Key Reformers & Rulers
Initiated the Meiji Restoration in 1868, marking Japan’s rapid modernization.
Who is Emperor Meiji?
The name of the assembly created in 1906 in Iran to limit absolute monarchy and introduce laws modeled on European constitutionalism.
What was The Majlis (Iranian National Assembly)?
This Ottoman institution was abolished by Sultan Mahmud II to make way for modern military reforms that inspired later Turkish modernization.
What was The Janissary Corps?
European-style educational institution, founded in 1877 in Tokyo, became Japan’s premier center for Western sciences and ideas.
What is The University of Tokyo?
This 1908 uprising by Ottoman officers and bureaucrats aimed to restore constitutional rule and limit autocracy.
What is the Young Turk Revolution?
Ruler of Iran (1925–1941) founded the Pahlavi Dynasty and began secular and nationalist reforms.
Who is Reza Shah Pahlavi?
Japanese legal code that replaced feudal customs with a Western-style criminal justice system by 1880.
What was the Penal Code of 1880?
This major Russian industrial project connected European Russia to the Pacific Ocean, boosting trade and military mobility.
What is the Trans-Siberian Railway?
A Russian technical school, created under Catherine the Great, that introduced Western engineering and science to the nobility.
What was The Corps of Engineers?
This 1905 event involved soldiers firing on unarmed workers in Russia, sparking widespread unrest.
What is Bloody Sunday?
Ruled Russia from 1682–1725 and implemented the Table of Ranks to reduce noble privilege and promote meritocracy.
Who is Peter the Great?
Turkish political reform in 1930 that allowed women to vote in local elections, setting the stage for full suffrage in 1934.
What was The Municipal Elections Act?
This institution in Japan oversaw the development of weapons manufacturing and shipbuilding during the Meiji era.
What was The Ministry of War?
The reform movement in late Ottoman Turkey and early Republican Turkey that promoted secular, Western-style schools for both boys and girls.
What was the Tanzimat-inspired educational reforms, continued under Atatürk?
This Iranian movement opposed blind Western imitation and promoted modernizing while preserving Islamic identity.
What is the Cultural Nationalism Movement?
This Turkish leader established the Republic of Turkey in 1923 and launched sweeping Western-style reforms.
Who is Mustafa Kemal Atatürk?
The name of the reform that introduced provincial assemblies in Imperial Russia, seen as an early step toward limited self-government.
What was The Zemstvo Reform (1864)?
This military reform in Iran modernized the army by introducing European training and organization after 1921.
What is the modernization of the Iranian army under Reza Shah?
This Turkish reform ended religious schools (madrasas) and created a secular, unified national school system.
What is the Unification of Education?
This early 20th-century Japanese period saw debates over modernization and a nationalist backlash against Western influence.
What is the Taisho Democracy period?
This Russian tsar implemented the Great Reforms, including the 1861 Emancipation Edict, freeing the serfs.
Who is Alexander II?
1889 legal reform in Japan established a bicameral legislature with limited civil rights, modeled after Prussian constitutionalism.
What was The Meiji Constitution and Imperial Diet?
This Atatürk policy had the government control key industries to modernize Turkey’s economy.
What is statism?
This 1863 Russian reform expanded universities and promoted Western-style education in sciences and humanities.
What is the University Statute?
This Turkish law banned religious political parties to maintain secular modernization in the 20th century.
What is the Political Parties Law?