Week 2 Flashcards
Treaty of Nanking or Nanjing
was a peace treaty which ended the First Opium War (1839–42) between the United Kingdom and the Qing dynasty of China on 29 August 1842. It was the first of what the Chinese later called the unequal treaties on the ground that Britain had no obligations in return.
Treaty of Tianjin
a collective name for several documents signed at Tianjin (then romanizedas Tientsin) in June 1858. They ended the first phase of the Second Opium War, which had begun in 1856. The Qing, Russian, and Second French Empires, the United Kingdom, and the United States were the parties involved. These treaties, counted by the Chinese among the so-called unequal treaties, opened more Chinese ports to foreign trade, permitted foreign legations in the Chinese capital Beijing, allowed Christian missionary activity, and legalized the import of opium.
Taiping rebellion
a massive rebellion or total civil war in China waged from 1850 to 1864 between the established Manchu-led Qing dynasty and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom under Hong Xiuquan.
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was an oppositional state based in Tianjing (present-day Nanjing) with a Christian millenarian agenda to initiate a major transformation of society. A self-proclaimed convert to Christianity and brother of Jesus Christ, Hong Xiuquan led an army that controlled a significant part of southern China during the middle of the 19th century, eventually expanding to command a population base of nearly 30 million people.
Devolving into total war—with any and all civilian-associated resources and infrastructure as legitimate military targets—the conflict was the largest in China since the Qing conquest in 1644, and it also ranks as one of the bloodiest wars in human history, the bloodiest civil war, and the largest conflict of the 19th century, with estimates of the war dead ranging from 20–70 million to as high as 100 million, with millions more displaced
Comprador
a “person who acts as an agent for foreign organizations engaged in investment, trade, or economic or political exploitation”.[1] A comprador is a native manager of European business houses in East and South East Asia, and, by extension, social groups that play broadly similar roles in other parts of the world.
Western Affairs Movement
The Self-Strengthening Movement (Chinese: 洋務運動/自強運動/同治維新), c. 1861 – 1895, was a period of institutional reforms initiated in China during the late Qing dynasty following a series of military defeats and concessions to foreign powers.
To make peace with the Western powers in China, Prince Gong was made regent, Grand Councilor, and head of the newly formed Zongli Yamen (a de facto foreign affairs ministry). He would be assisted by a new generation of leaders (see below). By contrast, Empress Dowager Cixi was virulently anti-foreign, but she had to accommodate Prince Gong because he was an influential political figure in the Qing imperial court. She would, however, become the most formidable opponent of reform as her political influence increased.
The majority of the ruling elite still subscribed to a conservative Confucian worldview, but following China’s serious defeats in the First and Second Opium Wars, several officials now argued that in order to strengthen itself against the West, it was necessary to adopt Western military technology and armaments. This could be achieved by establishing shipyards and arsenals, and by hiring foreign advisers to train Chinese artisans to manufacture such wares in China. As such, the “self-strengtheners” were by and large uninterested in any social reform beyond the scope of economic and military modernization.
Chinese social order:
- Scholar-officials
- Peasants
- Artisans
- Merchants
Gong realm
Public sphere
Treaty ports
The treaty port system in China lasted approximately one hundred years. It began with the 1841 Opium War and ended with the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. The major powers involved were the British, the French, and the Americans, although by the end of the 19th century all the major powers were involved, including Latin American countries and the Congo Free State. It is not possible to put an exact date on the end of the treaty port era. The Russians relinquished their treaty rights in the wake of the Russian revolution in 1917, and the Germans were forced to concede their treaty rights following their defeat in World War I.
Foreigners, who were centered in sections newly built for them on the edges of existing port cities, enjoyed legal extraterritoriality as stipulated in Unequal Treaties. Foreign clubs, racecourses, and churches were established in major treaty ports. Some of these port areas were directly leased by foreign powers such as in the concessions in China, effectively removing them from the control of local governments.
Ministry of Commerce founding
1904
The Golden Age of 1911-1927
- Fall of the Qing (1911)
- WW I – foreign powers cannot keep up with demand (new niche for Chinese entrepreneurs)
- Appreciation of the Chinese curreny
- New export markets opened
- Industralization
- Strenghening (wealthier and more professional) of the business class.
May Fourth Movement
an anti-imperialist, cultural, and political movement growing out of student participants in Beijing on 4 May 1919, protesting against the Chinese government’s weak response to the Treaty of Versailles, especially allowing Japan to receive territories in Shandong which had been surrendered by Germany after the Siege of Tsingtao. These demonstrations sparked national protests and marked the upsurge of Chinese nationalism, a shift towards political mobilization and away from cultural activities, and a move towards a populist base rather than intellectual elites. Many political and social leaders of the next decades emerged at this time.
The term “May Fourth Movement” in a broader sense often refers to the period during 1915–1921 more often called the New Culture Movement.
New Culture Movement
The New Culture Movement of the mid 1910s and 1920s sprang from the disillusionment with traditional Chinese culture following the failure of the Chinese Republic, founded in 1912 to address China’s problems. Scholars like Chen Duxiu, Cai Yuanpei, Li Dazhao, Lu Xun, Zhou Zuoren, He Dong, and Hu Shih, had classical educations but began to lead a revolt against Confucianism. They called for the creation of a new Chinese culture based on global and western standards, especially democracy and science.
All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce
a non-governmental chamber of commerce, established in 1953 as a successor to the chambers of commerce that were first founded during the Qing Dynasty. Today, it consists of Chinese industrialists and business people under the leadership of the United Front Department of the Communist Party of China, as well as being a constituent organization of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and the holder of a number of seats in the National People’s Congress. The organization assists the government in managing China’s private economy and acts as a bridge between the private sector and the government
