Reactions: Ottomans and Meiji

Reactions: Ottomans and Meiji

WHAP/Napp

1. The Rise of Europe and the Ottoman Empire

1. In 1750, the Ottoman Empire was still the central political fixture of a widespread Islamic world
2. Its ruler, the sultan, claimed the role of caliph, successor to the Prophet Muhammad, and viewed as the leader and defender of the Islamic world
3. But certainly by the end, of the nineteenth century, the Ottoman Empire was no longer able to deal with Europe from a position of equality
4. Among Great Powers of West, it was known as the “sick man of Europe”
5. Indeed the continuing independence of the core region of Empire owed much to inability of Europe’s Great Powers to agree on how to divide it up
6. Janissaries, elite military corps of Ottoman state, had become reactionary defenders of status quo whose military ineffectiveness was obvious
7. Also experienced a growing indebtedness, which came to rely on foreign loans to finance efforts at economic development
8. More far-reaching measures, known as Tanzimat (“reorganization”), emerged in the several decades after 1839

1. Sought to create a strong and newly recentralized state
2. Long process of modernization and Westernization had begun
3. But even modest innovations stirred hostility of ulama, religious scholars, and the Janissaries, who saw them in conflict with Islam

1. Western-Educated Reformers

1. “Young Ottomans” urged the extension of Westernizing reforms in the middle decades of the nineteenth century
2. Favored a constitutional regime like that of Great Britain
3. Known as Islamic modernism
4. Believed that Muslim societies needed to embrace Western technical and scientific knowledge while rejecting its materialism
5. Sultan Abd al-Hamid II (ruled 1876-1909) purged government of more radical reformers and ruled as a reactionary autocrat for three decades

1. Young Turks

1. Military and civilian elites
2. Largely abandoning reference to Islam, advocated secular public life and began to think of Ottoman regime as a Turkish national state
3. Pushed for radical secularization of schools, courts, and law codes and encouraged Turkish as the official language of the empire
4. Nationalist conception of Ottoman identity antagonized non-Turkic peoples and helped stimulate Arab and other nationalisms in response
5. Contributed to the complete disintegration of the empire following WWI

1. Secularizing and Westernizing principles of the Young Turks informed the policies of the Turkish republic that replaced it

1. Japan From Feudalism to Modern State

1. Japan confronted the aggressive power of the West during the nineteenth century with the arrival of U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry
2. For 250 years prior to Perry’s arrival, Japan had been governed by a shogun (military ruler) from the Tokugawa family
3. Chief task of Tokugawa shogunate was to prevent the return of civil war
4. Gave Japan more than two centuries of internal peace (1600-1850)
5. Daimyo were required to spend alternate years in the capital of Edo (Tokyo), leaving their families behind as hostages during their absence
6. Centuries of peace also contributed to a remarkable burst of economic growth, commercialization, and urban development
7. By 1750, Japan had become perhaps the world’s most urbanized country, with about 10% of its population living in sizable towns or cities
8. changes that occurred during Tokugawa era provided a solid foundation for Japan’s remarkable industrial growth in the late nineteenth-century
9. Tokugawa also pursued a policy of isolationism – limiting contact with West
10. But U.S. forced issue by sending Commodore Perry in 1853 to demand humane treatment for castaways, the right of American vessels to refuel and buy provisions, and opening of ports for trade
11. Aware of what happened to China, Japan agreed to a series of unequal treaties with various Western powers
12. Humiliating capitulation triggered a brief civil war and by 1868, a political takeover by a group of young samurai led to a decisive turning point
13. Meiji Restorationrestoring to power the young emperor, than a fifteen-year-old boy whose throne name was Meiji, or Enlightened Rule
14. By 1871, had abolished daimyo domains, replacing them with system of prefectures, appointed governors were responsible to central government
15. Government collected the nation’s taxes and raised a national army based on conscription of all social classes
16. Samurai lost their ancient role as the country’s warrior class and with it their cherished right to carry swords
17. Initial wave of uncritical enthusiasm for everything Western but then Japan proceeded to borrow more selectively and to combine foreign and Japanese
18. Constitution of 1889, drawing on German experience, introduced elected parliament (diet), political parties, and democratic ideals, but was presented as a gift from the sacred emperor descended from the Sun goddess
19. Ultimate power lay with the emperor and in practice with an oligarchy of prominent reformers acting in his name
20. Shinto, an ancient religious tradition featuring ancestors and nature spirits, was elevated to the status of an official state cult
21. At coredefensive modernization lay its state-guided industrialization
22. Successful wars against China (1894-1895) and Russia (1904-1905) established Japan as a formidable military competitor

Questions:

• What lay behind the decline of the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century?
• In what ways did the Ottoman state respond to its problems?
• In what different ways did various groups define the Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth century?
• How did Japan's historical development differ from that of China and the Ottoman Empire during the nineteenth century?
• In what ways was Japan changing during the Tokugawa era?
• Does Japan's nineteenth-century transformation deserve to be considered revolutionary?
• How did Japan's relationship to the larger world change during its modernization process?

Excerpt fromafe.easia.columbia.edu

When the Meiji emperor was restored as head of Japan in 1868, the nation was a militarily weak country, was primarily agricultural, and had little technological development. It was controlled by hundreds of semi-independent feudal lords. The Western powers - Europe and the United States - had forced Japan to sign treaties that limited its control over its own foreign trade and required that crimes concerning foreigners in Japan be tried not in Japanese but in Western courts. When the Meiji period ended, with the death of the emperor in 1912, Japan had

· A highly centralized, bureaucratic government
· A constitution establishing an elected parliament
· A well-developed transport and communication system
· A highly educated population free of feudal class restrictions
· An established and rapidly growing industrial sector based on the latest technology
· A powerful army and navy

It had regained complete control of its foreign trade and legal system, and, by fighting and winning two wars (one of them against a major European power, Russia), it had established full independence and equality in international affairs. In a little more than a generation, Japan had exceeded its goals, and in the process had changed its whole society. Japan's success in modernization has created great interest in why and how it was able to adopt Western political, social, and economic institutions in so short a time.
One answer is found in the Meiji Restoration itself. This political revolution "restored" the emperor to power, but he did not rule directly. He was expected to accept the advice of the group that had overthrown the shôgun, and it was from this group that a small number of ambitious, able and patriotic young men from the lower ranks of the samurai emerged to take control and establish the new political system. At first, their only strength was that the emperor accepted their advice and several powerful feudal domains provided military support. They moved quickly, however, to build their own military and economic control. By July 1869 the feudal lords had been requested to give up their domains, and in 1871 these domains were abolished and transformed into prefectures of a unified central state.
The feudal lords and the samurai class were offered a yearly stipend, which was later changed to a one-time payment in government bonds. The samurai lost their class privileges, when the government declared all classes to be equal. By 1876 the government banned the wearing of the samurai's swords; the former samurai cut off their top knots in favor of Western-style haircuts and took up jobs in business and the professions.
The armies of each domain were disbanded, and a national army based on universal conscription was created in 1872, requiring three years' military service from all men, samurai and commoner alike. A national land tax system was established that required payment in money instead of rice, which allowed the government to stabilize the national budget. This gave the government money to spend to build up the strength of the nation.
Although these changes were made in the name of the emperor and national defense, the loss of privileges brought some resentment and rebellion…But the new leaders quickly returned from Europe and reestablished their control, arguing that Japan should concentrate on its own modernization and not engage in such foreign adventures.
Thesis Statement: Change Over Time: Japan 1100 – 1900 C.E. ______