Era 5 and 6 in East Asia The Qing Dynasty

1
Era 5 and 6 in East AsiaThe Qing Dynasty

• WHGCEs
• Era 5
• Craig Benjamin

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Introduction The Qing Dynasty

• When the Ming Dynasty fell, Manchus poured into
  China from their homeland of Manchuria, north of
  the Great Wall
• Quickly overwhelmed the Chinese rebel forces,
  seized Beijing, and proceeded to occupy all of
  China
• Victors then proclaimed a new dynasty the Qing
  (or Pure) which ruled China until the 20th
  Century (1644-1911)
• Destined to be the last dynasty to rule China
  their dynastic era is the subject of todays
  lecture

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To Include

• Part One Qing Political History
• Part Two Population Growth and Economic
  Development
• Part Three The Opium War and Unequal Treaties
• Part Four Frustrated Reform and the End of the
  Qing Dynasty

Qing Imperial Concubine
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Part One Qing Political HistoryOrigins of the
Qing

• Manchus most probably were pastoral nomads,
  although many had adopted a sedentary
  agricultural lifeway in the rich farmlands of
  southern Manchuria
• Remote ancestors had traded with China since the
  Qin Dynasty
• Also been frequent clashes between Chinese and
  Manchus over land and resources along the
  borderlands of southern Manchuria and northern
  China

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The Rise of the Manchus Under Nurhaci

• During the late-16th and early-17th centuries, an
  ambitious chieftain named Nurhaci (r. 1616-1626)
  unified the Manchu tribes into a centralized
  state
• He promulgated a code of laws and organized a
  powerful military force
• During the 1620s and 30s, the Manchu army
  expelled Ming garrisons in Manchuria, captured
  Korea and Mongolia, and began launching
  small-scale invasions of northern China

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Conquest of China

• By 1644 the Manchus had captured Beijing, and
  then moved to extend their authority throughout
  China
• For almost the next 40 years they waged military
  campaigns against Ming loyalists and other rebels
  all over southern China
• Finally, by the early 1680s, the Manchus had
  consolidated the Qing Dynastys hold throughout
  all of China

Reenactment of the Battle of Shengjing. The
battle took place during one of the expeditions
of conquest led by founding emperor Nurhaci
(1559-1626)
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Manchu Support Amongst the Chinese

• Establishment of the Qing dynasty
• partly due to Manchu military prowess, but also
  partly to Chinese support for the Manchus
• During the 1630s and 40s, many Chinese generals
  deserted the Ming Dynasty because of its
  corruption and inefficiency
• Confucian scholar-bureaucrats also worked against
  the Ming because they detested the eunuchs who
  dominated the imperial court
• Manchu ruling elites were well schooled in
  Chinese language and Confucianism, and they
  generally enjoyed more respect from
  scholar-bureaucrats than did the Ming emperor and
  administration

Above Models wearing Qing imperial costumes
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• Manchus careful to preserve their own ethnic and
  cultural identity
• They not only outlawed intermarriage between
  Manchus and Chinese, but also forbade Chinese
  from traveling to Manchuria or learning the
  Manchurian language

Qing authorities also forced Chinese men to shave
the front of their heads and grow a
Manchurian-style queue as a sign of submission to
the dynasty
Manchus and Chinese
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Two Great Manchu Emperors

• Until the 19th C strong imperial leadership muted
  tensions between Manchu leaders and Chinese
  subjects
• Long reigns of two particularly effective rulers
  Kangxi (1661-1722) and Qianlong (1736-1795)
  helped the Manchus consolidate their hold on China

Qing dynasty Corner Tower, Forbidden City,
Beijing
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Kangxi the Confucian Ruler

• Kangxi was a Confucian scholar and an enlightened
  ruler
• He was a great reader and also wrote poetry
• He studied the Confucian classics and tried to
  apply their teachings to his policies
• EG, he organized flood control and irrigation
  projects because of the Confucian rule that
  rulers need to look after the welfare of their
  subjects
• Also generously patronized Confucian schools and
  academies

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Kangxi the Conqueror

• Kangxi also a conqueror, and under him the Qing
  constructed a vast empire
• Conquered the island of Taiwan where Ming
  loyalists had retreated after their expulsion
  from S. China, and absorbed it into the empire
• Like the Han and Tang, he tried to head off
  problems with militarized nomads by extending
  Chinese influence into
• Central Asia
• Eventually his conquests in
• Mongolia and Inner Asia
• extended almost to the
• Caspian Sea
• Also turned Tibet into a
• Chinese protectorate

Qing Military Led by Kangxi Invade Taiwan
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A map of the Qing Dynasty Empire
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Qianlong the Conqueror

• Kangxis grandson Qianlong continued this
  expansion of Chinese influence
• Sought to consolidate Kangxis conquests in
  Central Asia by establishing military garrisons
  in Turkestan (present-day Xinjiang Province)
• Qianlong also encouraged Chinese merchants to
  settle in Central Asia in the hope they would
  stabilize the region
• He also made Vietnam, Burma and Nepal vassal
  states of the Qing

Two of the Qianlong's Manchu bodyguards (1760)
carrying their archery equipment and wearing
sheathed daos
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Qianlong the Intellectual

• Qianlongs reign was the high point of the Qing
  Dynasty
• Like Kangxi, his grandson was a sophisticated and
  learned man
• He reportedly composed more than 10,000 poems,
  and was a connoisseur of painting and calligraphy
  

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The Qianlong Emperors Southern Inspection Tour,
Scroll Twelve Return to the Palace (detail),
17641770, by Xu Yang (fl.c.1750after 1776) and
assistants. Handscroll, color on silk Palace
Museum, Beijing.
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Wealthy Qing China

• During Qianlongs long, stable and prosperous
  reign, China was an incredibly wealthy state
• Imperial treasury contained so much money that on
  at least four different occasions, the emperor
  cancelled all tax collections for
• the year

Porcelain Goose
(R) Stylized Qing security guard
(L) Door God, Qing Dynasty Woodblock print
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Decline of the Qing Leadership

• Throughout the reign of Qianlong, China remained
  a wealthy and well-organized state
• However, towards the end of his reign, Qianlong
  began paying less attention to imperial affairs,
  and delegated many government responsibilities to
  his favorite eunuchs
• His successors continued this practice, devoting
  themselves more to hunting and their harems than
  affairs of state
• By the 19th Century the Qing Dynasty faced
  serious difficulties

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Part Two Population Growth and Economic
DevelopmentAgriculture

• China was a predominantly agricultural country,
  which fitted well with the Confucian idea that
  the land was the source of everything worthwhile
• Qing Emperor himself reinforced the central
  importance of agriculture by personally plowing
  the first furrows of the season
• Yet only a fraction of Chinas land is suitable
  for farming (today about 11)
• To feed the countrys large population, farmers
  relied on intensive and productive market-garden
  agriculture
• On this strong farming foundation, China built
  the most commercialized economy of the
  pre-industrial world

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Introduction of American Crops

• By intensively cultivating every parcel of land,
  Chinese peasants were able to increase their
  annual yields of rice, wheat and millet until the
  17th C
• From the mid-17th C, as farmers reached the upper
  limits of agricultural productivity, Spanish
  merchants from the Philippines began to introduce
  American food crops into China
• Maize (pictured right) sweet potatoes and peanuts
  allowed Chinese farmers to grow crops in soils
  that had previously been uncultivated
• Led to an increased food supply and higher
  populations

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Continuing Population Growth

• In spite of regular epidemics of the plague,
  which killed millions, Chinas populations rose
  rapidly
• In 1500 it was 100 million
• In 1600 it was 160 million
• In 1650 it fell to 140 million (because of war
  and rebellion)
• In 1700 it had returned to 160 million
• By 1750 it surged to 225 million (a 40 increase
  in 50 years!)

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Problems of Rapid Population Growth

• This rapid demographic growth set the stage for
  economic growth, but also economic and social
  problems, because agricultural growth could not
  keep pace long term
• Acute problems did not occur until the 19th
  Century, but per capita income
• was already declining
• during the reign
• of Qianlong

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Opportunities for Entrepreneurs

• While an increasing population placed pressure on
  
• Chinese resources, the growing commercial market
  
• offered opportunities for entrepreneurs
• Because of demographic expansion, entrepreneurs
• had access to a large labor force that was
  occupationally and geographically mobile, so they
  could recruit workers at very low cost
• As we saw last time, after the mid-16th century
  Chinese economy also benefited from the
• influx of Japanese and American
• silver, which stimulated trade
• and financed further expansion

Chinese entrepreneurs continue to benefit from a
vast labor force today Chicken processors near
Shanghai
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Maritime Trade Policies of the Qing

• Under the Ming, we saw how Zheng He led seven
  major maritime expeditions across the Indian
  Ocean Basin
• But after the reign of Yongle, the Ming withdrew
  its support for expensive maritime expeditions,
  and even tried to prevent Chinese subjects from
  trading with foreigners
• In order to try and pacify S. China in the 17th
  C, Qing government tried to end maritime activity
  altogether
• Imperial edict of 1656 forbade even a plank from
  drifting to sea
• In 1661 Kangxi ordered an evacuation of the
  southern coastal regions

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Effectiveness of These Policies?

• Policies had a limited effect - small Chinese
  vessels continued to trade actively with Japan
  and SE Asia
• When Qing forces pacified S. China in the 1680s,
  government authorities rescinded the strictest
  measures
• But from then on, Qing authorities closely
  supervised activities of foreign merchants in
  China
• Allowed Portuguese to only operate in the port of
  Macau British agents had to deal exclusively
  with the official merchant guild in Guangzhou

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Discouragement of Chinese Merchants

• As well as limiting the activities of foreign
  merchants, the Qing also discouraged the
  organization of large-scale commercial ventures
  by Chinese merchants
• Without government approval it was impossible to
  maintain shipyards that could construct vessels
  like the massive nine-masted ships that Zheng He
  had sailed across the Indian Ocean
• Also impossible to organize large trading
  companies like the English East India Company or
  the Dutch VOC

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Continuing Chinese Trade
View of the Dutch trading Capital at Batavia

• Despite these government policies, thousands of
  Chinese merchants continued to link China into
  the global trading network
• Chinese merchants especially prominent in Manila,
  where they exchanged silk and porcelain for
  American silver that came across the Pacific
  Ocean in the Manila galleons
• Also active at the Dutch colonial capital of
  Batavia where they supplied the VOC with silk and
  porcelain in exchange for silver and Indonesian
  spices

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• Under the Qing, merchants established a
  substantial Chinese presence throughout SE Asia
• Chinese merchants were active in the
  Philippines, Borneo, Sumatra, Malaya, Thailand
  and elsewhere in SE Asia
• They sought a range of exotic tropical products
  in these regions for Chinese consumers

Chinese Merchants in South East Asia
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Lack of Technological Innovations

• Much of this economic expansion
• took place in the absence of
• technological innovations
• Under the Song Chinese engineers
• produced a flood of extraordinary inventions,
  and China was by far the worlds leader in
  technological innovation
• Yet under the Ming and Qing, innovation slowed,
  and ideas were borrowed from the West instead
• EG, imperial forces adopted European canons and
  firearms for their own use (thus borrowing
  gunpowder technology that had originated in China
  but been refined in Europe) pictured above
• Little innovation in agricultural or industrial
  technologies under the Qing

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Governmental Fear of Change

• Part of the reason for this slowdown was
  government emphasis on stability
• Under the Song, imperial government had
  encouraged innovation as the foundation for
  military and economic strength
• But Ming and Qing governments favored political
  and social stability over innovation, which they
  feared would lead to unsettling change

Official Portrait Emperor Qianlong and his son
Yongzhen as Confucian scholars
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China Loses Technological Ground to Europe

• Abundance and ready (and cheap) availability of
  skilled workers also discouraged technological
  innovation
• If employers wanted to increase production, it
  was cheaper to hire more workers rather than make
  large investments in new technology
• In the short term this maintained relative
  prosperity in China and helped maintain high
  employment rates
• But in the long term this meant
• that China lost technological
• ground to Europeans, who
• embarked on a round of
• stunning innovations
• beginning in the
• mid-18th Century

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Part Three The Opium War and Unequal Treaties -
Cohongs

• In 1759 Qianlong moved to restrict European
  commercial presence in Guangzhou
• Chinese authorities attempted to control both the
  activities of merchants and terms of trade
• Foreign merchants could deal only with specially
  licensed Chinese firms known as cohongs
• Not only was this inconvenient for the Europeans,
  but they had to cope with a market in which there
  was little demand for European products
• Because of this, Europeans paid for Chinese silk,
  porcelain, lacqueware and tea mainly with silver
  bullion

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Opium

• Seeking increased profits in the 18th Century,
  officials of the East European Company looked for
  alternatives to silver to exchange for Chinese
  goods
• They settled on a profitable but illegal drug
  called opium
• British grew opium in India and shipped it to
  China, where company officials exchanged it for
  Chinese silver coin
• Silver then flowed back to British-controlled
  Calcutta and London, and company officials used
  it to buy Chinese products in Guangzhou

Chinese Opium Smokers
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Value of the Opium Trade

• Opium trade expanded rapidly
• In the early 19th C trade volume was 4,500
  chests, each weighing 60 kgms (133 lbs)
• By 1839, 40,000 chests of opium were entering
  China per year, satisfying the habits of drug
  addicts
• With the help of opium, the East India Company
  easily paid for luxury Chinese products

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Impact on China

• Trade was illegal, but continued unabated for
  decades because the Chinese made little effort to
  enforce the law (corrupt officials also
  benefited)
• But by the late-1830s the Chinese government was
  aware that this was causing a major economic (as
  well as drug) problem
• Opium trade was draining massive amounts of
  silver bullion from China, and having major
  social consequences in S. China

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Chinese Attempts to Halt the Trade

• When government officials took steps to stop the
  illicit trade in 1838, British merchants started
  losing money
• Efforts were stepped up in 1839 by placing the
  incorruptible official Lin Zexu in charge of
  attempts to destroy the opium trade altogether
• Commissioner Lin acted quickly, confiscating and
  destroying 20,000 chests of opium
• His uncompromising policy ignited a war that
  ended in a humiliating defeat for China

Lin Zexu
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The Opium War (1839-1842)

• Outraged by Chinese action against them, British
  commercial agents pressed the British government
  for a military response
• Ensuing conflict known as the Opium War made it
  obvious who now possessed global military power
• In the opening stages of the war, British naval
  gunboats demonstrated clear superiority
• Equipped only with
• swords and knives, and
• occasionally muskets,
• Chinese coastal towns
• could not defend
• themselves against
• gunboats and well-trained
• English military forces
• armed with rifles

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The Gunboats Strike!

• But the Chinese refused to sue for peace, so
  British forces broke the stalemate by attacking
  Chinas jugular with steam-powered gunboats - the
  Grand Canal
• In May 1842 a British armada of 70 ships advanced
  up the Yangtze River, and by the time it arrived
  at the intersection of the Grand Canal, the
  Chinese sued for peace
• China experienced similar military setbacks
  throughout the century, against Britain and
  France (1856-58), France again (1884-85) and
  Japan (1894-95)

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Unequal TreatiesTreaty of Nanjing (1842)

• In the wake of these
• confrontations China was
• forced to sign several unequal
• treaties, which curtailed Chinese sovereignty
  and guided Chinese relations with foreign states
  until 1943
• Treaty of Nanjing (pictured above)
• ceded Hong Kong to Britain
• opened five ports (including Guangzhou and
  Shanghai) to commerce and residence
• compelled the Qing to grant most favored nation
  status to Britain
• made British residents not subject to Chinese law

39
China Under Foreign Control

• Later France, Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands,
  Spain, Belgium, Austria-Hungary, the United
  States and Japan all concluded similar unequal
  treaties with China
• Collectively these treaties legalized the Opium
  trade, permitted the establishment of Christian
  missions throughout China, opened treaty ports,
  and prevented Qing government from levying
  tariffs on imports of foreign goods
• By 1900, 90 Chinese ports were under foreign
  control, foreign merchants controlled much of
  Chinas economy, Christian missionaries were
  active across the country, and foreign gunboats
  patrolled Chinese waters

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Internal Problems

• Debilitation of the Chinese empire in the late
  19th C was as much due to internal problems as
  foreign intrusion
• Large-scale rebellions in the 19th C reflected
  increasing poverty and discontent
• Between 1800 and 1900 Chinas population rose
  from 330 to 475 million, which strained Chinas
  resources
• Concentration of arable land in the hands of
  elite families, widespread corruption of
  government officials, and increasing drug
  addiction all led to widespread peasant
  discontent
• Rebellions erupted in Nian (1851-68) and Tungan
  (1862-64)
• But the most dangerous of all was the Taiping
  Rebellion which brought the Qing dynasty to the
  brink of collapse

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Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864)Demands for Reform

• Appeal by schoolteacher Hong Xiuquan for the
  destruction of the Qing and the radical
  transformation of Chinese society appealed to
  millions in 1850
• Many Chinese despised the Manchu ruling class as
  foreigners, and the Taiping reform program
  contained radical features that appealed to the
  discontented subjects
• Abolition of private property
• Creation of communal wealth to be shared
  according to need
• Prohibition of footbinding and concubinage
• Free public education
• Simplification of the written language and
  literacy for the masses
• The establishment of democratic political
  institutions
• The building of an industrial society
• The equality of men and women

Hong Xiuquan
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Capture of Nanjing
After sweeping through SE China, Hong and his
followers captured Nanjing in 1853 and made it
the capital of their Taiping (Great Peace)
Kingdom

• From Nanjing they campaigned throughout China,
  and as they passed through the countryside whole
  villages and towns joined them (sometimes
  voluntarily, sometimes under coercion)
• By 1855 a million Taipings were poised to attack
  Peking (Beijing) but Qing forces repelled them
• By 1860 (firmly entrenched in the Yangtze Valley)
  the Taipings threatened Shanghai

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End of the Rebellion

• Conservatives naturally sided with the
  government after imperial forces of Manchu
  soldiers failed to defeat the Taipings, the Qing
  created regional armies of Chinese soldiers led
  by scholar-bureaucrats
• With the aid of European military advisors, these
  regional armies gradually overcame the Taipings
• In June 1864, Hong committed suicide
• Nanjing fell a few months later and government
  forces slaughtered 100,000 rebels
• Rebellion was soon over, but it had cost 20-30
  million lives and caused massive declines in
  agricultural production, so that peasants had to
  resort to eating grass and cannibalism

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• Taiping Rebellion changed the course of Chinese
  history
• Dealing with aggressive foreign powers and lands
  ravaged by domestic rebellion, Qing rulers
  realized that reform was necessary if their
  empire was to survive
• From 1860 to 1895 Qing authorities tried to
  recreate an efficient and benevolent Confucian
  government to solve social and economic problems,
  while at the same time adopting foreign
  technology to strengthen state power

Part Four Frustrated Reform and the End of the
Qing Dynasty
Shanghai waterfront, 1870
Beijing Street, 1870
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Self-Strengthening Movement

• Most imaginative reform was the
  Self-Strengthening Movement of the 1860s and 70s
• Funded by money from the Qing authorities, local
  leaders all over China were encouraged to raise
  troops, levy taxes and establish bureaucracies
• Using the slogan Chinese learning at the base
  Western learning for use Self-Strengthening
  Movement leaders tried to blend traditional
  Chinese culture with European industrial
  technology
• While maintaining Confucian values, leaders also
  built modern shipyards, railways, weapons
  factories, steel mills and science and technology
  academies

Old and New Qing Army 1860-1870
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Failure of the Self-Strengthening Movement

• Although it laid foundation for eventual
  industrialization, the Movement brought only
  superficial change
• Did not introduce enough industrialization to
  bring real economic and military strength to
  China
• And it was based on a contradiction
  industrialization would bring social change to an
  agrarian land, and education in European
  curricula would undermine Confucianism
• Empress Dowager Cixi (1835-1908) a former
  concubine who was the effective ruler of China
  during the last 50 years of the Qing also
  diverted funds from the Movement (intended for
  the navy) to build a magnificent marble boat to
  grace the lake in the Imperial Palace

Empress Dowager Cixi
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The Empresses Marble Boat, Imperial Palace
48
Dismantling of the Qing Empire

• Foreign powers maintained their hold on Chinese
  affairs, despite the Movement
• Imperial states dismantled the Qing Empire
  between 1885 and 1895
• 1885 France incorporated Vietnam into its
  colonial empire
• 1886 Britain incorporated Burma into its empire
• 1895 Japan forced China to grant independence to
  Korea, Taiwan and parts of Manchuria

Qing Empire in 1894 (Top)
Japan liberates Manchuria, 1895
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Carved into Spheres of Interest

• By 1898, foreign powers had carved China itself
  into spheres of economic interest (only mistrust
  amongst foreigners prevented the total
  dismemberment of China)
• Powerless to resist foreign demands,
• the Qing government granted
• exclusive rights for railway and
• mineral development to
• Germany in Shandong Province
• France in the southern border
• provinces
• Britain in the Yangtzi River valley
• Japan in the SE coastal provinces
• Russia in Manchuria

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The Hundred Days Reforms

• Setbacks sparked the ambitious but abortive
  Hundred Days Reform in 1898
• Scholars Kang Houwei and Liang Qichao published
  treatises reinterpreting Confucianism and
  justifying radical change in the imperial system
• Sought to remake China as a powerful industrial
  state
• Impressed with their ideas, the young emperor
  Guangxu launched a sweeping series of reforms to
  transform China into a constitutional monarchy

Emperor Guangxu
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Failure of the Reform Agenda
Liang Qichao

• The reform agenda included
• Guaranteeing civil liberties
• Eliminating corruption
• Remaking the educational system
• Encouraging foreign influence in China
• Modernizing the military
• Stimulating economic development
• But the young emperors aunt Cixi nullified the
  reform decrees, imprisoned the emperor in the
  Forbidden City and executed six leading
  reformers, while Kang and Liang fled to Japan

Empress Cixi
52
The Boxer Rebellion

• Cixi then threw her support behind an antiforeign
  uprising known as the Boxer Rebellion
• Movement headed by militia groups who called
  themselves the Society of Righteous and
  Harmonious Fists (called The Boxers by foreign
  newspapers)
• In 1899 the movement went on a rampage to rid
  China of foreign devils, killing foreigners,
  Chinese Christians and any Chinese who had ties
  to foreigners

53
Crushing of the Rebellion

• 140,000 Boxers besieged foreign embassies in
  Beijing in the summer of 1900
• Heavily armed force of British, French, Russian,
  US, German and Japanese troops quickly crushed
  the Boxer movement in bloody retaliation for the
  uprising
• Chinese government had to pay a punitive
  indemnity and allow foreign troops to be
  permanently stationed in China (at embassies and
  along routes to the sea)

US Marines fight the Boxers in the Siege of
Beijing
54

• Because Cixi had supported the Boxers, many
  Chinese now saw their government as morally
  bankrupt
• Revolutionary movements soon gained widespread
  support throughout the country, including from
  conservatives
• Cixi died in November 1908, one day after the
  mysterious death of the emperor himself
• In her last act, Cixi appointed the two-year old
  Puyi to the imperial throne
• But revolution broke out in the fall of 1911, and
  by early 1912 the last Qing emperor had abdicated
  his throne (aged 6!)

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Conclusion

• With the abdication of the last emperor of China,
  over three thousand years of dynastic rule came
  to an end in 1911
• Qing and Ming conservatism had caused China to
  withdraw from the world at precisely the same
  moment Western powers were aggressively engaging
  in it
• With 85 of the surface of the globe now under
  European control, the problem facing China and
  other East Asia nations at the beginning of the
  20th C was how to respond to European imperialism
• Eventually, as we need to explore in Eras 7 and
  8, it took an industrial revolution in Japan, a
  communist revolution in China, and two global
  wars before East Asian states were able to once
  again gain control of their own destinies