Bentley
& Ziegler,
TRADITIONS
Chapter
Thirty-three:
AND ENCOUNTERS, 2/e
Societies at Crossroads:
the fate of empires in the
Ottoman world, Russia,
China, and Japan
Today’s Big Questions


What caused the Japanese to be able
to reform and open the system,
whereas such efforts failed in Russia,
China, and the Ottoman world?
What were the consequences of (a)
the inability to reform, and (b)
relatively successful reform?
Commonalities across the empires

Shared characteristics of the four empires by the
19th century:
• All came into conflict with western powers or the United
States
• All proved to be militarily much weaker than these
powers
• All were forced to make either land or trading
concessions, after military defeat
• All experienced internal weaknesses due to population
pressures, declining agricultural productivity, falling
government revenue, and corruption
• All looked vulnerable to domestic disturbances and
uprisings
• All experienced vigorous reform movements
Military and technological decline

Technology was unevenly distributed across the four
empires:
• The Ottomans had early on held military and technological
advantage, but had over-relied on European developments and
had lost the edge in innovation. Successive reverses were
experienced against the Russians, the Greeks, the Serbs, the
French, and the Egyptians.
• The Russians developed a large and professional army under
Peter the Great, and it was an effective vehicle of expansion.
However, it’s tactical shortcomings were exposed in the
Crimean war in the 1850’s
• China suffered, paradoxically, from it’s historical lack of
expansionary ambitions, and had failed to develop it’s naval
power. This was exposed in the Opium Wars of 1839-42.
• Japan also suffered from having pursued a policy of nonexpansion and (in addition) closure to foreign trade as a
whole. The US was vastly superior, and forced the opening of
Japan at gun point.
The effects of military defeats
• In the case of the Ottoman’s, military defeat had two
consequences: it opened the way for indigenous revolt
against Ottoman rule (paradoxically a consequence of
the Ottoman ruling strategy), and it also forced them to
accede to European demands for capitulations and
extraterritoriality. Additionally, the Ottomans were
unable to resist financial controls exercised by the
Europeans.
• In Russia, the obvious deficiency in it’s military tactics
sparked a serious attempt at social reforms.
• China ceded control of most of its ports, legalized the
opium trade, and opened the doors to missionaries
• In Japan, the military defeat forced the signature of a
Treaty of Friendship with the US, and opened ports for
trade
Reform Efforts
• In the case of the Ottoman empire, the attempts to
reform (“Tanzimat”) was frustrated by the overthrow of
the constitution in 1878, and the despotic rule of Hamid
II
• The reform efforts in Russia were frustrated by the
resistance of the aristocracy, the limited impact of the
emancipation of the serfs, and the lack of
entrepreneurship
• In China, the Taiping rebellion laid the grounds for the
aristocracy to rally behind the Qings. But from that
moment on, the aristocracy were powerful enough to
resist any serious reform effort
• In Japan, the Meiji restoration – which was a domestic
rebellion – succeeded in discrediting the daimyo. The
Meiji government set out on a program to emulate the
industrial and political successes of the US and Europe.
Big Questions Revisited


The reforms in Japan rested mostly upon (a) an
opening to Western ideas and practices at the
very top of society, and (b) the lack of opposition
to this from the conservative aristocracy. In fact,
significant centralization occurs in the Meiji era.
The impact of the failure of reform was an
inability to resist the tides of World War One and
the 20th century. Russia falls to revolution in
1917, the Ottoman empire is dissolved after
WW1, and China remains weak and divided until
revolution in 1949.