• Producer of many natural resources

  • tea and sugar

  • silk and opium

  => wealth was attractive to foreign forces => more came to China to exploit it

• Imperial system (empire ruled by an Emperor)

  • Emperor held the Mandate of Heaven

    => emperor was a divine superior meaning the Chinese had superiority economically, culturally and socially

• By 1900 there were 300M subjects

  • Han, Manchu, Mongol, Tibetan ethnicities (majorities)

• (90% were Han but the Manchus ruled

  • most of the population were peasants with few rights

• Women had the least rights

  • property of their fathers and husbands

  • marriages were arranged

  • ‘bride prices’ had to be paid => women were bought and sold

• By the 20th century the emperor was losing the Mandate of Heaven

  • China was suffering repeatedly of humiliation by foreigners

    • Britain took valuable resources after the Opium wars

    • Japan defeated China in war, taking Korea from them

    • France had gained territory in the South

As a result, the emperor’s authority declines as his weaknesses were revealed