what was the Chinese response to western imperialism in the second half of the 19th century?
Answers
The primary motive of British imperialism in China in the nineteenth century was economic. There was a high demand for Chinese tea, silk and porcelain in the British market.
However, Britain did not possess sufficient silver to trade with the Qing Empire. Thus, a system of barter based on Indian opium was created to bridge this problem of payment.
The subsequent exponential increase of opium in China between 1790 and 1832 brought about a generation of addicts and social instability.
Clashes between the Qing government and British merchants ultimately escalated into the infamous Opium Wars.
As a result, the British were given the island of Hong Kong and trading rights in the ports of Canton and Shanghai.
Although British imperialism never politically took hold in mainland China, its cultural and political legacy is still evident today.
Honk Kong remains a significant center of global finance and its government still functioned in much of the same ways as it did under British colonialism.
China was negatively affected by European and American Imperialism. China, was unwilling to support westernisation because of believing in their isolation and superiority. Hence, China was sectioned off by western power.
EXPLANATION:
- China experienced significant internal stresses and Western imperialist pressures in the 1800s, backed by a military force that China could not counter. In just one hundred years (ca 1840-1940), China's place in the globe and self-image changed in a mere 100 year period from leading civilisation to subjected and torn nation
- China came under Western pressure to open up to external trade and relations after a long period of isolationism. The European and American Industrial Revolution had created a large divide between them and the West, and left China technologically and militantly behind. At that time, China had no power to oppose the West and finally had to sign unequal treaties which forced it to open its ports and cities to foreign merchants.
- West awareness was minimal in China. China's leaders discouraged scientific disagreement and preferred to confine people to orthodox texts. Since the Ming dynasty these documents were copied over and over and portrayed an outdated world view. However, as contact with foreigners (they were the only source of information on the west was confined to Co-Hong Canton, Chinese officials could not understand the big changes that took place in the West during the Industrial Revolution.
- China adopted and attempted to modernise Western developments, beginning with the suppression of the uprising by Taiping in 1864. This was much more restrictively than in Japan though, with the introduction of automobiles, new weapons and other Western technologies, but only a small proportion of the population and a real impact on Chinese life.
- The leaders of China have failed to understand that the West was a product of profund structural changes and that "to modernise, traditional institutions and ways of thinking must be adapted or modified." Therefore, only very superficial modernisation in China occurred
- Power is far less centralized than it was in China, which stifled economic initiative and competition by the hierarchical bureaucratic system. There was no place for a mercantile class to grow and push the nation's industrialisation, split between the different classes
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