Unit 5: Revolutions

“In the tenement houses of the Samegahashi slum district in Tokyo, three or four families often squeeze into a single small room. The air is thick with the smell of open sewers, and the children, neglected while their parents work long hours in the nearby factories, roam the muddy alleys. These workers, who migrated from the impoverished rural provinces, find themselves trapped in a cycle of debt and disease, quite unlike the traditional communal life of the farming villages.”

— Yokoyama Gennosuke, Japanese journalist, *Japan’s Lower-Class Society*, 1899

The conditions described in the passage most directly reflect which of the following developments in nineteenth-century industrializing societies?

"National progress is the sum of individual industry, energy, and uprightness, as national decay is the sum of individual idleness, selfishness, and vice. What we are accustomed to decry as great social evils, will, for the most part, be found to be but the outgrowth of our own individual life... Even the best institutions can give a man no active help. Perhaps the most they can do is, to leave him free to develop himself and improve his individual condition."

— Samuel Smiles, British author, *Self-Help*, 1859

Which of the following social developments in nineteenth-century Britain is best reflected in the passage?

Source: Friedrich List, German economist, *The National System of Political Economy*, 1841.

"A nation which has no factories of its own is like a person who has only one arm. We must build railways, establish protective tariffs, and encourage our own manufactures, so that we may no longer be dependent on British goods."

The arguments expressed in the passage are best understood as a response to which of the following nineteenth-century processes?

Source: Greek Declaration of Independence, National Assembly of Epidaurus, 1822

'The Greek nation, taken as a whole, under the cruel Ottoman yoke, unable to bear any longer the severe and unprecedented tyranny of the sovereign power, and having shaken off its heavy chains, declares today, through its legitimate representatives in a national assembly met together, before God and all mankind, its political independence and existence. We, descendants of the wise and noble peoples of Hellas, we, who are the contemporaries of the enlightened and civilized nations of Europe, we, who behold the advantages they enjoy under the protection of the impenetrable shield of the law, find it no longer possible to suffer without cowardice and self-contempt the cruel iron scourge of the Ottoman power.'

The claims made by the Greek National Assembly in the passage are best understood in the context of which of the following developments in the nineteenth century?

"To learn how to use their weapons, we must first learn how to build their machines. If we possess the machines to build machines, we will no longer need to rely on foreign nations... Therefore, the establishment of manufacturing bureaus and arsenals is our most urgent task."

— Li Hongzhang, Chinese government official, memorandum to the Qing emperor, 1864

Based on the passage, which of the following best describes the reaction of the Chinese government to the global spread of industrialization?

"Either no individual of the human race has genuine rights, or else all have the same; and he who votes against the right of another, whatever the religion, color, or sex of that other, has from that moment abjured his own... For example, have they not all violated the principle of equality of rights in quietly depriving half of the human race of the right of taking part in the formation of laws, by excluding women from the rights of citizenship?"

— Marquis de Condorcet, French philosopher, *On the Admission of Women to the Rights of Citizenship*, 1790

Which of the following best explains how the ideas in the passage represent a challenge to the political status quo of the late eighteenth century?

Source: Olympe de Gouges, French activist and playwright, Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen, 1791

'Mothers, daughters, sisters, female representatives of the nation ask to be constituted as a national assembly. Considering that ignorance, neglect, or contempt for the rights of woman are the sole causes of public misfortunes and governmental corruption, they have resolved to set forth in a solemn declaration these natural, imprescriptible, and sacred rights, so that this declaration, constantly present to all members of the social body, may ceaselessly remind them of their rights and their duties...'

Based on the passage and your knowledge of world history, which of the following was the primary goal of Olympe de Gouges's declaration?

The spatial distribution of natural resources in Great Britain was uniquely favorable. Extensive deposits of coal, essential for steam power, were frequently found in close proximity to rich veins of iron ore, the primary material for machinery and infrastructure. Moreover, these mineral fields were situated near navigable rivers and natural harbors, permitting the low-cost transport of heavy goods before the widespread construction of railways.

Based on the passage, which of the following environmental preconditions most directly facilitated the early development of industrialization in Great Britain?

"To make the voyage to India by steam was, in the early days of the nineteenth century, a venture of great difficulty and expense. But by the late 1860s, the introduction of the compound steam engine and the opening of the Suez Canal transformed maritime transport, making it possible for steamships to carry heavy cargo efficiently over long distances, thereby linking European industrial centers directly to Asian agricultural markets."

—Adapted from Daniel R. Headrick, The Tools of Empire, 1981

Which of the following best explains how the technological innovations described in the passage contributed to global economic changes in the nineteenth century?

"The only way to erect such a common power, as may be able to defend them from the invasion of foreigners, and the injuries of one another... is to confer all their power and strength upon one man, or upon one assembly of men, that may reduce all their wills, by plurality of voices, unto one will... This is more than consent, or concord; it is a real unity of them all, in one and the same person, made by covenant of every man with every man... and he that carrieth this person, is called sovereign, and said to have sovereign power; and every one besides, his subject."

—Thomas Hobbes, *Leviathan*, 1651

Based on the passage, Hobbes's concept of the social contract is best understood as an agreement in which citizens do which of the following?

"The investment of foreign capital in our country, particularly in the construction of railways and the modernization of mining, has been the most powerful agent of progress. By connecting our agricultural and mineral wealth directly to the ports, these foreign-owned enterprises have integrated us into the great currents of global commerce, transforming local isolation into national and international exchange."

—Adapted from a report by Matías Romero, Mexican diplomat and statesman, 1898

The economic activities described in the passage most directly reflect which of the following nineteenth-century developments?

"If then, we discard from the social compact what is not of its essence, we shall find that it reduces itself to the following terms: 'Each of us puts his person and all his power in common under the supreme direction of the general will, and, in our corporate capacity, we receive each member as an indivisible part of the whole.'... The social pact, far from destroying natural equality, substitutes a moral and lawful equality for whatever physical inequality nature may have imposed on mankind; so that however unequal in strength or intelligence, men all become equal by covenant and by right."

—Jean-Jacques Rousseau, French philosopher, *The Social Contract*, 1762

Which of the following political principles of the Enlightenment is most directly expressed in this passage?

Source: Feng Guifen, Chinese scholar and government advisor, *Protests from the Cottage of Jiaobin*, 1861

"If we wish to self-strengthen, we must first learn the methods of the Westerners. We should establish shipyards and arsenals in each of the trading ports. We should invite foreign instructors to teach our artisans how to make steam engines, firearms, and other machinery. [...] But our social relations, our moral principles, and our Confucian teachings must remain the foundation of our state. We only require the mechanical skills of the Western nations to defend ourselves, not their political systems or their ways of life."

The ideas expressed in the passage are most directly an example of which of the following reactions to Western industrialization?

"To copy foreign guns is not as good as to copy foreign machinery for making guns... If we want to learn their secrets, we must seek out their manufacturers and workers, and pay them to teach us. If China can learn to build these machines for itself, we will be able to defend our territory and stand equal with the Western powers."
— Li Hongzhang, Qing Dynasty official, memorial to the imperial court, 1864

Based on the passage, the policies advocated by Li Hongzhang are best understood as an example of which of the following historical developments?

Source: Adapted from an address by King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) of Siam (modern-day Thailand) to his cabinet regarding modernization reforms, late nineteenth century.

"Since we have entered into relations with the European powers, we have seen that they possess superior military organization, railways, and telegraphs, which they use to expand their influence. If we do not adopt these modern technologies and administrative methods, we will fail to protect our sovereignty. Therefore, the state must take the lead in constructing railways, reorganizing the army along Western lines, and establishing new schools, so that we may stand as equals among the nations."

Based on the passage, the modernization efforts of Siam were most similar to which of the following historical processes in the nineteenth century?

Source: Report by the French Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce on the state of domestic industry, 1845.

'Unlike in Great Britain, where large-scale farming and the consolidation of land have driven a massive population of landless agricultural workers into the cities to seek factory labor, the French countryside remains divided into millions of small peasant properties. Our peasants are deeply attached to their plots of land, which they cultivate with their families. Consequently, French manufacturers constantly struggle to secure a stable and cheap supply of factory workers, leading to a much slower transition to steam-powered manufacturing in our towns.'

Based on the passage, which of the following factors best explains why France's path to industrialization differed from that of Great Britain?

Source: Adapted from the *General Report on Enclosures*, published by the British Board of Agriculture, 1808.

'By the system of enclosing common lands, the agricultural output of the kingdom has been vastly increased. Lands that once lay waste or were poorly managed by smallholders have been brought under systematic cultivation, employing new rotations of crops and superior breeds of livestock. While some cottagers have lost their traditional rights of pasture, the overall yield of food has grown to support a much larger population. Consequently, many who formerly gained a precarious subsistence from the commons have transitioned to seeking wages, thereby providing a steady supply of hands for our expanding national manufactories.'

Based on the passage, which of the following best explains how the enclosure movement served as a precondition for the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain?

Source: Johann Gottlieb Fichte, *Addresses to the German Nation*, 1808.

'The first, original, and truly natural boundaries of states are beyond doubt their internal boundaries. Those who speak the same language are joined to each other by a multitude of invisible bonds by nature herself, long before any human art begins; they understand each other and have the power of continuing to make themselves understood more and more clearly; they belong together and are by nature one and an inseparable whole. Only when a people has achieved this spiritual unity can it successfully establish its external borders and political sovereignty. It is local, natural bonds—not imperial treaties or dynastic marriages—that truly define a nation.'

Based on the passage, Fichte's argument best illustrates which of the following ideas associated with nineteenth-century nationalist movements?

Source: Pope Leo XIII, *Rerum Novarum* (On Capital and Labor), 1891

"Hence, by degrees it has come to pass that working men have been surrendered, isolated and helpless, to the hardheartedness of employers and the greed of unchecked competition. . . . To remedy these evils the socialists, working on the poor man's envy of the rich, are striving to do away with private property, and contend that individual possessions should become the common property of all. . . . But their proposals are so clearly futile for all practical purposes that if they were carried out the working man himself would be among the first to suffer."

Based on the passage, which of the following best describes how Pope Leo XIII’s response to industrialization differed from Marxist/communist responses?

Source: Ministry of Industry Report, Japan, 1878

In our country, the development of industrial production cannot be left entirely to the initiatives of private citizens, who often lack the capital and the technical knowledge required to compete with the wealthy nations of Europe and America. Therefore, the Ministry of Industry has established model factories, importing machinery from Great Britain and France, and employing foreign experts to train our workers. Once these enterprises have achieved financial stability and demonstrated the viability of modern production methods, they shall be sold to private merchants.

Which of the following historical developments in Japan during the late nineteenth century best explains the policy described in the passage?