CHAPTER 22
SHADOWS OVER THE PACIFIC:
EAST ASIA UNDER CHALLENGE
Focus Questions
• Why did the Qing dynasty decline and
ultimately collapse, and what role did the
Western powers play in this process?
• What political, economic, and social
reforms were instituted by the Qing
dynasty during its final decades, and why
were they not more successful in reversing
the decline of Manchu rule?
Identifications
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McCartney Mission
Tao & Zhidong
Lin Zexu
Youwei
Chinese-Japanese war, 1894
Letter to Queen Victoria 100 days of reform
Opium War 1839-1842
Boxer Rebellion
Treaty of Nanjing, 1842 Open Door Notes
Taiping Rebellion
Sun-Yat Sen
Hong Ziuquan, 1853
Shikai & 1911 Revolution
Treaty of Tianjin, 1860 Self Strengthening
The McCartney mission to
China, 1793
The Art Archive/Eileen Tweedy
The Qing Empire
•Shown here is the Qing Empire at the
height of its power in the late eighteenth
century, together with its shrunken
boundaries at the moment of dissolution in
1911.
Decline of the Manchus
• Internal factors of decline after 1800
– Official Corruption
– Peasant unrest
– Incompetence at court
– Rapid population growth – land pressures
Decline of the Manchu
• External Factors of Decline
– Western influence
– Aggressive policies of trade expansion
– Trade limited to Canton
– Unfavorable balance of trade for Britain
• Tea exported to Britain
• Nothing imported
•In this 1900 photograph, women pick tea leaves for
shipment abroad on a plantation in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). The
British cut down vast stands of tropical forests in Ceylon and
India to grow tea to satisfy demand back home.
© Getty Images
Triumph of English Imperialism
• Opium grown in NE India and shipped to
China
• Traditionally grown in Southern China but
prohibited for social or general use
– Indian Opium pushed on the Chinese
population illegally by British Merchants
Lin Zexu
• Appointed to court to curtail Opium trade,
1839
– Letter to Queen Victoria (Moral & Practical
appeal)
– Imposed penalties on smokers
– Arrested dealers
– Seized supplies from importers
• Blockade of British factory in Canton used to justify
British Naval expedition against China
Queen Victoria
•longest reign in British
history (1837–1901).
During this time, the
British Empire reached
the height of its power,
but by the turn of the
twentieth century
© The Art Archive
The Opium War
1839 -1842
The Art Archive/Eileen Tweedy
Opium War
• Demonstrated British military strength
• Will of British East India Co.
• Treaty of Nanjing, 1842
– Opened 5 coastal ports to British trade
– Limited tariffs on British imports
– Extraterritorial rights conferred on British
Citizens
– Court paid indemnity to cover costs of war
– Ceded Hong Kong (“Barren Rock”) to
Britain
• Opium trade remained unabated until the
early 19th C
The Taiping
Rebellion
oHong Ziuquan Led
rebellion, 1853
seized Nanjing
oRepressed by 1864
25 million people
killed over 11
years of rebellion
Western Aggression, 1860
• Britain & France took opportunity to
expand trade and missionary activities
– Seized Beijing in 1860
• Destroyed summer imperial palace
• Treaty of Tianjin
– Legalized opium trade
– Opened additional ports to foreign trade
– Ceded Peninsula of Kowloon to Britain
Self Strengthening
• Court attempt in the 1870s to establish
reform
– Adoption of western technology
– “East for Essence, West for Practical use”
• Maintained Confucian principles and
institutions
• Wang Tao & Zhang Zhidong
• Kang Youwei, 1898
Empress
Dowager Cixi
of China
•Ruled for 20 years
before her nephew took
power
•Maintained true
authority
•Executed reformers
and imprisoned the
emperor
© The Art Archive
Canton and Hong Kong
•This map shows the estuary of the Pearl River in
southern China, an important area of early
contact between China and Europe.
Open Door Notes
• Secretary of State, John Hay, 1899
• Wrote imperial powers asking for equal
economic access to Chinese market for all
western powers
– Would take advantage of China’s weaknesses
to dominate their Market
Boxer Rebellion, 1899
“Support the Qing, destroy the Foreign”
• Pretext for uprising & contributing factors
– Natural disasters – Yellow river flooded
followed by famine
– Foreign influence:
• Foreign religion – backed by foreign military
• Destroyed local economies
• Led to poverty and increased banditry
– Boxers targeted
» Targeted foreign goods & Foreign religion
» Rail Roads, telegraphs, ships and weapons of
Europeans
• Boxers entered
Beijing
• Multi national
military coalition of
20,000 troops
slaughtered the
peasants
• 5,000 troops were
American
– U.S. won spheres of
influence as a result
•In the summer of
1900, Chinese rebels
known as Boxers
besieged Western
embassies in the
imperial capital of
Beijing.
Justice or Mercy?
Uncle Sam Decides
Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, October 14, 1900
100 days of Reform
• Cixi & the Conservative faction attempted
to implement reform too late
– 1905 abolished the exam system
– Instituted modern educational system
– Allowed gentry at provincial level to form
assemblies or advisory bodies to make
recommendations to the central government
Foreign
Possessions
and Spheres
of Influence
About 1900
•At the end of the nineteenth century,
China was being carved up like a
melon by foreign imperialist powers
CHRONOLOGY China in the Era of Imperialism
Lord McCartney's mission to
1793
China
Opium War
1839–1842
Taiping rebels seize Nanjing
1853
Taiping Rebellion suppressed
1864
Cixi becomes regent for nephew,
Guang Xu
Sino-Japanese War
One Hundred Days reform
Open Door policy
Boxer Rebellion
Commission to study
constitution formed
Deaths of Cixi and Guang Xu
1878
1894–1895
1898
1899
1900
1905
1908
The Last Emperor (1987)
•Three-year-old Puyi (Richard Vuu), the last
emperor of China, watches an emissary
approach at the Imperial Palace.
Yanco/Tao/Recorded Picture Co/The Kobal Collection
Sun Yat-Sen,
Father of
Modern China
•The son of a
peasant in southern
China, Sun Yat-Sen
rose to become a
prominent
revolutionary and the
founder of the first
Chinese republic.
© Getty Images
“Three
Peoples Principles”
• 1. Nationalism – elimination of Manchu
Rule
• 2. Democracy
• 3. peoples standard of living
• (3) Stage process
– 1. Military take over
– 2. Provisional constitution
• Military law is replaced by local government and
law
– 3. Constitutional democracy
Yuan Shikai & 1911 Revolution
• Military supported reforms
• Yuan Shikai, leader of the Imperial Army
• Becomes president in 1912
– He favored national assemblies
– KMT or Kuomintang (Nationalist Party)
founded
• Wanted to bring together radical intellectuals to
develop plan for next political phase
– Collapse of old order in 1911
Japanese Imperialism
• Japan takes advantage of period of War
lords
• Issues 21 demands (1915) to Shikai
– Demands recognize that Japan had predominance in Shandong and Manchuria
– Provision for Japanese advisors in all major
posts in the government and state
– Sole right to supply China with armaments
• Humiliation and treaty increased radicalism in
China
Focus Question
• To what degree was the Meiji Restoration
a “Revolution” and to what extent did it
transform Japan?
– Meiji
Restorationhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=
RQlxcz9U2x0
– Millard Fillmore and Matthew Perry
– The treaty of 1858
– Sat-Cho Alliance
– Land Reform Program
Rise of Modern Japan
• Decline of Tokugawa Shogunate
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Factionalism & Corruption of Central Bureaucracy
Rural unrest
Samurai protest
Persecution of critics by Bakufu
Capitalism blurred class divisions, eventually
destroyed feudal system
• Adopted policy of Sakoku, closed country
– Ended foreign relations
American Imperialism in Japan
Perry’s fleet in Tokyo Bay,
1853
© Private Collection/The Bridgeman Art Library
Commodore Perry’s Fleet
• 1853, an American fleet of four warships
under Commodore Matthew C. Perry
arrived in Edo (now Tokyo) Bay
– letter from President Millard Fillmore asking
for the opening of foreign relations
• Treaty of Kanagawa
– provided for the return of shipwrecked
American sailors, the opening of two ports,
and the establishment of a U.S. consulate on
Japanese soil.
Triumph of Western Imperialism
Treaty of 1858
• In 1858, U.S. consul Townsend Harris
negotiated a more elaborate commercial
treaty
– opened of several ports to U.S. trade and
residence, the exchange of ministers, and the
granting of extraterritorial privileges for U.S.
residents in Japan.
– Similar treaties were soon signed with
several European nations.
Sat –Cho Alliance
• The Hans of Satsuma and Choshu
resisted concessions that opened up
Japan to western trade and influence
• 1863 display of Western military might
against Choshu military
– Resolved to resist Western Influence and to
modernize
Meiji Restoration
• 1868 rebel armies attacked the Shogunate
in Kyoto
– Restored emperors supreme authority
• Sat-Cho & Meiji “enlightened ruler”
– Policy of comprehensive reform to modernize
Japan
• Social, cultural, political, economic reform
• Reform of institutions and values
Immediate Changes
• Old order of society abolished or reorganized
– Hereditary privileges abolished formally 1871
– Lords/Daimyo lost title to land
• Compensated with Government Bonds
• Named governor of former territories
– Samurai lost traditional title (8% pop)
• Lump sum payment replaced stipend
• Forbidden to carry the sword as symbol of
hereditary status
•Outlined modern
changes:
•New Assembly
•Senior positions
given to Daimyo
•Key posts given to
“Genro”
–Modernizing
samurai of SatCho
Emperor Meiji and the Charter
Oath, 1868
© Art Resource, NY
The Emperor Inspects His
Domain
© Scala/Art Resource, NY
Political Reform
• Constitutional Commission
– Ho Hirobumi
• Liberal Party
– Supreme authority is Parliament
• Progressive Party
– Distribution of Power with legislative and
executive branch
• Imperial Party
– Exclusive power of the Emperor
Meiji Constitution, 1890
• Progressive emerged Victorious
• Authority rested in the Executive branch
• Members of the Cabinet –picked by
oligarchs
• Upper house of Parliament to be
appointed & have legislative powers with
lower house (diet)
• Members of the diet would be elected
Meiji Economics
• Land Reform Program
• Objective: create citizens of serfs
– Redefined domain lands as private property of
the tillers
• New 3% agricultural tax generated government
revenue
• Bad years peasants lost land & became tenants
(40% tenancy by 1900)
– Compensated Daimyo with government
bonds
Meiji Industry
• Objective: to stand against western
imperialism
• Government Supplied stimulus to Japans
Industrial Revolution
– Financial subsidies to industry, training,
foreign advisors, improved transport and
communication
– Universal educational system
– Dual role of business and political leaders
Working class perspective
• Further burdened by government taxes
• Fled to cities
• Created a cheap and exploitable labor
supply
– Rigid hierarchy may have been officially
abolished
– Maintained through social classes
– Traditional relationships & access to
opportunity prevailed
Meiji Military
• Imperial army based on conscription, 1871
• For rural males - route to upward mobility
Meiji Education
• Imperial Rescript on Education, 1890
– American model – 3 tiered system
– Sent students abroad
– Attracted foreign scholars to teach
– Women provided with new opportunities
– Strong emphasis placed on traditional
Confucian virtues of Filial piety – loyalty to the
state
Women’s Status
• 1872 educational edict expanding
women’s education
– conservative backlash
• 1890, Restricted franchise to males
• Restricted women to the family sphere
• 1900 New regulations prohibited women from
joining political organizations or attending public
meetings
Women’s struggle for Rights
• 1905 women petitioned parliament to
rescind the regulations restricting women
– Not done until 1922
• Hiratsuka Raicho
– Founded the Journal SEITO or “Blue
Stockings”
– Promote women’s liberation in Japan
– Proclamation at the founding of Seito Society
Meiji Foreign Policy
• Emulated western expansionist model
– 1874 claimed rights over Ryukyu Islands from
Qing
– 1876 pressured Korea to open 3 ports to
Japanese commerce in exchange for
recognizing Korean Independence
– Treaty of Shimonoseki, 1895 ceded Taiwan,
Liaodong & Port Arthur to Japan
• Russo-Japanese war, 1905 expanded into
Russian Spheres of Influence in china
– 1908 annexed Korea