Chapter Introduction

Section 1 The Decline of the Qing Dynasty

Section 2 Revolution in China

Section 3 Rise of Modern Japan

Chinese Emperors

Chapter Assessment

• The Qing dynasty declined because of internal and external pressures.

Main Ideas

The Decline of the Qing Dynasty

• extraterritoriality • sphere of influence

• indemnity• self-strengthening

• Western nations increased their economic involvement with China.

• SWBAT: Identify what internal problems led to the decline of the Qing dynasty?

Preview Questions

• What role did Western nations play in the Qing dynasty’s decline?

The Decline of the Qing Dynasty

Causes of Decline• In 1800 the Qing dynasty of the Manchus

was at the height of its power.

• After more than a century of Western humiliation and harassment, the Qing dynasty collapsed in the early 1900s.

• Internal changes also played a role in the downfall of the Qing dynasty.

(pages 465–466)(pages 465–466)

Causes of Decline (cont.) • It began to suffer from

corruption, peasant unrest, and incompetence.

• Rapid population growth–400 million by 1900–along with food shortages and regular famine made these matters worse.

• The ships, guns, and ideas of foreigners probably hastened the end of the Qing Era.

(pages 465–466)(pages 465–466)

The Opium War

(pages 466–467)(pages 466–467)

• In 1800 European merchants in China were restricted to a trading outlet at Guangzhou, or Canton.

• The British were not happy with the arrangement.

• Britain also imported more from China than it exported to China, giving Britain an unfavorable balance of trade as its hard currency was paid to China.

The Opium War (cont.) • Negotiations to address the trade

imbalance failed, and Britain turned to trading opium to address their economic concerns.

• The British East India Company grew the opium in India and shipped it to China, where its use skyrocketed.

• Soon silver was flowing out of China to Britain.

(pages 466–467)(pages 466–467)

The Opium War (cont.) • The Chinese knew of the dangers of this

highly addictive drug and had made its trade illegal.

• At first they appealed to the British government on moral grounds to stop the export of opium into China. Britain refused to stop.

• The Chinese government blockaded Guangzhou to force the traders to surrender their opium, and Britain responded by starting the Opium War (1839–1842).

The Opium War (cont.) • After the British fleet sailed

almost unopposed up the Chang Jiang, China made peace.

• The Treaty of Nanjing(1842) opened five coastal ports in China to British trade, limited taxes on imported British goods, and gave the British the island of Hong Kong.

• The Chinese also agreed to pay for the war.

• The treaty did not mention opium.(pages 466–467)(pages 466–467)

The Opium War (cont.) • Europeans lived in the five ports in their

own sections and were not subject to Chinese laws, a practice known as extraterritoriality.

• The end of the Opium War marked the beginning of strong Western influence in China.

• China offered the same concessions to other Western nations it had to Britain, and soon the five treaty ports were booming with trade.

(pages 466–467)(pages 466–467)

The Tai Ping Rebellion

(pages 467–468)(pages 467–468)

• Because the Chinese government failed to handle its internal economic problems, the Tai Ping Rebellion, a peasant revolt, occurred from 1850 to 1864.

• It was led by Hong Xiuquan, who saw himself as the younger brother of Jesus Christ.

• He was convinced God had given him the mission of destroying the Qing dynasty.

The Tai Ping Rebellion (cont.)

• Hong and his peasant army captured Yongan, where he proclaimed a new dynasty–the Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace (Tai Ping Tianguo in Chinese, hence the name Tai Ping Rebellion.)

• The rebellion called for social reforms that included giving land to all peasants and treating women as the equals of men.

The Tai Ping Rebellion (cont.) • Hong’s rebellion called for people to give

up private possessions.

• Land was to be held in common, and food and money were to be shared equally.

• Hong outlawed alcohol, tobacco, and foot binding.

• The social goals of the twentieth-century Chinese Communist Revolution would be similar.

The Tai Ping Rebellion (cont.) • In 1853, the rebels seized

Nanjing and massacred 25,000 men, women, and children.

• Europeans helped the Qing dynasty respond to the rebellion.

• In 1864, combined Chinese and European forces took back Nanjing.

• Gradually, the power of the rebellion weakened.

(pages 467–468)(pages 467–468)

The Tai Ping Rebellion (cont.) • The Tai Ping Rebellion was one of

history’s most devastating civil wars.

• As many as twenty million people died in the 14-year struggle.

Traditional Chinese Music Link

The Tai Ping Rebellion (cont.)

• In 1856, Great Britain and France began applying force to gain greater trade privileges.

• In the ensuing Treaty of Tianjin in 1858, the Chinese agreed to legalize the opium trade, open new ports to foreign trade, and surrender the Kowloon Peninsula to Great Britain.

• The British seized Beijing in 1860 when the Chinese resisted parts of the treaty.

Efforts at Reform (cont.) • Reformers called for a new policy of “self-

strengthening” for the Qing dynasty.

• This approach meant that China should adopt Western technology while keeping its Confucian values and institutions.

• This policy guided China for the next 25 years.

(pages 468–469)(pages 468–469)

Efforts at Reform (cont.) • Some reformers wanted to introduce

democracy, but such an idea was too radical for most.

• Rather, China tried to modernize its military and industrialize while retaining the basic elements of Chinese civilization and values.

(pages 468–469)(pages 468–469)

The Advance of Imperialism

(pages 469–470)(pages 469–470)

• The new policy did not help the Qing dynasty retain power.

• European advances into China and internal deterioration continued.

• Russia forced China to give up territories in Siberia.

• Tibet was freed from Chinese influence by the struggle for it between Russia and Great Britain.

The Advance of Imperialism (cont.) • European states began to create spheres

of influence inside China.

(pages 469–470)(pages 469–470)

• In 1894 another matter weakened the Qing.

• China went to war with Japan over Japanese inroads into Korea, and Japan soundly defeated the Chinese.

The Advance of Imperialism (cont.) • This scramble for territory took place in a

time of internal crisis.

• The emperor Guang Xu launched his massive reform campaign called the One Hundred Days of Reform.

• Conservatives at court opposed the reforms.

(pages 469–470)(pages 469–470)

Opening the Door to China

(pages 470–471)(pages 470–471)

• Great Britain and the United States feared other nations would overrun China should its government collapse.

• In 1899 the U.S. secretary of state John Hay proposed equal access to the Chinese market for all nations.

• No nation disagreed, and Hay declared that the foreign states agreed China should have an Open Door policy.

The Boxer Rebellion

(page 471)(page 471)

• The Open Door policy did not stop the Boxer Rebellion, however.

• Boxer was the popular name for members of the secret group called the Society of Harmonious Fists, who practiced a system of exercise they thought would protect them from bullets.

The Boxer Rebellion (cont.) • The Boxers were upset over foreign

influence in China.

• They especially disliked Christian missionaries and Chinese converts to Christianity.

• They killed Christians and foreigners, including the German envoy to Beijing.

(page 471)(page 471)

The Advance of Imperialism (cont.) • The Empress Dowager Ci Xi, the

emperor’s aunt, also opposed the reforms.

• With the help of the army, she imprisoned the emperor and ended the reform efforts.

• She ruled China for almost 50 years.

(pages 469–470)(pages 469–470)

The Boxer Rebellion (cont.) • In response an allied army of the Western

powers and Japan attacked Beijing in 1900.

• It restored order and demanded more concessions from the Chinese government, which was forced to pay a heavy indemnity–payment for damages–to the powers that had ended the rebellion.

• The Chinese imperial government was weaker than ever.

(page 471)(page 471)

The Fall of the Qing• After the Boxer Rebellion, China

desperately tried to reform.

• Even the Empress Dowager now embraced educational, administrative, and legal reforms.

The Fall of the Qing• After the Boxer Rebellion, China

desperately tried to reform.

• Even the Empress Dowager now embraced educational, administrative, and legal reforms.

The Fall of the Qing (cont.) • The emerging elite of merchants and

professionals was angry on learning that the new assemblies could not pass laws but could only advise the ruler.

• The reforms did nothing for the peasants, artisans, and miners, whose conditions worsened as taxes rose.

(pages 473–475)(pages 473–475)

The Fall of the Qing (cont.) • A Western educational system replaced

the traditional civil service examination educational system.

• In 1909, legislative assemblies were formed at the provincial (local) level.

• Elections for a national assembly were held in 1910.

(pages 473–475)(pages 473–475)

The Fall of the Qing (cont.) • The emerging elite of merchants and

professionals was angry.

• Assemblies could not pass laws but could only advise the ruler.

• The reforms did nothing for the peasants, artisans, and miners, whose conditions worsened as taxes rose.

(pages 473–475)(pages 473–475)

The Fall of the Qing (cont.) • The first signs of revolution came

with Sun Yat-sen and his Revive China Society, founded in the 1890s.

• He believed China had to be united under a strong government to resist the foreigners.

• Sun developed a three-part reform process: military takeover, a period in which Sun’s revolutionary party would prepare the people for democracy, and a constitutional democracy.

(pages 473–475)(pages 473–475)

The Fall of the Qing (cont.) • Sun united radical groups from across

China and formed the Revolutionary Alliance, later the Nationalist Party.

(pages 473–475)(pages 473–475)

• In 1908, the Empress Dowager died, and the Qing dynasty was near its end.

The Fall of the Qing (cont.)

• The infant Henry Pu Yi now occupied the throne.

• In 1911, followers of Sun Yat-sen began an uprising in central China.

• Sun was in the United States. • The Qing dynasty collapsed, but Sun’s

party did not have the strength to form a new government, so it turned to a member of the old order, General Yuan Shigai, who controlled the army and had been sent to suppress the rebellion.

The Fall of the Qing (cont.) • General Yuan negotiated with Sun’s party

and agreed to serve as president of a Chinese republic and allow for the election of a legislature.

• The events of 1911 did not produce a new social and political order.

• The Revolutionary Alliance with its Western liberal democratic principles was supported mainly by the urban middle class and so was too small to support a new order.

(pages 473–475)(pages 473–475)

An Era of Civil War

(pages 475–476)(pages 475–476)

• The military took over after the end of the Qing dynasty.

• The Revolutionary Alliance distrusted General Yuan’s motives, however.

• He did not understand Western liberalism and tried to set up a new imperial dynasty, even using murder and terror to destroy the new democratic institutions.

An Era of Civil War (cont.) • When General Yuan dissolved the

parliament, the Nationalists rebelled.

• The rebellion failed, and Sun Yat-sen fled to Japan.

• After he died in 1916, Yuan was succeeded by one of his officers.

• For several years China slipped into civil war as weakened governmental power allowed warlords to seize provincial power.

• Massive destruction and hunger were the outcome.

(pages 475–476)(pages 475–476)

Chinese Society in Transition (cont.) • Chinese society was already changing

in the mid-1800s.

• The growth of industry and trade brought to the cities a market for commodities–marketable products–such as oil, copper, salt, tea, and porcelain.

• Transportation was improving, and new crops from abroad increased food production.

(pages 476–477)(pages 476–477)

An End to Isolation

(pages 479–480)(pages 479–480)

• By 1800, the Tokugawa shogunate had ruled the Japanese islands for two hundred years.

• The country was virtually isolated from foreigners.

• Foreign ships were driven away, and the little foreign trading was done only through Nagasaki.

An End to Isolation (cont.) • Western powers approached Japan in the

hope of opening it up to their economic interests.

• The United States was the first foreign country to succeed with Japan.

• In 1853, four warships under Commodore Matthew Perry arrived in Edo Bay (now Tokyo Bay).

(pages 479–480)(pages 479–480)

An End to Isolation (cont.)

• Perry carried a letter from President Millard Fillmore, asking to open relations between the two countries.

• Some shogunate officials argued against contact and others recommended concessions, or political compromises.

• The shogunate’s response was ultimately dictated by the guns of Perry’s ships when he returned for an answer with a larger fleet.

(pages 479–480)(pages 479–480)

An End to Isolation (cont.) • Under military pressure Japan agreed to

the Treaty of Kanagawa.

• It provided for the return of American shipwrecked sailors, who previously were treated as criminals, the opening of two ports to Western traders, and the establishment of a U.S. consulate in Japan.

(pages 479–480)(pages 479–480)

Resistance to the New Order

(page 480)(page 480)

• Resistance to this change in relations with the West was especially strong among the samurai warriors in the territories of Satsuma and Choshu.

• In 1863, the Sat-Cho alliance forced the shogun to promise to end relations with the West.

Resistance to the New Order (cont.) • The Sat-Cho rebels were convinced they

needed to strengthen their military after losing an exchange with Western ships.

• They also demanded that the shogun resign and restore the power of the emperor.

• Sat-Cho armies attacked the shogun’s palace in Kyoto in 1868.

• They declared the emperor restored.

• The shogun’s forces and the shogunate soon collapsed.

(page 480)(page 480)

The Meiji Restoration (cont.) • The young emperor Mutsuhito called his

reign the Meiji, or “Enlightened Rule.”

• This period is known as the Meiji Restoration.

• Mutsuhito was controlled by the Sat-Cho leaders, and the capital was moved to their location, Edo (now Tokyo).

(pages 480–484)(pages 480–484)

The Meiji Restoration (cont.)

• The Meiji reformers set out to create a Western-style political system.

• A commission under Ito Hirobumi traveled to Great Britain, France, Germany, and the United States to study their governments.

(pages 480–484)(pages 480–484)

The Meiji Restoration (cont.) • Real executive authority lay not with the

emperor but with the prime minister and his cabinet ministers, handpicked by the Meiji leaders.

• Further, the upper house included royal appointments and elected nobles.

• The government was democratic in form but authoritarian in practice.

• The traditional ruling class kept its influence and economic power.

(pages 480–484)(pages 480–484)

The Meiji Restoration (cont.) • The Meiji reformers transformed other

institutions, especially the military.

• In 1871, a new army based on compulsory military service was formed.

• All men served for three years.

(pages 480–484)(pages 480–484)