Transcript China and Japan

Control, Isolation and Beyond
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During our discussion about Chines history today, I
would like you to focus on the obtaining information
to answer the following questions:
Why do we care about the history of China?
What is Confucianism and how does Confucianism
play a role in the way China has developed and in
their history?
What evidence is there that China was a very powerful
nation?
What events and evidence do you find that show the
decline of China?
How does the use of Imperialism by Europe and the
United States play a role in the decline of China?
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You will be asked to complete various tasks
today in class. I will award candy to the top
groups at each task.
With the person at your table, please come up
with a fact about China that is new and
different.
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CIA - The World Factbook
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Population- 1.373 billion 91.6% Han Chinese
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Religion: 21.6% Folk religion; 18.1% Buddhist;
5.1% Christian; 1.8% Muslim
Urban Population- 55.6%
At Birth- Male to Female ratio- 1.15/1
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Life Expectancy: 75.5 years
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GDP: 11 Trillion
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GDP per Capita- $14,100
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National Savings Rate- 46% of GDP
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Go to presentation on Confucianism
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Move to a new group.
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Create a one sentence explanation for
Confucianism
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Talk A – How the story came about… | The Lost Empire of
Atlantis | 1421 | 1434 | Chinese Exploration | Gavin Menzies
At the feast on 21st February 1421 to celebrate the coronation of
Katherine as Queen of England, 600 guests ate stockfish – salt
cod. Their plates were but slabs of stale bread. In Beijing, 26,000
people celebrated the inauguration of the Forbidden City with a
ten-course banquet served on fabulous porcelain. Zhu Di’s
favourite concubine was clothed in sumptuous silk. Her jewels
included cornelians from Persia, rubies of Ceylon, Indian
diamonds and khotan jade; her perfume contained ambergris
from the Pacific, myrrh from Arabia, sandalwood from the Spice
Islands – its composition much like the most expensive perfumes
of today. Zhu Di’s walled city was more than 1400 times the size
of the walled City of London.
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1793: George Macartney was dispatched by
the King of England to meet with the Emperor
of the Qing empire. The purpose was to
establish formal diplomatic and commercial
relations between Britain and China.
The Emperor issued two edicts rejecting the
requests. Basically the Emperor tells the
diplomat that England has nothing that China
needs.
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Under the Qing Dynasty, success was
achieved through education.
The Qing were from Manchuria and ruled the
Han (majority ethnic group in China).
Reading page 8 From The Chinese in America
by Iris Chang
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Britain introduces opium to China;
Poppy plants come from India;
Opium is smoked as a recreational drug;
Qing leaders tried to suppress the use of
opium;
Britain claims restraint of free trade;
Leads to Opium War-England wins easily.
Treaty of Nanjing (1842) is very beneficial to
Britain.
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Open 5 ports
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Hong Kong ceded to Britain
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Pay 21 million silver coins to Britain
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Reduce tariffs to 5%
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Taiping Rebellion (1851-1864)
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Hong Xiuquan
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Loss of “mandate from heaven”
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Self Strengthening
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War with Japan in 1894 -Japan wins handily.
China cedes Taiwan and Liadong (southern
tip of Manchuria) to Japan.
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Japan allowed to open factories in China.
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China pay huge indemnity to Japan.
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Move to a new table
Create an analogy to show how far China has
fallen from being the “center of the world”
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Boxers- martial arts; spirit possession
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Rebelled against foreigners
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Foreign powers (Europe) send in troops to
protect their citizens.
Once again, China had to accept dictates
from foreign countries- government further
weakened.
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US policy regarding China
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Why do we care about China?
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Differences with Europe (Spheres of Influence)
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Sun Yat-sen- 1911 collapse of Qing Empire
Lack of central government; emergence of
warlords (1915-1925)
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YouTube - peking opera
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Move to a final group.
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Fill in the blank
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Music from the Peking Opera is like
_________________________.
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Lecture by Erik Esselstrom (UVM professor) on
Feb 4, 2009
East Asia A Cultural, Social, and Political
History ; Patricia Ebrey, Anne Walthall, and
James Palais;