State Building, Expansion, and Conflict, 1750-1900 Flashcards
~Nation-state
● A state-level community united at least in theory by a common ethnic, linguistic, religious and cultural heritage
● Emerged as the leading form of political organization in more parts of hte world, particularly in the West
~Change in political order
● In the mid-1700s, all of Europe’s major powers were monarchies, in which the ruler shared power almost exclusively with aristocratic nobles who, despite their small numbers, controlled most of the country’s wealth, owned most of the nation’s land, and enjoyed virtually all influence over politics
● Even parliamentary monarchies like Great Britain allowed comparatively little popular representation at this time
● Most of Latin America and the Caribbean, along with much of North America, lived under European colonical authority
~Atlantic revolutions
● Between the 1770s and the 1810s
● State of affairs was shaken apart
● Include the America Revolution, the French Revolution, the Haitian Rebellion and the Latin American Wars of Independence
● Ended European colonical rule over most of the America
● People began to fight for social and political systems that gave them more voice in government
~American Revolution
● 1775-1783
● The poorly trained and poorly equipped American forced, led by George Washington, struggled against Britain’s professional armies and superior navy
● Battle of Saratoga won France’s support and they had the advantaage of fighting on their homeland
~Declaration of Independence
● Written in 1776
● Authored chiefly by Thomas Jefferson
● Considered a classic Enlightenment text
- Influenced hugely by thinkers such as John Lock and Montesquieu
~United States Constitution
● The process invovled much disagreement and lasted untilt he Constitutional Convention of 1787 and the ratification in 1789
● The resulting system was a democratic republic, in which a federal government shared power with governemnts in each of the 13 states
● First attempt by a major state to base a political system on Enlightenment philosophy
~Balance of power
● Three branches of federal power - Executive (president) - Legislative (Congress) - Judicial (Supreme Court) ● Based on Montesquieu's ideology ● Both at the state and federal level, governments were to be elected
~French Revolution
● 1789-1799
● Include the Estates General, storming of Bastille, Tennis Court Oath, Declaration and counterrevolution
● Radicalized into reign of terror and lead into Napoleonic reign
~Estates General
● A national assembly of delegates from each estate in France
~National assembly
● In late June, 1789, the delegates of the Thrid Estate, with liberal members of the First and Second Estates, formed a new governmental body, the National Assembly, and vowed not to leave Versailles until the king granted them a constituion
~Storming of the Bastille
● The people of Paris and other cities rose up in support of hte assembly in July, so did peasants int he countryside
● They freed many prisoners and seized weaponry
~Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen
● Guided by Enlightenment ideas and the American Declaration of Independence
● Overseen by the Marquis de Lafayette
● Futuer assemblies were to be elected by popular vote
● Aristocratic status and privileges, especially the exemption from taxes, were done away with, and church and state were separated
● Policy was guided by the motto “Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality”
~Counterrevolution
● Louis XVI secretly plotted this, encouraged by Marie Antoinette
~French Republic (First)
● In the fall of 1792, a new constitution stripped hte king of all powers and proclaimed a republic
● Elections to a new legislature brought radicals to power, including jacobins
● Civil war erupted in the countryside, as peasants rebelled against conscription and hte radicals’ efforts ot do away with Catholicism
~Jacobins
● Radical gropu led by Maximilien Robespiere, a fanatically idealistic lawyer
~Committee of Public Safety
● An executive body created by Jacobins
● Assumed dictatorial powers and attempted the radical transofrmation of French society
● Expanded the war effort, mobilized hte economy for combat, and carried out modern Europe’s first national draft
~Reign of Terror
● Between the summer of 1793 and the summer of 1794
● Carried out by RObespierre and the Ommitte, supported by the urban sans-culottes
● Searching for traitors and counterrevolutionary foes
● In July 1794, a coup within the committee overthrew and executed Robespierre, ending the Terror
~Directory
● For five years, a more moderate regime presided over the revolution, stablizing the military situation and attempting to heal the wounds caused by the Terror
● Proved unpopular
● 1799, overthrew by Napoleon
~Napoleon Bonaparte
● Quickly seized power for himself after overthrowing the Directory
● Claimed to be a man of revolutionary ideals, but in reality he created a new dictatorship, going so far as to crown himself emperor in 1804
● Best known for his military career
~Bank of France
● Created by Napoleon as an act to modernize France
~Civil Law Code/Napoleonic Code
● Foundation for modern law not just in France, but wherever France extended its colonial influence
~Battle of Waterloo
● The last battle fought by Napoleon
● Lost and exiled to Sicily
~Congress of Vienna
● 1814-1815
● Peace was restored at this after Napoleonic wars
● Forged a long-lasting if informal agreement among Europe’s major regimes to work together to preserve order and prevent change
~Saint Domingue
● Prior to independence, the suar- and coffee-producing colony of Haiti
● By the French and Santo Domingo by the Spanish, with each country occupying half the island and relying heavily on slave labor imported from Africa
● Was threw into turmoil after 1789 because rights of man and the citizen were not extendd to everyone living in French colonies
~Creoles
● Those of European descent but born in the colonies
● Upper and middle classes
~Haitian Rebellion
● 1791-1804
● The only large-scale slave revolt to succeed in the New World
● In 1802, Napoleon sent a large force to end the rebellion
- The French proved unequal to tropical warfare and lost 40,000 soldiers to yellow fever
● The independent nation of Haiti was born in 1804
~Francois Toussaint L’Ouverture
● A talented commander known as the “Black Washington”
● Come to elad the revolt in 1793
● His goal was full independence and the liberation of slaves on the Spanish side of the island, which he invaded in 1798
~Louisiana Purchase
● Secured by Thomas Jefferson in 1803
● Significantly boosted hte US chances of eventually mastering the netire continent and can be seen in hindsight as a major shift in global power
● Influenced by the Haitian Rebellion
~Latin American wars of independence
● 1810-1825
● Mexico, Central America, and South America
● By 1825, royalists had been cleared out of Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru and Spanish South America was free
~Simon Bolivar
● A revolutionaries known as the Liberator
● A member of Venezuela’s criollo upper class, he was inspired by Englightenment ideals, frustrated by the inefficiency and injustice of Spanish rule, and personally ambitious
● He took control of the independence movement in 1810, sweeping across hte northern parts of Spanish South America
~Jamaica Letter
● Written bby Bolivar in 1815 ● Elaborated his principles ● Turned a small and unsuccessful upper- and middle-class rebellion into a mass war of independence
~Jose de San Martin
● A general turned revolutionary
● between 1816 and 1820, San Martin had freed southern areas such as Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and Paraguay
● He was more conservative, despite political differences
~Mexican War of Independence
● 1810-1823
● Complicated by the inability of various social classes to cooperate
● In the end, Mexico’s revolt was completed by the elite, not the lower classes
● A Mexican republic was proclaimed in 1923, the same year that the nations immediately to the south established the United Provinces of Central America
~Miguel Hidalgo
● The priest who called for freedom from Spain
● He was killed in 1811, but his fight was carried on by another priest, Morelos
~Jose Maria Morelos
● Took Hidalgo’s platform
● Killed in 1815 by conservative Mexicans
~Agustin Iturbide
● A right-wing colonel who overthrew Spanish rule in 1820-1821
● He tried to establish himself as a dictator, but was quickly ousted
~New imperialism
● The more aggressive and systematic character of western colonial expansion
● Was an impressive military feat, and it brought Europe and America great power and wealth
● Inseparable from blooshed, racial prejudice and slavery
~Heart of Darkness
● Written by English-Polish author Joseph Conrad
● one of the classic literary depictions of European imperialism
~Quinine
● Anti-malarial treatment
● Westerners could enter tropical zones where illnesses like sleeping sickness, yellow fever, and malaria had previously kept them from gaining footholds
~White man’s burden/La mission civilisatrice
● Many westerners became convinced that they had a duty to teach and modernize those peoples
● Labled by the English poet Rudyard Kipling (former)
● French spoke of their civilizing mission (latter)
● Could be well-meaning and useful but they did so at least partly out of condescension and they often trampled on or eradicated native cultural practices andbeliefs
~Overseas empires/settler colonies
● Best-known empires
● Largest being Britain’s
● Famous motto “the sun never sets”
● Countries like Spain, Portugal and hte Netherlands continued to hold on to certain overseas possessions from the Columbian age of exploration
● After 1870, Germany and Italy began to build overseas empires in an attempt to catch up
~Land-based empires
● Expanded as well
● Austria maintained one in eastern and southeastern Europe, colliding with the empire ruled by the Ottoman Turks
● Russia conquered Siberia, much of Central Asia, and for a time, parts of North America
● Japan extended its imperial reach to the Asian mainland at the end of the century
~Economic imperialism
● Typically involved pressuring weaker nations to offer favorable trade terms, rather than outright colonization
● Prominent targets during this century included Latin America, Qing China and arguably Egyt during and after the construction of hte Suez Canal
~Eastern Question
● How to fill the power vacuum caused int he Balkans and the eastern Mediterranean by the Ottoman Empire’s steady decline
● If they fell, chaos or a stronger foe might aris in their place
● It might upset Europe’s balance of power
● Agreed to manage the empire’s decline slowly and carefully, and even to prop it up if it seemed in danger of immediate collapse
~Great Game
● The collision of British and Russian spheres of influence in Central Asia
~Scramble for Africa
● The rush to subjugate the entire continent between the 1880s and the 1910s
~Balance of power (Europe)
● Was made increasingly harder for Western states to maintain
● The Congress of Vienna preserved peace among the European powers before the Crimean War (1853-1856)
● After mid-century, wars involving Western states became more common, including Franco-Prussian War
~Franco-Prussian War
● 1870-1871
● Created the modern German state and completed hte process of Italian unification
~jingoism
● Growing spirit of belligerent patriotism
~Long Peace
● Relative stability among the Western powers was maintained between 1871 and 1914
~Potential for a major conflict
● Especially after 1890, when the Otto von Bismarck was dismissed by the rash and impatient emperor Wilhelm II
● A cautious diplomat and a key architect of hte European balance of power
● German chancellor
~European alliance system
● During the 1890s adn the early 1900s
● It divided the great powers into two armed camps
~Triple Alliance
● Germany and Austria were already aligned with Italy
● Formed in 1881
● Italy dropped out in 1914
~Franco-Russian alliance
● In the mid-1890s, France, bitter about defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, allied with Russia, which viewed Austria as a threat in the Balkans, which both countries viewed as ttheir rightful sphere of influence
● They had their rivals surrounded geographically
~Triple Entente
● Britain informally partnered with the Franco-Russian alliance in 1907
~Reaction
● Arch-conservative stance
● Between 1815 and 1848, most govenrments, convinced that even the slightest liberalism would lead to renewed political chaos, attempted to minimized change or even undo what had transpired during the revolutionary and Napoleonic years
● Guiding principle of the COngress of Vienna
~1832 Reform Act
● Slightly expanded the vote in the parliamentary states Britain
● The worst industrial-era working conditions began to attract Parliament’s attenntion
~1830 revolution
● Futher limited the power of hte monarch in France
~Revolution of 1848
● Key turning point
● Began in France, where the king was deposed and Napoleon’s nephew appointed president
● Uprisings then spread to much of the rest of Europe, although they spared Britian and Russia
~Second (1867) and Third (1885) Reform Acts
● Granted economic concessions and fairer labor laws to the lower classes ● Extended the vote to middle- and lower-class males
~Napoleon II
● The president Louis Napoleon staged a coup and crowned himself emperor in 1851
● He was not an absolute dictator and he helped to modernized Paris and industrialize the country
● His defeat during the Franco-Prussian War cuased his abdication
~Second Republic of France
● After a short but bloody revolution , a new democratic republic arose in 1871 and lasted until 1940
● Corruption, financial scandals, and party rivalries rocked France
~Dreyfus Affair
● 1894-1906
● The army and government falsely blamed a Jewish officer for the leaking of military secrets to Germany
● Controversy divided hte left (maintained Dreyfus’s innocence) from the right (which was convinced of his guilt) and exposed the ugly streak of anti-Semitism in modern European society
~Unification of Italy
● As a parliamentary monarchy took place in the 1860s and was finished in 1870
~Unification of Germany
● Spearheaded by Prussia in a series of three short conflicts, culminating in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871
● The new German emperor shared power with a legislature called the Reichstag, and all adult males technically had the vote–althought the electoral system was heavily stacked in faovr of the upper classes
~Otto von Bismarck
● Serving the emperor as chancellor, Germany rapidly modernized udner policy of state-directed industrialization
● Offered the lower classes substantial economic concessions to keep them from becoming attracted to trade unions or socialism
~Ausgleich of 1867
● Granted equal status to Austria’s largest minory, the Hungarians, and the state was remaned the Austro-Hungarian Empire
~Alexander II
● Shaken by his country’s embarrassing loss int he Crimean War, the moderately liberal Alexander II modernized Russia with a series of “Great reforms”
● The most important of which was his 1861 emancipation of the serfs
● Assassinated by radical terrorists who believed he had not gone far enough, and hte conservative tsars who succeeded him undid many of his changes
~Nicholas II
● Met with a terrible defeat during the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) almost lost his throne during the 1905 revolution
● Compelled him to share power with a new and popularly-elected legislature, the Duma
- Once the dange passed, he weakened the Duma and avoided cooperating with it
~Pogroms
● Anti-Jewish raids
● Anti-Semitic persection escalated in late tsarist Russia
● Became distressingly common
~Tanzimat reforms
● From 1839 to 1876
● Janissary power was broken in the 1820s, and hte army and navy were upgraded and Westernized
● GOvernment promoted greater religious tolerance for non-Muslims
● Introduced Western science and technology into the educational system
● Boosted industrialization and built railroads and telegraphs
● Liberalized and secularized the legal system, at least to a degree
~Constitution of 1876
● Sultan Abdul Hamid II proclaimed a constiuttion and agreed to share power with an eleected legislature
● It was suspended for 20 years in 1878
~Young Turks
● A growing number of modernizing politicians and military oficers who wanted more change than he was willing to deliver
● By the early 1900s, they would play a decisive role in ending Abdul Hamid II’s rule
~Greek War of Independence
● 1821-1832
● Inspired futuer nationalist uprisings among other Balkan Christians and by persuading Britain and Russia to intervene out of sympathy for the Greeks, it stoked a decades-long anti-Turkish prejudice in Europe
~Muhammad Ali
● Who transformed Egypt into an autonomous principality in 1805
● Demonstrated the Ottoman Empire’s vulnerability
● He created a Western-style military, recruited European professionals and advisors, and industrialized the production of Egyptian cotton
● Governed autocratically as khedive and subjected cotton growers and textile workers to oppressive labor conditions
~French colonization of Algeria (Respect of Ottoman)
● Taken from the Turks in 1830 and brutally pacific by the end of hte 1840s
● Demonstrated the Ottoman Empire’s vulnerability
~Crimean War
● 1853-1856
● Russia’s sudden annexation of Ottoman provinces on the Danube provoked it
● Britain and France stepped in to aid the Turks against Russia
~Balkan Crisis
● 1876-1878
● Balkan nationalism intensified when Bulgarians, Montenegrins, Serbs, and Romanians revolted against economically harsh policies
● Ottoman troops committed terrible anti-Christian atrocities, undermining the Tanzimat reforms’ modernizing spirit and triggering widespread anti-Turkish revulsion in Europe
● The rebel nations went free, and the empire’s grip ont he Balkans continued to loosen
~Construction of Suez Canal
● 1854-1869
● Financed by the French-dominated Suez Canal Company and doverseen by the French engineer Ferdinand de Lesseps
● Gave France huge economic leverage over the khedive in Egypt
● THe leverage passed in the 1870s and 1880s to Britain which purchased shares in the canal and then stepped in militarily to save hte khedive from an 1881 revolt
~Anglo-Egyptian Administration
● British established a protectorate in 1881
● Left the khedive on the thron but placed real control in British hands
~Enver Pesha
● THe Young Turks depose Abdul Hamid II in 1908-1909
● Installing a figurehead sultan and restoring the constitution of 1867
● Pursued a program of industralization, secularization and socioeconomic reform
● THey modeled their industrialization on Germany–led them to support the losign side in WWI
~Barbary states
● Of Islamic North Africa (present-day Morocco, Algeria, tunisia and Libya)
● Technically ruled by the Ottomans but increasingly autonomous
● Piratical corsairs from these states threatened European and American shipping and enslaved captives as galley oarsmen
- Partly provoked the French colonization of Algeria
~Ashanti/Asante Kingdom
● In West Africa’s Gold Coast (present-day Ghana)
● Engaged in a dramatic military buildup during the late 1700s, financed by its participation int he Atlantic slave trade
● Threantened European outposts and trade routes along the Gold Coast and resisted Euro-American attempts to destroy the slave trade
● Britain fought a series of wars starting in 1823 until 1902
~Zulu kingdom
● Existed ont he edge of Dutch and British possessions in South Africa
● The Bantu-speaking Zulu were organized into small, relatively peaceful clans before 1800
● Around 1816, a new chieftain, Shaka, united them into a single tribe and used his military talents to conquer niehgbors
● THeir warlike expansion caused a large wave of tribal migration and clashed with Boers and British settlers
~Zanzibar
● Producer of spices, sugar, and cloves for the Indian Ocean trade network and a key hub for the East African slave trade
● RUled by the Arab sultanate of Oman after 1698, it became hte Omani capital in 1840 and was promoted to the status of sultanate in 1861
● Controlled the Zanj, a large portion of hte East African coast
~Ethiopia
● Remained Coptic Christian in predominantly muslim East Africa
● Existed largely in isolation between the mid-1600s when it expelled the Portuguese and the mid-1800s, when Theodore II, a pro-Western but entally erratic king, began a process of military modernization
● This policy allowed Etiopia to ward off European invasion
● Victory over Italian forces at Adowa in 1896
~Great Trek
● Displaced by the British, the Boers made a Great Trek to the north and east during the 1830s and soon founded their own states
~The Orange Free State and Transvaal
● On the border of British South Africa
● Boer’s own states
~Zulu War of 1879
● The Boers and British periodically clashed with each other, and more regularly with the local Xhosa and Zulu
● THe discovery of South African gold mines and diamond fields heightened military tensions here and led to the cruel exploitation of African laborers
~French colonization of Algeria
● Carried out during the 1830s and 1840s
● Scorched-earth devastation and frightful violence against local civilians
● French became particularly attached to Algeria, viewing it as their most important possession int he way Britian regarded India
~Berlin Conference
● 1884-1885
● Convened by the German statesman Otto von Bismarck to defuse diplomatic tensions stirred up by the Europeans’ headlong rush to carve up Africa
● Boundaries wree agreed upon, as were guidelines for further expnasion
● Long-term harm was done to Africa that lines drawn on the map during and after Berlin reflected only European desires
- Bore no relation at all tot he traditional territorial demarcations used by African themselves
~British colonies in Africa
● Several colonies int he west, including the Gold Coast (home to the Ashanti) and the nearly unbroken chain of possessions it gianed int he east, largely at the expense of the Omani Arabs
● Governed with a blend of exploitative selfishness, racist sentiment and well-meaning condescension in India
- Trained native elites and native troops int eh Western style and broght new sciecne, medicine, and industrial technology to Africa
~Cape to Cairo
● British dreamed of building a railroad stretching the entire length of the continent but were blocked by Germany’s acquisition of territory on the eastern coast
~French colonies in Africa
● Similar to British
● Acted mainly in accordance with its mission civilisatrice
● Dominated the Saharan north and large portions ofthe west, inaddition to the island of Madagascar
~Portuguese colonies in Africa
● Rule in colonies like Angola and Mozambique was quite harsh
~Belgium colonies in Africa
● Extrmeely harsh, with the noctorious Leopold II
● Controlled Congo
~Leopold II
● Staring int he 1870s, the Belgium king established a private company for the economic development of the Congo and its claim tot he colony was recognized at the BErlin Conferecne
● Belgian-owned rubber plantations brutally forced Congolese villagers to meet production quotas, often allowing overseers to chop off the right hands of harvesters who fell short
~German colonies in AFrica
● A new country anxious to build an empire on par with those of Britain and France
● Moved aggressively into Tanganyika, near Zanzibar int he east, and several small area int he east (unprofitable leftovers)
● Faced several costly uprisings
~Herero Wars
● 1904-1907
● Involved the use of concentration camps against civilians and killed nearly 80% of Southwest Africa’s Herero natives
● They are considered by some to have been an early instance of genocide
~Fashoda Incident (1896)
● France and Britain almost came to blows
● French troopps moving eastward intot he Nile Valley encountered BRitish forces who regarded hte region as theirs
~Boer War
● 1899-1902
● ALthough the British ahd a more powerful army, the Boers were skilled guerrilla sharpshooters fighting on their home territory
● The war grew painfully vicious, with British using concentration camps to civilians from supporting the Boer guerrillas
● Germany’s open sympathy fro the Boers worsened anglo-German relations
~Qianlong
● 1763-1795
● Remembered as the Qing dynasty’s last truly capable ruler
● Confucian-based social stratification remained rigid
● Cost of defending China’s northern and western frontiers and a rapid population growth terirbly burdned the economy
~White Lotus Rebellion
● Popular discontent erupted in violent uprisings (1794-1804)
● GOvernemnt grew even more corrupt and imcompetent after Qianlong’s death
~Macartney mission
● Petitioned Qianlong in 1793 for permission to open a British embassy in China and to sell British goods there
● Angered by the lopsided balance of trade
~Middle Kingdom
● THe Qing believed that China was the kingdomw that all outsiders wre barbarians
● Sense of superiory
● THey failed to release that CHina had fallen far behind the West when it came to science and technology
~Economic imperialism (China)
● Westenres flooded China with a highly potenet variety of opium from British India
● Opium trade
● Trade conflicts int he 1850s and 1860s, including FIrst Opium War, Second Opium War and a Franco-british assault on Beijing, resulted in more unequal treaties
~Opium trade
● overwhelmingly reversed the economic balance of power
● Opium addiction became so widespread durng the early 1800s
~Lin Zexu
● Qing trade commissioner protested to the British, beggin Queen Victori herself to end the trade in 1839
● Confiscated a huge quantity of opium from British warehouses in Canton and cast it itnto the ocean, a stunning financial blow that incensed British merchants and sparked the Frist Opium War
~Frist Opium War
● 1839-1842
● Easily won by the technologically advanced British, ended with the Treaty of Nanking
~Treaty of Nanking
● First of many unequal treaties oforced on nineteenth-century China by the Western powers
● Qing govenrment had to open more ports to foreign trade, lower tariffs on British goods, and surrendered Hong Kong to Britain
~Foreign concessions
● Large coastal districts where Western, not Chinese, law prevailed
~Taiping Rebellion
● 1850-1864
● Second dadliest war in history, next to WWII
● Led by Hong Xiuquan
● Qing forces, assisted by foreign military units, recovered by the early 1860s
● The Rebellion collapsed after Hong’s suicidein 1864
~Hong Xiuquan
● A Cantonese clerk educated partly by Protestant missionaries
● Shocked by failing his civil service examination, he began having visions that convinced him that he was Jesus Christ’s younger brother, destined to establish a heavenly kingdom of supremem peace (taiping) in China
● Organized effective modern army and appealed to millions of ordinary Chinese who resented hte QIng’s high taxes and oppressive rule
~Self-strengthening movement
● In reaction to the chaos caused by the Taiping Rebellion, elements within the Qing government attempted a reform campaign, starting int he 1860s and pursued sporadically over hte next few decades
● Limited impact because it confined itself to economic and military modernization without meaningful social change
● Opposed by Cixi
~Cixi
● Leading figure in Chinese politics who governed as regent for her nephew Guangxu, beginning in 1878, and controlled him even after he grew to adulhood
● She resisted all change and even placed Guangxu under arrest when he launched a short-lived “hundred days reform” in 1898
~Sino-Japanese War
● 1894-1895
● Japan thrashed China, occupying Korea and Taiwan
~Open Door Policy
● In 1899, The US’s policy arranged equal access to Chinese markets for all Western nations, further increasing foreign intrusion
~Boxer Reblleion
● Encouraged by Cixi
● Unleashed against Westerners in major cities, especially Beijing
● Put down after weeks of violence by foreign troops
~Tokugawa shogunate
● Tried in the late 1700s and early 1800s to enjoy the fruits of urbanization and proto-industrialization
● Keeping in place its dictatorial rule and its rigid social stratification, which favored hte samurai elite
● Isolationism: Christianity had been banned since the 1600s and only through the port of Nagasaki did the regime allow a trickle of foreign trade
~Commodore Matthew Perry
● American gunships captain in 1853 who forcefully asked the Japanese to open up to trade
~Meiji Restoration of 1868
● Named after the new emperor, began Japan’s modern age
● Revolution from above
● He ruled until 1912 and rapidly industrializd Japan’s economy and thoroughly modernized political and social life in his country
● Japan even emerged as an imperial power in its own right
~Constitution of 1890 (Meiji)
● Created an elected Parliament, the Diet
● The Civil Code of 1898 upadated Japan’s legal system
~New tax system of 1872
● Funded a national educationa system in Japan
● Japan imported Western science and technical know-how at an astonishing rate
~Ryukyu Islands
● Took from China in 1879
● Include Okinawa, the most cherished of Japan’s possessions
~Russo-Japanese War
● 1904-1905
● The first large-scale conflict of the modern era in which a non-Western state defeated a European power
● THe Japanese fought close to home while the Russians truggled to supply their war via the Trnas-Siberian Railway
● Victory gave Japan title to the Kurile Islands and southern Sakhalin and Japan strengthened its position in Korea and mainland China
~Seven Years’ War
● 1756-1763
● Particularly Britain’s 1757 defeat of France’s Mughal allies at the battle of Plassey, in Bengal
● Ensured British superiority on the subcontinent and confined France’s colonial presence to the southeastern port of Pondicherry
~British East India Company
● Until the mid-1800s, the company carried out the colonization of India
● Controlled only a small part of the country, mainly around Bombay, Madras and Calcutta in 1800
● Initial interest was the ctoon industry, although it traded in tea, spices, and opium as well
~Bombay
● Now Mumbai
● The gateway port of hte west coast
~Madras
● A textile-producing center on the southeast shore
~Calcutta
● In the Bengal northeast
~Sepoys
● Indian soldiers trained and equipped in Western style
● Begun by the French in the mid-1700s, was used on a huge scale by the British, who stationed a surprisingly small number of their own officers and soldiers in India
~Sati
● Then Hindu funeral practice of burning widows with their dead husbands
~Thuggee
● Ritual assassination in the name of the Hindu goddess Kali
~India Revolt/Sepoy Mutiny
● 1857-1858
● One of the most traumatic events in modern British and India history
● Resetment of British rule exploded into open violence and quickly spread the country
● Savage massacres of British civilians, especially at Cawnpore, inflamed the British, whor esponded with devastateing reprisals and mass execution
● With their western traiing and anti-colonial zeal, the sepoys threatened British rule in India, but they had no clear plan or single leader
- Muslim and Hindu rebels often failed to cooperate
~Massacres at Cawnpore
● The butchered remains of women and children were cast into a dry well to rot
● The sepoys brutally massacred British civilians
~Dutch East India Company
● Administered Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) since the 1600s
- The Dutch governemnt itself had to step in after 1798 when the company went bankrupt
~Singapore
● British established the outpost there in 1819, an island at the Malay Peninsula’s tip
● A strategically placed stronghold and trading center, Singapore quickkly became a key naval base and one of Britain’s most prized possessions in Asia
~Burma
● The British colonized nearby Burma in 1826
~Indochina
● Consists of Veitnam, Cambodia and Laos
● French developed their own interest here and pressured Indochina into granting them favorable trade terms and accepting their poltical influence
● China was helpless to halt the French advance after a Sino-French conflict in 1883
● It was fully colonized in the 1880s and 1890s
~Siam/Thailand
● Avoided EUropean colonization in the 1800s due to a good leadership and good luck
● King Mongkut, who ruled from 1851 to 1868 and his son Chulalongkorn, who ruled until 1910, saw modernization as the key to continued freedom
● Both introduced industrialization and Western-style reforms
● It served as a convenient buffer zone between British controlled Burma and French Indochina
~US annexation of the Philippines
● A Spanish colony since the early 1500s, but forfeited to the US in 1898 after hte Spanish-American War
● The Filipinos, whose Katipunan national-liberation society had long been struggling against Spanish rule, initially welcomed the Americans as liberators
● THe US, fearing that the Philippines would fall into Japanes hands, proclaimed a policy of benevolent assiilation and took possession of them in 1899
● led to a three-year Philippine America War of occupation
~Philippin-American War
● A guerrilla force led by the Katipunan rebel Emilio Aguinaldo resisted the US takeover until 1902
● OVer 200,000 Filipinos are thought to have died udring this conflict
~James Cook
● Charting Australia’s east coast in 1770, claimed the continent for his country and the nearby islands of New Zealand, home tot he Polynesian Maori, came under ENglish control as well
~Settlement of Australia
● Began in 1788
● For years, the population consisted mainly of soldiers, colonial officials, and criminals transported tot he colony as punishment
● In 1830, Britain formally extended its authority to all of Australia, and the rate of free settlement increased, bringing miners and sheep farmers to the colony in large numbers
~Aborigines
● Australia’s Aborigines who had lived there for tens of thousadns of years, were dispossessed and driven intot he bush
● DUring the “musket wars” of the early 1800s, New Zealand’s Maori gaiend access to gunpowder weapons, and it took another series of wars, the Land Wars of 1845-1872 for the British to brng them fully udner control
~Hawaii
● Adopted constitutional monarchy
● became a noteworthy producer of fruits and sugar (many immigrants from China and Jpan arive to work int hese industries)
● It was attacked several times by powers like France in the 1840s
● It sought protection from the US
● Queen Liliuokalani proposed to amend hte consittution in ways contrary to US interests in 1893, she was overthrown
● With the monarchy ended, the US annexed Hawaii in 1898, just prior to tits occupation of the Philippines
~Inspiring freedom
● Democratic government and respect for civil liberties (despite racial and gender inequality) made America an example during the 1800s for those in other countries who wished to bring about similar changes
~Sphere of Influence
● The Monroe Doctrine allowed the US quickly became the dominant power in Americas, practicing economic imperialism in much of Latin America and gainign ownership of or protection over Caribbean territories after the Spanish-American War
~Monroe Doctrine
● 1823
● US government warned Europe against intervening in the western hemisphere’s political affairs
~Expansion (US)
● The US’ rapid growth, which greatly altered the balance of world power, began witht eLOuisiana Purchase (1803) and continued with the mexican-American War (1846-1848), numerous Indian wars, the 1867 purchase of Alaska and the annexation of Hawaii in the 1890s
~Manifest destiny
● Gwoth of US was motinated by this ideology
● The belief that America was naturallyy entitled to expand territorially
~Native American policy
● US handling of Native Americans vacillated between assimilationist attempts to civilize them and military campaigns of expulsion or pacification, the Indian wars
~Indian Removal Act of 1830
● Andrew Jackson’s act which pushed many tribes west of hte Mississippi
● Treaties typically arranged for Native American tribes to be placed on reservations with some degree of autonomy, but even when teh US governemnt negotiated in good faith, farmers, rachers, and miners often broke the peace, leading to more forced resettlement
~Ghost Dance
● Resistance which led to the 1890 massacre of Sioux at Wounded Knee was precipitated by American desire for hte gold discovered in the Black Hills territory sacred to the Sious
~Slavery in US
● The persistance of slavery in the American South was a key factor in allowing the Atlantic slave trade to continue for so
● Underlying cuase of the US Civil War (1861-1865), and race relations are still affected by its legacy today
● Several slave revolts were attempted (Nat Turner in 1831 and John Brown at Harpers Ferry in 1859)
~Industrial and commercial growth
● During the last 2/3 of the 1800s, the US equaled, and then surpassed, Europea as an industrial power
● Many of the era’s key innovations came from here
● New York joined London as one of the world’s most important hubs for bankin and commerce
~Caudillos
● Ruled by means of personal charisma, military force, or oppression
● Frequently subverted by political stronmen known as caudillos
● An exception was Mexico’s president Benito Juarez
~Benito Juarez
● Descended from Zapotec natives and a determined proponent of land reform, separation of hcurch and state, and euql treatmen for all races
● A member of the Liberal Party, he served as president severaltimes between 1858 and 1872
● Led to war of resistance against France’s attempt to instal Maximilian of Austra as Mexico’s emperor
~The Reform War
● 1857-1861
● Armed conflict with Mexico’s Conservatives
● First election of Bentio Juarez
~Porfirio Diaz
● Juarez’s onetime ally
● THe general who reverted to the caudillo mode, securing his hold over the presidency between 1876 and 1911, when the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920) forced him out of office
~Racial inequality in Latin America
● Consitutions theoretically did away with rigid colonial-era hierarhies, Indians, blacks, and those of mixed race still experienced much prejudice
● indian wars and guerrilla uprisings were common throughout latin America, particularly in mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula, the Argentinian pampas, and Brazil’s Amazon basin
~Slavery in Latin America
● During the late 1700 and much of the 1800s, the Atlantic slave trade continued to bring Africans against their will to Latin America and the Caribbean
● Slavery remained legal in Cuba and Brazil until eh 1880s
~Economic backwardness in Latin America
● Centuries of colonial rule had geared Latin American economies toward an overreliance on resource extraction and plantation monoculture, both of which damaged the environment and hindered economic development
● Until late in the 1800s, the pace of industrialization remained slow
● These practices were depended on slaves and fostered social inequality
~Social inequality in Latin America
● Profits went overwhelmingly to the elite classes and the foreign investors practicing "dollar diplomacy" or economic imperialism in partneship with them ● This left a wide gap between rich and poor, and only a narrow middle class between them
~Industrialization and modernization in Latin America
● A certain meaure of it occurred in some parts of hte region by the alte 180ss, with countries like Mexico and Argentina leading the way
~Foreign influence over Latin America
● The US seized vast amounts of territy from Mexico during the Texas rebellion of the 1830s and the Mexican-American War (1846-1848)
● France under Napoleon III sponsored hte ill-fated attempt in 1864-1867 to install the Habsburg prince Maximilian as emperor of Mexico
● British and American economic imperialism (United Fruit Company)
● Spain maintained a presence in islands like Cuba and Puerto Rice
~Jose Marti
● National-liberation movement led by the Cuban leader sparked a war of independence, during which opponents of Spanish rul were placed in concentration camps (first use)
~Spanish-American War
● 1898
● Events in Cuba led directly to the war, ended Spain’s influence in the Caribbean, but handed dominance over to America, which annexed Puerto Rico and establisehd a protectorate over Cuba
~Panama Canal
● THe US built the canal int he early 1900s, another sign of its regional influence
~What are the trneds that combined to spark the American Revolution?
● Growing sense of nationalism
● Increased resentment of Britian’s economic mastery
- The taxes Britain levied to pay for the army it maintained in NA angered many coloniests, especially because they lacked representation in the Parliament
● Capitalism was catching on and it was not permitted by Britain’s mercantilist policy
● Influence of ENglightenment philosophy
~How did France help the Americans?
● France (Britain’s mortal enemy) decided to lend Americans money and military aid after their victory at Saratoga
● French fleet’s assistance against Britain’s Royal Navy was helpful, as was the military training provided by French officers (and other Europeans) at Washington’s Valley Forge encampment in 1777-1778
~How was democracy in the early America not all-inclusive?
● Elections were indirect, favoring hte upper and middle classes
● Women and Native Americans could not vote, and neither could men who failed to fulfill certain property requirements
● Free blacks could vote in some staets, but not all, and lost many of their voting rights int he early 1800s
● COnstitution did not outlaw slavery
~How is the US Constituion both a product and hte cause of an international philosophical exchange?
● Just as European Enlightenment ideals inspired the American Revolution, the revolution and hte constitutioanl arrangment htat sprang from it went on to inspire political action in Europe during the 1780s and 1790s, including France
● THe impact can also be seen iN Haiti and Latin America during the 1790s and early 1800s
~What are the long term factors of French Revolution?
● Socio-economic gap between ordinary citizens (third Estate) and the country's elite, which consisted of the Catholic clergy (First Estate) and the aristocracy (Second Estate) ● Unfair tax system that exempted the wealthy First and Second Estates, while members of the middle class are forced to pay heavy taxes beccause they belonged to the Thrid Estate ● Political ineptitude of France's kings and the long-term debt they had piled up since the early 1700s (made worse in supporting American Revolution) ● Enlightenment philosophy, people were in favor of fair government, social contracts, and civil liberties guaranteed by natural rights
~What are the immediate causes of French Revolution?
● Impending bankruptcy of the government
● Louis XVI could not solve France’s financial crisis and inflation, unemployment and food shortages were tormenting the entire country
● Louis XVI summoned the Estates General to meet with him at Versailles in May 1789
● First and Second Estates were not prepared to compromise
~What did the National Assembly fail to do?
● Failed to solved worsening economic problems ● They idd not agree on how to change France - Liberal nobles and clergy, with much of the middle class, were satisfied with parliamentary monarchy and moderate change - The rural population, happy to have equal rights and to limit hte power of the king, wanted economic relief but not deper social change - The urban lower classes (sans-culottes) and certain middle class idealists were more radical; they wished to end the monarchy, drive out or persecute former aristocrats, export their revolution to other countries by force
~Whom did the rights proclaimed by the French Revolution not include?
● Only included white, Catholic, adult males
● Only with time did Jews, Protestants, and blacks gain those rights
● Womend id no until well into the 1900s
● Slavery was not ended in France’s colonies until 1794
~Whar were the only countries not under Napoleon’s direct or indirect control in Europea?
● Britain and Russia
~What were the reasons for Napoleon’s downfall?
● His inability to counter British naval power
● Bloody guerrilla resistance to his authority in Spain
● His famously overambitious invasion of Russia in 1812
~Why was the French Revolution important?
● Did away with absolute monarchy
- No major country were the monarch all-powerful even tho kings and emperors continued to sit on thrones
- Monarchs yielded more of their authority to ministries and legislatures
● Inspired future uprigins
● THe emergence of modern politics in the West (left and right)
- Formation of conservatism and liberalism
● Cause people to demand greater popular participation in government and to force 1800s governments to be more attentive to their desires
~Why did the Haitian Rebellion start?
● Revolutionary freedoms went automatically to Frenchmen and Creoles but were not extended to free blacks and mulattos until May 1791
● France’s revolutionary government decided at htat point not to end slavery, the slaves of Saint Domingue revolted in August
~What was the effect of the Haitian Rebellion?
● Lead quickly to further uprisings in Latin America
● Convinced Napoleon that it was strategically wasteful for France to maintain major colonies in the New World
- He sold the Louisiana territory to the US
~What were the underlying factors of Latin American wars of independence?
● Growing sense of nationalism and local resentment of Spain’s and Portugal’s restrictive economic policies
● Frustration that the criollo (creole) felt at being barred from upward mobility by the rigid social herarchy that prevailed in Latin American colonies
~Who toppled the colonial order in Latin America?
● Napoleon did by invading Spain and Portugal between 1807 and 1809
● With the Spanish king under house arrest and Portugal’s royal family forced to flee to Brazil, rebellions sprang up throughout Central and South America
~What did Bolivar promise and why?
● He realized that no revolt could succeed unless it attracted all classes
● He promised to fight for hte rights of mixed-race Latin Americans and the emancipation of slaves
● Elaborated in documents like Jamaica Letter
~What was the turning point (military) of Bolivar’s wars?
● When he gained control over present-day Venezuela and Columbia in 1819-1821
● He joined forces with another freedom fighter, Jose de San Martin and Bolivar took the lead
~What did both Hidalgo and Morelos fight for?
● Not just for national independence, but also for constitutional rule, equal rights for Indians and mestizos, and the liberation of slaves ● Their platform gained mass support from the lower classes, but angered many upper-class Mexicans, evne those who wanted independence
~What were the factors that enabled and motivated the new imperialism?
● Industrialization ● Military superiority ● Population growth ● Geographic and scientific aptitude ● Racial superiority
~How did industrialization motivate the new imperialism?
● Made Western economies hungry for raw materials (including timber, industril and previous metals, coal, rubber, and variou chemicals) that could be wrested from less powerful societies by force
● Overseas markets
~How did military superiority enable the new imperialism?
● The Industail-era weaponry lent Western armies and navies military superiority
● Because modern ships powerd by coal required repair bases and refueling depots, Western sea power depended on control over islands and ports around the world
~How did population growth motivate the new imperialism?
● Caused migration not just to the Americas but also to settler colonies far from the homeland
~How did geographic and scientific aptitude enable the new imperialism?
● Allowed for easier penetration fo the African and Asian interior
● in particular, quinine made it possible for Westerners to establish temselves in tropical zones
~How did racial superiority motivate the new imperialism?
● Buttressed in many cases by the doctrine of social Darwinism
● Was widespread among white Europeans and Americans, a large proportion of whom believed htey were naturally entitled to conquer and colonize the darker-skinned, less technologically advanced peoples of Africa and Asia
~What were some geopolitical conflicts that arose tensions?
● Eastern Question
● Great Game
● Scramble for Africa
● Growing intensity of nationalism in Western nations
~Why did Britain joined the Triple Entente?
● In the beginning, Britain viewed Russia as an enemy due to the Great Game and it had little affection for France
● but after 1900, Britain grew increasingly alarmed by Germany’s aggressive empire building, especially in Africa, and its rapid naval expansion , which threatened Britain’s sea power, the root of its global might
~What did Europe’s major regimes do to preserve order and prevent change?
● Monarchies were no longer absolute, but royal families were restored wherever possible, including in France
● Civil liberties were restricted, censorship was heavy, and secret polic forces were common
● Trade union were illegal, as were political parties in many countries
~Where was repression greater?
● Central and Eastern Europe
● if voting systems existed at all, they were limited
● Russia not only remained an absolute monarchy but still contined the practice of serfdom
~What were the underlying causes of revolution of 1848?
● Popular impatience with reactionary rule
● Socioeconomic stress caused by industrialization
● A series of bad harvests (like the Irish Potato Famine) that caused the decade ot be known as the hungry forties
~What were the lasting effects of the revolultion of 1848?
● COmpelled Austria and German states like Prussia to grant constitutions
● Demonstrated the growing political importance ofnationalism since many of them had involved ethnic revolts against Austrian rule
● Inspired Karl Marx to write
● Demands of ordinary people had ot be taken seriously
~What did most European governments do during the second half of the century due to the revolution of 1848?
● Expanded political representation
● Legislated the improvement of working conditions, althought whether they did so by menas of reform or revolution varied
● Political power spread outward to larger numbers of government ministries and agencies
~What were hte questions that Victorian Britain faced?
● Women’s suffrage
● Irish nationalism
~When were all adult males given the vote in France?
● After 1848
~What did the post-1848 liberalization lead to in Austria?
● Creation of a parliament
● Various concession tot he empire’s many minority populations, whose nationalist aspirations were risings
~What was this period like for the Middle East?
● Time of decline
● Safavid Persia had disappeared int he early 1700s
● Althought the Ottoman Empire survived into the early 1900s, it lost territory at an alarming rate during the 1800s and came to be derided as the ‘sick man of Europe”
~What internal troubles plagued the Ottoman Empire?
● Sultans and reformers who wished to modernize met with resistance from Islamic traditionalists or influential groups with a vested interest in preserving old ways
● THe janissaries are now privileged but woefully outdated and blocked any attempt to improve the military, to the point of assassinating hte sultan in 1807
~What were Ottomans’ external problems?
● Greek War of Independence ● French colonization of Algeria ● Losing wars and land to Austria and Russia ● Balkan Crisis ● Crimean War
~How did Ottoman control over North Africa weaken?
● Egypt remained outside of the Ottoman orbit
● France colonized Algeria
● Ottoman watched helplessly as Tunisia fell to France, Morocco to the French and Spniash, and Libya to Italy
~Why did Russia wage long wars of imperial conquest in Islamic Central Asia throughout the 1800s?
● National resources
- Central Asia is a great cotton-producing center
● Secure their open southern frontier (a longstanding strategic concern)
● Further their dream of winning warm-water ports on the Indian Ocean coast
~How did Africa remained comparatively free of direct outside influence until well into the 1800s?
● The ottoman Empire controlled North Africa (althought its authoriy was slipping
● Omani Arabs ruled most of the East AFrican shore and Swahili ports (after displacing the Portuguese who had dominated there before)
● EUropean presence on the continent was restricted to selected spots on the coast
● Many states were strong enough to resist foreign dominantion while others were cooperative enought aht Europeans found it useful to work with them
~How did South Africa fall under European control?
● Colonized by Dutch Boers/Afrikaners as early as the mid-1600s
● Saw an influx of new settlers after the napoleonic Wars, when British assumed control over the region
~How were westerners able to press fully into the Africa interior in 1800s?
● Geographical knowledge gained by exploreres between the late 1700s and the mid-1800s
● Industrial-era weaponry
● Effective medical treatments for tropical disease
● Civil and intertribal conflict made numerous parts of Africa vulnerable to European takeover
● African states that had benefited from the slave trades found themselves economically weakened when that commerce cmae to an end
~What were the Europeans motivated by in Africa?
● Greed
- gold, diamonds, ivory, rubber
● Racial superiority
- Reinforced by the doctrine of Social Darwinism
● White man’s burden conviction that they had a duty to civilize what they thought of as the dark continent
● THe century’s long antislavery campaigns accustomed Westerners not just to taking military action but to thinking of intervention there as morally justified
~How did the Scramble for Africa backfire on the Europeans?
● Rousing thei combative passions nad contributing tot he diplomatic tensiosn that helped cause WWI
● Fashoda Incident
● German interference with French and Spanish plans for northwestern AFrica
● Germany’s public support of the Dutch AFrikaners in their Boer War against Britain
~How did the Qing badly mishandled relations with the West?
● In the late 1700s and early 1800s, Europeans and Ameirans wer allowed to trade with China only in a handful of designated cities (Canton)
● CHinese sold silk, porcelain and tea, they regused to allow any more than a tiny selection fo Western goods to be sold in their country
~What did the uneuqal treaties in China (other than Treaty of Nanking) result in?
● Legalized the opium trade
● Opened even more ports to outsdiers
● Allowed Ameircans and Europeans to set up foreign concessions
~What were the examples of China’s decline?
● Outlying possessions and countries formerly in China’s tributary system gained autonomy or fell into foreign hands
- France seized Indochina after a short conflict with China in 1883
- Sino-Japanese War
~What did the Europeans do in revenge of hte Boxer Rebellion?
● Western powers burned a number of Chinese temples and forced the Qing to pay heavy reparations
~What did Cixi do after recognizing the need for change?
● She formed a committee to investigae the possibility of writing a constitution
● Both she and Guangxu died in 1908, leaving Henry Puyi, Chin’a last emperor to tkae up the reofrm effort
~What did Japan do when it saw it might suffer the same fate as China?
● In 1867-1868, a coalition of samurai clans, angered by the shogun’s unwillingness to stand up to foreign intimidation, abolished the shogunate and restored the emperor to a position of full authory
~How did Meiji sweep away the feudal social hierarchy of the Tokugawa era?
● In the 1870s, the samurai lost their hereditary privileges, including immunity from taxation, the annual subsidies paid to them by the governemnt, and their right to wear swords, their traditional symbols of authority, in public
● Access to political positions became increasingly dependnet on merit and civil service examinations
● Industrialization increased the size and influence of hte merchant and middle class, and the feudal prejudice against trade and artisanship faded away
● THe lower classes gained access ot public education and were now allowed to serve int he military
~In what ways were liberalization not as far in Japan?
● Taxes increased for farmers
● Working conditions for hte industrial lower classes resembled the ghastly ones that had characterized hte early Industrial Revolution in Europe
● Owing to property qualitfications and other restrictions, nly 5% of the population could vot for hte Diet, and the emperor exercised a great deal of control over it
● Civil cod made littlle room for the rights of women, who were largely confined to a secondary status
● Meiji created an oligarchy that was less repressive than the Tokugawa regime but hardly representative
~How did Meiji regime westernize?
● New tax system of 1872
● Elite and middle classes adopted Western dress and manners
● The Western calendar and metric system
● The Japanese navy and army adopted not just industrial-era technology but alos Western tactics and organizational methods
~What caused the Russo-Japanese War?
● Russia’s imperial and railroad-building ambitions in eastern Siberia, Mongolia and Manchuria collided with Japan’s plans for expansion
- THe tsar pushed ahead with aggression and foolish overconfidence
~What did the Islamic militancy of the emperor Aurangzeb provoke during the late 1600s?
● Creation of a Sikh state in teh Punjab
● Breakaway of the Hindu Maratha Empire
● Muslim states like Mysore won their freedom as well
● THe Maratha princes, who belonged to the warrior caste nad demonstrated a willingness to innovate with gunpowder weaponry, were formidable leaders
~How did the BEIC expand?
● Combination of diplomacy, warfare, and the training of native elites
● THe rulers of many Nughal states surrendered administratie and tax-gathering authority to the British in exchange for being allowed to keep their thrones
● Company armies gradually defeated the Mysore sultantate, the mighty Maratha princes, and the Sikhs, extending British authority in several directions
~Why and how did BEIC rely on native presonnel?
● To save on human power
● For administration and tax-gathering, the British turned to native officials and zamindar landowners
● Sepoys
~How did relying on zamindar landowners for tax-gathering backfire at first?
● During the late 1700s, many zamindars overtaxed their countrymen and seized land from peasnats who could not pay
● Famines then killed approx. 1/3 of the rural population under British control, after which the company reformed its tax-gathering system
~What positive aspects to British rule in India were there?
● Built schools, railroads, and telegraphs
● Improved hte food-distribution network to prevent famines
● Reduced hte level of religious strife between Muslims and Hindus
● Discouraged hte conversion of Indians to Christianity and generally strove to respect local religious and cultural practices
● Combatted customs including sati, thuggee and the caste system’s harsh treatment of so called untouchables
~What caused the Indian Revolt/Sepoy Mutiny?
● The rumor that British officers were deliberately tryingt o undermine Hindu and Muslim beliefs
- Put pork and beef oil on the weapons
~How did Britain respond to the Indian Revolt/Sepoy Mutiny?
● THe British, along iwth native troops who remained loyal, put down the rebellion in 1858 and declared a formal end tot he Mughal dynasty
● Several hundred thousand, most of them India, perished
● The British crown took over from the BEIC as India’s colonizing authority
- The governemnt oversaw politicas, ran the army, and superise the economy
~What did Victoria, queen of England, do in 1877?
● She titled herself empress of India
~What were the Southeast Asia rich in?
● Rubber, petroleum and metals like copper, tin, chrome, and aluminum ore (bauxite)
~What did the French place a heavy emphasis on that Britian did not?
● Religious conversion
● their native elites were almost exclusively Catholic
~Where did the US expand its Pacific presence to?
● Purchased the Russian colony of Alaska in 1867
● Extended its reach to the Hawaiian kingdom, which had been founded in 1795, when Kamehameha I used Western weaponry to conquer the Hawaiian islands and forge them into a European-tyle absolute monarchy
~What was the constitutions that SImon Bolivar drafted influenced by?
● Napoleonic law code and the ideals of the American and French revolutions
● THe constitutions were for more than a dozen antions in Latin America after hte wars of independence
● it did not guarantee good government, social justice, or healthy economic
