China rejects Europeans outreach

THE MING DYNASTY & China Naval Power

The Ming Dynasty(1368-1644)

Hongwan-  1^st emperor of the Ming Dynasty – when he drove the Mongols out of China 1368 

• Yonglo – son of Hongwu

  • Moved the royal court to Beijing

• He launched the 1^st of 7 naval voyages in 1405

  • Before the Portuguese sailed beyond Southern Africa in 1488.

• All 7 voyages were led by Zheng He

Zheng He & China naval fleet

• Chinese Naval Admiral, a Muslim (and hajj participant)

  • Voyage goals:  Impress the world with Ming China’s power and splendor

    • 40-300 ships sailed in each expedition

    • Ships up to 440’ long with crews of 27,000 on some voyages

  • Each voyage was like a huge floating city: doctors, soldiers, accountants, interpreters, carpenters, and religious leaders

    • Distributed gifts of gold, silver, silk, and perfumes

  • Voyages were deemed to costly and were stopped in 1433 – As China became more isolated

The Mind Dynasty dismantled its Naval Fleet

• The Chinese clearly had the ability to sail, discover, and maintain foreign trade routes with its naval power 

• But, Ming emperors lost interest, and outlawed overseas voyages & trade after 1433

  • Exploration was viewed as an extravagance, so Ming emperors turned inward to complete the construction of the Great Wall

  • China believed it was the Middle Kingdom and self-sufficient 

  Eventually The Europeans arrived to trade with china in the 1500s

  Ming rulers resisted trade with Europeans; however:

  • Only the Ming Government would conduct trade with Europeans

• Only 3 ports (foreign enclaves) were opened by the Ming emperors to conduct trade with Europeans

  • But, Chinese merchants continued to secretly trade with Europeans for silver mined in the Americas 

China negative attitude on Trade

• As European merchants demanded more Chinese goods, local Chinese merchants broke the emperor’s rules to smuggle silks and ceramics to trade with Europeans, so Chinese manufacturing began to increase.

 China’s opinion on trade

• Chinese emperors wished to remain self-sufficient

• Commerce was viewed as offensive to Confucian beliefs

  • Agriculture was favored, while commerce and manufacturing industries were taxed heavily by the emperor

• Educated Chinese people, also distrusted European Christian missionaries 

  • Europeans were introducing Christian beliefs to the Chinese through trade

Christianity made inroads into China

• Jesuit, Matteo Ricci, of Italy 

  • Ricci was well received in the Ming court because of  his extreme intelligence

  • His is ability to speak, read and write in Chinese impressed many

• Europeans were expected to assimilate into Chinese culture

• But many educated Chinese began to oppose Christianity

THE QING DYNASTY & AND CHINA CONITED ISOLATION FROM EUROPEANS TRADERS

Fouding the Qing Dynasy

• In 1644, The Manchu of Manchuria invaded China and overthrew the Ming Dynasty

  • Manchuria is located in northeastern Asia above China 

• The Manchu ruler became the emperor of China and established the Qing Dynasty

China under the Qing Dynasty

• The Manchu forced Chinese men to wear pigtails, symbolizing Chinese submission to Qing rulers

• But the Qing upheld Confucian beliefs and the values of agrarian society; they gained Chinese support by offering the people government civil service positions

• The Manchu kept the country safe and restored prosperity to China

  • They successfully resisted Mongol invasions

China continued a policy of Isolation Why??

• The Middle Kingdom – Throughout it’s 2000 year history, China viewed itself as the cultural center of the universe and had always remained self-sufficient

• China’s neighbors had always desired to imitate and possess Chinese: culture, manufactured goods, and technology  (Not the other way around)

In a letter to the king of England, the emperor stated,

“There is nothing we lack, as your principal envoy and others have themselves observed. We have never set much store on strange or ingenious objects, nor do we need any more of your country’s manufactures.”  QIAN-LONG, from a letter to King George III of Great Britain

China policy of isolation impacted Europeans

• The rules for trade were set by the Chinese emperor

• If Europeans wanted trade, it was going to be on China’s terms:

  • They had to pay tribute to the emperor 

  • They could only trade in ports - foreign enclaves specified by the emperor

  • And had to perform the “kowtow” ritual (by humbly kneeling on the floor and slamming their forehead to the ground nine times before the ruler of the Middle Kingdom with all due respect) 

China opened trade with Dutch merchants

• The Dutch followed China’s rules and were granted permission to trade for Chinese goods

  • The Dutch brought Chinese silk, porcelain to Europe

  • By the1800’s, 80% of the Chinese goods shipped to Europe included a new prized item, Chinese Tea

Isolation continued – The rejected British

• In 1793, Lord George Macartney delivered a letter from King George III to emperor Qian-long which asked China to open trade w/ Britain.  “A little Chinese tea at tea time would be nice”

• Mccartney bowed, but refused to kowtow before emperor Qian-long

• China refused to trade with Britain 

Japanś Sengoku- A brutal century of ¨ Waring States ¨

Sengoku 1467-1568 “warring states” 

• A violent period in Japanese History

• The samurai seized power over feudal estates

• The Daimyo – were the new warrior-chieftains

• They built castles, samurai fought on horseback, eventually foot soldiers used muskets – that came from Europe

• Daimyos fought each other for control of Japan, and created an era of violence and turbulence

  Oda Nobunaga-brutal and ambitious ¨ Ruled his empire by force¨

  He seized the imperial capital Kyoto in 1568

• Eliminated his enemies - the wealthy daimyos and Buddhist monasteries that supported them

• 1575 Nobunaga’s 3,000 musketeers crushed an enemy samurai cavalry

• His battles were waged with muskets acquired through trade with the Portuguese.

• He failed to completely unify Japan and committed seppuku (ritual suicide) in          1582

Oda Nobunagaś Japan

• He took over the imperial city of Kyoto in 1568 and seized control over most of Japan

• He took his own life in ritual suicide 1582 after failing to completely unite Japan

Toyotomi Hideyoshi- nobunaga´s best general

• Continued Oda Nobunaga’s mission

• With brute force and shrewd alliances, he controlled most of Japan by 1590 

• He intended to conquer China, and invaded Korea in 1592

• At his death Japan withdrew from Korea 1598 

The Tokugawa Shogunate & Limited Contact with Europe

Tokugawa Ieyasu -  Hideyoshi’s strongest daimyo

• Completed the unification of Japan at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600

• Three years later he became the sole ruler of Japan, the shogun 

• The daimyo served under the shogun and ruled at the local level

• He moved the capital city to Edo (later known as Tokyo)

• During his reign law replaced the sword

• He founded the Tokugawa Shogunate

  • Age of Prosperity and Security

Japense Society under the Tokugawa Shogunate

• Japan experienced two centuries of prosperity, stability, and more isolation from European merchants

  • Japan enjoyed a surplus food supply

• Confucian ideology “agricultural life was idealized over commerce” but the tax burden was placed mostly on the Japanese farmer 

  • Many farmers abandoned farm life and moved to the cities and mixed with samurai, merchants, and artisans 

• So Japan was shifting to an urban society by the mid 1700’s

Tokugawa Culture

• Kabuki theater, dramas w/ elaborate costumes continued even in urban areas 

• Haiku poetry, did not express ideas but presented images

Japanese contact with Europeans 

• Portuguese sailors first washed up on the shores of southern Japan, and Portugal later established trade with Japan

  • Europeans showed Japanese many of their new technologies that existed at that time 

    • Clocks, eyeglasses, tobacco, muskets, and cannons

    • Guns grew to replace the sword and samurai armies were decimated in combat

• At first Japan welcomed Europeans to their country especially for their guns, but later Japan became more isolated.

Christian missionaries entered japan

• Francis Xavier - a Jesuit priest led the first mission in Japan

  • Christian missionaries were very successful in converting the Japanese at first

• As more Japanese converted to Christianity, Tokugawa Ieyasu felt threatened as Japan’s traditional culture rapidly changed; so he began to repress Christianity 

  • 1637 a samurai uprising dominated by Japanese Christians forced the Shogunate to outlaw the new religion 

  • Shoguns ruthlessly persecuted Christians - branded and beheaded them

Japanś Closed Country Policy

• By 1639 Japan closed their borders to European merchants and missionaries 

• Japan instituted a “closed country policy”     no contact with outside countries 

• This enabled Japan to develop self sufficiently with little influence from the outside world

The port at Nagasaki

• Nagasaki, a foreign enclave was the only port in Japan that remained open to foreign trade

  • Europeans had to assimilate into Japanese culture

• Only the Dutch and Chinese were allowed into this port

• The Tokugawa shoguns controlled the port at Nagasaki and held a monopoly on foreign trade, which continued to be profitable