Introduction

• 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

The Disintegration of the Imperial Regime

• 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...

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