China
Prior to the 1800's, and before foreign influence, China was a powerful country, and had been ruled by many different dynasties starting with the Hsia dynasty in the second millenium B.C. to the Ching dynasty ending in 1911. (A Short History of China, pp. 12, 166.) Although dynasties had changed and several dynasties had been foreign, the Manchus (Ching dynasty) were the last foreign people to rule over China. The Manchus kept their own language and ethnic identity but maintained political order and military organization and thus insinuated themselves into China and gained the cooperation of the elite, the traditional educated gentry, who were the leading families in the communities and provided officials to the bureaucracy. In the eighteenth century the Manchus and Chinese, along with many foreigners, saw China as the world's greatest civilization, representing the highest possible attainment of humanity. China seemed to have lasting peace, a high standard of living, institutional stability, art and literature. (Imperial China,4-5.) China was considered a beautiful vast country, its people hard-working and sober, its land fertile and blessed with many lakes, rivers and canals, but so populous and crowded that most of the
The British and French again defeated China in a second opium war in 1856. By the terms of the Treaty of Tientsin (1858) the Chinese opened new ports to trading and allowed foreigners with passports to travel in the interior. Christians gained the right to spread their faith and hold property, thus opening up another means of western penetration. The United States and Russia gained the same privileges in separate treaties. (A Short History of the Opium Wars.) In the 1830s more than 30,000 chests of opium (each about 150 lb.) were being brought in annually by the foreign powers. In 1839 Chinese authorities at Canton confiscated and burned the opium. In response to the destruction of the opium the British occupied positions around Canton and declared war. The Chinese could not match the technological and tactical superiority of the British forces. In 1842 China agreed to the Treaty of Nanking. Hong Kong was given to to Great Britain, and other ports were opened to British residence and trade. Although China was not interested in British products, including bronze figures, elastic garters, and fleecy hosiery, the British East India Company had illegally brought a huge stock of opium to China a year prior to the attempts of Britain to open trade. (A Short History of China, p. 170.) Opium was originally used to stop diarrhea. The British imported silk and tea and porcelain from China, which they paid for with luxury items such as clocks and textiles but mostly with silver. China also exacted high customs duties upon foreigners. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries people in all classes began to use opium recreationally. As the opium trade increased, more and more Chinese became addicted and the balance of trade shifted---more silver was going out than goods being exported. (Imperial China, p. 133.) China's economy was failing. The Taiping Rebellion (from 1850 to approximately 1864), turning into civil war, was based on the distorted and hallucinagenic beliefs of a Christian-converted Chinese (Hung Hsiu-chuan) who believed a type of heavenly kingdom could be establ
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Approximate Word count = 1423
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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