Chapter 23
Shadows over the Pacific: East Asia under Challenge
The Qing Empire in the Early Twentieth Century
1. The Qing dynasty from 1644 to 1912 generally continued the political and social order of the previous Ming (1368-1644). The ruling Manchus
originated in Manchuria from which the unifier of the Manchu state, Nurhachi, seized part of the Liaotung Peninsula and in 1625 made Mukden his
capital. Beijing, and thus the Chinese throne, fell to the Manchus in 1644.
2. In the 1670s the khan of the Dzungars, Galdan, in western Mongolia extended his control over Chinese Turkestan (Xinjiang) . When Galdan
attacked the eastern Mongols, China replied and in 1696 destroyed Galdan's army. By the 1750s after years of unsettled affairs, the Qing gained
control Dzungaria and Chinese Turkestan.
3. In subduing the Western Mongols, the Qing were led to move on Tibet since the Lamist church exercised influence on both Tibetan life and the
Mongols. In 1750 a Qing protectorate with a garrison of 1500 men was established.
4. Since the Manchus constituted only two percent of the empire's entire population, military forces were strategically placed throughout the empire:
25 posts around Beijing; strategic locations in the northwestern frontier to prevent attacks from Central Asia; major population centers; and at
important southern locations. Further protecting themselves, the Manchus separated their homeland from China and prohibited Chinese immigration
in 1668. The Willow Palisade (a ditch with willows planted along it) was extended from near where the Great Wall begins in the east several hundred
miles to north of Mukden and then down the Yalu River.
5. In the late eighteenth century military campaigns brought tributary status to Nepal, Burma, and Vietnam. Siam, Cambodia, Laos, and Tonkin also
paid tribute at various times.
6. Between 1858 and 1860 Russia succeeded in gaining by treaty the north bank of the Amur River and jointly possessed with China the territory
between the Ussuri River and the sea. The east coast of Manchuria remained unresolved between Russia and China. Finally in 1860 a treaty gave
Russia the Maritime Provinces between the Ussuri and the Pacific where Vladivostok was founded in 1860.
7. By 1637 Korea had been made a vassal state. In 1876 Japan forced China to open three ports and declare Korea an independent state. War
broke out in 1895 over China's claim on Korea. China's loss resulted in the recognition of the independence of Korea and handing over Liaotung
Peninsula and Taiwan (Formosa) to Japan.
Question:
1. How had the Qing begun to contract by the end of the nineteenth century?
The Qing Empire in the Early Twentieth Century
 Decline of the Manchus
 Balance of trade
Opium
 Lin Zexu (Lin Tse-hsu; 1785-1850), 1839
 Opium War (1839-1842)
Concessions to Britain
 Taiping (T’ai p’ing) Rebellion, 1853-1864)
 Imperial breakdown
 Intensification of political and military penetration
 Sino-Japanese War, 1894-1895
 Emperor Guangxu (Kuang Hsu)
Kang Youwei (K’ang Yu-wei)
Empress Dowager Cixi (Tz’u Hsi)
 Opening the Door to China
 United States’ “Open Door” policy
 Boxer Rebellion, 1900
 Collapse of the Old Order
 Commission formed to study constitutional changes, 1905
 Election for a national assembly, 1910
 New provincial elite
 Rising rural unrest
Reforms do little for the peasants, artisans, miners,
transportation workers
 Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925)
Revive China Society
Failed local insurrections
Revolutionary Alliance
Three People’s Principles of Nationalism
 Revolt of October 1911
General Yaun Shikai (Yaun Shih-k’ai)
Was this a revolution?
 Chinese Society in Transition
 Impact of imperialism on the economy
 Daily life
Changes in coastal cities
Increased Western cultural presence
Education
Women
Impact of missionaries
 Rise of Modern Japan
 End of Isolation
 Commodore Matthew C. Perry, 1853
 Treaty of Kanagawa
 Townsend Harris, 1858
 Sat-Cho alliance
 Meiji Restoration
 Political changes on the Western model
 Charter Oath, 1868
 Emergence of political parties
 Meiji Constitution
 Meiji Economics
Land reform
Fukoku kyohei
Railroad
Impact of changes on the rural population
 Social structure
Military structure
Education
 Imperial Rescript on Education, 1890
ie
Women
Commoners
Japanese Overseas Expansion during the Meiji Era
1. At the time when Commodore Matthew Perry opened up Japan to trade by gunboat diplomacy in April 1853, the emperor was a figurehead with
real power in the hands of the shogun with the aid of the warrior nobility, the samurai. A wave of anti-foreignism between 1858 and 1863 resulted in
allied naval attacks by the American, British, Dutch, and French navies, demonstrating the weakness of the shogun government. In 1867
patriotic samurai seized the government and restored the power of the Meiji emperor thereby initiating the Meiji Era. By 1890 Japan had established
an authoritarian constitution with vast powers to the emperor and his minister.
2. Japan soon copied western imperialism. Having opened Korea in 1876, Japan defeated Korea in 1894 and secured Taiwan, the Pescadores
Islands, the Kwantung peninsula in South Manchuria. Russia, France, and Germany forced Japan to give up the Guandong peninsula. In 1897
Russia took Kwantung for itself.
3. Japanese and Russian imperialism clashed over Manchuria and Korea in 1904 over which both had cast covetous eyes. Attacking the Russian
fleet at Port Arthur without warning February 8, 1904, Japan emerged victorious in 1905. Japan took Russia's protectorate over Port Arthur and the
Kwantung peninsula, Karafuto, the Russian railway in south Manchuria, and achieved recognition of Japan's "paramount interest" in Korea. In
1910 Korea was formally annexed, to be called Chosen.
4. In 1902 Japan and Britain formed a military alliance. When World War I broke out Japan entered as Britain's ally. Although Japan played a
minimal military role, it was rewarded with the German possessions in East Asia and the Pacific -- Kiaochow Bay and the port of Qingdao on the
coast of Shandong.
Questions:
1. How did Japan emulate western imperialism?
2. What was the consequence of war between Russia and Japan?
Japanese Overseas Expansion during the Meiji Era
 Japanese Imperialism
 China
 Korea
China and Japanese rivalry
Port Arthur
Treaty of Shimonoseki
 Russo-Japanese War, 1904-1905
 Japanese Culture
 Literature
 Arts and crafts
 Woodblocks
 Evaluation of the Meiji Restoration