This video explores the reasons that Great Britain emerged as an industrial power during the early 18th century (the film actually claims that the industrial revolution happened first in Great Britain, but that has recently been questioned).
This map gives you an idea of where Birmingham was located, in what is known as the Midlands:
Compare the development of constitutional government in Latin America with that in the United States and France. How did they differ? How were they the same. What do you think explains these differences and similarities? Your answer should fill to pages of 8.5x11 paper, double-spaced in a conventional 12 point font, and is due at the beginning of class on Thursday, February 21.
A. Definition--a type of monarch not restrained by institutions, like a legislature or other social elites, the church, etc.
B. Calling the Estates General--during much of he mid-18th century, Great Britain and France were at war with one another. For most of this time, the French monarch had been able to rule without having to convene the Estates General, whose sole power over the king was the fact that the king needed the Estates General to approve levying new taxes on the French people
1. Chateau de Versailles--located about 10.5 miles from the center of Paris; built by Louis XIV to escape his distaste (and fear) for the common people of Paris.
2. Government during the reign of Louis XVI was on the edge of bankruptcy, a result of several decades of war, and the assistance the government had given the United States in their war against Great Britain.
C. The Structure of French Society--the Ancien Regime
1. Noblesse d’epee (nobility of the sword)--the traditional nobility
2. Noblesse de robe (nobility of the robe)--made up in part of successful merchant families who were able to buy sinecures from the king (which provided a stream of income independent of the Estates General); these men operated the court system as judges and court administrators. Another part of this Estate was the higher ranking clergy in the Roman Catholic Church--bishops and abbots for the monasteries (some of whom were not ordained ministers)
3. Third Estate--everyone else, although the only people who could vote for representatives to the third estate were relatively wealthy citizens, because there was a substantial property qualification.
D. Stress in French Society
1. Population boom--by 1700, France had a population of about 20 million people, easily making up 20% of the non-Russian European population. 80% of this population lived in the countryside or in villages with a population of less than 2,000. This in practice meant that a large portion of the population were landless peasants, and depended upon their labor for both shelter and food. Some of these people practiced a variety of trades, but never gained enough capital to open their own shop. A number of peasants would have also owned small plots of land, from which they might, in good times, be able to eek out a bare subsistence--or not. In bad times, they would have been exceedingly hungry.
2. Urban Populations--Paris was by far the largest city, with a population in 1780 well in excess of 600,000. Marseilles, Lyon, and Bordeaux were other important urban centers, with populations in excess of 100,000.
a) Living conditions--in these cities were usually even worse than those conditions found in the countryside, because sanitation problems and abject poverty many found themselves living in.
b) Urban artisans had little chance for economic advancement, in large part because of the shift to capitalist modes of production meant many never got the capital necessary to enlarge their operations.
III. Reformers, Revolutionaries, and the Sans Culottes
A. The Tennis Court Oath
1. The National Assembly--when Louis XVI called the Estates General into session to discuss ways of raising new revenue, the Third Estate refused to go along with the request until they procured a written constitution. Adjourned to the Tennis Courts at Versailles when they were locked out of the Estates General, where all present took an oath not to give in on this issue until the king promised to grant written constitution.
2. Members of the Third Estate were hoping to bring about the reform of the monarchy into something akin to the English model--a constitutional monarchy.
3. King’s response--attempted to dismiss the Estates General and called out 20,000 troops to intimidate--or remove--the Third Estate representatives.
B. Revolutionaries at The Bastille
1. Symbol of absolutist power--the Bastille was both a prison for nobles and religious dissenters, as well as an ammunition dump.
2. Rumors of the impending military coup by the King made people in Paris extremely anxious, and they sought weapons to defend the city--which they sought to obtain first by negotiation with the commanding officer of the Bastille; failing that, the opened fire on the fortress, and eventually force it to surrender.
3. Emboldening the National Assembly--in face of the King’s threats, the newly-named National Assembly had begun to waver; the actions of the poor people of Paris renewed its resolve, and the National Assembly passed the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen, which became the basis for the modern conception of human rights.
4. Women’s March on Versailles--much of the impetus for the Revolution from below was caused by the great hunger of the poor people in France. The poor women in Paris marched on Versailles in October of 1789 to force King Louis XVI to move back to Paris in order to “focus” his attention on this problem.
C. The Sans Culottes--much of the revolutionary momentum of the crowds in the cities (mainly in Paris, but in other cities as well) was driven by the hunger that many felt because of a succession of poor harvest in the countryside, which drove up the price of bread upon which they largely relied upon for subsistence. The crowd became personified by the sans culottes, so-called because they wore trousers rather than the knee-length breeches of the upper class.
1. Resistance from the aristocracy--both the king and the nobles attempted to cut off the drive to limit their power and privileges, and to begin making nobles pay some of the taxes the Third Estate was liable for. Each push-back on the part of the nobles (which often included collaboration with outside enemies of the revolution, like Prussians and Austrians) exacerbated the fears of the middle and lower classes that they would be victimized in a counter-revolution, and led to greater numbers of nobles being arrested.
2. Louis XVI’s attempted escape--in June 1791 the king attempted to sneak out of Paris and join forces with counter-revolutionaries. Louis XVI was captured, but not executed until January 1793.
3. Succession of political groups--attempted to lead the revolution, but failed to hold onto power for a variety of reasons.
a) Marquis de Lafayette--first leader of the National Assembly, largely because of his ties with the American Revolution; he attempted to retain a constitutional monarchy, but Louis’ attempted escape, the continual hunger of much of the population, and a series of military defeats caused by the defection of aristocratic military leaders (and the resultant wholesale slaughter of the troops they led) undermined his efforts.
b) Rise of the Girondins--in April 1792 a new political group succeeded Lafayette, named after the debating society that the members belonged to. The Girondins allied with Louis XVI to declare war on Austria and Prussia, who were threatening on the border they shared with France. Louis expected French forces to lose, and he would regain full control of the throne.
4. Rise of the Jacobins--another of the debating societies turned political party; the Jacobin’s dues were lower than the Girondin, so they had more lower and working-class members, although the Jacobins were still dominated by lawyers--in particular, one Maximillian Robespierre
a) Robespierre had counseled against the war
b) Duke of Brunswick promised retribution against revolutionists.
c) The National Assembly called for volunteers to fight the counter-revolutionary forces; got 15,000 volunteers from Paris alone
d) Large contingent of volunteers from Marseilles marched from the south of France to defend Paris.
e) National Assembly voted to suspend the monarchy, recognize a new revolutionary commune based upon the Paris section model, and to conduct elections based on universal manhood suffrage--also a first.
5. Ending the Counter-Revolution--the revolution was constantly under attack and undermined by the nobles--including the king--attempting to collaborate with external enemies.
a) King guillotined in January 1793
b) New volunteers recruited from the poor sections of Paris to reinforce the front lines
c) Killing collaborators--or suspected collaborators--the so-called “fifth column,” on the home front. The “September Massacres,” as they became known, did stifle dissent. This event also marks the beginning of the period known as The Terror, when supposed enemies of the Revolution were too often summarily executed without due process.
6. Declaration of the Republic--on 20 September, the Revolutionary forces turned back the combined armies of Austria and Prussia at Valmy; the next day the Republic was declared. For much of the next year, their was further radicalization of the revolution
a) “Ending” slavery--in February 1794, the Jacobins declared and end to slavery in French colonies--the first nation to do so. Slaves in Haiti had been in rebellion since 1791, and this proclamation did little to change that. When the Jacobins lost power later that year, attempts were made to reinstitute slavery, which the Haitians were able to resist after nine years of war.
D. The Demise of the Revolution--the struggle to sustain the Revolution contributed in part to its demise, particularly the continued use of the Terror
1. Guillotine--when it was first invented and used, it was seen as a more humane form of capital punishment. Previously, only nobles were beheaded, while common people under went long periods of torture (including disembowelment, breaking on the wheel, the rack, hanging by the neck, drawing and quartering, crushing to death). The guillotine was applied with discrimination to all classes.
2. Continued application of The Terror
3. The Thermidor--the execution of Robespierre
4. Establishment of the Directory--in September of 1795, a new constitution was passed, putting new limits on right of suffrage; the 5-man Directory was empowered to make most of the governing decisions.
5. Bonaparte seizes power--in November 1799, Napoleon Bonaparte declared himself “first counsel”
6. Emperor Napoleon--crowned himself Emperor (with the assistance of the Pope) in 1804.
II. Revolution at the Tip of a Pen
A. The Corresponding Societies
1. Thomas Paine and The Rights of Man--The Rights of Man was a response to the condemnation of the French Revolution found in Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France. Paine sold 100,000 copies of his pamphlet, which argued that men had the right to engage in a popular political uprising if they felt that their present government was not acting in their best interests.
2. Formation of the Corresponding Societies--Paine’s work provoked much discussion among workers, who began meeting in taverns to discuss the matters raised--and developed societies to disseminate their ideas among workers in other locations, until the government crushed them.
3. Laid the groundwork for the Chartist movement of the 19th century (1815-1848).
B. The Green Revolution
1. Protestant Plantation--when the government in England put down the Irish resistance in the 1650s, they confiscated land from the leaders of the resistance and induced people to settle on this land; this is known at the Protestant Plantation, because people--principally Scottish Presbyterians--were “planted” on the land. Fearful of Catholic reprisals. the descendants of the Plantation became reliable and pliant British allies--until the 1770s.
2. Threat of French Invasion--when the French allied with the revolutionists in the United States, the British saw this as an act of hostility toward them (as the French undoubtedly was it, as well); in response, Britain granted greater rights to the Irish Parliament in return for funding an Irish militia to stave off any French attack. When that conflict ended, the British also ended the increased independence for Ireland.
3. Irish Reaction to French Revolution--Volunteers began to drill in military procedures, and some began making demands for a constitutional convention and the removal of political restrictions upon Catholics--Catholic emancipation. This movement was led by Wolfe Tone, who founded and recruited members for a group called United Irishmen.
4. Upper class Irish reaction--called on Parliament in London to outlaw the United Irishmen and also to outlaw the carrying of arms, meant to do away with military drilling.
5. Orange Order--group of middle and lower class Protestants who felt their position threatened by the Protestant/Catholic alliance.
C. Revolution in Haiti
1. Slavery in Haiti--the slave population was approximately 500,000, as opposed to about 30,000 whites and a similar number of mulattos. The number of slaves was only maintained with the constant importation of slaves, because of working conditions and the sugar plantations
2. Productivity--Haiti produced more sugar than all the other colonies combined
3. Revolution--influenced by events in France--and the rhetoric of revolution by the plantation owners--slaves in Haiti began their rebellion in 1791.
a) Divisions among whites--the so-called “small whites” were resentful of the mercantilist system that had enriched the “big whites”--the plantation owners; but their rhetoric about “liberty” had an entirely different meaning for slaves.
4. 1794 Declaration ending slavery--which was rescinded when the Directory assumed power
5. Capture of Toussaint l’Overture--but the battle continued in Haiti under the generalship of Jean-Jacques Dessalines. Dessalines’ defeat of the French at Vertieres forced Napoleon to abandon his bid for control of Louisiana in North American, and the sale of that claim to the United States.
D. Revolution in South America
1. Events in Spain--Napoleon’s attempt to install his brother on the Spanish throne after the abdication of Charles IV caused an uprising in Madrid in 1808, and continued guerilla activity in Spain from that date. This created favorable conditions for the British general Wellington to land an army in the country, and begin fighting the French forces occupying the country; this eventually helps bring down Napoleon.
2. Both Spain and New Spain were without an effective government for 6 years while events in Europe played themselves out; this created conditions ripe for colonies in Latin America to seek their independence.
3. Simon Bolivar--from a well-to-do slave owning family, yet he became a dedicated revolutionary. With assistance from forces from Haiti, he was able to defeat the forces of counter-revolution in Venezuela (temporarily). With other revolutionaries, he was able to win independence for a number of former colonies in South America--although the beneficiaries were large landowners, rather than the Indian peasants.
A. The Putney Debates and
the Levelers--a radical democratic faction of the NMA, reacting against
the Long Parliament’s seeming intention to deny them back-pay and send
them off to Ireland to quell another disturbance, debated making demands
on Parliament for the institution of more democratic measure--a wider
granting of the franchise, etc.
B. The Diggers--any of a
group of agrarian communists who flourished in England in 1649-50 and
were led by Gerrard Winstanley (q.v.) and William Everard. In April 1649
about 20 poor men assembled at St. George's Hill, Surrey, and began to
cultivate the common land. These Diggers held that the English Civil
Wars had been fought against the king and the great landowners; now that
Charles I had been executed, land should be made available for the very
poor to cultivate. (Food prices had reached record heights in the late
1640s.) The numbers of the Diggers more than doubled during 1649. Their
activities alarmed the Commonwealth government and roused the hostility
of local landowners, who were rival claimants to the common lands. The
Diggers were harassed by legal actions and mob violence, and by the end
of March 1650 their colony was dispersed. The Diggers themselves abjured
the use of force. The Diggers also called themselves True Levelers, but
their communism was denounced by the leaders of the Levelers.
a)
The Levelers--position frightened the “moderates” of the Presbyterian
party, who saw this movement as a dangerous development--as people see
most developments that they think will undermine their influence.
b)
While excluding the most radical elements, the Presbyterians formed a
“council of the Army” half made up of rank and file members, and half
officers; they relied upon the practice of deference to persuade the
rank and file to go along with the officers’ proposals
II. Colonization
A. The Virginia Model
1.
Roanoke--the first attempted colonization by the British was at Roanoke
Island, in what is now known as the Outer Banks in North Carolina.
Founded by Sir Walter Raleigh, it was meant to be a base for privateers
(licensed pirates) to raid the Spanish treasure fleets sailing to Spain
via the Gulf-stream.
2. Jamestown--the first successful
English colony. Initial purpose was to be a self-sustaining military
outpost. Finding little material wealth, efforts turned to agrarian
products to turn a profit for the Virginia Company. John Rolf (married
to one of Chief Powhattan’s daughters, Pocohantas’. Chief Powhattan was
the chief of the Powhattan group) conceived of an idea to a noxious weed
that the native s used for ceremonial purposes (tobacco). This
necessitated importing labor to cultivate it--indentured servants and
slaves.
3. Carolinas--settled initially be family
members of Barbadian sugar plantations, the plantations in the Carolinas
was responsible for growing food to feed the slave populations the
sugar plantations, because all arable land on the sugar islands was used
to grow sugar cane.
B. Massachusetts model
1.
Plymouth colony--the Puritans’ “Citty on the Hill,” New England, where
all the settlers with any political power would be right-thinking
Puritans.
a) Town meeting--are seen as exemplars of
democracy, but the right to vote was limited to church members, and
church membership was limited to those people who had been saved.
b)
Anne Hutchins--a woman who questioned control of religious doctrine by a
select few men; she was eventually tricked into stating that she
believed that God spoke directly to her, a serious deviation from
Puritan doctrine, and she was banished from the colony.
2.
Roger Smith--a true practitioner of religious freedom, for which he was
banished from Plymouth. He fled to Providence and established his own
settlement, where he allowed various denominations to worship as they
wished; it was in nearby Newport that the first Jewish synagogue was
built.
C. Middle Colonies
1.
William Penn’s colony--the only colony besides Rhode Island to practice
religious freedom--but the Society of Friends (the Quakers) held the
dominant political positions.
2. New York
3.
New Jersey--the Middle Colonies, like the Virginia model, used slaves
and indentured servants for most of the labor that was carried out in
the colony--although in far smaller numbers than in the southern
colonies.
C. Policy of "Benign Neglect"--all of the colonies enjoyed the unofficial British policy of benign neglect--that is to say, Great Britain did not attempt to exercise much control of those people in the colonies; the distances were great, the cost more than the country would bear. Laws were passed, but never enforced much in the colonies. As long as costs remained reasonable, and there was a return on investment for investors, the colonies were largely left alone to govern themselves.
III. The Costs of Opportunity
A. “Possession” of Land
1.
Common Cultural Trait Among Native Peoples--in North America was their
conception that, as a people, they were granted the right to use the
land that they occupied, but that individual members did not have any
ownership rights to a particular plot of land. They were willing to
share the land they had been granted with others, as long as they
received “just” compensation for its use--and with the understanding
that they could revoke the right to use the land at any time.
2.
European cultural practice--on the other hand, Europeans utilized a
different concept, which emphasized the rights of individuals to own a
particular piece of land, with which they were allowed to use in anyway
they chose--including selling it to someone else at a hefty profit.
a)
Europeans also delighted in “sharp dealing,” meaning selling
commodities at the highest possible price while buying commodities at
the lowest possible price.
B. The Cost of the Conflict
1.
The Frontier--is defined by the conflicts over possession of land
between Europeans (or, as we might start calling them, whites) and
native peoples. These conflicts necessitated that European powers found
it necessary to have armies on the ground in the American colonies to
keep the peace. All of this cost a great deal of money, and led to the
European powers--England in particular--to seek ways of making the
colonists bear a greater share of these costs.
2.
Attempts to cut British costs--centered on limiting the contact between
whites and native peoples by restricting the settlement of whites in
frontier areas.
3. Increasing tax revenue streams--the
British government attempted to get American colonists to pay an
increased share of the cost of maintaining the colonies’ administrative
and military costs.
C. Colonial Resistance
1.
French and Indian War (Seven Year’s War)--ended in 1763, resulted in
Great Britain obtaining European control of most of North American east
of the Mississippi River. It was the attempt to administer this
territory--and make it a paying proposition, particularly regarding the
fur trade with native peoples--that led to a series of political moves
that alienated the European population south of the St. Lawrence river,
and led to the American Revolution.
2. North American
smugglers--a number of merchants in North American circumvented
restrictions on trading with non-English traders. Most of the taxes and
duties passed by Parliament were attempts to enforce this restriction,
but juries in the colonies refused to convict smugglers.
3. “No Taxation without Representation”
a)
Sugar Act (1764)--like many of the laws passed during the decade
leading up to the American Revolution, this law cut the tax rate, but
also beefed up enforcement--and British sugar was more expensive than
the which could be acquired from French plantations in Haiti.
b)
Stamp Act (1765)--required the presence of a stamp from the government
on any legal document--and also on newspapers, magazines
c)
Quartering Act (1767)--required colonists to directly pay for the cost
of troops in the colonies by housing and feeding them in their own
homes.
d) Tea Act
(1773)--required colonists to purchase tea from the British East India
Tea Company. Even though the price of tea was slashed, colonists in
Boston resisted the enforcement of this act by disguising themselves as
Native Americans and tossing the tea into Boston Harbor.
4.
Continental Congress--began as a body authorized by the individual
colonial legislatures to petition for redress after Boston Harbor was
closed down after the incident over the tea.
a)
Sons of Liberty--one of the extra-legal bodies that sprang up as a
result of these disagreements. Made up of the same kinds of people who
were attracted to the New Model Army--small merchants, urban craftsmen,
and small prosperous farmers.
b)
Power of the Mobility--the “mob” had a long history of involvement in
politics, characterized by taking protest to the streets and assaulting
the property or person who was accused of putting their self-interest
above that of the well-being to the community. The mob took to the
streets because they had no other way of making their voice heard--they
had no right to vote.
(1) The Boston Massacre
(2) The Boston Tea Party
IV. Propaganda and Class
A. Propaganda
1.
Thomas Paine and Common Sense--perhaps the only author to approach the
popularity of Paine’s pamphlet in modern times is J.K. Rowling (Common
Sense sold about 150,000 copies in a country of less then 3 million
people, including slaves who were kept largely illiterate--the
equivalent sale today, with a population of 300 million, would be 15
million copies). Paine’s irreverent, vigorous prose captured the mood of
the times, and was probably responsible for giving voice to a great
deal of dissatisfaction.
B. Class conflict
1.
Worcester County Mass.--farmers closed down the county court system to
prevent creditors from using the courts to collect debts; this same
action after the victory over the British provoked a different action
from the men known to us as the Founding Fathers.
2.
Hudson Valley New York--small farmers at this location decided to
support the loyalist side, because of the obscene rents they had to pay
to Patriot Patroon landholders.
3.
The Revolution and Slavery--the rhetoric of freedom and rights
resonated with many slaves--and many whites in the northern colonies,who
began to question the morality of holding other humans in bondage
a) Many slaves in the north fought for their freedom--and the freedom of whites--in the militias and in the Continental navy.
b)
In the colonies of the south, on the other hand, many slaves fled their
masters in the hope of gaining freedom promised by the British
government (Thos. Jefferson’s reaction to this was excised from the
final edition of the Declaration of Independence.
IV. The War
A. The Turning Points
1.
American fighting capability--Washington and his army won few battles,
but he was able to keep on Army in the field, because his soldiers
believed in the cause they were fighting for.
2.
British incompetence--British military generals were chosen for their
connections to the British royal family, rather than their military
experience.
3. French assistance--men (including slave
soldiers from Haiti), material, and particularly ships that were able to
harass British supply lines and most important cut off the avenue of
retreat at the Battle of Yorktown.
World history from the year 1500 is largely dominated by attempts of certain states (meaning "national" governments) to establish empires--domination over and subjugation of other states. How does the establishment of empires after 1500 compare to the establishment of empires before 1500, as presented in the video presentation? Your answer to this question should fill two pages of 8.5x11 sheets of paper, and is due at the beginning of class of Thursday, February 14.
A. The Drive Across Northern Asia--from modest beginnings before 1500, Russia expanded rapidly during the next three centuries to create an empire that stretched from eastern Europe across northern Asia in into North America (Alaska was bought in in 1867 from Russia, after all).
1. Rule by the Golden Horde--Russia, to become a world power, had do overcome a lot of unfavorable geography. Part of its political "backwardness" was the result of being a favored target for many of the nomadic invasion from Central Asia into Europe. The Mongol Khanate of the Golden Horde ruled Russians and their neighbors from the 1240s until 1480, and made Moscow their capital. The princes of Moucovy, the territory surrounding Moscow, eventually led the resistance against the Golden Horde, winning complete control of their own territory, and annexing the territories of Novgorod for good measure in 1478.
2. Prince Ivan IV--Once the princes of Muscovy were successful in overcoming the Golden Horde in Muscovy, they continue the push southeast-ward. Prince Ivan IV (who ruled from 1533 to 1584) was the most successful of these princes, and the gains here came at the expense of the Khanates of Kazan and Astrkhan. By the end of the 16th century, Russia was the largest state in Europe, with the largest territory of any state east of the Ural Mountains.
3. The Problem of Geography--despite the great growth of the country during this time period, Russia remained largely land-locked, with its only port being Arkhangelsk, in the Arctic Circle--which is obviously unnavigable for a part of the year. Russia attempted for many years, therefore, to establish ports on the Black Sea, but had to overcome the governments that were already established there--in particular the Crimean Turks. The kingdoms of Sweden and Poland-Lithuania to the west similarly blocked Russian access to the Baltic Sea. The one route left open was east, across Siberia. Siberia contained considerable riches (particularly fur), and was sparsely populated, so overcoming the nomadic people living was less problematic. What your textbook fails to mention, however, was to get the these Pacific ports meant traveling 4,000 miles across the tundra to reach them.
4. Strogonov Family of Traders--the Strogonov family, already wealthy, were well-positioned to exploit the riches of Siberia. The employed armed adventurers who used superior fire power to overcome both the nomadic peoples living there as well as the only political entity in the area, the Khanate of Sibir, in 1582. Strongonov traders worked their way east, reaching the Pacific during the 17th century, and then crossing the Bering Straight and establishing settlement in North America shortly afterward. Theses settlements where more like outposts in a frontier environment than an organized provincial government, however.
5. The Amur River Valley--by the 1640s, Russian settlers were growing grain in the Amur Rive Valley in Mongolia. By the time the Qing reacted to the presence of the Russians, the threat of Galdan's Mongol military power worried the Qing more. The Russians, also feeling threatened by the Mongols, were happy to negotiate the Treaty of Nerchinsk, which recognized Russian claims west of Mongolia, but required the Russians to withdraw their settlements farther east.
B. Russian Society and Politics to 1725--Russian expansion involved demographic changes as well as new relations between the tsar, the elite class (known as the boyars), and peasants. Attempts were made to convert these new peoples to Russian Orthodox Christianity, but many people on the steppes remained loyal to Islam.
1. Cossacks--the word probably derives from a Turkic word for warrior or mercenary soldier, was a name applied to those people living on the steppe (prairie) between Muscovy and the Caspian and Black Seas. Cossacks supplied most of the soldiers for the Strogonov's, and were responsible for setting every town in Siberia. In the west, Cossacks defended Russia against Swedish and Turkic incursions, but their real allegiance lie with their clan leader, rather than with the tsar of Russia.
2. Boyars--in the early 17th century, both Swedish and Polish forces briefly occupied Moscow on separate occasions. This spelled the end for the Muscovite rulers, as the boyars allowed one of their own--Mikhail Romanov--to inaugurate a dynasty that consolidated its own power while also successfully competing with other states, as well.
3. Serfs--peasant were, of course, the big losers in this upheaval. The Muscovy princes and the early tsars rewarded their loyal nobles with grant of land and the labor to work it. Technically, serfs were not the personal property of the noble lord of the manor--they were instead tied to the land of which the noble had possession. The long period of warfare in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries disrupted peasant life and caused many to flee to the Cossacks or across the Urals; some who couldn't flee sold themselves into slavery. When peace returned, landlords attempted to recover the runaways on bind them to the property; this was accomplished by eliminating the two week period every year when serfs could choose a new master. Because serfdom was a hereditary condition--like slavery had become in the West--the difference between the two conditions of servitude became a difference without distinction.
C. Peter the Great--the greatest of the Romanov czars, Peter reigned from 1689 to 1725, and instituted a number of westernizing measures. Peter was not the first tsar to develop these practices, but he was relentless in his pursuit of these programs.
1. Early Life--Peter was the offspring of his father's second marriage, and when he acceded to the throne after the death of his half-brother Theodore, his half-sister Sophia acted as regent for Peter and his half brother Ivan. Peter did not seem to be bothered by this as an adolescent, as he was pursuing a rather idiosyncratic education. Peter was a huge man for his time--6 foot 8 inches tall, which was probably a foot taller than most of his contemporaries.
2. Westernization--although Peter gets all of the credit for this "westernization" drive, it actually starts much earlier; Peter continues this program and amplifies it. He brought in a number of Western craftsmen and others show Russian workers western methods.
3. St. Petersburg--after the long and costly Great Northern War (1700-1721) with Sweden, Peter built a western city that he modestly named after himself. Peter also tried to force his nobles to behave more like nobles in western fashions and appearances.
D. Consolidation of the Empire--eastward expansion continued under Peter and his successors.
1. Bering--Bering crossed the strait bearing (bad pun) his name in 1741, and by 1799--well before Lewis and Clark--Russians agent were trading with native peoples along the northwest coast of North America.
2. Catherine the Great (r. 1762-1796)--was successful in expanding Russia to the West--at the expense of the Ukraine and Poland. Catherine saw herself, and is seen by many historians, as an enlightened ruler, but whose attempts to modernize Russia quickly became bogged down in the huge bureaucracy necessary to run such a large country. Catherine's successes--and the fact that she herself was not Russian, but Prussian, spawned a great deal of jealousy and rumors about her active sexual life.
I. Japanese Reunification--Japan experienced three major changes between 1500 and 1800: internal and external military conflicts, political growth and strengthening and expanded commercial and cultural contacts.
A. Civil War and the Invasion of Korea,
1500-1603
1. The rule of the daimyo
warlords--by the 1100s different parts of Japan had fallen under the rule of warlords known as daimyo, who themselves commanded the rule of the warriors of Japanese warriors, who were known as samurai.
2. Hideyoshi invaded the Asian
mainland--by 1592, a Japanese warlord known as Hidyoshi emerged victorious, and he immediately set his eyes on taking command of other areas in Asia--Korea and China.
3. Desired to conquer Korea and
make himself emperor of China: Hideyoshi had delusions of grandeur, and was determined to make himself emperor of China; his first step was to control Korea. The Koreans resisted however, using much of the military know-how they had acquired. Hideyoshi countered this resistance with brutal repression
4. Korea and China suffered under
Japanese invasion--Hideyoshi died in 1598, and shortly afterward the Japanese withdrew from Korea. The left behind a devastated peninsula and destabilized society. After the Japanese withdrawal, the Korean yangban laid claim to so much tax-paying land that the royal revenue may have fallen by as much as two thirds. This devastation also led to the Manchu invasion of Korea, as well; the country was reduced to being a vassal state of China's
B.
The Tokugawa Shogunate, to 1800
1. Came to power following the
death of Hideyoshi--Tokugawa Ieyasu was able to overcome the other warlords after Hideyoshi's death. Although Tokugawa gave Japan more political stability than the country had seen seen in decades, the Daimyo still controlled much of the countryside
2. New shogunate capital was
located in Edo (Tokyo)--the Tokugawa Shogunate was located in Edo (present-day Tokyo) and the Daimyo were required to visit the new palace on a regular basis; this promoted trade along the routes to the city, and made the merchant class more prosperous than had previously been the case. The merchants used this prosperity to cultivate close alliances with regional daimyo, and at times with the shogun himself. By the end of the 1700s, the merchant families held the key to modernization and development of heavy industry.
3. Era of high artistic
achievement in Japan: the greater prosperity led to a great flowering of the arts in the country, as artisans created more attractive goods to make more money.
C.
Japan and the Europeans--direct contact with Europeans presented Japan with new opportunities and problems; for instance, within 30 years after the first Portuguese visit in 1543, the daimyo bands were fight each other with European guns (improved by Japanese armorers).
1. Contact first with the
Portuguese, then Dutch and Spain--the Japanese at first welcomed European visitors, eager to exchange trade goods.
2. New trade routes open between
China, Japan, and European merchants--Japan, China, and European traders established there own kind of triangular trade, although Japanese merchants probably benefited least from this arrangement
3. Catholic missionaries, Francis
Xavier--with the entry of the Portuguese and Spanish traders, clergy were not far behind. The Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier, attempted to appeal to the economic and social elites, leaving the conversion of the lesser people of Japan to the Dominicans and other religious orders.
4. Government began to persecute
Christians--with the death of Xavier, there was also a waning of influence of Catholicism, which quickly led to there persecution of the sect.
5. Enforced trade restrictions to
protect Japanese culture--European trade goods were now seen as corrupting Japanese society, and contact with Europeans and their trade goods were more heavily restricted.
D.
Elite Decline and Social Crisis
1. Instability of rice prices
created economic decline for the samurai--during the 1700s, this prosperity contributed to a great deal of population growth. Because the samurai were restricted in the price for which they sold rice--while regular commercial merchants were not, samurai were becoming impoverished, while many peasants could not afford to purchase enough rice to geed a family.
2. The “Forty-Seven Ronin”
incident in Japan.
II. The Later Ming and Early Qing Empires: Like Japan, China after 1500 experienced civil and foreign wars, an important change in government, and new trading and cultural relations with its Asian neighbors as well as with Europe.
A.
The Ming Empire, 1500-1644--the early successes of the Ming Empire continued durong the early years after 1500, but this productive period was followed by many decades of political weakness, warfare, and impoverishment in the countryside.
1. Chinese integration into the
trade world created a demand for more goods.
a. silk
b. cotton
c. porcelain
2.
Chinese contributions to the arts--the prosperity of economic elites led to a flowering of the arts, particularly working with porcelain (particularly for the European market).
3.
Economy grows under the Ming Empire.
B. Ming Collapse and the Rise of the Qing--climate change, and the world-wide inflation bubble created by the discovery of Central and South American gold led to agricultural prices rising above what peasants in the countryside could afford.
1.
Internal rebellion and the rise of Manchu power.
2.
Because of the Japanese invasion, the Ming sought assistance of Manchu
troops.
3.
Manchu military leaders claimed all of China.
4.
Manchu family headed the new Qing Empire.
C.
Trading Companies and
Missionaries.
1.
Portuguese establish the trading port of Macao.
2.
Spain conducted trade from its base out of the Philippines.
3.
Catholic missionaries accompanied the Portuguese and the Spanish into
China.
D.
Emperor Kangxi
1. Military,
cultural and economic improvements under the new emperor.
2.
Increased foreign trade.
3.
Rivaled for control of Pacific coast in North Asia against Russia.
4.
Drove Christian missionaries out and set out to settle the Mongolian
frontier.
5.
Later Qing emperors persecuted Christians.
E.
Chinese Influences on Europe
1.
Jesuit writings about China create European interest.
2.
Chinese writings inspire European thinkers.
F.
Tea and Diplomacy
1.
The East India Company became interested in China’s markets.
2. Macartney mission.
3.
Europe frustrated by the lack of Chinese interest in trading.
3. Ratification of the U.S. Constitution
