China's Century of Crisis

Question 1

MAIN CONTEXT AND CAUSES

Answer 1

population growth without an Industrial Revolution&raquo_space; agricultural production could not catch up which caused a pressure on the land, small farmers, unemployment, impoverishment, and starvation

Question 2

GOVERNMENT

Answer 2

the bureaucracy also did not grow with the population so they were unable to carry out certain actions- tax collection, public security, social welfare

> > local officials/provincial officials took power and led to corruption

Question 3

EUROPEAN MILITARY PRESSURES

Answer 3

European military pressure led to disrupted trade routes, unemployment, raised peasant taxes&raquo_space;> social and civil unrest and opposition against the Qing Dynasty (foreign Manchus)

Question 4

TAIPING REBELLION CONTEXT AND WANTS

Answer 4

it was a Christian movement started by a self-proclaimed “brother of Jesus”

wanted: abolition of private property, redistribution of land, end of prostitution and opium smoking

also wanted to organize society into sexually segregated military camps; also more rights for women: civil service exam and gain top government positions

Question 5

TAIPING DEFEAT

Answer 5

were not defeated by the government, defeated by Western forces who helped the Manchus (about 20-30million deaths)

> > Qing and China’s economy was in shambles after, but still no solution for the causes of the rebellion

Question 6

WESTERN PRESSURES IDEA

Answer 6

essentially wanted to strengthen themselves by “borrowing cautiously from Western cultures”

Question 7

CAUSES OF THE OPIUM WAR

Answer 7

British insistence of the export of opium to China (only thing they wanted from the West)– grown in India and illegally exported to China (many people addicted)

> > the Emperor wanted to suppress trade, but GB doesn’t allow

Question 8

1ST OPIUM WAR

Answer 8

Treaty of Nanjing 1842:

numerous restrictions on Chinese sovereignty, opened up 5 ports to European trade, first of the “Unequal Treaties”

Question 9

2ND OPIUM WAR

Answer 9

1856-1858:

more ports opened, foreigners allowed to travel freely in China and purchase land, allowed to preach Christianity and patrol some rivers; also lost control of Vietnam, Korea, and Taiwan

Question 10

SPHERES OF INFLUENCE

Answer 10

by 1900, Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and Russia had special privileges to military bases, extract raw materials, and build railroads which inhibited China’s ability to industrialize