China: Internal Crises and Western Intrusion

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China Internal Crises and Western Intrusion
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I. The Opium War and the Taiping Rebellion
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The Opium War (1839-1841) and Its Causes

• Incompatibility of Chinese and Western Worldview
• Failure of Macartney (1793) Amherst (1816)
  missions
• British demand for Chinese Tea
• East India Company (Arm of British Imperialism)
• Tax on tea provides 1/10th British govt revenue

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How to Pay for Tea?

• Imbalance of Trade favored China
• Silver flows into China to pay for Tea
• Country Trade between India and China did not
  produce balance of trade
• British finally discovered a product that Chinese
  bought in sufficient quantities to balance trade
  --

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Opium
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Opium Trade

• Reverses balance of trade
• Silver flows out of China
• 1834 East India Co. monopoly abolished
• Attempt to bypass Canton System
• Lord Napier represented British Crown violates
  Canton System regulations
• Chinese withdrawn food cut off trade stopped
• Napier finally backs down dies in Macao

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Lin Zexu (1785-1850)

• Lin Xexu appointed imperial commissioner to stamp
  out drug trade
• Appealed to Queen Victoria
• Demanded foreigners surrender all opium and sign
  a pledge to refrain from selling opium
• Elliot ordered British merchants to comply
  British government responsible for compensation

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Opium War

• British firms exerted pressure for a military
  response
• British fired on a merchant ship that had signed
  the pledge Chinese responded with 21 war junks
• Jan 31, 1840 Governor General of India declares
  war on China
• August 29, 1842 Treaty of Nanjing ends the war
  over vanquished Chinese

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Treaty of Nanjing and the Treaty System

• Set pattern for later treaties unequal treaties
• Canton System and Cohong monopoly abolished five
  ports opened up to British trade Hong Kong ceded
  to British
• Established a Chinese tariff (ave. 5)
• Extraterritoriality
• Most-favored-nation

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The Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864)

• Hong Xiuquan (1814-1864)
• Hakka ethnicity
• Failed examination candidate
• Visions
• Association of God Worshippers and the Heavenly
  Kingdom of Great Peace (Taiping tianguo)

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Taiping Ideology

• Strict, puritanical morality
• Opium, tobacco, gambling, prostitution, sexual
  misconduct, foot binding prohibited
• Economic and social egalitarianism
• Land redistribution equal allotment based on
  soil productivity no private property
• Political units of 25 families leaders combine
  civil and military duties

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The Rebellion

• Rapid military advance captured Nanjing by 1853
• Well organized picked up strength as they went
• Incompetence of government forces
• Pause in Nanjing interrupted their momentum
• British adopts policy of neutrality
• Internal leadership disputes

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Rebellion Fails

• Failure of Taiping Leadership internal strife,
  20,000 killed
• Inadequate implementation of stated policies
• Practice did not fit theory e.g., Kings kept
  concubines restricted to others.
• Missed Opportunities
• Halted at Nanjing Momentum stalls
• Religious fanaticism makes it difficult to to
  cooperate with secret societies, other
  rebellions, and Westerners
• Anti-Confucian rhetoric repelled Confucian
  scholars who otherwise would have supported
  anti-Manchu stance
• Rule by civilized Manchu preferable to rule by
  barabarized Chinese

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Regional Forces

• Zeng Guofan (1811-1872) Scholar-Official
• Organized a regional force Hunan Army
• Paternalistic attitude
• Generous pay scale
• Moral indoctrination
• Use of regional forces
• Li Hongzhang Anhu Army
• Ever Victorious Army
• Ultimately dangerous to the dynasty

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Defeat of Taipings

• Loyalist armies laid siege to Nanjing
• July 19, 1864 Nanjing falls
• Bloodbath 100,000 Taipings slaughtered by
  Loyalist armies
• Official line is they refused to surrender
• Loyalist armies quell other rebellions

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Significance of Taiping Rebellion

• Scale of Rebellion
• Geography
• Loss of Life
• Rise of Regional Authority
• Transfer of power from center to provinces
• Rise of Warlordism
• Transfer of real power back to Han Chinese
• Nationalist and Communist Revolutionaries claim
  heritage from Taipings

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Taiping Map
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II. 1870-1894
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The Post-Taiping Revival

• Xianfeng Emperor dies in 1861
• His son ascends the throne at young age as the
  Tongzhi Emperor
• His mother Cixi shares power with Prince Gong as
  co-regents.
• Period known as the Tongzhi Restoration
  (1862-1874)

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Tongzhi Restoration

• For the time being, we have to make use of
  foreigners to train our soldiers, as a scheme for
  self-strengthening.

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Self-Strengthening The First Phase

• Fortify the Qing through selective borrowing from
  the West
• Military, economic, diplomatic

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Zongli Yamen

• Special office to deal with foreign powers and
  related matters.
• Appeal to international law, using Henry
  Wheatons Elements of International Law
• Sponsored foreign language and other
  nontraditional subjects in 1862

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Maritime Customs Service

• Horatio Nelson Lay
• Robert Hart

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Diplomatic Mission to West

• Anson Burlingame
• Traveled with a Manchu and Chinese official in
  1867
• Toured Washington and European Capitals

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Tianjin Massacre, 1870

• Rumors spread regarding Catholic orphanage
• Erupted into mob violence
• French Consul killed along with 20 foreigners,
  including 10 nuns
• Mobilized gunboats, Qing investigates
• Frances defeat in the Franco-Prussian War
  deprived France of Military power
• Fatal blow to policy of cooperation

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The Empress Dowager and the Government

• Cixi, educated daughter of minor Manchu Official
• Brought into imperial harem as low ranking
  concubine
• Delivered the Xianfeng emperors only son
• Became co-regent with Prince Gong when her son
  ascended the throne as the Tongzhi Emperor

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Education

• Overseas Education
• Between 1872-1881 120 young Chinese students sent
  to United States
• Assimilation to American Culture
• Abandoned when students denied admission to
  Westpoint
• Focused on domestic education
• Reform Civil Service Exam

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Economic Self-Strengthening

• Shipping, textile, telegraph, coal mines
• Government Supervision and Merchant Operation
• Failed to take off
• Limited to periphery

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Traditional Economic Sector

• Chinese tea growers unable to compete in world
  market
• Limited influence of world market on Chinese
  economy cultivation of cotton
• Agricultural Involution

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Missionary Efforts and Christian Influences

• Protestant Missions established after Treaty
  Systems
• Brought secular knowledge, established schools,
  hospitals, orphanages.
• Limited success

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Poor Showing of Christianity

• Difficulties in translation
• Christianity associated with Taiping Rebellion
  and unequal treaties
• Both caused resentment
• Rice Christians
• Scurrilous stories and rumors encouraged by elite

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III. Foreign Relations
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Continued Pressures

• Western powers begin encroaching on Chinas
  neighbor and/or tributary states

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Vietnam and the Sino-French War of 1884-1885

• China served as model for Nguyen dynasty
  (1802-1945)
• Early French involvement in Vietnam
• Assisted Gia-long to seize the throne
• Catholicism made gains
• Cochin China
• 1859 France Seized Saigon
• Later gains control over three southern provinces
• Used as base to expand power
• Established protectorate over Cambodia, Central
  and North Vietnam
• 1882 France seized Hanoi

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Hanoi appeals to China

• Qing sends troops to protect its Tributary
• Peace agreement
• China abandons claim to suzerainty over Vietnam
• French sovereignty expands to include Vietnam,
  Cambodia, and Laos known as French Indochina
• British conquered Burma
• China ceded Macao to Portugal

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Korea and the Sino-Japanese War
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The Treaty of Shimonoseki