Civilizations+in+Decline

1. ** The Last Dynasty: The Rise and Fall of the Qing Empire in China: **The last dynasty were the Qings, ruled by the Manchu people, uniting through military and maintaining the Chinese customs, they’ve delayed downbringings and ended up victim to Western influences. a. ** Nurhaci **: 1559-1626, united the Manchu tribes, combining each tribe into cohesive fighting units within the ** eight banner army **. And from then on, although Manchu harassed Chinese boundaries, they also adopted Chinese bueracracy and chinese ways. And because of the Ming’s growing weakness, the Manchu were able to seize control of China. The capture took over a year, but they won. b. Within decades after controlling the nomadic people and Asian kingdoms, the Manchu’s,** Qing, ** became the official rulers of the Chinese Empire.  i. They allowed the Chinese officials to retain position and appointed both Manchu and Chinese in the highest posts, but there were limits on how high Chinese officials can rank c. And unlike the Mongols, the Manchus retained the examination system. They were generous patrons of arts and Confucian scholar, employing thousands of scholars. 2. ** Economy and Society in the Early Centuries: **Was heavily based off of agriculture and peasant labor, and supported and maintained the ancient tradition of Confucian ideals, which led to no sweeping reform. a. Manchus maintained a conservative response, keeping old Confucian beliefs, man over woman, age, rank, respect. Therefore women were confined to the house, with patriarchal rule. // Female infantisized. // b. The world belonged to the man, women worked on the fiels if they were poor, and for those with powerful husbands, they ruled the household. c. Manchus aimed to alleviated rural distress and taxes were lowered. d. 10% of the imperial budget was used to fix infrastructure + they advised the Chinese to grow marketable crops. e. The rural gentry and the lord class gap was again increased because the lords were buying lands off of their tenants and gave/collected loans from peasants. f. Plus the economic expansion through regional diversification, artisan production, finance agriculture increased profitability greatly, and overseas trade gave rise to ** compradors ** who specialized in trade on the South Caost. 3. ** Rot from Within: Bureaucratic Breakdown and Social Disintegration: failed **Social reforms and internal corruption led to the disintegration of control therefore the Manchu were about to lose control a. Along with formal restrictions, sons of high officials were ensured a place in the bureaucracy, and anyone who had money and could use it were able to buy a position for sons or brothers. + scholars could be paid to take exams for relatives. Cheating was prevelant of the case over the years. b. Protests arose in 1711, where merchants and landlords were being stupid of their decisions that led to incapability to serve the people. c. In addition less money was spent on public service projects, and lands and farms were wiped out, peasants were left without food and died of famine. This led to rebellions in the form of banditry and the army was never there to fight them off. 4. ** Barbarians at the Southern Gates: The Opium War and After **With the European interference, China was left to die, through losing the opium war, there was little china could to to save its customs along with internal strife. a. Barbarians threatened the integrity of the Manchus from outside. They were the Europeans, and the Chinese attempted to disregard them. And although China had a population of 400million to England’s 7 million, the advantages Britain had were superior. b. And in response to trading with China in silver, Britain used opium instead, causing great demand and could be sold into china legally and illegally, nearly 40,000 chests were sold during the Opium War. c. And once China found that Opium was a major threat, they issued edicts forbidding opium. And with great resistance, ** Lin Zexu ** used every means to take away the trade. These actions enraged Europe, and caused military intervention and war broke out in 1839. d. After the lost in the Opium war, China moved into diplomatic exchanges opening trade up and gave long term leases of ports in the surrounding area. By 1850, trade was taken over by the British and overseen and were forced to adopt European ambassadors as well as entrench civil behaviors. 5. ** A civilization at risk: rebellion and failed reforms **:And as even more rebellions arose, a serious stirking one kept on destroying the integrity of the situation a. ** Taiping Rebellion **led by ** Hong Xiuquan ** created an army, winning victories against qing forces. And because the Qings were on their way to defeat, Hong began to control the internal structure, trying to reform society in great ways such as give woman power and simplify scripts In the end too many failures were created, and led to their ultimate defeat. b. ** The self strengthening movement **: aimed to counter challenges from the west, zeng and many other important and capable officials led the movement, first defeating the Taiping rebellions, then to preserve borders and make no concessions. c. Dominated by ** Cixi ** 1898, she pushed for anti-reform crushing the reform movements, and also led to the ** Boxer rebellion **. 6. The Fall of the Qing: The End of a civilization? The end was finally caused by foreign intervention leading to the Manchu being disbanded. a. Resistances to the Qing included, the Triads and the Society of Elders and Brothers,which all failed because of no resources, They all aimed at getting rid of the Manchus, and led by the Europeans,. ** Sun Yat Sen ** emerged seizing power along with needing social programs b. In the end, the joined uprisings in 1911 led to the Manchus being diffused, and by feb 1912, ** puyi ** was deposed toppling the Qing dynasty.

 · Leaders (** Sultans **) were inept therefore they opened themselves up to political and religious power struggles. And because of the divide in religious attitudes, leadership was often one-sided and ineffective. In addition, the ** Ayans **along with provincial officials were able to prevent being taxed, causing corruption,  · And artistic and economic stability was compromised as imported manufacturers entered into the Balkan Penninsula, compressing the handicraft and artisan guilds, and creating this economic dependence on foreign manufacturing.  · And as the internal struggles raged on, foreign countries sought to claim the present day turkey an dthe Ottoman lands for their geographical advantage of the Medi and Black Sea. They were pushed out by the Russian empire whose implementation of early westernization styles had given them great military advantages and because the ottomans were weakly defended.  · Also because the Ottomans were under attack by the Russians they also underwent rebellious behaviors by Christians living in their muslim territories, which in 1804 a major uprising broke out. || 1. AS a result of Ottoman’s decline in defending the lands, Arab countries were easily taken over by European powers. For example Napolean’s invasion of Egypt in 1798. 2. In addition it was because of the Islamic world’s ignorance at European events, and ** Murad **, the Mamluk commander, that led to underestimating skills and defeats. It was because of the Islamic fighters’ lack of technology and military advancements that allowed for crushing defeats. 3. After Ali, there was no one else as ambitious therefore leaving Egypt with only capable leaders. They did nothing to help the peasant from increasing the economic revenue. And there was economic dependence on main exports, meaning more things can go wrong. + the spending of the revenue by ** Khedives **, sucessors, were spent on pastimes, and fruitless military campaigns, as well as the ** Suez Canal ** which soon became vital to commercial and military links with European powers. 4. Sudanese officials were corrupt and taxed heavily, 5. Mounting debts of the canal gave Britain and France power over Egypt. + bankers used the military to search for those who did not return their debts. This led to ** Ahmad Orabi ** to lead a rebellion in order to end foreign influence. It led to the “colonization” of Egpyt, where British officials controlled Egypt. || - ** Although Abdul Hamid ** tried to remove westernized people of power, European styles still worked their way into military, and education. || 1. Although the French were able to crush most of the Islamic heartlands on the Balkan, the British caught up on time and reversed the effects on the French and rescued Eygpt from the conquest. 2. Mounting debts of the canal gave Britain and France power over Egypt. + bankers used the military to search for those who did not return their debts. This led to ** Ahmad Orabi ** to lead a rebellion in order to end foreign influence. It led to the “colonization” of Egpyt, where British officials controlled Egypt. || 2. ** Selim III (1789-1807) ** tried improving administrative efficiency along with a new army and new navy. His reforms did not succeed due to military divisiveness and resatisfaction in the jannisaries, because they did not want to be out of a job and were the dominant military at the time. 3. ** Mahmud II (1826) ** secretly built a military army backed and supported by European advisors. This army would be key to defending itself against the Janisarries mob mentality. Also Mahmud II had launched aprogram with the noble elite to reform the Ottoman empoire based off of western precendents. 4. He created a diplomatic corps, exchanged advisors, created a whole new military expansion with help from imported European advisors. <span style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">5. ** Tanzimat Reforms 1839-1876: **reformed university education,(science and math), postal and telegraph system, newspapers, railways (1860), legal reforms, constitution (1876). <span style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">6. Legal reforms increased minority religious groups, and increased economy. But also led to artisans losing power in their business to foreign compititors, and provided little to do with women’s education. || <span style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo6; text-indent: -.25in;">1. And because of the crushing defeats, the ** Muhammud Ali ** attempted to adopt Europea-styled military, importing English European econscription, hiring French officers, imported western arms. And to fund sucha sprogram he ordered the peasants to increase cotton production and other argricultural goods, as well as improve and extend harbors. <span style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo6; text-indent: -.25in;">2. Some wanted a jihad to drive infidels away. <span style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo6; text-indent: -.25in;">3. Others such as ** al-afghani 1839-1897 ** and ** Muhammad abduh ** wanted to borrow scientific and learning from the west and advocated westernization. Most importantly though, such thinkers and religious believers thought that uniting against European threats was most important. <span style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .75in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo6; text-indent: -.25in;">4. Sudanese reform by ** Muhammad Achmed/mahdi ** were to push away foreign influence. Violent response with the growing threat of European countries. In the end threatened foreign countries with military might, and shows growing power of Islamic states. ||
 * || Ottoman Retreat and the Birth of Turkey || Western Intrusion and Crisis: Egpyt ||
 * Decline || <span style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;"> · The Ottomans were weakened by internal strife leaving them unable to defend against foreign influence and rebellious behaviors inside the kingdom which eventually led to their decline.
 * Intervention || <span style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -.25in;">- It was lucky that the British were on the Ottomans side, else they would have been wiped off. Because the British were concern about Russian’s power over the Balkan, they gave aid to the remaining Ottoman empire in order to push the Russians back, by supplying military products
 * Reform Programs || <span style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -.25in;">1. Reform movements initiated by the Sultans were essential to the survival of the Ottomans.