China in the 19th Century

In the ninetenth century the Qing dynasty led to civil war. In 1911 the followers of reformer Sun Yat-sen began an uprising that ended the dynasty. China slipped into disorder because the new Chinese republic was not strong enough.

This dynasty tried to reform itself so a new education system was adopted.

In the 1890s the first signs of revolution appeared, Sun Yat-sen believed that the Qing dynasty could no longer govern the country but he also knew Chinese people were not ready for a democracy.

In 1905 at a convention in Tokyo, he united members from across China to form the Revolutionary Alliance which later became the Nationalist Party.

General Yuan Shigai controlled the army since Sun’s party didn’t have enough strenghth to form a new government.

After the revolution of 1911 the Qing dynasty collapsed and opened the way to new political forces.

Qing Dynasty=Manchu government 1644-1912

·       1760-1820: Jia Qing

·       1821-1850: Dao Guang

·       1851-1861: Xian Feng

·       1862- 1874: Tong Zhi

·       1875- 1908: Guang Xu

The Qing dynasty copied the administration system that had existed since the Tang Period and the Ming Dynasty (centralized bureocracy).

Ulrich T. Chinese History.Chinaknowledge. Recovered from: www.chinaknowledge.de/History/Qing/qing-admin.html/

World History and Geography: Modern Times, McGraw-Hill Networks (2015), Chapter 13, Lesson 1 and 2. Recovered from: http://connected.mcgraw-hill.com/ssh/dashboard.do?bookId=GBOPBD8V7SE4BQOSJPRBQQ4HJQ

Map highlighting China, Japan, and India

Japan in the 19th century

Japan started the 19th century ruled by the Tokugawa Shogunate through a central bureaucracy tied by alliances with feudal daimyos and samurai. Their economy was still based in agriculture and the samurai were paid by the shogunate.
The Neo-Confucianism was very popular among the elites, this made Japan to split from a religious resistance to western based reform. Japan was homogeneous, in contrast with Russia, and the Ottoman Empire that had small groups of different ethnics.
Japan isolation was absolute from everywhere except by the port of Nagasaki open to the Dutch, but in 1853, because of a threat to bombard Japan made by the american general Matthew Perry. This opened Japan to foreign influence, but as in China, foreigners residing in Japan had not the same rights.
People in Japan started a revolt against foreigners in 1860s. The samurai defeated the shogun´s army and showed the supremacy of western military technology.
After this revolt, the Meiji seized control in 1871 and made reforms that overcome the reforms of Russia. This reforms were called the Meiji Restoration and included:

1. Feudalism abolishment 
2. Established a central power
3. The samurai were sent abroad to learn about science and technology
4. The samurai were no longer a class, some adopted modern politics and business practices. They started to take part of a new business class created during industrialization. One important example of a samurai that became a business man was Iwasaki Yataro who founded Mitsubishi.
5. New nobility

The government was modernized in many ways such as:

1. Central imperial government
2. Parliamentary rule
3. A new constitution was made
4. Diet, a new parliament that could advise government, but the emperor still had the last word. This gave great power to wealthy businessmen who would later be important for Japan´s industrialization.
5. Only very rich people could vote. About 5% of Japan´s population.

Japan borrowed many things from the foreigners, but still maintained its own identity. Japan incorporated business leaders into its new government structure, while Russia could not break the hold of traditional aristocratic elite.

Japanese Samurai

During the Industrial Revolution in Japan peasants were given ownership of land, agricultural taxes were replaced by industrial taxes, and the weaponry was updated (modern Navy). Japan´s mayor problem with industrialization was that they had only a few supplies of natural resources and were very depended on imported coal and steel. This help them to become the final great imperial nation of the 19th century. Although they had a late economic and industrial start they proved themselves quickly in two different military conflicts: The Sino-Japanese war (1894-1895), in which Japan gained control of Korea, and the Russo-Japanese war (1904) in which the superior navy of japan defeated the Russian navy.

Commodore Matthew Perry

The rise of modern Japan, McGraw-Hill networks, Chapter 13, lesson 3, pages 1-5.
Recovered from http://connected.mcgraw-hill.com/ssh/book.lesson.do?bookId=GBOPBD8V7SE4BQOSJPRBQQ4HJQ&nodeId=2SP6ZS22HC6JBE3YFRD7FHV2ME&edition=STUDENT

Japan in the 19th century, history haven, http://www.historyhaven.com/APWH/unit%204/Japan%20in%20the%2019th%20century.htm

Japanese samurai picture, The Samurai Syndrome recovered from: http://www.arscives.com/bladesign/samsyndrome.htm

Commodore Matthew Perry image, Wikipedia recovered from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_C._Perry

Indian Independence

The British Indian Rule became to be known as the Raj in which British merchants become very rich and obtain products for a very thin cost of production due to the slave’s exploitation. Even in this time British promote Indian participation hiring Indian soldiers called Sepoy’s to defend their colonies, and nabobs who recoil the taxes to the Indian people, all of this achieved by the British East India Company.

In 1857 a revolt start called the Sepoy’s mutiny, that discovered that the cartridges of their rifles were grassed with cow and pig oil, the Hindu and Muslims that compound this army became angry because this animals were sacred and taboos for each culture respectively. This provoked anger and the Sepoy’s march against British troops. The Sepoy’s outnumbered the British troops by 250,000-45,000 respectively but the disorganization and the constant discussions between Hindu and Muslims plus the well trained and armed British troops provoke the failure of the revolt.

This revolt finish in 1858 when British troops wipe out the Indian rebellion and a new order were stablish, first a new political officer that represent the British crown in India, the viceroy, then queen Victoria was declared empress of India and this one the jewel of its crown. In the next years new reforms came to India and introduce basic schools, industry, a new market and more work opportunities with this. These developments raise the Indian economy controlled by the British and the people of the country began to think in n independence.

In the 19^th century India was governed by the British East India Company. In the crown was Queen Victoria empress of India and later the viceroy Charles Cannin represent the crown in India, but this rule only last only 4 years, both govern India based on imperialist expansion ideas of colonization, in which slavery was an important resource because it was a cheap way to exploit the natural resources, like the cotton, which place Great Britain as the one world top economy. Even the salary was by year growing thin for Indian people, British ask for more taxes to them. That causes a large number of dead cases of starvation in India. The education wasn’t good too, in 1850 the 90% of the Indian population were analphabet, this began to change with the reforms of 1858 in which schools start to grow in India. This last improvement help a new type of Indian heroes born, educated and with extensive knowledge of human rights as Mahatma Gandhi.

Compilation British rule in India, McGraw-Hill Networks (2015), Chapter 12, Lesson 3, Pages 1-7, Recovered from: <http://connected.mcgraw-hill.com/ssh/dashboard.do;jsessionid=19C5D3EBE0A7DC9A7>35EF7A9669E1334-hybrid?bookId=GBOPBD8V7SE4BQOSJPRBQQ4HJQ>

Colonial India, Gandhi, and the eventual independence (2008) Recovered from: http://www.wmich.edu/dialogues/themes/indiagandhi.html

Gandhi image, Biografias y Vidas (2015) Recovered from: http://www.biografiasyvidas.com/monografia/gandhi/

Sepoys image Recovered from: http://www.nuttyhistory.com/sepoy-mutiny.html

Robert McNamara A timeline of India Time in the 1800’s, (2012) Recovered from: <http://history1800s.about.com/od/thebritishempire/tp/indiatimeline01.htm>