Era 5 and 6 in East AsiaThe Qing Dynasty

WHGCEs

Era 5

Craig Benjamin

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 today’s lecture

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

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

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

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 Dynasty’s 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)

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

• 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

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

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

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

A map of the Qing Dynasty Empire

Qianlong the

Conqueror

• Kangxi’s grandson Qianlong continued this expansion of Chinese influence• Sought to consolidate Kangxi’s 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

Qianlong the Intellectual • Qianlong’s 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

The Qianlong Emperor’s Southern Inspection Tour, Scroll Twelve: Return to the Palace (detail), 1764—1770, by Xu Yang (fl.c.1750—after 1776) and assistants. Handscroll, color on silkPalace Museum, Beijing.

Wealthy Qing

China

• During Qianlong’s 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

(L) Door God, Qing Dynasty Woodblock print

(R) Stylized Qing security guard

Porcelain Goose

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

Part Two: Population Growth and Economic

Development

Agriculture• 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 China’s land is suitable for farming (today about 11%)

• To feed the country’s 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

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

Continuing Population Growth• In spite of regular epidemics of the plague, which killed millions,

China’s 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!)

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

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

Maritime Trade Policies

of the QingUnder 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

• 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

Effectiveness of These Policies?

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

Continuing Chinese Trade

• 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

View of the Dutch tradingCapital at Batavia

• 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

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 world’s 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• But the Chinese refused to sue for peace, so British forces broke the stalemate by attacking China’s 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)

The Gunboats Strike!

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

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 China’s economy, Christian missionaries were active across the country, and foreign gunboats patrolled Chinese waters

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 China’s population rose from 330 to 475 million, which strained China’s 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

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

Capture of

Nanjing

• 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

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

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

• 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

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

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

The Empresses’ Marble Boat, Imperial Palace

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

Japan ‘liberates’ Manchuria, 1895

Qing Empire in 1894 (Top)

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

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 monarchyEmperor Guangxu

Failure of the Reform Agenda

• 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 emperor’s 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

Liang Qichao

Empress Cixi

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

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 fightthe Boxers in theSiege of Beijing

• 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!)

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