Chapter 27

	Russia and Japan: Industrialization Outside the West.

Chapter Summary

	Russia and Japan challenged the pattern of 19th-century European domination.
		By 1914 they launched significant industrialization and accomplished other changes that preserved their independence.
		Both achieved economic autonomy and were able to join in the imperialist scramble.

Summary Continued

	However, there were differences between the two.
		Japan displayed more political flexibility than Russia.
		Change in Russia increased internal strains and led to revolution.
		Japan through its reforms pulled away from the rest of East Asia.
		Russia continued expanding its influence in eastern Europe and central Asia.

Russia's Reforms and Industrial Advance

	Russia moved into an active period of social and political reform in 1861 that established the base for industrialization by the 1890s.
	Immense social strain resulted as the government attempted to remain autocratic.

Russia before Reform

	The French Revolution and Napoleon's invasion of 1812 produced a backlash in Russia against Westernization.
		Conservative intellectuals embraced the turn to isolation as a way of preserving Russian values and institutions, including serfdom.

Drifting away from the West

	Though, some intellectuals remained fascinated with Western developments in politics, science, and culture.
	When Western-oriented army officers helped stir up the Decembrist revolt of 1825, Tsar Nicholas I repressed opposition.
	As a result, Russia escaped the European revolutions of 1830 and 1848.

"Russia also continued its territorial..."

	Russia also continued its territorial expansion.

Russia and Europe

	The Congress of Vienna confirmed Russia’s hold over Poland
		Polish nationalist revolts during the 1830s were brutally suppressed.
		Pressure on the Ottoman Empire continued and Russia supported dissidents in Greece and Serbia.

Economic and Social Problems

	In economic terms Russia fell behind the West because it failed to industrialize.
	Landlords increased exports of grain by tightening labor obligations on serfs.
	Russia remained a profoundly agricultural society dependent upon un-free labor.

The Crimean War

	The significance of the failure to industrialize was demonstrated by the Crimean War (1854-1856).
	Britain and France came to the support of the Ottomans and defeated the Russians because of their industrial economies.

The Peasant Question

	Tsar Alexander II was convinced that reforms were necessary, and that meant resolving the issue of serfdom.
	Many individuals believed that a free labor force would produce higher agricultural profits; others wished to end abuses or to end periodic peasant risings.
	Reform was seen as a way to protect distinctive Russian institutions, not to copy the West.

The Reform Era

	The serfs were emancipated in 1861;
		They received land but did not gain any political freedoms.
		They were tied to their villages until they paid for the lands they had received.
		The payments, plus increasing taxation, kept most peasants very poor.
		The emancipation did create a larger urban labor force, but it did not spur agricultural productivity.
		Peasants continued to use old methods on their small holdings.

Early Reforms

	Peasant risings persisted because of the enduring harsh conditions which were exacerbated by population growth.
		Reform had not gone far enough.
		Other efforts did follow.
			In the 1860s and 1870s Alexander II improved law codes and created local political councils (zemstvoes) with authority over regional matters.
			The councils gave political experience to middle class people, but they had no influence on national policy.
			Military reform included officer promotion through merit and increased recruitment.
			There was limited extension of the education system.
				During this era literacy increased rapidly and a market for popular reading matter developed.
				Some women gained access to higher education and to the professions.
				In family organization Russia followed earlier European trends.

Early Industrialization

	A move to industrialization was part of the process of change.
		State support was vital since Russia lacked a middle class and capital.
		A railway system was created in the 1870s; it reached the Pacific in the 1880s.
		The railways stimulated the iron and coal sectors as well as the export of grain to the West.
		They also opened Siberia to development and increased Russian involvement in Asia.
		Factories appeared in Russian and Polish cities by the 1880s and the government quickly acted to protect them from foreign competition.

The Trans-Siberian Railway

Count Witte’s Reforms

	Under Count Witte, from 1892 to 1903, the government passed high tariffs, improved the banking system, and encouraged Western investment.
		By 1900 about one-half of industry was foreign owned.
		Russia became a debtor nation, but the industries did not produce economic autonomy.
		Even though by 1900 some Russian industries were challenging world leaders, the Russian industrial revolution was in its early stages.
		Its world rank was due to its great size and rich resources, not its technology or trained work force.

Protest and Revolution in Russia

	Despite all the reform, Russia remained a traditional peasant society that had not experienced the change in “way of thinking” that western nations experienced with industrialization.
	Unrest accompanied transformation by the 1880s and Russia became a very unstable society.

The Road to Revolution

	Alexander II's reforms and economic change encouraged minority nationality demands in the empire.
		Cultural nationalism led to political demands and worried the state.
		Social protest was heightened by the limitations of reform and by industrialization.

Alexander’s Assassination

	The intelligentsia wanted radical political change and deep social reform while preserving a distinct Russian culture.
		Some of the intellectuals became anarchists who hoped to triumph by winning peasant support.
		When peasants were not interested, some turned to terrorism.
	The government reaction was to pull back from reform, introduce censorship, and exile dissidents to Siberia.
	Alexander II was assassinated in 1881
	His successors opposed reform and continued political, religious, and ethnic repression.

The Marxist Movement

	By the 1890s new protest currents appeared.
		Marxist socialism spread among the intelligentsia.
		Vladimir Lenin attempted to make Marxism fit Russian conditions and organized disciplined cells to work for the expected revolution.
		At the same time working-class unrest in the cities showed through union formation and strikes – both of which were illegal – to compensate for lack of political outlets.

The Russo-Japanese War

	Russia had continued imperialist expansion through the 19th and into the 20th century.
		Gains were made against the Ottomans in the 1870s.
		New Slavic nations, Serbia and Bulgaria, were created, and conservatives talked of Russian leadership of a pan-Slavic movement.
		In the Middle East and central Asia Russia was active in Persia and Afghanistan.
		In China the Russians moved into Manchuria and gained long-term leases to territory.

Russian Expansion

The Russo-Japanese War

	Russia encountered the similarly expanding Japanese and was defeated in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05.
	The loss unleashed protests in Russia.
	Urban workers and peasants joined liberal groups in the Revolution of 1905.
		The government bowed and created a national parliament, the Duma.

The Revolution of 1905

	Minister Stolypin introduced important peasant reforms: greater freedom from redemption payments, liberal purchase and sale of land.
	He aimed to create a market-oriented peasantry divided from the rest of the peasant mass.
	Some entrepreneurs among the peasants - kulaks – did increase production.
	But the reform package quickly fell apart as the tsar withdrew rights, took authority away from the Duma, and resumed police repression.

Russia and Eastern Europe

	After the loss to Japan Russian foreign activities returned to the Ottoman Empire, and eastern Europe.
	The nations of Hungary, Romania, Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, some recently gaining independence from the Ottomans, established parliaments elected by carefully restricted voters.
		Kings ruled without much check.

Russia and Eastern Europe

	In the midst of their many problems eastern Europe enjoyed during the late 19th century a period of cultural productivity that helped to enhance their sense of national heritage.
		Russian novelists, such as Turgenev, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy, gained world fame.
		In music composers moved from the brilliant romanticism of Tchaikovsky to innovative styles.
			Eastern European composers, such as Chopin and Lizt, produced important works.
		In science the Czech “Mendel” advanced the study of genetics and the Russian “Pavlov” contributed in physiology.

Japan: Transformation without Revolution

	Japan's response to outside pressure was more direct and successful than that of Russia.
	The Japanese adapted to the challenge of industrial change and internal market reform.
	Many institutions had to be altered and much societal change resulted.

The Final Decades of the Shogunate

	During the first half of the 19th century the shogunate continued to combine a central bureaucracy with semi-feudal alliances between regional daimyos and samurai.
	The government encountered financial problems because taxation was based on agriculture while the economy was becoming more commercialized.
		Reform spurts met revenue gaps until the 1840s when an unsuccessful effort weakened the government and hampered responses to Western pressure.
		Japanese intellectual and cultural life continued to expand under the Tokugawa.
		Neo-Confucianism kept its hold among the elite at the expense of Buddhism.

The Final Decades of the Shogunate

	The upper classes became more secular, with variety among Confucian schools preventing the intellectual unproductiveness common in China.
		Education expanded beyond the upper classes and led to the highest literacy rate outside of the West.
		Even though Confucianism was dominant, there were many intellectual rivals.
		A national studies group venerated Japanese traditions, including the position of the emperor and Shinto religion.
		Another group pursued Dutch studies, or an interest in Western scientific progress.

The Final Decades of the Shogunate

	The Japanese economy continued to develop as internal commerce expanded and manufacturing spread into the countryside.
		By the 1850s economic growth was slowing as technological limitations hindered agricultural growth and population increase.
		Rural riots reflected peasant distress and helped to weaken the shogunate.

The Challenge to Isolation

	In 1853 an American naval squadron commanded by Matthew Perry forced the opening of Japan to the West.
		Perry’s negotiations won the right to station a consul and open ports for commerce.
		European nations quickly secured equal rights.
		The shogunate bureaucrats had yielded to Western naval superiority; other Japanese favored the ending of isolation.
		They were opposed by conservative daimyos.
		All sides appealed to the emperor.

The Meiji Emperor

	The shogunate had depended on the policy of isolation and proved unable to withstand the stresses caused by foreign intervention.
	Internal disorder resulted in 1860s that ended in 1868 with the defeat of the shogunate and the proclamation of rule by Emperor Mutsuhito, called Meiji.

The Separate Paths of
Japan and China

	Japan and China, despite both being part of the same civilization orbit, responded very differently to Western pressures.
	Both nations had chosen isolation from outside influences from about 1600 to the mid 19th century, and thus fell behind the West.
	China had the capability to react to the challenge, but did not act.
	Japan, with knowledge of the benefits of imitation, acted differently.
		Japan’s limited population growth, in contrast to Chinese population growth, also assisted its response.
		In political affairs China, by the mid-19th century, was suffering a dynastic crisis;
		Japan maintained political and economic vigor.
		In the late 19th century the east Asian world split apart and Japan became the stronger of the two nations.

Industrial and Political Change in the Meiji State

	The Meiji government abolished feudalism.
		The daimyos were replaced by nationally appointed prefects in 1871.
	The new centralized administration expanded state power to carry out economic and social change.
	Samurai officials were sent to Europe and the United States to study their economies, technologies, and political systems.
	Between 1873 and 1876 the government abolished the samurai class and its state stipends.
		Most samurai became impoverished and revolt resulted in 1877.
		The reformed army, based on national conscription, quickly triumphed.
	Samurai continued to exist and many sought opportunities in commerce and politics.

Industrial and Political Change in the Meiji State

	By 1889 the political reconstruction was complete.
		Political parties had formed on regional levels.
		The Meiji created a new conservative nobility from former nobles and Meiji leaders
		They sat in a British-style House of Peers.
		The bureaucracy was reorganized, expanded, and opened to those taking civil service examinations.
		The constitution of 1889 gave major authority to the emperor and lesser power to the lower house of the Diet.
		High property qualifications limited the right to vote to about 5% of the male population.
		The system gave power to an oligarchy of wealthy businessmen and former nobles that controlled political currents into the 20th century.
		Japan had imitated the West, but had retained its own identity.

Japan's Industrial Revolution

	Japan's reorganization went beyond political life.
		A Western-style army and navy was created.
		New banks were established to fund trade and provide investment capital.
		Railways and steam vessels improved national communications.
		Many old restrictions on commerce, such as guilds and internal tariffs, were removed.
		Land reform cleared the way for individual ownership and stimulated production.

Japan's Industrial Revolution

	Government initiative dominated manufacturing because of lack of capital and unfamiliar technology.
		A Ministry of Industry was created in 1870 to establish overall economic policy and operate certain industries.
		Model factories were created to provide industrial experience, and an expanded education system offered technical training.
		Private enterprise was involved in the growing economy, especially in textiles.
		Entrepreneurs came from all social ranks.

Japan's Industrial Revolution

	By the 1890s huge industrial syndicates (zaibatsu) had been formed.
		Thus by 1900 Japan was fully engaged in an industrial revolution.
	Its success in managing foreign influences was a major accomplishment, but Japan before World War I was still behind the West.
		It depended upon Western imports - equipment and coal - and world economic conditions.
		Successful exports required inexpensive labor, often poorly paid women.
		Labor organization efforts were repressed.

Social Effects of Industrialization

	The industrial and other changes went along with a massive population increase that supplied cheap labor but strained resources and stability.
	In the cultural sphere the government introduced a universal education system stressing science, technology, and loyalty to the nation.
		The scientific approach enhanced the earlier secular bent of elite culture.
	Western fashions in dress and personal care were adopted along with the calendar and metric system.
		Christianity, however, gained few converts.

Cultural Effects of Industrialization

	In family life the birthrate dropped as population growth forced movement from the land and factory labor made children less useful.
		Family instability showed in a high divorce rate.
		The traditional view of the inferiority of women in the household continued
		Formality of manners and diet were maintained.
	Shintoism found new believers.
	The changes in Japan's economic power influenced foreign policy.
		By the 1890s they joined the imperialist nations.
		The change gave displaced samurai a role and provided nationalist stimulation for the populace.

Social and Cultural Effects of Industrialization

	Japan's need for raw materials helped pressure expansion.
	China and Japan fought over Korea in 1894-1895.
		Japan's quick victory demonstrated the presence of a new Asian power.
		A 1902 alliance with Britain made it an equal partner in the great power diplomatic system.
	Rivalry with Russia brought war in 1904 and another Japanese victory.
		Korea was annexed in 1910.

The Strain of Modernization

	Japanese success had its costs, among them poor living standards in crowded cities and arguments between generations over Westernization.
		The emergence of political parties caused disputes with the emperor and his ministers, leading to frequent elections and political assassinations.
		Many intellectuals worried about the loss of identity in a changing world; others were concerned at lack of economic opportunities for the enlarged educated class.

The Strain of Modernization

	To counter the malaise officials urged loyalty to the emperor as a center of national identity.
		Japanese nationalism built on traditions of superiority and cohesion, deference to rulers, and the tensions from change.
		Its strength was a main factor in preventing the revolutions occurring in other industrializing nations.
		No other nation outside the West matched Japan's achievements.

Conclusion: Growing International Rivalries

	The entry of Japan and Russia, plus the United States, changed the world diplomatic picture by the early 20th century.
	Japan was not yet a major world power, but Westerners thought about a "yellow peril" as they watched it's new strength.