Responding to the West – Ottomans and Meiji WHAP/Napp

“At the end of the eighteenthcentury Sultan SelimIII, an intelligentand forward-looking ruler whostayed well informed aboutevents in Europe, introducedreforms to create European-style military units, bringprovincial governors under the control of the central government,and standardize taxation and land tenure. Therise in government expenditures to implement the reformswas supposed to be offset by taxes on selecteditems, primarily tobacco and coffee. These reforms failed for political, more than economic,reasons. The most violent and persistent oppositioncame from the Janissaries. Originally Christianboys taken from their homes in the Balkans, convertedto Islam, and required to serve for life in the Ottomanarmy, in the eighteenth century the Janissaries became asignificant political force in Istanbul. Their interest in preserving specialeconomic privileges made them resist the creationof new military units.

Other opponents of reform included ulama, or Muslimreligious scholars, who distrusted the secularizationof law and taxation that Selim proposed. In the face ofwidespread rejection of his reforms, Selim suspended hisprogram in 1806. Nevertheless, a massive military uprisingoccurred at Istanbul, and the sultan was deposedand imprisoned. Reform forces rallied and recapturedthe capital, but not before Selim had been executed.

Selim’s cousin Sultan Mahmud II cautiouslyrevived the reform movement. Mahmud II was able to use an insurrection inGreeceas a sign of theweakness of the empire and the pressing need for reform. Europeans trumpeted the victory of the Greeks asa triumph of European civilization over the OttomanEmpire, and Mahmud II agreed that the loss of Greeceindicated a profound weakness in Ottoman military and financial organization.

With popular outrage over the military setbacks inGreece strong, the sultan made his move in 1826. First heannounced the creation of a new artillery unit, which hehad secretly been training. When the Janissaries rose inrevolt, he ordered the new unit to bombard the Janissarybarracks. The Janissary corps was officially dissolved. Mahmud’s reformingideas received their widest expressionin the Tanzimat (“reorganization”), a series ofreforms announced by his sixteen-year-old son andsuccessor, Abdul Mejid, in 1839 and strongly endorsedby the European ambassadors. One proclamation calledfor public trials and equal protection under the law forall, whether Muslim, Christian, or Jew. It also guaranteedsome rights of privacy, equalized the eligibility ofmen for conscription into the army, and provided for a new, formalized methodof tax collection. Later, in1877, Sultan Abdul Hamid suspended the constitution and theparliament. He ruthlesslyopposed further political reforms, but the Tanzimat programsof extending modern schooling, utilizing Europeanmilitary practices and advisers, and making thegovernment bureaucracy more orderly continued.” ~ The Earth and Its Peoples

1. The most significant achievement of the sultan Mahmud II was
(A) Creation of a system of primary education.
(B) Legal emancipation of women.
(C) Creation of a modern army.
(D) Creation of a legislative assembly. / 2. Tanzimat legal reforms included all of the following rights except
(A) Equality before the law for all subjects.
(B) Public trials in civil courts.
(C) Right to privacy.
(D) All of the answers are correct.
Key Words/ Questions / I. The Rise of Europe and the Ottoman Empire
A. By the end of the 19th century, it was known as the “sick man of Europe”
  1. Not conqueredbecauseEuropeans did not agree on how to divide it
  2. Janissaries had become reactionary defenders of status quo
  3. Also experienced a growing indebtedness from foreign loans
  4. Yet reform known asTanzimat (“reorganization”) emerged after 1839
1. Sought to create a strong and newly recentralized state
  1. Long process of modernization and Westernization had begun
  2. But even modest innovations stirred hostility of ulama and Janissaries
II. Western-Educated Reformers
A. “Young Ottomans” urged Westernizing reforms in mid-1800s
1. Favored a constitutional regime like that of Great Britain
  1. Known as Islamic modernism
  2. But Sultan Abd al-Hamid II ruled as a reactionary autocrat
  1. Young Turks
1. Military and civilian elites; began to think of a Turkish national state
2. Pushed for radical secularization of schools, courts, and law codes and
encouraged Turkish as the official language of the empire
3. Turkish nationalism antagonized non-Turkicpeoples of empire
  1. Contributed to the disintegration of the empire following WWI
III. 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
  1. For 250 years prior to Perry’s arrival, Japan was governed by a shogun
  2. Chief task of Tokugawa shogunate was to prevent the return of civil war
  3. Gave Japan more than two centuries of internal peace (1600-1850)
  4. Daimyo were required to spend alternate years in the capital of Edo (Tokyo), leaving their families behind as hostages during their absence
  5. Centuries of peace contributed to a burst of economic growth
  6. Tokugawa pursued a policy of isolationism – limiting contact with West
  7. But U.S. sent Commodore Perry in 1853 to demand humane treatment for castaways, right of American vessels to refuel, etc.
  8. Aware of what happened to China, Japan agreed
  9. Humiliating capitulation triggered a brief civil war and by 1868, a political takeover by a group of young samurai led to a turning point
  10. Meiji Restoration (1868): restoring to power the young emperor, than a fifteen-year-old boy whose throne name was Meiji, or Enlightened Rule
  11. Government collected the nation’s taxes and raised a national army
  12. Samurai lost their role as warrior class and right to carry swords
  13. Initial enthusiasm for everything Western but then selective borrowing
  14. Constitution of 1889, drawing on German experience, introduced elected parliament (diet) but was presented as a gift from emperor
  15. Ultimate power lay with the emperor and in practice, an oligarchy

1. The Janissaries were
A) slave women who lived in the sultan's harem
B) Christian boys taken from conquered territories and raised as special forces
C) regional administrators, who were granted autonomy in exchange for loyalty and support
D) armored, light cavalry
E) eunuchs in service to the sultan
2.A major reason for the decline in the Islamic Empires was
A) the refusal to accept new ideas and technologies from the West
B) an abandonment of religious toleration as a state policy
C) the decline in military leadership
D) the rigidity of the religious leaders
E) all of the above
3. The Tokugawa Shogunate
I. promoted democracy
II. encouraged interaction with the outside world
III. failed to spur economic growth
IV. encouraged more social mobility
(A) I, II, and III
(B) II, III, and IV
(C) II and IV only
(D) all of the above
(E) none of the above / 4. Which of the following was NOT an illustration of the social transformation Japan witnessed during the Meiji Restoration?
(A) A larger middle class developed.
(B) The regime allowed labor unions to form.
(C) The samurai class lost its traditional privileges.
(D) Prefects replaced nobles in regional government.
(E) Commoners could serve in the military.
5. In medieval Japan, professional warriors were called
A) Samurai.
B) Bushido.
C) Shogun.
D) Seppuku.
E) None of the above.
6. The “Young Ottomans” and the “Young Turks” were similar in that they
(A) were both supported by the ulama
(B) were both supported by the janissaries
(C) wanted modernization and reform
(D) wanted fundamentalism and religion

Thesis Practice: Continuity and Change over Time

Analyze similarities and differences in political and economic systems in Japan from 1100 to 1900 C.E.

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Reading:

“The Ottomans survived the continuing defeats partly because theEuropean powers feared the consequences of territorial division among the victors. The Britishpropped up the Ottomans during the latter 19th century to prevent the Russians from reaching theMediterranean. The weakened empire was preserved by internal reform. Selim III’s modestmilitary and administrative reform attempts angered officials and the Janissaries; he was deposedand killed in 1807. Mahmud II was more successful. With the help of European advisors, hebuilt a professional army that destroyed the Janissaries in 1826. Mahmud II then launched far-reachingreforms patterned on Western models. Between 1839 and 1876, the period of theTanzimat reforms, university education was reorganized on Western lines, postal and telegraphsystems were introduced, and railways were constructed. Newspapers were established, and in1876 a European-type constitution was promulgated. The many changes opened the empire toEuropeans and threatened some groups. Artisans lost out to the foreign competition. Womengained little from the reforms as Islamic patterns continued.

The reforms strengthened the state, but they threatened the dynasty. Western-oriented officials, military officers, and professionals viewed the sultanate as a barrierto more reform. They also clashed with the conservative ulama. Sultan Abdul Hamid responded by trying to return to despotic absolutism. He nullified the constitutionand restricted civil liberties, but he continued military and educational reform and railway andtelegraph construction. Abdul Hamid’s harsh rule ended in 1908 when he was removed by theYoung Turks, reformers, including military officers, who wanted to continue Western-stylereforms. The constitution and civil liberties were restored in a regime directed by a figureheadsultan. Factional fights among the reformers hampered their efforts, while wars in the Balkansand 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 Iresulted in its dissolution.” ~ World Civilizations

Critical Thinking Questions:

Describe the 18th-century crisis in the Ottoman Empire and why it was not fatal.

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Identify the reforms that were introduced in the Ottoman Empire between the reign of

Mahmud II and 1876.

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