Late Imperial and Early
Modern Transitions in China
1368 (-1644) Ming dynasty founded by
Han Chinese peasant and former Buddhist monk turned rebel army leader.
Capital at Nanjing. Zenith of power during first quarter 15th century.
Maritime explorations as far as east coast of Africa, but these halted
1433. Fell to Manchus from North after long wars w/Mongols, Japanese incursions
in east.
16th century: Western traders, missionaries begin arriving.
Portuguese were first, estab. a foothold at Macao, then Spanish, British
and French.
1644 (-1911) Qing dynasty founded by non-Han Manchus,
but retained many Ming and earlier Chinese institutions, while maintaining
restrictions on Manchu-Han mixing. Conquered Outer Mongolia late 17th,
Central Asia, including, nominally Tibet, 18th.
1689 The Treaty of Nerchinsk with the Russians, drafted
to bring to an end a series of border incidents and to establish a border
between Siberia and Manchuria (northeast China) along the Heilong Jiang
(or Amur River), was China's first bilateral agreement with a European
power.
1839-42 Opium War
1851-64 Taiping Rebellion; Largest uprising in Chinese
history. mid-19th century widespread unrest in China due to combination
of factors: unprecedented natural disasters; govt. neglect of public works,
economic tensions, military defeats at western hands, anti-Manchu sentiments.
Led by a village teacher and unsuccessful exam candidate, formed eclectic
philosophy demanding return of utopian state. Defeated by newly organized
Qing army.
-Simultaneous rebellions in North China and Western China (muslims)
1861-1892 Self-Strengthening Movement;
Efforts on part of emperor's mother and Han scholar-officials to graft
western technology and institutions onto Chinese traditional order. Failed
in face of bureaucratic conservatism, massive rebellions and foreign encroachments.
1894-95 Japan defeats China in battle over trade rights
and hegemony over Taiwan, the Penghu Islands, and Korea.
1898 the British acquired a ninety-nine-year lease over
the so-called New Territories of Kowloon ( or Jiulong in pinyin), which
increased the size of their Hong Kong colony. Britain, Japan, Russia,
Germany, France, and Belgium each gained spheres of influence in China.
-Qing emperor Guangxu orders series of reforms aimed at making sweeping
institutional changes in order to rapidly modernize.
-Empress Dowager Cixi, with support of Yuan Shikai, orders a coup. Two
main leaders Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao fled abroad.
1900 Boxer Rebellion. Secretly backed by the Qing court,
anti-foreign and anti-Christian secret societies known as Yihetuan ( or
Society of Righteousness and Harmony, aka The Boxers) attacked missionaries
and foreign concessions in Beijing and Tianjin. Foreign troops crushed
Qing troops sent in to support.
1905 Sun Yatsen founded the Tongmeng Hui ( or United
League) in Tokyo with Huang Xing ( 1874-1916), a popular leader of the
Chinese revolutionary movement in Japan, as his deputy. This movement,
generously supported by overseas Chinese funds, also gained political
support with regional military officers and some of the reformers who
had fled China after the Hundred Days' Reform. Sun's political philosophy
was conceptualized in 1897, first enunciated in Tokyo in 1905, and modified
through the early 1920s. It centered on the Three Principles of the People
(or san min zhuyi): "nationalism, democracy, and people's livelihood."
October 10, 1911 Republic revolution breaks out in Wuchang,
the capital of Hubei Province, among discontented modernized army units
whose anti-Qing plot had been uncovered. By late November, fifteen of
the twenty-four provinces had declared their independence of the Qing
empire.
1912 Last Qing emperor Puyi abdicates, Yuan Shikai usurped
Sun Yatsen's plans and was sworn in as provisional president of the new
republic.