DO NOW: Describe what you see in this picture. What is the time period? What does this picture say about the relationship between Chinese and Europeans?

In the 1300s, the Chinese Empire was ruled by Mongols such as Kublai Khan.

In 1368, native Chinese overthrew the Mongols and established the Ming Dynasty. The Ming returned to traditional Chinese, Confucian culture, dividing society into 4 classes. Scholar-Gentry Farmers Artisans Merchants

The Ming wanted to rid China of foreign influences The Ming wanted to rid China of foreign influences. They discouraged trade with foreigners and strengthened the Great Wall, to keep northern tribes out.

But in 1644, the Manchus swept south and conquered Beijing, overthrowing the Ming Dynasty and founding the Qing Dynasty.

Under the Qing Dynasty, China experienced an agricultural revolution and population explosion. The Population Explosion created the same problems that had plagued in Europe: hunger, unemployment and political discontent. But the biggest problems came later.

Under the Qing Dynasty, China agreed to more trade with the West. The British had a huge demand for Eastern products, such as silk and tea. However, the Chinese had very little demand for European manufactured goods and textiles, which were regarded as inferior. The Chinese would only accept hard currency, silver and gold, in exchange for silk and tea.

The English were truly addicted to tea, and the outflow of gold and silver frightened mercantilists in the government. They had to find something the Chinese wanted as badly as the English wanted tea to restore a favorable balance of trade.

What they found was opium, which the British East India Company grew in India. Millions of Chinese became hopelessly addicted to the drug.

Commissioner Lin complained to Queen Victoria: “Let us suppose that foreigners come from another country and brought opium into England, and seduced the people of your country to smoke it. Would not you …look upon such a procedure with anger? Now we have always heard that your Highness possesses a most kind and benevolent heart. Surely then you are incapable of doing or causing to be done unto another that which you would not wish to be done unto you.”

But the British refused to stop selling opium But the British refused to stop selling opium. They claimed free trade laissez faire, that no government should get involved with business interests. When the Chinese tried to outlaw the opium trade, the English kept smuggling the drug into the country, leading to the Opium Wars from 1839-1842.

The Opium War was ended by the Treaty of Nanking, which ceded Hong Kong to the United Kingdom and opened five ports to trade with the British. The treaty also allowed foreigners to by governed and judged only by the laws of their own country. Known as extraterritoriality, this practice humiliated the Chinese.

By 1910, numerous powers had spheres of influence in China. What effect do you believe this state of affairs had on the Chinese people?

A Nationalist Revolt