Chapter 12
Transformations Around the
Globe
1800-1914
Section 1 Assesment
3. The Chinese were economically selfsufficient.
4. Growing population, poor harvests,
corruption, growing opium addiction
5. Qing officials felt threatened; Dowager
Empress committed to tradition
6. China’s size and its centralized gov’t
made conquest difficult
Discuss w/ your partner:
• Who are the two
groups of people?
• What do the
Europeans want?
• What are their
attitudes?
• What type of things
are they offering?
• What is the reaction
of the Chinese?
• What else do you
notice?
Section 1
China Resists Outside Influence
• China and the West
Balance of trade:
relationship between
exports and imports
Opium: addictive drug
made from poppy
plant, CH doctors
used it to relieve pain
– China had no need to trade w/ West
• Self-sufficient: agricultural, mining,
manufacturing (not industrialized)
– Opium War
• Brit sold opium to improve balance of trade
between Brit & CH
• CH did not want the drug; led to fighting
• Brit use superior navy to win
• Results:
–
–
–
–
CH suffered humiliating defeat
Sign Treaty of Nanking
CH gives up island of Hong Kong
Brit does not stop selling opium
• Foreigners in CH benefit from extraterritorial
rights
– Did not have to follow CH law
• Taiping Rebellion
Sphere of Influence: a
region in which a
foreign nation controls
trade and investment
Open Door Policy:
proposed that all
nations have equal
opportunities to trade
in China
– Rebel government in southeastern China
that lasted about 10 years
– Imperial, Brit, & FR troops brought down
Taiping gov’t
• Foreign Influence Grows
– Empress Cixi supported selfstrengthening movement but foreign
interference created problems
– Many Euro powers and Japan gained a
sphere of influence in CH
– US declared the Open Door Policy so
they would not be left out of trading w/ CH
• Boxer Rebellion
Resentment: being
unhappy about
something
– Poor peasants were bitter b/c:
• foreigners had special privileges
• Did not like CH who became Christians
• Did not like Cixi’s rule
– She stopped Guangxu’s attempt to
modernize CH
– European troops squashed the
Rebellion
– Resentment of foreigners
contributed to both the Opium War
& Boxer Rebellion
China Resists Outside Influence
Causes
Britain’s refusal to stop opium trade
Hunger & starvation caused by
inability to feed enormous population;
increasing opium addiction; poverty
Need to modernize education,
diplomatic service & military; support
of Dowager Empress
China’s week military, economic &
political problems; division of China
into Western spheres of influence; US
fears that China would be divided in
to colonies and American traders
would be shut out
Chinese people’s long-standing
frustration with poor conditions and
government failure to reform; anger
over special privileges granted to
foreigners; resentment of Chinese
Christians; failure of Guangxu’s
reform efforts
Event
1. Opium War
2. Taiping Rebellion
3. Self-strengthening movement
Effects
Chinese defeated & humiliated; Britain gets Hong
Kong & continues to sell opium; extraterritorial
rights for foreigners; Chinese resentment against
foreigners
Restoration of Qing to power; at least 20 million
people die
Ability to produce its own warships and
ammunition
Protection of American trading rights in China;
keeping China free from colonization; continued
economic imperialism in China
4. Open Door Policy
Failure to effect reforms; emergence of sense of
nationalism; Qing court’s beginning steps toward
reform
5. Boxer Rebellion