During the 18th and 19th centuries, countries began to grow and explore new ideas. Due to this, countries wanted to imperialize themselves, and do the same to the countries they conquered. Imperialism is extending a country's power and influence to other regions. China was a trade partner with various countries in the world. One country in particular was Great Britain. However, while trading with Britain, China had no need for goods from them, resulting in Britain having a trade deficit. To fix this trade deficit, Britain began to trade opium to China. This eventually lead to a war with Britain. China responded to European Imperialism by resisting to open trade relations with other countries.
Many countries wanted to trade with China because there were many resources that they wanted. In the text it states, “The increasingly aggressive European presence in Asia finally became dominant in the 19th century, but in the 20th, a revolutionary China and an imperial Japan would defeat Europe in different ways,” (Asia). China had more money, territory, and natural resources, and these characteristics made China one of the top countries that other nations wanted to trade with. One of the countries that was eager to trade with China was Britain. China traded products such as tea, silk, and porcelain to Britain. China did not really need anything from Britain, but to keep China trading with them they began to trade an addictive drug called Opium. Not only was China being imperialized, but other countries such as Germany, Italy, Japan, Britain, and Africa were being imperialized. “One key development was the changing balance of power in Europe. The creation of the new nations of Italy and Germany in the 1860s and 1870s challenged the traditional supremacy of Great Britain and France in Africa and Asia. As new powers, Germany and Italy saw imperial expansion as a way to legitimize their status within Europe,” (New Imperialism). These countries engaged in imperialism for a lot of the same reasons such as gaining more power, the desire for materials that they did not have, expansion, the spread of new ideas, and most of all to make more profit.
China was not a big fan of opening up trade with other countries. Being that China basically had everything they needed, they had no point to trade their materials with other nations. They did not see the point to opening up to trade, but other countries did not feel the same way. Other countries were really eager to trade with China because there were materials that China had that no one else did. China being more resistant to this situation, Britain, one of the countries they traded with, had to be more forceful. To keep China intrigued in trading with Britain they had to trade something that they would keep on wanting. Britain had a supply of Opium which is an addictive drug from the juice of opium poppy. With this very addictive drug the people are just going to keep craving it and that means Britain can keep getting all the materials that they need. Eventually, Britain realized how dangerous this addictive drug was and decided to make it illegal. However while Britain knew the dangers of opium they were still willing to trade opium for economic gain. Britain smuggled eight million pounds of opium. “The first of two major wars that forced China to extend trading privileges to Europeans on their terms, the Opium War grew out of the Chinese government's attempt to suppress the importation of opium,” (Opium War). China was not open to trading their products from the beginning and now it has grown out of their hands to stop this. This issue began the first Opium War which would eventually lead to the second. The Treaty of Nanjing of 1842 would officially end the first Opium War. This treaty would hold for awhile, but the second Opium War would arise in 1856.
The Taiping Rebellion was a rebellion in 1850 that caused a major conflict for the Qing Dynasty. “Hong believed himself to be the younger brother of Jesus Christ and revealed to his followers a mixture of Christian and communist ideals that were to lead to a new Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace, or Taiping. The first step in Hong's plan to create a utopian society was to overthrow the Manchus, who had established the Qing dynasty in 1644,”(Taiping Rebellion). The revolt against the Qing Dynasty was run by Hong Xiuquan, which created a religious group called God's Worshipers’ Society. Hong wanted to take over the dynasty, reforming it into his own. The Taipings captured the city of Nanjing and were in control of it for almost a decade. In 1864, the Chinese were able to to attack and regain control of Nanjing. During this attack, more than 100,000 people of the rebellion were killed and their leader Hong Xiuquan’s cause of death is believed to be committing suicide. By the Chinese government regaining control of Nanjing it officially ended the rebellion. The second Opium War, also known as the Arrow War, was fought during 1856 and ended in 1860. This war was the British and the French against China. While the Chinese government was busy dealing with the Taiping Rebellion, the British wanted to expand their trading rights in China. In the text it states, “The Arrow had been built by the Chinese as a cargo ship, but it had been captured by pirates, then recaptured by Canton’s Viceroy Ye Mingchen, who sold it at auction to a comprador employed by a British firm.”(The Addiction of One Empire and the Corruption of Another) This war began because of the Chineses illegally being caught trying to seize The Arrow and supposedly bringing down the British flag. The British and French forces then launched an attack in Canton which they had quickly claimed victory. China was then forced to sign the Treaty of Tianjin which was signed by China, Britain, France, Russia, and the United States. In the text it states, “During the war, China had suffered grievously at the hands of the British, and these agreements obtained a number of concessions from the Chinese government. Essentially, the various treaties allowed the Western powers to establish embassies in China, opened new Chinese ports to foreign trade, and ended restrictions for missionaries and travelers in the region,”(Treaty of Tianjin 1858). This treaty ended The Arrow War and would allow Westerners to expand their trading rights in China.
Many were frustrated with Westerners spreading their influence throughout China. As the tensions began to rise, many people started to become antiforeign. In result of that The Boxers Rebellion was formed to put an end to Westerners in China. In the text it states, “Training intensively in a martial art that they believed would protect them from bullets, the Boxers, beginning in 1898, were emboldened to attack foreigners to express their frustrations both with the territorial concessions that the Chinese government had made to the Western powers and with the natural disasters that had recently plagued northern China,” (Boxer Rebellion). Hence the name, the Boxers believed that their intense training would help them fight against bullets. Empress Dowager Cixi and members of the Qing strongly believed that the Boxers would be able to overthrow the foreigners and provided them with more troops to help them with their defeat. There were many issues on how the foreigners were disrespecting China, but one of the major issues was with Christian missionaries. To finally put an end to Christians missionaries disrespect towards their culture they began destroying any aspect of foreign influence. In the text it states, “ On June 13, large numbers of Boxers entered Beijing and began burning Christian churches and killing Christian converts. Over the next week, they attacked foreign legations and ministers, killing several. Following several councils, the Dowager Empress decided to use the Boxers to attack the foreigners in China and drive them from her country,” (Watts, Tim). The Boxers Come in very strong to prove their point, but unfortunately Western powers were able to put an end to this rebellion. The Boxers Protocol was signed by China and the Westerners which resolved the problems caused by this rebellion.
Overall, imperialism had a negative effect on China. Imperialism had positive effects on many areas, but that was not the case in China. They believed that they could stand on their own and didn’t feel the need to trade with others because they already had all the materials they needed at their fingertips. Other areas were eager to trade with China and were going to do anything in their power to work something out. The way that China felt was not taken into any consideration and was pretty much overpowered by the Westerners. The irritation started to build up and they finally wanted to put an end to this. To be as resistant as they could rebellions were formed, two major wars occurred, and other conflicts as well. China was very resistant about opening up and wanted to show other areas that they did not want to spread their influence. There were some successes with their plans but mostly Western powers overcame them. Even though Westerner’s came in and tried to convince China into things they did not want to do, they fought for what they wanted. The proper way to respond to European Imperialism is to be resistant to things that you do not want to do, and to fight against to what you think is going to benefit your country.