Critical Analysis 5

The Emulation of European Power

As demonstrated throughout the “World and The West” by Phillip Curtin, European power reigned supreme. What can be denoted in the text is how the nations feared the idea of being ruled by a European power. Nations had fallen or converted their ideals, government, and religion, oftentimes unsuccessfully, in order to avoid total annihilation. In contrast to the rest of the book, Curtin discusses how progressive modernization profited other countries, namely Japan and the Ottoman Empire (depending on one’s definition of success), without having any negative aspects from avoiding a Western power. That being said, in order for there to be a successful transition, these nations had only one difference with their less successful counterparts: Japan and the Ottoman Empire willingly sacrificed their cultures for gain.

From a historical standpoint, the Ottoman Empire being deemed a success could be countered by the simple point that it was eventually destroyed. In that sense, yes, it failed as a nation, but it did resist Western conquest. Borrowing ideas from European powers would at first benefit the Ottoman Empire, and would ultimately advance it as a nation, but not it the way it would have hoped. Ottoman Empire at first resisted missionaries that were apart of the European Christian Church. In fact, the Ottoman Empire was noted for having a high tolerance of other religions and not pushing religion on its citizens (178). However, this later contributed to a nation-wide identity crisis. Several groups of power were forced to accept European aid or asked for it in order to benefit economically and to increase government productivity (181). Eventually, the Ottoman Empire maintained its independence by modeling after, but not associating itself with the European structure of government. This gives perfect motive for why the Young Turks staged a military coup: The Turks themselves were pro-European nationalization, so they figured that The Ottoman Empire should simply convert their views altogether. Curtin states, “Why westernize the outward appearance of government, unless you intend to Westernize the reality as well?” (167).

This effectively destroyed the empire, effectively forming Turkey. Hence, Christianity would also finally spread prominently throughout the new nation (184). The viewpoint of having Christianity and nationalism appealed too much to this renegade group in order let their more antiquated government merely venerate these new ideas as opposed to embody them. The Ottoman Empire venerated European power so much that it collapsed itself by not borrowing enough from its ideals, such as nationalism.

According to Curtin, “Japan is the first and most successful non-Western nation to achieve the high production and consumption pioneered by the West.” Japan itself borrowed heavily form the military side of the European powers. During the Tokugawa Shogunate, as a testament to the all encompassing power of Europe, the military was a dictatorship. The Supreme military commander was such a high ranking position during that time that it was second to Emperor (158). This rendered the originally deity-like status of the Emperor to a mere ceremonial position.

Also, the Meiji Restoration period, Japanese industries were increased due to a renewed sense of military tactics. The Japanese were known for their swords, the honorable samurai. They swapped out these ideas of nobility in order to build guns and ships in order to compete as a viable competitor to the Japanese economy and military (166). The obvious underlying reason for this change in product line was to counter European and to an extent, American forces.

The final shift of Japan was to solidify the Japanese government as an oligarchy. The government created a new constitution that was based on Western ideals and status structures (170). Until World War II, Japan had a relatively solid relationship with Western powers. Curtin best describes the Japanese Western Modernization when he says that “…Japanese traditions continued, incorporating Japanese values and beliefs about appropriate political behavior. The Western models, when used, were also reinterpreted to make them ore congenial to Japanese culture. The result was not a Westernizing of Japanese political life, nor an unchanging continuation of earlier Japanese norms, but a series of new responses to changing conditions” (171). This caused a high shift economics by accidentally mimicking European fear tactics.

The Ottoman Empire and Japan were both similar in the sense that they maintain several core values and tradition throughout their modernization, Religion and the maintenance of the Emperor position respectively. These originals thoughts, however, were merely shells of what they used to be. The Ottoman Empire collapsed within itself because it did modernize, but the Young Turks wanted to see their nation become a clone of Europe instead of see a nation that compromised its ideals. These nations did take note of European efficiency, but they mostly took power into consideration when emulating them.