Chapter 3
Shadows Over the Pacific:
East Asia
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By 1800, the Manchu people of the Qing
Dynasty had ruled successfully for almost 200
years
They had:
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secure borders
peace and prosperity
cultural and intellectual achievements
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But by 1900 the Qing Dynasty was near
collapse
Why?
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They could not withstand the incursions of Western
powers like the British
They were an unchanging society
They believed the Chinese people were superior to
all other peoples
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The Portuguese were the first to reach China in
the 16th century
Chinese rulers were afraid of the influence
these Europeans would have on there people,
so they confined the Portuguese to the port of
Canton
For the next 200 years this worked , and China
remained a fairly isolated society
In the mid-19th century their isolation was
ended by force
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Why? How?
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The Chinese population kept growing; 400 million
by 1900
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To supply their needs, farming, manufacturing, and
trade increased both internally and externally with
foreigners
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The Chinese first traded with other Asians
By 1800 British merchants began applying
pressure on the Qing Dynasty
They wanted access to other Chinese ports
 The British were buying more from the Chinese than
the Chinese were buying from them – trade
imbalance
 The British had to find a good that the Chinese
would buy and become dependent on
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They found it - opium from India
The result was drug addiction in China
The trade imbalance was reversed; more
money was leaving China and they were
taking in
The Chinese ruler tried to prohibit opium
The British responded by talking about free
trade and then declared war on the Chinese –
the Opium War, 1839 – 1842
The British won
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The Treaty of Nanking
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opened 5 new ports to the British
limited the tariffs placed on British imports
granted extraterritoriality rights to the British; this
unequal treatment system was in effect until 1943
China paid all costs of the war to Britain; China fell
into debt to Britain
China ceded the island of Hong Kong to the British
and remained in British hands until 1997
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By the end of the 19th century,
extraterritoriality evolved into spheres of
influence, zones where the interests of a
particular nation took precedence
Because the Treaty of Nanking was applied to
all western nations, foreign powers were now
taking chunks of China
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By the mid-1900s China
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couldn’t keep foreigners out
was in debt to foreigners
had pressing internal economic problems
These factors led to a rebellion of the poor in 1850 -Taiping Rebellion 1850-1864 ; 20 million died
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The French and the British took advantage of
this rebellion by pressing for more concessions
in 1856
This resulted in the Treaty of Tianjin in 1860
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opium was legalized
restrictions on missionaries and on ports were lifted
the British took Kowloon
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Some Chinese thought China needed to learn
from the West in order to survive
Eventually the royal court began to listen and
called for self-strengthening in the 1860s
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western technology would be adopted
Confucian principles would remain in tact
the military would be modernized, and they would
set up new railroads, weapons arsenals, and
shipyards
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Foreign incursions increased from the 1880s
onward
Japan took Taiwan
 Russia took territories in Siberia
 France took Vietnam
 Britain took Burma
 Germany took the Shandong Peninsula
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Foreign powers agreed to an Open Door policy
in China which calmed the foreigners fears
about one another
China had no say in the matter
Resentment towards foreigners in China grew
The Chinese saw foreigners as the cause of
their economic woes
This resentment led to the Boxer Rebellion
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The Boxers
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an athletic group
a secret society
resented foreign residents in China and attacked
them
Rebellion was put down by an international military
force in 1900
 Chinese lost all faith in their government
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The Qing thought if they made more reforms,
they could save themselves and China
But the revolution could not be stopped
It was led by Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925)
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born to peasants
educated in Hawaii
returned to China to be a doctor
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1905 – Sun Yat-sen helped to found the United
League
1911 - revolution broke out when government
was going to nationalize the railroads on terms
favoring foreigners. The assemblies protested
and then declared their independence
1912 - national military forces helped to
overthrow Qing Dynasty; Sun Yat-sen assumed
the presidency of the Chinese Republic
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The United League became the National
People’s Party or the Guomindang (GMD)
It found gaining control of all of China to be
difficult
SunYat-sen turned over his office to a military
man who could gain control, Yuan Shikai
Yuan turned into a dictator but dies before he
could declare himself emperor
GMD finally got control in 1928 but were
challenged by the communists
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Set of small islands
Possessed few natural resources
Borrowed from Chinese culture for centuries
Fairly homogeneous people
Did not wish to have foreigners pollute their
society
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Japanese ruling system:
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Emperor at the top
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Shogun
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Samurai
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Daimyos
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Portuguese reached Japan in 16th century
For the next 200 years Japan was considered a
closed country and only allowed the Chinese
and the Dutch into one port
That changed in 1853 and again in 1854 when
Commodore Matthew C. Perry of the United
States visited Japan to open trade with them
The Japanese lacked the technology to keep
him out
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The Shogun was forced to make treaties with
the United States and then with other nations
Foreigners gained extraterritoriality privileges
Economic disruption followed
Samurai discipline collapsed and the Emperor
and the Shogun had their authority questioned
The Shogun fell
The Emperor held on but had to make changes
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The changes were called the Meiji Restoration (
the emperor was called the Meiji)
The true power was in the hands of the rebels
who introduced changes that marked the
beginning of a modern Japan
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Changes:
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capital was moved to Tokyo
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land belonging to the daimyos was returned to the
emperor; it was then divided into prefectures
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modern army and navy were created
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money was kept in Japan; no borrowing from
foreigners
agricultural growth
 improved schooling
 central government: Council of State and Ministries
 by 1900 industry was diversified and strong
 Japan had modernized in a 50 year period
 they adopted Western ideas that would help them
progress
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By 1914 Japan had risen from semi-colonialism to
virtual equality with the then Great Powers
They even had overseas dependencies