchu soldiers and commanded by members of the scholar gentry class. This shift was encouraged by Empress Cixi. With the help of European advisors and weapons, these regional armies gradually overcame the Taipings. Hong Xiuquan largely withdrew from public affairs and eventually committed suicide. The government ended up slaughtering 100,000 Taipings. The Taiping rebellion cost 20-30 million lives and caused drastic declines in agricultural production. The rebellion caused QIng rulers to recognize that reform would be needed for the empire to survive. From 1860-1895, Qing authorities tried to fashion an efficient and benevolent Confucian government to solve social and economic problems while also adopting foreign tech to strengthen state power.

Question 32

Describe how China was carved into spheres of influence.

Answer 32

During the latter part of the 19th century, foreign powers began to dismantle the Chinese
system of tributary states.
France incorporated Vietnam into its colonial empire
Great Britain detached Burma from Chinese control
1895 Japan forced China to recognize independence of Korea and cede the island of Taiwan and the Liaodong Peninsula
These caused China to become carved into spheres of economic influence. The Qing government couldn’t resist foreign demands, and the Qing government granted exclusive rights for railway and mineral development to germany in Shandong Province, to France in the southern border province, etc.

Question 33

What were the main ideas behind the Hundred Days Reforms, and what was
its fate?

Answer 33

Setbacks from these spheres of influence sparked the ambitious but abortive Hundred Days Reforms. The main ideas of the reforms were to remake China and turn it into a powerful modern industrial society. Young emperor Guangxu launched a sweeping program to turn China into a constitutional monarchy, guarantee civil liberties, root out corruption, remodel the educational system, encourage foreign influence in China, modernize military forces, and stimulate economic development. This produced violent reaction from members of the imperial household, their allies in the in the gentry, and the young emperor’s aunt, Cixi. After 103 days, Cixi nullified the reform decrees, imprisoned the emperor in the forbidden City, and executed six leading reformers. The reforms were not to be.

Question 34

In what sense was the Boxer Rebellion the “nail in the coffin” of the Qing
Dynasty?

Answer 34

Because Cixi had given the Boxers’ attacks her support, many Chinese believed that the Qing dynasty was bankrupt. Revolutionary uprisings garnered widespread support, and after Cixi died, revolution broke out and by 1912 the last emperor of the QIng dynasty had abdicated his throne.

Question 35

Tokugawa Bafuku

Answer 35

Japanese government
Responded to problems in Japanese society in the early 19th century with conservative reform
Initiated measures to stem growing social and economic decline
Canceled debts that samurai and daimyo had to pay
Abolished several merchant guilds
Compelled peasants residing in cities to return the land and cultivate rice
These reforms were ineffective, provoked strong opposition
Faced another problem because of the insistence on the establishment of diplomatic and commercial relations by foreign lands

Question 36

Commodore Matthew Perry

Answer 36

Trained his guns on the bakufu capital Edo and demanded that the shogun open Japan to foreign commercial relationships
He succeeded
American commander

Question 37

Meiji restoration

Answer 37

Tokugawa authority did not give up easily
They responded to opponents by forcibly retiring dissident daimyo and executing Samurai critics
However, bakufu armies suffered repeated defeats by dissidents in a brief civil war, as the dissidents were militia units that were trained by foreign exports and armed with imported weapons
The shogun resigned his office, and a boy emperor named Meiji took the reins of power
Reigned during the most eventful period in Japan’s history

Question 38

Diet

Answer 38

Legislature of the new constitutional monarchy.
Composed of a house of nobles and an elected lower house
Constitution limited the authority of the Diet

Question 39

Describe the problems facing Japanese society in the early nineteenth century.

Answer 39

Declining agricultural productivity, periodic crop failures and famines, harsh taxation contributed to economic hardship and sometimes led to starvation. Many had to sell their land and become tenant farmers. Economic conditions were not better than the countryside, as the price of rice and other commodities rose, and the urban poor population experienced destitution. Even Samurai and Daimyo fell into debt. These conditions led to increasing peasant protest and rebellion

Question 40

How did Japan open up to foreign commerce?

Answer 40

At first Tokugawa officials refused to engage in these relations with foreign lands, as they stuck to policy of excluding all European and American visitors to Japan. The situation changed with the arrival of Commodore Matthew C. Perry trained his guns on the capital of Edo and demanded that the shogun open Japan up to foreign relations and sign a treaty of friendship. With no alternative, the shogun agreed to his demands. Then, representatives of other countries won similar rights, including Britain, Russia, the Netherlands. Officials soon agreed to similar unequal treaties that Qing diplomats had agreed to years earlier. This deprived the government of control over tariffs, and granted foreigners extraterritorial rights

Question 41

What led to the end of tokugawa rule?

Answer 41

The intrusions of foreign powers caused a domestic crisis in Japan that caused the fall of the Tokugawa Bakufu. When the shogun agreed to the demands of foreign states like the US and Europe, they aroused the opposition of conservative daimyo and the emperor, who resented the infringement upon national sovereignty by these unequal treaties. Opposition to Tokugawa authority spread rapidly, and by 1858 the imperial court in Kyoto became a focal point for opposition. Dissidents there rallied around the slogan, “Revere the the emperor, expel the barbarians.”

Question 42

What were the social reforms and what was the response?

Answer 42

Meiji was the birth of a new Japan. They created a government dedicated to the goals of prosperity and strength: a rich strong army. The Meiji government looked to industrial lands like Europe and US to obtain knowledge and expertise. They won revisions of previous unequal treaties. They also sent students and officials abroad to study everything from technology to constitutions, hired foreign experts to facilitate economic development and the creation of indigenous expertise. Those who traveled talked of a new government and drew inspiration from the German constitution in drafting a governing document for Japan. The Meiji also centralized political power, as reformers replaced the old domains with prefectures and metropolitan districts controlled by the central government. They appointed new prefectural governors to prevent the revival of old domain loyalties. The government abolished the samurai class, and the rights of daimyo and samurais were heavily reduced. Frustrated by new circumstances, samurai tried to rebel, but the new army just crushed them. Japan’s new leaders also revamped the tax system, making peasants pay in fixed-money tax rather than grain tax, which provided the government with predictable revenues and left peasants to deal with market fluctuations in grain prices. This virtually guaranteed that those who maximized production could afford to hold on to their land.

Question 43

How was the govt reformed? What were the limits to these reforms?

Answer 43

The emperor promulgated the Meiji constitution as a “voluntary gift” to the people. The document established a constitutional monarchy with a legislature, known as the Diet. The emperor would command the armed forces, name the prime minister, and appointed the cabinet. Emperor could also dissolve parliament, so effective power lay with the emperor. The new constitution recognized individual rights, but provided that laws could limit those rights in the interest of the state.
Established property restrictions on the franchise, ensuring that delegates elected to the lower house represented the most prosperous social classes
Regardless, the Meiji constitution provided greater opportunity for debate and dissent than ever before in Japanese society.

Question 44

What were the main economic reforms undertaken by Japan? What were the
consequences of these reforms (good and bad)?

Answer 44

Created a modern transportation, communications, and educational infrastructure
Establishment of telegraph, railroad, and steamship lines tied local and regional markets into a national economic network
Removed barriers to commerce and trade
Aimed to improve literacy rates
New system of universal primary and secondary education
Government controlled military industries and established pilot programs to stimulate industrial development
Government sold most of its enterprises to private investors who had close ties to government officials
This left a lot of economic power in the hands of a small group of people
Japan eventually joined the ranks of major industrial powers
Consequences:
Japanese people bore the costs of rapid industrialization
Peasants supplied large portion of the domestic capital that supported the Meiji program for industrialization
Large burden on peasants, leading to series of uprisings
Government suppressed these, and then did nothing to help the rural population
Peasants couldn’t work in industries because the state did not tolerate labor organizations that promoted the welfare of workers
Nevertheless, Japan was transformed into a powerful industrial society poised to play a major role in world affairs.