history
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HIST1060lecture20.pptxThe Collapse of the Imperial Order, 1900-1929
Lecture 20
China and Japan: Contrasting Destinies
Why did China and Japan follow such divergent paths in this period?
“China…then collapsed into chaos and revolution. Japan experienced reform from above, acquiring industry and a powerful military.”
Social and Economic Change
Japan prospered during the war and quickly modernized; it also began preying on China.
1. In the first decades of the twentieth century China was plagued by rapid population growth, an increasingly unfavorable ration of population to arable land, avaricious landlords and tax collectors, and frequent devastating floods of the Yellow River. Japan had few natural resources and very little arable land, and, while not troubled by floods, Japan was subject to other natural calamities.
Social and Economic Change
Japan prospered during the war and quickly modernized; it also began preying on China.
2. Above the peasantry Chinese society was divided among many groups: landowners, wealthy merchants, and foreigners, whose luxurious lives aroused the resentment of educated young urban Chinese. In Japan, industrialization and economic growth aggravated social tensions between westernized urbanites and traditionalists as well as between the immensely wealthy zaibatsu and the poor farmers who still comprised half the population.
3. Japanese prosperity depended on foreign trade and on imperialism in Asia. This made Japan much more vulnerable than China to swings in the world economy.
Revolution and War, 1900–1918
When the Qing dynasty ended in 1911, regional general Yuan Shikai took over China and repressed Sun Yat-sen’s party, the Guomindang.
1. China’s defeat and humiliation at the hands of an international force in the Boxer affair of 1900 led many Chinese students to conclude that China needed a revolution to overthrow the Qing and modernize the country. When a regional army unit mutinied in 1911 Sun Yat-sen’s Revolutionary Alliance formed an assembly and elected Sun as president of China, but in order to avoid a civil war, the presidency was turned over to the powerful general Yuan Shikai, who rejected democracy and ruled as an autocrat.
Revolution and War, 1900–1918
When the Qing dynasty ended in 1911, regional general Yuan Shikai took over China and repressed Sun Yat-sen’s party, the Guomindang.
2. The Japanese joined the Allied side in World War I and benefited from an economic boom as demand for their products rose. Japan used the war as an opportunity to conquer the German colonies in the northern pacific and on the Chinese coast and to further extend Japanese influence in China by forcing the Chinese government to accede to many of the conditions presented in a document called the Twenty-One Demands.
Chinese Warlords and the Guomindang, 1919–1929
After Sun Yat-sen’s death, Chiang Kai-shek established a corrupt military dictatorship.
1. At the Paris Peace Conference the great powers allowed Japan to retain control over seized German enclaves in China, sparking protests in Beijing (May 4, 1919) and in many other parts of China. China’s regional generals—the warlords—supported their armies through plunder and arbitrary taxation so that China grew poorer while only the treaty ports prospered.
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Chinese Warlords and the Guomindang, 1919–1929
After Sun Yat-sen’s death, Chiang Kai-shek established a corrupt military dictatorship.
2. Sun Yat-sen tried to make a comeback in Canton in the 1920s by reorganizing his Guomindang party along Leninist lines and by welcoming members of the newly created Chinese Communist Party. Sun’s successor Chiang Kai-shek crushed the regional warlords in 1927.
3. Chiang then split with and decimated the Communist Party and embarked on an ambitious plan of top-down industrial modernization. However, Chiang’s government was staffed by corrupt opportunists, not by competent administrators: China remained mired in poverty.
The New Middle East: The Mandate System
Former Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire became “mandates” under France or British control.
1. Instead of being given their independence, the former German colonies and Ottoman territories were given to the great powers as mandates. Class C Mandates were ruled as colonies, while Class B Mandates were to be given their autonomy at some unspecified time in the future.
2. The Arab-speaking territories of the former Ottoman Empire were Class A Mandates, a category that was defined in such a way as to lead the Arabs to believe that they had been promised independence. In practice, Britain took control of Palestine, Iraq, and Trans-Jordan, while France took Syria and Lebanon as its mandates.
The Rise of Modern Turkey
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk expelled the Greek minority from Anatolia and founded the Turkish Republic, then pushed it toward secular reform.
1. At the end of the war the Ottoman Empire was at the point of collapse, with French, British, Italian, and Greek forces occupying Constantinople and parts of Anatolia. The hero of the Gallipoli campaign Mustafa Kemal formed a nationalist government in 1919 and reconquered Anatolia and the area around Constantinople in 1922.
2. Kemal was an outspoken modernizer who declared Turkey to be a secular republic, introduced European laws, replaced the Arabic alphabet with the Latin alphabet, and attempted to westernize the Turkish family, the roles of women, and even Turkish clothing and headgear. His reforms spread quickly in the urban areas, but they encountered strong resistance in the countryside, where Islamic traditions remained strong.
Arab Lands and the Question of Palestine
As Middle Eastern society modernized, the Arabs became more politically active but had to endure the mandate system.
1. Among the Arab people, the thinly disguised colonialism of the Mandate System set off protests and rebellions. At the same time, Middle Eastern society underwent significant changes: nomads disappeared, the population grew by 50 percent from 1914 to 1939, major cities doubled in size, and the urban merchant class adopted Western ideas, customs, and lifestyles.
Arab Lands and the Question of Palestine
As Middle Eastern society modernized, the Arabs became more politically active but had to endure the mandate system.
2. The Maghrib (Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco) was dominated by the French army and by French settlers, who owned the best lands and monopolized government jobs and businesses. Arabs and Berbers remained poor and suffered from discrimination.
3. The British allowed Iraq to become independent under King Faisal (leader of the Arab revolt) but maintained a significant military and economic influence. France sent thousands of troops to crush nationalist uprisings in Lebanon and Syria. Britain declared Egypt to be independent in 1922 but retained control through its alliance with King Farouk.
Arab Lands and the Question of Palestine
Jewish immigration to Palestine caused growing tensions between Jews, Arabs, and the British.
4. In the Palestine Mandate, the British tried to limit the wave of Jewish immigration that began in 1920, but only succeeded in alienating both Jews and Arabs.
Conclusion:
1. The spirit of the 1920s was not real peace, the Great Depression and World War II were in the offing;
2.The Great War caused a major realignment among the nations of the world;
3. France and Britain emerged economically weakness despite their victory. The War did not reduce German military or industrial potential. The War also destroyed the old regime of Russia. Austro-Hungarian and the Ottoman were divided into many smaller and weaker nations;
4.Japan took advantage of the European conflict, and China was in domestic turmoil and social unrest period. The U.S. emerged as the most prosperous nation.
5.The rise of conflicts among the Turkish, Arab, Armenian, and Jewish immigrants spread after the fall of the Ottoman Empire.
