The Chinese Revolution of 1911 was a massive upheaval in which the Chinese populace overthrew their ruling Imperial dynasty. However it is up for debate about how such a large revolution can occur in such a diverse society. It is likely that the Chinese rose up in nationalism for their country as they believed the Qing betrayed them and were selling China out to foreigners. Three international influences on China from 1839-1949 support this thesis; the Treaty of Nanking and the Opium Wars, the First Sino-Japanese War and the Boxer Rebellion. These influences led to the successful revolution of 1911 in some way, either by causing civil unrest or sowing distrust in the government. These influences can be seen as the main cause of political change …show more content…
Much like the Opium Wars, the Chinese were facing a modernised country, resulting in many military defeats for China (Rickard, 2013). The war was declared in 1894, however there were reports of pre-fighting between the countries occurring. Due to the Japanese being more technologically advanced than the Chinese, the Japanese military could easily beat the Chinese military. This resulted in further humiliation of the Qing and the populace now believed the Qing “betrayed the country” (Lawrence, 1986), which resulted in civil unrest. By 1895, Japan controlled the Korean peninsula, and forced China to sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which resulted in China ceding Taiwan to Japan and also making China recognise the independence of Korea. However this incurred the interest of European nations who did not approve of Japanese expansion. Japan was forced to return some land to China. The European nations, France, Germany, Russia and Britain then divided up areas of China amongst themselves. This drastic humiliation of China resulted in the current Emperor enacting reforms to aid in modernisation, Western style schools were established, a new system of law introduced and government administration, agriculture, railways and postal services were overhauled. However these reforms were undone by the retired former Empress Cixi when she heard of it, which …show more content…
The Boxer Rebellion was named for the combat style that the Boxers practice, boxing. In a quote from American writer, Mark Twain, he describes the Boxer soldiers. “The Boxer is a patriot. He loves his country better than he does the countries of other people.” This account provides a unique perspective of how an American would perceive a Boxer, which is valuable considering America sent troops to eliminate the Boxer Rebellion to protect their growing interests in the Pacific. The Boxers entered Beijing in 1900, with Empress Cixi’s support and began destroying and killing any foreign influence, including Christians, railways and telegraph poles to name a few. Foreigners in Beijing at the time were held up in the British embassy, essentially a fortress until reinforcements from numerous countries, France, Germany, Russia, America and Britain were sent as a relief army. This army arrived and eliminated the Boxers easily, again due to being outmatched by modernise countries. As a result of this, the Chinese were forced to pay a large sum of money to be divided among the countries involved. China was also now home to more foreign troops being stationed. They were also not permitted to fortify their eastern coast or import weapons. The Boxer leaders were publicly executed
The Political Turmoil of China From 1911 to 1927 There were many reasons why China slipped into political instability or turmoil between 1911 and 19287. There reasons include the questionable leadership of Yuan Shih Kai, the presence of the warlords, the One of the reasons was that questionable leadership of Yuan Shih Kai. When Yuan took over control from Sun Yat Sen as the President, he tried to revert to the monarchical system of rule. From 1912 until 1915, he ruled as a military dictator with the support of the army. His rule was already blemished with resistance and that demonstrated that the people did not quite accept him as the leader of China.
Aptly named the Boxer Rebellion, the first question you must ask if who the Boxers are. The Boxers is the name used by western society to call the peasant based group Yi-he Quan, which can be generally translated to “Righteousness Fists of Harmony” or “Boxers United in Righteousness” (Page 35).Very few written documents are composed by the Boxers as they were largely illiterate. As a group they were largely autonomous, with no central leader or a ranking system. The Boxer’s were largely composed ...
Immigration, the act of coming to live permanently in a foreign country. Throughout the United States’ history, immigrants faced various challenges and especially after 1880. Most immigrants moved to achieve the American dream of having a better life and pursuing their dreams. But, this experience as they moved, was different for every immigrant. Some lives improved while others did not. Immigrants such as Catholics, Italians, and the Chinese were not welcomed into America in the late 19th century and early 20th century because of their differences in beliefs and cultures.
The Taiping rebellion was not a rebellion against foreign authorities like that of the British, but an upheaval against local authority after western ideas were introduced into the Chinese culture. The Rebellion was a civil war led by Christian convert Hong Xiuquan ag...
Japan had to open ports to foreign commerce when they lost the fight against Europe and America in Tokyo Bay (Bentley 508). After losing, Japan began industrializing and soon enhanced their military by investing in tools from western empires, who had very strong and powerful militaries. Once Japan had built a strong military they began to fight for Korea. They fought China and “demolished the Chinese fleet in a battle lasting a mere five hours,” and they later gained Korea and treaty rights in China (Bentley 550). China’s military was very weak. After losing Hong Kong and many trading ports to western empires following the Opium War, China was in trouble. Chinese people began rebelling against the Qing Dynasty. After the most popular rebellion, The Taiping Rebellion, China began the Self-Strengthening Movement. “While holding to Confucian values, movement leaders built shipyards, constructed railroads, established weapons industries, opened steel foundries with blast furnaces, and founded academies to develop scientific expertise” (Bentley 543). After doing all of these things, China still did not have a strong enough military. They continued to deal with problems from the western
Fairbank, John King. The Great Chinese Revolution 1800-1985. New York, NY: Harper & Row, 1986.
The imperial realms of East Asia before the 19th century were largely based on the theory that Asian countries were far better than their neighbors in the West. The nonchalant manner portrayed by East Asian countries towards western technology and culture led China to become unknowledgeable of the Western empires. As a result, China was astonishingly impacted by imperialism from Great Britain during the 1800’s. During the 18th century Great Britain had set up trade off the coast of the Chinese borders to trade British silver for China’s soft silks, fine porcelain, and strong teas. During this period Qing officials overlooked the foreign brokers. By the early 1800’s, however, Great Britain b...
In the First Sino-Japanese War in 1895, China at the time confronted impending risk of being parceled and colonized by colonialist powers...
The start of this war was when China wanted to end all trades with the British that contained any opium.
As expected Japan easily won the war, it was better prepared and arranged taking into consideration that it embraced modernization and adopted the western military organization. By contrast, the Qing government worked hard to preserve Chinese traditions therefore; it rejected any western innovation. All these reasons boosted the Japanese chances to win the war especially that China’s military was almost broken after the opium
The short story by Eileen Chang fully reflected the turmoil in China during the Japanese occupation in the 1940s. For decades, Japan has been trying to dominate China with incidents like the first Sino-Japanese war in 1894 where the two powers fought each other for the control of Korea. When Japan attacked Shanghai in what was known as the Battle of Shanghai in 28 January 1932, student bodies fought back and that resulted in the second Sino-Japanese war in history. Understandably the people of 1940s had extreme hatred for the Japanese due to the violence that Japanese military exercised on the country and its citizens. Strained political relationships in the city led to countless assassinations of Chinese government officials who worked ...
The Qing Dynasty prospered well into the 20th century despite the numerous problems the administration faced. However, during the early days of the 20th century, civil disorders continued to grow in such unmanageable factions that the administration was pushed to do something about it. The high living standards of the previous century had contributed to a sharp increase in China’s population, there was approximately 400 million people living in China around the nineteenth century. This spike increased population density, it also created a surplus of labour shortages, land shortages, inadequate food production and several famines. As an attempt for a solution, Empress Dowager Cixi proclaimed a call for proposals for reform from the generals and governors. There were three reform movements between 1860-1911, “ the Qing court and Chinese provincial officials had tried to adapt a wide range of Western techniques and ideas to China’s proven needs: artillery, ships, the telegraph, new schools, factories, chambers of commerce and international law” (Spence, 234). The first reform being the Self-strengthening Movement the second was the Hundred Days Reform and the last is regarded as the Late Qing reform. These three reforms were similar in the fact that the main objective was to strengthen China. However, there were multiple reasons for the failed plans of the reforms. Analyzing certain individuals and events during the late Qing dynasty will help determine if the Manchus would have been viable leaders for modern China.
[of] the Board of Regents that Xianfeng created on his deathbed.” On November 1, 1862 Cixi, with the help of Prince Gong (Kung) and his brother Prince Chun (Ch’un), “stripped the regents of all their offices, blamed them for the recent troubles of China and arrested them” : a successful coup. This was known as the Xinyou Palace Coup. Although the Empress Dowager Ci’an had precedence traditionally, she did not like to involve herself in politics. This left much room for Cixi to thrive, especially because, during this time, “no one saw anything more in the twenty-six year old mother of the T’ung-chih
Moreover, the reformers were too idealistic and had not real understanding of power politics. Kang and Liang were southern scholars who had no political experience. They didn’t understand the political intricacies of the metropolitan government, thus they were easily defeated when Tuan Shi-kai betrayed them. Guangxu had no actual power also, or he wouldn’t have asked Yuan for help.
He Lian Bo Bo Da Wang (Mei Yi), Yi Jiu Yi Yi, Ge Ming Yu Su Ming (Hong Kong, Hong Kong Open Page Publishing Co, Ltd., pp.1-35, 138-157. Hsueh, Chun- tu, The Chinese Revolution of 1911: New Perspectives (Hong Kong: Joint _____Publishing Co., 1986), pp.1-15, 119-131, 139-171. Lin Jiayou, Xin Hai Ge, Ming Yu, Zhong Hua Min, Zu De Jue Xing (Guangzhou, Guangdong _____Ren Min Chu Ban She, 2011), pp.