Empires in Collision (Blog # 15)

Something I found quite interesting about this chapter was how 3 seemingly similar countries can face the same challenges and can yet have three different outcomes. China and the Ottoman Empire were the two that had the most similar results after extreme pressure from the West, while Japan seemed to strive in the face of adversity and ultimately landed itself on the same playing field as the West. This chapter further illustrates the dominating and unforgiving oppression of Western influence and how the search for power and influence in the East led to many uprisings and diminished the political and economic power of those countries; at least in the case of China and the Ottoman Empire. Both China and the Ottoman Empire had a fully developed political, economic and social structure that for them seemed to work well. It wasn’t until the West, specifically Britain that destroyed these structures and left both China and the Ottoman Empire dependent on the Western countries. It is very frustrating to me when I hear about how our ancestors, and even people from other countries with no ties to myself, treated others for their own personal gain; to think of all those who were oppressed, forced into slavery and were killed in the name of progress makes me think progress is not such a noble cause. Although I don’t agree with all of Japan’s decisions during their time of Western pressure, I do find it fascinating and inspiring that they were able to not only repel Western pressures but build itself up enough to be seen as an equal; so much so that Westerners actually repealed their unfair treaties with Japan and re-wrote them to favor Japan as an industrializing nation. Something else I found really interesting was that in all three of these empires, women’s rights and equality were suggested, worked towards and then finally rejected. Unfortunately women would have to continue to wait for their opportunity at equality; sadly many are still waiting today.