## Learning Outcomes

- Explain why the Ottoman, Russian, and Qing empires weakened after **1900**
- Identify the role of **nationalism**, **reform failure**, and **military defeat** in imperial collapse
- Recall key events including the **Xinhai Revolution (1911)**, the **February Revolution (1917)**, and the **Treaty of Lausanne (1923)**
- Distinguish between gradual decline, sudden revolution, and dynastic overthrow
- Compare what replaced each empire after collapse
- Use specific evidence to build comparison and causation arguments in SAQs, DBQs, and LEQs

## AP World History: Modern Syllabus

For the AP World History: Modern, you are expected to understand the collapse of major land-based empires after 1900, with a focus on the following syllabus points:

- Know that the **Ottoman**, **Russian**, and **Qing** empires all faced pressure from reform problems, internal unrest, and external threats
- Identify the **Tanzimat reforms**, **Young Turks**, **1905 Revolution**, **Self-Strengthening Movement**, and **Hundred Days’ Reform** as major reform efforts
- Explain the difference between the **Qing collapse in 1911–1912** and the later Chinese Communist victory in **1949**
- Understand how **World War I** directly helped bring down the Ottoman and Russian empires, but not the Qing dynasty
- Recognise the significance of the **Xinhai Revolution**, **February Revolution**, and **October Revolution**
- Understand that the **mandate system** was a major result of Ottoman collapse, not Russian or Qing collapse
- Compare the post-collapse outcomes: **Republic of Turkey**, **Soviet/communist state**, and **Republic of China followed by warlordism**

## Test Your Knowledge

_Attempt these questions before reading this article. If you find some difficult or cannot remember the answers, look more closely at that area during your revision._

1. Why did the Ottoman Empire collapse later and more gradually than the Russian and Qing empires?
2. What was the difference between the **February Revolution** and the **October Revolution** in Russia?
3. How did failed reform weaken the Qing dynasty before **1911**?
4. What was the **mandate system**, and why is it linked most closely to the Ottoman Empire?
5. What replaced each of the three empires after collapse?

## Introduction

In Unit 7, one major pattern is the breakdown of old multiethnic land empires. The **Ottoman**, **Russian**, and **Qing** empires had all once ruled huge territories and many peoples, but by the early twentieth century they were struggling to survive. Each tried reform. Each faced unrest. Each lost legitimacy. But they did not all collapse in the same way.

For AP exam purposes, this topic is not just about memorising events. It is about seeing a comparison: all three empires weakened because they could not respond well enough to pressure, yet the immediate causes and final outcomes were different. That makes this a very useful topic for **comparison**, **causation**, and **continuity and change over time**.

> **Key Term: imperial collapse**
> The breakdown of a state or empire’s authority, often caused by a mix of military defeat, internal unrest, failed reform, and loss of legitimacy.

### Shared causes of collapse after 1900

A strong AP answer usually starts with similarities before moving to differences. Across these three empires, there are three big shared causes.

First, all three faced **reform failure**. Their rulers understood that change was needed, especially in military organization, administration, and state power. But reforms were limited, resisted, or came too late.

> **Key Term: reform**
> Top-down attempts by a government to modernize its military, administration, law, education, or economy in order to preserve the state.

Second, all three faced forms of **nationalism** that weakened old imperial rule. In multiethnic empires, subjects increasingly identified with their own nation, ethnicity, or anti-dynastic cause instead of the empire.

> **Key Term: nationalism**
> Loyalty to a nation or people, often expressed through demands for self-rule, independence, or political unity.

Third, all three suffered from military weakness or foreign pressure. Defeat exposed state weakness and made people lose confidence in old rulers.

This gives you a solid comparative thesis:

- **Ottoman collapse** was most tied to ethnic separatism, long decline, and World War I defeat
- **Russian collapse** was most tied to autocracy, class unrest, and revolution during World War I
- **Qing collapse** was most tied to foreign imperialism, anti-Manchu anger, and failed reform before World War I
  > **Test Tip:** For an LEQ or SAQ, avoid saying all three collapsed for exactly the same reason. Examiners want one similarity and one difference supported by named evidence.

### Ottoman imperial collapse

The Ottoman case is best understood as a long decline that ended in the World War I era. The empire had already been losing strength through the nineteenth century. It faced Balkan nationalism, military defeats, and growing European interference. Reformers tried to save the state, but the reforms could not stop the losses.

The key nineteenth-century reform effort was the **Tanzimat reforms** of **1839–1876**. These aimed to modernize administration, law, education, and the military. They also tried to create a more equal imperial citizenship that would hold the empire together.

> **Key Term: Tanzimat reforms**
> Ottoman state reforms from 1839 to 1876 intended to modernize the army, law, administration, and education in order to preserve the empire.

The Tanzimat showed that Ottoman leaders knew the empire needed change. But reform faced resistance from conservatives and from groups with a stake in old structures. It also failed to solve the empire’s deeper political problem: many peoples no longer wanted to stay inside it.

The **Young Turks** became the next major reform movement. In **1908**, they restored the constitution and pushed centralization and modernization. However, they also promoted stronger Turkish nationalism, which increased tension with minorities.

> **Key Term: Young Turks**
> Ottoman reformers who restored constitutional rule in 1908 and tried to strengthen the empire through modernization and centralized government.

By the early twentieth century, the empire was already badly weakened. Then came the final blow: **World War I**. The Ottomans joined the **Central Powers** and lost. During the war, the government also carried out the **Armenian Genocide** of **1915–1916**, showing how extreme wartime nationalism and imperial crisis could turn into mass violence.

The collapse produced one of the most important postwar changes in the Middle East. Allied powers planned to divide Ottoman lands through the **Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916)** and the **Treaty of Sèvres (1920)**. Former Arab provinces did not become fully independent. Instead, they were placed under the **mandate system**.

> **Key Term: mandate system**
> A League of Nations arrangement after World War I in which former Ottoman Arab lands were placed under British and French control as temporary “trusteeships.”

This is a key AP distinction. Ottoman collapse did not simply produce freedom. It produced both the **Republic of Turkey** and new foreign control over much of the Arab Middle East.

Turkish nationalists rejected Sèvres. Under **Mustafa Kemal Atatürk**, they fought successfully to defend Anatolia. The **Treaty of Lausanne (1923)** replaced Sèvres and recognized the sovereignty of modern Turkey. The Ottoman sultanate was abolished in **1922**, and the **Republic of Turkey** was established in **1923**.

> **Test Tip:** Do not say the **Treaty of Sèvres** created modern Turkey. It was the **Treaty of Lausanne** that recognized the new Turkish state after nationalist resistance.

### Russian imperial collapse

The Russian Empire did not collapse after a long territorial breakup like the Ottomans. Its fall came through revolution. Still, the empire had shown weakness before **1917**.

One warning sign was the **Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905)**. Russia’s defeat by Japan shocked Europe and exposed the weakness of the tsarist regime. It helped trigger the **1905 Revolution**, including strikes, protests, and demands for reform.

In response, Tsar Nicholas II created a **Duma**, or representative assembly. But this reform was limited. The tsar still held major power, and the regime did not solve peasant land hunger, worker unrest, or distrust of the monarchy.

World War I then pushed the empire into crisis. Russia suffered enormous casualties, food shortages, inflation, and transport breakdown. Nicholas II was blamed for military failure and poor leadership.

In **February 1917**, mass unrest in Petrograd forced the tsar to abdicate. This ended Romanov rule.

> **Key Term: February Revolution**
> The 1917 uprising that forced Tsar Nicholas II to abdicate and ended the Romanov monarchy.

A **Provisional Government** took over, but it made a major error: it continued the war. It also failed to solve land and food problems. That gave the Bolsheviks an opening.

In **October 1917**, **Vladimir Lenin** and the Bolsheviks overthrew the Provisional Government.

> **Key Term: October Revolution**
> The 1917 Bolshevik seizure of power led by Lenin that overthrew the Provisional Government and began communist rule in Russia.

This distinction matters a lot:

- **February** toppled the tsar
- **October** brought the Bolsheviks to power

The new government signed the **Treaty of Brest-Litovsk (1918)** to leave World War I, giving up large territories. Civil war followed between the Bolshevik **Reds** and their opponents, the **Whites**, from **1918 to 1921**. The Bolsheviks won, and the **USSR** was formed in **1922**.

Russian collapse is therefore different from Ottoman collapse in two major ways:

- it produced a revolutionary **communist state**, not a mandate system
- class conflict and political revolution were more central than ethnic separatism

Still, continuity remained. Even after the empire fell, a powerful centralized state continued under a new ideology.

### Qing imperial collapse

The Qing case is different again because its collapse happened before World War I. The dynasty had already been weakened throughout the nineteenth century by foreign imperialism, internal rebellion, and failed reform.

After the **Opium Wars**, Qing China was forced to sign **unequal treaties**, open treaty ports, and accept spheres of influence. Defeat in the **Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895)** was especially damaging because Japan, once influenced by China, now defeated it decisively.

Qing officials tried reform through the **Self-Strengthening Movement** from **1861 to 1895**. This introduced some Western military and industrial methods while preserving traditional political structures.

> **Key Term: Self-Strengthening Movement**
> Qing reforms from 1861 to 1895 that adopted some Western technology and military methods without fully changing the political system.

The limits of self-strengthening became obvious after defeat by Japan. In **1898**, the **Hundred Days’ Reform** attempted broader change in education, administration, and the military. Conservative forces quickly crushed it.

The **Boxer Rebellion (1899–1900)** further weakened the dynasty. It was an anti-foreign, anti-Christian uprising. When the Qing court supported the Boxers, foreign armies intervened and imposed more humiliation.

By this stage, many Chinese reformers and revolutionaries believed the Qing had failed China. Anger was not only anti-foreign but also **anti-Manchu**, since the Qing rulers were ethnically Manchu.

The final collapse came with the **Xinhai Revolution**, beginning with the **Wuchang Uprising** in **1911**.

> **Key Term: Xinhai Revolution**
> The 1911–1912 revolution that ended Qing rule and the Chinese imperial system.

The dynasty formally ended when the last emperor abdicated in **1912**. **Sun Yat-sen** became the symbolic leader of the new republic, although **Yuan Shikai** soon took power as president.

> **Key Term: Sun Yat-sen**
> Chinese nationalist revolutionary associated with the overthrow of the Qing and the founding of the Republic of China.

Qing collapse did not lead to stable democracy. After Yuan Shikai’s death in **1916**, China entered the **Warlord Era**, with competing military leaders controlling different regions.

This is another major AP point: the **1911 revolution** created the **Republic of China**, not Communist China. The communist victory came much later, in **1949**.

### Comparing the outcomes

A top-scoring AP response should compare not just the causes but also the results.

All three empires collapsed, but each produced a different post-imperial path:

- **Ottoman Empire** → Turkish nationalist state plus foreign mandates in Arab lands
- **Russian Empire** → Bolshevik revolution, civil war, and a new communist state
- **Qing Empire** → Republic, political weakness, and fragmentation into warlordism

There is also a continuity point worth making. None of these collapses immediately produced broad freedom and stability. In every case, collapse was followed by either a new centralized state, foreign domination, or civil conflict.

This makes a strong comparative judgement:
imperial collapse after 1900 often ended old dynastic rule, but it did not automatically create stable self-determination.

> **Test Tip:** In a comparison essay, use a structure like this: “Both the Ottoman and Qing empires attempted reform before collapse. However, the Ottomans fell mainly after World War I and produced a mandate system, while the Qing fell in 1911 after failed reform and foreign pressure, producing a republic followed by warlordism.”

## Key Point Checklist

_This article has covered the following key knowledge points:_

- The Ottoman, Russian, and Qing empires all weakened because of reform failure, internal unrest, and military or foreign pressure
- Ottoman decline was long-term and ended with defeat in World War I
- The **Tanzimat reforms (1839–1876)** and the **Young Turks** were major Ottoman efforts to preserve the empire
- Ottoman collapse led to the **mandate system** and the creation of modern **Turkey**
- The **Treaty of Sèvres (1920)** proposed partition, but the **Treaty of Lausanne (1923)** recognized Turkey
- Russia’s defeat in the **Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905)** exposed tsarist weakness
- The **February Revolution (1917)** ended Romanov rule, while the **October Revolution (1917)** brought the Bolsheviks to power
- Qing weakness was shaped by foreign imperialism, failed reform, and anti-Manchu nationalism
- The **Self-Strengthening Movement**, **Hundred Days’ Reform**, and **Boxer Rebellion** all show Qing reform failure and crisis
- The **Xinhai Revolution (1911–1912)** ended the Qing dynasty and created the **Republic of China**
- Qing collapse is not the same as the later Communist Revolution of **1949**
- Imperial collapse after 1900 often led to new centralized states, foreign control, or fragmentation rather than immediate stability

## Key Terms and Concepts

- imperial collapse
- reform
- nationalism
- Tanzimat reforms
- Young Turks
- mandate system
- February Revolution
- October Revolution
- Self-Strengthening Movement
- Xinhai Revolution
- Sun Yat-sen


Shifting Power After 1900 - Ottoman, Russian, and Qing imperial collapse