By journaling, we don’t mean like in a diary when you were a preteen, but as an adult continuing your education and your faith. You don’t have to be a Picasso but a little color never hurt anyone. Anyone can start bible journaling and make it a fruitful and enriching experience. Don’t forget to keep it fun!
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Have you heard of the term micro bible journaling? This is a simple “note taking” style in the margin columns or white space on the side of paragraphs. This is where you can let your imagination soar. You can draw arrows, personal quotes, doodles, symbols, names, anything! This is to help bring you back here to this part of the book and remember the significance of a page, paragraph, or line.
Another fun idea to keep things interesting is using “die-cuts…” a new fancy word for stickers. There are sticker sets you can find online that are theme based, color based, and so on. You can find what suits you and incorporate it into your pages for a quick eye-line glance. Plus, it helps keep the creative juices flowing.
Let’s not forget consistency is key! Do this daily. Set aside whatever time frame and range you want that suits your daily schedule and do this for yourself. Not only do you want to keep your faith a primary essential in your life but the activity of bible journaling daily will keep you inspired and with your new creative edge, keep things interesting. This isn’t rocket science but it definitely is a quick way to keep biblical truths fresh and add a pop of creativity to your life.
Amy Carmichael (1867-1951) was an Irish missionary, author, and founder of the Dohnavur Fellowship in Dohnavur, India. Apart from her work as an evangelist, she is best known for rescuing and providing much-needed shelter to India’s exploited devadasis and their children. She was a prolific author, writing more than 30 books during her lifetime. Carmichael spent most of her life living among the devadasis and their children in India, and never returned to her native Ireland, Four years before the great missionary’s death, India officially outlawed the dedication of girls to Hindu temples.
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The Early Years
Amy Beatrice Carmichael was born in the town of Millisle, County Down, Northern Ireland on December 16, 1867. She was the eldest of seven children of staunch Presbyterians, David and Catherine Carmichael. The Carmichaels moved to Belfast around 1883, and it was in this city that they established the Welcome Evangelical Church. It was in this church that Amy first honed her skills as an evangelist and as a missionary.
Amy’s earliest mission work was the founding of a Sunday morning class for Belfast’s mill girls. These women were called ‘shawlies’ because they preferred to wear shawls instead of hats. The Sunday morning class was held in the hall of the Rosemary Presbyterian Church.
The Sunday morning class was a huge success. The number of ‘shawlies’ that attended the class grew so much that Amy was forced to look for a bigger place to hold a meeting for 500 persons. As fate would have it, she received a donation amounting to $500 from Miss Kate Mitchell.
One of the mill owners she ministered to also donated a plot of land where the hall could be built. The plot of land is located on the corner of Heather and Cambrai Streets. The Welcome Evangelical Church established by the Carmichaels still occupies this plot of land in the city of Belfast.
Amy suffered from neuralgia, a condition that often kept her weak and in pain. However, this didn’t stop her from serving those who need to hear about Christ. In 1887, she attended the Keswick Convention where she heard about the founder of the China Inland Mission, Hudson Taylor. Hearing about the legendary missionary inspired her to become one, too.
Among the Devadasis of Southern India
In 1889, Amy relocated to Manchester to start a ministry among the mill girls who worked there. She later joined and trained with the China Inland Mission, but her trip to Asia was postponed because of poor health. She cut ties with the China Inland Mission,and joined the Church Missionary Society instead.
She had a short stint in Japan in 1893 under the auspices of the Church Missionary Society before illness forced her to return to Britain. In 1895, Amy joined the Church of England Zenana Mission. She was sent to Sri Lanka, but ill health once again interfered in her work.
Amy then traveled to Bangalore, India to recuperate and join the rest of the missionaries of the Zenana Mission. It now seemed that her illness was a boon as it was in India that she would finally find her vocation and her permanent home.
While she was recuperating, she studied the Tamil language and preached to the locals along with Thomas Walker, a prominent CMS missionary. Amy and other English missionaries were assisted by several Indian women converts. They later relocated from Bangalore to Dohnavur, Tamil Nadu, where she founded the Dohnavur Fellowship.
Devadasis were a common sight in South India when Amy Carmichael worked there. Devadasis were young girls that were considered by Hindus as female servants of god. Girls, sometimes as young as four, were dedicated or ‘married’ to the Hindu goddess of fertility, Yellamma, and sent to one of her temples to serve the goddess.
Devadasis held a high status in medieval India, and were trained in classical dance and music. They lived in temples, performed and danced in religious rituals, and were supported by kings and wealthy patrons of the temples. But the social status of devadasis gradually diminished. Some became concubines of priests, kings, and other prominent men of their communities. As the centuries passed, the roles of devadasis changed. Instead of dancing and performing religious rituals, these women became nothing more than temple prostitutes.
Most of the young girls given to the temples came from poor families who want to unburden themselves of another mouth to feed. Other girls were daughters of devadasis themselves who had nowhere to go. Many devadasis were nothing more than sex slaves for the men in charge of the temple and prominent men of the village. Many lived their whole lives as devadasis in temples and brothels, while others managed to escape.
One of the devadasis that escaped a temple in Dohnavur eventually sought shelter with Amy Carmichael. Some of the villagers demanded that the young girl be returned to the temple or her family, and they even threatened Amy if she did not give up the child. However, Amy stood her ground and sheltered the girl in spite of the threats.
This young girl was not the last devadasi Amy Carmichael took under her wing. Several devadasis left the Hindu temples to seek shelter with the Dohnavur Fellowship. Amy and her team of missionaries at the Dohnavur Fellowship also rescued young girls from this plight.
Amy Carmichael never married or had children of her own, but she was ‘amma’ (mother) to the girls under her care. She and other missionaries of the Dohnavur Fellowship donned Indian dresses not only to blend in but also as a sign of respect to the Indian culture. The Dohnavur Fellowship was at first dedicated only to providing shelter for female devadasis and their daughters. It was not until 1918 that the fellowship admitted the sons of former devadasis.
Amy was not just a missionary and a precursor of modern social workers. She also wrote books chronicling her life and her work in Japan and India. A prolific writer, she wrote more than thirty books and devotionals from 1895 until her death in 1951.
Later Years
Amy Carmichael suffered a fall and was severely injured in 1931. Unable to continue her work because of the serious injury, she nonetheless continued to live in India and wrote books during the last twenty years of her life. Amy died and was buried in Dohnavur in 1951. She was 83 years old.
References
Picture by: Heroes of Faith, Public Domain, Link
Hill, Myrtle. “Carmichael, Amy Beatrice (1867–1951), Missionary.” Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, 2004, doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/59081.
Sharpe, Eric J. “The Legacy of Amy Carmichael.” International Bulletin of Missionary Research, vol. 20, no. 3, 1996, pp. 121–125., doi:10.1177/239693939602000307.
In summer of 1812, the French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte led his Grand Army to invade Russia. After occupying Smolensk, Napoleon’s army marched to Moscow which they found deserted and on fire. Despite being razed to the ground, the allied troops spent several weeks in Moscow. The French troops were already running low on supply and morale, so the emperor decided to withdraw from the city. On October 19, 1812, they left the city and attempted to march back to their homeland. The arrival of winter and the onslaught of Russian gunfire decimated Napoleon’s troops. These events are recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during this time period.
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The War of the Sixth Coalition: Napoleon’s Invasion of and Disastrous Retreat from Russia
In 1807, Napoleon Bonaparte and the Russian Emperor Alexander I signed the Treaty of Tilsit. The two men then became friends and allies, giving Russia a brief respite from the wars that devastated much of Europe. However, the alliance between France and Russia crumbled in 1812 when grievances from both sides resurfaced.
Napoleon’s main issue with Alexander was his lax enforcement of the French Continental System in the Baltic. This accusation had basis as the Russian emperor felt that his country did not benefit from French trade policy. In spite of his alliance with France, he continued to let ships which carried British goods into Russian ports in the Baltic.
Alexander, on the other hand, believed that the presence of French troops in the Duchy of Warsaw threatened Russia’s interests in Poland. Russia had also waged a war against the Ottoman Empire starting in 1806 and had been trying to get a chunk of its territories in the Balkans. Although it was unclear to him what Napoleon’s Balkan plans were, Alexander knew that France (the Ottoman Empire’s long-time ally) would block any Russian attempt to partition the Ottoman Empire.
Both emperors knew that war was on the horizon and were busy seeking allies between 1810 and 1812. Prussia and Austria pledged reinforcements to Napoleon, while Russia wooed Sweden for its support. Alexander then hurriedly wrapped up the war against the Ottoman Empire so he and his troops could concentrate on the new Coalition War against France.
On June 24, 1812, 600,000 soldiers marched east to attack the Russians in the city of Smolensk. Apart from French soldiers, the Grand Army also included allied German, Swiss, Dutch, Polish, Austrian, and Italian soldiers. Even before entering Smolensk in August, Napoleon’s army was already suffering from the heat, hunger, and disease. However, they still outnumbered the city’s defenders, so the Russian army retreated from Smolensk without putting up much of a fight. The French emperor originally planned to winter in Smolensk but decided to pursue the Russians into Moscow.
The Russians tried to halt the Grand Army’s advance by engaging them in a battle at Borodino. Around 70,000 men from both sides were wounded or killed on September 7, and the Russians were once again forced to retreat deeper into their territory. The Grand Army arrived in Moscow on September 14 but found the city deserted and ablaze.
Thousands of French and allied soldiers died as they attempted to cross the Berezina River once again. Russian troops proceeded to rain gunfire on their enemies. Most of the French and allied troops were killed, while many were captured and taken as prisoners. By December 18, 1812, only around 100,000 of the original 600,000 men returned to their homelands alive.
References
Picture by: Альбрехт Адам – скан из книги, Public Domain, Link
Breunig, Charles. The Age of Revolution and Reaction: 1789-1850. New York: Norton, 1977.
Lieven, Dominic, ed. The Cambridge History of Russia. Vol. 2. The Cambridge History of Russia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521815291.
Markham, Felix. The New Cambridge Modern History: War And Peace In An Age Of Upheaval 1793-1830. Edited by C. W. Crawley. Vol. IX. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1969.
Montefiore, Simon Sebag. The Romanovs: 1613-1918. New York, Vintage Books, 2017.
If you are new to being a Christian or simply new to independent Bible study, it can feel quite overwhelming. After all, the Bible entails over 60 books and some pretty abstract content at first glance.
Don’t get overwhelmed by all the choices and let that be a barrier between you and God.
There are two main approaches to studying the Bible and you can choose either one or both. Whichever suits you best. There is no right or wrong way, the Bible is for YOU.
This is reading the Bible verse by verse, understanding the audience of the passage, looking for connecting themes, and exploring the intent of each passage as you read it.
This is called exegesis, or exegetical study, and is commonly accepted as foundational to understanding Scripture. The literal definition of exegesis is to “pull meaning from.” Exegesis extracts meaning from the passage you are reading by studying verses in context and examining the original meaning of the author to his intended audience.
If you’re new to the Bible, in the beginning this will just be reading the Bible itself and either a commentary or study Bible notes to help you learn more about the historical and cultural context of what you’re reading. Along with this method, utilizing the Bible Timeline would be great!
The more you read and the more Biblical knowledge you gain, the more you’ll start to see connections and patterns and relationships between what you are currently reading and other passages for yourself. The Bible Timeline will help you have a visual for those connections. This is a method that becomes more powerful the longer you do it.
This method is reading the Bible and thinking about what a verse means to YOU. This type of study is very different and somewhat contrary to the exegetical study method. Where exegesis is extracting understanding from the verse, eisegesis is introducing your own understanding into a verse or passage.
This happens way more often than you might realize and is a major reason you need to not solely rely on teachers, but understand the Word for yourself so you can recognize the Word of Truth and its importance. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for your own knowledge profit. Remember, there is no right or wrong way, just getting started with baby steps is already a step toward knowing more.
Between 1899 and 1901, the Boxer Rebellion engulfed the nation of China. The rebellion was the result of the Chinese people’s resentment of the presence of foreigners and Christian missionaries in their country, as well as the high-handed imperialism of Western nations during the 1800s. Atrocities were committed by both sides during the rebellion which became one of the bloodiest conflicts of the turn of the century. This event is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during that time period.
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Western Imperialism and Anti-Christian Sentiments in China
The Opium Wars which left China torn and humiliated were over, but so were the glory days of the Qing Dynasty. The imperial court was in disarray after the death of Xianfeng emperor, while Qing soldiers still fought the Taipings. The presence of the hated foreigners in Beijing—a reminder of the state’s weakness—was something the Manchus and the Han Chinese resented most.
With these losses on their minds, the regents of Tongzhi emperor thought it prudent to start a “self-strengthening” program. This included learning from the “barbarians,” as well as the adoption of Western technology. To keep up with the West, Qing authorities allowed the establishment of foreign schools. As per the Treaty of Tianjin (1858), foreign missionaries were allowed inside China where they proselytized freely. Apart from their jobs as missionaries, they also worked as teachers, as well as hospital and orphanage administrators.
Catholic and Protestant missionaries soon gained thousands of converts, but their relationship with the Chinese people (especially the rural elite) was often marred by violence. This violence was fueled by xenophobia and anger at the Western nations’ encroachment of their territories. It didn’t help that some Catholic and Protestant missionaries also used the same strong-arm tactics to gain converts. By then, Christians had a tainted reputation after they were associated with the Taiping Rebellion which had ended in 1864.
One of the worst anti-missionary incidents occurred in 1870 in Tianjin where a mob massacred the French officials and the missionaries with him inside a church. The mob which killed them believed the missionaries were involved in the kidnapping and killing children. This massacre nearly brought war on Chinese soil once again but was deferred when Qing officials granted new concessions to the French. In addition to the execution and exile of the instigators, China was required to pay a hefty indemnity to France.
The Boxer Uprising
In Beijing, Qing rule under Empress Cixi was crumbling. Despite the reforms implemented by the imperial court, there was simply no way the ministers could stanch China’s bleeding. It could only get worse. In 1876, a severe famine affected the peasants of the provinces of Zhili and Shandong. Many people died, and this tragedy was followed by severe flooding after the Yellow river swelled in 1898. This heartbreaking tragedy was followed by another drought which left many people dead. Survivors became so poor that many resorted to banditry.
Another incident which contributed to anti-Christian sentiment was the case of the murdered missionaries of Society of the Divine Word. These German missionaries were among the most aggressive in evangelizing in the Shandong area. Two of their missionaries were murdered in 1897 by members of the Big Sword Society, a martial arts group whose primary goal was to defend people from warlords and bandits. The German government then decided to use this incident as a justification to wrest the Jiazhou Bay area from China.
The Big Sword Society eventually gave way to the rise of fellow martial arts practitioners known as the Boxers. This movement had its roots in northwest Shandong which was hard hit by the crises. They engaged in ritual boxing which was said to give them the power to resist the Christians and protect from harm. Spirit possession was an important part of the group’s practices.
In 1899, they named themselves “Boxers United in Righteousness,” and hostilities soon flared out between them and the Christians. Qing authorities tried to stop the violence and maintain peace, but their efforts were in vain. By 1900, the Boxer rebellion had reached Tianjin and Beijing, alarming the Empress Cixi and the imperial court. Foreigners in Beijing were considered prime targets that Britain was compelled to send Vice-Admiral Edward Seymour and his troops to protect them. But the destruction of the Tianjin-Beijing railway line halted their advance, so they were forced to repair the line first. The British troops, however, were ambushed by Chinese troops and militias. They were forced to retreat and await rescue by the allied forces.
In June 1900, Empress Cixi sided with the Boxers and declared war against the foreign powers. However, the stance of different Qing authorities on the Boxers was conflicting. In Shandong, governor Yuan Shikai fought against and subdued the Boxers. Yuxian, governor of Shanxi, sympathized with the group and ordered the execution of missionaries and their families. Foreign Christian missionaries and thousands of their local converts (including women and children) were murdered by Boxers or Qing troops during this period. The conflict was largely confined to the north and did not spread to some parts of southern China.
Allied forces finally lifted the siege against the Beijing legations on August 14, 1900, and occupied the city. Along with civilians and missionaries, they rampaged all over Beijing. Empress Cixi and the imperial family immediately evacuated and retreated to Xi’an in fear. Foreign troops then marched to Boxer strongholds and exacted harsh retaliation for the murder of Christians. They also committed rape and other atrocities against Chinese civilians in vengeance.
Further Losses and Humiliations
In September 1901, Qing officials and representatives of eleven Western nations signed the Boxer Protocol as a condition for the withdrawal of allied troops from Beijing. In the Boxer Protocol, China agreed to order the execution of ten Qing officials, including Shanxi governor Yuxian. Other Qing officials were exiled. Civil service examinations were suspended in cities that served as Boxer strongholds. The allied troops then destroyed important Qing forts, while the legation quarters of Beijing were expanded and fortified. The Qing were also required to pay 450,000,000 taels as war indemnity. The reparations were to be paid in installments within 39 years. The Western nations knew that Qing treasury was already drained, so they allowed the Chinese authorities to raise import tariffs from 3.18 to 5 percent.
References
Photo by: H. Charles McBarron, Jr. – http://www.history.army.mil/html/artphoto/pripos/usaia.html (description)http://www.history.army.mil/images/artphoto/pripos/usaia/Sir.jpg (image), Public Domain, Link
Fairbank, John King. China: A New History. Cambridge (Mass.): The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1994.
Fairbank, John K., ed. The Cambridge History of China. Late Ch’ing 1800–1911. Vol. 10. The Cambridge History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.
Mowat, C. L., ed. The New Cambridge Modern History. Vol. 12. The New Cambridge Modern History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1968.
Roberts, J.A.G. A Concise History of China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001.
Japan was engulfed in political conflicts and wars between the 12th and 16th centuries. This period of upheaval ended during the reign of the Three Unifiers (Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu). Wary of foreigners and their influence, the shōgun Tokugawa Ieyasu issued the sakoku edicts in 1635 and started the self-imposed isolation of Japan in 1639. The country would remain isolated until Commodore Matthew Perry and his “Black Ships” arrived off the coast of Japan in 1853. Japan was forced to open itself to the West, but its people resented the concessions it was forced to give to America and other European nations. This resentment of Western Imperialism would evolve into excessive nationalism and motivate Japan to prosperity by the end of the 19th century. These events are recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during that time period.
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The End of the Sengoku Period (1467-1603) and the Rise of the Tokugawa Era (1603–1868)
During the early 1550s, Oda Nobunaga overcame rival daimyōs and started the long process of unifying a country during the last years of the Sengoku Period. He and his army terrorized the Japanese people, but were able to bring stability to a country torn by civil war. He and his soldiers were armed with Portuguese arquebuses which they used to the full extent to subdue daimyōs, samurais, and civilians alike. Oda Nobunaga died in 1582 after he was forced to commit seppuku by one of his vassals. He was succeeded by one of his generals, the brilliant and equally ruthless Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
By 1590, Toyotomi Hideyoshi had defeated most of his enemies to become the most powerful man in Japan. Brutal yet more flexible than his predecessor, he consolidated power by playing off rivals until they eliminated each other. He viewed European missionaries with suspicion and started the persecution of Christians in his domain. He led the Japanese invasion of Korea which devastated the kingdom during the last years of his reign.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi died in 1598 and was succeeded by his young son who was to be guided by appointed regents until he came of age. The regents and various generals promptly ignored him and soon embroiled themselves in a civil war. They came to a head in the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 which was won by Tokugawa Ieyasu and his supporters. He also defeated Hideyori, Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s son, when the boy came of age.
Tokugawa Ieyasu took for himself the prefectures of Nara, Kyoto, Edo, Nagasaki, and Osaka as fiefs. He ruled as shōgun (military dictator) starting in 1603, but soon abdicated in favor of his son Hidetada. Although he was technically a retired shogun, he still wielded considerable power up until his death in 1616.
Portuguese, Spanish, English, and Dutch traders and evangelists flocked to Japan during the early years of the Tokugawa shogunate. The Europeans played each other off in their quest to dominate the Japanese market and acquire converts, but their strategies soon backfired. Tokugawa Ieyasu had always been wary of foreign and Christian influence on his subjects, leading him to prohibit trading and evangelization activities in his domain. (The only exception to the rule were the Dutch traders whom the Japanese perceived as pragmatic and cooperative.) In 1614, Japanese and European Christians alike were persecuted. The shōgun’s heirs maintained the anti-Christian policies until the end of the Tokugawa shogunate in the 19th century.
The Tokugawa shogunate’s anti-foreign stance hardened during the mid-1600s. The deep-seated suspicion on foreigners led the shōgun to impose the edicts of seclusion (sakoku) starting in 1635. Japanese citizens were not allowed to travel abroad, while foreign traders and European missionaries were ordered to leave Japan. Those who left and dare to come back were punished with death. The shōgun ordered the destruction of large ships to discourage the Japanese people from leaving the country.
Although feudal and backward, the Tokugawa era was generally a period marked by peace and stability. Though Japan still had an emperor, he and his family faded into obscurity. The shōgun was the head of the bakufu (military dictatorship) and was at the top of the hierarchy. He was followed by various daimyōs and samurais. Those who were at the bottom of the hierarchy (peasants, artisans, and merchants) were expected to toe the line.
Cracks in the Tokugawa shogunate started to appear during the 1830s when Japan was plagued by droughts. Famine set in, and people soon died of starvation. The hoarding done by ruthless traders led to the rising prices of grain. Starving people engaged in protests, but these assemblies sometimes led to riots. The bakufu implemented reforms, but these measures often came too late.
Even samurais were not immune to changing fortunes during the last decades of the Tokugawa shogunate. They were forced to work other jobs, as well as contribute a part of their stipend to an incompetent government. Unable to maintain them any longer, some daimyōs were forced to let their samurais go. These masterless samurais (rōnins) sometimes became bodyguards of wealthier people or mercenaries.
Japan remained irresistible to the West despite its self-imposed isolation. Britain tried to initiate trade but was rebuffed by the bakufu. During the late 1700s and early 1800s, news of Russia’s colonization of eastern Siberia reached Japan. The bakufu prepared for any eventuality by tightening its control on the Ainus of Hokkaido. American ships also made attempts to land in Japan but were turned away.
Japan’s isolation was finally lifted when the American Commodore Matthew Perry and his flotilla of steamships arrived in the Edo Bay on July 8, 1853. Perry insisted on delivering a letter from President Fillmore to the “emperor” (it was, in fact, the shōgun). The letter contained a request for trade and diplomatic relations, shelter and provisions for stranded American whalers, and coal for their ships. The presence of the large steamships and the volley of the gunner’s practice shots compelled the Japanese authorities to receive Commodore Perry’s letter. Perry and his flotilla left, but not before promising to return to Japan one year later.
Despite Japan’s isolation, the bakufu was aware of China’s defeat and humiliation at the hands of Britain and her allies during the First Opium War. They feared that the Americans would do something similar, so some daimyōs counseled the shogun to resist any attempts to open the country to foreigners. Other daimyōs, however, acknowledged that Japan had remained isolated for so long that its weapons and army had become outdated. They simply would not stand a chance against foreign forces in the event of an invasion.
Perry and his flotilla returned in early 1534. Representatives of the bakufu signed the Treaty of Kanagawa with Perry but gave few concessions to their American counterparts. Perry, however, was satisfied with the outcome and left Japan in the same year. His visit was followed by Townsend Harris who became the first American consul general in Japan. He succeeded in forcing the bakufu to sign the Treaty of Shimoda in 1858 after insinuating that the humiliations China suffered might also happen to Japan if it did not comply.
The Treaty of Shimoda included terms that were advantageous only to Western nations. Apart from trade concessions, the treaty also granted Europeans and Americans the right to reside in or near the treaty ports and enjoy the benefit of extraterritoriality. Although it was not included in the treaty, foreigners began to bring Christianity back to Japan’s shores. Cheap goods from the West flooded Japan’s market, rendering local manufacturers unable to compete.
Japan was also forced to set the tariff on imported goods at a measly 5 percent, as well as grant the Most Favored Nation status on all Western nations which traded in its ports. What angered the Japanese authorities most was the fact that they were bound to this treaty forever. There was also no way for them to revise the terms without the consent of all concerned foreign powers.
The enemies of the Tokugawa shōgun felt that the bakufu had conceded much in dealing with the “barbarians.” They believed that this behavior was unbecoming of a shōgun and that he no longer held the privilege to rule them. Enemies of the Tokugawa shōgun—particularly the daimyōs of Satsuma and Chōshū—saw their chance to topple him during the early 1860s. They formed the Satchō Alliance with the intent of restoring the emperor to the seat of power after getting rid of the shōgun.
The humiliations Japan suffered after the bakufu signed the Treaty of Shimoda gave way to nationalism. To counter their feelings of inferiority, traditionalists asserted that Japanese culture and religion were superior to those of the “barbarian West.” The clamor to restore the emperor also became louder among the Japanese population.
Taking a cue from China, the nation embarked on its own “self-strengthening” program. Intellectuals learned about Western science and technology and translated Western books into Japanese. For the first time, Japanese students were allowed to leave their homeland and travel to the United States to study. Samurais were also sent by their daimyōs abroad to learn Western military tactics and acquire knowledge on Western weapons. Unlike in China, however, Japan’s “self-strengthening” program was a success story.
The Fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate
As years passed, the anti-foreign feelings of nationalistic Japanese often manifested in violence against Europeans and Americans living in the country. Foreign envoys promptly protested to the bakufu, but the shōgun’s position was already tenuous among his people so there was nothing he could do. The foreigners retaliated by bombarding Shimonoseki (the stronghold of the Chōshū clan) and Kagoshima (the stronghold of the Satsuma clan). The Satsuma clan secretly befriended the British to get them to stop the bombardment, and claimed that members of their clan had managed to drive the enemy away. This was done so they could save face.
The Satsuma clan was now subdued, so the Chōshū clan took up the slack. In 1863, the emperor decided to once again isolate Japan and gave the foreigners an ultimatum. When the foreigners refused to leave, the Chōshū clan fired upon Western ships off the coast of Shimonoseki. The American, Dutch, English, and French fleet promptly retaliated and overcame the Chōshū clan in September 1864.
Frustrated in their efforts to dislodge the foreigners, the Satsuma and Chōshū daimyō focused on toppling the Tokugawa shogunate and strengthening the Japanese military instead. The shogun died in September 1866, and it was followed by the emperor in the following year. This emboldened the daimyōs to convince the new shōgun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, to retire. The shōgun agreed and allowed the restoration of Japan’s Yamato Dynasty to the seat of power. The 15-year old Prince Mutsuhito acceded the throne and took the name Emperor Meiji (“Enlightened One”) in 1868.
A short civil war (the Boshin War) ensued when the former shogun refused to give up his extensive lands and return them to the crown. The Tokugawa forces, however, were soon defeated and the family was forced to give up their claims to the lands. From then on, the Emperor and his ministers were free to implement reforms and usher Japan into the 20th century.
Photo by: Kanō Tan’yū – Osaka Castle main tower, Public Domain, Link
Meyer, Milton Walter. Japan: A Concise History. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2012.
Nish, Ian H. A Short History of Japan. New York: Praeger, 1968.
Perez, Louis G. A History of Japan. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998.
Between 1894 and 1895, Imperial Japan and Qing Dynasty China fought supremacy over Korea. It would be called the First Sino-Japanese War, a bloody conflict from which Japan emerged triumphantly. China was forced to cede the Liaodong Peninsula, Taiwan, and the Penghu Islands to Japan after its loss in 1895. It was also compelled to acknowledge Japan’s supremacy in Korea. This event is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during that time period.
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Japan During the Meiji Restoration
Japan was able to turn itself from a feudal society into a modern and wealthy state during the Meiji period (1868-1912). Starting in the late 1870s, the emperor and his ministers toyed with the idea of transforming the government into a more Westernized one. In 1879 and thereafter, the Japanese people were allowed to elect prefectural, town, and local representatives. By 1889, a constitution had been promulgated. This was soon followed with the election of a prime minister.
Japan learned from the humiliations it suffered during the 1850s, so it quickly transformed its military to become the strongest in Asia during the late 19th century. The army structure and discipline was copied after the Germans, while the navy was modeled after the British. The troops were made up by young men conscripted from all classes, while the military’s arsenal was among the most modern at that time. All these were implemented to counter the threats (whether real or perceived) posed by China and Russia.
It was also during this time that Japan started to dream about territorial expansion. It tightened its hold on Hokkaido, and tried to occupy the Sakhalin and Kuril Islands but was deterred by Russian presence there. It annexed the distant yet crucial Bonin and Ryukyu Islands. The Ryukyus, long a tributary of the Qing Dynasty, were taken from China.
It was not long before Japan’s ministers set their sights on Korea, the Hermit Kingdom. Korea, although long isolated from the outside world, still maintained contact with and paid tribute to Qing China. The Joseon Dynasty which ruled it since the 14th century had become weak and the kingdom itself remained backward. Western powers were already making moves to lift Korea’s veil of isolation and establish trade with the kingdom. Japan was quick to recognize this, so during the 1870s, its ministers sent envoys to Korea to establish relations with it and encourage it to become independent from China’s suzerainty.
Korea’s response to Japan’s overtures was eerily similar to the latter’s response to the West in 1853. Although the Koreans resisted at first, they were finally strong-armed into signing the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876. The treaty guaranteed Korean independence (from China only) and granted exclusive trade privileges to Japan. Japanese citizens were also allowed to reside in Korea. Taking a page from the Western playbook, Japan then demanded extraterritoriality from the host country.
China, naturally, refused to acknowledge the existence of the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876. King Gojong’s court became divided between the conservative pro-China faction and the group which supported a progressive and pro-Japan stance. Relations between Japan and China became frosty as the years passed.
The Gapsin Coup further damaged the relations between China and Japan. A group of reformers supported by Japan attempted to oust the pro-China administration in Korea in 1884. The coup, however, was unsuccessful. Riots flared up in Seoul, and a mob burned down the Japanese legation. When the furor died down, Korea was forced to grant trade and diplomatic privileges with Japan. It was also compelled to pay an indemnity for the damage the rioters had caused to the Japanese legation. Japan and China stationed troops in Korea in the same year but agreed to withdraw them after signing the Sino-Japanese Convention of Tientsin in 1885.
Korea was engulfed in rebellions between the late 1880s and the early 1890s. Despite the truce China and Japan both signed, the Nagasaki Incident of 1886 and murder of the revolutionary Kim Ok-gyun in 1894 only added fuel to the fire. The situation finally worsened when King Gojong asked Chinese authorities to send reinforcements to help him suppress the Donghak Rebellion (1894).
2,000 Chinese troops were sent to Korea in response to King Gojong request. Japan, however, felt that this was a direct violation of the Convention of Tientsin. To counter Chinese presence in the peninsula and to protect their interests there, the Japanese authorities also sent their own troops. The hostilities became full-scale war when the Chinese and Japanese troops faced each other in combat in July 1894. The Japanese troops, however, managed to rout the Chinese in the Battle of Seonghwan (July 28-29, 1894) and Battle of Pyongyang (September 15, 1894).
The Japanese navy made quick work of the Chinese Beiyang Fleet in the Battle of the Yalu River two days later. Japanese troops then crossed the Yalu River into Manchuria and massacred Chinese soldiers and civilians alike. This gave them a foothold not only in Korea but also within the Qing Dynasty’s homeland itself. The invasion of Manchuria was quickly followed by the occupation of the distant Pescadores (Penghu Islands).
China was forced to sue for peace after the devastating defeats she suffered during the war. Representatives of both nations signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki (April 17, 1895) to end the hostilities. In this treaty, China was required to pay 200 million taels to Japan as indemnity. Japan also annexed Taiwan, the Pescadores, the Liaodong Peninsula, and Korea. France, Germany, and Russia later intervened and forced Japan to give up its claim to the Liaodong Peninsula. In exchange, China would pay Japan an additional indemnity of 30 million taels. The presence of Russian reinforcements in eastern Siberia forced Japan to abandon its claim to the Liaodong Peninsula. It was, however, free to occupy Taiwan, Korea, and the Pescadores. Japan perceived the Triple Intervention as another humiliation, and its relations with France, Germany, and Russia became frosty soon after.
References
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Meyer, Milton Walter. Japan: A Concise History. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2012.
Nish, Ian H. A Short History of Japan. New York: Praeger, 1968.
Perez, Louis G. A History of Japan. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998.
The 18th-century religious movement called Methodism was founded by the Anglican priest John Wesley. As Methodist converts increased, the clergy of the Church of England often refused to administer them the sacraments. Wesley adamantly encouraged the Methodists to remain in the Anglican fold, but it was not meant to be. In 1795, Methodist leaders issued the Plan of Pacification which allowed their clergy to administer the sacraments to their own members. This marked the formal separation of Methodists from the Church of England. These events are recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during that time.
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Origin
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was born in the town of Epworth in 1703. He was one of the nineteen children born to the former Nonconformist and Epworth rector Samuel Wesley by his wife Susanna Wesley (also called “the mother of Methodism” by the movement’s historians). His grandparents, however, were Puritan Nonconformists. The younger Wesley studied at the Charterhouse School, Christ Church, and Lincoln College, Oxford. His ordination as a deacon came in 1725 and became an ordained priest three years later.
In 1729, he returned to Oxford and discovered that his brother Charles and a few of their friends had formed a study and spiritual improvement group called the “Holy Club.” Members of the “Holy Club” (later labeled “Methodists”) met to pray and study the Greek New Testament. John joined them, and it was not long before he became the group’s leader.
Wesley traveled to North America in 1735 at the invitation of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. He was supposed to work as a missionary to the Native Americans in Georgia, but the time he spent in America ended in failure. However, this period in his life was not completely a waste of time. Before he returned to England in 1738, he had met a few Moravians whose beliefs and piety impressed him. He met a Moravian named Peter Boehler when he returned to London, and the two soon became friends. Boehler’s guidance and presence in Wesley’s life reinvigorated him. Another event that changed his life that year was a meeting in Aldersgate Street where he listened to a reading from Martin Luther’s commentary on the book of Romans.
After visiting a Moravian leader at Hernhut, he returned to London and started to preach on salvation through Jesus Christ. His enthusiasm ruffled the feathers of some Anglican clergymen who later barred him from preaching behind the pulpit. Far from deterred and with some encouragement from his friends, Wesley began organizing church societies in some cities and towns in England, Scotland, and Ireland. So began the religious movement called Methodism.
Life as a pioneer of a religious movement was not easy. The clerics of the Church of England viewed the Methodists with animosity. There were also a couple of instances when Wesley himself was attacked by mobs. Loyal to the core, he encouraged the Methodists to attend Anglican services and celebrate the Holy Communion with Anglican members. Anglican ministers, however, forbade Methodists from taking the Holy Communion with them. Methodist ministers began to hold the Lord’s Supper among themselves and their members–something Wesley himself discouraged. Despite these difficult experiences, he remained faithful to the Church of England and its teachings and encouraged the Methodists to do the same.
Independence from the Church of England
The separation between the Methodists and the Church of England became inevitable as the years passed. By the 1770s, the movement had grown to a point that there were more than a hundred Methodists preachers working in Britain and the North American colonies. The newly created United States of America, however, had a shortage of Methodist ministers. Wesley responded by bypassing the authority of the Anglican bishops and ordaining ministers with authority to dispense the Communion.
Until his death in 1791, Wesley continued to encourage the Methodists to maintain a connection with the Church of England. The rift between the two denominations only widened as the years passed. The issue regarding the dispensation of the sacraments continued to be a bone of contention between the Anglicans and the Methodists (and even among the Methodists themselves). Some members wanted to submit to the Church of England with regards to the sacraments issue, while others advocated total separation. This issue was repeatedly addressed in annual conferences starting in 1791, but no concession could be reached for another four years.
Finally, in the 1795 conference, the Methodist leaders decided to allow the administration of sacraments if the majority of church officials consented. The 1795 Plan of Pacification marked the total separation of the Methodists from the Church of England.
References:
Picture by: [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Boswell, John W. A Short History of Methodism. Nashville: The M.E. Church, South, 1903.
Skevington Wood, Arthur. The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church. Edited by J. D. Douglas and Earle E. Cairns. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996.
Telford, John. Popular History of Methodism. London: Charles H. Kelly, 1900.
The First Opium War began in 1839 after China cracked down on the illegal drug trade headed by British merchants in Guangzhou. Its loss in the First Opium War forced China to open its ports to Britain (as well as other European countries) in 1842 via the Treaty of Nanking. These events are recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during that time.
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The First Opium War (1839-1842): The Drug Trade and the Clash of Cultures
The British East India Company first established contact with Chinese traders in the early 1600s. British merchants bought tea and silk from Chinese traders and shipped these products back to Europe. Demand for Chinese products in Britain spiked, but the British could not find anything of their own with which to interest Chinese buyers. One exception, however, was opium, the highly addictive substance extracted from opium poppy seed pods. Grown and harvested in India, British merchants shipped the drug from their colony and offloaded the shipment at the port of Guangzhou starting in the mid-1700s.
A great number of ordinary Chinese soon became addicted to the substance which they paid for with taels of silver. Alarmed at the rise of addiction and the outward flow of their silver reserves, the Qing officials tried in vain to stop British merchants from selling the drug. The Qing government’s futile attempt to stop the opium trade lit the fuse of China’s conflict with Britain that would last for than half a century.
The British government’s lack of knowledge about the Qing Dynasty’s culture (particularly the tribute system) worsened the conflict. In 1792, Britain sent Lord Macartney as an envoy to China to negotiate a trade treaty with the emperor. Foreign ships were confined to the waters off of Guangzhou, so the British government wanted the emperor to open several ports for them. The British government also wanted the emperor to grant its nation’s merchants access to areas where tea and silk were commonly produced. Lord Macartney was tasked to request the emperor’s permission in allowing a British minister to stay at the imperial court and oversee British interests in China.
As was the custom, Macartney brought lavish gifts for the emperor. The embassy failed when the British envoy refused to perform the kowtow when they met. This breach in court etiquette offended Qianlong Emperor who later remarked disdainfully that China was self-sufficient and had no need for Britain’s products. Macartney’s requests were denied by the emperor, and he was forced to leave China soon after.
After breaking East India Company’s monopoly in Asia in 1834, the British government sent Lord Napier to China as Superintendent of Trade in Guangzhou. He broke protocol when he bypassed the hong merchants who served as brokers and requested a meeting with Qing officials upon his arrival. For the Qing officials, this was unacceptable as any nation which requested trade with China was essentially nothing more a than tributary and was not treated as a coequal. They refused to meet with Lord Napier who was also humiliated by the rejection.
In Beijing, scholars of the Spring Purification circle and government officials were debating the best course to combat the flow of opium into the Chinese market. Officials suggested the legalization of the substance so it could be taxed by the government. The scholars, however, opposed this suggestion for moral reasons. In 1838, Daoguang Emperor appointed Lin Zexu as a special commissioner to combat the drug problem. The commissioner traveled to Guangzhou in the same year and targeted consumers and dealers alike. He enlisted the help of the local hong merchants whom he tasked to compel the foreign merchants to give up their stocks of opium.
The foreign merchants naturally refused, but Lin Zexu decided to strongarm them by having their factories barricaded and the merchants detained. The British superintendent Charles Elliott had no choice but to advise them to hand their stocks over to the Chinese authorities. They finally acquiesced when Elliott promised them compensation for the loss of their stocks. After the confiscation, Lin Zexu forced them to sign an agreement to get them to stop trading opium. Merchants who refused to comply would be sentenced to death.
Charles Elliott then sent a letter to the Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston to inform him of the situation. After lifting the detention order, the Qing authorities allowed the freed British merchants to transfer to Macau. The situation only worsened when British sailors killed a local farmer. Back in 1784, a gunner of the British ship Lady Hughes was tasked to fire a gun salute while in Guangzhou. He, however, shot two Chinese officials who died from their injuries. Chinese authorities demanded British officials to hand the gunner over to them, but the latter refused. After a long dispute, the emperor sentenced the gunner to death by strangulation. British officials had no choice but to hand him over to Chinese authorities who immediately had him strangled.
Charles Elliott did not want a repeat of the Lady Hughes incident, so he refused to hand the sailors over to the authorities. Lin Zexu enlisted the help of the Portuguese authorities in Macau and asked them to boot the English out of the colony. They had no choice but to leave Macau and set up a temporary shelter at Hong Kong (Xianggang).
Meanwhile, the opium trader Dr. William Jardine had traveled to London to inform Lord Palmerston of the merchants’ situation. Jardine encouraged the foreign secretary to send a naval fleet to evacuate the merchants, as well as to reassert Britain’s “right” to trade opium in China. He was able to convince the minister to support three main goals which included:
The fleet arrived off the coast of China in 1839, and immediately rescued the superintendent Charles Elliott and his companions in Hong Kong. During the greater part of 1840, Charles and his cousin Admiral George Elliott led the devastating naval attacks on China. British ships easily blockaded Guangzhou before sailing north to take Zhoushan Island off the coast of Ningbo.
This was too close for comfort to the capital. Daoguang Emperor sacked Lin Zexu in frustration, and replaced him with the Viceroy of Zhili, Qishan, as chief negotiator. In January 1841, the two parties came to an agreement in the Convention of Chuanpi. Superintendent Charles Elliott represented the British side, while Qishan negotiated for the Qing. But to the emperor’s dismay, Qishan gave significant concessions to the British including the cession of Hong Kong. Despite receiving the island, the British were still unhappy with the deal. Chief negotiator and superintendent Charles Elliott was replaced with Sir Henry Pottinger when the negotiations finally broke down. Elliott’s troops, meanwhile, landed in Guangzhou and started to harass the people living in the city.
Pottinger himself was able to capture the ports of Ningbo, Zhoushan, Xiamen, and Zhapu between 1841 and 1842 in spite of the fierce resistance of the Manchu defenders. When Shanghai fell to the British navy in 1842, the emperor was forced to summon another parley. The result was the Treaty of Nanking which was signed by both parties on August 29, 1842, aboard the HMS Cornwallis. The terms of the treaty included:
This was later supplemented by the Treaty of the Bogue in 1843. Bullied into submission, China gave Britain the most favored nation status and allowed British citizens to enjoy the benefits of extraterritoriality. Eager to take advantage of the lucrative Chinese market, France, and the United States soon entered into similar treaties in 1844. China also granted an edict of toleration to Roman Catholicism after entering into a treaty with France.
References:
Picture by: Edward Belcher [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Bury, J. P. T., ed. The New Cambridge Modern History. Vol. 10. The New Cambridge Modern History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960.
Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Fairbank, John King. China: A New History. Cambridge (Mass.): The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1994.
Fairbank, John K., ed. The Cambridge History of China. Late Ch’ing 1800–1911. Vol. 10. The Cambridge History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.
Roberts, J.A.G. A Concise History of China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001.
