Week 4 Hist 276 Essay

During the 19th century, China transformed from a prosperous economic center to a weakened country in a system controlled by Great Britain, largely due to the opium trade. Prior to Europe’s industrial revolution in 1800, China had little need for products from other countries, and participated sparingly in world trade, while Europe borrowed China’s ideas and inventions to gain a financial foothold. But in the 19th century Britain introduced opium into the Chinese market, setting off a chain of events that lead to the Opium Wars, which along with the opium trade sapped China’s economic strength. Nevertheless, she persisted, and in 1907 China passed a law that blocked the opium trade once and for all and took out Britain’s system of power within

These inventions, advancements, and other elements led Ancient China to succeed. Many factors led to ancient China's success. Some of them were inventions, geography, and the Silk Road.     In Ancient China, inventions were created that were used to improve the daily lives of the Chinese. These inventions led them to strive for success.

This was a result of China being extremely ethnocentric as shown by its nickname, “Middle Kingdom,” which means that China is the center of the world. The products that China exported before the end of trade around the world were silk, iron, and bronze (document 1). The goods that were brought into China were gold, glass, ivory, animal hides, horses, and cattle (document 1). One positive impact that this trade did have on China was that as it traded with places like India, the cultures began to mix, resulting in the introduction of Buddhism to China (document 1), which is now a very popular religion although it was not accepted at first. A negative impact of trade was the bubonic plague or

The Qing dynasty (1916-1912) is the last imperial dynasty of China, it was consider as the most powerful country during the “golden age” ruled by Kang Xi and Qian Long, and it has over 400 million population and has the 1st ranked GDP in the world at the moment. The Qing has the supreme power at the time and has the significant influence in East Asian. However, the collapse of the Qing Dynasty made a humiliate history of China. The Qing dynasty doesn't fall suddenly, and the collapse of Qing is not just simply because domestic revolution and alien invasion. The failure of the Qing government is worthy to study, we need to take a deep step and explore the root cause of the collapse of Qing.

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

1. What are the current challenges facing United Way? What are key issues in the general and non-profit charitable giving industry environments that affect United Way’s operations?

Silk and porcelain industries in particular flourished; in Jingdezhen, porcelain-making industries recorded almost 100 000 workers and during the late 1600s became a main component of the trade between the east and the west, In Suzhou, Silk manufacturing industries had around 2330 workers and also became a viable item of trade, other places like Hangzhou and Nanjing also produced high quality silk, for which they are renowned for in modern day China. The early 1800s of the Qing era saw the development of “Remittance Banks” which allowed a merchant to exchange metallic currency for a remittance certificate, in which he could collect his money elsewhere; these banks became vital to the progression of commercial activity in China. Under the successful but unpopular Qing regime, new crops were established and sweet potato, maize and peanuts became introduced into the Chinese diet. During the reign of the Yongzheng emperor, the Qing Government also introduced a new tax policy that only allowed the payment of taxes through money (copper or silver, for larger transactions) rather than the previous “goods and wares” tax that allowed the Chinese to pay taxes in things like agricultural produce. The new amount of tax payed by civilians was almost entirely dependent upon the amount of land a person

Before European contact China was a wealthy country, isolated and self-sufficient with a highly developed agricultural system. China was not industrialized, but workers in small workshops were able to produce most of the goods the Chinese needed. Because China was practically self-sufficient, its emperors had little interest in trading with Europeans. For decades, Europeans could do business only at the port of Canton. Despite appeals from Britain and other nations, China refused to open other ports to foreigners. The Chinese regarded Europeans and their goods as inferior to their own and bought few goods from the European merchants.

c. The Chinese population and commerce continued to expand under the Qing dynasty, fueled by new crops from the , new silver and copper mines, and silver acquired through trade with countries.

The British wanted to do business with China after seeing the market potential because of the population, as well as the significant growth in the past two centuries. China’s population increased by 330 million people less than two centuries. The agricultural production in China was not able to keep up with the rapid increase in population. The British saw opportunity in this and believed that they could generate a great amount of money from the market. China’s refusal to trade with the British was

Throughout China, currency was rapidly changing. At first China used paper money, but silver was the main form of payment. Silver was the main form of payment because it was easier to trade among many different countries with it. Paper money was used for a while, but the worth of it didn’t last very long and so China returned to using silver. Europe, America and China all started using silver for foreign trade. It was important for China to establish trading posts with Britain and America because of the new cultural items being brought into the country for the foreign ones. One reason for the success of silver taking over the main form of currency was the fact that large amounts of silver had been available in America and in Britain, who hadn’t started using silver as currency yet. Once the Ming Dynasty ended, silver was still used, but mostly along the coast of China.

In china there has been no central rule in China for 70 years until the Song Dynasty created in 960. Things started to change in China, for example, the government started to aid the poor a lot more than what they have in the past. They were getting this money from the newly introduced income tax. This made a lot of people happy and everyone started to have more patriotism and pride. This pride gave the government a feel of legitimacy. Some of the major things the government is paying for is the roads, food, and education. Pottery at this time helps out the economy in China, because the pottery is so advanced that it was being exported for good money and it also led more people to come to China. Even though China was number one in the world for many things like technology and a sophisticated culture they were weak military wise (Holcombe p.127).

“Prior to 1810 Western nations had been spending 350 million Mexican silver dollars on porcelain, cotton, silks, brocades, and various grades of tea, by 1837 opium represented 57 percent of Chinese imports, and for the fiscal period 1835-36 alone China exported 4.5 million silver dollars” (England and China: The Opium Wars, 1839-60). This demonstrates how the illegal opium trade largely imbalanced the trade with the West. It was estimated that between four and twelve million Chinese males under the age of 40 were addicted to the use of opium. Tensions grew rapidly following the Kowloon Incident, where “drunk British sailors from several opium clipper ships rioted in Kowloon, killing a Chinese man and vandalizing a Buddhist temple” (The First and Second Opium Wars). Lin Ze-xu, the Emperor’s special emissary, ordered the seizure of opium and closing of ports. In response, the British superintendent of trade, Charles Elliot, ordered the blockade of Pearl River, thus initiating the war. Economically, China cut off trade with Britain and the Western nations. This reinforces the idea that they were an isolationist country with respect to trading with the West.

New emperor: Hong-Wu. Cultivated land to triple along with revenues. Increased food supply, great agricultural reforms, and a dramatic population growth.

economy (latter part of the Qing dynasty) as the result of widespread restructuring of the central