Chapter 26

The Ottoman Empire

Causes of Decline

• Weak rulers and subsequent power struggles• Economic deterioration– Turkish artisans can’t compete with influx of

western industrial goods– Jewish/Christian merchants increase ties to West

• Military decline– Janissaries unwilling to keep up with Western

weaponry– Unable to retain control of portions of empire

Selim III (1789 – 1807)

• Increases literacy with first printing press in the Muslim World

• Builds a new army/navy• Restructures bureaucracy– Improves administration– Angered powerful people

Mahmud II (1826 – 1838)

• Builds western-style army and overthrows Janissaries

• Forces nobles to submit to his authority

• Exchanges ambassadors and advisors with the West

The Tanzimat reforms (1839 -1876)• Western-style university education• Infrastructure – Postal service, telegraphs, railways

• New constitution– Influenced by the West

• Open unrestricted trade with west• Discuss changes to:– Polygamy, harem, veiling

Arab Heartland

• Most Arabs were ok with the Ottomans even though they were Turks because they were Muslim– Ottomans grew unable to protect the heartland of

the Empire

Egypt

• Napoleon takes Egypt in 1798– Beat British to the territory– Mamluk Regime

• Vassals of the Ottoman Empire

• West not good so we don’t need to worry about them

• WRONG: major defeat

– French eventually leave and the British get the area

• Muhammad Ali

This Guy

NOT This Guy

Muhammad Ali

• Wanted to build an up-to-date European Army• Khedives: line of rulers after Ali– Same old thing

• Cotton and only Cotton• Wanted to build the Suez Canal (1869)– Vital commercial and military link between

European Colony– Controlling it is very important

Suez Canal

Sudan

• Muhammad Achmad – United the diverse people of the Sudan– Believed to be the promised deliverer– Wanted to Purge Islam and return it to its original

purity• Good successors– Khlifa Abdallahi• Created a very strict muslim state• 1896 Bristih took them down

Alas the Ottoman Empire falls in 1908

The Qing Dynasty

The Manchus

• North of the Great Wall• Over threw the Ming Dynasty• Kept a majority if the Chinese Traditions– Exam system and Bureaucrats– Sons of Heaven– Confucian obedience/loyalty• Female infanticide

– Upper class good lower class not good– Were able to prevent foreign influence• Foreign merchants were only allowed in certain cities

DECLINE

• Internal corruption/bloated bureaucracy• Embezzlement of state funds• Cheating on exam• Problems are too severe to allow for usual

dynastic cycle– Population too big– Existing system too corrupt– Insufficient technology

Opium War (1839)

• European imbalance of trade with China despite equal sophistication – Introduce opium - addictive narcotic – With 40 years, 12 million Chinese are addicted

• Chinese demand that British government stop the opium trade…war breaks out

• British technology overwhelms Chinese

Treaty of Nanjing signed in 1842

• Gives England the island of Hong Kong– Returned to the Chinese July 1st, 1997

• Allows Christian missionaries into China• Grants “extraterritorial rights”

Taiping Rebellion (1850-1860)

• Led by Hong Xiuquan (Shee-oo-choo-ahn)– “mentally unstable” Christian covert

• Raises an army of 1 million men and women to overthrow Qing government

• Takes 10 years for Qing government to regain control

• 20-25 million total casualties – from warfare and starvation

Boxer Rebellion• Poor peasants and workers

resented foreigners and missionaries

• Establish the Society of Fists of Righteous Harmony – Boxers

• Attack the European sections of Beijing

• A multi-national army – Defeat the boxers in about 2 minutes

• Defeat actually creates a higher sense of nationalism

• Social unrest and rebellion continues until 1950s

Dynastic Cycle

10

9

8

7

65

4

3

2

1