Russia+and+Japan

=**Russia and Japan: Industrialization Outside the West**=


 * Russia**
 * 1. What was the Decemberist uprising? What were its causes and effects?**
 * The **Decemberist uprising** was a revolt of Western-oriented army officers in 1825, inspired by new tsar, Nicholas I, to still more adamant conservatism. The uprising stemmed from Russia's censoring of intellectuals who tried to incorporate liberal or radical political ideas by Russia's ruling elite. This resulted in the repression of political opponents, and expansion of the secret police. Newspapers and schools were more tightly supervised and political criticism that flourished in places like London and Paris had little effect on Russia
 * 2. What were the weaknesses of the Russian economy?**
 * Russia remained largely an agricultural society and continued to be heavily dependent on coerced labor, with worsening in conditions of peasants. Because they had been an agricultural society, they made little to no technological advances, and proved to be inferior when pitted against Western powers, such as British and French, resulting in weaknesses in military and economy.
 * 3. What caused the Crimean War? what were its major efects?**
 * The **Crimean War**, a minor war that took place b/t 1854 and 1856 widened the gap b/t Russia and the West. The conflict was aroused by Nicholas I, who claimed that Russia was responsible for the protection of Christian interests in the Holy Land, but France and Britain were not content with diplomatic endeavors to limit Russian gains, but came directly to the sultan's aid. Britain worried about the threat on its hold in India, and the French believed that it represented itself as the Western champion of Christian rights. The war revealed that the Russian's were technologically inferior to the large-scale, mass-produced weapons of the West. It helped convince Russian leaders, esp. new tsar, **Alexander II**, that change was necessary. Reform was essential to allow sufficient economic adjustments to Russia to keep pace in the military arena
 * 4. Why were serfs emancipated? how did their emancipation differ from the emancipation of slaves in the U.S.? What changes did it create?**
 * The emancipation of serfs rested of the idea that neither slavery nor rigorous serfdom accommodated economic needs of a society seeking an independent position in Western-dominated world trade. Russian emancipation of slaves differed from that of the U.S., in that it serfs gained much new land, but the Russian tsar still maintained aristocratic power. Serfs, however, did not gain any new political rights on a national level. They were still tied to their villages until they could pay for the land they were given. Redemption money helped preserve this, and also added greatly to peasants' material hardship and peasants thought that the land belonged to them with no need to pay for its return.
 * 5 What were the Zemstvoes? How successful were they?**
 * **Zemstvoes** were local political councils created by the tsar, Alexander II, in order to satisfy the serfs. They had a voice in regulating roads, schools, and other regional policies. This type of local control was essential, since nobles no longer directly ruled the peasantry. The zemstvoes gave some Russians, esp. middle-class people, such as doctors and lawyers, new political experience and undertook inquires in local problems. On national policy, the council had no influence, as the tsar resolutely maintained his own authority and that of his extensive bureaucracy.
 * 6. What was the significance of the Trans-Siberian railroad?**
 * In the 1870s, Russians began extensive railroad work. By the end of the 1880s, the **trans-Siberian railroad**, which connected European Russia with the Pacific, was nearly completed. The railroad boom stimulated expansion of Russia's iron and coal sectors. Railroad development also stimulated export of grain to the West, which became essential to earn foreign currency needed in payment for advanced Western machinery. These railroads also opened up Siberia to new development and brought Russia a more active and contested Asian role.
 * 7. What economic reforms were enacted by Sergei Witte**
 * **Witte**, the minister of finance from 1892-1903, enacted high tariffs to protect new Russian industry, improved its banking system, and encouraged Western investors to build great factories with advance technology. By 1900, half of Russian industry was foreign owned and much of it was foreign operated, with British, German, French industrialists taking the lead. It was compiling large loans as industry took placce, and Russia had surged to the 4th rank in the world in steel production and second to the U.S. in petroleum production and refining.
 * 8. What were the signs that Russia was headed to revolution? (think about - intelligentsia, anarchists, Marxists, Bolsheviks.)**
 * social protest more vigorous, and heightened by limitations of reform and industrialization
 * recurrent famines provoked peasant uprisings
 * resented redemption payments and taxes and often seized and burned records that indicated what they owed
 * group of radical intelligentsia, who promoted radical belief and terrorism emerged
 * Russian **intelligentsia** wanted political freedom and deep social reform while maintaining a Russian culture different from that of the West.
 * many Russian radicals were anarchists, who sought to abolish all formal gov't and opposed tsarist autocracy
 * Marxist leader, **Vladimir Ilyich Ulynov** AKA Lenin, argued that the spread of international capitalism led to development of a proletariat worldwide in advance of industrialization
 * rise of **Bolsheviks**, group of Russian Marxists


 * Japan: Transformation without Revolution**
 * 1. Explain major developments in Japan in the early 1800'sthe ruling**
 * During the first half of the 19th century, the shogunate continued to combine central bureaucracy with semifeudal alliances b/t the regional daimyos and the samurai. The government faced many financial issues, with taxes based on agriculture, despite increasing commercialization of the Japanese economy, and this was a major constraint. Maintaining the feudal system was also very costly, and the gov't paid stipends to the samurai in return for their loyalty. Under the Tokugawa regime, intellectual life and culture developed, and Neo-Confucianism was a prominent force in the ruling elite. Japan gre increasingly secular, esp. among upper classes, in response to the Western challenge and the religious-based resistance. Schools and academies expanded, from upper to commoner schools, or **terakoya**, which taught reading, writing, and rudiments of Confucianism to ordinary people. By 1859, 40% of all men and over 15% of all women were literate, yielding the highest percentage of literacy anywhere in the world outside the West. A minority group called Dutch Studies emerged. Despite the ban on all major Western works when the policy of isolation was adopted, a group of Japanese translators kept the knowledge of Dutch to deal with traders at Nagasaki alive. This enabled advances and studies in Western scientific advances and increasing debate., as well as freer exchange with West and rejection of Chinese medicine and culture.
 * 2. What effect did the actions of Commodore Perry have on Japan? (include details on Samurai discontent)**
 * Commodore Perry arrived in Edo Bay, using threats of bombardment to insist that Americans be allowed to trade. The US, increasingly an active part of the West's core economy, thus launched for Japan the same kind of pressure the Opium War had created for China: pressure from the heightened military superiority of the West and its insistence on opening markets for its economy
 * 1854, return of Perry and won right to station an American consul in Japan
 * 1856, through formal treaty, two ports were opened to commerce, Britain, Russia, Holland soon won similar rights
 * bureaucrats of the shogunate saw no other alternative, acknowledging the superiority of Western natives
 * daimyos, who were increasingly conservative, opposed such concessions, and their opposition forced the shogun to appeal to the emperor for support
 * samurai opponents of the bureaucracy were also appealing to the emperor, who began to emerge from centuries-long confinement as a largely religious and ceremonial figure
 * most daimyos defended status quo, samurais more divided
 * shogunate system depended on isolation policy; it could not survive the stresses of foreign influence and internal relations
 * 1860s- political crisis: samurai attacks on foreigners
 * civil war broke out in 1866 as the samurai eagerly armed themselves with American Civil War surplus weapons, causing Japan's aristocracy to come to terms w/ advantages of Western arms
 * 3. List the actions taken by the Meiji State**
 * 1868- emperor named Mutsuhito, known as "Meiji," or "Enlightened One"
 * abolished feudalism- replaced daimyos in 1871 w/ system of nationally appointed prefects
 * political power effectively centralized, emperor and close advisors drawn from local segments of the aristocracy, began to expand the power of the state to effect economic and social change
 * samurai officials sent abroad, to w. Europe, US
 * pulled back antiforeign position and gained increasing voice over other officials in the gov't
 * basic goal was Japan's domestic development, accompanied by a careful diplomatic policy
 * fundamental improvements in gov't finance
 * 1873-76 - social revolution
 * abolished samurai class and the stipends in this group had received
 * tax on agriculture was converted to a wider tax, payable in money
 * samurai compensated by gov't-backed bonds, but these decreased in value and most samurai became poor
 * army based on national conscription and 1878 saw military security
 * 1880s - political reconstruction
 * former samurai organized political parties
 * Meiji leaders travelled abroad to discover modern political forms
 * 1884- creation of new conservative nobility, operate a British-style House of Peers
 * bureaucracy reorganized
 * expanded rapidly, from 29,000 officials in 1890 to 72,000 in 1908
 * Constitution issued, ensured major prerogatives for the emperor along with limited powers in the lower house of the **Diet**, as the new parliament was called
 * 4. Explain how Japan Industrialized - (Private and government roles)**
 * new army, based on universal conscription of young men, was further improved by formal officer training and by upgrading armaments according to Western standards
 * attention focused on creating the conditions necessary for industrialization
 * new gov't banks funded growing trade and provided capital for industry
 * state-built railroads spread across the country, islands connected by rapid steamers
 * new methods raised agricultural output to feed the people of growing cities
 * new economic structure depended on destruction of older restrictions
 * guilds and internal road tariffs abolished to create a national market
 * land reform created individual ownership for many farmers --> motivated expansion of production and introduction of new fertilizers/ equipment
 * gov't initiative dominated manufacturing in creation of transportation networks and state operation of mines, shipyards, metallurgical plants
 * unfamiliarity of new tech compelled state direction
 * gov't control helped check many foreign advisors needed by early Japanese industry
 * 1870 - est. of Ministry of Industry, which became one of the key gov't agencies and set overall economic policies and operating specific sectors
 * 1880s - model shipyards, arsenals, factories provided experience in new tech and disciplined work systems for many Japanese
 * expansion of tech. training and education
 * private enterprise played a role in Japan's economy
 * 1890s - huge industrial combines, known as **zaibatsu**, were being formed as a result of accumulations of capital and far-flung merchant and industrial operations
 * 5. List ways that Industrialization changed Japan**
 * Social/ diplomatic effects:
 * generated more aggressive foreign policy
 * society disrupted by massive pop. increase
 * better nutrition and new medical provisions reduced death rates
 * upheaval of rural masses cut into traditional restraints on birth
 * strained resources and stability, but provided supply of low-cost labor
 * universal education systems, primary schools for all were provided
 * adoption of Western fashions in an attempt to become modern
 * hairstyles, hygiene, patent medicines, Western calendar, metric system
 * birth rate dropped as rapid pop. growth forced many off land
 * rise of factory industry separated work from home, made children's labor less useful
 * economic change --> shift to imitation of Western models
 * imperialism, exercising military talents
 * needed access to raw materials and markets
 * 6. What division within Japanese society were created by modernization?**
 * poor living standards in crowded cities
 * many Japanese conservatives resented the passion other Japanese displayed for Western fashions
 * disputes b/t generations, with old clinging to traditional standards and young more interested in Western styles
 * stressed importance of parental authority
 * tension in political life:
 * political parties in Japan's parliament clashed with the emperor's ministers over rights to determine policy
 * gov't often had to dissolve the Diet and call for new elections
 * political assassinations and attempted assassinations reflect grievances, ie. direct action impulses in samurai tradition
 * division in intellectual life:
 * many Japanese scholars copied Western philosophy and literary styles
 * others expressed deep pessimism over loss of identity in a changing world
 * Japanese nationalism built on traditions of superiority, cohesion, and deference to rulers, as well as new tensions generated by rapid change
 * played a unique role in justifying sacrifice and struggle in a national mission to preserve independence and dignity in a hostile world