preview

How Did Peter The Great Modernize Russia In The 19th Century

Decent Essays

European powers were constantly expanding while Russia was still stuck in backwardness, with no reforms, revolution, and their economy and military were not on par with the western countries. Russia was basically just an agricultural society, with almost no trading due to their only real seaport being frozen for more than half the year. This makes them vulnerable at a time when the European and Russia were constantly at war to take away each other’s territory. In the late 17th century, Peter the Great came to the throne and knew that Russia had to modernize so that Russia will be able to advance and not deemed as a weak country. During his reign, he embarked on a journey to numerous European countries to learn some skills and import ideas from the western world into Russian society. Before Peter the great reign, Russian were …show more content…

This humiliating defeat exemplified how far Russia was behind the industrialized world. Russia at the middle of the nineteenth century was still primarily an agricultural society, with little industry. Russia was deemed to be behind the times as they still had serfdom and there is incompetence in Russia’s style of government, military and social structure. To progress Russia economically and become a more modernize country, they have to break free from their traditional system that is impeding their progress. All these prompted Alexander II to consider reforms in education, the government, the judiciary, and the military. The first reform was the emancipation of serf as the serfs kept rising against their masters and there was numerous act of rebellion that is causing unrest in the country. Furthermore, as most of the Russian army was made up of serfs and they were often malnourished, it shows evidence of the dangers of serfdom. In order for Russia to become a strong military power, serfdom has to be abolished and other reforms have to be

Get Access