late qing crisis hi 168: lecture 4 dr. howard chiang

Late Qing Crisis

HI 168: Lecture 4Dr. Howard Chiang

Empress Dowager Cixi

Zongli Yamen

The Changing Context

• 1861: Zongli Yamen• 1864: international law• 1873: foreign audience no kowtow• 1876: diplomatic missions• Universal empire (天下 ) to nation-

state (國家 )• Western perception – Mutiny of 1857

in India -> British policy in China changed to moderation (gradual decline)

Sino-French War (1884-85)

Tributary Retraction

Losing Vietnam: Sino-French War (1884-1885)- realists (Li Hongzhang) vs. pro-war faction- afterward: final phase of the “self-strengthening

movement” (1885-1895)

Losing Korea: Li-Ito Convention (1884)- after Japan annexed Okinawa in 1879- Each country promised to notify the other if it was

planning to send forces in the future

Losing Taiwan: First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895)- July 23, 1894, Japanese captured Seoul

Li Hongzhang

Sino-Japanese War (1894-95)

Treaty of Shimonoseki

• April 17, 1895: China recognizes independence of Korea

• China cedes to Japan Taiwan and the Liaodong Peninsula- Triple Intervention (Russia, Germany, and France)

• 200-300 million taels indemnity• China is to grant Japan (replacing

Britain) the most-favored-nation treatment

“Carving up the Chinese Mellon”

Russian Interest: Russia monopolized special status in Beijing until the Treaty of Tianjin in 1860 – insisted that the Qing ceded a million square km of lands east and north of the Amur River to Russia (Maritime Province)

Chinese Eastern Railway: cuts through Manchuria

“Carving up the Chinese Mellon”

Germany: 99 yrs Qingdao & Jiaozhou Port (Mar 1898)

Russia: 25 yrs Port Arthur & Dalian (Mar 1898)Russia: South Manchuria Railway

Britain: 25 yrs Port of Weihai (Mar 1898)Britain: 99 yrs New Territories of Hong Kong (June 1898)

France: 99 yrs Guangzhou Bay (Apr 1898)

Partitioning of China- Queen Victoria

- William II (Germany)- Nicholas II (Russia)- French Marianne

- Meiji Emperor

Kang YouweiThe Book of Great Unity

Liang Qichao- ‘grouping’- democracy- newspapers- modern intelligentsia

Guangxu Emperor

Yuan Shikai

Eight-Nation Force

Eight-Nation Force

The Boxer Catastrophe

Context: late 19th-c. resentment at foreign presence- gentry & local officials concerned with the rivalry of

Christian missionaries- China’s economic downtown - the availability of

foreign goods, the establishment of Western businesses and railways, and the circulation of foreign currency

- heavy taxes levied

Context: domestic natural disasters- Yellow River flooded 400 villages in Shandong- severe draught in north China- popular superstitions blamed foreign presence

The Boxer Catastrophe

The Boxer movement:- a social explosion that emerged from a culture of

poverty in north China- name taken from the martial arts “Boxing”- constituents: young farmers, laborers, unemployed

drifters, and other socially marginalized individuals- 3 main targets: foreigners, Chinese Christian

converts, & others involved in foreign economic enterprises

- 1899-1900 spread to Zhili, Henan, Shanxi, and Inner Mongolia and Manchuria

- lacked central leadership (unlike Taiping rebellion)- The Empress Dowager Cixi supported the Boxers!!

Eight-Nation Force

Eight-Nation Force

The Boxer Protocol (Sept. 1901)

- Execution and punishment of officials who had participated in the war

- Suspended the civil service examinations for 5 years in 45 cities

- Demanded over 2 dozen forts to be demolished- Expanded legation headquarters- 2-year prohibition on China’s importation of arms- Most disastrous: 450 million taels indemnity (the

Qing government’s annual revenue is 88-89 million taels)