Chapter XIII: The Consolidation of Large Nation-States, 1859-1871

#63: Backgrounds: The Idea of the Nation-State

--Before 1860: France and England the two great powers. Spain = in fragments. Portugal, Switzerland, Netherlands, Scandinavia were nation-states, but small and peripheral. Larger nations like Russia, Austria, and Ottoman Empire ruled great numbers of very different ethnic groups. Europe = largely nonnational.

--1860-1870: Coagulation of nation-states. Many often tiny states popped up under the idea of sovreignty. But outside the fracturing Ottoman empire, idea of nationality = used mostly to unify peoples into larger states.

--For many people in 19c, nationalism became a "secular faith."

--"Nation-State" : political authority rests on and represents the will and feelings of its inhabitants. Members must feel and will something in common, have a sense of belonging. Also, must have a distinct sense of what = foreign: lines = often drawn along language barriers. Community must hold something in common: race, history, destiny, religion, geographical home, external menace.

--19c governments found that they had to create this sense of popular membership and support to rule effectively. Meant implementation of new moral and psychological ties between government and governed, admission of new groups to political life throu gh liberal representative institutions. Often, constitutions--another thing held in common--helped the unification. Thus, many of goals of 1848 revolutions = realized by established governments.

--But war = often used by governments to effect these goals.

The Crimean War, 1854-1856

--Helped to make possible the success of the European nationalization efforts. Seriously weakened Austria and Russia, the two powers most bent on preserving the old order, preventing national changes.

--Last Russo-Turkish war = 1828-29, when Nicholas I protected new Greek independence and annexed left bank of mouth of Danube.

--1843: Nicholas moved troops into 2 Danubian provinces, Wallachia and Moldavia (Rumania). Argument = ostensibly over protection of Christians in all of Ottoman Empire, including Palestine. But French considered themselves the principal people of West ern Europe, and claimed some jurisdiction over the Christians. French = very active commercially in the area. Napoleon III urged Turkey to resist Russia.

--late 1853: War: Russia vs. Turkey. But France joins Turkey's side. Britain does too: does not want Russia to get Turkey. British effectively blockade Russia in Baltic and Black Seas. French and British invade Crimean peninsula, scene of all the figh ting. Austria wanted neither Russia nor France and Britain to win, so entered the war too. Thus, although not fully recovered from upheavals of 1848, Austria joined in, occupied Moldavia and Wallachia. Nicholas dies, 1855, successor Alexander II asks for peace.

--Great powers meet in Paris, 1856. All promise to maintain the "integrity of the Ottoman Empire." Russia ceded some territories, including mouth of Danube. All agree that Danube should be international, for use of all. Russia cannot keep warships in Black Sea. Moldavia, Wallachia, and Serbia united into Rumania.

--Hope for a harmonious European system, undertaking collective obligations, protecting small states, rational, peaceful.

--Hints of future trouble: Napoleon III wanted glory. Italians wanted unified Italy. Prussians = only barely invited to Congress of Paris, and feared that their status as great power = declining. Thus, all three stood to benefit by change. But to chan ge central Europe and Italy = to violate Treaty of Vienna, 1815. But after Crimean War, forces opposing change, Russia and Austria, = weakened.

#64: Cavour and the Italian War of 1859: The Unification of Italy

Italian Nationalism: The Program of Cavour

--Structure of Italy: Reorganized by Napoleon and Congress of Vienna. NW = Sardinia, or Piedmont, ruled by Savoy. NCentral = Lombardy, NW = Venetia, both ruled by Austria. Just south of Lombardy = Tuscany, with capital at Florence. In middle = papal s tates. In south, comprising half of Italy, = Naples, ruled by a branch of Bourbouns since 1735. Governments of these states = generally content, but far from their people.

--Most people = disgusted with their governments. Growing desire for a liberal national state embodying the Italian Volksgeist, resurrecting grandeur of ancient Italy. Dream of Italian Risorgimento, or resurgence, = very high during French Revolution and Napoleon. By 1848, Mazzini transformed resurgence into moral, almost holy purpose. But revolution = destroyed in 1848. During revolution, papacy = scared off by radical romantic republicanism of Mazzini, etc., and could no longer be expected to suppor t republicanism. Sardinia failed to oust Austria from N. Italy.

--After 1848, Sardinia = ruled by King Emmanuel. Prime minister = Cavour after 1852. Cavour = Western liberal. Wanted to make Sardinia a model of progress, efficiency, and fair government. Wanted constitutionalism, parliaments, internal improvements, free trade. Strongly anticlerical: restricted religious holidays, church rights without consulting Holy See. Liberal, constitutional monarchist. No sympathy for Mazzini or his methods. Embraced "new toughness of mind," "politics of reality." Clausewitzian idea of war as statesman's tool.

--Cavour sent troops to Crimean War in hopes of raising Italian question at Congress of Paris. Hoped to use the French army to remove Austrian influence. His major plan = to provoke war with Austria after having been given assurance of French militar y support.

--Napoleon gave his support easily: Bonapartes thought Italy their ancestral country, Napoleon = trained in conspirational Italian circles. As apostle of modernity, he advocated consolidation of nations as a forward step in history. To fight reaction ist Austria for a free Italy would also satisfy domestic liberal opinion, which he = otherwise trying to suppress. When Napoleon = took too long to make up his mind, an Italian republican tried to assassinate him. Napoleon signed a secret agreement with C avour, who then tricked Austria in 1859 into a declaration of war. French poured over the Alps.

--WAR: 2 battles, both won by French-Sardinian forces. But Prussia, not wanting France to establish an Italian sphere of influence, mobilized troops on Rhine. In Italy, popular revolution broke out everywhere for annexation to Piedmont, and Napoleon hated popular revolution. All old states = denounced or overthrown. French Catholics criticised Emperor for unnecessary and godless war. France = in awkward position of protecting pope since 1849 against Italian republicanism. Napoleon made separate peace with Austria in 1859.

--Lombardy = given to Piedmont, but Venetia = still Austrian. Offered a federal union of all Italian states under supervision of pope. But this = not what Cavour, or any Italian wanted. Revolution continued to spread. All N. Italian governments = ov erthrown, and after popular elections, territories = united to Piedmont, except for Venetia. Representatives met in Turin for first parliament in 1860. British approved, and France gave recognition to expanded state in return for Nice and Savoy.

The Completion of Italian Unity

--Naples = still left on bottom. Garibaldi formed about 1000 men into an armed fighting group, called "Girabaldi's Thousand," or the Red Shirts. Cavour secretly supporeted the group. Girabaldi landed in Sicily, soon entered mainland, where revolutioni sts rallied around him. Corrupt government = soon overthrown.

--Girabaldi now prepared to hit Rome. But to do so = also to fight the French garrisoned there, start an international scandal. Cavour decided to stop Garibaldi, but also make use of his accomplishments. He moved Sardinian forces into papal states, av oiding Rome, and proceeded to Naples. Garibaldi, consenting to a monarchy, symbolically rode through Naples with Emmanuel to cheering thousands.

--Plebiscite held in Naples showed overwhelming desire for unification with Piedmont. In papal states, similar votes showed the same. A parliament of all Italy except Rome and Venetia proclaimed the Kingdom of Italy under King Emmanuel's rule.

--Venetia = added in 1866 as prize for Italian aid to Prussia against Austria.

--Rome = added in 1870 when French moved out in Franco-Prussian War of 1870.

Persistent Problems after Unification

--Still, many problems. Nationalists still looked to expand into territories where Italians = numerous or preponderate.

--Occupation of Rome, 1870, widened rift between church and state. Pope, deprived of territories that belonged to church for over a millenium, condemned the government, remained in lifelong seclusion in the Vatican. From now on, all good Italian patri ots = anticlerical, and good Catholics = unfriendly to Italian state.

--Northern Italians still looked on the agrarian South, with its priests, landlords, peasants, as horribly backward. South = still lawless.

--Italy = now parliamentary, but not democratic. Small suffrage. Parliamentary life, restricted to a few, = often unrealistic and corrupt. Since most still could not vote, revolution continued strong. Revolution generally moved from republican nationa lism to Marxist socialism, anarchism, etc.

#65: Bismarck: The Founding of a German Empire

--Division of Germany = one of long-time goals of other European powers. Pulverization of Germanic world = crucial to development of Europe as we know it today. Otherwise, economic and cultural leadership of Europe might never have been concentrated a long the Altantic coast, or Russia might have developed into a great military empire.

--But gradually, Germans became nationalistic. German thought held that Germany = different from West, destined to work out its own way of life and political system. Germans felt immesurably superior to the Slavs. German philosophy developed its own i ndividual tone, starting with Hegel: de-emphasized individualism, emphasized group loyalties, collectivism, state, history. Historic determinism.

The German States after 1848

--Frankfurt Assembly failed because it lacked power, authority. Germans after 1848 began to think in terms of power. Assembly also failed because was insufficiently revolutionary: German people = respectful, orderly, sober, emotionally attached to the ir several states. What happened in Italy--a nationwide overthrow of all the old governments-- = impossible in Germany.

--After 1848, the entire multiplicity of states, and the loose confederation binding them together, = largely restored. But within this old framework, great socioeconomic change = starting. Great increase in industry: by 1870, surpassed France in iron production. Area of free trade, called the Zollverein, included almost all of Germany outside of Austria. Cities = growing, linked by railroads and telegraph. Industrial classes = growing.

--With advantages of unity becoming more obvious, ideals of 1848 badly compromised, exagggerated respect for state and power, Germans = ripe for unification.

Prussia in the 1860's: Bismarck

--Prussia = always the smallest and most precarious of the great powers. Although ruined by Napoleon, it rose again. International influence and internal structure = again based on army. Growth in past = by conquest and diplomacy: Silesia, 1740; parts of Poland, 1770's, 1790's; parts of Rhineland, 1815. But after 1850, its status internationally = in doubt. State was shaken by revolution. In Crimean War and subsequent Congress of Paris, they were mere spectators. Italy = unified without slightest thou ght given to Prussia. Seemed that Prussia might already be on the wane.

--Since 1815, Prussia grew from 11 to 18 million. But army stayed the same. Mere enforcement of conscription would almost double the army. But this would require inlarged officer class from Junkers, and more $, mostly from the wealthy classes. After 1 850, Prussia had a parliament, dominated by wealthy. Wealthy Prussians everywhere = liberals who wanted parliament, with fellow wealthy members, to have control of government. Wealthy in general did not want to have large armies, since it would increase t he importance of the Junker class, their political rivals. Parliament refused to enlarge army in 1862.

--In response, king appointed a new prime minister, Bismarck. Bismarck = Junker from Brandenburg of great intelligence. Although held contempt for the mostly dim-witted Junker class, he shared many of their views. Although cared for it, he was largely unaffected by world opinion. Non-nationalist: he = Prussian. Social affinities = pointed East, toward corresponding landowning elements in Russia and Baltics. West = too turbulent, revolutionary, free-thinking, materialistic. Despised Parliaments, indivi dual liberty, liberalism, democracy, socialism. Stressed duty, service, order, fear of God. Idea of forming a German union developed only gradually in his mind, and then adjunct to the strengthening of Prussia. He followed no ideology as an end in itself: a classic practitioner of Realpolitik. "Enemy of today might be friend of tomorrow." Practical and opportunistic.

--In 1862, as minister president, he had to defeat the liberals in parliament. From 1862-66, he waged a "constitutional struggle." Parliament refused to vote for the proposed taxes. Bismarck collected them anyway, without public resistance. Factors fo r his success: limitations of Prussian liberalism, docility of population, respect for officialdom, belief in greater wisdom of king and his officials over elected representatives. Army = enlarged, reorganized, re-equipped.

--Liberals criticized him vehemently. Bismarck fended criticism off: defended his unconstitutional action by saying that constitutions = never meant to undermine the state. When liberals said that rest of Germans hoped to find model of political free dom in Germany, he replied that Germans wanted power, not liberalism. He declared that the boundaries alloted Prussia in 1815 = insufficient, and that Prussia must prepare to seize favorable opportunities for growth.

Bismarck's Wars: The North German Confederation, 1867

--Schleswig-Holstein issue of 1848 reappeared, 1863. Danes, in process of a national consolidation, wanted to annex Schleswig. Diet of the German confederation declared war rather than see Germans be so subjected to a foreign power.

--But Bismarck did not want to see the confederation strengthened. Did not want a German, but a Prussian war. To disguise his aims, though, he allied with Austria. Both soon defeated Denmark. Bismarck wanted both Schleswig and Holstein, but temporaril y allowed Austria to have Holstein. Trouble soon arose over rights of passage, keeping of internal order, etc. Bismarck pretended to regulate these problems, but actually just let them fester.

--Now, started to isolate and discredit Austria. England = noninterventionalist toward Continent. Russia = pro-Prussian, anti-Austrian after Crimean War, and after Prussia helped it suppress a Polish uprising in 1863. For Italy, it held out the lure of Venetia. Napoleon = now embarrased by domestic turmoil and misfortunes in Mexico, and Bismarck charmed him with vague promises of French expansion.

--To weaken Austria inside Germany, he posed himself as a democratic reformer, proposing a popular chamber to the German confederation elected by universal male suffrage.

--Prussia and Austria = still quarreling over the 2 territories. Austria brought it before the German federal diet. Bismarck declared that it had no authority, accused Austria of aggression, and invaded Holstein. Austria called the German confederatio n behind it. Thus, Prussia = at war with rest of Germany. But with new technology and clever tactics, Prussia defeated rest in 7 Weeks' War and made a quick peace.

--Prussia annexed several adjacent territories, and dissolved the old governments in these areas. Also, entered into a N. German Confederation with other N. German states, all of which it outweighed greatly. Meanwhile, German federal union disappeared .

--Remaining S. German states remained separate, without any confederation among themselves. Italy got Venetia.

--Bismarck produced a constitution for his new confederation. Created a strong federal government, with King of Prussia its hereditary head. Parliament with 2 chambers: 1) represented the states, 2) called the Reichstag, represented the people through universal male suffrage. This = first time in Europe that unversal male suffrage = implemented outside France. But this action = not reckless: Bismarck thought the masses on his side. He reached an understanding with the socialist leaders, who followed s chool of Lassalle: unlike Marxists, believed it possible to improve working conditions through existing governments. Socialists, in return for suffrage, accepted the N. German Confederation. Thus, Bismarck won popular approval.

The Franco-Prussian War

--Napoleon III = getting criticised for his horrible foreign policy: French intervention in Mexico = a disaster; a unified Italy = on France's doorstep; and worst of all, a strong German power = emerging from the pack.

--Incentives for war: If France = successful, then Napoleon would restore his own public approval. Bismarck played on the fears of the southern states. S. Germany = now nationalistic enough to consider alliance with France disgraceful. So if war began , small S. German states might ally with Prussia, leaving Austria on the outside.

--Immediate causes: Given this situation, both sides = looking for an excuse to go to war. They found it in Spain. Revolution had driven out the queen. A Spanish provisional government invited Prince Leopold of Prussia, the King's cousin, to take over . Leopold accepted. A Hohenzollern in Spain = horrible for France, so French ambassador demanded to the king that the acceptance be withdrawn. It was withdrawn.

--But French ambassador demanded further that the king promise that no Hohenzollern would ever rule in Spain. King politely declined, telegraphed a complete report of the conversation from Ems to Bismarck. Bismarck reduced and abridged this "Ems disp atch" to make it seem that the king = insulted, and that the French ambassador had been snubbed. Thus, both sides demanded war. On July, 1870, French declared war.

--WAR: Again, very short. French = already isolated. British thought that France = in the wrong, and were alarmed with their operations in Mexico, which smelled of a French American Empire. Italians always wanted to seize Rome, which they did in 1870. Russia upset Peace of 1856 by putting naval vessels in Black Sea. Prussia got S. German states.

--Napoleon = taken prisoner.

--September 4: Insurrection in Paris proclaimed the 3rd Republic.

--Prussian and German forces moved into France, laid seige to Paris. But although French armies = gone, Paris refused to surrender. The city = surrounded and besieged for 4 months.

The German Empire, 1871

--At Versailles, Bismarck proclaimed the German Empire. King of Prussia received title of hereditary emperor. The other German rulers, except for the Habsburgs, accepted his authority.

--Soon after, Paris surrendered, but had no government which Bismarck could talk to. Bismarck ordered the election of a Constituent Assembly by universal suffrage. Demanded an indemnity of 5 billion gold francs, and Alsace and Lorraine. French would n ever forget this harsh penalty, esp. the loss of the two territories.

--New German Empire soon became the most powerful state on the Continent, esp. with rapid industrialization after 1870. With Bismarck, Prussia captured all of Germany except for Austria, violating Peaces of Vienna and Westphalia. In face of Bismarck's successes, the liberals capitulated: they accepted an "indemnity act," by which Bismarck acknowledged his heavy-handedness during the constitutional struggle, and the parliament legalized the taxes ex post facto. "Forgive and forget."

--Internal affairs of the new empire: received much the same constitution of the N. German Confederation. Empire = a federation of monarchies, each with hereditary or divine right. Reichstag = elected under universal male suffrage, somewhat democratic . Ministers = responsible only to emperor, not any elected body. There were no popular plebiscites as in Italy. Each state kept its own laws, government, and constitution: Prussia = still under the rather illiberal constitution of 1850, although had unive rsal suffrage in affairs of the Reich. King of Prussia had control over foreign and military policy. Thus, German Empire magnified the role of Prussia, its army, and its aristocracy.

#66: The Dual Monarchy of Austria-Hungary

The Habsburg Empire After 1848

--Astonishingly, it still survived. Disappeared only with WWI. Despite all the nationalism of the times, the various ethnic groups in Austria did not want complete separation from Austria. Most felt the need for a larger political structure for suppor t. Although increasingly dependent on certain national rights, they still wanted to stay in empire.

--From 1848 to 1916, the ruling Habsburg = Francis Joseph. His thoughts = on his house and its rights. Cordially disliked everything liberal, progressive, or modern. Allied himself with the Vatican, which = also reactionary. Personally, he = incapable of enlarged views, ambitious projects, bold decisions, or persevering action. Lived in a pompous dream world at his court.

--But government = still very dynamic, possibly too dynamic. Had so many ideas that very few = tried long enough to see whether they would work. For several years, the idea was centralization. But that = distasteful to the Magyars, a subgroup of the H ungarians.

The Compromise of 1867

--Compromise, called the Ausgleich, = made. Essentially a bargain between the Germans of Austrio-Bohemia and the Magyars of Hungary, working to the common disadvantage of the Slavs. Slavs at that time = thought racially inferior. Idea of the Compromis e = that each people, Germans and Magyars, should govern its barbarians in its own way.

--Created a Dual Monarchy. Explicity divided Austria into the Empire of Austria and the Empire of Hungary. The two = considered exactly equal. Each had its own constitution and parliament to which governing ministry = now responsible. Neither state mi ght interfere in the other's affairs.

--But states = joined in that shared their emperor, a Habsburg, and had common finance, foreign affairs, and war departments, staffed by both Magyars and Austrians.

--In effect, Compromise treated Austria as a German nation-state, Hungary as a Magyar nation-state, and gave each its own organs of government. But there = still many nationalities in addition to the Austrians and the Magyars, and these = discontented .

--Austria and Hungary = set up as constitutional parliamentary states, but ministerial responsibility = not always kept. Austria got universal male suffrage only in 1907. Hungary never got above 1/4 of the population. In Hungary, abolition of serfdom = never allowed to really upset the social structure: landlords = still unquestionably the dominant class. But since most landlords = also Magyars, social, economic, and political interest = fused in one class.

#67: Liberalization in Tsariist Russia: Alexander II

Tsarist Russia after 1856

--During Crimean War, Russia showed itself to be turning into a military soft spot: it = very easy to poke into its borders. Alexander II, who ascended during the war, saw this weakness, and since Western Europe was then at its height, he tried to emu late it to a degree.

--Imperial Russia = very hard to describe politically. Some thought it = destined to become Westernized. Others, the Slavophiles, thought it had its own destiny rooted in the Slavic Volksgeist.

--Leading institution = autocracy of the tsar. But idea of natural rights of man = foreign to them; tsar did not rule by law, but by force. The tsars since Peter built up their states very largely by importing technology from West, often to strong obj ections of native Russians. Tsarist government = a machine imposed on a people without their consent.

--But as contact with the West increased, so did influx of Western ideas, which mostly led its Russian adherents to criticize the tsardom. Tsars = afraid of such people, and censored their writings.

--Second institution = legalized bondage, or serfdom. Resembled the slavery of America, in that landowners "owned" their serfs. Owners assumed some paternalistic responsibility over the serfs, and provided a sort of government over them.

--By mid-19c, all Russians = agreeing that serfdom must end some day. Serfdom = ceasing to be profitable, and = becoming a bad system of labor relations: workers = turning into illiterate, inefficient drudges.

--Educated Russians, full of Western ideas, = estranged from their own country and its government, guilty for the serf system. Thus, we have a third institution, the "intelligentsia." Formed mostly of intellectuals. Believed that thinkers should play a large role in society, formed an exaggerated conception of their role in history. Characteristic attitude = opposition.

The Emancipation Act of 1861 and Other Reforms

--Alexander tried to get support of liberal intelligentsia. Freer speech and press brought outburst of public opinion that peasants must be freed. Alexander set up government commission to study the question. After much debate, issued imperial ukase o f 1861, declaring serfdom abolished and peasants free.

--Peasants = now legally free in Western sense: they = subjects of government, not their landlords. Landowners could no longer demand robot, lost their quasi-manorial privileges. It = hoped that this act would arouse new sense of human dignity.

--Act also redistributed lands:

--Gentry got 1/2, peasants the other half. For their new lands, the peasants had to pay redemption to the gentry. Aristocracy = thus not weakened: got $, and outright owned 1/2 of land.

--Peasant ownership = not according to Western principles. Redeemed land = made common property of ancient peasant village assembly, or mir. Village as a unit = responsible for payment of redemption, and its collection from its members. If a member could not pay, assembly could extort robot. Could prevent peasants from moving away from village, lest remainder hold burden of redemption fees. Controlled distribution of lands among its members. Some peasants = richer than others. But none had full free dom of action: always under jurisdiction of mir.

--To keep villages intact, government restricted selling of land only to persons within the villages. But this prevented outside investment, and retarded agricultural improvements.

--Reform of the legal system: reform = from bottom to top. Defendants = until then legally helpless under arbitrary court system. But edict of 1864 changed much of that: trials = made public, and private people could choose their own lawyers. Class di stinction = technically abolished, but peasants = always still at a disadvantage. Clear sequence of higher to lower courts. Requirements for training of judges = codified. Judges = now payed directly by government. English jury system = installed.

--Alexander tried to increase local self-government. Hoped to win over the liberals and empower the middle and upper classes. By another edict of 1864, he set up a system of provincial and district councils called zemstvos, elected by members of all s ocial classes. Zemstvos gradually took up local issues like education, food supply, road repair, etc. Increased civic sentiment in its members.

--After a rebellion in Poland, Alexander became more conservative, toned down his reform, and started to whittle away at past concession. But reforms = unaffected in essence.

Revolutionism in Russia

--Revolutionaries = not pleased with reforms, which, if successful, would only strenghten the old order.

--In 1860s, dissatisfied intelligentsia took up nihilism, or belief in nothing but science. Increasingly pessimistic of Alexander's reforms.

--Peasants, under heavy burden of redemption payments, = basically unsatisfied. Intellectuals tried to fan this discontent. Revolutionaries developed a mystic sense of role of masses in revolution. After their failure in W. Europe, socialists saw grea t promise in Russia: a weak capitalism, and peasants = already familiar with collectivism.

--Some revolutionaries took up terrorism, or assassination: People's Will determined to assassinate tsar in hopes of destroying the autocratic regime. Other revolutionaries, ie Marxists, rejected violence, thinking it could never lead to social progr ess.

--Afraid of the underground menace, Alexander again tried to appease the liberals, who = estranged from government by its failure to follow through with reforms of 1860s. In 1880, Alexander again relaxed the autocratic system: abolished the secret pol ice, allowed greater freedom press and speech. On the day he = assassinated by People's Will (1881), he created 2 nationally elected councils to sit with council of state.

--Alexander III abandoned reform, reverted to brutal resistance to liberals and revolutionaries alike. But major reforms of peasant emancipation, judicial reform, and zemstvos = allowed to stand.

#68: The United States: The American Civil War

#69: The Dominion of Canada, 1867

--Canada = made of several disjointed British colonies, somewhat dependent on Britain. Population = from 3 sources: French along St. Lawrence river valley, Americans loyal to Britain who moved to Ontario during the American Revolution, and recent immi grants from Britain seeking opportunity.

--French = always antagonistic, fearful of the overbearing English majority. But with Quebec Act of 1774, British Crown undertook to protect French civil law, language, and Catholic church in Canada. Also, British in 1791 separated the territory into Lower Canada to stay French, and Upper Canada to stay English. Each had government that the American colonies had before revolution.

--But differences continued. French still feared the English. Upper Canadians who originally settled the wilderness = reluctant to share with new arrivals from England. Lower Canada stood in way of Upper Canada's access to the sea.

--In 1837, a tiny rebellion broke out, easily suppressed.

Lord Durham's Report

--In Britain, reforming Whigs = busy renovating ancient forms of government. They generally held that it = not necessary to control a region politically to trade with it. Free trade, separation of economics from politics. All wished to reduce burden o n English taxpayers by reducing British garrisons abroad.

--Whig government sent Earl of Durham to Canada as governor in 1837, after the rebellion. He published his opinions on Canada in 1839: said that Upper and Lower Canada should = united, French separatism should = extinguished, and all Canadians should develop a national character. Wanted that Canada be given virtual self-government, and British system of "responsible government," by which elected national assembly should control the executives of each province.

--Most of report = adopted immediately. United Canada = given machinery of self-government in 1840. British garrisons withdrawn, and Canadian army raised to defend against America. Responsible government established in late 1840s.

--But still, French-English friction continued. Many Canadians therfore turned to federalist system, by which French and English areas would conduct their own local affairs, but remain joined for larger purposes.

Founding of the Dominion of Canada

--Federalism = thus a partly decentralizing idea, aiming at redivision into two provinces, and also a centralizing idea, since it suggested unifying all of British N. America.

--While Canadians = discussing federalism, Civil War raged in USA. Thus, Canadians resolved to unite under a strong central government which had all the powers not explicitly assigned to the provinces. The new constitution = passed in Britain in 1867 as the British N. America Act, constitutionally establishing the Dominion of Canada. Only in 1982 was Canada given full independence.

--First example of successful devolution, or granting of political liberties, within a European colony. Canada, although loyal to GBr, = functionally independent: made its own decisions of war and peace, etc. Pioneered the dominion status, which = lat er applied to Australia, New Zealand, S. Africa, India, Pakistan, Ceylon. All these, though independent, = voluntarily joined together and to GBr in Commonwealth of Nations.

#70: Japan and the West

--Very complex society

--1853: Commodore Perry forced open Yedo Bay.

--1867: Internal revolution, which led to rapid westernization.

Background: Two Centuries of Isolation, 1640-1854

--Japan = in self-imposed isolation during this time. This policy, at least in the beginning, = not based on ignorance, but experience.

--First contact with Europe came in 1542. For about a century thereafter, there was great commerce with the west. Japan wanted Western technology greatly. Many adopted Christianity. But soon after 1600, government drove Christianity underground, and e xpelled all Westerners except a few tightly controlled Dutch.

--Reasons for self-seclusion = from within. Parallels to what = happening in Europe: a period of feudal warfare followed by a period of government absolutism, during which peace = kept by bureaucracy, an obsolescent warrior class = gained privileges, and commercial class of merchants grew wealthier, stronger, and more insistent on its position.

--When Europeans first arrived, Japan = torn by clan wars. One, the Tokugawa, emerged, took over the office of shogun, or a military head who governed for the emperor. Hereditary Tokugawa shogunate lasted from 1603 to 1867. Early shoguns learned that Europeans in Japan = involved in Japanese politics, even aspired to control Japan by helping Christian Japanese gain power. Thus, to establish their dynasty, pacify the country, and to keep Japan from European domination, shoguns tried to exterminate Chri stianity and adopted rigid policy of nonintercourse with the rest of the world.

--Tokugawa established a long, unprecedented peace. Completed the detachment of emperor from politics by presenting him as a divine being too august to meddle in politics. Emperor = shut off in Kyoto. Shoguns established a court at Yedo, or Tokyo, at which all feudal chieftans = required to spend some part of the year.

--Shoguns administered through a sort of military bureaucracy or dictatorship. Kept watch over the great lords, or daimyo. Daimyo and their samurai, without anyone to fight, became a landed aristocracy, spent much of their time in Yedo. As a leisure c lass, developed new and more expensive tastes for which they paid by squeezing the peasants. Bought much from the merchants.

--Merchants grew greatly by catering to government and gentry. In 17c, Japan passed into a money economy. Samurai = greatly impoverished, with only their social status to distinguish them. The once sharp lines between classes began to blur: some merch ants could buy samurai status after 1800.

--Intellectual change: Buddhism lost ground with, as in the West, an increasing secularization of ideas. New emphasis on Bushido, or "the way of the warrior," as a code of moral conduct. Rise of Shinto, the indigenous religion of Japan, which taught, among other things, that emperor = Son of Heaven. Great increase in historical study, which aroused acute interest in national past. History and Shinto led to the sentiment that the Tokugawa = usurpers of the throne.

--Nagasaki = left open to Dutch. In 1750s, shogun let in western books, except those on Christianity. Some Japanese learned Dutch, translated Dutch technical and medical books. Great demand for western manufactures. Some knowledge of western politics.

Opening of Japan

--Perry already had many allies before his landing in Japan: nobles, heavily in debt to the merchants, and unable to draw more from agriculture, = willing to enter foreign trade and exploit their property with new enterprises. Samurai = desperate, wil ling to enter careers in an army. Merchants wanted to trade in western goods. Scholars wanted more western knowledge. Patriots wanted western guns. Nation = spiritually adrift, susceptible to new ideas. Thus, from these desires and threat of disgrace of s hogunate from bombardment of Yedo, shogun Iesada signed commercial treaty with USA.

--But Japanese soon learned that the treaties it just signed = not on equal terms. Europeans treated Japan like their inferiors: demanded that Japan keep its tariffs low, and allow for extraterritoriality. Hence, a strong anti-foreign reaction, led at first by lords of Chosu and Satsuma.

--Chosu and Satsuma wanted to overturn the Tokugawa and lead a national revival around the emperor. But after a cultural conflict, British bombarded the capital of Satsuma. When Chosu ordered his guns to fire on passing western vessels, western forces destroyed Chosu's ports and shipping, and imposed an indemnity of $3 mill. Also, seeing that shogun could not control his subordinates, western powers forced emperor to confirm the past treaties under threat of bombardment. Great humiliations.

The Meiji Era (1868-1912): The Westernization of Japan

--Chosu and Satsuma concluded that the only way to save Japan = to learn Western military secrets. First, forced resignation of Tokugawa shogun, who had already lost all his prestige. Last shogun abdicated in 1867. Reformers declared the emperor resto red to full authority, and under his imperial power, planned to consolidate and fortify Japan. In 1868, Mutsuhito ascended, gave his name to his reign.

--Japan became a modern national state. Feudalism = abolished, and great lords gave up their power to the emperor. Legal system = reorganized, equality before law = introduced. Many laws = recast along western lines in hopes of making extraterritorial ity unnecessary. New army, modeled on the Prussian. Samurai became an officer class. Later, a navy modeled on the British. Control of $ and currency passed to central government. Buddhism discouraged, and Shinto encouraged.

--1889: A constitution = formulated, confirming western civil liberties, and providing a parliament in two chambers. But also stressed supreme authority of emperor, although he never actually governed.

--Great technological advances.

--It = essentially to preserve that Japanese culture that Japan adopted the western.