Important Moments in European and American Visions of "China"

1266 Marco Polo (1254-1324) reportedly reached the seat of Mongolian Kublai Khan, emperor of the Mongol Yuan dynasty, in Beijing, employed there for 17 years.

  • dictates his book The Travels of Marco Polo in 1298-99, widely disseminated and translated through 15th century.

1279-1368 Yuan dynasty. Mongols under Ghenghis Khan conquer much of Inner Asia and the plains region, rule vast empire with Chinese-style administrative system and officials.

1368-1644 Ming dynasty. Chinese rebels retake plains region, capital in Nanjing; formalized tribute system with over 40 other "vassal" states.

1405-1433 Muslim eunuch Zheng He (1371-1433) led seven maritime expeditions under the auspices of the Ming dynasty emperor Yongle. Some say he went as far as the Cape of Good Hope, Africa.


----------------Keevak: Sinophilia, Cosmopolitanism in Europe-----------

Early 15th-early 17th So-called Age of Discovery or Age of Exploration, during which European ships traveled around the world to search for new trading routes and partners, expanding colonial claims abroad. Portuguese reach S. China coast 1514.

---Map: Asia in the Era of European Expansion (Murphey 1997)---

Early 16th Europeans predominate in carrying trade in Indian Ocean and S. China sea.

1582 Italian Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) first Jesuit to take up Christian mission in Ming Dynasty, many would follow, especially flourishing under Qing.

1644-1911 The Qing dynasty. Manchus from north conquer plains region, administer empire with Chinese-style system, adopt Chinese elite culture. Great prosperity and expansion of some administrative control into Inner Asian regions.

1654-1722 Reign of the great Kangxi Emperor, third Emperor of the Manchu Qing dynasty. Tolerant toward Jesuits at court, charged them with using western cartographic methods to map the Qing realm.

mid-17th Chinese Rites Controversy in Europe. Dispute within the Catholic Church, in part due to Jesuit missions in China, about whether Chinese imperial rites constituted idolatry or not.

-----Keevak: mid 18th-mid 19th rise of Sinophobia, Racism in Europe-----


I have already noted your respectful spirit of submission...I do not forget the lonely remoteness of your island, cut off from the world by intervening wastes of sea...[But] our Celestial Empire possesses all things in abundance. We have no need for barbarian products. --Qianlong Emperor letter to King George III, 1790s

1793 Macartney Embassy. King George III of England sent Lord George Macartney to the Manchu Qing court of the Qianlong emperor to request wider trading rights as an equal nation. First of several European missions rebuffed by the Qing court.

These half-civilized governments such as those in China, Portugal and Spanish America all require a Dressing every eight or ten years to keep them in order. Their minds are too shallow to receive an Impression that will last longer than some such Period and warning is of little use. --Lord Palmerston, directed British military during Opium Wars, 1850 (Blue: 77)

1839-1842 Anglo-Qing War or Opium War. Opium imported to China from British India beginning in the early 19th century, widely used in China despite Qng court bans. British declared war on Qing after an imperial commissioner ordered opium stocks destroyed in Canton. After a series of battles, with overwhelming superiority of British military technology, Qing court capitulated in Treaty of Nanking, agreed to open Shanghai, Canton, Ningpo, Fuzhou and Amoy to British trade and residence, and to cede island of Hong Kong to British. First of what Chinese historians called "unequal treaties" with Britian and other European powers, including the concession that their citizens in China were not subject to Qing law.

---Map: European Colonial Empire Holdings in Asia, 19th Century (Murphey 1997)---

1850s-1870s Taiping, Muslim Rebellions. Western historians have tended to exaggerate western infuence here. Taiping leader was scholar who failed imperial exams, adopted version of Christianity to mobilize largely peasant group from poor mountainous regions to overthrow Manchu Qing dynasty. Captured Nanjing 1853. Put down by Qing. Series of Muslim rebellions in northwest defeated 1873.

1853 Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races. by Joseph Arthur Comte de Gobineau (1816-1882), French aristocrat, diplomat for 2nd French Empire, posted in Persia, later in Brazil and other places. Combined Orientalist and racialist theories to pioneer the notion of "Yellow Peril" vs. the "Aryan Master Race".

The Chinaman, though far from his native land, has become the object of horror and fear in all these countries because people do not know how to answer the industry, application, persistence, and ultimately, the unparalleled cheapness of his labor. These are the concrete reasons why we know the Chinese is to be feared. --Gobineau on Chinese immigration to Indonesia, California and Australia, mid-19th (Blue: 79)

1859 Karl Marx (1818-1883) (with Engels) proposes his influential notion of the Asiatic Mode of Production in his Contribution to a Critique of Political Economy.

1890s Notion of Yellow Peril important in USA, Australia, Canada to mobilize support for immigration barriers.

1900 Boxer Rebellion. With support from the Qing court, group of peasants in northeastern China burned mission establishments, killed missionaries and Chinese converts. Besieged foreign legations in Beijing until put down by multinational expedition. Court fled to Xi'an.

1910 Over a hundred treaty ports in China, especially important centers were Shanghai, Tientsin (Tianjin), Hankou, Canton, Nanking (Nanjing), Dairen (Dalian). Manufacturing increases, many Chinese entrepreneurs participate.


--- Map: Major E. Asian Ports, 1600-1940s (Murphey 1997)---


1911-1949 Fall of the Qing Dynasty and Advent of Republican era. Tumultuous period of nation-building; political control collapses into competing warlords and civil war between KMT and CCP. Threats and humiliating defeats from imperialist Japan and western states.

1914-1918 World War One.

1919 Treaty of Versailles. Peace treaty that officially ended World War I between Allied Powers and Germany. Six months of negotiations in Paris. Article 156 transferred German concessions in Shandong, China to Japan.

May 4, 1919 May Fourth Movement; Chinese students and merchants protest Japanese interference, post-WWI Treaty of Versailles, new national identities emerge.

Jan. 1923 Sun-Joffe Accord. Lenin had proposed joint anti-imperialist alliance between the Soviet Union and China and India. As part of his efforts to reorganize the Guomindang (KMT), Sun Yat-sen signed an accord with the Soviet Comintern envoy in China, Adolph Joffe. Begins period of Sino-Soviet collaboration. Chiang Kai-shek sent to Moscow. Soviet aid helps build KMT military.