Download The Decline of the Qing Dynasty (1839-1900)

The Decline of the Qing Dynasty (1839-1900)
By the year 1900 the Chinese Empire had been in existence for over 2000 years, and during this time
the Chinese had become extremely clever at astronomy, mathematics, engineering and medicine.
They were the first people to use paper and had invented printing, and had been using paper and
porcelain long before they had been invented in the West. They had also invented silk weaving,
gunpowder, reading glasses, the magnetic compass and the suspension bridge.
By 1900 the empire had grown weak. Western powers like Britain, France as well as Japan had
gained great influence through trade and the use of force during the nineteenth century, and the
Manchu dynasty seemed paralysed and unable to modernise and accept the changes that were
happening, or react in a proper way to the challenges. Between 1839 and 1842 the British fought an
"Opium War" against China to force the Chinese to keep buying the drug opium from British India,
although opium use was banned in China. One of the results of this war was that Hong Kong was
signed over to Britain.
During a second war in 1860 a combined British French army attacked Beijing and burned down
government buildings. In 1894-95 Japan attacked and annexed Korea, Formosa (Taiwan) and Port
Arthur. After each of these wars the foreigners forced the rulers to sign "unequal treaties" giving the
foreign powers control of China's sea ports and allowing them special trading rights. China was also
divided up into spheres of influence, each falling under one or another foreign power.
There was a lot of discontent in China. Many Chinese blamed the Manchus for allowing China to be
taken over by foreign powers and in 1850 the Taiping Rebellion broke out. For 14 years the country
was laid waste, cities were destroyed and 20 million people were killed. The Manchus were forced to
call on the Europeans to help them put down the rebellion, but this weakened their position even
more.
In 1898 the Emperor Guangxu tried to strengthen China by modernising the way the empire was run
and during a time known as the Hundred Days of Reform, Guangxu introduced new schools and
colleges, improved the government budget and dismissed corrupt officials from court. However
Guangxu's aunt, Empress Dowager Cixi had the emperor imprisoned and forced him to grant her the
power to rule China in his place.
When two harvests failed one after the other and the Yellow River flooded causing a famine, the
discontent boiled over. The rebellion was organised by a movement called Yi-Ho Tuan, meaning
Righteous and Harmonious Militia. Because its members practised the martial arts, including boxing,
they were known as the Boxers. Empress Cixi managed to win them over to her side and encouraged
them to attack the foreigners.
The Boxer Rebellion reached a climax in 1900. When the Boxers killed Europeans and Christians they
had captured, European governments sent an armed force to Beijing to protect their nationals. The
Chinese army collaborating with the Boxers, who burnt down the French cathedral in Beijing and
placed the embassy area under siege for two months, defeating this European force.
The European governments reacted angrily to the siege of the Legations. A six-nation force invaded
China, captured and looted Beijing and forced the Manchus to pay an enormous fine. The harsh
methods used by the Europeans to suppress the Boxers made many Chinese hate them even more.
At the same time, the invasion and looting of Beijing once again showed how weak the Manchus were.
During the nineteenth century the major European powers compelled the reluctant Chinese
Empire to start trading with them. There was little the Chinese government wanted from the
West at the time but there was a strong demand for opium among the population. In the
Opium Wars of the 1860s the British forced the Chinese to accept the import of opium in
return for Chinese goods, and trading centres were established at major ports. The largest of
these was Shanghai, where French, German, British, and American merchants demanded
large tracts of land in which they asserted "extra-territorial" rights, meaning they were subject
to the laws of their own country not China. In Shanghai a legendary sign in a park near one of
the European compounds read: "No dogs or Chinamen.". The Chinese government's failure to
resist inroads on its sovereignty and withstand further demands from the Europeans, such as
the right to build railways and other concessions, caused much resentment among large
sections of the population. This eventually led to the Chinese revolution of 1911 which
toppled the imperial dynasty.
By the end of the nineteenth century the balance of the lucrative trade between China and
merchants from America and Europe, particularly Britain, lay almost entirely in the West's
favour. As Western influence increased anti-European secret societies began to form. Among
the most violent and popular was the I-ho-ch'uan (the Righteous and Harmonious Fists).
Dubbed the "Boxers" by western correspondents, the society gave the Boxer Rebellion its
name.
Throughout 1899 the I-ho-ch'uan and other militant societies combined in a campaign against
westerners and westernised Chinese. Missionaries and other civilians were killed, women
were raped, and European property was destroyed. By March 1900 the uprising spread
beyond the secret societies and western powers decided to intervene, partly to protect their
nationals but mainly to counter the threat to their territorial and trade ambitions.
By the end of May 1900 Britain, Italy, and the United States had warships anchored off the
Chinese coast at Taku, the nearest port to Peking. Armed contingents from France, Germany,
Austria, Russia, and Japan were on their way. In June, as a western force marched on Peking,
the Dowager Empress T'zu-hsi sent imperial troops to support the Boxers. Further western
reinforcements were dispatched to China as the conflict widened.
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The Opium Wars
From 1839 to 1842, China fought what we now call the "Opium Wars" with Britain. There
are many ways to look at a problem. Here are two views of the situation from the perspective
of the Chinese and the British:
China is a very old country with ideals that
have lasted more than two thousand years.
The Chinese people were satisfied with their
way of life and had little interest in the
nations of the Western Hemisphere.
Tea, grown in China, had become a very
popular drink in Great Britain. China would
have rather not traded with the British at all,
but they were willing to sell the British tea
only if they used the port in Canton. They
were not willing to allow western ideas in
their society.
The British decided they needed to
"balance their trade." That means that they
must buy and sell to China, not just buy. They
decided to sell Opium.
Opium is a drug grown in India. Opium is
used to make morphine and heroin. The
Chinese government outlawed the import of
Opium because of the debilitating effects of
the drug and because of the silver leaving
China to pay for it.
In 1838, China ruled that anyone dealing in
Opium would be put to death. Shortly after
that, government official began to destroy any
opium coming into their land.
Western Civilization has grown and
prospered in the past millennium
because of trade.
The Chinese government attempted
to keep their people from finding out
how advanced the rest of the world was.
They allowed the British access only to
the port in Canton. That made it
impossible for their people to experience
new ideas.
Tea from China had become the
national drink of Britain. The Chinese
rulers were making a great profit by
selling tea, but they were unwilling to
allow the Chinese people to buy
products they wanted from the British.
Opium is a medicine grown in India.
It is used to relieve pain, help with
sleeplessness, and reduce hunger and
thirst. It is true that opium can be
dangerous, but the British felt the rulers
in China had no right to keep opium
from their people.
In 1838, Chinese officials
confiscated and destroyed the opium
held by foreign firms and refused to pay
compensation.
The Opium War lasted from 1839 to 1842. The British firepower was far and China faced
a humiliating defeat. The governments signed a peace treaty that allowed the British to use
five ports instead of one. The Chinese also lost control of the important island of Hong Kong.
Eventually, China was also forced to legalize the selling of opium.
The treaty that ended the Opium War was the first of many "unequal treaties" with the
west. It began a century of invasion and humiliation for a very proud nation.
The Taipang Rebellion | The Boxer Rebellion
The Taiping Rebellion
The Qing Dynasty ruled China for over 250 years, but they were not always strong leaders.
The Qing were unable to stop foreigners from taking over parts of the empire. They also had
to withstand the Taiping Rebellion, a civil war that cost over twenty million lives and
permanently weakened the dynasty.
The rebellion began in southeast China, a region that never fully accepted the Qing, who
came from Manchuria in northeast China. Hong Xiuquan had learned of Christianity from
missionaries. In 1843, when he failed his examination for a government job for the fourth
time, Hong exploded in rage at the Manchu domination of China. He read a translated version
of the Christian Bible, which told the story of how a chosen group of people rebelled against
their rulers with God's help. The stories seemed to explain visions Hong had during an earlier
mental illness. Hong came to believe that he was the Son of God and the younger brother of
Jesus. His mission on earth was to rid China of evil influences. They included Manchus,
Taoists, Buddhists, and Confucians. Hong's religion combined traditional Chinese ideas with
half-understood Christianity.
Many famine-stricken peasants, workers, and miners were attracted to the new faith. The
converts believed that God ordered them to destroy Manchu rule and set up a new Christian
brotherhood. A small group of believers grew to more than one million disciplined, zealous
soldiers. In 1851, Hong proclaimed a new dynasty, the Taiping, which means "Great Peace,"
and assumed the title "Heavenly King." Two years later, the Taiping army captured Nanking,
a large city in central China.
Leadership rivalries weakened the rebellion. Hong's top general, an illiterate former coal
burner named Yang, plotted to overthrow him. Hong ordered the general of his northern army,
Wei, to assassinate Yang. When Hong decided that Wei had become too powerful, he ordered
his assassination as well. The soldiers who killed Wei feared for their own lives, so they
abandoned the rebellion and escaped to western China.
Local warlords led by Tseng Kuo-fan and adventurers from America and Britain combined
to surround Nanking in 1862. When they defeated the city two years later, more than 100,000
rebels, including Hong, committed suicide rather than face capture.
The Qing Dynasty was so weakened by the rebellion that they lost control of many parts of
China to local warlords. Both the Chinese Nationalists and the Communists, two groups that
later ruled the nation, claimed to have been inspired by the Taiping Rebellion.
The Boxer Rebellion
Throughout the nineteenth century, foreigners took control of China and forced the people
to make humiliating concessions. Italy, Japan, and
Russia all claimed exclusive trading rights to certain
parts of China. They divided the nation into "spheres
of influence" where they had exclusive trading rights.
The United States proposed an "Open Door Policy"
where all nations would share China.
A secret society in northern China began a
campaign of terror against Christian missionaries and Chinese converts. Foreigners called
them "Boxers" because they practiced martial arts and calisthenic rituals. The Boxers
believed they had magical powers and that the bullets could not harm them. The society
wanted to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and expel all foreigners and foreign influences.
The empress dowager publicly opposed the Boxers, but her ministers quietly convinced
them to join forces in order to drive foreigners from China. In the early months of 1900,
thousands of Boxers roamed the countryside, attacking Christians.
When an international force of 2,100 soldiers attempted to land in
China, the empress dowager ordered her imperial army to stop the
foreign troops. Throughout the summer of 1900 the Boxers burned
churches and foreign residences and killed Chinese Christians on sight.
The allied foreigners sent in 19,000 more troops and captured
Beijing on August 14. Beijing was looted, many Chinese people were
tortured, raped, killed. The foreign powers forced China to agree to a
treaty that allowed foreign nations to station troops in Beijing.
Reference: http://www.mrdowling.com/613-boxer.html
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Background
In 1900 an alliance between eight major powers, who would be fighting each other in a World War
fourteen years down the road, was formed. The nations of Austria-Hungary, France, Germany, Great
Britain, Italy, Japan, Russia, and the United States, fought to defeat a common enemy, the Boxers.
The Boxers were a secret Chinese society bent on driving the "foreign devils" out of China once and
for all. No one seems to to know the exact origin of the Boxers (I Ho Ch'uan, which means Righteous
Harmonious Fists), they may have been around in the 1700s, because Jesuit missionaries were
expelled in 1747 due to Boxer influence. Why in 1900, the Boxers were able to raise so much power
has never been answered.
The rise in Boxer support could be attributed to the amount of imperial support for the movement.
Most notably, Prince Tuan and to a certain extent, the Dowager Empress, Tzu Hsi. This "unofficial"
imperial support of the Boxer society was not the only contribution. China had recently suffered natural
disasters, military, political, and economic sactions placed on them by the Western powers. China was
defeated in 1894-1895 by Japan, with Japan emerging as the most powerful of the Asian powers. In
1896, Germany seized the ports of Kiaochow and Tsingtao after two German priests were killed.
Russia demanded and recieved a lease on the ports of Port Arthur and Darien, Britain obtained WeiHai-Wei, and France seized Kwangchowwan. Additionally, the completion of the Tientsin-Peking
railroad put thousands of Chinese workers out of work.
Chinese people began to turn to the secreat societies, which had always preached hatred of the
western foreigners. Between 1898 and 1899 the Boxers began to emerge from the undreground and
began preaching in the open. The Chinese government started off being Anti-Boxer, but eventually
stopped. Military commanders and governors, who were Anti-Boxer were removed from command and
replaced with Pro-Boxers. Between 1898-1899 the Boxers focused on attacking Chinese Christians,
but on December 30, 1899 they killed a British missionary. The British and German governments
immediatly issued strong protests, resulting in two Boxers being executed and a third imprisoned. The
situation continued to worsen in early 1900, the Dowager Empress released an imperial edict. In this
she stated that secreat societies were part of Chinese culture and were not criminal.
In the spring of 1900 the Boxers were out of control, they killed seventy Chinese christians and riots
broke out all around Peking. On May 29, 1900 two British missionaries were attacked, with one being
killed. The foregin ministers in Peking issued strong protests. The diplomats told the Chinese that they
had twenty-four hours to put down the Boxers or they would call troops up from the coast. Before the
Chinese government could reply, the diplomats learned that the telegraph line between Peking and
Pao Ting Fu had been cut. The foreign diplomats ordered troops up from the coast, but were halted by
the Chinese. On May 31 the troops were allowed to advance into Peking. Three hundred and forty
troops arrived in Peking that night, followed by another 90 four days later. These were the last troops
to enter Peking until August 14, 1900.
A secret society, known as the Fists of Righteous Harmony, attracted thousands of followers.
Foreigners called members of this society "Boxers" because they practiced martial arts. The Boxers
also believed that they had a magical power, and that foreign bullets could not harm them. Millions of
"spirit soldiers," they said, would soon rise from the dead and join their cause.
Their cause, at first, was to overthrow the imperial Ch'ing government and expel all "foreign devils"
from China. The crafty empress, however, saw a way to use the Boxers. Through her ministers, she
began to encourage the Boxers. Soon a new slogan: "Support the Ch'ing; destroy the foreigner!"
appeared upon the Boxers' banner
Boxer and Chinese troop losses are unknown but are well into the tens of thousands. Thousands of
Boxers were killed while they repeatedly tried to overtake the garrison in Peking defended by 507
men. The Chinese troops were easily routed by the International Relief Expedition at Tientsin where
thousands met their death. The Chinese forces suffered a humiliating defeat and their international
military prestige only continued to lower.
The Allied Force suffered low casualties and easily defeated the larger Chinese troops. These defeats
of such superior numbers of Chinese forced the empress to sign a humiliating peace treaty giving
away Chinese land to foreign powers and having to pay money to all the countries involved in the
conflict.
The Chinese Christians were killed and hated just like foreigners. An estimated 30,000 Chinese
Christians were killed by the Boxers.
VI.Conclusion
The Boxer Rebellion, just like the two opium wars before it, was an excuse for the powerful countries
of Europe, American and Japan to interfere with and take over partial control over China. Because it
was being fought over by so many powerful countries, no one country could take it over completely.
Japan made a good try years later which precipitated World War II. Today, China is it's own country, a
power in it's own right, with a huge say in world affairs. No doubt it's experience in the Boxer rebellion
as well as the two opium wars kindled it's nationalistic feelings and sent it on it's long road to
independence and power.
After taking Peking, the international troops looted the capital and even ransacked the Forbidden City.
Disguised as a peasant, the empress dowager escaped the city in a cart. She returned to the
Forbidden City a year later, but the power of the Ch'ing dynasty was destroyed forever.
The Boxer Protocol of 7 September 1901, negotiated by the Great Powers with China, included
provisions for a fortified legation quarter, foreign garrisons along the Tientsin-Peking railway, and a
large indemnity. The Western powers and Japan agreed—mainly because of U.S. pressure to
“preserve Chinese territorial and administrative integrity” and because of mutual jealousies among the
powers—not to carry further the partition of China. Nevertheless, China was compelled to pay an
indemnity of $333 million, to amend commercial treaties to the advantage of the foreign nations, and
to permit the stationing of foreign troops in Beijing. The United States later (1908) used some of its
share of the indemnity for scholarships for Chinese students. China emerged from the Boxer Uprising
with a greatly increased debt and was, in effect, a subject nation.
Mark Twain, the anti-imperialist, said the following about the Boxer Rebellion:
"China never wanted foreigners any more than foreigners wanted Chinamen, and on this question I
am with the Boxers every time. The Boxer is a patriot. He loves his country better than he does the
countries of other people. I wish him success. The Boxer believes in driving us out of his country. I am
a Boxer too, for I believe in driving him out of our country."
-Mark Twain November 23, 1900-