Societies at Crossroads
CHAPTER 32 OVERVIEW
Global Context
 Dramatic economic expansion of western Europe
and the United States
 Ottoman Empire, Qing dynasty, Russian Empire,
and Tokugawa shogunate had become isolated and
backward.
 By 1900, all four had been challenged and changed
profoundly.
Conservative Autocratic Regimes.
 Did not share the
liberal ideals of the
Enlightenment or the
revolutionary era.
 Rulers were absolute
 Individuals had few
rights
 Dissent was viewed as
dangerous.
Military Unpreparedness
 Regimes failed to
modernize
 Outgunned by western
powers
 Humiliating defeats




The loss of Egypt for the
Ottomans
The Opium War for China
The Crimean War for Russia
The unequal treaty forced on
Japan by the United States.
 Restructuring of the
military.
Weak Economies
 Lacked the basic elements
for industrialization:

capital, free workers, and
infrastructure.
 China and Japan
 closed economies
 little contact with the outside
world.
 The Ottoman and Russian
empires


agricultural societies
large unskilled peasant
populations.
Imperial Pressures
 Need to fight off the
imperialistic
encroachments
 Qing dynasty was the
least successful

lost control of its economy
and much of its territorial
sovereignty by end of 19th
century
 Japan- most successful in
competing economically
and militarily with west.
Reform From the Top Down
 Change came at discretion
of rulers
 Japan



a written constitution would give
credibility to their new state
emperor "gave" a constitution to
the people
retained all power to the
emperor.
 The Russian tsar granted,
then rescinded, an elected
legislature after the
Revolution of 1905.
Assignment
 Read the section on the Ottoman Empire and answer
the following questions in paragraph form.
1. What factors led to the territorial decline of the
Ottoman Empire over the course of the nineteenth
century? What territories were lost?
2. Compare the reforms of the Tanzimat era with the
program of the Young Turks.