AP World History POD #18 – New Imperialism In Asia Qing Dynasty & the Lost Mandate

Class Discussion Notes Bulliet – “The Qing Empire”, pp

The Qing World View “In 1800 the Qing Empire faced many problems, but no reform movement of the kind initiated by Sultan Selim III emerged in China. The reasons are not difficult to understand. The Qing emperors had skillfully countered Russian strategic and diplomatic moves in the 1600s. Instead of having a Napoleon threatening them with invasion, they enjoyed the admiration of Jesuit priests, who likened them to enlightened philosopher kings. In 1793, however, a British attempt to establish diplomatic and trade relations – the Maccartney mission – turned European opinions against China.” (Bulliet, p. 673)

Canton System The Qing limited and controlled foreign trade allowing trade only in Canton This slight upset and angered the European merchants who had an intense desire to prosper from trade with the large Chinese population

Population Pressure A combination of imperial conquest and agricultural reform and innovation led to new peoples added to the empire and new food supplies allowing for a doubling of the population between 1650 and 1800 A large migration of farmers, merchants, and day laborers migrated in search of less crowded conditions A growing unemployed and homeless population began to emerge Serious environmental damage in some parts of central and western China began to occur

Social Crisis Farmers who were upset with the agricultural deterioration vented grievances against the government Minorities in central and southwestern China were upset with being driven off their land Mongols resented appropriation of their grazing lands and the displacement of their traditional elites Village vigilante justice began to police the lands

White Lotus Rebellion – the Qing were as hated as the Europeans by many Inspired by a messianic ideology that predicted the restoration of the Chinese Ming dynasty and the coming of the Buddha Initiated a series of conflicts ignited by a deepening social instabilities Often times intensified by ethnic rivalries and conflicts Village militias were created to defend themselves and attack others further intensifying the conflicts

Opium Economics “Unlike the Ottomans, the Qing knew little about the enormous fortunes being made in the early 1800s by European and American merchants smuggling opium into China. They did not know that silver gained in this illegal trade was helping finance the industrial transformation of England and the United States. Only slowly did Qing officials become aware of British colonies in India that grew and exported opium, and of the major naval base at Singapore through which British opium reached East Asia.” (Bulliet, p. 674)

Opium Smuggling 1729 – first law banning opium imports into China annual import of smuggled opium approached 4000 chests annually 1820s – a price war between the United States and British smugglers fueled the addiction rates in China and the import rates jumped to 30,000 chests annually in the 1830s The emperor and his advisors began to debate whether to enforce the ban or legalize and tax the trade 1839 – the emperor decided to uphold the ban and sent a high ranking official to Canton to deal with the issue

Opium War The British considered the ban a threat to their national economic health and therefore intolerable and dispatched naval and marine forces to the south China coast War broke out when negotiations between the Qing official and the British representative reached a stalemate. The war exposed the fact that the traditional, hereditary soldiers of the Qing Empire – the Bannerman – were, like the Janissaries of the Ottoman Empire, hopelessly obsolete. The Qing had no navy and their army was technologically inferior ultimately resulting in a British victory

Treaty of Nanking 1842 – ended the old Canton System of trade Canton, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai were all opened to foreign trade Hong Kong became a British colony British citizens in China received extraterritorial rights Low tariff of 5% placed on imports China agreed to pay Britain 21 million ounces of silver as a penalty Britain gained most favored nation status meaning any trade privileges granted to another nation would automatically be extended to the British The Great Powers of Europe began to create spheres of influence in China

Taiping Rebellion – Underlying Causes “The inflammatory mixture of social unhappiness and foreign intrusion exploded in the great civil war usually called the Taiping Rebellion. In Guangxi, where the Taiping movement originated, entrenched social problems had been generating disorders for half a century. Agriculture in the region was unstable, and many people made their living from arduous and despised trades such as disposing of human waste, making charcoal, and mining. Ethnic divisions complicated economic distress. The lowliest trades frequently involved a minority group, the Hakkas, and tensions between them and the majority were rising. Problems may have been intensified by sharp fluctuations in the opium trade and reactions to the cultural and economic impact of the Europeans and Americans in Canton.” (Bulliet, p. 675)

Taiping Rebellion - Events Hong Xiuquan was the leader of the Taiping movement – he repeatedly failed the Confucian exam, appears to have suffered a nervous breakdown, and proclaimed himself the younger brother of Jesus Gained followers in the Hakkas community – they began to confront the Manchus (Qing) considering them creatures of Satan Captured Nanjing in 1853 with the goal of making it the capital of the new “Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace” What role did the Mandate of Heaven play in this rebellion

Taiping Rebellion – Qing Victory The Taiping Rebellion forced the Qing to undertake serious reforms of the military creating a more flexible fighting force 1856 – fresh off victory over the Ottomans in the Crimean War the British and French attacked China in the second opium war (Arrow War) to seek full enforcement of the Treaty of Nanking After securing these treaty rights they joined the Qing in defeating the Taiping Rebellion

Taiping Rebellion – Lasting Devastation World’s bloodiest Civil War with an estimated 20 to 30 million people killed – after the war China and Southeast Asia were devastated by a new round of the bubonic plague Farmland was destroyed and depopulated for decades after the civil war City populations exploded from the refugee farmers Cultural centers and artifacts were destroyed – printing blocks used to make books were destroyed Ecological Disaster – the Yellow River changed paths in 1855 destroying the southern part of Shandong province with flood and leaving drought to the north

Decline of the Qing Empire “The Qing government emerged from the 1850s with no hope of achieving solvency. The corruption of the 1700s, attempts in the very early 1800s to restore waterworks and roads, and declining yields from land taxes had bankrupted the treasury. By 1850, before the Taiping Rebellion, Qing government expenditures were ten times revenues. The indemnities demanded by Europeans after the Opium and Arrow Wars compounded the problem. Vast stretches of formerly productive rice land were devastated, and the population was dispersed. Refugees pleaded for relief, and the imperial, volunteer, foreign, and mercenary troops that had suppressed the Taipings demanded unpaid wages.” (Bulliet, pp )

Provincial Reform Provincial governors were at the forefront of the struggle against the Taiping They won the right to prosecute the war, levy their own taxes, raise their own troops and run their own bureaucracies Zeng Guofan became one of the most powerful provincial governors and instituted a period of reform and modernization in the American model, including greater education for women

Dowager Empress Cixi History now views her s a monster of corruption She supported the provincial governors even allowing some to conduct the empire’s foreign affairs The empire was no longer under the control of the dominant Manchu aristocracy but rather devolved into a decentralized state controlled by provincial governors