CHAPTER 22SHADOWS OVER THE PACIFIC: EAST ASIA UNDER CHALLENGE

Focus Questions

• Why did the Qing dynasty decline and ultimately collapse, and what role did the Western powers play in this process?

• What political, economic, and social reforms were instituted by the Qing dynasty during its final decades, and why were they not more successful in reversing the decline of Manchu rule?

Identifications• McCartney Mission Tao & Zhidong• Lin Zexu Youwei• Chinese-Japanese war, 1894• Letter to Queen Victoria 100 days of reform• Opium War 1839-1842 Boxer Rebellion• Treaty of Nanjing, 1842 Open Door Notes• Taiping Rebellion Sun-Yat Sen• Hong Ziuquan, 1853• Shikai & 1911 Revolution• Treaty of Tianjin, 1860 Self Strengthening

The McCartney mission to China, 1793

The Art Archive/Eileen Tweedy

The Qing Empire

•Shown here is the Qing Empire at the height of its power in the late eighteenth century, together with its shrunken boundaries at the moment of dissolution in 1911.

Decline of the Manchus

• Internal factors of decline after 1800– Official Corruption– Peasant unrest– Incompetence at court– Rapid population growth – land pressures

Decline of the Manchu

• External Factors of Decline– Western influence– Aggressive policies of trade expansion– Trade limited to Canton– Unfavorable balance of trade for Britain

• Tea exported to Britain• Nothing imported

•In this 1900 photograph, women pick tea leaves for shipment abroad on a plantation in Ceylon (Sri Lanka). The British cut down vast stands of tropical forests in Ceylon and India to grow tea to satisfy demand back home.

© Getty Images

Triumph of English Imperialism

• Opium grown in NE India and shipped to China

• Traditionally grown in Southern China but prohibited for social or general use– Indian Opium pushed on the Chinese

population illegally by British Merchants

Lin Zexu

• Appointed to court to curtail Opium trade, 1839– Letter to Queen Victoria (Moral & Practical

appeal)– Imposed penalties on smokers– Arrested dealers– Seized supplies from importers

• Blockade of British factory in Canton used to justify British Naval expedition against China

Queen Victoria•longest reign in British history (1837–1901). During this time, the British Empire reached the height of its power, but by the turn of the twentieth century

© The Art Archive

The Opium War1839 -1842

The Art Archive/Eileen Tweedy

Opium War

• Demonstrated British military strength

• Will of British East India Co.

• Treaty of Nanjing, 1842– Opened 5 coastal ports to British trade

– Limited tariffs on British imports

– Extraterritorial rights conferred on British Citizens

– Court paid indemnity to cover costs of war

– Ceded Hong Kong (“Barren Rock”) to Britain

• Opium trade remained unabated until the early 19th C

Efforts of Early Reform• Radicals argued China needed to learn

about European Civilization• Conservatives insisted they had nothing to

learn from barbarians– Concerned with maintaining purity of

Confucianism

• Western threat dealt with traditionally– Played foreigners off against each other– Offered same concessions to other powers (US)

The Taiping Rebellion

oHong Ziuquan Led rebellion, 1853 seized NanjingoRepressed by 1864

25 million people killed over 11 years of rebellion

Taiping Rebellion

• Peasant revolt that was a consequence of courts neglect of internal pressures on the people– Christian influences– Peasants – sharecroppers and landless

laborers as result of population pressure– Corruption and incompetence of officials led

to higher taxes and decline of government services

Western Aggression, 1860

• Britain & France took opportunity to expand trade and missionary activities– Seized Beijing in 1860

• Destroyed summer imperial palace

• Treaty of Tianjin– Legalized opium trade– Opened additional ports to foreign trade– Ceded Peninsula of Kowloon to Britain

Self Strengthening

• Court attempt in the 1870s to establish reform– Adoption of western technology– “East for Essence, West for Practical use”

• Maintained Confucian principles and institutions

Wang Tao & Zhang Zhidong

• Tao, Journalist & Author– Suggested educational and political reforms– Democratization of Chinese government and

society

• Zhidong, official– Suggested modernizing the military– Building up the industrial base

External factors of decline

• Military and political takeover of western powers intensified 1880-1890s– Gobi Desert, Central Asia, Tibet carved away

from the Empire– Chinese-Japanese war, 1894

• Japan took Korea

– Germany demanded Shandong Peninsula– Russia took Liadong Peninsula– Great Britain established coaling stations in

Northern China

Canton and Hong Kong•This map shows the estuary of the Pearl River in southern China, an important area of early contact between China and Europe.

Kang Youwei, 1898

• Confucian scholar suggested radical reforms– Emperor Guang Xu accepted edicts that

called for educational, political and administrative reforms

– Influenced by Japanese reform efforts

• Conservatives at court & Cixi opposed changes

Empress Dowager Cixi

of China

•Ruled for 20 years before her nephew took power•Maintained true authority•Executed reformers and imprisoned the emperor

© The Art Archive

Open Door Notes

• Secretary of State, John Hay, 1899

• Wrote imperial powers asking for equal economic access to Chinese market for all western powers– Would take advantage of China’s weaknesses

to dominate their Market

Boxer Rebellion, 1899• “Harmonious and Righteous Fists”

– Popular culture/peasants– Martial arts tradition of western Shandong– Stressed military virtues– Encouraged people to study swordsmanship &

boxing– Personal and local self-defense

• Spontaneous, peoples rebellion against foreign influence & response to declining standard of living– Supported by Cixi

Boxers: “Support the Qing, destroy the Foreign”

• Pretext for uprising & contributing factors– Natural disasters – Yellow river flooded followed

by famine– Foreign influence:

• Foreign religion – backed by foreign military• Destroyed local economies• Led to poverty and increased banditry

– Boxers targeted» Targeted foreign goods» Foreign religion» Rail Roads, telegraphs, ships and weapons of Europeans

• Boxers entered Beijing

• Multi national military coalition of 20,000 troops slaughtered the peasants

• 5,000 troops were American– U.S. won spheres of

influence as a result

Justice or Mercy? Uncle Sam Decides

•In the summer of 1900, Chinese rebels known as Boxers besieged Western embassies in the imperial capital of Beijing.

Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, October 14, 1900

100 days of Reform

• Cixi & the Conservative faction attempted to implement reform too late– 1905 abolished the exam system– Instituted modern educational system– Allowed gentry at provincial level to form

assemblies or advisory bodies to make recommendations to the central government

Foreign Possessions and Spheres of Influence About 1900

•At the end of the nineteenth century, China was being carved up like a melon by foreign imperialist powers

CHRONOLOGY China in the Era of Imperialism

Lord McCartney's mission to China

1793

Opium War 1839–1842

Taiping rebels seize Nanjing 1853

Taiping Rebellion suppressed 1864

Cixi becomes regent for nephew, Guang Xu

1878

Sino-Japanese War 1894–1895

One Hundred Days reform 1898

Open Door policy 1899

Boxer Rebellion 1900

Commission to study constitution formed

1905

Deaths of Cixi and Guang Xu 1908

Revolution in China 1911

The Last Emperor (1987)

•Three-year-old Puyi (Richard Vuu), the last emperor of China, watches an emissary approach at the Imperial Palace.

Yanco/Tao/Recorded Picture Co/The Kobal Collection

Sun Yat-Sen, 1866-1925

• Intellectuals abroad began calling for political revolution, not reform– Prominent leader, Sun formed the

Revolutionary Alliance in 1905 to advocate a new political Vision

– Advocated Republican form of government based on western model

Sun Yat-Sen, Father of

Modern China•The son of a peasant in southern China, Sun Yat-Sen rose to become a prominent revolutionary and the founder of the first Chinese republic.

© Getty Images

“Three Peoples Principles”

• 1. Nationalism – elimination of Manchu Rule

• 2. Democracy

• 3. peoples standard of living

3 Stage process

• 1. Military take over

• 2. Provisional constitution– Military law is replaced by local government

and law

• 3. Constitutional democracy

Yuan Shikai & 1911 Revolution

• Military supported reforms

• Yuan Shikai, leader of the Imperial Army

• Becomes president in 1912– He favored national assemblies– KMT or Kuomintang (Nationalist Party)

founded• Wanted to bring together radical intellectuals to

develop plan for next political phase

– Collapse of old order in 1911

Republic of China, Yuan Shikai

• KMT selects candidates for national assemblies

• Shikai assassinated the first head of the party

• National party declares new revolution against Shikai– Period of War lordism until the 1920s

Japanese Imperialism

• Japan takes advantage of period of War lords

• Issues 21 demands 1915) to Shikai– Demands recognize that Japan had pre-

dominance in Shandong and Manchuria– Provision for Japanese advisors in all major

posts in the government and state– Sole right to supply China with armaments

• Humiliation and treaty increased radicalism in China

New intellectual trends• Intellectuals question China’s past, tradition

and Confucianism• Recognize fundamental inequality in the traditional

system• Debunks Confucianism

• Looked to the west for new models– Liberalism, democracy and scientific inquiry

• Nationalism – Pride & belief in own country– Question of how to become major player in larger

political arena

Focus Question

• To what degree was the Meiji Restoration a “Revolution” and to what extent did it transform Japan? – Meiji Restoration– Millard Fillmore and Matthew Perry– The treaty of 1858 – Sat-Cho Alliance– Land Reform Program– Constitution of 1890

Rise of Modern Japan

• Decline of Tokugawa Shogunate– Factionalism & Corruption of Central Bureaucracy– Rural unrest– Samurai protest– Persecution of critics by Bakufu– Capitalism blurred class divisions, eventually

destroyed feudal system• Adopted policy of Sakoku, closed country

– Ended foreign relations

American Imperialism in Japan

• Strategic Imperialism

• American steamships crossing the northern Pacific needed a fueling station before going on to China and other ports

Perry’s fleet in Tokyo Bay, 1853

© Private Collection/The Bridgeman Art Library

Commodore Perry’s Fleet

• 1853, an American fleet of four warships under Commodore Matthew C. Perry arrived in Edo (now Tokyo) Bay – letter from President Millard Fillmore asking for

the opening of foreign relations

• Treaty of Kanagawa – provided for the return of shipwrecked American

sailors, the opening of two ports, and the establishment of a U.S. consulate on Japanese soil.

Triumph of Western ImperialismTreaty of 1858

• In 1858, U.S. consul Townsend Harris negotiated a more elaborate commercial treaty – opened of several ports to U.S. trade and

residence, the exchange of ministers, and the granting of extraterritorial privileges for U.S. residents in Japan.

– Similar treaties were soon signed with several European nations.

Sat –Cho Alliance

• The Hans of Satsuma and Choshu resisted concessions that opened up Japan to western trade and influence

• 1863 display of Western military might against Choshu military– Resolved to resist Western Influence and to

modernize

Meiji Restoration

• 1868 rebel armies attacked the Shogunate in Kyoto– Restored emperors supreme authority

• Sat-Cho & Meiji “enlightened ruler”– Policy of comprehensive reform to modernize

Japan• Social, cultural, political, economic reform• Reform of institutions and values

Immediate Changes

• Old order of society abolished or re-organized– Hereditary privileges abolished formally 1871– Lords/Daimyo lost title to land

• Compensated with Government Bonds• Named governor of former territories

– Samurai lost traditional title (8% pop)• Lump sum payment replaced stipend• Forbidden to carry the sword as symbol of

hereditary status

Emperor Meiji and the Charter Oath, 1868

•Outlined modern changes:•New Assembly•Senior positions given to Daimyo•Key posts given to “Genro”

–Modernizing samurai of Sat-Cho

© Art Resource, NY

The Emperor Inspects His Domain

© Scala/Art Resource, NY

Political Reform

• Constitutional Commission– Ho Hirobumi

• Liberal Party– Supreme authority is Parliament

• Progressive Party– Distribution of Power with legislative and

executive branch

• Imperial Party– Exclusive power of the Emperor

Meiji Constitution, 1890

• Progressive emerged Victorious

• Authority rested in the Executive branch

• Members of the Cabinet –picked by oligarchs

• Upper house of Parliament to be appointed & have legislative powers with lower house (diet)

• Members of the diet would be elected

Meiji Economics

• Land Reform Program

• Objective: create citizens of serfs– Redefined domain lands as private property of

the tillers• New 3% agricultural tax generated government

revenue• Bad years peasants lost land & became tenants

(40% tenancy by 1900)

– Compensated Daimyo with government bonds

Meiji Industry

• Objective: to stand against western imperialism

• Government Supplied stimulus to Japans Industrial Revolution– Financial subsidies to industry, training,

foreign advisors, improved transport and communication

– Universal educational system– Dual role of business and political leaders

Working class perspective

• Further burdened by government taxes

• Fled to cities

• Created a cheap and exploitable labor supply– Rigid hierarchy may have been officially

abolished– Maintained through social classes– Traditional relationships & access to

opportunity prevailed

Meiji Military

• Imperial army based on conscription, 1871

• For rural males - route to upward mobility

Meiji Education

• Imperial Rescript on Education, 1890– American model – 3 tiered system– Sent students abroad– Attracted foreign scholars to teach– Women provided with new opportunities – Strong emphasis placed on traditional

Confucian virtues of Filial piety – loyalty to the state

Women’s Status

• 1872 educational edict expanding women’s education– conservative backlash

• 1890, Restricted franchise to males• Restricted women to the family sphere• 1900 New regulations prohibited women from

joining political organizations or attending public meetings

Women’s struggle for Rights

• 1905 women petitioned parliament to rescind the regulations restricting women– Not done until 1922

• Hiratsuka Raicho– Founded the Journal SEITO or “Blue

Stockings”– Promote women’s liberation in Japan– Proclamation at the founding of Seito Society

Meiji Foreign Policy• Emulated western expansionist model

– 1874 claimed rights over Ryukyu Islands from Qing

– 1876 pressured Korea to open 3 ports to Japanese commerce in exchange for recognizing Korean Independence

– Treaty of Shimonoseki, 1895 ceded Taiwan, Liaodong & Port Arthur to Japan

• Russo-Japanese war, 1905 expanded into Russian Spheres of Influence in china

– 1908 annexed Korea