Over of China's decline during the 1800s Qing period

1. China in Decline:
The Rough 19th
Century

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China Resists Foreign Influence
 China  had abundance of resources and the largest
economy in the world by 1800 and largest population
 Remained a highly self-sufficient agricultural economy –
better strains of rice, New World crops led to rapid
population growth
 Strong manufacturing sector for export products, such as
silk, cotton, tea, porcelain
 Qing (Manchu) Dynasty placed strict limits on foreign
traders – restricted to southern port of Guangzhou (Canton)
 Chinese had little interest in importing goods from the West
 Europeans wanted: silk, porcelain, tea, spices
 One thing that China did want – silver
 Europeans paid in silver for these items—leading to a trade
deficit while China had a trade surplus

4. **Most European silver wound up in Asia
**In 1621, a Portuguese merchant said that silver
“wanders throughout all the world… before flocking to
China, where it remains as if at its natural center.”
**Chinese used silver to establish a new money system
**Silver trade, started in the
1500s after Spain mined huge
quantities of silver in South
America, leading to the first
global network of trade

5. Guangzhou (Canton) – one port open toGuangzhou (Canton) – one port open to
European traders in southern ChinaEuropean traders in southern China
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6. England’s Trade Deficit
 Demand for tea skyrocketed
 England was importing more from China than it was
exporting to China –spending a lot of silver on tea
 Trade deficit worried British officials –sought to improve
their trade status with China
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7. Macartney Mission to China: 1792-
1794
 England sent a diplomatic mission to China to meet with
the emperor of the Qing dynasty
 Led by Lord Macartney and was best-known attempt by the
British to persuade China to open more ports for trade
 China only allowed Europeans to trade at the port of Canton
 Macartney came on a war ship with many advisers and
hundreds of magnificent presents for the emperor
 Mission failed and the emperor refused to set up trade
privileges with the British
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Opium Wars

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Chinese receiving opium from
Patna, British India
•British decided to flood Chinese market with opium—highly
addictive, would create strong demand
•The British imported opium from India to China in exchange
for luxury items or silver.
•Opium caused social problems in China.
• Chinese silver was used to buy opium, and the Chinese
government was fearful of a trade deficit
•China demanded that opium sales stop, but the British did not
comply. This led to the Opium Wars.
Opium dens, 1850

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OPIUM IMPORTS TO CHINA FROM INDIA
(1 chest = approximately 140 pounds)
1773 1,000 chests
1790 4,000 chests
early 1820s 10,000 chests
1828 18,000 chests
1839 40,000 chests
1865 76,000 chests
1884 81,000 chests (peak)

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Empress Dowager Ci Xi
Empress Dowager Ci Xi
worked with her government
officials to fight against the
British in the First Opium
War, from 1839-1842.
Lin Zexu
Opium Wars

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Opium Wars

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 Opium’s impact on Chinese society—very large % of
men under 40 became addicts
 Economic impact on China—fear of a trade deficit
 Resentment over England’s treatment of China—selling
a drug to the Chinese that England itself banned
 Chinese gov’t outlawed opium, seized shipments,
executed Chinese drug dealers
 Britain demanded free trade, refused to end opium
trade
Opium Wars: Causes

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This war with China . . . really seems to me so wicked as
to be a national sin of the greatest possible magnitude,
and it distresses me very deeply. Cannot any thing be
done by petition or otherwise to awaken men's minds to
the dreadful guilt we are incurring? I really do not
remember, in any history, of a war undertaken with such
combined injustice and baseness. Ordinary wars of
conquest are to me far less wicked, than to go to war in
order to maintain smuggling, and that smuggling
consisting in the introduction of a demoralizing drug,
which the government of China wishes to keep out, and
which we, for the lucre of gain, want to introduce by
force; and in this quarrel are going to burn and slay in
the pride of our supposed superiority.
— Thomas Arnold to W. W. Hull, March 18, 1840
Opium Wars – Opposition in England

15. OpiumOpium Wars: Results: Results
 Britain bombarded Chinese coastal and river
towns, looted and burned homes
 China’s outdated weapons made it impossible to
defend against the British weapons and tactics
 China forced to sign more treaties with Britain,
France, United States, Russia over next two
decades
 Slowly but surely, Qing dynasty losing control
over China to Western intruders
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16. Treaty of Nanjing 1842

17. Opium Wars: Treaty of Nanjingof Nanjing
1st
of the “Unequal Treaties”
China paid Britain’s war costs – 3 million
(indemnity)
Opened 5 ports to trade
Extraterritoriality—British citizens in China
not subjected to Chinese laws
Britain received the island of Hong Kong
Missionaries allowed to enter nation and
move about freely
Western powers carved out spheres of
influence (exclusive trading privileges)

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The Opium Wars brought an end to the
isolation of the ancient Chinese civilization
and introduced far-reaching social, economic
and cultural ideas to the Chinese.
Multimedia Learning, LLC COPYRIGHT 2006
WRITTEN BY HERSCHEL SARNOFF & DANA BAGDASARIAN

19. The Taiping Rebellion: Threats from Within

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The failure of the Qing dynasty to resist the Western powers led
some Chinese to believe that the dynasty had lost the right to
rule.
• Failure of dynasty led to series of
rebellions starting in 1850
• Chinese peasants angry over
poverty, corruption, natural
disasters, & overpopulation
• Canals and irrigation systems not
maintained—caused flooding
• Most serious revolt led by Hong
Xiuquan; believed he was brother
of Jesus
– Wanted to create “Heavenly Kingdom
of Great Peace” where no one would be
poor
– Followers formed movement resulting in
Taiping Rebellion
Rebellion Causes
• Hong’s followers captured large areas
of southeastern China
• 1853, controlled Nanjing
• Qing soldiers, British, French armies
attacked and defeated Taiping army
in 1864
• Qing dynasty emerged victorious at
great cost—20-30 million Chinese
deaths
• Russia seized land in the north
• Qing dynasty nearly collapsed & has
to share power with regional leaders
Great Toll
The Taiping Rebellion: Threats from Within

21. Factors Pushing China Towards Reform:
Self-Strengthening Movement
 Defeat of China during Opium War – increased
opium addiction
 Internal revolts / weakening of China during
Taiping Rebellion / anti-Qing sentiments
 Growing desperation among the poor
 Unequal trade treaties – increasing influence of
foreigners
 Growing threat of Japanese dominance
 Examination and translation of Western learning
into late1800’s

22. Goals of Self-Strengthening
1860s-early 1890s
 Intellectuals pursuing a nationalist agenda – modernize society
and culture in addition to industrialization
 Program called self-strengthening 1860s – early 1890s –
initially supported by Empress Cixi and court
 Feng Guifen – teacher and official – leading reformer
 Imported Western technologies and foreign teachers
 Set up factories to make modern weapons
 Developed shipyards, railroads, mining and light industry
 Translated Western works on science, government, economy
 Movement made some progress but slow paced – mostly
improving military technology
 One social success – abolishing foot binding by 1890s

23. Sino-Japanese War
A war between China and Japan in 1894
Japan as Military Power
• China struggled to reform with mixed results – war
with Japan will interrupt progress
• Meanwhile, Japan had emerged as major military
power with imperialist aims by the 1890s
• China went to war with Japan over Korea; was
soundly defeated by Japan

25. Effects of Sino-Japanese War
 Japan wins – gains Taiwan
 Japan pursues aggressive militarism
 Japan becomes an imperialist power
 Exposes China’s military weakness—Western
nations force China to make more humiliating
concessions
 European powers carve out spheres of influence
along China’s coast

26. •England annexed Hong Kong and Kowloon
•France took over Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos)
•Russia moved into Chinese Turkistan and Manchuria
•Japan grabbed Taiwan and won dominance over Korea
Effects of the Opium Wars & First Sino-Japanese War
•“Unequal” treaties – Westerners allowed to lease more treaty
ports and gained spheres of influence in China
•Westerners given commercial privileges – missionary rights,
exemption from Chinese laws, no tariffs, rights to mining and
railroads in the territory, lived separately from Chinese
•Huge profits were made for imperial powers

29. Reformers vs. Conservatives
 Events of the 1890s (loss of war with Japan,
unequal treaties, spheres of influence) sparked a
rise in Chinese nationalism
 Political issue: reformers called for modernizing
China as Japan had done but conservative leaders
resisted fast-paced change
 Reformers, led by a young emperor (Guang Xu),
set out on an ambitious reform program in 1898
called the Hundred Days of Reform

30. Hundred Days of Reform
Something had to be done for China to remain independent
• 1898, Chinese emperor enacted series of far-reaching reforms
– Changed civil service exams (determines who got government jobs)
– Make the government more efficient
– Built modern army
– Developed mining, railroads, shipyards
• Empress Dowager Cixi, most powerful person in China, stopped
reforms – some reformers called for democracy
• Believed they threatened rule of Qing dynasty
• Reformers began to call for end to the backwards Qing rule

31. Western Missionaries in 19Western Missionaries in 19thth
C. ChinaC. China
 Located mainly outside of cities
 Ran orphanages (some Chinese feared they were taking
babies for evil reasons—led to a massacre in Tianjin in
1870—volatile relationship between Chinese an
missionaries)
 Focus on education and medicine
 Establishment of Christian schools
 Translated Western works on natural sciences into
Chinese and spread learning

32. Righteous Harmonious Fists (“Boxers”):
Nationalist Movement
Anti-foreign movement in China
in 1900
Boxers attacked foreigners
across China

33. Causes of Boxer Rebellion
 Foreign influence and growing domination –
signs of foreign power and westernization
including industrial machines and technology
 Religion – Christian Missionaries threatened
traditional Chinese Confucianism - intolerance
 Foreign Troops – foreigners lived under
extraterritoriality, did not follow Chinese laws,
lived in own communities

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The Boxer Rebellion challenged Western
commercial and political influence in China.
The Chinese, though great in number, could
not stop the imperial forces.

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Nationalism
• Humiliation of China by
West produced several
nationalist movements
• Most important, Harmonious
Fists, or “Boxers”
Escalating Violence
• Boxer Rebellion began in
1899
• Attacked missionaries,
Chinese converts to
Christianity
• Laid siege to foreign
compounds in Beijing
Secret Society
• Martial arts training
• Hatred of foreigners
• Belief they were invulnerable
to Western weapons
Uprising Put Down
• Western powers & Japan
formed an international
force to stop uprising
• $450 million fine imposed
on Chinese government for
secretly supporting Boxers
• Humiliation for government
The Boxer Rebellion

37. Effects of Boxer Rebellion
 China had to make concessions to foreigners
 Failure of Qing dynasty to stand up to the
foreigners led to the birth of the Chinese
Republic in 1911 –nationalism
 Chinese conservatives now supported
Westernization as the best course for ridding
China of foreign pressures
– Admitted women to schools
– Stressed science and math instead of Confucian
thought
– Economic expansion – growth of exports
– Chinese industry developed – emergence of urban
working class

38. This cartoon depicts England,
Germany, Russia, France, and
Japan at the table, ready to cut
up China

40. Sphere of influence:Sphere of influence: less developed form ofless developed form of
imperialism; stronger nation gets exclusive tradingimperialism; stronger nation gets exclusive trading
privileges in region (no control over the government)privileges in region (no control over the government)
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41. What is the Open
Door Policy?
 An American foreign policy approach to China
around 1900 favoring open trade relations
between China and other nations
 U.S. feared that the European powers planned to
divide China up in the same way as they did with
Africa
 U.S. called for keeping Chinese trade open to
everyone on an equal basis and for maintaining
China’s independence (no colonizing of China)

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Sun Yixian & the Birth of a Republic
 Boxer Rebellion failed but greatly spread
Chinese nationalist sentiments
 Reformers called for representative government
 Sun Yixian, a Western educated doctor, formed
the Revolutionary Alliance to end Qing dynasty
 “Three Principles of the People” -Sun Yixian’s
goals for rebuilding China
– End foreign domination
– Form a representative government
(democracy)
– Create economic security for all Chinese
(introduce socialist reforms)

43. 1911—uprisings around China spread
All segments of Chinese society from
peasants to government officials helped to
topple the Qing dynasty
Sun Yixian named president of a new
Chinese republic ---facing overwhelming
problems—internal revolts, foreign
invaders
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Sun Yixian & the Birth of a Republic