European Domination

The Europeanization of Asia, Africa, India and the Middle East was a result of the industrial revolution in Europe that led to mass migrations of Europeans to new parts of the world. "The thin ribbons of European settlement that existed in 1763 had stretched by 1914 to cover entire continents." (p.509) Despite European success' in conquering much of the known world, there were some challenges to colonial domination that faced the Europeans in Russia, Asia, Africa, India and the Middle East.

The Europeanization of Russia, on the surface, did not face many challenges. Leaders such as Peter the Great and later Catherine the great welcomed European ideals and principals and mimicked them in order to build a stronger Russia. The problem was, however, that this Europeanization of Russia was limited to the upper class causing a rift within Russian society that ultimately led to the Decembrist Revolt. The Decembrist Revolt, although a futile attempt to abolish serfdom and the autocracy, brought to light the stark differences between Russian society and that of Western Europe. The culmination of the struggle between Western European ideals and Russian society was the Crimean War (1854-56) when the ways of the West prevailed, leaving serfdom in the past and paving the way for further Europeanization.

The major challenge to Europeanization in the Middle East was the non-uniformity of the Ottoman Empire, which encompassed much of the Middle East at the time. "The Ottoman Empire remained a hodgepodge of peoples, religions and conflicting loyalties" (p.468) which posed many distinct challenges to Europeanization. "The significance of this loose imperial organization is that Western ideas and pressures encountered a variety of cultures and conditions. Consequently, the West did not have a uniform impact on the Ottoman lands." (p.468) The Balkan Christians were the first people affected by the West. These people, dissatisfied with Ottoman rule, harnessed Western industry and in turn an economic revolution that created a prosperous middle class who wanted to expel the Turkish rule. This Western influence in both commerce and politics eventually sparked several uprisings that lead to the expulsion of the Turks out of the Balkan Peninsula by 1912.

When Napoleon landed in Egypt in 1798, Europeanization of the Arab world began. With the help of Mehmet Ali, Egypt became an industrialized keystone of the Arab empire as well as a formidable military power. Western Europe itself posed as the challenge to the further expansion of Egypt since the European powers were against Egyptian expansion and industrialization.

India posed virtually no challenges to the British imperialists in the eighteenth century. "India was in an anarchical state" and "The British were able to play one Indian prince against another until they became masters of the entire peninsula." (p.478)

The far eastern countries of Asia, China and Japan,