1750-1900's
Kyla Maddox period:4
Taiping uprising 1850-1864
Set much of the country aflame. It's leaders largely rejected Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism alike,finding their primary ideology in a unique form of Christianity. They called for the abolition of private property, a radical redistribution of land, the end of prostitution and opium smoking, and the organization of society into sexually segregated military camps of men and women. Among the most revolutionary dimensions of the Taiping Uprising was its posture toward women and gender roles. China's internal crisis in general and the Taiping uprising in particular also provided a highly unfavorable setting for the country's encounter with a Europe newly invigorated by the industrial revolution
Opium wars 1839-1860
Nowhere was the shifting balance of global power in the nineteenth century more evident than in China's changing relationship with Europe, a transportation that registered most dramatically in the famous opium wars. Derived from Arab traders in the eighth century or earlier, opium had long been used on a small scale as a drinkable medicine. Because opium importation was illegal, it had to be smuggled into China, thus floating Chinese law. In the process, they would teach the Chinese a lesson about the virtues of free trade and the "proper" way to conduct relations among countries. Thus began the first opium war, in which britains industrialized military might proved decisive.the treaty of Nanjing, which ended the war in 1842, largely on British terms, imposed numerous restrictions on Chinese sovereignty and opened five ports to European traders. This was not the last of those treaties. Britains victory in a second opium war (1856-1858) was accompanied by the brutal vandalizing of the emperors exquisite summer palace outside Beijing and resulted in further humiliations. Now those foreigners were allowed to travel freely and buy land in China, to preach Christianity under the protection of Chinese authorities, and to patrol some of China's rivers.
unequal treaties- 19th and 20th centuries
An unequal treaty is any of a series of treaties signed with western powers during the 19th and early 20th centuries by Qing dynasty china and late Tokugawa Japan after suffering military defeat by the foreign powers or when there was a threat of military action by those powers. The treaty of Nanjing, which ended the war in 1842, largely on British terms, imposed numerous restrictions on Chinese sovereignty and opened five ports to European traders. Its provisions reflected the changed balance of global power that had emerged with Britain's industrial revolution. To the Chinese, that agreement represented the first of the "unequal treaties" that seriously eroded china's independence by the end of the century.
Self-strengthening movement 1861-1895
The self-strengthening movement was a period of institutional reforms initiated in china during the late Qing dynasty following a series of military defeats and concessions to foreign powers. Chinese authorities were not passive in the face of their country's mounting crises, both internal and external. Known as "self-strengthening," their policies during the 1860's and 1870's sought to reinvigorate a traditional china while borrowing cautiously from the west. Self-strengthening as an overall program for china's modernization was inhibited by the fears of conservative leaders that urban, industrial, or commercial development would erode the power and privileges of the landlord class.
Boxer uprising 1809-1901
The general failure of "self -strengthening" became apparent at the end of the century, when an anti-foreign movement known as the boxer uprising erupted in northern China. Led by militia organizations calling themselves the society of righteous and harmonious fists, the "Boxers" killed numerous Europeans and Chinese Christians and laid siege to the foreign embassies in Bejing. When western powers and Japan occupied Beijing to crush the rebellion and imposed a huge payment on China remained a dependent country, substantially under foreign control.
Commissioner Lin 1840
Lin Zexu was a Chinese scholar and official of the Qing dynasty, hailing from Fuzhou, Fujian province. Lins forceful opposition to the opium trade was a primary catalyst for the first opium war of 1839-42. He is praised for his constant position on the "moral high ground" in his fight, but he is also blamed for a rigid approach which failed to account for the domestic and international complexities of the problem. The daoguang emperor endorsed the hard line policies advocated by Lin, but then blamed Lin for the resulting disastrous war.
Chinese revolution of 1911
Also know as the Xinhai revolution, was a revolution that overthrew China's last imperial dynasty, and established the republic of China. The revolution consisted of many revolts and uprisings. The turning point was the wuchang uprising that was the result of the mishandling of the railway protection movement. The revolution arose mainly in response to the decline of the Qing state, which had proven ineffective in its efforts to modernize China and confront foreign aggression, and was exacerbated by ethnic resentment against the ruling Manchu minority. The republic of China in Taiwan and the people's republic of China on the mainland consider themselves the legitimate successors to the Revolution including nationalism, republicanism, modernization Of China and national unity.
the sick man of europe 1914
Refers to a European country experiencing a time of economic difficulty or impoverishment. John Russell quotes Nicholas I of Russia as saying that the ottoman empire was" a sick man," a "man" who "has fallen into a state of decrepitude", or a "sick man....gravely ill." In 1750, the ottoman empire was still the central political fixture of a widespread Islamic world, from which Islam had come. It protected pilgrims on their way to Mecca, governed Egypt and coastal North Africa, and incorporated millions of Christians in the Balkans. but by the middle, and certainly by the end, of the nineteenth century, the Ottoman empire was no longer able to deal with Europe from a position of equality, let alone superiority. Within the Muslim world, the Ottoman Empire, once viewed as "the strong sword of Islam," was unable to prevent region after region- India, Indonesia, West Africa, Central Asia-from falling under the control of Christian powers.
Tanzimat 1838-1876
series of reforms in the Ottoman Empire that brought the culture, education, religion and society more in line with Europe and the United states and western ways. Tanzimat took shape as the ottoman leadership sought to provide the economic, social, and legal underpinnings for a strong and newly recentralized state. Factories producing cloth, paper, and armaments; modern mining operations; resettlement of agricultural land; telegraphs, steamships, railroads, and a modern postal service; western style law codes and courts; new elementary and secondary schools--all of these new departures began a long process of modernization and westernization in the Ottoman Empire.
Young ottomans 1865-1876
A secret society by a group of Ottoman Turkish intellectuals who were dissatisfied with the Tanzimat reforms in the Ottoman Empire. Young ottomans sought to transform ottoman society by preserving the empire and modernizing along the European tradition of adopting a constitutional government. In 1876 the young ottomans had their defining moment when sultan abdulhamid reluctantly promulgated the ottoman constitution of 1876
Sultan Abd al-Hamid ll 1876-1909
In 1876 the young ottomans experienced a short lived victory when the sultan accepted a constitution and an elected parliament, but not for long. Under pressure of war with Russia, the sultan soon suspended the reforms and reverted to an older style of despotic rule for the next thirty years, even renewing the claim that he was the caliph, successor to the prophet, and the protector of Muslims everywhere.
Young turks 1908
Political reform movement in the early 20th century, favoring replace the of the absolute monarchy of the Ottoman Empire with a constitutional monarchy. They helped establish the second constitutional era in 1908, ushering in a a era of multi-party democracy for the first time. The Turks political party, the do of Union and progress began a series of modernizing military and political reforms across the Ottoman Empire.
Informal empire- 1806-1914
Describes the spheres of influence which an empire may develop that translate into a degree of influence over a region or country, which is not a formal colony in the empire, as a result of the extension of commercial, strategic or military interests of the empire. By the beginning of the twentieth century, both china and the ottoman empire, recently centers of proud and vibrant civilizations, had experienced the consequences of a rapidly shifting balance of global power.