CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2019
| Author | Zhang, Wenqian |
|---|---|
| Title | "The Turks are the most similar to us": Chinese intellectuals' conceptions of the Ottoman movements, 1843-1913 |
| Summary | This thesis examines Chinese intellectuals’ conceptions of the Ottoman reform movements from 1843 to 1913, especially the different interpretations of the Young Turk movement. In 1908, Kang Youwei, a famous Chinese reformer, arrived in Istanbul and witnessed the victory of the Young Turk Revolution. Since then, Ottoman movements became significant cases for Kang and his generation to reflect on the imperial crisis of Qing China which failed to establish a constitutional monarchy. After the Qing’s demise in 1912, Kang’s focus switched to the restoration of the Qing Monarchy. As he attempted to achieve this goal by transforming Confucianism into a state religion, he regarded the Hamidian religious approach as a model to ensure people’s loyalty to the ruler. The transition of Kang's interpretations and his debates with both conservatives and revolutionaries revealed the complexity of “imperial formations”. To overcome the convention of making Europe the only model in the studies of modernization, this research aims to contribute to a new interpretation of the Ottoman Empire’s role in the constitutional movement and revolution of another non-European empire. |
| Supervisor | Wilson,Brett |
| Department | History MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2019/zhang_wenqian.pdf |
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