Depth 1 - Opening up China to foreigners

Cause of Treaty of Tianjin

Treaty of Nianjing 1842

• 5 ports opened e.g. Shanghai

• HK ceded to Britain

Consequences of the Treaty of Tianjin (8)

• Internationally

  • China forced to join global/capitalist trade

  • British colony of HK enlarged beyond Treaty of Nianjing 1842

  • Indemnities

  • ‘Coolie’ Emigration

• Domestically

  • Summer palaces burned down

  • Foreign army (the Ever Victorious army) helped Qing dynasty defeat Taiping rebellion 1860

  • Self-strengthening

  • Qing dynasty upheld

terms of the treaty of Tianjin and date

1860

1. foreign powers could establish embassies

2. Taxes on foreign goods lowered

3. 10 more treaty ports (e.g. Nanjing, Manchuria, Shandong, Taiwan)

4. China forbidden from considering missionaries harmful and can preach beyond the treaty ports

5. Extraterritoriality reaffirmed (and foreign jurisdiction foreign concessions)

6. Qing empire permits foreign vessels to navigate the Yangtze river (one of new treaty ports there)

7. 4 nations have right to station diplomatic legations on Beijing

8. Chinese forbidden from using character for ‘barbarian’

9. Opium trade legalised

10. Indemnity of 6 million taels of silver

What were the harsher terms added (name and date)Why

Convention of Beijing after 1858

• Tianjin added as a treaty port

• Gained Kowloon in British colony of HK

• further indemnity of $8 million

• Clause allowing ‘coolie’ emigration to the Americas

Why convention of Beijing

• Treaty terms agreed 1858

• British and French went to Beijing to ratify

• They were attacked

• In response burned down the summer palaces and looted

Why was the burning of the summer palaces so significant

cultural disaster (known for architecture, art, museums, libraries)

Features of Taiping Rebellion

• 1850-64

• Supported social reform, overthrow Confucian system and empowerment of women

• Ever Victorious Army defended Shanghai against attack August 1860

How was the Qing dynasty upheld by the Treaty of Tianjin

Not all of forbidden city destroyed, only summer palaces (not fatal blow to Qing existence)

If the Qing fell the trading rights, advantages and privileges granted to the foreign powers may be removed/renegotiated

Causes of growth of foreign trade

• Yangtze treaty ports allowed foreign trade to spread inland

• British people developed taste for Chinese silks, tea and porcelain

• Treaty of Tianjin allowed Opium trade giving the British a product which there was a market for in China

• Extraterritoriality

Beneficial consequences of growth of foreign trade

1. Textile mills established in major cities

2. Compradors (China’s first entrepreneurs)

3. Foreign influence didn’t fully penetrate China

4. Led to slow modernisation

Examples of textile mill and what they did

Shanghai

raw cotton imported and manufactured

What did compradors do

• Assisted foreign firms in their commercial dealings and knowledgeable about trade routes

• Extraterritoriality gave more freedoms and less bureaucracy so grew entrepreneurialism

Why did foreign influence not fully penetrate China

• Peasants too poor to buy foreign goods

• China remained primarily agricultural and self-sufficient

Why did growth in trade allow modernisation

Goal of the western powers was increased commerce (not war)

Lack of violence allowed China to develop in peace/stability

Period known as Tongzhi Restoration (1860-74)

Problematic consequences of increase in foreign trade

1. Divide in classes (compradors = capitalist)

2. Loss of Chinese silver in opium trading

3. Treaty ports = competition with the Chinese

4. Extraterritoriality led to exploitation

5. Confucian circle in Qing court opposed major growth

Why did extraterritoriality lead to exploitation

British authorities set low fixed tariff so mass import of British goods overwhelmed Chinese market

How did the Confucian circle in Qing court oppose major growth

1. prevented China benefitting from foreign trade - only military self-strengthening

2. Failure to address structural failures gave foreign powers more opportunities to exploit

Causes of British in Shanghai and penetration

• Shanghai was most prosperous treaty port (Treaty of Nianjing)

• Positioned at mouth of Yangtze

Consequences of British in Shanghai

• It was defended against the Taipings 1860

• Base to penetrate the Yangtze (with further treaty ports due to Tianjin)

• Centre for commerce and trading

How was Shanghai a centre for commerce and trading

Shanghai International settlement 1863 (British and US settlements merged)

Settlement took form of a well-to-do British society (e.g. pools, theatres, golf etc.)

Opium trade flourished

Inlets on river exported petroleum, rice, cotton and tea

HSBC 1865

Causes of self-strengthening

Recognition that the Western military was superior (could defeat the Taipings)

Treaty of Tianjin = forced China’s borders open and integration

Xenephobia - wanted rid of the foreign powers

4 self strengthening reforms

1. Tax

2. Spread of foreign language schools

3. Growing awareness of other ideas/cultures

4. Military

Self strengthening tax reforms

1863 Prince Gong Imperial Maritime Customs Service

Provided the Qing gov with 1/3 of revenue

Collected maritime trade taxes

Military reforms of self-strengthening

First Phase 1861-1872 focused on development of military power and scientific ideas

Scientific texts translated to Chinese

Gov purchased European iron-hull battleships + established shipyards and munitions factories

British workers hired to run Chinese armaments factories

Zeng Guofan sent Yung Wing to purchase machines in the USA to build a China’s first modern weapons factory (arsenal) in Shanghai 1865

Further arsenals built in Fuzhou 1867 along with China’s 1^st engineering school for studying mechanical skills and navigation founded

1868 = 1^st steamship built at Fuzhou with a further 11 warships by 1873

Impact of spread to foreign language schools

Prince Gong’s Tongwen Guan 1862:

Schools also set up at the Jiangnan Arsenal and the Fuzhou navy yard

Foreign-language schools introduced a generation of Chinese students to Western learning

Presence of English and French instructors ended China’s international seclusion

Prince Gong’s Tongwen Guan features

1. First foreign Language school in Beijing

2. Primarily foreign languages but developed to cover a broad scientific curriculum

3. After 1869 an 8 year program developed

4. 1863 more commissioned in Shanghai and Guangzhou

Limits of the Tongwen Guan

1. Many Manchu families still focused their children on passing the jinshi civil service examinations (e.g. calligraphy and study of Chinese classics)

2. maximum no. of students at one time = 200

3. Other schools = smaller and the Guangzhou school was less open to Western ideas

Impact of Fuzhou Navy Yard/Jiangnan Arsenal Schools

Taught subjects like French, English, mechanics

Translation department within the Jiangnan arsenal school for training translators

Limit to foreign language schools

Confucian elites rejected them as a challenge to Confucian orthodoxy

Growing awareness amongst the elite of other cultures/ideas

• Understanding that to facilitate some military modernisation some Western science/learning would have to be adopted

• Forced to accept foreign ambassadors due to Treaty of Tianjin

• Zongli Yamen 1861

Limits of Growing awareness amongst the elite of other cultures/ideas

• Lives of majority were unaffected

• Didn’t fully immerse itself in diplomatic practices

• Foreigners still had upper hand (e.g. British refused concessions in renegotiation of the Treaty of Tianjin 1868)

Zongli Yamen features

• Gov department responsible for managing foreign relations

• led by Prince Gong

• Commissioned translation of Henry Wheaton’s ‘Elements of International Law’ 1862

  • Used to secure a diplomatic victory when a ship of the Prussian navy captured 3 Danish ships in Chinese waters

• Authorised an informal fact-finding mission across Europe 1868

  • Due to British Advisors Robert Hart and Thomas Wade submitting papers to the Zongli Yamen in mid-60s advocating for industrial developments, modern education and familiarisation of Western diplomatic practices

• Made agreements with foreign powers that pace of modernisation wouldn’t be forced

Why self-strengthening failed

1. Lack of central leadership

2. Corruption of officials

3. Resistance of conservatives

4. Hostile Imperial powers

Why was there a lack of central leadership in the self-strengthening

Court divided between Conservatives and reformers

Cixi removed Prince Gong and diverted funds from reform projects to build a summer palace

Corruption of officials in self-strengthening

Diverted money from reform projects

Purchased their positions during Taiping Rebellion (unqualified)

Features of resistance from conservatives in self-strengthening

Confucian scholars and gov officials believed learning from ‘barbarians’ wouldn’t work and would undermine Confucian system of culture and gov

Basic foundation of imperial China didn’t need reform

Features of hostile imperial powers in self-strengthening

• Western nations dominated trade (put domestic industries out of business and forced Qing into debt)

• Sino French War 1884-85

• Sino-Japanese War 1894-95

Features of impact of missions and missionaries

• Air of superiority led to condescending attitude

• Challenged confucian orthodoxy (so associated with reforming the Qing regime)

  • concubinage

  • foot-binding

  • ancestor worship

• Extraterritoriality and freedom of travel allowed spread the message and secured legal rights/protection of Chinese converts

• Most receptive people = non-Manchu, poorer Chinese, ethnic minorities and women (negligible number - 80,000 by 20th C)

Causes of missionaries

Treaties

Wanted to ‘save’ China

Consequences of missionaries

Positive

• Famine relief

• Opportunities for poorest

• Changed role of women

• Education

Negative

• Questionable morals of converts

• Xenophobia

• Showed deficiencies of imperial China (provided an alternative)

• Tianjin Massacre

how missionaries Changed role of women

• Had no access to formal education and subject to concubinage, infanticide and foot binding

• Female converts received same opportunities as men in Protestant schools and Christians criticised female infanticide, arranged marriages and foot binding

How missionaries changed education

• Missionary schools

• Translated Western works

• Catholic - focused on proselytising and Chinese classics

• Protestant - rounded, secular curriculum e.g. educating Chinese people to take up English speaking positions at treaty ports

• gave basic learning to thousands of Chinese

Questionable morals of converts

• Criminals trying to get around Chinese laws through extraterritoriality

• Leader of taiping Rebellion (Hong Xiuguan) converted

Xenophobia surrounding missionaries

• Accusations they mutilate pregnant people and incest

Causes of Tianjin Massacre 1870

• Differences between Confucianism and Christianity

• Tianjin = treaty scene and occupied by foreigners

• Disproportionate actions of British

Differences between Confucianism and Christianity in tianjin

• French constructed Church and orphanage on site of razed Buddhist Temple

• Baptised sick children but Chinese thought the high mortality rates were result of Western barbarianism

• Tall churches = against Feng shui

British disproportionate actions

1868 attack on mission station Yangzhou

British sent warships to Nanjing to demand compensation for execution of perpetrators

Features of Tianjin massacre

Mob developed into riot

Church and orphanage burned to the ground

Many foreigners murdered including French diplomat, 10 nuns and 2 priests

Consequences of tianjin massacre

• Foreign powers imposed their will without resistance with small provocation

• Foreign gunboats dispatched to Tianjin

• Complaints by foreign powers = zongli yamen opened negotiations

• Li Hongzhang went to Tianjin and proposed execution of 8 leaders and further 20 for hard labour

• Delegation sent to France for an official apology