Pre-Syllabus China

Question 1

First Opium War (1839-42) Causes

Answer 1

• Trade
• Diplomatic Relations
• Opium
• Administration of Justice

Question 2

How Was ‘Trade’ a Cause?

Answer 2

• The Canton System
• Chinese weren’t keen to trade with the British
• British started trading cheap cotton (undermining the Chinese silk traders), and they started trading opium (a banned substance) outside of The Canton System

Question 3

How Was ‘Diplomatic Relations’ a Cause?

Answer 3

• Britain wanted to set up an embassy in Beijing so that their concerns may be heard
• Lord Macartney, then later Lord Palmerston
• China didn’t see Britain as an equal nation

Question 4

How Was ‘Opium’ a Cause?

Answer 4

• Imports caused social problems
• Drained silver
• British East India Trading Company respected opium ban, but private traders did not

Question 5

How Was ‘Administration of Justice’ a Cause?

Answer 5

• Chinese Law was much more severe
• British sailor who accidentally shot a Chinese boatman was strangled
• British merchants imprisoned without trial

Question 6

What is ‘The Canton System’?

Answer 6

The Qing government restricted British trade to 13 licensed officials in Canton known as Cohong

Question 7

Result of First Opium War

Answer 7

Treaty of Nanking

Question 8

What is the Treaty of Nanking?

Answer 8

• China paid the British an indemnity
• Ceded the territory of Hong Kong
• Agreed to establish a “fair and reasonable” tariff
• British merchants, who had previously been allowed to trade only at Canton, were now permitted to trade at five “treaty ports” and with whomever they pleased
• British citizens to be tried in British courts
• British granted Britain any rights in China that China might grant to other countries

Question 9

Second Anglo-Chinese War (1856-60) Causes

Answer 9

• British Greed
• No permanent ambassador yet in Beijing
• Arrow Incident

Question 10

What is the ‘Arrow Incident’?

Answer 10

Chinese officials boarded the ship Arrow and lowered the British flag

Question 11

Events of Second Anglo-Chinese War

Answer 11

• British attack on Dagu
• Threats to take Tianjin threatened Beijing
• Emperor Hsien-Feng sent a representative to concede defeat

Question 12

Result of Second Anglo-Chinese War

Answer 12

Treaty of Tianjin

Question 13

What is the Treaty of Tianjin?

Answer 13

• Britain, France, Russia, and the US have the right to station legations in Beijing
• Eleven more Chinese ports opened for foreign trade, including Newchwang, Taiwan, Hankou and Nanjing
• The right of foreign vessels to navigate freely on the Yangtze River.
• The right of foreigners to travel through internal China
• Religious liberty to all Christians in China
• China was to pay an indemnity to Britain and France in 2 million taels of silver, and compensation to British merchants in 3 million taels of silver.
• Official documents between China and Britain are not to refer to the British as “barbarians”

Question 14

Sino-Japanese War (1894-95)

Answer 14

• Korea is a tributary state of China
• In August 1894 there is a rebellion against the Monarchy
• Both China and Japan send in troops
• Japanese troops prove superior
• Japanese cross into China and seize the port of Lushan in Manchuria and the Shandong Peninsular
• Qing sue for peace
• Treaty of Shimoneseki (April 1895)
• Japan takes Lushan and the Korean Peninsular
• Scholars in Beijing protest against treaty and demand governmental reform