AMSCO 5.6 Industrialization: Government's Role Notes

Overview

AMSCO Topic 5.6, Industrialization: Government's Role (p. 317-321), covers how governments outside Western Europe responded to the spread of industrialization between 1750 and 1900. The big idea is that a small number of states sponsored their own visions of industrialization, with Egypt under Muhammad Ali and Japan during the Meiji Restoration as the standout examples. The chapter also contrasts these successes with the Ottoman Empire's decline and China's inability to industrialize after foreign powers weakened its government.

As Emperor Meiji put it in an 1871 letter to President Ulysses Grant, Japan's goal was to "select from the various institutions prevailing among enlightened nations such as are best suited to our present conditions" and adapt them through gradual reform. That quote captures the whole chapter: every country faced a tug-of-war between preserving tradition and modernizing, and the strength of the government usually determined which strategy worked.

The Ottoman Empire: "The Sick Man of Europe"

The Ottoman Empire declined throughout the 17th and 18th centuries because of rampant corruption and rising ethnic nationalism among its diverse population, earning it the nickname "the sick man of Europe." Even though it bordered Europe, the empire had not adopted Western technology or Enlightenment ideas.

• Widespread unrest and weak central authority left the empire vulnerable to European powers looking for territorial gains.
• The empire was eventually dismantled after World War I into the Republic of Turkey and several small independent countries.
• Key takeaway for the exam: a weak central government meant the Ottomans as a whole could not push industrialization. But one corner of the empire bucked that trend.

Muhammad Ali and State-Sponsored Industrialization in Egypt

Egypt was technically Ottoman territory, but the sultan ruled there in name only. The Mamluks, formerly enslaved Turks who formed a military class, had actually ruled Egypt for some 600 years. When the sultan sent an army to retake Egypt in 1801, an Albanian Ottoman officer named Muhammad Ali rose to prominence in the fighting against the Mamluks. Local leaders chose him as the new governor of Egypt, and the sultan was too weak to do anything but agree.

Ali's Reforms

Ali acted semi-independently of the sultan, even launching military campaigns in Sudan and Syria without permission. At home, he:

• Remade Egypt's military on a European model and sent officers to be educated in France
• Established schools and started an official newspaper, the first in the Islamic world
• Taxed peasants so heavily that they were forced to give up their lands to the state, which let the government control valuable cotton production and profit from agricultural exports
• Secularized religious lands, putting more produce in government hands. This paid off big during the Napoleonic wars (1799-1815), when European wheat prices were high.

Industrialization Under Ali

This is the College Board's go-to illustrative example of state-sponsored industrialization, so know the specifics:

• Textile factories built to compete with French and British producers
• Armaments factories in Cairo, plus dozens of small Cairo shops making locks, cloth, and parts for uniforms and weapons
• Shipbuilding facilities in Alexandria so Egypt could have its own navy

Ali is called the first great modern ruler of Egypt largely because of this vision of government-led industrialization.

Japan and the Meiji Restoration

Japan made the fastest transition to a modern, industrialized country of any nation, accomplishing it in less than half a century. The motivation was self-preservation: adopt Western technology and methods so Japan could protect its traditional culture and territorial integrity.

The End of Isolation

Between 1600 and 1854, Japan had very little contact with the outside world. European powers like Great Britain, the Netherlands, and Russia wanted to sell goods there, and in the age of coal-powered ships, trading states wanted refueling stops on the way to China.

In 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry sailed a U.S. naval squadron into Tokyo Bay asking for trade privileges. He returned the next year with even more ships and demanded trade. Faced with American warships, Japan gave in, then yielded to similar demands from other foreign states.

Perry's arrival was a wake-up call. Japanese leaders had watched Britain go to war to force China to accept opium imports, and they feared the same humiliation. Reformers argued Japan should adopt enough Western technology to defend its own culture. To do it, they overthrew the shogun and restored power to the emperor in 1868, the event known as the Meiji Restoration.

Meiji Reforms

Japan systematically sent observers to Europe and the United States and invited Western experts to Japan, then adopted what it admired:

• Formally abolished feudalism in 1868 through the Charter Oath
• Established a constitutional monarchy based on the Prussian model, with the emperor ruling through a subordinate political leader
• Established equality before the law and abolished cruel punishments
• Reorganized the military on the Prussian army model, built a new navy, and instituted conscription
• Created a new school system that expanded education, especially in technical fields
• Built railroads and roads
• Subsidized industrialization in key industries: tea, silk, weaponry, shipbuilding, and sake (rice wine)

A high agricultural tax financed everything. It proved a good investment because it stimulated rapid economic growth and funded the new bureaucracy centered in Tokyo.

One catch: Japan also imported industrial society's problems. Accounts of abuse and exploitation of female Japanese mill workers echo what British female mill workers had recorded decades earlier. (For more on those working conditions, see the AMSCO 5.8 Reactions to the Industrial Economy notes.)

Zaibatsu and Private Investment

Government drove modernization, but private money mattered too. Once new industries were flourishing, the government sometimes sold them to zaibatsu, powerful Japanese family business organizations similar to American conglomerates. The chance to attract investors encouraged innovation. In 1906, a carpenter founded Toyoda Loom Works to make an automatic loom. The company prospered, modified its name, and grew into today's Toyota Motor Company.

The Contrast: China's Weak Government

China shows what happened when a government could not promote industrialization. It suffered two major humiliations in the 19th century: the Opium War with Britain (1839-1842) and the carving of its territory into foreign "spheres of influence," regions where outside powers held significant control. Foreign domination left China's central government too weak to push industrialization effectively for decades. On the exam, China is your go-to contrast case against Egypt and Japan when a question asks you to compare state economic strategies.

Key Terms to Know

Practice and Next Steps

Pair these notes with the Topic 5.6 course study guide on government's role in industrialization for the College Board's framing of the same material. To keep moving through the chapter sequence, back up to the AMSCO 5.5 Technology in the Industrial Age notes or continue to AMSCO 5.7 Economic Developments and Innovations. The full Unit 5 set lives on the AP World AMSCO notes page.

To check yourself, try AP World guided practice questions on Unit 5, or build comparison-essay skills with FRQ practice and instant scoring. Egypt vs. Japan vs. China is a classic comparison setup, so it is worth rehearsing.