1.
Watch this video on the Boxer Rebellion Links to an external site.(https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=Y-18lUI8ZBnuxhxe&v=JSe8FmYlYdk&feature=youtu.be)Review this website https://omniatlas.com/maps/asia-pacific/19000616/Links to an external site.
These will help you gain insight to the topic.
Create a two-column chart that explains the events of the Boxer Rebellion through the perspectives described in the featured sources.
Sources:
Excerpt from Fei Ch'i-hao’s account of the Boxer RebellionLinks to an external site. ( Internet History Sourcebooks: Modern History (fordham.edu) )
Excerpt from Luella Minor’s account of the Boxer RebellionLinks to an external site. ( Internet History Sourcebooks: Modern History (fordham.edu) )
2.
Read Primary Source 18.1 and answer the following questions:
Why did the other women at the meeting ask Gage not to allow Sojourner Truth to speak? What were they afraid of?
What does Truth mean when she says, "Ain't I a woman?"
What role does religion play in this document?
CHAPTER 18
An Unsettled World
1890–1914
Copyright © 2021, W. W. Norton & Company
Numerous factors lead to global instability: vast population movements, worldwide financial crises, class conflict, the rise of women’s consciousness, and hatred of colonial domination.
Class conflict, economic instability, and great power rivalry within Europe combine with growing protest from overseas to undermine Europe’s dominant position in world affairs.
New forms of scientific thinking and artistic expression, known as cultural modernism, challenge the dominant western view of progress and open Europe and North America to the cultural achievements of nonwestern societies.
Global Storyline
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What was the connection between migration and the development of nationalism in this period?
How did China’s responses to imperialism compare with those in Africa?
What political, economic, and social crises swept through the world in this period? What impact did they have on different regions of the world?
How did new cultural forms at the turn of the century reflect challenges to the world order as it then existed?
In what ways did race, nation, and religion unify populations but also make societies more difficult to govern and economies more difficult to manage?
Focus Questions
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Three key factors underlay the anxieties and insecurities that unsettled the world at the turn of the twentieth century.
Uprooting of millions from the countryside and from one continent to another
Discontent with poverty
Resentment and resistance to European domination
Modernism
Questioning of old ideas and a flowering of new thinking
An Unsettled World, 1890–1914
The turn of the twentieth century was a deeply unsettled time. While Europe had consolidated its dominance abroad, it faced challenges to the entrenched order at home. Three key factors underlay the anxieties and insecurities of this age.
First, millions of people were uprooted from the countryside and from one continent to another. Second, discontent with poverty simmered even as industrial production soared. Third, those under European colonial domination resented and resisted their subjugation.
This instability led to a questioning of received ideas and a new cultural flowering labeled “modernism.”
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In the decades leading up to 1914, various groups challenged the established order and power holders.
In Europe and the United States, left-wing radicals and middle-class reformers sought political and social change.
In places colonized by Europe and the United States, resentment grew toward colonial rulers or indigenous elites.
Popular discontent in places such as China targeted European domination.
New industries drove economic growth and also inequities, loss of jobs, and organized opposition to authoritarian regimes or to the free market system.
Modernism was the way that a generation of artists, writers, and scientists broke with convention and sought new ways of seeing the world.
Progress, Upheaval, and Movement
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the global economy was growing rapidly. But this growth had a price: instability that led many to challenge the established order and power holders.
These challenges came in different forms in different parts of the world. In Europe and the United States, leftist radicals and the more moderate middle-class advocated for social and political change. People in colonized countries grew increasingly resentful of colonizers or indigenous elites. Even in places that were not formally colonized, like China, anger directed against European domination was a potent political force.
As the economy grew, so did inequality. Inequality grew not only between classes in the industrializing countries, but also between these countries and the rest of the world, much of which was forced through colonialism to reorganize its economies to benefit industry. These instabilities in some cases led to organized opposition of authoritarian regimes or the free market system itself.
At the same time, a new generation of artists, writers, and scientists attempted to break with tradition, forming a movement called modernism. But as much as certain people were thrilled by the idea of breaking free of conventions, those who were more invested in the old order were reluctant to see it fade away.
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Mass emigration of Europeans to the United States (and Argentina)
High point 1901–1910 with over 6 million to the United States
Emigration, immigration, internal migration
1840s–1940s: 29 million South Asians recruited to labor on plantations, railways, and mines in Malay Peninsula, Burma, Dutch Indies, East Africa, and the Caribbean
1845–1900: 800,000 Chinese emigrated due to population pressure, shortage of cultivable land, and social turmoil; went to Americas, New Zealand, Hawaii, West Indies, and Southeast Asia
Industrialism pushed millions to migrate within their own countries, from the countryside to cities or to new frontiers.
There were few restrictions until 1914.
United States Chinese Exclusion Act, 1882
Travel within Europe required no passports or work permits.
Peoples in Motion
The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw a wave of mass migration from Europe to the Americas. Emigration began in earnest after the Napoleonic wars and picked up momentum in the 1840s. Many of the migrants of this period were Irish fleeing starvation in their home country. After 1870, the flow of European immigrants intensified even further, with the United States becoming the most favored destination, and Argentina in second place. The highest point was between 1901 and 1910, with over 6 million Europeans entering the United States.
Europeans were not the only people on the move. From the 1840s to the 1940s, 29 million South Asians migrated to colonial outposts in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean. Many of these people were recruited to work on plantations, railways, and in mines.
Around 800,000 Chinese emigrated as well. Seeking to escape population pressures, land shortages, and social turmoil, many Chinese left their homes to find a new life in the Americas, New Zealand, Hawaii, the West Indies, and Southeast Asia.
Industrialization did not just cause emigration beyond borders. Internal migration also occurred on a large scale as people pushed into frontiers or moved to cities to work in factories.
Until 1914, there was almost no immigration policy. The United States admitted almost anyone until 1882, when it passed the Chinese Exclusion Act. This law, spurred by racist reactions to increasing numbers of Chinese immigrants, prohibited Chinese migrants from settling in the United States.
Travel in Europe was basically unrestricted. No passports or work permits were required. Foreigners who committed crimes were eligible for deportation, but that was the extent of immigration policy.
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Cities boomed, leading to city planning.
Major housing shortages, despite rebuilding projects
Goals were to ward off disease and crime, impress others with modernity
Reorganization along class lines
Cities remained inhospitable to poor
Nonetheless, cholera and tuberculosis remained major killers.
However, they offered some hope of social mobility.
Greater possibility for collective action, but increased social division
Urban Life and Changing Identities
Cities grew rapidly, with Tokyo’s population more than tripling between 1863 and 1908, and London’s reaching 6.5 million. The rapid growth of the population caused major housing shortages, despite the attempts of municipal governments to rebuild and beautify the cities. City planning developed during this period in order to regularize traffic and make city life more attractive for residents.
City governments all over the world spent enormously on opera houses, libraries, sewers, and parks, hoping to keep disease at bay. These new projects also meant reorganizing cities along class lines, bringing the benefits of urban design to wealthier areas while edging out the poor. Cities were transformed into arenas where wealthier residents could socialize, relax, and showcase their wealth.
Cities remained largely inhospitable and unsanitary environments for the poor. Cholera and tuberculosis remained potent dangers associated with urban life, as well as increased rates of suicide and alcoholism. However, they offered at least some hope of social mobility, especially to women in Europe and North America, who found new economic and educational opportunities.
While denser populations led to an increased opportunity for collective action, this did not produce social harmony. Conflicts between social classes and the formation of ethnic enclaves divided urban communities.
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Map 18.1 | Nineteenth-Century Migration
Map 18.1 | Nineteenth-Century Migration
The nineteenth century witnessed a demographic revolution in terms of migration, urbanization patterns, and population growth. The world’s population also rose from roughly 625 million in 1700 to 1.65 billion in 1900 (a two-and-a-half-fold increase).
• To what areas did most of the migrants from Europe go? What about the migrants from China, India, and Africa?
• What four areas saw the greatest population increase by 1900?
• How were migration flows and urbanization connected? What factors most accounted for these global population changes? Was internal growth more important than external migration in the case of the world’s population growth? In what countries was population growth most affected by external or internal migration?
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Opposition to European domination in Asia and Africa gathered strength before the Great War (WWI).
The cycle of resistance and repression escalated in the colonies.
Europeans at home questioned their methods.
Unrest in Africa
Many anticolonial uprisings in Africa
Some Europeans concluded that Africans were too stubborn or unsophisticated to appreciate European generosity.
Others called for reform to colonial violence.
A few radicals demanded an end to imperialism.
Discontent with Imperialism
The late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries saw both an aggressive expansion of imperialism and the strengthening of anticolonial resistance. This resistance gained strength, especially during the decades leading up to World War I. During that time, many Europeans promoted imperialism as a “civilizing mission,” claiming that their efforts in the colonies were intended to benefit the colonized peoples. But many of these peoples articulated alternative visions for their societies, contesting Europe’s claim to supremacy. As tensions in the colonies escalated, many Europeans also began to question their methods.
Colonization met fierce resistance all over Africa, despite differences in the approach to colonization. The Germans and Belgians upended local political traditions, whereas the British left them intact. Despite these differences, both groups of colonizers faced violent uprisings.
Many Europeans were shocked by the resistance. Unable to understand why Africans would reject the benefits of civilization as they saw it, many Europeans concluded that Africans were too stubborn or unsophisticated to appreciate European generosity. Others were shocked by the extent of colonial violence and called for reform. A few radicals event went so far as to demand an end to imperialism entirely.
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South African Anglo-Boer War (1899–1902) pitted British settlers of the Cape Colony and Natal against Afrikaners, descendants of Dutch settlers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State.
Involved 4 million Black inhabitants and 1 million Whites
The discovery of gold in the Transvaal in the mid-1880s frightened the British, who feared the Afrikaners were becoming a powerhouse.
The Transvaal president launched a preemptive strike against the British, starting a war that would last three years.
The British introduced a terrifying institution, the concentration camp.
The British won; the Transvaal and Orange Free State fell under British control.
Horrors of war shocked British
The Anglo-Boer War
One of the most devastating anticolonial uprisings was the Anglo-Boer War in South Africa. Fought in 1899–1902, this war pitted British settlers against Afrikaners, who were descendants of Dutch settlers of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. The war involved around 4 million Black inhabitants and 1 million Whites.
The main cause of the war was the discovery of gold in the Transvaal in the mid-1880s. The wealth of the area rapidly increased, and the British feared increased competition with the Dutch. The president of the Transvaal feared that war was inevitable and launched a preemptive strike against the British. This strike started a war that lasted three years, resulting in a British victory over the Dutch forces.
To secure their victory, the British introduced a new institution: the concentration camp. At one point during the war, at least 155,000 people were forced into camps. The British imprisoned both Africans and Afrikaners, whom they feared would side with the “anticolonial” Dutch.
At the end of the war, the British were shocked by the extent of the violence and began to question their self-image as Europe’s most enlightened and efficient colonial rulers.
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Map 18.2 | Uprisings and Wars in Africa
Map 18.2 | Uprisings and Wars in Africa
The European partition and conquest of Africa were violent affairs.
• How many separate African resistance movements can you count on this map?
• Where was resistance the most prolonged?
• According to your reading, why were Ethiopians (see Chapter 17), who sustained their autonomy, able to do what other African opponents of European armies were not?
11
Herero, San, and Muslim Arab peoples rebelled against German rule.
German commander in German South West Africa issued an extermination order against the Herero population.
Those favoring imperialism viewed the horrors of colonization as exceptions to enlightened rule.
Believed Maji Maji Revolt reflected Africans’ childlike primitivism
Thought Europeans hadn’t done enough to bring “civilization”
Often increased number of officials stationed in colonies
Other Struggles in Colonized Africa
For some Europeans, doubts about imperialism increased as people learned of German atrocities in Africa. Germany had acquired African colonies in 1884–1885, taking South West Africa, Cameroon, Togo, and East Africa. In South West Africa, the Herero and San people rebelled against German rule in the Herero Revolt. Muslim Arab people also resisted the Germans in East Africa, or modern Tanzania.
While attempting to suppress the Herero rebels in South West Africa, a German commander ordered that the population be exterminated.
Despite the shock of colonial violence, many Europeans continued to believe in a “civilizing mission.” Such people saw the horrors of colonization as exceptions to the rule. Many continued to see Africans as accepting subjects. When Africans resisted, as in the Maji Maji Revolt, Europeans regularly represented them as childlike primitives.
Resistance in Africa caused Europeans to redouble their efforts, often increasing the number of officials stationed in the colonies.
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Problems of landlessness, poverty, and peasant discontent left the Qing vulnerable to internal revolts and foreign intervention.
External factors
Breakdown of dynastic authority
China’s defeat in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895 was humiliating.
Japan acquired Taiwan as a colony.
European powers demanded Chinese territory as “spheres of influence.”
The United States proposed an “open door” policy while supporting Christian missionaries.
Most violent reaction was the Boxer Uprising, started by peasants
Christian missionaries were targeting commoners.
Tensions mounted after killing of two Christian missionaries in 1897
Martial arts groups believing in divine protection rose up in 1899
The Boxer Uprising in China
Although China was never formally colonized, it too struggled against European intrusions. In the late nineteenth century, internal and external pressures weakened Qing dynastic rule. Domestically, the Qing struggled to deal with problems of landlessness, poverty, and peasant discontent.
At the same time, foreign pressures corroded Qing authority. China’s defeat by Japan in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895 was deeply humiliating. As a result of this war, Japan acquired Taiwan as its first major colony. European powers at this time also demanded that the government grant them specific territories as their own “spheres of influence.” The United States, meanwhile, proposed an “open door” policy that would keep access available to all traders and support missionary efforts.
The most violent reaction was the Boxer Uprising, started by peasants in 1899. Like other colonized peoples, the Boxers violently resisted European influence.
Their story is closely tied to missionary activities, as was the Taiping Rebellion before them. Early missionary activities in China focused on the court and attempted to convert elites, but after the Taiping Rebellion, missionaries poured into China’s hinterlands and focused on converting commoners. Tensions mounted increasingly after the killing of two German missionaries in 1897.
In 1899, martial arts groups believing in divine protection rose up and began attacking missionaries and Christian converts. Under the name “Boxers United in Righteousness,” these men declared their support for the Qing, and their resistance to what was foreign.
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Boxers flourished where natural disasters and harsh economic conditions were most severe.
“Red Lanterns” were mostly young unmarried women wearing red garments.
Crucial in counteracting influence of Christian women
Believed to possess magical powers
The Qing court vacillated over feeling threatened by the Boxers and embracing them as a check on foreign intrusion.
Boxers attacked Christian and foreign people and symbols without central leadership or a plan.
Internal Factors
The Boxers flourished in areas like Shandong province, which had been particularly hard hit by natural disasters and harsh economic conditions. Numerous people from marginalized groups found their messianic and anti-foreign message appealing.
The Boxers rejected claims of western superiority. Women played a prominent role in the movement. The “Red Lanterns” were mostly young unmarried women who wore red garments to signify their allegiance. Although kept separate from the Boxers, the women also trained in martial arts and were believed to possess magical powers.
The Qing court could not decide how to respond. On one hand, the Boxers represented a threat to order; on the other hand, they could be exploited as a force to check European intrusion. In the spring of 1900, the Boxers could no longer be controlled, and the Qing court decided to side with them and declare war on foreign powers.
Without any central leadership, Boxers attacked Christians, foreigners, and all symbols of foreign culture. In Beijing, foreign nationals were besieged in embassy compounds and churches.
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Map 18.3 | Foreign Spheres of Influence in China, 1842–1907
Map 18.3 | Foreign Spheres of Influence in China, 1842–1907
While technically independent, the Qing dynasty could not prevent foreign penetration and domination of its economy during the nineteenth century.
• Which five powers established spheres of influence in China?
• At what time was the greatest number of treaty ports established?
• According to your reading, what did the foreign powers hope to achieve within their spheres of influence? What kinds of local opposition did the foreign influence inspire?
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Foreign army of 20,000 defeated Boxers
Army mostly from Japan, also Russia, Britain, Germany, France, and United States
Boxer Protocol required the Chinese regime to pay twice the empire’s annual income for damages and authorized western powers to station troops in Beijing.
The rebellion revealed:
Western reach beyond port cities and elites to peasants across China
China’s widespread political opposition to westernization and their willingness to resist western programs
Foreign Involvement and Aftermath
The end of the rebellion came when a foreign army of 20,000 crushed the Boxers. The army came mostly from Japan, with about half coming from the other European powers.
At the end of the conflict, China was forced to sign the Boxer Protocol, which required China to pay an enormous indemnity amounting to twice the empire’s annual income. It also granted European powers the right to station troops in Beijing.
The rebellion revealed how much had changed since the Taiping Rebellion. Boxers were primarily peasants, but even they felt unsettled by the increasing contact with Europeans. Ultimately, the uprising showed that responses to imperialism in China were similar to those elsewhere in the world. Widespread political opposition led disaffected populations to resist.
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Most Europeans could ignore resistance to colonization.
Some vocal dissenters
Conflicts closer to home weakened European and North American confidence.
Imperial rivalries at home
Europe’s rise to dominance intensified rivalries at home.
Political realignment changes balances of power
Arms race
Financial, industrial, and technological change
Adam Smith’s small-scale, laissez-faire capitalism gave way to an economic order dominated by huge, heavily capitalized firms.
Instead of smooth progress, western economies bounced between booms and busts.
Economies were increasingly dominated by a few large-scale firms.
Worldwide Insecurities
Resistance to colonization generally did not cause most Europeans to question their ways, even while some vocal dissenters did raise awareness about the horrors of colonial warfare.
But conflicts within Europe and North America led to increasing insecurity. Within European states, military rivalries, expanding industrialization, challenges about the roles of women, and uncontrolled urbanization created social instability that reverberated around the world.
Europe’s rise to dominance undermined its own stability at home. Political realignments shattered the old balance of power. The unification of Germany and Italy threatened France and the Austrian Empire. Nationalist movements threatened to break apart the Ottoman and Habsburg states. Deepening rivalries and instability spurred an arms race that many feared would lead to a catastrophic war.
In the late nineteenth century, capitalism looked very different from how Adam Smith imagined it. Smith’s laissez-faire capitalism envisioned small-scale producers in vigorous competition, benefiting from a division of labor that was efficient, not exploitative. By the late nineteenth century, the economic order was dominated by huge, heavily capitalized firms. Instead of smooth progress, economies were rocked by booms and busts. Periods of downturn and the expansion of large companies ruined many small property owners, including farmers.
Like never before, the economy was increasingly dominated by a few large-scale firms.
17
Increasing international financial integration
More countries joined the world system of borrowing and lending.
National currencies were exchanged at a reliable rate.
Banks in London were at the center of global finances.
Rise of banks and industrial corporations seemed to signal end to free markets and competitive capitalism
Reformers called for states to manage national economies and greater government regulation.
Financial crises
J. P. Morgan rescued the American economy in 1907.
Federal Reserve Act by 1913
Showed how national financial matters were also international affairs
Global Financial and Industrial Integration
Industrialization and rapid economic change led to international financial integration. Countries increasingly joined the world system of borrowing and lending, while the major national currencies in Europe and the United States were exchanged at reliable rates. Global finances became centered on the banks of London.
The rise of giant banks and industrial corporations seemed to signal the end of free markets and competitive capitalism. Instead of calling for a return to free markets, many reformers actually called for state regulation of national economies that would protect people from economic instability.
Many industrializing countries already had central banks that controlled monetary policy, but governments did not have the resources to protect most investments during times of crisis. In 1907, a panic on Wall Street led to a run on the banks. Many American investors withdrew their funds from investments in other countries as well, giving the crisis international scale. J. P. Morgan helped rescue the economy by compelling financiers to commit almost $35 million to protect banks and trusts.
The crisis convinced many in the United States that public oversight of the banking industry was needed, leading to the Federal Reserve Act in 1913. This law created boards to monitor the supply and demand of the nation’s money. The crisis of 1907 showed how national financial matters were also international affairs.
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Industrialization linked nations, and industries spread to new places.
With European investors, Russia built railways, telegraph lines, and factories.
Russia produced half the world’s oil and a considerable amount of steel by 1900.
Development remained uneven, with southern Europe and the American South lagging behind northern region