Mongolian Interlude | The Chinese Regain Power | The Rise of the Manchus | Emergence of Modern China | The Western Powers Arrive | The Opium War, 1839- 1842 | The Taiping Rebellion, 1851- 1864 | The Self-Strengthening Movement | The Hundred Days Reform and the Aftermath | The Boxer Rebellion, 1899- 1901 | The Republican Revolution of 1911

  1. Mongolian Interlude
    • Vast empire of Kublai Khan
      • Mongols subjugated north China, Korea, and the Muslim kingdoms of Central Asia
      • Kublai Khan begins drive against Southern Song
      • Yuan dynasty established- first alien dynasty to rule all China
    • Managing China
      • Mongols tried to employ Han bureaucrats
      • Han discriminated against
      • Mongols preferred non-Chinese from vast Mongol Empire for government positions
      • Chinese employed in non-Chinese regions of the empire
    • Cultural development
      • Major cultural achievements
        • Novel
        • Drama
        • Written vernacular
      • Vast empire provided frequent cultural exchange
        • Western musical instruments introduced to China
        • Chinese printing techniques, porcelain production, playing cards, and medical literature introduced in Europe
        • Production of thin glass and cloisonné popular in China
        • The Venetian Marco Polo visited Yuan court
      • Religious evolution
        • Conversion of Chinese in northwest and southwest to Islam from Central Asia
        • Nestorianism, Roman Catholicism enjoyed period of toleration
        • Buddhism flourished
        • Native Taoism endured Mongol persecution
    • Technological development
      • Advances in travel literature, cartography and geography, and scientific education
      • Public works
        • Road and water communications reorganized, improved
        • Granaries built throughout empire
        • City of Beijing rebuilt
          • New palace grounds
            • Artificial lakes, hills and mountains, and parks
        • Grand Canal completely renovated with terminus in Beijing
      • Agricultural innovations
        • Introduction of sorghum
        • Chinese and Mongol travelers to West provided assistance in hydraulic engineering

     

  2. The Chinese Regain Power
    • Collapse of the Yuan dynasty
      • Rivalry among Mongol imperial heirs
      • Natural disasters
      • Peasant uprisings
    • The Ming dynasty
      • Founded by Buddhist monk turned rebel leader
      • Capital moved from Nanjing to Beijing
      • Chinese armies reconquered Annam
    • Major regional power
      • Naval expeditions
        • Tribute or 'Treasure' fleets
        • Sailed Indian ocean and eastern African coast
        • Stopped suddenly in 1433
          • Neo-Confucian pressure
    • 'Golden Age'
      • Stability
        • Government, arts, population (100 million), economy, society, politics
        • Promoted belief that they had the most satisfactory civilization on earth
          • Nothing foreign was needed
    • Fall of the Ming dynasty
      • Long wars with the Mongols
      • Incursions by Japanese into Korea

     

  3. The Rise of the Manchus
    • Last imperial dynasty (Qing) established in 1644
    • Sinicization of ruling Manchus
      • Assimilated Chinese culture before conquering China Proper
      • Manchus retained many institutions of Ming and earlier Chinese derivation
      • They continued Confucian court practices, temple rituals
      • Continued Confucian civil service system
      • Chinese barred from highest offices
        • Chinese predominated over Manchus outside the capital, except military positions
      • Manchu emperors supported Chinese literary, historical projects
        • Survival of China's ancient literature attributed to projects
    • Manchurian purity
      • Han Chinese prohibited from migrating into Manchu homeland
      • Manchus forbidden to engage in trade, manual labor
      • Intermarriage between the two groups forbidden
    • Expansion
      • China Proper subdued
      • Outer Mongolia conquered
      • Gained control of Central Asia as far as Pamir Mountains
      • Established protectorate over Tibet
      • Taiwan incorporated into China for first time
      • Qing emperors received tribute from border states
    • Threats
      • Western traders, missionaries, soldiers of fortune arrived before Manchus in southern coast

     

  4. Emergence of Modern China
    • Autumn of the Qing dynasty
      • Empire's inability to evaluate nature of new challenge, respond flexibly resulted Qing fall and collapse of dynastic rule
      • Empire confronted with challenges from Western powers
      • Centuries of peace encouraged little change in attitudes of ruling elite
        • Neo-Confucian scholars believed in cultural superiority of Chinese civilization
        • Innovation, adoption of foreign ideas viewed as heresy
        • Imperial purges of those who deviated from orthodoxy
    • Economic turmoil
      • Bulging population (300,000,000) led to unemployment
      • Scarcity of land led to rural discontent
      • Corruption of bureaucratic, military systems
      • Urban pauperism
    • Revolution begins
      • Localized revolts erupted in parts of empire in early 19th century
      • Anti-Manchu secret societies gained ground
        • White Lotus, Triads

     

  5. The Western Powers Arrive
    • Portuguese established foothold at Macao (Aomen)
      • Monopolize foreign trade at Guangzhou (Canton)
    • Spanish, British, French arrive
    • No conception at imperial court that Europeans would expect to be treated as cultural, political equals
      • Russian exception
        • Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689)
          • Established border between Siberia and Manchuria (northeast China) along Heilong Jiang (Amur River)
          • China's first bilateral agreement with Europe
        • Treaty of Kiakhta (1727)
          • Delimited remainder of eastern Sino- Russian border
    • Trade
      • Officially rebuffed
        • Chinese assumption that the empire was not in need of foreign products
      • Practically accepted; foreign trade flourished
      • After 1760 all foreign trade confined to Guangzhou
        • Foreign traders limited to officially licensed Chinese merchant firms (about a dozen)
    • Non official contact with West
      • Roman Catholic missionaries
        • Jesuits
          • Converted only 100,000 by 1800
        • Contributed to Chinese knowledge
          • Cannon casting, calendar making, geography, mathematics, cartography, music, art, and architecture
        • Christianity fitted into Chinese framework
        • Christian movement weakened
          • Condemned for tolerating Confucian ancestor rites by Papal decision (1704)

     

  6. The Opium War, 1839- 1842
    • Also called 'Arrow War'
    • Trade imbalance
      • Western demand for Chinese goods
        • Tea, silk, porcelain
      • No Chinese demand for Western (British) goods
    • Third-party trade
      • Western goods sold to India, Southeast Asia
      • Raw materials and semi processed goods bought
        • Demand for raw materials in China
    • Illegal opium primary British export to China (early 19th century)
      • Balanced trade deficit
        • Opium trade resulted from corrupt officials, greedy merchants
    • Drastic laws enacted by government (1839) prohibited opium trade
      • Qing commissioner sent to Guangzhou (Lin Zexu 1785- 1850)
        • Suppressed opium traffic
        • Seized stocks of opium
          • Destroyed 20,000 chests of British opium
        • Detained entire foreign community
    • British retaliation
      • Qing underestimated capability of enemy
      • Defeat tarnished image of their own imperial power
    • Unequal Treaty
      • Treaty of Nanjing (1842)
        • Signed on British warship Arrow
        • Hong Kong ceded to British
        • 5 ports opened to foreign residence and trade
        • Granted British nationals extraterritoriality
        • Abolished licensed monopoly system of trade

     

  7. The Taiping Rebellion, 1851- 1864
    • Largest uprising in modern Chinese history
    • Territory encompassed Nanjing, Tianjin
    • Over 30 million people reported killed
    • Causes
      • Government neglect of public works
        • Natural disasters
          • Droughts, famines, floods
          • Government inaction
      • Economic tensions, military defeats at Western hands, anti-Manchu sentiments
    • Hong Xiuquan (1814-64)
      • Teacher and unsuccessful imperial examination candidate
      • Ideology combined ideals of pre-Confucian utopianism with Protestant beliefs
    • Hong's followers
      • Consisting of believers and other armed peasant groups, secret societies
    • Guizhou Province uprising (1851)
      • Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace (Taiping Tianguo)
        • Hong self-appointed king
    • New order
      • Reconstitute legendary ancient state
        • Peasant- owned and tilled land
      • Slavery, concubinage, arranged marriage, opium smoking, foot binding, judicial torture, worship of idols to be eliminated
    • Rebellion's defeat
      • Advocacy of radical social reforms
      • Failed to establish stable base areas
      • Western military aid
        • French, British
          • More inclined toward weak Qing than uncertain Taiping
      • Zeng Guofan (1811-72)
        • Appointed imperial commissioner, governor-general of Taiping-controlled territories
        • Zeng's army under the command of eminent scholar-generals
        • Success gave new power to emerging Han Chinese elite

     

  8. The Self-Strengthening Movement
    • Opium war, unequal treaties, mass uprisings produced need to strengthen China
      • Western practical methods for self- strengthening
        • Western science, languages studied
        • Military bases, manufacturing, diplomatic practices established according to Western models
    • Tongzhi Restoration
      • Begun to arrest dynastic, imperial decline
      • Engineered by Tongzhi Emperor (1862-74)'s mother Empress Dowager Ci Xi (1835-1908)
      • Restore traditional order, apply practical knowledge
      • Not genuine program to modernize
    • Lack of practical understanding
      • Social, political reform needed
      • 'Old Ways' led to foreign domination
      • Bureaucracy deeply influenced by Neo-Confucian orthodoxy
    • Lack of 'Self-Strength'
      • Foreign powers carve into Chinese Empire
        • Russia invades Manchuria
        • Russian diplomats secured secession of all Manchuria north of Heilong Jiang and east of Wusuli Jiang (Ussuri River) (1860 )
        • Britain acquired 99-year lease on Kowloon (New Territories), Hong Kong (1898)
        • Belgium, Germany gained influence in China
        • Foreign settlements in treaty ports became extraterritorial
          • Safety guaranteed by foreign military presence
      • Vassal states overtaken by Western powers
        • French
          • Protectorate established over Cambodia (1864)
          • Cochin China (southern Vietnam) colonized
          • Annam (Vietnam Proper) taken in war (1884-85)
        • British
          • Gained control over Burma
        • Russians
          • Gained control over Chinese Turkestan (Xinjiang)
        • Japanese
          • Taiwan, Penghu Islands ceded in Treaty of Shimonoseki (1894-95)
          • Hegemony established over Korea
      • 'Open Door Policy'
        • Proposed by the United States
        • All foreign countries would have equal duties, privileges in all treaty ports

     

  9. The Hundred Days Reform and the Aftermath
    • 11 June to 21 September 1898 (103 days)
    • Qing emperor, Guangxu (1875-1908) ordered social, institutional reforms
    • Effort reflected thinking of a group of progressive scholar-reformers
      • Impressed the court with urgency of making innovations for nation's survival
      • Influenced by Japanese success with modernization
      • Reformers declared China needed more than "self-strengthening"
        • Innovation must be accompanied by institutional, ideological change
    • Edicts for reform covered broad range of subjects
      • Stamping out corruption and remaking academic and civil-service examination systems, legal system, governmental structure, defense establishment, postal services
      • Attempted to modernize agriculture, medicine, and mining
      • Promoted practical studies instead of Neo-Confucian orthodoxy
    • Reform changes were to be brought about under de facto constitutional monarchy
    • Opposition intense among ruling elite
      • Manchus proposed moderate and gradualist course of change
    • Coup d'etat (21 September 1898)
      • Supported by ultraconservatives, Yuan Shikai (1859-1916)
      • Engineered by Empress Dowager Ci Xi
      • Forced Guangxu into seclusion
      • Ci Xi took over government as regent
      • All new edicts rescinded
      • 6 chief advocates of reform excecuted
      • 2 reform leaders Kang Youwei (1858-1927), Liang Qichao (1873-1929) fled abroad
        • Founded the Baohuang Hui (Protect the Emperor Society) toward constitutional monarchy in China

     

  10. The Boxer Rebellion, 1899- 1901
    • Secret societies
      • Known as Yihetuan (Society of Righteousness and Harmony)
      • Known in West as Boxers from the earlier name Yihequan (Righteousness and Harmony Boxers)
      • Anti-foreign, anti-Christian movement
      • Backed in secret by conservative elements of government
    • 1900
      • Boxer bands spread over north China, killing Chinese Christians, burning missionary facilities
      • Boxers besieged the foreign concessions in Beijing and Tianjin (June)
      • Offended countries sent reinforcements
      • Qing declared war on invaders
      • Foreign reinforcements prevail, occupy north China
    • Protocol of 1901
      • Ended hostilities
      • 10 high officials executed
      • Hundreds punished
      • Legation Quarter expanded
      • Some Chinese fortifications razed
      • Foreign troops stationed in China

     

  11. The Republican Revolution of 1911
    • Court enacted reform measures (1906)
      • Abolition of Confucian-based examination
      • Educational and military modernization
        • Patterned after Japan
      • Experiment in constitutional, parliamentary government
      • Establishment of new armies
    • Mandate of Heaven is lost
      • Failure of reform, Boxer Uprising convinced Chinese that the solution lay in outright revolution
      • Old order to be removed with new one patterned after Japan
    • Sun Yat-sen (Sun Yixian, 1866- 1925)
      • Founded Tongmeng Hui (United League) in Tokyo with Huang Xing (1874-1916) (1905)
        • Movement supported by overseas Chinese funds
        • Gained political support with regional military officers, reformers who fled China after Hundred Days' Reform
    • Three Principles of the People (san min zhuyi)
      • Nationalism
        • Called for overthrowing the Manchus, ending foreign hegemony over China
      • Democracy
        • Popularly elected republican form of government
      • People's Livelihood
        • Aimed at helping common people through regulation of ownership of means of production and land
    • 10 October 1911
      • Begun in Wuchang, Hubei Province by discontented modernized army units
        • Anti-Qing plot had been uncovered
      • Preceded by numerous abortive uprisings, organized protests inside China
      • Revolt spread to neighboring cities
        • Tongmeng Hui members throughout country rose in immediate support of Wuchang revolutionary forces
      • 15 of the 24 provinces declared their independence from Qing empire (November)
    • 2,500 year old Chinese Imperial system ends; Chinese Republic is born
      • Sun Yat-sen returned to China from United States, inaugurated in Nanjing as provisional president of new Chinese republic (1 January 1912)
      • Power in Beijing already passed to commander-in-chief of the imperial army (Yuan Shikai)
      • To prevent civil war, possible foreign intervention, Sun agreed to Yuan's demand that China be united under a Beijing government headed by Yuan
      • The last Manchu emperor, the child Puyi (Aisinjioro Pu Yi), abdicated (12 February 1912)
      • Yuan Shikai sworn in as provisional president of the Republic of China (10 March 1912)