In this essay I am going to write a summary of the Later Qing Dynasty, 1839 – 1911. I wrote an essay about the Early Qing Dynasty, if you would like to check it out. This essay is based on the fifth chapter of the book, “History of China” by J.A.G. Roberts, Third Edition, 2011.
The First Opium War (1839 – 1842)
During the early 18th century the British and Chinese would trade tea for woolen and metal goods. This arrangement seemed to work for both sides, until the 1760s. China was exporting more than importing. To fix this problem the British started the Commutation Act in 1784. It lessened the tax on tea. This was also an attempt to stop the tea smuggling and the trade of Indian opium for Chinese tea, which would be shipped to England.
The Chinese court allowed foreign trade, but did not fully trust the Westerners, and confined all foreign trade and traders to Guangzhou (a city in the Guangdong province). “Foreign traders were subject to the Eight Regulations which defined the conditions of their residence in Guangzhou.”[i] The Eight Regulations also include the rule of no foreign women or guns allowed into the city, and the traders themselves were only allowed to stay during trading seasons.
The British complied with the regulations, and their relationship with the Chinese was doing well until 1784. A British merchant accidently killed two Chinese men while firing a salute. The Chinese demanded that the gunner of the ship should be handed over. The British reluctantly gave the gunner to the Chinese, who was immediately strangled. This incident resulted in the McCartney embassy, one of Britain’s earls. He was sent to China with the request to open other trading ports outside of Guangzhou to the foreigners. The Qianlong emperor refused to open other ports and turned McCartney away.
After the Napoleonic Wars (1803 – 1815), Britain had proved that they were the world’s new super power. Several incidents around this time sparked tension between China and Britain. Britain sent a second embassy to China in 1816, asking once again to open trading port outside of Guangzhou. Once again, they were rejected. Also around this time opium smuggling escalated because of how cheap it was. The people’s addiction became apparent to the government. Ruan Yuan, a governor-general of Guangdong and Guangxi, drove all of the smugglers in his provinces to Aomen (a special administrative region of China). This resulted in the trade of opium evolving around the coast.
Lord Palmerston, the British Foreign Secretary, made Lord Napier superintendent of trade in China and ordered him to open a direct communication with the authorities in Guangzhou. Napier followed the order, but went to Guangzhou without permission from the emperor. Because of this he was not allowed into the city and was turned away under humiliating circumstances.
In 1838, Lin Zexu, the governor-general of the Hubei and Hunan provinces, was ordered to stop opium smuggling in Guangzhou. His solution was to keep all foreign traders under house arrest and make them sign a declaration that stated they could hand over all of their opium or be executed. Charles Elliot, the new superintendent of British trade, told all of the traders to sign and hand over their opium, which they would be compensated for.
When Palmerston found out about the whole incident he sent Willian Jardine and other merchants to China demanding they open other trade ports and compensate the foreign traders for their opium. This started the First Opium War.
Charles Elliot defeated the blockade at Guangzhou and moved north to Tianjin and Beijing. Henry Pottinger captured the cities of Xiamen, Zhousan, and Ningbo (all cities). Realizing that they were stuck, the Jiaqing emperor signed the Treaty of Nanjing (1942), which opened the trading ports of Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai. China also paid Britain $21,000,000 to make up for the costs of war and opium they took from the British traders.
The First Opium War to the Arrow War (1856 – 1860)
The British and China started to dislike their treaty almost immediately. The British wanted the opening of ports to increase trade, but this did not happen. The British wanted to know if their citizens had the right to trade and live within the wall of Guangzhou, and if they did, when would the Chinese allow them to use these rights.
In 1847, John Francis Davis (a British governor on China’s coast), ordered the capture of the forts guarding Guangzhou. Qiying (a Manchu statesman), had “to promise entry into the city in two years’ time.”[ii]
After the treaty signing in 1842 the Chinese were somewhat willing to work with the British. The Manchus would do anything to preserve their dynasty, even if it was “at the expense of the Chinese national interest.”[iii] In 1848, the emperor dismissed Qiying and appointed Xu Guangjin as the new governor-general of Guangdong and Guangxi.
The British were supposed to be allowed into Guangzhou on April 1849, but Xu Guangjin was able to hold them off by putting militia to guard Guangzhou and forged an imperial edict. The Qing saw this as a victory and Xu Guangjin and Ye Mingchen (governor of Guangdong), were given imperial honors.
This incident might have led to the war in the 1850s, but China had other problems. The Taiping rebellion captured Nanjing in 1853, and the Red Turban rebellion overran Guangdong in 1854.
In 1856 the Chinese boarded a British ship under the suspicion of piracy. Sir John Bowring (the British governor of Xianggang) heard this news and sanctioned a naval attack on Guangzhou. China began giving rewards to the people if they killed or captured an Englishman, and burnt down factories and foreign living quarters. When Lord Palmerston, now the Prime Minister, heard he ordered the Earl of Elgin to attack China.
After sending help to India to suppress the Indian Mutiny, the Earl captured Guangzhou and sent Ye Mingchen as a prisoner to India. He then moved north and seized the Dagu forts and reached Tianjin. This is when the emperor finally agreed to negotiate a peace in June 1858. China had to agree to open ten more ports for traders and missionaries to travel into interior China. They also agreed to “accept changes regarding the external tariffs and new government transit duties; to legalize opium trade; and to accept a resident British minister in Beijing.”[iv] Also around this time, China had to sign other treaties with France, Russia, and America, since all were becoming more interested in the pacific and the Chinese land.
When the British came back in June 1859 to confirm the treaty, they were met with force and suffered many casualties. When they came back a second time they brought forces of their own and burnt down the Summer Palace (a collection of buildings designed by the Jesuits) and marched on Beijing.
The Rebellions
From 1850 – 1873, the Qing had to deal with many rebellions, some almost overthrew them. The Taiping rebellion (1850 – 1864), the Nian rebellion (1853 – 1868), Muslim threats in Yunnan (1856 – 1873), and the Gansu rebellion which lasted from 1862 – 1873 (Gansu is a province), a secret society capturing Shanghai and Xiamenn in 1853, and the Red Turbans almost capturing Guangzhou in 1854. In 1854 and 1873, the Miao (an ethnic group that lives in Guizhou), revolted and Yakub Beg (a Uighur from present-day Uzbekistan), ruled over a large part of western Xinjiang (an autonomous region of China). As you can see, China had a lot of rebellions and problems to fix while dealing with the Westerners.
One of the biggest rebellions the Qing faced was the Taiping rebellion, which ended the dynasty in 1911. The Taiping rebellion started from one man’s dream, quite literally. Hong Xiuqan, Hakka Chinese from Huaxian in Guangdong. Xiuqan kept failing his examinations, while he was taking it one day a Christian missionary gave him a pamphlet about God and the Bible. Xiuqan had a dream that he was God’s Chinese son, and started his own religion, which eventually resulted in the Taiping rebellion.
Xiuqan started to become more religious and converted his family and people in his village in the late 1840s. By April 1852 the Taiping religion had gathered a following of over a million people. In March 1853 they captured Nanjing and made it their capital. After a seven-year impasse, the rebellions managed to occupy middle Yangzi. They were so strong that the government could not defeat them.
In 1860 the Qing tried to recapture Nanjing from the Taiping but failed. The emperor recruited Zeng Guofan, a scholar-official, to start a new army. Zeng stated a stronger and better army known as the Hunan army. In 1862, Li Hongzhang, a former assistant of Zeng, started the Anhui or Huai army, it was based off of Zeng’s Hunan army, but it focused on Western weapons and tactics.
In 1856 the Taiping had a “power struggle, which resulted in the death of the Eastern King (one of their leaders).”[v] Hong Ren’gan, Xiuqan’s cousin, unified the rebellion and almost captured Shanghai in 1862. But the rebels lost control of Nanjing and it was reclaimed by the government in 1864.
There was also the Nian rebellion which rose to power in 1851 from the Huai River. A Mongol general, Senggelinqin was ordered to end the rebellion. By spring 1863 Senggelinqin had weakened the Nian so much they were almost defeated, but the Nian learned to adapt and ambushed and killed Senggelinqin in 1865.
In the north-west the Muslim rebellion was defeated in 1873, as was the Miao uprising, and the threat of Yakub Beg ended after his death in 1877.
After the Rebellions
American forces started to take interest in Asia and forced Japan to open their ports. Japan, unlike the Chinese was “able to adapt rapidly to match the power of the West and soon establishes itself as a competitor with the Western powers for colonial rights in Asia.”[vi]
Japan also engaged in a war with China over who controls Korea, and won. This was the first time China, the supposed “supreme power”[vii] of Asia, was beaten by a “tribute bearing subordinate”[viii], like Japan. This war was known as the Sino-Japanese War (1894 – 1895).
The 100 Days’ Reform, 1898
After their defeat in the Sino-Japanese war, the Qing decided to conduct a national 103 day reform on political, educational, and cultural aspects. This was led by the Guangxu Emperor. The reform lasted from the 11th of June to the 22nd September.
The traditional examination system and sinecures (jobs that require pay but do not do anything) was abolished. Peking University was established, as was agricultural schools in all provinces. The standard education system was modernized (focusing on math and science instead of Confucian texts), and encouraged students and families to study abroad. The government was changed from absolute monarchy to constitutional monarchy, and applied capitalism to strengthen their economy. Modernized their military and started to use modern training and drill methods. Started naval academies, repurposed unused military lands for farming, and established a bureau for railways and mines.
Many did not like how drastic these changes were and wanted to have less extreme reforms. The Guangxu emperor was put under house arrest until his death in 1905, which is when the Empress Dowager Cixi took over. Cixi kept most of Guangxu’s reforms, but the people thought the only way to save their dynasty was the overthrow it, which they did six years later.
The Boxer Uprising
In September 1899 an uprising, supposed to be descended from the White Lotus, emerged in in Beijing. The Boxer rebellion was founded to oppose the Christian converts and missionaries coming from the West. In the beginning, government officials tried to be neutral to the fights between the Boxers and the Christians, but I was obvious they favored the Boxers. The Boxers were mainly in Beijing and Tianjin.
By May 1900, Boxers would be on the streets, and in June 1900 they cut Western railway lines. “In retaliation, the Western powers seized the Dagu forts.”[ix]
On June 21, the Empress Dowager (the effective ruler at the time), declared war against the Westerners, blaming them for provoking the people into started a rebellion. “The foreign population in Beijing were besieged and guarded by taskforces for 55 days.”[x] The siege was lifted on August 14 because of a relief expedition.
The rebellion ended in 1901, China made an agreement with the Eight-Nation Alliance (included Germany, Japan, Russia, Britain, France, America, Italy, and Austria-Hungary), which was known as the Boxer Protocol. The Chinese government was forced to apologize to the foreign population and the Eight-Nation Alliance. The Chinese officials who were openly supporting the Boxers were executed, banished, or ordered to commit suicide. The Chinese would also have to pay 450 million taels to the Eight-Nation Alliance in installments for 39 years.
The Late Qing Reforms
After the Boxer Rebellion the Empress Dowager started reforming the country, starting with the schools. Each district was required to have primary and middle schools. Western subjects would be taught alongside the traditional Chinese curriculum. The Eight-Legged essay, which was used in exams, was abolished, and schools started encouraging students to study abroad.
The Qing also improved their army. They abolished the exams to join the army and started a national army. They also changed their way of viewing foreign merchants. Instead of invaders, they were partners. The Qing also started to get into the building of railways.
Conclusion
Many Western historians have said that the reforms after the Boxer Rebellion was the Qing’s last attempt to stay alive, and they may have been right. The Qing fell in 1911 to the Taiping Rebellion, which was thought to have been defeated. It is a shame the dynasty was overrun when they finally started to be more accepting towards the foreigners instead of treating them as enemies.
Thanks for reading!
[i] A History of China, J. A. G. Roberts Page 163
[ii] A History of China, J. A. G. Roberts Page 167
[iii] A History of China, J. A. G. Roberts Page 168
[iv] A History of China, J. A. G. Roberts Page 169
[v] A History of China, J. A. G. Roberts Page 175
[vi] http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/main_pop/kpct/kp_imperialism.htm
[vii] http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/main_pop/kpct/kp_imperialism.htm
[viii] http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/main_pop/kpct/kp_imperialism.htm
[ix] A History of China, J. A. G. Roberts Page 201
[x] A History of China, J. A. G. Robert Page 201
Sophia Elahi RPC Blog 