1.
To answer this question you will need to read Primary Source 17.1 and analyze American ProgressLinks to an external site. c( American progress – digital file from original print, recto | Library of Congress (loc.gov) )
Explain all the reasons why Americans started to move westward.
What symbols do you notice in the painting?
What do you think they represent?
How does this picture represent Manifest Destiny?
2.
Examine how Europe established its dominant position and explore examples of European “exports” – revolution, industrialization and nationalism – that influenced non-European countries throughout the world.
CHAPTER 17
Nations and Empires
1850–1914
Copyright © 2021, W. W. Norton & Company
1
Nation-state building and imperialism change the map of the world.
Industrialization, science, and technology enable states in North America and western Europe—and, to a lesser extent, Japan—to overpower other regions politically, militarily, and economically.
European, American, and Japanese imperialists encounter significant opposition in Africa and Asia.
Global Storyline
Which institutions enabled elites in western Europe, the Americas, and Japan to consolidate nation-states, and to what degree did they succeed during this period?
How did industrialization, science, and technology affect the expansion of powerful states into the rest of the world?
In what ways were the reactions to imperialism in Asia and Africa alike, and in what ways were the reactions different? How effective were these responses?
To what extent did colonies contribute to the wealth and political strength of the nation-states that controlled them?
Focus Questions
After the 1850s, the building of nation-states in Europe, the Americas, and Oceania benefited Europeans and those of European descent the most.
Rivalries among European states intensified as the new states of Italy and Germany emerged.
United States’ expansion met resistance.
Asia and Africa struggled to repel invaders.
Advance of nationalism and imperialism in second half of nineteenth century; expansion of industrialization
Developments in this century allowed western Europe and the United States to attain primacy in world affairs.
Nations and Empires, 1850–1914
In 1850, nation-building and imperial expansion changed the world map. In Europe, the Americas, and Oceania, new nations were consolidated while at the same time expanding their influence overseas. These processes benefited Europeans and people of European descent the most, at the expense of people elsewhere in the world.
While they were projecting their power overseas, rivalries between European states increased. Part of the reason for this was the disruption of the European balance of power caused by the formation of two new nation-states, Germany and Italy, which unified during this period.
Across the Atlantic, the United States abandoned its anticolonial origins and actively began to seek overseas colonies.
Imperial expansion did not proceed unchallenged. Peoples in Asia and Africa struggled to repel invaders and prevent their communities from being absorbed into European empires.
The latter half of the nineteenth century was defined by the intensification of three intertwined phenomena: nationalism, imperialism, and industrialization. The construction of new states, the projection of their power, and the strengthening of their economic base allowed Europe and the United States to attain primacy in world affairs.
4
Nationalism became closely linked to imperialism in the second half of the nineteenth century.
Enlightenment philosophers had emphasized “nations” as peoples who shared a common past, territory, culture, and traditions.
Building nationalism
Elites created nations, compelling diverse groups of people and regions to accept a unified network of laws, central administration, time zones, national markets, and a single regional dialect as a “national” language.
Education and military service were used to overcome regional identities.
Nation-states of the late nineteenth century took many forms.
Some had existed for years.
Others were new.
Still others existed in the imaginations of local elites within multiethnic empires.
Consolidating Nations and Constructing Empires
The link between nationalism and imperialism in the nineteenth century had roots in the Enlightenment. Faced with the political challenges of their day, Enlightenment thinkers had emphasized the power of “nations” as opposed to absolute rulers. For these thinkers, “nations” were peoples who shared a common past, territory, and culture. Once absolutist rulers had been deposed, it seemed natural that governments should base their power and legitimacy on the will of the people within their borders. Conceived in this way, the purpose of government was to promote the welfare of their people.
Nation building was often led by local elites. Powerful figures gave themselves the responsibility of unifying diverse groups of people who often identified more with their region than with any concept of a “nation.” To create a sense of unity, local elites compelled people to accept unified laws, central administration, time zones, and national markets. Whereas previously, numerous local dialects proliferated, elites often selected a single regional dialect to serve as a standard national language.
To overcome regional ties, elites broadened public education and imposed universal military service. Two of the most important nations to emerge during the nineteenth century—Italy and Germany—were built through these processes.
The nation-states of the late nineteenth century were not all alike. Some had existed for years, like England, France, Spain, and Portugal. Others, like Italy and Germany, were relatively recent creations. Still others existed only in the minds of local elites living in the multiethnic empires of central and eastern Europe. The desire of such elites to secede from empires and carve out new territories for themselves posed serious challenges for rulers of multinational empires like Russia and Austria.
5
Nation building and imperialism, or the conquest of new territories, went hand in hand.
Germany, France, America, Russia, and Japan caught up to Britain by industrializing and seizing new territories.
Imperial rule facilitated the widespread movement of labor, capital, commodities, and information.
Colonial subjects were not considered members of the nation and were given little or no representation in home governments, creating tension between nation and empire.
Expanding the Empires
Nation building and imperialism were closely intertwined. For many rulers, national strength should not just be measured by the sense of unity among their people. Economic strength and overseas possessions were also major criteria in determining a strong nation. As new countries strengthened, new imperial powers threatened Britain, which until this time had been the preeminent global empire. Soon, Germany, France, America, Russia, and Japan caught up to Britain through a combination of industrialism and aggressive imperial expansion.
Imperial rule facilitated the widespread movement of labor, capital, commodities, and information. Scholars from imperialist countries studied previously unknown people, while colonial schools taught indigenous peoples the languages and cultures of the colonizers. Despite programs of cultural assimilation, indigenous peoples were not considered part of the nation and were given no say in government. Seen in this way, nationalism and imperialism were also in tension with one another.
6
New nations in the Americas wished to create widespread loyalty to their political institutions and expand territorial domains.
The Americas saw the most complete assimilation of new possessions, with nation-state builders turning outlying areas into provinces.
The United States
Military might, diplomacy, and power of numbers enabled the United States to claim territory spanning the North American continent.
Manifest Destiny: Americans believed it was God’s will to expand westward and obtained new territories via purchase, treaty, and military warfare.
Gold rush in California triggered global migrations
Expansion and Nation Building in the Americas
After the revolutions of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, elites in the Americas began to create new political communities of their own. By the 1850s, these elites shared a common desire to foster widespread loyalty to their political institutions and expand their territory. However, this desire meant expanding into hinterlands that belonged to indigenous populations.
Nation-states were forming in all parts of the globe during this period. But those forming in the Americas saw the most complete assimilation of their new possessions. This was the result of a key distinction between expansion in the Americas and European imperial expansion. Whereas European powers often saw their colonies as outposts, nations in the Americas turned them into new provinces, incorporating them into their administrative structures. There were several different processes of national consolidation, territorial expansion, and economic development.
In the United States, military might, diplomacy, and the sheer power of numbers allowed the new country to claim territory spanning the entire North American continent. When it gained independence, the United States was relatively weak and divided. Held back by indigenous resistance, rivalries with Britain and Spain, and internal disunity over questions of states’ rights and slavery, the future integrity of the United States was uncertain.
A key solution to these political problems was westward expansion. Driven by an ideology called Manifest Destiny—or the notion that it was God’s will for the United States to expand over the entire continent—American Whites pushed westward, incorporating new territories along the way. To gain these new possessions, the United States purchased land, signed treaties, and also resorted to war. In the late 1840s, the discovery of gold in California brought hundreds of thousands of migrants from the eastern United States and the rest of the world.
7
Territorial expansion and the question of free or enslaved labor in the new territories eventually caused the Civil War.
Civil War led to abolition of slavery, citizenship to freed males who had previously been enslaved
Reconstruction period not successful, as counterrevolutionary pressure led to
Denial of voting rights to African Americans
Restoration of planter rule in the southern states
Terrorism from former Confederates who sought to reverse African American gains and restore White planters to power
The defeat of the South led to a stronger national government.
Civil War and States’ Rights
But westward expansion brought its own troubles and almost proved to be the undoing of the American nation. As the country incorporated new territories to the west, political conflict arose over whether the new territories would allow the institution of slavery. This political conflict erupted into a bloody civil war that led to the abolition of slavery and the extension of citizenship to freed males who had previously been enslaved.
Although the transformations of the Civil War brought the promise of rebirth, experiments in biracial democracy soon failed. During the Reconstruction period, counterrevolutionary pressure led to the denial of voting rights for African Americans and the restoration of White, patriarchal planter rule in the South. To support the retrenchment of the old order, former Confederates used terrorism to restore White planters to power.
At the same time, the Civil War undeniably transformed American political institutions at the national level, establishing the preeminence of the national government.
8
Map 17.1 | U.S. and Canadian Westward Expansion, 1803–1912
Map 17.1 | U.S. and Canadian Westward Expansion, 1803–1912
Americans and Canadians expanded westward in the second half of the nineteenth century, aided greatly by railways.
• How do you account for the differences between the transcontinental railroads in the United States and Canada?
• When did Canada and the United States complete their respective territorial expansions? Why were these expansions not continuous, moving from east to west?
• How did territorial expansion strengthen Canadian and American nationalism?
9
The United States joined Britain and Germany as an economic giant.
The limited-liability joint-stock company became a powerful source of mobilizing capital from shareholders, and banks and brokerage firms as intermediaries made fortunes.
One percent of all Americans controlled 90 percent of wealth (1890)
Overproduction in 1890s leads to depression, labor agitation
Expansion of railroad lines symbolized American economic and territorial growth
1865: 35,000 miles of track
1900: 200,000 miles of track connecting Atlantic to Pacific
United States became major world power
Disagreement over what “equality” should involve
Economic and Industrial Development
Beyond the political transformations that followed the Civil War, the United States saw dramatic social and economic transformations during the latter half of the nineteenth century. Within ten years of the war’s end, industrial output increased by 75 percent, enabling the United States to join Britain and Germany as an industrial giant.
This growth was spurred on in part by changes in economic institutions. The limited-liability joint-stock company served as a potent instrument of capital accumulation. Firms like Standard Oil and U.S. Steel attracted investment from shareholders through the stock market. These investors technically owned the companies, but left the running of operations to paid managers. Banks and brokerage firms also made fortunes serving as intermediaries. This dramatic increase in wealth was accompanied by an increase in inequality. By 1890, 1 percent of Americans controlled 90 percent of the country’s wealth.
Such dynamic growth led to overproduction, causing a harsh depression that led to millions of lost jobs. Labor leaders began agitating for the the dismantling of the industrial capitalist state.
Expansion of the railroads symbolized American economic and territorial growth. In 1865, the United States had about 35,000 miles of track. But, by 1900, it boasted 200,000 miles of track that connected the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Speeded along by this new infrastructure, Americans continued to expand westward. Along with immigrants from Europe, who were coming in increasing numbers, these settlers took advantage of homestead acts that promised nearly free acreage to settlers.
By the end of the century, the United States had become a major world power. It boasted an expanding economy and a more integrated nation that emerged after the Civil War. Its constitution had been amended to theoretically expand equality to all males, including African Americans. But the meaning of equality was still contested. More groups, like women, continued to demand political rights. And the future direction of the nation was unclear now that its supposed “destiny” of westward expansion had been fulfilled.
10
Like the United States, Canada built a new nation, enjoyed economic success, and followed an expansionist course.
Canada’s separation from Britain was peaceful.
Building a nation
French speakers did not feel integrated into the emerging Canadian national community.
English speakers were not overeager to create an independent Canadian state.
An act of Parliament in 1867 gave Canada independence.
Canada
Like the United States, Canada also built a new nation during this period. During a period of economic success, it also expanded westward. As it incorporated its frontier prairie, new lands became the homes and farms of European immigrants who, as in the United States, were coming in increasing numbers.
However, Canada’s political history differed significantly. Unlike the United States, Canada did not fight a war of independence. Its separation from Great Britain was peaceful. From the 1830s to the 1860s, Britain gradually ceded more authority to the colony.
But creating a new nation was not easy. Canada faced sharp internal divisions that posed an obstacle to national cohesion. Its community of French speakers did not feel integrated into the emerging national community, nor did they want to join English-speaking settlers in westward migrations, fearing that their French identity would be diluted.
English-speakers, for their part, were not enthusiastic about the prospect of independence. Fearing that independence would leave them vulnerable to being absorbed by the American republic to their south, Canadians reinforced their loyalty to the British crown. In the end, however, an act of the Parliament in London granted Canada independence.
11
Lacking cultural and linguistic unity, Canada used westward territorial expansion to build an integrated state.
The government used financial incentives and property to lure European and American emigrants to settle and invest.
The Canadian government signed treaties with indigenous people.
Canadian government intervened in, regulated, and mediated social conflict between Anglo and French residents, and among those groups and Native American populations.
Canada emerged with a strong central government, but a weak sense of national identity.
Canadian Territorial Expansion
Facing tensions brought by internal divisions, Canada relied on westward expansion to build an integrated state. The U.S. purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1867, and the rapid movement of settlers on the American plains, convinced Canadian leaders that they had to move quickly to consolidate their hold on their own western territories. Otherwise, they feared, these lands would also be absorbed into the expanding United States. To lure farmers westward, the Canadian government used financial incentives like subsidized railway rates and the promise of future riches.
Westward expansion brought frictions with indigenous people. To avoid the kind of bloodshed that characterized American westward expansion, the Canadian government signed treaties with indigenous populations that ensured strict separation between their communities and Whites. However, the government was frequently dishonest in its dealings.
The Canadian government also acquired significant powers to mediate between French, Anglo, and indigenous populations. But while the national government was stronger than in the United States, the Canadian national identity remained relatively weak.
12
Latin American elites engaged in nation-state building and territorial expansion.
The expansion did not create homesteader frontiers to help spread democracy and create national identities.
Some countries in the region fractured with civil conflict.
The richest lands went to large estate holders.
Monopolized power
Consolidation versus fragmentation
Rebellions by enslaved people kept elites in a state of alarm.
The elites believed that strong states meant excluding many groups from power.
Latin America
Latin American elites built nations and expanded their borders during this period. Unlike their northern neighbors, Latin American territorial expansion did not create homesteader frontiers that were conducive to democracy and the strengthening of national identities. In fact, many countries were fractured by civil conflict, with notable exceptions in Brazil and Mexico.
In Latin America, where the best lands were dominated by large estate holders, elites monopolized power more than in North America.
But with these inequalities came constant fears of instability. New Latin American republics were beset by fears of Amerindian and peasant uprisings. To consolidate their power, elites passed laws that protected private property and limited the political rights of the poor. At the same time, elites were anxious over the prospect of rebellions by enslaved people.
Ultimately, Latin American elites promoted state building with the assumption that strong states required the exclusion of large groups of people.
13
Brazil illustrates how Latin American rulers built nation-states while excluding much of the population.
Slave-trade prohibition and resistance by enslaved people began to threaten planters’ system.
Drove up price of enslaved people
Brazilian elites retained former enslaved people as gang-workers or sharecroppers.
Imported new seasonal migrant workers or indentured tenant farmers
From Italy, Spain, Portugal, and Japan
As in the United States, elites imposed severe restrictions on suffrage and set rules to reduce political competition.
Given the demographics, this excluded a larger share of the potential electorate than in the United States.
Brazil’s “Exclusive” Nation-State
Brazil is a case study in the process by which Latin Americans built nation-states through excluding much of the population. Throughout the nineteenth century, Brazil’s rulers defused political conflict by allowing the planter elite to maintain their power.
Threats to the planters began with the prohibition of the importation of enslaved people in 1830, as well as resistance by enslaved people. This disturbed the agricultural economy by driving up the price of enslaved people. However, elites adapted to the new legal and economic realities. They retained formerly enslaved people as gang-workers and sharecroppers, and imported new workers from southern Europe as seasonal workers and tenant farmers. Migration from Europe, and to some extent from Japan, helped planters preserve their holdings in the post-slavery era.
As in the United States, Brazilian elite power depended on restricting suffrage and reducing political competition. But because the Black population was much larger in Brazil than it was in the United States, these restrictions effectively excluded a much larger percentage of the population.
14
Like Canada and the United States, Brazil also extended its territories.
Largest land grab in Amazon River basin
Brazilian state gave concessions to local capitalists to extract rubber latex
Key raw material for tire manufacturing in European and North American bicycle and automobile industries
Rubber production in the region brought great wealth to merchants, landowners, and workers.
The rubber boom went bust because of environmental degradation, overproduction, increased cost, and international competition.
Brazilian Expansion and Economic Development
Brazil’s expansion led the incorporation of new territories as provinces. The largest of the land grabs that characterized this process occurred in the Amazon River basin.
In the Amazon, the Brazilian state gave concessions to local capitalists to extract latex rubber. Rubber was a key material for tire manufacturing in the rising bicycle and automobile industries. Rubber production in the Amazon brought rapid wealth to the area. But this wealth was concentrated in the hands of merchants and landowners. Centered on the city of Manaus, this new elite designed their city to reflect their new fortunes. Despite the inequalities, workers (mostly Amerindian or of mixed descent) benefited somewhat from the boom.
Overproduction and environmental degradation soon led to the decline of the rubber boom. Such a diverse biomass as the Amazon could not handle large-scale production of a single plant, and attempts to produce sustainable rubber plantations failed. The Brazilian rubber industry also soon faced competition from the British, who had transplanted the rubber tree to Ceylon. The elites of Manaus saw their fortunes and the city fall into disrepair; workers returned to their subsistence economies.
In the nineteenth century, elites throughout the Americas tried to balance their own interests with increasing popular demands for inclusion. Although the ideal of an all-inclusive nation-state was pervasive, independence from colonial powers did not bring rights or prosperity to everyone. The expansion of national territories was counterbalanced by the exclusion of large sections of the population.
15
In Europe, nation-states were built out of older monarchies and empires, with borders determined by diplomats or battles.
Ruling elites had to share power with a wider group of citizens, who increasingly defined themselves as part of a broader nation.
Defining “the nation”
“The nation” used to mean kings, clergymen, nobles, and occasionally rich merchants or lawyers.
Enlightenment thinkers changed the notion of “nation.”
Expanded literacy, expansion of periodical press, and standardized laws, taxes, roads, and railroads promoted political integration.
But who were the people? And what made a nation-state?
Shared language? People in a certain territory with common religious heritage?
These definitions were problematic in multiethnic central and southeastern Europe, as well as some countries that spoke the same language.
Consolidation of Nation-States in Europe
In Europe, there were no frontiers onto which nation-states could expand. Instead, emerging nation-states transformed existing monarchies and empires. Borders were determined by battles with other states or by diplomatic relations.
The French Revolution brought the idea that the nation should be based on “the people.” But disagreements abounded over who belonged to ”the people.” Despite their reluctance, ruling elites eventually had to share power with a wider group of citizens. These citizens, moreover, increasingly defined themselves in terms of national identity—that is, as French or German—rather than as residents of a region or as subjects of a king.
For a long time, the “nation” in Europe referred to kings, clergy, nobles and occasionally rich merchants or lawyers. The formation of the modern nation-state did not occur until the late eighteenth century. Enlightenment thinkers contributed key ideas that changed the idea of the “nation.” Adam Smith, for example, argued that the wealth of a nation amounted to combined output of its producers, rather than the amount of gold in the king’s coffers. Abbé Sieyés argued that the nation was composed of those who worked to enrich it, excluding nobles and clergy, whom he labeled as “parasites.” Napoleon also unintentionally helped promote national consciousness through his unpopular occupation of European territories.
An important element in the process was the expansion of literacy. The periodical press enabled people to read books and newspapers in their own languages. The emerging industrial economy brought pressures to standardize laws, taxation policies, weights and measures. Infrastructure also contributed to increasing political integration.
But the question of “who were the people” remained. In some countries, “the people” were those who spoke the same language. Elsewhere, “the people” were those who shared a common religion. Defining the nation was especially challenging for multiethnic, multilingual countries in central and southeastern Europe. Ultimately, there was no single factor that universally determined who belonged to the nation. Even countries that spoke the same language, like Ireland and England, sought to establish separate political identities. While the revolutions of 1848 sought to put “the people” in power, no one could agree on who “the people” were.
16
Prussia and Piedmont-Sardinia incorporated smaller, linguistically related neighbors to create two new nation-states, Germany and Italy.
Exploited nationalist sentiment to rearrange European map
Building unified states
These unifications posed problems of who should be included.
Histories and even languages were not in common across these regions.
Liberal nationalists argued that high culture overrode those differences.
The German Otto von Bismarck and Piedmont’s Camillo di Cavour successfully created Germany and Italy through clever diplomacy and military power.
Bismarck championed the use of warfare.
Unification in Germany and Italy
Germany and Italy both emerged during the later nineteenth century. These new nation-states were created out of earlier dynastic states: Prussia and Piedmont-Sardinia. While the driving forces behind these unifications were conservative prime ministers, these figures exploited liberal, nationalist sentiment to transform the European political map.
Germany and Italy faced the same problems that all new nation-states faced: who was to be included in the new national community? The answers were not obvious. German speakers had lived for centuries in many different states, and had developed distinct dialects, cultural identities, and historical experiences. Likewise, Italians had lived separately in city-states and small kingdoms, divided even further by a wide range of dialects. To overcome these differences, liberal nationalists argued that the high cultures of these regions overrode other differences.
Relying on this sentiment, Otto von Bismarck in Prussia, and Count Camillo di Cavour in Piedmont, created Germany and Italy through diplomacy and military power. Bismarck in particular championed the use of warfare to create the nation, unifying the northern German states through a series of conflicts in the 1860s.
17
The new states rejected democracy.
Italy constitutional monarchy
Limited suffrage
German Empire had a general assembly but it had little power
Beset by internal divisions
Economic differences
National “minorities”
Internal Conflicts
These new states rejected democracy. Italy formed a constitutional monarchy, though less than 5 percent of the population could vote, whereas Germany created a national assembly with little power.
The new nation-states were beset by internal divisions. Although they enjoyed economic growth, the differences between regional economies were stark. At the same time, national governments grappled with the problem of diversity. Certain peoples became “national minorities” whose political status came into question.
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Map 17.2 | Italian Unification and German Unification, 1815–1871
Map 17.2 | Italian Unification and German Unification, 1815–1871
Italian unification and German unification altered the political map of Europe.
• What were the names of the two original states that grew to become Italy and Germany?
• Who were the big losers in these territorial transfers?
• According to your reading, what problems did the new Italian and German states face in creating strong national communities?
19
Germany’s wars of unification came at the expense of Habsburg supremacy in central Europe.
After the German defeat of the Austrians, the Compromise of 1867 resulted in the creation of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
The Austro-Hungarian Empire was plagued with nationality problems, including demands for autonomous national homelands from various groups.
Occupation of Bosnia-Herzegovina exacerbated these problems
Nation Building and Ethnic Conflict in the Austro-Hungarian Empire
German unification came at the expense of Habsburg power in central Europe. In 1866, the Germans won a victory over the Austrian army. Hungarian nobles then forced the weakened Habsburg house to grant them authority in their own domain. In the Compromise of 1867, the Habsburgs agreed to call the new state the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
But these political rearrangements did not solve pressing problems of nationality. In both halves of the Austro-Hungarian state, other peoples who did not belong to either of these ethnic communities began to agitate for their own autonomy. These problems intensified after Austria-Hungary occupied Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1878, adding new discontented subjects.
20
Although France and Britain were already unified as nation-states, they faced major challenges.
Destabilization in France
The Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871 destabilized France, with Germany taking the French provinces of Alsace and Lorraine.
France signed a humiliating peace treaty with Germany.
Parisians rejected the treaty and declared Paris a utopia for workers.
The French created the “Third Republic,” but it struggled to achieve stability.
Increasing conflict between classes
Rise of anti-German nationalism
Domestic Discontents in France and Britain
France and Britain were already unified as nation-states. However, they faced significant challenges. For France, the defeat by Germany was a primary national concern toward the end of the nineteenth century. Britain faced challenges to its national integrity in the form of Irish separatism. At the same time, the rise of the working class intensified class tensions, while feminists’ demands raised the question of who could claim political rights.
For France, the Franco Prussian War of 1870–1871 caused major political upheavals that provided some with the opportunity to voice social grievances. After a three-month siege of Paris, France ceded the provinces of Alsace and Lorraine to Germany. Parisians rejected the peace treaty and rose up against the weak provisional government, declaring Paris a utopia for workers. The government crushed the uprising a few months later.
A Third Republic replaced the empire of Napoleon III, but it struggled to achieve stability as class conflict and the rise of anti-German nationalism increased.
21
Despite the English thinking of themselves as a nation, the idea that all British people belonged to the same nation-state was problematic.
Different historical experiences, religious backgrounds, and economic opportunities
England responded to working-class agitation by granting political rights to most men (but not women).
The Irish pressed for home rule within the British Empire.
Despite legal equality in 1836, disparities between Catholics and Protestants persisted.
British failure to act during the potato famine of 1846–1849
Migrants often got the lowliest jobs.
By the late nineteenth century, European nationalism was a means used by leaders to unite people behind them.
Irish Nationalism in Great Britain
Although the English had long considered themselves a nation, political realities were much more complicated. The idea that everyone in Britain belonged to a single nation was problematic. The kingdom of England originally included only England and Wales, but became Great Britain when it united with Scotland in 1707 and Ireland in 1801. This brought together peoples with vastly different historical experiences, religious backgrounds, and economic opportunities within one political community. Throughout the nineteenth century, the governments of the British nation-state struggled to reconcile diversity with the ideal of national unity.
One source of potential division was class. By 1832, lower-class agitation resulted in the extension of political rights to most men, but not to women.
Despite expanding definitions of who fully belonged to the nation, Ireland remained a persistent problem. The Irish had been under British rule for 300 years. Although Irish Catholics and Protestants had become equal under the law in 1836, social and political disparities remained between the two groups. English and Irish Protestants owned most of the land, creating difficult conditions for Irish smallholders. The Irish Potato Famine of 1845–1849 intensified Irish resentment. Many Irish peasants relied on potatoes, which grew easily in poor soil and provided a nutrient-rich diet. When a potato blight destroyed crops throughout Europe in the mid-nineteenth century, the English were slow to send relief. As many as 1 million died, and another million emigrated to England and North America, where they often struggled to assimilate and were given only the lowliest jobs.
By the late nineteenth century, nationalism had become a common political tool for liberal and conservative leaders alike. But the question of who belonged to the nation was a source of tension everywhere.
22
The second industrial revolution, beginning in 1850, reordered global relationships, with western Europe experiencing a second industrial revolution and Japan industrializing.
New technologies, materials, and business practices
New organic sources of power and new ways to get sources to processing plants
Electricity slashed production costs.
Steel became essential for shipbuilding and railways.
Scientific research boosted industrial development.
This revolution saw new business practices develop.
Large banks were major providers of funds.
Creation of limited-liability joint-stock companies to raise capital
U.S. Steel, Standard Oil, and Siemens
Industry, Science, and Technology
In North America and western Europe, industry, science, and technology shaped the emergence of nation-states. Apart from contributing to dramatic change within nations, these three factors also reordered global relationships. Beginning around 1850, these areas experienced a new phase of industrialization, often called the “second industrial revolution.” Japan, as well, joined the ranks of industrializing nation-states during this period.
New technologies and materials contributed to economic development and the associated political changes. Some of the most important of these technological changes concerned access to fuel sources. New organic sources of power like oil, or new ways of acquiring more familiar sources like coal, facilitated the expansion of industrialization. Factories no longer needed to be located close to fuel sources. The adoption of electricity also slashed production costs.
Technological innovations also made it cheaper to produce steel, which became essential for shipbuilding and railways. Scientific research was linked more closely to industrial development. Especially in Germany, companies created laboratories where highly trained scientists conducted research to serve industrial production.
At the same time that technological innovation was occurring, changes were also happening in business practices. Large banks soon became the major providers of funds for business ventures. In the United States and Britain, limited-liability joint-stock companies facilitated the growth of companies of unprecedented size.
23
This second industrial revolution concentrated and reinforced economic power for North Atlantic societies.
Increased demand for raw materials
Large pools of money became available for investing.
Movements of labor and technology
The world economy created labor demands, leading to vast movements of workers: Indian, Chinese, Jewish, Polish, Italian, and Greek people left their homes to find work in the growing industrial economy.
Technologies increased integration and continued European expansion: steam-powered gunboats, rifles, railroads, the Suez Canal.
Integration of the World Economy
The new industrialization changed the global balance of power. Europe and the United States increased their exports of industrial products, and their desire to control imports of raw materials led to increasing colonial domination around the world. Changes in industrial technologies influenced these shifts. There were new demands for rubber, copper, oil, and bauxite, which were not available in the industrializing countries, and needed to be acquired elsewhere. Large pools of money became available for investing overseas. Although London had receded as an industrial center, it remained the financial capital of the world.
The new world economy created new demands for labor, prompting the mass migration of workers around the globe. Chinese immigrants built railroads in the United States, Indian immigrants worked on sugar plantations from the Caribbean to South Africa, while immigrants from Europe flocked to North America to work as industrial laborers in the growing cities.
New technologies facilitated colonial expansion, leading to a more integrated world. Steam-powered gunboats and breech-loading rifles helped European militaries open up new areas for trade and conquest. New forms of infrastructure, like railroads and the new Suez Canal, also increased the movement of goods and people around the world. Information also traveled at an increased speed with the laying of telegraph cables under oceans and across continents.
24
British scientist Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species laid out the principles of natural selection.
The “struggle for existence” among species for a limited food supply, along with sexual selection, resulted in the “fittest” surviving to reproduce.
Social Darwinism, the application of Darwin’s theory of animals and birds to humans, emerged to justify:
The suffering of underclasses
The right to rule (strong states over weak nations)
European racial and cultural superiority
Charles Darwin and Natural Selection
At the same time that Europeans were interpreting technological advances as evidence of the human mastery of nature, the very conception of nature itself was changing. The theories of Charles Darwin caused a momentous shift in this arena, and prompted new ways of viewing the social world through a supposedly scientific lens.
Taking advantage of increased global connections to travel the world, Darwin’s observations of the animal world led him to formulate the principles of natural selection. According to Darwin, the inevitably limited food supply engendered a “struggle for existence” in which only the fittest would survive. Sexual selection, in turn, enabled the fittest members of a species to pass on their genes.
Darwin dealt exclusively with animals, but his readers were concerned with the implications of his theories for the human world. A debate began over the applicability of these theories to humans. Misinterpretations of these theories led to the rise of social Darwinism, which often advocated that the laws of evolution justified the sufferings of lower classes and gave the stronger states the right to rule over weaker states. Soon, Darwinism became regularly invoked to claim European racial and cultural superiority.
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In the late nineteenth century, increasing European rivalries created a frenzy of imperialism and territorial conquest, primarily in Africa, but also in Asia.
Imperialists argued that colonization benefited everyone.
Colonized peoples resisted the imposition of economic systems that disrupted earlier ways of life.
This resistance often gave rise to nationalism.
Imperialism and the Origins of Anticolonial Nationalism
In the late nineteenth century, increased rivalries led to a wave of expansionism around the globe. Africa was the focus of much of this expansion, but European powers also broadened and deepened their colonial hold over Asian countries. Countries in the Americas also expanded. But these countries often incorporated new territories into the nation, whereas European powers extended their rule over new imperial subjects, denying them the rights of citizens.
Imperialists often believed they were benefiting the countries they conquered. By drawing the colonies into the global economy, their material standard of living would change as they were given increased access to industrially produced goods. In reality, the benefits of imperialism mostly went to European firms and wealthy industrialists.
Unsurprisingly, colonized peoples resisted the imposition of new economic systems that disrupted their earlier ways of life. Early resistance was often put down violently. However, after initial armed resistance to colonial encroachments, anti-imperialism often took shape as nationalist political organizations.
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Britain’s rule in India provided a model for other imperialist rulers.
Idea of developing colony’s infrastructure to maximize profits from trade
British government replaced East India Company rule in 1858; period known as the Raj or “rule”
Modernized India’s transportation and communication systems
Fourth-largest railroad network in the world by 1910
Other public works projects included dams and telegraph lines.
The British instituted these public works projects to gain better access to raw materials in India and to better distribute British manufactured goods.
Tea plantations in Ceylon and northeastern plains of India
Indians developed a unified territory and a national identity as “Indians” under colonial rule, but were denied basic civil and human rights, with no voting rights.
India and the Imperial Model
Britain’s rule in India provided a model for other imperialist rulers. A key aspect of this model was the idea of developing a country’s infrastructure to increase its integration into the global economy and maximize profits.
After the rebellion of 1857, the British government replaced East India Company rule. Beginning in 1858, this period was known as the Raj, or “rule.”
Under direct government by the British crown, India experienced rapid development of infrastructure and communication systems. The government constructed railways, dams, and telegraph lines.
Improved infrastructure facilitated colonial domination. Not only could railways help move goods and workers more quickly, they also helped move British troops to areas where rebellion threatened to break out.
The British also transformed the Indian agricultural economy to suit the demands of global trade. In Ceylon and in India’s northeast, the British created tea plantations. The products of these farms were sold back in England as a healthier alternative to Chinese green tea, helping to consolidate British control over each stage of the industry.
As the territory became unified under British rule, people in India began to think of themselves as “Indians.” But despite a burgeoning national identity, Indians were still denied basic civil and human rights.
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Dutch established direct rule over Indonesia beginning the 1830s
Reshaped Indonesian economy to suit Dutch interests
Consequences
Famine
Dissent
Reform in 1860s
Reduced governmental exploitation
Encouraged Dutch settlement
Resistance continued
Sumatra not fully subdued until 1904
Dutch Colonial Rule in Indonesia
Long before the British ended company rule, the Dutch government established direct rule over Indonesia. Beginning in the 1830s, the Dutch government replaced the Dutch East India Company as the main colonial governing power.
The Dutch strictly regulated the colonial economy, transforming it to suit Dutch interests. For example, Indonesian farmers were forced to allocate one-third of their land to grow coffee beans for export. The government paid below market rates for this product, and limited rents owed to landowners.
The consequences of these policies were disastrous. In the mid-nineteenth century, hundreds of thousands of Indonesians died from famine. Colonial authorities harshly repressed dissent. But these disasters prompted reform, spurred in part from public disapproval voiced back in Holland.
The Dutch made efforts to reduce governmental exploitation, to encourage Dutch settlement, and to promote private enterprise. But many islanders were not appeased, and dissent continued. Some places, like Sumatra, were not fully subdued until the early twentieth century.
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Africa bore the brunt of European rivalries and imperialism.
Europe carved most of Africa into colonies in a short period of thirty years.
Partitioning the African landmass
Delegates from Europe, the United States, and Ottoman Empire agreed to carve up Africa and recognize claims of the first European power that claimed control of a territory.
New colonial boundaries ignored previous African states and ethnic, language, cultural, and commercial centers.
Motivations for conquest and partition in Africa
Interest in Egypt and South Africa; fantasy of great treasures locked in interior
European explorers excited readers with accounts of Africa and its unlimited economic potential.
King Leopold II of Belgium: the Congo Free State
Colonizing Africa (1 of 2)
Of all the places impacted by European colonialism during this period, the most dramatic transformations occurred in Africa. In earlier periods, European contact and influence had been confined to the coasts. Even toward the end of the nineteenth century, there were only a few European colonies on the continent. However, beginning in the 1880s, European (and Ottoman) powers brought almost the entire landmass under colonial domination within thirty years.
Imperial powers competed with each other to gain the largest claims in Africa. In 1884–1885, European powers, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire convened at a conference in Berlin to determine how Africa would be partitioned. They agreed to recognize the claims of the first country that declared control of a given territory.
The subsequent “Scramble for Africa” completely ignored previous African states and ethnic boundaries. Europeans in fact knew little about the territories they were claiming, and based their boundaries on centers of European trade.
There were multiple motives for the conquest of Africa. While the most obvious benefits came from Egypt and South Africa, Europeans fantasized about great treasures locked in the interior of the great landmass. Travel accounts of Africa helped maintain this sense of excitement and potential.
One of the most enthusiastic, and most brutal, colonizers of Africa was King Leopold II of Belgium, who created the Congo Free State.
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Cecil Rhodes championed British imperialism in southern Africa, with the creation of the Rhodesias, Nyasaland, Bechuanaland, the Transvaal, and the Orange Free State.
Europe’s civilizing mission—missionaries went ahead of European armies to convert souls to Christianity.
Colonizing Africa (2 of 2)
The British imperialist Cecil Rhodes brought vast territories together, hoping to extend British colonial domination in an unbroken swath from Egypt to South Africa.
Christianity also played an important role. Many Europeans saw Africa as an opportunity for converting souls. In many cases, missionaries preceded European armies in advancing into the African interior.
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Map 17.3 | Partition of Africa, 1880–1914
Map 17.3 | Partition of Africa, 1880–1914
The partition of Africa took place between the early 1880s and the outbreak of World War I.
• Which two European powers gained the most territory in Africa?
• Which two African states managed to remain independent? What kind of economic and political gain did European powers realize through the colonization of Africa? Did any of the European states realize their ambitions in Africa?
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Africans resisted European rule in two ways.
Surrendered and negotiated with Europeans to limit loss of autonomy
Fought directly to preserve their independence
Most fought, unaware of Europeans’ superior military technology
Lat Dior of Senegal died in a battle with the French in 1886, fighting their attempts to infiltrate the interior and build a railway.
Menelik II of Ethiopia repulsed the Europeans by playing European rivals against each other.
Europeans had far superior weapons, better tactics, and the ability to maintain sustained military campaigns
Some African forces adapted to the challenge
Samori Touré (1830–1900) kept French at bay for sixteen years
African Resistance
Faced with rapid colonialist encroachment, Africans had only two unappealing options. They could attempt to negotiate, or they could mount armed resistance. Most chose to fight.
Many rulers lost their autonomy or their lives resisting European advances. Lat Dior of Senegal refused to let the French build a railway through his territory and died fighting the French in 1886.
Only King Menelik II of Ethiopia was successful in keeping European forces at bay. His chief strategies were playing rivals against each other and procuring weapons from multiple countries. With a well-equipped, loyal army, he defeated Italian forces at the Battle of Adwa in 1896.
Europeans had numerous advantages against African forces. Many Africans were unfamiliar with superior European weapons and tactics. Europeans also had the desire and capacity to keep up sustained military campaigns, whereas African resisters were accustomed to fighting only during the agricultural off season.
Despite these advantages, some African forces managed to adapt to the European challenge. Samori Touré, in West Africa, kept the French at bay with guerrilla tactics and sabotage for nearly sixteen years.
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Actual power fell to “men on the spot,” or military adventurers, settlers, and entrepreneurs.
Rough-and-ready systems led to violent African revolts.
Colonial rulers had to create more efficient administrations to provide health care and education.
With “civilization” goals unmet, Europeans stripped conquerors of absolute powers, monitored them more closely, and assumed greater responsibility for colonized peoples.
Though systems differed, similar goals
Colonies must pay for their own administration.
Administrators had to preserve the peace.
Colonial rule should attract other European groups.
Colonial Administrations in Africa (1 of 2)
In the initial period of colonization, actual power fell to military adventurers, settlers, and entrepreneurs, sometimes called “men on the spot.” The main goal of these groups was to get rich quickly. Their domains often pushed local populations off of their own land, leaving them with barely enough to survive. Eventually these systems led to African revolts.
In the aftermath of these revolts, European colonial powers realized they needed to change their strategy. They began constructing colonial administrations that provided the local populations with health care and education.
When it became clear that the “civilizing” mission was not being fulfilled, European governments acquired a greater role in administration.
Although colonial systems differed in practice, they were motivated by similar goals. First, all colonial powers expected colonies to pay for their own administration. Second, colonial authorities were expected to keep the peace. Frequent rebellions risked condemnation from the mother country. Finally, colonial rule was expected to attract other European groups like missionaries, settlers, and merchants. Most settlers went to parts of Africa that were climatically similar to Europe, like Algeria and South Africa.
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Europeans brought extreme racist attitudes to Africa.
However, Africans had their own views on race that sometimes overlapped with European views.
Notions of “White” and “Black” races stemmed from impact of Muslim and Arab thought
African colonies began exporting raw materials like coffee, cocoa, tea, palm oil, and cotton.
Access to such resources spurred industrial growth in Europe and North America.
Africans did not benefit from this exchange.
Africans paid a high cost in regard to their traditional social, economic, and political life.
Diamond mining South Africa drew more than 100,000 male workers away from their homes.
Colonial Administrations in Africa (2 of 2)
Europeans brought extreme racist attitudes to Africa. But Africans had their own views on race that sometimes overlapped with European views. Colonizers were quick to exploit this overlap, creating a colonial hierarchy that placed “superior” African groups in positions of power over others.
The Tuareg, Arab, and Fulani peoples used Arabic words for “white” and “black” to identify superior and inferior groups. Such notions of race, although not inextricably tied to skin color, stemmed from contact with Muslim and Arab thought.
After colonial governments stabilized, the extraction of Africa’s natural resources increased. As corporations made large land acquisitions in newly colonized areas, industrial growth in Europe and North America soared.
But Africans themselves did not benefit from integration into the global economy. Instead, their traditional social and economic patterns were disrupted. Diamond mining in South Africa required an enormous workforce that drew more than 100,000 male workers away from their homes in surrounding territories. This left subsistence farms without an adequate labor force.
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The United States followed the European model of colonization.
In the 1890s, the United States declared war on Spain and invaded the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Cuba.
Puerto Rico was easily annexed.
Cubans and Filipinos resisted annexation.
Filipinos launched a war of independence; after two years of bitter fighting, it became an American colony.
The United States revised its expansionist model into one in which large corporations with government support aggressively intervened in affairs near and far.
Sent troops to Caribbean and Central American countries with the goal of turning these regimes into dependent states
The American Empire
The United States also participated in the late nineteenth-century wave of overseas expansion. Drawing on the earlier ideology of Manifest Destiny, some people in the United States argued that the country had a duty to spread Christianity and “civilization” to the world.
Expansion took off in the 1890s when the United States declared war on Spain and invaded its colonies in the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Cuba. The United States was able to annex Puerto Rico after minimal protest, but Cubans and Filipinos resisted fiercely.
In the Philippines, resistance developed into an all-out war. Filipino resentment was deep after the United States broke its promise to grant independence after the defeat of Spain. For two years, Filipinos fought U.S. forces, but the islands ultimately became an American colony.
These new overseas possessions became the basis for a revision of the U.S. expansionist model. In the new colonialism, government-backed corporations intervened in the affairs of foreign peoples. The United States also sent troops to the Caribbean and Central America hoping to turn these countries into dependent states.
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Europeans and Americans were increasingly convinced of their superiority.
“Orientalism”: nonwestern peoples were considered exotic, sensuous, and economically backward
Social Darwinists believed it was up to White Europeans and Americans to create modern culture, as “the darker people” could not catch up.
Celebrating imperialism
The invention of photographs spread popular images that served as imperial propaganda at home and abroad.
Imperial themes on packaging materials
Also prompted arguments for population growth in Britain
Empire involved only a small minority of Europeans
Imperialism and Culture
Europeans had a long tradition of writing, thinking, and depicting other peoples. In the past, this tradition had served multiple purposes, including the critique of European society. But in the nineteenth century, with the advance of industrial technology and increasing colonial domination, Europeans became more convinced of their own superiority.
Writers and artists developed a genre now called “Orientalism,” in which nonwestern peoples were depicted as exotic, sensuous, and economically backward.
The theories of social Darwinism also developed and served to legitimate imperialism. Darwin himself was ambivalent on the question of race, but many of his interpreters were more firmly convinced of European racial superiority. They believed in a hierarchy of lower and higher races, the latter of which were endowed with the power to dictate the progress of society.
Europeans celebrated their imperial triumphs, especially in middle- and upper-class circles. The invention of the photograph enabled the circulation of imperial images, which appeared in advertisements and postcards. Imperial themes could also be found on packaging materials for coffee, tea, tobacco, and chocolates, highlighting the colonial origins of these luxury products.
Expanding empire also led to arguments for the improvement of the domestic population. Some figures in Britain encouraged population growth as a tool to promote imperial expansion.
Although empire was an ever-present part of culture in Europe, only a small minority of Europeans were directly involved in maintaining colonies.
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Japan, Russia, and China provide three contrasting models of expansion and conquest in East Asia.
Japan’s transformation and expansion
In the 1850s, the Americans, Russians, Dutch, and British forced the Tokugawa rulers to accept treaties opening Japanese ports.
In the 1860s, Japanese rulers tried to recast Japan as a modern nation-state.
In 1868, reformers toppled the Tokugawa shogunate.
Founded schools, initiated propaganda campaign, and revamped army to create single national fighting force
Women’s domestic roles seen as promoting national welfare
Promoted political community with linguistic and ethnic homogeneity, comparative superiority
Pressures of Expansion in Japan, Russia, and China
The challenge of integrating political communities and expanding territory was important not just for western Europe and the United States, but also for Japan, Russia, and China. These three countries offer contrasting models of expansion and conquest in East Asia.
Since the early seventeenth century, the Tokugawa shogunate had successfully limited contact with Europeans. But in the 1850s, colonial powers forced the Tokugawa rulers to accept treaties opening Japanese ports. Through the 1860s, rulers tried to recast Japan as a modern nation-state, while maintaining their grip on power. But the rapid changes caused political instability that soon brought down the Tokugawa.
In 1868, reformers toppled the Tokugawa shogunate, promising to restore Japan to its former glories. This event is called the Meiji Restoration, because it theoretically restored power to the Meiji Emperor. Through the rest of the nineteenth century, the Meiji government founded schools, initiated propaganda campaigns, and reformed the army. While women were expected to remain in primarily domestic roles, they were seen as contributing to the goal of building a strong nation. All of these activities were motivated by the desire to strengthen Japan so that it could resist imperial encroachment. At the same time, the government promoted the vision of a Japanese political community bound by linguistic and ethnic ties that was superior to other races in Asia.
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During the Meiji period, Japan’s economy transformed remarkably.
In 1871, the government banned feudalism; peasants became small landowners.
Created uniform currency, postal system, tax reforms, and advanced civil service system
In 1889, the Meiji government created a constitution based on the German model.
With 1 percent of the population voting, Japan’s first parliament, the Imperial Diet, was elected in 1892.
Japan developed large-scale managerial corporations based on family dynasties.
Women married into family alliances and served as custodians of the home.
Economic Development
After the Meiji Restoration, Japan experienced a remarkable economic transformation. In 1871, Japan abolished feudalism. Farmers became small landowners, improved their agricultural techniques, and saw their standard of living rise.
Japan also created modern institutions of government. The government unified the currency around the yen, introduced tax reforms, and created advanced civil service examinations. In 1889, the government promulgated a constitution based on the German model. Soon the first parliament, called the Imperial Diet, was elected. However, the franchise was still extremely restricted, with only 1 percent of the population voting.
During this time, Japan developed large-scale managerial corporations. The government sold valuable enterprise to families who had given it support during the Restoration. These new corporations were family organizations, with male relatives running different parts of the business. Women, though often represented as custodians of the home, also played a crucial role in cementing family alliances through marriage.
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Expansion offered Japan more markets, raw materials, and a chance to assert the country’s superiority and greatness.
1879: Japanese conquered Ryūkyūs (Okinawans)
Viewed them as inferior and refused to integrate them on equal terms
Sino-Japanese War 1894–1895
Japanese focus on Korea put them on collision course with China.
China suffered humiliating defeat and ceded the province of Taiwan.
Japanese, like Europeans, viewed colonial subjects as racially inferior and not worthy of citizenship.
They also expected colonies to serve the economic interests of the metropolitan center.
Conflict with Neighbors
As it industrialized, Japan desired more markets and raw materials. To acquire these, it did what other growing powers did: it colonized. Imperial expansion also gave the new government a chance to assert the country’s superiority and greatness.
Soon after the Restoration, the Japanese conquered the Ryūkyūs, a small island neighbor to the south. With a small force, the Japanese established Okinawa in 1879. The Japanese viewed the Ryūkyū people as inferior, refusing to integrate them into the nation on equal terms. Unlike the British in India or the Americans in Puerto Rico, the Japanese refused also to train a Ryūkyūan governing class, excluding them even further from the colonial regime.
Japan saw opportunities for expansion in Korea. Because China had historically dominated the Korean Peninsula, Japan’s ambitions in this area raised the possibility of conflict with China. This rivalry boiled over in 1894–1895, with the Sino-Japanese War. China suffered a humiliating defeat, relinquishing any claim to influence over Korea, and ceding its province of Taiwan to Japan. The Japanese annexed Korea in 1910, and soon converted Korea and Taiwan into full-fledged Japanese colonies.
Like European imperialists, the Japanese considered colonial subjects racially and culturally inferior, and believed they were unworthy of full citizenship. They also expected colonies to serve Japanese economic interests. New colonial territories would help relieve pressures on Japan’s food supply by sending rice to the mother country. In Taiwan, the Meiji regime used sugar exports to balance Japan’s import-dependent economy.
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Map 17.4 | Japanese Expansion, 1870–1910
Map 17.4 | Japanese Expansion, 1870–1910
Under the Meiji Restoration, the Japanese state built a strong national identity and competed with foreign powers for imperial advantage in East Asia.
• According to the map, what were the first areas that the Japanese Empire acquired as it started to expand?
• What two empires’ spheres of influence were affected by Japan’s aggressive attempts at expansion?
• According to your reading, what were the new Japanese state’s objectives? How were they similar to or different from those of expansionist European states in the same period?
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Russia started expanding as a civilizing mission and need to defend against expanding Germany, Britain, China, and Japan.
South to the Black Sea
Expanded southwest to Caucasus and Turkestan
East into Manchuria
Russian Transformation and Expansion
Russia expanded during this period as well. Like other countries, its imperial ambitions were driven in part by a sense of civilizing mission. Russia also felt pressure to defend against other countries expanding along its borders. Russia saw increasingly powerful countries like Germany, Britain, China, and Japan as a potential threat. To meet this challenge, Russia expanded its already large territory on several fronts: south to the Black Sea, southwest to the Caucasus and Turkestan, and east into Manchuria.
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Russian Tsar Alexander II launched a wave of “Great Reforms.”
1861: Emancipated peasants from serfdom
Reduced duration of military service
Launched mass education system
Developed railroads, industrial production, and mining
Reforms strengthened the state but did not enhance the lives of common people.
Landholders kept the best land, and peasants had to pay large redemption taxes for the poor-quality land they received.
The press, courts, and people in the streets denounced the regime.
In 1881, the tsar was killed by a terrorist bomb.
Modernization and Internal Reform
In the 1860s, Tsar Alexander II launched the “Great Reforms,” intending to modernize the country and maintain its great power status. He abolished feudalism in 1861 and shortened the length of military service. He established an education program for military conscripts, and created the beginnings of a mass school system for children, where they would learn reading, writing, and Russian culture. In the 1890s, the government sponsored industrialization, financing railroads, mining, and petroleum industries.
These reforms strengthened the state, but did not improve the lives of common people. Industrial laborers were exploited, and inequality remained in the countryside. After the abolition of serfdom, large landholders kept the best lands for themselves, forcing the newly emancipated peasants to pay steep fees for the plots they received.
Sharpening inequalities soon led to political instability. The press, courts, and people began denouncing the regime. Some resorted to violent tactics, killing the tsar in an 1881 bombing.
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Map 17.5| Russian Expansion, 1801–1914
Map 17.5 | Russian Expansion, 1801–1914
The Russian state continued to expand in the nineteenth century.
• According to this map, what lands did Russia acquire during the period 1796–1855? What lands did it acquire next?
• Compare this map on Russian expansion with Map 13.7. How did the direction of Russia’s expansion change in the nineteenth century?
• Which states did the expanding Russian Empire more resemble in this era, western European states (such as Great Britain) or American states (such as the United States)?
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Russia conquered much of the Caucasus Mountains to prevent Ottoman or Persian encroachment.
Russia fought the British over Turkestan, India, Iran, and Afghanistan.
Most impressive Russian expansion was in East Asia, the area north of Manchuria
Russia founded the East Asian Pacific Ocean port city of Vladivostok, meaning “Rule the East.”
Russia built the Trans-Siberian Railroad stretching from Moscow to East Asia, which was completed in 1916.
Territorial Expansion
As it was reforming internally, Russia was expanding externally. Russia’s expansionists believed that they needed to conquer neighboring lands to keep them out of the hands of rivals. With this in mind, they conquered the Caucasus to prevent it from falling under Ottoman control. They fought the British in Persia and Afghanistan, seeking to to establish control over the territories between Turkestan and British India.
Russia also energetically expanded into East Asia, taking the area north of Manchuria. The Amur River basin offered rich lands, mineral deposits, and strategic access to the Pacific. But China also had its sights set on this region. After twenty years of struggle, Russia laid claim to the region and founded the port of Vladivostok, which meant “Rule the East.”
Wanting to focus on developing its new possessions in East Asia, Russia sold its only North American colony, Alaska, to the United States. Beginning in the 1890s, Russia wanted to increase integration between its western and eastern territories, and began construction of the Trans-Siberian Railroad. This project was completed in 1916, forging a link between eastern and western Eurasia.
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Russia’s huge empire was only partially effective in integrating its diverse parts into a political community.
1897 census: 104 “nationalities,” 146 languages and dialects
Russia tolerated and taxed new peoples (instead of displacing or slaughtering native populations as in the United States).
Russians repressed some groups (Poles and Jews) and favored others (Baltic Germans and Finns).
Russia faced constant perceived threats from Persians, Ottomans, British troops, and Japanese.
Governing a Diverse Nation
As an empire, Russia linked together diverse peoples over an enormous amount of territory. A census of 1897 reported that the empire was composed of 104 “nationalities” speaking 146 languages and dialects. The rulers of this empire were only partially effective at integrating the diverse landscape. Unlike the United States, which killed and displaced the peoples in its new territories, Russia tolerated and taxed them. But Russia’s policy toward newly integrated peoples varied from repression (as with Jews and Poles) to favoritism (as with Baltic Germans and Finns).
Also unlike the United States, which was able to stabilize its borders with its weaker neighbors, Russia faced the constant threat of powerful neighbors like the Persians, Ottomans, British, and Japanese.
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Qing were more concerned about internal revolts than with threats from the west.
Adopting western learning and skills
Growing numbers of Chinese were troubled by the threat of Europeans’ superior military arms and technology.
The 1860s Self-Strengthening movement sought to adopt western learning and technological skills but keep Chinese culture intact.
Built arsenals, shipyards, coal mines, steamships, and schools for learning foreign ways and languages
China under Pressure (1 of 2)
While Russia and Japan sought to reform and expand based on European models, the Qing were more concerned with internally maintaining their grip on power.
After China’s defeats in the Opium Wars, growing numbers of officials were concerned with the threat of Europeans’ superior arms and technology. Hoping to catch up to Europeans in this area, reformers launched the Self-Strengthening movement. The government sought to adopt certain forms of European technology. They built arsenals, shipyards, coal mines, steamships, and schools for learning foreign languages and cultures. But, at the same time, many reformers were concerned with keeping Chinese culture intact.
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Conservatives pushed back.
Study-abroad students were forced to return after the United States rejected them from military academies.
The first railroad was torn up in 1877 shortly after it was built.
Some new technologies were adopted.
Chinese language newspapers
Telegraph lines
China under Pressure (2 of 2)
Many conservatives resisted these efforts. Students studying in the United States were recalled to China after the United States rejected them from military academies. Some argued against the construction of railroads, claiming that they might facilitate foreign invasions or disturb the harmony between humans and nature. China’s first railroad was destroyed in 1877, shortly after it was built.
However, other new technologies were more easily adapted. Newspapers began to spread, and the telegraph caught on.
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China’s defeat in the Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) led to serious attempts at reform.
Hundred Days’ Reform (June–September 1898)
Scholar Kang Youwei and his student Liang Qichao
Advocated development of railroads, state banking, a modern postal system, and institutions to foster agriculture, industry, and commerce
Empress Dowager Cixi placed on throne; rescinded reforms and executed six of reforms’ major leaders
The Qing government’s refusal of reforms (and ineffective reforms) left the country vulnerable to both internal instability and external aggression.
Internal Reform Efforts
When China was defeated by Japan in 1895, calls for reform strengthened. During the Hundred Days’ Reform in 1898, China attempted an aggressive transformation of its infrastructure and economy. These reforms, led by Kang Youwei and his student Liang Qichao, drew inspiration from Peter the Great and the Meiji Emperor of Japan. They advocated the creation of more railroads, a state banking system, a modern postal system, and institutions to foster agriculture, industry, and commerce.
But the reforms were short-lived. A group of conservatives countered the reformers by placing Empress Dowager Cixi on the throne and rescinding the new laws. Six of the reformers were executed, although Kang Youwei escaped to Japan.
Although the Self-Strengthening movement made some efforts, the reforms were ultimately ineffective and poorly implemented. The Qing’s refusal of reform left the country vulnerable to instability and the encroachment of imperial powers.
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Between 1850 and 1914, the majority of the world’s population lived in empires or overseas colonies, not in nation-states.
The ideal of “a people” was easier in concept than in reality.
For many societies, colonization was intertwined with and integral to nation building.
Not all peoples identified with the nation-state or empire, as the concept of a nation-state certainly did not eliminate ethnic, class, or gender inequalities.
An unintended consequence of nation building was that it sparked colonized peoples, racial or ethnic minorities, to redefine the ideas and language of “the nation” and assert the value of self-determination.
Conclusion
In the last half of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, most of the world’s peoples lived in empires or overseas colonies, not in nation-states. But many people in these colonial territories began to see nation-states as the most desirable form of government.
The ideal of “a people” united by territory, history, and culture spread around the world, but implementation of this ideal was difficult in practice. Bureaucrats were central to the process of nation formation, helping to create unified systems of law, education, military service, and government.
For many societies, nationalism and imperial expansion were closely interlinked. As countries in Europe, the Americas, and Japan expanded, national identities consolidated at home.
Nevertheless, the nation as an idea always remained a source of dispute. Differences of ethnicity, class, or gender challenged the notion of unity. But, by the end of the century, advocates for racist theories and colonialism convinced many people in imperial home countries that their interests were bound up with the state.
But the nation as an idea proved to be a double-edged sword for colonizers. As much as it helped win support for colonization, the language of the nation was turned against colonizers by the very people they colonized. Many people living under imperial regimes argued that self-determination applied to them too.
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https://digital.wwnorton.com/worldstogether6
This concludes the Lecture Slide Set for Chapter 17 WORLDS TOGETHER, WORLDS APART SIXTH EDITION
