 China had reluctant contact with European nations around 1600s-1800s  China’s government assumed they were stronger than Europe---TRUE?  ?Think way back to Age of Exploration? Who was superior?

 Britain desperately wanted to trade with China  Did China need anything?  What was one item Britain was getting from India that the Chinese could be interested in?

 Classified as a opiate.  Derived from poppy plants.  Medically was used as pain reducer.  Decreases pain and attention.  Use leads to loss of control in breathing and respiratory failure.

 In the late 1700’s British merchants began importing the drug opium  By 1835, 12 million Chinese were addicted to the drug.  The Qing emperor ordered Queen Victoria to stop selling Opium to Chinese.

 By what right do they [British merchants]…use the poisonous drug to injure the Chinese people?... I have heard that smoking opium is very strictly forbidden by your country; that is because the harm caused by opium is clearly understood. Since it is not permitted to do harm to your own country, then even less should you let it be passed on to harm other countries.  -Lin Zexu  In this quote what is Lin stating?

 Britain refused to stop selling opium  Lin Zexu attempted to stop the British merchants himself  How are the British merchants going to react to Lin’s choices?

The Battle of The World’s Most Superior Nations!

 The Opium War ( )  China was surprised by Britain’s strength-  China badly beat  Treaty of Nanjing (1842)  U.S. & Other foreign citizens gained extraterritorial rights- foreigners were not subject to Chinese law.

 Foreign countries start to divide China up for themselves. How would the Chinese react to this?

 Taiping Rebellion-  Late 1830’s  Led by Hong Xiuquan  Boxer Rebellion  1900  Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists (Hardcore Chinese Men & Women- Used martial arts)  Red Shining Lanterns ( All female boxer group)

 Japan was isolationist (closed to foreigners) from s  American gunboats came to Japan and forced them to open to trade (1850s)  Japan saw how China was treated and decided to Westernized their military, government, schools… and become imperial.  Meiji Restoration led by Mutsuhito- Japan modernizes and was able to compete with Europe and was never taken over  Japan beats China (over Korea), then Russia (over Korea).  Russo-Japanese War (1905) – first time an Asian nation beat an European nation