modern china and japan

Modern China and Japan

Westernization Debate:

Bottom line: Japan’s leaders chose aggressive

westernization, while China’s dithered.

Result: Japan will rise, while China will devolve into chaos, causing Qing

dynasty to lose power.

Towards Modern China . . . . Qing Dynasty 1644-1900

Qing dynasty established from Manchuria, i.e., not from within China. 200 years later many still considered them foreigners and resented rule.

Fun fact: 300 years later, the Japanese invade China from

Manchuria during WWII.


Maritime Trade and Relations with European Nations

• Europeans want to trade with China (silk, tea, porcelain, etc.), what with vast natural resources and potential markets.

• China wasn’t really interested in trade with the west. Considered “barbarians.”

•Limited it to one port, Canton.


Opium and the Opium War –

British will sell to Chinese,

millions will become addicted,

Enormous profits.

By 1820s, opium trade strong

in China

Chinese gov’t declare illegal.

British ignore law and bribe

port authorities.


Opium den


Opium War 1840-42• Opium was disastrous to the Chinese people• Lin Zexu destroyed all he could find and wrote to

Queen Victoria:

“Suppose there were people from another country who carried opium for sale to England and seduced your people into buying and smoking it; certainly your honourable ruler would deeply hate it and be bitterly aroused.”

• She didn’t do anything, so he ordered blockade. War ensued. Ships no match for British. First of unequal treaties.– Hong Kong ceded to the British, and they got what amounted

to most favored nation treatment from the Chinese.

• Lin Zexu will be among first to urge modernization.


• Taiping Rebellion

Hong Xiuquan

Hong (Christ’s younger brother) started the Taiping Rebellion, and Zeng ended it.


• Self-Strengthening Movement– Mid 19th Century in response to internal rebellions such as

Taiping rebellion. – Idea was to borrow only bits and pieces of Western

science and technology, just enough to allow Chinese to use Western machines and weapons, but without adopting Western ideas and values.

– Unworkable in practice. – Moreover, doomed because of . . . .


Empress Dowager

She was the power behind the throne for nearly a half century (1861-1908)

Single goal was power.

Summer palace instead of naval improvements.

Single meal would have 150 different dishes.


Total Humiliation 1894-1900

Japan strikes . . . • First it was the Japanese victory over China.

Unprepared and undersupplied. No artillery shells. Sand instead of gunpowder. – Japan’s shocking victory, got Korea and Taiwan plus

reparations.

• Europe and Russia went after pieces of China– “Spheres of influence” in exchange for helping against

Japanese. Turned into “carving up the Chinese melon.”


• “One Hundred Days of Reform”– New wave of reform proposals. Most influential was Kang Yon-

Wei who described China as “enfeebled” and blamed “conservatives.” Argued Confucius would have been in favor of reforms.

– 1898 Emperor instituted 40 decrees to turn China into a modern constitutional state.

– Reform of army – Inclusion of Western studies in school– Adopt public school system– Establish popularly elected local assemblies– Eventual creation of national parliamentary govt – Westernization of Chinese bureaucracy– Development of offices to promote commerce, industry, banking


• Result of Reform Movement– Empress Dowager engineered

coup from her summer palace. – Executed advisors and banished

emperor. – China weak and crippled. Add

drought and famine,

millions desperately poor and hungry.


Boxer Rebellion—“Harmonious Fists”

1900-1901

• Secret society. Original motto: Overcome the Qing, wipe out the foreigners.

• Uprising, killing missionaries, diplomats, journalists, and Chinese Christians.

• Empress tries to jump on bandwagon.


• Foreign armies will intervene to put down the Boxers.

• Their defeat convinced even conservatives of need for reform. Too little, too late. Movement will get away from them.

• China in ruins. Spark 1911 revolution, resulting in Republic led by Sun Yat-sen.

Toward Modern Japan (1853-1914)

• Tokugawa era (1603-1868)– Japan ruled by shogun and defended by samurai.– Life strictly hierarchical

• four distinct classes: samurai, farmers, craftspeople, and traders.• considerable privileges held by aristocratic classes

– Saw themselves as civilized Confucians and rest of world as barbarians.


• Tokugawa era and Isolation (“closed country”) – Early 17th Century, worried European traders and rulers

would try to tamper with their affairs, even threaten their rule.

– 1630s: seclude Japan from foreign influence • Close all but one port to foreigners • Decree any who leave put to death • Death to Christian Japanese


• Tokugawa era and Isolation – Shogun allowed a few Chinese and Dutch ships to bring

foreign goods to country each year. • Only at port of Nagasaki, hundreds of miles from capital• Motivated by desire for knowledge of what happening beyond

borders

– Allowed Japanese scholars to study books (astronomy, anatomy)


• Tokugawa era and United States – After 250 years of isolation, enter Commodore Matthew

Perry and U.S. Navy in 1853. • Isolation came to abrupt halt

– Letter from President Fillmore, asking for friendship, plus trade (coal, supplies). Americans would not take no for answer.


• Tokugawa era– Japanese aware of western imperialist aggression in other

ports of Asia (e.g., Chinese opium wars). – Japan and U.S. sign Treaty of Kanagawa, followed by

similar agreements between Japan and other western nations.

• Unequal treaties (low tariffs on western goods) • Ships stocking up on coal, water, and food and buying tea and

silkworms.

– Shogun sends delegations to U.S. (1860) and Europe (1862) to find out what Japan up against.


• Fukuzawa Yukuchi – Samurai delegate who became pro-Westernization as a

result of travels to U.S. and Europe. • He argued Japan must go the way of the West and make bold

leap from feudal ways to modern age. Some agreed, others tried to kill him.


• Tokugawa to Meiji Restoration – Disagreements over foreign policy led to unrest and civil

war. – Rebels said restoring rule by emperor, who was 15 year

old boy, in 1868. – Meiji = “Enlightened Rule” – Committed to progress, meaning wealth and power of

Western industrial nations. – Restructure Japan politically, socially, and economically. – Led by small group of samurai leaders, “twelve

bureaucrats in search of a bureaucracy.”

Toward Modern Japan (1863-1912)Meiji Era

1871 Tour of US and Europe. Upon return,

Institute policies geared at rapid modernization • “Prosperous Nation, Strong Military”

• Set up modern banking system, invested in industry, textile mills, cement factories, arsenals and shipyards. 5000 miles of rail track in 35 years and telegraph lines.

• Reorganized military along lines of Prussian army. 3 year conscription. No samurai swords or robes.

• Emphasis on “modern” education = reading, writing, loyalty to nation. By 1925, universal literacy.

Toward Modern Japan (1863-1912)Meiji Era • Meiji constitution (1890), “gift of the emperor.”

– Adapted Prussian constitution of 1850 to Japan.

– Emperor was “sacred and inviolable.”

– Extensive powers to emperor and limited powers to Diet (bicameral national assembly).

– Abolished old class system, including land

redistribution, sword-less samurai.

Toward Modern Japan (1863-1912)Meiji Era

• By end of Meiji period (death of emperor in 1912), Japan had:

• Highly centralized, bureaucratic government• Constitution establishing an elected parliament• Well-developed transport and communication system • Highly educated population free of feudal class restrictions • Established and rapidly growing industrial, technological sector• Powerful army and navy • Complete control of foreign trade and legal system

Toward Modern Japan (1863-1912)Meiji Era • Japan as Imperialist

– Rapid industrial growth fueled same appetite for raw materials that spurred Western nations. Needed coal, iron, rice. Markets for their manufactured goods. Also, equality with Western nations.

• Sino-Japanese War (1894-5). Tiny Japan beat largest nation in eastern Asia. Dominated Korea, took Taiwan, and pressed for rights in Manchuria.

• Boxer Rebellion (1900). – Part of international force

saving foreign legation.

• Russo-Japanese War (1904). – Drove Russians from

railway zones in Manchuria.

modern china and japan

Documents

china silk

china wasnt

opium war british

opium trade strong

chinese melon

chinese peoplelin zexu

maritime trade

japanese victory