Why did the Qing Dynasty collapse in 1911?

1. Why did the Qing Dynasty collapse in 1911? – To identify the long-term and short-term causes of the 1911 Revolution

2. Chinese Poetry • I have just drunk the waters of Changsha And come to eat the fish of Wuchang. Now I am swimming across the great Yangtze, Looking afar to the open sky of Chu. Let the wind blow and waves beat, Better far than idly strolling in a courtyard. Today I am at ease. "It was by a stream that the Master said-- 'Thus do things flow away!' " Sails move with the wind. Tortoise and Snake are still. Great plans are afoot: A bridge will fly to span the north and south, Turning a deep chasm into a thoroughfare; Walls of stone will stand upstream to the west To hold back Wushan's clouds and rain Till a smooth lake rises in the narrow gorges. The mountain goddess if she is still there Will marvel at a world so changed.

3. Conditions that gave rise to authoritarianism • In October 1949 Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC), and, although initially several other political parties were tolerated, 1949 effectively marked the beginning of single-party rule by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). • In order to explain the CCP's rise, it is necessary to examine the failure of both the Qing (or Manchu) dynasty which ruled China from 1644 to 1911 and the Guomindang (GM.D) government of Chiang Kai-Shek (1927-49) to establish stable government. • In addition, the CCP's strengths must be analysed, to determine how they successfully exploited conditions, enabling them to seize power in 1949 and achieve control over almost the whole of the former Chinese Empire.

4. Five Important Facts about China 1.Before the revolution, China was dominant in Asia, a nation of great size, enormous population and considerable economic potential. 2. The majority of China’s population were concentrated in its eastern provinces, near good farmland and the coast, while its mountainous and arid western regions were sparsely populated. 3. China’s economy was predominately agrarian, a land of peasants, though its industrial and manufacturing was well advanced in comparison to much of the world. 4. Chinese society was strongly hierarchical. These hierarchies and traditions were defined by tradition and reinforced by Confucian values of discipline and obedience. 5. Women occupied a lowly place in pre-revolutionary Chinese society, with few if any legal and property rights. Many Chinese women were also subject to the practices of foot binding and concubinage.

6. HistoricalContext • For about 3,000 years, China was ruled by a series of imperial dynasties. • From the mid-seventeenth century, the Qing dynasty, originally from Manchuria—hence they are often referred to as the Manchu—held power in China. • The nineteenth century saw the Qing dynasty in decline, struggling to cope with foreign aggression and internal rebellions.

7. 10-10 Revolution, Xinhai Revolution • In 1911 the Revolution of the Double Tenth (10 October), also known as the 'Xinhai Revolution', destroyed Qing power and China officially became a republic in 1912, following the abdication of Pu Yi, the last emperor.

8. Introduction • On 12th February 1912, the 6-Year-Old Xuantung Emperor, Puyi, peacefully abdicated. • It was the end of not only the Qing Dynasty which had ruled since 1644 but of Imperial China itself. China was now a Republic. • Many people believed the Qing had lost the Mandate of Heaven and deserved to be deposed. But why did this happen? What were the causes of the 1911 Revolution?

9. Long-Term Cause 1Impact of the West

10. China Is Forced to Open Up to the West • Before the mid-nineteenth century, Chinese emperors showed little interest in contact and trade with the West. • Their isolationism was fueled by a belief that the Chinese Empire was the only civilized country in the world. • However, starting with the First Opium War (1839-42) in which the British defeated Chinese forces, the Chinese government was compelled to open up to the West. • The Qing were forced by militarily and industrially advanced powers, notably Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Japan to grant commercial bases and rights and to allow Christian missionaries to operate in China. • Force was applied either directly, such as Britain going to war with China in 1839, or by the threat of force.

11. China Is Forced to Open Up to the West • As a result of a whole series of what are usually referred to as unequal treaties, foreign merchants gained control of China's import and export trade. • Major ports, for example, Shanghai, had large foreign-controlled districts. • Foreign powers completely took over peripheral areas of the empire, for example, Russia claimed Manchuria in 1900, France seized Indo-China in the 1880s and 1890s, and Japan took Taiwan in 1895.

12. Impact of the West • The humiliations heaped on China by European powers and Japan is often seen as the primary cause of the decline of the Qing Dynasty. • Britain first appealed for trading rights and representation in China (an embassy in Beijing) in 1793 when Lord Macartneymet the Qianlong Emperor – all demands were refused! • Chinese officials had no sense of equality between nations. There was the Son of Heaven in Beijing and all else were tributary states or barbarians. As your Ambassador can see for himself, we possess all things. I set no value in objects strange or ingenious, and have no use for your country’s manufacture. Qianlong Emperor

14. Impact of the West • The British tried again in 1816 but its representative was not even received! Trade remained limited to 13 licensed merchants in Canton (Guangzhou) – the Cohong. • The British were anxious to extend their trade and force China into a more modern and open relationship. By the 1830s, the British Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston, was prepared for tough action – drugs gave him the excuse!

15. The First Opium War 1839-42 • During the 1820s and 1830s, illegal imports of British Opium into China was growing rapidly causing social problems and a drain of silver. • In 1838, the Emperor decided to ban this trade. He sent the official Lin Zexuto implement it. • 3 million pounds of raw opium were seized in 1839 and destroyed. Some British merchants were imprisoned.

17. The First Opium War 1839-42 The English barbarians are an insignificant race, trusting entirely to their strong ships and large guns: but the immense distance they have travelled will render the arrival of supplies impossible and their soldiers after a single defeat… will become dispirited and lost. Report to the Emperor before the conflict • The merchants lobbied the government in London and an expedition was sent: 16 warships, 4 newly armed steamers and 4000 troops were sent to Canton. • The war exposed the technological backwardness of China. • Their war junks were no match for armed steamers. The Chinese even tried using monkeys armed with primitive bombs!

20. The First Opium War 1839-42 • The result of the war was the humiliating Treaty of Nanjing. Hong Kong Island was given to Britain and 5 other ports were opened to trade. • China also had to pay compensation and grant Britain equal diplomatic status.

22. The Second Opium War 1858-60 • Problems continued to grow. Piracy and crime still affected British trade and the original demand for a permanent ambassador in Beijing had not been met. • In 1856, a British ship, The Arrow, was seized by Chinese authorities in Canton. This gave the British a new pretext to launch another attack on the Chinese.

23. The Second Opium War 1858-60 By this war we have practically opened out the trade of the Yangtze River… We have inflicted a severe blow upon the pride of the Emperor that the whole face of Chinese politics and our relations with that country must change, before he will dare insult our flag or obstruct our commerce. Lt Col G J Wolseley • The British struck near Beijing but the Emperor refused to sign a new treaty. The British and French marched on Beijing and burnt down the Summer Palace. • The Emperor then signed the Treaty of Tianjin which allowed the establishment of embassies in Beijing, greater trade rights in China and allowed Christian missionaries to travel freely across China.

25. Foreign Influence Increases • By the 1860s, contact between foreigners and Chinese elites and merchants began to increase. • There was a need to learn foreign languages so language schools opened in many ports. • In Beijing a western-style college opened in 1867 however many opposed this.

27. Establishment of Missionaries • The greatest resentment of some Chinese was directed against religious missionaries. Many were persecuted and killed, usually by Confucian gentry who hated reforms. • However missionaries did open schools and hospitals where Chinese students became imbued with western ideas and the need to promote reform in China.

29. Loss of the Tributary States • Vietnam and Korea traditionally occupied a tributary status with regard to Imperial China. The rulers of both recognised the lordship of the Emperor in Beijing, often giving tribute to him. • In Vietnam, the French severed this link by destroying a Chinese fleet in 1884 at Fuzhouduring the Sino-French War. • In 1894, a Civil War in Korea resulted in Japan invading Korea, Lushun in Manchuria AND the Shandong Peninsuladuring the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95.

33. Loss of the Tributary States • The Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895 was even more humiliating to China than the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842. • China had to abandon any claim on Korea and gave many ports to Japan. • This caused riots in Beijing. Confucian scholars, gathered for the Jinshi examination, demonstrated against the treaty and demanded reform – the Qing Dynasty was beginning to totter.

34. Continued Loss of Sovereignty • In 1898 and 1899, China was on the point of partition between the imperialist powers. • Russia forced the Japanese out of Manchuria and renamed Lushan‘Port Arthur’. • Germany occupied ports in the Shandong Peninsula and the British took Weihaiwei. They also gained a 99-year lease on the Kowloon Peninsula.

35. Why such a large scale of rebellions ? • These large-scale rebellions happened during XIX century as the imperial government in Beijing found it increasingly difficult to exercise effective control over the whole of China, partly because of foreign intervention but also because the Qing armies deteriorated in quality during the nineteenth century, and the Qing court increasingly allowed regional armies to develop which were outside its direct control.

36. The Taiping Rebellion (1850-64) and The Boxer Rebellion (1898-1900). • The most serious rebellions were the Taiping Rebellion (1850-64) and the Boxer Rebellion (1898-1900). • During the latter, the Boxers, who resented foreign exploitation of China, murdered missionaries and Christian converts in northern China and besieged the area of Beijing where foreign residents lived. • The foreign powers eventually crushed the Boxers in 1900 and imposed the Boxer Protocol (1901) on the imperial government, which included a fine of $330 million for the Qing's failure to prevent the death of foreign residents and damage to foreign-owned property; this further undermined support for the Qing dynasty among their subjects.

37. The Boxer Rebellion • In this situation, it seemed as if the Qing Dynasty was unable to defend Chinese sovereignty. Popular feeling in north-east China erupted into the Boxer Rising. • In Spring 1900, anti-Western outrage spilled out, fuelled by magical beliefs and Han pride. • Railways lines were destroyed, foreigners murdered and even Chinese in possession of foreign objects like clocks were killed.

40. The Boxer Rebellion • Mobs from the countryside spread to Tianjin and Beijing. The German ambassador was shot and Europeans retreated to the British embassy. • The Empress Dowager Cixi, in control of the Qing Court, threw her support behind the Boxers, basically declaring war on the west. • In August 1900, an international force advanced on Beijing. The Qing court fled to Xi’an and a peace was negotiated.

41. The Boxer Rebellion • Massive damages were extracted, which amounted to nearly twice the annual revenue of the state. • It was compared to the punishing Treaty of Versailles and provoked a similar reaction of outraged bitterness and nationalism in China.

42. The Hundred Days (1898): A Brief Flowering of Reform under the Qing • Many Chinese were angered by China's inability to stand up to foreign encroachment and believed that the solution lay in reform and modernization by the imperial government. • In 1898 Kang Youwei, a high-ranking imperial official, in a period known as the 'Hundred Days of Reform', persuadedthe Emperor Guang Xu (1871-1908) to introduce reforms in order to modernize the bureaucracy, the armed forces, and the transport system and to develop industry. • However, this reforming phase was brought to an abrupt halt by the powerful Empress Dowager Cixi who hated reform and western ideas. • Her conservatism was a powerful barrier to reform from 1861 until her death in 1908.

43. Nationalist Reaction • In the early 1900s, a genuine nationalist movement amongst the education elite began to form. • This new nationalism didn’t hate ALL things Western like some of the educated Confucian gentry did. They also looked to Japan as an example. • In 1867-68, the new Meiji Emperor in Japan had reformed the country. The only way to compete with the west was to embrace western technology, government and society.

44. Nationalist Reaction • Many young members of the Chinese scholar class drew the conclusion that China should follow Japan’s path of reform. • ZouRongstudied in Japan and believed that China could only be saved with the destruction of the Qing Dynasty. His book, The Revolutionary Army(1903), appealed to Han resentment of the ruling Manchus and hatred of western ‘foreign devils’. • Sun Yat-Senbuilt on Zou’s work and spent many years in exile reflecting on Qing China.

45. Sun Yat-sen and the Emergence of Revolutionary Nationalism • Many Chinese nationalists believed that only the overthrow of the Qing and the establishment of a republic could save China. • The most prominent republican leader was Sun Yat-senwhose political outlook was influenced by Western ideas, but who was also impressed by the modernization of Japan since 1868. • In his writings, Sun outlined the Three People's Principles: the People's Nationalism, the People's Democracy and the People's Livelihood. • Sun sought to end foreign domination of China and to create a strong, unified Chinese republic. • His idea of the People's Livelihood fell far short of full-blown socialism but did represent a desire to see greater social justice and a fairer distribution of wealth.

46. Long-Term Cause 2Internal Problems

47. Like modern China, ancient and imperial China also dominated its region. • In the late 1800s territories under Chinese control or influence included Manchuria in the north and Burma, Tibet, Nepal and Turkestan in the south and south-west. • By 1900, China’s population was approximately 467 million people, more than all the nations of Europe combined. • The vast majority of Chinese citizens lived in the ,home to China’s coastline and ports as well as 90 per cent of its farming land. • The imperial capital Beijing (called “Peking” by foreigners). • China’s western regions were more sparsely populated.

48. China’s economy was mostly agricultural. • The most common vocation in pre-revolutionary China was peasant-farming. • As in tsarist Russia, more than 80 per cent of Chinese were peasants. • A minority of peasants claimed ownership of some land, however, most paid rent to landlords. • This rent could be exorbitant and exploitative, sometimes up to half their seasonal produce.

49. Natural Disasters impacted the economy • Millions of Chinese peasants lived in the valleys and floodplains of great rivers such as the Yangtze and Huang He (Yellow River), so their lives and production were often affected by floods. • China was also susceptible to earthquakes, which often caused high death tolls (the Tangshan earthquake, which struck a few weeks before the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, killed almost 250,000 people).

50. China also boasted a surprising amount of technical and industrial production, exceeding that of Europe, as historian Paul Kennedy summarized in The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (1989): • To readers brought up to respect “western science”, the most striking feature of Chinese civilization must be its technological precocity. • Huge libraries existed from early on. Printing by movable type had already appeared in 11th-century China, and soon large numbers of books were in existence. Trade and industry, stimulated by the canal building and population pressures, were equally sophisticated… By the later decades of the 11th century there existed an enormous iron industry in northern China, producing around 125,000 tons per annum, chiefly for military and government use – the army of over a million men was, for example, an enormous market for iron goods… This production figure was far larger than the British iron output in the early stages of the Industrial Revolution, seven centuries later! The Chinese were probably the first to invent true gunpowder. Cannons were used by the Ming to overthrow the Mongol rulers in the late 14th century. The magnetic compass was also another Chinese invention. In 1420, the Ming navy was recorded as possessing 1,350 combat vessels, including 400 large floating fortresses and 250 ships designed for long-range cruising.”