hi I'm John Green this is crash course world history and today we're going to
return to our old friend the rise of the West's of mister green we know the West
rose we talked about this a million times
yeah at me from the past I'm sympathetic to your position but the thing is this
is a big deal in world history circles and today
we're going to talk about the rise in the west from the perspective of people
who don't live there
so today we're going to look at how some people who experience to the rise of the
West first-hand responded to it we're gonna focus on
East Asia and also the middle East which is also Asia
anyway both these communities deal with European imperialism in the 19th and
early 20th centuries so just a quick note here European imperialism affected
millions of people including agricultural and industrial workers very
few whom left
record their experience so we end up relying on the words of people who
brought things down
intellectuals so many those people were European but in this case most of what
will be examining today is covered by a fascinating book by Pankaj Mishra called
the ruins empire to revolt against the west and the remaking
Asia Mishra's book draws heavily from the perspectives of three agent thinkers
and I will remind you
mispronouncing things is Mike think buchanan et toi sur se Jamal Uddin of
gunning Sheikh al from China and Rabindranath Tagore from India through
their eyes we can see the Asians did recognize the coming dominance in Europe
but they also develop ideas about imperialism that provided a
counterweight to Western dominance and gave them away
imagining their role in this new world I could go straight to the thought bubble
other weekend to acquit European imperialism with the late 19th century
especially the carving up with Africa after the Berlin conference 1884 for
many Asians the disaster began
earlier in China the opium wars began
Raina humiliations most memorable which occurred with the destruction of the
summer palace in 1860 and imperialism was in great for the Muslim world either
by
1896 I love gone he described muslims under European imperialism
this way the foreigners chain up muslims put around their necks in your
conservative india-based them humiliate their lineage
and they do not mention their names but with installed sometimes they call them
sad verges and sometimes regard them
as hard-hearted in cruel and finally consider them
insane animals what a disaster just like today's orientation intellectuals were
quick to recognize that the reason Europeans were able to dominate and
humiliate them with europe superior industrial technology and organization
one early response was to say what if you can't beat 'em join him
or at least try to follow their models have military organization and education
we see this in attempts at reform like the tens imagine the Ottoman Empire
Allergan initially a good these calls to study more science and philosophy but
his compare simple awesome for his with profits was too radical for the Ottomans
and ended up
is done Chinese intellectuals responded similarly to the humiliation the opium
wars with calls for sale
strengthening a phrase coined by its biggest supporter think we fan given
China's almost two thousand-year history and education system based on Confucian
values in classical texts which
to be fair had worked pretty well for them promote at that time adopting
Western models and education organization was gonna be a tough sell
as yon who had Chinese writer and translator put it China governs the
realm through filial piety
on Western's govern the round with impartiality China values the sovereign
will westerners is steam the people
China prizes the one-way one westerners prefer diversity
in learning Chinese praise breadth and wisdom well westerners rely on human
strength one Chinese reformer Kenya way took up the challenge blend in western
in Chinese ideas and governance by attempting to update Confucianism for
the modern world in
arguing that political reform and mass mobilization were central concerns for
Confucius
himself thanks thought that was all that gets to a big question imperialism was
a disaster for a lot of people but there were things about what the West was
doing to control much of the world that we're obviously working to the question
for people outside the West became what
if anything do we take for
this and try to borrow in integrate into our own community so in addition to
education in military reforms many Asian intellectuals built in europe strength
was rooted in its political organization
into nation-states sounds a lot like today's historians and also economists
everyone's crazy about nation-states except the Mongols
then you know what I stand with the Mongols on that I think empire is
underrated I would make an excellent amber
for instance you know the calmest and genghis John
anybody now
day myself but anyway so these intellectual became proponent of
nationalism like by 1879 Alan Gandhi was advocating that Muslims begin to think
for themselves as a nation in the sensible culturally unified people here
is in words the recall the German nationalists have the time there is no
happiness
except through nationality and no nationality except through language a
people without unity and the people without literature are a people without
language
a people without history are a people without glory and the people
will lack history it but Ortiz do not rise among them
to protect and we did not buy the memory of their historical heroes
so that they may follow and emulate all this depends
on a national education which begins with the fatherland
the environment which is the fatherland and the end of which
is don't bother plantation I was in a German nationalist and because that was
a lot of armament
may be translated by German and then there's India as the most thoroughly
colonized Asian territory India's feelings about nationalism were
very complicated some Indians wanted to create a european-style state organized
around hinduism but of course
India had a large Muslim minority and also Hinduism with its caste divisions
wasn't great for creating political unity others like Aurobindo Ghose were
critical adopting too many European ideas worrying that India quote was in
danger of losing its soul by an incense 8 surrender to the
aberrations in the European material is aberrations in European materialism I
don't know what you're talking about
others do is hold on I gotta play floppy Bird for second but many Asians
considering adopting European models
nationalism look to one of its biggest success stories
Japan for europeans Japan became kind of a confirmation of a modernization
program industrialization centralization and to a lesser degree
liberal constitutionalism could work and this is also true to some extent for
Asian intellectuals including lingzhi Cowan Rabindranath Tagore both open
visit to Japan but ultimately japan didn't provide a great model for other
Asians attempting to reform their own state
especially because Japan embarked on its own imperial expansion
it's almost as if in addition to industrialization and centralization
did century imperialism was just parted building a strong nation states away the
early 20th century many Asian intellectuals were looking beyond
western models
some lightning sheik Allen Dallas Gandhi considered supranational movements like
pan Asian is a min
pan-arab is someday envisioned these huge political conglomerates that could
transcend Europe's dominance but
eventually both they enter ago returned to their
own traditions as a source of strength and what they all had in common was a
loss of faith in liberal democracy as a source of strength especially after the
verse I treaty in nineteen ninety like after flirting with pan-arab is a min
being expelled from a different
autumn in city this time Cairo Alex Gandhi became convinced that quote
modernization
happened secure the Ottomans against infidels on the contrary it had made
them
more dependent the embrace the idea the best defense against the West was his
longest recess at this as he sought attacking religion risked undermining
the moral basis in society
all together and we can the bonds that held communities together
precisely the weakening that had plunged moslems everywhere
into crisis now this doesn't mean that he became what we today think I've as an
Islamist radical or an anti modernists instead he believed that the koran
contain its own calls for reform that Islam could be a catalyst for change
ultimately Allegany believe that the transformation of Islamic society
had to come from within like his favorite Khurana conjunction with God
does not change the condition other people
until they change their own condition in China LNG kau came up with the different
sources reform
the strong state after the failure the Boxer Rebellion in 1901
he wrote his awesomely titled on the new rules for destroying countries
this was a critique of European imperialism but it was also a call for a
strong somewhat authoritarian state that could stand up to the west
match I knew would never do that wat sec
did eventually came to the conclusion that the Chinese people must now accept
authoritarian rule they cannot enjoy freedom that's pretty extreme home it's
time for the open letter
but first let's see what time ago today all look at some under-appreciated
authoritarian rulers
an open letter to authoritarianism the retort Arianism within I am
all for democracy but the Tierney a bit
majority is no joke and there have been many times when democratically elected
governments were less
pluralistic then authoritarian ones not only that if you can keep corruption out
a bit there is an astonishing efficiency to doing it your way
like who's gonna make this decision know I know the Queen
it's always the quiet no need for exploratory committees are different
houses in congress
the Queen can do it maybe I'm just a little frustrated with congressional
gridlock authoritarianism but I kind of think you're underrated
best wishes John Green pS Just Wanna confirmed I'm not advocating for
authoritarian rule in the United States so when also visited the United States
which made him more convinced that liberal democracies did not provide an
answer especially because they discriminated so much against
asians and then world war one in the insane map drawing spree of the Treaty
of Versailles just
further confirmed on with it I mean despite the lofty rhetoric at Woodrow
Wilson's 14 points in the league of nations and everything the result of the
war whoops
suspiciously like the prewar imperialism that many Asians believed with the cause
of the war in the first place
but perhaps no one was more skeptical would be if you can't find him
emulate him strategy in dealing with imperialism than Indians
don t for instance went very far in his critique of the West modernism saying
that it lacked spiritual freedom and social harmony
even rejecting many aspects of the industrial revolution itself i mean this
was a person who sold his own clothes and interestingly one of the most vocal
Indian critics in the west was the one who is perhaps most positively received
their
to gore won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1913 for a body of work
that essentially said
you guys are terrible at everything to quote Mishra to gore's message to the
west was that their modern civilization built upon the Coulter money in power
was inherently destructive
in need to be tempered by the spiritual wisdom the east now he didn't reject
industrialization completely and he acknowledged that quote the age belongs
to the west and humanity must be grateful to you for your science
but cautioned in audience in New York that quote you have exploited those who
are helpless
and humiliated those who are unfortunate so as we talked about before
our perspective on events really colors are version
above the truth living as we do in an age dominated by more
or less liberal nation-state with varying degrees of market freedom
it can be tempting to consider their development as both
inevitable and good and I'm certainly not going to throw rocks at both the
political system and a nation state that allows and enables me to put up videos
like this and provides a space for millions have you to agree and disagree
but we will get responses to imperialism I mean after we get beyond the obvious
criticism that imperialism generally
is banned we start to focus on the responses to it that confirm this deep
down feeling we have you know that it was bad to extract all those resources
but
ultimately we spread tolerance and pluralism and the nation-state
and knows all worked out to a worry that we look at some strengthening in China
or the Ottoman reforms as examples of were Asians were on the right track
and then we see the failure of those reforms as confirmation that
Asians were somehow just on ready your on the for the benefits that the west
could so generously offered but if you look at the actual words and actions
that Asians who experienced imperialism first and you get a very different
picture
Asian thinkers were critical in the west from the very earliest stages have new
Imperial with looking back at the evolution of the intellectuals we've
talked about today reminds us that Asians were not simply
victims and imperialism ideology in fact they continued influence ideas about the
west today and not only outside the West when we in the West were meant are
insensitive
surrender to the aberrations and European materialism we should recognize
that that criticism
didn't necessarily originated from within thanks for watchin
I'll see you next week crash course is made with the help of Allah these nice
people here in New chattin station in the port studio in Indianapolis and
exist because it your support on
double dot com sellable voluntary subscription service that allows you to
support
crash for correctly so we can keep it briefer everyone for everything
thank you to all over some from drivers and thank you for watching as we say in
my hometown