A Change of Heart? The Open Door Policy
Chinese Exclusion, Lesson 3
From: Understanding American Citizenship, Anne Hernon
History Standards: 11.4.1
List the purpose and effects of the Open Door Policy.
CCSS Standards:
Reading, Grades 11-12
2. Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an
accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.
Writing, Grades 11-12
1. Write arguments focused on discipline-specific content.
2. Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific
procedures/ experiments, or technical processes.
4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are
appropriate to task, purpose and audience.
Guiding Question:
What motivated America to pursue an Open Door Policy with China? What is the relationship
between America’s foreign policy and our domestic policy on immigration? Do they always
“match”? Why or why not?
Overview of Lesson:
This lesson will take 2-3 days to complete.
Students will begin this lesson with a writing prompt. They may begin as the bell rings and
should be allowed approximately 10-15 minutes to discuss their claim with as much detail as
possible, in their best formal writing. This may be collected as an informal writing assessment
if the teacher desires.
The teacher will walk the students through the first secondary source, the Open Door Policy.
Have students read the piece aloud first, annotating and using metacognitive markers as
appropriate. Instruct them to read the questions FIRST to direct their reading. After the first
reading is complete, have them work with an elbow partner to address any questions they were
unable to answer, or passages that were too dense for them to decode. Then read aloud as a
whole class, with the teacher asking guiding questions at least once per section and completing
step-asides for vocabulary as needed. Take questions from students at the end of each section.
Then have partners look at the questions and answer them completely. Debrief again if
necessary.
The next day, have students repeat the above process with the secondary source on the Boxer
Rebellion. If you believe students are ready, forgo reading aloud and instead have partnerships
work with a second group of partners after they finish the initial reading. The teacher may
walk the classroom providing guidance as necessary and answering questions. The students
should be able to complete the reading and questions without much interference. Leave the
last question until the end, and give students the Obama reading for homework. They may
answer that question individually.
The following day, open with the political cartoon. Project it on the front wall and have
students write down notes about what they think it means, as well as any questions they may
have. After 5 minutes they may confer with a partner. Have students look up the definition of
Jim Crow online or in their textbooks before debriefing the cartoon. If desired, have them fill
in the Cartoon Analysis Worksheet. Then give students time to answer the questions
individually before coming back as a whole class to discuss their answers.
Hand back their writing prompts from the first day of the lesson. Ask them if their opinions
have changed. Have them write, on the back of that assignment or on a new sheet of paper,
their answer to the guiding question, using as many details as they can.
Writing Prompt
Around 1899, many businesses were closing and laying-off workers. At the same time, workers
were striking for better wages. Women were struggling for equal rights and the right to vote. A
Depression (a time when the Economy is bad) was beginning. How would what was going on in
the United States affect Chinese Immigration?
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h908.html
The Open Door Policy
Foreign Affairs, 1899
China was in political and economic disarray as the end of the 19th century approached. The giant
was not recognized as a sovereign nation by the major powers, who were busy elbowing one
another for trading privileges and plotting how the country could be partitioned. The imperial
nations sought spheres of influence and claimed extraterritorial rights in China.
The United States took Far Eastern matters more seriously after the Spanish-American War, when
they came into possession of the Philippines. In the fall of 1898, President McKinley stated his
desire for the creation of an "open door" that would allow all trading nations access to the Chinese
market. The following year, Secretary of State John Hay sought a formal endorsement of the
concept by circulating diplomatic notes among the major powers, enabling the secretary to be
credited with authoring the Open Door policy.
Hay’s proposal for an Open Door Policy called for the establishment of equal trading rights to all
nations in all parts of China and for recognition of Chinese territorial integrity (meaning that the
country should not be carved up). The impact of such an Open Door Policy would be to put all of
the imperial nations on an equal footing and minimize the power of those nations with existing
spheres of influence.
No nation formally agreed to Hay’s policy; each used the other nations' reluctance to endorse the
Open Door as an excuse for their own inaction. An undeterred Hay simply announced that
agreement had been reached. Only Russia and Japan voiced displeasure.
On the surface, it appeared that the United States had advanced a reform viewpoint, but the truth
was otherwise. The U.S. had no sphere of influence in China, but had long maintained an active
trade there. If other nations were to partition China, the United States would likely be excluded
from future commercial activities. In short, Hay was simply trying to protect the prospects of
American businessmen and investors.
Challenges to the Open Door policy would be mounted frequently in the ensuing years, including
the Boxer Rebellion of 1900 in which Chinese nationalists resorted to armed opposition in an
attempt to end foreign occupation of their country; Japanese incursions into Manchuria following
the Russo-Japanese War; and the "21 Demands" levied by Japan on China in 1915.
An effort was made to shore up the Open Door in 1921-22 at the Washington Naval Conference,
but a challenge was again mounted by the Japanese in the 1930s as they expanded their control in
Manchuria.
China would not be recognized as a sovereign state until after World War II.
The Open Door Policy
Questions
Why was it easy for other countries to lay claim to Chinese territory?
What nation in Asia did the U.S. take over in 1898?
Who was President at that time?
According to the president, what would an “open door” do?
Who actually wrote the Open Door Policy?
List the 2 parts of the policy.
Why did the United States want this policy?
List the 3 challenges against the policy.
Define “irony” (see Glossary).
At the same time that the United States is pushing the Open Door Policy, the U.S. is excluding the
Chinese from entering America. Why is that ironic?
http://archive.theamericanview.com/index.php?id=309
The Boxers
Uncle Sam (to the obstreperous Boxer). "I occasionally do a little boxing myself."
This Harper's Weekly cartoon by W. A. Rogers encourages an aggressive American military
reaction to the Boxer Rebellion in China. A determined Uncle Sam has donned two naval ships as
boxing gloves, provoking the Chinese rebel, whose knife drips with blood, into a wide-eyed
grimace of fear.
The shock of Japan's defeat of China in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 spurred the Chinese
government to initiate reforms and open itself to Western influence. However, the Empress
Dowager, Tz'u-hsi, and many other Chinese favored traditional ways, so the reforms were only
implemented in one province. The Western powers took advance of this period of turmoil to carve
up China into their own spheres of influence. The United States only gained a foothold in Asia with
the acquisition of the Philippines after the Spanish-American War of 1898, so was in a weaker
position in China. In response to European expansion there, President William McKinley and
Secretary of State John Hay formulated the Open Door policy (1899), which insisted that trade
barriers not be erected by the European nations and that the territorial integrity of China be
maintained.
Resentment of foreign intervention crystallized in the establishment of I-ho ch'üan (Righteous and
Harmonious Fists), called Boxers in the West because of their belief that mystical boxing rituals
protected them from bullets. The Boxers were primarily a religious society that initially focused its
wrath on Christian missionaries and Chinese converts to the Western religion. Their agenda soon
expanded into the eradication of all foreign presence and influence in China, and they attracted
strong backing in Northern China, which had been devastated by floods and drought.
In 1898, the Boxers led a rebellion in Shantung province and soon gained adherents in the Chinese
capital of Peking (Beijing). The ruling Manchu court was ambivalent about the movement, pleased
by its anti-foreign drive but concerned about its destabilizing affect on China, and took a neutral
stance at first. However, by the spring of 1900, the Ch'ing administration gave its secret blessing to
the Boxers. In early June, an international force of 2000 sailed from Tientsin to Peking, where the
Boxers were burning foreign property and killing foreign nationals and Chinese Christians.
Meanwhile, the Empress Tz'u-hsi declared war on the foreign powers.
As associates ran McKinley's reelection campaign, the president and his foreign policy advisors
crafted America's response to the Boxer Rebellion. The administration preferred the United States
to act independently, but circumstances soon prodded McKinley to order the American military
commander in China, Rear Admiral Louis Kempff, to "act in concurrence with other powers so as
to protect all American interests." In late June 1900, McKinley transferred 2500 American soldiers
from the Philippines, where they were suppressing an uprising against American control, to China.
The troop dispatch sparked criticism from American politicians (mainly Democrats) and editors
who charged the president with imperialism and exceeding his Constitutional authority. McKinley
believed a president's Constitutional war powers granted him such authority.
Questions
Why did the Americans care what was going on in China (see “Open Door Policy” if you’ve
forgotten)?
Who were the Boxers?
Why were they called that?
What were they protesting?
According to artist W. A. Roger’s cartoon, how did Rogers want the United States to handle the
Boxer Rebellion? How do you know that?
How did President McKinley want to handle the Rebellion? What did he instead eventually do?
Were the Boxers successful? Explain.
In your opinion, should McKinley have gotten US troops involved? Why/why not?
What is your opinion of President Obama’s decision to have troops in the Middle East?
http://www.otherwords.org/files/3352/alabama-immigration-cartoon.jpg?width=800
2011 Immigration Political cartoon
Define Jim Crow laws (glossary).
Questions
Give 2 examples of the laws.
Currently, the United States and Mexico have a treaty to allow free trade between the two
countries. According to the above cartoon, does the United States want immigrants from Mexico?
How is that ironic?
What do Jim Crow laws have to do with Latino immigrants?
What percentage of Americans do you think agree with this cartoon? Explain.
Should American taxpayers have to pay for all students, legal or not, to go to school? Explain.