Transcript HISTORY OF CHINA

History of China
A Look at Major Achievements of the
Major Chinese Dynasties
Dynasty
• A dynasty is a time period
of a ruling family. It could
last anywhere from 1 to
hundreds of years. The
Dynasty is named after the
family name (last name) of
the ruling family.
China has had many dynasties.
Some have been filled with
excellent emperors who were fair to
the people; however, there have
also been emperors who were
successful while they were abusive
to some of their citizens.
•Tai-Tsung, Tang Dynasty
(626-649). (Both the
dragon motif and the
yellow color are restricted
to the royalty only.)
Confucius, who lived about five hundred
years before Christ, basically believed that
moral men make good rulers and that
virtue is one of the most important
properties that an official can have. He
also believed that virtue can be attained
by following the proper way of behaving,
and thus placed a great deal of stress on
proper.
Confucius introduced the idea of the
“mandate of heaven”: that the rulers were
put into power by the gods but
dethronement meant he lost his mandate
from heaven.
Heaven in the Chinese context is a
divine/natural force) and had the Mandate
of Heaven to rule.
born approx 551-479 BC
watch Video A , Watch Video. Confucius B ,
(Religions worksheets)
Han Dynasty
Approx 206 BC to 220 AD
•Like the Qin before them, the main goal of the Han
was the unification of China. The expansion also led
to trade with the people of inner Asia. Thereafter, the
Silk Road was developed. The Silk Road actually
consisted of more than one possible route through
the mountains that the traders followed.
Downfall for the Han! Same story: over tax
people, people unhappy and revolt and
overthrow the government!
Marco Polo (1254-1324), is
probably the most famous
Westerner traveled on the Silk
Road. He excelled all the other
travelers in his determination,
his writing, and his influence.
His journey through Asia lasted
24 years. He reached further
than any of his predecessors,
beyond Mongolia to China.
His diaries sparked European This eventually led to
interest and the want/need to European
exploration and
find a way to China.
colonization.
The Boxer Rebellion
The Chinese looked down upon
foreigners so much that they wanted
to rid the country of them.
The US Secretary of state wanted an
“Open Door” trade policy to “cash
in” on the Chinese wealth that the
British were enjoying.
The Empress Dowager Cixi refused.
Her second mistake was not helping the poor
during the famine. The poor revolted against her.
There was an uprising of the poor who wanted to overthrow
the emperor. A secret society in northern China began a
campaign of terror against Christian missionaries and Chinese
converts. Foreigners called them "Boxers" because they
practiced martial arts. The society wanted to overthrow the
Qing Dynasty and expel all foreigners and foreign influences.
The Empress Dowager Cixi
convinced the Boxers that the
foreigners were to blame for
the famine.
•Throughout the summer of 1900 the Boxers burned
churches and foreign residences and killed Chinese
Christians on sight.
Boxer’s Rebellion
The Rebellion finally comes to a close
• The Boxers attacked the foreign
embassies. For several weeks, Beijing
was looted and many Chinese people
were tortured and killed.
• In June 1900 Britain, Russia, Japan, the
United States, Germany, France, Italy,
and Austria combined forces, sent in
19,000 troops, and suffered initial
defeats before eventually taking control
and occupying Beijing on Aug. 14, 1900.
The US suffered 53 dead and 253
wounded in the rebellion. British and
American troops crushed the rebellion.
• The foreign powers forced China to
agree to a treaty that allowed foreign
nations to station troops in Beijing.
Captured Boxers
After the rebellion, the Empress
escaped dressed as commoner.
She returned later, and regained
the throne.
Soon afterwards, she died
shortly after her son in 1908.
The next heir was her young
nephew, Pu Yi, just two years
old. Pu Yi was soon overthrown
by the nationalist Dr. Sun Yat
Sen, signaling the end of the
dynasty and the beginning of
the Republic of China.
The movie The Last
Emperor was about
young Pu Yi.
1945-1949: Communist Revolution
• When the Japanese surrendered in the
Russo-Japanese War, the Nationalists and the
Communists began a mad scramble to seize
territory that had been occupied by the
Japanese. In particular, the two sides were
not interested so much in territory as they
were interested in the arsenals and
technology that the Japanese had left
behind.
• In July, Chiang Kai-Shek attacked communist
territories head-on and the civil war began.
• Kai-Shek's army seized over a hundred
thousand square miles of communist
territory. Mao Zedong, however, had seen
this coming and had been making
preparations for a long, drawn out battle.
The Nationalists held a national election for
the National Assembly and on April 19, 1948,
the National Assembly elected Chiang KaiShek as President of China.
Republic of China
1912-1949
Dr Sun
Yat Sen
(See text
p. 702 for
info.)
Chiang Kai-Shek
• By this point, however, the tide had turned in favor People’s Republic of
of the communists. The Nationalist Army had been China
spreading its troops all throughout the conquered 1949- Present Day
areas and so it had been seriously thinning out the
troops available to fight the Red Army (Mao).
People’s Republic of
• The Red Army, however, had been steadily
China video
growing all throughout 1946 and 1947.
Mao Zedong
• As the Communist armies grew, they inflicted
heavier and heavier losses on Nationalist forces. In answers . . .
the last year of the civil war, the communists
inflicted over a million and a half casualties on the
Nationalist Army. In the face of such staggering
losses, the Nationalist Army simply disintegrated
in mid-1949.
On October 1, 1949, before all of China had been
conquered, Mao declared the establishment of the
People's Republic of China. China, from this point
forward, would consist of two governments: the
mainland Communist government and the
Taiwanese Nationalist government on the island of
Chairman Mao
Formosa. And the conflict still goes on today.
Zedong: (See
textbook for info)
1949: The creation of Taiwan
• In English, as in Chinese, the name "Taiwan" is often used
synonymously with the Republic of China, or Free China,
while the term "China" usually refers to the People’s
Republic of China, which controls mainland China, Hong
Kong, and Macau.
• The Republic of China (ROC) succeeded the Qing Dynasty
in 1912, ending 2,000 years of imperial rule in China. Its
existence on Mainland China was scarred by warlords,
Japanese invasion, and civil war and ended in 1949 when
its government was overthrown by the Chinese
Communists. The ROC government then evacuated to
Taipei where it continued to regard itself as the sole
legitimate government of China.
Chiang Kai-Shek memorial
1958: The Great Leap Forward
• The Great Leap Forward took place in 1958.
The Great Leap Forward was Mao’s attempt
to modernize China’s economy so that by
1988, China would have an economy that
rivaled America.
• The Great Leap Forward planned to develop
agriculture and industry. Mao believed that
both had to grow to allow the other to
grow. Industry could only prosper if the
work force was well fed, while the
agricultural workers needed industry to
produce the modern tools needed for
modernization. To allow for this, China was
reformed into a series of communes.
• The geographical size of a commune varied
but most contained about 5000 families.
The life of an individual was controlled by
the commune. Schools, nurseries, and
“Houses of Happiness” were provided by
the communes so that all adults could work.
Card issued to celebrate
the Great Leap Forward
Watch Video
• By the end of 1958, 700 million people
had been placed into 26,578 communes.
• In 1959, things started to go wrong.
Political decisions/beliefs took
precedence over common sense and
communes faced the task of doing things
which they were incapable of achieving.
Commune leaders, who knew what their
commune was capable of doing or not,
could be charged with being a
"bourgeois reactionary" if he
complained. Such a charge would lead to
prison.
• Quickly produced farm machinery
produced in factories fell to pieces when
used. Many thousands of workers were
injured after working long hours and
falling asleep at their jobs.
Problems . . .
1958: China’s Great Leap Forward
• The excellent growing weather of 1958 was followed by a
very poor growing year in 1959. Some parts of China were
hit by floods. In other growing areas, drought was a major
problem.
• 1960 had even worse weather than 1959. Nine million
people are thought to have starved to death in 1960 alone.
The government had to introduce rationing. This put
people on the most minimal amount of food and between
1959 and 1962, it is thought that 20 million people died of
starvation or diseases related to starvation.
• Some party members put the blame of the failure of the
Great Leap Forward on Mao. He was popular with the
people but he still had to resign from his position as Head
of State (though he remained in the powerful Party
Chairman position).
What to do next?
• The day-to-day running of China was left to three
moderates: Liu Shaoqi, Zhou Enlai and Deng
Xiaoping. In late 1960, they abandoned the Great
Leap Forward. Private ownership of land was
reinstated and communes were cut down to a
manageable size. Peasants also had the incentive to
produce as much spare food as was possible.
• These three moderates had restricted Mao’s power
but his standing among the ordinary Chinese people
was still high as he was seen as the leader of the
revolution. He was to use this popularity with the
people to revive his authority at the expense of the
moderates. This was in the so-called Cultural
Revolution.
1966-1976: The Chinese Cultural Revolution
Video
• In 1966, after spending years studying political
economy and the classics of Chinese history, Mao
was ready to act.
• Mao launched the Cultural Revolution in August of
1966 in front of the Central Committee when he
called for Red Guards to challenge Communist Party
officials for their lack of revolutionary vision.
• Mao and his group of radicals were still in control of
the government. He wanted to get rid of all religion
Changing of the Guard
• After years of turmoil and power
struggle within the country involving
offshoots of Mao’s revolutionary group—
including the radical group led by Mao’s
wife, Jiang Qing, Mao died in September
of 1976.
• A coalition of army and political leaders
united and arrested Jiang Qing and her
radical supporters, subsequently dubbed
the Gang of Four.
• In 1977, Deng Xiaoping emerges as
paramount leader of the People's
Republic of China.
Four Modernizations: China’s
modern plan for economic growth
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Government focused on improving capital
Technology
Modern Equipment
Agriculture
Military
• Allows more privately owned businesses as long as they still
work within government guidelines
• Increase production of products to sell on World market.
• Deng Xiaoping was more flexible with allowing privately
owned businesses.
1989: Tiananmen Square
Several hundred civilians were shot dead by the Chinese army during a
bloody military operation to crush a democratic uprising in (Beijing)
Tiananmen Square. More recently, this account is being disputed.
Demonstrators, mainly students, had occupied the square for seven
weeks, refusing to move until their demands for democratic reform
were met.
• The military offensive came after several
failed attempts to persuade the
protesters to leave. Throughout Saturday
the government warned it would do
whatever it saw necessary to clamp
down on what it described as "social
chaos".
• The demonstrations in Tiananmen
Square have been described as the
greatest challenge to the communist
state in China since the 1949 revolution.
Watch Video
Tiananmen Square …
It has been suggested that the Communist leader Deng Xiaoping
personally ordered their deployment as a way of shoring up his
leadership. Hundreds were killed although it is unlikely a precise
number will ever be known.
• Reports also suggest that most of the violence actually
occurred in surrounding areas as opposed to the Square
and before the confrontation at the Square itself.
• Peking has since become more widely known as Beijing.
http://www.crystalinks.com/chinainventions.html
http://www.chinatoday.com/edu/a.htm
http://campus.northpark.edu/history/WebChron/China/GreatWall.html
http://www.cgan.com/english/china-art/www/history/qin.html
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/china/ancient_china/shang.html
http://pasture.ecn.purdue.edu/~agenhtml/agenmc/china/images/scenery/forbcity.gif