Social Darwinism
1800-1914 : An application of the concept of "survival of the fittest" to human history in the nineteenth century.
Taiping Uprising
1800-1914 : Massive Chinese rebellion that devastated much of the country between 1850 and 1864; it was based on the millenarian teachings of Hong Xiuquan
Opium Wars
1800-1914 : Two wars fought between Western powers and China (1839-1842 and 1856-1858) after China tried to restrict the importation of foreign goods, especially opium; China lost both wars and was forced to make major concessions
Unequal Treaties
1800-1914 : Series of nineteenth-century treaties in which China made major concessions to Western powers
Self-Strengthening Movement
1800-1914 : Chinas program of internal reform in the 1860s and 1870s, based on vigorous application of Confucian principles and limited borrowing from the west
Boxer Uprising
1800-1914 : Rising of Chinese militia organizations in 1900 in which large numbers of Europeans and Chinese Christians were killed
China, 1911
1800-1914 :The collapse of China's imperial order, officially at the hands of organized revolutionaries but for the most part under the weight of the troubles that had overwhelmed the government for the previous half-century
"The Sick Man of Europe"
1800-1914 : Western Europe's unkind nickname for the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a name based on the sultans' inability to prevent Western takeover of many regions and to deal with internal problems; it fails to recognize serious reform efforts in the Ottoman state during this period
Tanzimat
1800-1914 :Important reform measures undertaken in the Ottoman Empire beginning in 1839; the term "Tanzimat" means "reorgini-zation"
Young Ottomans
1800-1914 : Group of would-be reformers in the mid-nineteenth century Ottoman Empire that included lower-level officials, military officers, and writers; they urged the extension of Westernizing reforms to the political system
Sultan Abd al-Hamid II
1800-1914 : Ottoman sultan (r. 1876-1909) who accepted a reform constitution but then quickly suppressed it, ruling as a reactionary autocrat for the rest of his long reign
Young Turks
1800-1914 : Movement of Turkish military and civilian elites that developed ca. 1900, eventually bringing down the Ottoman Empire
Informal Empires
1800-1914 : Term commonly used to describe areas that were dominated by Western powers in the nineteenth century but that retained their own governments and a measure of independence, e.g., Latin America and China
Tokugawa Japan
1800-1914 : , the Tokugawa Shogunate provided 2 centuries of internal peace in Japan. During this time, Japan was "pacified...but not really united" because there was little internal conflict, yet it was essentially ruled by over 260 daimyos who were practicing alternate attendance. During this time, the Samurai occupied the highest class on the social hierarchy. They had no wars to fight in, so they became salaried beurocrats and administrators.
Meiji Restoration
1800-1914 : The overthrow of the Tokugawa shoqunate of Japan in 1868, restoring power at long last to the emperor Meiji
Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905
1800-1914 : Ending in a Japanese victory, this war was established Japan as a formidable military competitor in East Asia and precipitated the Russian Revolution of 1905