China and the West

• Western economic pressure on China led to its opening to foreign trade and influence.
• China has become an increasingly important player in the global community today.

Setting the Stage

• The Chinese looked down on foreigners due to their pride in ancient culture.
• In 1793, the Qing emperor agreed to receive an ambassador from England.
• The English ambassador brought advanced Western technology, but the emperor was not impressed, as the Chinese believed they already had everything they needed.

China and the West

• China rejected Western offers because it was largely self-sufficient due to its healthy agricultural economy.
• China acquired quick-growing rice from Southeast Asia in the 11th century, which was grown throughout the southern part of the country by the Qing Dynasty.
• Spanish and Portuguese traders brought maize, sweet potatoes, and peanuts from the Americas during the 17th and 18th centuries.
• These crops increased China's land productivity and aided in feeding its large population.
• China possessed extensive mining and manufacturing industries, producing large quantities of salt, tin, silver, and iron ore.
• The mines provided work for tens of thousands of people.
• China produced beautiful silks, high-quality cottons, and fine porcelain.

The Tea-Opium Connection

• The Chinese had little interest in trading with the West due to their self-sufficiency.
• The only place foreigners were allowed to do business for decades was at the southern port of Guangzhou.
• The balance of trade at Guangzhou was clearly in China's favor.
• China earned much more for its exports than it spent on imports.
• European merchants wanted a product the Chinese would buy in large quantities and found opium.
• Opium is a habit-forming narcotic made from the poppy plant traditionally used for pain relief.
• British merchants smuggled opium into China for nonmedical use in the late 18th century.
• Opium smoking caught on, and by 1835, as many as 12 million Chinese people were addicted to the drug.
• The increased supply of opium caused great problems for China.
• The Qing emperor was angry.
• In 1839, a high advisor wrote to England's Queen Victoria, questioning Britain's right to injure the Chinese people with opium.
• Britain refused to stop trading opium.
• The Opium War of 1839, an open clash between the British and the Chinese, occurred.
• The battles took place mostly at sea, where China's outdated ships were no match for Britain's steam-powered gunboats.
• China suffered a humiliating defeat and signed the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842.
• Britain gained the island of Hong Kong from this treaty.
• After another treaty in 1844, US and other foreign citizens gained extraterritorial rights.
• Under these rights, foreigners weren't subject to Chinese law at Guangzhou and four other Chinese ports.
• The Chinese greatly resented the foreigners and bustling trade in opium they conducted.

Growing Internal Problems

• China's population grew to 430 million by 1850, a 30 percent gain in just 60 years.
• Food production barely increased.
• Hunger was widespread, even in good years.
• Many people became discouraged, and opium addiction rose steadily.
• The Chinese began to rebel against the Qing Dynasty as their problems mounted.

The Taiping Rebellion

• During the late 1830s, Hong Xiuquan recruited followers to build a "Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace" where all Chinese people would share China's vast wealth and no one would live in poverty.
• Hong's movement was called the Taiping Rebellion, from the Chinese word taiping, meaning "great peace."
• By the 1850s, Hong had organized a massive peasant army of some one million people.
• The Taiping army took control of large areas of southeastern China.
• In 1853, Hong captured the city of Nanjing and declared it his capital.
• Hong soon withdrew from everyday life and left family members and his trusted lieutenants in charge of his government.
• The leaders of the Taiping government feuded, and Qing imperial troops and British and French forces launched attacks.
• By 1864, this combination of internal fighting and outside assaults had brought down the Taiping government.
• China paid a terrible price, with at least 20 million people, and possibly twice that many, dying in the rebellion.

Foreign Influence Grows

• The Taiping Rebellion and other uprisings put internal pressure on the Chinese government.
• External pressure from foreign powers increased despite the Treaty of Nanjing.
• The Qing court debated how to deal with these issues, with some government leaders calling for reforms patterned on Western ways and others clinging to tradition.
• During the last half of the 19th century, the Dowager Empress Cixi held the reins of power in China.
• Cixi supported certain reforms, backing the self-strengthening movement in the 1860s to update China's educational system, diplomatic service, and military.
• China set up factories to manufacture steam-powered gunboats, rifles, and ammunition under this program, with mixed results.
• Other countries took advantage of China's problems.
• Treaty negotiations after each conflict gave foreign nations increasing control over China's economy in the late 19th century.
• Many of Europe's major powers and Japan gained a strong foothold in China.
• This foothold, or sphere of influence, was an area in which the foreign nation controlled trade and investment.
• The United States worried that other nations would divide China into formal colonies and shut out American traders.
• The United States declared the Open Door Policy in 1899, proposing that China's “doors" be open to merchants of all nations.
• Britain and other European nations agreed, protecting both U.S. trading rights in China and China's freedom from colonization, but China was still at the mercy of foreign powers.

An Upsurge in Chinese Nationalism

• Many Chinese pressed for strong reforms due to humiliation from their loss of power.
• Guangxu introduced measures to modernize China in June 1898, reorganizing the educational system, strengthening the economy, modernizing the military, and streamlining the government.
• Qing officials saw these innovations as threats to their power.
• The Dowager Empress returned to the imperial court and placed Guangxu under arrest.
• She reversed his reforms.
• The Chinese people's frustration with their situation continued and erupted into violence.
• Poor peasants and workers resented the special privileges granted to foreigners.
• They resented Chinese Christians, who had adopted a foreign faith.
• Forming the Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists, the Boxers, they campaigned against the Dowager Empress's rule and foreigner privilege, called the Boxer Rebellion.
• In the spring of 1900, the Boxers descended on Beijing, surrounding the European section of the city.
• The Dowager Empress expressed support for the Boxers but did not back her words with military aid.
• A multinational force of 19,000 troops marched on Beijing and quickly defeated the Boxers in August.
• A strong sense of nationalism emerged in China despite the failure of the Boxer Rebellion.
• The Chinese realized that their country must resist more foreign intervention and that the government must become responsive to their needs.

The Beginnings of Reform

• The Qing court realized that China needed to make profound changes to survive.
• The Dowager Empress sent a select group of Chinese officials on a world tour in 1905 to study different governments.
• The group recommended that China restructure its government based on the constitutional monarchy of Japan.
• The empress accepted this recommendation, began making reforms, and convened a national assembly, but change was slow.
• The court announced it would establish a full constitutional government by 1917.
• Unrest continued in China for the next four decades due to internal and external threats.
• China's neighbor Japan also faced pressure from the West but responded differently.

Modernization in Japan

• Japan industrialized and expanded its foreign influence, similar to the model of Western powers.
• Japan's continued development of its own way of life has made it a world power.

Setting the Stage

• Japan isolated itself off from almost all contact with other nations in the early 17th century.
• Japanese society was tightly ordered under the rule of the Tokugawa shoguns.
• The shogun parceled out land to the daimyo, or lords, who were protected by their small army of samurai, or warriors.
• This rigid feudal system maintained peace and relative prosperity for two centuries.
• The Japanese had almost no contact with the industrialized world during this time of isolation.
• They traded with China and Dutch merchants from Indonesia and had diplomatic contact with Korea.
• Trade was growing in importance, both inside and outside Japan.
• Westerners tried to convince the Japanese to open their ports to trade in the early 19th century.
• British, French, Russian, and American officials occasionally anchored off the Japanese coast.
• Japan repeatedly refused to receive them until 1853, when U.S. Commodore Matthew Perry took four ships into what is now Tokyo Harbor.
• The massive black wooden ships powered by steam astounded the Japanese.
• The Tokugawa shogun realized he had no choice but to receive Perry and the letter Perry had brought from U.S. president Millard Fillmore.
• Fillmore politely asked the shogun to allow free trade between the United States and Japan, but Perry delivered it with a threat.
• Perry would return with a larger fleet in a year to receive Japan's reply.
• In 1854, the Treaty of Kanagawa opened two ports at which U.S. ships could take on supplies.
• After the United States, other Western powers soon followed.
• By 1860, Japan, like China, had granted foreigners permission to trade at several treaty ports and extended extraterritorial rights.

Meiji Reform and Modernization

• The Japanese were angry that the shogun had given in to the foreigners' demands.
• They turned to Japan's young emperor, Mutsuhito, who seemed to symbolize the country's sense of pride and nationalism.
• In 1867, the Tokugawa shogun stepped down, ending the military dictatorships.
• Mutsuhito took control of the government and chose the name Meiji for his reign, which means "enlightened rule."
• Mutsuhito's reign, which lasted 45 years, is known as the Meiji era.
• The Meiji emperor realized that the best way to counter Western influence was to modernize.
• To study Western ways, he sent diplomats to Europe and North America.
• Believing they knew what Western civilization had to offer, they adapted it to their own country.
• They admired Germany's strong centralized government and used its constitution as a model for their own.
• The Japanese also admired the discipline of the German army and the skill of the British navy, attempting to imitate these European powers as they modernized their military.
• Japan adopted the American system of universal public education and required that all Japanese children attend school, employing foreign experts and sending students abroad to study as well.
• Energetically supporting the Western path of industrialization, by the early 20th century, the Japanese economy had become as modern as any in the world.
• The country built its first railroad line in 1872.
• By 1914, Japan had more than 7,000 miles of railroad.
• Coal production grew from half a million tons in 1875 to more than 21 million tons in 1913.
• Large, state-supported companies built thousands of factories.
• Traditional Japanese industries, such as tea processing and silk production, expanded to trade unique products.
• Developing modern industries like shipbuilding made Japan competitive with the West.

Imperial Japan

• Japan's race to modernize paid off.
• The country had several dozen warships and 500,000 well-trained, well-armed soldiers by 1890.
• It had become the strongest military power in Asia.
• Japan gained military, political, and economic strength.
• It then sought to eliminate the extraterritorial rights of foreigners.
• The Japanese foreign minister assured foreigners that they could rely on fair treatment in Japan, as its constitution and legal codes were similar to those of European nations.
• Foreign powers accepted the abolition of extraterritorial rights for their citizens living in Japan in 1894.
• The nation's feeling of strength and equality with the Western nations rose as Japan's sense of power grew, and the nation also became more imperialistic.
• Determined to show the world that they were a powerful nation, like in Europe, national pride played a large part in Japan's imperial plans.
• In 1876, Japan forced Korea to open three ports to Japanese trade.
• Because China also considered Korea to be important as both a trading partner and a military outpost, Japan and China signed a hands-off agreement.
• In 1885, both countries pledged that they would not send their armies into Korea.
• In June 1894, China broke that agreement due to rebellions against Korea's king.
• They asked China for military help in putting them down, the Chinese troops marched into Korea.
• Japan protested and sent its troops to Korea to fight the Chinese.
• China was drove out of Korea, the Chinese navy was destroyed, and a foothold in Manchuria was gained.
• Japan and China signed a peace treaty that gave Japan its first colonies, Taiwan and the neighboring Pescadores Islands in 1895.
• Japan's victory over China changed the world's balance of power.
• In 1903, Russia offered to recognize Russia's rights in Manchuria if the Russians would agree to stay out of Korea, but the Russians refused.
• Japan launched a surprise attack on Russian ships anchored off the coast of Manchuria in February 1904.
• In the Russo-Japanese War, Japan drove Russian troops out of Korea and captured most of Russia's Pacific fleet, destroying Russia's Baltic fleet.
• To participate in the war, the fleet sailed all the way around Africa.
• The Treaty of Portsmouth was drafted with the help of U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt.
• Russia withdrew from Manchuria and stayed out of Korea, and Japan was given captured territories from the Russo-Japanese War in 1905.
• Japan made Korea a protectorate.
• Japan sent in "advisers," who grabbed more and more power from the Korean government.
• The Korean king gave up control of the country and the Korean Imperial Army was disbanded..
• Japan officially imposed annexation on Korea, or brought that country under Japan's control in 1910.
• The Japanese were harsh rulers, shutting down Korean newspapers, taking over Korean schools, studying Korean subjects, replacing study with Japanese subjects, taking lands away from Korean settlers, and encouraging Japanese businessmen to start industries in Korea..
• They forbade Koreans from going into business, causing resentment of Japan's repressive rule to grow, helping to create a strong Korean nationalist movement.
• Other nations ignored what was happening in Korea.
• The United States and other European countries ignored what was happening in Korea.