Opium Wars Flashcards

Tribute

Payment made by one country or group to another, often to show submission or avoid conflict.

Kowtowing

Showing extreme respect or submission to someone more powerful; traditionally, kneeling and bowing in China.

Trade Imbalance

Britain bought large amounts of Chinese tea, silk, and porcelain but had few goods China wanted in return, creating a trade imbalance. To fix this, Britain began selling opium to China.

Tea & Opium

Britain traded opium for Chinese tea and other goods, contributing to addiction in China and the Opium Wars.

Lin Zexu

Chinese official who tried to stop the opium trade by confiscating and destroying British opium in 1839.

Qianlong & George III

Chinese emperor and British king whose 1793 meeting highlighted China's refusal to grant Britain the expanded trading privileges it wanted.

Gunboat Diplomacy

Using the threat or use of military force to pressure another country into agreeing to demands.

The Unequal Treaties

Agreements forced on China by foreign powers after military defeats that gave foreigners special privileges and weakened China's control.

Extraterritoriality

The right of foreigners in China to be tried under their own country's laws instead of Chinese laws.

Most Favored Nation Status

An agreement allowing a country to receive the same trade privileges given to other favored countries. (ex: If China gave France a new trade privilege, Britain automatically got that same privilege too.)

Spheres of Influence

Areas of China where foreign countries had special economic and political control.

Century of Humiliation

Period when China faced foreign invasions, unequal treaties, and loss of control, roughly from the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s.

Dowager Empress Cixi

Powerful Chinese leader who ruled during the late Qing dynasty and resisted some reforms while trying to preserve the dynasty.

The Taiping Rebellion

Massive civil war in China from 1850–1864 led by Hong Xiuquan that challenged the Qing dynasty and caused millions of deaths.

Hong Xiuquan

Leader of the Taiping Rebellion who claimed to be the younger brother of Jesus Christ and wanted to create a new religious society.

The Boxer Rebellion

Anti-foreign and anti-Christian uprising in China from 1899–1901 that tried to remove foreign influence but was defeated by an international army.

May Fourth Movement

Student-led protest movement beginning in 1919 that opposed foreign influence and encouraged Chinese nationalism and modernization.

Sun Yat-Sen

Chinese revolutionary leader who helped overthrow the Qing dynasty and became an important founder of modern Chinese nationalism.

Three People's Principles

Sun Yat-Sen's political ideas: nationalism (independence), democracy (rule by the people), and people's livelihood (improving people's economic well-being).

The Kuomintang (KMT)

Chinese Nationalist Party that fought to unify China and later battled the Chinese Communist Party.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP)

Political party founded in 1921 that sought to establish a communist government in China.

Mao Zedong

Communist revolutionary who led the CCP to victory in 1949 and founded the People's Republic of China.