Essential Question:
What was the impact of
European imperialism on
China?
Warm Up Questions:
The Chinese have
always referred to
themselves as the
Middle Kingdom
The Chinese viewed outsiders as
barbarians & saw little value in
trade with foreign merchants
The Great Wall was built to protect
China from barbarian attacks
But, outsiders came across the Silk
Road for Chinas exotic goods
As a result, China became
the dominant empire in Asia
(and the world)
China eventually did
trade which helped
spread Chinese culture
throughout Asia
But, outside merchants
always had to obey Chinese
rules & show respect
In 1644, northern invaders called Manchus
conquered China & created the Qing Dynasty
Qing
China faced 2 challenges that
would
Text
threaten Chinas future strength
A population boom led to a
rise in the number of Chinese
peasants & competition for land
European missionaries & merchants arrived
in Asia with hopes of trading with China
In 1793, Chinese Emperor Qian Long
wrote a letter to answer a request for trade
by British King George III:
Strange and costly objects do not interest
me As your Ambassador can see for
himself,
we possess all things. I set no value on
objects strange or ingenious, and have no
use for your country's manufactures.
What did Emperor Long say to King George?
The Chinese had little interest in trading with
the West & were able to reject trade offers
China had a healthy
agricultural economy, large
deposits of natural
The British were
desperate
resources,
&
manufactured
to find a product that the
products
silk,
cotton
Chinese like
would
buy
clothes, porcelain
For decades, China
exported goods to
European merchants
but refused to buy
European products
In the 1800s, the British
smuggled opium from
India into China
By 1835, 12 million
Chinese citizens were
addicted to opium
When Britain refused to end the
opium trade, Commission Lin
appealed directly to British Queen
Victoria
Read an excerpt from Commissioner
Lins letter to Queen Victoria
The Chinese outlawed opium sales & appointed
Commissioner Lin to end opium smuggling
The British refused to end the opium
trade & China declared war on Britain
Britain used its modern navy to easily
win the Opium Wars (1839-1842)
The Treaty of Nanjing ended the Opium Wars:
Britain received Hong Kong & extraterritorial rights in
China ( foreigners were not subject to Chinese laws)
In addition to its foreign problems, China also
faced major problems with its own people
By 1850, Chinas
population grew so
rapidly that agriculture
could not keep up
In 1853, Hong Xiuquan
led the Taiping Rebellion
in an attempt end
poverty among peasants
The Qing defeated
the rebels in 1864 but
the rebellion killed 20
million people &
weakened China
Britain & other industrial powers took
advantage of Chinas weakness to force China
to sign unequal trade treaties in particular ports
By 1900, China was carved into a series
of spheres of influences: areas where a
foreign nation had exclusive trade rights
The division of China
worried the USA that
it would be shut out
of Chinese trade
In 1899, the USA proposed
an Open Door Policy in
China so merchants from
all nations can trade freely
The growth of foreign influence, poverty among
peasants, & Christianity upset many Chinese
In 1900, frustrated
Chinese led the
Boxer Rebellion to expel
foreigners from China
An army of 19,000
British, French, American
soldiers finally ended
the Boxer Rebellion
The power of foreign imperialists & the violence
of the Boxer Rebellion led to calls to reform China
Reformers looked to the
West for ways to fix China
In 1911, Sun Yat-sen led
an overthrow of the
Qing Dynasty & created
a democracy with a
written constitution
Suns goal was to promote
nationalism, democracy,
& economic security for
all Chinese citizens
Over 3,000 years of dynastic
rule came to an end