Emergance of modern china essays

Emergance of modern china essays By the nineteenth century, China was experiencing growing pressures of economic origin, there were over 300 million Chinese, but there was no industry or trade to absorb the excess labor. The scarcity of land led to widespread breakdown in law and order. Localized revolts erupted in various parts of the empire. As elsewhere in Asia, in China the Portuguese were the pioneers, establishing a foothold at Macao, from which they monopolized foreign trade at the Chinese port of Guangzhou (Fitzgerald 743). Soon the Spanish arrived, followed by the British and the French, trade between China and the West was carried on in the aspect of tribute, foreigners were forced to follow the elelaborate, centuries-old ritual imposed on agents from Chinas tributary states. There was no conception at the imperial court that the Europeans would expect or deserve to be treated as cultural or political equals. The only exception was Russia, the most powerful inland neighbor. The Manchus were sensitive to the need for security along the northern land frontier and therefore were prepared to be realistic in dealing with Russia. The treaty of Nerchinsk (1689) with the Russians, drafted to bring to an end a series of border incidents and to establish a border between Siberia and Marchuria along the Heilong Jiang, was Chinas first bilateral agreement with a European power (Fairbank 201). Western diplomatic efforts to expand trade on equal terms were opposed; the official Chinese assumption was that the empire was not in need of foreign products. Despite this attitude, trade flourished, even though after 1760 all foreign trade was confined to Guangzhou, where the foreign traders had to limit their dealings to a dozen officially licensed Chinese merchant firms (Fitzgerald 762). Trade was not the sole basis of contact with the West. Since the thirteenth century, Roman Catholic missionaries had been attempting to establish their church i...