Empires (Comparisons) Flashcards
1
Q
What is the general historiographical consensus about empire?
A
That empire is not just about the subordination of one social formation by another, it is about governance and dominance
2
Q
What techniques are there a general historiographical consensus that empire is about and should be considered?
A
Administrative techniques and expansive techniques
3
Q
What do Burbank and Cooper contrast empires with?
A
Nation states
4
Q
According to Burbank and Cooper, how are empires different to nation states?
A
They are all about distinction, hierarchy, difference and “otherness” - the politics of difference
5
Q
What are the three key stages we need to consider when it comes to empire?
A
How they expand
How they are stabilised
How they decline
6
Q
What are the three things key to consider when think about systems of power?
A
Military
Economy
Elites
7
Q
What are the four things key to considering cultures of power?
A
Symbolic display
Knowledge
Belief
Discourse
8
Q
What are the three things key to considering disparities of power?
A
Hierarchies
Resistance
Resources
9
Q
What did informal imperialism rely on, suggesting empires are not just about territorial or political dominance?
A
Links created by trade, investment and diplomacy
10
Q
What does empires being extractive mean for their motivations?
A
They are motivated by extracting resources from the colonies
11
Q
What could empire and imperial expansion be the by-product of?
A
Rivalry between nations
12
Q
What is the historical significance of the concepts and tropes of empire?
A
They are largely Western and were used by and created by imperial powers to aid expansion and maintenance of empire and compete with each other
13
Q
What is the historical significance of the fact most empires have been built upon or modelled upon predecessors or previous empires?
A
There are likely many common characteristics and this explains things about nature of imperialism
14
Q
What historical value is derived from comparing the Ottoman Empire with the British/French?
A
It allows us to move away from the western-centred explanations for imperial decline prevalent in colonial historiography and avoids othering of Eastern empires
15
Q
Why is it historically relevant to study the Ottoman Empire in the late 18th, 19th and 20th centuries in its decline?
A
Because it allows us to consider expansion, maintenance, and decline
16
Q
Why is it historically relevant to consider the French Empire in the Middle East in the 19th and 20th century?
A
Because similar geographical area, and also empires build off each other, and rivalry with British
17
Q
Why were the military defeats of the Ottoman Empire in the late 18th and 19th century historically relevant?
A
This led to the Tanzimat reforms
18
Q
What led to the imperial collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the 20th century? (4)
A
The Young Turks Revolution, the alliance with Germany, European involvement and Tanzimat reforms
19
Q
What did the Ottoman rulers reject in their short term policy?
A
They rejected the idea of developing territory and investing in it for gain at some time in the future
20
Q
What did the Ottoman short term policy mean for imperial subjects?
A
Land and peoples were exploited to the point of exhaustion and then more or less abandoned in favour of new ground
21
Q
What did the Ottoman short term policy mean for the Empire?
A
That it relied on continuous expansion for stability, and that if it did not grow, it was likely to collapse
22
Q
What began the Ottomans’ succession of military defeats in the late 18th and early 19th centuries?
A
The defeat at the Battle of Lepanto (1751) where they lost almost their entire navy
23
Q
What was the comprehensive process of reform and modernisation initiated by the Ottomans known as?
A
The Tanzimat
24
Q
What did Tanzimat do to the Ottoman state over the course of the 19th century?
A
It became increasingly powerful and rationalised, exercising a greater degree of influence over its population than in any previous era
25
What did the Ottoman government's series of constitutional reforms lead to? (5)
A fairly modern conscripted army
Banking system reforms
The decriminalisation of homosexuality
The replacement of religious law with secular law
The replacement of guilds with modern factories
26
Where did the Ottomans first experience growing nationalism predominantly?
In the Balkans
27
What did the rise of Bulgarian nationalists in Macedonia campaigning for autonomy lead to?
Counter-nationalisms in retaliation, particularly Greek and Serbian, who wanted to protect their interests in Macedonia too
28
What rising nationalism was there in eastern Anatolia?
Armenian nationalists were calling periodically for either autonomy or independence
29
What did the Young Turk Revolution contribute to?
The defeat and dissolution of the Ottoman Empire
30
Why did the Ottoman Empire ally with Germany in the early 20th century and join WWI?
Had the imperial ambition of recovering its lost territories
31
What did the Ottoman Empires defeat and occupation of part of its territory by the Allied Powers in the aftermath of World War I result in?
The partitioning of the empire and the loss of its Middle East territories, which were divided between the UK and France
32
Which revolt ended the Ottoman involvement in WWI in the Middle East and how?
The 1916 Arab revolt turned the tide against the Ottomans on the Middle Eastern front
33
Where were the Ottomans forced to evacuate following their WWI defeat?
Parts of the former Russian Empire in the Caucasus they had gained towards the end of WWI following Russia's retreat from the war due to the Russian Revolution in 1917
34
What did the incorporation of religion into the state structure mean the Ottoman Sultan was regarded as?
the protector of Islam
35
What united the Ottoman Empire? (3)
Islamic ideology
Islamic warrior code with the ideal of increasing Muslim territory through Jihad
Islamic organisational and administrative structures
36
What did the religious tolerance of the Ottoman Empire encourage?
Loyalty from other faith groups
37
How were non-Muslim communities organised according to the millet system?
It gave minority religious/ethnic/geographical communities a limited amount of power to regulate their own affairs under the overall supremacy of the Ottoman administration
38
Why was the attempt at Turkification at the end of empire a disaster for the Ottomans?
For many Arabs, for whom Arabic formed a key tenet of their national identity, the promotion of the use of Turkish language over Arabic in education and administration was alienating
39
Instead of uniting the Empire, what opposite effect did the Turkification attempt have?
It pushed the Arabs towards a path of self-determination and Arab nationalism
40
What did the rise in Turk vs Arab do to the core of the Ottoman Empire? (Muslims)
Meant it began to fragment on national and ethnic lines
41
Why did Turkfication fail to unite while Islam hadn't?
Islam's strength was that it united to a point but also respected differences, the policy of Turkification no longer respected differences
42
In what ways was the Ottoman Empire highly centralised? (2)
It had a state-run judicial and educational system
| Private power and wealth were controlled
43
Why was the Ottomans pragmatic ruling style successful?
It created alliances across political and racial groups and took the best ideas from other cultures and made them their own
44
Why was the Ottomans strong military important?
Military ethos pervaded the whole administration
45
Why did the Ottoman Empire become less centralised and central control weaken?
Sultans being less severe in maintaining rigorous standards of integrity in the administration of the Empire
Sultans becoming less sensitive to public opinion
46
What did the religious association with Tanzimat mean for resistance to the Ottomans comprehensive process of reform and modernisation?
It had to be crushed
47
Why were Ottoman jannisaries different to other slave-based armies?
They are paid a wage
48
What did the Ottoman janissaries form the basis for?
the military elite
49
Why did the Ottomans attempt to modernise the military?
They realised they had become a reactionary force compared to the modernising Western powers and could no longer compete
50
Why did the Janissaries rebelled against the proposed reforms?
They did not want their power diminished
51
What happened with the Auspicious Incident?
6000 janissaries killed, the force was abolished, and replaced with a modern military force
52
How did the Janissaries rebellion leave the Ottomans vulnerable?
The Russians took advantage of it and forced the Ottomans to cede control of territories in the Balkans
53
How did the Tanzimat reforms undermine the traditional legal categories of Muslim, dhimmi, non-Muslim and foreigner?
It created a new non-denominational basis for society
54
Why was it difficult to create a new non-denominational basis for society through Tanzimat in the Ottoman Empire?
Because of the context of needing to legitimise the centrality of Islam to the empire
55
Why was the new non-denominational basis for society post-Tanzimat reforms confused?
Because shari’a courts were not abolished until fall of the empire - BUT did lose some ground to the civil courts
56
Why was their strong internal opposition towards the increased rights of non-Muslims as part of Tanzimat reforms?
Conservative Muslims felt the distinction between Muslim and non-Muslim was extremely important making the equal rights clause particularly contentious
57
What illustrates the dangerous nature of the equal rights clause in the Ottoman Empire?
the 1860 massacre of Christians in Damascus
58
What did many of the religious reforms lead to unintentionally?
The ethnicisation of local and confessional identities
59
What are examples of the local and confessional identities that became ethnicised as a result of the religious reforms?
The Maronites and Druze in Lebanon
The Greeks and Armenians in Anatolia
The Jews in North Africa
60
What did the 1905 imposition of an appointment of an internal finance commission on the Ottomans controlled by Europeans lead to?
Rising nationalism
61
How did the 1917 Balfour Declaration stir up nationalism and ethnicisation of communities?
Support from the British and French for a national home for Jewish people in Palestine, an Ottoman region with a small Jewish population at the time
62
How did the British and French stir up nationalism amongst Muslims in the Ottoman Empire?
By cultivating the support of Muslim officials by promising to support and aid the creation of an Arab state following the Ottoman defeat in WWI
63
What did Faysel do once he realised the British and French had no intention of creating an Arab state and were going to renege on their promise?
Begin to stir up Syrian nationalism
64
How did rising nationalism and European powers intervention contribute to the Ottomans' imperial decline?
It led them to decide to ally with Germany, and their loss in the war meant Allied powers divide up their empire
65
How did the poor economic situation and administration of the Ottomans lead to decline?
The rise in nationalism was sparked by the economic failure derived from an Ottoman failure to adapt the culture to the new capitalist markets
66
Why did poor administration allow for increasing European encroachment?
The Ottomans became lazy with administration
67
How did the Tanzimat reforms lead to decline?
They were too little too late, and also quite volatile
68
Why did the French engage in a bloody war of conquest in Algeria despite their original intention being to control the port cities?
Fierce resistance from local tribes drew the French deeper into the interior into a spiral of violence which could only end with complete subjugation of the entire territory
69
How did the Algerian conquest influence the French's expansion in other areas of the Middle East?
They did not attempt to outright subjugate other areas through military conquest, instead using informal imperialism
70
What increased the incentives for the French for direct colonial rule in the Middle East?
Increased economic and political interests in the Middle East
71
How did Tunisian Tanzimat lead to French informal imperialism?
Their attempts to modernise and reform were facilitated by loans on the foreign market by French and other European businesses
72
What did Tunisia have to do when the debt from the foreign loans became so overwhelming?
Introduce double Taxation in the countryside
73
What was the context within which the Moroccan's attempts to modernise and expand infrastructure took place? (5)
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A growing fiscal crisis
Insufficient revenues
Tribal revolts
Mounting foreign debt
Increasing French encroachment on South-East borders
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74
What did the Anglo-French Accord of 1904 do?
It gave the French a diplomatic lead in negotiating the bailout of Morocco
75
Why were the Moroccan government divided over the foreign loans?
They disagreed over French involvement
76
What did disagreements within the Moroccan government lead to?
The French capitalising on the chaos and sending a military force to subdue the country on behalf of French loan givers
77
How did Catholic missions aid the French cultural presence cultivation in the Middle East?
It made French the most widely spoken foreign language in the Middle East on the eve of war
Elites of all confessions considered their schools to provide the best academic programmes
Leading to growing disillusion as it reinforced distinctions between groups
78
Where was the colonial state most clearly defined in French Algeria?
In the coastal regions where the majority of Europeans lived
79
Why did the French face difficulties implementing a system of direct rule in Algeria?
The preexisting sovereignty of the old state meant it involved the destruction of this and the rebuilding of a new one which incited conflict from those who stood to lose their position and influence
80
Why did the system of direct rule and assimilation prove difficult to implement and maintain in French Algeria?
Because widespread resistance to French rule meant the colonisers were outnumbered and needed to use the elites to ensure their rule spread throughout the country regardless
81
Why did French attempts to create a new aristocracy based on the old elites aid the upholding of French rule to begin with?
As families began to compete with one another for local power it directed conflict between families rather than against the French colonial powers
82
Where did natives generally live in French Algeria?
In large, mixed countryside communes
83
Who did the taxes of the countryside native communes in Algeria support?
The colonial municipalities too small to provide for themselves
84
What accounts for the range of responses across different rural regions to French colonial rule in Algeria?
The taxation from the top 20% of richest regions being spread across the regions where self-sufficiency not possible
85
What was preserved by the French in Tunisia and Morocco?
The national sovereignty of local rulers
86
What was the Moroccan Sultan's sovereignty preserved under while also expressing a state-building civilising mission?
The treaty of Fez
87
Before French colonial rule what had the division of Morocco into two zones meant?
There was one zone where central government was supreme, taxes were collected, and governors and their laws respected
There was another zone where central government was impotent and unruly tribes fuelled banditry
88
How was the power of the colonial state expanded in Morocco in the 1912-1930s? (4)
Through brutal conquest of rural resistance, construction of extensive transportation infrastructure, imposition of an extractive colonial economy and extension of a highly articulated administrative apparatus
89
What did French conquest of rural resistance in Morocco disrupt?
The long tradition of resisting the Sultan's rule in the Atlas Mountains
90
What did the French conquest of rural resistance in Morocco and the imposition of a Christian government do?
It led to the invocation of the concept of jihad, intensifying conflict
91
How did the French reify an ethnic democracy in Algeria?
They incorporated Jews and non-French immigrants and naturalised them as French citizens bringing the non-Muslim population into a single community
92
What was the cultivation of a non-Muslim single community in French Algeria essential to, which in the ended contributed to instability and imperial decline?
The development of a Muslim Algerian nationalism as it united the Arabs and the Berbers
93
What was done to the Islamic law in existence upholding the majority of property transactions between Algerians and Europeans?
It was set aside and ownership was transmitted to the Europeans, and uncultivated land was taken into state domain
94
Why did the Muslim population's requirement to fulfil certain qualities proving French acculturation to be eligible for citizenship lead to increasing nationalism?
Because the same was not necessary for non-Muslims in Algeria and because the evoule's began to use this against them
95
What did the denial of the franchise to Muslims in Algeria do?
Increased long-term resistance to their policies
96
How was the ethnic democracy in Morocco different to in Algeria?
It reified ethnic division between Arab Muslims and Berber Muslims and did not accord citizenship to Jews
97
How did the French determine ethnicity in Morocco?
Using language and law
98
Why did the French elevate the Berber population in Morocco?
They believed them to be more progressive as Berber women didn't wear the veil but this was untrue
99
What did the elevation of the Berber population in Morocco look like in practice?
They learnt French and were administered in French and were given more independence than the Arabs with their own tribal courts from 1914
100
Why did the elevation of Berber Muslims in Morocco cause issues for the French by the 1930s?
The system was opposed on the grounds that Islamic law should apply uniformly to Moroccan territory, ncluding a unified judiciary which would apply the law to all Moroccans except Jews as well as a unified educationl system which would teach Arabic and Islam
101
What happened to Moroccan Jews under French colonial rule?
They lost their protected religious minority status under Islamic law, and the religious courts lost their former autonomy they had had under Ottoman rule, and they were subjects of the Moroccan sultan
102
How did Moroccan nationalists focus on the relative inequality of Moroccan women under Berber law?
By attacking the pillars of French gender policy, legal structures and educational systems
103
How did the French civilising mission lead to increasing nationalism in Tunisia and Algeria in the 1900-1920?
A new generation of Arab and Berber spokesmen emerged and became more numerous and vocal and articulating their dissent in the French language of freedom and equality
104
What did evoules want?
To share the assimilationist benefits with the rest of the natives
105
What did Moroccan urban nationalists reject despite accepting the political legitimacy of the protectorate project as established in the Treaty of Fez?
That it was interpreted to benefit of the French and lamented narrow access to education and elite roles
106
What was the legal argument of the Islamic Society of Fez - the Moroccan nationalist movement in the 1930s?
That they wanted a "Real" protectorate
107
What was the historical context of nationalist discussions in Morocco in the 1930s?
Economic crises of 1930s and boundaries between colonised and coloniser less stark in this period with many more countryside Muslims moved to towns, worked for Fr companies, and fell victims to disasters afflicting French economy
108
Who struggled for control of the leadership of the nationalist movement in Morocco and why?
Rising self-interest of middle-class Moroccans who had benefit from European schooling
109
Why did the local sovereignty of rulers in Tunisia and Morocco lead to the decline of French colonial rule?
When they turned against French rule and supported anti-colonial/nationalist movements, French efforts to remove them incited violence and resistance, which meant they allowed their return and led to the granting of independence
110
How did the French decision to use violence against peaceful protests contribute to rising nationalism and militancy in Algeria?
The police firing on protesters at peaceful marches led to increased violence, martial law, and the distribution of arms to Europeans, the mass arrest of Muslim adult and adolescent males - inciting increasing militancy in response and the rise of groups like the FLN
111
What is evidence of a transnational element to resistance to French colonial rule in the Middle East contributing to its decline?
Murder of Tunisian labour unionist sparket riots in Casablanca in Morocco too and around the world
Algerian near base of Tunisia and Morocco as achieve independence earlier
