Chapter 27 – Lesson 3: Europeans Claim Muslim Lands. extend beyond the Khyber Pass.

extend beyond the Khyber Pass. That agreement was honored until 1979, when
the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan.
OTTOMAN EMPIRE LOSES POWER
EGYPT INITIATES REFORMS
The decline of the Ottoman Empire began after Suleyman I, the last great Ottoman
Modernization came to Egypt as a result of interest in the area created by the
sultan, died in 1566. The palace government broke up into a number of quarreling,
French occupation. After Napoleon failed to win Egypt, a new leader emerged:
often corrupt factions. When Selim III came into power in 1789, he attempted to
Muhammad Ali. He began a series of reforms in the military and in the economy.
modernize the army, but his reforms failed and he was overthrown. Meanwhile,
Without foreign assistance, he directed a shift of Egyptian agriculture to a
nationalist feelings began to stir among the Ottomans' subject peoples. In 1830,
plantation cash crop—cotton.
Greece gained independence, and Serbia gained self-rule.
THE SUEZ CANAL
EUROPEANS GRAB TERRITORY
The Suez Canal was a human-made waterway that cut through the Isthmus of
The Ottomans controlled access to the Mediterranean and the Atlantic Sea trade.
Suez and connected the Red Sea to the Mediterranean. It was built mainly with
World powers were attracted to its strategic location. Discovery of oil in Persia
French money from private interest groups, using Egyptian labor. Egypt soon
around 1900 and in the Arabian Peninsula after World War I focused more
found that it could not pay its European bankers even the interest on its $450
attention on the area. Russia desperately wanted passage for its grain exports
million debt. The British insisted on overseeing financial control of the canal, and
across the Black Sea and into the Mediterranean Sea. This desire strongly
in 1882 the British occupied Egypt.
influenced Russia's relations with the Ottoman Empire.
PERSIA PRESSURED TO CHANGE
RUSSIA AND THE CRIMEAN WAR
Russia and Britain competed to exploit Persia commercially and to bring that
Russia and the Ottomans fought over a peninsula in the Black Sea called Crimea.
country under their own spheres of influence. Russia was especially interested in
Britain and France entered the war on the side of the Ottoman Empire. The
gaining access to the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. Britain was interested in
Crimean War was the first to be covered by newspaper correspondents. It was also
using Afghanistan as a buffer between India and Russia. In 1857, Persia resisted
the first-time women served as army nurses, led by Florence Nightingale.
British demands but was forced to give up claims to Afghanistan.
THE GREAT GAME
BATTLE OVER TOBACCO
For much of the 19th century, Great Britain and Russia engaged in yet another
Tension arose between the often-corrupt rulers, who wanted to sell concessions to
geopolitical struggle, this time over Muslim lands in Central Asia.
Europeans, and the people.
Known as the “Great Game,” the war was waged over India, one of Britain’s most
In 1890, Persian ruler Nasir al-Din sold a concession to a British company to
profitable colonies. In the 1800s, Afghanistan was an independent Muslim
export Persian tobacco.
kingdom. Its dry, mountainous terrain and determined people frustrated the
As unrest continued in Persia, however, the government was unable to control the
invading imperial powers. After decades of fighting, Great Britain finally
situation.
withdrew from Afghanistan in 1881. In 1921, Britain formally agreed that its
In the Muslim lands, many European imperialists gained control by using
empire would not
economic imperialism and creating spheres of influence.
In other areas of the globe, imperialists provided the modernization.
Chapter 27 – Lesson 4: BRITISH IMPERIALISM IN
INDIA
BRITISH EXPAND CONTROL OVER INDIA
The area controlled by the East India Company grew over time. Until the
beginning of the 19th century, the company ruled India with little
interference from the British government.
At first, the British treasured India more for its potential than its actual
profit. The British set up restrictions that prevented the Indian economy
from operating on its own.
India became increasingly valuable to the British after they established a
railroad network there.
Most of the raw materials were agricultural products produced on
plantations.
On the positive side, the laying of the world's third largest railroad network
was a major British achievement.
Along with the railroads, a modern road network, telephone and telegraph
lines, dams, bridges, and irrigation canals enabled India to modernize.