Civilizations in Crisis: The Ottomans, the Islamic Heartlands, and Qing China

1. Civilizations in Crisis: The Ottomans, the Islamic Heartlands, and Qing China

2. Civilizations in Crisis • The once wealthy and great Ottoman Empire was rocked in 1798 by Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt. • Napoleon chose to fight the British in Egypt in order to cut British ties to the Middle East, its colony in India, and to damage British trade.

3. Civilizations in Crisis • The French were met by tens of thousands of cavalry bent on defending the Mamluk regime under their leader Murad.

4. Civilizations in Crisis • Murad, when told of Napoleon’s invasion, dismissed the invader as a “donkey boy” whom he would soon drive from his lands.

5. Civilizations in Crisis • Murad’s contempt for Napoleon and the French was symptomatic of the profound ignorance of events in Europe that was typical of the Islamic world at the time. • This ignorance led to a series of crushing defeats to the French, the most famous was fought in the shadows of the great pyramids.

6. Civilizations in Crisis • Napoleon’s victory at the Battle of the Pyramids, July 1798.

7. Civilizations in Crisis • The Mamluks were clad in medieval armor and used spears against French artillery, rifles, and disciplined French legions. • The defeat of the Mamluks was traumatic for the Ottoman world because they were considered fighters of great prowess.

8. Civilizations in Crisis • This also showed how vulnerable the Muslim world was to European aggression, and how far they had fallen behind Europe in their capacity to wage war.

9. Civilizations in Crisis • When the French were forced out by the British in 1799, an Ottoman military officer (of Albanian origin) named Muhammad Ali seized control as an independent ruler. • The Ottoman Empire never did regain control of Egypt.

10. Civilizations in Crisis • Ali, known as the “father of modern Egypt,” was the first non-Western leader in the Middle East to try to modernize his society in Western terms.

11. Civilizations in Crisis • Ali never visited the West (like Peter the Great) but he admired Western achievements and realized he must modernize in order to stay independent of Europe.

12. Civilizations in Crisis • Impressed by the discipline and weapons of the French army, Ali began building an up-to-date European style military force. • He introduced Western-style conscription among the Egyptian peasants, hired French officers to train his troops, and imported Western armaments.

13. Civilizations in Crisis • Ali does what every other country does as it modernizes—it first focuses on the military. • But Ali was unable to create industrialization (like in Western Europe).

14. Civilizations in Crisis • Ali concentrated on developing an export market for Egyptian cotton (considered by many to be the world’s finest), hemp, and indigo.

15. Civilizations in Crisis • Ali had many Western science and technology books translated into Arabic, he hired Western teachers, and he sent Egyptian students to study abroad. • French became an unofficial second language next to Arabic.

16. Civilizations in Crisis • Unfortunately, few in Egypt were actually educated beyond the children of the most powerful families. • Egyptian society, for the most part, wasn’t transformed.

17. Civilizations in Crisis • Ali died in 1848, never able to realize his dream of Egyptian expansion. • His successors, known as the khedives, tended to be weak men content with maintaining the status quo. • The khedives would formally rule Egypt until they were overthrown in 1952.

18. Civilizations in Crisis • Ali was unable to break the limitations imposed by Western dominance of the world economy. • Egypt became increasingly dependent on the Western market for cotton (meaning it had to compete on the world market with India and the southern United States).

19. Civilizations in Crisis • Export earnings were most often insufficient to pay for machines or military equipment so Egypt often went into debt to Western banks. • Egyptians paid a whopping 12% interest on loans for improvements while Europeans paid less than 5%.

20. Civilizations in Crisis • Here was the tragic irony that happened in Egypt, the Middle East, and many other places in the 19th and 20th centuries: • Governments want to modernize their countries, they want to buy new armaments and modernize their militaries, they want industrial machinery, to build public buildings, roads, etc. but these cost a lot of money at a time when their economies were often sluggish.

21. Civilizations in Crisis • Oftentimes, in situations like this, nations are tempted to borrow money from foreign banks. • This gives the foreigners an interest in protecting their loans. If a borrower defaulted on the loan, the Western bank would usually ask for military assistance. • Egypt was being crushed by debt.

22. Civilizations in Crisis • The Crimean War had shown the major powers that the eastern Mediterranean was of pivotal/strategic importance to the Eurocentric system. • So the Europeans invested in building railroads throughout Egypt.

23. Civilizations in Crisis • Napoleon III (nephew of the Napoleon) took a major interest in building the Suez Canal, which would connect the Mediterranean with the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean, dramatically shortening the travel time between Europe, Eastern Africa, and Asia.

24. Civilizations in Crisis • Egypt was now one of the most strategic places on earth. • When the French completed the Canal in 1869, Europeans developed a craze for anything Egyptian…architecture, furniture, textiles, art.

25. Civilizations in Crisis • Controlling the Canal became a key objective of the imperial powers. • It was Egypt’s heavy indebtedness to British banks that enabled Britain to gain control of the Suez Canal and then in the 1882, established a protectorate over the Egyptian government. • The British said they were merely protecting their investment.

26. Civilizations in Crisis • Before steamships, it could take 2 years to get a message to/from Britain/India. • Steamships cut that to 4 months (1850’s). • The Suez Canal cut that time to 2 weeks (1870’s).

27. Civilizations in Crisis • Even though Egypt was not formally colonized, the British controlled Egyptian finances and foreign affairs, and British troops ensured British directives were followed.

28. Civilizations in Crisis • TheBritish forced the reshaping of the Egyptian economy from the production of several crops (which maintained self-sufficiency) to the production of only a few crops that were useful to European manufacturing (cotton, tobacco, silk, wheat, rice).

29. Civilizations in Crisis • This made the British a lot of money but the population of Egypt barely eked out an existence. • Britain, France and Germany flooded Egypt and Middle East with cheap manufactured goods, driving artisans from their trades and into low paying work (building railroads or processing tobacco/cotton, etc).

30. Civilizations in Crisis • Instead of basing wages on gender (like in Europe), the Europeans used ethnicity andreligion…Muslims were paid less than Christians, and Arabs less than other ethnic groups. • This, a hatred for the occupiers, plus a growing sense of nationalism created the seeds for anti-colonial movements.

31. Civilizations in Crisis • The French asserted control first in Africa by invading Algeria in 1830 to suppress piracy and to collect debts owed them by the Algerian government.

32. Civilizations in Crisis • The French occupied Algiers and two other ports, and when they showed no signs of leaving, resistance to them began. • An Algerian army was raised to defend the Algerian government.

33. Civilizations in Crisis • War broke out, and even though the French won, hostility towards their occupation continued to fester, and new revolts broke out. • By the 1870s the French even occupied rural Algeria and they opened it to French settlers.

34. As Egypt fell under British control, they (the British) were drawn into conflicts with Egypt’s southern neighbor, Sudan. Egypt had tried to control Sudan since the 1820’s, and the Sudanese resisted fiercely. Civilizations in Crisis

35. Civilizations in Crisis • By the late 1870’s, Egyptian oppression and British intervention had aroused deep resentment and hostility in Sudan.

36. Civilizations in Crisis A Sudanese leader arose, known as the Mahdi, who claimed to be a descendant of the Muhammad (he even had a mole on his right cheek and a cleft between his teeth).

37. Civilizations in Crisis • The Mahdi called for jihad as he promised to rid the land of the Egyptian heretics and the British infidels. • He led his followers on violent assaults (usually using guerrilla tactics) on the Egyptians and British. • Within a few years, his forces controlled most of Sudan. • But at the peak of his power, he caught typhus and died (1885).

38. Civilizations in Crisis • But rather than collapse after his death, his followers continued to build a strong Islamic state. • They outlawed smoking, alcoholic drink, dancing, prostitution, theft and adultery. • Islamic religious and ritual practices were strictly enforced.

39. Civilizations in Crisis • In late 1896, the British, tired of this activity (a British general had been killed in 1895), sent an expeditionary force into Sudan to do battle with the Mahdis and end the most serious threat to European domination of Africa.

40. Civilizations in Crisis • At the Battle of Omdurman(September 1898), the spears and magic garments of the Mahdis (who were known as the Sudanese Dervishes) were no match for the artillery and Maxim guns of the British.

41. Civilizations in Crisis • More than 11,000 Sudanese Mahdis were killed and 16,000 wounded compared to less than 40 British soldiers.

42. Civilizations in Crisis • The English left the wounded enemy to die on the plain and later, after triumphantly entering Khartoum, they looted the city and murdered many of the Khalifa’s leading followers. • They also had the Mahdi’s bones exhumed and thrown into the Nile (rumour has it that the commanding general had the Mahdi’s skull made into a drinking cup).

43. Civilizations in Crisis • Within a year, the Mahdist state collapsed, and British power advanced into the interior of Africa while they secured their control of the Nile.

44. Civilizations in Crisis • The Ottoman Empire in the 18th century:

45. Civilizations in Crisis • After Suleyman died in the late 16th century, the Ottoman Empire began a slow and prolonged death rattle. • A long succession of weak or inept sultans caused destructive power struggles within various factions, all vying for power.

46. Civilizations in Crisis • No longer able to afford the enormous expense of maintaining a far-flung empire, and consistent losers in battle, several surrounding states began chipping away at the edges of territory controlled by the Ottomans.

47. Civilizations in Crisis • By the early 18th century, the Austrians and the Russians had removed the Ottomans from control of the northern Black Sea region, from Hungary, and from the northern Balkans. • By the early 19th century, revolts in Serbia (eventually put down) and Greece (gained independence 1830) showed an empire in collapse.

48. Civilizations in Crisis • For the empire to survive, reform initiatives had to be performed from within the government. • Unfortunately, many initiatives were met with resistance from those factions that stood to lose power or prestige from their implementation.

49. Civilizations in Crisis • For example, Sultan Selim III (r. 1789-1807) understood the need to make his government more efficient and to build a new army and navy.

50. Civilizations in Crisis • The powerful Janissary corps felt threatened by this and staged a revolt, killing the sultan and ending his modest reforms.