Chapter 17: Asia in
Transition
Ming Foreign Policy
• Chinese were the most
• Skilled sailors in the world.
• Build large sturdy ships called
• Junks: Some were more than 400 feet long.
• Ming emperor financed
• A fleet that sailed across Indian Ocean
• Fleet reached the Arabian Peninsula
• Chinese had ability to become a great seafaring power.
• Ming emperors had little interest in
• Sea power or foreign trade
• Stopped financing expeditions.
Attitudes toward Trade
• After defeating Mongols, Ming emperors tried
• To rid China of all Mongol influences.
• Wanted China to be as great as they were during the
• Han, Tang, and Sung dynasties.
• Ming emperors
• Restore Confucianism as official philosophy of the government.
• Divides society into four classes.
Four Classes under
Confucianism
• Scholar-Gentry
• Highly literate class helped staff royal bureaucracy.
• Farmers
• Produce food and paid taxes that supported empire
• Artisans
• Made beautiful useful objects.
• Merchants
• Bottom of social order
• Sold objects that peasants and artisans produced.
• In the minds of the emperor, foreign trade:
• Did not bring enough benefits to China to make it worthwhile.
Northern Frontier
• Focused their efforts on the
• Long northern land frontier
• To protect frontier, Ming strengthened
• The Great Wall of China
• Encouraged soldiers to move to frontier zone by offering
• Free land to families
• Also encouraged peasants and city dwellers to move there.
• Prevent Nomadic tribes from uniting from the North.
• Required constant
• Attention
• Great deal of money
Founding the Qing Dynasty
• Located in:
• Manchuria to northeast of China.
• Chieftain named:
• Nurhachi unifies many tribes into single people called Manchu
• Nurhachi son captured eastern Mongolia and Korea
• Declared beginning of the Qing Dynasty.
• Captured
• Beijing and ruled China until 1912.
• Outsiders capture China again even with Ming efforts.
• Emperors were not
• Chinese
• Adopted Chinese culture and ruled with traditional techniques.
• Husan-Yeh: Qing ruler emperor that adopted techniuqes.
• Chinese men wore hair tied in
• Queue (tail)
• Symbolized submission to Manchu rule.
Economy
• Lower Yangtze region became a center for
• Weaving of cotton cloth.
• Transported goods along
• Canals, coastal waterways, and rivers.
• Sent goods to Central Asia and Russia such as
• Tea and silk by caravan
• Chinese cities continued to grow.
• Relied on merchants to supply
• Clothing, food, and other goods to city dwellers.
• Farmers grew rice, wheat, and tea but planted new crops:
• Peanuts, sweet potatoes (poor man’s food), tobacco (introduced
by America).
Popular Culture and Society
• Wealth of urban people led to popular culture
• City people read
• Novels and plays in common everyday language.
• Old tales about bandits and corrupt officials in novels.
• Portrayed Chinese society and family life.
• Scholars had studied ancient writings:
• Phiology: the history of literature and language.
• Scholars began to organize a manuscript library.
• Society was based solely on the famly.
• Each person had a role in life.
• Ex: Father/head of house. Daughter married/lived with new
family.
Decline of Qing Dynasty
• Growing population placed increasing pressure in
government:
• Corruption at court and government became widespread.
• Demanded bribes in return for government services.
• Farmers found it difficult to support:
• Their families and themselves.
• Disastrous floods and famine in parts of China
• Led to peasant rebellion
• Leading the rebellion was a White Lotus Society called
• White Lotus Rebellion
• Qing Dynasty survived rebellion, but clearly declined.
China and Europeans
The Portuguese
• Able to build trade ties with China.
• Allowed Portuguese to establish trading station in:
• Macao
• Arrived on Portuguese ships
• Jesuit missionaries: used knowledge of astronomy to gain
admission. Emperor liked the help of fixing Chinese calendar.
• Appointed missionaries in official positions.
• Allowed missionaries to convert officials to Christianity.
• Jesuit power aroused:
• Jealousy and concern among Chinese leaders.
• Qing rulers became suspicious and turned against them.
• Emperors denounced Christianity as anti-Confucian.
The British
• Established a trading post in:
• Guangzhou
• Came to China to buy
• Silk and tea (became the land of tea drinkers).
• British East India Company
• Monopolized the new trade in Chinese teas.
• Company agreed to Chinese restrictions.
• Could only dock at Guangzhou
• Company representatives were required to stay in Guangzhou
outside city walls.
• New Ideas about trade and sale of opium damaged trade
relations.
Free Trade Ideas
• Supporters of free trade argued that government:
• Should not restrict or interfere with international trade.
• Traders who did not work for British East India Company
resented:
• Company’s monopoly on the tea trade.
• British government becomes involved in debate because:
• Hoped to gain additional overseas markets.
• British officials ask Chinese
• to open more ports for their ships.
• Efforts failed and led to British East India Company’s abolishment.
Opium Trade
• Expansion of tea trade
• British East India Company paid for:
•
•
•
•
Purchases with cotton from India.
Chinese demand for cotton=same
British demand for tea=kept rising
Company found a drug to exchange for tea called
• Opium
• Problem?
• Opium addictions spread throughout China
• Huge trade imbalance grew, with more silver going out than
coming in.
• Demanded opium trade stop
• All opium cargo be turned over to them.
Opium War
• When Chinese tried to stop trade:
• War broke out
• Conflict between China and Britain known as the:
• Opium War
• Chinese army and navies no match compared to Britain.
• Qing officials agree to negotiate with British officials.
• Treaty of Nanjing
•
•
•
•
China gave island of Hong Kong to British.
Opened five ports to British trade (Fixed low tariff).
Subjects in ports governed by British laws and courts.
Extraterritoriality
• Foreigners must follow laws of their home country instead of laws of
country they live in.
More Concessions
• Unequal treaties
• Chinese signed treaties under the pressure of defeat and fear of
further invasion.
• Benefits went to foreign powers.
• Gained little from them.
• Another war, Another British win, another unequal treaty.
• Opened additional ports along Yangtze River
• Chinese had to allow British Embassy in Beijing.
• Chinese govt. had to protect Christian missionaries and their
converts in China.
• Other countries also opened embassies in Beijing.
Rebellions
• Hong Xiuquan
• Influenced by Christian teachings
• Said he was younger brother of Jesus
• Influenced a new dynasty and attracted many followers.
• Taiping Rebellion
• Millions of people were killed
• Cities and farmlands destroyed
• All revolts weakened the Qing Dynasty.
Tokugawa Shoguns
in Japan
Founding the Tokugawa Shogunate
• Ashikaga family became involved in dispute over selection of
shogun.
• Leads to 100 years of bitter, widespread, and almost constant
warfare in Japan.
Oda Nobunaga
• Rise to power as:
• Minor Daimyo
• Through conquests and alliances
• Captured city of Kyoto.
• Strengthened his power in Central Japan.
• Before defeating his rivals, vassals attacked him leading him to
• Suicide
Toyotomi Hideyoshi
• Successor of Nobunaga
• Established capital at
• Edo, which is now the city of Tokyo
• Crushed his defeated rivals
• Allowed some 250-260 to:
• Keep their private lands.
• He was prepared to expand or reduce the size of their territories.
• The Tokugawa family would keep the title of shogun for:
• More than 250 years.
• Established a government
• Tokugawa shogunate
Tokugawa Rule
• Political system was a cross between
• Feudalism and a central monarchy
• Daimyo governed as an:
• Almost absolute ruler
• Local peasants paid taxes to support daimyo and supporters:
• Such as the samurai
• Military Power: considerable influence over the daimyo.
• Daimyo had to spend every other year in Edo leaving:
• Their families as hostages
• Led to having two residents
• One in Edo and one in the provinces.
• Living in Edo drained
• Financial resources
• Made warriors into courtiers.
Foreign Contact
The Portuguese in Japan
• Brought two items new to Japan:
• Muskets and Christianity
• Some samurai did not approve of musket because:
• Violated traditional fighting ethic (Skill).
• Jesuits:
• Concentrated on converting the Daimyo to Christianity.
• Missionaries converted 300,000 Japanese to Christianity.
Closing the Century
• Toguns saw Christianity as a threat
• Taught loyalty to power other than Tokugawa
• Made Portuguese missionaries to leave country
• Dutch traders accepted trade relationship with Tokugawa.
• Togugawa banned overseas trade.
• Prohibited from traveling abroad.
Social Class
• Warrior class filled the same role as scholar-gentry in China.
• Samurai stood at the top of Japanese social order.
• Person’s social class was determined by:
• Birth/son followed occupations of fathers.
• Samurai stood at top of social order
• Peasants, artisans, and merchants followed
• Shoguns established schools to prepare:
• Samurai for peacetime roles
• Low ranking samurai-low rank official
• High ranking samurai-high rank official
Change in Culture
• Internal trade expanded
• Specialization in certain crops in certain parts of country
• Cities grew in size
End of Japan’s Isolation
• President Fillmore sent Commodore
• Matthew Perry and powerful navy force to Japan.
• Perry was to negotiate treaty that would:
• Guarantee safety of U.S. sailors and open Japanese ports to US trade.
• Shogun agreed to negotiate when Perry returned the next year.
• Treaty of Kanagawa
• Open two ports that led Americans to obtain:
• Fuel, shelter, and supplies
• Led to trade among the two nations.
• Within two years, Japan signed similar treaties with:
• Great Britain, Netherlands, and Russia.
• Consulates were established
• Diplomatic offices headed by consuls.
• US and Japan signed new treaty
• Exchange ministers
• Allowed foreign residence in Edo and Osaka