Civilizations in Crisis: Ottoman Empire, Islamic Heartlands, Qing China

1. Civilizations in Crisis: Ottoman Empire, Islamic Heartlands, Qing China

2. Decline of the Ottomans • Weak rulers • Decrease in artisans because of European imports • Outside threats: Europeans and Russians • Inside threats: nationalism (Balkans breaking up)

3. Attempted Ottoman Reform • Selim III- (r.1789-1807) tried to reform but angered factions in bureaucracy and Janissary Corps toppled him in 1807 • Mahmud II succeeded • Got European support in building an army to topple the Janissaries • Patterned reform on the west, which increased western European involvement • Tanzimat reforms 1839-1876

4. Revolt in the Ottoman Empire • Sultan Abdul Hamid (1878-1908) returned to despotic absolutism • 1908 bloodless coup • Exiled intellectuals and political activists formed a society (Society for Reform and Progress, a.k.a.-Young Turks) and demanded return to 1876 constitution

5. Crisis in the Arab Islamic Heartlands • Islamic heartlands open to invasion by western Europe with Ottoman decline

6. Muhammad Ali • 1798 Napoleon invaded Egypt • His threat is discounted and they win early battles • British defeat French and 1801 French withdraw • Muhammad Ali built up European-style military • Khedives- Ali’s successors who ruled until 1952

7. Foreigners in Egypt • 1869 Suez Canal made Egypt extremely strategic because it linked Europe with its colonial holdings • Need for Muslim unity to ward off invaders • Ahmad Orabi challenged foreign interests but the British crushed his rebellion

8. Jihad • British drawn to the South (Sudan) where everyone wanted control of the Nile • Egyptian authority greatly resented there • Mahdi (Muhammed Achmad came to be the promised deliverer) rebelled to purge Islam and gained control of Sudan • 1896 British General Kitchener defeated them at the battle of Omdurman

9. Rise of the Qing Dynasty • Manchu conquest of China (Nurhaci united the tribes and became Manchu leader) • Weakness of the Ming gave the Manchus the opportunity to seize China, where they took the dynastic name Qing

10. Rule under the Qing • Retained much of the political system of the Ming • Examination system continued, patrons of the arts, social system maintained • Attempt at alleviating rural distress • Population increased • Favorable balance of trade until 18th century

11. Rise of Internal Problems • Exam system corrupt • Revenue loss decrease military • Deterioration of the dikes led to flooding

12. The British and Opium • Europeans creep in on trade but British have unfavorable balance of trade • Only desirable product to reverse this is opium • Opium imports increase from 200- 40,000 chests a year from 1700-1840 • Opium war reversed the balance and forced China to open up trading ports • Hong Kong became the center of British commerce

13. Rebellion Begins • Taiping Rebellion 1850s-1860s- led by Hong Xiuquan offered alternative to Qing and Confucian civilizations by drastic reform • Attack on scholar-gentry led to bloody suppression of the rebellion- 20 million deaths! • Self-strengthening movement- movement to westernize (some people felt it was necessary) • Dowager Empress Cixi further crushed serious reform effort in 1898 • 1898-1901 Boxer Rebellion (crushed by foreign troops)

14. The Fall of the Qing • Rise of secret societies • Revolutionaries hostile to European involvement • 1899- U.S. forces China to establish Open Door policy to open up trade • 1911 opposition and rebellion force out the last Manchu leader in 1912 and marked the end of Confucian values as basis for society and the era of the scholar-gentry