History 266: World History from the Renaissance to Imperialism--Lecture Notes
D. Conclusion.
Lecture 3:  Fifteenth Century Europe:  Social and Economic Changes
A. The Medieval Legacy to the Era of Crisis: From roughly the time of the Carolingian Renaissance in the 1000s A.D. to around 1300, Europe experienced social and economic boom times. The social chaos and political anarchy caused by the collapse of the Roman Empire in the 450s A.D., followed by the incursions of the Vikings, Magyars, and Moors in their raids around the 900s were finally over and Europe emerged from the Early Middle Ages. During the Medieval period, the feudal aristocracy and the Catholic church emerged as the dominant political force and were instrumental in imposing social and economic order in the countryside. Peasants were organized within the manorial system as serfs; the guild system dominated economic life and imposed its own wage, price, and production controls in the system; and, in religious life, the church reached its zenith of power and influence over not only the spiritual but the secular life of Europe. Indeed, Europeans were feeling vigorous enough to launch an expansion of western Christendom between the 11th and 13th centuries in the form of the Crusades and missionary efforts in the Baltic border lands. However, the 14th century would be an era of multiple crises that would either weaken or even destroy many of the medieval institutions of Europe that seemed the most durable, and in their stead, pave the way for the development of modern Europe.
1. Overpopulation from Medieval Times: Between the 11th and 13th centuries, Europe, organized along strict feudal/manorial lines, finally experienced the social and political organization neccessary for successful agriculture and sufficient crop yields. Since much of Europe had been virgin forest and unsettled land after the fall of the Roman Empire, the way was paved for its settlement: with increased crop yields, the population grew; as it grew, new areas had to be cleared and settled; as these new areas were settled, the increased harvests contributed to more population growth, and so forth. This population boom continued unabated until the beginning of the 14th century, when it was forced to taper because all the most easily cultivatable land had been claimed and, the guild system had imposed such tight economic controls that commercial life in the towns had begun to stagnate. In other words, the population of Europe had spurted upward without a simultaneous increase in production.
2. Climatic Changes: The population situation came at a most unfortunate time, since, almost at the same time, the climate of Europe suddenly turned colder and wetter. Indeed, some historians believe that Europe may have entered a "mini Ice Age" in the 14th century, as evidenced by the heavy clothing depicted on portraiture of the time and later. These climatic changes meant crop failures. Crops either froze in the fields or else were subject to rot in the granaries from the dampness of incessant rains.
3. Widespread Famine: The burgeoning population, dependent on an expanding food supply to meet their needs, now found themselves subject to periodic and widespread famines. Areas not actually killed off by starvation were so debilitated by hunger and chronic malnutrition that the population were ravaged by other destructive forces such as exposure (because of the increasingly cold weather), disease (such as rickets, beri-beri, and scurvy), and various plagues.
4. Plague: The culture and lifestyles of the Medieval population was actually conducive to disease transmission which led to periodic and massive outbreaks of all manner of epidemics and plagues. Whole families lived together in close, cramped quarters, sleeping 10 to a straw pallet on the floor of a cottage whose basement was typically the animal stables. Because of the cold weather, people rarely washed (it was believed to cause sickness) or changed clothes until they rotted off of their bodies. As a result, in addition to the usual smallpox, typhus, typhoid fever, cholera, scarlet fever, measles; and, diseases caused by unsanitary conditions such as polio, hepatitis, and disentary, there was the first outbreak, in 1346, of an entirely new disease--The Bubonic Plague. This deadly disease was spread into Europe by the westward migrations of the Mongols, among whom lived rats--whose fleas carried the bacterium Yerisina pestis. The Bubonic Plague attacked the lymph nodes (known as buboes), causing them to swell and burst beneath the skin. As a result, the afflicted were often covered with black and blue marks, which caused the disease to earn the name "The Black Death." Victims suffered great fever, unquenchable thirst, delirium (they often tore off their clothes and threw themselves into fountains, ponds and streams and between screams, they gulped huge quantities of water) and ultimately died usually within 24 hours! It is estimated that upwards of 60% of Europe's population died off after this first wave of plague. This disease continued to ravage Europe at irregular intervals clear into the 19th century, when Joseph Lister and Louis Pasteur arrived at the germ theory of disease transmission.
5. Peasant Uprisings: The breakdown in social and political order following famine and plague led to the outbreak of peasant uprisings. Initially, the upper classes seemed to be spared by these ravages. It was probably due to the fact that these classes initially retained the means to remain better fed during hard times which means that their resistance to disease was better; they did not typically sleep huddled together over their own stables; and, they had the means to change their clothes more frequently. Nevertheless, the peasantry found themselves squeezed between their own hard times and the duties and obligations they owed to the lord of the manor. Adding insult to injury for the peasantry was the appearance that the upper classes' lifestyle had remained unaffected while they themselves were starving and dying while still having to maintain their usual work load. These social tensions led to massive peasant uprisings and revolts such and the Jacquerie in France in 1358 and Wat Tyler's Rebellion in England in 1381. These uprisings started as tiny pockets of discontent which exploded in strength and scope very quickly. Typically, after a few initial victories, these revolts were savagely suppressed and few reforms were ever forthcoming.
6. Wars: In addition, wars were common in the 14th century. There were frequent wars between feudal lords and between the feudatories and their own king. Wars between kings, such as the 100 Years' War (1337-1453) were more spectacular and featured Edward III's and Henry V's claim to the French throne, and Joan of Arc's 6 month-long rally in 1429 that inspired the French to drive the English back to the French port of Calais. Unfortunately, after she helped to gain the cowardly dauphin Charles VII the throne of France, Joan was captured in battle by the English, who hated her and gleefully handed her over to church authorities who tried her as a witch and heretic. The ungrateful Charles didn't attempt to save her and she was burned at the stake on May 30, 1341.
B. The Aftermath of the Era of Crisis: Not surprisingly, all over Europe, these multiple disasters increased the peoples' feelings of fear, superstition, pessimism, fatalism, and religiosity. Nowhere are these feelings more graphically illustrated than in the paintings of the era. The well-known and highly stylized, almost cartoonlike "medieval" art, which lacked perspective and detailing gave way to very realistic figures. The themes turned deeply religious, emotionally intense, and introspective. Figures were depicted in tortured, writhing and contorted, greatly suffering poses. Christ's agony on the Cross was a great theme in many paintings, as was the "Dance of Death" which featured skeletons who cavorted among the living; as well as the Last Judgement which graphically showed the tortures of the damned. In literature, authors often mentioned the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Famine, War, Plague, and Death. These themes became very deeply embedded in the popular culture and the artistic community would continue to draw on them for inspiration well into the 15th century.
1. Changes in the Countryside: Ironically, the depop-ulation of Europe following the 14th century brought about drastic changes in the social, political and economic order of Europe. There were changes in land tenure and in the manorial system. In order to recover their prosperity, manor lords had to entice a smaller number of peasants back to work with greater incentives such as reductions in the peasants' manorial duties and a lightening of restrictions on their rights. Often peasants would hold out for a contractual relationship spelled out on paper and worked to get a rent-based agreement instead of the labor-service based one. Thus serfdom began increasingly to break down in Europe. Peasants also worked to obtain the right to sell their own produce on the open market in nearby towns, or even to ship their produce to areas farther afield. This mechanism broke down manorialism's subsistence-based, closed economy (the manor grows what the manor eats--no more, no less).
2. Changes in the Town: As towns were repopulated, they developed new urban institutions to replace the old ones which had contributed to the economic stagnation of the late13th century. For example:
a. The Guild System broke down because of the deaths of so many master craftsmen. The remaining artisans were able to charge higher fees for their goods regardless of guild directives. In addition, the demand for workers in the towns neccessitated higher wages. Guild guidelines on these issues and others increasingly became disruptive of civil order and ultimately caused the guilds to become marginalized and increasingly irrelevant.
b. Bankers, insurers, and individual entrepreneurs now found, with the decline of guild influence in the marketplace, that the economy was open to them. They gradually came to make up a whole new breed of townsman who made his wealth through trade: the middle class capitalist. These merchants, wealthy enough to buy their education and interested in expanding their trade, were responsible for inventing new ways of handling money and trade transactions. Many of the mechanisms of modern banking--lines of credit, check writing, loans, simple and compound interest payments, and investment--all developed in the following century. These merchants also did much to create modern bureaucracies staffed by literate, highly-trained experts who worked for a salary (rather than feudal obligation or Chivalric code, etc.) These changes, which contributed to the overall, longrange decline of the feudal world of the Middle Ages, would be instrumental in ushering in the period of the Renaissance in western Europe. This Renaissance would have its beginnings in the Italian city-states of Florence, Genoa, and Venice.
Lecture 4:  Fifteenth Century Europe:  Cultural Changes:  The Renaissance.
A. The Renaissance Marks a Rebirth of Learning: Renaissance is a French term which means rebirth or revival. In European history, it is roughly a 200 year period from the beginning of the 15th to the end of the 16th centuries, during which time there was a strong revival of learning, spurred on by the activities of the newly wealthy classes and their interest in educational pursuits. More specifically, the Renaissance marked a rediscovery of ancient Greek and Roman ideas, art, culture and philosophy. The intellectuals of the time engaged in a bit of snobbery and coined the word Renaissance to distinguish their own enlightenment from the squalor and barbarism which had characterized the medieval world since the fall of the Roman Empire.
1. The End of Medieval Scholasticism: Indeed, the thinkers of the day sincerely believed that they were responsible for "rescuing" European civilization from the Dark Ages, a thousand year stretch of stagnation into which the Catholic church had led it. It is true that the medieval world had been dominated by the church and the prevailing intellectual theme of the Middle Ages had been Scholasticism, in which all learning was aimed at a better understanding of the fundamental truths of Christianity by defining, systematizing, and reasoning. By the time of the Renaissance, scholasticism had taken on the meaning of those who insisted on a narrow-minded, reactionary, and pedantic insistence on religious tradition.
2. The Birth of Humanism and Individualism in Learning: Renaissance scholars engaged in a new philosophy of learning, that of Humanism, which emphasized the "humane" literature of the ancient classical writers who had regarded man as a living person interacting in a vital, dynamic world. These "Humanist" scholars initially studied rhetoric, or literary prose composition and exposition. They soon began to delve into other areas such as history, astronomy, physics, mathematics, chemistry, medicine, poetry, philosophy, politics, and the fine arts. The entire focus of scholarship thus shifted away from otherworldly contemplations to more mundane, or secular ones. Thus, by extension, the focus was away from God and religion, to man and society. Individualism became the byword of the Humanists. Whatever study contributed to the better understanding of the individual in his life in the here-and-now was fodder for the Humanists. Renaissance individualism was characteristized by the search for great heroes and great accomplishments--the person was elevated over the spirit.
3. The Ideal of the "Renaissance Man:" The ideal Renaissance man was one who had an insatiable curiosity, broad interests and many talents. He should be the master of all he undertook or studied, and he should be engaged in studying many things. He should work toward developing a sharp, critical, questioning mind which did not rely on unquestioning faith; and, he should work toward maximizing his potential throughout his lifetime. Even now, we have a certain awe and respect for someone who is talented in several different pursuits simultaneously. The most famous Renaissance men during the time were Lorenzo de Medici "The Magnificent" of Florence--capitalist, banker, politician, and patron of the arts; Leonardo daVinci--painter, sculptor, architect and inventor; Michaelangelo--painter and sculptor; Galileo--physics (discovered the law of falling objects), mathematics (dynamics and motion), astronomy (developed the telescope and produced evidence to support Copernicus' theory that the Earth revolves around the sun); and, Niccolo Machiavelli--formulated early principles of scientific statesmanship and founded the modern study of political science. Other notables are Dante (Divine Comedy); Petrarch ("the Father of Humanism"); Boccaccio (The Decameron).
B. Why the Renaissance Began in the Italian City-States: As was mentioned in the previous lecture, the Italian city-states of Venice, Genoa, and Florence had had a head start in the creation of wealth in the aftermath of the Crisis of the 14th Century. Obviously, Italy was the initial center of the Renaissance because the ruins and remains of the Roman Empire stimulated curiosity about this past civilization. In addition, these city-states were proximate to the advanced civilizations of the Byzantines, Muslim Arabs, and Ottoman Turks, with whom they were impressed and from whom they received new ideas. Indeed, these eastern civilizations had been the repository of much of western Europe's culture and learning since the collapse of Roman rule. Many Renaissance scholars found, to their surprise, that copies of supposedly long-lost ancient Greek or Roman texts could be found written in Arabic script in some Islamic library in the Muslim world. The vast quantities of money flowing into these city-states from their middleman control of trade goods destined for western European markets freed the newly wealthy classes to enjoy the leisurely pursuit of knowledge and allowed the educated to fancy themselves patrons of the arts. Most of the great works of Renaissance art and civic beautification projects were commissioned by rich Renaissance men who wanted to be surrounded by the things they had studied in books. The Renaissance also stimulated the development of a new form of economic organization--capitalism; while, in turn, capitalism allowed for the further evolution of the Renaissance.
1. The Development of Capitalism: Capitalism is the economic system in which private individuals invest money in order to make more money. They let their money work for them. This springs from a natural human impulse--whatever their form of government--to make a profit and to advance themselves and their families. The capitalistic motive has always existed; however, after the fall of the Roman Empire, western civilization disintegrated and money all but went out of circulation for hundreds of years. At the height of the Crusades in the 12th and 13th centuries, soldiers returning from the Holy Lands not only brought back tales of the great and wonderful Muslim civilization they fought against but they also brought back a taste for earstern trade goods such as spices and silks. The Italian city-states gained notariety both for their work in ferrying the Crusaders from Europe over to Constantinople and the Holy Lands and for coming back on the return voyage loaded with those eastern goods. With the sack of a fellow Christian city, Constantinople, during the Fourth Crusade in 1204, the Venetians gained control over the failing Byzantine Empire for the next 50 years, together with all its wealth and its control over the east-west caravan routes. Thus, the Venetians became the earliest of the Italian city-states to gain the capital neccessary to finance both the Renaissance and overseas expansion. Even following their ouster from Constantinople in 1261, the Venetians continued, by virtue of their superior fleet, to control the sea-based trade routes and maintain dominance in the eastern Mediterranean, Adriatic, Aegean, and Black Seas. Genoa and Florence soon followed suit. During the Renaissance, Italian merchants began to accumulate vast fortunes from east-west trade, they looked for ways to invest their capital.
2. Early Investment Opportunities: They began by lending it to various kings, who were always strapped for cash, so they could raise their own paid armies, thus liberating them from dependence on the feudal nobility for the raising of troops. This political dynamic was responsible for the ultimate ascendency of European monarchs over their aristocracy which not only caused the further decline of feudalism, but led to the period of political absolutism of the 17th century. Not coincidentally, there was a veritable explosion of great monarchs of the 15th and 16th centuries, many of whom were contemporaries of each other: Ivan the Terrible, Suleyman the Magnificent, Henry VIII & Elizabeth I, Francis I, Philip II, Charles V, Shah Ismail. Renaissance capitalists also invested in newfangled enterprises, the earliest precursors of the corporation--the Chartered Trading Company and the Joint Stock Company. These new organizations would get involved in brand-new overseas investment opportunities.
C. The Renaissance Moves Northward: By the middle of the 16th century, Italy had begun to decline as a center of the Renaissance. By then, most of the important trade routes were via the Atlantic, therefore the Mediterranean declined as an entrepot for eastern goods. Thus, most of the more notable advances of this movement began to be made in the Netherlands, France, and England, while Portugal and Spain took the early lead in overseas exploration. As the Renaissance shifted northward, its character changed, coming to differ significantly from the Italian in several respects.
1. Northern (Religious) Humanism: The classical studies that had been introduced to the north by students who had studied in Italy brought with it the Humanist bent in philosophy. Both northern and southern Humanism rejected medieval scholarship and valued classical civilization; however, the north was less concerned with sensuality, aesthetics, and the enjoyment of life, which had characterized the Italian Renaissance. Ironically, northern Humanism became more religious in nature and was concerned with purifying the Christian religion and encouraging a return to Simple Christian Piety. The northern Humanists attacked the abuses of the Church; they deemphasized ritual observance as the core of relgious life; they worked to refine the Bible by going back to the original Hebrew and Greek texts; and, in education, Classicism became the paramount style--education was changed to favor what came to be known as the "Humanities," from the Humanists' interest in classical civilizations.
2. The Invention of Printing: The northern Humanists' desire to reform the Bible and attack the abuses of the Church naturally led them to conclude that the public ought to be able to read the Bible for themselves and thus be liberated from church dictates. Toward those ends, a German printer by the name of Johann Gutenberg invented movable type and created the first mass-produced copy of the Bible in 1450. These Gutenberg Bibles circulated widely and were printed in the vernacular--common native languages. Soon, all manner of literature, most of it directed toward self-help ("how to" books), cookbooks, and dime novels (the "Blue Books") all were tremendously popular. In addition, northern Renaissance literature seemingly became more nostalgic as it began to feature elements of medieval popular culture.
3. Political Changes: In the area of politics, the northern Renaissance saw an increase in pomp and ceremony which was commensurate with the rise of the proto-absolutist national monarchies. Also, the more independence European monarchs gained from their feudal aristocracy, the more they became interested in military contests and conquest, both in Europe and abroad as they gained overseas empire. Finally, and probably most importantly, the northern European Renaissance witnessed these newly powerful, independent monarchs' first attempts to gain control over the Catholic churches within their realms. This contest for preeminence between the church and the state in European politics will be known as the Reformation.
Lecture 5:  Sixteenth Century Europe:  Cultural Changes--The Reformation.
A. The Causes of the Reformation: The Reformation, or the challenge to papal authority, was inevitable as conditions changed in Europe as a result of the Renaissance.
1. Widening Horizons--Individualism & Nationalism: As social, physical, and intellectual horizons widened, the Catholic Church was increasingly seen to be inadequate for the changing times. The emphasis on individualism and the corporeal (rather than spiritual) world, the new focus on nationalism and capitalism, and, the spread of the printing press and vernacular Bibles to an increasingly literate public all threatened the position of the Church.
2. Resistance from National Monarchies: It could not continue to be both a religious and a political institution, because the newly emergent powerful monarchs and their rising nationalities would not accept political interference from outside their own boundaries: directives from Rome might conflict with national interests. For example, the Church tried citizens in their own courts; it owned vast amounts of land in various countries; and, was exempt from many domestic taxes. Kings also disliked the moral curbs placed on their policies and behaviors.
3. Capitalists' Concerns: In addition, Renaissance interest in capitalism promoted the idea that strong national governments could better protect trade and profit than a far away Church; and, the business classes came to resent any of their national wealth that was siphoned off by tithes to Rome; and, came to severely criticize and resist the canonical prohitions against the taking of interest on loans, and the concept of the profit motive itself. In short, the northern Renaissance became the cancer that ate away at, and ultimately destroyed, the foundations of Europe's religious unity.
B. Earlier Threats to Church Influence: In 1303, the Pope, Boniface VIII asserted papal supremacy over the French king, Philip IV's attempt to tax the church on French soil. Philip responded by taking the Pope prisoner; and shortly afterward, a Frenchman, Clement V, became Pope and moved the papal see to Avignon. From then until 1378, the popes all lived at Avignon and this period in history is known as the "Babylonian Captivity." In the interim, a great deal of anti-papal sentiment had been growing. In 1378, Pope Gregory XI's decision to return to Rome precipitated a crisis known as the Great Schism in which several competing popes were elected by their own factions in their respective countries. Finally, in 1417, as a result of the Conciliar Movement, the Council of Constance (1414-1417)was convened and the Great Schism was healed with the election of a pope who satisfied all disputants. This debacle did much to damage the prestige of the papacy among many Europeans.
1. Abuses Within the Church: Even popes had become patrons of the arts as a result of the Renaissance and they needed money to finance their collections. They therefore began the practice of simony (the sale of church offices) to the highest bidder as a means of expanding their income. Not only were the clergy thus elected unfit for their duties, but there were many cases in which a person held several Church offices at the same time.In addition, many clergymen ignored their vows of celibacy and openly kept mistresses on the side. There was also the famous problem of the sale of dispensations and indulgences. A dispensation was a remission from Church laws which permitted a person to do something normally against canon law (like marrying one's cousin); while an indulgence was a remission from punishment due to sins forgiven during confession. The theory was that the souls of people who had committed venal (rather than mortal) sins had to spend a certain time after death in an intermediate mini-Hell called Purgatory. There they were to be "purged" of those sins in preparation for salvation. The living could "give" a "contribution" to the Church for an indulgence which could shorten the time their dead relative spent in Purgatory. Finally, there was the sale of false sacred relics which the Church passed off as authentic. Noah's Ark could have been built with pieces of the True Cross. The income from these sources allowed the Church to finance the building of St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. The public came to believe that the Church cared more about its own financial wellbeing than their spiritual one.
2. Various Early "Heretical" Movements: In the 14th and 15th centuries, there were several attempts at reform that, although ultimately failed, did pave the way for the Reformation. The most important of these early reformers were:
a. John Wycliffe (1320-84), a priest and theologian at Oxford who attacked the Church because of its wealth, its political power, and the worldliness of its clergy. He denied the supremacy of the Pope; believed in the primacy of the Scriptures; denied transubstantiation; expressed his opposition to war; and, condemned various practices of the Church such as the sacraments, confession, pilgrimage, and clerical celibacy. He believed in predestination and also translated the Bible into English which was against Church doctrin, into order to enable the common people to read it for themselves and gain guidance by it. His followers were known as the Lollards, and after his death, they were ruthlessly persecuted and driven underground where their movement survived until the advent of the Reformation. Another pre-Reformation radical was
b. Jan Huss (1369-1415), a Bohemian, or Czech, priest who picked up Wycliffe's teachings in order to spread them throughout Central Europe. Huss was promised safe passage by the Council of Constance which desired only to question him. The Council treacherously reneged on its promise when Huss arrived, and promptly excommunicated, arrested, and tried him as a heretic. He was found guilty and was burned at the stake. Huss' supporters jumpstarted the Hussite Wars (1419-34) a series of rebellions that were ultimately suppressed by the Holy Roman Emperor's armies.
C. Martin Luther (1483-1546) Starts the Reformation: Martin Luther was born in Saxony, in central Germany. Because from an early age he was convinced that he was damned, he became an Augustinian friar and professor of theology at the University of Wittenberg. As a Catholic monk, he practiced the traditional penances but remained uneasy about his salvation. Thus, Luther began to question certain aspects of Christianity, such as the sinfulness of the individual vs. the justice of God. How does a sinful person attain the righteousness necessary to gain salvation? He deduced that sinners couldn't earn salvation through good works and attention to sacraments. Human salvation comes from faith alone, through the redeeming sacrifice of Jesus Christ. This led him to question other aspects of Church practices, such as simony, pluralism, the sale of indulgences, and clerical celebacy.
1. The Ninety-five Theses: Since Luther believed that monetary donations had no control over salvation, when papal agents came to Germany in 1517 to further the sale of indulgences, Luther responded by nailing his Ninety-five Theses to the door of the Wittenberg Cathedral. These Theses made statements about, and challenged the sale of, indulgences. The Theses made him the hero of religiously discontented groups who gravitated around Luther and encouraged him to broaden his attack. Also, townsmen supported Luther because they believed that he accepted the concept of making money. However, at the time, Luther was attempting to encourage reform of the Church, not its division. At any rate, he went on to deny the authority of the Pope; and, insisted on the final authority of the Bible which individuals should be able to read for themselves. In other words, Luther advocated a "priesthood of all believers." He also appealed to the princes of the German principalities to undertake these reforms if the Church wouldn't do it. He also took the opportunity to renounce his vow of celebacy and married an ex-nun who agreed with his philosophy. In response, Pope Leo X excommunicated him in 1520.
2. The Diet of Worms: In 1521, Luther was ordered to appear before the general assembly of German princes (300 of them!) of the Holy Roman Empire, known as the Diet, in the city of Worms. He was to explain his beliefs while they were to consider action against him. Luther wanted to encourage their assistance; however, the princes, were afraid of both the Pope and Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V. Thus caught in the middle, they were reluctant to openly support Luther, but secretly, they saw an opportunity to increase their own power if the Church could be curbed. Charles V, a conservative who wanted to maintain his own power base, was firmly behind the Pope and managed to get the princes to ask Luther to recant: he refused and the princes were forced to declare Luther a heretic and passed a law outlawing him and his teachings. He was able to go into hiding because some of his princely friends worked behind the scenes to hide him out for nearly a year. Ultimately, however, the Lutheran Reformation was successful in Germany because the princes were crypto-reformist themselves and stalled Charles' pro-Catholic efforts; and, Charles himself, was distracted by his rivalry with the French over wars of conquest in Italy.
3. Popular Revolts and the Spread of Lutheranism: Peasants saw Luther's attack on authority as a sanction for rebellion; and thus galvanized, they organized themselves into a separate church, the Protestant, or Lutheran, church. Lutheranism spread quickly from Germany into the rest of Scandinavia, all of which established National Protestant, or Lutheran, Churches. Unfortunately, the act of denying the authority of the Pope led to bloodshed. In the Peasants' Rebellion, peasant leaders in Germany took the opportunity to demand better conditions and, united under the Lutheran banner, they attempted to overthrow serfdom. Likewise, in the Knights' War, German princes declared themselves to be Lutheran and used it as an excuse to seize Church lands and plunder the Catholics' wealth. This situation was denounced by Luther, who believed these uprisings were actually threatening the legitimacy of his message. Finally, in 1555, the Holy Roman Emperor was forced to agree to the Peace of Augsburg, which allowed for popular sovereignty among the princes as to which religion they and their subjects would declare themselves to be.
Lecture 6: Lecture Protestants, Catholics and the Wars of Religion.
While Lutheranism was essentially sober, restrained, and moderate in nature as it spread throughout Germany and Scandinavia, the Protestant wave produced far reaching religious change in other areas in Europe. In this, the extremist second phase of Protestantism, the tone became radicalized, totalitarian, and intolerant.
A. The Increasing Radicalization of the Movement: In Switzerland, two individuals, Ulrich Zwingli (1448-1531) and John Calvin (1509-1564) contributed to Protestantism.
1. Ulrich Zwingli: Zwingli, a vicar in Zurich, started the movement and drew his main support from the guilds in Switzerland. His theological ideas differed in two main respects from Luther's. First, Luther had kept 2 sacraments, baptism and the Eucharist, in Lutheranism but Zwingli regarded even these last two as meaningless symbols, thus he discarded them. Second, Zwingli advocated revolution. His brand of religion was called "Reformed Protestantism," and advocated a union of church and state, but it caused such tensions to develop between the Protestants and Catholics in Switzerland that civil war broke out in 1531. The Catholics won out but Zwingli was captured and executed in the fighting. Both sides signed a peace treaty in 1531 resembling that of the Lutheran Knights' War in which each canton was allowed to decide its own religion.
2. John Calvin: However, the most powerful of the new crop of Protestants was John Calvin. He was a French lawyer and itinerant preacher who was forced to escape to Geneva in 1536 because his ideas were so radical. While he was unsuccessful in his native country, his ideas took off once he was able to broadcast them from abroad. He thus became the leader of the French Reformation from Switzerland. Unlike Lutheranist nationalism, Calvin's message was agressively international and missionary in its approach; it was willing to use the military when necessary; and, it made the state subservient to the church only because Calvin didn't consider himself a secular leader but a religious one, and thus, his political constructs were self-servingly designed to enhance his own religious ambitions.
3. Terrible Idiosyncracies Creep into Calvin's Message: Calvin referred to the scriptures more frequently and avidly than Luther had; interpreted them more narrowly; and, enforced his interpretations more rigidly. In other words, since Calvin's own personality was variously dogmatic, monomoniacal, and absolutist, the church he envisioned developed likewise. Because of this, as Calvinism spread, it was able to maintain a great deal of uniformity because most of its clergy were trained in Geneva. At any rate, Calvin's church allowed the general congregation to participate in church functions and to make decisions about its government within a body known as the Presbytery. But above this body there was a hierarchy of courts which turned out a network of espionage agents who not only undertook the surveillance of public morality with ruthless efficiency but, as overlapping agencies, spied on one another as well. The most well-known doctrine of Calvinism was that of Predestination, or the idea that God, who knows the past, present, and future, must know beforehand which people will be saved or damned. Calvin personally viewed man as sinful and corrupt and not deserving of salvation, but those who are saved are known as "The Elect." One could gain knowlege of whether or not he was among the elect by working hard and living a sternly moral, religious life. If he became rich and successful in his lifetime, it was a sign that God had favored him to be among the elect after his death. This facet of Calvinism advanced the development of capitalism by introducing the idea of The Work Ethic: work was not only a yardstick of electhood, it was also a way of avoiding idleness which was the playground of the Devil.
4. Calvin's Theocracy: While he was in Geneva, Calvin was invited to help organize a Protestant Church which gave him his first opportunity to try out his ideas. Because of continued religious unrest there, the city council invested him with strong political powers. As a result, by 1555, Calvin became the absolute dictator of a totalitarian theocracy. He forbade any outward show of ostentation; dancing and merrymaking. He also created an Index of Prohibited Books. Geneva became a city ruled by a church, since only those whom Calvin regarded as the faithful could vote and hold office. A contemporary wrote, "never was such a busybody in a position of high authority." Being a dictator, Calvin tolerated no opinion but his own; and, as a result, in 5 years 58 people were executed as heretics and 70 others were banished.
5. The Radical Extremist Wing of Protestants: The most extremist of the Protestant sects were the Anabaptists, which comes from a Greek word meaning "to baptize again." They rejected the practice of child baptism and required members to be baptized again as adults. The Anabaptists, who came mostly from the worker and peasant classes, wanted to return to the practices of the early Christian church which had been an association of voluntary believers with no connection to the state. They gained control of the city of Munster in Germany and forced all other Catholics and Protestants to either convert or get out. They then abolished all private property, established a communist state, and followed Old Testament practices, including polygamy. A combined army of Protestants and Catholics defeated the Anabaptists in 1535. They subsequently adopted pacifism and avoided all contact with the state. Their descendants are the Mennonites (founded by Menno Simons, 1496-1561), and the Amish. (The Quakers are a 17th century offshoot of Puritan Separatists, as were the Pilgrims, and Shakers are an 18th century offshoot of the Quakers).
B. The Spread of Calvinism Around Europe: Strangely enough, many people around Europe were eager to adopt Calvinism.
1. In France: French Calvinists, the Huguenots, had been subjected to repeated persecutions, banishments, and wholesale massacres since 1517. In spite of this, French Calvinism spread, even into the upper classes. However, since the bulk of them were an important middle class element, they had been contributing greatly to the French economy. With every persecution, the French economy would take a nosedive. In addition, a total of 9 civil wars broke out between 1562 and 1589, which would also contribute to economic chaos. At one particularly brutal event, the St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre, some 20,000 Huguenots were slaughtered at the order of the Queen Mother, Catherine de Medici. So, in 1598, the new king Henry IV, a Huguenot, issued the Edict of Nantes which granted toleration to the Huguenots. The revocation of the Edict in 1685 by Louis XIV led to a massive flight of 500,000 Huguenots from France to various Protestant countries in Europe and then on to the north American colonies. France was crippled by this brain drain for generations to come. Their civil rights weren't restored until 1787.
2. In Holland and Scotland: In Holland, the Dutch Reformed Church became the dominant dominant religion and it preached Calvinism. The official state religion of Scotland became Presbyterianism, which was established by John Knox, a disciple of Calvin's back in Switzerland.
3. In England: In England, Henry VIII (1491-1547), broke with the Catholic church over the Pope's refusal to grant him a divorce from Catherine of Aragon. Parliament passed the Act of Supremacy (1534) which established an independent Anglican Church of England (whose practices were still largely Catholic) and made the king its head. This act was welcomed by most Englishmen who were infected by the Protestant movement taking place on the continent. His daughter Mary I was a Catholic, like her mother, and tried by force to restore the old religion, thus earning her the nickname of Bloody Mary. During the course of his second daughter Elizabeth I's reign, Protestant Anglicanism was firmly established in England.
4. The Results of the Protestant Movement: In the long run, the Protestant Reformation and its philosophers, had a profound effect on the development of other movements such as capitalism, liberalism, democracy, and nationalism by the way they interpreted the Bible, the role of the church in society, and the people's role in the church. Politically, the Reformation was a victory of the state over the church, which ultimately led to the separation of church and state. Calvinism was important in this movement because it opened the avenues by which the average layperson could participate in the decisionmaking of an institution that supposedly had authority over him, thus accustoming average people to the idea of participatory government. Protestantism was therefore a major step toward the development of Democracy because the essentially Humanist base of its philosophy emphasized the rights of the individual, and provided an important precedent of successful revolt against powerful authority. On the negative side, the Reformation broke down the monolithic power of the Catholic church and thus paved the way for the development of political absolutism
C. The Wars of Religion in Europe: One of the major results of the Reformation was the end of religious unity in Europe. Henceforth, Italy, Spain, France, Belgium, Ireland, southern Germany, Austria, Poland, and Hungary remained primarily Catholic; while, Holland, England, Scotland, northern Germany, Switzerland, and Scandinavia became Protestant. An immediate result of this division was the growth of religious intolerance during the 16th and 17th centuries. A series of religious wars broke out, some of which we've mentioned in the course of talking about the Reformation: the civil wars in Germany with the Lutherans; the civil war in Switzerland with Zwingli and Calvin; the civil war in France involving the Huguenots. But the most famous of these religious wars was the 30 Years' War (1618-48). The conflict was between the Protestants (led by Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden) and the Catholics (led by the Hapsburg rulers of Austria). Ultimately, it became a dynastic struggle as the French (pro-Protestant) and the Spanish (pro-Catholic) got sucked into the conflict. The battleground was the German lands of the Holy Roman Empire. It was the most brutal and destructive war up until the world wars of the 20th century and nearly caused the economic and political collapse of Germany. The war ended with the Treaty of Westphalia which resulted in France becoming more powerful, the emergence of the Netherlands and England as international players, and the gradual decline of Spain.
D. The Catholics' Counter-Reformation: The Counter-reformation began in Spain with the introduction of the
1. The Inquisition: The Holy Office, or the Inquisition had its roots in the 13th century. However, it was reconvened in 1492 after the Spanish Reconquista as a patriotic move in order to purge the country of Moslems and Jews and thus unify the state, but also to achieve higher standards for the clergy and stamp out heresies. This Inquisition was carried forward with the advent of Protestantism and was used elsewhere, in France and Italy, where Catholic influence was strong.
2. New Monastic Orders: In addition, the Catholic Church created several new monastic orders such as the Theatines, the Capuchins (who were a branch of the Franciscans), and Ursulines. The most famous of these, however, was the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, founded in 1540 by Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish former soldier. The Jesuits, organized with intense discipline and militancy, dedicated themselves to win back Protestants, combat heresy, and spread Catholicism through missionary activity abroad. They became the paramilitary "shock troops" of the Catholic church. They actively involved themselves in politics and used intrigue and even force whenever necessary.
3. The Council of Trent 1545-63: The Church also convened the Council of Trent in 1545 which not only undertook extensive internal reforms between 1545-1563, but also published its own Index of Prohibited Books in 1557. While the Inquisition and even the Counter-reformation itself petered out by the end of the 16th century, the Jesuits continued strong for over 200 years.
Lecture 7: The Ottoman Empire and the Muscovy.
A. Early Russian History, 6th-15th Centuries: In the 6th and 7th century, Viking traders, known as the Varangians, entered the loosely, tribally organized Slavic area that corresponds to present-day Kiev and established an overland trade route that stretched as far south as Constantinople, in the Byzantine Empire. The Slavs contributed timber, caviar and fish, furs, and amber to this growing trading nexus.
1. Rurik Establishes Kievan Rus: As a result of contacts with the Byzantines, the Slavs were able to establish various governments along the main trade route south, and the legendary Slavic merchant Rurik founded a tsardom in Kiev in 855, thus establishing the state known as Kievan Rus. Rurik and his aristocratic descendants ruled Russia until 1598. Since Kiev's main focus was toward Constantinople, it was natural that it would derive much of its civilization from the Byzantines.
2. Russia Converts to Christianity: For example, in the 9th century, the Greek Orthodox Saints Cyril and Methodius went north from Byzantium in order to Christianize the Slavs. In so doing, they had to create an alphabet for the Slavs, based on the Greek alphabet and named Cyrillic, so they could record and transmit the liturgy. Prince Vladimir I, who converted to Christianity in 989, ordered his people to do likewise, and thus the Russian Orthodox Church was founded. Unfortunately, Russia did not have the rule of primogeniture to keep feudal fiefdoms intact, thus holdings became increasingly fragmented. As a result, by the 12th century, Kiev began to decline as rival princes set up their own regional governments and disputes arose over succession to the throne.
3. Mongol Invasion: Since the Russian aristocracy, or Boyars, were less powerful than their feudal counterparts in the west, Kievan Rus was unable to fight off the Mongol invasion of 1236. This catastrophic event brought about the demise of Kievan Rus as the Mongols of the Golden Horde under Batu Khan created their own government and further separated Russia from contacts with the west. All trade and communication with the west ceased for the next 2 centuries, and Russian culture became more influenced by Oriental patterns during the Mongol period. As a result, Russia missed out on the major advances of the Renaissance and, as the Mongols encouraged its political fragmentation as well, Russians lost whatever nationalistic sentiment they may have had.
B. The Rise of Muscovy: Since Kiev was on the steppes, it was open to invasion; therefore, resistance to the Mongols had to come from another quarter. Moscow, which was in the forest thickets on the Volga riverine system, became the new center. Its prince, Ivan Kalitsa ("Moneybags"), was the chief tax farmer for the Mongols in his region. He kept a portion of the take and thus Moscow gradually began to dominate the entire northwest. In 1480, the Grand Duke Ivan III "The Great" refused to send on the annual tribute of taxes, defied a Mongol army sent against him, and soon afterward, established Moscow as the capital of a new Russian state.
1. Ivan IV Grozny, or "The Terrible" (1533-1584): His successor, Ivan IV, became the first Tsar of Russia; and, under his leadership, Muscovy was soon able to expand eastward, driving out the Mongols, reconquering old Russian territories and incorporating new Siberian lands. Ivan was responsible for establishing many of the institutions that we come to recognize as uniquely Russian. For example, he concentrated political power and established the absolute autocracy which came to characterize tsarism. The tsar was known as "Tsar Batushka," or "little father." He knew best and his will was unquestioned and, as such, he had the power of life and death over his subjects without being subject to any laws himself. The present governments continue to rule with the same kind of autocratic absolutism. In addition, in order to fight the Mongols, Ivan had to give total control of the peasantry over to the Boyars, thus establishing the institution of serfdom in Russia at precisely the same time it was going out of style in the west. This would contribute to retarding Russia's economic development well into the 19th and 20th centuries. And finally, since Constantinople had fallen to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, the new Russian state no longer had a Byzantine Empire to emulate. Ivan therefore invented the theory that Russia was heir to Byzantine civilization, which had itself been heir to Roman civilization. Moscow became the "Third Rome," hence Ivan's adoption of the term "tsar," or "caesar," and from his time onward, Russians have used their mission to protect Orthodox Christians as an excuse to meddle abroad.
2. Ivan's Increasing Distemper: In his later years, Ivan became increasingly violent and tyrannical. Bouts of insane fury alternated with periods of repentence and prayer. Some claim it was because of the abuse and humiliation he suffered at the hands of the Boyars while he was a child. But, as an old man, he retaliated by creating the Oprichnina, a corps of secret police whom he alone controlled. He set these Oprichniks against the Boyars with sadistic ruthlessness and instituted a reign of terror until he had crushed them. In one particular fit of rage, he even murdered his own son and heir, the very able and promising Ivan. Ivan the Terrible may have also been married at least seven times; each time he tired of a wife, he'd either force her into a convent or arrange to have her murdered.
3. The Time of Troubles and the Rise of the Romanovs: Upon Ivan's death, he was temporarily succeeded by his weak and incompetant son Feodor I (1584-98). With his death, an assembly of Boyars elected Ivan's favorite, Boris Godunov to the throne, but with his death in 1605, civil war broke out. During this "Time of Troubles," political anarchy reigned since no single Boyar could gain control of the throne and 4 different pretenders (the false Dmitris) arose, all claiming to be the long-lost son of Ivan the Terrible. Finally, by 1613, all sides were sick of the political chaos and even the Boyars were moved to elect the 17 year old nephew of Ivan, Michael Romanov, as tsar. His heirs ruled Russia until 1917.
C. Early Ottoman History, 6th-15th Centuries: The nomadic Turkic peoples began to migrate westward out of Mongolia and Central Asia sometime in the 6th-7th centuries. The first civilization they came in contact with were the Muslims of the Abbasid Caliphate in Baghdad. Due to their barbarism and warlike nature, the Turkic tribesmen (who were pagans and animists) were converted to Islam and gradually recruited into the Caliphal armies as mercenary soldiers.
1. The Seljuks and Ottomans: By the 900s, the tribe of the Seljuk Turks had come to dominate the Caliphate as secular rulers, their general having been given the title of Sultan (Commander of the Faithful). By the 1200s, other waves of nomadic Turkic tribes had also entered the Caliphate, and these groups were stationed on the march borderlands between the Christian Byzantine Empire and Muslim Abbasid lands in Asia Minor. The Ottoman Turks, led by a semi-legendary tribal chieftain named Osman Bey, was one among many such leaders whom the Seljuk sultans had granted a feudal fiefdom sometime between 1280 and 1300. His instructions were to make religious war, or Jihad, against the infidel from that fiefdom.
2. Gradual Destruction of the Byzantine Empire: By the 14th century, the Byzantine Empire was no longer in a position to push the Turks back, thus Osman and his successors were fabulously successful in eating away at the shrinking Byzantine state by bypassing Constantinople and conquering Thrace, thus cutting the capital off from Europe. Dynastic struggles within the Byzantine court contributed to its demise as the Ottoman Turks were recruited by one or another of the contenders to the throne. By 1453, the Ottomans had not only conquered all the way up into the Danube Valley, but had captured Constantinople, as well, under Sultan Mehmed II "The Conqueror."
3. The Nature of Ottoman Administration: The Ottoman Empire was able to skyrocket to power and prominence in world affairs because they instituted several novel approaches to statecraft.
a. First, the Ottomans were lucky in having produced a long line of able rulers who were also field commanders of the army. As princes, most of these sultans had gained military and political experience by being taken by their fathers on campaign as wing commanders and by being posted to provincial duty as governmors and administrators. They thus had a firm grasp on the nature and extent of their imperial duties upon becoming sultan themselves.
b. Second, the Ottomans instituted a religio-political system on their subject peoples called the Millet System. This system separated the various subjects not by nationality or language, but by religion. There was the Muslim, Orthodox Christian, Jewish, and Armenian millets; and, each of these had a religious head: the Grand Mufti, the Patriarch of Constantinople, the Grand Rabbi, and the Catholicos, respectively. Each of these individuals was responsible for maintaining order within his own millet and functioned as the two-way conduit between the sultan and his subjects. These confessional groups were kept segregated from one another in their own neighborhoods in the city and were required through sumptuary laws to maintain a strict dress code which identified their millet affiliation. When confessionally mixed groups met on the city streets, they could tell the religion and status of others and whether or not they should bow or concede or take the right of way. This kept mixups from happening and prevented conflicts from breaking out between relgious groups.
c. Third, the Ottomans discovered the talents and abilities of each of their subject peoples and made good use of them. The Greeks, for example, had a talent for seamanship and languages. They thus predominated in the Ottoman navy and went into the Ottoman administration and ambassadorial corps as record keepers, translators, and emissaries. After 1492, the Ottomans sent an invitation to the Sephardic Jews of Spain to come and settle in the empire which they did by the thousands. The Ottomans welcomed them, gave them millet status, and derived great benefit from their trading and merchanting skills. The Serbs, Montenegrins, Albanians, and Circassians excelled at the art of war and were thus drafted into two Ottoman inventions, the Janissary Corps through the mechanism of the Devshirme. The Devshirme was also known as the "blood tax," or "the levy of boys," because the Ottomans would send out agents into Christian territories and collect a certain number of boys, ages 7-10; bring them back to Constantinople; convert them to Islam; and then, as slaves of the sultan, send them to the Palace school to learn the Ottoman language and the art of war and statecraft. Those who excelled became members of the Ottoman bureaucracy (tax collectors, record keepers, administrators, governors, generals, viziers and advisors to the sultan). Those who didn't excel went into the military units--the least able became bashibozuks or akinji (berserkers and raiders), then the yaya and müsellem (infantry and cavalry), and finally, the elite Janissary Corps. This group was given special prestige and often served as the personal force of the sultan himself.
d. Fourth, the Ottoman sultans began the practice of succession by fratricide, which allowed not the eldest, but the strongest and most cunning, to succeed to the throne. The other princes would immediately be put to death so they couldn't become a party to usurpation plots. This grim, but effective mechanism was responsible for keeping the sultanate strong and in the hands of the most capable candidate through the course of 10 sultans. In addition, the Ottomans maintained large harems of women from around the world. This practice prevented inbreeding which was common among the royal houses around the rest of Europe. And, to keep the women in this polygamous society from becoming involved in various palace conspiracies to put forward their own sons as "heirs apparent," the sultans dispensed with the practice of having a primary "queen" and secondary wives. As an alternative, the reigning sultan maintained all of his women as co-equal slave concubines, none of whom knew whose son would ultimately be favored by circumstance to become the next sultan.
e. Fifth, and finally, the Ottomans were among the first to take advantage of new military technologies as they came on the market. They were among the first to create whole corps dedicated to the new weaponry: they created an artillery corps (Topçu), grenadier (barutçu), engineering (Mühindizlik) and musketeer corps (Tufanci). When they lacked experts in a field, they imported them from abroad to teach the new techniques.
D. The Golden Age of the Ottomans Under Süleyman the Magnificent (1520-66): The nine previous sultans were all responsible for contributing to the grandeur and splendor of the Ottoman Empire at its height under Süleyman. He represented a pure distillation of the enormous personal power, ruthlessness, talent and energy of all of his successors, combined. Unfortunately, Süleyman took the first steps which would ultimately lead to the dissolution of the Ottoman state. First, he married his favorite concubine, a Ukrainian woman named Roxelana (Hürrem Sultan) who maneuvered her husband to designate her son, Selim, as the heir apparent. Instead of being eliminated in the game of survival of the fittest, he became Selim II, also known as "Selim the Sot." He was a weakling alcoholic who was ruled by his harem, instituting a century-long period known as the Sultanate of the Women. He left affairs of state in the hands of viziers who came to dominate state affairs. And finally, when he died, he designated an heir of his own, and thus, the Empire came to have a traditional system of succession which ultimately led to its demise. Rather than killing off his brothers, the ruling sultan kept these creatures in lifelong house arrest in a series of rooms in the palace known as "The Cage."
Lecture 8:  The Expansion of Europe:  Initial Phase and General effects, 1400-1600.
Overview: The European discovery of America was a complete accident: a momentous piece of serendipity on the part of men who had set out to look for something else. When it was discovered, nobody wanted it. And most of the exploration for the next 50 years afterwards was done in the hope of finding a way either through it or out around it. And finally, when it was accepted, it ended up being named for a man who had nothing to do with its discovery.
A. Revival of the Trade Routes: The contacts between Europe and the Far East go back to Greek and Roman antiquity. During the Dark Ages, after the fall of Rome in the 5th century, A.D., the Arabs and Islamic culture prevailed in the Mediterranean: it was they who preserved books and learning, created the first universities, advanced the sciences of mathematics, astronomy, and navigation, and conducted the vast majority of whatever trade there was between Far East and Far West. Crusaders returning from the Holy Lands in the Levant (modern-day Syria, Lebanon, and Israel) from the 11th-13th centuries, came back with glowing reports on the fabulous wealth, variety, and high culture of the Near East. Furthermore, as reports spread, missionaries like the Franciscan Friars who travelled to Persia, India, China, and Japan; and adventurers like the Polo Brothers (Nicolo, Maffeo, and Marco) who returned from visiting the Kublai Khan in China in the 13th century, all managed to revive an East-West trade that had all but disappeared. By 1400, all kinds of luxuries and necessities such as silks, precious stones, porcelain, carpets, knick-knacks, Japanese laquerware, gold and silver, and spices and drugs, were being carried in shipping lanes that ran from Asia to the head of the Persian Gulf. From there, items were unloaded, packed onto camel caravan, taken overland through Baghdad, to Beirut on the Mediterranean. There, they were reloaded onto ships bound for the Italian city-states--Venice, Genoa, and Florence--which acted as the middlemen in the goods' distribution to their final destinations. Along the way, the goods changed hands often and increased in price many times over. Other, more northerly routes such as the Silk Road consisted of long trips by very large camel caravans that crossed the whole of Asia. The Italian middlemen in this trade became merchant princes; while their cities, which monopolized the trade between the West and the Levant, grew into wealthy centers that ushered in the period of the Renaissance.
B. A Route to the Orient Leads to the New World: During the 15th century, the emerging nations of western Europe--Portugal, Spain, France, and England--became increasingly dissatisfied with the Italian monopoly on Levantine and Far Eastern trade and began to look around for a way to bypass the middlemen. They also objected to the length of time it took for goods to travel by caravan as well as the hazards imposed by predatory bandits along the way. In addition, the balance of trade was becoming increasingly unfavorable for these 4 nations as precious gold and silver supplies drained eastward, while mainly goods came west.
1. Portugal Leads the Way East: Portugal was the first European nation to establish direct contact with the Far East. Its mariners were trained in the school established in 1418 by Prince Henry the Navigator. In 1488, Bartolomeo Diaz sailed down the west coast of Africa and managed to round the Cape of Good Hope, before he was forced to turn back by his mutinous crew. Ten years later, Vasco de Gama attained fame by finally rounding the Horn and reaching India. Magellan landed in the Philippines; and another of his ships completed the first circumnavigation of the globe between 1519 and 1522. By the early 1500s then, Portuguese traders had established trading posts in Africa, India, China, Japan, and the East Indies, making Lisbon a very rich city. And in America, Brazil was accidentally discovered and claimed for Portugal by Pedro Cabral in 1500.
2. Spain Explores Westward to the New World: A very brash, self-confident, and conceited man was Christoforo Colombo, a Genoese sailor. For several years he tirelessly promoted a plan to establish a direct ocean route to the Indies by sailing due west. He figured the distance between the Canary Islands and Japan to be about 2400 miles as the crow flies, rather than the 10,600 miles that it actually was. Nobody really doubted at the time that he could do it, but they were better geographers than he, and they knew their distances. He demanded, among other things, 3 ships and a hereditary title to undertake the voyage, but there were no takers. Finally, Queen Isabella of Spain's intuition came to his aid and she agreed to finance his voyage. He set sail on Aug. 3, 1492 and finally reached the island of San Salvador in the Bahamas on Oct. 12 of that year. In this, and three later voyages Columbus discovered parts of the Americas. Although he was to die in disgrace and neglect because he failed to deliver on his promise to get to the Indies (he died still clinging to his belief that he had discovered some part of the East Indies), he alone predicted the value of the New World for humanity: "By the Divine Will I have placed under the sovereignty of the King and Queen an Other World, whereby Spain, which was reckoned poor, is to become the richest of all countries."
3. Conquistadors and Colonists: Soon, others were also exploring the Americas and the competition became so stiff between Portugal and Spain that Pope Alexander VI was forced to step in and mediate with the Papal Line of Demarcation outlined in the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494), which divided the New World lengthwise in half from the north to the south poles. Spain got the land WEST of this line and Portugal got what was EAST of it. While Spain got control over most of the Western Hemisphere, Portugal made up for it by gaining control over most of the East Indies, India, and Asia, setting up a series of fortresses and trading posts along the sea routes they frequented. Spanish noblemen and gentlemen-adventurers began to swarm over the Americas. Balboa crossed the Isthmus of Panama to the Pacific in 1513, while Ponce de León landed in Florida the same year. The discovery of precious metals ignited a frenzy of gold fever in Spain. Greed changed the Spanish attitude toward the Americas from one of trade to one of ownership as Spaniards everywhere rushed to cash in. Cabeza de Vaca's tales of the Seven Cities of Gold with emerald-studded walls only fueled the fires of conquest. 32 year old Hernando Cortés began the process with his lightning-fast and ruthless conquest of the Aztec Empire at Teotihuacan Mexico between 1519-1521. Like shoppers at a bargain basement sale, others quickly followed in the free-for-all land grab: Pizzaro in Peru (1531), Mendoza in Argentina (1535); DeSoto along the Mississippi (1539-42); Coronado beyond the Rio Grande (1540); and Menendez in Florida (1565). By 1575, 175,000 Spaniards were organized in the Americas to exploit its resources, either Christianize or eliminate the Indians, and remove the gold and silver; and Spain acquired more territory in one generation than Rome had conquered in 5 centuries.
C. Naming the New World: Amerigo Vespucci, who ran a ships-chandlery business in Florence, outfitted Columbus' voyages. He made several trips to the New World, either as a passenger or junior officer on the ship of one of Columbus' captains. However, in 1504, letters supposedly from him were printed in Florence in which he said a lot of chatty, gossipy, and amusing things, described the customs of the Indians and whatnot, but in which it was intimated that Vespucci himself had been the captain of all four original voyages, and that the first (in which he discovered the continent) took place in 1497--a year before Columbus. A young instructor in France was coming out with a new map of the world, and he was so charmed with the printed letters that he believed Vespucci's story he named the continent after him.
D. Challenge to Hegemony by France, Holland, and England: Within the space of 15 years France, England, and Holland also made their settlements in the Americas, in the Lesser Antilles, which Columbus discovered but Spain had bypassed in favor of the big islands and the mainland.
1. France: France was beginning to feel its oats as a European power under the rule of Francis I, and served notice in 1515 that it would not permit Spain and Portugal to divide the New World between them. Yet, France's early exploratory efforts were very modest. They based their claims mostly on the fishing they conducted along the Grand Banks, and by the explorations of Verrazano, who sailed along the coast of North America in 1524, exploring from Cape Fear to Newfoundland; Jean Ribaut and René de Laudonnière, who established Fort Caroline on St. John's River, Newfoundland; and Jacques Cartier, who attempted to establish settlements along the St. Lawrence in 1534-35.
2. Netherlands: The Dutch provinces of the Netherlands, like the English, preyed upon Spanish shipping and commerce with America and also managed to strip the Portuguese of their valuable Asian and African trading posts such as Java, Malaya, The Spice Islands, and Ceylon. In fact, in the 17th century, England came to regard the Dutch as their greatest rivals overseas. But the Dutch didn't have any surplus population to export to secure their overseas possessions, thus its merchants were forced to rely upon the strength of their trade with the natives rather than conquest and colonization.
3. England: For the English, a Genoese countryman of Columbus' named Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot), gave England her claim to all territories east of the Rockies and north of Florida in 1497 during the reign of Henry VII. And later, under Elizabeth I, the most important accomplishments affecting the Americas were the privateering activities of Francis Drake aboard his famous ship the Golden Hind. He was knighted by Elizabeth following one voyage in which he brought in some $9 million in pirated gold. Oddly, though, colonization efforts under Elizabeth were slow. Sir Humfrey Gilbert tried unsuccessfully to establish a settlement in Newfoundland in 1583. And Sir Walter Raleigh sent out several colonial expeditions, one of which was the Roanoke Colony of 1587, whose inhabitants simply disappeared. The only clue was a single word, CROATOAN, carved on a fencepost on the abandoned fort. It has been one of the most enduring mysteries in the history of the New World. Although the English were engaged in war with Spain from 1588 (the Year of the Spanish Armada) to 1604, from it England gained the confidence, wealth, and military strength to emerge from its backwater isolation as a major European player with big ambitions.
E. Weaknesses of the Iberian Overseas Empires: Spain and Portugal eventually suffered under the weight of their respective empires, due mainly to the manner of colonization and subsequent rule. First, rather than working by proxy through charters and grants which insulated the mother country from possible failures, Spain and Portugal both took a direct hand in the establishment of their empires: all finances for the colonies came from and were a drain on the royal treasury, especially during economic downturns. Second, by destroying rather than upgrading the civilizations they encountered, and imposing their own viceroys and bureaucrats (who weren't elected locally, but always sent directly from the mother country) they prevented their possessions from attaining self-sufficiency. Third, by disenfranchising and excluding the natives from participation in self-government, both Powers created a large, silent but resentful underclass which would later work to destabilize the colonial regimes. Fourth, by shortsightedly imposing the encomienda manorial system, then later the hacienda system, and land-bound peasants (at a time when feudalism was on its way out in Europe), Spain and Portugal encumbered their possesions with an outmoded social and economic system, one which continues to handicap Latin America today. Fifth, by not developing the financial and commercial institutions (namely, a market economy) to exploit and market the wealth and produce of their new possessions on a long-term basis, they were stuck with lands that were fairly undeveloped once the rounds of rapaciousness had sucked them dry. And Finally, Spain and Portugal were forced to gradually abandon lucrative trade routes because of the money it was costing to prevent French, Dutch and English privateers (who weren't financed by their respective governments, but who shared the take with them in order to be left alone) and pirates from seizing the cargoes.
F. Conclusions: The positive aspects of the discovery and colonization of the Americas may be found in the increase in Europe's knowledge about the world, their broadened intellectual horizons, and the Age of Enlightenment these discoveries helped to usher in. The great wealth generated by the colonies made the merchanting profession respectable for the first time, contributed to the growth of the middle classes, made social and class boundaries more fluid, and spelled the end of Feudalism in Europe. Modern capitalism and the market economy owe their existence to the discovery of the New World, while Christianity was brought to the Americas, together with an end to the practice of human sacrifice among the natives. The down-side to this tale is in the price the Indians had to pay for their contact with the Europeans. They and their civilization were either disrupted or destroyed for good. One thing for sure, they were never the same again. Columbus' experiences with the Indians are a good example of what was a pretty repetitive story. Columbus' men had signed on with their captain for the sole purpose of acquiring gold but the Indians didn't bring any in and there wasn't any nearby. The natives had little gold to trade with, and when their appetite for beads and trinkets was quickly satisfied, they simply stopped coming in. Even though the land was good enough to farm on, when Columbus' men found out gold couldn't be gathered off the beaches, they instantly wanted to go home. Thus, in order for Columbus to make a go of his colony of Isabela, he began to require a gold tribute from every native--one which was too high and which they didn't have anyway. Next, he divided up all the land, together with the Indians on it, among the Spanish colonists in a system of forced labor, while he raided other islands for more laborers. Indians who refused to work were either slaughtered or sold as slaves. Within 50 years, the native population of the island of Hispaniola (today's Haiti and Domenican Rep.) which had numbered around 300,000, in 1555 was extinct. Slaves were then imported from Africa to work the sugar and cotton plantations and to dig for gold.
Lecture 9:  The Expansion of Europe:  Overseas Empires and Commercial Development, 1500-1700.
A. The Commercial and Industrial Ages: The economic history of the modern world may be broken down into two periods. First, there was The Commercial Age from 1500 to 1750, which was characterized by the advent and development of the philosophy of capitalism and the primitive economic system it spawned called Mercantilism. And second, there was The Industrial Age from 1750 to the present, which was characterized by developments in industral techniques, production, and labor which created the Modern Market Economy of true capitalism.. A major philosophical change would take place in the middle of the 18th century which would be nothing short of revolutionary for continued evolution of capitalism.
1. The Meaning of the Commercial Revolution for Europe: During the 16th and 17th centuries, Europe was able to take advantage of all the overseas exploration that was going on. Trade and colonization increased, and capitalism expanded until it encompassed all facets of economic life, pushing other issues such as religion gradually into the background. This period was known as the Commercial Revolution. Trade and commerce increased as new sources of raw materials and new markets opened. The growth of capitalism and the accumulation of funds to invest in large trading enterprises all brought a demand for money to keep up with growing business. In other words: it takes money to make money. This process gained momentum as gold and silver poured into Europe from new discoveries in the Americas and this, in its turn, spurred business and increased the price of goods. In cyclical fashion, as new raw materials poured into production, technological breakthroughs speeded up not only to improve production but to improve the product, as well.
2. Reasons for Exploration: There were several reasons for the earliest voyages of exploration. Of course, there was the renewed interest in the Orient based on the Crusades; there was the motive of bypassing the Italian middlemen states which had accumulated tremendous wealth with their monopoly of the Mediterranean leg of East-West trade; and, there was Europe's desire to maintain a balance of trade and keep its specie reserves from draining eastward. Additionally, however, new maritime technologies such as the invention of the astrolabe to determine latitude and longitude; the magnetic compass; and larger ships with improved rigging and hardware, all came into play. These factors combined with the activities of newly-emergent, Renaissance influenced and humanist-inspired elites created the impetus for exploration.
3. Mercantilism--The Theory: As capitalist notions took hold, the natural by-product of its philosophy was that of Mercantilism, which was the primitive economic belief that there were only a finite amount of resources and wealth in the system; and, that each nation should work to acquire as much of these in order to become as self-sufficient as possible. This was a classic "Zero-sum Game:" whatever one gains, another must lose. The object of this game was, of course, to increase the power of the mother country. As European overseas exploration and hence competition grew, it became imperative to be the first to lay claim to whatever lands were encountered. Any resources discovered in a new land would be lost to the country that didn't take advantage of its opportunity to stake the first claim. Colonies were important in this scenario not only as sources of raw materials for the factories in the mother country, but also as outlets for finished products. The more consumers that could be created, the better it was for trade. However, Europeans did not consider the trade in itself as being valuable; rather, it was what the trade could bring in, which was gold and silver. (SEE BELOW) These two resources were considered to be the only real measure of wealth and power. Mercantilist nations were impressed with the fact that precious metals were in universal demand as the ready means of obtaning other commodities; they therefore attempted to create huge stockpiles of specie as a tangible show of national impressiveness. Besides, whatever gold and silver a nation could hoard was just that much less available to some other nation. The "rule of thumb" for mercantilists was self-sufficiency and exclusivity.
4. Mercantilism--The Practice: In practice, trade existed only to benefit the mother country, and since mercantilists thought there was only a finite amount of trade that could be conducted, governments regulated it in order to bring in the greatest income. As a result, mercantilists looked to the state for protection of their enterprises, and allowed the state, in turn, to regulate commercial activity. The state, therefore, became an organ of business. Thus the governments of Europe passed numerous trade laws which spelled out the rules of the mercantilist economy together with the nature of the relationship of the colony to the mother country. In essence, these laws: maintained high import tariffs to keep out foreign competition; encouraged exports over imports at all times to ensure that the balance-of-trade surplus could be used to acquire gold and silver; all goods destined between the colonies and foreign countries had to go through the mother country first (the Entrepot Principle, which taxed the trade both ways) and, kept all shipping trade in the hands of the mother country's merchant marine. In Britain, these laws were collectively known as the Navigation Acts. In addition, since a certain degree of survivalism and paranoia ruled mercantilist ethics, there was an ever-lengthening list of Enumerated Goods whose export to foreign countries was expressly forbidden. These were goods that could be useful to foreign countries in time of war. Why supply a good that could be used to make war against you?? The list started with goods such as mast timber, tar and pitch, hemp for rigging, and cloth for sailmaking; but, eventually came to include such obscure and arcane items as pig snouts and Wedgewood China.
5. Monopolies: To make these navigation acts work effectively, the government granted monopolies to various enterprises. In Britain, France, and Holland, each of these countries had a company known as the East India Company which had exclusive rights to trade in East Asia. These monopolies excluded foreigners from that enterprise and its area of operations, eliminated domestic competition, and thus got the best returns on investments by instituting price controls.
6. Joint Stock and Proprietary Colonies: Sir Walter Raleigh conducted several failed expeditions to North America, ones which cost him personally upwards of £40,000. The experience nearly bankrupted him. The English learned quickly that the establishment of any colony was a highly expensive business that could financially ruin individuals and small groups. The crown, which was forever broke and dependent on Parliament for funds, was in no better position to finance these ventures. For example, Queen Elizabeth I's annual budget was between £10-20,000 (if she wasn't at war). As a result, more efficient ways of financing colonization evolved very quickly to meet the demands of early colonizers. Very early, therefore, the notion of the corporation or company was developed. Much like corporations today, and in fact, their forerunner, these corporations drew up agreements as to their purpose which was then granted to them by the crown in the form of a royal charter; advertised for venture capital (often, just average Joes with extra money to put into a scheme); sold stock in their company; and financed the outfitting, exploration, and sending of colonists abroad--hence the name, Joint Stock Company. For example, it cost about £12 10s or about $62 in gold per share to buy into the Virginia Company. The stockholders shared pro-rata, in any profits or losses of the company. Political control of the colony would rest in the board of directors of the company. Typically, English merchants would own a colony, which would be settled by their employees. Their elected spokesmen acted as the middle link between themselves and the board of directors. The second way to establish an overseas settlement was through the proprietorship. These proprietary charters, issued by the crown, normally granted huge tracts of land to an individual or group on terms resembling feudal tenure. In this, the proprietorship resembled the Spanish land grant. In these proprietorships, political control was theoretically in the hands of those who received the grant deed, but real power was actually delegated in part to representatives chosen by the colonists. The owners usually invested their personal fortunes in making a go of their colonies, and they encouraged their colonists to take small landholdings and pay rent to the grantholder. The most outstanding distinction between the two types of colonies was the large amount of self government the company colony had over the proprietary one. The qualified voters chose their own governor, governor's council, and a legis-lative assembly.
C. The Weakness of Mercantilist Logic: By the 1750s mercantilism began to decline because it was a self-defeating system. First, since the colonies were designed solely as sources of raw materials and consumers of finished goods, the mother country never paid the market price for the raw materials. The income the colonies derived was not sufficienty to balance their purchases of finished products, and they could not indefinitely support the mother country at their own expense. Second, since the motive of mercantilism was the stockpiling of money, this ultimately produced an oversupply of money which contributed to skyrocketing inflation which discouraged production and personal savings. Third, whenever an economy is regulated (and especially to the extent that the mercantilists micro-managed their economy) an inevitable result is that there is an explosion in blackmarket trade and smuggling. One of the major banes of commercial activity in the colonial period was the competition afforded to the monopolies by blackmarketeers and smugglers of such contraband items as sugar, molasses, and tea. Fourth, once empire-builders like Britain have gobbled up all available foreign lands and converted them into colonies; once they've cornered the market on all the raw materials that interest them, and once they've stockpiled all the available precious metals, then what? Once you own it all, then what?? Nothing. The game is over. These goods are not fungible in and of themselves. Stockpiles of gold are nothing but stockpiles of gold. These items are only valuable because they're scarce and they've been kept away from the competition. Nothing happens with these items unless they themselves are traded, and once that happens, what happens to their worth?
1. The Arguments of the Physiocrats: The Physiocrats were a group of French economists who argued that the only source of wealth for a country was its land and agricultural produce. They didn't advocate the destruction of industry and commerce, only that it was spurious in any calculations of a country's wealth and power. The most eloquent and original thinker of the physiocrat school was Adam Smith, who argued in The Wealth of Nations, that in order for an economy to be successful, it must be given completely free reign to regulate itself. This, he referred to as Laissez-faire. Smith believed that the laissez-faire economy would regulate itself through the mechanism of the "invisible hand," of individual self-interest. Each person, operating according to his own self-interest, would naturally choose what was best for himself. The economy would thus grow and evolve to cater to the desires of self-interested individuals. An economy or business that produced goods that no one was interested in would cease to exist in favor of one that did. Unlike the mercantilists (who did not consider trade in itself as being valuable, only what the trade brought in, which was gold and silver) Smith refocused importance on the trade. Smith argued that the strength of a country's trading impulse indicated the strength of the country itself. And, trade can be spiralling and ever-expanding. The only limitation to trade might be the availability of raw materials, but even then, trade can evolve into new areas that don't use up resources.
2. The Labor theory of Value: Smith also argued that any finished goods that are produced by an economy are not valuable because they are exchangeable for gold and silver but because they are valuable in and of themselves. Goods gain this intrinsic value because of the labor, talent, technology, and resources that went into their production. So, for Smith, the volume of trade of intrinsically valuable goods became the reason for trade. Trade wasn't a means to an end, they were the end itself. Indeed, the same can be said for the gold and silver. They aren't valuable as stockpiles, but only as a means of acquiring other goods.
Lecture 10:  State Formation in Early Modern Europe.
A. The Fragmented Areas of Europe: While other areas in Europe were in the process of creating nation-states, together with absolute monarchies; Italy, Germany, and the Holy Roman Empire were the exceptions to this process. These areas remained politically fragmented and proved, for the most part, unable to deal effectively with strong centralized monarchies like France.
1. Italy--Chaotic: In Italy, for example, Pope Julius II (the Warrior Pope) was able to consolidate the papal states in central Italy, but the other Italian states were more the object of action rather than actors themselves in European affairs. Beginning with the period of the Renaissance and especially through the Reformation, Italy became the playground of budding monarchical absolutists. France's invasion of Italy in 1494 marked the beginning of the Italian Wars which were to last until 1559. During the course of these wars, Spain and, in turn, the Holy Roman Empire became involved until, by the 17th century, most of Italy was under foreign rule of one kind or another and the situation for average Italians bordered on the chaotic. It was in this period that men like Machiavelli came to believe that only with unification under a strong central ruler that Italy would ultimately be saved.
2. Germany--Fragmented: The situation in Germany, of course, was that it was the most extreme example of political fragmentation in Europe: there was a veritable explosion of principalities which ultimately totalled around 300. The nominal control of these principalities fell to the German King who also was the Holy Roman Emperor, whose position was an elective one. While the Holy Roman Emperor was accorded rank above national monarchs; in reality, his position was not as powerful since his "empire" was more feudal in nature and he had to rely on feudal levies of soldiers. As we've seen, when the princes didn't wish to cooperate, as they were wont to do with Martin Luther, they simply didn't. This situation left the Holy Roman Emperor with very few real civil powers after the end of the 30 Years' War. When the Hapsburg Emperors turned their attentions toward the consolidation of Austrian realms, the princes of Germany gradually coalesced under the leadership of the margraves of Hohenzollern, who were the rulers of Brandenburg-Prussia. Since Prussia's margrave was a member of the council of electors responsible for the appointment of the Holy Roman Emperor (and yet, his domains were partly outside of the Holy Roman Empire, in Poland), the Hohenzollerns had a degree of independence from the Emperor's control. As a result, the Hohenzollern elector Frederick III possessed enough military and civil power to have himself crowned King of Prussia in 1701. By 1867, Otto von Bismarck was able, through the Austro-Prussian War, to elminate Austrian control over any part of Germany. And, by 1871, Wilhelm I of Prussia was crowned emperor over a unified Germany.
3. Hapsburg Realms--Psychotic: Throughout the 16th century, German, Holy Roman, and Hapsburg Austrian affairs were practically identical under the rulership of Charles V and Ferdinand I. After the treaty of Westphalia ending the 30 Years' War, though, the princes gained such tremendous religious and political autonomy that the Holy Roman Empire was then virtually dissolved. That, together with the decline of Hapsburg Spain in the 17th century, saw the Austrian Hapsburgs begin increasingly to concentrate on their own dominions and allowed the concept of the Holy Roman Empire to recede into the background. Austria, Bohemia, Hungary, and Croatia began to coalesce into the Hapsburg Empire while the title of "Holy Roman Emperor" itself became largely an honorific one. The Austrian Hapsburgsbegan looking southeastward to the Ottoman threat and created a fortified military frontier (militärgrenze ) in the east to stave off repeated Turkish offenses at Vienna. Unfortunately, the Hapsburgs' unification of the national crowns of Austria, Bohemia, and Hungary into one resulted in a polyglot and multiethnic empire which was, itself, as weak and unstable as the Holy Roman Confederation had been.
B. The Unified States of Europe: The concept of "empire," in European politics, as in the Holy Roman Empire, were completely replaced by the concept of the nation-state by the mid-17th century. The strong, centralized monarchies of Europe, such as France, England, Holland, Switzerland, and the countries of Scandinavia and Eastern Europe fared much better politically after the end of the 30 Years' War. Because they were unified states with a single-ethnic majority, speaking a national language, they were better able to solve religious, social, and economic problems throughout the 17th century. Of course, some of these unified states were in better shape than others:
1. Spain and Portugal--Unified but Declining: Spain, for example, was slowly being strangled to death by its own colonial empire abroad. Although Spain had amassed great wealth which resulted in a "golden age" for Spanish culture and the arts under Philip II (r. 1556-98), much of that fortune was squandered on luxuries, the ill-conceived Armada, and the purchase of prestige to the point that the Spanish economy began to deteriorate by 1600. The Portuguese throne, which was empty following the death of its monarch in 1580, was claimed by Philip II and thus began the "Spanish Captivity." Spain's declining fortunes sucked Portugal down with it as the former's wars against the English, Dutch, and 30 Years' War resulted in the capture of Portuguese colonial possessions abroad. Portugal had been compelled to pay (literally) for Spain's mistakes. Although the Portuguese threw off the Spanish yoke in 1640, it permanently lost its Asian empire and was never again a great power. Indeed, it was forced, increasingly, to ally with England just to remain politically viable.
2. France--Unified and Rising: The Catholic-Huguenot civil wars in France (1560-98) resulted in the development of a third "party" called the Politiques, who weren't concerned with the religious issue at all. They put nationalism and centralization of political power ahead of all other considerations.
a. Henry IV (1589-1610): The Protestant Henry Bourbon of Navarre, as we've mentioned, put an end to the strife upon his coronation by issuing the Edict of Nantes. He and his chief minister Sully (1600-1610) were responsible for reconstructing and making France prosperous again: Brigandage was suppressed, renegade army units were disbanded, noble privileges were curbed, and the new bourgeoisie (town-dwelling) middle class was incorporated into the administration. Indeed, these people became the new hereditary "service" nobility, the noblesse de la robe, who owed their position to the king. Henry also reformed the tax system with the creation of the taille which was a low property tax on non-nobles. Unfortunately, Henry IV was assassinated in 1610 and the throne went to Louis XIII.
b. Louis XIII (1610-43): With the religious issue resolved for the time being (at least until the revocation of the Edict in 1685) Louis XIII and the Politiques were able to concentrate on the creation of the absolutist state. In this effort, Louis (who was somewhat irresponsible and wasteful) had the help of the ultimate Politique himself--Cardinal Richelieu and his handpicked successor, Cardinal Mazarin. Richelieu was ambitious, educated, iron-willed, and politically, both realistic and astute. The more ungenerous would describe him as vain, greedy, conniving, and manipulative. But, every one of Richelieu's measures were purposefully designed to maintain French prestige abroad and Bourbon absolutism at home. For example, Richelieu refused to convene the Estates-General, which last met in 1614, and would not meet again until 1789. This act was to prevent that body from interfering in the accumulation of royal power and prerogatives. He also destroyed the military--but not the spiritual--power of the Huguenots by forcing their surrender of their fortified towns. When Richelieu died in 1642, he was replaced by Mazarin, an Italian by birth and detested by Frenchmen; however, this chief minister was responsible for continuing Richelieu's work and ushered in the Age of Louis XIV.
c. Louis XIV "The Sun King" (1643-1715): When Louis XIV became king, it was actually Cardinal Mazarin who was the power behind the throne. The nobility's dislike of Mazarin and the growing power of the monarchy resulted in two rebellions known as the Frondes (1648-53) which succeeded in driving Mazarin and Louis from power briefly. However, they soon returned, and Mazarin ruled France until 1661, when, upon his death, Louis actually took power himself. From this time until his death in 1715, Louis did not share power with any other Cardinal/ministers, there were no restrictions on royal authority such as the Magna Carta, there were no law courts which could guarantee the rights of people against the state, and, the king himself was above the law. This last point was embodied in the political principle of "the divine right of kings." After 1661, Louis did allow his chief finance minister, Jean Baptiste Colbert (1619-83) to make decisions regarding the nation's finances, and he owed his wealth to Colbert's activities. Colbert was responsible for building up France's mercantilist position. He protected industries with subsidies and tariffs, regulated prices, built a modern transportation network of roads and canals, developed the navy, and encouraged colonization. He earned the name of the "Complete Mercantilist." The most important innovation in the consolidation of royal power involved Louis' new palace at Versailles. Louis used it as the center of all royal activities: all positions, all patronage, all offices were handed out by Louis personally to those who attended him at Versailles. While the nobility had continued exemption from taxes, Louis forced them into financial dependence on the crown by engaging them in very intricate and ludicrous court ceremony (thereby forcing them to spend their own money on it which kept them perpetually broke). Louis' constant attendance and close supervision of courtiers at Versailles virtually eliminated intrigue and revolt; and, a man who wanted advancement could not afford to stay away from court for very long. In other words, Versailles was both the governmental center of France and the "prison" of the nobility. Unfortunately, Louis managed to squander the fortune and power bequeathed to him by his predecessors when he engaged in four costly, and unneccessary, wars. In addition, while he was originally tolerant religiously, his consolidation of power caused him to attempt to impose religious uniformity, which he did by revoking, in 1685, the Edict of Nantes. As a result, there was a major flight of of some 500,000 Huguenots out of France. With them went the middle-class money making machine of the French economy.
3. England--Unified and Skirting Absolutism: The history of the English monarchy in the 16th and 17th centuries ended up being very different from that of France and Spain.
a. The Strong Tudor Trend: For about 150 years, from 1485 to 1640, it looked like England would also go the way of the other European countries and become an absolutist monarchy with the rise of the strong Tudor monarchs Henry VII, Henry VIII, and Elizabeth I. Every indication pointed that way with the reduction of the nobility to obedience to the crown, the monarch's assumption of religious primacy, and the reorganization of the governmental machinery itself.
b. The Stuart Reverses: However, with the death of Elizabeth in 1603, the Scottish Stuart kings James I (who insisted that he was king by divine right; that he might listen to parliament but was not compelled to, etc.,) and Charles I tried to carry on with the consolidation of royal power. The king could, if he needed to, consult with parliament for finances; however, as the problem of state revenues became more serious in the 17th century, the king was forced to resort more and more to parliament, which would give him aid only if he surrendered more and more of his powers. James, and particularly Charles, would consent to parliamentary prerogatives and then interfere in its sessions (during the so-called "Long Parliament") so much that it caused a civil war to break out in 1649.
c. Cromwell, Commonwealth, & Constitutionalism: This permanently short-circuited the trend in England toward absolutism. On one side were the Cavaliers, who supported the king; on the other side were the Roundheads, who were Puritan followers of the parliamentary leader, Oliver Cromwell. Charles' faction lost the war, he was executed--illegally--and was succeeded by Cromwell who ruled (1649-58) more dictatorially than Charles ever had. He was titled "Lord Protector" of the "Commonwealth of England" which replaced the monarchy, he dismissed one parliament after another, and tried to enforce his own Puritanical beliefs on the whole nation. After Cromwell's death in 1558, the remnants of the Long Parliament reconvened and invited Charles II back from France in 1660 on the condition that he observed the Magna Carta. Charles managed to maintain a respectful relationship with parliament, but with his death in 1685, his brother, James II lasted only three years before the Glorious Revolution of 1688 drove him out. Parliament then invited the King of Holland, William of Orange (a son of Charles II's sister) to marry Mary II (daughter of James II), who then became the co-regents William and Mary (1689-1702). However, the Bill of Rights imposed on them in 1689 permanently limited the power of the monarchy.
d. England's Example: With the election of William and Mary, England didn't become a constitutional monarchy overnight. It was still ruled by a small group of landowning aristocrats who had their representatives in parliament. Although the electoral system was completely unrepresentative until it was drastically reformed in the 19th century, the Glorious Revolution did serve as the model for other, later revolutions, such as the American and French Revolutions.
Lecture 15: Affects of the Industrial Revolution.
Lecture 16: Theories of Revolution and Evolution.
A. Social Criticism of the Industrial Revolution: The shift from an agricultural and commercial economy to an industrial one brought with it great social, political, and economic problems that were hitherto unknown to an agricultural economy. The factory system, with its concentration of labor caused a population shift to new and booming towns. People who had hitherto been able to grow their own food and were thus independent now found themselves factory workers who depended on others for their food. Many workers found themselves caught in a never-ending cycle of dispair brought on by barely-above-starvation wages which kept them chained to their factory jobs. The average workday was 14 hours, with 1/2 day off on Sunday, for church. Wages were so low for working men that they were often forced to send their wives and children as young as 5-6 years old out to work, as well. They put in the same 14 hour day, but were paid about 1/2 to 1/10 what the men got. It wasn't uncommon for women and children to actually be chained to their machines and corporal punishment was used to keep them awake and productive. Frequent business downturns meant layoffs and unemployment, which in turn, meant hunger. The living conditions in the big cities was barbaric, at best, with overcrowding, disease and epidemics, crime, and prostitution. Many thinkers, particularly in the middle classes, began to investigate and question the costs of industrialism. Indeed, as the iniquities and despair of the lower classes grew, the great cities became the breeding grounds for the development of new political ideologies and new "isms" that had hitherto been unkown, and which promised panacaeas to the poor.
1. The "Classical" Economists' Answer: The cornerstone of economic theory was Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, which laid out certain natural laws: that of supply and demand, the law of diminishing returns, and the law of economies of scale. Smith argued that the unimpeded working of these laws (laissez faire ) would result in the economic advancement of society as a whole. But by the early decades of the 19th century, it was evident that this "general prosperity" was just not happening, and thus other thinkers and economists arose to explain why. Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) conducted experiments on a society of rats in a closed environment. Their diet was sufficient to cause a population explosion among them, whereupon, they began to turn on, and eat, each other, until their population was back under control. Malthus applied this to society at large by saying that the masses were poor because the human population had increased beyond the capacity of nature to support them. He argued that unless mankind curbed his lusts and passions, war, famine, disease, and poverty would be his eternal lot in life. David Ricardo (1772-1823) combined Malthus' experiments with Adam Smith's work and thus developed Classical Economics. Ricardo argued for the "Iron Law of Wages," which says that a worker will get paid just enough to sustain him (the natural wage). If there are too few workers on the market, then he will get paid more than the natural wage (the market wage) which will cause him to prosper and procreate which will create more workers. When the supply of workers rises, their wages will fall, and the workers will starve and die off until the supply meets the demand. The classical economists didn't seem to have any qualms of conscience concerning this barbaric situation: it was just the way things were. To others, this was unacceptible and they came to be known as the socialists. Their philosophy ranged from the muddled good intentions of the Humanitarians to the outright communism of the radical socialists.
2. Humanitarianism: The Humanitarians were the "action" wing of the Romantic Movement of the first half of the 19th century. The Romantics were spurred on by reaction against the cold, scientific rationalism of the Enlightenment and the materialism and monaterism of the Industrial Revolution. The Humanitarians, who were mostly from the middle class, determined in "a cry of the heart" that, in the general politico-economic climate of laissez-faireism, "something needed to be done" for the sufferings of the working poor and were thus morally galvanized to action. Many took up the cause of reform through voluntarism. They dedicated themselves to organizing assistance programs, "aid" societies (such as aid to widows, orphans, the elderly, and handicapped), charity and social work in inner-city slums, fundraising, benefits, and food drives, etc. The Salvation Army was an outgrowth of this voluntarist/reformist bent. Most of these early humanitarians were motivated by warm, fuzzy, sentimental desires to "do good" and be "their brother's keeper" in keeping with Christianly virtues. Some, however, were more coldly realistic in their assessment that if the lot of the poor were not improved, they would grow to constitute a discontented, disruptive, and potentially revolutionary segment of society who would threaten the position and privileges of the middle classes. Giving form and substance to the otherwise inchoate emotionalism of the Humanitarians were a number of writers such as Charles Dickens, Honoré de Balzac, Victor Hugo, the Brontë sisters, Thomas Carlyle, and Harriet Beecher Stowe; and journalists like William Lloyd Garrison and Ida Tarbell. All of these writers were concerned with human dignity, individualism, and reform in an increasingly remote, impersonal, and entropic industrial society.
3. Socialism: At the root of the humanitarians' volunteristic spirit was their Rousseauean conviction that human nature was basically good, and that all that the poor needed were good role models, a temporary helping hand up, and a change of attitude, and--Presto!--the lot of the poor would be alleviated. In reality, what the fuzzy-thinking humanitarians found was that the ills of working-class society couldn't be cured with a temporary stint as a volunteer in a tenement slum. The problems were simply too complex: they couldn't cure problem "A" without addressing problem "B," first. As a result, the vast majority of humanitarian volunteers simply grew tired, overwhelmed, and disillusioned. They gave up quickly and went home. (Many social workers who start out idealistically end up this way). Those that were left eventually formed the nucleus of a hardened, pessimistic, cynical cadre of radicalized "workers" who believed that only through sweeping social and political change could these problems be "cured," and were dedicated to bringing about socialism.
B. Forms of Socialism: There are, broadly speaking, three forms of socialist thought. The most moderate is Christian; the next, more radical is Utopian; and finally, the most extreme socialism is Marxist Communism.
1. Christian Socialism: The Christian socialists tended to look for inspiration in their philosophy in the Gospels, which preached "share and share alike," and "The Golden Rule," and so forth. They believed that every man was his brother's keeper; and, that Christian love were preferable to competition and exploitation. People could be counted on to do their part to alleviate one another's poverty and misery through concerted social effort, particularly through the institution of the church. They counted on the continued participation of new waves of humanitarian volunteers, the Salvation Army workers, and charity contributions. The Christian socialists split from their more radical cohorts because the latter based much of their philosophy upon the manipulation of class envy and natural human greed, both of which are heavily proscribed in the Bible. Later, as government came to be seen as having a role in maintaining social welfare, the Christian socialists later came to be called Fabian Socialists (1883, named for Roman general Quintus Fabius who, with "Fabian Tactics," fought against Hannibal by wearing him down) in England, and often organized political parties which embodied their moderate welfarist ideals. They believed that they could advance the socialist cause through the existing governmental framework.
2. Utopian Socialism: The Utopian socialists were so-called because their opponents, the "True" Socialists were skeptical of the practicality of their theories. The most famous of these individuals were Henri de Saint-Simon, Charles Fourier, and Robert Owen. The Utopians were, generally speaking, dedicated to the establishment of idealistically organized, separatist communities of workers, who would live in proximity to the factories and mills at which they worked. Saint-Simon, for example, advocated not just communitites, but a planned economy with the government promoting the welfare of society as a whole. He coined the phrase "from each according to his ability, to each according to his need." At any rate, Charles Fourier organized his workers to live communally in large dormitories where they could be guided by their "passionate attractions" to sex, companionship, food, etc., and thus satisfy their needs for these drives (he even abolished marriage, but this tended to give his community a bad reputation because people identified his experiment with free love); and, working conditions were made as pleasant as possible with the playing of pleasant music and the offering of wine and pastry upon demand. And, in many cases, the owners of these communes introduced profit-sharing, and added incentives and bonuses for doing the more unattractive jobs. Fourier even believed that the more dirty and degrading labor would be done by hordes of communally-kept children who would kill vermin, repair roads and carry away garbage and sewage; they would work in the slaughterhouses, and attend the animals. Apparently the exploitation of defenseless children was only a capitalist phenomenon. Robert Owen, a Scottish industrialist, took his millions and attempted to build a model industrial community in New Lanark, Scotland, and another at New Harmony, Indiana. However, both of these experiments ultimately failed.
3. Marxist Communism: Both of the foregoing groups believed in the gradual, peaceful, evolutionary process of socialization; that is, using existing political processes to introduce incremental changes. The Communists, however, were influenced by the writings of Karl Marx (1818-1883) and were much more radical in their views. Marx formulated the Communist Manifesto in 1848, which laid the groundwork for communist beliefs; and, wrote Das Kapital in 1867. In the latter work, Marx adopted the dialectical philosophy of George Hegel who argued that every age in history is comprised of its own ideal (the thesis), which immediately engenders its opposing ideal (the antithesis); and, the outcome of the struggle of these is the synthesis, which becomes the new thesis for yet another cycle of struggle that constitutes human progress.
a. Dialectical Materialism: This was too temporal and abstract for Marx, however, so he formulated the idea of "dialectical materialism," which was comprised of two parts. First, the dialectic part involved class struggle between the exploiters (the thesis, i.e., the Patricians, the feudal nobility, the capitalist bourgeoisie) and the exploited (the antithesis, i.e., the Plebians, the serfs, the proletarian workers and peasants), which led to a synthesis in which the struggle between Patrician and Plebian gave way to feudalism, etc. In each synthetic stage, however, the dialectic remained imperfect and unfinished and thus laid the groundwork for the next thesis cycle. Second, the materialist part argued that the driving force of history is not philosophical idealism, but rather man's material environment. The way in which humans earn their living determines the shape and content of their society. Marx, then, was an economic determinist, who argued that the course of human history is determined by the economic development of society. In yet other terms, economic forces are the chief determinants of social institutions.
b. Class Struggle and Revolution: Marx saw a dialectical historical pattern that would be repeated over and over again until the establishment of the perfect society. The culmination of the modern struggle between the capitalists and the proletariat will overturn the capitalist system and produce socialism. All history, then, is the history of class struggle of the have-nots against the haves. The result is always economic hardship and depression; and, when the process reaches its peak, the capitalist system will be overthrown by violent and inevitable revolution. Capitalism, for Marx, must inevitably collapse under the weight of its own internal contradictions. Marxists, therefore, shouldn't attempt to reform capitalist society from within. They should just educate the working classes to the reality of their situation and wait for the inevitable, whose vanguard they will be.
c. Socialism and then Communism: The more desperate the proletariat's situation, the sooner the revolution will come. Once capitalism collapses, it will be replaced by a transitional period of socialism known as "the dictatorship of the proletariat." The proletariat will seize control of the state and crush all capitalist class opposition and nationalize the economy. Once that has been accomplished, then "true communism" will naturally follow because there will be no need for further dictatorship since there would no longer be any opposition classes. True communism is a society in which there is only one class and no state (because the state is a servant of the dominant class and works to keep that class in power). All private property will cease to exist, thus there will be no economic exploitation, crime, vice, or social injustices. Consequently, there will be no need for police forces, courts, armies, or governments. Each community will administer its own affairs democratically and thus Utopia will have been achieved.
d. Critique of Marx: a) Marx criticized the capitalism that existed in the mid-19th century. His dialectics proved inadequate for foretelling the evolution of 20th century capitalism, which was willing to make concessions, such as the advent of the welfare state (or welfare capitalism). This destroyed the incentive for revolution by alleviating the misery of the working classes and giving them a decent standard of living. Thus much of Marxist theory has been rendered irrelevant. b) Marx assumed that once true communism was achieved, the process of dialectical materialism would cease and history would come to an end. The internal contradiction of Marxism is that dialectical materialism never ends and is thus negated by his own laws of history. c) Marx also assumed that the communist state would be benevolent and good and that it would be classless. d) Marx's greatest error was in not recognizing that you can't change human nature: material rewards must be given for initiative and that incentives will spur greater effort. e) And finally, it's clear that what Marx formulated was not so much an economic philosophy, but rather a new, secular religion. It has its cyclical elements (the dialectic, which corresponds to the prophets and God's periodic wrath); a linear view of the progression of history (the establishment of true communism, which corresponds with the Judgement Day--for both, it's the day on which history comes to an end); and, it has a god (the proletariat whose infallible and omnipotent collective voice is the Communist Party).
C. Other Views of Society:
1. Anarchism: Anarchism emerged at about the same time as socialism--the early 19th century--and was actually strain of Utopianism. The anarchists, led by early thinkers such as William Godwin and Pierre Proudhon, argued that all forms of government were oppressive and that the best form of social organization was one in which state authority and private property didn't exist. Proudhon believed that this situation could be attained through enlightened individualism, i.e., education. However, the anarchists weren't satisfied with the Marxist promise that the state would eventually disappear. And, after the unsuccessful 1848 revolutions across Europe, the anarchists' leading figure, a Russian by the name of Mikhail Bakunin, argued that violent, terroristic activities were neccessary to jump-start the people to revolt against their oppressors. They wanted to achieve the demise of government at once, and resorted to the assassination of many public figures, a policy that achieved nothing.
2. Syndicalism: The Syndicalists believed that state power should be concentrated in the hands of small, locally-based, organized labor unions which would be directed in their efforts by a single, national-level supra-union that would function in the capacity of a "government."
Lecture 18: The Rise of Russia--The First Developing Country, 1400-1800.
A. Forced Westernization Under Peter I: In the sixteenth century when when the manorial social and economic order was on the decline in the West European countryside, it was only beginning to expand in Russia. In the years between 1200 and 1700, Russia did not experience the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution. In fact, in the 14th and 15th centuries, Russia was cut off from contacts with the west by the domination of the Mongols. However, when we left the Russians, Ivan the Terrible had died, plunging the country into a period of chaos called the "Time of Troubles," which finally ended with the election of the first Romanov tsar, Michael I. Between 1695 and 1725 Russia was dragged kicking and screaming into the western world by Tsar Peter I, "The Great" (1682-1725). He forced through modernization and westernization of the army, government, and the nobility; created a Russian navy, controlled the church and eliminated all opponents to his reforms. He conducted wars against the Ottoman Empire, Persia, and Sweden to expand Russia south and west.
1. The Founding of St. Petersburg: The transfer of the capital form Moscow to St. Petersburg was as momentus an event as the founding of Constantinople as new capital of the Roman Empire 1400 years earlier. St. Petersburg was a symbol of Russia's becoming an international power that would play an important role in European affairs. It was also a symbol of Russia's cultural reorientation toward the west; indeed, it was called "The Window on the West," and its archetecture reflected western, not oriental, themes. There were government buildings in stone (not wood), lots of ornamental carvings and facades, wide boulevards, and plenty of fountains and bronze statues. Russia was the first "non-western" country to begin a process of westernization or modernization, thus Russia could be called the first "developing country".
2. The problems of Modernization and Westernization: This move toward the west on the part of Russia's rulers in the 18th century changed the structure of Russian government, along with aspects of its aristocratic society and culture, but it did not immediately affect the lives, status, and attitudes of the bulk of the tsars' subjects. This led to tensions between the westernizing and traditional elements in Russian state, society and culture, which had both positive and negative consequences.
3. State: The reforms of Peter and succeeding tsars and tsarinas created a government with a "modern European" facade with some of the forms of other European states, but maintaining essentially an oriental despotism with no qualifications or limitations on the monarch's authority until the 1905 revolution. The imperial period of Russian history, which coincides with Saint Petersburg's role as capital likewise saw the development of Russia into an multinational empire straddling Europe and Asia. We are only seeing the dissolution of that empire in our own day.
4. Society: The westernization of the economy and society, initiated by Peter and managed by his successors from the new capital, for many years masked a backward agrarian society and economy based upon feudal and manorial relationships which had all but disappeared in Western Europe. Although considered a major political power, Russia remained behind Europe in its economic and social development until the second half of the 19th century with the emancipation of the serfs and the beginnings of modern industrialization.
5. Culture: Under the tsars, St. Petersburg was not only a center of Imperial Power, it was also a center of culture, much of it patronized by the imperial government. The westernization of state and high society was mirrored by a westernization of culture enjoyed and partaken by the elite of imperial Russia. Academies, schools, theatres, orchestras, ballet companies modeled upon those in western Europe were founded in Russia in the eighteenth century. The nobility of Russia learned French before their native language. Works of music, literature and art were produced by foreigners and natives for Russia patrons which were at first slavish imitations of western models. By the early 19th century following the Napoleonic wars, Russian intellectuals began to debate the relative worth of western culture versus native Russian cultural tradition as part of the development of a modern Russian nationalism. From this tension between traditional Russian culture and the adoptions from the west, together with changes in Russian society, led to the flowering of Russian culture from the 1830's to the 1920's. In those years Russia produced some of the greatest authors, composers, scientists and artist of Europe. One has to only read a novel by Dostoyevsky or Tolstoy or listen to a musical work by Tchaikovsky or Rimsky-Korsakov to realize that the tension between traditional and western cultural influences created the yeast for an effervescent world culture. From its founding, St. Petersburg has been the conduit through which the west has learned about Russia and Russians have learned about the West. It became a center of an Empire, a place in which the cultures of the west and the east met, coexisted and flourished. It also has been a meeting place, sometimes peaceful and sometimes violent, of ideas, ideologies, and political movments. This process of westernization emanating from Saint Petersburg had ramifications for the cultural development of Russia. It initiated a clash between traditional forms of Russian culture and imported western forms. This culture clash, so evident in developing countries today, was first experienced by Russia. While intellectuals debated the relative validity of native and foreign influences, authors, artists, playwrights, composers, educators, and others began to create a modern Russian culture based upon the best of both worlds.
B. The First Developing Country: While the westernization brought about by Peter and his successors changed aspects of state and court society, the social structure of a predominanty agricultural economy based upon a peasantry under the control of a landowning aristocracy was not essentially altered. Not only did serfdom remain, but it became stronger and more oppressive into the 19th century. Russia was indeed the last country to abolish feudal servitude in Europe. This discrepancy in social development would adversely affect Russia's modernization.
1. Emancipation and the Agrarian Problem: Serfdom, as a social evil and a hinderance to economic development did not end until the 1860s, the same decade that saw the end of slavery in the United States. While the serfs became free peasants on paper, there were no serious land reforms which gave them either the land or their freedom to develop that land until just before the first World War.
2. Industrialization and Social Problems: In the wake of emancipation, Russia began rapid industrial development, partly through administrative creativity and energy and partly by private enterprise financed by foreign investment. By the eve of World War I, Russia had risen to be one of the top five producers of iron, coal, steel, oil, textiles and railroads. This remarkable development did not occur without serious social and economic dislocation. The towns and cities of Russia grew at a fast rate without the commensurate development of health and human services. Conditions of work and living for industrial laborers were miserable at best. In terms of social and economic conditions, Russia was in the 1910's where England had been in the 1840's. St. Petersburg in this era developed into one of the leading industrial centers of the Russian Empire.
C. The Last Empire: The reforms of Peter and his successors did not essentially alter the nature of the monarchy of Russia, although they did change its form and structure. Byzantine ritual was replaced by French etiquette at court. Western theories and practices were adopted to bolster the authority of the tsars and their government. The ramshackle medieval administration of prikazes was dropped in favor of Swedish-style colleges and later French style ministries. Nevertheless the monarchy continued to be absolute. Westernization actually strengthened autocracy in Russia for much of the 19th century.
1. Expansion West and the Growth of the Russian Empire: While the Tsardom of Muscovy was probably the largest state in territorial size in the 17th century, its Asiatic territory east of the Urals was sparsely populated and its European areas were limited to Great Russia, the eastern Ukraine, and the defunct tatar khanates of Kazan and Astrakhan. Under Peter I and his successor the Russian Empire began to expand in all directions to become the largest multiethnic land empire of modern times. As a result of Peter's Swedish war, Estonia, Latvia, Karelia, and Ingria were incorporated into the Russian Empire. As a result of the partitions of Poland and the Napoleonic Wars, most of the western Ukraine, eastern and central Poland including Warsaw, Lithuania, and Finland became parts of the Russian Empire. In its expansion westward, Russia came into imperial conflict with Sweden, Prussia, and later Austria and Germany.
2. Expansion South: Russia's wars with the Ottoman Empire and Persia in the 18th and 19th century brought about the conquest and absorption of the Southern Ukraine, the Crimea, Moldavia, the Caucasus, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan into the Russian Empire. In its expansion southward Russia came into imperial conflict with France and England, later Germany.
3. Expansion into Central Asia: Central Asia was incorporated into the Russian Empire by a series of wars and european colonization in the 18th and 19th century. Much of Kazakhstan was colonized in the 18th and Early 19th century, while Uzbekistan, Tadzhikistan, Turkmenistan, and Kirghizistan became protectorates of the Russian Empire. In its expansion into Central Asia, Russia came into imperial conflict with Britain over Afghanistan.
4. Expansion in East Asia: Russia expanded to the Amur River and the Pacific Maritime Provinces at the expense of China in the 1860's, later expansion in Manchuria and Korea were checked by the rising power of Japan in 1904-1905.
5. Survivor of Multinational Empires: By the time of World War I, Russia was one of the great multinational empires of Europe. Together with the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empire, Russia uneasily held sway over most of Eastern Europe and the Near East, dealing with the rise of nationalism and nationality problems. The shock and exhaustion of World War brought about the dissolution of the Habsburg and Ottoman Empires together with the fall of their dynasties. While Russia suffered through World War, Revolution, and Civil War, its empire did not fall apart. It was transformed into a new revolutionary polity based upon supposedly egalitarian and federal principles. However this Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, was in ensuing years held together by one party rule, state terror and an all encompassing totalitarian ideology. What we are seeing today is the dissolution of the last of of the European multinational empires, delayed by seventy years. Whether it will emerge peacefully as a loose confederation of sovereign states or will witness inter-ethnic or inter-republic strife is at this time an open question.
D. The Revolutionary Tradition: St. Petersburg and Moscow were thus at the political, cultural, and economic center of an empire seething with cultural ferment, social dislocation, and economic turmoil. As mentioned earlier, it also became a meeting place, sometimes peaceful and sometimes violent, of ideas, ideologies, and political movments. From the beginning, St. Petersburg was a focal point for political intrigue, but it also became a place where the western concepts of popular sovereignty, civil rights, as well as socialism were debated and acted upon. Peter I, in developing his new westernized empire centered in St. Petersburg, did not develop a regular system of succession, so that the imperial court was rife with military putsches and palace coup d'etats in the 18th century, which did not end until a law on regular succession was promulgated under Paul I, who in turn was killed in a coup d'Etat in 1801.
1. The Decembrists, Narodniks, and Other Malcontents: The westernization of Russian culture, brought not only the arts but also Enlightenment ideas on universal rights, natural law, and popular sovereignty, which were bandied about but not acted upon. Catherine II, "The Great" (1729-96) considered herself an enlightened monarch until a writer, Alexander Radishchev, wrote a work which pleaded for the abolition of serfdom, a Cossack named Pugachev led a massive peasant revolt in southeastern Russia, and the Parisians overthrew and executed King Louis XIV. She and her successors then became defenders of legitimacy. Nevertheless some Russians continued to be attracted to the western ideas of democracy. For example, many Russian officers came back from Europe after the Napoleonic wars imbued with the French ideas of Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. They organized themselves into secret societies, which in 1825 attempted a coup d'etat to either force the new Tsar Nicholas I to become a constitutional monarch, or to eliminate the monarchy and make Russia a republic. The revolutionaries, known as Decembrists for the month of their coup, also called for the abolition of serfdom. While their revolution failed, and their leaders executed or exiled, the Decembrists became a symbol for succeeding generations of revolutionaries and reformers in Russia.
2. The Appeal of Socialism: By the mid-19th century, Russia had developed an articulate intelligentsia in opposition to the status quo. At a time when various forms of socialism were the vogue in Europe--Utopian Socialism, Anarcho-syndicalism, and Marxism--this intelligentsia not only adopted western concepts of representative government, civil rights, and democracy, but also socialism and anarchism, too. The social and economic crises of Russia at the turn of the century brought these latter ideologies to the fore in the form of the Social Revolutionary Party, and the moderate and extreme wing of the Marxist Social Democratic Party.
E. The Pendulum of Reform and Repression: If there is any dynamic to the political history of Russia and later the Soviet Union, it is that a pattern of trends can be seen from the early 19th century onwards in which periods of reform or revolutionary change have been followed by periods of state repression, which in turn is followed by reform, and then repression again. These swings in the pendulum seem to be precipitated by a crisis or war.
1. Repression under Nicholas I (1825-1855): The failure of the Decembrist revolt was followed by a period of repression. The "Iron Tsar," Nicholas I and his government promulgated laws which restricted travel at home and abroad, restricted the importation of foreign books and magazines, restricted academic freedom in schools and university, restricted foreign study, instituted press censorship, repressed ethnic minorities, ended Polish autonomy, and organized Russia's first modern political police.
2. Reform Under Alexander II (1855-1881): Russia's defeat in the Crimean War and Nicholas I death from the flu led to a period of reform under Alexander II which emancipated the serfs, reformed the army, navy, the judiciary, education, and instituted the first local representative bodies known as the Zemstvos. Press censorship was relaxed, of Finland's autonomy was increased, and industrial development was begun. However, the suppression of revolution in Poland led to the development of protest movements among Russian students. Restrictions and expulsion of students, along with frustrated expectations, led to the development of a radical movement known as the Narodniks (populists) who called for the overthrow of the monarchy and the formation of a republic based upon utopian socialist ideals. Arrests, assassinations of imperial officials, assasssination attempts on the tsar, reprisals, and a state of siege ensued. Alexander II was killed by assassins ironically the day he had agreed to the development of a representative body for the whole empire.
3. Repression Under Alexander III (1881-1894): The assassination of Alexander was followed by a period of repression under his son and grandson, which saw a return to some of Nicholas I's policies with more intensity. However, this period of oppression was also a period of intense industrialization and sweeping changes in Russian society, one which put strains on the old autocratic system. The strains and defeats of War with Japan in 1904 led to another swing of the pendulum.
4. Nicholas II (1894-1917) and the Revolutions of 1905 and Duma Reforms (1904-1914): Peaceful demonstrations by workers in St. Petersburg in January 1905 were met by rifle fire from troops. This outrage, known as "Bloody Sunday," led to a wave of strikes, disturbances, mutinies in the army and navy, and the formation of political opposition to the tsar's government. Having lost the war with Japan and fearing the overthrow of established order, the tsar's government agreed to the limitation of the autocracy by a fundamental law (constitution) and a Duma (parliament) in October. However, in the years between 1906 and 1914 the tsar's government did not follow through on promised political reforms, dissolved two dumas and limited the extent of democracy in Russia. Land reform was begun to wean the peasantry away from the influence of political parties.
F. War and Revolution in 1917 (1914-1918): The outbreak of World War I ended the uneven development of representative government in Russia. Military defeats, mismanagement of the war effort, horrendous losses, and the strain on the economy and society led to revolution, Civil War and the foundation of a totalitarian system based upon the western ideology of Marxism.
Lecture 19: The Islamic World and the Near East.
A. The Ottoman Struggle for Survival: By the middle of the 17th century, the Ottoman Empire was struggling for survival in an era beset with crisis. The Ottoman state suffered from tremendous weaknesses, incurred, ironically, in the aftermath of the tremendously powerful sultanate of Suleyman the Magnificent. His heir, Selim II and subsequent Ottoman sultans thereafter, could never again match the power, charisma, and prestige of Suleyman and his nine predecessors on the throne.
1. Weak and Inept Rulership: Among the internal weaknesses that the Ottomans suffered was the presence of weak and inept rulers who came and went with alarming frequency. Part of the reason for the lack of leadership was, strangely, the cessation of tradition of succession by fratricide. From Selim II's time forward, the heir apparent was kept a prisoner in a special part of the palace called "The Cage," where he was provided with all manner of degenerate amusements, concubines, and as much liquor and opium as he could consume. However, this house arrest did nothing for providing the huge, multiethnic, multireligious empire with a capable leader who knew the art of statecraft. Thus, beginning in the 17th century, the Ottoman government suffered from a lack of leadership which allowed it to fall into the hands of concubines (the "sultanate of the Harem"), court Eunuchs, and the Janissary guards.
2. Disputes Among Janissaries: The Janissary Corps, the elite, prestige unit in the Ottoman military, was among the best innovations founded in the 14th century from Christian boys gathered from the Balkan Christian lands. In the early period of Ottoman rule, the Janissary Corps possessed a tremendous elan and esprit d' corps. They received the best training, the best weapons, the best housing and food rations, the most pay, and the most notariety in battle situations. However, by the 17th century, the Janissaries, lacking able leadership in the person of the sultan, themselves degenerated into a miserable, vice-ridden, corrupt, and nepotistic gang of hoodlums and gangsters. Where once they were forbidden to marry and were actually practicing celibates (so their warlike spirit wouldn't be sapped); by Selim's time, they not only had wives and businesses on the side, some actually managed to bequeath their pay slips to sons and grandsons who continued to collect the pay of long-dead servicemen. This vile and disreputable rabble, thus motivated to maintain their perquisites, became players in palace intrigues, siding first with one, then another of the factions that formed at court.
3. Administrative Corruption: In the face of growing chaos within the sultanate itself, outlying provinces all but devolved into their own orbits; and, the further away from Constantinople the province, the more autonomously it behaved. Also, in the early period of the empire, taxation had been reformed from what it had been under the Byzantines. In addition, tax breaks were given to merchants and other economically valuable groups. This change drew settlers into Ottoman lands. However, by the 17th and 18th centuries, the imperial treasury's need for funds in order to pay for royal extravagances as well as technological upgrades for the military (in a losing effort to keep up with the west) had become acute. And this, together with the state's inability to maintain sufficient bureaucratic control over the provinces forced the Ottomans to resort to tax farming, and parcelling the land out to Janissaries and aristocrats as permanent fiefdoms. The rapaciousness of the tax farmer all but destroyed Ottoman enterprise: most of the native Turks engaged in business found that they were crushed by oppressive tax burdens to which the other subject peoples of the sultan became gradually exempt. Indeed, as Europe began to gain ascendency over the empire, they imposed capitulatory treaties upon the Ottomans and thus became the benefactors and self-arrogated protectors of the other millets. As a result, the Christians and Armenians, particularly, were able to declare themselves the subjects of the British, the Hapsburgs, the Russians, etc., and thus become exempt from virtually all Ottoman mercantile taxes. In addition, most Ottoman bureaucrats, underpaid and overworked, and seeing the virtual free-for-all taking place everywhere else in the system, began increasingly to resort to bribery, graft, and embezzlement to enrich themselves. This, of course, was done at the expense of the citizen, and of a government that was in too much disarray to take punitive measures against them.
4. External Assaults From a Resurgent Europe: Like all empires, the early Ottomans cocooned themselved in the smug satisfaction that they so overwhelmed their external enemies with their power and ferocity, that they gradually became isolated from the changes that had taken place in Europe from the Renaissance onward. When they finally awoke from their trance by the 18th century, it was to find that European power had not only caught up to their own, but had even become technologically superior. Thus the Austrian Hapsburgs pushed the Ottomans from Hungary with the Treaty of Karlowitz (1699); while the Banat region of southern Hungary was lost with the Treaty of Passarowitz (1718). This territory was renamed the Banat of Temesvar and became part of the Hapsburg militärgrenze. The Austrians also gained control over Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1878. Crimea and the Caucasus went to Peter the Great in 1699 and 1878. Greece became independent in 1821. Algeria became a French possession in 1830. Egypt came under British protectorship in 1867. Tunisia went to France in 1881; Libya became an Italian colony in 1912. The southern Balkans became independent in 1913; and, the Arab provinces of the Levant (Palestine, Syria, Lebanon, Transjordan, Iraq, and the Hejaz) were apportioned as protectorates to the Allies in 1918, after World War I.
B. Reform and Survival--The Advent of "The Eastern Question:" The European nations, particularly Great Britain, France, Germany, Austria, Russia
Lecture 20: India and South Asia.
I. Introduction.
4. Combination of three empires represented greatest Muslim military power
5. Also produced artistic and cultural renaissance
B. Hindu and Muslim. Mughal empire predominantly non-Muslim
In the eighth century India, the homeland of two religions, came under the influence of a third. The new religion was Islam. It was brought by warriors of the Umayyad Dynasty to the Indus River Valley in what is today Pakistan. Initially Hindus treated Islam as they had Buddhism over a thousand years earlier. They expected that it too would eventually be absorbed into the dominant Hindu culture. For 250 years the Muslims seemed content to stay along the Indus River. Then Islam came under the control of the Seljuk Turks.
C. Results of Muslim rule: Until the arrival of the Islam, Hinduism had been able to absorb other religions and cultures without difficulty. Islam was different. It was a monotheistic religion that had no place for India's many gods. To Muslims, Hindus were pagans. For their part, Hindus viewed Muslims as violent conquerors who looted and burned their temples and tried to destroy their religion. They condemned the Muslims as barbarians because they ate meat in a country of vegetarians who considered all animal life sacred. Furthermore, Islam's idea of brotherhood offended most Hindus, who firmly believed in the caste system. Despite these conflicts, Muslims and Hindus exchanged some ideas. Hindus adopted the Muslim custom of purdah, the seclusion of women, as well as Muslim styles of dress. Urdu, a language combining Hindi, Persian, and Arabic, developed and became the language of poets. One poet, Kabir, taught that "God is one, whether we worship him as Allah or as Rama."
F. Tamerlane: While pretenders to the throne were fighting each other for power, Central Asian armies, led by the Mongol chief Tamerlane, swooped down into the Punjab. Tamerlane had conquered Persia, Central Asia, and Asia Minor. His forces had penetrated as far west as Russia. His cavalry of 90,000 was more than a match for the disorganized Indian troops. In 1398 the invaders devastated Delhi. Tamerlane is claimed to have said, "for two months not a bird moved a wing in the city." Yet the Mongols brought a new period of greatness to India.
II. The Mughal Empire.
A) Origins. In 1526 one of Tamerlane's descendants, Babar the Tiger, became the first ruler of the Mogul Empire. Mogul is the Persian word for Mongol, but the terms are not identical. The Moguls, who were Muslim converts, were a mixture of Central Asian Turkic stock.
B) Crisis. Babar's son Humayan was more interested in opium and stargazing thanhe was in ruling the empire. His greatest contribution to Indian history was his thirteen-year-old son Akbar, meaning "Very Great." It was an appropriate name.
C) Akbar and Apogee. In his childhood Akbar learned to hunt, trap, and fish. Of his own choosing, he remained illiterate throughout his life. Yet he recognized the value of books and enjoyed the company of scientists, scholars, and philosophers. Akbar was a man of wisdom, personal strength, and great sensitivity. Akbar wisely included defeated Rajputs in his army and government. In local areas where Hindus ruled, Hindu laws continued to apply.
D) Society. As emperor, he made it illegal to enslave prisoners of war or to force anyone to convert to Islam. He outlawed child marriages, the suicide of widows, and the slaughter of animals for sacrifice.
E) Economy. These policies encouraged economic growth. New crops were brought under cultivation. Taxes were reduced. Industry was encouraged and trade flourished. Mogul India exported cotton, silk, sugar, spices, gold, silver, and jewelry throughout most of the known world. Akbar's empire declines. The emperors who followed Akbar lacked his foresight, compassion, and organizational abilities. Soon all the forward-looking legislation introduced by Akbar had been reversed. It was as though he had never lived. Akbar had paid his nobles in currency, from a palace surplus of over $100,000,000. Mismanagement and corruption saw the surplus dwindle to nothing soon after Akbar's death. His successors were forced to pay their nobles in land. Since the nobles could maintain their wealth only as long as the land produced, they began to increase their landholdings at the expense of the peasants. As the nobles gained more land, they became stronger and the government became weaker.
F) Culture. In 1622 Shah Jahan gained the throne. He had his brothers murdered to prevent any interference. Jahan had two passions--to capture the Deccan, and to create architecture the likes of which India had never seen. His dream of conquest failed. His second dream was a huge success. When his wife Mumtaz Mahal died giving birth to their fourteenth child, Shah Jahan was griefstricken. He began a building program in her honor. The memorial he named after her, the Taj Mahal, is considered one of the world's architectural masterpieces. Designed by two Persian architects, its domes are marble and its walls are decorated with semiprecious stones. It is said that 20,000 workers took fifteen years to complete the tomb.
G) Court.
H) Decline. Jahan's son Aurangzeb was known as the "world shaker." Although he was a brilliant administrator, Aurangzeb ruled by terror. A devout Muslim, he had most of the Hindu temples destroyed. In his last years Aurangzeb realized the terrible things he had done:
I know not who I am, where I shall go, or what will happen to this sinner full of sins.... God has been in my heart, yet my darkened eyes have not recognized his light.... There is no hope for me in the future. The fever is gone, but only the skin is left.... I have greatly sinned, and know not what torments await me.... May the peace of God be upon you.
Like his father, Aurangzeb sought to rule all of India. In his passion to unify the subcontinent, he shattered the Mogul Empire. Another empire, from far to the west, would soon pick up the pieces.
III. The Formation of the Raj.
A) Trade Empires. In 1498 Vasco da Gama of Portugal found the all-water route to India. Twelve years later the Portuguese captured Goa from the Muslims and established there the first European trading post in India. The Dutch quickly made use of the new trade route. But they bypassed India for the Spice Islands, which they renamed the Dutch East Indies.
B) East India Companies. In 1600, at the height of Akbar's reign, Queen Elizabeth of England chartered the English East India Company to compete with the Dutch for the valuable spice trade. After two decades of trying to overtake the Dutch, the English gave up. They turned their attention to India. The English East India Company won trading rights in Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta. Portuguese influence in India faded as the company took over. A company of merchants' Financed by eighty London merchants, the East India Company was primarily interested in making a profit. It bought cotton cloth in India and traded it in the Dutch East Indies for spices. Company agents traveled throughout India setting up contracts with local weavers. The company also traded in silk, jewels, and tea.
1) Struggle for control. By 1647 the English East India Company had twenty-seven small trading posts, most of which were along the coasts' The French also had established a colony at Pondicherry which was south of Madras. When the Mogul Empire collapsed in the early 1700's, fighting broke out between Muslims and Hindus for control of the empire. To protect their interests, Great Britain and France became involved in local Indian affairs. Neither Muslims nor Hindus could regain control of India. Taking advantage of this power vacuum, the British and French stepped in. They offered their military protection to Indian princes who were being threatened by rivals. In return, the princes gave the Europeans trading privileges. In 1751 a Muslim prince, supported by French troops, attacked the British port at Madras. Robert Clive, a clerk in the service of the East India Company, led a small force of British soldiers and Indian soldiers called sepoys in the defense of Madras. In a daring move, Clive captured a French military outpost. This turned out to be a costly defeat for the French and their allies.
2) The Black Hole of Calcutta. Five years later fighting resumed between the British and the French. This time it was part of the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) being waged in Europe. The French supported the Muslim leader of Bengal. When he captured Calcutta, he held 146 British civilians overnight a dungeon called the "Black Hole of Calcutta," A survivor described it as "not twenty feet square, with two small windows." The next day, all but twenty-three prisoners were found dead from their wounds or suffocation. Shocked at the brutal treatment of British civilians, Clive and 3,000 British and sepoys recaptured Calcutta. They then defeated an enemy army of 50,000 at the Battle of Plassey. Eventually France agreed in the Treaty of Paris (1763) to recognize British sovereignty in India. The French were allowed to maintain their fortress at Pondicherry, but they were never again a military threat in India. Victory at Plassey gave the East India Company a base for further expansion. In addition, the company could now draw profits from the rich Ganges Valley and from Bengal's profitable handicraft industry.
C) Government to 1858.
1) A need for controls. Clive's Indian allies rewarded him with a fortune in jewels. In 1760 he left India, a wealthy man. Five years later he returned as governor of Calcutta. His main task was to put an end to illegal profits that company workers were making from private trading. When a famine took the lives of third of Bengal's population in 1770, British' speculators and merchants profited at the expense of Indians. They were accused of selling company food supplies to Indians at prices so high that the Indians were unable to pay and died of starvation. In addition, profits that belonged to the company were being spent by individuals to finance wars between local princes. To eliminate corruption, in 1773 Parliament passed the Regulation Act. The act gave the East India Company a sizable loan to get it out of debt. In return, the British government took greater control over Indian affairs. Warren Hastings, the new governor of Calcutta, was a strong-willed administrator. He cleaned up much of the corruption and reorganized local tax collection.
2) A government within a government. Whiie the British were fighting American colonists struggling for independence, the French regained a foothold in India.. Although lacking help from London, Hastings and Company troops even conquered territory from a strong confederation of Indian States. The actions strengthened Britain's position in India. Many in Parliament, however, criticized Hastings. He was eventually impeached and tried for seizing the lands and fortune of an Indian Prince. Although he was acquitted, his career in India was finished. Hastings' actions in India convinced Parliament that it was time for the government to become officially involved in Indian affairs. It was clear that the East India C0mpany, which began as a profit-making government monopoly, had become a government within a government. In 1784 Prime Minister William Pitt drafted the India Act and Great Britain assumed full responsibility for Indian affairs.
3) The India Act of 1784. The India Act provided for the appointment of a governor-general in Calcutta. It created a board of control in London to oversee affairs in India. On the surface, nothing had changed. The main business of the East India Company was still trade and profit. But from this point on, British India was under the direct political and military control of Parliament. The first governor-general to be appointed under the India Act of 1784 was the same Lord Cornwallis who was defeated by the Americans at Yorktown in 1781. Cornwallis faced the same problems as Clive and Hastings, but he had far greater authority now that Britain was directing Indian affairs.
4) Efficient but insensitive. Cornwallis set up a court svstem based on British law. More important, he ended the private trading that ate into British profits by placing all company employees under the British civil service. As civil servants, they were forbidden by 1aw to enter into private commerce. Cornwallis also opned the civil service examination to Indian candidates. But only an educated few were able to pass, and those who did could not be promoted to higher ranks. Cornwallis believed firmly that the British were superior to the Indians and that western civilization was superior to Indian. His administration revealed a total lack of understanding toward the people of South Asia. Convinced that Indians were corrupt and not to be trusted, Cornwallis sought to replace Indian traditions with British laws and customs.
5) "No greater blessing." In 1795 Richar Wellesley replaced Cornwallis as governor-general. Wellesley, too, believed that India should model itself after Great Britain: "No greater blessing can be conferred on the native inhabitants of India than the extension of British rule." In less than a decade Wellesley doubled Britain's landholdings in India. He bought land illegally or confiscated it from rulers too weak to defend themselves. Outraged by his methods, Parliament recalled him to London in 1805. But it did not return the lands to Indian rulers.
6) Britain recognizes its responsibilities. British citizens became increasingly concerned about their country's role in Iiidia. Many insisted that Britain's purpose in India should be to educate the people aiid to save their souls, rather than to make a profit. When the company's charter was renewed in 1813, it contained new provisions that reflected humanitarian attitudes toward India. Missionary work, which until now had been banned in British India, was made legal. The East India Company lost its monopoly over all goods except tea. It now had to trade on an equal footing with other firms.
7) In the British pattern. The new charter required the company to spend part of its profits on educating the Indian people. Like Cornwallis, many English administrators took an extreme pride in their own culture. They believed that India should pattern itself after Great Britain. The British were no different from other Europeans who refused to accept the fact that India was already one of the world's great civilizations. Educating Indians to be like the British often meant abolishing Indian traditions that offended westerners. In 1529 the British government abolished suttee. Many Hindus were outraged at such attempts to erase five thousand years of Indian tradition. Less traditional Hindus agreed that even though suttee had no place in a modern society, the British had no right to abolish Hindu customs. Parliament passed other legislation that was equally unpopular among Indians. It required sepoys to accept reassignment in or out of India. According to Hindu tradition, caste statiis is lost when a caste member leaves the country. Since Britain was at war in Burma and Afghanistan, reassignment was a very real threat. When the new governor-general passed a law in 1856 allowing Hindu widows to remarry, Hindus saw another age-old tradition abolished by the stroke of a British pen.
D) Conquest.
1) The Sepoy Rebellion. The following year, the British introduced the Enfield rifle into the Indian army. Sepoys had to bite off the tops of the greased cartridges in order to load the rifles. Rumor spread that the cartridges were smeared with a mixture of beef and pork grease. Hindus believe the cow is sacred, and Muslims avoid pork because they believe it to be unclean. Both groups were enraged at British insensitivity to their religious beliefs. When the sepoys refused to load their rifles, some were dismissed from the company, but others were sent to prison. This proved to be the final act of humiliation to Indians. On a Sunday morning in May, 1857, three sepoy divisions near Delhi rose in revolt. They freed their fellow prisoners and then marched on Delhi, intending to restore the Mogul emperor. Near Lucknow, the sepoys encountered a group of four hundred British men, women, and children. Promised safe passage out of the city, the civilians were massacred. Only four escaped. At the time, there were 40,000 British troops and 250,000 sepoys guarding a country of 200,000,000. The rebellion attracted many discontented Indians and quickly spread along the Ganges Valley. It took British troops over a year to put down the re elrion.
C) Government to 1858.
1) End of the East India Company. The Sepoy Rebellion marked a turning point in India's history. People in Britain reacted strongly to the news of the rebellion. Critics in Parliament argued that the East India Company, in its passion for profit, had violated India's most sacred traditions. In 1858 Parliament passed "An Act for the Better Government of India." It abolished the British East India Company and transferred the governing of India to Great Britain. The governor-general was replaced by a ceroy-who was answerable to the secretary o state and to Parliament. Indian troops became part of the British army, whose strength in British soldiers was increased in India. Missionary activities were reduced and no new laws affecting religion were to be enacted.
2) Britain takes over. The Act of 1858 also ended the company policy of acquiring land through legal trickery. A decade earlier, company officials had passed a law stating that only the heirs of local princes were entitled to inherit land. Those without heir saw their land taken over by company officials. As a show of good faith, Parliament returned most of the confiscated land to its rightful owners. Tkiis did not mean that Britain was abandoning India. By 1870, only two fifths of South Asia remained under Indian rule. The rest was under the direct control of Great Britain. The 560 states ruled by Indian princes were by no means independent. Their princes controlled local government and education but could not make treaties with foreign countries or with other states. In addition, the viceroy had the authority to depose and replace princes. Britain kept a tight reln over all of India. Its goal was still to make a profit, and efficient government would help achieve that goal.
IV. Colonial Society in India.
A) Implacement. The British were no different from other Europeans who refused to accept the fact that India was already one of the world's great civilizations. Educating Indians to be like the British often meant abolishing Indian traditions that offended westerners. In 1529 the British government abolished suttee. Many Hindus were outraged at such attempts to erase five thousand years of Indian tradition. Less traditional Hindus agreed that even though suttee had no place in a modern society, the British had no right to abolish Hindu customs. Parliament passed other legislation that was equally unpopular among Indians. It required sepoys to accept reassignment in or out of India. According to Hindu tradition, caste statiis is lost when a caste member leaves the country. Since Britain was at war in Burma and Afghanistan, reassignment was a very real threat. When the new governor-general passed a law in 1856 allowing Hindu widows to remarry, Hindus saw another age-old tradition abolished by the stroke of a British pen. Got rid of Thus, controlled Sikhs.
B) Adaption and Interaction.
1) Technology unites India. To ensure efficient government in a country as large as India, faster communication and transportation were needed. The British built railroads and a telegraph system and established a postal service. Trains carried troops, hauled cotton and other goods to seaports for shipment to Britain, and delivered food to famine-stricken areas. The railroads also provided passenger service for Indians. Millions who had spent their entire lives in local villages came into contact with people in other parts of the country. Some who traveled to large cities such as Bombay and Calcutta preferred the urban life and never returned home. The introduction of the telegraph and the postal service, while less dramatic than the coming of the railroad, produced similar results. It made Indians more aware of the world around them and allowed many to share experiences, news, and ideas. In a curious and accidental way, British technology was helpingto unite India.
2) Indian industry suffers. The cotton that India exported to London was quickly and cheaply converted to cloth in British textile mills. Since India had no protective tariff, the machine-made cloth from Britain was shipped back to India and sold at a lower price than domestic cloth that was woven by hand. By 1875, the Indian handicraft industry was all but destroyed by British technology. Thousands of artisans migrated to the cities in search of employment. Some Indians accepted the collapse of their traditional handicraft economy as the price a country must pay for modernization. Most of these pro-British Indians argued that without European technology and orderly government, India could not move into the modern era. They pointed to British contributions in law, medicine, and communications as examples of the good that modernization could bring to India.
V. Reform and Resistance.
A) The two faces of education. Most of the westernized Indians were educated in British-style universities that began to appear in India during the 1850's. In all these schools, English was adopted as the official language. Speaking in English soon became the sign of an educated Indian. Although there were some attempts to educate school-age children, the emphasis was on higher education. Britain's objective was to train a loyal group of Indians who would devote their lives to the civil service. These students were trained in modern science and western civilization. In the process they also read the works of English philosophers who wrote on nationalism and independence. They began to criticize British policies in India. Some British officials reared that they were creating an educated Indian elite who would lead India to independence.
B) "For Europeans Only." All of India's early nationalist leaders were British trained. In addition to western technology and culture, Indian leaders were also taught the high standards of the British system of justice. Most embraced western ideals. They soon found, however, that the British did not live up to their own standards. Indians who came to expect fair treatment from the British were repeatedly disappointed. The most serious complaint was that the British always segregated themselves from lndian society. Signs reading "For Europeans Only" were posted at cultural events and social clubs, on trains, or any place where British and Indians chanced to meet. Even British-educated Indians were denied high level positions in the civil service. The bitter rejection these Indian leaders experienced helped them regain pride in their own heritage. Their confidence grew in their ability to govern themselves. Cherishing democratic ideals, they sought to bring about change through peaceful and legal methods.
C) "Surrender-not." One of India's earliest nationalist leaders was Surendranath Banerjea (soo-RAYN-droh-naht BAR-nor-jee), a Bengali Brahman and the son of a doctor. After graduating from Calcutta University. he was admitted into the civil service. He was later dismissed for breaking a minor rule. Banerjea traveled to London to plead his case, but his appeal was denied. He returned to India determined to spend the rest of his life fighting for the civil rights of his people. His persistance earned him the nickname "Surrender-not" Banerjea. He became a teacher and journalist and founded Bengal's first nationalist party. When he was jaileded for criticizing a British judge, Banerjea welcomed his imprisonment as a public display of British injustice. Later, India's greatest nationalist leader, Mahamia Ghandhi, used this same tactic in his pursuit of Indian Independende. Banerjea was bitterly disappointed by the abrupt end to his promising career. Yet his wisdom and his scale of values prevailed. He realized the great contributions in constitutional law that the British had given to India. Banerjea believed that Parliament would grant independence to India when it ws ready. To most moderate Indians, this meant putting their own house in order before seeking independence. They reasoned that otherwise India would slip back into earlier religious and caste patterns that had made unification impossible in the past.
D) The drain on resources. Other nationalist leaders were most concerned about the future of India's economy. They maintained that if Britain continued to drain India of its economic resources, there would be none left after independence. Dadabhai Naoroji (now-ROB-jet), an early nationalist leader, pointed out another kind of drain on India's resources: "Europeans occupy almost all the high places in every department of government directly or indirectly under its control. While in India they acquire India's money, experience, and wisdom, and when they go, they carry both away with them, leaving India so much poorer in material and moral wealth."
E) A step toward self-government. In 1885, nationalist leaders formed the Indian National Congress to call public attention to their views. The congress was organized by Allan O. Hume, a British retired civil servant. Hum's dedication to the cause of self-government equaled that of any Indian leader. Seventy delegates attended the first meeting in Bombay. Representing every province in British India, they were mostly English-speaking Hindu professionals. The first resolution of the Congress called for a reduction in military spending. India financed most of Britain's wars in South Asia. Moreover, 25 percent of its budget went to pay the salaries of British officers serving in India. When the value of the Indian ruppee fell by one half, Indians had to raise twice as much revenue to pay off British debts. Since the British collected taxes in cash rather than in crops, many peasants were unable to pay their taxes and lost their land. Congress leaders called for a fairer land tax and a reduction in British debts. Their demands fell on deaf ears.
F) The partition of Bengal. In 1905 India's viceroy Lord Curzon made a routine decision that he believed would help his office govern India more efficiently. He divided Bengal and its 85 million people into two provinces West Bengal remained Hindu, but East Bengal was joined with Assam and now had a Muslim majority. News of the partition was greeted with joy by Muslims. No longer were they the weak minority under the foot of the better educated, politically powerful Hindu majority. In 1906 a group of Muslims took th opportunity to organize the Muslim League. The Hindus were far from pleased by the partition. They suspected that the partition was a deliberate British attempt to weaken Hindu power and to diminish Indian efforts toward national unity.
G) An emblem of defiance. The partition of Bengal could not have come at a better time for the Indian National Congress. It provided an issue to publicize the party. Congress leaders called for a boycott of British imports. To show their support, millions of Indians filled the streets of Calcutta, Bengal's largest city. Bonfires fed with British cloth kept the city lighted through the night. The boycott was very "effective. The wearing of homespun cotton, hand-woven on Indian looms, became an emblem of defiance toward British rule. The boycott also stimulated India's crippled handicraft industry. Boycotts of British sugar, glass, and shoes soon followed. Next, Indians extended the boycott to British-run schools. The Congress leaders worked for a rebirth of Indian education with the emphasis on Indian history and cultural achievements. A major role in this effort was layed by British journalist and reformer Annie Besant, who had adopted Hinduism and moved to India. She wrote that the movement "has brought with it a new self-respect, a pride in the past, a belief in the future,... [and] a great wave of patriotic life, the beginning of the rebuilding of a nation." Other party members believed that Parliament would never change its ways. They began to use terrorist methods to win independence. The British cracked down. Terrorists were imprisoned and their leaders deported.
H) Indians gain representation. Moderate Indian leaders believed that the best route to independence was through the democratic process. Their judgment was supported in London. In 1909 Parliament passed the Indian Council Act. It provided for the election of Indians to provincial councils. Indians were also added to the governor-general's executive council. An a small group of wealthy educated Indians were given the right to vote. Muslims who felt that the National Congress was interested only in Hindu causes, were granted separate representation on the council. Parliament also passed an elementary education act This allowed local school districts to make elementary education compulsory for children aged six to ten.
I) Hopeful times for India. When King George V came to power in Britain in 1910, with him came Lord Hardinge, a new and more liberal viceroy. One of his earliest decisions was to reunite the two Bengals. The crown also moved the capital from Calcutta on the northeast coast to Delhi near India's center. The change suggested a move toward unification, at least symbolically. These were times filled with hope. India had a new king, a new capital, and a liberal viceroy whose legislation was sympathetic to India. The honeymoon was short-lived. In August, 1914, World War I began. India had to wait more than thirty years longer before it gained its independence.
Lecture 21: CHINA.
I. Introduction.
A. The middle Kingdom.Two factors, geographical isolation and pride in its culture, helped shape the way China conducted relations with foreigners. Throughout China's long and brilliant cultural history, its contacts with other nations were limited. During long periods, China was ruled by foreigners who came from nomadic tribes to the north and west. But the Chinese knew that their enemies would in time be absorbed by China's magnificent civilization. Since ancient times the Chinese had referred to their country as Chung-Kuo, the Middle Kingdom at the center of the world. They believed their civilization superior to all others. China's recorded history predated the birth of Christ by almost two thousand years. Its empire came to be larger than Rome's. Chinese achievements in the arts were acclaimed throughout the world. There was reason for China to regard all foreigners as barbarians.
B. China's Continuity and Recurrent problems: China had the same pattern of government for more than two thousand years. Through the centuries it was plagued by four recurring problems: Nomads, Bureaucracy, Landowners, and Peasantry. Each problem involved certain relationships.
1. The Nomads: China was no match for the swifter, more warlike Turkic and Mongolic nomadic tribes on its borders. China could hold off these nomads only as long as it remained internally strong. When internal problems began to weaken China, the nomads invaded and sometimes gained control of the country.
2. The Bureaucracy: China was too large for one person to govern effectively. The emperor depended on an army of officials. When the emperor was weak or uninterested in governing, these officials might gain control of the country.
3. The Landowners: Wealthy landowners had the people and income to raise armies. Often they used their armies to challenge the emperor and increase their holdings.
4. The Peasantry: During bad times, peasants with little to lose would become outlaws. As conditions worsened these outlaws would band together into secret societies. Often the emperor's troops were weak or sympathetic with the peasants and allowed them to revolt. Some peasant leaders even became emperors.
5. The Chinese Historical Cycle: Throughout China's long history no dynasty had ever solved these basic problems. The same problems that caused the fall of one dynasty would reappear and lead to the decline and fall of the next. This occurred with such regularity that historians refer to it as the "dynastic cycle." It happened something like this: A new dynasty would redistribute land and make tax reforms, lightening the burden of peasants and providing them with more food. The news of this increased comfort and prosperity would attract nomads like bees to a flower; however, the threat of nomadic invasion would then force the central government to spend large sums of money for defense. While the government was attending to the threat of an invasion, aristocrats who had lost land and power to the new government would take the opportunity to regain them. Desperate for funds, the government would increase peasant taxes. Growing more restless and discontented, the peasants would revolt. As the revolts spread, the government would start to crumble. Waiting for this opportunity, nomads would swoop down and overthrow the existing regime. The dynastic cycle would be ready to begin again.
C. A tributary system. The Chinese followed Confucian principles that stressed the proper relationships between people. China's relationships with foreigners were based on the same principles of superiority and inferiority. China did not trade with other nations in the usual way. Instead of trade, China developed a tributary system. It expected that foreigners being in its eyes inferior, would regularrly give the emperor money or goods as an acknowledgment of respect. Foreigners brought tribute to the Imperial Court in Peking in return for the gifts and blessings that Chinese culture could bestow. Even more important than tribute was the ceremony that went with it. The person paying tribute was required to kow-tow-- to kneel on both knees and bow three times, touching his nose to the floor. This ritual acknowledged the emperor's superiority. It established proper Confucian relationships between China and foreign nations.
D. Strict rules for foreigners. The offering of tribute was also a way to conduct trade. The Chinese government selected a few commercial firms, known a hongs to act as its agents. All hongs were situated in Canton, the only port open to foreigners. After 1700 they held a monopoly on all trade between China and the West. China viewed this arrangement as a privilege given to foreigners, not as their right. Its continuation depended on the proper behavior of the foreigners. They had to follow the regulations issued by the Imperial Court:
1. No foreign warships may sail inside the inlet to the river.
2. Neither foreign women nor firearms may be brought into factories (warehouses).
3. Foreign factories shall employ no maids and no more than eight Chinese male servants.
4. Foreign trade must be conducted through the hong merchants. Foreigners living in the factories must not move in and out too frequently, although they may walk freely within a hundred yards (ninety meters) of their factories.
5. Foreigners may neither buy Chinese books nor learn Chinese.
6. Foreigners may not communicate with Chinese officials except through the hong.
7. Foreigners are not allowed to row boats freely in the river. They may, however, visit the flower gardens and the temple opposite the river in groups of ten or less three times a month, on the 5th, l5th, and 25th. They shall not visit other places.
8. Foreign traders must not remain in Canton after the trading season; even during the trading season when the ship is laden (full) they should return home or go to Macao (a Portuguese colony).
I. Western Intrusion.. European had accepted and used the tributary system since the l600's. They were so eager for Chinese tea andd silk that they would accept any restrictions. In 1800 the Middle Kingdom gave every appearance of being a superior civilization. Beneath the surface, however, China Was in the midst of crisis. Between 1750 and 1850, China's population increased from 180 million to Over 430 Million. The demand for food soon outstripped the supply. China was facing another faInine. In cities, food prices soared. Starving peasants fled to other parts of the country in hopes of finding food. They were often forced to sell their land to speculators at prices far below normal. China's peasants, the backbone of the economy, were driven deeper into poverty. Yet public officials, most of whom were also landlords. and rice merchants were growing wealthy from the famine. As it grew worse, they became more corrupt and inefficient. Discontented young men and womern in the villages began to band together in secret societies. Their aim was to overthrow the central Manchu government. While China was faced with these disasters, Western Europe was experiencing a time of tremendous growth. New technological advances had made Western Europe the industrial center of the world. Heading the industrial nations was Great Britain. Britain was in the process of building an empire that spanned the globe. It sought new sources of raw materials for its industry and new markets for its manufactured products. Britain wanted free trade, not the tributary system that had characterized relationships with China.
A. Opium Trade. British merchants imported large amounts of tea, porcelain, and silk from Canton. They expected that the Chinese would buy British products in exchange. But there were few British manufactured goods that the Chinese wanted. The British had to pay for Chinese goods wltn silver. To balance the cost of imports from China, the British turned to opium which was produced in surplus in India. China was no stranger to opium. It had been used for centuries as a drug for the sick and disabled. But the sale and use of opium to the general public had been prohibited since 1796. The British, however, began to smuggle large quantities of opium into Canton. By 1830, 8 out of every 10 peop1e living in Canton were addicted to the drug. Many traders in Canton, among them some Chinese, made huge profits from the sale of opium. The Chinese government was horrified by the opium trade and the growing addiction to the drug. Yet in spite of the pain and sorrow that opium caused, it was the economic issue that finally prompted the Chinese government to act. British silver that had once flowed into Chinese banks to pay for tea and silk now flowed out in order to pay for opium. The trade deficit swung from Britain to China. The only solution the court at Peking could find was to prevent the further importation and sale of opium.
B. Opium War. To carry out this task, a highly respected administrator named Lin Tse-hsu was sent to Canton. Lin ordered Chinese and foreign merchants to surrender all opium cargo to Chinese government officials. The British merchants agreed to Lin's order. But instead of handing over the opium directly to Chinese government officials, the merchants sent it to British naval officers in Canton harbor. This made the opium the property of the Brtish government. When Chinese officials seized it, Britain sain they had committed an act of war. The shooting began on September 4, 1839. The British called it the Trade War, believing that a nation's right to trade freely was the only issue to be resolved. The Chinese called it the Opium War, believing that the real issue was the illegal sale of opium by the British.
C. Treaty of Nanking. From the beginning, the war went poorly for the Chinese. They were clearly no match for the British navy. On August 9, 1842, they accepted british demands and signed an "unequal treaty." China was forced to gi've privileges to the British, but gained nothing in return. The Treaty of Nanking granted Great Britain in war what it could not gain in peace. China agreed that it would:
1. abolish the "monopolistic trading system carried on in Canton;
2. open five ports--Ca-nton, Amoy, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai--to British merchants, consuls, and their families;
3. pay twenty-one million dollars to Britain, including payment to British merchants for destroyed opium;
4. cede Hong Kong to Great Britain;
5. grant Great Britain any concessions that the Chinese might give to other powers;
6. allow British subjects to try their own citizens regardless of the crime.
D. Spheres of Influence. The Opium War and the Treaty of flanking were only the beginning of China's problems with the West. Fresh from victory, the British were eager for more trade, particularly in the north where they could sell woolen goods. A minor incident gave them an excuse for war. The French claimed that one of their missionaries had been tortured and executed in the countryside' In 1856 Britain and France declared war against China. The four-year war was a carbon opy of the earlier Opium War. This time French and British forces invaded Peking and drove the emperor out of the Summer Palace. Peking, the Forbidden City, had been dishonored. Again, China had to pay for losing the war. This time it was also forced to accept the presence of british missionaries eager to convert the Chinese to Christanity. Other western nations took notice of China's weakness and quickly moved in. Following Britain's example, each of these countries carved out a portion of China for itself. Each section, or sphere of influence was dominated by the western country that claimed special trade privileges within it. The French were dominant in the south, the Germans controlled the Shantung Peninsula, and the Russians were supreme in the north .
III. The Taiping Rebellion. In times of trouble throughout Chinese history secret societies emerged, bent on overthrowing emperors. Most failed. In 1850, however, conditions seemed to be right for a secret society in southern China to succeed. Known as Taiping Tien Kuo, the Kingdom of Heavenly Peace, the society used western ideas. Some historians view it as the beginning of the modern era in China. Founder of the Taipings was Hung Hsiu-ch'uan, the son of a peasant. Hung studied the Chinese classics in preparation for the civil service examination. He also read Christian writings. After failing to pass the examination several times, Hung apparently became ill and experienced visions. He saw himself as the "Heavenly Younger Brother of Jesus," and his mission as the destruction of the Manchu dynasty. Not long after this, when a famine hit his province, the Taiping Rebellion was born.
A. Taiping goals. As a sign of rebellion, Taiping men cut off their pigtails, a symbol of Manchu control. The Taiping rebels demanded an end to the private ownership of property. Everything was to belong to everyone. The rebels urged equal rights for women, including the right to take state examinations and become government officials and army officers. Footbinding and all other practices that degraded women were outlawed. Violations of these bans were punishable by death. The use of liquor, opium, and tobacco carried the same penalty. To make a complete break with the past, ancestor worship, traditional China's most revered institution, was also forbidden.
B. The course of the Rebellion. Taiping rebels met wide opposition. Merchants feared losing the special privileges that they had gained from the treaties signed after the wars. Wealthy gentry feared that they would lose their land. The Taipings also lost peasant support because they violated their vows and adopted the very lifestyle they condemned. Most critical, the rebels failed to gain foreign support even though their reforms called for treating westerners as equals. The westerners chose to support the decaying and corrupt Manchu dynasty instead. This doomed the Taiping Rebellion. When the fighting ended after fourteen bitter years, twenty million rebels and government troops had died.
C. The Legacy of the Rebellion. The Taiping Rebellion failed, yet it marked a turning point in Chinese history. The rebellion had drained the energy of the Manchus. The government never regained its pre-rebellion strength. Moreover, the ideas behind the Taiping Rebellion survived. The Taipings infused a growing sense of pride into Chinese society. Their rebellion served as an inspiration for later revolutionaries.
IV. Official Reform. The Opium War had made it clear that China could not compete militarily with western weapons and technology. The Taiping Rebellion underlined the need for internal change. The Imperial court.was forced to accept the need to modernize. However, it did not seek to build a new society. The court saw modernization as a means of defending Chinese traditions. The attempted reform was called the Tung Chih Restoration, the "Self Strengthening Movement." The government set up a foreign affairs office, reformed China's. tax system, built ship ards and railroads, and had western science and mathematics textbooks translated into Chinese. China's "best and brightest" students were sent abroad to learn western ways. Many Chinese Statesmen embraced western ideas. Others found the idea of a modernized China unthinkable.
A. Shortcomings and opposition. China's leaders failed to understand that a modern state had to be built upon ideas that conflicted with their own Confucian system. They believed that it was p possible for old ways to coexist alongside the-new. Most did not understand that a change in one aspect of society leads to changes in other aspects of society. China's political, economic and social organization was not compatible with a modern industrial society. As long as China's government and society remained unchanged, only surface reforms could be made.
B. The Hundred Days' Reform. In 1894, even the most traditional Chinese awoke to the need for change. Japan, a former tributary state, soundly defeated China in a war over Japanese attempts to dominate Korea Chinese officials understood that Japan's military superiority was rooted in a fundamental understanding of western institutions. After the defeat by Japan, a young reformer named K'ang Yu-wei sent a memorandum to the emperor calling for the complete modernization of China. Among its forty recommendations were:
l. creation of a parliament in Peking;
2. adoption of a constitution with separation of power in the government;
3. reorganization of the civil service and the legal code;
4. promotion of industry, mining, commerce, and agriculture;
5. publication of the annual budget;
6. creation of modern elementary and secondary schools;
7. founding the University of Peking;
8. cremation of the dead to save land.
V. Reaction and Revolution. The emperor Kuang-hsü approved these suggestions and dismissed his most conservative officials. As his model the youiig monarch used the enlightened monarchs of Western Europe. Although the reforms were imaginative and forward-looking, they only lasted from June 11 to September 21, 1898. The reforms failed because they threatened almost everyone in a position of power. The educational reforms endangered those who studied long and hard for the civil service examination. The political reforms upset those in positions of power. Religious reforms, which called for converting Buddhist temples into schools, alarmed the monks. On September 21, Kuang-hsi was dethroned by his aunt, Tz'u-hsi .
A. The Boxer Rebellion. Once more, change from the top had failed to filter down to the masses. Discontent led to a new rebellion. This time it grew out of a secret society known as the "Righteous and Harmonious Fists." Called boxers by westerners because they practiced a ritual form of Ckiinese boxing, the rebels claimed to possess superhuman powers. They were dedicated to driving the foreigners out of China. Like the Taipings, the Boxers originally aimed their frustrations at the gentry and government officials. Unlike the Taipings, the Boxers were violently anti-Christian.-By 1900 many foreign diplomats and their familieswere living in Peking. Desperate to rid the Forbidden City of these westerners and Christians, Empress Tz'u-hsi agreed to let the Boxers enter Peking. The Boxers killed 242 foreigners and thousands of Chinese converts to Christianity. The rebellion, was put down by a combined force 20,000 troops from Britain, the United States, Japan, Russia, and Germany. The Empress fled the palace disguised as a peasant.
B. Sun Yat-sen. At the turn of the century, China was torn between the magnificent cultural legacy of the past and modernization. The ideas that brought on the Hundred Days' Reform had been radical and far-reaching yet they did not call for an end to dynastic government. The first Chinese revolutionary in the modern sense was a western-educated Christian doctor. His name was Sun Yat-sen. Sun was embarrassed by China's lowly position in the world of nations.
Sun needed support if he and his followers were to drive the western powers out of China. He gained that support from the Japanese government. Japan preferred Chinese nationalism to western spheres of influence. The Japanese government provided financial support and opened Japan's schools to young Chinese revolutionaries. Sun also received support from Chinese living in Hawaii, the United States, and Southeast Asia. Many of these overseas Chinese were merchants. They hoped that an overthrow of the Manchus would end the unequal tariffs imposed by the West. In addition, merchants ranked 1ow on the ladder of Confucian society. A revolution might raise their status.
C. Three Principles of the People. Sun called for fundamental changes in Chinese society. He developed a PrograM for Republican revolution. In 1905 he expressed his political, economic, and social goals in the Three Principles of the People - nationalism, democracy. and socialism.
1. Nationalism. Sun demanded the overthrow not only of the Manchus, but of all dynasties, as well as the removal of foreigners from Chinese soil. Sun advocated a republican form of government.
2. Democracy. Sun's second principle was a blueprint for China's freedom rather than for individual freedom. The Chinese people had little understanding of the democratic process. Sun reasoned that they would have to be trained in its use before they could take part in political decision-making.
3. Agrarianism/Statism. Sun's third principle was Agrarianism/Statism (wrongly called socialism)., or People's Livelihood. It called for a fairer distribution of land. Sun hoped to buy land from landlords and return it to the peasants. He also believed that the government should aid industries to make China less dependent on western nations.
D. The Nationalist Revolution. The Nationalist Revolution came on the mornirig of October 10, 1911. Through a series of colncidences favoring the revolutionaries. there was little resistance from the Manchu government. Four thousand years of unbroken dynastic rule had finally come to an end. China had survived and flourished during those forty centuries because its culture was able to accept change. Only during the past century had foreign weapons, technology. and beliefs proved too powerful to absorb. Incredibly when the revolution came, there were no battles, there were no ceremonies, there was only silence. The Middle Kingdom simply vanished from the face of the earth. The revolution had already been fought in the revolts against the westerners and the Manchus.
Lecture 22: Japan.
I. Introduction.
A. The Geography of Japan: Japan is a group of islands, an archipelago, that lies in the shape of an arc along the eastern rim of Asia. It includes more than 4,000 islands. The four major islands are Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, and Kyushu. A hundred miles of open water separate Japan from Korea, and China is 500 miles away. This distance barrier has tended to isolate Japan. In addition, the Japanese language is a polysyllabic, highly inflected, agglutinative language, a cousin of Korean and the Ural-Altaic languages of Manchuria and Mongolia. This has caused the Japanese to develop a unique culture and a strong sense of their own identity.
B. Adoption and Adaption in Japan: The contacts between Japan and China go back to 200-300 B.C., at least to Han times; but most of what Japan knew about China was filtered through Korea. Over the centuries, Korea introduced Japan to the Chinese written language, astronomy, Confucianism, and Buddhism. However, the Japanese were selective borrowers: they rejected the idea of the Mandate of Heaven, which allowed the people to overthrow a corrupt emperor. The Japanese also rejected China's egalitarian civil service examination system because it opposed their own ideals of aristocratic rule. In Japan, only the sons of nobles were admitted to universities. The Japanese selectively adopted aspects of Chinese and Korean Civilization and adapted them to the conditions of Japanese state, society, and Culture. Thus, while the government and the upper classes took on a Chinese pattern, the traditional Japanese culture remained distinctly Japanese.
C. Japanese Feudalism: Japan had a military-based feudal society up to modern times. In order to protect their lands and wealth, the wealthiest landowning families began to centralize their holdings and organized private armies in the absence of a strong central control. These big, powerful feudal families were known as Daimyo . The Daimyos' estates were protected by warriors called Samurai, or "those who serve." The samurai inherited their position as warriors. Only they had the right to wear the double swords of the warrior, a symbol of honor. The samurai also had the right to inherit land. Part of a samurai's income was earned by acquiring the land of defeated enemies. When a samurai died, his land was divided among his sons. The samurai devoted most of their lives to practicing military arts, much like European knights. Their lives were governed by a code of honor called Bushido, "the way of the warrior." This corresponded to the Code of Chivalry among European knights, but was also different in a number of ways. Bushido called for a life of discipline and duty. Samurai learned to keep firm control of their emotions, both on and off the battlefield. They placed loyalty to their lord above all other loyalties. Unlike the European knight, whose loyalty to his lord was based on the contract of vassalage, a samurai's loyalty to his lord was based on personal and moral obligations. During the middle ages, the Japanese emperor granted the leader of the most powerful clans the title of Shogun, which means "barbarian-subduing general." In theory, the shogun ruled in the name of the emperor. In practice, real authority rested with the shogun. In short, the emperor became a figure-head: he reigned but didn't rule. While the shogun continued to show respect to the emperor as the source of authority, Japan had moved from civil rule to military dictatorship. To gain the loyalty of the landlords, Yoritomo appointed certain powerful lords as protectors of the provinces. This was the beginning of Japanese feudalism, which was both like and unlike feudalism in Europe. From the 17th to the 19th century Japan was ruled by Shoguns from the Tokugawa clan, who had reacted to the first contact with the west and Christianity by destroying all foreign influences, including thousands of Japanese Christians, and closed Japan to the outside world.
II. Early Modern Japan.
A) Tokugawa Isolation. In the first half of the 17th century, the Tokugawa shogun had expelled European traders and missionaries from Japan. For the next two centuries the Japanese followed a policy of isolation so complete that Japanese ships were forbidden to sail to foreign ports. Japanese in foreign countries were forbidden to return home. Shipwrecked sailors from foreign countries were refused aid; sometimes they were tortured and executed. The Japanese avoided all foreigners except the Dutch, who were allowed to maintain a small port at Nagasaki. Through their Dutch contacts, educated Japanese kept in touch with world affairs. They knew that much of Asia was already dominated by European nations. They were alarmed when China was forced to sign unqual treaties and to open its ports to foreign traders. By 1850 the Japanese suspected that it was only a matter of time before one of the western powers would try to enter Japan.
B) The opening of Japan. Having gained the Pacific Ocean as its western border, the United States began applying manifest destiny to Pacific lands. In 1851 President Millard Fillmore dispatched a naval squadron to Japan. In command was Commodore Matthew Perry. On July 8 1853, Perry sailed unhindered into Tokyo Bay. Two of his ships were steam-driven vessels, belching black smoke as they cruised past the Japanese ships in the harbor. Perry presented the shogun with the president's message, which asked for fair treatment for shipwrecked sailors, the establishment of a refueling station, and a statement of goodwill from the government of Japan. Perry then departed, stating that he would return in a year for Japan's reply. On Perry's return, the shogun signed the Treaty of Kanagawa. Like the treaty that the Chinese were forced to sign in 1842, it contained "unequal clauses" that benefited the United States. American traders liviiig in Japanese port cities would be protected by their own army and their own laws. Tariffs made it easy for the United States to sell products to the Japanese and to buy Japanese products at low cost. Within two years of the treaty, ships of fifteen foreign nations were sailing in and out of Tokyo Bay under similar treaties. Lord Elgin, who made the treaty arrangements for Great Britain, wrote in his diary: "God grant that in opening their country to the West, we may not be bringing upon them misery and ruin."
C. Debate over Westernization. It did not take the Japanese long to recognize the strength of the West's technological and military accomplishments. Some, however, opposed adoption of western ideas and technology. They argued that a strong sense of national purpose could easily defeat foreigners. One daimyo clan, the Choshu, reacted by shelling foreign ships. When the United States and French warships returned the fire, most of the Choshu forts were destroyed. The defeated clan was forced to pay a fine of three million dollars. Other Japanese argued that it would be wiser to develop a blend of western technology and eastern ethics. They maintained that by learning western ways and adapting them to Japan culture, the West could be defeated. These moderates believed that Japan should learn from the West, the way it had learned from T'ang China a thousand years earlier.
III. The Meiji Restoration. Opposition to the Tokugawa shogun grew. In 1866 the Choshu and the Satsuma, two of Japan's most powerful families, agreed to a pact of friendship. It was clear to them that the decentralized feudalism of Tokugawa rule was no longer appropriate for the times. They believed that Japan needed to unite under a single leader. Sentiment grew for overthrowing the shogun and restoring the emperor. The cry went up, 'Sonno, joi!" ("Honor the emperor, expel the barbarians") In 1867 the Choshu and Satsuma clans seized control of the imperial court in the name of the emperor. On January 3, 1868, Mutsuhito, the fifteen year old emperor, took the throne. In honor of the occasion, Edo was renamed Tokyo, or "Eastern Capital." The young emperor chose as the name of his reign Meiji, or "Enlightened Rule." The time of Mutsuhito's reign, 1868-1912 is called the Meiji Restoration. It was an extraordinary e period that saw the overthrow of centuries of rule by a shogun. It restored an emperor to the throne after a thousand year absence, reestablishing the principle imperial unity. And it began the most successful trasformation of a feudal society into a modern nation that the world has ever witnessed.
A. Decision to Westernize. The Meiji emperor did not actually rule. With his consent important decisions were made by an elite group known as oligarchs. Most oligarchs were Choshu or Satsuma samurai. As military men they saw little chance of defeating western navies. They felt that industrialization was Japan's only hope of competing with the West. Once the decision was made, they went about the task at breakneck speed. In April, 1868, the Meiji government passed the Charter Oath. This revolutionary document called for an assembly that would decide important matters by public debate. The oath abolished class lines, opening many new occupations to commoners. The direction that Japan would take in the future was clearly stated in the last aim of the oath: "Knowledge shall be sought from all over the world and thus shall be strengthened the foundation of the imperial rule."
B. Land and Military reforms. The Charter Oath also abolished feudalism and fort the daimyo to give up direct control of their estates. In return for their land the daimyo were given large cash settlements. The samurai class was abolished. Samurai had five years to discard their two swords. A greater blow to their pride came when the Meiji government issued Japan's first draft law. It required all men, regardless of social origins, to serve three years of active duty and four years of reserve. To peasants, who toiled many hours a day in the fields, military life seemed a great deal easier than farming.
C. Westernization and Modernization. Unlike the Chinese, who could not decide whether or not to modernize, the Japanese were eager to learn the secrets of western Industrialization. Japan did not hesitate to import western advisers to help write new laws, update the economy, develop industries, and modernize methods of agriculture. The Meiji government also sent Japan's outstanding students to universities in Europe and the United States. When these students returned to Japan, they brought back ideas about modern banking, modern methods of communication, modern armed forces, a constitution, and compulsory education. The government also modernized the economy. A modern banking system was introduced and the Japanese yen was set at about half that of the United States dollar. The government also changed the system of collecting taxes. Instead of paying taxes on the crops they produced, peasants paid an annual tax based on the value of their land. This ensured a steady source of income even when harvests were poor. To speed up communications and transportation, the Meiji government introduced the telegraph and built a railroad linking Tokyo and Yokohama. In Japan's hilly terrain the railroad proved to be an efficient and inexpensive method of transportation. By 1900, Japan had over 15,000 miles (24,000 kilometers) of track. The Meiji leaders did not forget the need for education. They set up a system of compulsory education for men and women as well a children. In addition to reading and writing, all students were taught the values of loyalty to the emperor and of patriotism. By 1900, illiteracy had almost disappeared. In less than thirty years Japan had accomplished what it took the industrial nations of the West a century and a half to achieve. Rapid modernization enabled Japan to avoid colonization by western powers.
D. Government & industrialization. With the blueprint for industrialization in hand, Meiji leaders now needed to carry out their plans. At first they borrowed money from wealthy merchants. Some of the merciants who invested in Japanese industry became very wealthy and powerful. Meiji advisers soon realized, however, that the government itself would have to provide the huge amounts of capital needed to build an industrial state. Before long the government was building ships and ports for foreign trade, developing the textile industry, and producing glass and cement. A government- built factory turned out weapons and munitions for Japan's growing army and navy.
E. The constitution of 1859. Ito Hirobumi, a member of the oligarchs who advised the emperor, led a delegation to Europe in 1882 to study the various forms of government there. Their task was to recommend the form of government that would be most compatible with Japanese society. A military man, Ito recommended the model of the state of the German Empire. In 1889 the Japanese constitutional was completed and handed down to the people as a gift from the emperor. The new constitution was a bundle of contradictions. It retained the emperor as hereditary head of state and the highest source of power in the country. Directly below the emperor were his advisers, who were basically the same Choshu and Satsuma leaders who hai brought him to power in 1868. Now twenty years older and much wiser, these oligarch had become Japan's elder statesmen. Their dedication to their country was a model for Japan's youth.
1. The Diet. Japan's new constitution provided for Diet, or parliament, to make the laws and advise the emperor on government policy. The Diet had an upper house of nobles who were appointed to office. Members of its lower house were elected by the people.
2. Voting and Civil Rights. In the first election only one percent of Japanese men were eligible to vote. To qualify, a man had to be twenty-five years old and to pay at least fifteen yen in taxes each year. The constitution gave the Japanese people certain civil rights. Among them were freedom of speech, religion, and association, and freedom from search and seizure. However, every freedom was qualified by the clause "except in cases provided in law."
3. Oligarchy. Although the constitution of 1889 was a step toward democracy the real power remained in the hands of the elder statesmen. Japan's adoption of a constitution, less than twenty-five years after feudalism had been abolished, brought sincere acclaim from western nations. Great Britain was so impressed with Japan's progress toward democratic governmei that it voluntarily gave up its unequal treatL fits. Other nations soon followed Britain's lead. By 1894, Japan was viewed by western nations more as an equal than as a potential colony or a sphere of influence.
IV. Japanese Imperialism.
A. Problems of Resources. Providing enough food for its people had always been a problem in Japan. The scientific and medical advances that accompanied industrial development brought a sudden increase in population that made this problem acute. By 1890 fifty million people lived on Japan's four main islands. That same year, the United States had a population of sixty-three million people, living in an area about twentyfive times larger than Japan. In order to survlve Japan had to import much of its food supply. It also had to import most of the raw materials needed for industrialization. When the Japanese tried to pay for thr imports by selling their own goods abroad, they found that most countries had crected tariff barrier to protect their home industries. To lighten the burden, the Meiji government encouraged its citizens to emigrate to foreign countries. Here, too, the doors of western nations, including the United States, were closed. In 1907 Congress passed discriminatory legislation that prevented further Japane'e immiEration to the United States. West coast politicians and labor leaders claimed that these laws were necessary to keep out unskilled Japanese laborers who were willing to work long hours for low wages. Western tariffs and immigration quotas forced Japan to seek alternate methods for survival.
B. Japan joins the Imperial Club. As the crisis worsened, Japan's leaders decided to seize foreign territory. This would give Japan food for its people and raw material for its industry.
C. The Sino-Japanese War. By 1900 Japan's army and navy were the equal of some of the armed forces in the West. Japan began to think of itself as an imperial power. In 1894 it defeated China in a brief war over control of Korea. China's army failed to win a single battle; its navy was almost destroyed. The peace treaty gave Japan the island of Taiwan, the Pescadores Islands, and the Liaotung Peninsula iii southern Manchuria. In addition, China recognized Korea's independence and agreed to pay for most of the war costs The reaction to Japan's victory was mixed. Some European nations were concerned that their spheres of influence in Asia might be endangered. Germany, France, and Russia were so uneasy that they pressured Japan into giving up its rights in Manchuria in exchange for a cash settlement.
D. Alliance with Britain. Fearing that Russian interests in Manchuria might some day extend to China, the British greeted the Japanese victory with cautious delight. With Japan as Britain's ally, they believed, Russia's imperialist designs in East Asia would be curbed. In 1902 Great Britain and Japan signed a ten-year Anglo-Japanese Alliance. In addition to the obvious military advantages, the pact had an important psychological benefit for the Japanese. It was the first East-West military alliance to be signed in modern times. The Alliance restored Japanese pride that had suffered since Perry's ships first entered Tokyo.
E. The Russo-Japanese War. In 1904 Russia completed the Trans Siberian Railroad, which ended in Vladiostok. The Russians also built a naval base Port Arthur. Japan knew that Russia's immediate interest in Manchuria was to gain a warm water port. Japan was ready to allow that as long as Russia agreed to respect Japanese interests in Korea. Convinced that Japan was still a weak, underdeveloped country, Russia rejected the offer. The results astonished the world. On February 8, 1904, without warning or a formal declaration of war, the Japanese navy attacked and destroyed the Russian fleet of battleships and cruisers anchored at Port Arthur After a long and bloody battle that left 20,000 Japanese soldiers dead, Port Arthur fell to Japan. From Port Arthur, Japan defeated the Russian army and navy at Mukden. In a desperate effort to hold Manchuria, the tsar dispatched the Russian Baltic Fleet to Japan. On May 10, 1905, the fleet tried to reach Vladivostok by slipping through the straits that separate Korea and Japan. The Japanese navy destroyed forty of its forty-two ships. In the two day battle, Russia lost twelve thousand sailors; another six thousand were taken prisoner. The Japanese lost only 117 men and three torpedo boats.
F. Japan an Imperial power in Asia.. Thoroughly beaten and humiliated Russia sought peace iiegotiations. The tsar did not realize that Japan had neither the resources nor the men to continue the war. The treaty confirmed Japan's claim to the Liaotung Peninsula and Port Arthur. Russia also agreed to recognize Japanese interests in Korea. Japan took over the southern half of the Sakhalin Island, the South Manchurian Railway, and Russia's mining and industry in Manchuria. Most countries applauded Japan's swift and decisive victory over Russia. None applauded so loudly as those Asian and African countries that were still under the thumb of European imperialists. They knew what the West had already recognized: Japan was now one of the great military powers of the twentieth century. In l9l0 Japan proved that point when it annexed Koa and no western nation interfered. In 1912, the Meiji emperor died, bringing to a close one of the most productive eras in world history. Two years later, World War I broke out in Europe. As the western navies pulled out of Asian ports to hurry home they left Japan as the dominant force in Asia.
Lecture 23: Africa--Northern and Sub-Saharan.
I. Africa and Eurasia: African societies were tightly knit communities, yet they were not necessarily isolated. People were connected across wide areas through clans. There was political interaction between powerful states and the weaker communities that paid them tribute. However, the activity that carried Africa beyond its continental borders was trade. With trade came not only goods but also other people and their ideas. Imported religions. Christianity arrived in northern and northeastern Africa during Roman times and slowly penetrated the lands to the south. When Muslim forces swept across northern Africa in the seventh century, most of the Christian communities disappeared. A small number of Egyptians managed to keep Christianity alive in the Coptic Church. The Coptic Christians of Ethiopia escaped into the highlands. Here Christianity was protected from the Muslims. 1t has remained the religion of Ethiopia up to the present. In the Ethiopian highlands, Christian churches were carved out of solid rock. These sanctuaries could only be reached by climbing the mountains. Islam was spread by trade and by the sword. Trade carried the ideas of Islam into the western Sudan. Islam became the state religion of Mali and Songhai, and its influence gradually reached the peasantry. Holy wars, called jihads, converted many people to Islam. About half of Africa became Muslim.
A) Shift in trade. The widest contact between Africans and others was through trade. Those African states that had direct access to major trade items-gold, salt, ivory, slaves - controlled the trade in an area. When Mali declined, Mandingo traders sought new markets. To avoid the Songhai, who dominated the trade routes passing through the western Sudan, the Mandingo traders moved west, east, and southward into the forest. They established trade routes between the savanna, the forest, and the Atlantic coast. This was a critical shift for western African trade. It now looked west toward the Atlantic Ocean instead of north toward the sixteenth century, the trade routes across the Sahara collapsed. Economic power shifted to the coastal trade system. This influenced African politics. Coastal communities from Senegal and the Gambia to the Niger delta became agents for inland peoples and for Europeans.
B) Portugal and the Slave Trade. 1n the early 1400's a few Africans were carried to Portugal as slaves. This initial group was sent to the Pope as a gift from portuguese royalty. A second and larger group was placed on auction. At first, most blacks in Europe were household servants or slaves. In Portugal, many of the Africans and their descendants intermarried with the Portuguese. They settled into the lifestyle of their new culture. Their lives differed greatly from those of other Africans who encountered Europeans.
C) The lure of gold. When the Portuguese arrived, they were astounded by the quantity of gold available at one section of the western coast. They built a fortified trading post there and called the area Elmina. Portuguese traders found it easy to convince inland peoples to exchange their gold for hardware, cloth, and European luxuries. Slaves to grow sugar. In 1492 a "new land," America, was claimed by Europeans. Six years later the Portuguese reached India. Gold and spices began to pour into Europe. The market for African gold dropped. The Portuguese looked for new ways to make profits in Africa. The growing demand for sugar, introduced to Europe during the Crusades, seemed to offer a good market. The Portuguese began to grow sugar on offshore African islands in the 1490'5. Their laborers were African slaves imported from the mainland. At first the slave traffic was small. It followed the trading system that had been going on between the Portuguese and the Africans since the early 1400'5. Labor was just another commodity to be exchanged for European goods. Furthermore, those persons placed on the market own society.
D) Traditional patterns of slavery. In Afl-ica, as in the rest of the world, slavery had been an institution since ancient times. People became slaves because of capture in warfare, as punishment for crimes, and because of debt. In most societies an enslaved individual could purchase freedom or gain it through military service. Slaves were not iiecessarily treated as inferiors. They might be looked on as part of a family or as trusted servants. Nor was the institution of slavery limited to a selected minority. Kings and scholars, as well as criminals and poor, might become slaves. Within fifty years after the arrival of the Portuguese, however, the traditional system of slavery began to change in Africa.
E) Slavery in America. European colonization in the Americas had a drastic effect on Africa and its peoples. Europeans quicklv began to use the new land to grow sugar and to mine gold and silver. At first, Native Americans were used as laborers in the fields and mines. However, they were not accustomed to this type of work. More serious' the diseases brought by the Europeans killed Native Americans by the thousands As the labor force dwindled' the European settlers turned to black Africans-. It was a short distance between Africa and the American colonies' The transatlantic slave trade expanded rapidly. By the 1750'5, slaves had taken the place of gold as the major cargo leaving Africa. And this was just the beginning.
II. Slave Trading System. The great majority of black slaves came from western Africa, between modern Senegal and Angola. However, northern and eastern regions of the continent were also actively involved in the buying and selling of human beings. Slaves worked French sugar plantations on the offshore islands of Mauritius and Réunion. The Portuguese enslaved blacks in Mozambique and shipped them to European American colonies was by far the most horrendous system. At Elmina and other forts the human cargo was stored in dungeon cells. Africans might be imprisoned for weeks in damp, dark, cold rooms with dirt floors and stone walls, until a slave ship arrived. Troublesome slaves might be thrown into punishment cells and forced to stand bent over at the waist for an indefinite time. How long could a human being survive this kind of torture? In the hold of the slave ship, chained Africans were stacked like piles of books on narrow shelves. Many did not survive the journey. After about five weeks the ship docked at an American port. Many of the blacks were exchanged for sugar and molasses. These same people might then be set to work producing the sugar and molasses to be used to buy the next cargo-and soon, and so on-for more than three long and bitter centuries.
A) Obtaining slaves. Millions of Africans were shipped to the Americas as slaves. HOW were they obtained? Increased warfare among African societies provided one means. Coastal rulers made war on inland peoples to take captives, who were then sold to European traders. As the European demand for slave labor grew, many slave traders supported kidnapping of Africans. Fearing enslavement, each society tried to protect itself by trading slaves for guns. Europeans played one African group against another, offering guns in exchange for slaves. Some African rulers became involved in running the slave trade. Once involved, they found it difficult to pullout. Chiefs who tried to halt the trade had little success. Alfonso I of the Kongo begged the Portuguese king to cease taking away the population. He was ignored. When a Senegal king forbade slave traders to pass through his domain, the traders simply changed their route.
B) The Slave Trade and West African Kingdoms. Firearms helped primarily through the use of weapons purchased from Europeans. As long as it kept up a steady flow of slaves, it received firearms. In time, states on the slave route challenged Oyo's power. Seeking to share in the riches of the slave trade, they made trade agreements with Europeans. A great Islamic move in the north also challenged Oyo's stability. There the Fulani peoples were spreading Islam by force. As they moved from the savanna toward the forest, the Fulani cut the Oyo off from their supply of slaves. Oyo began to shrink. South of Oyo, near the mouth of the Niger River, was Benin.
1) Benin. Benin reached its height in the fourteenth century. Ivory, pepper, palm oil, and slaves were exchanged for European luxury goods and weapons. The ruling oba could raise an army of thousands to protect Benin and its vassal states, as well as to capture slaves. Benin's power began to diminish when the vassal states sought a share in the profits from the slave trade. Power began to shift to city-states along the coast and at the Niger River delta. By 1650 they, with the Europeans, controlled the transatlantic slave trade.
2) Dahomey. One of the major states that developed was the kingdom of Dahomey. At first concerned with stopping the slave trade, Dahomey soon took the lead in the profitable business. Dahomey was organized as a military state. About a third of its soldiers were women. These regiments of women were expert slave-raiders and held the place of honor in major battles. Dahomey was well equipped to protect itself and to compete with other Africans and with Europeans. In the early 1700'5 Dahomey pushed its control to the coast. Now dominating the African side of slave trade in the area, Dahomey became a direct challenge to European power.
3) Ashanti. To the west, the gold center of Ashanti had long profited from trading with peoples to the north. However, slave raids on Ashanti communities caused he clans to unite for protection. They formed a confederation under one ruler, the 2sQntahene, and swore allegiance to his power increased. In time it became strong enough to challenge Britain.
C) Consequences of the slave trade. Enslaving blacks was a worldwide enterprise. Across continents, people were aware of the eviis of the system. Through centuries of forced servitude, blacks had rebelled. In fact, the extreme means required to control slaves pays tribute to black action against enslavement. Why the need for branding irons, handcuffs, iron collars, leg irons, group chains? For decades humanitarians had called for an end to the slave trade. Abolitionists met with fierce objections from business concerns in Europe and the Americas. From investors in the Dutch West India Company to Brazilian landowners, people were making fortunes from the trade. Slaves equaled money. Why give up a profitable business?
D) Decline of the Slave Trade. It took events on the world scene in the late eighteenth century to end the transatlantic slave trade. When the American colonies declared their independence in 1776, Britain lost a major market for slaves. Farther south in the Americas, black rebellion in the West Indies forced Europeans to take a second look at slavery. In 1791 Toussaint L'Ouverture, a freed slave, led a revolt against the French colonials on St. Domingue (Haiti), a sugar island in the West Indies. Fear shot through the white population. Would importing more slaves lead to more black rebellions? As British trade priorities shifted from slaves to palm oil obtained in the Niger River delta, the British attitude toward slavery changed' Ending the slave trade would quiet abolitionist demands and answer the shrinking British need for slaves as a trade item. The slave trade is banned. In 1807 Britain declared the slave trade illegal. There was a chain reaction as other European nations also banned the slave trade. Yet, the trade in humans did not stop. Written laws and military patrols could not stop illegal trade in slaves. Throughout the first half of the nineteenth century, blacks continued to be shippen to the Americas.
III. Impact of the Slave Trade upon Africa. The Transatlantic slave trade had major consequences for Africa. As it came to an end, there was economic, political, and social breakdown in Africa. Power struggles occurred. There was warfare among Africans as well as between Africans and Europeans.
A. Economic Impact. With the banning of the slave trade, trading relationships collapsed. Europeans had demanded only slaves. When the slave trade ended, Africans had nothing to trade. Most of the wealth Africans received from the slave trade went to the rulers. This wealth was "quasi-wealth" on the world market. It consisted primarily of exchange goods - guns, ammunition, and European luxury items -not money. By world standards, most African rulers were poor. Exchange goods could not be traded for machines to dig mines, to increase farm production. or to build rail.roads.
B. Social and Political Impact. Even more serious, the most important product of any society-its youth -had been drained from Africa for more than four hundred years. Among those lost to the slave trade were Africa's future leaders.
C. Psychological Impact. The slave trade had a damaging effect on blacks everywhere. Most of the enslaved Africans who survived became alienated from their own culture. To exist in a new land required learning a different lifestyle. African ways were not important to slave owners. Most uprooted African peoples lost touch with their homeland. Their heritage became fastfading memory, passed along in fragments to their children, never to be fully realized.
III. Settler States in West Africa. The European presence in Africa started when Portuguese explorers began to make their way down the coast in the fifteenth century. A few Europeans settled in Africa and ran trading posts on the coast. They did not try to move inland, relying on the Africans to bring them slaves and goods from the interior.
A. The End of the Slave Trade and Humanitarian Interest. Outside interest in Africa increased late in the eighteenth century. Humanitarians in Britain and the United States became concerned for the future of freed Africans. Unable to find employment, many freed Africans faced reenslavement. Some humanitarians believed that Africans could survive better in Africa. They urged repatriation--return to Africa. Not all repatriation, however, was based on humanitarian ideals. The growing number of impoverished freedmen was a financial burden. Furthermore' slaveowners feared the presence of freed slaves, whom they felt threatened their control over their slaves. Haiti was a clear example of what could happen. Repatriation met with differing reactions from Black people in the United States. Few were interested in moving to Africa. Their ancestors had lived in the United States for several generations, and most blacks viewed the nation as home. Most were more concerned with gaining their freedom and, after the Civil War, their rights as citizens than with their ties to Africa. Many maintained the memory that it was Africans who had first sold them into slavery. To most blacks, repatriation was no more than resettlement in a foreign land.
B) Sierra Leone. In 1787 antislavery humanitarians in Britain financed the founding of Sierra Leone colony. Olaudah Equiano, an Ibo, was hired to gather together the supplies for the first colonists. Equiano had been kidnapped and enslaved in his childhood. As slave to a British naval officer, he traveled to many areas, including England. In 1766 he was able to purchase his freedom. Equiano then returned to England and became deeply involved in the anti-slavery cause. His autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, sparked the antislavery movement. Britain outlawed the slave trade in 1807 and used Sierra Leone as a base for British warships that tried to stop the slave traffic. British operations against the slave trade continued for more than sixty years. During this period over 50,000 blacks were rescued and settled in Sierra Leone. In 1810 Paul Cuffe, a wealthy American shipowner, captained the Traveller on an exploratory trip to Sierra Leone. The son of an African father and a Native American mother, Cuffe was among the small number of blacks who favored repatriation. When Cuffe arrived in Sierra Leone, he found several schools. six churches, a program of aid to the poor and the disabled, and a court system. Impressed with the settlement, Cuffe decided to bring more settlers to the colony. In December. 1815, the Traveller sailed from Westport. Massachusetts with thirty-eight freed slaves. Cuffe covered most of the expenses of the trip, including the cost of supporting the families for two months after their arrival in Sierra Leone. The new colonists taught farming methods and mechanical skills to the earlier settlers. Cuffe hoped to add to the growing colony, but he died in 1817. Sierra Leone's population continued to grow as slave ships were stripped of their cargo by Britain's antislavery patrol.
C) Liberia. Another colony set up for black repatriation was Liberia, founded by the American Colonization Society. The early colonists faced many difficulties. They received little support from the founders in the United States. It was hard for them to adjust to the climate. Africans already living in the area resented its colonization by outsiders. Unable to overcome these obstacles, the colony was abandoned. A second colony was set up in 1822. The colony prospered inspite of hostility from Africans. In 1847 it became the independent republic of Liberia. The colonists did not share the same outlooks as the Africans. Separation from their African traditions had brought about many changes, especially in values and beliefs. Blacks from the United States had became familiar with the outlooks of western civilization, even though they had not been allowed to share in all its benefits. When they set up Liberia's government, they used the government of the United States as a model.
IV. General factors in European Expansion in Africa.
A) Missionary influence. Most of the settlers in Sierra Leone and Liberia were Christians. Christian missionaries Played a major role in laying the foundation for European expansion in Africa. Many Christian denoniinations set up mission stations in western Africa in the 1800'5. These were self-sufficient communities headed by a foreign staff. While staff members often worked closely with Africans and learned their languages, they lived apart from the African community. The missionaries were concerned primarily with gaining souls, teaching minds, and doctoring bodies. To receive mission education and medical treatment, Africans were expected to accept Christianity without question. Seeking to spread Christianity, missionaries looked for promising sites at distances from the mission station. Their search amounted to small-scale exploration. Many missionaries kept diaries and wrote accounts of their experiences for people at home. Livingstone's contribution.
B) Exploration. The role of independent explorers in the 19th century, either missionaries, journalists or government officials, likewise contributed to European domination of Africa. The person who probably contributed most to arousing interest in Africa was a medical missionary named David Livingstone. In 1841 the London Missionary Society sent Livingstone to Bechuanaland in southern Africa. There Livingstone married Mary Moffat, whose mother and father were at the forefront of missionary activity in southern Africa. Until her death Mary accompanied Livingstone on many of his travels. The Livingstones set up several mission stations along the southern edge of the Kalaiari Desert. Dutch settlers, who opposed education for Africans, blocked further missionary activities. Livingstone turned to exploration in Mosi 0a Tunya, which he called Victoria Falls in honor of Queen Victoria. Livingstone covered more than 2,000 miles of Africa on foot, carefully recording its plant and animal life and mapping its natural features. He learned the languages of the people he met and took notes on their customs. His accounts caught the attention of British entrepreneurs interested in the possibilities of trade with Africa. In 1858 Livingstone began a six-year expedition sponsored by the British government. 1t aimed at opening the Rift lake region to mission settlement and trade. In 1866 Livingstone disappeared. Nothing was heard of him until 1871. In that year the journalist-explorer Henry M. Stanley found him at a village called Ujiji. Although he was seriously ill, Livingstone was determined to continue his explorations. For the next two years, until his death, he and Stanley explored and mapped central-eastern Africa. They brought vast new areas of the continent to the attention of people in Europe and the United States. Later employed by King Leopold II of Belgium, Stanley explored the Congo River. His expedition gave Leopold claim to an African empire.
C) Business and Markets. The missionaries and explorers had given European interests a foothold in Africa. They were followed by European entrepreneurs. As the Industrial Revolution transformed Europe, the demand grew for more raw materials. Manufacturers called for rubber, cotton, palm oil, and minerals. New technology made it easy to change increasing amounts of raw materials into manufactured goods. Investors wanted a dependable market for these manufactured products. They followed the same system of mercantilism that the British had found profitable in the American colonies. African colonies were seen as a source of raw materials and a market for manufactured goods. European capitalists concentrated their investments on the production of a major money-making item - a cash crop such as cotton, coffee, tea, palm kernels, or cloves. To tend and harvest the crops, they brought together large numbers of African workers. The raw materials were then shipped to Europe where they were turned into manufactured items. A percentage of these items was returned to Africa for purchase by Africans. The manufactured products sold at a price high enough to ensure the European investors of profits.
D) Technology. Transportation and military.
E) Population.
IV. European Expansion in Africa to 1880. Except for missionaries, few Europeans went to western Africa with the intention of settling down. Southern Africa, however, was a different story. There the climate is more like that of the Mediterranean area and the land is good for farming.
A) The Boer Settlers. In 1652 the Dutch East India Company had set up a supply post at the Cape of Good Hope. In 1657 Dutch settlers began to arrive. After Louis XIV repealed the Edict of Nantes, thousands of French Huguenots joined the Dutch farmers, calle Boers. The Boers sought large areas of land for their farms and herds. Their attitude toward landowning, which was shared by other Europeans, clashed with traditional African values. The Africans claimed only the use of tracts of land. According to tradition land was owned by the community and used by individuals. A claim was not valid unless the land was being used. Individual Boers, on the other hand, claimed ownership of thousands of acres of land, whether or not it was being farmed or used for pasture. The Boers put their policy to use right away. They took over land from Khoisan herders. Some Khoisan fled into the Kalahari; others became laborers for the Boers. The Dutch also made repeated raids on other herding peoples, claiming more and more land for Cape Colony. As they expanded the Boers clashed with Bantu speaking peoples. Further conflict grew out of Boer attitudes toward Africans. The Boers claimed that they were superior to peoples who were not of European ancestry. They thought the Africans existed only to serve as laborers for the Boers. Far outnumbered by the Africans, the Boers felt they had to keep a tight control of blacks to be secure. They followed a policy of force and intimidation. A system of pass laws was set up. No african could travel without a pass from a Boer official. Any African who did not have a fixed address could be sent to prison as a vagrant. The only way blacks could get a fixed address was to work for the Boers.
B) The British. The situation began to change for blacks early in the 1800's. In 1814 Britain took over Cape Colony to protect the route to India, its most valuable colony. British missionaries and settlers soon moved into the colony. From the start their outlooks clashed with those of the Boers. Preaching freedom, equality, and brotherhood, British missionarles challenged Boer policies. In 1828 the British canceled the Boer pass laws and allowed the Khoisan to buy and own land. A limit was placed on the amount of land an individual Boer could claim. In 1834 the British abolished slavery in British possessions This was the final humiliation for the Boers. Fearful of losing their land, their labor force, and their security, they decided to leave Cape Colony. Between 1835 and 1837 the Boers moved north on foot and covered wagons. About 10,000 Boers took part in this Great Trek
C) The Zulu. North of the Orange River the Boers found empty land. However it had not been vacant long. In the middle of the eighteenth century the Mtetwa people under the leadership of Chief Dingiswayo (flee-n'gee-swAH-yoh) moved for military control in southeastern Africa. Among those who came under Dingiswayo's power were the Zulu. To strengthen his armies, Dingiswayo formed age-grades into fighting units called impis. The fighters were highly trained in combat and in obedience. Commanding the impis was a young Zulu named Shaka. The powerful impis swept through neighboring territory. When Dingiswayo was killed in battle, Shaka became ruler. He strengthened regiments by requiring military service for all males. His soldiers were ready to fight at a moment's notice. The men in fought as a unit. A leader with many enemies, Shaka was assassinated in 1828. One of his assassins was his brother Dingane, who continued the Zulu drive northward. Other Bantu-speaking groups fled before their advance. Moving north, the Boers entered land emptied by people fleeing the Zulu impis. In 1838, when the Boers crossed the passes of the Drakensberg Mountains into Natal, they met Dingane and the Zulu. Neither Zulu nor Boer would settle for less than total control of the land. War was inevitable. On December 16, 1838, superior Boer weapons devastated the Zulu at the Battle of Blood River. Southernmost Africa had come under white control.
V. Other Powers. At the other end of Africa, the French were moving south across the Mediterranean. They claimed that the lands south of the sea were a logical extension of France. Early attempts to establish a colony in Algeria met with strong resistance' In 1832 Abd-el-Kader, the emir of Mascara. united many of the African Arabs against the French. It took the French fifteen years to defeat them. By 1880 most of the African interior had been explored, described and mapped by Europeans. Christianity had become a way of life for thousands of Africans. The Boers and British were well entrenched in southern Africa, and a French settler colony in Algeria was established. In the next thirty years most of Africa came under their control
VI. The Scramble for Africa. After 1880 control of African lands became part of the European power struggle. Landownership and control of resources added to a nation's wealth, position, and international power. In Europe, where political lines were firm, expansion could occur only through war. However, a European country could extend its national borders through its colonies. The logical choice for takeover was Africa. European powers had already gained footholds along the coast. And their missionaries, explorers, and traders had given them claims to more land. The next step was to extend these claims. This led to one of the largest land rushes in history.
A) The Berlin Conference, 1884-1885. Soon the different European powers were arguing over their claims. Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck of Germany, the rising new state in Europe, called a meeting to discuss conflicting claims to the Congo. The momentous Berlin Conference began November 15, 1884, and ended February 25, 1885. Fourteen European nations attended the meeting. The United States, which had trade interests in southern and eastern Africa, was also present although it did not claim any territory. Nations indicated "land wants" based on trade agreements mission settlements and exploration. For example, Portugal wanted territory that would cut through the Congo basin and connect Angola and Mozambique. France expected to be given territory claimed by its explorers. Britain demanded land explored by missionaries such as Livingstone. King Leopold, citing Stanley's expedition, claimed the Congo. Before long nearly all of Africa had been parceled ouct to the Europeans. Nobody bothered to consult the Africans.
B) Colonization and Enforcing Claims. Putting claims into effect was only a matter of time. The European nations agreed to respect each other's claims and to help each other if African peoples resisted. The Europeans also had the benefit of sophisticated firearms, which easily defeated Africans armed only with spears. Lightweight cannon made it possible for European troops to pursue African forces into the interior. In 1890 the Brussels Conference gave the Europeans an even greater edge. It forbade the sale of the most modern weapons to Africans. In 1880, 90 percent of Africa was still ruled byAfricans. By 1914 only two independent nations remained Ethiopia and Liberia. Africa had become an economic and political extension of Europe.
C) The British Empire in Africa. Early British rule in Africa grew out of a desire to protect the route to India. This depended upon keeping the way clear between the Mediterranean and the Red seas. The land between these important waterways was part of Egypt, which made that country of critical importance to Britain. Even though the Ottoman Empire was slowly collapsing in Europe, Ottoman Egypt was thriving. Its government encouraged modernization and European investment. Much of Egypt's modernization was financed through European loans that had extremely high interest rates. An important project was the digging of a canal across the isthmus of Suez. The work was done by a French company under the direction of Ferdinand de Lesseps. The canal vastly increased Egypt's value to Europeans, but its construction added to Egypt's national debt Protecting European investments. It 1875, unable to repay the huge sums loaned to it, the Egyptian government was near collapse. Disorder grew as Egyptian nationalists called for independence from the Ottoman Empire. Britain and France moved in claiming that they did so to protect their investments. Faced with paying off its heavy debts, Egypt sold Britain shares in the Suez canal company. To protect their economic interests, the British quickly took control of the waterway Britain also strengthened its protection of the route to India by expanding its holdings in southern .Africa. Britain took over the Boer settlement of Natal in 1843. That same year it set up the African state of Basutoland under British protection. Thes moves heightened the anti-British feeling among the Boers, who had trekked north from Cape Colony to get away from British government. In the 1850's the Boers established two republics - The Orange Free State and Transvaal. When diamonds were discovered along the Orange River in 1867, British settlers swarmed into the area. Soon after, the British government took over the diamond area. Then, in 1886, gold was discovered at Witwatersrand in Transvaal. Waves of British settlers poured into the Rand, which is still the world's richest source of gold. Soon the Rand, too, had been taken over by Britain.
D) The Boer War. The long hostility between British and Boers erupted in 1899 in the Boer War. The Boers prolonged the struggle by turning to guerrilla tactics. To defeat them, the British rounded up over 100,000 Boer women and children and confined them in concentration camps Thousands died there before the Boers surrendered in 1902. The British and Boers states were Joined in the Union of South Africa ln 1910. The new administration favored the goals of the Boers-white control of land and labor and the separation of whites, blacks, and peoples of mixed ancestry.
Britain had colonies in southern and northern Africa. It was not long before someone thought of linking them. In 1889 the British South Africa Company was chartered. Headed by Cecil Rhodes, it was granted the right to locate and dig for mineral wealth in southern Africa. Rhodes had one dream. He wanted to see British power stretching from the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa to Cairo, Egypt, in the north. He talked of a Cape-to-Cairo railway and communications network. Rhodes's goal was not achieved. However, Britain did take the mineral-rich Rhodesias. With their mild climate and fertile soil, the Rhodesias attracted many white settlers from Europe. Like southern Africa and Algeria, they became part of "white Africa" - the area where Europeans settled.
1) African resistance to Britain. The Matabele and later the Mashona peoples clashed with the British in the Rhodesias. Again the Africans were outmatched by European machine guns. In western Africa the British found that the Ashanti kingdom stood in the way of inland expansion from Gold Coast Colony. The Ashanti had grown strong during the slave trade. The British requested the Ashanti king, the Asantehene, to allow a British official at Kurnasi, the capital. The Asantehene refused, correctly fearing that this was the first step in a British takeover. It took the British nearly seventy years to put down Ashanti resistance and capture the Asantehene. Once in control, the British added insult to injury. In 1900 the British governor demanded the surrender of the Golden Stool, the symbol of the Ashanti nation. No one, not even the Asantehene, was allowed to sit upon it. When the British governor made known his desire to sit on the stool, the Ashanti were deeply insulted. The queen mother, Yaa Asantewaa, and her supporters revolted. The revolt lasted only a year, but hundreds of people died in the conflict. When it was over, Britain was in firm control.
E) The French Empire in Africa. How did Africans react to the European takeover? In some areas Africans and Europeans signed treaties for peace, protection, and trade. In other areas there were violent encounters. In western Africa resistance dated back to the early expeditions into the interior. 1n 1828 Frenchman René Caillié had explored the Niger River and reached the ancent trade center of Timbuktu. Instead of returning by river, Caillié joined a camel caravan crossing the Sahara. The French cited this expedition in support of their claim to the land between Senegal and Algeria. The Fulani peoples in Senegal were not impressed with this claim. Under the religious leader Al Hajj Uman they resisted French penetration of the interior until 1890. The French also clashed with Africans in the Ivory Coast. As they moved inland the French came into conflict with the growing empire of Samori Touré. Descendant of the Mandingo peoples who once formed Mali, Samori had begun building an army in the 1850's. He bought arms and munitions from Europeans on the coast and also employed blacksmiths to develop his own arms industry. A brilliant leader, Samori used diplomacy and force to build an empire. Africans who did not voluntarily join him fell before the force of his arms. Samori resisted the French until he was captured. The fate of this great Mandingo leader -exile-was one shared by many other African leaders who challenged colonial rule.
E) Other Colonial Powers.
3) Belgium.
4) Italy.
F) Ethiopia stays independent. Only in Ethiopia did an attempted takeover fail. In 1813 the Italians bou ht a coaling station on the Red Sea coast of Ethiopia Sixteen y ars later Ethibpia's ruler, Menelik II, signed a treaty with Italy. It gave him massive supplies of Italian arms and munitions. Italy claimed that this gave it the right to make Eliopia a protectorate. Soon "Italian East Africa" appeared' on maps. Emperor Menelik II immediately proclaimed Ethiopia's independence. On March 1, 1896, a holy day in the Ethiopian church, the Italians attacked. They were met by an Ethiopian army carrying arms equal to their own. Outnumbered four to one, the Italians suffered a shattering defeat at the Battle of Adowa. Ethiopia had maintained its independence. Along with Liberia it remained the only part of Africa free of European control.