Homework - Read Overview of World War One and answer the questions for Monday. On Tuesday there will be a quiz on the World War One Notes up to the section "Treaty of Versailles".
Materials are on the class web page.
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Friday, December 11, 2015
December 11, 2015 - Boxers & Saints and Test Review
Homework - Read "Boxers" and answer the reading questions for Monday's class.
Test - The class will have a test on Thursday (December 17th) on European Imperialism. The test will focus on the general forces driving European Imperialism and its impact on Asia (India, China & Japan).
The test will have the same format at the previous two test in which you had to draw a basic reasoning diagram and write a topic sentence for both questions and then write a complete answer for one of the questions.
These are practice questions take from older tests:
1. How do rebellions by indigenous people in India and China show that these peoples were opposed to European domination and the idea of the “civilizing mission”?
2. How was Japanese imperialism after the Meiji Restoration similar to European imperialism and, at the same time, how did it cause conflicts between Japan and European Powers over in China?
3. How did the Industrial Revolution give the Europeans a military advantage in establishing overseas empires?
4. How did the Industrial Revolution give the Europeans an economic drive to take over other parts of the world?
5. How did British rule of India result in first Opium War in China?
6. How did the difference in the Chinese and Japanese reaction to European Imperialism mean that European Imperialism’s impact in Asia resulted in the domination of China and Japanese Imperialism?
7. After signing the Treaty of Nanking, which ended the First Opium War, a Chinese official explained that the view of the Qing (or Manchu) emperor was that the treaty would, “permanently prevent further troubles from happening.” Why was this perspective wrong and how did it ultimately result in European domination of China?
1. How do rebellions by indigenous people in India and China show that these peoples were opposed to European domination and the idea of the “civilizing mission”?
2. How was Japanese imperialism after the Meiji Restoration similar to European imperialism and, at the same time, how did it cause conflicts between Japan and European Powers over in China?
3. How did the Industrial Revolution give the Europeans a military advantage in establishing overseas empires?
4. How did the Industrial Revolution give the Europeans an economic drive to take over other parts of the world?
5. How did British rule of India result in first Opium War in China?
6. How did the difference in the Chinese and Japanese reaction to European Imperialism mean that European Imperialism’s impact in Asia resulted in the domination of China and Japanese Imperialism?
7. After signing the Treaty of Nanking, which ended the First Opium War, a Chinese official explained that the view of the Qing (or Manchu) emperor was that the treaty would, “permanently prevent further troubles from happening.” Why was this perspective wrong and how did it ultimately result in European domination of China?
Tuesday, December 8, 2015
December 9, 2015 - Imperialism in China & Boxer Rebellion
Homework - Use the source material listed below to answer the questions on the assignment sheet. These sources will be the focus of class discussion in the next class - the question sheet is available here.
Source # 1 - Map showing the areas of China controlled by foreign powers.
Source # 2 - Cartoon showing European powers dividing China.
Source # 3 - Cartoon showing how the foreign powers controlled China.
Source # 4 - Map showing the region of China affected by the Boxer Rebellion.
Biography - Empress Dowager Tsu Hsi
Tsu Hsi was born to a noble family in China in 1835. Very little is known about her childhood because the Imperial Chinese policy forbade the publication of personal details of the Imperial family. When she was fourteen she was chosen to be the emperor Xianfeng’s concubine (she was the emperor’s official mistress). Xianfeng had one empress (Niuhuru), two consorts, and eleven concubines. In 1856, Tsu Hsi gave birth to a birth to a boy named Zaichun. Zaichun was the emperor’s only son. The emperor died shortly after European soldiers looted and burned the Summer Palace during the Second War without naming an heir. Tsu Hsi made sure that her 5-year-old son was named the new emperor. At this point, Tsu Hsi became the Empress Dowager (which means that she inherited power by being the widow of the emperor) because she was given power to assist the child emperor. However, she shared this power with several government ministers. Several of these ministers opposed Tsu Hsi and tried to take away her power. Tsu Hsi turned the imperial family against these ministers and had them beheaded.
At this point, Tsu Hsi effectively became the leader of China by ruling in the name of her son. This was a hard time for China because it was forced to pay the Europeans for the cost of the Second Opium War (which it had lost) and putting down the Taiping Rebellion, which was being fought in southern China. Tsu Hsi lead the Chinese government through these problems. Then in 1875, the 18-year-old emperor died without an heir. Tsu Hsi chose her sister’s 4-year-old son to be the emperor Guangxu and she continued to rule in his name.
In 1887, Guangxu took power as emperor, but he ruled under Tsu Hsi’s supervision. Guangxu wanted to reform the Chinese government and modernize it following the model of how Japan modernized during the Meiji Restoration. After China lost to Japan in the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, Guangxu began to enact his planned reforms. These reforms resulted in many government officials losing their jobs. These officials turned to Tsu Hsi to help in blocking the reforms. In 1898, Tsu Hsi, with the support of these officials and the army, removed Guangxu from power, but kept him as emperor. Tsu Hsi again ruled China.
In 1900, the Chinese people rose in the Boxer Rebellion against the Europeans who had take control across many parts of China. The Boxers attacked Europeans across China and any Chinese person who had become Christian. Tsu Hsi supported the rebellion when they attacked Europeans living in the capital of Beijing. In response to the rebellion, the Europeans invaded China with an army which captured Beijing. Tsu Hsi fled Beijing dressed as a peasant. However, she quickly made peace with the Europeans and returned to rule in Beijing in 1902. After this she tried to start the process of reforming China following the Japanese model. This was a case of too little too late. In 1908, Tsu Hsi died one day after Guangxu died and the two-year-old Puyi became emperor. Three years later, in 1912, the Chinese imperial government was overthrown in the Xinhai Revolution.
Source # 5 - Empress Dowager Tsu Hsi statement in support of the Boxers:
The present situation is becoming daily more difficult. The various Powers cast upon us looks of tiger-like voracity, hustling each other to be first to seize our innermost territories. . . . Should the strong enemies become aggressive and press us to consent to things we can never accept, we have no alternative but to rely upon the justice of our cause. . . . If our . . . hundreds of millions of inhabitants . . . would prove their loyalty to their emperor and love of their country, what is there to fear from any invader? Let us not think about making peace.
Source # 6 - Photograph of the Boxers.
Source # 7 - Photograph of Boxer women.
Source # 8 - Boxer song:
Divinely aided Boxers,
United-in-Righteousness Corps
Arose because the Devils
Messed up the Empire of yore.
They proselytize their sect,
And believe in only one God,
The spirits and their own ancestors
Are not even given a nod.
Their men are all immoral,
Their women are truly vile.
And if you don’t believe me,
Then have a careful view:
You’ll see the Devil’s eyes
Are all a shining blue.
No rain comes from Heaven.
The earth is parched and dry.
And all because the churches
Have bottled up the sky.
The gods are very angry.
The spirits seek revenge...
En masse they come from Heaven
To teach the Way to men.
Gods come down from the hills,
Possessing the bodies of men,
Transmitting their boxing skills.
When their marital and magic techniques
Are all learned by each one of you,
Suppressing the Foreign Devils
Will not be a tough thing to do.
Rip up the railroad tracks!
Pull down the telegraph lines!
Quickly! Hurry up! Smash them—
The boats and the steamship combines.
The mighty nation of France
Quivers in abject fear,
While from England, America, Russia
And from Germany naught do we hear.
When at last all the Foreign Devils
Are expelled to the very last man,
The Great Qing, united, together,
Will bring peace to this our land
Source # 9 - Fei Ch'i-hao was a Chinese Christian. This is part of his description of the events he saw during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900.
The people of Shansi are naturally timid and gentle, not given to making disturbances, being the most peaceable people in China. So our Shansi Christians were hopeful for themselves, even when the reports from the coast grew more alarming. But there was one thing which caused us deep apprehension, and that was the fact that the wicked, cruel YU Hsien, the hater of foreigners, was the newly appointed Governor of Shansi. He had previously promoted the Boxer movement in Shantung, and had persuaded the Empress Dowager that the Boxers had supernatural powers and were true patriots...
...The wicked Governor, Yü Hsien, scattered proclamations broadcast. These stated that the foreign religions overthrew morality and inflamed men to do evil, so now gods and men were stirred up against them, and Heaven's legions had been sent to exterminate the foreign devils. Moreover there were the Boxers, faithful to their sovereign, loyal to their country, determined to unite in wiping out the foreign religion. He also offered a reward to all who killed foreigners, either titles or office or money. When the highest official in the province took such a stand in favor of the Boxers, what could inferior officials do? People and officials bowed to his will, and all who enlisted as Boxers were in high favor. It was a time of license and anarchy, when not only Christians were killed, but hundreds of others against whom individual Boxers had a grudge.
Crowds of people kept passing our mission gate to see what might be happening, for the city was full of rumors. "The foreigners have all fled."
"Many foreigners from other places have gathered here."
"A great cannon has been mounted at the mission gate."
"The foreigners have hired men to poison wells, and to smear gates with blood."
I was staying in the compound with the Prices, inside the west gate of the city, and Mr. and Mrs. Atwater, with their children, Bertha and Celia, lived near the east gate. On the 28th of June all day long a mob of one or two hundred roughs, with crowds of boys, stood at the gate of the Atwater place, shouting:
"Kill the foreigners, loot the houses."
Fei Ch'i-hao described how the Governor Yü Hsien allowed the foreign Christian missionary families to leave the city escorted by soldiers. He then reported on the fate of the foreign missionary families:
The sun had risen when I opened my eyes in the morning. I forced myself to rise, washed my face, and asked for a little food, but could not get it down. Sitting down I heard loud talking and laughter among the guests. The topic of conversation was the massacre of foreigners the day before! One said:
"There were ten ocean men killed, three men, four women, and three little devils." Another added, "Lij Cheng San yesterday morning came ahead with twenty soldiers and waited in the village. When the foreigners with their soldier escort arrived a gun was fired for a signal, and all the soldiers set to work at once."
Then one after another added gruesome details, how the cruel swords had slashed, how the baggage had been stolen, how the very clothing had been stripped from the poor bodies, and how they had then been flung into a wayside pit.
"Are there still foreigners in Fen Chou FuT' I asked.
"No, they were all killed yesterday."
"Where were they killed?"
"In that village ahead-less than two miles from here," he said, pointing as he spoke. "Yesterday about this time they were all killed."
"How many were there?" I asked.
He stretched out the fingers of his two hands for an answer.
"Were there none of our people?"
"No, they were all foreigners."
My heart was leaden as I rode on the cart, with my face turned toward Fen Chou Fu. It was eight when the carter drove up to an inn in the east suburb of Fen Chou Fu, and I walked on into the city. Fortunately it was growing dark, and no one saw my face plainly, as, avoiding the main street, I made my way through alleys to the home of a Mr. Shih, a Christian who lived near the mission. When I knocked and entered Mr. Shih and his brother started up in terror and amazement, saying:
"How could you get here?"
We three went in quickly, barring the gate, and when we were seated in the house I told my sad story. Sighing, Mr. Shih said:
"We knew when the foreigners left yesterday that death awaited them on the road. Not long after you had gone the Prefect and the Magistrate rode in their chairs to the gate of the mission, took a look inside without entering, and then sealed up the gate."
Source # 10 - Photograph of Imperial Chinese soldiers.
Source # 11 - Photograph of one soldier from each of the foreign Allied Armies that were sent to China to put down the Boxer rebellion.
Source # 12 - Colliers was a popular American magazine at the time of the Boxer Rebellion. This is the cover of the magazine reporting on the Rebellion.
Source # 13 - Yao Chen-Yuan was a Chinese Christian. This is an excerpt from his book My Adventures During the Boxer War (1900)
During the night, a crowd passed by, led by a woman Boxer---a member of the Society of the Red Lantern---who asked me my name, my business, and where I was going. As I seemed to satisfy them with my answer, they went about their business, which was the destruction of a Catholic village, and the murder of the Christians. The next morning I continued on my way, being early joined by a Boxer who invited me to dine with him, after which we separated. That night I heard the keeper of the inn at which I stopped say to a Boxer, "We have no Christians here," and I spent the night in peace. The following day a child warned me not to go through a certain village, saying that the Boxers were taking every one they suspected, and I saw the fire kindled at which they burnt twenty Christians, while I at the same time thanked the Lord for putting it into the mind of a child to warn me, and thus save me, and perhaps the people of the Legation, from a like horrible fate. The country was flooded. I was compelled to wade through water the depth of which I knew nothing about, and I was wet and discouraged. I had just emerged from the water when a man with a gun on his shoulder called out to me in a loud voice "Where are you going?"
"I am going to Tientsin," I answered. "What for?"
"To find the head of a flower establishment in which I was employed before this trouble broke out." The readiness of my answer seemed to satisfy him, and he allowed me to continue on my way. At the next village a shoemaker informed me that the road was dangerous, being crowded with Chinese troops; a thing which I soon found to be true by being made prisoner and having my money taken from me. My money being all they wanted, the soldiers at once set me free, and I in turn complained to the officer that I had been robbed by his troops. "Wait," said he, "until I see who did it." "No, no," said I, "do not let me trouble you to that extent; the day is far spent, and I should like to spend the night in your camp." "With pleasure," said he. So I spent the night in the protection of my enemies.
"Please search me," said I in the morning, "to see that I have taken nothing, and I will proceed on my way." He returned my money, warning me not to go on the Great Road lest I fall into the hands of the foreign troops and suffer at their hands. "I understand," said I, with a meaning which he did not comprehend, and I left. When I came to the river, I noticed a boatman and accosted him as follows "Will you take me to the Red Bridge in Tientsin?" "We do not dare to go as far as the Red Bridge," he answered, "the Japanese soldiers are there, and they will shoot us." "You need not be afraid," said I, "I can protect you from Japanese soldiers."
On hearing this he readily consented, but he put me off some distance from the bridge. I saw the soldiers in the distance, but waved my handkerchief as a token that I was a messenger, and thus encountered no danger. They escorted me to the Foreign Settlement and then left me to go alone, but the Russians refused to allow me to pass and I was compelled to return to the Red Bridge. I took one of the letters out of the hat and showed it to three Japanese officers who happened to be passing. "Where do you come from?" they asked.
"From Peking."
"Were you not afraid of the Boxers?"
"No."
"You are a good man; wait till I give you a pass." While he was writing, it began to rain, and they took me to their headquarters, where I saw a high official, dined with him, and related all my adventures by the way as well as the condition of affairs in Peking; all of which he wrote down, and then sent four of his soldiers to accompany me to the British and American Consulates. When I saw the American Consul, I burst into tears and told him of all that the people in Peking were suffering; how the Boxers were firing on them from all sides and trying to burn them out; how each man was limited to a small cup of grain a day, while at the same time they were compelled to labor like coolies, under a burning sun, in employments to which they were not accustomed, and I urged him to send soldiers at once to relieve them.
Source # 14 - Boxer who has been take prisoner by Japanese soldiers.
Source # 15 - Captured Boxers awaiting execution.
Source # 1 - Map showing the areas of China controlled by foreign powers.
Source # 2 - Cartoon showing European powers dividing China.
Source # 3 - Cartoon showing how the foreign powers controlled China.
Source # 4 - Map showing the region of China affected by the Boxer Rebellion.
Biography - Empress Dowager Tsu Hsi
Tsu Hsi was born to a noble family in China in 1835. Very little is known about her childhood because the Imperial Chinese policy forbade the publication of personal details of the Imperial family. When she was fourteen she was chosen to be the emperor Xianfeng’s concubine (she was the emperor’s official mistress). Xianfeng had one empress (Niuhuru), two consorts, and eleven concubines. In 1856, Tsu Hsi gave birth to a birth to a boy named Zaichun. Zaichun was the emperor’s only son. The emperor died shortly after European soldiers looted and burned the Summer Palace during the Second War without naming an heir. Tsu Hsi made sure that her 5-year-old son was named the new emperor. At this point, Tsu Hsi became the Empress Dowager (which means that she inherited power by being the widow of the emperor) because she was given power to assist the child emperor. However, she shared this power with several government ministers. Several of these ministers opposed Tsu Hsi and tried to take away her power. Tsu Hsi turned the imperial family against these ministers and had them beheaded.
At this point, Tsu Hsi effectively became the leader of China by ruling in the name of her son. This was a hard time for China because it was forced to pay the Europeans for the cost of the Second Opium War (which it had lost) and putting down the Taiping Rebellion, which was being fought in southern China. Tsu Hsi lead the Chinese government through these problems. Then in 1875, the 18-year-old emperor died without an heir. Tsu Hsi chose her sister’s 4-year-old son to be the emperor Guangxu and she continued to rule in his name.
In 1887, Guangxu took power as emperor, but he ruled under Tsu Hsi’s supervision. Guangxu wanted to reform the Chinese government and modernize it following the model of how Japan modernized during the Meiji Restoration. After China lost to Japan in the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, Guangxu began to enact his planned reforms. These reforms resulted in many government officials losing their jobs. These officials turned to Tsu Hsi to help in blocking the reforms. In 1898, Tsu Hsi, with the support of these officials and the army, removed Guangxu from power, but kept him as emperor. Tsu Hsi again ruled China.
In 1900, the Chinese people rose in the Boxer Rebellion against the Europeans who had take control across many parts of China. The Boxers attacked Europeans across China and any Chinese person who had become Christian. Tsu Hsi supported the rebellion when they attacked Europeans living in the capital of Beijing. In response to the rebellion, the Europeans invaded China with an army which captured Beijing. Tsu Hsi fled Beijing dressed as a peasant. However, she quickly made peace with the Europeans and returned to rule in Beijing in 1902. After this she tried to start the process of reforming China following the Japanese model. This was a case of too little too late. In 1908, Tsu Hsi died one day after Guangxu died and the two-year-old Puyi became emperor. Three years later, in 1912, the Chinese imperial government was overthrown in the Xinhai Revolution.
Source # 5 - Empress Dowager Tsu Hsi statement in support of the Boxers:
The present situation is becoming daily more difficult. The various Powers cast upon us looks of tiger-like voracity, hustling each other to be first to seize our innermost territories. . . . Should the strong enemies become aggressive and press us to consent to things we can never accept, we have no alternative but to rely upon the justice of our cause. . . . If our . . . hundreds of millions of inhabitants . . . would prove their loyalty to their emperor and love of their country, what is there to fear from any invader? Let us not think about making peace.
Source # 6 - Photograph of the Boxers.
Source # 7 - Photograph of Boxer women.
Source # 8 - Boxer song:
Divinely aided Boxers,
United-in-Righteousness Corps
Arose because the Devils
Messed up the Empire of yore.
They proselytize their sect,
And believe in only one God,
The spirits and their own ancestors
Are not even given a nod.
Their men are all immoral,
Their women are truly vile.
And if you don’t believe me,
Then have a careful view:
You’ll see the Devil’s eyes
Are all a shining blue.
No rain comes from Heaven.
The earth is parched and dry.
And all because the churches
Have bottled up the sky.
The gods are very angry.
The spirits seek revenge...
En masse they come from Heaven
To teach the Way to men.
Gods come down from the hills,
Possessing the bodies of men,
Transmitting their boxing skills.
When their marital and magic techniques
Are all learned by each one of you,
Suppressing the Foreign Devils
Will not be a tough thing to do.
Rip up the railroad tracks!
Pull down the telegraph lines!
Quickly! Hurry up! Smash them—
The boats and the steamship combines.
The mighty nation of France
Quivers in abject fear,
While from England, America, Russia
And from Germany naught do we hear.
When at last all the Foreign Devils
Are expelled to the very last man,
The Great Qing, united, together,
Will bring peace to this our land
Source # 9 - Fei Ch'i-hao was a Chinese Christian. This is part of his description of the events he saw during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900.
The people of Shansi are naturally timid and gentle, not given to making disturbances, being the most peaceable people in China. So our Shansi Christians were hopeful for themselves, even when the reports from the coast grew more alarming. But there was one thing which caused us deep apprehension, and that was the fact that the wicked, cruel YU Hsien, the hater of foreigners, was the newly appointed Governor of Shansi. He had previously promoted the Boxer movement in Shantung, and had persuaded the Empress Dowager that the Boxers had supernatural powers and were true patriots...
...The wicked Governor, Yü Hsien, scattered proclamations broadcast. These stated that the foreign religions overthrew morality and inflamed men to do evil, so now gods and men were stirred up against them, and Heaven's legions had been sent to exterminate the foreign devils. Moreover there were the Boxers, faithful to their sovereign, loyal to their country, determined to unite in wiping out the foreign religion. He also offered a reward to all who killed foreigners, either titles or office or money. When the highest official in the province took such a stand in favor of the Boxers, what could inferior officials do? People and officials bowed to his will, and all who enlisted as Boxers were in high favor. It was a time of license and anarchy, when not only Christians were killed, but hundreds of others against whom individual Boxers had a grudge.
Crowds of people kept passing our mission gate to see what might be happening, for the city was full of rumors. "The foreigners have all fled."
"Many foreigners from other places have gathered here."
"A great cannon has been mounted at the mission gate."
"The foreigners have hired men to poison wells, and to smear gates with blood."
I was staying in the compound with the Prices, inside the west gate of the city, and Mr. and Mrs. Atwater, with their children, Bertha and Celia, lived near the east gate. On the 28th of June all day long a mob of one or two hundred roughs, with crowds of boys, stood at the gate of the Atwater place, shouting:
"Kill the foreigners, loot the houses."
Fei Ch'i-hao described how the Governor Yü Hsien allowed the foreign Christian missionary families to leave the city escorted by soldiers. He then reported on the fate of the foreign missionary families:
The sun had risen when I opened my eyes in the morning. I forced myself to rise, washed my face, and asked for a little food, but could not get it down. Sitting down I heard loud talking and laughter among the guests. The topic of conversation was the massacre of foreigners the day before! One said:
"There were ten ocean men killed, three men, four women, and three little devils." Another added, "Lij Cheng San yesterday morning came ahead with twenty soldiers and waited in the village. When the foreigners with their soldier escort arrived a gun was fired for a signal, and all the soldiers set to work at once."
Then one after another added gruesome details, how the cruel swords had slashed, how the baggage had been stolen, how the very clothing had been stripped from the poor bodies, and how they had then been flung into a wayside pit.
"Are there still foreigners in Fen Chou FuT' I asked.
"No, they were all killed yesterday."
"Where were they killed?"
"In that village ahead-less than two miles from here," he said, pointing as he spoke. "Yesterday about this time they were all killed."
"How many were there?" I asked.
He stretched out the fingers of his two hands for an answer.
"Were there none of our people?"
"No, they were all foreigners."
My heart was leaden as I rode on the cart, with my face turned toward Fen Chou Fu. It was eight when the carter drove up to an inn in the east suburb of Fen Chou Fu, and I walked on into the city. Fortunately it was growing dark, and no one saw my face plainly, as, avoiding the main street, I made my way through alleys to the home of a Mr. Shih, a Christian who lived near the mission. When I knocked and entered Mr. Shih and his brother started up in terror and amazement, saying:
"How could you get here?"
We three went in quickly, barring the gate, and when we were seated in the house I told my sad story. Sighing, Mr. Shih said:
"We knew when the foreigners left yesterday that death awaited them on the road. Not long after you had gone the Prefect and the Magistrate rode in their chairs to the gate of the mission, took a look inside without entering, and then sealed up the gate."
Source # 10 - Photograph of Imperial Chinese soldiers.
Source # 11 - Photograph of one soldier from each of the foreign Allied Armies that were sent to China to put down the Boxer rebellion.
Source # 12 - Colliers was a popular American magazine at the time of the Boxer Rebellion. This is the cover of the magazine reporting on the Rebellion.
Source # 13 - Yao Chen-Yuan was a Chinese Christian. This is an excerpt from his book My Adventures During the Boxer War (1900)
During the night, a crowd passed by, led by a woman Boxer---a member of the Society of the Red Lantern---who asked me my name, my business, and where I was going. As I seemed to satisfy them with my answer, they went about their business, which was the destruction of a Catholic village, and the murder of the Christians. The next morning I continued on my way, being early joined by a Boxer who invited me to dine with him, after which we separated. That night I heard the keeper of the inn at which I stopped say to a Boxer, "We have no Christians here," and I spent the night in peace. The following day a child warned me not to go through a certain village, saying that the Boxers were taking every one they suspected, and I saw the fire kindled at which they burnt twenty Christians, while I at the same time thanked the Lord for putting it into the mind of a child to warn me, and thus save me, and perhaps the people of the Legation, from a like horrible fate. The country was flooded. I was compelled to wade through water the depth of which I knew nothing about, and I was wet and discouraged. I had just emerged from the water when a man with a gun on his shoulder called out to me in a loud voice "Where are you going?"
"I am going to Tientsin," I answered. "What for?"
"To find the head of a flower establishment in which I was employed before this trouble broke out." The readiness of my answer seemed to satisfy him, and he allowed me to continue on my way. At the next village a shoemaker informed me that the road was dangerous, being crowded with Chinese troops; a thing which I soon found to be true by being made prisoner and having my money taken from me. My money being all they wanted, the soldiers at once set me free, and I in turn complained to the officer that I had been robbed by his troops. "Wait," said he, "until I see who did it." "No, no," said I, "do not let me trouble you to that extent; the day is far spent, and I should like to spend the night in your camp." "With pleasure," said he. So I spent the night in the protection of my enemies.
"Please search me," said I in the morning, "to see that I have taken nothing, and I will proceed on my way." He returned my money, warning me not to go on the Great Road lest I fall into the hands of the foreign troops and suffer at their hands. "I understand," said I, with a meaning which he did not comprehend, and I left. When I came to the river, I noticed a boatman and accosted him as follows "Will you take me to the Red Bridge in Tientsin?" "We do not dare to go as far as the Red Bridge," he answered, "the Japanese soldiers are there, and they will shoot us." "You need not be afraid," said I, "I can protect you from Japanese soldiers."
On hearing this he readily consented, but he put me off some distance from the bridge. I saw the soldiers in the distance, but waved my handkerchief as a token that I was a messenger, and thus encountered no danger. They escorted me to the Foreign Settlement and then left me to go alone, but the Russians refused to allow me to pass and I was compelled to return to the Red Bridge. I took one of the letters out of the hat and showed it to three Japanese officers who happened to be passing. "Where do you come from?" they asked.
"From Peking."
"Were you not afraid of the Boxers?"
"No."
"You are a good man; wait till I give you a pass." While he was writing, it began to rain, and they took me to their headquarters, where I saw a high official, dined with him, and related all my adventures by the way as well as the condition of affairs in Peking; all of which he wrote down, and then sent four of his soldiers to accompany me to the British and American Consulates. When I saw the American Consul, I burst into tears and told him of all that the people in Peking were suffering; how the Boxers were firing on them from all sides and trying to burn them out; how each man was limited to a small cup of grain a day, while at the same time they were compelled to labor like coolies, under a burning sun, in employments to which they were not accustomed, and I urged him to send soldiers at once to relieve them.
Source # 14 - Boxer who has been take prisoner by Japanese soldiers.
Source # 15 - Captured Boxers awaiting execution.
December 8, 2015 - Meiji Restoration & Imperial Japan
Homework - Use the source material listed below to answer the questions on the assignment sheet. These sources will be the focus of class discussion in the next class - the question sheet is available here.
Biography - Saigo Takamori
Saigo Takamori was born to a poor samurai family in Japan in 1828. When he was six, Siago began his samurai training. He excelled more as a scholar than a warrior, reading extensively.~ After completing his education, he began to work for the local samurai lord or daimyo as an agricultural adviser.
In 1854, Siago travelled with his daimyo lord to the Japanese capital of Edo and saw the American fleet under Commodore Perry, which was demanding that Japan open itself to foreign powers. As an adviser to his daimyo lord, Saigo worked to support the emperor, who wanted to open and modernize Japan, and the Shogun, or “general of the army”, who wanted to fight the Americans. In Japan at the time, the Shogun had the power and the emperor was a figurehead. After his daimyo lord died in 1858, Saigo had to flee Edo to escape the Shogun’s samurai. For several years he lived in different parts of Japan under threat from the Shogun. However, he remained in contact with the emperor’s advisers.
In 1865, the Emperor died and his young son became the new emperor. Siago was made a military commander of forces loyal to the emperor in civil war between the emperor and the Shogun. For several years, he battled the Shogun and finally defeated him in 1868. Siago gained fame and respect in this war because he allowed the Shogun to surrender with honor. Saigo’s victory made the emperor the unchallenged leader of Japan. After the war, Siago retired and took up a life of hunting, fishing and soaking in hot springs.
However, the Meiji government’s process of modernization begun with the defeat of the Shogun quickly caused problems across Japan as the government reduced the power and rights of the samurai and encouraged the development of modern industry. In 1871, Saigo was recalled from retirement by the emperor to form a new national army. Saigo oversaw the modernization of the army that was made up of average people without any special privilege for the samurai. In 1873, he resigned his position after a dispute with the emperor’s advisors over going to war with Korea. Saigo was opposed to the war.
In 1876, the emperor’s government banned samurai from carrying swords, which essentially ended their identity. This action caused small samurai rebellions across Japan. Saigo supported these, but refused to become involved in the rebellion because he still felt deep personal loyalty to the Emperor. Trying to resolve the conflict between the Emperor and the samurai, Saigo announced that he would go to Tokyo, the capital city, to "question" the government. As he travelled to the capital, about 12,000 young men joined him and the event became known as the Satsuma Rebellion. For over a year, Saigo’s army fought against the larger national army that was much better armed. In his final stand, Saigo and 300 of his followers were surrounded by 7000 soldiers of the national army. Saigo was killed in a final suicide charge against the emperor’s national army, the army that he had organized.
Biography - Toshimichi Okubo
Toshimichi Okubo was born to a samurai family in Japan in 1830. After his samurai education, Okubo began to work as an adviser to the leader of the region of Satsuma. In this position, Okubo argued for Japan to adopt European ways and that the government needed to bring together the power for the emperor and the shogun. In 1867, Okubo helped plan the surrender of the Shogun and full power being given to the Meiji emperor.
After the Meiji Restoration, Okubo was a leader in the new national government and he worked to end the power and special rights of the samurai. In 1871, as the Finance Minister, Okubo enacted a tax on land (which was held by the noble samurai) and then in 1876 he enacted the laws that banned the samurai from wearing their swords in public. This sparked rebellions by Samurai across Japan.
In 1873, Okubo participated in the Iwakuru Mission, where he traveled with a group of Japanese leaders on a two-year trip to the United States and Europe to gather ideas for the modernization of Japan and to negotiate treaties with these countries. After this, he used the government powers to promote the development of Japanese industry, based on the European model using modern technology, and the building of roads, bridges and sea ports. He also worked to develop a modern constitutional government for Japan and recruit bright and talented young men into the government, regardless of their background. This meant that any Japanese man could become a government official or military leader. These positions were traditionally held only by the samurai. This loss of prestige angered many samurai. For many Japanese people, especially the Samurai, Okubo was a symbol of the speed with which the new imperial government had moved as well as the willingness of the government to push aside traditional Japanese culture in its process of modernizing the country. In 1878, an angry samurai assassinated Okubo as he was walking to the imperial palace.
Source # 2 - Japanese painting of an one of the American ships that "Opened Japan" in 1853.
Source # 3 - Japanese print of foreigners trading silk with Japanese merchants.
Source # 4 - Photograph of the Japanese city of Nagoya in 1870.
Source # 5 - Photos of the Japanese Emperor Meiji. The picture on the left is him in 1872 and the one of the right is from 1873.
Source # 6 - Japanese print of a Japanese harbor with steam ship.
Source # 7 - Japanese print of a Japanese train on railroad.
Source # 8 - Video on Battle of Tsushima in the Russo-Japanese War (you have to be logged into your Bedford Google account to watch this video) - click here
Source # 9 - Japanese print of victory in the Sino-Japanese War.
Source # 10 - Japanese print of victory in the Sino-Japanese War.
Source # 11 - Japanese print of victory in the Russo-Japanese War.
Source # 1 - Map showing Japanese expansionism and natural resources.
Biography - Saigo Takamori
Saigo Takamori was born to a poor samurai family in Japan in 1828. When he was six, Siago began his samurai training. He excelled more as a scholar than a warrior, reading extensively.~ After completing his education, he began to work for the local samurai lord or daimyo as an agricultural adviser.
In 1854, Siago travelled with his daimyo lord to the Japanese capital of Edo and saw the American fleet under Commodore Perry, which was demanding that Japan open itself to foreign powers. As an adviser to his daimyo lord, Saigo worked to support the emperor, who wanted to open and modernize Japan, and the Shogun, or “general of the army”, who wanted to fight the Americans. In Japan at the time, the Shogun had the power and the emperor was a figurehead. After his daimyo lord died in 1858, Saigo had to flee Edo to escape the Shogun’s samurai. For several years he lived in different parts of Japan under threat from the Shogun. However, he remained in contact with the emperor’s advisers.
In 1865, the Emperor died and his young son became the new emperor. Siago was made a military commander of forces loyal to the emperor in civil war between the emperor and the Shogun. For several years, he battled the Shogun and finally defeated him in 1868. Siago gained fame and respect in this war because he allowed the Shogun to surrender with honor. Saigo’s victory made the emperor the unchallenged leader of Japan. After the war, Siago retired and took up a life of hunting, fishing and soaking in hot springs.
However, the Meiji government’s process of modernization begun with the defeat of the Shogun quickly caused problems across Japan as the government reduced the power and rights of the samurai and encouraged the development of modern industry. In 1871, Saigo was recalled from retirement by the emperor to form a new national army. Saigo oversaw the modernization of the army that was made up of average people without any special privilege for the samurai. In 1873, he resigned his position after a dispute with the emperor’s advisors over going to war with Korea. Saigo was opposed to the war.
In 1876, the emperor’s government banned samurai from carrying swords, which essentially ended their identity. This action caused small samurai rebellions across Japan. Saigo supported these, but refused to become involved in the rebellion because he still felt deep personal loyalty to the Emperor. Trying to resolve the conflict between the Emperor and the samurai, Saigo announced that he would go to Tokyo, the capital city, to "question" the government. As he travelled to the capital, about 12,000 young men joined him and the event became known as the Satsuma Rebellion. For over a year, Saigo’s army fought against the larger national army that was much better armed. In his final stand, Saigo and 300 of his followers were surrounded by 7000 soldiers of the national army. Saigo was killed in a final suicide charge against the emperor’s national army, the army that he had organized.
Biography - Toshimichi Okubo
Toshimichi Okubo was born to a samurai family in Japan in 1830. After his samurai education, Okubo began to work as an adviser to the leader of the region of Satsuma. In this position, Okubo argued for Japan to adopt European ways and that the government needed to bring together the power for the emperor and the shogun. In 1867, Okubo helped plan the surrender of the Shogun and full power being given to the Meiji emperor.
After the Meiji Restoration, Okubo was a leader in the new national government and he worked to end the power and special rights of the samurai. In 1871, as the Finance Minister, Okubo enacted a tax on land (which was held by the noble samurai) and then in 1876 he enacted the laws that banned the samurai from wearing their swords in public. This sparked rebellions by Samurai across Japan.
In 1873, Okubo participated in the Iwakuru Mission, where he traveled with a group of Japanese leaders on a two-year trip to the United States and Europe to gather ideas for the modernization of Japan and to negotiate treaties with these countries. After this, he used the government powers to promote the development of Japanese industry, based on the European model using modern technology, and the building of roads, bridges and sea ports. He also worked to develop a modern constitutional government for Japan and recruit bright and talented young men into the government, regardless of their background. This meant that any Japanese man could become a government official or military leader. These positions were traditionally held only by the samurai. This loss of prestige angered many samurai. For many Japanese people, especially the Samurai, Okubo was a symbol of the speed with which the new imperial government had moved as well as the willingness of the government to push aside traditional Japanese culture in its process of modernizing the country. In 1878, an angry samurai assassinated Okubo as he was walking to the imperial palace.
Source # 2 - Japanese painting of an one of the American ships that "Opened Japan" in 1853.
Source # 3 - Japanese print of foreigners trading silk with Japanese merchants.
Source # 4 - Photograph of the Japanese city of Nagoya in 1870.
Source # 5 - Photos of the Japanese Emperor Meiji. The picture on the left is him in 1872 and the one of the right is from 1873.
Source # 6 - Japanese print of a Japanese harbor with steam ship.
Source # 7 - Japanese print of a Japanese train on railroad.
Source # 8 - Video on Battle of Tsushima in the Russo-Japanese War (you have to be logged into your Bedford Google account to watch this video) - click here
Source # 9 - Japanese print of victory in the Sino-Japanese War.
Source # 10 - Japanese print of victory in the Sino-Japanese War.
Source # 11 - Japanese print of victory in the Russo-Japanese War.
Monday, November 30, 2015
December 3, 2015 - British Imperialism in India
Homework - Use the source material listed below to answer the questions on the assignment sheet. These sources will be the focus of class discussion in the next class - the question sheet is available here.
Source # 1 - Graph comparing the GDP per capita of people in England (UK) to India. GDP stands for "Gross Domestic Product" and is a measure of total output of an economy. GDP per capita divides that output by the population of a country and is an indication of the economic well-being of a population.
Source # 2 - British Postcard showing "Christmas in India" (1881)
Source # 3 - Map of showing the expansion of British control in India
Source # 4 - Video of British East India Company rules India - click here
Source # 5 - Video of British Women view India - click here
Source # 6 - Video of British Missionaries in India - click here
Source # 7 - Graphs showing British cloth exports to India and Indian cloth exports to Britain.
Biography - Azimullah Khan Yusufzai
Azimullah Khan Yusufzai was born to a poor family in India around 1830. When he was seven, he and his mother found shelter at a Christian mission during a famine. Azimullah was educated at the mission school, where he learned English and French, but he refused to convert to Christianity because he was a Muslim. After he left the mission school, he went to work as a secretary to several British military officers.
Azimullah became the secretary and adviser to Nana Sihib, an Indian noble who family had surrendered its territory to the British East India Company in return for an annual payment. At the time Azimullah went to work for Nana Sihib, he was involved in a dispute with the British East India Company because the Company had decided to stop making the annual payment to his family. In 1853, Nana Sihib sent Azimullah to England to appeal directly to the officers of the British East India Company to start making the payments again.
Azimullah’s trip to England had deep and lasting impact on him. He saw the dirty and polluted industrial cities full of poor British workers. He realized that, in contrast to the British who lived in India in large houses with servants, most people in Britain did not live much better than people in India. While he was in England he met John Stuart Mill, the famous British thinker, who was an official in the British East India Company. Azimullah was upset and offended when the Company refused to change its decision about paying Nana Sihib. On his return to India, Azimullah traveled to see the fighting in the Crimean War between England and Russia. In Crimea he saw the sick British soldiers suffering under poor leadership. While he failed in the purpose of his trip to England, he returned India realizing that the British had no special ability that the Indians lacked and that it was possible to militarily defeat the British.
When he returned to India, Azimullah encouraged Nana Sihib to turn against the British. He also began to produce anti-British writings with a printing press he had brought back from Europe and distributed these. In 1857, when the Sepoy soldiers (Indian soldiers working for British East India Company) rebelled against the British, Azimullah convinced Nana Sihib to support the rebellion. Nana Sihib became a leader in the rebellion – including ordering the massacre of British women and children when the British surrendered at Cawnpore. While it is unknown what happened to Azimullah after the British crushed the rebellion, he most likely died of a fever in 1859 on the run from the British in the north of India.
Source # 8 - Video of Azimullah Khan Yusufzai's trip to England - click here
Source # 9 - Map of Regions in India affected by the Sepoy Mutiny
Source # 10 - Graphic explaining the loading process of the Enfield Rifle
Source # 11 - Video of Sepoy Mutiny - click here
Source # 12 - Chart showing the number of famines and deaths in Indian history.
Source # 13 - British picture of famine relief during the Famine of 1877.
Source # 14 - British cartoon of famine relief
Source # 15 - Graph showing British food exports from India during the period of the 1876 - 78 Famine.
Source # 16 - Graph showing British food exports during the two famines between 1896 to 1902.
Biography - Surendranath Banerjee
Surendranath Banerjee was born to a wealthy and noble family in India in 1848. His father was a doctor and made sure that Banerjee received a liberal education. After graduating from university, Banerjee traveled to England to take the Indian Civil Service Exam. This exam was given once a year in England and it was necessary to pass the exam to get an administrative position in the British colonial government in India. The British set up the exam in England to make it very difficult for any Indian person to take and pass the exam. Banerjee was the first Indian to pass the exam in 1869. The British government still made it hard to him to get a post and only in 1871 was Banerjee given the position as an assistant to a judge. However, Banerjee was soon fired from his job because of British racism toward Indians.
In 1875, Banerjee became a professor of English in India and began to organize the Indian National Association, the first political organizations for Indians. He traveled across India giving speeches attacking the British for their racial discrimination against Indians. This made him very popular across India. Four years later he founded a newspaper to support his political movement. Using his organization as a base, in 1885 he participated in the founding of the Indian National Congress and became its president in 1895. Banerjee believed that it was important for Indian leaders to work slowly and with the British to win political power for the Indians. He expressed his idea in his book “A Nation in the Making” where he said he admired the way the British government worked, argued for personal freedom and said the goal should be for Indians to become a self-governing part of the British Empire.
As the leader of the Indian National Congress, Banerjee argued that they should work with the British and was against Indian leaders who wanted to have revolution against the British to win independence from Britain. For example, he was critical of Mahatma Gandhi. However, in the early twentieth century, British rule became more unpopular with the Indian population and Banerjee, with his moderate views, lost the support of many in India. In 1921, Banerjee was knighted for his support for the British Empire. In the last years of his life, he was the prime minister of a self-governing region in northeast India.
Source # 17 - In 1884, a British official working for the British Viceroy wrote, “In this there is nothing offensive or disparaging to the natives of India. It simply means that we are foreigners and that not only in our own interest but because it is our highest duty towards India itself, we intend to maintain our dominion. We cannot foresee the time in which the cessation of our rule would not be the signal for universal anarchy and ruin, and it is clear that the only hope for India is the long continuance of the benevolent but strong government of Englishmen.”
Source # 1 - Graph comparing the GDP per capita of people in England (UK) to India. GDP stands for "Gross Domestic Product" and is a measure of total output of an economy. GDP per capita divides that output by the population of a country and is an indication of the economic well-being of a population.
Source # 2 - British Postcard showing "Christmas in India" (1881)
Source # 3 - Map of showing the expansion of British control in India
Source # 4 - Video of British East India Company rules India - click here
Source # 5 - Video of British Women view India - click here
Source # 6 - Video of British Missionaries in India - click here
Source # 7 - Graphs showing British cloth exports to India and Indian cloth exports to Britain.
Biography - Azimullah Khan Yusufzai
Azimullah Khan Yusufzai was born to a poor family in India around 1830. When he was seven, he and his mother found shelter at a Christian mission during a famine. Azimullah was educated at the mission school, where he learned English and French, but he refused to convert to Christianity because he was a Muslim. After he left the mission school, he went to work as a secretary to several British military officers.
Azimullah became the secretary and adviser to Nana Sihib, an Indian noble who family had surrendered its territory to the British East India Company in return for an annual payment. At the time Azimullah went to work for Nana Sihib, he was involved in a dispute with the British East India Company because the Company had decided to stop making the annual payment to his family. In 1853, Nana Sihib sent Azimullah to England to appeal directly to the officers of the British East India Company to start making the payments again.
Azimullah’s trip to England had deep and lasting impact on him. He saw the dirty and polluted industrial cities full of poor British workers. He realized that, in contrast to the British who lived in India in large houses with servants, most people in Britain did not live much better than people in India. While he was in England he met John Stuart Mill, the famous British thinker, who was an official in the British East India Company. Azimullah was upset and offended when the Company refused to change its decision about paying Nana Sihib. On his return to India, Azimullah traveled to see the fighting in the Crimean War between England and Russia. In Crimea he saw the sick British soldiers suffering under poor leadership. While he failed in the purpose of his trip to England, he returned India realizing that the British had no special ability that the Indians lacked and that it was possible to militarily defeat the British.
When he returned to India, Azimullah encouraged Nana Sihib to turn against the British. He also began to produce anti-British writings with a printing press he had brought back from Europe and distributed these. In 1857, when the Sepoy soldiers (Indian soldiers working for British East India Company) rebelled against the British, Azimullah convinced Nana Sihib to support the rebellion. Nana Sihib became a leader in the rebellion – including ordering the massacre of British women and children when the British surrendered at Cawnpore. While it is unknown what happened to Azimullah after the British crushed the rebellion, he most likely died of a fever in 1859 on the run from the British in the north of India.
Source # 8 - Video of Azimullah Khan Yusufzai's trip to England - click here
Source # 9 - Map of Regions in India affected by the Sepoy Mutiny
Source # 10 - Graphic explaining the loading process of the Enfield Rifle
Source # 11 - Video of Sepoy Mutiny - click here
Source # 12 - Chart showing the number of famines and deaths in Indian history.
Source # 13 - British picture of famine relief during the Famine of 1877.
Source # 14 - British cartoon of famine relief
Source # 15 - Graph showing British food exports from India during the period of the 1876 - 78 Famine.
Source # 16 - Graph showing British food exports during the two famines between 1896 to 1902.
Biography - Surendranath Banerjee
Surendranath Banerjee was born to a wealthy and noble family in India in 1848. His father was a doctor and made sure that Banerjee received a liberal education. After graduating from university, Banerjee traveled to England to take the Indian Civil Service Exam. This exam was given once a year in England and it was necessary to pass the exam to get an administrative position in the British colonial government in India. The British set up the exam in England to make it very difficult for any Indian person to take and pass the exam. Banerjee was the first Indian to pass the exam in 1869. The British government still made it hard to him to get a post and only in 1871 was Banerjee given the position as an assistant to a judge. However, Banerjee was soon fired from his job because of British racism toward Indians.
In 1875, Banerjee became a professor of English in India and began to organize the Indian National Association, the first political organizations for Indians. He traveled across India giving speeches attacking the British for their racial discrimination against Indians. This made him very popular across India. Four years later he founded a newspaper to support his political movement. Using his organization as a base, in 1885 he participated in the founding of the Indian National Congress and became its president in 1895. Banerjee believed that it was important for Indian leaders to work slowly and with the British to win political power for the Indians. He expressed his idea in his book “A Nation in the Making” where he said he admired the way the British government worked, argued for personal freedom and said the goal should be for Indians to become a self-governing part of the British Empire.
As the leader of the Indian National Congress, Banerjee argued that they should work with the British and was against Indian leaders who wanted to have revolution against the British to win independence from Britain. For example, he was critical of Mahatma Gandhi. However, in the early twentieth century, British rule became more unpopular with the Indian population and Banerjee, with his moderate views, lost the support of many in India. In 1921, Banerjee was knighted for his support for the British Empire. In the last years of his life, he was the prime minister of a self-governing region in northeast India.
Source # 17 - In 1884, a British official working for the British Viceroy wrote, “In this there is nothing offensive or disparaging to the natives of India. It simply means that we are foreigners and that not only in our own interest but because it is our highest duty towards India itself, we intend to maintain our dominion. We cannot foresee the time in which the cessation of our rule would not be the signal for universal anarchy and ruin, and it is clear that the only hope for India is the long continuance of the benevolent but strong government of Englishmen.”
November 30, 2015 - British Imperialism
Quiz - Read the Class Notes on Imperialism for Thursday, December 3, 2015.
Biography - Victoria, Queen of England
Victoria was born in 1819, the only child of the British royal family. Victoria became Queen of England when she was 18 years old. Victoria became queen when William IV died 27 days after Victoria's eighteenth birthday. Victoria had grown up protected from the harsh reality of the Industrial Revolution and the effect it was having on people across England. In fact she was horrified by her first sights of Industrial England, which she saw on a trip across the country as a teenager. She described what she saw as, “black, engines flaming, coals, in abundance; everywhere, smoking and burning coal heaps, intermingled with wretched huts and carts and little ragged children." Early in her rule, she was dependent on her Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, who tried to protect Victoria from the harsh realities of British life and even advised her not to read Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens because it dealt with "paupers, criminals and other unpleasant subjects".
In 1839, Victoria met Prince Albert, her cousin from Germany and immediately fell in love with him. They were married the next year and had nine children together. Albert was very interested in the technology of the Industrial Revolution and convinced Victoria to support British industry. He convinced her to take her first trip by train in 1841 and afterwards she said she was “quite charmed” by the experience. Under his direction, Victoria supported the Great Exhibition in London in 1851 which was showcase of industry and art from around the world that demonstrated British power. The Great Exhibition was housed in a greenhouse like building called the Crystal Palace that covered several acres of land. In addition, Albert thought that Victoria should be made aware to the hardships of the Industrial Revolution and should something about child labor and poverty. Albert’s death in 1861 had a deep impact on Victoria and she remained in mourning for the rest of her life.
Under Victoria’s rule, the British Empire expanded to become the largest empire in the world by adding territory in Asia and Africa. By then end of her rule, Britain controlled an empire that contained 20% of the world’s surface and 25% of its population. Victoria strongly supported the British imperialism and believed that British rule was beneficial to people around the world. The British often took colonial lands through war, such as the Opium Wars in China or the war against the Zulu in southern Africa, and used military power to put down rebellions, such as the Sepoy Mutiny in India. was very interested in the well being of her colonial subjects. Victoria supported these wars, writing, "If we are to maintain our position as a first-rate Power, we must… be Prepared for attacks and wars, somewhere or other, CONTINUALLY.”
While Victoria never traveled to her overseas empire, she was interested in her colonies and how the people under her rule lived. She was especially interested in India, which she described as the “Jewel of the Crown”, meaning the most important of her colonies. She even had the British government create the title “Empress of India” to show her connection to the country. She did symbolic gestures to connect her to India, such as having an Indian secretary who taught her Hindi, having Indian food included at royal dinners and wearing Indian jewelry.
Queen Victoria was the longest serving monarch in British history. During her reign Britain went through the Industrial Revolution and built a world-wide empire – it was said that, “the sun never set on the British Empire”. The period that she ruled Britain is remembered as a “golden age” that is called the “Victorian Era".
Source # 1 - Map Of British Empire (1886)
Victoria was born in 1819, the only child of the British royal family. Victoria became Queen of England when she was 18 years old. Victoria became queen when William IV died 27 days after Victoria's eighteenth birthday. Victoria had grown up protected from the harsh reality of the Industrial Revolution and the effect it was having on people across England. In fact she was horrified by her first sights of Industrial England, which she saw on a trip across the country as a teenager. She described what she saw as, “black, engines flaming, coals, in abundance; everywhere, smoking and burning coal heaps, intermingled with wretched huts and carts and little ragged children." Early in her rule, she was dependent on her Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, who tried to protect Victoria from the harsh realities of British life and even advised her not to read Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens because it dealt with "paupers, criminals and other unpleasant subjects".
In 1839, Victoria met Prince Albert, her cousin from Germany and immediately fell in love with him. They were married the next year and had nine children together. Albert was very interested in the technology of the Industrial Revolution and convinced Victoria to support British industry. He convinced her to take her first trip by train in 1841 and afterwards she said she was “quite charmed” by the experience. Under his direction, Victoria supported the Great Exhibition in London in 1851 which was showcase of industry and art from around the world that demonstrated British power. The Great Exhibition was housed in a greenhouse like building called the Crystal Palace that covered several acres of land. In addition, Albert thought that Victoria should be made aware to the hardships of the Industrial Revolution and should something about child labor and poverty. Albert’s death in 1861 had a deep impact on Victoria and she remained in mourning for the rest of her life.
Under Victoria’s rule, the British Empire expanded to become the largest empire in the world by adding territory in Asia and Africa. By then end of her rule, Britain controlled an empire that contained 20% of the world’s surface and 25% of its population. Victoria strongly supported the British imperialism and believed that British rule was beneficial to people around the world. The British often took colonial lands through war, such as the Opium Wars in China or the war against the Zulu in southern Africa, and used military power to put down rebellions, such as the Sepoy Mutiny in India. was very interested in the well being of her colonial subjects. Victoria supported these wars, writing, "If we are to maintain our position as a first-rate Power, we must… be Prepared for attacks and wars, somewhere or other, CONTINUALLY.”
While Victoria never traveled to her overseas empire, she was interested in her colonies and how the people under her rule lived. She was especially interested in India, which she described as the “Jewel of the Crown”, meaning the most important of her colonies. She even had the British government create the title “Empress of India” to show her connection to the country. She did symbolic gestures to connect her to India, such as having an Indian secretary who taught her Hindi, having Indian food included at royal dinners and wearing Indian jewelry.
Queen Victoria was the longest serving monarch in British history. During her reign Britain went through the Industrial Revolution and built a world-wide empire – it was said that, “the sun never set on the British Empire”. The period that she ruled Britain is remembered as a “golden age” that is called the “Victorian Era".
Source # 1 - Map Of British Empire (1886)
Source # 2 - Cartoon of British Empire (1882)
Biography - David Livingstone, Explorer
David Livingstone was born in Scotland (Northern England) in 1813 to a poor but religious family. As a child he worked in a textile factory. He put himself through medical school and planned to work as a Christian missionary in China. However, because of the Opium Wars in China, Livingstone decided to work as a missionary in Africa instead. In 1851, Livingstone arrived in South Africa.
As a missionary, Livingstone's traveled from village to village going into parts of southern Africa that had never been explored by other Europeans, such as the Kalahari Desert. Livingstone wrote back to England describing in full detail the areas he explored and was awarded a gold medal by the Royal Geographic Society. Livingstone became aware of the slave trade in Africa and he made it his life’s work to end the slave trade or the “open sore of the world” as he called it. Livingstone believed that his explorations would open up Africa to trade with the rest of the world and improve the lives of Africans. Livingstone thought that this would end slavery because Africans would have better ways to make money than by trading slaves. His rally against the practice of slavery made him a staunch enemy of many of the Europeans living in Africa.
Livingstone explored deep into central Africa following the Zambezi Rivers all the way to Victoria Falls, one of the largest waterfall in the world. When Livingstone returned to England in 1856, he was praised as a national hero and he toured Europe giving lectures about his explorations. However, some of his later expeditions went badly. His trip back up the Zambezi River in 1858 was troubled by diseases that killed several members of the expedition, including his wife Mary. His expedition for find the source of the Nile River also ran into trouble when his crew deserted him and spread the rumor that Livingston had been killed by the Ngoni tribes.
However, Livingstone was still alive and continued to explore central Africa. By this point in his life all of his travels across Africa had weakened his health – he had been mauled by a lion and suffered from both malaria and cholera. By 1871, he was nearly bed ridden and low on both medical and food supplies and living near Lake Tanganyika in east Africa. The world was interested in discovering the fate of Livingstone, and an American newspaper hired Henry Stanley, and explorer and journalist, to find Livingstone. Working his way across Africa, Stanley finally final found Livingstone at his camp near Lake Tanganyika, greeting him with the famous line: "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" Stanley tried to convince the ailing Livingstone to return with him to England, but Livingstone vehemently refused, and Stanley was force to leave him behind.
Livingstone recovered with supplies left by Stanley and resumed his search for the source of the Nile. In 1873, Livingstone died in Africa having not been able to find the source of the Nile. His African crew removed Livingstone's heart (to be buried in Africa), and then carried his body by hand over 1000 miles back to the coast where his body was shipped to England for burial in England.
David Livingstone was born in Scotland (Northern England) in 1813 to a poor but religious family. As a child he worked in a textile factory. He put himself through medical school and planned to work as a Christian missionary in China. However, because of the Opium Wars in China, Livingstone decided to work as a missionary in Africa instead. In 1851, Livingstone arrived in South Africa.
As a missionary, Livingstone's traveled from village to village going into parts of southern Africa that had never been explored by other Europeans, such as the Kalahari Desert. Livingstone wrote back to England describing in full detail the areas he explored and was awarded a gold medal by the Royal Geographic Society. Livingstone became aware of the slave trade in Africa and he made it his life’s work to end the slave trade or the “open sore of the world” as he called it. Livingstone believed that his explorations would open up Africa to trade with the rest of the world and improve the lives of Africans. Livingstone thought that this would end slavery because Africans would have better ways to make money than by trading slaves. His rally against the practice of slavery made him a staunch enemy of many of the Europeans living in Africa.
Livingstone explored deep into central Africa following the Zambezi Rivers all the way to Victoria Falls, one of the largest waterfall in the world. When Livingstone returned to England in 1856, he was praised as a national hero and he toured Europe giving lectures about his explorations. However, some of his later expeditions went badly. His trip back up the Zambezi River in 1858 was troubled by diseases that killed several members of the expedition, including his wife Mary. His expedition for find the source of the Nile River also ran into trouble when his crew deserted him and spread the rumor that Livingston had been killed by the Ngoni tribes.
However, Livingstone was still alive and continued to explore central Africa. By this point in his life all of his travels across Africa had weakened his health – he had been mauled by a lion and suffered from both malaria and cholera. By 1871, he was nearly bed ridden and low on both medical and food supplies and living near Lake Tanganyika in east Africa. The world was interested in discovering the fate of Livingstone, and an American newspaper hired Henry Stanley, and explorer and journalist, to find Livingstone. Working his way across Africa, Stanley finally final found Livingstone at his camp near Lake Tanganyika, greeting him with the famous line: "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" Stanley tried to convince the ailing Livingstone to return with him to England, but Livingstone vehemently refused, and Stanley was force to leave him behind.
Livingstone recovered with supplies left by Stanley and resumed his search for the source of the Nile. In 1873, Livingstone died in Africa having not been able to find the source of the Nile. His African crew removed Livingstone's heart (to be buried in Africa), and then carried his body by hand over 1000 miles back to the coast where his body was shipped to England for burial in England.
Source # 3 - Video of Livingstone's Exploration in Africa
Biography - Charles Gordon, Soldier
Charles Gordon was born in 1833 at a army family in a military in England. His father was a Major General and Gordon studied military engineering at the Royal Military Academy. When he graduated, he was made a lieutenant in the British army and was send to fight against Russia in the Crimean War in 1854. After the war ended, Gordon worked as part of an international commission marking the new border for Russia.
After he was promoted to captain in 1859, he volunteered fight China in the Second Opium War. After the British won the war and gained more land in China, he remained in China as part of the British army. When the Taiping Rebellion broke out in China, Gordon led the British forces to support the Chinese government in defending the city of Shanghi from the rebel forces. Then in 1862, the Chinese government put Gordon in command of the Chinese army, called the “Ever Victorious Army” fight against the rebellion. Because of his success in doing this, the Emperor gave Gordon the title “titu” or “commander”. In 1863, Gordon returned to England and was knighted by Queen Victoria.
After serving in various posts in the British Army in England, in 1872, Gordon was offered the chance to serve in the Egyptian army. As an officer in the Egyptian army, worked to suppress the slave trade in East Africa and was eventually made Governor-General of the territory of Sudan, which is south of Egypt. He resigned this position in 1879 and then spent several years serving in military posts in India, Africa and South Africa and toured the Middle East.
In 1883, Gordon was preparing to work in the Congo Free State, when the British government ordered him to return to Sudan to put down a rebellion lead by Mohammed Ahmed. Ahmed claimed to be the Mahdi (the savior of Islam) and his soldiers were quickly taking over Sudan. Gordon was given the task of saving the Egyptian army which was on the verge of being overrun by the Mahdi’s army. Mohammed Ahmed's troops were overwhelming the thinly-stretched Egyptian forces in the region. With the situation deteriorating, London instructed the Egyptians to withdraw from Sudan in December 1883. Realizing that his forces were too small to defeat the Madhi army, Gordon ignored orders to retreat and instead fortified the city of Khartoum in Sudan and asked the British for reinforcements. In 1884, the Madhi army began its attack on Khartoum. After a year’s delay in which the British government debated about sending an army to aid Gordon (Victoria pressured the government to save Gordon), the British army began to advance into Sudan with the goal of rescuing the Gordon’s forces. As the British army got close to Khartoum, the Madhi army launched a massive assault on the city and over whelmed Gordon’s starving soldiers. Gordon was killed in the fighting and his body was never found. The British army reached the city two days after it fell to the Madhi army. At this point, the British army retreated to Egypt. In 1898, the British invaded Sudan again and, with the help of Maxim guns, it destroyed the Madhi army in the Battle of Omdurman.
Biography - Cecil Rhodes, Miner & Colonial Leader
Cecil Rhodes was born in England in 1853 in England to a religious family. As a teenager he became sick with a lung illness and left school to live with his brother in South Africa, where his family thought the environment would be better for his condition. He arrived in the British colony South Africa in 1870 with a large amount of money lent to him by a relative. Rhodes invested the money in land that he could use to mine diamonds and, working with a group of business partners, he established a mining company.
In 1872 Rhodes suffered a slight heart attack. As part of his program to recover from this, Rhodes and his brother went on an expedition into the lands north of the British colony in South Africa that were controlled by native African tribes, like the Zulu and the Matabele. Rhodes took advantage of this trip to study the opportunities in mining gold in these regions It was during this journey, Rhodes fell in love with the countryside of southern Africa and began to think of how to get control of these lands.
In 1873 Rhodes left South Africa and returned to England to attend Oxford University. While he did not study long enough to earn a degree, he experience there helped form his idea that the British were superior to other people and that the British Empire was beneficial to the world. After his death, Rhode’s fortune was used to establish the Rhodes Scholarship to pay for people around the world to attend Oxford.
Biography - Charles Gordon, Soldier
Charles Gordon was born in 1833 at a army family in a military in England. His father was a Major General and Gordon studied military engineering at the Royal Military Academy. When he graduated, he was made a lieutenant in the British army and was send to fight against Russia in the Crimean War in 1854. After the war ended, Gordon worked as part of an international commission marking the new border for Russia.
After he was promoted to captain in 1859, he volunteered fight China in the Second Opium War. After the British won the war and gained more land in China, he remained in China as part of the British army. When the Taiping Rebellion broke out in China, Gordon led the British forces to support the Chinese government in defending the city of Shanghi from the rebel forces. Then in 1862, the Chinese government put Gordon in command of the Chinese army, called the “Ever Victorious Army” fight against the rebellion. Because of his success in doing this, the Emperor gave Gordon the title “titu” or “commander”. In 1863, Gordon returned to England and was knighted by Queen Victoria.
After serving in various posts in the British Army in England, in 1872, Gordon was offered the chance to serve in the Egyptian army. As an officer in the Egyptian army, worked to suppress the slave trade in East Africa and was eventually made Governor-General of the territory of Sudan, which is south of Egypt. He resigned this position in 1879 and then spent several years serving in military posts in India, Africa and South Africa and toured the Middle East.
In 1883, Gordon was preparing to work in the Congo Free State, when the British government ordered him to return to Sudan to put down a rebellion lead by Mohammed Ahmed. Ahmed claimed to be the Mahdi (the savior of Islam) and his soldiers were quickly taking over Sudan. Gordon was given the task of saving the Egyptian army which was on the verge of being overrun by the Mahdi’s army. Mohammed Ahmed's troops were overwhelming the thinly-stretched Egyptian forces in the region. With the situation deteriorating, London instructed the Egyptians to withdraw from Sudan in December 1883. Realizing that his forces were too small to defeat the Madhi army, Gordon ignored orders to retreat and instead fortified the city of Khartoum in Sudan and asked the British for reinforcements. In 1884, the Madhi army began its attack on Khartoum. After a year’s delay in which the British government debated about sending an army to aid Gordon (Victoria pressured the government to save Gordon), the British army began to advance into Sudan with the goal of rescuing the Gordon’s forces. As the British army got close to Khartoum, the Madhi army launched a massive assault on the city and over whelmed Gordon’s starving soldiers. Gordon was killed in the fighting and his body was never found. The British army reached the city two days after it fell to the Madhi army. At this point, the British army retreated to Egypt. In 1898, the British invaded Sudan again and, with the help of Maxim guns, it destroyed the Madhi army in the Battle of Omdurman.
Biography - Cecil Rhodes, Miner & Colonial Leader
Cecil Rhodes was born in England in 1853 in England to a religious family. As a teenager he became sick with a lung illness and left school to live with his brother in South Africa, where his family thought the environment would be better for his condition. He arrived in the British colony South Africa in 1870 with a large amount of money lent to him by a relative. Rhodes invested the money in land that he could use to mine diamonds and, working with a group of business partners, he established a mining company.
In 1872 Rhodes suffered a slight heart attack. As part of his program to recover from this, Rhodes and his brother went on an expedition into the lands north of the British colony in South Africa that were controlled by native African tribes, like the Zulu and the Matabele. Rhodes took advantage of this trip to study the opportunities in mining gold in these regions It was during this journey, Rhodes fell in love with the countryside of southern Africa and began to think of how to get control of these lands.
In 1873 Rhodes left South Africa and returned to England to attend Oxford University. While he did not study long enough to earn a degree, he experience there helped form his idea that the British were superior to other people and that the British Empire was beneficial to the world. After his death, Rhode’s fortune was used to establish the Rhodes Scholarship to pay for people around the world to attend Oxford.
When Rhodes returned to South Africa, the diamond mining industry was doing badly because of technical problems due to diamonds being in harder ground that often flooded. When other miners gave up on the mining, Rhodes bought their land and worked on solving the problems in getting to the diamonds. This persistence paid off and diamond mining made Rhodes very wealthy. In 1880, Rhodes and his business partners put their land holdings together to form the De Beers Mining Company.
Also in 1880, Rhodes became a leader in the British Colony in South Africa by becoming part of the colony’s parliament. In 1890, Rhodes became Prime Minister, or leader of the Parliament. Rhodes used this power to pass laws that would benefit miners such as supporting the northern expansion of the colony to take the lands of the African tribes and use them for mining. In 1893, Rhodes used a conflict over cattle between the Matabele and Mashona tribes as an excuse to attack the Matabele and take its land. Rhodes had already negotiated a treaty with Lobengula, the chief of the Matabele, to having mining rights to the land. Now, with the support of Queen Victoria, Rhodes broke that treaty and sent a small army equipped with Maxim machine guns to take the Matabele land. Rhodes’ army quickly defeated the much larger Matabele army and the lands of the Matabele were divided among the soldiers in Rhode’s army and became part of the British Empire.
Rhodes also supported wars against the Boers, white Dutch settlers who had set up their own country north of the British colony of South Africa. The reason was to gain control of the Boer lands, which had large diamond and gold deposits. Rhodes died before the British won their wars against the Boer and took the Boer lands. Rhodes also died unable to realize his dream of extending the British Empire all the way, from north to south, across Africa.
Also in 1880, Rhodes became a leader in the British Colony in South Africa by becoming part of the colony’s parliament. In 1890, Rhodes became Prime Minister, or leader of the Parliament. Rhodes used this power to pass laws that would benefit miners such as supporting the northern expansion of the colony to take the lands of the African tribes and use them for mining. In 1893, Rhodes used a conflict over cattle between the Matabele and Mashona tribes as an excuse to attack the Matabele and take its land. Rhodes had already negotiated a treaty with Lobengula, the chief of the Matabele, to having mining rights to the land. Now, with the support of Queen Victoria, Rhodes broke that treaty and sent a small army equipped with Maxim machine guns to take the Matabele land. Rhodes’ army quickly defeated the much larger Matabele army and the lands of the Matabele were divided among the soldiers in Rhode’s army and became part of the British Empire.
Rhodes also supported wars against the Boers, white Dutch settlers who had set up their own country north of the British colony of South Africa. The reason was to gain control of the Boer lands, which had large diamond and gold deposits. Rhodes died before the British won their wars against the Boer and took the Boer lands. Rhodes also died unable to realize his dream of extending the British Empire all the way, from north to south, across Africa.
Source # 5 - British cartoon, published in 1892, showing Rhodes standing over Africa holding a telegraph cable.
Source # 6 - Cartoon - German Cartoon How to be a Colonial Power (1904) showing how the British ran their empire.
Friday, November 20, 2015
November 20, 2014 - Test Review
There will be a test on the Industrial Revolution on Monday, November 23, 2015. Listed below are sample test questions to help you study for the test.
The test will have the same format as the previous test, the one on Nationalism. You will be given two questions, you will have draw reasoning diagram for both questions and write a topic sentence that you would use to answer both questions. You will then have to write an answer to one of the questions.
1. How did changes in agriculture, finance and technology come together to create the Industrial Revolution?
2. How did the Industrial Revolution change where and how people worked and lived – and in the long run, the quality of their lives?
3. How did the Age of Progress represent the triumph of liberal values that a society based on democracy and capitalism would result in a happier and wealthier society?
4. How did the conditions of workers in the early part of the Industrial Revolution support the position of socialists?
1. How did changes in agriculture, finance and technology come together to create the Industrial Revolution?
2. How did the Industrial Revolution change where and how people worked and lived – and in the long run, the quality of their lives?
3. How did the Age of Progress represent the triumph of liberal values that a society based on democracy and capitalism would result in a happier and wealthier society?
4. How did the conditions of workers in the early part of the Industrial Revolution support the position of socialists?
5. How did improvements cities and worker’s lives during the later part of the nineteenth century (the Age of Progress) refute Karl Marx’s communist ideas and support the liberal capitalist ideas of Alfred Marshall?
6. How did the technological improvements in agriculture and the economic institutions created during the Commercial Revolution provide crucial building blocks for the development of the Industrial Revolution in England?
7. Nineteenth century French philosopher Émile Durkheim once said, “Socialism is not a science…. It is a cry of pain”. Considering the living and working conditions of workers during the Industrial Revolution, would it correct for Durkheim to describe socialism this way?
8. Socialist-Anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon said, “All profit is theft” and liberal economist Alfred Marshall believed that capitalism could “make every man a gentleman” (gentleman meant someone with enough free time to think of things besides making money). How do these quotes reflect how socialists and liberals thought of capitalism?
6. How did the technological improvements in agriculture and the economic institutions created during the Commercial Revolution provide crucial building blocks for the development of the Industrial Revolution in England?
7. Nineteenth century French philosopher Émile Durkheim once said, “Socialism is not a science…. It is a cry of pain”. Considering the living and working conditions of workers during the Industrial Revolution, would it correct for Durkheim to describe socialism this way?
8. Socialist-Anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon said, “All profit is theft” and liberal economist Alfred Marshall believed that capitalism could “make every man a gentleman” (gentleman meant someone with enough free time to think of things besides making money). How do these quotes reflect how socialists and liberals thought of capitalism?
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
November 18, 2015 - Age Progress
Homework - Use the source material listed below to answer the questions on the assignment sheet. These sources will be the focus of class discussion in the next class - the question sheet is available here.
Essay question for this unit is: Which is a more important goal for a society: economic equality or economic growth?
Source # 1 - Muck & Brass - On-line Simulation on Managing Industrial Cities (This will not work on your ipad because it is Flash - you will have to use a computer) - click here
Source # 2 - Video on the building of the sewer system in London - click here
Source # 3 - Video on Micheal Faraday - click here
Source # 4 - Video on the Crystal Place - click here
Source # 5 - Building of the Eiffel Tower - click here
Essay question for this unit is: Which is a more important goal for a society: economic equality or economic growth?
Source # 1 - Muck & Brass - On-line Simulation on Managing Industrial Cities (This will not work on your ipad because it is Flash - you will have to use a computer) - click here
Source # 2 - Video on the building of the sewer system in London - click here
Source # 3 - Video on Micheal Faraday - click here
Source # 4 - Video on the Crystal Place - click here
Source # 5 - Building of the Eiffel Tower - click here
November 17, 2015 - Economic Philosophies
Homework - Use the source material listed below to answer the questions on the assignment sheet. These sources will be the focus of class discussion in the next class - the question sheet is available here.
Essay question for this unit is: Which is a more important goal for a society: economic equality or economic growth?
Biography - Karl Marx
Karl Marx was born in Prussia in 1818, one of nine children. His father was a successful lawyer, who introduced Marx to philosophy and wanted Marx to become a lawyer. At the University of Berlin, Marx studied law and philosophy and became involved in radical student groups. He received his doctorate from the in 1841, but his radical politics prevented him from procuring a teaching position. At this point began to work as a journalist, but the government shut down the newspaper he was writing for because of its radical politics.
In 1843, Marx went to live in Paris, which was the center of radical revolutionary politics in Europe. While he was there, he befriended Friedrich Engels. Engels came from a wealthy German family yet supported radical politics and used his money to support Marx for the rest of Marx’s life. After a year in Paris, Marx was expelled from France for his writings and he moved to Belgium. In Belgium, Marx first learned about the idea of communism and began to organize communists across Europe into a single group. A group of communists in England invited Marx and Engels to join a meeting of the Communist League and write a document that described the goals of communism. In 1848, Marx and Engels published The Communist Manifesto. Because of the revolutionary statements in The Communist Manifesto, Marx was prohibited from living in most of Europe. He lived the rest of his life in England.
Marx spent his time in England working on researching and writing the book Capital. The book combined deep historical research and economic theory and described Marx’s communist ideas in detail. He published the first volume of Capital in 1867. The other two volumes of Capital were published after his death by Engels. In addition, in 1864, Marx was a leader in the First International, a meeting of radical revolutionaries from around the world which had the goal of uniting revolutionaries in a common effort to overthrow capitalism.
Biography - John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill was born in England in 1806 to a prosperous family. His father had a high position in the British East India Company and he educated Mill in the philosophy – by age 12, Mill had read all of the major philosophers, including Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Adam Smith. As a teenager, Mill became a supporter of the idea of Utilitarianism, that is based on the idea that society should be run in order to create “the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.” This thought was at the core of many of Mill’s later ideas. His father secured Mill a position working for the British East India Company and Mill would spend his whole life working in a high position in the company. In his early twenties, Mill suffered a severe case of depression that had been caused by the stress of his education. After the depression passed, Mill found that the experience moved him to become more critical of utilitarianism and develop his own thoughts.
In 1848, Mill the book Principles of Political Economy, which was the leading economics textbook for the next 40 years. In the book, Mill defended the ideas of capitalism developed by Adam Smith because it made society wealthier. However, Mill recognized that there were problems with capitalism and he argued that there was a role for the government in regulating the economy to make society better off. For example, he thought that worker’s hours should be limited and that the government should tax the wealthy and use the money to help the poor. Mill also believed that the government should support the education of everyone because that would improve the happiness of society.
Mill followed up his work in economics in 1859 with his book On Liberty, in which he described how government should work. Mill held to the idea personal freedom was the most important thing because free people will make choices that will make them happy, which means society would be happier, and that free people work to have the most fulfilling life. However, Mill also saw that there was the danger that free people might hurt each other. To deal with this problem, Mill developed the “harm principle” which said that the government could limit personal freedom “is to prevent harm to others." Mill believed that democracy was the best system of government and that everyone should have the right to vote, although more educated people should get more votes.
Mill was also a strong advocate for women’s education and right to vote. His wife, Harriet Taylor had strong influence on Mill’s thinking. She was well educated and Mill thought of her as his intellectual equal. In 1861, he wrote the book The Subjection of Women, which argued that women should have the right to vote. In 1865, Mill was elected to the British Parliament where he spent his time trying to win women political equality to men and being critical of the British government’s policy toward its colonies. After he left office in 1865, he spent the last remaining years of his life on fighting for women’s rights.
Source # 1 - Chart Comparing Capitalism to Marxism
Source # 2 - Painting - The Strike by Robert Koehler (1886)
Source # 3 - Who Wants to be a Cotton Millionaire - On-line Simulation of Managing a Textile Mill (This will not work on your ipad because it is Flash - you will have to use a computer) - click here
Source # 4 - Chart showing the relationship between worker output or worker productivity and wages. The "nil" means there is no information about wages during that time period.
Essay question for this unit is: Which is a more important goal for a society: economic equality or economic growth?
Biography - Karl Marx
Karl Marx was born in Prussia in 1818, one of nine children. His father was a successful lawyer, who introduced Marx to philosophy and wanted Marx to become a lawyer. At the University of Berlin, Marx studied law and philosophy and became involved in radical student groups. He received his doctorate from the in 1841, but his radical politics prevented him from procuring a teaching position. At this point began to work as a journalist, but the government shut down the newspaper he was writing for because of its radical politics.
In 1843, Marx went to live in Paris, which was the center of radical revolutionary politics in Europe. While he was there, he befriended Friedrich Engels. Engels came from a wealthy German family yet supported radical politics and used his money to support Marx for the rest of Marx’s life. After a year in Paris, Marx was expelled from France for his writings and he moved to Belgium. In Belgium, Marx first learned about the idea of communism and began to organize communists across Europe into a single group. A group of communists in England invited Marx and Engels to join a meeting of the Communist League and write a document that described the goals of communism. In 1848, Marx and Engels published The Communist Manifesto. Because of the revolutionary statements in The Communist Manifesto, Marx was prohibited from living in most of Europe. He lived the rest of his life in England.
Marx spent his time in England working on researching and writing the book Capital. The book combined deep historical research and economic theory and described Marx’s communist ideas in detail. He published the first volume of Capital in 1867. The other two volumes of Capital were published after his death by Engels. In addition, in 1864, Marx was a leader in the First International, a meeting of radical revolutionaries from around the world which had the goal of uniting revolutionaries in a common effort to overthrow capitalism.
Biography - John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill was born in England in 1806 to a prosperous family. His father had a high position in the British East India Company and he educated Mill in the philosophy – by age 12, Mill had read all of the major philosophers, including Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Adam Smith. As a teenager, Mill became a supporter of the idea of Utilitarianism, that is based on the idea that society should be run in order to create “the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people.” This thought was at the core of many of Mill’s later ideas. His father secured Mill a position working for the British East India Company and Mill would spend his whole life working in a high position in the company. In his early twenties, Mill suffered a severe case of depression that had been caused by the stress of his education. After the depression passed, Mill found that the experience moved him to become more critical of utilitarianism and develop his own thoughts.
In 1848, Mill the book Principles of Political Economy, which was the leading economics textbook for the next 40 years. In the book, Mill defended the ideas of capitalism developed by Adam Smith because it made society wealthier. However, Mill recognized that there were problems with capitalism and he argued that there was a role for the government in regulating the economy to make society better off. For example, he thought that worker’s hours should be limited and that the government should tax the wealthy and use the money to help the poor. Mill also believed that the government should support the education of everyone because that would improve the happiness of society.
Mill followed up his work in economics in 1859 with his book On Liberty, in which he described how government should work. Mill held to the idea personal freedom was the most important thing because free people will make choices that will make them happy, which means society would be happier, and that free people work to have the most fulfilling life. However, Mill also saw that there was the danger that free people might hurt each other. To deal with this problem, Mill developed the “harm principle” which said that the government could limit personal freedom “is to prevent harm to others." Mill believed that democracy was the best system of government and that everyone should have the right to vote, although more educated people should get more votes.
Mill was also a strong advocate for women’s education and right to vote. His wife, Harriet Taylor had strong influence on Mill’s thinking. She was well educated and Mill thought of her as his intellectual equal. In 1861, he wrote the book The Subjection of Women, which argued that women should have the right to vote. In 1865, Mill was elected to the British Parliament where he spent his time trying to win women political equality to men and being critical of the British government’s policy toward its colonies. After he left office in 1865, he spent the last remaining years of his life on fighting for women’s rights.
Source # 4 - Chart showing the relationship between worker output or worker productivity and wages. The "nil" means there is no information about wages during that time period.
Tuesday, November 10, 2015
November 12, 2015 - Industrial Life
Essay question for this unit is: Which is a more important goal for a society: economic equality or economic growth?
Biography - Charles Dickens
Charles Dickens was born in England in 1812 to a poor family. When he was a child, his father was put in debtor’s prison because of unpaid bills and the young Dickens was forced to work in a factory. This experience had a deep and lasting impact on Dickens that he would use in his writings. Dickens went on to work in an office and then as a court reporter in London. It was during this time that he met his wife Catherine, with whom he would have ten children.
Dickens began to write fictional stories based on what he saw in the streets of London. These stories were published in newspapers in monthly installments and made Dickens a popular writer. His readers ranged from the wealthy nobles and industrialists to the poor workers, who would pool their money to buy his stories. His first novel was Oliver Twist, which told the story of an orphan living in the streets and included many points from Dickens’s own childhood. This novel and his other stories, like A Christmas Carol, made him famous in England and the United States. Dickens traveled twice to the United States giving lectures across the country. While in the United States he spoke out against slavery.
Dickens is known as one of the first realist writers because of the way he described the brutality of life in industrial England. This was clear in his novels Bleak House, which deals with the hypocrisy of British society, and Hard Times that described life in an industrial town at the peak of economic expansion. Dickens was very critical of the changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution and felt that his writing would make society aware of the terrible living conditions of the poor in the industrial cities, especially the children. Dickens spoke out on the need to help the poor and donated money to clean up the slums and build proper housing for the poor.
Source # 1 - Excerpts from Hard Times (1854) by Charles Dickens
Chapter 5
Let us strike the key-note, Coketown, before pursuing our tune.
It was a town of red brick, or of brick that would have been red if the smoke and ashes had allowed it; but as matters stood, it was a town of unnatural red and black like the painted face of a savage. It was a town of machinery and tall chimneys, out of which interminable serpents of smoke trailed themselves for ever and ever, and never got uncoiled. It had a black canal in it, and a river that ran purple with ill-smelling dye, and vast piles of building full of windows where there was a rattling and a trembling all day long, and where the piston of the steam-engine worked monotonously up and down, like the head of an elephant in a state of melancholy madness. It contained several large streets all very like one another, and many small streets still more like one another, inhabited by people equally like one another, who all went in and out at the same hours, with the same sound upon the same pavements, to do the same work, and to whom every day was the same as yesterday and to-morrow, and every year the counterpart of the last and the next.
These attributes of Coketown were in the main inseparable from the work by which it was sustained; against them were to be set off, comforts of life which found their way all over the world, and elegancies of life which made, we will not ask how much of the fine lady, who could scarcely bear to hear the place mentioned. The rest of its features were voluntary, and they were these.
You saw nothing in Coketown but what was severely workful. If the members of a religious persuasion built a chapel there—as the members of eighteen religious persuasions had done—they made it a pious warehouse of red brick, with sometimes (but this is only in highly ornamental examples) a bell in a birdcage on the top of it. The solitary exception was the New Church; a stuccoed edifice with a square steeple over the door, terminating in four short pinnacles like florid wooden legs. All the public inscriptions in the town were painted alike, in severe characters of black and white. The jail might have been the infirmary, the infirmary might have been the jail, the town-hall might have been either, or both, or anything else, for anything that appeared to the contrary in the graces of their construction. Fact, fact, fact, everywhere in the material aspect of the town; fact, fact, fact, everywhere in the immaterial. The M’Choakumchild school was all fact, and the school of design was all fact, and the relations between master and man were all fact, and everything was fact between the lying-in hospital and the cemetery, and what you couldn’t state in figures, or show to be purchaseable in the cheapest market and saleable in the dearest, was not, and never should be, world without end, Amen.
Chapter 10
In the hardest working part of Coketown; in the innermost fortifications of that ugly citadel, where Nature was as strongly bricked out as killing airs and gases were bricked in; at the heart of the labyrinth of narrow courts upon courts, and close streets upon streets, which had come into existence piecemeal, every piece in a violent hurry for some one man’s purpose, and the whole an unnatural family, shouldering, and trampling, and pressing one another to death; in the last close nook of this great exhausted receiver, where the chimneys, for want of air to make a draught, were built in an immense variety of stunted and crooked shapes, as though every house put out a sign of the kind of people who might be expected to be born in it; among the multitude of Coketown, generically called ‘the Hands,’—a race who would have found more favour with some people, if Providence had seen fit to make them only hands, or, like the lower creatures of the seashore, only hands and stomachs—lived a certain Stephen Blackpool, forty years of age.
Stephen looked older, but he had had a hard life. It is said that every life has its roses and thorns; there seemed, however, to have been a misadventure or mistake in Stephen’s case, whereby somebody else had become possessed of his roses, and he had become possessed of the same somebody else’s thorns in addition to his own. He had known, to use his words, a peck of trouble. He was usually called Old Stephen, in a kind of rough homage to the fact.
A rather stooping man, with a knitted brow, a pondering expression of face, and a hard-looking head sufficiently capacious, on which his iron-grey hair lay long and thin, Old Stephen might have passed for a particularly intelligent man in his condition. Yet he was not. He took no place among those remarkable ‘Hands,’ who, piecing together their broken intervals of leisure through many years, had mastered difficult sciences, and acquired a knowledge of most unlikely things. He held no station among the Hands who could make speeches and carry on debates. Thousands of his compeers could talk much better than he, at any time. He was a good power-loom weaver, and a man of perfect integrity. What more he was, or what else he had in him, if anything, let him show for himself.
Source # 2 - Video on the impact of new technology on life - click here
Source # 3 - Graphic on Child Labor
Source # 4 - Chart on Child Labor in Cotton Factories
"Arkwright's machines require so few hands, and those only children, with the assistance of an overlooker. A child can produce as much as would, and did upon an average, employ ten grown up persons. Jennies for spinning with one hundred or two hundred spindles, or more, going all at once, and requiring but one person to manage them. Within the space of ten years, from being a poor man worth £5, Richard Arkwright has purchased an estate of £20,000; while thousands of women, when they can get work, must make a long day to card, spin, and reel 5040 yards of cotton, and for this they have four-pence or five-pence and no more."
Source # 6 - Video on railroads & telegraph connection to British Empire - click here
Source # 7 - Chart showing population growth of British cities
Source # 8 - Graph of Life Expectancy in British Cities
Source # 9 - Graph Showing the Change in Wages from 1850 - 1900
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