Chap 19

Daniel Guerrero

Professor Patricia Andrews, MA

03/18/19

Chapter 19

Empires in Collison

In this chapter it will be talking about three different societies who come into direct conflict and the 

different way they respond to these challenges. I will first start off with China, in 1750 China was 

still global superpower that dominated world trade. IN 1793, Emperor Chen long made a fateful 

decision to deny Britain's request to loosen the trade of restrictions. This is now as the century of 

humiliation. China's economic success and the increasing agricultural output from new world crops, 

China's population went from 100 million in 1685 to 430 million in 1853. With this amount of 

people living in China, unemployment happened, poverty and social ill began to grow. Which means 

that their were riots with in their community. Next the Ottoman Empire, by the 1900's the empire 

was known as "THE SICK MAN OF EUROPE." Around the 19th century the Ottoman Empire was 

the great power of the Islamic World. Series of military successes against Europe it was seen as the 

great defender of Islam. After the French invasion in Egypt in 1798, various of European powers 

began to hand off more territory. China and the Ottoman Empire had several similarities. Both 

pursued a defensive modernization neither achieved a complete industrial transformation. Both 

societies saw the spread of nationalism as a motivating ideology. One big difference between these 

empires, China always in a revolution until a communist victory in 1949, which brought more chaos 

in 1958 to 1976. Japan also faced challenges, unlike the other two, Japan's modernization was largely 

successful. The Tokugawa system established two in a half centuries of peace.  (250 years of peace 

and prosperity) INcrease urbanization within Tokyo reaching 1 million. With their successes, there 

also had o be some conflicts. There was a lot of tensions between the Samurai and the Merchants. 

Samurai's were known as elites, held a high status but had not wealth. On the other hand merchants 

were very wealthy and often loan money.  Also there was many social instability in the nation.