#3026 - Week 3 Reading Maddison Chapter 2 - Chinese Economic History Since 1850

Population more than doubled from 1700 to 1820 to 381 million

• Twice as fast as Europe

• 8x as fast as Japan

• Accommodated by fall in living standards

• Chinese GDP grew faster than Europe

National territory under Imperial control doubled

• In order to prevent “barbarian intrusions”

• So-called periphery regions (Tibet, Mongolia, Manchuria)

“Nineteenth century was a dismal contrast”

• Internal rebellions

• Yellow River not maintained

  • Silting up of Grand Canal

    • Could no longer be used to supply grain to Peking (Beijing)

  • Dramatic change in course in 1852-1855

• By end of 19^th Century, population hadn’t grown, and per-capita income “almost certainly [was] lower”

• United States took over as largest economy

Foreign challenges from 1840s onwards

• Coastal defenses had been neglected

• No naval forces or modern artillery

• Psychologically and intellectually unable to respond

Little interest in foreign trade

“No knowledge of Western geography and technology”

Britain built up opium market in China to pay for tea from Canton

• Imports of opium were illegal, but officials were lax

• China responded too late, with official seizures in 1839

  • Britain provoked war

  • Treaty of Nanking -> Ceded Hong Kong Island in 1842

    • Opened up treaty ports to Britain

Had to export silver to meet a deficit

• Previously had inflows

92 treaty ports by 1917

Taiping Rebellion (1850 to 1864) was a “major ideological challenge to Qing imperial authority and to the Confucian gentry-bureaucrats”

• Originated in the deep south (Kwangsi province)

• Started by a Hakka who had failed the civil service examinations

  • Saw himself as the son of God

• Anti-Manchu

• Abolished Confucian educational curriculum

• Desecrated temples and shrines

• Moved north in 1851 and captured ammunitions, grain and ships

• Established ‘Heavenly Capital’ in Nanking

• But had internal conflicts ‘who challenged the Heavenly King’

• Enlarged domain to East in 1860

• Was not an anti-foreign movement

  • And Westerners were neutral to begin with until later when they started to harass their trade

• Qing defeated the rebellion with new professional armies (a Hunan army and navy of 120,000)

  • Destroyed the rebellion in Nanking in 1864

• Ended the strict separation of bureaucrats and the military

• Increasing reliance on Chinese rather than Manchu officials

Joint attack by British and French during Taiping rebellion in 1858-1860

• Wanted to expand shipping and trading privileges

• Ended with more concessions (Kowloon added to Hong Kong territory)

• Attempted to setup a foreign policy in China

  • Legations abroad in 1877-79

Russian seizure of Eastern Siberia also during Taiping rebellion

• China ceded this in Treaty of Peking (1860)

• China lost the entire pacific coast of Manchuria

From 1885 to 1895 France took more tributary territory in Vietnam

• Had been doing so since 1859

• France blockaded Taiwan

In 1886 Chinese surrendered Burma to the British

War with Japan in 1894-95

• From 1870s Japan put pressure over the Ryuku Islands (Okinawa) and Taiwan

• 1876 sent military and naval forces to Korea and opened up ports to Japanese consular jurisdiction

• Sparked war in 1894 in Korea and defeated the Chinese navy

  • Most notably took Port Arthur (Lushun)

• Led to Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895

  • Suzerainty over Korea lapsed

  • Taiwan, Pescadores and Liaotung peninsula ceded to Japan

  • Some treaty ports opened up to Japan

  • Japanese citizens and other foreigners were permitted to open factories and manufacture in China

• French, German and Russian pressure for Japan to withdraw from Liaotung

  • Resulted in reparations to Japan instead

• Led to Russian claims to land in Manchuria

  • Where they built the Chinese Eastern Railway from Chita to Vladivostok

  • Occupied Port Arthur and Dairen

  • Obtained right to build Southern Manchurian railway

• British obtained 99 year lease on Hong Kong

Defeat of China by a small Asian country embarrassed China

• Built up support for the self-strengthening movement

• Young scholars put pressure on regime for institutional reform

  • Led to the 100 days reform of 1898

    • Changed the educational system

    • Promoted railways and industrial development

  • But Dowager Empress overturned these decisions in 1898 with the support of officials who had vested interests

    • Emperor became her prisoner

    • Reinforced role of Manchus in the administration

The Boxers were organized in 1900 by the Empress

• Began to attack foreign missionaries and Chinese Christians

• Empress declared war on foreign...