Introduction and China
Overview
Statewide Dual Credit Modern World History: Unit 10, Lesson 1
A discussion of the Opium Wars and the resulting unequal treaties, the Taiping and Boxer Rebellions, and the Self-Strengthening Movement; events and movements that threatened the stability of the Qing Dynasty and highlighted the need for reform in China.
During the period 1700-1900, Western influence in Asia markedly increased. Western countries used advanced technology to gain and grow footholds throughout Asia. Asian countries had to deal with Western encroachment which threatened their economy and sovereignty. At first, most Asian countries reacted by severely restricting the ability of Europeans to operate. While this may have worked at first, Westerners used their advanced economies, technology and arms to force open markets and Asian territories. Asian countries adapted to these threats in different ways. Some countries attempted to adopt Western education and political structure while others clung (as long as they could) to traditional ways of operating. Western influence and the reaction to the growing power of Europe and America helped to remake Asia and reorient global politics, power and trade.
China
In the 18th century, the Qing dynasty continued to consolidate and expand its power. To contain growing European power and influence, European traders were increasingly restricted to the Guangzhou waterfront while only being allowed to trade with licensed Chinese traders. Since the Chinese had little need or interest in European goods, traders had to pay in silver bullion rather than trade goods to acquire Chinese items, including porcelain, silk and tea.
European traders and trading companies, especially the British East Indian Company, felt disadvantaged by these restrictions and did not like having to spend currency to acquire goods. Unable to provide a product that the Chinese wanted to purchase at scale, they turned to opium, an addictive drug grown in India, as a solution. Soon silver flowed in the opposite direction as Chinese merchants were willing to use bullion to acquire opium to sell to an increasingly addicted populace.
Although illegal, initially Chinese authorities did little to stop the opium trade as the scale and impact of opium were not widely known. By the 1830s, there was a growing acceptance that the opium trade had negative social and economic impacts, and this encouraged the Chinese state to attempt to stem the flow of opium into China.
In 1839, Chinese authorities empowered the trustworthy and competent Lin Zexu (1785-1850) to employ strict measures to end the opium trade. After learning how the drug had been smuggled into China, Zexu went on the offensive. Refusing to look the other way or take a bribe, Zexu seized and destroyed some 20,000 chests of opium.
Disregarding Chinese sovereignty and encouraged by British commercial interests, Britain went to war with China. Known as the First Opium War (1839-1842), the war demonstrated the superiority of British forces. While some Chinese units had firearms, others went into battle with knives, spears and swords. Such troops were little match for the professionalism and firepower of the British army.
The decisive moment for the British came in May 1842 when the gunboat HMS Nemesis led a team of seventy ships up the Yangzi River. The ability to take naval power inland and upstream gave the British a new advantage and demonstrated, once again, how far China had fallen behind Europe. Unable to resist this intrusion, the Chinese were forced to sue for peace.
The war officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842. Known as part of a series of unequal treaties, the Treaty of Nanjing forced China to surrender territory and sign away some of its sovereignty. The Chinese ceded Hong Kong to Britain, opened additional ports to trade, and granted British traders extraterritoriality, which meant they were not subject to Chinese laws and were basically outside the control of Chinese authorities. Other powers, including a host of European nations, Japan and the United States, forced their own unequal treaties onto China.
The opium wars and subsequent unequal treaties came at a time of significant instability in China. During the 19th century, the Chinese population increased by some 50 percent to nearly 480 million people. Differences in wealth, the lack of available lands, widespread poverty, and growing drug addiction made much of the Chinese population unhappy. This erupted in a series of disturbances and rebellions, the most important of which was the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864).
The origins of the rebellion lie in many of the frustrations and difficulties that the Chinese people faced, coupled with dissatisfaction with the Machu rulers, who continued to be viewed as unwanted foreigners. The spark, however, would be the rebellion’s future leader Hong Xiuquan (1814-1864). An untraditional thinker, Xiuquan rejected Chinese socio-religious systems, creating his own form of Christianity, one in which he proclaimed himself to be the younger brother of Jesus.
Xiuquan’s story begins with his difficulties with the civil services examinations. After failing the imperial exam for the third time, Xiuquan experienced a breakdown and was delirious for days. He had vivid dreams about a heavenly family and father. In these dreams, Xiuquan was commanded to alter his ways. After failing the imperial examinations for the fourth time (only a tiny minority passed), Xiuquan became interested in Christianity and came to interpret his early visions as being part of a Christian religious experience.
Xiuquan began to study and preach. He found followers in the disenfranchised Chinese peasantry who were drawn to his vision of a better future. Centered on Taiping, Xiuquan called for the end of private property, advocated the separation of the sexes into separate civil, military and social units, and forbade prostitution and drug use while imploring all loyal Chinese to join him in his quest to remake China.
After defeating a detachment of the Qing army in 1850, Xiuquan declared himself the Heavenly King of the Heavenly Kingdom of Peace. A series of military victories saw Xiuquan and his supporters gain control of Nanjing, which in 1853 became the capital of the Taiping Kingdom.
The Taiping Rebellion gained significant momentum, posing a serious threat to the Qing dynasty. In 1853, Taiping forces captured Nanjing and declared it their capital, establishing the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. While they came close to capturing Beijing, they ultimately failed to conquer the capital. Facing this existential threat, the Qing government implemented a series of reforms, including the creation of regional armies independent of Manchu control. This decentralized military power, while necessary to combat the Taipings, also had long-term consequences for the stability of the Qing dynasty. As the Taiping Rebellion faced military setbacks and internal divisions, Xiuquan's leadership became increasingly erratic and withdrawn. He eventually died in 1864, succumbing to illness or possibly suicide. The loss of their charismatic leader further weakened the Taiping movement, contributing to their eventual defeat in 1864.
The Taiping rebellion was crushed. But its legacy is an important one. The lessons learned by the government were not that they needed to fix the problem plaguing the Chinese state, but that revolution and disorder came out of massive societal change. Many argued that it was better to stick to traditional ways and methods even if these seemed unlikely to solve the problems facing China internally and externally. Others argued for a more limited form of reform that might industrialize China without changing the underlying structure.
This approach to reform can best be seen in the Self-Strengthening Movement (1860-1895). The Self-Strengthening Movement sought to place Western industrial technology on top of a base of traditional Chinese society. Although the movement achieved some gains, it was limited by the lack of commitment to genuinely altering the Chinese state or its society. Industrialization brought tremendous change to Europe, and Chinese authorities feared that European technology would undermine Chinese values, traditions and their positions as well. This had a tremendous impact on China. By the late 19th century, China suffered further setbacks as foreign powers began to carve up its empire. China ceded Vietnam to France; Japan got Taiwan; China lost control of Burma and had to recognize the independence of Korea.
The disintegration of the Chinese state led to the outbreak of the Boxer Rebellion in 1899. The Boxers, officially known as the Righteous and Harmonious Fists (Yihetuan), were a secret society that emerged in northern China. They were primarily composed of young, unemployed men who practiced martial arts, spiritual possession, and ritual exercises that they believed granted them supernatural immunity to bullets and weapons. Their movement was fueled by widespread economic distress, resentment toward foreign influence, and opposition to Christian missionary activity, which they saw as a threat to Chinese traditions.
To rid China of “foreign devils” and their dangerous ideas, the Boxers targeted foreigners, Chinese people suspected of being sympathetic to foreigners, and Chinese Christians. The Boxer Rebellion was crushed by a combined force of British, Russian, French, German, U.S., and Japanese troops. Following the Boxer Rebellion, the Qing dynasty's legitimacy was significantly weakened, ultimately leading to the 1911 Revolution. In 1912, the last Qing emperor abdicated the throne. As China entered the 20th century, its relative power to Europe and its nearest rival, Japan, had dramatically diminished. As the new century dawned, Chinese leaders acknowledged that in order to catch up, they would have to accept meaningful social and political change.