The Last Dynasty

WHAP/Napp

Cues: / Notes:
  1. The Manchus
  1. From Manchuria, the large region to the north and east of China itself
  2. Forced the Chinese, as a subject people, to were forced to wear certain clothing and to wear their hair in long braids, or queues
  3. Established the Qing (or Ch’ing, 1644-1911) Dynasty
  4. Also controlled or added to their tributary system areas such as Mongolia, Tibet, Nepal, Burma, and much of Central Asia
  5. Expansion to north and west brought Chinese into contact with Russia, which was moving into Siberia and East Asia by the 1600s and 1700s
  6. Full-scale trade with Europeans began under the Qing, during the 1690s
  7. Foreign trade was closely regulated by the state, and by the 1750s, it was directed exclusively through the port of Canton
  8. Along with silk and porcelain, China’s most important commodity was tea
I.While the Qing Empire sent a high volume of exports to other nations, it allowed few imports, giving it a highly favorable balance of trade
II.Qing Emperors
  1. Emperor Kangxi (1662-1722) is considered to be one of greatest monarchs in Chinese history: skilled general, just lawgiver, and sponsor of culture
  2. Kangxi bolstered the imperial authority of the Qing by patronizing Confucianism, with its emphasis on respect for authority
  3. Another eighteenth-century ruler, Qianlong (1736-1795), was the last intelligent, dynamic ruler the Qing had
  4. Strengthened China’s borders, fostered economic growth, and promoted scholarship
  5. During the reign of Qianlong, one of the greatest novels in Chinese literary history appeared: Cao Xueqin’s Dream of the Red Chamber (1791)
  6. Novel depicted upper-class family life in eighteenth-century China, narrated the tragedy of two young lovers caught up in the decline of a wealthy clan
III.First Stages of Qing Decline
  1. After Qianlong, however, the quality of the Qing rulers declined
  2. Chinese population grew steadily partly due to the introduction of new crops from the Americas– and much faster than the economy
  3. The government as a whole became riddled with corruption
  4. Cost of maintaining border defenses along the northern and western frontiers became increasingly burdensome
  5. Bad economic conditions broke out into open revolt
  6. Most famous early revolt was the White Lotus Rebellion (1796-1804), which took years for the authorities to suppress

Summaries:
Cues: / IV.The Rise of the West
  1. As late as 1810s, Chinese had upper hand in their relationship with West
  2. China was strong and enjoyed enormous advantage in balance of trade
  3. Chinese accepted only a tiny selection of Western goods in trade
  4. But West paid China vast amounts of silver bullion for Chinese goods
  5. For years, Westerners complained about these conditions and requested the Chinese to allow them to sell more goods in China
  6. In 1793, British delegation led by Lord Macartney made request, but denied
  7. Macartney, in order to meet the emperor Qianlong, was compelled to lower himself onto one knee (kowtow) and referred to as a tribute bearer
  8. Qianlong’s reply, “Your country has nothing we need.”
  9. Qing leadership sincerely believed that emperor was the Son of Heaven, that China was the Middle Kingdom and that all outsiders were barbarians
  10. But these Western “barbarians” were, by this point, much more scientifically and technologically advanced than the Chinese
  11. Westerners had stronger navies, better weapons, better-equipped armies
V.The Opium Trade
  1. British, followed by other Europeans, found a clever, if unethical, way to break into Chinese markets: opium
  2. A prime source of opium was northeast India, part of Britain’s empire
  3. In the 1820s and 1830s, the British began to flood China with opium
  4. Opium became the drug of choice among Chinese of all classes, and addiction became widespread
  5. The balance of tradeswung suddenly in Britain’s favor
  6. Reversing the balance of trade, meaning that silver bullion, instead of flowing into China, was flowing out, at an alarming rate
  7. Moreover, addiction to opium was so widespread that it affected the economic productivitymillions could not work
VI.Opium Wars
  1. In 1839, when the Chinese navy blockaded Canton, one of the few ports where foreigners were allowed to trade, war began
  2. The first Opium War (1839-1842) was between Britain and China
  3. British won easily, then forced humiliating Treaty of Nanking on Chinese
  4. Chinarequired to open five more ports, lower tariffs, and grant extraterritorial rights where British lived (British, not Chinese law prevailed in areas)
  5. In addition, China had to surrender Hong Kong to Britain
  6. Second Opium War occurred shortly and more treaties were signed
  7. Taiping Rebellion1850-1864, leader of rebellionfailed civil service exam convinced Jesus Christ’s younger brothersecond deadliest conflictbut ultimately failedtried to create “Heavenly Kingdom of Supreme Peace”
  8. Empress Dowager Cixi, who “ruled” China from 1878 to her death in 1908strongly opposed modernization
  9. Boxer Rebellion1900anger at foreign influencefailed
  10. Afterwards Cixi recognized need for reform but too little, too late

Summaries:

Questions:

  • Discuss the origin of the Qing Dynasty.
  • Discuss continuities and changes during the Qing Dynasty?
  • What factors led to the decline of the Qing?
  • Discuss the causes and effects of the Opium wars.
  • Compare and contrast the Taiping and the Boxer Rebellions.
  • What factors led to China’s inability to respond effectively to the Western threat?

  1. Upon what religious-philosophical tradition did Qing rulers rely to strengthen their imperial authority in China?
(A)Confucianism
(B)Daoism
(C)Pure Land Buddhism
(D)Hinduism
(E)Shamanism
  1. Who is considered to be the most successful Qing ruler?
(A)Wu
(B)Yongle
(C)Kangxi
(D)Chung-cheng
(E)Cixi
  1. Which of the following is true about the Qing dynasty?
I. The Qing rulers were ethnically distinct from most of China’s inhabitants.
II. The Qing came to power in China by peaceful means.
III. The Qing forced ordinary male citizens to wear their hair in queues.
IV. The early Qing rulers were militarily active.
(A)I and II only
(B)I and III only
(C)I, III, and IV
(D)II, III, and IV
(E)All of the above /
  1. Which of the following best explains the reason the British turned to trading opium in China?
(A)Firsthand experience supplying mass opium addiction in the thirteen colonies proved the profitability of the trade.
(B)British merchants could find no other commodity the Chinese needed.
(C)Successful expansion of the opium trade in India provided a model for replication.
(D)Imperialist designs for direct rule in China would be more easily attainable over a population pacified by narcotics.
(E)British monarchs wanted to share the benefits of widespread medical and recreation use of opium they had experienced in British society with the Chinese.
  1. Which of the following does NOT belong in a list of nineteenth-century challenges to the rule of the Qing dynasty in China?
(A)Floods
(B)Peasant rebellion
(C)Foreign invasion
(D)Corruption in the bureaucracy
(E)Expanding influence of communism in China
  1. Which of the following does NOT belong in a list of Chinese movements resentful of foreign domination?
(A)Boxer (B) Taiping
(C) Tanzimat (D) Nationalist

Excerpt fromafe.easia.columbia.edu

Two things happened in the eighteenth century that made it difficult for England to balance its trade with the East. First, the British became a nation of tea drinkers and the demand for Chinese tea rose astronomically. It is estimated that the average London worker spent five percent of his or her total household budget on tea. Second, northern Chinese merchants began to ship Chinese cotton from the interior to the south to compete with the Indian cotton that Britain had used to help pay for its tea consumption habits. To prevent a trade imbalance, the British tried to sell more of their own products to China, but there was not much demand for heavy woolen fabrics in a country accustomed to either cotton padding or silk.

The only solution was to increase the amount of Indian goods to pay for these Chinese luxuries, and increasingly in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the item provided to China was Bengal opium. With greater opium supplies had naturally come an increase in demand and usage throughout the country, in spite of repeated prohibitions by the Chinese government and officials. The British did all they could to increase the trade: They bribed officials, helped the Chinese work out elaborate smuggling schemes to get the opium into China's interior, and distributed free samples of the drug to innocent victims.

The cost to China was enormous. The drug weakened a large percentage of the population (some estimate that 10 percent of the population regularly used opium by the late nineteenth century), and silver began to flow out of the country to pay for the opium. Many of the economic problems China faced later were either directly or indirectly traced to the opium trade. The government debated about whether to legalize the drug through a government monopoly like that on salt, hoping to barter Chinese goods in return for opium. But since the Chinese were fully aware of the harms of addiction, in 1838 the emperor decided to send one of his most able officials, Lin Tse-hsu (Lin Zexu, 1785-1850), to Canton (Guangzhou) to do whatever necessary to end the traffic forever.

Lin was able to put his first two proposals into effect easily. Addicts were rounded up, forcibly treated, and taken off the habit, and domestic drug dealers were harshly punished. His third objective — to confiscate foreign stores and force foreign merchants to sign pledges of good conduct, agreeing never to trade in opium and to be punished by Chinese law if ever found in violation — eventually brought war. Opinion in England was divided: Some British did indeed feel morally uneasy about the trade, but they were overruled by those who wanted to increase England's China trade and teach the arrogant Chinese a good lesson. Western military weapons, including percussion lock muskets, heavy artillery, and paddlewheel gunboats, were far superior to China's. Britain's troops had recently been toughened in the Napoleonic wars, and Britain could muster garrisons, warships, and provisions from its nearby colonies in Southeast Asia and India. The result was a disaster for the Chinese. By the summer of 1842 British ships were victorious and were even preparing to shell the old capital, Nanking (Nanjing), in central China. The emperor therefore had no choice but to accept the British demands and sign a peace agreement. This agreement, the first of the "unequal treaties," opened China to the West and marked the beginning of Western exploitation of the nation.

Thesis Statement: Comparative:Responses to Foreigners: Qing and Meiji

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