Qing Dynasty Isolation

Before the arrival of western powers, China was very stable, agricultural, and ethnocentric. They had many factories that produced silk, cotton, and porcelain with their natural resources: salt, tin, silver, and iron mines. They had no interest of trade or interaction with foreigners. From the early eighteenth century, European and American Imperialism spread throughout China with a goal to extend their nation’s power. China was one of many territories that undertook the changes of New Imperialism. By 1912, the country was governed by outside nations: Great Britain (mostly), Russia, Germany, France, and Japan. Their influence on China resulted malignantly on the country’s economy, political ties, and lifestyle; in spite of the few

While under the rule of the Emperor Qianlong, China’s foreign policy and trade was beginning to unfold and open up to Europe. Qianlong, however, still maintained a strict and regulated administration of all foreign trade and foreign ability to exist within China. “ It is true that Europeans, in the service of the dynasty, have been permitted to live at Peking, but they are compelled to adopt Chinese dress, they are strictly confined to their own precincts and are never permitted to return home.” All outside interactions with China could only be permitted if ‘in the

Qianlong emperor’s reaction to Macartney’s mission angered the British as well. Qianlong emperor’s over confidence was shown in the court when he met the British ambassador Macartney. He required Macartney to wear Chinese clothes and practice Chinese kowtow. “But Macartney was not going to obligate, or rather he would perform the three-times-three only if some mandarin also kowtowed before his own sovereign George III, a portrait of whom he had thoughtfully included in his baggage” (32). Even though China had a great power during that time, Macartney did not considered himself as who came from a weaker country. China did not think it needed products from foreign countries. “Chinese needed nothing and traded a little with tribute-bearing barbarians only out of affectionate

Qing China refers to the period of Chinese history between 1644 and 1911, when the foreign Manchus established a dynasty and ruled over China, calling themselves the Qing. The non-Chinese tribes that came to power at this time were from the area that would later be called Manchuria. Geographically, Qing China grew three times the size of what it was under the Ming, expanding north to include areas of Mongolia and Manchuria, as well as west. The country was divided into provinces, with each province being managed and governed under tusi, or native chieftains. The region of China is largely mountainous, with the majority of the population densely packed near the coast and around the Yellow River Valley. After establishing their rule, the Manchus created a new dynasty and declared a new emperor, carrying on the traditional Chinese system of government and administration that had existed since the time of the Tang. Despite this,

This was a major example of imperialism as these treaties favored foreign trade but China didn’t gain any concession from the foreigners. This in turn weakening the economic power of china and the governments control over the country weakened.

During the early nineteenth century, both China and Japan enforced policies restricting foreign trade in order to avoid industrialization and western ideas, but after both societies experienced foreign invasions and unequal treaties being established by foreigners, Japan began to industrialize and became imperialists trying to create an empire, while China differed in that the people wanted reform and government restrained the reformation of their society, therefore causing multiple rebellions and overall the collapse of their empire.

Manchus were the one that took control of China after the Yuan (which was the Mongols) and established themselves as the Qing Dynasty. It is also this dynasty that the modern Chinese started. Around the 18th century, the Qing was at its height. However, by the start of the 19th century until the early 20th century, the Qing Dynasty started going downhill with domestic political and foreign policy problems. Within the nation, there were continuation and changes to the traditional Confucian system; Furthermore, there were rebellions due to foreign competitions that lead to the end of the Qing Dynasty.

In China, the French, Germans, Russians, and British all aided in taking down the empire. Whereas in the Ottoman Empire, although Russia was a threat, they were protected by the British, a much stronger power, because Great Britain did not want Russia invading the trading empire they created in the Middle East. The Ottomans were also faced with the issues of holding their territories. By 1870, the Ottomans were pushed out of Hungary and the Balkan almost entirely. The Qing was not faced with this problem; they were actually expanding their

Many European countries such as Germany, France, and Great Britain, as well as Russia, Japan and the United States wanted to gain control of the Chinese market and dominate the trade and goods of that country. The result of

a. The Qing dynasty was proclaimed by rulers of the former Chinese vassal, the celestial kingdom , with its first capital at Shenyang (Mukden). When the Ming dynasty fell to rebel forces in 1644, the Qing earned the support of much of the bureaucracy and military by presenting themselves as protectors of the manchurian order. The Qing capital was moved to beijing that same year, and the new dynasty had reconquered all of southern China by Ming generals .

d. Contact with the West increased in the 17th century, but in the early 18th century, the Qing rulers restricted trade to land outside the walls of . The 1793 British mission to expand trade did not succeed, and the emperor Qianlong explained in a letter to George III that China British manufactured goods.

The Qing dynasty (1916-1912) is the last imperial dynasty of China, it was consider as the most powerful country during the “golden age” ruled by Kang Xi and Qian Long, and it has over 400 million population and has the 1st ranked GDP in the world at the moment. The Qing has the supreme power at the time and has the significant influence in East Asian. However, the collapse of the Qing Dynasty made a humiliate history of China. The Qing dynasty doesn't fall suddenly, and the collapse of Qing is not just simply because domestic revolution and alien invasion. The failure of the Qing government is worthy to study, we need to take a deep step and explore the root cause of the collapse of Qing.

In the early eighteen hundreds, Britain and other European countries demanded more and more Chinese commodities, especially tea and silk. However, only the port in Canton was opened to foreign countries, and Chinese would not take any other form of payments besides silver. The desire to make China into a free market that foreigners have more access to and the increasing, though illegal, European opium import to China eventually created tension between the European countries, especially Britain, and the Chinese government (Allingham Par. 1-2). The two battles fought and won by European powers were known as the Opium Wars. China’s politics, economy, and intellects were both positively and negatively

China experiences the pressure of the imperialist’s military which China did not have the knowledge or the experience to match. China went from a superior leader, self-sufficient country, that thought that everyone else were barbarians to a torn country. China accepted foreign trade, but they wanted to control and limit how much and with who the trade was used for, they felt that they European trade was unnecessary. They did not allow the western merchants to have any power or privileges and restricted them to Canton, plus they refused to open their trade system beyond Co-Hong which caused china to not become as prosperous as Japan. (Valentini 2013) Because China the believed that they were the center of civilization and that the Western culture was inferior the Chinese government refused to go along with any of the European’s request and the two nations became hostile towards

European trade with China was historically restricted. In 1793, emperor Qianlong denied King George III's request for fewer trade restrictions by declaring, “Our Celestial Empire possesses all things in prolific abundance... There was therefore no need to import