In class notes for Civilization in decline

1. Internal Troubles, External
Threats
China and the Ottoman Empire
1800-1914
Strayer Chapter 19

2. The Big Ideas
• The External Challenge: European
Industry and Empire
– New motives, new means
– New perceptions of the “Other”
• Reversal of Fortune: China’s Century of
Crisis
– The crisis within
– Western pressures
– The failure of conservative modernization

3. • The Ottoman Empire and the West
in the 19th
Century
– “The Sick Man of Europe”
– Reform and its opponents
– Outcomes: Comparing China and the
Ottoman Empire
• Reflections: Success and failure in
history

4. The External Challenge:
European Industry and
Empire
Part 1

5. New Motives, New Means
• 19th
century= Europe’s golden age of
expansion and domination of global
trade
• Europeans used new technology to push
further than ever into Asia and Africa
• Even newly independent states in Latin
America became economically dependent
on the West

6. • Industrialization became a major motive
for imperial expansion
• Europeans sought colonies to gain
– Raw materials
• Gold and diamonds from Africa
– Cash crops
• Beef from Argentina
• Cocoa and palm oil from West Africa
• Rubber from Brazil
• Tea from Ceylon

7. • Europeans also sought new markets for
their manufactured goods
– This kept factories humming and the
proletariat working
– By 1840, the British were exporting 60 %
of their cotton textiles
• 200 million yards to European nations
• 300 million yards to Latin American nations
• 145 million yards to India
• Europeans were also looking for new
places to invest their capital
– Between 1910 and 1913, Britain spent about
half of its savings on foreign investment in
its colonies

8. “Yesterday I attended a meeting of the
unemployed in London and having listened to wild
speeches which were nothing more than a scream
for bread, I returned home convinced more than
ever of the importance of imperialism… In order to
save the 40 million inhabitants of the United
Kingdom from a murderous civil war, the colonial
politicians must open up new areas to absorb the
excess population and create new markets for the
products of mines and factories… The British
Empire is a matter of bread and butter. If you wish
to avoid civil war, then you must become an
imperialist.”
• Cecil Rhodes

9. • Imperialism promised to solve the class
conflicts of an industrializing society
while avoiding redistribution of wealth
• Nationalism, especially after the
unification of Italy and Germany in the
1870s led to widespread competition to
gain colonies
– Gaining land became more important than
what the land could provide
– Colonies became a nation’s marker of wealth
and power

10. • Imperialism also provided a way for
nations to reach their goals
– Construction of the Suez canal sped up
trade between Europe and Asia
– The Underwater telegraph made it possible
to communicate instantaneously with people
on different continents
– Quinine helped Europeans prevent Malaria
– Breech-loading rifles further increased
European military might

11. Questions
• What motives led to increased European
imperialism in the Industrial Age?
• How did imperialism benefit European
nations?
• What technology helped Europeans
colonize more rapidly?

12. New Perceptions of the
“Other”
• Imperialism contributed to shaping
European views of Asians and Africans
in the 19th
century
• Europeans were VERY ethnocentric,
seeing a world in which two kinds of
people existed; themselves and others.

13. • Before
Industrialization,
Europeans saw
themselves as
religiously superior,
but they intermixed
with non-European
elites, often viewing
them as “noble
savages”
• After
Industrialization
began, Europeans
adopted “Social
Darwinism” and
“White Racial
Supremacy” which
shaped their
interactions with
others.

14. • The more industrialization increased, the
more Europeans looked down on colonized
peoples
– Images of “John Chinaman” replaced once
respected Chinese scholars in the European
psyche, and fear of the “yellow peril” spread
– Once powerful African slaving kingdoms were
reduced to “tribes” in European eyes

15. • Europeans used the lens of modern science
as a way of justifying racism and judging
non-Western societies
– Phrenologists and craniologists claimed that
differences in skull shapes/sizes marked
intelligence
• they claimed their “science” proved the superiority
of whites!
• This led to classification of non-whites as “Child
races” that needed to be supervised by Westerners
• In 1850, British anatomist Robert Knox said, “Race is
everything, civilization depends on it.”

16. • Racial supremacy also became
fuel for European expansion
– It was seen as inevitable
– A natural outgrowth of a superior
civilization
– In 1883, Briton Jules Ferry said,
“Superior races have a right,
because they have a duty.”
– British poet Rudyard Kipling
explained the importance and burden
of colonization to Americans in his
poem, “The White Man’s Burden” in
1899

17. Take up the White Man's
burden--
Send forth the best ye breed--
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild--
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.
Take up the White Man's
burden--
The savage wars of peace--
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to naught.
Take up the White Man's burden--
And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard--
The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:--
"Why brought he us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"
Take up the White Man's burden--
Have done with childish days--
The lightly proferred laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your manhood
Through all the thankless years
Cold, edged with dear-bought
wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!
“The White Man’s
Burden”

18. • Social Darwinism was a perversion of
Darwin’s survival of the fittest theory
• It argued that Europeans were destined to
displace or destroy “unfit” races.
• A British Bishop said of the Australian
aborigines
– “Everyone who knows a little about the
aboriginal races is aware that those races which
are of a low type of mentality and who are at the
same time weak in constitution rapidly die out
when their country comes to be occupied by a
different race much more rigorous, robust, and
pushing than themselves.”

19. Questions
1. In what ways did the Industrial
Revolution shape the character of 19th
century European imperialism?
2. What contributed to changing
European views of Asians and Africans
in the 19th
century?

20. Reversal of Fortune
China’s Century of Crisis

21. The Crisis Within
• How China was a victim of its own
success:
– Strong economy and American food crops
led to rapid population growth
– China was mired in the past and did not
industrialize
– Unemployment and poverty soared
– Famines broke out all over the Chinese
countryside as the land was over used

22. • China’s government did not change to meet
the new needs of its people
– The size of the government stayed the same
even though the population soared
– The government became increasingly unable to
effectively perform functions like tax collection
– Corruption became commonplace
• In 1852, a government official stated:
– “Day and night soldiers are sent out to harass
taxpayers. Sometimes corporal punishment was
imposed on tax delinquents; some of them so
badly beaten to exact the last penny that blood
and flesh fly in all directions.”

23. • Other problems arose as the dynasty
declined
– Banditry
– Peasant rebellions
• Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864): Biggest
of all of the peasant rebellions
– Leader, Hong Xiuquan, claimed to be Jesus'
brother and had taken and failed the civil
service test many times
– Desired to create a “heavenly kingdom of
great peace”
– Rejected Confucianism, Taoism, and
Buddhism

24. • The Taiping Rebellion aimed to remove
the foreign Qing Dynasty who Hong
accused of poisoning China from power
• The Taiping rebellion spread quickly, by
1853 they had established a new capital
in Nanjing

25. • Why did the Taiping Rebellion fail?
– Inability to link up all rebelling groups
– Rise of factions within the Taiping
– The Qing Dynasty enlisted the help of
Western Powers to help crush the rebellion
– Provincial landowners fearing the radical
Taiping also helped put down rebels

26. • Effects of the Taiping Rebellion
– By 1864 the rebellion was over, but the
Qing were incredible weakened
– 20 to 30 million Chinese were dead
– Western powers gained even more power in
China

27. External Threats to Qing
China
• The Opium War, Western powers gain a
foothold into China
– The British broke China’s positive balance
of trade by ramping up opium (grown in
India) imports smuggled into China
– By the time Chinese officials realized the
problem there was too much corruption, and
too many addicts for the Qing government
to stop it.

28. Chinese/British trade in Canton (1835-1836)
British Exports to Canton
(in Spanish dollars)
• Opium: …..……17,904,248
• Cotton: …………8,357,394
• Other Items:..6,164,981
• Total: ………….32,426,623
British Imports from China
(in Spanish dollars)
• Tea: …………….13,412,623
• Raw Silk: ………3,764,115
• Vermillion: ………705,000
• Other Items: 5,971,541
• Total:………....23,852,899

29. • China attempts to stop the Opium trade
– 1836: Emperor appoints Lin Zexu to stop
the importations
– Lin writes a letter Queen Victoria asking
her to stop the imports
– He also seizes and destroys 3 million pounds
of Opium

30. Commissioner Lin's letter to
Queen Victoria, Jan. 15, 1840
• . . . Even though the barbarians may not
necessarily intend to do us harm, yet in
coveting profit to an extreme, they have no
regard for injuring others. Let us ask, where
is your conscience? I have heard that the
smoking of opium is very strictly forbidden by
your country; that is because the harm caused
by opium is clearly understood. Since it is not
permitted to do harm to your own country,
then even less should you let it be passed on
to the harm of other countries . . .

31. • Britain’s response to Lin Zexu: War!

32. • The Treaty of Nanjing: China’s defeat
and humiliation
– This is China’s first unequal treaty
– Forced the Qing to accept foreign
ministers into their court
– Gave Europeans control of 5 major ports
– Granted Europeans the right of
extraterritoriality

33. • More Chinese
losses erode Qing
power
– 1858: Loose the
Second Opium War
to the British 
more ports placed
under foreign
control
– 1885: Loose
Vietnam to France
– 1895: Loose Korea
and parts of

34. The Failure of Conservative
Reform
• The Self-Strengthening Movement: Qing
attempts to reform
– 1860s-1870s
– Overhauled the exam system to recruit new
recruits who could handle change
– Supported public works like rebuilding flood
walls
– Attempted to build some industry and mining
– Discusses creating a parliament and
constitutional

35. • Why the reforms fail
– Too little, too late!
– Conservative landlords feared that
urbanization and industrialization would erode
their power
– Fear, hatred and distrust of Empress Dowager
Cixi
– Industry was largely controlled by foreigners
who were loyal to local officials instead of the
Emperor

36. • The Boxer Rebellion (1898-1901)
– Led by local militias who called themselves the
Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists
– Anti-foreign movement aimed at driving out
foreign powers (including the Manchurian Qing
dynasty)
– Quasi-religious movement that drew upon
marital arts folklore
– The Qing again relied on Western powers to
crush the rebellion, once again increasing
foreign power in China

37. • “The War in China:
• We’ll all work together to be firm and
faithful. Hipp, hipp Hurray!”

38. • By the early 20th
century, the
Qing dynasty was on the verge
of collapse
• Contact with Westerners and
foreign domination  increasing
nationalism
• 1911: Western educated doctor
Sun Yixian (Sun Yat-Sen) leads a
revolution that topples the Qing
and establishes a short-lived
republic

39. Questions
1. What were some of the causes of discontent in
19th
century China?
2. In what way and to what extent did foreign
trade affect China?
3. What role did foreign powers play in the
decline of the Qing dynasty?
4. What strategies did China adapt to deal with
its various problems?
5. In what ways did these strategies reflect
China’s own history?
6. In what ways did these strategies reflect the
growing influence of the West on China?

40. The Ottoman Empire
From “The Strong Sword of
Islam” to the “The Sick Man of
Europe”

41. “The Sick Man of
Europe”
• In 1750 the Ottoman Empire was large
and stable.
– Centered around the Anatolian Peninsula
– Extended across the Arabian Peninsula
– Governed most of Egypt and Northern
Africa
– Protected pilgrims on their way to Mecca

42. • The Ottoman Empire was in a serious
state of decline by the middle of the
19th
century
– Pressure from the West
• 1853-1856 Crimean War
– Internal problems
• 1820 Greek Revolution
• Unable to stop the spread of Christianity to
places like India, Indonesia, West Africa,
Central Asia

43. • Western powers carve away the
Ottoman Empire
– Lose land to Russia, Britain, Austria and
France
– Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt resulted in
near independence for the Egyptian
Khedives

44. • Abd al-Rahman al-Jabarti described the French
invasion of Cairo:
The French entered the city like a torrent rushing through
the alleys and streets without anything to stop them, like
demons of the Devil’s army…. And the French trod in the
Mosque of al-Azhar with their shoes, carrying swords and
rifles…. They plundered whatever they found in the
mosque….. They treated the books of the Quranic volumes
as trash…. Furthermore, they soiled the mosque, blowing
their spit in it, pissing and defecating in it. They guzzled
wine and smashed bottles in the central court.

45. • Nationalism breaks apart the Ottoman
Empire
– Nationalist revolts supported by Britain and
Russia lead to independence for Greece,
Serbia, Romania, and Bulgaria

46. • Decentralization of power hurt both the
Ottoman and the Qing
– As local leaders gained power, collecting
revenue became more difficult

47. • Growing European trade and industrialization
hurt the Ottoman Economy
– New oceanic shipping routes limited Ottoman
ability to trade
– Cheap manufactured goods flooded Ottoman
markets driving artisans out of business
– Trade agreements with Western powers were
similar in effect to the unequal treaties signed
with China

48. Reform and Its Opponents
• Ottoman leaders realized the need for
reform and attempted programs of
“defensive modernization”
• Attempts at reform were earlier and
more vigorous than the Chinese self-
strengthening movement

49. • Selim III makes the first attempt to
change
– Wants to update the military
– Seen as a threat to the ulama and the
Janissaries
– Selim III is overthrown and murdered in
1807

50. • The Tanzimat (reorganization) reforms were
begun in 1839
– Attempted to create a more centralized state
– Created some industry including modernizing paper
making, military armaments, and building rail roads
– Reclaimed and resettled agricultural land
– Created a modern postal system
– Created Western styled laws and courts
– Granted equal legal rights to religious minorities

51. • Imperial proclamation from 1839:
Every distinction or designation to make any
class whatever of the subjects of the empire
inferior to another class, on account of their
religion, language or race shall be forever
effaced. … No subject of my Empire shall be
hindered in the exercise of the religion he
professes. … All the subjects of my Empire,
without distinction of nationality, shall be
admissible to public employment.

52. • Reform raised a bunch of questions
within Ottoman society
– What was the Ottoman Empire and who
were its people?
– Supporters tended to be fairly young
lower-level officials, military officers,
poets, writers, and journalists who had
been educated in the West

53. • What did young Western educated elites
(Young Ottoman) want?
– European style democratic, constitutional
governments with limited monarchies
– Islamic modernization: adoption of Western
technical and scientific knowledge without
compromising religious character
• Victory: 1876 Abdul Hamid
accepts a constitution and
creates a parliament

54. • Reasons for the failure of reform:
– Crimean war creates a political crisis, and
Abdul Hamid suspends the constitution
• Reaction to the failure of reform:
– Young Western educated social and military
elites form the Young Turks
– Demand the gov’t completely secularize
– Want to create a Turkish state

55. • 1908: Young Turks gain more power after leading
a military coup
– Push for radical secularization of schools, courts, and
laws
– Establish common law that applies to all people
regardless of language
– Encouraged the use of Turkish as the official religion
– Granted more rights to women
• But this really bothered non-Turks and was the
basis for nationalist movements that fragmented
the Ottoman Empire

56. • The Eastern Question: Western powers
wonder what to do with the “Sick Man
of Europe”
– How should Western European rulers deal
with the Ottoman Empire?
– No longer a threat
– Held together volatile parts of Asia and
Europe
– Held important place geographically
between Mediterranean Sea and Indian
Ocean

57. – Worry that collapse will destroy Europe’s
delicate Balance of Power
– Western nations especially nervous about
increasing Austrian and Russian power
– Britain and France support Turks against
Russia and Austria even as they take over
parts of the empire
– Building of the Suez Canal and the start of
the Crimean war make this issue even more
pressing!

58. • The Ottoman Empire collapsed after
World War I, but the Westernizing
principals of the Young Turks shaped
the new Turkish nation that emerged in
1919

59. Questions
1. What are some of the ways the
Ottoman state responded to various
problems?
2. What was the “Eastern Question” and
how did Western powers deal with it?
3. How did the young western educated
elites perceive the Ottoman Empire?
4. Compared to China, how effective was
the Ottoman Empire at solving its
problems?

60. Outcomes: Comparing China
and the Ottoman Empire
• Similarities
– Prior to the 19th
century both areas were
centers of proud vibrant civilizations
– By the beginning of the 20th
century both
were semi-colonies of “informal empires”
– Neither successfully created strong
industrial bases
– Both collapsed in the early 1900s
– Both gave rise to new nations based on
nationalist ideas in the 20th
century

61. • Political Differences:
– In China the collapse of the Qing dynasty in
1911 led to a long period of revolution,
occupation, and civil war that did not end
until 1949
– By contrast, the collapse of the Ottoman
regime after World War I  the creation
of a new, though much smaller Turkish
state in the former heartland of the
Ottoman empire

62. • Social Differences:
– China’s 20th
century revolutionaries
rejected their Confucian past
– Although the Turkish republic is a secular
state, the role of religion in society has not
been diminished

63. Reflections: Success and
Failure in History
• Things to consider when deciding if
Japan was more successful in the 19th
century than China or the Ottoman:
– Criteria for success: What does success
mean?
– Success for whom: The Young Turks make
many reforms, but does it benefit everyone
in the Empire?

64. Questions for REVIEW
1. How did European expansion differ in
the 19th
century from that of the early
modern era (1450-1750)?
2. “The response of each society to
European imperialism grew out of its
larger historical development and its
internal problems” Support this
statement with evidence!