Transcript China

China
From empire to republic
Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)
Manchu nomadic invaders
 Originally stabilized China
 Ruled for 300 years
 Ended with the Chinese Revolution of
1911
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Qing Dynasty
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Retained:
– Scholar gentry
– Ethnic Chinese admitted to imperial gov’t
– Civil service exams
– Confucian social hierarchy
– Patriarchal authority (though widows
could remarry)
Qing Dynasty
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Tried to help peasants, but dramatic
increase in population led to all sorts of
problems
– Famine
– Civil unrest
– banditry
Opium War (1839-1841)
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Tension between China and the West
– Emperor Qianlong called the King George
III a barbarian; rejected trade goods
– English refused to honor the emperor
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Economic interest for English
involvement
– Tea
– East India Company
Opium War
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Tea
– English wanted it; had nothing that China
needed
 Woolens,
clocks, music boxes, curios
 They had a colony in India!
 East India Company: traded goods from India
to Chinacotton didn’t reach high enough
sales; opium was the answer
Opium War
England
Tea
China
Cotton &
opium
Manufactured
goods
Silver
India
Opium War
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Effects of opium trade in China:
– Health problem
– 1820s and 30s, silver leaving China
destabilized the currencyfiscal problem
– 1834 abolishment of the EIC’s monopoly
increased the opium trade (hooray for
Smithians!)
– British antagonism
Opium War
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Effects in China
– British antagonism:
 Official
British representative in China (not
EIC)
 Took a hardline w/ China; violated Chinese
regulations
– China withdrew from British community
– 1836 emperor suppressed opium,
created internal conflict
Opium War
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Lin Zexu (1785-1850)
– Imperial commissioner
– Appealed to Queen Victoria to end trade
– Admonished merchants; had force to back him
up; forced surrender of opium; made them sign a
pledge to never trade opium21,306 chests
delivered; took 23 days to destroy it
– Continued to escalate issue
– 1839, English sailors killed a Chinese villager
– 11/1839, continued escalation
– 12/1839, trade ceased
– January 31,1840, war was declared
Opium War
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Results:
– Hong Kong to Britain in 1841
– Disgrace of Lin Zexu and Englishman
Elliot
The Treaty of Nanjing
and the Treaty System
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August 29, 1842, ended the war
5 ports opened to British: Canton, Xiamen,
Fuzhou, Ningbo, Shanghai
21 million Spanish silver dollars in
reparations to England
Chinese relinquished rights to establish own
tariffs (hooray for Smithian British!)
Hong Kong ceded to British “in perpetuity”
Extraterritoriality for British
The Treaty of Nanjing
and the Treaty System
Most-favored-nation status to British
AND to any other nation that gained a
concession (US and France later
gained it in 1844)
 Opium trade expanded
 Foreign gunboats allowed to anchor at
treaty ports
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Internal Crisis
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Imperial failure to maintain order w/in
the nation:
– Grand Canal became impassable by
1849
– Yellow River, 1852, overflowed and
diverted
– Banditry
– Poverty
– Series of rebellions: Taipings largest
The Taiping Rebellion
(1850-1864)
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Founder: Hong Xiugan
– Synthesized Christianity with Confucian
and other Asian beliefs
– Emphasized Old Testament—esp. the 10
Commandmentsdestroy the “idols”
– Vision:
 Heavenly
Kingdom of Great Peace,
egalitarian, God-ordained utopia
Taiping Rebellion
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Taiping beliefs:
– Banned: opium, tobacco, gambling, alcohol,
prostitution, sexual misconduct, footbinding
– Women equal to men
– Economic egalitarianism
– Monogamous marriages
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Political structure: units=25 families, leaders
combined civil, military, & economic duties
Anti-Manchu (“the devils”)
Taiping Rebellion
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By July 1850, over 10,000 adherents; over 1
million by 1853
Organized, armed resistance to Manchus
January 11, 1851, Hong’s followers
proclaimed him “Heavenly King”
1851, formally declared “Heavenly Kingdom
of Great Peace”began march on Nanjing
(1853, reached and overtook)
Good, capable leaders; ineffective
government forces
Taiping Rebellion
No foreign support due to
condescending language and failure to
appease foreign powers
 Leadership crisis in 1856
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Taiping Rebellion
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Beginning of the end:
– Leadership failure
– Inadequate implementation of stated
policies
– Leadership not following theories
(concubinage)
– Repelled Chinese: anti-Confucian as well
as anti-Manchu
Zeng Guofan (1811-1872) and
the Defeat of the Taiping
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Dedicated Confucian; product of the system
Regional army leader from Hunan; capable
leadersuccessfully launched counterattacks
Managed to acquire Western army officers:
“Ever Victorious Army” (British officer) and
“Ever Triumphant Army” (French officers)
Well-funded
July 19, 1864 took Nanjing, followed by a
blood-bath
Effects of the Taiping
Rebellion
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Estimated death toll of
more than 20 million
Taipings inspired future
revolutionaries
Conservatives admired
Zeng Guofan
People struggled with
choices
Ren Xiong, served in military, but struggled
w/ decision. Self-portrait.
China and the World
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Treaty ports
British demand for new ports in China
– Belief in free trade as stimulus
– Treaties of Tianjin and Conventions of Beijing
(total of 21 new ports)
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Chinese migration to US (1852=25000
Chinese in US; 2xs that by 1887 in
California alone)
Loss of land to Russia
Most-favored nation status by 1860: France,
Britain, US, Russia
China at the beginning
of the 20th C
The final years of the
dynasty
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New reformers
– Yan Fuinfluenced by Adam Smith &
Social Darwinism, and argued that
Western learning was needed to release
Chinese energies
– Kang Youwei (1858-1927)sought to
create a constitutional monarchy like
Japan
– Dr. Sun Yat Sen
The dynasty’s final
years
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The Empress Dowager
Cixi
– Refused to reform
(imprisoned
revolutionaries)
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Not quite completely
Allowed minor reforms
such as military
modernization,
education reform, fiscal
system reform
– Corrupt
– Supported the Boxer
Rebellion from 18981901 as a means of
ousting the foreigners
The Revolution of 1911
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Led by Sun Yat-Sen (who was technically in
the US)
Prelude:
– Gov’t desire to centralize
– Gov’t desire to nationalize RR lines
– Had to take out foreign loans
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Revolution broke out
Emperor abdicated February 2, 1912
China became a republic