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HISTORY OF EUROPEAN COLONIZATION 9

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HISTORY OF EUROPEAN COLONIZATION 9

!!! CHINA

  • early modern age: among most powerful countries

  • power over almost all of East Asia

  • it reached as far as East Africa

  • slow contact with European traders - Portugese first (Macau, 16th), Dutch second (17th)

  • Christian missionaries: Matteo Ricci (early 17th), Ferdinanrd Verbiest (17th) - hes highly valued, becomes a mandarin in court

  • Qing dynasty, final chinese dynasty. powerful in 17th

  • this dynasty recudes trade with Europe (18th, 19th), centering itonly to Canton/Guangdong

  • good trade balance: exported tea, silk, china; imported silver

  • ! China begins declining in 19th Century: Industrial Revolution

  • White Lotus rebelion (dynasty’s prestige is stained)

  • ! opium trade (18th, especially 19th): British India grows opium, is exported to Chinese markets

  • by late 19th Century 10% of Canton population is addicted to opium, disruptive to China

  • opium in China portrayed in Dutch comics

  • March 1839 - a ship with opium is destroyed in Canton

  • Brits want to punish the Chinese, first opium war

  • ! 1839-1842: first opium war. Brits conquer Canton, reach as far as Shenghai

  • ! 1842: treaty of Nanjing. Opium trade continues, Brits recieve Hong Kong, Brits demand the opening of 5 ports for Britian

  • in this way, Brits now set the rule of trades, not the Chinese

  • extraterritoriality: Europeans now control some territories, bring in European judges, etc.

  • This whole British system is labeled ‘unequal treaties’

  • 1844: France & US follow China, treaty ports emerge

  • treaty ports persist into even the 20th Century

  • Tianjin: patchwork of consessions to a wide variety of European nations & Japan

  • ! Second Opium War (1856-60) - chinese resistance, after 10-15 years a new act of protest

  • in Canton: chinese authorithies arrest chinese memebers of a ship’s crew

  • used as a pretext for new opium war by Brits & French

  • Taijing is conquered (close to Beijing)

  • 1858: treaty to Taijing. Christian missionaries no longer have any restrictions

  • Western diplomats can reside in Beijing, but just a year later (1859) they’re chased away

  • ! 1860: French and Brits embark of penal expedition to punish Chinese for kicking out Western diplomants, depose emperor, destroy summer palace

  • clear victory for europeans of second opium war

  • new emperor takes throne
    [around the same time the Mutiny is happening in British India]

  • (1858-60) Russia expands its territory in far east, taking advantage of Chinese weakness (Vladivostok, etc.)

  • 1860: after 2nd opium war stagnation takes place, collaboration between europeans and chinese (authorithies realize theres no other option)

  • ! Taiping rebellion: violent, 20-30 million victims. Chinese emperor couldn’t handle, recieves aid from brits & french, so the Ching dynasty becomes a puppet to the west.

  • Chinese emperor owes his rule to the Europeans helping him crush the rebellion

  • modernization of chinese society: western edu. system, factories, industrialization.

  • growing Western presence in China in 1860s

  • 1870s onwards: new tensions. London doesn’t modify treaty, anti-christian movement, concerns about EU colonization of past Chinese states (Indochina)

  • 1860s: living together. 1870s: new tensions

  • Japan becomes an important player as well. Tokugawa lineage of shoguns (1603-1867) is very powerful, able to resist euroepan colonization [think persecution of missionaries, restricted trade]

  • 1850s: American commander Matthew Perry sails to a port and trades there (ignores trade restrictions)

  • this leads to a Japanese civil war

  • new age of enlightenment, new emperor

  • 1867: Emperor Meiji; wants to avoid China’s faith (Opium Wars)

  • Modernization of Japan

  • 1894-95: Japan wins war with China (recieves Taiwan/Liaodong)

  • Europeans are now afraid of the Japanese; Russians, Germans and French force Liaodong back to China (afraid of a growing Japan)

  • 1896: in return Russia recieves concession: railway from Siberia to Vladivostok via Manchuria

  • 1897: Germans claim colony Qingdao (interesting note: the most famous chinese beer is from there, due to German influence)

  • 1898: Russia recieves port city Lushun (port Arthur)

  • ! With Japan’s war of conquest against China a process of further partitioning of China by the West is triggered

  • Other EU nations jealous of Germans & Russians.

  • Brits want a port South of the Russians; they also claim influence over the Yangzi river

  • Japanese also recieve Fuijan (mainland, opposite to Taiwan)

  • French recieve region North of French Indochina

  • ! at the end of the 19th Century there’s a partitioning of China

Chinese reaction to all of this:

  • they decide they need to reform, to avoid western carvin
  • emperor embarks on Western reforms
  • 1898: Hundered days of reforms
  • Cixi (aunt of emperor, queen Dowager), most powerful in Chinese court - stops the reforms
  • 1898-1900: Boxer insurrection. Initially against Christian missionaries, afterwards against basically all of the West
  • began in Shandong, spread, supported by local authorithies, later by Cixi as well
  • eight weeks seige of foreign embassies in Beijing
  • 1900: stopped by a Western penal expedition
  • done by a series of nations, whom later argue over future of China:
  1. Russia & Japan want to devide territory further
  2. US, Britian & France defend Chinese integrity (Russia & Japan may become too strong; ‘Great Game’ is still going on)
  • ! end of Chinese partition. it remains independant

Summary:

  1. Economy: infrastructure built by Europeans, trade tarrifs
  2. Culture: spread of Christianity via missionaries, Western school system
  3. Territory: territories annexed, others brought under Western influence, extraterritoriality, etc.

China in early 20th:

  • Dowager Cixi launches reforms. After defeat of boxer rebellion she makes u-turn, conciedes.
  • abolishment of examination system; 1905: first chinese constitution, parliment
  • death of emperor and dowager in the span of a week
  • 1908: Puyi. new child emperor, final Chinese emperor
  • 1911: revolution
  • ! 1912: dissolusion of the Chinese empire, following this Western interference
  • 1912-16: Officer
  • China falls apart completely - warlords
  • Chinese nationalist party
  • 1912-1925 Sun Yat-sen: alliance with communists
  • 2 parties: nationalist (Chiang Kai-shek) & communist (Mao Zedong)
  • 1930s civil war, etc, etc, etc…
  • USSR influences it up until the 1960s
  • Western states gradually retrieve
  • China contributes to WW1, but is awarded nothing in Vienna conference
  • 1921-22: this leads to further upheaval, and finally the Conference of Washington: no more extraterritoriality, Chinese sovergnity, etc.
  • 1930: China controls its own tarrifs
  • 1943: final Unequal Treaty abolished
  • Hong Kong (brits, 1997) & Macau (1999, Portugese) returned to China

[In Chinese culture and shared memory this whole period of partition and colonization by the West is called the ‘Age of Humiliation’ - important for modern Chinese politics]

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