To the 25th question: Civilizations of the East and European colonialism in modern times

Development of Asian and African countries in modern times: theoretical approaches

East in modern times: general characteristics

New history for the East is a period of colonial expansion of the West and, as a result, the destruction of the traditional economic system or, if you like, the transition from feudalism to capitalism under the influence, first of all, of an impulse from outside. During the period under review, all the Eastern countries turned into colonies, semi-colonies of the Western powers or, like Japan, were forced (to no small extent under the threat of Western invasion) to assimilate capitalist relations or stimulate their development where the rudiments of such already existed.

The East is a conglomeration of diverse, very specific countries and peoples, but all of them have something in common that distinguishes - and, at times, opposes them to the West.

What exactly are the main distinguishing features of Eastern societies and states:

§ The state is the supreme owner of the land

Underdevelopment of the principle of private property (primarily land as the main means of production). History of the East. In 6 vols. T. 3. East at the turn of the Middle Ages and modern times. XVI-XVIII centuries M., 1999., p. 10: “It cannot be said that in the East there were no individual rights or property rights. But they existed only within the limits of private law. A private person could successfully defend his interests against another private person, but not against the state. A private owner (low-level, taxable) had full rights to his property, including land, including the right to alienate, but state interference in property relations, including land ownership, was not limited by law.

§ The supremacy of the state in all spheres of life of society and the individual

§ The dominance of the community as a "transmission belt of the state" and, at the same time, an autonomous mediator between the individual and the state

§ Society as a hierarchy of corporations (communities). Feudalism (or traditional society) is characterized by a close connection between a person and a specific type of labor, and it is in one of the countries of the East, in India, that this connection finds its absolute embodiment in the form of a caste system.

§ Closed self-sufficient (subsistence or semi-subsistence) economy; it is in the East that the economic isolation of the community is more pronounced than in the West

§ The stability of economic and political institutions and, as the reverse side of sustainability, their (institutions) inertia

§ Dominance of collective forms of thinking, non-manifestation or weak manifestation of private initiative and individualism

Quite often, Eastern despotism as a form of political organization is cited as one of the most fundamental specific features of the East. But more on that later

Within the framework of various “big” historical concepts, the East, its specificity, socio-economic system, dynamics and historical fate are interpreted in different ways:

K. Marx singled out a special "Asian mode of production", characterized by the absence of private ownership of land, stagnation of the economy, despotic political regimes

Modern neo-Marxists prefer to talk about "Eastern feudalism", emphasizing its relationship with the European Middle Ages. History of the East. In 6 vols. T. 3. East at the turn of the Middle Ages and modern times. XVI-XVIII centuries M., 1999, p. 9: “the social system of medieval Asia and North Africa can be called “eastern feudalism”, i.e. system, stadial more or less corresponding to the feudal era in Western Europe, but having a number of features. According to the main parameters of the phenomenon that is commonly called feudalism (or the system of the Middle Ages - the terminology is not essential), the East not only showed a coincidence, but even greater closeness to the model. So to speak, the "feudalism" of Eastern societies was even higher than that of Western societies.

Within the framework of Marxist theory, feudalism (or the Asian mode of production) historically naturally must give way to the capitalist formation. Therefore, the countries of Asia and Africa, which lagged behind the West in terms of the development of bourgeois relations, had to become victims of the colonial expansion of societies that had a more efficient (more productive) economic organization. Colonialism is thus not a product of the superiority of European armies, but a way of restructuring Eastern societies on a capitalist footing. Although Marxists do not deny the enormous costs of this method, it seems to be historically inevitable and progressive.

In line with the civilizational approach, the East is understood as an original civilization (or a complex of civilizations), which has equally original laws of development.

At the end of the 15th century, a European sea expedition led by Vasco da Gama first came to India from Europe by sea. At the beginning of the 17th century, Europeans reached the shores of Australia. Unlike Australia and the Pacific Islands, where by the arrival of Europeans the local population was at the pre-state level, India, China and the countries of Southeast Asia already had developed civilizations that Europeans had previously encountered through land travel.

The eastern states were characterized by despotic power, the high role of the bureaucratic apparatus.

Since the middle of the 16th century, the Hindustan peninsula has been under the rule of the Muslim empire of the Great Moghuls.

China at the beginning of the New Age was a single state, ruled by the Ming dynasty. Already in the 16th century, the Chinese banned the entry of Europeans into their country, leaving only a few port cities for merchants to access.

Events

1600- Foundation of the East India Company by the British in order to colonize India.

1644- The invasion of the Manchu tribes in China. The reign of the Qing Dynasty in China.

1707- death of the last Great Mogul Aurangzeb. The collapse of the Mughal Empire. It became a prerequisite for increased activity of British colonization.

1848-1856- British capture of Punjab.

1857-1859- sepoy uprising in India.

1858- End of East India Company rule in India. The government of India is transferred to the British crown. The policy of expanding privileges to local princes.

1877- Queen Victoria is proclaimed Empress of India.

1840-1842- The first "opium war" in China. The British were selling opium, a powerful drug, to China. A war broke out in response to the Chinese government's attempt to ban the import of opium. Britain won this war and received the opening of five Chinese ports for trade, the island of Hong Kong passed into the possession of Great Britain.

1856-1860- the second Opium War. Britain is fighting in alliance with France. Britain and France received the right to trade in the coastal and some interior regions of China. Other Western countries have received similar rights.

1868-1889 Meiji Revolution in Japan. In Japan, the power of the emperor is restored. After this revolution, the industrialization and external expansion of Japan began. Japan began to transform from an underdeveloped agrarian country into one of the world's leading powers.

1899-1901- Yihetuan uprising in China ("Boxer Rebellion"). It was directed against foreign interference in the economy. It was suppressed by the Chinese authorities together with foreign powers. After the uprising, China's dependence on foreign influence increased.

1860-1880- discovery of gold and diamond deposits in South Africa.

1899-1902- Anglo-Boer War. The Boers are the descendants of Protestant colonists from Holland and France who lived in South Africa. As a result of the war, the Orange Free State and the Republic of Transvaal (the Boer states) became part of the British Empire with the preservation of local government.

Members

Aurangzeb- Padishah of the Mughal Empire.

British East India Company- a joint-stock company created to conduct trading operations in India and played a key role in the British colonization of India.

Robert Clive- British general, "father" of the English Empire in India.

Sun Yat-sen- Chinese revolutionary.

cixi- Chinese Empress of the Qing Dynasty.

Conclusion

The East in modern times is being actively explored by the West, many countries fall under the influence of Europeans. The possession of huge capitals and political influence gives Europeans the opportunity to establish influence even in countries that in modern times had a stable developed state, as, for example, happened with China.

Parallels

In Bengal in 1769-1770. and in the 1780-1790s. a terrible famine broke out. It was caused by the fact that local producers of salt, tobacco and other goods were obliged to hand over their products to the East India Company at very low prices. Landowners, peasants and artisans were ruined, which led to famine with millions of victims. Whereas the British merchants on the resale of Indian goods fabulously enriched.

A similar situation developed in Ireland in the middle of the 19th century. Famine broke out due to the defeat of the potato fields by the fungus, and the potato was the main food of the Irish farmers. Despite the fact that Ireland was a major producer of grain and meat, these products did not save them from starvation, as they were given to the English landowners.

The subject of modern and recent history of the East

Topic #1

PLAN:

1. The subject of the history of the East

2. Periodization of the history of Asian and African countries

1. The subject of the history of the East:

The term "EAST" refers to the countries of Asia and Africa. In science, the term "NEZAPAD" also existed, but it did not take root. In 1952, sociologists introduced the term "THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES", which after the Cold War period is used in conjunction with the term "DEVELOPING COUNTRIES".

To study the history of the East, the most common are Formation and Civilization approaches.

New history is considered within the framework of feudalism, the latest - within the framework of capitalism.

The rigid Marxist scheme of the OEF (primitive communal system, slavery, feudalism, capitalism, communism), created mainly on the basis of European history, did not accommodate the economic and political realities of the East. The first to understand this was Marx himself, who supplemented his scheme with a special Asian formation or ASP (Asiatic mode of production).

The most important features of the ASP:

1. The state is the supreme owner of the land, and the individual only occasionally (in special circumstances becomes the owner, remaining at the root of the allotment user (temporary conditional or hereditary owner) and the distributor of the production product

2. Community peasants (not slaves and not serfs, but personally free peasants - the bulk of the taxable population / as the main exploited and politically disenfranchised layer /

3. A supra-communal state (government) of a despotic type, exercising strict control over private business activities and a monopoly on some vital industries

4. A significant layer of strictly hierarchical bureaucracy

5. Various religious and ethical doctrines (religions of the East) as an official (state) ideology

What exactly Marx meant by ASP is unknown. Maybe a certain stage of pre-class society, maybe a kind of early class formations, a M / B version of the feudal system. Gurevich believes that Marx resorts to this concept in order to emphasize the deep originality of social structures in the East.

Vasiliev A. uses the historical and cultural civilizational approach to determine the history of the East and divides history into conditional stages of development:

antiquity

Eastern Middle Ages: 17-ser.19v.

· colonial period: mid-19th - mid-20th centuries.

Decolonization and the formation of modern models of development: the second half. 20th century

Starting from the 17th century. in early capitalist Europe, interest in the countries of the East increased sharply. Numerous books written by missionaries, travelers, merchants, and then orientalists increasingly drew attention to the specifics of the social, economic and political structure of these countries, alien to the usual European standard, already in the 18th century. Opinions about the East became very contradictory: some subjected the Eastern orders to sharp criticism (Sch. L. Montesquieu, D. Defoe), while others were inclined to sing them (Voltaire, F. Quesnay).

Somewhat later, political economists and philosophers began to make a significant contribution to the analysis of accumulated knowledge about the East. The famous A. Smith, who explained the difference between the owner's rent and the state tax, drew attention to the absence of differences between these political and economic categories in the East and came to the conclusion that there the overlord refers to the land both as an owner and as a subject of power. Contribution to the analysis of Eastern societies was made at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. philosophical works of Hegel, who drew attention to the mechanism of power and the phenomenon of general lack of rights, to the highest regulatory - controlling functions of the state and the entire system of administration in different parts of Asia, up to China. In Russia, the scientific study of the history of the East was born at the beginning of the 18th century.

Marx and Engels in the middle of the 19th century. introduce the term "Asian mode of production", but do not give a clear definition of it.

During the Soviet period, domestic oriental studies were strongly influenced by the ideology of Marxism-Leninism with its idea of ​​world revolution.

In world science, several concepts have been created, the authors of which aim to give a summary - generalizing analysis of world history, including the history of the East. One of the most striking among them is the concept of local civilizations of the English historian A. Toynbee, the meaning of which is that almost every one of the two or three dozen civilizations identified by the author (in different versions), ancient and modern, is not only unique and inimitable but also valuable in and of itself. Developing according to fundamentally common laws for all, it arises, develops, declines and eventually dies. The imperfection of this concept is not so much that civilizations are singled out by Toynbee most often on a religious basis, and not even that they are all recognized as equal to each other in their unique value for humanity as a whole. The main weakness of this concept is that it blurs the dynamics of the world-historical process.

In this sense, the concept of the German sociologist M. Weber, who identified the reasons that prevented the East from developing as dynamically as it was in Europe, is preferable. Weber substantiated the theory of factors of various value systems.

Most historians continue to contrast the terms "West - East".

Questions for self-control:

· What does the subject of modern and recent history of the Afro-Asian region include?

· What are the features of the periodization of the history of the East by different historical schools?

· Describe the main differences between the three periods of study of the history of the East in Russia (pre-revolutionary, Soviet and modern)?

Literature.

1. Vasiliev L. S. History of the East. Volume 1. M - 1993.-p.13-46, 483-495; Vol.2, pp.70-78, 182-187, 244-248, 259-278

India in modern times. The socio-economic development of India by the beginning of the New Age was uneven. In some mountainous, forested areas inhabited by tribes of peoples who were at various stages of the formation of a class society.

In general, India was at the stage of developed feudalism. The features of feudalism were: the ownership of the feudal state to land and large irrigation facilities; the peculiar character of the Indian community; the widespread preservation of the remnants of the communal-tribal system and slavery; caste system. Commodity-money relations have reached a significant level of development.

In 1526, the Timurid Babur invaded India and became the founder of the Mughal Empire, which united almost all of India under its rule at the time of its heyday. The golden age of the Mughal Empire was the reign of padishah Akbar (1556-1605), who carried out a series of reforms that laid the foundations for governing the country. A tax reform was carried out, as part of the land reform, the land cadastre was completed and the system of jagirs and zamindars was introduced.

The basis of the economy of the Mughal Empire was agriculture. In the XVI - XVIII centuries. it had a fairly high level of productivity, which was facilitated by the use of fertilizers and crop rotation techniques by the peasants. In agriculture, the share of industrial crops was steadily growing, which stimulated the development of commodity-money relations.

The rural community, the main cell of the agrarian society, was a complex structure and included several social levels. All lands in the Mughal state were divided into three main categories. From the state domain (khalis), the shah distributed military fiefs (jagirs) to officials for service. From the lands of the khalis, sovereigns distributed tax-free grants to temples, mosques and other religious institutions. A significant stratum of the feudal class was made up of zamindars - petty feudal lords, people from the communal elite, or the Hindu nobility, who retained their property rights to land under Muslim rulers in exchange for humility and payment of tribute. In addition to state lands and military fiefs, there were lands that were privately owned, they were designated by a special term (milk). The main form of taxation was small - land rent - a tax that full-fledged community members paid either to the state, if the land was included in the Khalis fund, or to the feudal holder. For India XVI - XVIII century. was characterized by a high level of trade. The whole country was covered with a network of interconnected markets. Cities were centers of trade exchange - from local to international

Popular movements resulted from the aggravation of the contradictions of feudal society. At the same time, some peoples of India fought for their ethnic territorial and linguistic unity. The liberation wars of the Marathas and Jats, the anti-feudal action of the Sikhs had very important consequences. They undermined the power of the Mughal kings. This created favorable conditions for the development of feudal separatism. The Mughal governors of a number of regions - (Bengal, Auda, Dean) felt their strength and ceased to obey the Great Mogul. Relying on the local nobility, they began to turn their governorships into states that were virtually independent of Delhi. The collapse of the Mughal state took place during the 30 years separating the death of Shah Aurangzeb from the invasion of the Persian Shah Nadir. The invasion of Nadir Shah brought the Mughal Empire to the brink of destruction. The political disintegration of the Mughal state, the signs of which were already clearly visible in the first quarter of the 18th century, ended in the 40s - 60s. By the 60s of the XVIII century. the real power of the Great Mughals extended only to a few areas.

The first Europeans to establish themselves in India were the Portuguese. Not seeking to penetrate deep into the country, the Portuguese limited themselves to capturing strongholds on the coast. However, at the end of the 16th - beginning of the 17th centuries. Portugal lost hegemony on the sea routes to India. It was taken over by Holland and England. An English campaign for trade with India was established in 1600 and received a charter from Queen Elizabeth for monopoly trade with countries east of the Cape of Good Hope.

In India itself, the campaign sought trade privileges from the Mughals and the elimination of its Portuguese and Dutch competitors. From 1615, the rapid growth of English trading posts began. During the 17th century the English East India campaign built a number of trading posts in India and obtained other privileges from the Mughals. The main English trading post in the XVII century. was Madras. The second destination was Bombay.

The first French merchants appeared in India at the beginning of the 17th century. The French campaign for trade with India was created in 1664, it was the brainchild of an absolutist government. In the middle of the XVIII century. the most powerful European campaigns in India were the English and French. The rivalry led them to an armed clash.

By the middle of the XVIII century. the English campaign became a very rich organization, which had not only trading posts, a large staff of employees, but also ships and troops. In addition, she enjoyed the support of the government, a powerful English fleet could always provide her with help from the mother country. The French campaign was significantly weaker in resources. In her trade wars with England, the weakness of absolutist France at sea played a decisive role. The government of France, having ruined its country, failed to defend its overseas possessions from stronger English rivals. In 1756, the Seven Years' War began, in which England and France again turned out to be opponents. Moreover, the struggle took place not only in Europe, but spread to America and India. The Treaty of Paris in 1763 effectively ended French rule in India.

England's victory was reflected in its economic strength. Despite the activity and talents of many representatives of the French campaign, they were defeated, because France did not have such a fleet, such funds, such an understanding by the government of the value of the colonies, such a well-paid army, as in England.

Of great importance in the history of India was the conquest of Bengal. On June 23, 1757, in the battle of Plassey, the troops of the Nawab of Siraj - ud - Daula were defeated by the British. The day of this battle is considered by the British as the date of foundation of their empire in India. Under the guise of gifts and extortion, the robbery of the Bengali feudal lords began. If before that there was trade between India and Great Britain, now the transfer of wealth from India to England has begun. The restructuring of the economic life of Bengal also began. The British monopolization of Bengali trade had the most severe consequences for the Bengal economy. The districts, captured by the British and too far from Calcutta, were difficult to manage. Therefore, a system of dual administration of civil affairs was introduced, the court, maintenance of order, etc., were in charge of the local Bengali authorities, and the campaign took over the collection of land tax. In 1773, an act was passed on the government of India. According to this document, all power in India still remained in the hands of the campaign. However, the main change was the recognition of the campaign not just as a trade organization, but as the ruler of Indian territory, and therefore the supervision of its activities passed to the British government. And the highest officials in India - the governor general and four members of his council were to be appointed not by the campaign, but by the government.

In 1784, the most important issues of Indian government shifted largely from campaigning to a board of control appointed by the prime minister. The Council began to gradually turn into a kind of department for Indian affairs.

Subsequently, the issue of governing India became the subject of parliamentary struggle during the revision of the campaign charter in 1813. At that time, Mysore and the main Maratha possessions were already conquered and the prerequisites for turning India into a market were created. Therefore, the entire English bourgeoisie opposed the trade monopoly of the East India Campaign. An act of 1833, passed at the initiative of the ruling Whig party, left the campaign the right to govern India, but placed it under further government control by introducing an official appointed by the crown to the Bengal council, who was specially involved in drafting legislation for all of India.

The apparatus of colonial oppression in India was created gradually, without a radical break. When the trading company became the de facto government of India and completely new tasks arose before it, it did not create a new mechanism for solving them, but began to adapt the old one. Its trading apparatus gradually turned into a bureaucracy - a bureaucratic apparatus for managing a vast country.

Three English possessions - Bengal, Madras and Bombay acted almost independently of each other. Each presidency had the right to conduct independent correspondence with the Board of Directors, to issue its own decisions, which had the force of law in the territory of this presidency. Thus, different laws were in force in Bengal, Madras and Bombay.

The most important element of the colonial apparatus of power was the sepoy army. With her help, the British conquered all of India, and also kept the country in check. The sepoy army consisted of three armies - Bengal, Madras and Bombay.

The judiciary played an important role in the apparatus of oppression in India. The Supreme Court was considered the highest judicial body. At the beginning of the XIX century. there were three supreme courts separately in each presidency.

The government of India was actually in the hands of military and civilian officials - the British. However, the grassroots apparatus consisted of Indians. At first, in Bengal, Indian tax collectors were placed over the British collectors, and until the introduction of the permanent zamindari system, the Indian tax apparatus remained under British control.

At the end of the 18th century, the British introduced a system of permanent zamindari. Representatives of the old feudal nobility (zamindars), tax-farmers, usurers were granted hereditary ownership of the land, from which they had to collect a fixed tax once and for all. As a result of creating and maintaining such a complex mechanism, the British received in India a sufficiently strong social support to strengthen colonial oppression. However, the ownership rights of the zamindars were limited by a number of conditions. So, in case of arrears, the colonial authorities could confiscate the estate of the zamindar and sell it at auction.

In the first quarter of the XIX century. on the lands that originally constituted the Madras Presidency, a land-tax system called rayatwari is introduced. In 1818-1823 this system was extended to those lands of the Madras Presidency where a permanent zamindari had not yet been introduced. The campaign, through its tax apparatus, leased land in small plots to peasants on the rights of an indefinite lease. Peasants were actually attached to the land.

In the first third of the XIX century. in the regions of central India, a somewhat modified system was introduced, called mausavar. Under her rule, the village community as a whole was considered the fiscal unit and the owner of the land.

Such a policy led to the pauperization of the Indian peasantry and the destruction of the community. The irrigation system is being destroyed.

The customs policy of England, by means of low duties, encouraged English exports to India, and by means of high duties hindered the import of Indian handicrafts into England. The transformation of India into a market for English goods proceeded in the same way by destroying Indian local production where it competed with English products. In the first third of the XIX century. the British colonialists began to exploit the Indian colony not only as a market, but also as a market for raw materials. This caused an increase in the marketability of the peasant economy.

Back in the 18th century the campaign forced Bengali peasants to plant poppies to export opium to China. At the end of the XVIII century. the British began to force Indian peasants to grow indigo as well. In connection with the growth of textile production in England, the campaign made an attempt to widely develop the culture of cotton. In connection with the growth of exports of raw silk from India to England, the colonialists made some attempts to expand sericulture.

The intensified exploitation of India by British capitalism and new forms of colonial oppression evoked a spontaneous rebuff from the peoples of India, who flared up in different parts of the country. The uprisings were spontaneous. local, scattered, which made it easier for the East India campaign to defeat them.

The struggle of the peoples of India against colonial oppression in the last third of the 19th century. The advent of the era of imperialism entailed intensified exploitation of India by new forms and methods, and an increase in its national oppression by the British colonialists. In the 70-90s of the XIX century. in India, the construction of large capitalist enterprises proceeded at a comparatively rapid pace. The development of capitalism in India, many decades late in comparison with European countries, proceeded unevenly and one-sidedly. It was mainly light industry that grew, mainly textile, as well as the industry for processing agricultural raw materials. Of the branches of heavy industry, only extractive ones developed. Industrial enterprises were concentrated mainly on the sea coasts. The brake on the development of Indian industry was its dependence on the import of British equipment, the absence of cheap capitalist credit, the railway tariff system, the customs policy favorable to British importers, etc.

The level of agricultural development was extremely low. Feudal-landlord property and semi-serf forms and methods of exploiting the peasants continued to dominate in the countryside. Capitalist relations penetrated into the countryside, mainly into the plantation economy (growing tea, jute, etc.) very slowly. The specialization of agriculture rapidly increased, and areas of monocultures were defined. The growth of the marketability of agriculture in the conditions of colonial, semi-feudal India took place not as a result of an improvement in the technique and culture of cultivating the land, but due to increased tax oppression and semi-serf exploitation of the population.

The colonial regime extremely complicated and slowed down the formation of nations in India. The strongest obstacle on this path was the existence of about six hundred feudal principalities, which were guarded in every possible way by the British authorities. The remnants of the caste system, the power of religion greatly hampered the political consolidation of peoples and the development of national identity. The strengthening of colonial oppression with the approach of the era of imperialism determined the promotion of the tasks of the struggle against foreign colonialists to the fore. A small but influential bourgeois intelligentsia acted as the ideologist of the emerging pan-Indian national liberation movement. In the 1970s and early 1980s in Bengal, Bombay and other economically most developed provinces of the country, bourgeois-landowner organizations of various political trends arose one after another.

The further development of the national liberation movement was greatly influenced by spontaneous peasant uprisings. The beginning of a wave of peasant uprisings against the "dirty troika" (as the English rulers, landowners and usurers were called in India) was the events of 1872 in the Punjab. The struggle of the working masses of the village and the urban lower classes was led by a sect called Namdhari. In 1879, another uprising of the Maratha peasantry began, which this time was both anti-feudal and anti-English. It was led by a petty official from the city of Pune, a patriot-revolutionary Vasudev Balwant Phadke. In the early 1980s, uprisings took place in Rajputana, Bihar, the province of Madras (the "five uprisings" of the Mopla people), and others. The British colonialists were able to crush all these disparate uprisings. But the determination with which the peasants fought against foreign enslavers, for the elimination of zamindarism and usury, armed forms of struggle forced the authorities to make some concessions.

Ottoman Empire in modern times.

Ottoman Empire in the 16th - early 19th centuries. At the beginning of the XVI century. The Ottoman Empire, having made huge territorial gains in Europe and the Middle East, turned into the largest power in the east. Since 1517, the absolute monarch of the Ottoman Empire combined in his person the titles of the head of secular power and the spiritual ruler of all Muslims living within his state. Almost all the lands of the former Caliphate (Arabia, Iraq, the Maghreb and even part of Transcaucasia, not to mention noticeable new acquisitions (the Balkans and Crimea) entered the Ottoman Empire. The powerful Ottoman Empire became a threat to Europe, including Russia.

In Turkey, the military fief Timariot system of land tenure dominated. The right to inherit was associated with the obligation of the heir to serve in the army. It was forbidden to transfer timar into the wrong hands on other grounds. Timariots were the main military force of Turkey.

All lands were divided into state lands, owned by private individuals on certain conditions, and lands of religious institutions (waqf), while the sultan was the supreme owner of all the lands of the empire.

As the empire grew, its internal structure became more complex. The internal control system also changed. A stratum of civil officials appeared, equated with soldiers, an influential stratum of senior officials appeared from among the dignitaries and the Sultan's relatives. The government of the country - the highest council (divan - and - humayun) was appointed by the sultan and was responsible to him. It consisted of several ministers - viziers and was headed by the grand vizier. The activities of the government were regulated by the code of laws of Kanun-name adopted under Mehmed II (1444 - 1481), as well as Islamic law - Sharia. The military-administrative system was headed by the Grand Vizier. Country to the XVI century. It was divided into 16 large regions - eyalets, headed by the governor - beylerbey, who was subordinate to the grand vizier.

In the XVI century. the area of ​​cultivated land of the empire practically ceased to grow, while population growth continued at a very rapid pace. On the one hand, this led to the fragmentation of timars and, consequently, to a decrease in their profitability. On the other hand, to the deterioration of the quality of life of the Raya, to the emergence of an increasing number of landless people among them. Unprofitability of small timar at the turn of the 16th - 17th centuries. was exacerbated by the wave of price revolution that reached Turkey, caused by the influx of cheap American silver into Europe. All this caused a series of popular uprisings. Urgent reforms were needed.

At first, the authorities took the easiest path. They decided to compensate for the decline in the corps of the sipahis by increasing the corps of the Janissaries, but the stake on the Janissaries had the opposite effect. Expenses for the army increased sharply, the treasury was not always able to pay salaries to the Janissaries on time. In response, they began to rebel and even remove objectionable sultans. In 1656, Mahmed Köprülü became grand vizier and carried out the first series of necessary reforms to Turkey. Their meaning was reduced to the restoration of the combat capability of the Timars and the revival of the decaying Timar system. Timars were restored by infringing on some other categories of land ownership. This led to the strengthening of discipline in the army, the authority of the central government increased, and some victories were even won. In particular, in 1681 the right-bank Ukraine was annexed to the empire. However, these successes were short-lived.

At the turn of the XVII - XVIII centuries. Turkey has suffered a number of serious defeats in wars. Increasingly, one or another European power, as a result of the war with Turkey, sought certain benefits or advantages in trade (the first such benefits - capitulations were granted to the French in 1535). In 1580, the British achieved such benefits, at the beginning of the 18th century. - Austrians. From about 1740, capitulations began to turn into unequal treaties.

The collapse of the Ottoman Empire began as early as the 18th century, when, as a result of a series of wars with Austria, Russia and Iran, Turkey lost some outlying territories - part of Bosnia, Tabriz, Azov and Zaporozhye. In addition, she was forced to agree to give up political control in some other countries (Georgia, Moldova, Wallachia). By the end of the XVIII century. the local dynasties of the countries of the Maghreb, Egypt, Arabia, Iraq were also very weakly controlled by the Turkish sultan, the Egyptian expedition of Napoleon at the turn of the 18th - 19th centuries. was another sensitive blow to the prestige of the Ottoman Empire. The uprising of the Wahhabis finally tore Arabia from Turkey, which soon fell into the hands of the powerful Muhammad - Ali of Egypt.

First, the decline of military power, and then the economic and political backwardness of Turkey from the rapidly developing capitalist Europe, led at the end of the 18th century. to the fact that for the European powers, who had previously fought off the onslaught of the Turks with difficulty, the so-called Eastern question arose. Since that time, Turkey has actually lost its former independence in international affairs, and the very preservation of the empire as a major military-political association has largely depended on disagreements between the powers.

Last third of the 18th century is a turning point in the history of the struggle of the Balkan peoples against the Turkish yoke. One of the factors of the national liberation movement was the appearance of Russian troops in the Balkans, the victories won by Russia over Turkey on land and at sea in the wars of 1768-1774. and 1787-1791. In the reign of Selim III, almost all the oppressed peoples fought with a powerful movement; Greeks, Bulgarians, Montenegrins, Serbs, Romanians in the Balkans, Arabs in Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula were covered.

The second round of reforms associated with the names of Sultans Selim III (1789 - 1807) and Mahmud II (1808 - 1839). Selim III, carrying out reforms in the army, in the field of land tenure, finance, administrative management, etc., tried to strengthen the central government and prevent the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. The main thing was the desire of the reformers to put an end to the military fief system and such an ugly manifestation of it as the corps of the Janissaries. Therefore, on May 28, 1826, Mahmud II issued an imperial decree on the creation of a regular army. At the same time, Mahmud II cracked down on the Bektashi Sufi order, closely associated with the Janissaries. Thus, the prerequisites for the creation of a regular army were created.

The consequences of the Turkish-Egyptian conflict showed how difficult the political and military situation of Turkey was and its dependence on the European powers increased. No less difficult was her economic situation; the growth of political dependence was accompanied by an increase in economic dependence on the big capitalist countries.

Agriculture continued to be in an extremely difficult condition. But a new phenomenon became more and more noticeable in it - the growth of large private landed property (ciftliks) at the expense of Timars and Zeamets, especially in European Turkey. The situation of the peasants in chiftliks was even more difficult than in timars, because they were forced to give half of the crop to the owner of the chiftlik and, in addition, pay ashar and other taxes to the state. In the first third of the XIX century. Turkey had many large cities. From the second quarter of the 19th century in the cities, some industries began to develop - textile, leather, ceramics, weapons production. The regular army was a major consumer of local industrial products. Progressive processes have become noticeable in industry itself; they were expressed in the growth of the division of labor, in the appearance of manufactories and even factories. Domestic and especially foreign trade noticeably revived, which in turn contributed to the growth of cities located on the sea coasts and on major internal trade routes.

A certain development of industry and trade led to the birth of the industrial and commercial bourgeoisie. However, even then foreign capital stood in the way of the development of Turkish trade and the industrial bourgeoisie.

Socio-economic development of Turkey in the first third of the XIX century. urgently demanded reforms in land relations and the state system. In 1831-1832. the final liquidation of the military fief system of land tenure began. The Timars and Zeamets were taken from the flankers and added to the state fund. The liquidation of the military system was accompanied by an administrative reform, since the former system underlay the administrative structure of the Ottoman Empire. Among other reforms, we should mention the unification of the customs system in 1836, the abolition of the state monopoly on the purchase of wheat and wool in 1838, the creation in 1836 - 1837 of the customs system. ministries of foreign affairs, internal affairs, military, the establishment of permanent embassies in Paris, Vienna, London and Berlin. Sultan Mahmud II tried to show that he was a supporter of the equality of all subjects without distinction of religion.

Further development of the reforms was taken up by a special commission headed by a prominent statesman, diplomat Mustafa Reshid Pasha, an admirer of the West. The reformers hoped that the proclamation of the reforms would eliminate the threat of power interference in Turkey's internal affairs and ease the internal political crisis. On November 3, 1839, a decree was proclaimed in the park of the Sultan's palace (Gülhane (House of Roses). It contained a promise to ensure the security of life, honor and property for all subjects of the Ottoman Empire, the correct methods of distributing and levying taxes, the abolition of the farming system, streamlining conscription into the army and reduction in military service.

In the development of the Gulhane Act, a number of decrees on reforms were issued. These reforms were called "tanzimat-i hairiye" ("beneficial reforms") in Turkish official historiography. In 1840, the collection of taxes was reformed. In the same year, a semblance of a criminal code was drawn up and the development of a civil code began. By decree of 1843, a new structure of the army was established. General (for Muslims) military service was declared. In the same year, the death penalty for renegades of Islam was abolished.

Pashas, ​​tax-farmers, usurers, clergy and other reactionaries, especially in the provinces, frustrated the reforms. The reforms carried out from above did not in the least improve the conditions of the working masses, but they contributed to the growth of the bourgeoisie, including non-Turkish by nationality. At the same time, they contributed to the strengthening of the position of foreign capital in Turkey, by that time already significant. In 1838-1841. England, France and other Western states concluded trade agreements with Turkey that were unfavorable for her, which provided them with new privileges in addition to those that had long existed on the basis of capitulations. Foreign capital increasingly adapted the Turkish economy to its needs. In the 30-50s of the XIX century. increased imports of foreign manufactured goods to Turkey and (to a much lesser extent) exports of Turkish agricultural raw materials. The import of foreign goods, secured by many privileges, caused the decline of Turkish industry. The export of raw materials had certain progressive consequences for Turkey: commodity-money relations grew in the countryside, the production of certain agricultural products expanded or arose anew. Thus, both politically and economically, in the 30-50s of the 19th century, despite the reforms, the prerequisites were created for the transformation of Turkey into a semi-colony of developed capitalist countries, mainly England and France, in their agricultural and raw material appendage.

To cover the costs, the government often resorted to external loans. This state of affairs caused alarm in the circles of the Turkish public. Among the liberal intelligentsia, a current emerged that, as a measure of salvation, put forward the demand for the creation of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Objectively, it reflected the interests of the Turkish bourgeoisie, the supporters of the reforms were called the Young Turks or the New Ottomans.

Ottoman Empire in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. The development of world capitalism into imperialism accelerated the process of turning the Ottoman Empire into a semi-colony. Foreign loans and concessions became the instrument of economic and political enslavement of the country. Taking advantage of the extremely difficult economic situation in Turkey after the Crimean War, European bankers managed to entangle the country with a network of financial dependence through loans. The burden of external debt was so great that about half of all state expenditures fell on its repayment. By 1879, the situation had deteriorated so much that the Porte declared the complete financial bankruptcy of the Ottoman Empire. As a result of negotiations between the Porte and creditors in 1881, the “Ottoman Public Debt Office” was created from representatives of the largest European banks, which established their control over the most important sources of state income. Foreign capital has established complete control over the country's finances. The financial dependence of the Ottoman Empire was used by the powers to obtain profitable concessions. The transition to imperialist methods of exploitation was combined with the preservation and development of the former forms characteristic of the period of industrial capitalism.

A characteristic feature of the foreign trade of the Ottoman Empire was the ever-increasing deficit. In the early 70s, the Ottoman Empire entered a period of protracted crisis, the loss of control over certain territories and the active interference of Western powers in its internal affairs. The crisis was aggravated by a new upsurge in the national liberation struggle of the Balkan peoples, since the Tanzimat reforms did not lead to a noticeable improvement in the situation.

The situation became especially acute in 1873. Two lean years in a row led to a sharp deterioration in the situation in the countryside, a drop in tax revenues to the treasury. The aggravation of the domestic political crisis and the intervention of the great powers created a favorable environment for the speeches of supporters of constitutional reforms led by Midhat Pasha. On the night of May 30, 1876, Sultan Abdul-Aziz was deposed and killed.

On August 31, 1876, he was deposed. Sultan was his younger brother Abdul - Hamid II. Sultan Abdul-Hamid II (reigned 1876-1909) approved the draft constitution developed by Midhat Pasha and Namyk Kemal, and on December 23, 1876, the “Midhat Constitution” was solemnly promulgated. However, already at the beginning of 1877, the Sultan removed Midhat Pasha from the post of Grand Vizier, subjected most of the “new Ottomans” to repressions, and in February 1878, he dissolved the parliament elected according to the constitution and established an autocratic despotic regime (“Zulum”).

The defeat of Turkey in the Russian-Turkish war of 1877-1878. actually led to the almost complete collapse of Turkish domination in the Balkans. The Berlin Congress of 1878 recognized the independence of most of the Balkan peoples.

In an effort to keep subject peoples in obedience, Abdul-Hamid II cruelly persecuted the slightest manifestations of free thought, incited national and religious hatred, and provoked clashes between Muslims and Christians. However, Zulum could not stop the growth of progressive forces in the country. At the end of the XIX century. The political successors of the "new Ottomans" were the Young Turks, whose first organization was the secret committee "Unity and Progress" established in 1889.

Young Turk Revolution. The Young Turk Revolution of 1908 is the first bourgeois revolution in Turkey. It was aimed at overthrowing the despotic regime of Sultan Abdul-Hamid II, introducing a constitutional order, and in the longer term, freeing the country from semi-colonial dependence. Its prerequisites were formed in the late 19th - early 20th centuries, when the transformation of the Ottoman Empire into a semi-colony of imperialist powers was completed, and the despotic regime of Sultan Abdul-Hamid II, deepening the discontent of the masses, gave rise to an active protest movement in the circles of the bourgeois intelligentsia (especially officers), reflecting the interests of the young, still very weak Turkish national bourgeoisie. The movement was led by the secret organization Unity and Progress. The beginning of the Young Turk Revolution was preceded by the Chetnik (partisan) movement in Macedonia, the uprising of the sailors of the Turkish fleet in 1906, popular demonstrations in Anatolia in 1906-1907, unrest in Arab countries and others. The immediate impetus for the Young Turk Revolution was the Revel meeting of the English and Russian monarchs (June 1908), during which new reforms were planned in Macedonia, actually aimed at tearing it away from Turkey. On July 3, 1908, the Turkish couple formed in the city of Resna under the command of Major Niyazi raised an uprising, the purpose of which was to restore the constitution of 1876.

On July 6, a couple led by Major Enver (Enver Pasha) set out, and a few days later the uprising spread to most of the Turkish military units in Macedonia. They were joined by a Macedonian and Albanian couple. On July 23, revolutionary detachments entered Thessaloniki, Bitol and other major cities of Macedonia. At crowded rallies, the restoration of the constitution of 1876 was proclaimed. Convinced of the futility of resistance, Abdul-Hamid II signed a decree on the convocation of parliament.

By limiting the aims of the revolution to the establishment of a constitutional system, the leaders of the Young Turks sought to nip in the bud the activity of the popular masses, to win the "favor" of the imperialist powers by their moderation. Workers' strikes were suppressed, national minorities were persecuted. At the same time, the feudal-clerical and comprador opposition, supported by the imperialist powers, prepared and in April 1909 carried out a counter-revolutionary rebellion, which restored the autocracy of Abdul-Hamid II for a short time. The rebellion was suppressed by military units and Chetniks who arrived from Macedonia. Parliament deposed Abdul-Hamid (April 27, 1909) and elected the weak-willed Mehmed V as sultan. However, having strengthened their power, the Young Turks soon completely lost their former, albeit limited, bourgeois revolutionary spirit. They directed the doctrine of Ottomanism proclaimed by them (“the equality of all Ottomans”) to the forced turkishization of the peoples of the empire. The objectively progressive tendencies of Turkish bourgeois nationalism (Turkism) were replaced by the chauvinistic ideology of Pan-Turkism; Abdulkhamid's pan-Islamism also revived. Already by 1910-1911. The Young Turk revolution essentially failed. Since 1913, after the coup d'etat carried out by Enver, the constitution and parliament have practically lost all meaning. Unsolved problems constituted the historical legacy for the new stage of the Turkish bourgeois revolutionary movement.

Japan in modern times. By the middle of the XVI century. Japan was politically fragmented, the power and influence of the central government fell into decay. The movement for the unification of the country was led by medium and small daimyo - the rulers of small principalities. They faced the threat of uprisings and mass exodus of peasants from the principalities. From this arose in them the desire to unite the country, to create such a central government that would put an end to the internecine struggle and consolidate the rights of the feudal lords to manage their principalities and suppress the resistance of the peasants. The first so-called unifier of Japan, the daimyo of the Minno region, Oda Nobunaga, emerged from the middle feudal lords. All the activities of other leaders of the movement for the unification of the country, Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu, were primarily in the interests of this group of feudal lords.

By the middle of the XVIII century. Japan was a feudal country dominated by the Tokugawa house. He exercised a military-feudal dictatorship in the form of a shogunate in a relatively centralized feudal state and virtually single-handedly ruled all of Japan.

The most decisive measures to strengthen the feudal system were carried out by Nobunaga's successor, the de facto dictator of Japan, Hideyoshi. He issued a decree on the seizure of weapons from the peasants, proceeded to the main reform in relation to the peasantry. A land census was carried out - a cadastre. By decree of Hideyoshi, the peasants were taxed with a high land tax, and he introduced severe restrictions on the expenses of peasants for personal needs. The villages were divided into five-dvorki, headed by the most prosperous peasants, with all-round responsibility for paying the basic rent and other taxes.

The first Europeans who penetrated Japan were the Portuguese (1543), it was they who introduced the Japanese to firearms. In addition to European goods - weapons, fabrics, the Portuguese imported Chinese silk to Japan. They flooded the country with missionaries converting the population to Christianity. Areas whose rulers adopted Christianity received certain trade privileges from the Europeans. Toyotomi Hideyoshi was interested in trading with Europeans. But in 1587, after subjugating his most dangerous rival on the island of Kyushu Shimazu, he issued the first decree forbidding missionary propaganda. This was continued by Tokugawa Ieyasu, but he also promoted trade with Europeans, with the British and Dutch who appeared in Japan at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. At the same time, he continued to persecute missionaries and Japanese Christians. Ieyasu's successors, the shoguns Hidetada (1605-1623) and Iemitsu (1623-1651), intensified the persecution of Christians. In order to complete the unification of Japan and strengthen the feudal system, the shogunate eventually resorted to isolating the country from the outside world. The government feared the consequences of the missionary activities of foreigners. The Christian religion became an instrument of the opposition to the central government sections of the population. The isolation of the country from the outside world led to the economic and cultural backwardness of Japan in the 17th - 19th centuries.

By 1640-1700, the feudal structure of the shogunate was also taking shape. Tokugawa divided the nobility into several categories - the imperial family was singled out into a special group (Kuge). All other feudal clans were called Buke (military houses). Daime princes, in turn, were divided into three categories - the first belonged to the house of the shogun and called Ma shinhan, the second - fuzai - daimyo included princely families that have long been associated with the Tokugawa house, which were its main support, the third category - totzama consisted of sovereign princes, not dependent on the Tokugawa house and considering themselves equal to him feudal surnames. Formally, samurai also belonged to the buke. The cessation of internecine wars contributed to the development of Japanese agriculture. Gradually, commercial agriculture, cultivation of cotton, silk, sugar cane grew. In the 17th century the specialization of regions for individual crops was clearly defined.

The increase in the growth of the urban population was also due to the rapid emergence of the so-called castle towns, of which there were more than two hundred. The workshops and guilds of medieval Japan experienced some transformation during this period, and government monopolies were formed on their basis. At the beginning of the XVII century. the unification of the country, which took place under the shogun Iemitsu, was completed. In 1633, Iemitsu issued a special decree on the hostage-taking system.

Decomposition of feudal society in the XVIII century. expressed in a reduction in the collection of rice - the main agricultural crop, a reduction in the cultivated area. For a century, population growth in Japan did not exceed 0.01% per year. A sharp deterioration in the living conditions of the peasants caused a rapidly growing popular movement in the 18th century. It took on an active, fighting character, despite the lack of weapons among the peasants.

30s and early 40s of the XIX century. characterized for Japan by a new period of severe famine, a rapid upsurge in the movement of peasants and the urban lower classes. During this period, there are approximately 11 peasant uprisings per year.

Western powers, realizing their colonization policy, are showing interest in opening up the country. The United States has repeatedly tried to end Japan's isolation. In 1851, President Filmore decided to expedite the conclusion of an agreement with Japan, without stopping, if necessary, from using violent measures. For this purpose, the Perry military expedition was formed. The arrival of the American military squadron to the Japanese shores and the defiant behavior of the ships caused terrible confusion among the authorities and the population of Edo. On February 13, 1854, Perry's squadron reappeared off the coast of Japan. The Bakufu government accepted all the conditions proposed by the American side. On March 31, the signing of the first Japanese-American treaty, called the Treaty of Peace and Friendship, took place in Yokohama. This ends the period of Japan's self-isolation in relations with foreign powers.

The signing of unequal treaties by the shogun government and the ensuing invasion of Japan by foreign capital caused a new aggravation of the political crisis in the country.

In connection with the arrival of the Perry expedition in Japan, two camps formed, the struggle between which took on a sharp character. Supporters of the conclusion of agreements with foreign states united in the “Country Opening Party” under the leadership of Prime Minister Yi Naofke. The second camp united in the "Barbarian Expulsion Party" led by the feudal prince Mito Nariaki. The political struggle in Japan reached unprecedented tension after the signing of the treaties of 1857-1858. and failures of Japanese missions sent to Europe and the USA during 1860-1861. for the purpose of revising unequal treaties. The shogunal government accepted in 1863 the proposal of the opposition to begin the "expulsion of the barbarians" and stop all trade with foreign states. In accordance with this, the principality of Choshu in June-July of the same year fired on American, French and Dutch ships in the Shimonoseki Strait and actually closed the strait to foreign ships. All these actions, sanctioned by the government, hastened the repressive measures of the powers against Japan. The British government decided to take the lead in the punitive expedition. The most significant was the punitive expedition in August 1863, when seven ships of Admiral Cooper's squadron fired on the capital of the Satsuma principality - the city of Kagoshima. At the beginning of September 1864, the combined squadron of England, the USA, France and Holland under the command of Admiral Cooper bombarded the coast of the Choshu principality in the Shimonosek Strait. As a result of these actions in October

In 1864, an agreement was signed between foreign ambassadors and representatives of the shogunate. It provided for the prohibition of Prince Choshu to erect fortifications along the shores of the Shimonoseki Strait and provided foreign ships with complete freedom of passage through it. The Shogun government was presented with new ultimatum demands. The new pressure of the powers led to the capitulation of the shogunal government and the imperial court: in November

In 1865, the emperor ratified all the treaties signed by Japan with foreign countries, in the summer of 1866 a new convention on import tariffs was concluded, which further worsened the situation of the Japanese economy.

Under the conditions of the intervention of the Western powers in Japan, a political struggle was unfolding for the prevailing influence in the future government in the event of a coup. In October 1867, the head of the principality, Choshu Yamanouchi, on behalf of the anti-Tokugawa camp, presented the shogun Keiki with a memorandum, which contained a demand to eliminate the dual power (shogun and emperor) and return supreme power to the emperor. On November 9, 1867, Keiki "voluntarily" accepted the offer of resignation and the return of power to the emperor. On January 3, 1868, the 15-year-old Emperor Mutsuhito announced the formation of a new government headed by Prince Arisugawa. However, Keiki, unable to maintain his influence in the new government, began an armed struggle against the new regime. In the battles that took place at Fushimi and Toba (1868), his troops were defeated, and he himself fled to Edo. Thus, as a result of the coup of 1867-1868. and the suppression of the forces of feudal reaction during the civil war of 1868-1869. the main task was solved - the military-feudal system of the shogunate, headed by the Tokugawa house, was liquidated. Conditions were created for the victory and establishment of a new, capitalist social system.

Coup of 1867-1868 was anti-feudal in nature, was bourgeois in nature and economic content. In preparing and carrying out the coup, an important role was played by the ideological propaganda carried out in the cities by the various intelligentsia of samurai origin. The main driving forces of the anti-feudal revolution of 1867-1868. were the peasantry and the urban poor, they were supported by low-ranking samurai, objectively reflecting the interests of the commercial and industrial bourgeoisie and the “new landowners”.

The leading role in the bourgeois revolution belonged to the noble-bourgeois coalition, the bloc of the progressive part of the southwestern feudal lords and the emerging bourgeoisie. Although the Japanese bourgeoisie was still economically weak, it still had sufficient capital to finance the political struggle against the old, shogunal system. Wealthy merchants and moneylenders from the Edo and Osaka houses of Mitsui, Konoike, Yodoya, Ono and Shimada, who possessed large material values, provided loans to the anti-shogun camp and made numerous donations, intending in this way to ensure a favorable direction for them and influence the nature of state power, succeeding the shogunate.

Capitalist development of Japan in the last third of the 19th century. Japanese phenomenon. In 1871, the state unification of the country was completed. In 1872, universal conscription was introduced. The most important transformation of the government was the agrarian reform of 1872-1873. The example of the agrarian reform clearly revealed the unfinished character of the bourgeois revolution in Japan. Remnants of feudalism survived in Japan both in the economy and in the political superstructure. In the 1880s, Japan entered a period of rapid industrial development. This rise was largely prepared by the previous period, during which the imperial government actively encouraged private enterprise. From 1868 to 1880, a number of so-called "exemplary enterprises" were organized in Japan, created by the state in order to subsequently transfer them into the hands of private owners. The state encouraged the development of industry, investing heavily in the construction of new factories and plants. The ruined peasantry was a source of cheap labor for the cities. During this period, the industrial development of Japan was still one-sided. Light industry, mainly textile industry, predominated. The narrowness of its own industrial raw material base made the Japanese economy dependent on foreign markets for raw materials. At the beginning of 1880, the first political parties began to take shape in Japan, the social base and support of which were the landlord-bourgeois circles. These parties were liberal in their political orientations. The activities of the opposition resulted in the formation in 1881 of a political party - "jiyuto" (liberal party). At the same time, oppositional sentiments became widespread among the Japanese bourgeoisie, both among the trade and financial bourgeoisie and among the rapidly gaining strength of the national (industrial) bourgeoisie. On such a platform, in 1882, the party of the liberal bourgeoisie was founded, which received the name "kaishinto" ("reform party"). In the 1880s, both parties began a movement for a constitution. The constitutional movement in Japan was called "minken undo" ("people's rights movement"). In the beginning, the government severely suppressed the activities of the minken undo. However, the most far-sighted leaders of Japanese absolutism understood the need for limited reforms and concessions, including the constitution, in order to maintain balance in society and the order as a whole. In 1889, the Japanese constitution was proclaimed.

The most important feature of the constitution of 1889 was the confirmation of the power of the Japanese monarchy. The Japanese Parliament was formed in two chambers. Despite the fact that the Japanese parliament was constructed on a very narrow base, the first years of its existence were marked by frequent conflicts between the parliament and the government. The armament of Japan, especially the construction of a strong navy, proceeded at a rapid pace and was directly connected with the impending war of conquest against China. Korea was the closest target of aggression.

In 1876, Japan, under the threat of military intervention, imposed the first unequal treaties on Korea, and in 1882-1884. expanded them considerably. On August 1, 1894, war was declared.

Sino-Japanese War 1894-1895 demonstrated the complete superiority of capitalist Japan over China. The war of conquest against China greatly accelerated Japan's capitalist development. It gave impetus to the growth of a number of industries, contributed to the expansion of Japan's foreign trade and laid the foundation for the Japanese colonial empire. In the late 1890s with the active help of England, Japan hastily increased the armament of the army and navy, preparing for war with Russia.

Japan in 1900 - 1914 At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. Japanese capitalism entered the stage of imperialism, which had a number of features due to the historical development of the country. It took shape as military-feudal imperialism, in which the dominance of monopoly capital was combined with semi-feudal remnants and a significant political role for the landlord class. The state form of Japanese imperialism was formally constitutional, but in fact absolute monarchy, which personified the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie and landlords. The proximity of economically and militarily weak countries (China, Korea) increased the aggressiveness of Japanese imperialism.

The increase in the size of the working class, the growth of its political consciousness led to a significant upsurge in the labor movement. In 1897, on the initiative of Sen Katayama, a society for promoting the organization of trade unions was created. In 1898, with the participation of Sen Katayama and Denjiro Kotoku, a society for the study of socialism was founded, and in May 1901, on the basis of this society, the Social Democratic Party was created, which was immediately banned by the government.

In 1900, Japan, along with other powers, took part in the suppression of the anti-imperialist Yihetuan uprising in China. At the beginning of the XX century. the contradictions between Japan and Russia escalated over Manchuria and Korea. The Japanese government launched active preparations for war with Russia, securing the actual support of Great Britain and the United States. In 1902, an agreement was signed between Great Britain and Japan. Having violated the previously concluded Russo-Japanese treaties, Japan in February 1904 unleashed the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905.

She won a number of victories over the royal troops, but was exhausted by the war. In May 1905, she turned to the United States with a request for mediation. In July 1905, an agreement was signed between the United States and Japan, according to which the United States agreed to establish a Japanese protectorate over Korea. As a result of negotiations that began in August 1905 with American mediation in Portsmouth, in September the parties signed the Portsmouth Peace Treaty of 1905, according to which Russia recognized Korea as a sphere of influence of Japan, ceded the lease of the Kwantung region with Port Arthur and Dalniy, the southern branch CER and the southern part of about. Sakhalin.

In November 1905, a Japanese protectorate treaty over Korea was imposed on the Korean government. In August 1910, Korea was annexed and turned into a Japanese colony. To exploit South Manchuria in 1906.

The semi-governmental concern of the South Manchurian Railway (YUMZhD) was created. The Japanese monopolies included other areas of China in their sphere of activity. In 1914, Japanese investment in China amounted to 220 million US dollars against 1 million US dollars in 1900.

The capture of new markets and the militarization of the economy gave impetus to the development of Japanese industry. The total volume of gross output of factory enterprises increased from 1905 to 1914. almost twice.

Feudal China under the rule of the Qing Empire. By the beginning of the XVI century. China was a centralized state with a monarchical form of government. The state structure of the Minsk Empire represented a typical Eastern despotism. The agricultural sector remained predominant in the Chinese economy. In Minsk China, a peculiar system of taxes and duties has developed, based both on in-kind and cash collections, made twice a year. Taxes on public lands were higher than on conditionally private lands. The desire of the state to increase taxes led to sharp contradictions.

In 1622, rebel uprisings of peasants began under the leadership of the White Lotus secret society. In April 1644, the rebels entered the capital. Taking power in his hands, the rebel leader Li Zicheng was proclaimed the new emperor. However, the Ming government army, commanded by General Wu Sangui, was at the time of the fall of Beijing on the Manchurian front. It did not recognize the new government. Choosing between the rebels and the former Chinese elite, who demanded to seek help from the Manchus, he decides to recognize himself as a Manchu vassal and open the gates in the Great Wall of China for their access to Chinese territory.

After the capture of Beijing on June 6, 1644 and the announcement of the city as the new capital of the state, the bogdykhan of the Shunzhi Manchus was again proclaimed emperor of the Qing state on October 30.

By 1645, the Manchus had concentrated about half of the territory of the Ming Empire under their control. In 1681, the Zinns managed to liquidate the last independent state formation

The Manchus, in general terms, retained the old principles of the state structure of China. They sought to show the continuity of their power.

The main changes affected mainly the social structure of society. The estate system consisted of 5 groups. The Manchus became the dominant nationality in China, from which the highest elite, both civilian and military, was formed. The second most important social stratum in Qing China was the Chinese aristocrats, but even the most influential of them could not be compared in legal status with the Manchu nobility. Shenshi (scientists) had the monopoly right to occupy positions of officials.

The class of commoners (liang ming) united the bulk of the inhabitants of China. It consisted of farmers, artisans and merchants. At the bottom of the social ladder were the lowest. They were not engaged in prestigious professions. Representatives of other ethnic groups living in China at that time did not actually have any rights.

The coming to power of the Manchus could not but lead to changes in the economic sphere of the life of Chinese society. Having no real opportunity to take ownership of all of China's land, the Manchu elite left most of it to Chinese owners. The Manchus allotted land for themselves in the capital province of Zhili, as well as in a number of other areas with a dense population of the Manchu population. The main part of the land fund was in conditional private ownership, for the use of which the owners paid taxes.

The Qing foreign policy was traditional, borrowed from former Chinese emperors. It was based on the doctrine of Sinocentrism. The Qing court soon after extending its power over the entire territory of China began to pursue a policy of strict isolation of the country from the outside world, forcibly liquidated the rich maritime and land trade ties that had long existed between China and the countries of the Far East, Southeast and South Asia, and Africa.

From the moment they were established in China, the Qinns began to suppress the resistance of the peoples they captured and pursue an aggressive policy towards neighboring peoples and states. In 1758 the Dzungar Khanate was destroyed. After the final conquest of Mongolia by the Manchu rulers, Tibet was included by the Qinns in their empire.

The Qinns waged aggressive wars against Burma, in 1767-1769. and in 1788 and Vietnam (1788 - 1789), but here the wars ended with the defeat of the Qing troops and the expulsion of the invaders.

By the beginning of the XIX century. the features of the crisis of Qing China began to appear more and more clearly. This manifested itself both in domestic politics and in the economy. The authority of the central government fell. A deep crisis also engulfed the economy. The dispossession of peasants continued in the country. In cities, many categories of the population were in a difficult situation.

At the beginning of the XIX century. The Cinns continue to pursue a policy of self-isolation. However, this situation could no longer suit many European powers, which by this time were in a stage of rapid economic growth. Representatives of the English East India campaign, who saw a second India in China, were especially active. In 1816 and 1834 two more British missions were sent to China with the task of opening China. The main success of the British was the increase in the import of opium into China from neighboring India. The Chinese government has repeatedly tried to prevent the opium trade. Foreigners simply ignored the prohibitions for the sake of their own commercial interests. In an effort to prevent the importation of opium into China in 1839, the Qingns appointed the patriotic official Lin Zexu as the governor of Canton, who categorically prohibited the importation of opium into ports, which provoked the first Opium War (1840 - 1842), which resulted in the signing of China's first unequal treaty with a foreign power. The Anglo-Chinese Treaty of Nanking turned China into a dependent country.

The transformation of China into a semi-colony. After the defeat in the second opium war, the ruling circles of China felt the need to once again try to find a way out of the current unfavorable situation, which threatened to turn it, the largest state of the East, into an appendage of the Western powers. As a result, a new line of development was worked out, which in historiography was called "the policy of self-strengthening" Zi Qiang ".

The idea of ​​borrowing from foreigners and introducing the best achievements in the field of science and technology became the main one during the reform period of the 60s-70s of the 19th century. It has its roots in the theory of "assimilation of overseas affairs." Six main components in the implementation of the policy of self-reinforcement were officially proclaimed: the training of soldiers, the construction of ships, the production of machines, the search for funds for the maintenance of the armed forces, the involvement of capable people in management and the determination to carry out the above activities in the long term. This line was carried out in virtually unchanged form until 1895. The promoters of the policy of self-strengthening established strict military-political and economic control over the population of the empire, strengthened the system of mutual responsibility and denunciations.

The peculiarity of China's industrial development lay in the fact that modern industry arose first in the form of state-owned enterprises - arsenals, shipyards created by the leaders of feudal-regional groupings, and enterprises owned by foreign capital. The sharply intensified expansion of foreign capital into China led to its capture of the most important positions in the economy, to the emergence of a relatively strong and rapidly developing foreign sector in the economy. The country was turning into a semi-colony of Western powers.

Foreign capitalists began to set up the first industrial enterprises in large trading cities, primarily for the processing of agricultural raw materials destined for export, and enterprises for public utilities and light industry. In the early 1980s, Franco-Chinese relations became more complicated in connection with the colonial policy of the regime of the Third Republic. The territory of Annam was at that moment in vassal dependence on China.

In May 1883, the French Chamber of Deputies voted in favor of loans for a military expedition to North Vietnam. By that time, units of the former Taiping troops were quartered there, and regular troops numbering up to 50 thousand people were deployed there. The combined Chinese and Vietnamese troops inflicted a number of defeats on the French. The Qing government, frightened by the patriotic movement and the liberation character that the Vietnam War was beginning to take on, hastened to begin a peaceful settlement of the conflict.

The peace treaty signed in Tianjin in 1885 with France resulted in Qing China's renunciation of formal suzerainty over Vietnam and gave France priority rights in South China.

In 1894 Japan started a war against China. China suffered a number of defeats in this war. In April 1895, Li Hong-chzhang signed the Shimonoseki Treaty of 1895 on behalf of China. China recognized the independence of Korea, which had previously been nominally under its sovereignty, transferred Taiwan and the Penghuledao Islands to Japan, and had to pay a large indemnity. The defeat in the war with Japan led to a new onslaught of the imperialist powers. The Ch'ing government was compelled to conclude enslaving loans and grant railroad concessions to the imperialist powers. Germany, France, Great Britain, Japan and tsarist Russia received a number of territories for "lease" and created so-called spheres of influence. The doctrine of "open doors", put forward in a note by US Secretary of State Hay in 1899, meant a claim to the unlimited right of American expansion into China and the exclusion of other competitors.

In 1895-1898. the liberal reform movement of the Chinese bourgeoisie and landlords, led by Kang Yu-wei, Liang Qichao, Tan Sy-tung, and others, gained wide scope. . However, the reform attempt failed. On September 21, 1898, the clique of Empress Cixi organized a coup d'etat and subjected the reformers to executions and repressions.

China at the beginning of the 20th century. The growth of taxation due to the need to pay indemnity to Japan, the arbitrariness of foreigners, the economic consequences of the construction of railways, the telegraph, the interference of missionaries in the internal affairs of China, led in 1899 to a major anti-imperialist Yihetuan uprising. The imperialist powers (Great Britain, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France, Japan, USA, Russia, Italy) organized an intervention in China. In August 1900, the invaders occupied Beijing. On September 7, 1901, the "Final Protocol" was signed between the foreign powers and China, establishing the semi-colonial position of the Qing Empire.

By the beginning of the XX century. China was a classic example of a semi-colonial country. The imperialists, through their advisers, using diplomatic channels and financial pressure, controlled the policy of the Qing court. Their troops and warships were located in the most important vital centers of the country. They had a wide network of settlements, concessions, and Chinese customs in their hands. The total amount of foreign investment in the 1st decade of the XX century. increased from $800 million to $1,500 million, with the invested capital largely consisting of profits earned by foreign monopolies and banks in China itself as a result of the exploitation of the Chinese people. In 1895, the right to build enterprises was stipulated by the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which opened up the possibility of subordinating entire branches of China's industry to foreign capital. In 1912, half of all coal production in the country was produced in mines wholly or partly owned by foreign monopolies; mechanized coal mining was almost completely controlled by foreigners. The import of foreign fabrics was almost 10 times the export of fabrics from China, which undermined the national textile industry. Foreign capital, restrictions and arbitrariness imposed by the authorities hampered the development of national industry. However, the national industry continued to develop. The interests of the national industry, the national bourgeoisie came into sharp conflict with foreign dominance in the country and the feudal power of the Manchu elite and the Chinese landowners. The development of national and foreign industry was accompanied by the growth of the proletariat.

Changes in the economic and class structure of society, on the one hand, and the semi-colonial position of the country, on the other, led to an intensification of the political struggle in China. New revolutionary organizations arose in the country. In 1905, Sun Yat-sen founded the revolutionary Tongmenghui Party in Japan. The Tongmenghui program provided for the implementation of the three popular principles of Sun Yat-sen: the overthrow of the Manchu government, the establishment of a republic, and the "equalization of land rights" (in practice, the gradual nationalization of land was planned by transferring differential rent to the state). In 1906-1908. In China, a period of revolutionary uprisings took place, which were organized or held with the participation of Tongmenghui and other revolutionary organizations. Manchurian government in 1905-1908 pledged to introduce constitutional government. Part of the liberal bourgeoisie and landlords welcomed this promise, but the revolutionary circles rejected it as a fraud.

(well, let's go guys:)

Eastern countries at the beginning of modern times

Political and economic situation of the countries of East and West Asia in the 17th century

Features of the development of the countries of the East and the nature of economic and cultural relations with the countries of the West

The end of the Middle Ages in Western Europe is associated with the Great Geographical Discoveries, with the emergence of commercial capitalism, with the emergence of absolute monarchies and the formation of a new way of thinking.

The countries of the East surpassed the Western countries in terms of cultural development, but Western Europe was ahead of Asia. In what and when?

No matter how great the skill of the artisans of the countries of the East, historians do not find capitalist forms of economy anywhere in Asia, and even more so in Africa, either in the 16th century or in the 17th century. Nowhere is there an active bourgeoisie, which, as Marx rightly wrote: “It cannot exist without causing constant coups in the instruments of production, without revolutionizing, consequently, the relations of production, and therefore the totality of social relations.

Thus, the East lagged behind in the development of material production.

The beginning of the lag is the end of the 16th century, noticeable parameters are given by the 18th century.

The consequences of lagging behind are political stagnation and colonization.

Causes of the lag of the east according to Courage Bombay in Western historiography:

Liberal foreign historiography. Hegel considered the peoples of the East to be passive and unhistorical in nature. Max Weber and other neo-Hegelian historians looked for reasons for the advance of the West in the superiority of the dynamic Western spirit over the contemplative Eastern nature, in the superiority of the Western religion - Protestant Christianity over the religions of the East - Buddhism, Confucianism and Islam 1 . Weber believed that the Protestant ethic played the most important role in the development of "modern capitalism". It was she, with her cult of labor, with her attitude to work as a vocation, who created the spirit of capitalism. It laid the foundations of modern industrial society.

Historians of the East sometimes they deny the lag altogether. And the invasion of the colonialists in the East is declared a historical accident. In this case, we are talking about the beginning of the colonization of the XVI-XVIII centuries. They write that the backwardness of the countries of the East began only after the invasion of Europeans and was its consequence, not its cause. There is some truth in this statement, colonization destroyed the natural course of historical development and did not contribute to full-fledged progress. But why did colonization become possible? Why was it so easy for Western countries to impose their own rules of the game on Eastern empires? Externally, China, India, Iran in the XVI century. looked richer and stronger than any Western state. But in none of the Asian countries did the capitalist system take shape at that time.

Soviet historical science proceeded from the formational concept of the development of history in general and the history of the East in particular. However, many domestic historians-orientalists did not accept the schematism of the interpretation of formations from the point of view of historical materialism. A serious study of economic issues in the traditional societies of the East led to discussions about the so-called. "Asian mode of production" (hereinafter - ASP). Supporters of the ASP concept believed that the main reason for the colonization of the East was its lagging behind the countries of the West. The lag is due to the fact that different countries and regions of the globe generally develop unevenly. In this case, this unevenness manifested itself in the fact that the states of Western Europe embarked on the path of capitalist development earlier than the countries of Asia and Africa, because in the countries of Asia for a long time the "Asian mode of production" dominated. 19th century Marx and Engels put forward a hypothesis about the existence in the countries of the East before the arrival of Europeans of a special socio-economic formation - ASP, the main feature of which was state ownership of land. In such a society, communal peasants are exploited not by the class of individual feudal proprietors, but by the apparatus of the despotic state as a whole.

II. Political map of the East to the beginningXVIIin.

In the medieval East, the largest states were China, the Mughal Empire (sultanate), the Iranian state of the Safavids, and the Ottoman Empire. Smaller states are Japan, Korea, Vietnam and others. At what stage of political development were these countries? In Russian historiography, the main state forms in the countries of medieval Europe are quite fully developed. But what about in Asia and even more so in Africa?

In the latest scientific edition of the "History of the East" (in 6 volumes), in relation to the countries of Asia in the 18th century. the following types of states are distinguished: feudal-bureaucratic, patriarchal, potestary and pre-state.

To feudal-bureaucratic states, according to I.M. Smilyanskaya can be attributed to Japan, China, the Ottoman Empire. Korea and Vietnam are “approaching” this type, as well as Iran and some principalities of Mughal India (Mysore and others). All of them were authoritarian monarchies. In the Ottoman and Qing empires, as well as in Japan, the supreme power was theocratic in nature, the researcher believes. It was the theocratic nature of power that determined the state's ownership of all lands. State ownership of land involved the collection of rent-tax from almost all lands and its distribution among the ruling stratum. Feudal-bureaucratic states are characterized by an extensive state apparatus, a hierarchical structure of officials, a high role for the army, and so on. 2

To patriarchal states included the countries of Southeast Asia (Burma, Siam, Laos, Cambodia, the sultanates of the Malay Peninsula). In Central and Western Asia, these are Afghanistan, the Central Asian khanates, Yemen, Hijaz, etc. In North Africa, the countries of the Maghreb belonged to the patriarchal states. All independent states of the patriarchal type were hereditary monarchies. In most of them, the supreme power was theocratic in nature. The sacralization of power was the main way of its legitimation. The main criteria for patriarchal states are:

weak centralization;

frequent dynastic crises;

underdeveloped bureaucracy;

a large proportion of self-government bodies;

tributary relations with the population of peripheral vassal territories;

class-status character of social organization.

Potestary the states were the Kazakh khanates, some Arabian sultanates, city-states in Arabia and Sumatra, etc. Most of them constituted the tribal periphery of the feudal-bureaucratic or patriarchal states. They were short-lived, broke up and reappeared depending on the foreign policy situation. At the head of such state associations were elected tribal rulers - khans. The administrative apparatus was minimal, there were no coercive organs and armed forces. The basis of legal proceedings was customary law.

2 Ibid. Book. 1. - S. 12-18.