5 Steps to a 5TM AP European History

(^168) › STEP 4. Review the Knowledge You Need to Score High
The Congress, though really an organization of Hindu elites, promoted the notion of a free
and independent India.
Southeast Asia: Dominated by France
In southeast Asia, the French emulated the British strategy of ruling through local elites
and fostering economic dependence. During the 1880s and early 1890s, France established
the Union of Indochina, effectively dominating in the areas that would become Vietnam,
Laos, and Cambodia.
China: Under Increasing European Control
China had been infiltrated by British traders in the 1830s. The British traded opium grown
in India to Chinese dealers in exchange for tea, silk, and other goods that were highly
prized in Britain. When the Chinese government attempted to end the trade, Great Britain
waged and won the Opium War (1839–1842) and forced the Chinese to sign the Treaty of
Nanking. The treaty ceded Hong Kong to Great Britain, established several tariff-free zones
for foreign trade, and exempted foreigners from Chinese law.
The humiliation of the Manchu rulers and the undermining of the Chinese econ-
omy that resulted from foreign interference led to the Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864).
Defending their rule from the Rebellion made the Manchus even more dependent on
Western support. Chinese nationalism and resistance to foreign influence again manifested
itself in the Boxer Rebellion (1899–1900). The combined forces of the European powers
were able to suppress the rebellion, but in 1911, a revolution led by Sun Yat-sen succeeded
in overthrowing the Manchu dynasty, and a Chinese republic was established.
Japan: Westernization
Japan had been forcibly opened to Western trade by an American fleet commanded by
Commodore Matthew J. Perry in 1853–1854. The Japanese government signed a number
of treaties granting Western powers effective control of foreign trade. The result was civil
war and revolution, which culminated in the Meiji Restoration, during which modernizers,
determined to preserve Japanese independence, restored power to the emperor and reorgan-
ized Japanese society along Western lines. By 1900, Japan was an industrial and military
power. In 1904, the country quarreled with Russia over influence in China and stunned the
world with its victory in the Russo-Japanese War (1905).
Russia: Expansion
Russia had reached the Pacific Coast by the seventeenth century; 200 years later it controlled
Siberia, central Asia, Turkestan, Manchuria, and everything leading south to the Black Sea
(in part, thanks to the ailing Ottoman Empire). Russia divested itself of Alaska, selling it to
the United States in 1867. Russia agreed with Britain to use Afghanistan as a buffer state
between the two powers and to partition Persia. In 1905, Russia’s attempt to take over Korea
brought about a confrontation with Japan, and Russia lost the subsequent war.

Review Questions

Multiple Choice

Questions 1–3 refer to the following passage:

This is the entire issue of empire. A people limited in number and energy and in the land they

occupy have the choice of improving to the utmost the political and economic management of

PRACTICE

20_Bartolini_Ch20_165-170.indd 168 27/04/18 1:55 PM