Ch 19 module

1. What accounts for the massive peasant rebellions of 19thcentury China?

Peasants rebelled claiming that they did not support the Qing Dynasty because of its foreign Manchu origins.
They demanded that the northern region be returned to the Han Dynasty. These peasants rejected Confucianism,
Daoism, and Buddhism as their primary ideology was their own form of Christianity. The leaders of this rebellion
had no intention of restoring Chinese society, instead they wanted a revolutionary change. Their demands were
as follows: the abolition of private property, redistribution of land, end of prostitution and opium smoking,
and the organizatio of society into sexually segregated military camps of men and women. Leaders claimed
that the Qing Dynasty had “poisoned China” and “defiled the emperor’s throne.”

2. How did Western pressures stimulate change in China during the 19thcentury?

Opium was a Western pressure that stimulated change in China. This is due to the fact that British,
American, and other Western merchants found that there was a profitable market for opium. This is
the main reason for the Opium Wars in China. Opium was smuggled into China and the addiction spread
from men and women, to court officials, students preparing for exams, soldiers going into combat,
and common laborers. Millions had become addicted and that’s when China decided to take action.
In 1836 the matter was taken to court where it became a matter of whether the rug should become
legalized or not. The decision was suppression of the drug. The first Opium War ended in 1842 as
the British imposed restrictions on Chinese sovereignty and opened five ports to European traders.
This agreement was the first of the “unequal treaties” to the Chinese people. The second Opium war in
1856 was a victory for the British who would take control of China.

11. How did Japan’s relationship to the larger world change during its modernization process?

The Treaty of 1902 acknowledged Japan as an equal player among the Great Powers of the world.
Japan was able to launch its own empire-building enterprise. The wars won against China and Russia
made Japan an intimidating military competitor in East Asia, since they were able to defeat a major
European power. In addition, Japan was able to gain control over Korea, Taiwan, and Manchuria.
Europeans and Americans saw Japan as an economic, political, and military competitor in Asia.
Japan’s defeat of Russia led to a widespread admiration among those who viewed Japan as a model
for the modern development of their own country and an ally in the struggle against imperialism.
People from all over the world began talking about the achievements of Japan. An Egyptian nationalist
by the name of Mustafa Kamil stated, “we are amazed by Japan because it is the first Eastern government t
o utilize Western civilization to resist the shield of European imperialism in Asia.” Although many admired
Japan, countries that faced Japanese imperialism had a very different point of view than the rest of the world.

ch 18 module

8. What was distinctive about European colonial empires of the 19thcentury?

One of the distinctions of 19th century European colonial empires was the evident race difference between the rulers and the ruled. The places where European populations settled in large numbers were where racial separation was more pronounced. There were certain places such as South Africa where race had to be established as a legal feature of their society. This is what led to what is now known as the apartheid. Another distinction of European colonial empires was in the way they forced their ways of life onto the societies they ruled. New concepts such as centralized tax-collecting bureaucracies, imposed changes in landholding patterns, the integration of colonial economies into a global network of exchange, and more altered the daily lives of many. European colonial empires classified the people they ruled as well. One example of this is the caste system that had been established in India at the time. Gender is yet another distinction, since the European rulers, usually male, prided themselves in their “active masculinity.” Not only that, but they regarded the “conquered race” as soft. One last distinction was the fact that the policies they established greatly contradicted their own values and practices at home.

11. How did cash crop agriculture transform the lives of colonized peoples?

To begin with, many local small farmers were able to own their own land, build
substantial houses, and buy imported goods. Crop agriculture led to a sharp
improvement of standard living during the late nineteenth century.
The exports of rice greatly increased at the time, since the production of rice was
encouraged. This motivated people to migrate to cities where they could benefit
from the cash crop agriculture. Cash crop agriculture brought environmental
problems into the lives of colonial people as well. In the Mekong River delta of
French-ruled Vietnam, mangrove forests and swamplands were destroyed.
This ended their supply of fish and shellfish that supplemented local diets.
The new dikes and irrigation channels that were made generated large amounts of
methane gas, which is a major contributor to global warming. Although cash crop
agriculture was beneficial, it caused many problems as well. Tension between
sexes began to increase and the influx of migrants led to ethnic and class tensions. 

13. How were the lives of African women in particular altered by colonial economies?

During precolonial times in Africa, women were responsible for planting, weeding, harvesting,
food preparation, and child care. Women were also involved in local trading communities, they
were subordinate to men but still had a small measure of economic autonomy. The results of a
study that had been conducted in Cameroon state that women’s working hours increased from
46 hours per week to more than 70 by 1934. Women began taking over traditionally male tasks
like breaking the ground for planting, milking the cows, and supervising the herds, in addition to
their regular responsibilities. By the 1930’s women and men seemed to live different lives, since
women focused more on the village life and subsistence agriculture and men focused on the cities
and working wages. These major changes allowed women to form a stronger bond and unite to support
one another. In some places like Nigeria, Nupe women contributed more family income than their husbands
and found themselves frequently having to lend them money. Women started to realize that they no longer
need a man to depend on and started to veer away from the traditional mindsets they had. The control of
women’s sexuality and mobility was one of the main interests European and African men shared.

Ch 17, module 1

5) How did Britain's middle classes change during the 19th century?

The upper levels of the middle class consisted of wealthy factory owners and mine owners, bankers and merchants. While this may be true, the majority of the middle class included businessmen, doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers, journalists, scientists, and any other professionals who were necessary in an industrial society. These people were the reason for the Reform Bill of 1832, which granted middle class men the right to vote, but still excluded women. Their main concern was the idea of "respectability," which combines both social status and virtuous behavior. In terms of gender roles, people who came from middle class families often seemed to adopt traditional roles. The industrial revolution was a turning point in the lives of many middle class women, since they went from being a housewife who couldn't work to earn a profit to entering the labor force in a wide range of careers. The industrial revolution provided both men and women with an abundant amount of new employment options. This is what helped these people be able to distinguish themselves from the working class and claim their position in the middle class. It allowed the majority of the middle class an opportunity to grow and this is what allowed the industrializing process to continue. 

7) What were the differences between industrialization in the United States and that in Russia?

Mostly due to the available resources the United States possessed it became the world’s leading industrial power by the year 1914. The U.S. government made it relatively easy for corporations to form, gave tax breaks, offered grants of public land to the railroad companies, and there was an absence of overt regulation of industry. All of these played a role in the rise of very large business enterprises. The United States also developed new ways to use mass production, the assembly line, and “scientific management” in order to produce for a mass market. On the other hand, Russia remained without a national parliament, had no legal political parties, and no nationwide elections at the time. It remained under the control of titled nobility of various ranks and an unchecked tsar. Russia began to see change through the wars they fought such as the Crimean War (1854-1856). This is when they began coming to the realization that things like serfdom were no longer beneficial to the overall development of the country. It wasn’t until 1890 that the Russian industrial revolution began. This revolution was mostly centered around railroads and heavy industry and a great amount of foreign investment

10) In what ways was Latin America linked to the global economy of the 19th century, and what was the impact of these links?

Latin America began producing large amounts of silver and raw materials such as copper from Chile, tin from Bolivia, nitrates from Chile, and guano (bird droppings) from Peru. Many other materials can be added to this list and came from other parts of Latin America as well. An exchange of goods would occur between Latin America, Europe, and the United States. Latin America would provide the necessary raw materials for industrializing countries and in return they would import weapons, machinery, tools, textiles, and luxury goods from Europe and the United States. Urbanization occurred as a result to this exchange and Latin America sought to become more like Europe. Impoverished Europeans were recruited and promised a new and prosperous life in Latin America. These promises were often unfulfilled though. The exports that Latin America was engaging in at the time impacted the Upper-class landowners and the Middle-class urban dwellers. These two groups represented one percent and eight percent of the population respectively. These people were seen as valuable and necessary for the growth and modernization of society. The rest of the population was lower class and struggled with impoverishment. These are the people who were living in rural areas and benefited the least out of everyone from the export boom. 

Foundresses week

During Foundresses week I was able to attend the art show. It consisted of various art pieces that had been submitted by members of the Belmont community. Each art piece was significant in its own way and had its own story behind it. I enjoyed attending this event, because the various meanings of each art piece captured and celebrated the diversity of the person who created it. Overall, it was a successful event and directly connected to the mission of Notre Dame de Namur learning institutions.

ch 16 pt 1

• The Atlantic revolutions were distinctive in that they were closely connected to one another. 
• The Englishman John Locke (1632-1704) had argued, the "social contract" between ruler and ruled should last only as long as it served the people well.
• Nationalism, perhaps was the most potent ideology of the modern era, was nurtured in the Atlantic revolutions and shaped much of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century world history.
• By effecting a break with Britain, the American Revolution marked a decisive political change, but in other ways it was a conservative movement, because it originated in an effort to preserve the existing liberties of the colonies rather than create new ones. 
• The American Revolution grew not from social tensions within the colonies, but from a rather sudden and unexpected effort by the British government to tighten its control over the colonies and to extract more revenue from them. 
• On the eve of the French Revolution, a Paris newspaper proclaimed that the United States was "the hope and model of the human race." This was referencing the political ideas and practices of the new country.
• In France, the people had been awakened by the American Revolution.
• The third estate organized themselves as the National Assembly, claiming the sole authority to make laws for the country. 
• The famous French writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau had told them that it was "manifestly contrary to the laws of nature...that a handful of people should gorge themselves with superficialities while the hungry multitude goes in want of necessities." 
• These social conflicts gave the French Revolution, especially during its first five years, a much more violent, far-reaching, and radical character than its American counterpart.
• Nowhere did the example of the French Revolution echo more loudly than the French Caribbean colony of Saint Domingue, later renamed Haiti.
• Socially, the last had become the first. In the only completely successful slave revolt in world history, "the lowest order of the society-slaves-became equal, free, and independent citizens."
• Politically, they had thrown off French colonial rule, creating the second independent republic in the Americas and the first non-European state to emerge from Western colonialism. 
• To whites throughout the hemisphere, the cautionary saying, "Remember Haiti" reflected a sense of horror at what had occurred there and a determinism not to allow political change to reproduce that fearful outcome again. 
• Despite their growing disenchantment with Spanish rule, creole elites did not so much generate a revolution as have one thrust upon them by events in Europe. 
• In 1808, Napoleon invaded Spain and Portugal, deposing the Spanish King Ferdinand VII and forcing the Portuguese royal family into exile in Brazil. 
• With Legitimate royalty now in disarray, Latin Americans were forced to take action. The outcome was the independence of various Latin American countries by 1826.

ch 16 pt 2

• England and New England were among the most prosperous regions of the Western world in the early nineteenth century and both were based on free labor.
•  The Great Jamaican Revolt of 1831-1832 was particularly important in prompting Britain to abolish slavery throughout its empire in 1833.
• The end of Atlantic slavery during the nineteenth century marked a major and rapid turn in the world's social history and the moral thinking of mankind.
• Newly freed people did not achieve anything close to political equality, except in Haiti.
• Europeans imposed colonial rule on Africa in the late nineteenth century, one of their justifications was that they needed to emancipate enslaved people.
• It was very ironic that they claimed that they needed to end slavery in a continent that they had extracted slaves from for more than four centuries.
• Some nineteenth century Muslim authorities opposed slavery claiming that it went against the Quran's ideals of freedom and equality. 
• Nationalism proved to be an infinitely flexible and enormously powerful idea in the nineteenth-century Europe and beyond.
• A third echo of the Atlantic revolutions lay in the emergence of a feminist movement.
• An organized and substantial group of women called into question the most fundamental and accepted feature of all preindustrial civilizations-the subordination of women to men.
• In the twentieth century feminist thinking transformed "the way in which women and men work, play, think, dress, worship, vote, reproduce, make love and make war"
• From the beginning, feminism became a transatlantic movement in which European and American women attended the same conferences, corresponded regularly, and read one another's work 
• By 1914, some 10,000 women took part in French feminist organizations, while the National American Woman Suffrage Association claimed 2 million members.
• Feminists were viewed as selfish, willing to sacrifice the family or even the nation while pursuing their individual goals.

Ch 15

• The Ottoman Siege of of Vienna in 1529 marked a muslim advance into the heart of central Europe. 
• The Reformation began in 1517 when a German priest, Martin Luther, nailed a document called the Ninety-Five Theses to the door of a church in Wittenberg. 
• This document opened up a debate about the various abuses within the Roman Catholic church. 
• What made Luther's protest potentially revolutionary was its theological basis.
• Luther believed that salvation came through faith alone. 
• Although a large number of women were attracted to Protestantism, Reformation teachings and practices didn't offer them a substantially greater role in the church or society.
• In Protestant-dominated areas, the male Christ figure was the sole object of worship.
• The culmination of European religious conflict took shape in the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), a Catholic-Protestant struggle that began the Holy Roman Empire but eventually engulfed most of Europe.
• New religious orders such as the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), provided a dedicated brotherhood of priests committed to the renewal of the Catholic Church and its extension abroad.
• Christianity motivated European political and economic expansion and also benefited from it.
• In 1535 the bishop of Mexico proudly claimed that he had destroyed 500 pagan shrines and 20,000 idols.
• Throughout the colonial period and beyond, many Mexican Christians also took part in rituals derived from the past, with little sense of incompatibility with Christian practice. 
• Many Jesuits learned Chinese, became thoroughly acquainted with confucian texts and dressed like Chinese scholars.
• They aimed to show people the commonalities between Confucianism and Christianity rather than introducing something new and foreign to them. 
• Missionary efforts over the course of some 250 years (1550-1800) resulted in 200,000 to 300,000 converts, a minuscule number in a Chinese population approaching 300 million by 1800.The early modern era likewise witnessed the continuation of the "long march of Islam" across the Afro-Asian world. 
• Continued Islamization was usually dependent on the wandering of holy Islamic men or Sufis, Islamic scholars, and itinerant traders, none of whom posed a threat to local rulers. 
• What they offered in short was a connection to the wider prestigious, and prosperous world of Islam. 
• Islamization extended modestly even to the Americas, where enslaved African Muslims practiced their faith in North America, particularly in Brazil, where Muslims led a number of slave revolts in the early nineteenth century. 
• Al Wahhab emphasized the rights of women within a patriarchal Islamic framework. 
• These included the right to consent to and stipulate conditions for marriage, to control her dowry, to divorce, and to engage in commerce. 
• He did not insist on head-to-toe covering of women in public and allowed for the mixing of unrelated men and women for business or medical purposes.
• Although an Egyptian army broke the power of the Wahhabi control in 1818, the movement's influence continued to spread across the Islamic world.
• At the level of elite culture, the Mughal ruler Akbar formulated a state cult that combined elements of Islam, Hinduism, and Zoroastrianism.