Muhammad Ali and his officials planning cotton reforms in Egypt.
As the influence of the Industrial Revolution grew, a small number of states and governments promoted their own state-sponsored visions of industrialization. Additionally, the expansion of U.S. and European influence in Asia led to internal reform in Japan that supported industrialization and led to the growing regional power of Japan in the Meiji Era. An example of State-sponsored visions of industrialization include Muhammad Ali’s development of a cotton textile industry in Egypt, which was apart of the Ottoman Empire.
Westernization
Meiji Restoration
Muhammad Ali (Egypt)
Automatic loom
Matthew Perry (1853)
(Westernization in Ottoman Empire & Russia)
Eastern Attempts at Industrialization
Some non-colonized governments led programs to industrialize their societies using government money and planning. The goal was to prevent their domination by the industrialized nations.
*Note: State-led industrialization was not communism. Many of the above encouraged private property, private business, & private profit (albeit at a much lesser rate than in the West).
Compare:
Industrialization in the West vs. East
In the 1850s, the vast Russian Empire, which started in eastern Europe & spread across Asia to the pacific, was still primarily agricultural & feudal. A lack of industrialization left Russia weak compared to industrial Europe. In the 1860s, Russian Czar Alexander II (1818 – 1881) began a series of state-led reforms that pushed Russia into the industrial age.
On July 8, 1853, American Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Tokyo Bay with four heavily armed warships. Perry made it clear that there would be conflict unless Japan agreed to open its ports to American ships. Rather than risk military defeat, the Japanese decided to accept American demands, thus triggering the Meiji Restoration. In other words, Japan begin its journey to becoming an Asian & then world power.
In the 1830s, under the leadership of Muhammad Ali (1769 – 1849), Egypt separated from the Ottoman Empire. He began industrialization in Egypt to strengthen his state against reconquest by the Ottomans. Ali first increased the production of raw cotton, which he sold to Britain, & then he invested profits in Egypt’s own industrial production but ultimately the transformation failed.
Each of three political cartoons below depict the idea that the Ottoman Empire, due to their lack of modernization, has become the 'Sick Man of Europe'. Each image is showing how other European powers, such as England, France, Germany, and Russia, attempting to further diminish Ottoman authority and deny the Sultan legitimacy.
Three Examples of Attempted Reforms in the Ottoman Empire
Tanzimat Reforms
However, the Tanzimat was a period of reform in the Ottoman Empire that began in 1839 and ended with the First Constitutional Era in 1876. The Tanzimat era began with the purpose, not of radical transformation, but of modernization, desiring to consolidate the social and political foundations of the Ottoman Empire.
Secularize of Education
Allowing more religious freedoms and educating students on a more global perspective.
Reforming the Justice System
The court systems were reorganized, largely modeled after those of France and independent of Islamic influences.
A Fair Tax System
The standardization of tax system by eliminating abuses and established new methods of collection.
"A Japanese Steam train" by Utagawa Hiroshige III, 1875
"Silk Reeling Machine at the Japanese National Industrial Exposition” by Utagawa Kuniaki II, October 1877
"Complete Picture of a Steamship: Scenery of Uraga from the Sea" by Sadahide, 1863