HIST106

LECTURE - 1 (EUROPEAN EXPANSION IN THE ATLANTIC AND INDIAN

OCEANS)

"This is the beginning of the European hegemony in a world context."

"This is the system of long distance trade in the late Middle Ages in Europe and
Mediterranean(look at photo1). In the east, we have the Silk Road which is a system
of connections, especially effective and alive in the 13th/14th centuries, times of Pax
Mongolica."

Causes motivating this process of large scale colonization and expansion:

• The Ottomans' expansion challenges old balances, systems and routes of

exchange.

"There is a need to look for alternative roads to reach east Asia, no longer by land
but by sea if possible."

The Venetians even plan in the XV. century the digging of the Suez Canal.

"Europe was more self-confident and aggressive. It was the most densely urbanized
region of the world with more than 130.000 towns. It largely recovered from the Blach
Death. The Renaissance is one aspoect of this self-confidence."

"Another indirect reason for the success of this process of expansion is that china
has abandoned inital enterprises to expand in long distance trade in the early 15th
century."

Charles V: The personal union of the European and American territories of Charles V
was the first collection of realms labelled "the empire on which the Sun never sets".

Vasco da Gama: He was the first navigator who crosses the Cape of Good Hope in
South Africa in 1486 and found a way to India.

Columbus: The most groundbreaking enterprise in this context is that Columbus

decided to find new routes to the east for the Spanish crown. Incidentally, he found a
new continent that was not known in Europe. He engages in four voyages between
1492 and 1502. Initially, he convinces that he had reached Japan when he lands in
the New World. In 1519, the first ship carrying treasuries from the New World
reaches Sevilla.

Magellan: He was the first navigator who entered the Pacific from the Atlantic through
south of the South American continent. He accomplished what Columbus had not.
Martin Behaim: He was a German textile merchant and cartographer. He served
John II of Portugal as an adviser in matters of navigation and participated in a voyage
to West Africa. He is now best known for his Erdapfel, the world's oldest surviving
globe, which he produced for the Imperial City of Nuremberg in 1492.

The Treaty of Tordesillas was a document showing how a Christian European

mentality was beginning to positioning itself at the center of the world. The Pope,
Alexander VI, decided that these new discovered lands had to be shared between
the Spanish and the Portuguese.

Consequences of European expansion:

• From exploration to exploitation

"When you discover a land, you tend to claim right of possession, start to seek for
golden(exploitation) and engage in slave trade."

• Emergence of Atlantic economy

"Without slaves, all economic movement would not exist. In 1700's, over six million
slaves imported from Africa to the Americas."

• Development of cartography and naval engineering

"Cartography gives power. You do not have google earth at that time. You have
carefully guarded maps that are carefully kept secret."

• Relative marginalization(!) of old Mediterranean and Eurasian trading routes

• European values, laws, mentality, languages, religion and culture were
exported and imposed on a large part of the world

"This really brought Europe in a central position more extensively in the Americas
where the local culture erased."

The Columbian Exchange: was the widespread transfer of plants, animals, culture,
human populations, technology, diseases, and ideas between the New World and the
Old World in the 15th and 16th centuries (look at photo2).

LECTURE – 2 (EARLY EXPEDITIONS AND ASIAN TRADE)

"This would be the background to the eurpean arrival in Asia during the 15th century
in the age of merchantilism that would ultimately evolve into European colonization of
Asia and the rise of western empires."

"We are going to use the term "The Silk Road" which actually is a concept invented
during the 19th century."
Ferdinand Freiherr von Richthofen coined the term 'Seiden Strasse / The Silk Road'.
The term has been used to describe the ancient routes of travel on land and sea that
connect Europe, Asia and Africa.

"There was also a maritime silk road which is less famous. The monsoon winds were
very important."

In January, winter monsoon blew from east to west. In the late summer, monsoon
blows from west to east.

"If you are going to sail from Europe or Africa, you have to wait for the winds to
change in July. You can only sail from July until January."

"Sailing across the Asian coast was bi-seasonal and slow. Traveling seaosn in asia
has to obey the monsoon wind seasonal changes. They blew in one direction for
months. This is unlike the Mediterranean. Winds change quite constantly there.
Therefore travellers had to settle in and wait for the winds close to half-a year."

"The Arab knowledge of shipbuilding was much better than the Chinese during the
Middle Ages. The Arab Dhow, a beautifully designed sail boat pretty much did
oceanic sailing. Arab sailors from the Persian Gulf carried traders to south-east Asia
already in the Middle Ages."

Even though the Mongol conqeust were feared for merciless massacres, the Mongol
World Empire accelerated Medieval Globalization through 'safe' travel along the silk
roads reducing the risk of banditry. Mongol security guards, postal situation provided
protection to travelers and visitors over long distances.

Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo used these traditional routes and technology of travel
over land and sea.

After conquering China, Mongols wanted a navy. Kubilai desired for a maritime
empire. He wanted to conquer Japan and Java, build huge fleets using Korean and
South Chinese know-how, but his battle ships were flat-bottomed

(in contrast to the Arab Dhow) which made them fragile during tempests and long
voyages.

Ming Dynasty, in the 14th century, briefly broke the pattern of weak navy during early
Merchantilism that poured silver into China's economy. The Chinese economy
became silver based due to enormous flow of silver from Eurasian trade.

A Muslim admiral of the Ming Royal Fleet, Zheng He had the advantage of knowing
the network of Muslim sailors for navigation routes of pilgrimage1 to Mecca. His ability
to speak Arabic and Muslim identity was an advantage as a diplomat of the…

1 a special journey made by a pilgrim (hac).

…Chinese empire to communicate with rulers along the coast of Africa and Asia who
were mostly Muslims in the 15th century, forming the Muslim international.

Zheng He's fleet was better built than the Mongol Fleet of Kubilai using Arab and
European know-how (shoehorned bottoms).

"Until the 18th century, we cannot really talk about the sudden birth of European
imperialism."

Europeans could cross oceans with big and sturdy2 ships with large sails. They also
used local knowledge of navigations along the coasts about linking Africa and Asia
through oceans.

The Portuguese and the Spanish did not arrive peacefully. Combining missionary
zeal to save souls and conquest of ports to get spices.

Why did not the Chinese empire pursue the early Ming vision of oceanic expeditions
and trade ?

• The Mongol nomads started atttacking northern frontier of China. The empire
needed to strenghten the military defense of the north and could not upkeep
the expensive navy.
• Chinese Confucian bureaucrats had never liked the idea of sending expensive
fleets with merchants a lowly activity in status.
• Yongle and Zheng He, the two supporters of the new vision had died.

"The lack of strong naval forces in Asia was ominous3 military weakness in future
conflicts with the Europeans."

LECTURE – 3 (THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY AND NORTHERN EUROPE)

"Renaissance is a French word meaning rebirth or revival; so, it implies something

dead and it is being brought again to life. This thing that had died was classical
heritage, the Roman cultural, intellectual, artistic, legal and political legacy that had
been marginalized during the Middle Ages in Western Europe."

"The revival of classical antiquity occurs in a moment when trade as an alternative to

feudal economy based largely on agriculture was developing intensely among newly
founded urban centers, the Italian city-states. The hierarchical structure was broken
with the emergence of independent cities. There was a decline of chivalric and feudal
ideas as overall processes of secularization."

Independence from the German Empire and the Pope was an important aspect of
Italian city-states and there was a new emphasis on the republican phase of the
Roman history.

2 physically strong and solid or thick, and therefore unlikely to break or be hurt (dayanıklı).
3 giving the impression that something bad or unpleasant is going to happen (uğursuz).
"The Renaissance was not the first example of revival of antiquity and classical
culture."

The Carolingian Renaissance: The emperor Charlemagne had succeded in re-

unifying the large part of Europe with the diea of creating a Holy-Roman Empire
which was ideally connected to the Roman Empire.

"It was a courtly rather than urban phenomenon. It was something conceived from
above; so, it had a limited impact on society at large."

When: The period between XIII. and XV. centuries makes more sense for thinking of
the origins of the Renaissance in a large time-line.
Where: We should consider a network of sites in the Italian peninsula connected to
distant sites in the Levant and in Northern Europe.

Secularism, individualism and realism are all the aspects that we see more clearly
(despite not being in the modern sense) in the Renaissance period than in the Middle
Ages.

Keywords and concepts:

• Human agency and responsibility are central, the state is artificial, 'a work of
art'.
• Revival of antiquity is the reappropriation of a cultural legacy that also extolled
human agency.
• Critical awareness - critique of past dogmas and traditions
• New sense of time (history, historiography, philology, archeology) and space
(geography, cartography, invention of linear perspective)
• Art as an intellectual production rather than craft.

Notwithstanding the new system of values, ideas, behaviours and practises; much of
the Renaissance worldview is still linked to the Medieval heritage.

"We do not have to (overemphasize) imagine the Renaissance as similar to modern

ideas and standarts."

The favourable geographical position of Italy accelerated urbanization in certain

areas. Main axis is from low countries(the Netherlands) through Rhineland and
Rhone to port-cities and maritime republics of Italy.

In the competitive environment of the city-state, the revival of classical antiquity

expressed a secularized worldview becoming a sign of prestige, distinction and
authority.

Humanism (studia humanitatis) extols humans agency and responsibility as opposed

to the medieval vision of man as part of divinely ordered cosmos.
"The same topic, the annunciation of the Gabriel to Virgin Mary, is represented in two
completely different ways(look at photos). Boticelli creates with linear perspective
which is clearly measurable. This does not exist in Martini's work, rather golden

back-ground refering to divine light and grace. The Renaissance favours realism and
stronger attention to material reality rather than spiritual."

LECTURE – 4 (RELIGIOUS REFORMS FROM THE 16TH CENTURY ONWARDS)

"The Ambassadors (Holbein) was painted after the split between the catholic and the
protestant churches."

The unity of Christianity at the beginning of the 16th century was challenged in many
ways. The Papacy had recently recovered its authority by establishing temporal
power in central Italy. But this engagement in politics, statecraft and other secular
issues was perceived by many as a betrayel of the original mission and duty of the
Pope a representative of Christ and descendant of St. Peter. Particularly scandalous
appeared Alexander VI. or Julius II's use of religious authority to enpower and enrich
relatives and illegitimate children(nepotism). The Pappacy's display of luxury and
pomp4, its patronage of artworks inspired by Classical and non-christian antiquity
were also criticized.

"When we look at the political situation of Europe in the beginning of the 16th
century, it was quite complex. It has so called Holy-Roman Empire. Many
principalities, counties and small states are dependent from the Pope. There were
several German princes who paytaxes to the Pope. In aristocracyi there was a
recenment against the economic bounds of the Pope. Therefore, the situation was
already tense when Luther comes and proposes the detachment from Rome."

Evangelism: Its proponents advocates return to the original message and spirit of
the Gospel. The Catholic emanted from Rome is considered not only superfluous but
illegitimate and antithetical to the principles of Christian life. Popular sentiment awaits
a decisive intervention of God, a 'great change' - age of the Spirit or Last Days
announced by a reformer, a holy man or prophet. After 1520, Luther was identified
with this figure.

The aim of Roman church is to control and monopolize the sacramental5 dimension
of everday life. Popular belief in magic and in the supernatural powers of certain
objects, performances and persons has to be framed in a rigorous Christian order
that can be only imposed and administered by the official Roman hierarchy.
Whatever lays outside thsi order and frame is condemned and persecuted as a
manifestation of devilish forces.

4 impressive and colourful ceremonies, especially traditional ceremonies on public occasions (şatafat).
5 relating to an important religious ceremony (kutsal).
In 1516, Johan Tetzel who was a friar and preacher is sent to Germany for the selling
of indulgences6. Luther protested the sale of indulgences and nailed his famous '95
theses' against selling of indulgences on the church door at Wittenburg in the
following year (doctrine of justification by faith).

"The printing press was intrumental in spreading the idea of the reformation."

The Diet of Worms: It was an imperial diet (a formal deliberative assembly) of

the Holy Roman Empire called by Emperor Charles V(see pg.1) and conducted in
Worms (a city). Martin Luther was summoned to the Diet in order to renounce or
reaffirm his views in response to a Papal bull(a type of public decree) of Pope Leo X.
In answer to questioning, he defended these views and refused to recant them. At
the end of the Diet, the Emperor issued the Edict of Worms (1521), a decree which
condemned Luther as "a notorious heretic" and banned citizens of the Empire from
propagating his ideas. Although the Protestant Reformation is usually considered to
have begun in 1517, the edict signals the first overt schism.

Main points of disagreement:

• No essential distinction in status between pastor and common people

(universal priesthood)
• A priest should not be ordained by an official hierarchy, but rather appointed
by a community or its legitimate ruler

"This is another aspect of the politicization of the Reformation. You are independent
from the Roman authority; so, who has to be religious leader? This was quite
controversial and another reason of tension."

• Only Eucharist and Baptism accepted as sacraments.

"According to Luther, there is no clear trace of the other five sacraments including
marriage, etc."

• Rejection of transubstantiation

"It refers to the change of the whole substance of bread and wine into the substance
of the Body of Christ with a sort of magic."

• Confession and indulgences seen as illegitimate tools of exploitation.

Politics of the Reformation:

• In theory, Luther maintained a complete seperation of the spiritual from the

secular (the two kingdoms), but in practise he encouraged rulers to impose…

6an occasion when you allow or do not mind someone's failure or bad behaviour (günahların kilisece
affedilmesi).
 …reform on their subjects. In Saxony, the subordination7 of reformed church
on secular rule is officialized in 1527-28.
• Communal anticlericalism which was a reaction to the clergy's privileges
resonates with the Lutheran doctrine of universal priesthood. For Luther, a
community has the power to appoint and dismiss its own pastor.

All these borders for many, it is very close to the utopian ideal of the 'true Christian
community' based on social justice creating an alliance among lower classes of
towns and country. This is the peasant revolution of 1524-25.

This novel painting (look at photo6) was a Lutheran protest against the Anabaptists
who refused to recognize the efficacy of infant baptism. After 1529, Anabaptism
became a capital offense in the Holy-Roman Empire.

Conflicts and contradictions:

• The right of communities to elect their own priests is gradually questioned and
subordinated to the approval of a 'superior authority'.
• A new clerical hierarchy emerges, the divide between common people and
pastor is emphasized through learning.

"The Renaissance and humanist education was important in training religious leader.
Not the fact of being appointed or ordained, but the fact that he had done his
appropriate training."

John Calvin: He had an intellectual vision of religion. He created in 1536 Institutes of

Christian Faith in an effort to establish a community whose constitution is entirely
based on the scripture.

Desiderius Erasmus: He attacks on the Catholic Church in 'The Praise of

Folly'(1509) even though he remained a Catholic with the strong feeling for the need
of reforming the Catholic church. In short, he criticized papal abuses but never joined
the Reformation.

The Jesuits(Society of Jesus): It, founded by the Spanish nobleman and ex-soldier
Ignatus of Loyola, was the most influential outcome of the Catholic reformation. They
participated in the expansion of the Church in the America and Asia conducting
efforts in missionary activity that far outpaced8 even the aggressive Protestantism of
the Calvinists.

The Peace of Augsburg(1555) put and end to an initial struggle between the
protestan and the catholic.

"This religious map(look at photo5) of Europe is very important to keep in mind."

7 the act of giving someone or something less importance or power (boyun eğme).
8 to move or develop faster than someone or something else (geride bırakmak).
LECTURE – 5 (SOCIAL AND CULTURAL TRANSFORMATION IN THE MIDDLE
EAST)

"The geography (look at photo7) came to be ruled by three centralizing territorial

states: Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal Empires in the 16th and 17th centuries."

"It is a politically fragmented world especially after the disintegration of the Timurid
realm."

"What makes this period interesting and relevant for us is that this is also an era
marked by a lively cultural atmosphere in the Timurid courts ruled by the
descendants of Timur. Supporting historians, poets, intellectuals. This type of
cultural patronage has, infact, a parallel within this politically fragmented
configuration9."

"The Eastern part of the larger Islamic world had developed a culture based on
Persian literary traditions while the Western part maintained largely an Arabic base.
In both areas, though, the Ancient Greek heritage formed a significant component of
the cultural production."

"Timurid cultural fluorescence was not based on a revival of antiquity in the sense
that the Renaissance claimed to be."

"One of the most significant aspects of Timurid culture is its formation of a basis for
later developments in the Ottoman, Safavid and Mughal worlds."

Turning points and political consolidation:

• Mehmed II, Constantinople as Ottoman capital, after 1453.

• Ismail, leader of Safavid sufi order, proclaims himself Shah of Iran, 1500.
• Babur, established in northern India, 1524.

"The religious orientations of these empires is that the Ottomans and Mughals
followed the Sunni creed10 whereas the Safavids were a Shiite polity."

"Determining demographic and economic patterns in this larger geography is a

radical rise in population; parallel to that, increased pace of urbanization."

"Cities vastly changed through the state-building processes, parts of urban networks
that had an important role in the sustainment regional and interregional trade."

"An important dimension of the making of these cities when we are talking about
Muslim/non-muslim communities, charitable foundations(waqf) were one of the
important institutions of urban life and remained very central to the formation of social
networks within cities performing a wide range of educational, medical, religious
functions as they incorporated mosques, madrasas and even coffee houses."

9 the particular arrangement of the parts of something or of a group of things (gruplaşma).

10 a set of beliefs that influences the way you live (mezhep).
The emergence of territorial states and the urban growth are linked to one
another.

"We observe literary production in Persian, scholarly production in Arabic and

bureaucratic produciton in Turkish in the Ottoman Empire through 15th century. This
kind of multiplicity is a way one of the defining aspects of the Ottoman literary
environment at the time of the formation of the imperial polity."

"Another aspect to keep in mind that of vernacularization, growing use and

prominence of local languages, rather than the learned forms like Arabic and
Persian."

"This multiplicity for the earlier part of the Ottoman imperial formation, to a large
degree, was abandoned through the course of the later 16th century whereby courtly
version of Turkish (the Ottoman-Turkish) replaced Persian and Arabic as the
languages of literature and scholarship."

"A point to note is that three polities ruled over multi-ethnic and multi-religious
societies; so, the co-presence of religious, ethnic and linguistic groups remained a
defining aspect of this area."

"I am underlining the issue of demographic multiplicity, different modes of religious

belonging being present in these larger societies, but I should also underline that if
we go by the Ottoman example, the non-Muslim communities existed only in a
hegemonic relationship of power whereby the Muslim population always had the
upper-hand. This kind of power balance was never disturbed until the 19th century."

LECTURE – 6 (THE POLITICAL SIDE OF THE RENAISSANCE)

The Power of the Prince:

"In the medieval understanding of authority and legitimation of power, the king is at
the top of a variously understood hierarchical system in which every level has its
obligation and responsibilities (look at photo8)."

"This scene was broken for the first time in Europe during the 12th-13th century with
the institution of free communes(towns) experiencing self-governance."

During the later middle ages, central and northern Italy was largely controlled by
communes, that had obtained independence from the Empire and engaged in free
trade. In some cases they had dormed military alliances and fought the German
emperor to obtain independence. They were administrated by representative bodies
with commercial, judicial and defensive responsibilities. In the long run, their intense
engagement in trade and cultural exchange, as well as the high level of literacy was
beneficial to the development of a new cultural framework, a new kind of art,
architecture and urban structure, what we usually call the Renaissance.
"We see how Italian city-states flourished in this period. They were mostly engaged in
long-distance trade."

Political Structures:

• Commune
• Signoria: an alliance of lords, kind of oligarchic republic (elites in power)
• Duchy or princely state

The Holy Roman Empire: After the decline of the house of Hohenstaufen in the XIII.
century, the empire gradually looses cohesion and its authority appears purely formal
in many regions and towns. To prevent disintegration, Maximilian I of Habsburg
conceived in 1495 a union of estates (the Imperal Circles) subject to a common law
(look at photo10).

The Imperial Circle: During the Early Modern period the Holy Roman Empire was
divided into Imperial Circles, administrative groupings whose primary purposes were
the organization of common defensive structure and the collection of imperial taxes.

"The Holy-Roman empire continued to exist until Napoleon, but in very different
arrangements of power.

City States: Florence, Siena, Venice (look at photo9)

The Papacy is trying to consolidate authority in central Italy and uses the revival of
imperial Rome to construct the image of a Christian capital city.

"Raphael and Michelangelo's art were part of this project of imperial Rome in a
Christian framework. This is what the Protestants were criticizing."

A famous 19th century historian, Jacob Burckhardt described the Renaissance state
as a 'work of art', in the sense that for the first time it openly challenged the traditional
universal authorities of the middle ages, and reliod entirely on agreements,
calculation, manipulation, financial and military strength.

"He created the myth of the Renaissance as a period of the breaks entirely with the
medieval past and laid foundation of modern Europe."

"Both Germany and Italy divided into a number of polities in the Middle Ages while
the rest of Europe was developing towards of the establishment of the national
states."

"It was a constant problem in Europe that you have to agree with nobility if you want
to become a king. In other words, the aristocracy was often a challenge to the
concentration of power that absolutist rule requires."
LECTURE – 7 (THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE IN THE 15TH AND 16TH CENTURIES)

"The Ottomans were the earliest of these three empires emerged (look at photo11).
They were situated in right next-door to the Renaissance states."

"The Ottoman state emerged in a part of the world that used to be known in the late
medieval and the early modern periods as 'the lands of Rum' comprising roughly the
Anatolia and the Balkans(southeastern Europe)."

"At the beginning of the 14th century the Ottomans were one of the beyliks, indeed,
one of the smallest of them (look at photo12). They eventually expended their
territories at the expanse of both the Byzantines and various Turkoman polities in
Anatolia thanks to a combination of factors such as strategic location, skills at
alliance-building and war-making."

"By the end of the reign of the Mehmed II, the Ottomans had managed to extend their
rule over the entire geography that had once been the eastern Roman Empire. After
the conquest of Constantinople, they considered themselves as the Muslim inheritors
of the legacy of the Byzantium."

"Even though the Ottomans were aldready using an imperial idiom in the time of
Mehmed II, it was in the first half of the 16th century that they became what is
sometimes characterized as a world empire, a key player in international politics in
multiple regions in the world in this period. This is partly because the fact that the
second phase of the Ottoman expansion which doubbled the Ottoman territories in
the few decades of the early 16th century (look at photo13)."

"The Safavdis were a dynasty that had emerged around the same time as the
Ottomans (the early 14th century). While Osman was a war-lord, the founder of the
Safevid house, Sheikh Safi, had been a mistic (sufi master). In the course of the 15th
century, they gradually turned their religious following into political power. This
process was completed when Ismail defeated the Aq Qoyunlus and established
himself as an independent ruler in Tebriz in 1501. By this time, Safavids had picked
up Shii ideas; so, Shah Ismail declared 'twelver Shiism' to be the faith of his newly
formed empire."

"The Ottoman-Safevid conflict was fueled by sectarian11 animosities between Sunnis

and Shiis. You have to remember that Ottoman sunnitization and Safevid shiitization
were still ongoing processes in this period. They were, by no means, concluded."

"The Ottomans gained a major advantage in the competition for supremacy in the
Islamic world when they defeated the Mamluks in 1515 and 1516. These victories
gave the Ottomans the control of three of the holiest cities for Muslims: Mecca,
Medina and Jerulsalem."

11 denoting or concerning a sect or sects (mezhepsel).

"The Ottomans' major rival in the west in the 16th entury was the Holy-Roman
Empire, i.e. Habsburg Empire (Suleiman I vs. Charles V)."

"Venice was another European power that had rather close relations with the
Ottomans. They both military and political rivals, but they were also commercial
partners in the eastern Mediterranean."

"For a while in the 16th century, the Ottomans also tried to play a role in the politics
of Indian Ocean by clashing with the Portuguese and by building alliances with
Muslim-Pethi monarchs there."

"The Ottoman retreat from the Indian Ocean corresponded in time with the
consodilation of the Mughal Empire as the most important political power in the
Indian subcontinent. The Atlantic seaboard countries (the British/French/Dutch
Empires) also entered the scene after Ottomans' retreat."

Ottoman economic policies:

• Provisionism, meaning that to make sure that their populace was well
supplied with basic food staffs at reasonable prices.
• Fiscalism, meaning that the state coffers were full.
• Traditionalism, meaning that the social and political order was preserved as
much as possible.

The Ottoman social and political order:

Basic inequalities that was fundamental to shariah law: men and women, Muslims
and non-Muslims (dhimmi status), the rulers(askeri) and the ruled(reaya)

The Ottoman land regime:

"Anyone who payes taxes would have been part of the reaya, the tax-paying subject
population regardless of religious orientations."

"The vast majority of the reaya was peasents who were the main contributors to the
state treasury."

There were three layers of ownership to the land in the Ottoman system:

• The legal title to the land: Mülk(freehold), waqf, miri(state)

• The right to collect rent/tax

"It could belong to different parties depending on who held the legal title to the land."

In miri lands, this right was typically given in the form of timar to timar-holders.

• The right to actually use the land: generally belonged to the peasants.
"Timars typically were given to provincial cavalier who collected the revenues in
return for their military and administrative services. The timar system was similar to
the feudal system in that agricultural surplus went to support non-productive military
and administrative functions."

"The central state intervened system in certain points. First, Ottoman authority did not
leave it to the timariot to tax the peasantry at will through preparing provincial
codebooks(kanunnames) where they specified the rates of taxes that timar-holders
would be allowed to collect. A second important way was by retaining the right of
appointing, dismissing and rotating timar holders. Last but not least, the Ottomans
kept the timariots in check by subjecting them to the control of local judges(kadis)."

"It was possible for some people to change their status. An important channel for
social mobility was education which required some money. The other ways were
volunteering for military campaigns and child levy(devşirme), as a form of tax
periodically applied to the Christian subject population in the Balkan countryside."

The bureaucratization of the ulema:

"The status of the ulema under the Ottoman rule differed in some ways from the
sttaus of ulema under earlier Muslim regimes. In pre-Ottoman times, the ulema had
been an informally organized group. Basically, one became an alim and studied with
other alims and transmit knowledge to others. There was no formal hierarchy among
the ulema and, well, they could work for the state as judges, market-inspectors and
alike. This changed significantly under the Ottomans through turning it into a
hierarchical establishment by specifying salaries for particular ranks, rules for
appointments and promotion. This ensured the privileged position for the ulema, but
also stript them of their former autonomy making them much more integral part of the
imperial administration."

The sultan and the sultanate:

"The Ottomans' claims to have derived their authority directly from God (deputies12 of
God on earth) was fully comparible to the early modenr European arguments about
the divine right of kings. This was the common ideology of absolutism around the
world in the early modern period."

"In reality, the power of the Ottoman sultan was not absolute. It was limited quite
practical and concrete factors. In fact, as the Ottoman imperial administration grew in
the course of the 16th century, there was a tendency for the office of the sultanate to
be progressively decoupled from the person of the sultan(a remote figure)."

12 a person who is empowered to act as a substitute for his/her superior (vekil).

LECTURE – 8 (AN ISLAMIC EMPIRE IN HINDUSTAN: THE MUGHAL EMPIRE IN
THE 16TH AND 17TH CENTURIES)

"The Mughal Empire was one of the principal, large, Muslim-ruled empires emerged
in Eurasia landmass in the early modern period."

"The Ottomans believed that they were the greatest Muslim polity in the world and
demanded that other Muslims acknowledged that by calling the ottoman sultan
'caliph'. However, not all Muslim rulers would have agreed with the Ottomans in this
regard. The most challenging Muslim dynasty for Ottoman claims in this domain was
the Mughals."

"Like the Ottomans, the Mughals also liked to compare themselves to other rulers
and dynasties. They also waged a claim to being world emperors in the 16th and
17th centuries. When Mughal princes acceded13 to the throne they would typically
changed their names(royal names)."

"This interesting painting(look at photo14) depicts the Mughal emperor embracing

Shah Abbas of Safavid Iran. On the surface this picture shows an amicable14
relationship between two Muslim rulers. They are both standing on top of the globe
emphasizing that they are both world rulers. The painting is also saying something
about a hierarchical relationship between the two rulers: Abbas(left) is shorter and
more diminitive while Jahangir(right) is taller and more imposing15 physically."

"In this painting(look at photo15), Jahangir is shown gifting a Sufi sheih a book. The
title of the painting emphasizes the fact that the Mughal emperor is preferring a Sufi
to kings, namely the Ottoman sultan and English king, signifying his superiority to
them not only in worldy terms, but also in spiritual terms. The man below was Bichitr,
the person who made the painting. He was not a Muslim, but a Hindu court painter."

How and why the Mughals came to adopt and patronize such a cosmopolitan and
eclectic royal culture?

The short background information of Indian subcontinent: Even before Hinduism,

there was a cast system with four-fold division of society formed by Aryans invading
India in 1500 BCE. Hinduism originally started as a tradition within the brahmin class
but popularized during the period of Gupta Empire(320-550), when the Gupta
emperors used it to unify the people. Apart from Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism,
Christianity, Judaism, Zoroastrianism and Islam flourished in India as the time
passed. Muslim presence in India can be dated as far as back the late 7th century,
but became more significant after the Turkic invasions of 11th century.

"Turkic people formed various states in north India. The most important of those were
the Delhi sultans. This was not a dynasty; rather, a succession of different…

13 to become king or queen, or to take a position of power (yönetime geçmek).

14 relating to behaviour between people that is pleasant and friendly (dostane).
15 noticeable because of large size, appearance, or importance (heybetli).
…dynasties that ruled different parts of India from the city of Delhi between the years
1206 and 1526."

Who were the Mughals?

The word Mughal is an anglicized form of the word 'Mongol'. The founder of the
Mughal Empire was Babur who was a descendant, on the mother side, from Genghis
Khan; and, on the father side, from Timur. The Mughals would think of themselves
more as Turks than as Mongols; and, most importantly, as descendants of Timur.

"The Mughals' ancestor, Timur, had established a vast empire in Iran in the late 14th
century. He had even raid in India in 1398. His empire, however, had been very short
lived."

"The Timurids had established sophisticated courts and had become famous
throughout the eastern Islamic world for their patronage of arts and sciences. The
Timurids, and laterly Mughals, were ethnically Turco-Mongol, but culturally very
Persianate."

"At the time of Babur's reign, Delhi sultanate was quite weak due to unstable coalition
of Afghan tribesmen. Therefore, Babur was able to defeat them, thanks to gun-
powder technology. He established himself in Delhi in 1525."

"After Humayun, Akbar who was the third emperor spent the first 5-6 years figuring
out to how to manage different court factions. An imporant dimension of Akbar's
empire building was, no doubt, military conquests. He won wars against many
different Muslim and Hindu dynasties of India. He became, in a sense, the second
founder of the Mughal Empire in India."

"His ruling elites were a composite nobility comprising of many different ethnicities."

"After territorial expansion, he began to spent more time on reorganizing empire's

administration. One of the most interesting changes in administration was the broke
with the Delhi centered political tradition. He established a new capital, Fatehpur
Sikri. After that, Akbar also abandoned this city and preferred to keep a mobile court.
In addition, he introduced the mansab system by which each officer was given a
numeric rank(from 10 to 5000). The higher the rank, the greater the number of
horseman the ‘mansabdar’ supposed to maintain. The Ottomans had such a
hierarchy as well, but this was far more precise. Mansabdars were sustained by
agricultural revenues known as 'jagir' similar to Ottoman tımar. Akbar also tried to
systemize tax collection by appointing 'jagirdars' to collect revenues through the zabt
system similar to Ottoman tahrir."

"In creating a more docile and loyal nobility, Akbar relied considerably on his
personel charisma and prestigious lineage. He argued that the divine character of his
sovereignty that had been previously granted to Genghis Khan and Timur. The
Timurids and the Mughals including Babur, Humayun and Akbar in his early years…
…had been Sunni Muslim just like the Ottomans. However, the Mughals were not
particularly secterian in their outlook. In addition, Islamic misticism (Sufism) had very
important place in their religious culture."

"By the 1570's, Akbar began to introduce new elements into the Timurid religious
tradition. He ordered the construction of a house of worship(ibadet-khana) for
interreligious debate. He was not only interested in posturing16 as a world ruler, but
also in this idea of reaching a purer truth, more rational faith by taking the best
elements of different religions and creeds."

"In 1579, the jizya tax was abandoned. In the same year, Akbar declared himself
mujtahid (a person accepted as an original authority in Islamic law) and imam of the
age. Non-Muslims were officially accorded the same rights as Muslims in line with the
policy 'sulh-i kull' in the following year. Together with his Persian advisor, Abul's Fazl-
i Allami, Akbar devised an imperial cult of discipleship whereby his nobleman would
be like his disciples. All these signifies that he was no longer follow the established
Sunni Islamic tradition."

"Akbar's policies of religious inclusivism exerted quite a controversy already in his life
time and also adter his death. We know a lot about the critique coming from the
Muslim side. However, there must also had been support for Akbar's policies
particularly among the Hindus judging from that key aspects of his policies remained
in place for another 15 years."

"Jihangir's most important concession to his father's politics after he came to power
was to have Abul Fazil executed. He also reverted17 to Akbar's earlier policy of
patronizing Sufi sheikhs. There were certain ways in which ke moved away from his
father's policies, but he actually continued in his father's footsteps. For example, he
relied on services ethnically and religiously diverse nobility. He sponsored the
construction of not only mosques, but also temples. He did not bring jizya back;
rather, he continued impose a uniform tax on all of his subjects. He even continued
the imperial cult of discipleship that had been started by his father."

"With Awrangzeb's reign, there was a full turned around in Mughal's policies as
regards religion and relations with the non-Muslim communities."

"By the 1720's, the Mughals had lost control over north India and had been reduced
to the position of minor powers. Whether this demise18 in Mughal power was due to
Awrangzeb's change of policies from those of Akbars' or not is quite controversial."

16 to act falsely in order to attract attention or achieve an effect (yapmacık tavır takınmak).
17 to go back to a previous condition (eski haline dönmek).
18 the end of something that was previously considered to be powerful (ölüm*).
LECTURE – 9 (THE MING DYNASTY AND THE EARLY QING DYANSTY, THE
LAST DYNASTY OF CHINA'S IMPERIAL ORDER)

"This is a period which has been interpreted as early modern transitions and the
maturation of the Imperial Chinese bureaucratic empire."

"The founding emperor of the Ming was able to politically re-unify the country after a
long interval of Mongol rule during the 13th and 14th centuries. Back then,
considered to be a rather dark spot in China's political history."

"That was contemporary to the Timurid empire that cut off contacts via the land
routes of the Silk Roads. Therefore, the importance of the maritime silk road route for
transnational links of commerce and travel and an attempt to expand China's trade
and diplomacy order to the distant coast of Africa and Asia."

"Apart from the unifying the realm, the Ming dynasty revived the imperial bureaucracy
and state examination system that had fall into a disuse and not practiced during the
Mongol period. It encouraged the flourishing Chinese thoughts and classics (birth of
an early modern 'temper'19 in the urban culture of the empire). The Ming continued to
be the dominant diplomatic and cultural center in East Asia."

"The early Ming noted for expanding international trade and cosmopolitanism that
began with the Mongols under the reign of Kubilai Khan."

"Mercantilism and European exploitation of South American silver mines in Peru

poured silver in China's economy(190 billion dollars worth of silver) via its profitable
trade in tea, porcelain and silk, becoming popular throughout the world during this
period. The Ming dynasty was the apex20 of porcelain technology and artistic
development. "

"Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Ming dynasty, profited the weakness of Mongol
Yuan dynasty and destroyed the Mongol palaces in Beijing following the invasion of
the city in 1368. He turned this city into the new imperial capital of the dynasty."

"He discontinued the official Mongol character of the dynasty but kept some Mongol
practises. In this light, he ruled as an authoritarian emperor, dissolved the
chancellery, punished officials with beatings and executions, founded an effective
secret police system against suspicious rebellions. In addition, a new state law
known as Confucian Law Code was promulgated21 in 1397 that replaced the old
Tang Code and influenced state law in East Asia."

"It was an era of the expansion and the restoration of Chinese bureaucratic
administration."

19 (kıvam).
20 the highest point or most successful part of something (zirve*).
21 to announce something publicly, especially a new law (yayımlamak).
"An innovative and adventurous ruler, Yongle (see pg.4) built ambitious flotillas to
expand the Chinese tributary system of trade and diplomacy, which up to then was
only extended to Central Asia, for the first time following the oceanic routes of the
maritime silk roads to Asian and African coastal monarchies."

"After the short golden age of maritime Chinese internationalism thanks to the Zheng
He expeditions, by 1557, European led maritime trade took over intercontinental
routes of travel, commerce and began collonial settlements in Asia."

"The Ming government gave foreign traders special permission for trade with a local
Chinese firm that has license from Imperial bureaucracy that they would be members
of the Co-Hong System of Trade, a guild of traders that have permits to conduct
imports and exports. Foreigners from the South Seas (Arabs/Europeans) could only
reside in a designated area in the city of Canton(Guangzhou) on the south coast of
China. They did not have access to the markets in the hinterland of China."

Treaty of Tientsin/ Tianjin: It is a collective name for several documents signed at

Tianjin at the end of the first phase of the Second Opium War. These treaties,
counted by the Chinese among the so-called unequal treaties, opened more Chinese
ports to foreign trade, permitted foreign legations in the Chinese capital Beijing,
allowed Christian missionary activity, and effectively legalized the import of opium.

"The Ming period was an age of multiple ethno-cultural communities, but a policy of
integrating them versus the new idea of the need for a unitary imperial administration
based on a so-called 'sinification' policy for Chinese elites who were expected to
learn high Chinese culture and language. As an example, Chinese Catholic scholar
Zhu Zongyhan wrote essays on the harmony of Christianity with the Confucian order
in classical Chinese."

"Chinese Muslims helped the early Ming Emperors win against the Yuan Mongols
under whom they had suffered. Ming emperors continued some of the multi-ethnic
policies of the Mongols by including cavalry forces into the imperial army, formed
close relations with the Turkic tribes."

"The regional acceptance of neo-Confucianism, a new interpretation of classic text of

Confucius by the Song dynasty scholar Zhu Xi, were revived again after a long
Mongol period where Confucianism was not so much in favour in the Mongol Yuan
court."

"Zhu Xi's contribution was that he combined Confucius' ideas of the Virtuous Ruler
and Cultivated Gentleman with new elements: metaphyscial principles, Buddhist
mysticism and meditation. Hence, Neo-Confucianism introduced a spiritual
metaphysical explanation that did not exist in the classical works."

"This is also an age of the arrival of the European knowledge regularly and in larger
flows into East Asia. European Catholics, now, offered science in exchange for the
right to conduct missionary works spreading Catholic Christianity. One of the the…
…Jesuit missionaries (see pg.8), Italian Matteo Ricci became an advisor to Emperor
Wan Li of the Ming dynasty. He transmitted early modern astronomy and science as
well as contemporaray map of the world to the Ming rulers."

"It was via China that the Koreans and the Japanese learned of what the Europeans
know about the world. This is 1602 Japanese copy (look at photo16) of Matteo Ricci's
map for the Ming Emperor Wan Li. As you can see, this is almost our modern map."

"The Catholics transferred scholarly knowledge about Chinese civilization to the

West. Ricci's translation of Confucian text was important. In fact, it is because of
Matteo Ricci that we call Kong-Tzu 'Confucius' which is a latinized name."

"The French Enlightenment Intellectual Voltaire reading the Jesuit manuscripts on

Ming China and Confucianism admired the Chinese bureaucracy as more rational
and meritocratic than the hereditary aristocracy in Christian Europe at his time."

"At the end of the Ming dynasty, there is a negative turn towards the Christian World
because of worries about European presence in Asia. The new worry did not come
from theology, but political concern from Christian powers, especially Catholic Spain
that conquered the Philippines."

"Tokugawa shogunate in Japan totally banned Christianity. His isolationist foreign

policy limited foreign relations to the Dutch in Batavia who were Protestans and not
considered to be a threat, a couple of Chinese trading ships and occasional Korean
Monarchies Diplomatic Missions."

Decline of the Ming Dynasty: Limits of traditional political economy after expansion:

• Luxurious living in cities.

• Limited tax revenue.
• Failure of the attempt to occupy Vietnam
• 17th century shortage of silver inflow
• Disability to keep up the infrastructure repairs of the Yellow Rive that again
began floods which led poverty and famine.

"Rebellions and frontier problems dominate the 17th century providing the
opportunity of the northern Jurchen tribal forces of the Manchus occupy north China.
The Qing dynasty founded in 1644 due to Manchu conqeuest of China actually
reached today's China's borders by incorporating the Npn-Han Chinese regions into
the Empire that had not been included during the Ming Dynasty. Hence, most of
China today is actually based on the empire's territoires during the Qing dynasty."

"Unlike the Ming dynasty, the Qing was a combination of a hereditary and military
aristocracy with a bureaucratic elite, rather than being simply based on the
bureaucratic elite."
"Qianlong Emperor was a great example of multi-cultural identity of Manchu Rulers
with a cosmopolitan outlook(look at photo17). He tutored in Manchu, Chinese,
Mongolian, Cagatay, Turkish and Tibetan languages. He hired Italian painter and
architect Giuseppe Castiglione to introduce Western style palaces and paintings to
court culture."

"Lord Macartney's, a British colonial administrator, refusal to kowtow(kneeling and

bowing) in the presence of the Qianlong Emperor(look at photo18) reflects rising self
confidence of the British Emprie. Qianlong, being and assumed cosmopolitan
diplomat as a ruler allowed lord saluting him in English style, but the Qing
government declined the British proposal to sell their goods with the explanation that
China produces all it needs and that English wares22 are not high quality."

LECTURE – 10 (THE TOKUGAWA SHOGUNATE - THE HISTORY OF EARLY

MODERN JAPAN)

"This period is roughly contemporary to the late Ming era and the Qing dynasty in
China."

"Needless to say we are concern with the Tokugawa era; so, the founding of
intersting combination of military government known as the 'bakufu' which had
become ineffective during the 16th century, a long period of civil war between various
domain clans for control over land and population."

"There was a chaos situation in this period which, on the other hand, had open Japan
briefly to the outside world. Hence, the 16th century was a time of cosmopolitanism
and internationalism just like in China. The Jesuits were the conquerors."

"The leader of the Tokugawa clan, Tokugawa Ieyasu emerged victorious in the
battle of Sekigahara(1600) occured between two rival domain lord coalitions, great
lords commandeered sammurai-warrior armies. Ieyasu became the head of the
central government known as the bakufu(military government with imperial orders).
At the same time, the domain lords were still in power. Ieyasu obtained the allegiant23
of all the domain lords including the former enemy as vassals of the Bakufu, re-
established again after a long history of ineffectiveness due to the civil war."

"Power was parcellized. In the beginning, there were almost 200 domain lords, half of
them were former enemy. We have a kind of federation of powerful lords who are
quite independent in their own territories which have well defined borders."

"Simply put, it was a kind of centralized authority over feudal local domains and the
whole thing was based on the concept of vassalage, the oath of alligiance and
becoming the retainer."

22 pottery, especially made out of clay, of a particular type or make (eşya).

23 loyalty and support for a ruler, country, group, or belief (sadakat).
Modern historians invented the term of 'centralized feudalism' as a comparative
concept with European history of feudalism. Recent studies, however, have preferred
the concept of 'early modern' rather than feudalism.

"Ieyasu was considered to be the best stragetiest and may be the most wise ruler of
his age. In this picture(look at photo19), he is shown sitting on a floar in a tent. This is
clan insignia24. He is literally sitting under a tent referring this concept of Bakufu as a
military government. Note that this did not replace the classic state frame of Japan's
monarchy derived from the Chinese model. It is still legal, but totally ineffective."

"Ieyasu had an advantage. Like a few of the clever lords in the 16th century, he had
started importing rifles and he had trained some of his foot-soldiers(samurai) in the
use of rifles. Arquebus, which were copies of the original Portuguese ones
manufactured in Japan during this time. Military technology determined the result of
the aforementioned battle between two rival clans of domain lords."

Centralized Feudalism:

• Hoken: Regional Rule of Militgary Clans likened to the Zhou Dynasty of

Ancient China.
• Gunken: Chinese Imperial Order of Civil Bureaucracy and Prefectures
• Sankinkotai: mandatory alternate attendance at Shogun's court for daimyō
(domain lords) every two years

"The point of the exercise hear is that the Shoguns wanted to keep the daimyo in
their eye-side, strengthen central control over the daimyōs (major feudal lords). It
required daimyō to alternate living for a year in their domain and in Edo, the capital.

Land tenure25, rice production and taxation system of the Tokugawa era attracts
attention for the following reasons:

• There was a high density of population in Japan. A very high percentage of

this population was kind of stuck in a very small area suitable for the
agricultural production (unlike China). Only 15% of the island of Japan could
be used for agriculture.
• Rice production was measured in the concept of '1 koku' which equals 5
bushels26 of rice to be roughly the minimum necessary production for the
survival of a family of five. They would probably have to pay at least two of the
five bushels for the samurai government, having onyl three left for themselves
to survive during the year.

"Unlike China, the Japanese traditional polity was an official federation(look at

photo20). The orange like territories (bakufu) payed taxes to the central goverment…

24 an object or mark that shows that a person belongs to a particular organization or group, or has a
particular rank (işaret).
25 the legal right to use a piece of land or a property (kullanım hakkı).
26 a container with the capacity of a bushel (kile).
…of Tokugawa shoguns. The green areas were 'the fudai' (trusted lords) for almost,
as you can see, sprinkle around the Tokugawa territories as kind of a buffer zone. As
for the blue, they were the former enemy. Even after defeat, they still kept most of the
land of the Japan. This was a polity whereby the enemy and the central government
had somehow reached kind of a consensus. Everybody acknowledged the superior
authority of the Tokugawa clan because he had defeated them in the battle. On the
other hand, they were not completely destroyed and therefore, having declared their
allegiance through the central govenrment, they were parts of monarchy."

"At the end of the 18th century, 35 million people populated in Japan. It may resulted
from the stability, lack of war-fare even though the Tokugawa regime was not a
democracy. It was considered to be quite oppressive. However, stability and order
benefited the population. By 1867, 40% of the males were literate which was one of
the highest percentage for the world at that time."

"One of the most important intellectual developments of the period was the Dutch
studies. This is the arrival of the Western knowledge through popular books written in
Dutch about science, medicine, technology, etc. Especially the medical profession,
Japanese doctor trained in Chinese medicine were shown key interest towards these
Dutch books explaining the anatomy of the body, internal organs, new techniques of
surgery and medical profession as it existed in Europe at that time."

"In terms of religion, a mixture of Shinto and Buddhism continued to be followed. It is

difficult to say that there are seperate religions in Japan."

"Economic historians pay great attention to the productive economy of Japan during
hte Tokugawa period. Even though there is hardly any international trade, economic
surplus played a significant role in Japan's rapid modernizing processes in the 19th
century by becoming this source of capital. There was no foreign capital in Japan.
The only capital that existing in the 19th century that did nothing in Japan in terms of
investing its economic transformation was local capital whose source came from
agricultural wealth that had been obtained in the 18th century."

"The Tokugawa isolationism was a special foreign policy of defence. Ieyasu banned
Christianity except for the Protestan Hollands. Minimal contact even with the Qing
dynasty China (but allowing them to send two ships to Kobe every year) and some
diplomatic contat with the Korean monarchies are other measures taken by
Tokugawa shoguns."

"The Dutch were very important for the Tokugawa shoguns not simply because they
brought books of science, but the real reason why their shogunate kept on good
terms with the Dutch was in exchange of the contract of trading with Japan, a
privilege, they provided a detailed annual report on world affairs to the shogunate
authorities enabling shogun and his advisors to keep up with the news about world
affairs (f.e. what are the catholics doing?)."
"Shogunate and general public were in great alarm over the defeat of China in the
Opium War 1842 and the Treaty of Nanking/Nanjing. They were waiting for the
disaster that might come to the shores of Japan in the form of Western aggression."

"It is very important to note that being under isolation should not mean that the
Japanese did not know about what's going on in the world."

"When Commodore(Admiral) Perry arrived at Japan in 1853, right after the last report
prepared by the Dutch, he threatened the shogunate to open up its doors and sign a
treaty with the Americans or else. The Japanese opened it up immediately because
they did not want to be defeated like the Qing dynasty in China."

The Convention of Kanagawa: In 1852, Perry was assigned a mission by American

President Millard Fillmore to force the opening of Japanese ports to American trade,
through the use of gunboat diplomacy if necessary. The Japanese were forewarned
by the Dutch of Perry's voyage but were unwilling to change their 250-year-old policy
of national seclusion(sakoku). At the end, The Convention of Kanagawa was signed
under threat of force. It ensured the safety of American castaways27 and established
the position of an American consul in Japan. Most importantly, the shogunate
accepted opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American vessels.

LECTURE – 11 (ABSOLUTE MONARCHY AND ITS CHALLENGES - FRANCE AND

ENGLAND IN THE 17TH CENTURY)

"The areas where present-day Germany, Italy and Spain locate were ruled by a great
number of states in the 16th century as a kind of composite monarchies where one
king has a title to rule many different areas which have population with different
languages, legal systems and not necessarily next to each other either as in the case
of the Spanish monarcy and many of its territories (see. Charles V)."

"The states were very often at war, but war was actually getting more expensive due
to the invention of cannons and defensive walls. Most of the armies of the 16th
century gave way to the larger armies that need to be supplied. This put a pressure
on the development of the political institutions to raise money.

"Because of war, there are lots of strains in the nature of state. Particularly in the
17th century, resistances against the expansion of the state were manifested in lots
of popular revolts. Hence, there were many challenges which the monarchies had to
face. We have challenges not to monarchy itself, but to what monarchy was having to
do and this gave rise to revolts and revolutions in the 17th century such as the
English civil war(1642-1649), French civil war(1648-1653), revolts of the Catalans
attempting to become independent from Spanish monarchy, which historians call 'the
17th century crisis'."

27 a person who has escaped from a ship that has sunk (kazazede).
"These revolts and revolutions set the limits of the monarchies which had to be
overcome either by defeating rebels or by some kind of compromise, maybe new
forms of power would come into existence as they did in England with constitutional
monarchy in the 1660's."

Types of State:

• Feudal State

"...where power lies with feudal overlords, loose system of power with grants of land
to people took provide warriors for the feudal overlord.

• State of Estates

"With the rise of towns consultation was a sensible form of government; so, rulers
would bring together with clergy and nobility in representitive institutiıons

• Constitutional/Bureaucratic State
• Absolute State

"With the decline of the suppression of these estates, stronger form of monarchy was
the characteristic of the period between 1600 and 1789 with the French Revolution
putting an ends to that.

"Absolute monarchy can be portrayed as a monarchy which is extremely strong,

centralized and bureaucratic. Monarchies of the 16th and 17th centuries would
appear to be absolute paragons28 of liberty compared with the states today. Liberty in
the early modern period means the privilege to do something that other people
cannot. These monarchies based on a regime and society acquiring many liberties
and privileges which are going to restrict the authority of the state. Because
monarchies fundamentally legitimate, it is very difficult to act in an arbitrary or
despotic way. Monarchy has to rule according to god's law because power comes
from god. "

"The absolute monarchy was not centralized and all powerful because if it was, it
could just tax people, issue a decree saying that you have to pay taxes and so on."

"Yes, the state was able to survive and have its devastating wars. Does that mean
that it become a centralized, kind of really authoritarian monarchy. To me, the answer
is no. I accept the idea that the state has become more effective in doing what it was
doing. I see absolute monarchy as a form of limited monarchy that depends upon
cooperation between the elites which is under incredible strain in the 17th century.
Absolute monarchy is actually a monarchy which has a system of different forms of
power which are cleverly used."

28
a person or thing that is perfect or has an extremely large amount of a particular good characteristic
(kusursuzluk örneği).
"Absolute monarchies were actually courts monarchies. They depended upon the
nobility remaining incredibly important in the 18th century in Europe; so, the nobility
was not simply replaced by middle-class bureaucrats. The nobility was still very
powerful. They run the provinces, towns. They were at the top of the financial and
judicial systems."

Royal Court: an extended royal household in a monarchy, including all those who
regularly attend on a monarch, or another central figure. Hence, the word 'court' may
also be applied to the coterie29 of a senior member of the nobility.

"Simply put, the states of the 17th century was not a centralized and really powerful
at all. They were not oppressive, kings did not rule by decree with no resistance or
they did not instill a regime of fear at that time. They were widely accused of misusing
the laws and being arbitrary. That is the kind of tension which led to the accusation of
despotism, eventually causing the French Revolution."

Charles I at the Hunt: This painting(look at photo21) is an portrait of Charles I of

England by Anthony van Dyck who was the leading court painter in England at that
time. It depicts Charles in civilian clothing and standing next to a horse as if resting
on a hunt, in a manner described by the Louvre as a "subtle compromise between
gentlemanly nonchalance and regal assurance".

LECTURE – 12 (THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION - FROM RENAISSANCE TO

NEWTON)

"This scientific revolution should not be viewed anachronistically. We should not think
that These people are actually scientists in the modern sense of the word. They are
magicians, astrologists wanting to compute the movements of the planets in order to
make astrological charts, mathematicians, etc."

"In the medieval universities, they had not yet rediscovered all of the clasical texts,
they had a vision fo the world which is very fixed, stable and hierarchical with
everyone having his recognise place in the eternal order (social strastratification).
This is what we call great chain of being, also known as ladder of being (look at
photo22)."

"Scientific revolution was a paradigm shift which happenned in the couple of

centuries through mathematical calculations and observation."

"The first great thinker in our story of the breakdown of the classical interpretation of
the cosmos is Nicholas Copernicus. He set out the idea that the sun is at the center
of the universe and that the earth revolves around it. His book, entitled 'De
revolutionibus orbium coelestium', first printed in 1543 in Nuremberg, Holy Roman

29
a small group of people with shared interests (seçkin çevre).
Empire, offered an alternative model of the universe to Ptolemy's geocentric system
(description of the universe with Earth at the center), which had been widely
accepted since ancient times, for example in Classical Greece (Aristotle) and in
Roman Egypt (Ptolemy). He thought that the earth moves with an annual orbit just
like the planets and rotates daily on its axis. People were likely to reject him. This is
because, he had not proved it mathematically yet; so, there were mistakes. All of his
views were dismissed just as an absurdity at the time. Authorities were against it, the
Bible contradicts it. Common sense seems to contradict as well."

"Towards the end of the 16th century, we've got the rejection of Galen who was a
Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher, of the Greek thought on the basis of the
fact that you have to demonstrate the truth. Can the truth be demonstrated?
Demonstration, i.e. experiment. This is something that is not a part of the world-vision
of the Christian Aristotelians."

"Joannes Kepler thought that God has designed the world in a gometric fashion. He
established the laws of planetary motion through the concept of magnetism. He
showed that planetary motion is not perfect circles as it had been thought, but
actually ellipses. This is kind of the death of the idea that everything is the spheres."

"The great steps forward to make more coherent vision of the world were taken by
the people who were mathematicians. At this point, Decart is important."

"English scientist Isaac Newton developed the model of natural philosophy, that is to
say that a new method to understand the universe and the way it worked. This
scientific revolution is going to feed into the intellectual revolution(enlightenment) as a
way of seeing the world. He had three main fields. In 'The Mathematical Principles of
Natural Philosophy', he developed the lore30 of universal gravitation which was the
first satisfactory explanation of the forces which hold the universe together."

"Newton’s general rules unlocked previous mystery of how the universe worked. As
Alexander Pope(1730) put it, "Nature and Nature’s laws lay hid in night. God said,
'Let Newton be' and all was light.’

LECTURE – 13 (THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND THE CRITIQUE OF MONARCHY)

"Until this movement, the world was dominated in the preceding centuries by the
views going back to the Antiquity of Aristotelian medical and scientific thoughts, and
religious views through the Catholic church on the other hand."

"The enlightment is a new set of ideas and it is based on the idea that it replaced with
light what was dark before. It was a new theory of knowledge, a new methodology of
how we construct knowledge in the enlightenment which is based on empiricism and
the critical evaluation of the evidence."

30
traditional knowledge and stories about a subject (ilim).
"The enlightenment was not a set of beliefs so much it is a method; critical, skeptical
and empiricist and reason is used as a critical faculty. Enlightenment thinkers
disagree over lots of thing ranging from politics to religion, but they agree on the way
in which the question and challenge subjects; so, they have a method(empiricism) in
common."

Where was the enlightenment?

Paris was the center, but we have also got Beccaria (Cesare) in Italy, Kant in
Germany and Adam Smith in Scotland. In France, the enlightenment is particularly
reacting against the Catholic church whereas not so much in other countries.

"The enlightenment had a humanitarian aspect against excessive physical

punishment and torture."

Who were the enlightenment philosophers?

• Rene Descartes
• Isaac Newton
• John Locke
• Voltaire
• Denis Diderot
• Baron de Montesquieu
• Jean-Jacques Rousseau
• Immanuel Kant

“They are not just philosophers. They were attempting to change the world.”

"Historians have condemned the enlightenment for its conviction of cultural

superiority, colonialism and an improving white culture."

What are the key ideas of this movement? What was political and social attitude of
philosophers? How radical were they? Did they change the institutions of the society
or rather just talking about the ideas and having dinner with their fellows?

"These were not revolutionary people unless publishing a book is a revolutionary

action in which case they were."

"The enlightenment in some ways begins with Locke and Newton because what
Newton did was showing that laws of the universe can be explained and proved to be
correct with mathematical proof. If you can do that for physical laws of nature, can
you apply same kind of technique, desire and questioning to men?"

"One of the key ideas on the enlightenment was to replacing the idea of that
everything is regulated by god's law, which was thought to be revealed by the church
of the state, by natural law. However, it was not easy to agree what was natural and
philosophe often disagree (f.e.; social inequality)."
"Another influential thinker was John Locke. In his "Essay Concerning Human
Understanding", he put forward the idea that all knowledge is based on experience
and observation. All knowledge is empirical, nothing can be assumed. However, until
then people had thought the knowledge is innate31. He emphasizes reason over faith.
Accordingly, he developed his famous idea about the 'tabula rasa'(blank slate)."

" 'What is Enlightenment'(1784) by Immanuel Kant actually is a little distorting. He

says the enlightenment is daring to be free. It is all about education. Of course, an
important take on it, but it does not characterize the whole process. Simply put, it is a
key, but partial text on the enlightenment."

"Voltaire was certainly a humanitarian and critical thinker of the enlightenment. He

even criticized the idea of nature of men."

"Baron de Montesquieu was a noble and a magistrate32. He wrote the Persian Letters
in which there is a famous latter about virtue, one of the key words of the
enlightenment. In his 'The Spirit of the Laws', he argued that different nations had
different laws because they had different kind of spirit coming from the climate and
the way of life."

"Rousseau was much more original than probably any other thinker in the 18th
century. He has a whole connected philosophy about the goodness of men and the
need for creating virtuous citizens; so, a good polity will need to promote, create and
sustain moral virtue. ‘The Social Contract’ starts of by saying that "Men is born free
and is everwhere in chains.". He is not promising a complete utopia, that is to say
anarchy. By giving up some freedoms, you are gaining greater freedoms to live your
life in peace according to the laws and to bring up your children virtuously. This is the
project of the social contract. The concept of 'general will', on the other hand, was
defined as not as the will of whole, but as the will which people in their hearts know to
be best for them. He says that you should give up your self-love for the love of the
community so that you can be a virtuous citizen. Rousseau claimed that the general
will would embodied in the institutions and the assemblies.”

LECTURE – 14 (THE FRENCH REVOLUTION AND THE CREATION OF MODERN

POLITICS)

"The French Revolution is portrayed in various ways. Generally, it is a series of

events from 1789 through to 1815, which is undoubtedly one of the greatest political,
social, intellectual and moral events in modern history. It was important for all the
world since it has echos throughout the world. The universal declaration of rights
made the French Revolution different from the American Revolution because it
pretends to universality."

31
a quality or ability is one that you were born with (doğuştan).
32
a person who acts as a judge in a law court (kadı).
"The French Revolution was a great divider and it created modern politics in the
sense that it led 'the left' and 'the right' to emerge."

"The revolution really divided people in France right through to the end of the 19th
century, when France was a republic. The republic had a particular problem derived
from the heritage that goes back to the first republic (1792-1799) which was at the
time of the French Revolution."

The social and political structure of the ancien(former) regime on the eve of 1789:

"At that time, the effects of feudalism could still be seen on the society, but not in the
sense of slaves, middle ages, serfs and so on. It was more kind of rather capitalist.
Taxation over peasents was quite high, thereby not being in a healthy state in
France. During the 18th century, they became more anti-lord than they were in the
17th century when they excepted tradition. In the 18th century, the bourgeoisie and
society was expending. So, it was a society which is incredibly divided by feudalism."

"There was a government of the absolute monarchy, neither dictatorial nor like a
modern state. It had an enormous financial problem which had to be solved by
reform. Reform was necessary because nearly 55% of the govenrment's revenue
was being spent on servicing the debt which had been expanding enormously with
the American War of Independence. Hence, the government began to think about
ways of reforming the financial system. The problem was basically how do you tax
the rich since they were belonging to the privileged orders, exempted from a lot of
direct taxation. In 1878, the ministry put forward a reform plan calling an assembly of
notable people. It set of a crisis which is going to last for two years and end up with
the calling of a representitive institution in France although it never developed into a
parliament like in England."

"The political crisis of the ancien regime and its failure to manage the state were very
crucial in the development of the revolutionary situation in 1789."

Storming of the Bastille: On the afternoon of 14 July 1789, the prison-fortress in

Paris was stormed by mutineers. The medieval armory, fortress, and political prison
known as the Bastille represented royal authority in the centre of Paris. The prison
contained only seven inmates at the time of its storming, but was seen by the
revolutionaries as a symbol of the monarchy's abuse of power; so, its fall was the
flashpoint of the French Revolution(look at photo23).

"With the fall of the Bastille giving a symbolism which perhaps it was not initially
intented to have as the great revolutionary event, the government collapsed and left
in charge is the national assembly, now to be called the constituent assemly."

"There was widespread peasent disorder in the summer of 1789. What happens than
the deputies had to stop these disorder, but they did not really have any power. On
the night of the 4th of August, 1789, the National Constituent Assembly announced
that it abolishes the feudal system entirely. It sweeps away the entire legal and
privileged order of the ancien regime, leaving a 'tabula rasa' for the French
revolutionaries to re-establish."

"The declaration of rights of men establishes the principles on which govenrment

would be formed. No arbitrary arrest, no keeping people in prison without bringing
charges against them, the defense of property, not only the right, but also duties of
citizens. The liberty is defined not as the right to do something that other people
cannot do, it is right to do anything that is forbidden by the law. So, if there is no law
against it, it is legal."

LECTURE – 15 (HISTORY OF CAPITALISM: AGRARIAN ORIGINS OF

CAPITALISM)

"We can locate the birth of the capitalism at this period. We are going to look at the
countryside and the social and economic conditions prevailing there in different parts
of the world."

"It is assumed especially since the 1980's and 90's that capitalism is the natural
condition of humanity and it conforms certain to certain natural laws, certain basic
human characteristics such as self-gain."

There are four explanations(descriptions) for rise of capitalism:

a) market, trade activity, the movement of prices

b) demographic changes, population movements
c) institutions, legal rooms or law
d) class struggle between landlords and peasants

Different sets of explanations have distinct definitions of capitalism:

Capitalism is the natural condition of humanity, it conforms to the laws of nature and
basic human characteristics. It is an economic system based on prices and markets
for the efficient allocation of resources for meeting social needs. Hence, it is universal
and timeless, e.g. market economy, free enterprise, choice, incentives, etc.

"This definition conforms to market or trade explanation."

Capitalism is (new type of) a social and economic system where goods and services
are produced for exchange in the market for profit. The goods and services also
includes human capacity to work(labour capacity) and natural resources such as
land, water, forests, etc. Hence, it emerged at a particular place and time(16th
century onwards); so, it has a 'history'.

a. market, trade and prices

Capitalism is trade and market activity of any form which existed in human history.
Therefore, there is a continuity in history from Babylonian merchant to industrial
capitalist. In addition, market is a place of opportunities and choice which are
determined by certain incentives33. A rational figure motivated by the impulse to
maximize his/her individual benefit is at the center. This leads into more division of
labour in the society whereas people become more specialized in the production of
certain goods and services which caused technological improvement, followed by
social and economic development. The capitalism is, therefore, a gradual expansion
of trade and markets. Bourgeoisie who are active in the market are the agents of
progress. Feudalism is a road accident interrupting the development of commercial
system. Progressive role of the bourgeoisie was a fought against restrictions, the
nobilities, the feudal system as a whole. Bourgeois revolutions opened the path of
permanent economic and social development in this understanding.

b. demographic changes

"This model is in agreement in many ways with the market model, but one important
distinction is the role it gives to autonomous(independent) changes in population
movements as a result of the impact of femines, the diseases, etc."

For instance, Black Death in the 14th century led to drastic population decline all over
Europe, prices of agricultural goods declined, real wages increased, agricultural
profits declined and income roses.

c. institutions

"Institutional interpretataion of emergence of capitalism. In broad terms, these

institutions refers to the rules of the game. For instance, emergence of free
labourers(dissolution of feudal serfdom) and free markets are the result of
emergence of inclusive political and economic institutions by which is meant some
part of parliamentary representation and legal rules regulating contracts between
individuals and parties, all of which results from the bourgeoisie revolutions that we
see in England and France in the 17th and 18th century.

d. class struggle between the landlords and the peasants

"This approach is differentiated from the previous sets of explanations since it

criticizes all the other."

Capitalism is fundamentally a social relation. It is dependent on social relations,

between groups, individuals and classes. It emerged out of such social relations
which were already present in feudalism (conflictial relations between the landlords
and the peasants). It places the origins of capitalism in the countryside where most of
the production took place since these are all agrarian societies.

Under the same demographic conditions, and the same type of price movements,
when we come to the 19th century:

33
something that encourages a person to do something (teşvik).
 • We have an English countryside that is characterized by three differen type of
social groups; landlords, capitalist tenant farmers who rent or purchased land
to engage in farming for the market and wage labour. This is an entirely new
configuration of characters in the countryside. No peasantry left due to
enclosures meaning that by parliamentary laws, most of the land belonging to
these small peasant farmers were taken over by either landlords or capitalist
tenant farmers.
• We have a French countryside where peasant farmers, landlords and the
monarchy(until the French Revolution) can be observed. There is no class of
capitalist(organizing production entirely for the market) tenant farmers.

"We have, under the same demographic conditions prevailing in both of the
countries, two diametrically opposed different social outcomes."

LECTURE – 16 (HISTORY OF CAPITALISM: THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION)

"We are talking about England in the period between the 1780's and the 1830's, a
fifty year period."

"Industrial Revolution should be seen primarily as a result of social transformation

rather than simply associating with technological innovation."

"Its roots lie in agrarian transformation in the countryside. We have improving

landlords that is to say tenant farmers who invest in land for profit and dispossession
of the peasants leading to the creation of domestic markets in food and in textile.
These transformations were necessary for the outbreak of the Industrial Revolution.
Rather than simple invention of machine, we are talking about fundamental
transformation of societies."

"The term came to be used in the period immediately within that fifty year period to
describe radically changing world where productive power of human societies
increased as never before."

There was plenty of industrial and commercial advances in many monarchies in

Europe. Many bureaucrats and administrators were interested in economic growth.
There existed small regional pockets of industrial activity such as Saxony. The
French were ahead in the knowledge of natural sciences than the British. The
Germans were better at technical training than the British training institutions.
However, Industrial Revolution happened in England. Why?

"We might emphasize not the technical, but the social conditions for
transformations. In fact, technical inventions in the period were very modest; so, it
was not the technology that made the Industrial Revolution. Such advences only
describes(what), do not explain(why) it."

The following two conditions were fundamental for the Industrial Revolution:
 • Private profit and economic developmet became objects of government policy
with outcome of the civil war and revolution in England in the 17th century.
• The transformation in the countryside. Agrarian problem, also known as
peasant problem, was solved in England, by which is meant that the rise of
tenant farmers leading to the elimination of class of peasants.

The factory, however, was not an automatic invention. It requires a number of

conditions For instance, a type of industry which could be expanded quickly with
cheap and simple innovations, followed by a creation of a domestic market and a
monopoly over the world market.

"The cotton industry fitted perfectly at this point. It and colonial expansion went hand
in hand. In other words, slave labours transpoted from west Africa worked in cotton
plantations in West Indies and southern U.S. Raw material for the production of
cutton came from abroad; so, the supply of raw material could be expanded
limitlessly thanks to colonial expansion and slavery."

"When we come to the 1830's, cutton was the only industry in which the mill34
dominated. In fact, the cutton factory became the symbol of the industrialization."

"It was called 'the satanic mill' by the contemporaries for a number of reasons. Firstly,
it was entirely new space whereby huge numbers of machines and human beings
were brought together in order to carry out production. Notorious working
conditions(long working hours, the exploitation of child labour, sub-contracting
arrangements, poverty, disease) in so-called in mill towns led to working class
consciousness and to the rise of a working class movements, political organizations
such as chartism, eventual formation of the labour party in England, trade unions and
cooperative movements."

"The response to falling rates of profit in the cutton industries by the entrepreneurs
was more immiseration of workers. The first action taken by entrepreneurs was to cut
wages of their workers. In addition, introduction of more machinery into the
production process. Mechanization was a different matter. Production of these capital
goods required heavy investment in iron and steel industries. It could not be met by
private entreprise and self-finance; so, it required financing from otuside sources
such as banks and share holders. This led merger of industrial capital and financial
capital in the course of the Industrial Revolution."

"A new financing model for the establishment of capital goods industries was mining
of coal which was major source of industrial power and domestic fuel. The availability
of a plent of coal reserves in England was a very important factor which made it
easier for English industrialization to take place. It was necessary for heating of
growing cities, the production in factories, construction of rail ways which is also
another symbol of industrialization."

34
a factory (fabrika).
"The financing of these large projects required mobilization of middle-class savings in
the form of issuing of share certificates. We, therefore, see in different parts of
Europe in the course of 19th century the establishment of stock exchanges where
these certificates were traded."

"Puting huge number of labours on the one roof and making them work with
hundreds of machinery required methods of discipline such as Taylorism, time and
motion studies, the detailed study of every move labourer makes with the purpose of
increasing labour productivity."

Taylorism: System of scientific management advocated by Frederick Taylor, an

American mechanical engineer. In Taylor’s view, the task of factory management was
to determine the best way for the worker to do the job, to provide the proper tools and
training, and to provide incentives for good performance.

"Economic exploitation was went in parallel to poltiical repression of labour

movements. That is what historians mean the immiseration35 of the working
population."

LECTURE – 17 (HISTORY OF CAPITALISM: CONVERGENCE AND DIVERGENCE

AROUND THE GLOBE)

"We will look at how the Industrial Revolution had an impact in other places, the
different tendencies and dynamics for convergence and divergence around the globe
of the immediate impact of the Industrial Revolution in England couppled with the
impact of political revolution in France."

"By the middle of the 19th century, Britain was clearly the most advanced and
industrialized country in the world and by consequence, it dominated the world
economy. The rest of the world became less advanced and backward relatively
speaking. We see, therefore, divergence between Britain and the rest of the
continent Europe, especially France and Germany."

"Until the beginning of the 19th century, most of the world looked alike, that is to say,
most of the world population earned their living from agricultural activities. Hence, we
talk about a very late divergence in the history of humankind, whereby conditions of
living started to be distinct in a very late period."

"English industrialization was global for a number of reasons. One of them was that
English industrialization depended on the provision of unlimited supplies of raw
materias from all over the world, i.e. cutton grown in Americas, India and Egypt. Mass
production needed to be sold in the market, not only in the domestic market, but in
the international markets as well. This global phenomenon created a new
international division of labour whereby certain regions of the world became
specialized in the production of raw materials, production of manufactured goods,
35
the act of making people poor (sefalet).
eventually led to the political tensions and technological disparities among different
regions. One immediate consequence was that the underdeveloped parts of the
world were economically and politically subjugated by the developed ones, that is
what we call colonialism. It also led to the rise of nationalist movements which
wanted to emulate advanced countries."

What characteristics made England peculiar?

• England was a pioneer; so, it carried all the advantages of being the first.
• Industrialization in England was not part of a preconceived plan or programme
of any particular agency.
• We saw the shift from the use of hand tools to machines, the extensive use of
coal and application of steam power.

"In the 19th century, the most successful industrializers adopted the basic features of
the English model as far as they could and built upon it. However, Germnay and
France could catch up in terms of per-capita income with Britain only after the
Second World War. On the other side of the coin, continental countries as late
comers had an advantage in that they did not have to go through all the stages of
industrialization that England passed through, but could leap forward."

"We saw in the English case that it started with very competitive and self-financed
family firms, but it was the opposite in the continental industrialization. It immediately
started with large firms, production of capital goods, iron and steel-works with the
adoption of railways."

"Another factor differentiating continental industrialization from the English example

was the persistence in the continent of agriculture."

"Traditional agrarian structures and old regimes could not industrialize without an
agrarian reform which requires the disappearance of old regimes. This is because,
money making or wealth in the old regimes depended on close relations with the
political rulers rather than market. What the rising commercial and industrial
bourgeoisie looked, however, was a state providing a favourable climate at home and
abroad for securing profits and markets. As a result of this requirement, distinct
national economic policies emerged. In other words, industrialization reinforced
national rivalries."

Industrialization was a geographically uneven process between nations

internationally and regions nationally.

a. France:

It was only from the 1840's onwards that the construction of railways and starting up
of business enterprises emerged with the construction of a heavuy industry, all of
which reqiured heavy amounts of investment which were financed through banks.
Therefore, what we see in France in the middle of the 19th century is the
development of a duel structure of industry, heavy industries together with the
persistence of agrarian sector based on self-subsisting peasantry, geographical
unevenness in economic development.

b. Germany:

"What gave special character to German capitalism was that there was a close
association between industry and banks, a combination of an archaic36 and
traditional institutional framework with the most developed forms of capitalism."

There were a number of blocking forces in pre-industrial Germany. It was an

economically backward region. It was much more closer (from a political and social
perspective) to Russia in the 18th century than to France or Britain. There was a
important geographical division between eastern and westen parts of Germany, the
broad was river Elbe. On the other side of the coin, there were certain favourable
preliminary conditions for the German industrialization. The pressure of changes in
other countries gave the initiative to the Prussian bureaucracy to devise policies for
planned industrialization of the country. Firstly, uniformity of administration were
achieved. Secondly, customs union37 was established, creating a single free trade
area. Railway construction was financed with external sources combined with state
support.

c. Russia:

"In a relatively backward country such as Russia in hte course of the 19th century,
we clearly see the tensions between the actual state of the economy and the great
potential that the resources of that country presented. This tension could not be
realized as long as certain institutional obstacles(presence of serfdom and absence
of political unity) remained."

"Like other late comer industrializers, we see the important role of borrowed
technology and know-how in Russia, which was one of the primary factors for high
speed development."

"Most of the finance for industrialization came from the state, but it had its own
priorities in terms of military interest. This coloured the industrialization effort of
Russia because even economic development became a function of military need."

LECTURE – 18 (HISTORY OF CAPITALISM: COLONIALISM AND IMPERIALISM)

"The Industrial Revolution had a social background; so, it was not only the making of
steam engine, but the result of what was going on in the society in the privous couple

36
of or belonging to an ancient period in history (eski).
37
customs unions are established through trade pacts where the participant countries set up common
external trade policy (gümrük birliği).
of centuries. It, therefore, gave rise to a process of increased productivity in the
countryside. The rise of the cutton industry is important in this respect, which was not
a coincidence. The industrializaiton started in the cutton textile because there was a
ready demand for clothing items by the dispossessed peasantry."

"Once England industrialized, it immediately became the first advanced country in the
world, and the rest of the continental European countries suddenly became
backward. The immediate impact of English industrialization was that this was tried to
be repeated by plan and programme in other parts of the world, starting from
continental Europe. Hence, continental European industrialization was a reaction to
English industrialization. By the middle of the 19th centurry, clear division emerged
between the advanced and under-developed world, namely Germany, France and
Russia which later attempted to imitate the English experience and adopted
deliberate policies of industrialization meaning the protection of domestic markets
from the cheap English manufactured goods. Since relatively weaker places were not
able to adopt such policies, the emergence of free trade had a devastating impact on
their domestic industries, eventually resulted in de-industrialization."

"By the last quart of the 19th century, we find a world economy, the pace of which
was determined by developed or developing captialist core countries. In time, such
countries started to dominate the backward countries. That is what is called as 'a
world/the age of empire' from 1875 to 1914."

"Here, we are talking about a new type of empire, which was distinct from old
empires such as the Romans, rather colonial empires such as Britain, France, the
U.S., Germany, Japan, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Spain and Portugal. We can
see economic and miltiary supremacy of the capitalist countries, and a systematic
attempt to turn this into formal conquest, annexation and administration. While most
of the world outside Europe was paartitioned into territories of such states, the losers
were pre-industrial(Spain and Portugal) or old empires of Asia such as China and the
Ottomans. At the end of the day, in the age of empires, one quarter of the globe's
land surface was redistributed as colonies among a half-dozen of states."

"One of the ways in which imperialism was seen at the end of the 19th century wa
that this was a political campaing which had the intentino of bringing civilization to
those parts of the world which lacked. European countries had this mission. That was
a very positive description of imperialism. Other observers, however, saw imperialism
as an inseparable part of the wider economic and political developments; therefore,
this was a particular phase of imperialism and it cannot be seperated from the
development of capitalism on a global scale."

"One form in which the interest of the developed world over the underdeveloped took
was white settlement colonies in the non-European regions in the world such as
USA, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Algeria, South America and Israel. The second
form was the demand for raw materials on which technological developments relied.
Colonial territories were turned into specialized producers of one or two primary
products for export to the world market. For instance, Malay became specialized in
the production of rubber and tin, Brazil coffee, Uruguay meet, Cuba sugar and
cigars."

"The colonized countries economically became totally dependent on the metropol

countries. The drive for colonies was stronger in economically less dynamic
metropolitan countries such as Germany and Italy, where it served as a
compenstation for their political and economic inferiority to their rivals. The new
colonialism that is to say imperialism was a by-product of an era of economic and
political rivalry between competing national economies intensified by protectionism."

"Imperialism created conditions for anti-imperialist struggles for nationalism,

independence and self-governance. What we observe towards the end of the 19th
century is two important dynamics which would have a fundamental impact on both
the imperialist and dependent countries. The first one is the politics of
democratization in the imperialist countries. The second one is the politics of
nationalism in the colonized countries that would lead us, together with the
increasing tensions through protectionism in the global world economy, into the
outbreak of a war the world had never seen before."

LECTURE – 21 (WOMEN’S MOVEMENT)

"The term "feminism" originated in France and was not widely used until 1890's."

"Karen Offen defined feminism a compartive historical approach. She often draws
attention to the perception of feminism in public domain."

"In the context of 1960’s and 1970's, feminist movement was seen as a challenge to
the nuclear family and family values; hence, stimulated fear in conservative circles.
Since then, the slogan 'Personal is political.' became an effective characterization
of second-wave feminism(contemporary women's movement), radical feminism and
woman studies."

"Today, we approach feminism as a collective action by women to imporve women's

position and condition. It is also called pro-woman advocacy38 or women's rights
activity(the first wave of feminism)."

How did women's movement arise?

a. Economic and social change, growth of classes especially lower ones

"The new order derived from the effects of the Industrial Revolution gave more
importance property and wealth compared to land and title. This caused many
middle-class women ask for more legal rights and also an independent share from
the new wealth and opportunities as the bourgeoisie rises."

38
public support for an idea, plan, or way of doing something (savunuculuk).
 b. Intellectual and ideological change

"During the French Revolution, it issued a declaration of rights of men and citizend
which defined individual and collective rights. The idea of natural rights by virtue of
being born human was attractive to middle-class men to challenge monarchical and
aristocratic power which rested on the concepts of divine and hereditary rights. These
natural rights, however, were limited to men; so, excluding women."

"Olympe de Gouges who was a passionate advocate of human rights waited for the
French Revolution with great hope and joy. Nevertheless, oberving that equal rights
were not extended to women, she expressed her disappointment in 1791 writing 'The
Declaration of the Rights of Women and the Female Citizen' in response to 'the
Declaration of the Rights of Men and the Citizen'(1789)."

"Mary Wollstonecraft's 'The Vindication of the Rights of Women with Strictures on

Political and Moral Subjects' in 1792 was considered to be one of the earliest works
of feminist philosophy where she argued that women were essential to the nation
because they are the ones who raises the children and should be respected as
companions to their husbands."

"Reflections of the first-wave of feminism was seen in arts and literature. Virginia
Woolf and Simone de Beauvoir are two crucial people at this point."

"The first-wave of feminism was affected by both the Great War and the Second
World War. In both world wars, men power shortages opened job opportunities for
women in traditionalyl main occupations ranging from arm manufacturing to
mechanical work. However, after the war, in many countries, women lost these jobs
to returning soldiers from the war (conservative backlash, social pressure to reward
soldiers). In the aftermath of these wars which demonstrated that women could
actually do men's works encouraged women further to strive for equality."

"Second-wave of feminism grew out of the Second World War first in the U.S. in the
early 1960's. Second-wave feminists were concerned with the consolidating full legal,
social and economic eqaulity. Gaining the right the contraception and birth control
(control of reproduction) were main purposes since it is considered to be the primary
factor for full economic independence from men. Granting women to vote was also
another aim."

"Radical feminism was a significant development in second-wave feminism, woman's

oppression as a fundamental element in human society with determined gender
roles. Feminism criticized capitalism as the source of both women's oppression and
racism, homophobia and labour exploitation."

Women's Movement in Turkey:

• Şirin Tekeli (1944-2017)

• Duygu Asena (1946-2006)
LECTURE - 22 (NATIONS AND NATIONALISM)

"Our focus in this series of this lectures will be modernity and how nations,
nationalisms, multi-ethnic and multi-religious empires were affected by the coming of
the modern age. How did they try to modernize themselves and why did they pursue
specific ways of modernization?"

The new assets for the organization of the society in a novel way(modern):

• Idea of freedom of men

• Emergence of industrial capitalism
• Participation of non-elite in politics (eventually lead to the emergence of
participatory representative democracy)

What do modern states aim to achieve and why?

They had a number of goals emerging in the late 18th and 19th century from a
transition into the modern states. They wanted to increase their control over their
well-defined territories demarcated with borders. They also needed to increase
military power in novel ways such as mandatory mass conscription or the citizen
armies.

"All of these required bureaucratization, establishment of state offices and

recruitment of well trained personel(officials). The improvement of military power
required the maximization of economic resources. This is where this idea of modern
states consides with the development of capitalism as the most developed form of
wealth production."

"The most important goal of contemporary states was that all kind of empires tried to
unify the culture of the people living on their territories with the purpose of increasing
loyalty. Education was one of the tools to give an idea of shared certain
characteristics."

"While multi-ethnic empires were transforming themselves into modern nation states,
they had to deal with the nation-state formations or the nationalist movements within
themselves as well. This was a dilemma they had to face with and come up with
solutions."

They (the landmass multi-ethnic empires) had to stretch tight skin of the nation over
the vast body of the old empire.
Benedict Anderson

The question of whether the nation is a political or cultural community:

"The origin of this idea of the nation as a political community can be traced back to
the Rousseau's ideas. It was the participation of the citizens into the political
community which is the most developed form of a groups called 'nation'. Nations was
the only way in which that the general will of the people can be represented
according to Rousseau. We can also observe that mentality in the French
Revolution."

"The definition of the nation as a cultural community or a community of descent with

its identity based on history and tradition. In other words, the idea that the members
of a nation should share a common heritage which can be language, religion or
tradition. The origins of it can be traced back to the late 18th and early 19th century
German thinkers. They believed that a nation was a distinctive cultural folk. For
Fichte, a culturally defined nation encompasses language, volk and most
importantly state. The individuals, members of a nation can only define themselves
as a nation if only the possess a state."

"These two kinds of definition of the nation, however, were not mutually exclusive.
Because only those who shared cultural characteristics (collective memory) then
participated in the political nation in most of the nation-states of the 20th century."

Nations can exist only by forgetting certain things and remembering others.
Ernest Renan

"Through cultural unity, the states believed that they can strenghten themselves and
reach the goals of the (aforementioned) modernity."

"Nations and nationalism are modern concepts. Nationalism which emerged in the
19th century in line with the goals of the modernizing states is something very unique
in its contunity and legitimacy. Political systems can be of any-ideology but cannot be
non-national because each political ideology defines itself through being a nation."

"How did the great multi-ethnic empires deal with different populations? The central
authorities and the ethnic groups had negotiations in different forms. It might be a
rebellion against the central authority inm the name of the ethnic group and its
suppression or the integration of the elites of those ethnic communities into the
political structures and giving more rights to the members of them. This was indeed
one of the ways in which states modernized themselves. Modern political order
demanded inclusion of more people who should be unified(loyal) either a political
goal or a cultural unity,"

"The development of Hungarian nationalism in the context of the development in

Austria-Hungarian Empire in period examplifies all the points that I have been
making. What we see in the 19th century onwards was reactions from the Hungarian
elites to the reforms of Joseph II in the early 19th century:

• Transition from Latin to Hungarian(Magyar) in local parliaments

• The establishment of a national museum and Hungarian academia of sciences
(cultural institutions focusing on native folksongs, epic literature in Hungarian)
"Throughout the 19th century in many political entities within the Austria-Hungarian
Empire, we see similar developments towards such institutions and integration of
non-elite into the politics, eventually led to the spread of the national ideas into a
wider population, especially middle classes. In the last phase, it was turned into a
political movement."

The steps towards the formation of Hungarian Nationalism:

End of serfdom → transition to free labour → more productive nation(self-

strengthining) → more representative modes of government thorugh which one hope
that they(peasants) would be a part of nation

"To sum up, the modern states needed resources and loyalty of the people. They
believed that through creating a nation state, they can have both a loyal and a
resourceful nation."

LECTURE – 23 (THE STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL: THE ROMANOVS)

The term 'empire' defined as a case where influence of authority overlap ethnic,
linguistic and religious boundaries; where one ruler or polity seeks to draw other
regions and states into his/her (its) geopolitical, economic and cultural system
through a set of functional, spaital and hierarchic arrangement.

"Contrary to a nation state which claims to rule over a distinct group called nation
whereas empires, by definition, control multi-ethnic, multi-lingustic and multi-religious
groups. They also have different arrangements with each group. Remember how the
Hungarian elite had special relations with the authority in Vienna."

Empires faced two problems while they were trying to transform themselves into
modern entities:

• creation of a overarching identity that would stretch over different ethnic and
religious groups
• national and political(liberalism, socialism, etc.) movements

How did the Romanovs empower the Russian Empire?

They attempted to establish a firm iron hand on the society, a powerful autocratic
rule. We also see in this period the empowernment of the dynasty through symbolic
measures and the elite in the provinces. Establishment of a number of a state
institutions(ministries) emerged during the reign of Alexander I (1801-1825). A
significant aspect of this new emering bureaucratic empire and the state's structure
was the establishment of the police force and its growing power throughout the 19th
century. The Russian history proved that it was especially important in the
suppression of the anti-monarchical movements.
"After Alexander's reign, what we see in the Nicholas I period is a bit of an addition
that made state's structure more complex, but the society also became more
complex, hence there were different demand coming from the society. Therefore, an
ideologie was needed to keep it intact. This was "Autocracy, Orthadoxy and
Nation". With this ideology, the Russianness of the people and Slavism referring to
the ethnic origin of the Russian people was emphasized."

"A turning point for the Russian Empire and the Romanovs was the Crimean War in
the 19th century. It was a result of the newly emerging world order and an end to the
balance of powers in Europe. It is defined as a proto-world war since one can
observe the immense mobilization of the resource such as money, technoogy and
man-power. It was absolutely one of the first examples of the modern warfare."

"By the defeat at their territories, they realized that they could not defend their own
lands. Hence, it was more than a military defeat for the Russian Empire because it
resulted in a period of self-questioning on the autocracy, followed by an age of
reforms which aimed the transform the entire society. This reforms challenged and
changed the existent social, economic and legal structures. One of such reforms was
the abolishment of serfdom. By this decision, Alexander II shook the existing social
structures. Another reform was the establishment of the provincial structures named
'zemstvo' that were responsible for the local affairs. With the purpose of integrating
people into the state's structures, kind of a representative system with elections was
introduced. The ordinary people were given certain rights and provided a fair justice
system, and in return they were expected to attend the military service. A great
military reform began in the 1860's lasting about a decade in order to create a more
efficient army."

"As the debates about reforms and how they should be carried out spreaded,
dissenting groups such as the liberals and the nihilists began to emerge. Nihilist
ideas were carried into a different stage and to some extent radicalized and
materialized by the following generation of Narodnik, that is the people who argue
that they need to go to the people(villages) to transform the Russian society. They
were radical in their activities as 1881, they killed the Tsar Alexander II. The reaction
of the dynasty and the state was extremely harsh. The monarchy strenghtened itself
in the late 19th century by a series of laws empowering the state authorities to an
unprecedented degree. The advisor counsil in the period called 'duma' was establish
to integrate the notables and to increase their power in the provinces. The
statecontrol over the universities increased since they were seen as possible
gathering places for various political groups opposing the absolutist Russian
monarchy. The growth of ethnic policies such as anti-Jewish laws (Pale of
Settlement) could also be observed in this period. Antisemitic sentiments were turned
into widespread violence in the early 1880's, right after the assasination of the Tsar."

"The Russian Empire experienced enormous social and economic development

beginning in the 1860's with the establishment of the railroads. It was a political tool
to connect the distant lands into the center. Railroads facilitated the development of
certain industries such as steel and iron factories(further industrialization). In the age
of political absolutism, we also see the economic centralization through again
railroads. New industries emerged and newly founded towns increased in number
during 1890's contributing to the need for menpower. What we also see in the period
was the migration from the countryside to the cities."

LECTURE – 24 (THE STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL: THE HISTORY OF THE

OTTOMAN EMPIRE IN THE 19TH CENTURY)

"The main goal of the lecture is to understand the different ways in which the
Ottoman Empire dealt with the age of modernity. Its similarities and diffrences from
the Romanovs as well as the Qajars. We also address certain themes such as the
tradition and the contunity as well as the rapid change."

"As you may easily guess, there is a reason that he was in the center. That is he was
the ruling sultan of the time and as the person who commisssioned the painting, he
had his place in the center. The painting is like school of Athens whereas it shows the
continuity (of tradition) in the mids of the change (look at photo24)."

The major challenges that the Ottoman Emprie had to face (similar problems with the
Romanovs):

• empower39 the monarchy at the age of revolutions

"During the reign of Selim III, what we see is a series of attempts (first westernization
attempts) first and foremost aimed to create a stronger monarchy that can lay hands
on the population and this state actors. The major issue, in this context, was the local
power holders (ayans) in the provinces. They kept their power and increased it
(partners of the power) by the end of the 18th centuries. The peak of their power in
1808 when the palace and the bureaucracy in Istanbul recognized ayan's power as
partners. From the perspective of the central state, if the monarchy wanted to
improve its power, it had to eliminate whole other power holders. Hence, a decline of
the power of those ayans can be observed after 1808."

"Another group of people who claimed some political power, therefore possessed a
challenge to the authority of the center were Janissaries. With the Auspicious Event
(vaka-yi hayriye) in 1826, they were also eliminated. Indeed, this is usually
concerted40 as a step in the modernization of the Ottoman Empire by eliminating the
institution that was not able to function properly. Their elimination was also very

39
to encourage and support the ability to do something (güçlendirmek).
40
planned or done together for a shared purpose (kararlaştırılmış).
important in the sense that the sultan, the palace and the bureaucracy got rid off an
alternative power holder."

• institutionalization as a part of building a modern state

a) Military Reform

“The establishment of the standing army was important after the destruction of the
Janissaries. People would be mobilized and serve as soldiers for a given period of
time, and also when needed.”

b) Population and Communications

"It was not easy in a massive land empire to find out who was eligible to be turned
into a soldier? What was also in line with this was the first population census that
took place in the early 1830's. All kind of details of the people received by the census
helped states finding its subjects who will be eligible to serve as a soldier when the
need raises."

c) Modern Bureaucratic Departments

"This meant the bureaucratization of the state apparatus. Different ministries were
responsible for different tasks. Translation office was developed at this period with
the purpose of establishing links with what was going on in Europe. The office
functioned as a school for the bureaucrats where they would learn a business of
bureaucracy(administration) as well as improving their foreign languages."

Ottoman Age of Reforms:

"Tanzimat Edict in 1839 was important because it brought a number of things to the
empire. First of all, it was a way to create a systematic period of reform and the
reform process carried out by the sultan himself was systematized by the edict and
the following developments; so, there was a shift from a personal will of the sultan
and his reformist agenda into a more systematized period of reform in which
bureaucracy had the upper hand."

"Modernizing states had to integrate all populations living in their territories and using
available resources. Before using the resources you have to know what was
available. In one way of integating the people in to the sytem and using their
resources in efficient ways was the promise of equality between the subjects,
concerning taxation and conscription. Tanzimat consule was established as a upper
consule in which the direction of the reforms would be discussed."

"If you look at the text of the Tanzimat, there is no emphasis on westernization;
rather, on traditions particularly Islam and Sharia as a way to justify and legitimize
reforms. They carried out that reforms because of the welfare of the dominions for
which the caliph was responsible."

"The period of the 1860's is usually referred as the great age of reforms (real age of
Tanzimat). In this period, we can see the growth of the Tanzimat reforms that had
already begun in the 1840's. The goal of increasing bureaucratization of the empire
by developing new ministries was regulating happenings and abstracting resources.
In the context of judicial reforms, as the Ottoman Empire were becoming integrated
to the world market. New commercial laws were established, following by the
establishment of commercial courts. Another development of the mid-1860's was the
provincial administration. The provincial administration consuls were established in
which the bureaucrats as well as the local power owners (rich merchants, leaders of
non-Muslim communities, the descendants of ayans) had a power in the running of
provincial affairs. This was the major way to integrate different segments of the
population and to reach the resources at the provincial level."

"These reforms were not always seen as a break from the tradition; on the contrary,
many of these reforms were carried out in the name of religon. Some people who
were responsible for carrying out these reforms had a ulema backgrounds (f.e.
Ahmet Cevdet Paşa who took part in the major attempt of codification of the Islamic
law to turn it into 'modern' law codes)."

"Tanzimat had an ideology as well. Contemporary overarching ideology was called

Ottomanism. It proposes the equality of all subjects with different ethnic and religious
backgrounds. Modernizing Ottoman state promised that all the subjects would be
charged equal in front of law, which was also an attempt to eliminate nationalist
ideas. Through the Ottomanist ideology, the state attempted to standardize relations
between itself and the subjects. By offering this equality, the Ottomans also aimed to
prevent foreign intervention on behalf of the differnet ethnic and religious groups in
the society. 1856 Reform Edict highlighted the promises of Tanzimat Edict with an
emphasis on the equality of all subjects. The ideology of Ottomanism reached its
peak at the constitution of 1876, which was the most important attempt to integrate all
the groups in the society into the body of the state. It was a way to show that the
capital was listening to what was going on in the provinces through the
representatives of the people in the parliament."

"The Ottoman Empire in the 1870's were re-interpreted its past through through
Ottomanist notions (Üssü İnkılap, Ahmet Mithat Efendi)."

"The last quarter of the 19th century was marked by the rule of Abdulhamid II who
adapted an autocratic means with the purpose fo modernizing the country. We see
the continuation of the Tanzimat reforms, especially the attempts to empower the
state. The empowernment of the palace(sultanate) referred to the limitation of the
power of the bureaucracy. This was taking place in a period when the new
bureaucratic offices were being established, but those were directly linked either to
the palace or the sultan himself."
"Just like the Russian Empire, we see the growth of opposition to the Tanzimat
reforms, and then to Abdulhamid II. The opposition did not take its radical forms at
least until the 1890's. In the 1880's, we see the liberal criticisms of the autocratization
of the Tanzimat regime, referred as the Young Ottomans which was the coalition of
bureaucrats and intellectuals such as Namık Kemal, Ali Suavi and Cevdet Paşa.
They were arguing that the Ottoman Empire could not reach its potential. The palace
was so autocratic that the state limited the growth of the society. They believed that
through establishing a representative regime and somehow limiting the power of the
sultan, the welfare of the state would increase. They were also arguing that their
demand for reform was indeed a revitalization of the tradition as they put forward the
need for a consultation(usülü meşveret)."

"What was also quite interesting about the Young Ottoman era is the fact that they
proposed their ideas through new literary forms such as novels and theater plays.
Both the form and the content of their demands was new."

"In the Hamidian Era, we see the radicalization of the opposition. A transition from
liberal demands such as parliament to demands to establish a new order which
would eventually take radical forms."

LECTURE – 25 (THE STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL: THE QAJARS)

"The ways in which the Qajar Empire face modernity was both similar and different
than the experiences of the Russian and the Ottoman empires. The differences were
based on Iran's distinct social, political and cultural structures."

"The Qajar Empire is usually considered as a semi-colonial empire that is a states

which were penetrated by the imperial capital, trade and political influence which
preserved their juridical independence. Iranian political elite attempted to get rid off
their semi-colonial status. Most of these attempts tried to imitate the Western forms of
state structures and modernity."

"The period from 1720's (the disintegration of the Safevid realm) to the end of the
18th century, we see serious of attempts by tribal groups to bring disintegrated
realms together. The Qajars were able to achieve this to some extent. Different tribes
challenged the Qajar power throughout their authority based on their lack of
legitimacy, which resulted from the limited military power of the Qajars. Those tribes
kept their local power which the Qajars also recognized. In this light, the
administrative stability was not so strong. They also lacked ideological, cultural and
religious means of legitimization."

"It is crucial to note that Iranian society was consisted of different tribal and ethnic
groups. In addition to a number of tribes who were either Turkik-speaking or Persian-
speaking, there were Azeries, Kurds, Turkomans, Afghans as well as non-Muslim
groups like Jews and Armenians. Hence, the Qajars was the perfect example of an
early modern empire whose power based on different sets of arrangements that the
center had with different ethnic and religious groups in the society."

"The Qajar empire lacked military power which resulted in lack of legitimacy. The
most important one was the series of wars against the Russians who defeat the
Qajars in all of these wars in the first half of the 19th century. After that, just like the
Ottomans, the Qajars attempted to undertake reform in the field of military, the
reformed army entitled ‘Nizam-i Cedid’. Military reforms also gave rise to the
developments in the other fields. One of such was the development of printing
press."

"The second half of the 19 century was marked by the reign of Shah Nasreddin. This
was the period in which we see the most concrete efforts to build a modern state. For
instance, a budget committee was set to increase the revenues of the central
treasury. From the mid-19th century onwards, a new taxation system and the
strengthening of the central treasury went hand-in-hand with the strengthening of the
central state as political power. Establishing industries of sugar, cane and cotton
were also important for the Qajar economy as they were becoming a part of the
European economic system."

"Controlling the judiciary system means that you have political power. In this light,
they also established an institution called divanhane which was the highest court in
the country. This was a gesture again of showing that they had the political authority."

"Babi revolt between 1843-52 was a religious movement based on the idea of Shiah
Messianism. Seyyid Ali Mohammad came up with the claim that he was the
'Bab'(gate). His movement gained support from the low-ranking ulema and as it
attacked middle and the high-ranking ulema for their cliam to possess an authority.
They had their own book entitled 'Persian Bayán' and established themselves as a
religion. A reaction to the political developments, the weakness of the Qajar dynast
and the growing imperialist struggles in the middle of the 1840's turned itself into a
religious movement. It was so radical that one of his supporters preached unveiled41."

"Where the Babi movement and its offshoot Azalis were two of the criticisms of the
Qajars, there were others such as liberal critics in the sense that they demandad
political change such as the establishment of a constitutional regime. Mirza Malkom
Khan was one of the most influential figures both in the Iranian and the European
politics. After he broke up with the Qajar dynasty, he began to publish a newspaper
entitled "Qanun" in London. He argued that the major problem of the Qajar dynasty
was the lack of a rule of a codified law which was the base for a modern state. Zayn
ol-Abeidn Maraghe was another contemporary intellectual, who published Travel
Diary of Ebrahim Beg (the first modern Iranian novel), a literary account of the social,
cultural and the political life in Iran from a critical perspective."

41
words or ways of behaving that are direct or expressed clearly (açıkça).
"When the Tobacco Regie was established in 1890, the goal was to raise revenues
(certain lump sum42 payments) by giving the monopoly rights to cultivate and sale of
tobacco produced in Iran to a European company. However, the opposite took place
and a massive protest movement began in 1891. In this period, a fatwa was issued
by the most important religious authority in Iran Mirza Hasan Shirazi who used the
strongest possible language to oppose the use of tobacco, accordingly the Regie.
Despite the popularity of tobacco, the religious ban was so successful that shah
cancelled the concession. It is important to note that the protest was held by Tehran
merchants in solidarity with the clerics(the mujtahids). Iranians saw for the first time
that it was possible to win out against the Shah and foreign interests.

LECTURE – 26 (THE JAPANESE ROAD TO MODERNITY: THE MEIJI

RESTORATION AND THE MAKING OF MODERN JAPAN)

The rise of the west forced the opening of Tokugawa Japan to international relations.

The US fleet under the command of Commodore Matthew Perry arrived and forced
the shogun sign a treaty through Gunboat Diplomacy. The foreign policy of isolation
ended with this treaty. In general, it was the British superiority of military technology
and other western fleets that compelled Asian countries to accept these treaties of
trades.

The Treaty of Amity and Friendship (1854) resulted in a political crisis in Japan that
led to the collapse of the Tokugawa order only in ten years.

The British actually preferred the Americans to push the Japanese because they
were already aware of their negative image as a result of the Opium War with China
between 1839 and 1842. Britain already had a subtantial stake in China. They
acquired a colony, Hong Kong. Japan was not a target of colonial and imperialist
ambitions. The Americans aimed it to be open for free trade and logistic supply ports
for American naval ships.

American politician Harris scared the Japanese with the example of British and
French violence in the Arrow War 1854 of the Second Opium War.

Unlike the treaty of Nanking signed between the British and the Chinese, there was
no question of territorial transfers in Treaty of Trade (1858). However, everybody was
deeply upset by the loss of partial sovereignty over extraterritoriality since the treaty
means that foreigners are under the privilege of being protected by their own law in
your country and your security forces has no say.

42
an amount of money that is paid in one large amount on one occasion (toplu para).
The emperor Kömei was a very stubborn and anti-foreign sovereign. He was furious
when he heard of the question of opening up Japan. He did approve neither 1854 nor
1858 treaties. However, he had no idea what is going on in the outside world. He will
soon order the expulsion43 of foreigners and want the Tokugawa shogun to declare a
war on the great powers of the West. This took the Tokugawa government into such
a crisis with the Western powers.

There were two major parties. On the one hand, the War Party advocated war; on the
other hand, the pro-opening party was in favour of opening Japan. The Chief Minister
of the Tokugawa Shogunate, Ii Naosuke claimed that the Japanese should sign the
treaty with the Americans as soon as possible to learn military technology from the
West. Only in this way did Japan have the required time to prepare for a future
confrontation with the Americans.

The question of the adoptation of Western technology was quarrelled by many

contemporary scholars. Sakumo Shozan, for instance, claimed that Japan should
adopt Western learning and technology, but remain grounded in moral values.
Yoshida Shoin, who was Sakumo's student, became the teacher of Loyalist militant
samurai and future leaders of Meiji Japan. He followed a more militant perspective by
supporting the Emperor's resistance to the Treaty and advocated activism against the
Tokugawa government.

The Chief Minister Naosuke frustrated and infear of war signed the 1858 Treaty on
his own. Immediate cause of samurai outrage44 that he sold the country to the
barbarians, betraying his duty as the Shogun and Grand Councilor. The new slogan
was "revere the Emperor, throw out the Barbarians!". He was assassinated by an
angry samurai in 1860(look at the photo25).

During the civil war lasting for nearly a decade foreign powers were also involving in
the crisis. Britain decided to support the rebels whereas France supported to the
ancient regime, Tokugawa Shogunate.

Meiji Restoration was a result of the rebel domains' victory over the Tokugawa forces
in 1868. The emperor moved to Edo and occupied the former Shogun's castle. Edo
became Tokyo, the new capital of Japan, which highlighted a new era in Japan.

The early Meiji mission (1868-1880) was the foundation of the swift and extraordinary
transformation of Japan's both state and society. The early Meiji leaders envisioned
their new policies based on four new short slogans: prosperous country, strong
military, civilization, and enlightenment.

Fukuzawa Yukichi advocated in his famous article "Outline of a Theory of Civilization"

the transfer of European thought. His writings were introducing the western world to

43
(the act of) forcing someone, or being forced, to leave country (sınır dışı etme).
44
a feeling of anger and shock (öfke).
the Japanese. He said "Well it is the western world that has achieved this high level
of civilization so far, but what about the future?"

Late Meiji vision beginning with 1890's turned into a conservative and imperalist one.

Through Prince Tomomi Iwakura Mission, numerous Japanese people visited

modern Western countries and stayed there for a while to make observations. The
reports of the mission which was conducted for three years(1871-1873) would
become then the basis for reforms in the next decades. They brought back a huge
amout of information about what was going on in the World(look at photo26).

From the beginning of the Meiji Restoration, there was a public debate for
parliamentary regime. One of the founders of the government, Itagaki Taisuke soon
resigned to be the founder of the Freedom Party, and submitted a petition for a
parliamentary in 1874. He was the leader of the new opposition movement accusing
the Meiji leadership of becoming an oligarchy. In 1882, a right-wing assassin
attempted to kill Taisuke, but did not succeed it.

The constitution itself was a product of Euro-Japanese collaboration. Ito Hirobumi

who was the first prime-minister of Japan stayed in Europe for 18 months studying
with German scholars to draft the new Constitution.

Japan's economic transformation starting in the 19th century began the Asian
industrial revolution together with China. In fact, Chinese governer Zhang Zhidong
founded the first iron works of Asia as early as 1891 to manufacture rifles and
cannons using German technology. Having learned of China's investment, the
Japanese began to invest and enlarge the Yawata iron and steel industry. In
competition with the Chinese factory, they expanded it to the top iron-steel
manufacturing center of Asian economy.

It is important to note that the Japanese did not want to be a republic or a nation
state; so, they established the colonial empire of Japan.

Imperial Japan's wars were part of its rise as an empire. After Sino-Japanese War
(1894-95), Japan gained a huge amount of territory from China including Taiwan,
Liaootung Peninsula, and Port Arthur in North China. As the time passes, the notion
of Pan-Asianism emerged.

The foreign policy of Meiji Japan was pro-Britain. In fact, with the exception of 1930's
when the Japanese decided to strike out as an imperialist power in Asia, the long
duree of Japan's foreign policy was collaborating the leader of the West, that is to say
the Britain. It led to the 1902 Anglo-Japanese alliance against Russia.

After the Russians marched into Liatoung peninsula, tension around the region
began to increase. In parallel with the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of 1902, New York and
London financiers loaned money for armaments. In addition, the British Naval
Intelligence provided information to the Japanese side. Japanese striking victories
both on land and sea during Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) resulted in the Treaty of
Portsmouth. At the end, Japan got half of Sakhalin island, Port Arthur and Liatoung
both of which they had lost privously.

Japan was recognized as a friend by the major powers of the West since there was
no coinciding points of interest. The motto of the Japanese leadership was "Never
ever enter into conflict with a major western power!"

LECTURE – 27 (THE GREAT WAR)

"When the Great War began, people had a dream that the war would reach them to
eternal peace. It was perceived as a war to end all wars. However, the outcome was
the opposite since it lasted for four years and millions of people died."

"Let's recall that the goals of the empires was to estabish modern state structures for
which they needed to use the existing resources efficiently. World War I was the
prime example of that mentality because it was a total warfare; so, states had to
utilize all the existing resources to the greatest extent possible. Nationalism, in this
case, served as a vehicle for mobilizing huge number of people."

The Great War → The Greater War

"Although the war began in 1914, Europe was in wars since 1911 and the Europeans
did not stop fighting until 1918 merely in Western front. However, wars continued
up to 1924 in different shapes. By the mid-1920's, the war was over and the world
began preparing a new one."

"The great power were able to keep these battles such as Italo-Turkish War or the
Balkan Wars as local conflicts. They did so by assuming the sovereignty rights of the
Ottoman state. After this period called 'pre-great war period', there were two very
important consequences, namely the mobilization of troops across the geographies
and unprecedented brutality. Such images (look at photo27) of extreme brutality and
their impact on the civilian population would repeat itself during the Great War."

"The dynastic empires of the Romanovs, Ottomans and Austria-Hungarians were

dismembered. Out of their collapse, new nation states emerged and existing nation
states raised against each other to capture the territories from falling empires. Certain
shatter-zones especially on the border lands on these disintegrating empires turned
into a chaos. However, it was not only the empires that dismembered after the war,
but also the victorious empires such as the British and the French also began to face
problems in the new colonies. World War I opened the way to the new world order in
which the space reserved for the empires was becoming smaller and smaller."
"Developing military technology and diplomacy has been used as a way to avoid
catastrophy of a war. At the same time, the belief in the modernity (19th century) had
led both statesman and commanders to think that the war would be short due to
developing technology."

"The great powers had left the region of the Balkans to its own fate, which at the end
of the day triggered the Great War. After the assasination of Franz Ferdinand, the
central powers that is the Austria-Hungarian and German empires interpreted the
event as a pan-slavic plot in the Balkans. It was led by Serbia, but supported by the
Russian Empire, Therefore, it should not be go unpunished. This notion led to the
origins of the war."

"The Great War especially in Europe was marked in one word, that is 'trench'. 30,000
km of trenches were built only in the western front as two-sides were not able to
undertake a serious offense onto the otherside. An extensive use of modern artillery
and machine gunes was the reason of high numbers of dead in the trench warfare."

"In 1917/18, the battles which encapsulated45 the military tragedy of the war took
place. It was human carnage. Both sides believed that they could break the otherside
if they had enough menpower and weapons. For instance, in Verdun, the goal was
not to conquer a geostrategically important place; rather, to break the moral of their
enemy by invading a place that held by them for a long time."

"The mobilization of the whole resources, not only at the fronts, but also in society for
the warfare. Because of economic problems stemming from the great attempts for
the mobilization, civilian populations were asked to shoulder the burden in many
cases for the goal of the victory. This is what was called 'home-front'. There was a
arising question of who are going to work and carry out the jobs while men were
enlisted in great numbers. Women population was needed to carry on the production.
Therefore, we see the movement of women into the work and industry in the
participating countries."

"Home-front meant not only participating in the warfare through working in the
factories or producing for the army, but also the civilian populations were brutally
damaged during the war. For instance, a terrible famine was experienced in Syria
and Lebanon in 1915. The war also led enormous demographic changes such as the
displacement of the Armenain populations in the Ottoman Empire. In addition to the
famine, hyperinflation and forced displacement, there was also a global pandemic of
Spanish flu which took a huge number of lives between 1918-1920."

"When the war was over, so were the empires. The Romanovs ended while the
empire was transformed into a new entity by the series of revolutions in 1917. The
reason for this enormous poitical and social changes in Russia was both longlasting
reasons as well as the unfavourable conditions of the war. Lenin who was the leader

45
to express or show the most important facts about something (kapsamak).
of the Bolsheviks(m: majority) demanded a revolutionary change to end all problems
of the society. Its motto was simple 'peace now, bread now!'. One consequence of
the October Revolution, many governments in Europe feared that a series of
revoluıtions may take place after the war. They were right in certain ways as many
governments established after the war had strong leftist components, which led to
different problems in the 1920's with the rise of facism."

LECTURE – 28 (A WORLD OF EXTREMES: FROM THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION

TO NATIONAL SOCIALISM)

"In the early 20th century, Russia was an autocracy. There was no representative
system. The czar 's authority was absolute, yet it was limited to a certain exten
mainlyt due to the incapacity of the bureaucracy and the vastness of the territory of
the Russian Empire. It was an agricultural economy; so, there was little
mechanization. The population increase (three fourth of population was farmers)
resulted in less land to cultivate and a decrease in the value of labour."

"Although it was largely agricultural economy in 1913, Russia had become the 5th
bigest industrial economy in the world. However, this was mainly a state led
industrialization resulted in urbanization. Urban population doubled from 1897 to
1917(one fifth of the population). In addition, industrialization created a new class
called workers class or the proletariat. 35% of Petrograd's population consist of
workers who were living in unfavourable conditions. By the way, many workers were
increasingly literate and they were joining various events such as libraries, theatres,
evening classes and clubs. In the long run, a proletariat consciousness began to
emerge."

"The workers were quite uneasy and their demands were generally suppressed
violently. Hence, there were no gradual improvements of worker's conditions as it
was the case in Europe. For that reason, illegal strikes were the only way for the
workers to express their demands. Massive worker strikes organized primarily by the
socialists forced Nicholas II to initaite reforms in 1905. The revolution was not solely
a worker's revolution since it included many different classes and people with
different ideological position(a cross-class revolution)."

"The people were frustrated by the defeat of Russia in its war against Japan in 1905.
The defeat domenstrated to Russians that the czar was weak and the empire was not
strong enough. That made Nicholas II to lose even his usual supporters. For many,
now, reform was indispensable. Liberals wanted civil and political rigths and
constitutional order. On the other side, the czar was a devoted Orthadox christian.
Because he believed that he was the representative of God on this world, he thought
that he need not compromise his power that was given to him by God. He had no
choice after these bloody sunday when crowded protesters in front of the Winter
Place of the czar asking for political reform were being under the fire, eventually more
than 300 people were killed incuding women and children. The czar decided to go for
reform in order to put an end to revolutionary insurgance. In this light, he offered a
national assembly(duma), freedom of press and legalization of strikes. However,
1905 revolution was failed at the end of the day since the czar decided to back track
and began to arrest the workers."

There were different types of socialist fractions:

a. The Mensheviks

They were closer to the orthadox Marxist position. They believed that for socialism to
triumph, you need to have a boureoise democratic revolution. In other words, a
society can be transformed to socialism only after capitalism is firmly established. It
would be wise for the socialists to form alliances with the liberals, thus hasten the
transition to bourgeoise democracy.

b. Social revolutionaries

They believed that the peasants could become revolutionaries. They developed their
own land-reform programs and called for land socialization. This focus on land reform
made them the most popular socialist party in Russia before the Bolsheviks replaced
them.

c. The Bolsheviks

They believed that Russia did not have the conditions that Marx defined for a socialist
revolution to take place. A new Marxist theory by taking Russia's own specific
conditions into consideration were developed by Lenin who led the Bolsheviks. Lenin
argued that if small number of workers were led by the intelligentsia of a party with a
vanguard role, a revolution could take place in Russia. We can say that Lenin
transformed the political economy of Marxism into a program of political action.

"Lenin's ideas refused the trajectory of the historical development anticipated by Marx
and it also replaced the role of the proletariat with the idea of a vnaguard party. That
was the reason why the Mensheviks critized the Bolsheviks."

"On the one hand, misearies caused by the ongoing war; on the other hand,
Rasputin's influence and interferences in the politics made people lose trust in the
court and the czar himself."

"Like the happenings in 1905, February revolution (1917) was also a cross-class
revolution. Liberals, socialists, soldiers, sailors, peasants and even the intelligentsia,
all played important roles in initiating the revolution. As a result, a provisional
government was reformed remaining in power until a constituent assemply would be
formed. There were the Soviets as well flourishing both in urban and rural areas. The
peasants began to take over the land of the wealthy. Lenin did not support the
provisional government, and he continued to struggle to transfer power totally to the
Soviets. This would bring us the October Revolution in the same year. The workers
were calling for justice, equality and the solutino for their economic problems. The
socialists were actually promising what they wanted. Simply put, this was a worker's
revolution in alliance with the peasants that was led by the Bolsheviks."

"Anti-Bolshevik general came together and formed an army called the 'White Army'
which was quite heterogeneous. The civil war lasted five years, and the Red Army of
the Bolsheviks defeated the White Army at the end. During the civil war, the national
claims for the independence and autonomy reached a new peak. Although the
Bolsheviks promised self-determination to non-Russians, they were not willing to
allowed strategically important regions to go away."

"When the civil war came to an end, the Bolsheviks abandoned their economic policy
which was known as the war-communism. A collapsing economy, Lenin decided to
initiate change and bring an end to war-communism. He said that communist
economic policy needs to be delayed until we will achieve economic revival. He put
forward a temporary economic policy to establish a strong industrial base. In this
light, peasants could use their own land, small markets revived, private small scale
manufacturing was allowed, material incentives were reintroduced and foreign
investments were invited."

"A socialist part was running the country and this was a single part government
where there was extreme centralization of power. The dissent was not tolerated.
Non-Bolsheviks were persecuted. Lenin, in a sense, managed to build an absolutist
state using coercion and propaganda. It was, however, Stalin that would bring a
totalitarian structure to the state. He thought that Russia could transcend46 its
backwardness by means of a totalitarian state."

"In 1930's in Europe, we do observe the development of another totalitarian ideology,

the National Socialism and facism. The context of the past few decades indeed
increased the appeal of authoritarianism in the world. It was the concerns of the
middle-class, who were very concerned that their saving were melting and living
standarts were being affected extremely negatively by the contemporary economic
conditions, that led to the rise of fascism. Another concern for the Germans was that
they could not stomach their defeat in the Great War. They also lost their trust in
parliamentary democracy since it was scapegoated as responsible for the failures of
Germany."

What were the essential elements of the fascism?

• the promise of a classless society by means of corporatism which was

regarded as a third way that would enable states to avoid the flows of both
capitalism and socialism.
• criticism of individualism

46
to go beyond or rise above a limit (aşmak).
 • will of supreme leader embodied by will of the state, the nation and the
individual
• anti-materialism

"The fascists also criticized the western liberal culture for not only their individualistic
characteristic, but for their being materialistic as well. Mussolini talked about fascism
as a spiritual ideology reviving the spirit of the nation against the materialistic
individualism of the West."

"As in Stalin's Russia, in fascist countries, every aspect of individual life was
controlled. There was no separation between public and private life. Family was the
basic unit of discipline, order and stability. Both Soviet Russia and Nazi Germany
were suspicious about intellectuals; hence, the universities lost their autonomy in
both cases, eventually turning into places where students were indoctrinated and
received only technical education."

LECTURE – 29 (CHINA BETWEEN TWO REVOLUTIONS: 1911-1949)

The first revolution is the Republican Revolution which took place in 1911 and the
second one ist the Communist Revolution which took place in 1949.

Just after the fist revolution, the Republican officials were hunting down people who
had pigtails. The reasons for such an action was that the Republicans considered pig
tail to be a symbol of submission to a foreign race, that is to say the Manchus.

The last Chinese dynasty, the Great Qing, was alien in the sense that it was
established by people who were not Chinese. The Manchus were tribal seminomadic
people living in northwest China where we call today Manchuria. They spoke an
Altaic language close to Mongolian and Turkic. Similar to the Mongols, they were
excellent archers and horsemen. China fell into chaos in the 17th century primarily
due to economic problems. In such an atmosphere, the Manchus conquered China
and ruled the region for about 250 years.

Historians are then interested in the strategies used by this 'alien rulers' to rule China.
Note that the Chinese frequently considered China to be the center of the World and
they believed in their cultural superiority. Well, how was it possible for a group of
people that Chinese considered barbarians to conquer and rule China for more than
two centuries. The answer comes from a thesis developed by certain historians.

Sinicization thesis: They argue that the Manchus legitimized their rule over China
through their gradual assimilation. In other words, they did became Chinese
themselves. They learned Chinese languages, studied Confucian classics and
Chinese history. They adopted Chinese political institutions. They patronized Chinese
art and literature. They patronized Confucian elite because they restored the civil
service examination system.
Does the sinicization thesis give us a distorted picture?

In constrast, some argue that this thesis could not capture the whole picture. The
Manchu emperors accepted certain elements of Chinese culture, but did they really
become Chinese? Did the Qing rulers forsake47 their Manchu identity? What about
the Han Chinese revolt against the Manchus in early 20th century?

Qing rulers took steps to prevent the Manchus’ assimilation. These are;

• The Banner System, a hereditary military organization.

• Manchus lived in seperate walled cities.
• They were not allowed to marry with the Chinese.
• They occupied the most important governmental positions.

Despite all these precautions, they lost many of their cultural traits, to the extent that
many even could not speak the Manchu language at the end of the 20th century.

After being defeated by Japan in 1895 (see pg.53), local population began to think
that China is under double slavery. We are not only the slaves of western
imperialists, but also that of the Manchus, the alien race. Our primary task is to get rid
of the Manchus. Only when we return China to its rightful owners, then we would be
able to save China from extinction(look at photo28).

The anti-Manchu Han revolutionaries were also republican revolutionaries since they
believed that only a republican system could awaken people and save China from
imperialist threat. The republican revolution was born out of upheavels which took
place in 1911. Numerous dispersed upheavels all around China turned into a nation-
wide revolutionary movement. The Qing court was left no option and they
abdicated48.

The territory of the Qing China was remarkably larger than that of Ming Dynasty.
These regions were inhabitated by non-Han people. Many of these people followed
seperatist attitude. On the one hand, Han nationalists wanted to create a Han-nation
state. On the other hand, they wanted to preserve the territory they inherited from the
Manchu rulers. That is what we call 'the Nationalist Dilemma'.

In this light, Han nationalistsin the first years of the republic, abandoned their 'race
centered nationalism' discourse because they were afraid of the seperatist
movements, which could destabilize China. They declared the republic of five ethnic
groups, namely the Han, Manchus, Tibetans, Turkic Muslims, and Mongolians. They
also gave a degree of authonomy to these ethnic groups. We can call this discourse
'a broadly defined territorial nationalism'. Once they were forced to leave the
positions of authority after the revolution, they retreated their racist discourse

47
to leave forever or to give up completely (bırakmak).
48
to give up a position as king, or to fail to take responsibility for something (feragat etmek).
claiming that the Han race was the fittest race of east Asia (social darwinism). This
can be called 'a narrowly defined race centered nationalism'.

After Yuan Shikai died in 1916, the powerful military figures became de-facto
independent rulers with desire to control Beijing. After the Qing period, there was a
trend for regionalization in China. Through the world war period, we see the rise of
this understanding and therefore, the period between 1916-1927 is called 'the
warlord era'. It was a disastrous period because of the human costs due to constant
battles. The rural people were suffered from unbearable taxes and conscription rates.
Due to lack of reliable tax revenues, war lords led opium cultivation in their regions to
create alternative financial bases for their war efforts.

It is also imporant to note that there was an intellectual boom actually due to the lack
of a central authority in China. For contemporary scholars, the revolution only
produced dictatorship and chaos. They argued an another path towards unification
and enlightenment. They said, we should introduce a new culture. Changing the
political setting does not make anyt difference, maybe evils of China lays somewhere
deeper. They blamed Chinese culture as being passive, morbid, spiritual, family
oriented, despotic, isolated and unscientific. On the other side, they idealized western
cultures as being active, youthful, materialist, individualistic, democratic and open.

China contributed to the war efforts by joining the Allies at the end of the WWI. By
doing this, they were expecting the Allies to transfer the German rights in China back
to the Chinese. But that did not happen. The Allies gave them to the Japanese. This
shocked the Chinese and contributed to the emergence of an anti imperialist
movement, which stepped the way for the Chinese Communist Party eventually.

The war lord rule came to an end when the nationalist and communist parties
established a united front under the Soviet guidance to unify China. The era of
nationalist rule began in 1928.

Why did the communists enter into an alliance with the nationalists?

The idea of the communists was that in order for a communist transformation to
occur, first you need to become a capitalist society through the nationalist movement.
Then, the conditions for a communist revolution is going to become apparent.
However, it did not go smoothly. The nationalist leader of China, Çan Kay Şek,
ordered the purge of the Communists after the unification. Because of this anti-
communist persecutions, the communists retreated to the mountainous areas and
there began to mobilize the Chinese peasants for a future communist revolution.

Before the Communist Revolution in 1949, Mao Zedong consodilated his leadership
in Northern China, Yan'an region. He met his version of Marxism and Orthodoxy,
thereby defeating those having Bolshevik understanding of Communism in the Party.

The Nationalist government faced more and more troubles as the time passed. The
communists were not the only reasons. There were still war lords allied with Çan Kay
Şek. They were commissioned to hinder the Communists from reaching these lands.
In return, however, they were allowed to remained in power in their regions. It creates
a financial problem since these war lords did not transfer the land taxes to the centre.
Therefore, the Natonalists could not establish a solid financial base. The Japanese
invasion of Manchuria was another factor. The Japanese were determined to control
whole China, thereby marching through the south of the region. Sino-Japanese War
began just before the Second World War and came to an end when they were
defeated by the Allies. However, this end did not bring the unification to China. The
second united front between the Communists and the Nationalists came to an end in
parallel with the end of WWII. A civil war erupted and lasted for about four years. At
the end, the Communists defeated Çan Kay Şek's nationalist government. The
People's Republic of China was founded in the mainland China.

Which one is the accurate underyling reason for this remarkable governmental
change in China? Nationalist failure or communist success? The answer is both!

• The Nationalist Party was very weak.

• The Nationalist armies wre fragmented and undisciplined.
• Çan Kay Şey relied on mediocre officials and commanders. He eliminated
talented people because of their potential to become rivals to his authority.

All of these led to a very corrupted and inefficient government in China.

• The members of the communist party were very committed unlike that of the
nationalist party.
• Unlike the nationalist party, the communist party was not a factionalized one.
• Mao Zedong adapted Marxism-Leninism to China's own circumstances.
• The capability of communist forces for flexible strategies (shifts between
guerilla tactics and positional army strategies) enabled the communists to
defeat the exhausted nationalist troops during the civil war.

LECTURE – 30 (WORLD WAR TWO)

Watch the documentary.