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Chapter 19: In the 19th century Europe became the center of the world economy. Europe had ties all over the world and this had an effect on the Independence of the once great empires of China, Persia and the Ottoman Empire. The Industrial Revolution increased productivity so much that there was a huge need for raw materials from around the world and also for markets to purchase all the products. Some politicians in Britain realized that conditions in the country itself such as the protests of the unemployed and poor meant that "colonial politicians must open up new areas to absorb excess population" (page 880). This response to European industrialization is called Imperialism. The European countries tried to gain economic or political control over areas of Africa and Asia to create markets, get raw materials and create an outlet for their own populations. The Europeans developed a sense of their own superiority in the late 19th century. African societies were considered primitive and the Chinese were stereotyped as "the yellow peril". This sense of superiority went hand in hand with Imperialism as a way to justify a control of areas outside of Europe as good of the people who were being "civilized". China in particular experienced internal problems that weakened it. The population had grown but there was no Industrial revolution that took place. The government could not keep pace with the growing population. Even to a collect taxes. Bandit gangs started to roam the countryside and there was a possibility of a peasant rebellion. This internal crisis of the Taiping uprising between 1850-1864.  The leaders of the rebellion called for the end to private property, redistribution of land and an end to foot binding prostitution and Opium smoking. They also had a plan to transform China into an Industrial nation. The King Qing dynasty was able to put down the rebellion but this civil war weakened China's economy. The British took advantage of this weakness by selling huge amounts of opium from India into China. China ended up with millions of addicts. The result was the opium war between the British and the Chinese. The British came out ahead. And a second opium war the British humiliated the Chinese even more. The French, Japanese, Russians and British carved up China into spheres of influence which gave these countries special privileges to build rail roads, set up military bases and set up raw materials. The Chinese tried to rise up against the crisis in their country and they began to modernize. this failed in the Boxer uprising 1898-1901 in Northern China where Western powers and Japan occupied Beijing to crush the rebellion. The Industrial revolution in Europe also weakened the Ottoman Empire which ruled most of the Arab world from North Africa to Balkans. The empire shrank through Russian, British, Austrian and French military intervention. Parts of the empire such as Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Romania achieved independence with support from the British or the Russians. The Ottoman Empire made reforms but this led to the rising of the young Turks that followed a secular and more modern nationalism. On the other hand unlike China and the Ottoman Empire went through its own industrial revolution and became a powerful modern nation that took on much western science and technology. Japan began its own Empire building waging war against China and Russia and gaining control of Taiwan and Korea.