WHE period 9
Cutrone/Huh
China: Chapter 4: 150 Years of Revolution and Change
(A brief overview of China’s transition to a modern state)
Quest Date: Wednesday 4-1-2009
Remember to also review:
- Handouts and class notes
- Homework assignments (SAW 15:5, 16:1 & 2)
- Textbook chapters
Collapse of the Qing and the dynastic system
- People previously trusted rulers because of the mandate of heaven (ex: Kang Xi)
- Increasing corruption and incompetence in the Qing dynasty (ex: Pu Yi and the eunuchs) make people lose respect for the system
- Results in political and social chaos & discontent and despair à ripe for revolution
- Ci Xi: empress dowager
Opium Wars
- Britain vs. China
- Britain thought of China as an inferior, and an untapped market for them to exploit – wanted free access to China and resources
- China thought of Britain as barbarians who were unworthy of respect, and unnecessary
- Causes:
- Ethnocentrism – China has no official relations with European governments (as per myth #1 that we talked about in class)
- Foreign trade was restricted (because of the view mentioned above)
- China’s favorable balance of trade – export more than import, sell more than buy
- Opium
- China’s resistance to the Opium trade
- War broke out in 1839 over destruction of Opium
- China’s rude awakening: British ship “The Nemesis” served as a metaphor of British technological superiority
Taiping Rebellion (goal: trying to fix the government)
- Lasted 14 years and over 20 million died
- Weakened respect for the emperor/dynasty
- Causes:
Ø Food shortages
Ø Heavy taxes
Ø Western Presence
Ø Western influences
Ø Dynasty in decline
Ø Hung Hsui-Chaun à the Savior of China?
- Events:
Ø Kingdom of Heaven on Earth is formed
Ø Government starts to harass them
Ø Kingdom becomes a military organization
Ø 1850: Hung is attacked
Ø Era of “Taiping” (Great Peace)
- Consequences:
Ø Tremendous loss of life (20-30 million dead)
Ø Tremendous loss of property
Ø European influence expands
Ø Missionaries allowed in the interior
Boxer Revolution (goal: trying to get out the foreigners)
* The Last Chapter of the Qing Dynasty *
- Civil war within the country
- Starving peasants wanted to get ride of western barbarians
- Great bloodshed
- Western troops arrive and fight
- Causes:
Ø Europeans and Japanese “eating away at China”
Ø The Boxers – “Society of Harmonious Fists”
Ø Manipulation by the empress (to fight off foreigners)
Ø Mass uprising throughout northern China
Ø Massacres of Chinese Christians and Missionaries
Ø Siege at Beijing
- Consequences:
Ø Humiliation of Qing
Ø Empress dowager stripped of any real power
Ø Europeans could maintain a military in Beijing
Ø Collapse of Qing and the dynastic system (1911)
Unequal treaties (Treaty of Nanjing)
- China has to pay reparations ($) – all the money and resources the British has to use during the war
- Surrendered Hong Kong to the British (B just recently gave it back in 1997)
- 5 port cities opened for trade (meant that C had to buy things from other countries even though they didn’t want/need to)
- Foreigners allowed to live and work in cities
- Controlled China’s international trade (forced “open door”)
- Extraterritoriality: westerners won the right to be tried in their own courts instead of China’s courts, when accused of a crime in China
- Most-favored Nation Status given to B
Sphere of Influence
- Indirect colonization (rule from afar) of the British on the Chinese economy
- When a foreign nation has special economic privileges (p. 345)
Kowtow: bowing low to a superior (emperor)
Sun Yat-Sen: “The Dreamer”
- Provisional (temporary) leader after Qing dynasty
- Forms a republic
- Loses position or perhaps gives it up to… à
à Yuan Shih-K’ai: “The Gunman”
- Next leader of republic
- Establishes a dictatorship
Sun Yat-sen’s Vision: Three principles of the people:
1. Nationalism – unify China and end foreign control – China for the Chinese
2. Democracy – representative government – Some form of people power
3. Livelihood – ensuring a decent living for all of China – equalizing land distribution – entitled to necessities in order to survive
Kuomintang
- Forms after Sun leaves office - under the time of Yuan’s rule
- Nationalist group
- Sun’s supporters – Sun leads them even though he’s not in charge of the country anymore
Era of the Warlords (1920s)
- Constant changing of power
- “Rule by Killing”
- China divided significantly (sections all over the country)
- Peasants terrorized
- Looting and rape, famine and death
- * No central government *
- à Russia and Japan are very aware of China’s changes and weaknesses
Changes:
- Sun dies…
- …Chiang Kai Shek assumes control of Nationalists
- Breaks with Communists (1927)
The Long March
- Led by Mao
- Trek 6,000 miles from southeastern China to the northwest
- Over a year span
- 90,000 people made up this army
- Symbol of bitter hardships the Communists endured before gaining power
Communists Win
- Chiang and supporters flee to Taiwan
- Mao takes control of the mainland
- People’s Republic of China – communist
- Republic of China – Taiwan – nationalist
Mao Zedong – Communism
Goals: 1. Better life for the Poor
2. Modernization
3. Make China a world power
Agricultural Revolution:
- Redistribute land
- Landlo9rds terrorized
- Millions of acres confiscated by government
- Grow for the government and keep some for your family
- * Lack of incentive to work hard
The Great Leap Forward
- From socialism to communism
- Great changes to China’s social and economic structure
- No private ownership
- Communal living
- Results:
o Disaster
o Too much too fast
o Peasant resistance
o Lack of incentive to work hard
o Famine, floods, and droughts
o 20 million dead
Totalitarian State: government controls every aspect of the citizen’s lives through a single party dictatorship
Propaganda: spread of ideas to promote a cause or damage an opposing cause
Collective farms
Capitalism: free market economy in which the means of production are owned and operated by the people for their individual profit
Proletariat: industrial working class
Communes: under Mao - divided areas of China – each included villages, land, and up to 20,000 people – commune controlled land and peasants’ lives
The Cultural Revolution
- Attempt to purify China
- Attack traditional beliefs and habits
- Nationalist supporters
- Attack western influences
- Results:
o Persecution of intellectuals, teachers, government officials, party officials, and their families
o Violence
o Divisions
o Chaos
o Country and party seriously divided
Red Guard: students and young factory workers under Mao’s cultural revolution – mass rallies; attacked those around the country who didn’t support Mao, and those in the middle and upper class; forced people to confess to crimes against Mao * decade of chaos, lost generation *
Mao Dies à Bitter power struggles, Almost civil war
à Moderates gain control under Deng Xiaoping
The Four Modernizations (Deng Xiaoping)
- 1. Modernization of agriculture
- 2. Expand industry
- 3. Develop science and technology
- 4. Upgrade the military
- Results:
o Foreign trade expanded
o Purchase of foreign technology
o Use of foreign scientists and technicians
o Capitalism emerges
o Educational success based on merit
Tiananmen Square
- Student protest to demand political freedom
- Great Massacre