Differences Between Ming And Qing Dynasties

China is a very influential world power and has been for many years. The Classical and Post-Classical years in China were a time of achievement and advancement, especially in the religious movement. Post-Classical and Classical China were very important historical periods, and their religions, and the effect of them on the world around them highlighted that importance.

Before the arrival of western powers, China was very stable, agricultural, and ethnocentric. They had many factories that produced silk, cotton, and porcelain with their natural resources: salt, tin, silver, and iron mines. They had no interest of trade or interaction with foreigners. From the early eighteenth century, European and American Imperialism spread throughout China with a goal to extend their nation’s power. China was one of many territories that undertook the changes of New Imperialism. By 1912, the country was governed by outside nations: Great Britain (mostly), Russia, Germany, France, and Japan. Their influence on China resulted malignantly on the country’s economy, political ties, and lifestyle; in spite of the few

In 1793, in the midst of the French revolution in Europe, Emperor Qianlong of the Qing state, who reigned over the Chinese empire from 1735-95, responded to a request made by an envoy sent by King George III of Britain. The envoy sent, known as the Macartney embassy and fronted by Lord Macartney, was for the purpose of discussing the condition of relations between Great Britain and the Qing empire and possible alterations to their state of trade. By the time the letter was written and the embassy arrived in the Chinese capital city Peking ( known as Beijing), Qianlong ruled the largest and wealthiest political state anywhere in the world, ruling over one third of the worlds population. These notions of prosperity and grandeur as an Empire, led Qianlong to reject all proposals sent by the King of Britain and his embassy.

Qianlong emperor’s reaction to Macartney’s mission angered the British as well. Qianlong emperor’s over confidence was shown in the court when he met the British ambassador Macartney. He required Macartney to wear Chinese clothes and practice Chinese kowtow. “But Macartney was not going to obligate, or rather he would perform the three-times-three only if some mandarin also kowtowed before his own sovereign George III, a portrait of whom he had thoughtfully included in his baggage” (32). Even though China had a great power during that time, Macartney did not considered himself as who came from a weaker country. China did not think it needed products from foreign countries. “Chinese needed nothing and traded a little with tribute-bearing barbarians only out of affectionate

These traders brought with them different views on culture and government to China. One traveler named Marco Polo was hired by Kublai Khan to spread the ways of the Mongols with other tribes and empires. One negative impact of all of this trade was disease. People carried diseases and bacterias with them that were foreign to the new lands. When they reached a new location that disease would wipe out everyone in its path because they weren’t immune to it. Although diseases such as the black plague killed a lot of people, trade had more of a positive effect than a negative effect on the world because it led to new inventions that are still used to this

Isolation of China by the Qing Dynasty did not benefit the country in the end. Removing itself from other nations had been in the works since the Ming Dynasty had ruled, and the emperors of the Qing Dynasty supported isolation as well. China also had strict restrictions with their trade, which scared many other countries away. In the 1800s, numerous countries finally attempted to escape China’s trade restrictions. These effects helped to collapse the already cracking country.

British trade with China during the Qing dynasty from 1750 - 1900 was economically harmful for the Chinese, and the Chinese Imperial government responses were political. A document showing a Chinese citizen’s view on the events and how they played out would have helped me to better understand how it affected the people of China’s

d. Contact with the West increased in the 17th century, but in the early 18th century, the Qing rulers restricted trade to land outside the walls of beijing . The 1793 British mission to expand trade did not succeed, and the emperor Qianlong explained in a letter to George III that

In China, trade had a great effect on the people living there. Document Two, explains how Zheng He first prompted other countries to trade with China by giving them little gifts of what they had to offer. This showed other countries the luxuries and many different goods they could get from China. Demand for Chinese

d. Contact with the West increased in the 17th century, but in the early 18th century, the Qing rulers restricted trade to land outside the walls of . The 1793 British mission to expand trade did not succeed, and the emperor Qianlong explained in a letter to George III that China British manufactured goods.

That is, until they were introduced to opium. They got hooked fast and it became extremely high in demand, in fact, opium became the most traded commodity in the world. China started out getting it from Great Britain, who was producing their opium in India. Soon though, the United States became the second largest opium providers to China; however, it was produced in Turkey and it was lower quality. Merchants in the U.S. used the money they made from selling opium to build railroads, universities such as Princeton, and small towns like Salem, Mass. Opium became such a large problem in China, that they declared it illegal. Because it was difficult to stop the trade of opium, China set up the “Canton System” which was made up of 6 rules. The first rule was that trade of opium was not allowed. The second rule was that trade in China could only take place in Canton. The third rule was that trade in China could only occur 6 months out of the year. The fourth rule was that merchants could not bring women with them to trade, decreasing their chances of staying. The fifth rule was that foreigners could not learn Chinese, and vice versa. This created a trade language, pidgin language. The last rule was that foreigners could only deal with Hong merchants. The Canton System was not very effective, as Europeans started smuggling opium. Commissioner Lin tried writing a letter to the queen to stop

In document 1, there is Hongwu Emperor’s favorite passage from “The Way and the Power” and it’s stopping China from letting people trade and go to other countries because the king was afraid of his people realizing that there are lots of better places in other countries and other countries have better products than China. If people finds out that other countries better place to live than people will start complaining and scatter to other countries. This will eventually make China lose power and other countries will start to invade and attack China. Next, document 9 a Chinese emperor wrote rules for his people in 1524 and it was about trading without permission with Barbarian will be punished. First rule said that people who meet them and trades with barbarian before the examination of the ship will be punished.

One extremely prosperous time of the trade in China was in the Ming Dynasty under the reign of Yonglo. This was because during this period, the explorer, Zheng He, was promoting the trade with China and showing off the Chinese culture through goods like silk or ceramic art. He went on seven voyages to places like Southeast Asia, the Indian Coast, the Arabian Peninsula, and East Africa (document 2). One effect of his voyages was the making of a port city called Canton where the Portuguese, Dutch, and English merchants all traded with China. Unfortunately, after the death of Zheng He, the explorations ended due to it being too costly and then came the end of external trade after limiting contact with other places.

China experiences the pressure of the imperialist’s military which China did not have the knowledge or the experience to match. China went from a superior leader, self-sufficient country, that thought that everyone else were barbarians to a torn country. China accepted foreign trade, but they wanted to control and limit how much and with who the trade was used for, they felt that they European trade was unnecessary. They did not allow the western merchants to have any power or privileges and restricted them to Canton, plus they refused to open their trade system beyond Co-Hong which caused china to not become as prosperous as Japan. (Valentini 2013) Because China the believed that they were the center of civilization and that the Western culture was inferior the Chinese government refused to go along with any of the European’s request and the two nations became hostile towards

Military life was inferior and developed a militant class. This class ranked higher than any civil servant. Hongwu’s name is also known to mean vast military, and reflects the increase of the military. At the height of the Ming Dynasty were the Maritime Expansion, Agricultural Revolution and the Commercial Revolution. Although the agricultural and commercial revolutions had impact on the Chinese Empire, the Maritime expansion seemed to give China more power as “an empire”. The Maritime Expansion was under the third ruler Yung-lo (1403-1424). Yung-lo began to sponsor Naval expansion between 1405 and continued under the leaders who followed him, Hung His (1425) and Hsuan Le (1426-1435). There are many reasons for the Naval expansion but the Yung- lo emperor expanded trade with other countries and imported exotic goods. Expedition went to East Asia and Southeast to Asia, Southern India, Ceylon, the Persian Gulf and Africa. Trading from Africa to Southeast Asia made China the world’s greatest commercial Naval power in the world at the time.