The Qing Empire - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

The Qing Empire

Jialin

KeSlide2

Economic and Social Disorder (1800-1839)

Population Pressure

Expansion of agricultural base by early emperors which supported a doubling of the population growth.

Formation of the unemployed and homeless

Population strain causes environmental damage.

Distrust in Government

Suspicions among the people that all government officials were corrupt.

Qing were hated because they were seen as foreign conquerors

People did not like the growing number of foreigners

The Qing were suspected of sympathy with the EuropeansSlide3

Economic and Social Disorder

White Lotus Rebellion

Inspired by the idea that the Ming Dynasty would be restored and the coming of the Buddha

Started in 1794, spread, and not suppressed until 1804

Causes more internal conflicts throughout the 1800s

Social instabilities, local ethnic conflictsSlide4

British colonies in India smuggle opium into China

The Qing were not aware of the growing opium trade

until later

when the government realized the harm

1729, the first Qing law banned opium imports

By 1800, annual import of 4000 chests of opium, through smugglingBy 1830, a price war caused by competition between America and Britain, raises opium demands to an annual import of 30,000 chestsWidespread addiction

The Opium War and its aftermath (1839-1850)Slide5

The Opium War and its aftermath (1839-1850)Slide6

The Opium War and its aftermath (1839-1850)Slide7

The Opium War and its aftermath (1839-1850)

The emperor decides to enforce the existing ban on opium more strictly and sent Lin

ZeXu

to deal with the issue.

Opium War (1839-1842)

The British saw that the opium ban would limit their trade and threaten Britain’s economy.

Bannermen – hereditary military servants of the Qing Empire

Qing lost terribly because the British had superior technology.Bannermen still used muskets

British gunboats Slide8

The Opium War and its aftermath (1839-1850)Slide9

The Opium War and its aftermath (1839-1850)Slide10

The Opium War and its aftermath (1839-1850)

Qing decides to negotiate.

Treaty of Nanjing

1842: - 5

treaty ports

(cities open to foreign residents), British residents gain extraterritorial rights, and Hong Kong becomes a British colony, low taxes on 5% of imports, an indemnity of 21million ounces of silver,

Supplementary treaty one year later: guarantees most-favored-nation status to Britain, meaning that any privileges given to another country would also be given to Britain.

Results in many treaties with other foreignersBy 1900, over 90 treaty ports

China suffers territorial losses as Europeans claim coloniesSlide11

The Opium War and its aftermath (1839-1850)Slide12

The Taiping rebellion (1850-1864)

Originated in Guangxi province and initiated by Hong

Xiuquan

Poor farmland, poverty, ethnic divisions (that forced the Hakka people to the despised trades)

Hong

Xiuquan

Was inspired by Protestant missionaries’ teachings and thought that he was commissioned by God to drive out the

Qings to found a new kingdom on earth. He called this movement the “Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace”.His followers were mainly the

Hakkas

Military Reforms

New military units Slide13

The Taiping rebellion (1850-1864)

Taipings

vs. Manchus (Qing)

Taiping forces defeat imperial troops in Guangxi

Taipings

(followers of Hong

Xiuquan) grew in numbers. They attract followers by replacing their anti-Chinese appeals used to enlist Hakkas with anti-Manchu to enlist Chinese.

Recruited villagers were separated men and women to organize them into work teams. Taipings Capture Nanjing and make it their capitalSlide14

The Taiping rebellion (1850-1864)Slide15

The Taiping rebellion (1850-1864)

Foreign Intervention

Britain and France launches a second opium war called the

Arrow War

(1856-1860) because they felt that the Qing had not observed all the provisions of the treaties.

Britain and France invade Beijing and sack Summer Palace.

Creates more treatiesSatisfied, British and French joins Qing against the Taipings

Qing defeats Taiping with help from British and French forces, and military forces organized by governors (Zeng Guofan). Slide16
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The Taiping rebellion (1850-1864)

Taiping Rebellion was the world’s bloodiest civil war.

Death estimates from 20 million to 30 million.

Most deaths were from starvation and disease.

Results:

Depopulation and destruction of rich agricultural lands in central and eastern China

Suffering and destruction in the cities and cultural centers of eastern China.Death and Disease

Taipings flee to Laos and Vietname which was infested by the bubonic plague. Disease spreads to Hong Kong, Singapore, San Francisco, etc. Slide18

Decentralization at the End of the Qing Empire (1864-1875)

Qing was completely bankrupt.

Expenditures were 10x revenues

Indemnities demanded by Britain.

Rice fields and productive land was destroyed.

Refugees needed relief and troops demanded wages.

Because the Qing were in their debt, Britain and France help in the period of recovery known as the Tongzhi

Restoration. Zeng Guofan manages recovery work and uses United States as his model. He hired Americans to run his factories and also sent the Chinese to America to learn. Slide19

Decentralization at the End of the Qing Empire (1864-1875)

Reform programs were supported by

Empress Dowager

Cixi

but they were unable to prevent the Empire from disintegration.

The empire came under the control of a group of reformist aristocrats, military men, independently civilian governors, and foreign advisers. There was no central, unified leadership and the Qing Empire dissolved into large power zones. Slide20
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Comparative Perspectives

Similarities

Differences

Did not consider European economic pressure a challenge

during the first half of the 19

th

century

China’s geographic

distance protected it from the political tensions between Britain and Russia

By the 1870s,

European challenges to the empires had become widely realized (Qing- Opium War, Ottoman-Crimean War)

Ottoman

Empire left out of debates with Europeans because they anticipated its demise

Military superiority (and economic pressure) of the Europeans was the greatest challenge for the two rulers of the empires