Download Ch22/Sec1: The Fall of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912)

Ch24/Sec3 finished: The Decline of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912)
The Qing Dynasty also followed the traditional life cycle of dynasties:
- rise  period of prosperity decline: corruption & incompetence 
rebellions  [left it open to influence by foreign (Western) nations]
 collapse
Foreign influence: began with the Opium War in 1839-1842
Reasons:
- Restriction of Europeans to the port of Canton (Guangzhou)
- Trade imbalance b/w Great Britain & China: GB imported more
goods (tea, silk, & porcelain) from China than exported (Indian
cotton) to it  GB was indebted to China
- GB tried to pay China w/ silver  caused large amounts of silver to
flow out of Great Britain  economic problem for Great Britain
- GB tries to negotiate w/ China, but China refuses  GB tries to make
up for the trade imbalance by exporting Indian opium to China 
Chinese quickly become addicted  silver is now flowing back into
Great Britain in exchange for opium
- China asks GB to stop the export of opium on moral grounds  GB
refuses
 Opium War:
 China blockades Canton  GB’s warship destroy the blockade &
coastal forts  Chinese no match against the British  peace
 Treaty of Nanjing (1842): devastating terms for the Chinese
* China opened up 5 ports to Great Britain & were ruled under
the practice of extraterritoriality (Europeans living in those
ports were subject to European laws)
* Limited tariffs & agreed to pay for the costs of the war
* China gave Hong Kong to GB (remained British until 1997)
 In order to pit nations against one another, China also opened up
the ports to other nations, including the U.S.
Domestic Problems: the Tai Ping Rebellion (1850-1864):
 Not enough farmlands for the peasants + population growth  food
shortage
 Hong Xiuquan, claiming he got permission from God, set out to rebel
against the Qing dynasty  captured a town & founded his own: the
Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace (Tai Ping Tianguo)
 Hong’s goals: land to all peasants, equality for women, communism
 March 1853 massacre in the city of Nanjing (25,000 people were
killed by Hong’s rebels)  the Qing Dynasty was too weak to deal
with the Tai Ping, partially due to its struggle w/ the British
 Tianjin Treaty (1858): legalized the opium trade & gave the
Kowloon Peninsula to GB  Chinese resistance to the treaty 
GB captured Beijing in 1860
 1864: the Qing, w/ European aid, recaptured Nanjing & ended the
Tai Ping Dynasty
Reform Efforts: “self-strengthening” = adoption of Western technology
while keeping Confucian values & institutions, e.g. railroads, shipyards,
weapons factories were built but rulers, civil service exams remained 
unsuccessful!!!

Weak dynasty = Open to conquest
Imperialism: foreign nations (Britain, France, Germany, Russia, &
Japan) established spheres of influence in China
Results of the Opium War
Treaty of Nanjing Treaty of Tianjin
Year of treaty
With whom
The agreement
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