McCartney Mission

1. McCartney Mission • Read the Qianlong Emperor’s Letter to George III • How would you describe the Chinese attitude toward the West? • What is the evidence?

2. Examples of Japanese borrowing from others

3. What did foreign imperialists want from China? • China before 1840 was completely closed, and isolated from the rest of the world, except for the limited foreign trade in the city of Canton. • Imbalance of trade – high European demand for Chinese tea, silk, ceramics but little demand in China for European goods. • China had amassed a large quantity of silver.

4. United States Demands on Japan Geostrategic goals: • Access to natural harbors for U.S. merchant and military ships to purchase coal, food, water, and repairs • Protection of shipwrecked U.S. sailors stranded in Japan • Free trade

5. Opium shifts the balance • Opium War 1839 – 1842 • Opium grown in British Colonial India and traded to China • Port city of Canton flooded with Opium • Chinese government demands to stop trade – British do not • Treaty of Nanking 1842 • Unequal trade agreement • Reparations of $21 mil. paid to Great Britain • Opened five new ports in China • Forced China to lower tariffs • Hong Kong given as a British Colony • Signed by Queen Victoria and Emperor Daoguang

6. Impact of the Opium War • The forced opening of China subjected China partially to foreign rule. It collapsed the Chinese economy, created social chaos and uprisings, and generated political instability. • The inflow of cheaper Western machine-made products shattered Chinese native industries. • The disastrous defeat of the Chinese army in the Opium War convinced every Chinese that China was no longer the "Heavenly Middle Kingdom". • Western ideas were brought in, and their consequences were felt at every level of society. Intellectuals believed that the root of China's weaknesses lay within its backward political structures.

7. Arrival of the West • On July 8, 1853, a squadron of U.S. warships arrives in Edo (Tokyo). U.S. commander Matthew Perry has brought a list of demands for the Japanese.

8. Taiping Rebellion 1850 - 1864 • A Christian sect, known as the Heavenly Kingdom rose up against the Qing • Led by Hong Xiuquan - believed he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ and had visions that he was sent to reform China • Gathered the support thousands of peasant Chinese followers that were anti-establishment and anti-foreigners • Formed militias and took over city of Nanjing

10. The Boxer Rebellion 1899 -1901 • The Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists (became known as the Boxers) organized against the Chinese government • Anti-European, Anti- Christian, Anti- Manchu (Manchu = clan from Northeast China that ruled during the Qing dynasty) • Angry with Chinese defeats and concessions to Western powers and Japan

12. Meiji Restoration (1868) • Tokugawa Shogunateoverthrown in civil war • Ruled by oligarchy ( group of leaders who directed the state) • Restored power/symbolism of the emperor • Sent missions to west to learn western techniques (like Peter the Great)

13. Terms to describe what happened in China • Unequal treaties • Creation of Treaty Ports with extraterritoriality • China “carved up like a melon” by Europeans