6.3: Contact between China and Europe

First contacts - Missionaries

• Christianity had been in China since the 7th century

• Ming Dynasty (14th century) didn't want to be associated with Christianity and closed down all the monasteries and expelled the Christians

• Christian missionaries returned to China during the Qing Dynasty

Jesuit missionaries

• among the first European visitors to China.

• 1630: one missionary Johan Adam Schall von Bell, an astronomer became appointed to the court of Emperor Shunzhi. This gave him permission to build churches, converting 150 000 Chinese to Catholicism.

Protestant missionaries

• 1807: Robert Morrison worked in translating the Bible into Chinese and produced the first Chinese - English dictionary

• 1826: Emperor Daoguang forbade Christianity, and those who refused were banished into Xinjiang given to Muslim rulers as slaves

• Foreign missionaries responsible for the spread of Christianity were punished

Early trade

European trade

• Qing emperors were not interested with contact outside of China

• Allowed a small group of Portuguese traders to establish a trading base at Macao in 1557

• 1685 - Emperor Kangxi allowed trade with Europe, but there was very little demand for European goods

• The Chinese stayed self - sufficient and only allowed foreigners to trade with silver

• Large trade deficit for Britain

• First European trade mission

  • 1792: Britain’s Lord Macartney was coming for a tributary mission (83rd birthday party) (sent by King George III)

  • Members of Macartney’s mission brought many gifts for the emperor

  • petitioned for Emperor Qianlong to allow trade to expand

  • When Macartney met Qianlong, he refused to perform the ritual ceremonial kowtow, Qianlong ** then refused to agree to the British requests

  • Macartney hand delivered a letter to the Emperor who rejected the British request saying that China had nothing more to gain by trading with the Europeans.

  • Trade between Britain and China was slow to develop & tea accounted for 90% of Britain’s trade with China

Canton System

• In 1757, all foreign trade was restricted to the port of Canton

• rules:

  1. no foreign women or firearms permitted in factories

  2. All foreigners must leave Canton after the trading season (Oct-Jan)

  3. Captains must register their ships with the Chinese authorities in Macau

  4. Foreigners can’t leave 100 yards of their factory

  5. Foreign factors can’t employ Chinese maids

  6. Foreigners are not permitted to row their boats in the Pearl river

  7. Foreigners aren’t permitted to learn Chinese or purchase Chinese books

  8. No foreigner is to make direct contact with Chinese people

  9. Trade must be conducted via the Hong merchants - no foreigner can directly communicate with private Chinese merchants

  10. Hong merchants are not permitted to go into debt to foreigners

  • OTHER:

    • they were also limited to the Thirteen Factories at the harborside (called “Barbarian Houses by locals)

    • Were allowed to stay at Macau, a Portuguese controlled city during the off season

Opium trade

• In an attempt to secure trade relations, the British government brought Bengal (Indian) opium to entice the Chinese

• Bribed officials to help them smuggle the opium into China and distribute free samples of it to the population

• produced from the sap of opium poppy and turned into power, used for medical purposes

• became Popular in China through illegal smuggling

• Banned in 1796 by Emperor Jiaqing but didn’t make a difference

Opium imports into China 1650-1880

Effects of Opium

• 1833 - the British government ended the British East India Company’s opium monopoly in India = China gets cheap opium

• Chinese medical books recommended opium for diarrhoea, dysentery and some other diseases. Also stated that, if not used safely, “opium kills like a knife”

• Addiction:

  • Estimated that at the height of opium trade there was 10 million addicts throughout China

  • 20 - 30% of government officials were opium users

  • Addicts became apathetic & spent most their money on opium

  • A problem for all Chinese classes

China’s response

• From 1821-1834, the emperor continuously reapplied a ban of opium with the issue of eight decrees, to prohibit smoking, trading and trafficking of opium

• 1838: death penalty for Chinese drug traffickers

• 1839: Emperor Daoguang ordered all British owned opium to be seized

• 1839: Lin Zexu appointed as imperial commissioner to destroy the opium trade

• Emperor forbade further trade with Britain

• British merchants protested against this interference with the support of Foreign Secretary, Lord Palmerston

• Over 1600 Chinese opium dealers arrested

• Over 42 000 pipes confiscated

• Wrote to Queen Victoria, pleading her to stop the trade

1839 orders

• 1839 - all foreign merchants ordered to hand over their opium and sign a pledge never to sell it again

• Merchants ignored = Lin closed the port of Canton to all foreign shipping and captured the 350 British inside

• Only freed when The British government agreed to destroy 20,000 chests of Opium

• British demanded financial compensation for their loss

British seize control

• British Navy sent a fleet of warships to seize control of Canton

• Chinese wooden junks stood no chance against British steam powered, iron-hulled ships

• 1842 - fleet occupied Shanghai and then went up the Yangtze River towards NanKing, destroying several coastal towns

• Canton System ended

Palmerston

• Gladstone (future Liberal Prime Minister) condemned Palmerston for promoting the immoral policy of forcing opium on the Chinese

• British newspapers and some politicians believed that Palmerston was trying to protect an “infamous contraband trade”

• Palmerston responded by claiming Emperor’s prohibition was to keep a Chinese opium monopoly rather than a matter of morality

• Palmerston’s rallying cry was “Let us give the Chinese a good thrashing and explain ourselves afterward”

Treaty of Nanjing

• Ceased on 29 August 1842 when the Chinese agreed to sign the treaty of Nanjing (or “Unequal Treaty”), ending the control of Hong Kong to Britain

• opened 4 new ports to British shipping

• British were given extraterritoriality rights; Chinese courts in these treaty ports were denied any jurisdiction over British citizens

• forced to pay total of $21 million

• Britain was granted most favoured nation status, giving them better trades than any other country

• China paid $9 million in compensation for the opium that had been destroyed

After

• 1844 - France and US took advantage of China, and made similar unequal treaties

Opening of China

Chinese authorities were reluctant to carry out the unequal treaties → the second opium war in 1856 which ended even worse for China.

Treaty of Tientsin in 1858:

• eleven new ports be opened to foreign shipping

• foreigners including Christian missionaries were allowed to travel freely throughout China

• Foreigners weren’t subject to Chinese laws anymore

6.4: Consequence of Contact with European

Consequences of contact

Positive

• modernisation

• New economic opportunities

• Reform of Qing government

• Chinese emigration worldwide

• trade relations

• cultural awareness

Negative

• Defeat in war weakened China military

• Increased opium imports and addiction

• Loss of China's prestige in Asia

• Influx of foreign ideas

• Taiping and other rebellions weaken the Qing dynasty

• Decline in traditional cottage industries

• Territorial losses to Russia

• Concessions made by the unequal treaties

Consequences of the Opium Wars

Economic impacts

• More ‘treaty ports’ = influx of foreign goods = decline in traditional cottage industries

• Many more ports in China rather than just Canton = mass movement of people from Canton to Shanghai = social problems: homelessness and crime

Religious impacts

• Influx of Christian missionaries from the West in southern China

• Christianity appealed to the many people forced to leave their homes in search of work.

• Tension between Christians and Buddhists & Taoists

Taiping Rebellion

• Most serious rebellions against the Qing Dynasty

• 14 year civil war → deaths of 20 million soldiers and civilians

• The leader was Hong Xiuquan, a recent Christian convert

• Established a capital for his Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in Nanking

• Built a civilian army of over one million men

Taiping rebellion works:

• redistributed the land equally to all men and women over the age of 16

• destroyed temples and shrines and forbade ancestor worship

• supported the sick and disabled

  • beliefs of the Taiping rebels undermined important Confucian values.

  • Protestant view → all believers are equal, threatened to destroy the roles and responsibilities between superiors and inferiors in society.

• prohibited opium smoking, foot binding, slavery and prostitution

Alexander Michie, an Englishman who visited the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (Nanking) in 1861.

End of Taiping rebellion

• rebels began to threaten foreign trade

• By guaranteeing the continuation of foreign trade, Qing Dynasty drew support from European powers

• Taiping rebellion crushed in 1864

‘Self strengthening Period’

The Qing dynasty survived for another 50 years, because its officials recognised the need to modernise China. This survival of the Dynasty relied on the willingness of Chinese to fight for, rather than against their Manchu rulers. 1898 - During the 100 days reform, Economic, military, political and educational changes were made.

• students were encouraged to study overseas to find out about western scientific knowledge.

• small- scale industry began to emerge → gun factories, shipyards, textiles factories.

• 1861 - first Office for Foreign Affairs in China

• officials were encouraged to learn foreign languages.

Control over China’s tributary states

• 1884 - war with France over control of Annam

• 1885 - Britain added Burma to their Empire.

• 1895 - after battle against Japan, China ceded Korea (it’s most important tributary state)