How far was the Russo Japanese War responsible for the outbreak of the 1905 Revolution? The Russo Japanese war of 1904 was a factor contributing to the outbreak of the 1905 revolution, however it is not completely true to say that it was entirely responsible. In Russia at this time and before, there was a lot of tension. The population of Russia were very unhappy with a number of things, for example: no land, pollution, no money etc. This caused a lot of distress amongst Russia’s population as well as depression.
The next most important reason for the collapse was religion and Charles’ push toward Arminianism and absolutism. The fear of Charles becoming absolutist shaped how his policies were viewed and the MP’s political attitudes. Appello Ceasarum produced by Montagu and commissioned by the King angered many MPs as it argued the similarities between Protestantism and Catholicism. This brought MPs to call for the impeachment of Montagu as they felt it promoted anti-Calvinism. Charles’ reaction to this, as he imposed his prerogative as the Divine Right Monarch, promoted Montagu to Royal Chaplain.
To what extent was the lack of political representation the most significant cause of the 1905 revolution? There were a number of different causes that contributed to the start of the 1905 Russian revolution however some were more significant than others. One of the contributing factors was the lack of political representation due to the existence of an autocratic regime. Whilst this was an important factor, the most significant factors were the social and economical issues that caused unrest amongst the Russian population. The long-term policies of Russification imposed by the Tsar in the 1880s, caused a lot of political unrest within Russia and these contributed to the 1905 revolution.
Divisions of opposing groups of the Tsar were important to the survival of Tsarist rule in 1881-1905 as the political opponents of the Tsar were clearly divided in their aims and methods. However, other factors such as the church and the power the Tsar held over it; the conservative culture of the Russian people; lack of education especially amongst the peasants and workers; the retributions from opposing the Tsar and the Okhrana were also effective in keeping the Tsar in a state of power. The different political parties all had a similar aim for change and most of wanted to remove the Tsar from power. However they all had different approaches and different plans on how to run the Russia after the Tsars removal. Firstly, the opposition groups of the Tsar were known as the Populists, the Liberals and the Marxists.
The Russification that Alexander III embarked on wasn’t all good news for Russia as it lead to widespread racism towards the Jewish population and other religious minorities. This was because Alexander III was trying to stop the Russian culture becoming diverse and ‘diluted’ he tried to keep Russia on the Orthodox Christian line, this is one of the reforms which gained him many enemies. On the topic of Orthodox Christianity during Alexander III’s reign, he enforced laws which meant that if anyone confessed to anything illegal or conspiring to do anything illegal that the priest had to inform the authorities and betray the confessor. This wasn’t helped by the reforms that he made to the legal system which removed the jury in a lot of cases and meant that you were judged by one man and the Tsar himself could change your sentence if he thought it wasn’t harsh enough. Another reform that he made which countered that of his fathers was removing the powers of the Zemstvo and replacing them with people
This would lead to the army losing their faith in the Tsar which was extremely vital, for as long as the army remained loyal to the him, they were able to put down any threat of revolution however, the poor conditions eventually led to them refusing to fire upon rioters. For these reasons, the First World War contributed majorly to the downfall of Imperial Russia. After his downfall, the War became increasingly unpopular. Popular demands for peace were growing intense, especially within the army. The Provisional Government attempted to regain the support of both the Russian
The emancipation of the serfs appeared to have strengthened the loyalty of most peasants to the tsarist regime leading the peasants to greet the Populists with hostility due to their loyalty to the tsar. The serfs were hostile towards the populists as the serfs felt that populists did not understand their way of life through the involvement of ‘going to the people’ which was an idea from Lavrov in order to encourage peasants to rise up to revolution. The church taught the peasants to see Alexander as ‘little father’ which meant someone who was on their side. In my opinion Alexander II dealt with opposition very successfully between 1855-81 as he had the majority of the population against the Populists as serfs took up 80% of the population. Another way Alexander II successfully dealt with opposition was through censorship, he had utter control of media throughout Russia making it very difficult for opposition groups to spread their ideas and communicate with each other.
The Puritans wanted to remove all practice and rituals of Catholicism from Europe. John Winthrop and fellow Puritans were frustrated with religious activities in England, “All other Churches of Europe are brought to desolation and or sinnes”. He believed that the Church was corrupted and that the lord “Frowned upon us, doe threatens us fearfully”. Winthrop believed that England was invaded by evil and ran by a corrupted Government, and that the roots for religious learning were being disturbed. They feared to live in such sinful society, because they believed that God predestined people to salvation and others were damned for the rest of time.
Traditional society within the Middle Ages and Renaissance were very hectic in comparison to the time period after the Enlightenment. This is mainly because, during the Middle ages and Renaissance The Church had the most control over the people and government, Religion played a huge role in everyday life and the only religion that existed was the Catholic religion. For different crimes committed, there were multiple unjust and inconsistent punishments, also people did not have equal human rights. However, after a while philosophes began to produce these Enlightenment ideas which state that all people should be treated equally, have more say in government, have more rights, and have equal punishments according to the crime committed. Enlightenment ideas
This predominantly Protestant power base caused disputes with the Catholics who immigrated to America, as the Catholics felt disenfranchised and apathetic due to the politicians in power not being able to relate to their culture. In addition, many of the traditions of that those who immigrated were discordant with those of the WASPs, which generated great amounts of segregation and suspicion around those who immigrated. A prime example of this would be the Russian Jews, as their beliefs about washing their dead were very different to the traditional funeral values instilled in the Protestants. Moreover, the suspicion was in many cases political as well as religious, due to the proliferation of socialist, and later Communist ideals in Europe: both were substantially different to the philosophies set out in the American Constitution. For example many of the Jews escaping the Pogroms in Russia had been influenced by the ideas of Karl Marx and Lenin.