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iviLizations in' Crisis: The Ottoman
Empi îe,the Islamic Heartlands,
and Qing China
From Empire to Nation:Ottoman Retreat and the Birth of Turkey
The Last Dynasty:The Rise and Fallof the Oing Empire in China
THI NKING HISTORICALLY: Western Dominance
DOCUMENT: Transforming lmperial China into a Nation
and the Decline of Civilizations
GLOBAL CONNECTIONS: Muslim and Chinese Decline
and a Shifting Global Balance
Western lntrusions and the Crisis in the Arab lslamic Heartlands
VISUALIZING THE PAST: Mapping the Decline of Civilizations
I I ong Xiuquan was a deeply troubled young man.One of
þl tive children from a struggling peasant family living in the
I I Guangdong region on China's southeast coast, Hong had
worked hard to excel in school so that he could take the exams
that would provide entry into the lower rungs of the scholar-gentry-dominated bureaucracy. Counting on Hong's demonstrated
aptitude for book learning to improve the family fortunes, his parents and kinsfolk scrimped to find the money needed to send him
to school and hire tutors to prepare him for the rigorous examination process.
The pressure
tense,
of such life-defining testing is invariably inbut with the fate of his family in the balance Hong found
his failures deeply humiliating. Mortification was increasingly
laced with anger as he tried and failed four times to pass the
exams that would earn him the lowest officialdegree, which carried with it a modest stipend from the state and the ríght to wear
the robes of the scholar-gentry. Perhaps to escape the shame he
felt in the company of family and friends who were well aware of
his failures, Hong became an avid traveler. ln 1836, in Whampoa,
which was close to the great port cìty of Canton, Hong first came
into contact with Protestant missionaries from the United States.
After taking up the serious study of the Bible, Hong came to believe that he was the younger son of Jesus and that God had
given him a sword to rid the world of corrupt officials and other
agents of the devil.
Hong was well educated in a society where few went
school. He was also a charismatic speakeç given to trances a
speaking in tongues, and he was convinced that he had a
mission. He began to preach in public and was soon ba
hundreds, then thousands of converts to his growing ba
"God worshipers." Often in very garbled renditions, Biblical
ings and Christian rituals were widely deployed by a
his sect, which became known as the Taipings (meaning
Peace"), after one of the Chinese titles Hong claimed for hi
As his following grew into the tens of thousands, Hong's
ing became more strident and openly directed against the
0ing dynasty. Hong charged that the Oing rulers were the
of all manner of earthly evils and responsible for China's
defeats at the hands of the British. The Taiping revol
agenda was also aimed at the scholar-gentry and other
mental aspects of the Confucian order. ln rebel-con
ancestral tablets were smashed, land was seized from
gentry, and the imperial examination system was abol
Taipings proclaimed that women were equal to men,
Christian solar calendar, and sought to re5tore moral
banning slavery, concubinage, arranged marriage, opium
footbinding, judicial torture, and the worship of idols.
sively defeating a Oing mi litary force sent to put an
Taiping movement, Hong's followert la unched one of
lived and most deadly rebellions of the 19th century.
Both Hong's personal crisis and the revolutionary movement his teachings launched
by the disintegration-beginning in the early 1800s-of Chinese civilization, which
of the world's most advanced for thousands of years. At the other end of Asia, the
Iast of the rival Muslim dynasties that had ruled the Middle East and south Asia in the
era, had gone into decline even earlier. In both cases, the sheer size, complexiry and
tary power of each of these empires, combined with the ongoing rivalries among
powers, prevented them from being formally colonized like much of the rest of Asia'
602
I
Pacifìc.
follows
sought
see in the chapter that
nd the civilizations they
under repeated assault
during
The Taiping Rebellion was a violent, radi_
of a succession of movements in
both China and the Middte East that sought either to reform or put an end to the existing so_
cal yariant
cial and political order. The Taiping Rebeilion
and its counterpart in the Muslim Middle East,
the Mahdist upheaval that raged in the AngloEgyptian Sudan for most of the last two decades
of the centur¡ were dedicated to bringing down
¿n existing social order in order to replace it
a religiously inspired utopian society. At
other end of the political spectrum, West-educated dissidents sought to build strong
-states patterned after those of western
The disruptions that resulted from the
of Western industrial powers in
dominated areas, such as China and
Ottoman Empire, often contributed to the
of these political movements. But
internal divisions within the emPlres
played a far greater role in precipithese political upheavals and determining
impact on China and the Middle East in
half of the 19th century.
Empire to Nation:
Retreat and the
of Tlrrkey
the Ottoman crisis was brought on bYu
of weak rulers within a political and
order that was centered on the sultan at
Inactive or inept sultans opened the way
struggles between rival ministers, reliand the commanders of the |anis-
This,panoramic scene painted by a chinese witness to the Taiping
rebeilion shows the rebel
and burning an enemy town and a nearby estate house of a large
randrirrd's family in
Competition between elite factions
eroded effective leadership within the empire,
weakening its control over the population
it claimed to rule. provincial officials colluded with the local land-owning
classes, the
'cheat the sultan of a good portion of the taxes due him,
and they skimmed all the revenue
from the already impoverished peasantry in the
countryside.
same time, the position of the artisan workers
in the towns deteriorated because of
imported manufactures from Europe. Particularþ in the 18th anð. early
19th cenled to urban riots in which members of
artisan guilds and young ment associations
a leading role. Merchants
within the emPrre, especially those who belonged to minority
such.as the ]ews and Christians, grew more and more dependent
on com-
with their
counterparts. This pattern accelerated the influx of Western
goods that was steadily undermining
handicraft industries within the empire.In this
economic dependence on some of its most
threatening European political rivals in-
zr.^ \fta
l/^\
\$ì.ßened
by internal strife and unable
to prevent European rivals from whittling
away its territories, the 0ttoman Empire
appeared near disintegration. But ín the
late 18th century able Ottoman rulers
and committed reformers devised
strategies that slowed the decline of the
empire and the ailvance of the European
p0wers.
ilå.,î::äålsTrandedcliteúat
emuged in
603
604
PartV
'
1640
c.E.
The Dawn of the Industrial Age, 1750-1914
1800
1850
c.E.
1875
c.E.
c.E.
1900
c.E.
1905 Fatherland ParÇ
1644 Manchu nomads
1805-1849 Reign of
1850-1864 Taiping
conquer China; Oing
Muhammad Ali in Egypt
Rebellion in China
1876 Constitution
promulgated for
dynasty rules
1807-1839 Reign of
'1854-1856 Crimean War
Ottoman Empire
1908 Young Turk seize
1662-1722 Reign of
1876-1908 Reign of
power in lstanbul
Kangxi emperor in China
Ottoman Sultan Mahmud ll
1826 Ottoman Janissary
1722 Safavid dynasty falls
corps destroyed
in Persia
1727 First printing pres
1834 Postal system estab-
set up in Ottoman Empire
1736-1799 Reign of
Oianlong emperor in China
1768-177
4
lished in Ottoman Empire
1838 Ottoman treaty with
British removing trade
restrictions in the empire
1
856-l 860 Anglo-French
war against China
1866 Fint railway begun
Ottoman Sultan Abdul
in Ottoman Empire
'1869 Opening of the Suez
1877 Treaty ofSan Stefano;
Ottomans driven from
most of the Balkans
1882 British invasion and
occupation of Egypt; failed
Canal
1870 Ottoman legal code
reformed
1839-1841 Opium War in
,Disastrous
Ottoman defeat in war
China
with Rusia
1789-1807 Reign of
1839-1876 Tonzimst
reforms in the Ottoman
Ottoman Sultan Selim lll
1793 British embassy to
Oianlong emperor in China
1798 French invasion of
Egypt; Napoleon defeats
Egypt's Mamluk rulen
Empire
1839-1897 Life of lslamic
thinker al-Afghani
1849-1905 Life of Egyptian
reformer Muhammad
Abduh
established in Egypt
Hamid
Arabi revolt in Egypt
1883 Mahdist victory ove r
British-led Egyptian expeditionary force at Shakyan
1889 Young Turks establish
the Ottoman Society for
Union and Progress in Paris
1898 British-Egyptian
army defeats the Mahdist
army at Omdurman
1898-1901 Boxer Rebellion
and 100 Days of Reform in
China
the Past feature, p.6lQ.In the early 18th centur¡ the Austrian Habsburg dynasty was the
beneficiary of Ottoman decadence. The long-standing threat to Vienna was forever
the Ottomans were pushed out of Hungary and the northern Balkans.
In the late 1700s the Russian Empire, strengthened by Peter the Great's forced
(see Chapter 18), became the main threat to the Ottomans'survival. As military setbacks
and the Russians advanced across the steppes toward warm-water ports on the Black Sea'
tomans'weakness was underscored by their attempts to forge alliances with other Chrístian
As the Russians gobbled up poorly defended Ottoman lands in the Caucasus and Crimea,
ject Christian peoples of the Balkans grew more and more restive under Ottoman rule. In
major uprising broke out in Serbia that was repressed only after years of difficult and costly
campaigns. But military force could not quell the Greek revolt that broke out ig the earþ
by 1830 the Greeks had regained their independence after centuries of Ottoman rule. In I
also gained its freedom, and by the late 1870s the Ottomans had been driven from nearþ
of the Balkans and thus most of the European provinces of their empire. In the decades
lowed, Istanbul was repeatedly threatened by Russian armies or thðse of the newly
Balkan states.
Reform and Survival
Southeast
Europe and
the 0ttoman
Empire
H
Despite almost two centuries of unrelieved defeats on the battlefield and steady losses of
the Ottoman Empire somehow managed to survive into the 20th century. Its survival
part from divisions between the European powers, each ofwhich feared that the others
more from the total dismemberment of the empire. In fact, the British concern to
sians from controlling Istanbul-thus gaining direct access to and threatening British
nance in the Mediterranean-led them to prop uP the tottering Ottoman regime
last half of the 19th century. Ultimatel¡ the Ottomans' survival depended on reforms
initiated by the sultans and their advisors at the top of the imperial system and cattied
over most of the 19th century. At each stage, reform initiatives increased tensions within
Chapter 26
'
Civilizations in Crisis: The Ottoman Empire, the Islamic Heartlands, and
eing China
605
elite' Some factions advocated far-reaching change along European lines, others argued for reforms
on precedents from the early ottoman period, anã oth.i èlite groups had a iested
interest in
blocking change of any sort.
based
These deep divisions within the Ottoman elite made reform a dangerous
enterprise. Although
modest innovations, including the introduction of the first printing press in 1727, had been enacted
in the 18th centur¡ Sultan Selim III (r. 1789-1g07) believed that bolder initiatives were needed if
the dynasty and empire were to survive. But his reform efforts, airried at improving administrative
effrcienc'¡ and building a new army and navy, angered powerfrrl factions within the bureaucracy.
They were also seen by the fanissary corps, which had long been the dominant force in the Ottoman
(see Chapter 2l), as a direct threat. Selim's modest initiatives
cost him his throne-he was
a fanissary revolt in 1807-and his life.
Two decades later, a more skillful sultan, Mahmud II, succeeded where Selim III had
failed.
secretly building a small professional army with the help of European advisors, in lg26 MahII ordered his agents to incite a mutiny of the Janissaries. This beþan when the angry
fanisoverturned the huge soup kettles in their mess area. With little thought given to planning
next move, the ]anissaries poured into the streets of Istanbul, more a mob than a military
Once on the streets, they were shocked to be confronted by the sultan's well trained new
The confrontation ended in the slaughter of the )anissaries, their families, and the
fanissaries,
an Empire
ing adminisarmy and
an sultan; built a
ed
revolution of
private army;
their religious
Empire on
allies.
After cowing the ayan into at least formal submission to the throne, Mahmud II launched a
of much more far-reaching reforms than Selim III had attempted. Although thê ulama, or
experts, and some of Mahmud's advisors argued for self.strengthening through a returir
to
and Islamic past, Mahmud II patterned his reform program on Western precedents.
all, the Western powers had made a shambles of his empire. He established a diplomatic
corps
lines and exchanged ambassadors with the European powers (Figure 26.2). The westof the army was expanded from Mahmud's secret force to the whole military establish.
European military advisors, both army and navy, were imported to supervise the oïerhaul
of
training, armament, and officers' education.
In the decades that followed, western influences were pervasive at the upper levels of Otsociet¡ particularþ during the period of
reforms between 1839 and 1876.
education was reorganized on Western
training in the European sciences and
Tmzimat refor¡ns Series of reforms in Ottoman
Empire between 1839 and 1876; estabtished Wesrern-style universit¡ state postal system, railwa)6,
extensive legal reforms; resulted in creation of new
@nstitution in
1876.
Reform of
the State as
an lmperial
Project: The
Hatt-i Serif
of Gülhane,
November 3,
1
839
was introduced. State-run postal
systems were established
in the
in
the
1860s. News-
major towns of the
legal reforms were enacted, and
based heavily on European
was promulgated. These legal reforms
the position of minority reliwhose role
in the Ottoman
econ-
steadily.
were adverseþ affected by
opened the empire more
Western influences. This was espe-
artisans, whose position was
by an 1838 treary with the
irnport taxes and other bartrade that had protected indige-
from competition from the West.
gained little from the Tanziwas particularly true of women.
woment education and an end to
and veiling were debated in
Figure 26.2 ln the courtyard of the Topkap¡ Palace in lstanbul, Sultan Selim lll receives dignitaries from
throughout the Ottoman Empire in the midst of a splendidly attired imperial entourage.
606
Part
V'
The Dawn of the Industrial Age, 1750-1914
Women and
Children
Workers in
an ottoman
Textile Mill,
1 878
H
Ottoman intellectual circles from the 1860s onward. But few improvements
in the Position of
women, even among the elite classes, were won until after the last Ottoman sultan was driven from
power in 1908.
Repression and Revolt
Abdul Hmid Ottoman sultan who attempted to
return to despotic absolutism during reign ftom
1878 to 1908; nullified constitution and restricted
civil liberties; deposed in coup in 1908.
The Decline of
the ottoman
Empire
H
Ottoman Societf for Union and Progress
Organiation of political agitators in oPPosition to
rule of Abdul Ha¡mid; also alled "Young Tula";
desired to restore 1876 constitution.
Political
0ppression in
the ottoman
Empire
Eil
The reforms initiated by the sultans and their advisors improved the Ottomans' ability to fend off,
or at least deflect, the assaults of fpreign aggressors. But they increasingly threatened the dynasty
responsible for them. Western-educated bureaucrats, military offìcers, and professionals came in_
creasingly to view the sultanate as a maj,or barrier to even more radical reforms and the full
formation of society. The new elites also clashed with conservative but powerful g{oups, such as
ulama and the ayan, who had a vested interest in preserving as much as possible of the old order.
The Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid responded to the growing threat from westernized
cers and civilians by attempting a return to despotic absolutism during his long reign from 1878
1908. He nullified the constitution and restricted civil liberties, particularly the freedom of
press. These measures deprived westernized elite groups of the power they had gained in
imperial policies. Dissidents or even suspected troublemakers were imprisoned and sometimes
tured and killed. But the deep impact of decades of reform was demonstrated by the fact that
Abdul Hamid continued to push for westernization in certain areas. The military
adopt European arms and techniques, increSsingly under the instruction of German advisors.
addition, railways, including the famous line that linked Berlin to Baghdad, and telegraph
were built between the main population centers. Western-style educational institutions grew,
judicial reforms continued.
The despotism of Abdul Hamid came to an abrupt end in the nearly bloodless coup of
Resistance to his authoritarian rule had led exiled Turkish intellectuals and political
found the Ottoman Society for Union and Progress in Paris in 1889. The Young Turks
26.3), as members of the society came to be known, professed their loyalty to the Ottoman
and were determined to restore the 1876 constitution and resume far-reaching reforms
I
Figure 26.3 Taken afterTurkey's defeat in World War I and the successful struggles of the Turks to
partition oftheir heartlands in Asia Minor, this photo features a group ofYoung Turks who had survived
or
challenges and grown a good deal older The man in the business suit in the center is Mustafa Kemal,
of
who emerged as a masterful military com mander in the war and went on to become the founder
Chapter 26
'
Cívilizations in Crisis: The Ottoman Empire, the Islamic Heartlands, and
eing China
607
emPire' Clandestine printing presses operated by the Young Turks turned out tracts denouncing the
regime and outlining further steps to be taken to modernize and. thus save the empire. AssasJinadons were attempted and coups plotted, but until 1908 all were undone by a combination of divisions within the ranks of the westernized dissidents and police countermeasures.
much to do with i
ultan's
power, they restor
inistration, and even the status of women.
The sultan was retained as a political figurehead and the highest religious authority in Islam.
Unfortunatel¡ the officers soon became embroiled in factional fights that took up much of
the limited time remaining before the outbreak of World War L In addition, their hold on power
shaken when they lost a new round of wars in the Balkans and a conflict against Italy over
the Ottomans'last remaining possession in north Africa. lust as the sultans had before them,
the Young Turk officers managed to stave off the collapse of thè empire by achieving lastmilitary victories and by playing the hostile European powers against each other.
Although it is difûcult to know how the young Turks would have fared if it had not been for
outbreak of World War I, their failure to resolve several critical issues did not bode well for the
overthrew the sultan, but they could not bring themselves to give up the empire ruled
Turks for over 600 years. The peoples most affected by their decision to salvage what was left of
empire were the A¡abs of the Fertile Crescent and coastal Arabia, who still remained under Otcontrol. Arab leaders in Beirut and Damascus had initially favored the 1908 coup because
believed it would bring about the end of their long domination by the Turks. To their dismay,
.Arabs discovered that the Young Turks not only meant to continue their subjugation but were
to enforce state control to a degree unthinkable to the later Ottoman sultans. The quarthe leaders of the Young Turk coalition and the growing resistance in the Arab porof what was left of the Ottoman Empire were suddenly cut short in August 1914.
supporters
n
Young Turks
H
0verthrow
Abdul Hamid
1t,1908
Æf
The
Young Turk
Revolution,
'1908
Intrusions and the Crisis
the Arab Islamic Heartlands
earþ 1800s, the Arab peoples of the Fertile crescent, Egypt, coastal Arabia, and north A-frica lâ-:'
centuries under Ottoman-Turkish rule. Although most Arabs resented Turkish domi@JrofornO crisis of confidence
could identiffwith the Ottomans as fellow Muslims, who were both ardent defenders of brought on by successive reverses and
and patrons of Islamic culture. Still, the steadily diminishing capacity of the Ottomans to the increasing strength
of European
Arab Islamic heartlands left them at risk of conquest by the aggressive European powers. rivals elicited a variety of responses
in
capture of outlying but highly developed Islamic states, from those in the Indonesian the lslamic world. lslamic thinkers
and India to Algeria in north Africa, engendered a sense of crisis among the Islamic debated the best way to reverse
the
the Middle Eastern heartlands. From the most powerfrrl adversaries of Christendom, the
decline and drive back the Europeans.
had become the besieged. The Islamic world had been displaced by the West
as the leading
wide range of endeavors, from scientific inquiry to monumental architecture.
Ali and the Failure of Westernizationin Egypt
did not establish a permanent European presence in the Islamic heartlands, Napoleon's
Egypt in 1798 sent shock waves across what remained of the independent Muslim
Napoleons motives for launching the expedition had little to do with designs
the Middle East. Rather, he saw the Eg¡ptian campaign as the prelude to destroying
in India, where the French had come out on the short end of earlier wars for emprre.
calculations, Napoleon managed to slip his fleet past the British blockade in
the
and put ashore his armies in |uly 1798 (see Visualizing rhe Past feature). There
folthe most lopsided military clashes in modern history. As they advanced inland,
were met by tens of thousands of cavaby bent on defending the Mamluk regime
as a vassal of the Ottoman sultans. The term Mamluk literally meant slave,
the Turkic orrgms of the regime in Egypt. Beginning as slaves
who seryed Muslim
Mamluks had centuries earlier risen in the ranks as military
commanders and seized
Western Dominance and the Decline
of Civilizations
in our examination of the
forces that led to the breakup of the great civi-
As we have seen
lizations in human histor¡ each civilization has
a unique history. But some general patterns
have been associated with the decline of civilizations. Internal weaknesses and external pres-
sures have acted over time to erode the
institutions and break down the defenses of
even the largest and most sophisticated clilizations. In the preindustrial era, slow and vulnerable communication systems were a major
barrier to the long-term cohesion of the political systems that held civilizations together. Ethnic, religious, and regional differences, which
were overridden by the confidence and energy
of the founders of civilizations, reemerged. Selfserving corruption and the pursuit ofpleasure gradually eroded the
sense of purpose of the elite groups that had played a pivotal role in
civilized development. The resulting deterioration in governance
and military strength increased social tensions and undermined
fr agile preindustrial economies.
Growing social unrest from within was paralleled by increasing
tlrreats from without. A major factor in the fall of nearly every great
civilization, from those of the Indus valley and Mesopotamia to Rome
Murad
(1790-1820) Head ofthe coalition of
Mamluk ¡ulers in Egypt; opposed Napoleonic invasion ofEgypt and suffered devastating defeat; failure destroyed Mamluk government in Egfpt and
revealed wlnerability of Muslim core.
Ali,Muhamad
Won powe¡ st¡uggle in Egypt
following fall of Mamluls; established mastery of
all Egypt by l8l 1; introduced effective armybased
on Western tactics and supply and a variety of
other reforms; by 1830s was able to challenge Ottoman government in Constmtinople; died in
1848.
608
and the civilizations of Mesoamerica, was an influx of nomadic peoples, whom sedentary peoples almost invariably saw as barbarians.
Nomadic assaults revealed the weaknesses of the ruling elites and de_
stroyed their military base. Their raids also disrupted the agricultural
routines and smashed the public works on whic[
all civilizations rested. Normall¡ the nomadic invaders stayed to rule the sedentary peoples thev
had conquered, as has happened repeatedly ii
China, Mesoamerica, and the Islamic world. Else_
where, as occurred after the disappearance ofthe
Indus valley civilization in India and after the fall
of Rome, the vanquished civilization was largely
forgotten or lay dormant for cent-uries. But ove¡
time, the invading peoples living in its ruins managed to restore patterns of civilized life that were
quite different from, though sometimes
enced by, the civilization their incursions
helped to destroy centuries earlier.
Neighboring civilizations
clashed in wars on their frontiers, but it was
for one civilization to play a major part in the demise of another.
areas such as Mesopotamia, where civilizations were crowded
gether in space and time in the latter millennia n.c.t., olde¡
dominant civilizations were overthrown and absorbed by
rivals. In most cases, howeve¡ a¡d often in Mesopotamia,
threats to civilizations came from nomadic peoples. This was
even of Islamic civilization, which proved the most expansive
the emergence of Europe and whose rise and spread brought
power in their own name. Murad, the head of the coalition of Mamluk households that
power in Eglpt at the time of Napoleon's arrival, dismissed the invader as a donkey boy
would soon drive from his lands.
Murad's contempt for the talented young French commander was symptomatic of the
found ignorance of events in Europe that was typical of the Islamic world at the time. This
led to a series of crushing defeats, the most famous of which came in a battle fought beneath
amids of the ancient Egyptian pharaohs (see Figure 26.4).ln that brief but bloody battle, the
plined firepower of the French legions devastated the ranks of Mamluk cayahy, who were
medieval armor and wielded spears against the artillery Nap rleon used with such'devastatíng
Because the Mamlula had long been seen as fighters of great prowess in the Islamic
their rout was traumatic. It revealed just how vulnerable even the Muslim core areas were
pean aggression and how far the Muslims had fallen behind the Europçans in the capacity
war. Ironicall¡ the successful invasion of Eg¡pt brought little advantage to Napoleon or the
The British caught up with the French fleet and sank most of it at the Battle of Aboukir
1793. With his supply line cut off, Napoleon was forced to abandon his army and
Paris, where his enemies were trying to use his reverses in Eg¡pt to put an end to his rise
Thus, Egypt was spared European conquest for a time. But the reprieve brought little
thoughtful Muslims because the British, not Egypt's Muslim defenders, had been
French retreat.
In the chaos that followed the French invasion and eventual withdrawal in 1801, a
cer of Albanian origins named Muhammad Ali emerged as the effective ruler of Eg¡pt.
pressed by the weapons and discipline of the French armies, the Albanian upstart
energies and the resources ofthe land that he had brought under his rule to building an
European-style military force. He introduced Western-style conscription among the
antr¡ hired French officers to train his troops, imported Western arms, and adopted
the collapse of several long_established
c
Arab explosion from Arabiã rhar felled
Sa
Egypt was nomadic. But the incursions
fered from
adic
T
A¡abiathat
lizations.
rated the order ones they
assaults on neighboring civi_
in_
most of
d a new religion with them-from
ed indi_
f economic innation, proved
conquer:.:"ff:H'åin**"ä:il-
querors' the Arabs'borrowed heavily
from the .irrilirutiorx
overran.
and
of west
ti.y
War I, it appeared thar the materiallyadvanced
A_frica,
"".;i:*;.ï:11
s
and the course of their future
t
deve
QUESTTONS,
do you think
tages that the
Napoleon's victory
in the Battle of the pyramids led to
a short_lived, but trânsformative,
Ftench
Egypt.
609
6f
0
Part
V.
The Dawn of the Industrial Age, 1750-1914
and modes of organization and supply. Within years he had put together the most effective fighting
force in the Middle East. With it, he flouted the authority of his nominal overlord, the Ottoman sultan, by successfully invading Syria and building a modern war fleet that threatened Istanbul on ¿
khedives [kuh-DEEVs] Descendants
of Muhammad Ali in Egypt after 1867; formal rulers of Egypt
despite French and English intervention until overthrom by miìitary coup in 1952.
number of occasions.
Although Muhammad Ali's efforts to introduce reforms patterned after Western precedents
were not confined to the militar¡ they fell far short of a fundamental transformation of Egyptian
society. To shore up his economic base, he ordered the Egyptian peasantry to increase their production of cotton, hemp, indigo, and other crops that were in growing demand in industrial Europe.
Efforts to improve Egyptian harbors, particularly Alexandria, and extend irrigation works met with
some success and led to modest increases in the revenues that could be devoted to the continuing
modernization of the military. Attempts to reform education were ambitious, but little was actually
achieved. Numerous schemes to build up an Egyptian industrial sector by setting up cotton textile
factories were frustrated by the opposition of the European powers and the intense competition
from imported, Western-manufactured goods.
The limited scope of Muhammad Ali's reforms ultimately checked his plans for territorial
pansion and left Egypt open to inroads by the European powers. He died in 1848, embittered by
European opposition that had prevented him from mastering the Ottoman sultans and well
that his empire beyond Egypt was crumbling. Lacking Muhammad Ali's ambition and abilit¡
successors were content to confine their claims to Egypt and the Sudanic lands that stretched
the banks of the upper Nile to the south. Intermarrying with Turkish families that had
come to Egypt to govern in the name of the Ottoman sultans, Muhammad Ali's descendants
vided a succession of rulers who were known as khedives (kuh-DEEVs) after 1867. The
were the formal rulers of Egypt until they were overthrown by the military coup that
Gamel Abdul Nasser to power in 1952.
Bankruptcy, European Intervention, and Strategies of Resistance
Muhammad Ali's successors made a muddle of his efforts to reform and revitalize Egyptian
While cotton production increased and the landlord class grew fat, the great majority of the
ants.went hungry. The long-term consequences of these developments were equally troubling.
great expansion of cotton production at the expense of food grains and other crops rendered
dependent on a single export. This meant that it was vulnerable to sharp fluctuations in
(and thus price) on the European markets to which most of it was exported. Some further
tional advances were made. But these were mainly at elite schools where French was the
Disraeli
Purchasing
Controlling
lnterest in the
Suez Canal
H
Canal Built across Isthmus of Suez to connect Mediterranean Sea with Red Sea in 1869; fìnanced by European investors; with increasing
indebtedness of khedives, permitted intervention
of British into Eglptian politics to protect their in
vestment.
Suez
instruction.
Much of the revenue the khedives managed to collect, despite the resistance of the
wasted on the extravagant pastimes of the mostly idle elite connected to the palace. Most
was left was squandered on fruitless military campaigns to assert Egyptian authority over
danic peoples along the upper Nile. The increasing inability of the khedives tb balance
led in the mid-l9th century to their growing indebtedness to European financiers. The
money to the khedives and members of the Turkish elite because the financiers wanted
access to Egypt's cheap cotton. By the 1850s, they had a second motiç: a share in the
crative schemes to build a canal across the isthmus of Suez that would connect the
and Red seas. The completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, depicted under
26.5, transformed Egypt into one of the most strategic places on earth. The canal
vital commercial and military link betvveen the European powers and their colonial
and east Africa. Controlling it became one of the key objectives of their peaceful
wartime operations through the first half of the 20th century.
The ineptitude of the khedival regime and the Ottoman sultans, who were
overlords, prompted discussion among Muslim intellectuals and political activists
ward off the growing European menace. In the mid-l9th centur¡ Egypt, and
ancient Muslim University of al-Azhar, became key meeting places of these thinkers
out the Islamic world. Some prominent Islamic scholars called for a jihad to drive the
Muslim lands. They also argued that the Muslim world could be saved only by a
terns of religious observance and social interaction that they believed had existed in
of Muhammad.
Chapter 26
'
Civt\zations in Crisis: The Ottoman Empire, the Islamic Heartlands, and
eing
China 6l I
Figure 26.5 Building a canal across the desert isthmus of Suez was a remarkable engineering feat. A massive
investment in up-to-date technology was needed. By creating a water route between the Mediterranean
and
Red seas, the canal greatly shortened the travel t¡me between Europe and maritime
Asia as well as the east coast
of Africa. Combined with the growing predominance of steamships, it hefped to expand global
commerce as well
as tourism, which became a major middle-class activity in the late 19th century.
Other thinkers, such as famal al-Din al-Afghani (1S39-1892) and his disciple Muhammad
(1849-1905), stressed the need for Muslims to borrow scientific learning
and technology
the West and to revive their earlier capacity to innovate. They argued that Islamic
civilization
the Europeans much in the sciences and mathematics, including such critical conas the Indian numerals. Thus, it was fitting that Muslims learn
from the advances the Eurohad made with the help of Islamic borrowings. Those who advocated this
approach also
the importance of the tradition of rational inquiry in Islamic history. They strongly
disthe views of retgious scholars who contended that the
Qur'an was the source of all truth and
be interpreted literally.
both religious revivalists and those who stressed the need for imports from the
on the need for Muslim unity in the face of the grbwing European threat, they
could
their very different approaches to Islamic renewal. Their differences, and the uncerinjected into Islamic efforts to cope with the challenges of the West, remain
central
in the Muslim world today.
rnounting debts of the khedival regime and the strategic importance
of the canal gave the
powers, particularly Britain and France,
a growing stake in the stability and accessibility
French and British bankers, who had bought
up a good portion ofthe khedives'shares in
governments to intervene militarily when the khedives proved unable to meet
In the early 1880s, a major challenge to the influence of foreign interests was
suPporters of a charismatic young Egyptian officer named AhmadArabi.
The son
in lower Egypt, Arabi had attended Qur'anic school and studied under the reMuhammad Abduh at al-Azhar. Though a native Egyptian,
Arabi had risen in the
khedival army and had become increasingly
critical of the fact that the ofñcer corPs
with strong ties to the khedival regime. An attempt by the khedive to save
Egyptian regiments and dismissing Eglptian officers sparked a revolt led by
of 1882. Riots in the city of Alexandria, associated with mutinies in the Egwtthe frightened khedive to seek British assistance. After
bombarding the coastal
up by Arabi's
troops, the British sent ashore an expeditionary force that crushed Arabi's
secured the position
ofthe khedive.
al-Afghmi Muslim thinker
at the end of the lgth
century; stressed Deed for adoption ofWestern scientific learning and technology; recognized importance of tradition ofrational inquiry.
Abduh,Muhammad Discipleofal-Afghmi;
Muslim thinker at end of 19th century; stressed
need for adoption ofWestern scientific learning
and technology, recognized importance of tradl
tion of rational inquiry.
Religious
Æil
and Secular
0pposition
Within the
Middle East
AlmadÁ,rabi
(1841-191 1) Egyptim milìtæy officer who led a revolt against Turkic dominance in
the army ir 1882, which forced the Khedival
regime to call in British forces for support,
-t
612
Part
V'
The Dawn of the Industrial Age, 1750-1914
Khartoum lkahrTOOM]
River to\vn tlìirl \vas
administrarive center of [SyPtian authority in
Sudan.
oIl SudanicSufi
brotherhood; claimed desccnt fronr prophet
Muhammacl; proclaimed both Egyptians and
B¡itish as infidels; launchcd revolt to purge [slan
of impurities; look Khartoun in 1883; also knowu
as the Mahdi.
Ahmad,Mrrhammad Head
Although Egypt was not formally colonized, the British intervention began clecades of dominance both by British consuls, who rulecl through the puppet khedives, and by British aclvisors to
all high-ranking Egyptian aclministrators. British officials controlled Egypt's finances and foreign
affairs; British troops ensured that their clirectives were heeded by Egyptian administrators. Direct
European control over the Islamic heartlands had begun.
Jihad:The Mahdist Revolt in the Suclan
As Egypt fell under British contt'ol, the invaders were drawn into the turrnoil and conflict that
Mahdi In Sufì bclief system, a pronised delive rer; gripped the Sudanic region to the south. Egyptian efforts to conquer ancl rule the Suclan, beginalso name given to Muhamrnad Achmad, Ieader o[
ning in the 1820s, were resisted fiercely. The opposition forces were led by the camel- and cattlelale l9th-century revolt agaiDst Egyptians and
British in the Sudan.
herding nomacls who occupied the vast, arid plains that stretched west and east from the upper
Nile. The sedentary peoples who worked the narrow strip of fertile land
along the river were more easily dominated. Thus, Egyptian authority,
TIILES
insofar as it existed, was concentrated in these areas and in river towns
lm KtLoltrFks
such as Khartoum (kahr-TOOM), which was the center of Egyptian
administration in the Sudan.
A lcxn ndria¡.-. '-- :_\
)
Even in the riverine areas, Egyptian rule was greaÍly resented. The
ì1
Ls c:
\,
Egyptian regime was notoriously corrupt, and its taxes placed a heavy
C¡ tl
Ca¡ro.
burden on the peasants compelled to pay them. The Egyptians were
ARABIA
clearly outsiders, and the favoritism they showed some of the Sudanic
tribes alienated the others. In addition, nearly all groups in the Muslim
BRITISH
areas in the northern Sudan were angered by Egyptian attempts in the
LIBYA
EGYPT
1870s to eradicate the slave trade. The trade had long been a
source of profit for both the merchants of the Nile towns and the
â
mads, who attacked non-Muslim peoples, such as the Dinka in
7
south, to capture slaves.
Bythe late 1870s, Egyptian oppression and British intervention
aroused deep resentment and hostility. But a leacler was needed to
the cliverse ancl often divided peoples of the region and to provide
.Dongola
icleology that would give focus and meaning to rebellion.
\' t'
Ahmed proved to be that leader. He was the son of a boat builder, and
hacl been educated by the head of a local Sufi brotherhoocl. The fact
ANG
his family claimed descent from Muhammad and that he had the
Eritrea
signs-a cleft between his teeth and a mole on his right cheek-that
Q
SUDAN
local people associated with the promised deliverer, or Mahdi,
ú
tEi
his reputation. The visions he began to experience, after he had
El Obc¡d .
Gondar
(Mohdìst capital)
Fl
with his Sufi master and established his own sectarlan following, also
gested that a remarkable future was in store. V\{hat was seen to be a
ú
ulous escape from a bungled Egyptian effort to capture and
o
t'r
Muhammad Ahmed soon led to his widespread acceptance as a
Adaba.
Ð
appointed leader of revolt against the foreign intruders.
f¡l
The jihad that Muhammad Ahmed, who carne to be known
ETHIOPIA
followers as the Mahdi, proclaimed against both the Egyptnn
and British infidels was one of a number of such movements
swept through sub-Saharan Africa since the l8th century. It
the most extreme and violent Islamic resPonse to what was
the dilution of Islam in the African environment and the
Fullest extent oI the Mahdist State
of Europe. Muhammad Ahmed promised to purge Islanr of what
under tl¡e Khalifa Abdallahi
as superstitious beliefs and degrading practices that had built
the centuries, thus returning the faith to what he claimed was
Map 26.1 British Egypt and the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan Although
nal purity. He led his followers in a violent assault on the
British control over Egypt was quite secure from the time of the
whom he believed professed a corrupt version of Islam' and
defeat of the Arabi revolt in 1BB2 until World War l, the Mahdist
ropean infidels. At one point, his successors dreamed of
movement in the Sudan delayed the conquest of that vast region
Ottoman sultans and invading Europe.
along the upper Nile Rive r until 1898.
o
Chapter 26
'
Civiltzations in Crisis: The ottoman Empire, the Islamic Heartlands,
and eing China
The Mahdi's skillful use of guerrilla tactics and the confidence
his followers placed in his
blessings and magical charms earned his forces several stunning victories
over the Egyptians.
Within a few years the Mahdist forces were in control of an area corresponding
roughly to the
present-day nation of Sudan. At the peak of his powe¡ the Mahdi fell ill
with typhus and died. In
contrast to many movements of this frpe, which collapsed rapidly after the death
of their prophetic
leaders, the Mahdists found a capable successor for Muhammad Ahmed. The Khalifa
Abdallahi
had been one of the Mahdi's most skillful military commanders. Under Abdallahi,
the Mahdists
built a strong, expansive state. They also sought to build a closely controlled society in
which smokdancing, and alcoholic drink were forbidden, and theft, prostitution,
and adultery were severely
punished. Islamic religious and ritual practices were enforced rigorously. In addition,
most foreigners were imprisoned or expelled, and the ban on slavery was lifted.
For nearly a decade, Mahdist armies attacked or threatened neighboring
states on all sides, inthe Eg¡rptians to the north. But in the fall of 1896, the famous
British General Kitchener
sent with an expeditionary force to put an end to one of the most
serious threats to European
in Africa. The spears and magical garments of the Mahdist forces proved
no match for
machine guns and artillery of Kitchener,s columns. At the battle of
613
Khalifa Successor of Muhammad
Achmad as leader of Mahdists in Sudm; established state in Sudan; defeated by British Gene¡al
Kitchener in 1598.
Abdallahi,
Omdurman in 1898, thou-
of the Mahdist cavalry were slaughtered. Within a year the Mahdist
state collapsed, and
power advanced yet again into the interior of Africa.
The l9th century was a time of severe reverses for the peoples of the Islamic
world. By the
end, it was clear that neither the religious revivalists, who called
for a return to a purified
free of Western influences, nor the reformers, who argued that
some borrowing from the
was essential for survival, had come up with a successful formula
for dealing with the powerposed by the industrial West. Failing to fi¡d adequate responses
and deeply divided,
community grew increasingly arxious over the dangers that lay ahead.
Islamic civibzawas by no means defeated. But its continued viability clearly
was threatened by its powerful
neighbor, which had become master of the world.
Æil
The Middle
East Ente¡.s
the World
Economy
Last Dynasty: The Rise and Fall
Empire in China
the Manchu nomads had been building an expansive state
of their own north of the Great
decades, their conquest of China was both unexpected
and sudden. A local leader named
(1559-1626) was the architect of unity among
the quarrelsome Manchu tribes. He com_
cavalry of each tribe into extremely cohesive fighting
units within eight banner armies,
the flags that identified each.In the first decades ofthe
17th centur¡ Nurhaci brought
Manchuria, including a number of non- Manchu peoples,
under his rule (see Visualizing
Although he remained the nominal vassal of the Chinese Ming emperor,
Nurhacit
harassed the Chinese who lived north of the Great Wall. During
this period, the
adoption of Chinese ways, which had begun much earlier, was greatþ
accelerated.
bureaucracy was organized along Chinese lines,
Chinese court ceremonies were
Chinese scholar-officials found lucrative employment
in the growing barbarian state
GreatWall.
of the declining Ming regime, rather than the Manchus'own strength,
gave the
opportunity to seize control in China. Their entry
into China resulted from a bit of
an ofificial of the Ming government in charge
of the northern defenses called in the
him put down widespread rebellion in the region near the
Great
Wall. Having alto pass beyond the wall, the official found that they were
an even greater threat
the political divisions and social unrest that were destroying what
was
the Manchus boldly advanced on the Ming capital at Beijing,
which they
year. It took nearþ two decades before centers
of Ming and rebel resistance in
were destroyed by the banner armies, but the Manchus
soon found themselves
p"1*1 that they were up to the challenge of ruling the
largest empire in
the
rorced submission by nomadic peoples far
to the west andiompelied tribute
4..
llr^\
century China, a long period
of strong rule by the Oing dynasty and a
high degree of social stability gave way
\$àtr-18th
to rampant official corruption, severe
economic dislocations, and social unrest.
Over the course of the 1 9th century the
Western powers took advantage of these
weaknesses to force open China's
markets and reduce its Manchu rulers to
little more than puppets.
Nurhaci
(1559-1626) Architect of Mmchu
unity; created distinctive Manchu banner armies;
controlled most of Manchuia; adopted Chinese
bureaucracy and most ceremonies in Manchuria;
entered China and successfully captured Ming capital at Beijing.
bmer umies
Eight armies of the Manchu
tritíes identiâed by sepaate flags; created by
Nurhaci in early 17th century; utilized to defeat
Ming emperor and establish Qing d¡nasry
by the maps included here, which trace the advance of rival powers
ancl the rise of internal resistance.
Mapping the Decline of Civilizations
Throughout much of human histor¡ the size of the empires associated
with major civilizations
was usually a pretty good gauge of the
extent of the political power, economic prosperit¡ and cultural influence they enjoyed. Civilizations on the rise were expansive and
compelled even neighboring peoples who were not directly ruled to
acknowledge their dominance. By contrast, civilizations in decline
lost control of their borderlands to rival empires or suffered invasions-often by nomadic peoples-into the heart of the vast domains that their ruling dynasties continued to claim long after they
could effectively govern them.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, two of the largest and most
enduring empires in human histor¡ the Ottoman and Qing, spiraled into decline. The plight of each of these empires is illustrated
QUESTIONS Which of the empires would have
defend? Compare the timing and nature oF
posed for each of the empires by rival
enemies in the late 18th and l9th centuriesr
fected somewhat later? Why were the Qing so
spond to the outside threat compared to the
the Chinese more reluctant than the
weapons and methods of their enemies?
more threatened by internal rebellions?
CA
A
U
,J,
¿8
PERSIÀ
cA.e:¿
-. t.eJt¿oD
CREIE
.t
CYPRUS
(a
ARABIA
0
0
ffi
El
lE
..
-
0ÀltE
{æ
l9l4
t0loMlms
ntury to World War I The vast territories of the Ottoman
of more than two centuries to external enemies and the assertion of independence by ambitious vassals.
Map 26.2 Ottoman Empire from Late 1 Bth
Ce
Em
pire were lost over a period
as Vietnam and Burma to the south. Within decades, the Manchu
which had taken the dynastic name Qing (chihng) before its conquest of China, ruled an
than any previous Chinese dynasty with the exception of the Tang.
To reconcile the ethnic Chinese who made up the vast majority of their subjects'
rulers shrewdly retained much of the political system of their Ming predecessors. TheY
it
court calendar whatever Confucian rituals they did not already observe. They made
they wanted the scholar-officials who had served the Ming to continue in office. The
pardoned many who had been instrumental in prolonging resistance to their conquest'
the first century of the dynasty, Chinese and Manchu offìcials
aI
of the highest posts of the imperial bureaucrac¡ and Chinese
from kingdoms such
Qing [chihng] Manchu dynasty that seized control of China in mid- lTth century after decline oI
Ming; forced submission of nomadic peoples far to
the west and compelled tribute f¡om Vietnam and
Burma to the south.
6t4
Ottomm Empire,
l-osses, 1683-1878
l.osses 1879-1914
Muimum exlent of
Ottoman EmPire, 1683
EMPIRD
l9tx)45
r905
After
Sen
Of
Japan
Japan 1895)
a
(Japan 1895)
(Br. 1842)
a
I
1842)
PACIFIC
OCEAN
Japan 1895)
Kong
(Br.
l)
F
f-i-l
Qing Empirc, ca. 1890
Major lreaty ports
with dates ofopening
Mâin area of Boxer Rebellion,
190Èr901
Area of rebellion
Oing Empire from OpiumWarof 1839-1841 toWorldWarl Thoughmuchof thetraditional Chineseterritoriesremainedintact,
later the government of the Republic of China lost control of regions distant from their capitals in the 1 9th and the first half of
ry.
Manchus, who made up less than 2 percent of the population of the Qing Empire,
number of the highest political positions. But there were few limits as
talented ethnic Chinese could rise in the imperial bureaucracy.
the Mongol conquerors who had abolished it, the Manchus retained the examination
their own sons educated in the Chinese classics. The Manchu emperors styled
Sons of Heaven and rooted their claims to be the legitimate rulers of China in their
traditional Confucian virtues. The earþ Manchu rulers were generous patrons of the
and at least one, Kangxi (kohng-see) (1661-1722), was a significant Confucian
own right. Kangxi and other Manchu rulers employed thousands of scholars to comof Chinese learning.
Kmgxi
[kohng+ee] Confucian scholar and
Mmchu emperor of Qing dynasty from 1661 to
1722; stablished high degree ofSinifietion among
the Mmchus,
61s
616
Part
V'
The Dawn of the Industrial Age, 1750-1914
Economy and Society in the Early Centuries of Qing Rule
The Manchu determination to preserve much of the Chinese political system was paralleled by a¡
equally conservative approach to Chinese society as a whole. In the early centuries of their reign, the
*iititrgr of Zhtxi, which had been so influential in the preceding dynastic eras, continued to dominate o=ffìcial thinking. Thus, long-nurtured valu:s such as respect for rank and acceptance ofhierarchy-that is, old over young, male over female, scholar-bureaucrat over commonet-çs¡q
emphasized in education and imperial edicts. Among the elite classes, the extended family remained
the core unit of the social order, and the state grew increasingly suspicious of any forms of social organization, such as guilds and especially secret societies, that rivaled it.
The lives of women at all social levels remained centered on or wholly confìned to the household. There the dominance of elder men was upheld by familial Pressures and the state' Male
trol was enhanced by the Practice of choosing brides from families slightly lower in social
than those of the grooms. Because they were a loss to their parents'household at marriage and
ally needed a sizeable dowr¡ daughters continued to be much less desirable than sons. Despite
poor quality of the statistics relating to the practice, there are indications that the incidence of
male infanticide rose in this period. In the population as a whole, males considerably
females, the reverse of the balance between the two in contemporary industrial societies'
Beyond the family compound, the world pretty much belonged to men, although
from lower-class families continued to work in the fields and sell produce in the local markets.
best a married woman could hope for was strong backing from her father and brother after she
gone to her husband's home, as well as the good luck in the first place to be chosen as the
iather than as a second or third partner in the form of a concubine. If they bore sons and lived
enough, wives took charge of running the household. In elite families they exercised control
Wealthy new group of Chinese merchants under the Qing dynasry; specialized in the
import-export trade on China's south coast; one of
the major linls between China and the outside
compradors
world.
other women and even Younger men.
Some of the strongest measures the Manchus took after conquering China were aimed at
viating the rural distress and unrest that had become so pronounced in the last years of Ming
Taxes and state labor demands were lowered' Incentives such as tax-free tenure were
those willing to resettle lands that had been abandoned in the turmoil of the preceding
was
sizeable chunk of the imperial budget (up to l0 percent in the early years of the dynasty)
works.
irrigation
voted to repairing existing dikes, canals, and roadways and extending
were encouraged to plant new crops, including those for which there was market demand,
grow tlvo or even three crops Per year on their holdings
Given the growing population Pressure on the cultivable aüeage and the near
in most areas of open lands that could be settled, the regime had very little success in its
control the landlord classes. After several decades ofholding stead¡ the landlord classes
out'
they could add to their estates by calling in loans to Peasants or simply by buying them
surplus of workers, tenants had less and less bargaining power in their dealings
land
they objected to the share of the crop the landlords offered, they were turned off the
gentrY
placed by those willing to accept even less' As a result, the gap between the rural
rural
nary peasants and laborers increased. One could not miss the old and new rich in the
calls
social
they rode or were carried in sedan chairs, decked out in silks and fu¡s, to make
let
class
peers. To further display their superior social standing, many -".t åf th. gentry
grow long to demonstrate that they did not have to engage in physical labor.
The sector of Chinese society over which the Qing exercised the least control
era
most dynamic. The commercial and urban expansion that had begun in the Song
strength in the long peace China enjoyed during the first century and a half of
gional diversification in croPs such as tea was matched by the develoPment of new
agricultural and artisan production' Until the end of the 18th centur¡ both the state
cantile classes profited enormously ftom the great influx of silver that poured into
ment for its exports of tea, porcelain, and silk textiles. European and other foreign
Canton, and Chinese merchants, freed from the restrictions against overseas travel
a
found lucrative market outlets overseas. Profits from overseas trade gave rise to
on
group of merchants, the compradors, who specialized in the import-export trade
coast. In the 19th centur¡ these merchants proved to be one of the major links
the outside world.
Chapter 26
Rot from
'
Civtlizations in Crisis: The Ottoman Empire, the Islamic Heartlands,
and eing China
within: Bureaucratic Breakdown and social Disintegration
at like so many Chinese dynasties of the past, the
eing was
ervasive and familiar. The bureaucratic foundations of the
thin. The exam system, which had done well in selecting
able and honest bureaucrats in the early decades of the dynast¡ had become riddled
with cheating and favoritism. Despite formal restrictions,
s
in the ever-growing bureaucracy. Even more
enough money could buy a post for sons or b
take the exams for poorly educated or not-so-b
prove weak credentials or look the other way wh
ing their exams. In one of the most notorious cases of cheating, a merchant's son won high
honors despite the fact that he had spent the days of testing in a biothel hundreds
the examination site.
of miles from
Cheating had become so blatant by the early lgth century that in l71l students
who had
failed the exams at Yangzhou held a public demonstration to protest bribes given to the exam
by wealthy salt merchants. The growing influx of merchants' and poorly
educated land'sons into the bureaucracy was particularly troubling because few of them
had received the
Confucian education that stressed the responsibilities of the educated ruling
classes
their obligation to serve the people. Increasingl¡ the wealthy saw positions in the
bureau_
as a means of influencing local o fficials and judges and enhancing family
fortunes. Less
less concern was expressed for the effects of bureaucratic decisions on
the peasantry and
laborers.
Over several decades, the diversion of revenue from state projects to enrich individual
devastated Chinese society. For example, funds needed to maintain the
armies and
that defended the huge empire fell off sharpÌy. Not surprisingl¡ this reóulted
in a noticedrop in the training and armament of the military. Even more critical for
the masses were
in spending on public works projects. Of these, the most vital were the great dikes
confined the Yellow River in northern China. Over the millennia, because
of the silting of
river bottom and the constânt repair of and additions to the dikes,
the river and dikes were
high above the densely populated farmlands through which they passed.
Thus, when
great public works were neglected for lack of funds and proper
official supervision of releaking dikes and the rampaging waters of the great river meant
catastrophe for much of
China.
Nowhere was this disaster more apparent than in the
region ,of the Shandong peninsula (see
the Past feature). Before the mid- 19th centur¡ the Yellow River
emptied into the sea
the peninsula. By the 1850s, however, the neglected dikes
had broken down over much of
and the river had flooded hundreds of square miles
of heavily cultivated farmland. By the
main channel of the river flowed north of the peninsula. The
lands in between had been
the farms wiped out. Millions of peasaats were left without livestock
or land to cultihundreds-of thousands of peasants died of famine and disease.
condition of the peasantry deteriorated in many parts of the
empire, further signs of
appeared. Food shortages and landlord demands prompted
mass migrations.
bands clogged the roads, and
beggars crowded the city streets. Banditr¡ long seen by the
one of the surest signs of dynastic
decline, became a major problem in many districts. As
verse from a popular ditty of the 1g60s
illustrates, the government's inability to deal
was seen as a further sign of
eing weakness:
bandits arrive, where are the troops?
troops come, the bandits have vanished.
will the bandits and troops meet?
then widely held by Chinese thinkers-that the dynastic cycle
would again
and the Manchus
would be replaced by a new and vigorous dynasty-was belied by
of the problems confronting
the leaders of China. The belief that China's future
from the patterns of its past ignored the fact that
there were no precedents
for
617
618
PartV ' The Dawn of the IndustrialAge, 1750-1914
the critical changes that had occurred in China under Manchu rule.
Some of these changes had their roots in the preceding Ming era (see
Chapter 22),inwhich, for example, food crops from the Americas, suçf¡
as corn and potatoes, had set in motion a population explosion. China
desperately needed innovations in technology and organization that
Beijing.
Ycllort
S.!
would increase its productivity to support its rapidly increasing population at a reasonable level. The corrupt and highly conservative late
a
Manchu regime was increasingly an obstacle to, rather than a source of,
these desperately needed changes.
I
Ettst
Chint
Seo
:)
{
Barbarians at the Southern Gates:
The OpiumWar andAfter
Another major difference between the forces sapPing the strength
the Manchus and those that had brought down earlier dynasties
the nature of the "barbarians" who threatened the empire from out
side. Out of ignorance, the Manchu rulers and their Chinese
R.
trators treated the Europeans much like the nomads and other
they saw as barbarians. But the Europeans presented a very
O
. frKILOMETERS
sort of challenge. They came from a civilization that was China's
in sophistication and complexity. In fact, although European
states such as Great Britain were much smaller in population (in
early lgth centurf England had 7 million people to China's 400
lion), the scientific and industrial revolutions allowed them to
:l British âttacks 1839-1842
pensate for their smaller numbers with better organization
superior technology. These advantages proved critical in the wars
tween China and Britain and the other European powers that
Map 26.4 Coastal China and lts Hinterland in the 19th Century
out in the mid-19th century.
By the early 1 800s, China's seaports and river deltas had become the
The issue that was responsible for the initial hostilities
main focus of European expansionist efforts. By the end of the
China and the British did little credit to the latter. For centuries,
century, China's southern coastal regions had alsò become seedbeds
domination.
merchants had eagerly exported silks, fine porcelains, tea, and
for nationalist res¡stance to Manchu rule and European
products from the Chinese empire. Finding that they had little
way of manufactured goods or raw materials that the Chinese were willing to take in
these products, the British were forced to trade growing amounts of silver bullion' Unhappy
the unfavorable terms of trade in China, British merchants hit on a possible solution in the
opium, which was grown in the hills of eastern India. Although opium was also grown in
Indian variety was far more potent and was soon in great demand in the Middle Kingdom.
early 19th century an annual average of 4500 chests of opium, each weighing 133
sold, either legally or illegally, to merchants on the south China coast' By 1839, on the eve'
Opium War Fought between the British and
Opium War, nearly 40,000 chests were imported by the Chinese.
Qing China beginning in 1839; fought to protect
Although the British had found a way to reverse the trade balance in their favoS the
British trade in opium; resulted in resounding
British victor¡ opening of Hong Kong as British
soon realized that the opium traffic was a major threat to their ..otfo*y and social order'
port oftrade.
years, China's favorable trade balance with the outside world was reversed, and silver
in large quantities out of the country. As sources of capital for public works and trade
decreased, agricultural productivity stagnated or declined, and unemployment spread,
the hinterlands of the coastal trading areas. Wealtþ Chinese, who could best afford it'
rncreasrng amounts of China's wealth to support their opium habits. Opium dens
towns and villages of the empire at an alarming rate. It has been estimated that by 1838, I
China's more than 400 million people were addicted to the drug. Strung-out officials
their administrative responsibilities, the sons of prominent scholar-gentry families lost
tion, and even laborers and peasants abandoned their work for the debilitating
0
l----------,
: --.-1
'
5mMl6
opium dens.
From the early 18th century Qing emperors had issued edicts forbidding the
but little had been done to enforce them. By the beginning of the 19th centur¡ it was
chapter 26
'
civilizations in crisis: The ottoman Empire, the Islamic
Heartlands, and eing china
to be stopped. When serious efforts were finally
from Canton to nearby islands
the late 1830s, the emperor sent one of the most
e opium dealers
JiïÎ]lir'
in his attempts to win the co
available to stamp out the trade. Lin,
ously.
After beinjrebuffed
*n"
offìcers in putting an end to the trade, Lin ordered the European trading areas
aded, their warehouses searched, and all the opium confiscated and destroyed.
619
Ef ift'ï\;.,,,,
everv means
ltlTåï:ï;
in canton block-
no match for British gunboats. Then they were
ditionary force the British sent ashore. With B
the Yangzi River region, the eing emperor was
remote province of the empire.
Their victories in the Opium War and a second conflict, which
erupted in the late lg50s, al_
the European powers to force China to open trade and diplomatic
exchanges. After the first
Hong Kong was established as an additional center of British commerce.
European trade was
permitted at five other ports, where the Europeans were given
land to build more warehouses
quarters. By the 1890s, 90 ports of call were available to more
than 300,000 European and
traders, missionaries, and diplomats. Britain, France, German¡
and Russia had won
leases of several ports and the surrounding territory (Figure
26.6)
Although the rreaty of 1842 made no reference to the opium trade,
after China,s defeat the
poured unchecked into China. By the mid-t9th centur)¡, Chinat
foreign trade and customs
overseen by British officials. They were careful to ensure
that European nationals had favored
to Chinat markets and that no protective tarifß, such as those the
Americans were using at
to protect their young industries, were established by the Chinese.
Most humiliating of all
Chinese was the fact that they were forced to accept European
ambassadors at the eing
Not only were ambassadors traditionally (and usually quite rightly)
seen as spies, but the exof diplomatic missions was a concession that European nations
were equal il stature to
Given the deeply entrenched Chinese conviction that
their Middle Kingdom was the civicenter of the earth and that all other peoples
were barbarians, this was a very difÊcult concesmake. European battleships and firepower gave
them little choice.
at
H
T¡'eaty Ports
and the Boxer
Rebellion in
China
The Treaty
of Naniing
Risk Rebellion and Failed Reforms'
Taiping
Rebellion
Broke out in sourh China in
a
gentry,
H
NineteenthCentury China
HongXiuquan
[hohng sloo-gmhn] (1812-1864)
Leader ofthe Taiping rebellion; converted to specifically Chinese form of Christimity; attacked traditional Confucim teachings ofChinese elite.
Qing dynasty tottering on the verge of collapse, the northward drive lost
its mo_
over the next half decade
it imploded. With Nanjing and a number of other
Prospertheir hinterlands under Taiping
control, the rebel leaders, including Hong, began to
620
PartV . The Dawn of the IndustrialAge, 1750-1914
FigUfe 26.6 ln the late
19th century, the Chinese were forced to concede port and warehouse areas, such as the one in this painting, to rival imperialist powers.
areas were¡ in effect, colonial enclaves. They were guarded by foreign troops, flew foreign flags, and were run by Western or Japanese merchant councils.
(lllustration of Colonial Flags Flying Over a Chinese Port. Gift of Lincoln Kirstein,
1
959 (JP3346). lmage copyriqht c The l\4etropolitan lVuseum of Art/Art Resource, NY)
plot and quarrel among themselves. As some were killed and others deserted the cause' the
of the military commanders and the training of the God Worshipers' fightels declined
tously. Taiping policies also alienated some of their own followers and increased the
the enemies arrayed against them. None of their utopian measures to Provide better lives
followers were actually implemented, and their puritanical regulations were increasinglY
by their often hostile subjects. The ban on opio- smoking and Hong's bizarue
Christian teachings alienated the Europeans, who threw their supPort behind the
Guofan Qing official who raised effective
military forces against the Taiping assault on
Northern China.
Zeng
iled Qing dynasty.
Of all of the rebellions that threatened to topple the Qing dynasty in the 19th
Taiping movement posed the most serious alternative-not only to the Qing dynastY
cian civilization as a whole. The Taipings not only offered
land redistribution, and the liberation of women, but they
elite and the learning on which its claims to authority rested. In addition to
tablets and shrines, the Taipings sought to develop a simplifÌed script and mass
would have undermined some of the scholar-gentry's chief sources of power.
Their attack on the scholar-gentry *"rì.r. of the main causes of the Taipings'
feat. Left no option but to rally to the Manchu regime, the provincial
focus of resistance to the Taipings. Honest and able Qing officials, such as Zeng
chapter 26
'
civilizations in crisis: The ottoman Empire, the
Islamic Heartlands, and eing china
62t
t in time to fend off the Taiping assault.on
north_
ent also carried out much needed reforms
to root
the stagnating Chinese economy. In the late
lgth
movement, which was aimed at countering the
ern investment in railways and factories ii the
armies. Combined wi
ment that could not
suppression
ofthe
Late Ì9th_century
the challenge from
ers.
Ta
Nanjing was retaken.
in mass fires.
Despite their
clearly desperate situation by the late 19th
centurF including a shocking loss in
war with /apan in 1894 and 1g95, the Manchu rulers
stubbornly resisted the far- reaching rethat were the only hope of saving the regime and,
as it turned out, Chinese civilization.
rulers o ccasionally supported offìcials who pushed
for extensive political and social re_
some of which were inspired by the example
of the West. But their efforts were repeatedly
by the backlash of members of the imperial
household and their allies among the
who were determined to preserye the old order
with only minor changes and to
no concessions to the West.
The last decades of the dynasty were dominated
by the ultraconservative dowager empress
American
(shur-shee), who became the power behind
Cartoon on
the throne. In lggg she and her faction crushed
Western
most serious move toward reform. Her nephew,
the emperor, was imprisoned in the Forbidden
Powers
and leading advocates for reform were executed
Carving
or driven from China. On one occasion it was
Up China
reported that Cixi defied the Westernizers
by rechanneling funds that had been raised to
modern warships into the building of a huge
marble boat in one of the lakes in the imperial
Cixi [s
With genuine reform blocked by Cixi and her
em_
faction, the Manchus relied on divisions press wh
the provincial officials and among the European
powers to maintain their position. Mem- dynastr
it
means of dtiving out Westerners.
the Qing household also secretly backed popular
outbursts aimed at expelling the foreigners
China, such as the Boxer Rebellion (Figure
26.7). The Boxer uprising broke out in lggg
and BoxerRebellion Popular outburst in l8gg aimed
down only through the intervention of the
imperialist powers in 1901. Its failure led to
greater control over China,s internal
affairs by the Europeans and a further devolution
of
to provincial officials
H
of the Qing and the Rise of a chinese
NationalistAlternative
beginning of the 20th century,
the days of the Manchus were numbered. With
the defeat of
resrstance to the
eing came to be centered in rival sécret societies such as the Triads
ofElders and Brothers. These underground
organizations inspired numerous local
against the dynasty in rhe
late 19th century. All of these efforts failed because
of lack of
and sufÊcient resources. But some
of the secret society cells became a valuable trainprepared the way for a new sort
of resistance to the Manchus.
end of the lgth centur¡ the sons
of some of the scholar_ gentry and especially of
in the port cities were becoming more
and more involved in secret society operaactivities aimed at overthrowing the
regime. Because many of these young men
educations, their resistance was aimed at more
than just getting rid
. They envisioned power passing
to Western-educated, reformist leaders who
a new, strong nation-state
in China patterned after those of the West, rather
than
yet another imperial dynasty. For
aspiring revolutionaries such as Sun yatas one of their most articulate
advocates, serzlng Power was also seen as a
way
needed social programs to relieve the
misery of the p
easants and urban
drew heavily on the West for ideas
and organizational models, the revolution_
middle classes were deeply hostile ro the
inyolvement of the imperialist powers
They also condemned the
Manchus for failing to control the foreigners. Like
the
red
Nationalist party of China (Guomindang) in t919;
died in 1925.
Transforming Imperial China into
a
Nation
Faced with mounting intrusions by the Western powers into China,
which the Manchu dynasty appeared powerless to resist, Chinese
political leaders and intellectuals debated the ways by which China
could renew itself and thus survive the challenges posed by the industrialized West, As the following passages from his iournal A People Møde Neø (published from 1902 to 1905) illustrate, Liang
Qichao, one of the main advocates of major reforms in Chinese societ¡ recognized the need for significant borrowing from Europe
and the United States. At the same time, late 19th- and early 20thcentury champions of renewal such as Liang wanted to preserve the
basic features of Chinese society as they had developed over two
millennia of history.
If we wish to make our nation strong, we must investigate extensively
the methods followed by other nations in becoming independent. We
should select their superior points and appropriate them to make up
our own shortcomings. Now with regard to politics, academic learning, and techniques, our critics know how to take the superior points
of others to make up for our own weakness; but they do not know
that the people's virtue, the people's wisdom, and the people's vitality
are the great basis ofpolitics, academic learning, and techniques.
[Those who are for "renovation"] are worried about the situation and try hard to develop the nation and to promote well-being.
But when asked about their methods, they would begin with diplomac¡ training of troops, purchase of arms and manufacture of instruments; then they would proceed to commerce, mining, and
railways; and finally they would come, as they did recentl¡ to officers'training, police, and education. Are these not the most important and necessary things for modern civilized nations? Yes. But can
we attain the level of mode¡n civi-lization and place our nation in an
invincible position by adopting a little of this and that, or taking a
small step now and then? I know we cannot. . . .
Puyi
as
[poo-yee] Last emperor of China; deposed
emperor while still a small boy in 1912.
622
Let me illustrate this by commerce. Economic competition is
It is the method
whereby the powers attempt to conquer us. It is also the method
whereby we should fight for ou¡ existence. The importance of irnproving our foreign trade has been recognized by all. But in order
to promote foreign trade, it is necessary to protect the rights ofour
domestic trade and industry; and in order to protect these rights, ¡¡
is necessary to issue a set of commercial laws. Commercial laws,
however, cannot stand by themselves, and so it is necessary to co¡¡-
one of the big problems of the world today.
plement them with other laws. A law which is not carried out is
tantamount to no law; it is therefo¡e necessary to define the powers
of the judiciary. Bad legislation is worse than no legislation, and
so it is necessary to decide where the legislative power should
belong. If those who violate the law are not punished, laws
become void as soon as they are proclaimed; therefore, the
of the judiciary must be defined. When all these are carried
the logical conclusion, it wi-ll be seen that foreign trade cannot
promoted without a constitution, a parliament, and a
government, . .
.
What, then, is the way to effect our salvation and to
progress? The answer is that we must shatter at a blow the
and confused governmental system of some thousands of years;
must sweep away the corrupt and sycophantic learning of
thousands ofyears.
QUESTIONS What
strength? What does
Europe and the
as specifìc enough
you were the emperorls
recommend, perhaps copying
Taipings, the young rebels cut off their queues (braided ponytails) in defiance of the
that all ethnic Chinese wear their hair in this fashion. They joined in uprisinþs fomented
cret societies or plotted assassinations and acts of sabotage on their own. Attempts to
all-China rising failed on several occasions because of personal animosities or
late 1911, opposition to the government's reliance on the WesternBowers for railway
secret society uprisings, student demonstrations, and mutinies on the part of
When key provincial ofñcials refused to put down the spreading rebellion,
choice but to abdicate. In February 1912, the last emperor of China, a small boy named
yee), was deposed, and one of the more powerful provincial lords was asked to establish
can government in china.
The revolution of 191 I toppled the Qing dynast¡ but in many ways a more
ing point for Chinese civilization was reached in 1905. In that year, the civil service
given for the last time. Reluctantl¡ even the ultraconservative advisors of the empress
cluded that solutions to China's predicament could no longer be found in the
the exams tested. In fact, the abandonment of the exams signaled the end of a
Iife the Chinese had nurtured for nearly 2500 years. The mix of philosophies
come to be known as the Confucian system, the massive civil bureaucrac¡ rule by an
,
Chapter 26
'
Civílizations in Crisis: The Ottoman Empire, the Islamic Heartlands, and Qing
China
623
Figure 26.7
Chína's peril in the aftermath ofthe Boxer Rebellion and the military interventions by the
imperialist powers that it prompted are brilliantly captured in this contemporary cartoon showing the aggressive
and mutually hostile great powers circling the carcass ofthe 0ing Empire.
scholar-gentry elite, and even the artistic accomplishments of the old order came under
criticism in the early 20th century. Many of these hallmarks of the most enduring civithat has ever existed were violently destroyed.
^(.,)-(c.)-
bal Connections
and Chinese Decline and a Shifting
Balance
and Islamic civilizations were severely weakened by
disruptions during the 18th and 19th centuries, and each
into prolonged crisis by the growing challenges posed
Several key differences in the interaction between
and the West do much to explain why Islam,
shaken, survived, whereas Chinese civilization colthe burden of domestic upheavals and foreign agthe Muslims, who had been warring and trading
Europe since the Middle Ages, the Western threat
What was new was the much greater strength of
in the ongoing contest, which resulted from their
and their scientific and industrial revolutions.
from the West came suddenly and bruChinese had to revise their image of
the center of the world and the source of civilizarnto account severe defeats at the hands ofpeoas
barbarians.
The Muslims could also take comfort from the fact that, in
the Judeo-Christian and Greek traditions, they shared much with
the ascendant Europeans. As a result, elements of their own civilization had played critical roles in the rise of the West. This made
it easier to justiff Muslim borrowing from the West, which in any
case could be set in a long tradition of exchanges with other civilizations. Although some Chinese technology had passed to the
West, Chinese and Western leaders were largely unaware of earþ
exchanges and deeply impressed by the profound differences between thei¡ societies. For the Chinese, borrowing from the barbarians required a painful reassessment of their place in the world-a
reassessment many were unwilling to make.
In countering the thrusts from the West, the Muslims gained
from the fact that they had many centers to defend; the fall of a
single dynasty or regime did not mean the end of Islamic independence. The Muslims also gained from the more gradual nature
of the Western advance. They had time to learn from earlier mistakes and try out different responses to the Western challenges.
For the Chinese, the defense of their civilization came to be
equated with the survival of the Qing dynast¡ a line of thinking
that the Manchus did all they could to promote. When the dynasty
collapsed in the early 20th centur¡ the Chinese lost faith in the
624
PartV . The Dawn of the IndustrialAge, 1750-1914
formula for civilization they had successfully followed for more
than two millennia. Again, timing was critical. The crisis in China
seemed to come without warning. Within decades, the Qing went
from being the arrogant controller ofthe barbarians to being a defeated and humbled pawn of the European powers.
When the dynasty failed and it became clear that the "barbarians" had outdone the Chinese in so many fields of civilized
endeavor, the Chinese had little to fall back on. Like the Europeans, they had excelled in social and political organization and
in mastery of the material world. Unlike the Hindus or the Muslims, they had no great religious tradition with which to counter
the European conceit that worldly dominance could be equated
with inherent superiority. In the depths of their crisis, Muslim
peoples clung to the conviction that theirs was the true faith, the
last and fullest of God's revelations to humankind. That faith became the basis of their resistance and their strategies for renewal,
the key to the survival of Islamic civilization and its continuing
efforts to meet the challenges of the West in the 20th and 21st
centuries.
Both China and the Islamic lands of the Middle East and
north Africa faced common challenges through the unavoidable
intrusion of Western-dominated globalism. While their resPonses
differed, both civilizations were only partially colonized (in contrast to Africa). Their situation also differed from that of Latin
America, where connections to the West ran deeper amid an older
pattern of economic dependency. They differed, finall¡ from two
other societies, near neighbors, who retained fuller independence
amid the same global pressures: Russia and |apan.
Further Readings
The more readable general introductions to the Ottoman decline
and the origins of Turke¡ include Elisabeth Özdalga, editor, Late
Ottoman Society: The Intellectual Legacy (2005), and Caroline
Finkel, Osmøn's Dream: The Story of the Onomøns (2006), and the
chapter on "The Later Ottoman Empire" by Halil Inalcik in The
Cømbridge History of Isløm, vol. I (1973). The fall of the dynasty
and the development of the Turkish republic are treated in world
historical perspective in Meliha Benli Altuni-stk, Turkey: ChøIlenges of Continuity øn d Ch ange ( ( 2005 ) and Hur-I Islamo- glu-lnan,
The Onoman Empire and theWoild Economy (2004). Other recent
studies on specific aspects of this process include C, V. Findley's
studies of Ottoman bureaucratic reform and the development of a
modern civil service in what is today Turkey; Ernest Ramsaur, The
YoungTurks (1957); Stanford Shaw, Between Old ønd New (L971);
and David Kusher, The Rise of Turkish Nationalism (1977).
On Egypt and the Islamic heartlands in this period, see P. M.
}Jolt, Egypt and the Fertile Crescent, 1516-1922 (1965), or P. ].
Vatikiotis, TheHistory of Egypt (1985). On the Mahdist movement
in the Sudan, see P. M. Holt, The Mahdist State in the Sudan
(1958), or the fine summary by L. Carl Brown in Robert Rotberg
and Ali Mazrui, eds., Protest and Power in Black Africø (1970). The
latter also includes many informative articles on African resistance
to European conquest and rule. On women and changes in the
family in the Ottoman realm, see Nermin Abadan-Unat, Wonen
in Turkish Society (1931); in the Arab world, see Nawal el Saadara¡1,
The Hidden Face of Eve ( 1980).
On the Manchu takeover in China, see Frederic Wakeman
The
Greøt Enterprise (1985), and lonathan Spence and John
lr.,
E. Willis, eds., Ming to Ch'ing (1979). On Qing rule, among the
most readable and useful works are Spence's Emperor of China:
Portrait of K'ang-hsi (I974) and the relevant sections in his The
Search for Modern China (1990); Susan Naquin and Evel¡r
Rawski, Chinese Society in the 18th Century (1987); and the essays in |ohn Fairbank, ed., The Cambridge History of China: Late
Ch'ing 1800-1911 (1978). The early decades of Qing and Chinese
decline are perceptively surveyed in F.W. Mofe, Imperial Chinø"
900-1800 (1999). A good survey of the causes and course of
Opium War is provided in Hsin-pao Chang, Commissioner
and the Opium War (1964). The Taiping Rebellion is covered
Jen Yu-wen, The Taiping Revolutionary Movement (1973),
Jonathan D. Spence, God's Chinese Son: Taiping Heavenly
dom of Hong Xiuquan (1996). The rebellion heralding the
stage of Qing decline is examined in I. W Esherick, Tlre
of the Boxer Uprising (1987)
The first stages of the Chinese nationalist movement are
amined in the essays in Mary Wright, ed., China in Revolution:
First Phase (1963). The early sections of Elisabeth Croll,
and Socialism in China (1980), provide an excellent
the status and condition of women in the Qing era.
On the Web
Links exploring the Ming dynasty can be found at
stockton.edu/- gilmorew/consorti/2feasia.htm and http
wikipedia.orglwiki/Ming-Dynasty. The decline of the Qing
library.thinkq uesÍ.or gl 26469lhistory/ I 900.html) was
the failure of a reform effort which climaxed in the 103
June l1 to September 21, 1898 (http://www-chaos'
history/modern3.html). This failure came on top of the
(http://wwwwsu.edu/-dee/CHING/OPIUM.HTM and
.ryber.law.harvard.edr-L/ChinaDragon/opiumwar.html).
A site
html
sion of Chinese Opium Commissigner Lin Zexu's letter
Victoria.
web.
jj
ay.
cuny. edu/ - j obrien/reference/ob29.
The Taiping Rebellion (http://www.chaos.unr
modern2.html) gravelyweakened 2000 years of
government. The Boxer Rebellion (http:/
imperialism/fists.html) provided the coup de gtàce.
Major General Charles "Chinese" Gordon
took part in the suppression of the anti-foreign, anti
Rebellion, also had to address another indigenous
led by Muhammad Ahmed, the Mahdi (http://en'
wiki/Muhammad-Ahmed).
Unlike the Mahdi, who sought the path of
ism, Mohammad Abduh and )amal al-din Afghani
chapter 26
'
civilizations in crisis: The ottoman Empire, the
Islamic Heartlands, and eing
The decline of the Ottornan Empire in the lgth century
can
to all ofthese reasons EXCEPT
be traced
(A)
frequent defeats of the Ottoman army and foreign
an_
nexations of its land.
(B)
(C)
(D)
religious divisions within Islam.
china
5. Although
they were nomadic tribesmen from beyond
the
Great Wall, the Manchus (eing), when they conquered
China,
(A)
tightly regulated merchant activities and overseas in_
vestments.
the spread ofnationalism in southeastern Europe.
restive Christian and non-Turkish populations
who
(B)
redistributed land to the peasants.
(c)
resented Turkish rule.
(D)
retained the Ming emperors as nominal leaders.
retained the Confucian gentry-scholars and much
the political system.
The groups that opposed most internal Ottoman
reforms
were the
6.
(,{) university-educatedstudents.
(C) merchants.
(D)
peasants.
(E)
ruling religious, political, and social elites.
(C)
(D)
attempted to modernize Turkey without westernizing.
sought Muslim solutions to internal problems.
emphasized westernization and copied
Western models
openly.
were opposed by most members of
Turkish society.
Napoleon's invasion in 179g.
the khedive's conquest
of the Middle East and defeat
ue Ottoman Empire.
building the Suez
Canal.
successful industrialization under
Muhammad
Question
Ottoman and
Qing Empires under the pressure of
the two empires responded.
Korea was ceded to Japan, and the British took Siam.
China was forced to open its ports to European trade
and grant European extraterritoriality.
Rebellion such a serious threat to the
Qing dynasty?
(A)
(B)
(D)
of
the beginning of a powerful reform movement to
strengthen China.
7. Why was the Taiping
(C)
strategic importance of Eglpt
to Europeans was
of
The most immediate result of the Opium War was
(A) the collapse of the eing dynasty and its replacement.
(B)
under the late Ottoman sultans and young Turk
62s
The rebels were allied with Western Europeans.
The rebels had a sweeping series of social, political and
religious reforms.
The rebels captured the Dowager Empress Cixi and the
heir.
The rebels demanded extreme westernization and an
end to the scholar-gentry privileges.