Empires in Collision: Europe, The Middle East, and East Asia 1800-1914

Theme: The European Empires go in for the final kill or take over of the Middle East and East Asia,
having already divided up most of Africa among the Great Powers (See Chpt. 18)

A. China's Century of Crisis, 1793-1911. Strayer, 931- 941.

      1. Emperor Qianlong (r.1736-1795) was the last great Manchu (Qing) emperor. The 19th century marked the
end of China's greatness--agricultural and military decline, combined with administrative and economic collapse led
to higher taxes and peasant unrest. (See Strayer, chart, 933).

      2. The British Opium Wars, 1839-42 and 1856-1858, led to the Taiping Uprising, 1850-1864 in which China
lost 20 to 30 million people, gained an ever increasing deficit, and succumbed to foreign occupation. One of the
White/Europeans fighting for the Manchus against the Taiping rebels was Frederick Townsend Ward (1831-1862)
of Salem, Massachusetts--a typical 19th century adventurer and mercenary. Link

      3. In 1895 China lost in a war with Japan and lost control of Vietnam, Korea, and Taiwan, and in 1898-1901 the
internal uprising called the Boxer Rebellion led to Western (including USA) powers controlling China in all but name.
The 19th century was not a good one for China--nor for the Ottoman Empire (Middle East).

British, American, Russian, British-Indian, German, French, Austro-Hungarian, Italian, and Japanese troops, 1901.

       4. Despite, or because, of all these military setbacks, in 1872-1881 the Chinese government sent a Chinese
Education Mission (CEM) of 120 Chinese students to America to study Western subjects with the understanding
that they would return to return to China to help to reform the government. Unfortunately this planned
"Self-Strengthening" movement was cancelled in 1898 as part of a reactionary movement within China, but most
of the Chinese students who went to Massachusetts and Connecticut schools and then on to Yale University, did
return and took part in liberalizing China in the early 20th century. Link

       Six First Detachment students on arrival in California

Chung Mun Yew, Liang Tun Yen, unidentified, Sze Kin Yung, unidentified, New Shan Chow. Link

5. In 1903 Germany started a brewery in their occupied territory of Qingdao--know still today as "Tsingtao Beer".

B. The Ottoman Empire, "Sick Man of Europe" (Ottoman Empire = "The Middle East"), Strayer, 941- 947.

         1. Napoleon's 1798 invasion of Egypt (to cut off Britain from India) was the beginning of a series of invasions
into Ottoman territories: Muhammad Ali conquered Egypt in 1808 and established a dynasty lasting until 1952;
the European powers fought the Crimean War, 1853-56 in the western part of the Ottoman Empire; and in 1882 Britain invaded Egypt and took it as a colony with a figurehead King. Then Russia supported Bulgarian
independence in the Russo-Turkish War 1877-78, Italy took Libya in 1911, and civil war broke out in the Balkans in 1912-1913. Like China, the 19th century was not good to the Ottoman Empire. The final blow came in the First World
War when the empire collapsed.

Muhammad Ali (1769-1849)                                                                                                                                     Gamal Abdel Nasser (1918-1970)
                     Nasser became President of the republic of Egypt in 1952, & nationalized the Suez Canal in 1953.

      2. Sultan Selim III (r. 1789-1807) tried to reform government and the Janissaries but was assassinated.
In 1839 Sultan Abdulmecid (r.1839-1861) did institute the Tanzimat (reorganization). In 1876 a constitution was
promulgated but never fully implemented, and the Young Turk military coup of 1908 lost its liberal reformism in
the chaos and nationalism of World War I. In 1919-1922, Kemal Mustafa Ataturk (1881-1938) fought a War of Independence against France, Italy, Britain, and Greece, creating a Turkish Republic out of the ashes of the Ottoman
Empire, and becoming the republic's first President and major reformer.

File:Sultan Abdulmecid Pera Museum 3 b.jpg
                         Janissaries, c. 18th century                                                Sultan Abdulmecid (1823-r.1839-1861)

     3. Eli Smith (1801-1857) was an American Presbyterian missionary from Connecticut who started a school in
Syria and introduced the first printing press to the area in order to print the bible which he had translated into Arabic.
His students and colleagues were instrumental in what is called "the Arab Awakening" of the 19th century. In 1863
the state of New York granted a charter for a Syrian Protestant College in Beirut (now in Lebanon). It was opened
in 1866 and in 1920 changed its name to the American University of Beirut (AUB).

          "AUB graduates continue to serve in leadership positions as presidents of their countries, prime ministers,
          members of parliament, ambassadors, governors of central banks, presidents and deans of colleges and
          universities, businesspeople, engineers, doctors, teachers, and nurses. They work in governments, the private
          sector, and in nongovernmental organizations". Link

C. The Japanese Difference: The Rise of a New East Asian Power

       1. The "Japanese Miracle" of independence and power was probably not surprising, since its "reforms" under
the Tokugawa Shogunate (1600-1868) strengthened the government, economy, and society, while excluding
Westerners from the country for 250 years. In fact before 1853, Japan was too northern and too poor in comparison
to the Ottoman Empire or China to occupy the West's attention.

       2. Japanese Tokugawa Society -- Shogun, Daimyo & Samurai (Great Lords and warriors), along with the
peasants, artisans, merchants, Geisha "floating world" society, and Kabuki (song,dance,drama) theatre -- was
described and portrayed in numerous Japanese woodblock books and prints. (Japanese Woodblock Prints and Artists.doc)

                                                           Kabuki performance 1858, woodblock print.

Geisha "floating world"

"Great Wave off Kanagawa", (1826) with Mt. Fuji in the background.
One of 36 woodblocks (ukiyo-e) of Mt. Fuji by Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849)

      3. In 1853, US Commodore Matthew Perry (1794-1858) forced his "Black Ships" into Edo (Tokyo) harbor
demanding and receiving a treaty of cooperation from the Japanese (1858), but instead of leading to Japan's collapse,
it spurred on Japanese reformers in 1868 to force the Shogun to resign, marking the beginning of a period of rapid modernization and Westernization under the emperor--the Meiji (enlightened) Restoration --the highlight being a
constitution in 1889.

                                                                Commodore Perry and Generals, 1853

       4. Japanese military power grew rapidly with the defeat of China in the Sino-Japanese War 1894-1895 and
the Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905 -- this latter being the first time a Western/European power had been defeated
by a non-Western power, thus making Japan a hero of the third-world for awhile. Recognizing Japan's growing
power as a potential barrier to Russian expansion, Britain in 1902 made a military and commercial alliance with
Japan lasting through 1923 and recognizing Japan as a de facto equal, global power-- or as Asians today say "an
honorary White man".

        5. Today, 2013, China and Japan are poised for war over the ownership of 5 islands, Daioyo islands according
to China, Senkaku according to Japan. Newspaper articles are pointing out that Chinese/Japanese enmity harkens
back to the 1894-95 war and to Japan's second war with China, 1937- 1945. A war today between China, and Japan,
could seriously upset global markets and politics.Link

                                                                    Sino/Japanese Battle, October 1894

D. Some Conclusions

1. This chapter has surveyed the relentless and often ruthless use of Western/European industrial power in
terms of imperialism and colonialism, with the one exception of Japan. Was this good, bad, neither, or both?
In the next chapter we will see what happened to Africa as well as studying other "Colonial Encounters" many
of which, together with Great Power alliances, led to World War I.

2. Westernization or modernization is an outgrowth of Europe's own particular Five revolutions of the
16th century. Therefore, can modernization happen elsewhere in the world without the racial, cultural, and
national biases that seem inherent in Europe's form of modernization? Will the West continue to determine the
course of modernization in the future or will leadership pass to other geographic areas and other cultures of the
world? That is a question for the remainder of the course, but the creation of the World Social Forum in 2001
hints at things to come!

African colonialsim in 1914.

3. The World Social Forum, organized in 2001 to counter "hegemonic globalization" by the West meets
annually to discuss alternatives to Western domination of the world. The Forum's motto is :

"Another World is Possible"

"The active involvement of movements, organizations, trade unions"
Link