Age of Revolutions and Rebellions:
 SSWH14
The student will analyze the Age of
Revolutions and Rebellions.
a. Examine absolutism through a comparison of the rules of
Louis XIV, Tsar Peter the Great, and Tokugawa Ieyasu.
b. Identify the causes and results of the revolutions in England
(1689), United States (1776), France (1789), Haiti (1791),
and Latin America (1808-1825).
c. Explain Napoleon’s rise to power, the role of geography in
his defeat, and the consequences of France’s defeat for
Europe
d. Examine the interaction of China and Japan with
westerners; include the Opium War, the Taiping Rebellion,
and Commodore Perry.
 SSWH14
The student will analyze the Age of
Revolutions and Rebellions.
d. Examine the interaction of China and Japan with
westerners; include the Opium War, the Taiping
Rebellion, and Commodore Perry.
The
culture at this time viewed
outsiders as inferior barbarians…
Around 1514, the
Portuguese reached
China
 Eventually set up trade
 Chinese let them set up a
trading station in Macao

They used their knowledge of
astronomy to get into the
emperor's inner circle
 Emperor was in charge of
predictions of eclipses and
timing of the seasons
 Helped revise the Chinese
calendar
 The emperor began appointing
Jesuit missionaries to official
positions
 The Jesuits gradually gained
power… economic and
political, as well as spiritual.

Their power aroused jealousy and
concern among some leaders
 Qing rulers began to turn on the
Jesuits
 Emperors realized that the Chinese
Catholics were expected to promise
faith and allegiance to the pope.
 It was feared this would undermine
the peoples loyalty to the throne
and bring about rebellion and
overthrow.

 Christianity
was
denounced as antiConfucion
 The number of converts
dwindled
 China also deported
European missionaries
to Macao
 During
the late 1600s the
British established a
trading post at
Guangzhou
 The came to buy silk and
tea.
 Tea was brought to China
by the Dutch
 Great Britain was a land
of tea drinkers and
regarded Chinese tea as
the best in the world
 The
British East India Company monopolized the
new trade in Chinese tea
 The British agreed to the Chinese restrictions
 They could only dock at Guangzhou, live in special
quarters outside the city wall, and only deal with
officially approved Chinese merchants
 The
policies worked for a while
 Minimum contact between the Chinese and
British was kept to a minimum
 In the late 1700s, there were two new
developments:
• New ideas about trade
• The sale of opium
 Free
trade developed in the West as a reaction
to mercantilism
 Supporters of free trade argued that the
government should not restrict or interfere
with international trade
 Others resented the British East India
Company’s monopoly on tea trade
 The
British government became involved in
the trade matters because it wanted new
overseas markets to sell their goods.
 The Chinese did not allow more ports
 In 1833, the British East India Company’s
monopoly on trade with China was abolished
 The company basically failed
 Britain
traded cotton from India for tea
 There was a limited demand for the cotton China
needed.
 Britain wanted more and more tea.
 Britain needed a new product to trade
 It was opium
 Opium
- a narcotic substance, poisonous in large
doses. It causes dullness or inaction or that
soothes the mind or emotions.
PRESS
 Opium
addiction in China was on the rise.
 When the Chinese tried to forcibly stop the
opium trade, war broke out.
 China was no match for the British fleet which
included iron-hulled steam ships.
 In 1842, the British took control of the region
near Nanjing.
 The Chinese were ready to negotiate.
 China
had to give Hong Kong to the British
 The Chinese also had to open 5 ports for British
trade.
 British goods had fixed, low tariffs.
 Ports were governed by the British and court cases
would be tried in British courts
 Extraterritoriality – the requirement that
foreigners must follow the laws of their home
country instead of the laws of the country in
which they live.
 Other
countries wanted
treaties with China to
have new markets for
their goods.
 China had signed the
earlier treaties under
the pressure of defeat
and fear of invasion.
 These are called
“unequal” treaties.
 China
went to war with the British again over a
trade dispute.
 The French sided with China
 China lost again
 The Chinese were forced to sign another treaty.
• More ports along the Yangtze river
• A British embassy in Beijing
• A long-term lease of China mainland opposite Hong
Kong
• Chinese had to protect Christian missionaries and their
converts
 Other
foreign countries followed

Led by Hong Xiuquan
• Influenced by Christian teachings
• Said he was the younger brother of
Jesus
• Established the Taiping “Heavenly
Kingdom of Great Peace” with
himself as king
• Banned slavery, concubinage,
arranged marriage, opium,
footbinding, judicial torture, and the
worship of idols
 Terrible
destructions to southern China and the
Yangtze valley
 Millions were killed
 Cities and farmland destroyed
 Muslims in central and western China launched
their own rebellions
 The Qing finally put down these
rebellions
in the late 1870s
 Weakened
the Qing dynasty and the nation
 Foreign powers took advantage and demanded
more concessions and ports
 Foreign interference in China’s political and
economic affairs
 Weakened China’s power to rule it’s
government and undermined the emperor’s
prestige
 Reduced the country’s control of its own
economy
Tokugawa Shoguns
Matthew Perry

The man who
unlocked
unlocked Japan
Press
 Part
of Japan’s isolation plan was not to harbor
ships from other nations during storms
 It
angered Westerners
 Western
nations wanted to open trade with
Japan like China.
 In
1853 President Millard Fillmore sent Perry and a
powerful naval force to Japan
 He was sent to negotiate a treaty to guarantee the safety
of U.S. sailors and open ports for U.S. trade
In a show of force and dignity,
he ceremoniously presented the
letter from the president
He would return a year later for
their answer
 After
debate and controversy, the shogun reluctantly
agreed to negotiate with Perry when he returned
 Japan
opened 2 ports to let
Americans obtain fuel,
shelter, and supplies
 Trade began between the 2
nations
 Within 2 years, Japan signed
similar treaties with other
European Countries.
 Life
in Tokugawa Japan was peaceful but
heavily controlled by the shogunal
government.
 After a century of chaotic warfare, the
Tokugawa Peace was much-needed.
 All people were confined to their
traditional roles (class structure)
 Japanese
Christians were first banned
from practicing their religion in 1614 by
Tokugawa Hidetada.
 All citizens are required to register with
their local Buddhist temple.
 Any who refused were considered
disloyal.
 Christian peasants revolted but was
stamped out by the shogunate.
 Afterward, Japanese
Christians were
exiled, executed or driven underground,
and Christianity faded from the country.
 Despite
some heavy-handed tactics, the
Tokugawa shoguns presided over a long
period of peace and relative prosperity
in Japan.