Causes and Effects of the Crimean War and the Opium War – Flashcards

- The Eastern Question: whether or not the Ottoman Empire should be allowed to exist; asked by Russia, France, and Britain. - If the Ottomans weren't allowed to exist, who gets the territory? Not Russia, WE HOPE. - Russian Expansion - Expanded throughout Asia, but they needed to expand more for a warm water port. - Supported Serbian (part of O.E) independence - Saw themselves as the protectors of orthodox Christians. - British and French distrusted Russia. They were European, but still culturally different (Orthodox, Cyrillic alphabet, and absolutism/serfdom was a thing). - Saw Russian expansion as a threat to the strong trade with Middle East and Asia. - Wants a balance of power.

- An alliance of Britain, France and the Ottoman Empire defeated Russia and thus blocked Russian expansion into Eastern Europe and the Middle East. - War was fought in Romania, the Black Sea, and the Crimean Peninsula. - Russia lost bc Europeans had modernized militaries.

IN GENERAL: - First modern war; mechanized. - Marked the transition from traditional to modern warfare. The *percussion caps and breech-loading rifles* were examples. - Beginning of a series of changes in military technology - Invention of machine guns, the use of railways to transfer weapons and men, and trench warfare. - Propaganda with the telegraph and newspapers were spread quickly especially in France. - Support for war effort

- Russian Expansion was ended (especially in the Ottoman Empire). - Embarrassment: no longer a significant military power. - Serf-based economy/Army couldn't compete. They were backwards and unindustrialized. Plus they had no railroads to help transport peoples. - Pan-Slavism: came from the war. Belief that Slavs should unite.

- Europeans start having a strong influence, especially Britain and France. - Urbanization occurs in result of influence and new reforms. - However, the O.E. was too dependent on foreign (British) loans. - Trade deficits occurred (the amount by which the cost of a country's imports exceeds the value of its exports). - Inflation; things were expensive - 1860s-70s --> male suffrage (able to vote and participate in government). - These new reforms, however, scared off Muslims who were worried about the influence of Islam in society. - They were hostile towards Christians in Europe, Armenia, and the Middle East (Armenian Genocide, 1915). - O.E's power continues to decline until its utter demise in 1922.

- Destroys Holy Alliance of Austria, Prussia, and Russia who were a strong conservative Christian alliance. - Austria is the mediator for peace (Treaty of Paris 1856; ended the Crimean War. Signed between Russia on one side and France, Great Britain, and Turkey/O.E on the other). - Russia and Austria become enemies for some reason. - Prussia has close ties with Austria now instead of Russia.

- In the 1600s, the Qing snatched China and bought the country back to peace and stuff. Established CANTON SYSTEM that only opened one port, Canton, to Europeans/British. This was aggravating enough. - However, British continued to smuggle opium, a drug which even nobles took, into China for silver. - Traded Chinese silver for opium, from India (British occupied) to China. - Believing the Europeans were remote and relatively unimportant people, the Qing did not pay much attention to trade issues or to the growth in the opium trade. - 1939 --> Qing government realized the harm being done by the opium trade; decided to ban the use and import of opium and sent Lin Zexu to Canton to deal with the matter. - British saw this ban as a declaration of war, since the halt of trade would badly effect their economy. - Bannermen, the Chinese who fought, were similar to the Janissaries in the sense that they were obsolete. Used old matchlock muskets that were dangerous, since gunpowder packs can explode if exposed to fire. - The better-armed British naval and ground forces defeated the Qing and forced them to sign the *Treaty of Nanking.*

- Since the British won, the treaty favored them in many, many ways. 1. The Canton System went bye-bye. 2. 4 new treaty ports were opened other than Canton, the wee little treaty port (cities open to foreign residents). 3. Hong Kong became a long term English colony. 4. Pockets of land where Brits/Europeans lived had extraterritorial rights - This is when British have instant citizenship while having the freedom to subject to their OWN laws... not Chinese ones! 5. China owed Britain 21 MILLION ounces of silver, since they started the war. - Basically... bye-bye Canton, 5 open ports, colonizing Hong kong, extraterritorial rights, and loads of money.