Download AP WORLD HISTORY II CIVILIZATIONS IN CRISIS: THE OTTOMAN

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AP WORLD HISTORY II
CIVILIZATIONS IN CRISIS: THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, THE ISLAMIC HEARTLANDS, AND QING CHINA!
China under the Qing dynasty in the 17th century enjoyed growth and prosperity and had the power to limit European
intervention. The Ottomans, on the contrary, were then in full retreat. Russia and Austria seized territories, north
African provinces broke away, and local leaders throughout the empire became more independent. Economic and
social disruption accompanied the political malaise. Although the Ottoman rulers did not have a solution to their
problems, they regained some strength during the 19th century by following Western-style reforms. The Chinese
entered a prolonged crisis period. At the end of the 19th century, the foundations of Chinese civilization had been
demolished by internal and external pressures.!
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From Empire to Nation: Ottoman Retreat and the Birth of Turkey. By the early 18th century, the Ottoman Empire
was in decline. Weak rulers left the way open for power struggles between officials, religious experts, and
Janissaries. Provincial administrators and landholders colluded to drain revenue from the central treasury. The
general economy suffered from competition with the West as imported goods ruined local industry. European rivals
took advantage of Ottoman weakness. The Austrian Habsburgs pushed the Ottomans from Hungary and the
northern Balkans. The strengthened Russian state expanded into the Caucasus and Crimea. The subject Christian
peoples of the Balkans challenged their rulers: the Greeks won independence in 1830, Serbia in 1867. By the 1870s,
the Ottomans had lost nearly all of the Balkans, and their capital was often threatened by Balkan or Russian armies.!
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Reform and Survival. The Ottomans survived the continuing defeats partly because the European powers feared
the consequences of territorial division among the victors. The British propped up the Ottomans during the latter 19th
century to prevent the Russians from reaching the Mediterranean. The weakened empire was preserved by internal
reform, although rival solutions caused elite tensions. Selim III’s modest military and administrative reform attempts
angered officials and the Janissaries; he was deposed and killed in 1807. Mahmud II was more successful. With the
help of European advisors, he built a professional army that destroyed the Janissaries in 1826. Mahmud II then
launched far-reaching reforms patterned on Western models. Between 1839 and 1876, the period of the Tanzimat
reforms, university education was reorganized on Western lines, postal and telegraph systems were introduced, and
railways were constructed. Newspapers were established, and in 1876 a European-type constitution was
promulgated. The many changes opened the empire to European influences and threatened some groups. Artisans
lost out to the foreign competition. Women gained little from the reforms as Islamic patterns continued.!
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Repression and Revolt. The reforms strengthened the state, but they threatened the dynasty. Western-oriented
officials, military officers, and professionals viewed the sultanate as a barrier to more reform. They also clashed with
the conservative ulama and ayan. Sultan Abdul Hamid (1878–1908) responded by trying to return to despotic
absolutism. He nullified the constitution and restricted civil liberties, but he continued military and educational reform,
and railway and telegraph construction. Abdul Hamid’s harsh rule ended when he was removed by the Young Turks,
or reformers, including military officers, who wanted to continue Western-style reforms. The constitution and civil
liberties were restored in a regime directed by a figurehead sultan. Factional fights among the reformers hampered
their efforts, while wars in the Balkans and north Africa lost territory. The Arabs under Ottoman rule began to seek
their independence. The empire survived, but in a very weakened condition, until Turkish entry into World War I
resulted in its dissolution.!
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Western Intrusions and the Crisis in the Arab Islamic Heartlands. The leaders and thinkers of the Islamic world
were divided about how to reverse decline and drive back Europeans. Their arguments represented a spectrum
ranging from a return to the past to the adoption of Western ways. By the 19th century, the Arabs under the
weakened Ottoman Empire were exposed to the danger of European conquest. The loss of Islamic territory to the
Europeans engendered a sense of crisis in the Middle East.!
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Muhammad Ali and the Failure of Westernization in Egypt. Napoleon’s victory over the Ottoman Mamluk vassals
in Egypt destroyed the existing local power balance. The easy victory of the French demonstrated the vulnerability of
Muslim regions before European power. When the British forced French withdrawal, an Albanian Ottoman officer,
Muhammad Ali, emerged as Egypt’s ruler. He introduced European military reforms and created a powerful army and
navy that freed him from dependence upon his nominal Ottoman overlord. Muhammad Ali also attempted, with
limited success, to modernize Egypt’s economy through reforms in agriculture, infrastructure, education, and
industry. The limited scope of Muhammad Ali’s reforms checked his plans for territorial expansion and left Egypt
exposed to European threats. His successors confined their energies to Egypt and the Sudan.!
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Bankruptcy, European Intervention, and Strategies of Resistance. Muhammad Ali’s less talented successors
abandoned reform and allowed the ayan to profit at the expense of the peasantry. Egypt became dependent on the
export of a single crop, cotton. State revenues were spent on extravagant pastimes and military campaigns in the
Sudan. The regime and the elite became indebted to European creditors. The Europeans invested in the building of
the Suez Canal, which opened in 1869. Muslim intellectuals and political activists looked for ways to protect Egypt
from its inept rulers. The ancient University of al-Azhar became a focal center for Muslims from many lands. Some of
the thinkers looked to the past, but others, such as al-Afghani and Muhammad Abduh, stressed the need for Muslims
to adopt Western science and technology. They emphasized the tradition of rational inquiry in Islamic history and
contested conservative views that the single source of truth was found in a literally interpreted Qur’an. The persisting
difference between the rival interpretations damaged Muslim ability to meet the European threat. The growing
Egyptian foreign debt and the strategic importance of the Suez Canal stimulated British and French thoughts of
intervention. When army officer Ahmad Orabi led a revolt against the khedive in 1882, the British intervened to save
the ruler. British consuls thereafter directed the Egyptian government through puppet khedives.!
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Jihad: The Mahdist Revolt in the Sudan. The British were drawn into the disorder in the Sudan. Egyptian efforts at
conquests from the 1820s had won only an insecure hold over fertile lands along the Nile and towns such as
Khartoum. Camel nomads resisted their authority. The corrupt Egyptian regime oppressed sedentary farmers and
alienated all classes by trying, in the 1870s under British influence, to end the slave trade. The Muslims of the
northern Sudan found a leader in Muhammad Achmad, a religious figure known as the Mahdi. He proclaimed a jihad
against the Egyptians and British that would return Islam to its original purity. The Mahdi won control of the Sudan.
After his death, the movement continued under the capable Khalifa Abdallahi. The Mahdists built a strong state with
a society closely regulated by strict Islamic norms. The British ended this threat to European domination when
General Kitchener crushed the Mahdist forces at Omdurman in 1896. Abdallahi was killed and the state
disintegrated. The world of Islam suffered serious reverses during the 19th century. From reform to resistance, none
of the efforts halted the European advance. As the century closed, Islam, still divided over the explanation for its
decline, was seriously threatened by the European rulers of most of the world.!
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The Last Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the Qing Empire in China. The Manchu leader Nurhaci (1559–1626)
united the tribes of his region into a formidable fighting force that conquered much of Manchuria and drove back the
Chinese living north of the Great Wall. The Manchu elite increasingly adopted Chinese ways in bureaucracy and
court ceremonies. Many of the Chinese scholar-gentry entered Manchu service. The Manchu seized advantage of
the weakness of the Ming dynasty to enter China and seize control of Beijing in 1644. Within two decades, the
Manchu were masters of China. As the Qing dynasty, they ruled an area larger than any previous dynasty, except the
Tang. The Manchu retained much of the political system of the Ming; Chinese and Manchu officials were paired at
the highest posts. The examination system continued. The rulers were generous patrons of the arts and employed
scholars to compile great encyclopedias of Chinese learning.!
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Economy and Society in the Early Centuries of Qing Rule. The Manchu also maintained the social system of the
Ming. The values of respect for rank and acceptance of hierarchy were emphasized. The extended family remained
the core unit among the elite. Women continued under the dominance of elder males. Their lives centered on the
household. Daughters were less wanted than sons and female infanticide probably rose during this period. Lowerclass women continued to work in fields and markets. The Manchus attempted to alleviate rural distress and unrest
through decreasing tax and labor burdens, repairing roads, dikes, and irrigation systems, and limiting land
accumulation by the elite. Population growth and the lack of available land checked the success of the reform efforts.
Landlords increased their holdings, widening the gap between rural classes. Commercial and urban expansion
increased under the peaceful conditions of the first century and a half of Manchu rule. Until the end of the 18th
century, the influx of silver in payment for exports created a favorable balance of payments. European traders came
to Canton, and Chinese merchants traveled overseas. A new group of merchants, the compradors, who specialized
in the import-export trade along the south coast, were a major link between China and the outside world.!
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Rot from Within: Bureaucratic Breakdown and Social Disintegration. By the late 18th century, the Qing were in
decline. The exam system, furnisher of able bureaucrats, was riddled by cheating and favoritism. Positions in
government service were seen as a method of gaining influence and building family fortunes. The resulting revenue
loss caused a weakening of the military and deterioration of the dikes confining the Yellow River. By the mid-19th
century, flooding left millions of peasants without resources. Throughout the empire, mass migrations and banditry
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increased social unrest. The existing Chinese social and economic systems could not cope with the changes
stemming from the greatly increased population resulting from the introduction of American crops.!
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Barbarians at the Southern Gates: The Opium War and After. Although the advances by Europeans in science
and industry made them dangerous rivals to the empire, the Manchus continued to treat them as just another type of
barbarian. Confrontation occurred over the importation of opium from India into China. The British lacked
commodities, apart from silver, to exchange for Chinese goods. Indian-grown opium reversed the trade balance in
their favor, but the Chinese saw the trade as a threat to their social order. Silver left the country, and opium addiction
became rampant. Government efforts to check the problem failed until the 1830s when an important official, Lin
Zexu, came to end the trade at Canton and nearby. When he blockaded European trading areas and destroyed
opium, the merchants demanded and received military intervention. The British invaded in 1839; the Chinese were
defeated on sea and land and sued for peace. Another conflict ended similarly in the 1850s. The settlement after the
first war awarded Hong Kong to the British and opened other ports to European trade and residence. By the 1890s,
90 ports were open and foreigners had gained long-term leases over ports and surrounding territory. Opium
continued to pour into China. By mid-century, British officials managed China’s foreign trade and customs system,
and the court had to accept European ambassadors.!
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A Civilization at Risk: Rebellion and Failed Reforms. The dislocations caused by the European incursions
spawned a massive rebellion in south China during the 1850s and 1860s. Inspired by Christian ideas, Hong Xiuquan
led the Taiping Rebellion. The dissidents offered programs of social reform, land redistribution, and liberation of
women. Their move against the traditional Chinese elite motivated the provincial gentry to support the Qing. Efficient
and honest scholar-gentry leaders succeeded in defeating the rebellion. In the last decades of the century, these
dynamic provincial leaders led a “self-strengthening movement” aimed at countering the challenges of the West.
They encouraged foreign investment in railways and factories, and supported military modernization. But the Manchu
rulers wanted only to preserve the existing order, not to transform it. The last decades of the dynasty were dominated
by dowager empress Cixi; in 1898 she crushed a serious reform effort. Central authority was further weakened when
Western powers intervened in 1901 to suppress the Boxer Rebellion, an anti-foreign movement backed by Qing
household members. The Europeans increased their authority over internal matters, while the Manchu increasingly
were unable to control provincial officials. !
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The Fall of the Qing and the Rise of a Chinese Nationalist Alternative. After the defeat of the Taipings,
resistance to the dynasty centered on rival secret societies. The revolts they inspired failed, but they were a training
ground for more serious resistance. By the end of the century, sons of the scholar-gentry and compradors became
involved in plots to overthrow the regime and to create a government modeled on the West. Sun Yat-sen was one of
their most articulate leaders. The revolutions were deeply hostile to European involvement in Chinese affairs.
Sporadic outbursts failed until 1911. A spreading rebellion ended with the deposition of the last Qing emperor in
1912. An even more important change had occurred in 1905 when the civil service exams system ended. The step
signified the ending of the use of Confucian values as a base for governing society. The era of the scholar-gentry
had closed.!
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GLOBAL CONNECTIONS: Muslim and Chinese Decline and a Shifting Global Balance. Both the seriously
weakened civilizations of China and Islam were thrown into prolonged crisis by the challenges posed by the West. A
shaken Islam survived, but Chinese civilization did not. Why? The Muslims had faced the threat of the West since
the Middle Ages. The Chinese had to face a sudden and brutal challenge. Muslims shared many aspects of culture
with Judeo-Christian and Greek tradition. Since their civilization had contributed to the rise of the West, borrowing
from the rival civilization could be justified. The Chinese regarded Westerners as barbarians with an inferior culture.
The Muslims had many centers to defend; the fall of one dynasty did not mean the end of Islamic independence.
They had time to learn during the long Western advance. To the Chinese, defense of their civilization necessitated
survival of the Qing. Once the dynasty failed, the Chinese had little to fall back on. Muslims could cling to the truths
of Islam, but the Chinese did not have a great indigenous religious tradition.!
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RUSSIA AND JAPAN: INDUSTRIALIZATION OUTSIDE THE WEST!
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Russia and Japan defied the pattern of 19th-century European domination. By 1914 they launched significant
industrialization and accomplished other changes that preserved their independence. Both achieved economic
autonomy and were able to join in the imperialist scramble. They were the only non-Western societies to begin a
wholesale industrialization process before the mid-20th century. Among the characteristics common to the two nations
in their maintenance of independence was their prior experience of cultural imitation, Japan from China, and Russia
from Byzantium and the West. They were able to learn without destroying their own cultures. Both also had improved
their political effectiveness during the 17th and 18th centuries, a situation allowing the state to sponsor change. There
were differences between the two. Japan, through its reforms, pulled away from the rest of east Asia; Russia
continued expanding its influence in eastern Europe and central Asia. Their mutual expansionist drives brought
conflict over Korea and the Russo-Japanese War.!
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Russia’s Reforms and Industrial Advance. Russia in 1861 moved into an active period of social and political reform
that established the base for industrialization by the 1890s. Immense social strain resulted as the government
attempted to remain autocratic.!
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Russia before Reform. The French Revolution and Napoleon’s invasion of 1812 produced a backlash in Russia
against Westernization. Conservative intellectuals embraced the turn to isolation as a way of vaunting Russian values
and institutions, including serfdom. Some intellectuals remained fascinated with Western developments in politics,
science, and culture. When Western-oriented army officers fomented the Decembrist revolt of 1825, Tsar Nicholas I
repressed the movement. As a consequence, Russia escaped the European revolutions of 1830 and 1848. Russia
continued its territorial expansion. The Congress of Vienna confirmed its hold over Poland; Polish nationalist revolts
during the 1830s were brutally suppressed. Pressure on the Ottoman Empire continued, and Russia supported
dissidents in Greece and the Balkans.!
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Economic and Social Problems: The Peasant Question. In economic terms, Russia fell behind the West because
it failed to industrialize. Landlords increased exports of grain by tightening labor obligations on serfs. Russia remained
a profoundly agricultural society dependent upon unfree labor. The significance of the need to industrialize was
demonstrated by the Crimean War (1854–1856). Britain and France came to the support of the Ottomans and
defeated the Russians because of their industrial economies. Tsar Alexander II was convinced that reforms were
necessary, and that meant resolving the issue of serfdom. Many individuals believed that a free labor force would
produce higher agricultural profits; others wished to end abuses or to end periodic peasant risings. Reform was seen
as a way to protect distinctive Russian institutions, not to copy the West.!
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The Reform Era and Early Industrialization. The serfs were emancipated in 1861; they received land, but did not
gain any political freedoms. They were tied to their villages until they paid for the lands they had received. The
payments, plus increasing taxation, kept most peasants very poor. The emancipation created a larger urban labor
force, but it did not spur agricultural productivity. Peasants continued to use old methods on their small holdings.
Peasant risings persisted because of the enduring harsh conditions that were exacerbated by population growth.
Reform had not gone far enough. Other efforts followed. In the 1860s and 1870s, Alexander II improved law codes
and created local political councils (zemstvoes) with authority over regional matters. The councils gave political
experience to middle-class people, but they had no influence on national policy. Military reform included officer
promotion through merit and increased recruitment. There was limited extension of the education system. During this
era, literacy increased rapidly and a market for popular reading matter developed. Some women gained access to
higher education and to the professions. In family organization, Russia followed earlier European trends. A move to
industrialization was part of the process of change. State support was vital since Russia lacked a middle class and
capital. A railway system was created in the 1870s; it reached the Pacific in the 1880s. The railways stimulated the
iron and coal sectors, as well as the export of grain to the West. They also opened Siberia to development and
increased Russian involvement in Asia. Factories appeared in Russian and Polish cities by the 1880s, and the
government quickly acted to protect them from foreign competition. Under Count Witte, from 1892 to 1903, the
government passed high tariffs, improved the banking system, and encouraged Western investment. By 1900 about
one-half of industry was foreign-owned; much was foreign-operated. Russia became a debtor nation. Even though by
1900 some Russian industries were challenging world leaders, the Russian industrial revolution was in its early
stages. Its world rank was due to its great size and rich resources, not its technology or trained workforce. Despite all
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the reform, Russia remained a traditional peasant society that had not experienced the attitudinal change occurring
with Western industrialization.!
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Protest and Revolution in Russia. Unrest accompanied transformation by the 1880s, and Russia became a very
unstable society.!
The Road to Revolution. Alexander II’s reforms and economic change encouraged minority nationality demands in
the empire. Cultural nationalism led to political demands and worried the state. Social protest was heightened by the
limitations of reform and by industrialization. Peasants suffered from famine, redemption payments, taxes, and
population pressure. Educated Russians also were dissatisfied. Business and professional people sought more
personal freedom and fuller political rights; the intelligentsia wanted political change and social reform. Some of the
intellectuals favored radical change that also preserved Russian culture. Many became anarchists seeking to abolish
formal government. They hoped to triumph by winning peasant support. When peasants were not interested, some
turned to terrorism. The government reaction was to pull back from reform, introduce censorship, and exile dissidents
to Siberia. Alexander II was assassinated in 1881; his successors opposed reform and continued political, religious,
and ethnic repression. By the 1890s, new protest currents appeared. Marxist socialism spread among the
intelligentsia. Lenin (Vladimir Ulyanov) attempted to make Marxism fit Russian conditions and organized disciplined
cells to work for the expected revolution. At the same time, working-class unrest in the cities showed through union
formation and strikes—both illegal—to compensate for lack of political outlets. The regime remained opposed to
significant reform.!
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The Revolution of 1905. Russia had continued imperialist expansion through the 19th and into the 20th century.
Gains were made against the Ottomans in the 1870s. New Slavic nations, Serbia and Bulgaria, were created, and
conservatives talked of Russian leadership of a pan-Slavic movement. In the Middle East and central Asia (Persia and
Afghanistan), Russia was active. In China, the Russians moved into Manchuria and gained long-term leases to
territory. Russia encountered the similarly expanding Japanese, and was defeated in the Russo-Japanese War of
1904–05. The loss unleashed protests in Russia. Urban workers and peasants joined liberal groups in the Revolution
of 1905. The government bowed and created a national parliament, the duma. Minister Stolypin introduced important
peasant reforms: greater freedom from redemption payments and liberal purchase and sale of land. He aimed to
create a market-oriented peasantry divided from the rest of the peasant mass. Some entrepreneurs among the
peasants—kulaks—did increase production. But the reform package quickly fell apart as the tsar withdrew rights, took
authority away from the duma, and resumed police repression. To counter internal pressures, the government turned
to intervention in the Ottoman Empire and the Balkans.!
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Russia and Eastern Europe. Russian patterns were followed in smaller eastern European nations: Hungary,
Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Greece. They established parliaments elected by carefully restricted voters. Kings
ruled without much check. Most nations abolished serfdom, but landlord power remained extensive and peasant
unrest continued. In economic organization, industrialization was minimal; they remained agricultural exporters
dependent on Western markets. In the midst of their many problems during the late 19th century, eastern Europe
enjoyed a period of cultural productivity that helped to enhance its sense of national heritage. Russian novelists, such
as Turgenev, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy, gained world fame. In music, composers moved from the brilliant romanticism
of Tchaikovsky to innovative atonal styles. Eastern European composers, such as Chopin and Liszt, produced
important works. In science, Mendel, a Czech, advanced the study of genetics, and Pavlov, a Russian, contributed in
physiology.!
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Japan: Transformation without Revolution. Japan’s response to outside pressure was more direct and successful
than that of Russia. The Japanese adapted to the challenge of industrial change and internal market reform. Many
institutions had to be altered and much societal strain resulted. !
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The Final Decades of the Shogunate. During the first half of the 19th century, the shogunate continued to combine a
central bureaucracy with semifeudal alliances between regional daimyos and samurai. The government encountered
financial problems because taxation was based on agriculture while the economy was becoming more
commercialized. Reform spurts met revenue gaps until the 1840s when an unsuccessful effort weakened the
government and hampered responses to Western pressure. Japanese intellectual and cultural life continued to
expand under the Tokugawa. Neo-Confucianism kept its hold among the elite at the expense of Buddhism. The upper
classes became more secular, with variety among Confucian schools preventing intellectual sterility. Education
expanded beyond the upper classes and led to the highest literacy rate outside of the West. Even though
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Confucianism was dominant, there were many intellectual rivals. A national studies group venerated Japanese
traditions, including the position of the emperor and Shinto religion. Another group pursued Dutch studies, or an
interest in Western scientific progress. The Japanese economy continued to develop as internal commerce expanded
and manufacturing spread into the countryside. By the 1850s, economic growth was slowing as technological
limitations hindered agricultural growth and population increase. Rural riots reflected peasant distress and helped to
weaken the shogunate.!
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The Challenge to Isolation. In 1853, an American naval squadron commanded by Matthew Perry forced the opening
of Japan to the West. Later negotiations won the right to station a consul and to open ports for commerce. European
nations quickly secured equal rights. Although shogunate bureaucrats reluctantly had yielded to Western naval
superiority, other Japanese favored the ending of isolation. They were opposed by conservative daimyos. All sides
appealed to the emperor, then a mostly ceremonial and religious figure. The shogunate had depended on the policy of
isolation and proved unable to withstand the stresses caused by foreign intervention. Internal disorder resulted in the
1860s, ending in 1868 with the defeat of the shogunate and the proclamation of rule by Emperor Mutsuhito, called
Meiji.!
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Thinking Historically: The Separate Paths of Japan and China. Japan and China, despite both being part of the
same civilization orbit, responded very differently to Western pressures. Both nations had chosen isolation from
outside influences from about 1600 to the mid-19th century, and thus fell behind the West. China had the capacity to
react to the challenge, but did not act. Japan, with knowledge of the benefits of imitation, did act. Japan’s limited
population pressure, in contrast to Chinese population growth, also assisted its response. In political affairs, China, by
the mid-19th century, was suffering a dynastic crisis; Japan maintained political and economic vigor. In the late 19th
century, the east Asian world split apart. Japan became the stronger of the two nations.!
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Industrial and Political Change in the Meiji State. The Meiji government abolished feudalism; the daimyos were
replaced by nationally appointed prefects in 1871. The new centralized administration expanded state power to carry
out economic and social change. Samurai officials were sent to Europe and the United States to study their
economies, technologies, and political systems. They became converted to change. Between 1873 and 1876 the
government abolished the samurai class and its state stipends. Most samurai became impoverished and revolt
resulted in 1877. The reformed army, based on national conscription, quickly triumphed. Many samurai sought new
opportunities in commerce and politics. One, Iwasaki Yataro, created the Mitsubishi company. During the 1880s the
political reconstruction was completed. Political parties had formed on regional levels. The Meiji created a new
conservative nobility from former nobles and Meiji leaders; they sat in a British-style House of Peers. The bureaucracy
was reorganized, expanded, and opened to those taking civil service examinations. The constitution of 1889 gave
major authority to the emperor and lesser power to the lower house of the Diet. High property qualifications limited the
right to vote to about 5 percent of the male population. The system gave power to an oligarchy of wealthy
businessmen and former nobles that controlled political currents into the 20th century. Japan had imitated the West,
but had retained its own identity.!
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Japan’s Industrial Revolution. Japan’s reorganization went beyond political life. Western-style militaries were
created. New banks were established to fund trade and provide investment capital. Railways and steam vessels
improved national communications. Many old restrictions on commerce, such as guilds and internal tariffs, were
removed. Land reform cleared the way for individual ownership and stimulated production through adoption of new
techniques. Government initiative dominated manufacturing because of lack of capital and unfamiliar technology. A
Ministry of Industry was created in 1870 to establish overall economic policy and operate certain industries. Model
factories were created to provide industrial experience, and an expanded education system offered technical training.
Private enterprise was involved in the growing economy, especially in textiles. Entrepreneurs came from all social
ranks. By the 1890s, huge industrial combines (zaibatsu) had been formed. Thus, by 1900, Japan was fully engaged
in an industrial revolution. Its success in managing foreign influences was a major accomplishment, but Japan before
World War I was still behind the West. It depended upon Western imports—equipment and coal—and world economic
conditions. Successful exports required inexpensive labor, often poorly paid women. Labor organization efforts were
repressed.!
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Social and Diplomatic Effects of Industrialization. Industrial and other changes went along with a massive
population increase that supplied cheap labor but strained resources and stability. In the cultural sphere, the
government introduced a universal education system stressing science, technology, and loyalty to the nation. The
scientific approach enhanced the earlier secular bent of elite culture. After an initial period of great enthusiasm for
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reform, more moderation prevailed, with an emphasis on traditional values. Western fashions in dress and personal
care were adopted, along with the calendar and metric system. Christianity, however, gained few converts. In family
life, the birth rate dropped as population growth forced movement from the land, and factory labor made children less
useful. Family instability showed in a high divorce rate. The traditional view of the inferiority of women in the
household continued; formality of manners and diet were maintained. Shintoism found new believers. The changes in
Japan’s economic power influenced foreign policy. By the 1890s, Japan joined the imperialist nations. The change
gave displaced samurai a role and provided nationalist stimulation for the populace. Japan’s need for raw materials
helped pressure expansion. China and Japan fought over Korea in 1894–1895; Japan’s quick victory demonstrated
the presence of a new Asian power. A 1902 alliance with Britain made it an equal partner in the great power diplomatic
system. Rivalry with Russia brought war in 1904 and another Japanese victory. Korea was annexed in 1910.!
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The Strain of Modernization. Japanese success had its costs, among them poor living standards in crowded cities
and arguments between generations over Westernization. The emergence of political parties caused disputes with the
emperor and his ministers, leading to frequent elections and political assassinations. Many intellectuals worried about
the loss of identity in a changing world. To counter the malaise, officials urged loyalty to the emperor as a center of
national identity. Japanese nationalism built on traditions of superiority and cohesion, deference to rulers, and the
tensions from change. Its strength was a main factor in preventing the revolutions occurring in other industrializing
nations. No other nation outside the West matched Japan’s achievements.!
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GLOBAL CONNECTIONS: Russia and Japan in the World. The entry of Japan and Russia, plus the United States,
changed the world diplomatic picture by the early 20th century. Russian and Japanese gains in the Far East increased
tensions, while Japan’s rise led to Western fears of a “yellow peril” that required restraint.!
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