China: From Imperialism to Communism

CHY4U

Imperial Powers in China

Elisabeth Gaynor Ellis and Anthony Esler, World History: Connections to Today – Teachers Edition (Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001), 638.

Themes

• The rise of Japan.• Events in the early days set the stage for later

civil war (1930s). [think class conflict]• The unstable nature of China’s internal situation

from 1830s to 1920s.• How China was victimized by imperialism and

foreign presence.• Western influences on China from 1830s to

1920s.

Economist Cover

• Why does the current Chinese leader want to party like it’s 1793?

Significance of the Boxer Rebellion: Cartoon One

When do you think this cartoon was made?

What makes you say that year?

From whose perspective was this cartoon drawn?

What makes you say that?

Cartoon Two

From whose perspective was this cartoon drawn?

What is your justification for your answer?

What does the answer tell us about the impact of foreign intervention on China?

Boxer Poster, 1900

• “On account of the Protestant and Catholic religions the Buddhist gods are oppressed, and the sages thrust into the background. The law of Buddha is no longer respected, and the five Relationships [of Confucian ethics] are disregarded. The anger of Heaven and Earth has been aroused and the timely rain has consequently been withheld from us. But Heaven is now sending down eight million spiritual soldiers to extirpate these foreign religions, and when this has been done there will be timely rain.”

Boxer pronouncement, 1900 quoted in Joseph Esherick, The Origins of the Boxer Uprising (Berkeley: University of California press, 1987), 282.

Historical Interpretation of the Boxers

“They were mostly adolescent gangs who attacked Christian converts, missionaries, and churches. Rising out of drought conditions and anti-foreign feeling in northern China, these so-called Boxers were ragtag groups that terrorized local communities from 1898 to 1900. Had the government been strong and prosperous, as it had been a century and a half earlier, it most certainly could have suppressed them. But China was weak and close to bankruptcy after more than half a century of wars against outside aggressors (Great Britain, France, and Japan) and decades of trying to put down internal rebellions. China was also limited by its status as a semi-colony after Western powers forced a “treaty system” upon it in the mid-nineteenth century – a system that gave various economic and political rights and privileges to Westerners and in the process cut back on Chinese rights.”

R. Keith Schoppa, Twentieth Century China: A History in Documents (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 9.

End of Empire

• Last Two Chinese Dynasties– Ming– Qing (1644-1911)

• Manchus, not Han Chinese

Cixi, Dowager Empress

Amanda Bensen, Cixi: The Woman Behind the Throne, Smithsonian Magazine, March 1, 2008, http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/da-cixi.html?c=y&page=2 (Dec. 17, 2013).

Continuity and Change in China: Chart

• Now that you have learned about late imperial China, fill in relevant parts of the chart for that period:– Westernization– Nationalism– Imperialism– Modernization– Class/social structure– Corruption in gov’t– Centralization

Use these or your own symbols for:

Continuity (can’t do this yet) Change ** (can possibly do this now)Progress and decline (for whom?)

Pace of change or Turning points

Republic/Civil War/WWII Period

• Read “China: The Republican Years” handout. – Just because China had a new form of government

this doesn’t mean its problems disappeared. • Which problems are old? (continuities)• Which problems are new? (changes)

Japan’s Demands, 1915Read the following three slides and identify which fact on the Republican Years handout they relate to. • “Group 1:

– The Japanese Government and the Chinese Government being desirous of maintaining the general peace in Eastern Asia and further strengthening the friendly relations and good neighborhood existing between the two nations agree to the following articles:

• Article 4: The Chinese Government engages, in interest of trade and for the residence of foreigners, to open by herself as soon as possible certain important cities and towns in the Province of Shantung as Commercial Ports. What places shall be opened are to be jointly decided upon in a separate agreement.”

R. Keith Schoppa, Twentieth Century China: A History in Documents (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), 34.

• “Group 2– The Japanese Government and the Chinese Government, since the

Chinese Government has always acknowledged the special position enjoyed by Japan in South Manchuria and Eastern Inner Mongolia, agree to the following articles:

• Article 7: The Chinese Government agrees that the control and management of the Kirin-Changchun Railway shall be handed over to the Japanese Government for a term of ninety-nine years dating from the signing of this agreement.”

Ibid., 34-35.

• “Group 5– Article 1: The Chinese Central Government shall employ influential

Japanese as advisers in political, financial, and military affairs. – Article 2: Japanese hospitals, churches, and schools in the interior of

China shall be granted the right of owning land.– Article 3: Inasmuch as the Japanese Government and the Chinese

Government have had many cases of disputes between Japanese and Chinese police which caused no little misunderstanding, it is for this reason necessary that the police departments of important places (in China) shall be jointly administered by Japanese and Chinese….”

On the whole, these Japanese demands show that Japan saw China as __________________________________________.

Ibid., 36, 37.

• Yuan Shikai agreed to the demands in groups 1 to 4. Group 5 was to be negotiated later.

• Agreement took place on May 8, 1915, often referred to as National Humiliation Day.

– Can you see why?– Was this a strong start to the Republic?

Ibid., 34; Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, Yuan Shikai, N.d., http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/149356/Yuan-Shikai-as-emperor-of-China-1915-16 (Dec. 17, 2013). . Yuan Shikai

May Fourth Movement / New Life Movement

• At first, the individual was stressed rather than the Confucian emphasis on the family

• Then, a national reform movement began to help China break free from imperialism and warlordism

• Read “The Attack on Confucianism” on page 368 in your textbook– To which aspects of the movement does Ch’en Tu-

hsiu’s PSD excerpt relate?Shoppa, Twentieth Century China, 46.

Challenging Tradition• Ch’en Tu-hsiu (Chen Duxiu)

– Founder of New Youth magazine– Western and Japanese educated– Founder of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921

• What did Communism have in common with this movement?

• “Be independent, not servile….Be progressive, not conservative….Be aggressive, not retiring….Be cosmopolitan, not isolationist….Be utilitarian, not formalistic….Be scientific, not imaginative.” (1915 editorial in New Youth)– These sayings might conflict with traditional aspects of Confucianism

such as: Filial piety, order, harmonious social relationships, patriarchy

Ibid., 51-52; Show China, May 4th Movement Pioneers, 2006, http://en.showchina.org/Features/11/2/200904/t304339.htm (Dec. 17, 2013).

Ch’en Tu-hsiu

KMT and/or CCP• KMT and CCP both received

assistance from the Soviet Union and cooperated with each other to a certain extent until Sun died in 1925.– KMT (Nationalists) leaders: Sun

Yat-sen, Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi)

– Chiang Kai-shek held power in Nanjing after 1928 until 1937

• Civil War– Mao Zedong helped revive the

Communist Party in the late 1920s in the south (Jiangxi Soviet)

Sun Yat-sen, 1924 (1)

1. Washington State University, Mao Suits, N.d., http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/clothing/11maosui.htm (Dec. 17, 2013). 2. Indiana University, Timeline for China, N.d., http://www.indiana.edu/~e232/Time2.html (Dec. 17, 2013). 3. The Economist, The Man Who Lost China, May 7, 2009, http://www.economist.com/node/13606318 (Dec. 17, 2013).

Mao Zedong (2)

Chiang Kai-shek (3)

Periodization Exercise

• One way to look at history is to chunk it into periods, as we do on timelines such as the China: Continuity and Change chart.

• Turn to the back page of the “Republican Years” handout. Decide which would be the most appropriate description of the Republic time period. Or, write your own.

• Then, fill in the continuity and change chart for the Republican period.