[Imperialized China MIDTERM] Flashcards
Who were the Ming?
- Rulers: Hongwu, Yonglo
- Majority ethnicity: Han
- Agricultural reforms
- Advanced navy and tributary system
- 7 voyages
- Foreign trade restricted to southern ports
- Ruled China before the Mantu invasion
Who were the Qing (Ching)?
- Rulers: Kangxi, Qian-long
- Manchu superiority
- No intermarriage
- All men must wear a “queu”
- Foot-binding
- Used Ming bureaucracy, replaced top positions with Manchu
- Emperors occupied Forbidden City
Who were the Manchu?
- Let into Beijing by Ming
- Seized Beijing
- Manchus leader became China’s new emperor, became the Qing Dynasty
- Adopted ways of Ming
What role did Beijing play in the Ming and Qing empires? (how did it become the capital of China)
- Ming moved royal court to Beijing
- Location of Forbidden City
What was the Forbidden City?
- City within Beijing
- Great palace complex with high walls
- Commoners and foreigners not allowed to enter
What is industrialization?
The development of industries for the machine production of goods
What is imperialism?
A policy in which a strong nation seeks to dominate other countries politically, economically or socially
In what ways did Industrialization lead to Imperialism in China?
- Higher demand for new markets and for raw materials to supply factories
- Competitions between European nations
- They needed more sources for raw materials
What is opium?
- Highly addictive drug
- Made from poppy plant
- Chinese doctors had been using opium to relieve pain
- British merchants smuggled opium into China for nonmedical use- several decades later, 12 million Chinese people addicted to smoking it
How did the trade imbalance between Great Britain and the Qing lead to the Opium War?
- High demand for China’s tea in Britain but low demand for Britain’s goods in China
- Britain in debt, tried selling silver- din’t work
- Started selling Opium
What is the Opium War?
- Cause: Britain refused to stop trading Opium because they had an unfavorable balance of trade
- Clash between British and Chinese
- Battles took place mostly at sea
- China lost- outdated ships no match for Britain’s steam-powered gunboats
- Signed Treaty of Nanjing- gave up Hong Kong
What was the Treaty of Nanjing?
- British citizens can live wherever they want
- Open 5 coastal ports to British trade
- Limited taxes
- Port for British citizens can keep their ships
- British can trade with whoever they want
- 21 million dollars to Britain
- Pay for war damages (indemnity)
- Gave Britain ‘most favored nation status’
- Gave Britain Hong Kong
- Gave Britain extraterritorial rights
What is ‘most favored nation status’?
- China forced to give Britain most favored nation status
- No one can one-up their relationship
- If China gives another country privileges they also have to give them to Britain
What is the Taiping Rebellion? (cause and effect)
- Failure of Chinese government to deal with pressing internal economic problems led to peasant revolt
- Led by Hong- convinced that God had given him the mission of destroying the Qing/Manchu
- Proclaimed new dynasty “Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace)
- Seized Nanjing, killing lots of people
- 14 years
- Qing unable to repress, called on British
- Chinese forces + British aid recaptured Nanjing + brought down Taiping, British demand privileges
- 20 million dead
What is self-strengthening?
- Aimed to update China’s educational system, diplomatic service, and military
- Wanted China to adopt Western technology but keep its Confucian values
What is a favorable balance of trade?
When a country exports (sells) more than it imports (buys)
What is an unequal treaty? Why is it called that?
- Treaties signed with Western powers after attacks
- Not treated equals
How did China respond to Western Imperialism? Explain why it was or was not successful.
-Boxer Rebellion- failed
What are spheres of influence?
- The first step to creating a colony
- Establishing economic sway over a region by foreigners
- Conflicts (wars, rebellions) gave west increasingly more economic control
- Showed that China was weak
Who is Empress Dowager Cixi?
- In command at the Qing imperial palace
- Committed to traditional values
- Took control of government again to reverse reforms
- Female ruling male dominated society
- Both helped and harmed the Qing dynasty’s ability to maintain power
What is the Boxer Rebellion? (cause and effect)
- Poor peasants/workers resented the special privileges granted to foreigners
- Upset about foreign takeover of Chinese land
- Like Chinese traditions
- Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists- the Boxers
- Seized Beijing and killed people (Christians), but soon defeated by troops from foreign nations
- Forced to pay indemnity to foreign nations
What is the Open Door Policy?
- US was a long-time trading partner with China- worried that other nations would divide China into formal colonies and shut out American traders
- Proposed that China’s ports be open to merchants of all nations
- Britain + other European countries agreed
- Protected US trading rights in China, and China’s freedom from colonization
- Country still at mercy of foreign powers
What is Nationalism?
- The belief that people should be loyal mainly to their nation (people with whom they share a culture or history) rather than to a king or empire
- Common traits unified the Chinese against the Qing
- New idea brought to China by Westerners
What led to Nationalism in China?
- Boxer Rebellion
- Chinese people realized that their country must resist more foreign intervention
- Government must become responsive to their own needs
What are the major events of the 19th century in China in order?
Opium War Treaty of Nanking Taiping Rebellion Foreign influence grows Boxer Rebellion Fall of Qing
How did the West imperialize China in the 19th century?
- Wouldn’t stop trading opium
- Treaty of Nanjing- gave up a lot
- Sphere of influence- lost control
- Open Door Policy- lost control
What factors led the Qing dynasty to fall? (internal and external factors)
INTERNAL: -Population grew rapidly, food production barely increased- widespread hunger (opium addiction still rose) -Taiping Rebellion -Boxer Rebellion -Guangxu launches major reforms-fails -Empress Dowager Cixi -Rise of Nationalism EXTERNAL: -Opium War- beginning of Western influence -Spheres of influence- Western control -Treaty of Nanjing
Why did the Chinese have little interest in trading with the West?
-Largely self-sufficient (healthy agricultural economy, extensive mining and manufacturing industries)
-Rice being grown in many places
-Only foreign trade port located at Guangzhou
Balance of trade at Guangzhou in China’s favor
Why did Emperor Guangxu’s efforts at reform and modernization fail?
- Reorganizing China’s educational system, strengthening economy, modernizing military, improving government
- Qing officials saw it as threat to power
- Dowager Empress arrested Guangxu and reversed reforms
- Not successful
What are extraterritorial rights?
- Foreigners not subject to Chinese law (in 5 ports given to Britain by China)
- No punishments
Describe the trade relationship between the Ming and the foreigners.
- China wanted to keep influence of outsiders to a minimum
- Only government could conduct foreign trade, only through 3 ports (Canton, Macao, and Ningbo)
- Merchants smuggled valuable goods to European merchants
- Demand for Chinese goods
What problems did the Ming experience during the final years of their rule?
- Ineffective rulers
- Corrupt officials
- Government out of money
- Higher taxes + bad harvests- millions of peasants starved
- Led to rebellion
- The Machus (people of Manchuria- northeast of the Great Wall) invaded China, Ming dynasty collapsed
How did the Qing manage to gain the loyalty of the Chinese people?
-Upheld China’s Confucian beliefs and social structures
-Made country’s frontier safe
-Restored prosperity
-Kangxi: Reduced government expenses, lowered taxes
Gained support of intellectuals by offering them government positions
-Qian-long: China reached its greatest size and prosperity, he rose at dawn to work on people’s problems
What 2 things happened that gave Britain an unfavorable balance of trade?
- British became a nation of tea drinkers- demand for Chinese tea rose greatly
- Chinese merchants began to ship Chinese cotton to compete with Indian cotton (that Britain used to pay for tea)- Chinese bought less goods
What 3 things did the British do to help increase the trade?
- Bribed officials
- Helped Chinese with smuggling schemes to get opium to China’s interior
- Distributed free samples of opium
What 2 negative effects did the opium have on China?
- Weakened population (10% became addicted)
- Less silver (used to pay for Opium) and more reliance on opium
What was the effect of signing the Treaty of Nanjing?
Opened China to the West and marked the beginning of Western exploitation of the nation
What kind of people did the Taiping Rebellion attract?
- Hakka + others outside the mainstream of Chinese society
- People who don’t have a say
What was the ‘Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace’?
- Created by Hong, viewed himself as Jesus’s brother
- All Chinese people would share China’s vast wealth, no one would live in poverty
- Equality
- Christianity
What was the British East India Company? What was their role in starting the Opium War?
- Opium grown in northern India under their sponsorship
- Shipped to Chinese markets
- Quickly earned lots of silver
What event sparked the Opium War?
Chinese destroyed thousands of chests of opium aboard a British ship
Whose fault was the Opium War? Could it have been avoided?
- Both their faults
- China refused to accept them as equals and didn’t listen to needs of West
- British were asking too much from China (wanted to establish an equal/diplomatic trade relationship)
What are the differences between the Taiping and Boxer Rebellion?
Taiping: problem is the Qing, adopts Christian ideas
Boxer: problem is West
Both: opposed the Qing government
What is the Canton System?
Served as a means for China to control trade with the West within its own country by focusing all trade on the southern port of Canton (now Guangzhou)
What factors caused the Revolution of 1911?
- Nationalism
- Poverty
- Western imperialism
100 Days of Reform
Its short duration and limited scope reflected the Qing dynasty’s inability to change
