Unit 5: Topic 6 - Industrialization: Government’s Role from 1750 to 1900 Flashcards
Tanzimat
The Tanzimat Reforms were a series of measures that sought to simplify the Ottoman legal system, import Western educational reforms, establish postal and telegraph systems, and increase religious tolerance for non-Muslims.The Tanzimat Reforms even went so far as to provide limited public education for women, some of whom began to enter the Ottoman public life. The changes were limited, however, and the Ottoman Empire continued to suffer serious problems.
Meiji Restoration
These reforms, heavily influenced by European ideas, were intended to effectuate a fundamental change of the empire from the old system based on theocratic principles to that of a modern state.
Self-Strengthening Movement
Movement in which the Qing dynasty (1644–1911/12) of China introduced Western methods and technology in an attempt to renovate Chinese military, diplomatic, fiscal, and educational policy. Launched by three governors-general —Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, and Zuo Zongtang—who sought to consolidate Qing power by introducing Western technology. The movement was stimulated by the military training and techniques exhibited during the Westerners’ cooperation with the Qing in ending the Taiping Rebellion (1850–64) and was supported by Prince Gong in Beijing. The advocates of the Self-Strengthening Movement had regarded any institutional or ideological change as needless. But after 1885 some lower officials and comprador intellectuals began to emphasize institutional reforms and the opening of a parliament and to stress economic rather than military affairs for self-strengthening purposes.
Charter Oath
The Charter Oath was a short but very important public document issued in April 1868, just months after the Meiji Restoration brought an end to the Tokugawa shogunate and installed a new Japanese government. Issued in the name of the Emperor Meiji (who was only 15 years old at the time), the text was written by a group of the young samurai, mainly from domains in southwestern Japan, who had led the overthrow of the Tokugawa and the “restoration” of imperial rule. The Charter Oath appeared at a time of considerable uncertainty in Japanese society, as people throughout the country were unsure of the intentions and priorities of the new regime governing Japan.
Zaibatsu
Large Japanese conglomerate corporations through which key elite families exerted a great deal of political and economic power in Imperial Japan. By the end of the 19th century they controlled most of the economy of Japan.
Hundred Days’ Reform
The Hundred Days of Reform was an attempt to modernise China by reforming its government, economy and society. They were launched by the young Guangxu emperor and his followers in mid-1898. The need for urgent reforms in China followed the failure of the Self-Strengthening Movement and defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95, which exposed China’s military weakness.Some intellectuals believed that for significant reform to succeed, it had to come from above. They hoped the young Qing emperor might follow the example of Japan’s reform-minded Meiji emperor, who had overseen and encouraged successful economic and military reforms in his country. The Hundred Days of Reform was short-lived and mostly ineffective, however. It was thwarted by the actions of Dowager Empress Cixi and a cohort of conservatives in the Qing government and military. The failure of these reforms is considered a significant starting point for the Chinese Revolution.
Vladivostok
Major city in Russia that is the largest Russian port on the Pacific Ocean, and the chief cultural, economic, scientific, and tourism heart of the Russian Far East, as well as a terminus of the Trans-Siberian Railway. After the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917, Vladivostok was occupied in 1918 by White Russian and Allied forces, the last of whom from Japan were not withdrawn until 1922; by that time the antirevolutionary White Army forces in Vladivostok promptly collapsed, and Soviet power was established in the city. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Vladivostok became the administrative center of Primorsky Krai.
Matthew Perry
American Commodore who, in 1853, led a naval squad into the Yedo and Tokyo Bay of Japan, asking for trade privileges. Perry returned with even more ships in 1854, demanding that the Japanese engage in trade with the United States, which the Japanese agreed to after the realization by its leaders that Japan would have great difficulty defending itself against this, and other, maritime powers.
Meiji Emperor
Japanese emperor who enacted imperial powers in 1867 after the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate which adopted Western culture and technology as a means of preserving the country from Western dominance. Emperor Meiji established a constitutional monarchy, which included a parliament, the Diet. Meiji reduced the power of the samurai and dispatched men of the upper class to the United States and Europe to study industrial science, economics, and military science.
Muhammad Ali
Egyptian ruler of Egypt from the beginning of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th who encouraged the modernization of the Egyptian state. He improved Egypt’s agricultural system, introduced new crops, and reorganized the administrative structure of the government to ensure strict control of the economy. He also attempted to construct a modern industrial system to process Egypt’s raw materials and created a standing army, as well as, Western-style schools. His industrial experiments failed, largely because Egypt lacked sources of power, a native managerial class, and a trained working class. Even the agricultural sector declined ultimately because of administrative mismanagement, excessive taxation, military conscription of the peasantry, and monopolization of trade. By the mid-1830s Muḥammad ʿAlī’s policy of turning Egypt into a massive plantation for his own benefit had reached a point of diminishing returns.
Sultan Mahmud II
The 30th sultan of the Ottoman Empire from 1808-1839, Mahmud II’s westernizing reforms helped to consolidate the Ottoman Empire despite defeats in wars and losses of territory. Mahmud II adopted a professional conscript army and navy that successfully put down janissaries and established a separate power base. In turn, this enabled Mahmud II to institute legal reforms (such as taking away the power of Turkish governors to sentence people to instant death) and cultural reforms (including adopting European-style clothing). Mahmud II’s reforms laid the groundwork for the later Tanzimat Reforms that instituted western institutions and increased religious tolerance.
Young Turks
The Young Turks were a group of military officers dedicated to modernizing the Ottoman state. Rising to prominence in the early 1900s, the Young Turks sought to reform the Ottoman military and government along Western lines. The process was interrupted by the outbreak of the First World War, but Mustafa Kemal, better known as Ataturk, instituted many of the Young Turks’ reforms in the 1920s.
The Great Game
The Great Game was the diplomatic and espionage campaign between Russia and Great Britain that took place in Central Asia during the 1800s. Russia longed for a warm water port on the Indian Ocean, which was blocked by British influence over the Middle East and India. The low-level conflict never erupted into war between Russia and Britain, but led to a rivalry between the two powers that didn’t dissipate until shortly before the First World War.
