Duiker W.J., Spielvogel J.J. The Essential World History. Volume 2: Since 1500

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Opening the Door to China During

the next two years, foreign pressure on

the dynasty intensified. With encour-

agement from the British, who hoped

to avert a total collapse of the Manchu

Empire, U.S. Secretary of State John

Hay presented the other imperialist

powers with a proposal to ensure

equal economic a ccess to the China

market for all states. Hay also sug-

gested that all powers join together to

guarantee the territorial and admin-

istra tive integrity of the Chinese

Empire. Though probably motivated

more by the United States’ preference

for open markets than by a be-

nevolent wish to protect China,

the so-called Open Door Notes

did have the practical effect of

reducing the imperialist hysteria

over access to the China market.

The ‘‘gentlemen’s agreement’’

about the Open Door (it was not

a treaty, but merely a pious and

nonbinding expression of intent)

served to deflate fears in Britain,

France, Ge rmany, and Russia that

other powers would take advan-

tage of China’s weakness to

dominate the China market.

In the long run, then, the

Open Door was a positive step that

brought a measure of sanity to

imperialist meddling in East Asia.

U nfortunately, it came too late

to stop the domestic explosion

known as the Bo x er Rebellion. The

Boxers, so-called because of the

physical exercises they performed

(which closely resembled the more

martial forms of tai chi), were

members of a secret society oper-

ating primarily in rural areas in

northern China. Provoked by a

damaging drought and high un-

employment caused in part by

foreign economic activity (the in-

troduction of railr oads and

steamships, for example, undercut

the livelihood of barge workers on

the rivers and canals), the Boxers

attacked foreign residents and be-

sieged the foreign legation quarter

in Beijing until the foreigners were res-

cued by an international expeditionary

force in the late summer of 1900. As

punishment, the foreign troops de-

stroy ed a number of temples in the

capital suburbs, and the Chinese gov-

ernment was compelled to pay a heavy

indemnity to the foreign governments

inv olv ed in suppressing the uprising.

The Collapse of the Old Order

During the next few years, the old dy-

nasty tried desperately to reform itself.

The empress dowager, who had long

Tokyo

Vladivostok

Seoul

Beijing

Tianjin

Port Arthur (Russ.)

Weihaiwei (Br.)

Qingdao

(Ger.)

Nanjing

Shanghai

Ningpo

Fuzhou

Amoy

Canton

Macao (Port.)

Guangzhouwan

(Fr.)

YUNNAN

THAILAND

BURMA

INDIA

TIBET

CHINA

MONGOLIA

RUSSIA

MANCHURIA

SIBERIA

KOREA

JAPAN

TAIWAN

(FORMOSA)

PHILIPPINE

ISLANDS

FR.

INDO-

CHINA

South

China Sea

Pacific

Ocean

Sea of Japan

(East Sea)

Sakhalin

Hong

Kong

(Br.)

Pescadores Is.

0 500 1,000 Miles

0 500 1,000 1,500 Kilometers

Russian

Japanese

British

German

French

Italian

Spheres of Inﬂuence

MAP 22.3 Foreign Possessions and Spheres of Influence About 1900. At the end

of the nineteenth century, China was being carved up like a melon by foreign imperialist

powers.

Which of the areas mark ed on the map were removed from Chinese control during

the nineteenth century?

View an animated version of this map or related maps at www .c engage.c om/history/

duikspiel/essentialworld6e

Beijing

Tianjin

Hai

30 Miles

50 Kilometers0

The I nternational Expediti onary

Force Advances to Beijing to

Suppress the Boxers

546 CHAPTER 22 SHADOWS OVER THE PACIFIC: EAST ASIA UNDER CHALLENGE

resisted change, now embraced a number of reforms. The

venerable civil service examination system was replaced

by a new educational system based on the Western model.

In 1905, a commission was formed to study constitu-

tional changes; over the next few years, legislative as-

semblies were established at the provincial level, and

elections for a national assembly were held in 1910.

Such moves helped shore up the dynasty temporarily,

but history shows that the most dangerous period for an

authoritarian system is when it begins to reform itself,

because change breeds instability and performance rarely

matches rising expectations. Such was the case in China.

The emerging new provincial elite, composed of mer-

chants, professionals, and reform-minded gentry, soon

COMPARATIVE ILLUSTRATION

Female Rulers—Ea st and West. The prominent female rulers in the late

nineteenth century were Empress Dowager Cixi of China and Queen Victoria of

Great Britain. Cixi, shown at the left, was the most powerful figure in late-

nineteenth-century China. Originally a concubine at the imperial court, she later placed her

young nephew on the throne and dominated the political scene for a quarter of a century

until her death in 1908. Conservative in her views, she staunchly resisted her advisers’

suggestions for changes to help China face the challenge posed by the West. Queen Victoria,

shown at the right, had the longest reign in British history (1837–1901). During this time, the

British Empire reached the height of its power, but by the turn of the twentieth century, the

monarchy was increasingly less relevant in Britain’s liberal parliamentary system of

government. Nevertheless, Victoria’s sense of duty and moral responsibility reflected the

attitudes of her age, which has ever since been known as the Victorian Age.

What other examples of influential female rulers can you recall from previous

ch apters in this book? What is distinctive about the two shown here?



The Art Archive/Gianni Dagli Orti



The Art Archive/Gianni Dagli Orti

THE DECLINE OF THE MANCHUS 547

became impatient with the slow pace of political change

and were disillusioned to find that the new assemblies

were intended to be primarily advisory rather than legis-

lative. The government also alienated influential elements

by financing railway development projects through foreign

firms rather than local investors. The reforms also had

little meaning for peasants, artisans, miners, and trans-

portation workers, whose living conditions were being

eroded by rising taxes and official venality. Rising rural

unrest was an ominous sign of deep-seated resentment to

which the dynasty would not, or could not, respond.

The Rise of Sun Yat-sen The first physical manifes-

tations of future revolution appeared during the last de-

cade of the nineteenth century with the formation of the

Revive China Society by the young radical Sun Yat-sen

(1866--1925). Born in a village south of Canton, Sun was

educated in Hawaii and returned to China to practice

medicine. Soon he turned his full attention to the ills of

Chinese society.

At first, Sun’s efforts yielded few positive results, but in

a conv ention in Tokyo in 1905, he managed to unite radical

groups from across China in the so-called R evolutionary

Alliance (Tongmenghui, or T’ung M eng H ui). The new

organization’ s program was based on Sun’ s ‘‘thr ee people’s

principles’’ of nationalism (meaning primarily the elimi-

nation of Ma nchu rule over China), democracy, and peo-

ple’s livelihood. It called for a three-stage process beginning

with a military takeo v er and ending with a constitutional

democracy (see the box abov e). Although the new

PROGRAM FOR A NEW CHINA

In 1905, Sun Yat-sen united a number of

anti-Manchu groups into a single patriotic organiza-

tion called the Revolutionary Alliance (Tongmeng-

hui). The new organization eventually formed the

core of his Guomindang, or Nationalist Party. This excerpt is

from the organization’s manifesto, published in 1905 in Tokyo.

Note that Sun believed that the Chinese people were not ready

for democracy and required a period of tutelage to prepare

them for the final era of constitutional government. This was a

formula that would be adopted by many other political leaders

in Asia and Africa after World War II.

Sun Yat-sen, Manifesto for the Tongmenghui

By order of the Military Government, ...the Commander-in-Chief

of the Chinese National Army proclaims the purposes and platform

of the Military Government to the people of the nation:

Therefore we proclaim to the world in utmost sincerity the

outline of the present revolution and the fundamental plan for the

future administration of the nation.

1. Drive out the Tartars: The Manchus of today were originally the

eastern barbarians beyond the Great Wall. They frequently caused

border troubles during the Ming dynasty; then when China was

in a disturbed state they came inside Shanhaikuan, conquered

China, and enslaved our Chinese people. ... The extreme cruel-

ties and tyrannies of the Manchu government have now reached

their limit. With the righteous army poised against them, we will

overthrow that government, and restore our sovereign rights.

2. Restore China: China is the China of the Chinese. The govern-

ment of China should be in the hands of the Chinese. After

driving out the Tartars we must restore our national state. ...

3. Establish the Republic: Now our revolution is based on equality,

in order to establish a republican government. All our people

are equal and all enjoy political rights. ...

4. Equalize land ownership: The good fortune of civilization is to

be shared equally by all the people of the nation. We should im-

prove our social and economic organization, and assess the value

of all the land in the country. Its present price shall be received

by the owner, but all increases in value resulting from reform

and social improvements after the revolution shall belong to the

state, to be shared by all the people, in order to create a socialist

state, where each family within the empire can be well supported,

each person satisfied, and no one fail to secure employment. ...

The above four points will be carried out in three steps in due

order. The first period is government by military law. When the

righteous army has arisen, various places will join the cause. ...

Evils like the oppression of the government, the greed and graft of

officials, ...the cruelty of tortures and penalties, the tyranny of tax

collections, the humiliation of the queue [the requirement that all

Chinese males braid their hair]---shall all be exterminated together

with the Manchu rule. Evils in social customs, such as the keeping

of slaves, the cruelty of foot binding, the spread of the poison of

opium, should also all be prohibited. ...

The second period is that of government by a provisional

constitution. When military law is lifted in each hsien [district], the

Military Government shall return the right of self-government to the

local people. ...

The third period will be government under the constitution. Six

years after the provisional constitution has been enforced a constitu-

tion shall be made. The military and administrative powers of the Mili-

tary Government shall be annulled; the people shall elect the president,

and elect the members of parliament to organize the parliament.

What were Sun Yat-sen’s key proposals to transform

China into a modern, technologically based society? How does

his program compare with the so-called Meiji reforms in Japan,

discussed later in this chapter?

548 CHAPTER 22 SHADOWS OVER THE PACIFIC: EAST ASIA UNDER CHALLENGE

organization was small and r elativ ely inexperienced, it

benefited from rising popular discontent.

The Revolution of 1911 In October 1911, Sun’s fol-

lowers launched an uprising in the industrial center of

Wuhan, in central China. With Sun traveling in the

United States, the insurrection lacked leadership, but the

decrepit government’s inability to react quickly encour-

aged political forces at the provincial level to take mea-

sures into their own hands. The dynasty was now in a

state of virtual collapse: the empress dowager had died in

1908, one day after her nephew; the throne was now oc-

cupied by China’s ‘‘last emperor,’’ the infant Puyi (P’u Yi).

Sun’s party had neither the military strength nor the

political base necessary to seize the initiative, however,

and was forced to turn to a representative of the old order,

General Yuan Shikai (Yuan Shih-k’ai). A prominent figure

in military circles since the beginning of the century, Yuan

had been placed in charge of the imperial forces sent to

suppress the rebellion, but now he abandoned the Man-

chus and acted on his own behalf. In negotiations with

representatives of Sun Yat-sen’s party (Sun himself had

arrived in China in January 1912), he agreed to serve as

president of a new Chinese republic. The old dynasty and

the age-old system that it had attempted to preserve were

no more.

Although the dynasty w as gone, Sun and his fol-

lowers were unable to consolidate the ir gains. The pro-

gram of the Revolutionary Alliance was based on

Western liberal democrat ic principles aimed at the ur-

ban middle class, but the middle class in China was too

small to form the basis for a new political order. The vast

major ity of the Chinese people still lived on the land.

Sun had hoped to win their support with a land reform

program, but few peasants had participated in the 1911

revolution. In failing to create new institutions and

values t o provide a framework for a chan ging society,

the events of 1911 were less a revolution than a collapse

of the old order. Weakened by impe rialism an d its own

internal weaknesses, the old dynasty had come to an

abrupt e nd before new political and social forces were

ready to fill the vacuum.

FILM & HISTORY

HE LAST EMPEROR (1987)

On November 14, 1908, the Chinese emperor

Guangxu died in Beijing. One day later,

Empress Dowager Cixi---the real power behind

the throne---passed away as well. A three-year-

old boy, to be known in histor y as Henr y

Puyi, ascended the throne. Three years later,

the Qing dynast y collapsed, and the deposed

monarch lived out the remainder of his life

in a China lashed by political turmoil and

violence. He finally died in 1967 at the

height of the Great Proletarian Cultural

Revolution.

The Last Emperor (1987), directed by the

Italian filmmaker Bernardo Bertolucci, is a bril-

liant portrayal of the experience of one hapless

individual in a nation caught up in the throes of

a seemingly endless revolution. The film evokes

the fading majesty of the last days of imperial

China but also the chaos of the warlord era and

the terrors of the Maoist period, when the last

shreds of the former emperor’s personality were

shattered under the pressure of Communist brainwashing

techniques. The main character, who never appears to

grasp what is happening to his country, lives and dies a

nonentity.

The film, based on Puyi’s autobiography, benefits from having

been filmed partly onsite in the Imperial City. The only major West-

ern actor to appear in the movie is the veteran film star Peter

O’Toole, who plays Puyi’s tutor when he was an adolescent.

Three-year-old Puyi (Richard Vuu), the last emperor of China, watches an emissary approach at

the Imperial Palace.

Yanco/Tao/Recorded Picture Co/ The Kobal Collection

THE DECLINE OF THE MANCHUS 549

What China had experienced was part of a historical

process that was bringing down traditional empires across

the globe, both in regions threatened by Western impe-

rialism and in Europe itself, where tsarist Russia, the

Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Ottoman Empire all

came to an end within a few years after the collapse of the

Qing. The circumstances of their demise were not all the

same. The Austro-Hungarian Empire, for example, was

dismembered by the victorious allies after World War I,

and the fate of tsarist Russia was directly linked to that

conflict. Still, all four regimes shared the responsibility for

their common fate in that they had failed to meet the

challenges posed by the times. All had responded to the

forces of industrialization and popular participation in

the political process with hesitation and reluctance, and

their attempts at reform were too little and too late. All

paid the supreme price for their folly.

Chinese Society in Transition

Focus Question: What political, economic, and social

reforms were instituted by the Qing dynast y during its

final decades, and why were they not more successful

in reversing the decline of Manchu rule?

The growing Western presence in China during the late

nineteenth and early twentieth centuries obviously had a

major impact on Chinese society; hence many historians

have traditionally asserted that the arrival of the Euro-

peans shook China out of centuries of slumber and

launched it on the road to revolutionary change. In fact,

when the European economic penetration began to ac-

celerate in the mid-nineteenth century, Chinese society

was already in a state of transition. The growth of in-

dustry and trade was particularly noticeable in the cities,

where a national market for such commodities as oil,

copper, salt, tea, and porcelain had developed. The

foundation of an infrastructure more conducive to the

rise of a money economy appeared to be in place. In

the countryside, new crops introduced from abroad sig-

nificantly increased food production and aided popula-

tion growth. The Chinese economy had never been more

productive or more complex.

Obstacles to Industrialization

Whether these changes by themselves would eventually

have led to an industrial revolution and the rise of a

capitalist society on the Western model in the absence of

Western intervention is a question that historians cannot

answer. Certainly, a number of obstacles would have

made it difficult for China to embark on the Western path

if it had wished to do so.

Although industrial production was on the rise, it

was still based almost entirely on traditional methods.

There was no uniform system of weights and measures,

and the banking system was still primitive by European

standards. The use of paper money, invented by the

Chinese centuries earlier, was still relatively limited. The

transportation system, which had been neglected since

the end of the Yuan dynasty, was increasingly chaotic.

There were few paved roads, and the Grand Canal,

long the most efficient means of carrying goods from

north to south, was silting up. As a result, merchants had

to rely more and more on the coastal route, where they

faced increasing competition from foreign shipping.

Although foreign concession areas in the coastal cities

provided a conduit for the importation of Western

technology and modern manufacturing methods, the

Chinese borrowed less than they might have. Foreign

manufacturing enterprises could not legally operate in

China until the last decade of the nineteenth century, and

their methods had little influence beyond the concession

areas. Chinese efforts to imitate Western methods, nota-

bly in shipbuilding and weapons manufacture, were

dominated by the government and often suffered from

mismanagement.

Equally serious problems persisted in the country-

side. The rapid increase in population had led to smaller

plots and burgeoning numbers of tenant farmers.

Whether per capita consumption of food was on the

decline is not clear from the available evidence, but ap-

parently rice as a staple of the diet was increasingly being

replaced by less nutritious foods. Some farmers benefited

from switching to commercial agriculture to supply the

markets of the growing coastal cities, but the shift entailed

CHRONOL OGY

ChinaintheEraofImperialism

Lord Macartney’s mission to China 1793

Opium War 1839--1842

Taiping rebels seize Nanjing 1853

Taiping Rebellion suppressed 1864

Cixi becomes regent for nephew,

the Guangxu emperor

1878

Sino-Japanese War 1894--1895

One Hundred Days reform 1898

Open Door policy 1899

Boxer Rebellion 1900

Commission to study constitution formed 1905

Deaths of Cixi and the Guangxu emperor 1908

Revolution in China 1911

550 CHAPTER 22 SHADOWS OVER THE PACIFIC: EAST ASIA UNDER CHALLENGE

a sizable investment. Many farmers went so deeply into

debt that they eventually lost their land.

Most important, perhaps, was that the Qing dynasty

was still locked into a traditional mind-set that discour-

aged commercial activities and prized the time-honored

virtues of agrarian society. China also lacked the Euro-

pean tradition of a vigorous and self-confident merchant

class based in cities that were autonomous.

The Impact of Imperialism In any event, the advent of

the imperialist era in the second half of the nineteenth

century made such questions academic; imperialism

created serious distortions in the local economy that re-

sulted in massive changes in Chinese society during the

twentieth century. Whether the Western intrusion was

beneficial or harmful is debated to this day. The Western

presence undoubtedly accelerated the development of the

Chinese economy in some ways: the introduction of

modern means of production, transport, and communi-

cations; the creation of an export market; and the steady

integration of the Chinese market into the nineteenth-

century global economy. To many Westerners at the time,

it was self-evident that such changes would ultimately

benefit the Chinese people (see the comparative essay

‘‘Imperialism and the Global Environment’’ on p. 552). In

their view, Western civilization represented the most ad-

vanced stage of human development. By supplying (in the

catch phrase of the day) ‘‘oil for the lamps of China,’’ it

was providing a backward society with an opportunity

to move up a notch or two on the ladder of human

evolution.

Not everyone agreed. The Russian Marxist Vladimir

Lenin contended that Western imperialism actually

hindered the process of structural change in preindus-

trial societies because it thwarted the rise of a local in-

dustrial and commercial sector in order to maintain

colonies and semicolonies as a market for Western

manufactured goods and a source of cheap labor and

mate rials. Fell ow Marxists in China such as Mao Zedong

(see Chapter 24) later took up Lenin’s charge and as-

serted that if the West had not intervened, Chi na would

have found its own road to capitalism and th ence to

socialism and communism.

Many historians today would say that the answer is

too complex for such simplistic explanations. By shaking

China out of its traditional mind-set, imperialism accel-

erated the process of change that had begun in the late

Ming and early Qing periods and forced the Chinese to

adopt new ways of thinking and acting. At the same time,

China paid a heavy price in the destruction of its local

industry while many of the profits flowed abroad. Al-

though industrial revolution is a painful process when-

ever and wherever it occurs, the Chinese found the

experience doubly painful because it was foisted on China

from the outside.

Daily Life

At the beginning of the ninetee nth century, daily life for

most Chinese was not substantially different from what

it had been centuries earlier. Most were farmers, living

in millions of villages in rice fields and on hi llsides

thro ughout the countryside. Their lives were governed

by the harvest cycle, village custom, and family ritual.

Their roles in society were firmly fixed by the time-

honored principles of Confucian social ethics. Male

children, at least the more fortunate ones, were edu-

cated in the Confucian classics, while females remained

in the home or in the fields. All children were expecte d

to obey their parents, and all wives to submit to their

husbands.

A visitor to China a hundred years later would have

seen a very different society, although one still recogniz-

ably Chinese. Change was most striking in the coastal

cities, where the educated and affluent had been visibly

affected by the growing Western cultural presence. Con-

fucian social institutions and behavioral norms were de-

clining rapidly in influence, while those of Europe and

North America were on the ascendant. Change was much

less noticeable in the countryside, but even there, the

customary bonds had been dangerously frayed by the

rapidly changing times.

Some of the change can be traced to the educational

system. During the nineteenth century, the importance of

a Confucian education steadily declined as up to half of

the degree holders had purchased their degrees. After

1906, when the government abolished the civil service

examinations, a Confucian education ceased to be the key

to a successful career, and Western-style education be-

came more desirable. The old dynasty attempted to

modernize by establishing an educational system on the

Western model with universal education at the elemen-

tary level. Such plans had some effect in the cities, where

public schools, missionary schools, and other private

institutions educated a new generation of Chinese with

little knowledge of or respect for the past.

The Status of Women The status of women was also in

transition. During the mid-Qing era, women were still

expected to remain in the home. Their status as useless

sex objects was painfully symbolized by the practice of

foot binding, a custom that had probably originated

among court entertainers in the Tang dynasty and spread

to the common people by the Song. By the mid-

nineteenth century, more than half of all adult women

probably had bound feet.

CHINE SE SOCIETY IN TRANSITION 551

During the second half of the nineteenth century,

signs of change began to appear. Women began to seek

employment in factories---notably in cotton mills and

in the silk industr y, established in Shang hai in the

1890s. Some women were active in dissident activities,

such as the Taiping Rebellion and the Boxer movement,

and a few fought beside men in the 1911 revolution.

QiuJin,awell-knownfemalerevolutionary,wrotea

manifesto calling for women’s liberation and then or-

ganized a revo lt against the Manchu government, only

to be captured and executed at the age of thir ty-two

in 1907.

COMPARATIVE ESSAY

MPERIALISM AND THE GLOBAL ENVIRONMENT

As we have seen, beginning in the 1870s,

European states engaged in an intense scramble

for overseas territory. This ‘‘new imperialism’’ led

Europeans to carve up Asia and Africa and create

colonial empires. Within these empires, European states exer-

cised com pl ete political control over the indigenous soci eties

and re drew politica l boundaries to meet their nee ds. In Africa,

for exa mple, in drawing the boundaries that separated one col-

ony from anothe r (boundarie s that often became the bound-

aries of the modern countries of Africa), Europeans paid no

attention to the existing political divisions; they ofte n divided

cohesive communities between colonies or incorporated two

communities that were hostile to ea ch other into the same

colony.

In similar fashion, Europeans paid little or no heed to the

economic needs of their colonial subjects but instead arranged the

economies of their empires to meet their own needs in the world

market. In the process, Europeans often dramatically altered the

glo bal environment, a transformation that was made visible in a

vari ety of ways. Westerners built railw ays and ports, erected tele-

graph lines, d rilled for oil, and mined for gold, tin, iron ore, and

copper. All of these projects transformed and often scarred the

natu ral landscape.

Landscapes, however, were even more dramatically altered by

Europe’s demand for cash food crops. Throughout vast regions of

Africa and Asia, tropical forests were felled to make way for planta-

tions that cultivated crops that could be exported for sale. In Ceylon

(modern Sri Lanka) and India, the British cut down vast tropical

forests to plant row upon row of tea bushes. The Dutch razed for-

ests in the East Indies to plant cinchona trees imported from Peru.

(Quinine, derived from the trees’ bark, dramatically reduced the

death rate from malaria and made it possible for Europeans to live

more securely in the tropical regions of Africa and Asia.) In Indo-

china, the French replaced extensive forests with sugar and coffee

plantations. Native workers, who were usually paid pitiful wages by

their European overseers, provided the labor for all of these vast

plantations.

In many areas, precious farmland was turned over to the culti-

vation of cash crops. In the Dutch East Indies, farmers were forced

to plow up some of their rice fields to make way for the cultivation

of sugar. In West Africa, overplanting of cash crops damaged fragile

grasslands and turned parts of the Sahel into a wasteland.

European states, however, greatly profited from this trans-

formed environment. In Agriculture in the Tropics: An Elementary

Treatise, written in 1909, the British botanist John Christopher Willis

expressed his thoughts on this European policy:

Whether planting in the tropics will always continue to be

under European management is another question, but the

northern powers will not pe rmit that the rich and as yet com-

paratively undeveloped countries of the tropics should be en-

tirely wasted by being devoted me rely to the supply of the food

and clothing wants of their own people, when the y can also

supply the wants of the colder zones in so many indispensable

products.

In Willis’s eyes, the imperialist transformation of the environ-

ments of Asia and Africa to serve European needs was entirely

justified.

How would you compare the effects of imperialism on

the environment in colonial countries with the impact of the

Industrial Revolution in Europe and North America?

Picking Tea Leaves in Ceylon. In this 1900 photograph, women

on a plantation in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) pick tea leaves for shipment abroad.

The British cut down vast stands of tropical forests in Ceylon and India to

grow tea to satisfy demand back home.



Getty Images

552 CHAPTER 22 SHADOWS OVER THE PACIFIC: EAST ASIA UNDER CHALLENGE

By the end of the century, educational opportunities

for women began to appear for the first time. Christian

missionaries opened some girls’ schools, mainly in the

foreign concession areas. Although only a relatively small

number of women were educated in these schools, they

had a significant impact on Chinese society as progressive

intellectuals began to argue that ignorant women pro-

duced ignorant children. In 1905, the court announced its

intention to open public schools for girls, but few such

schools ever materialized. The government also began to

take steps to discourage the practice of foot binding,

initially with only minimal success.

A Rich Country and a Strong

State: The Rise of Modern Japan

Focus Question: To what degree was the Meiji

Restoration a ‘‘revolution,’’ and to what degree did it

succeed in transforming Japan?

By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the Tokugawa

shogunate had ruled the Japanese islands for two hundred

years. It had revitalized the old governmental system,

which had virtually disintegrated under its predecessors.

It had driven out the foreign traders and missionaries and

isolated the country from almost all contacts with the

outside world. The Tokugawa maintained formal rela-

tions only with Korea, although informal trading links

with Dutch and Chinese merchants continued at

Nagasaki. Isolation, however, did not mean stagnation.

Although the vast majority of Japanese still depended on

agriculture for their livelihood, a vigorous manufacturing

and commercial sector had begun to emerge during the

long period of peace and prosperity. As a result, Japanese

society had begun to undergo deep-seated changes, and

traditional class distinctions were becoming blurred.

Eventually, these changes would end Tokugawa rule and

destroy the traditional feudal system.

Some historians speculate that the Tokugawa system

was beginning to come apart, just as the medieval order

in Europe had started to disintegrate at the beginning of

the Renaissance. Factionalism and corruption plagued the

central bureaucracy, while rural unrest, provoked by a

series of poor harvests brought about by bad weather,

swept the countryside. Farmers fled to the towns, where

anger was already rising as a result of declining agricul-

tural incomes and shrinking stipends for the samurai.

Many of the samurai lashed out at the perceived in-

competence and corruption of the government. In re-

sponse, the bakufu became increasingly rigid, persecuting

its critics and attempting to force fleeing peasants to re-

turn to their lands. The government also intensified its

efforts to maintain the nation’s isolation from the outside

world, driving away foreign ships that were beginning to

prowl along the Japanese coast in increasing numbers.

An End to Isolation

To the Western powers, the continued isolation of Japa-

nese society was an affront and a challenge. Driven by the

growing rivalry among themselves and convinced that the

expansion of trade on a global basis would benefit all

nations, Western nations began to approach Japan in the

hope of opening up the hermit kingdom to foreign eco-

nomic interests.

The first to succeed was the United States. American

steamships crossing the northern Pacific needed a fueling

station before going on to China and other ports in the

area. In the summer of 1853, an American fleet of four

warships under Commodore Matthew C. Perry arrived in

Edo Bay (now Tokyo Bay) with a letter from President

Millard Fillmore asking for the opening of foreign rela-

tions between the two countries. A few months later, Perry

returned with a larger fleet for an answer. In his absence,

Japanese officials had hotly debated the issue. Some ar-

gued that contacts with the West would be both politically

and morally disadvantageous to Japan, while others

pointed to U.S. military superiority and recommended

Women with Bound Feet. To provide the best possible marriage for

their daughters, upper-class families began to perform foot binding during

the Song dynasty. Eventually, the practice spread to all social classes in

China. Although small feet were supposed to denote a woman of leisure,

most Chinese women with bound feet contributed to the labor force,

working mainly in textiles and handicrafts to supplement the family

income.

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Royal Geographical Society/Alamy

ARICH COUNTRY AND A STRONG STATE:THE RIS E OF MODERN JAPAN 553

concessions. For the shogunate in Edo, the black guns of

Perry’s ships proved decisive, and Japan agreed to the

Treaty of Kanagawa, which provided for the return of

shipwrecked American sailors, the opening of two ports,

and the establishment of a U.S. consulate on Japanese soil.

In 1858, U.S. Consul Townsend Harris negotiated a more

elaborate commercial treaty calling for the opening of

several ports to U.S. trade and residence, the exchange of

ministers, and the granting of extraterritorial privileges for

U.S. residents in Japan. Similar treaties were soon signed

with several European nations.

The decision to open relations w ith the Western

barbarians was highly unpopular in some quarters, par-

ticularly in regions distant from the shogunate head-

quarters in Edo. Resistance was especially strong in two of

the key outside daimyo territories in the south, Satsuma

and Choshu, both of which had strong military tradi-

tions. In 1863, the ‘‘Sat-Cho’’ alliance forced the hapless

shogun to promise to end relations with the West. The

shogun eventually reneged on the agreement, but the

rebellious groups soon disclosed their own weakness.

When Choshu troops fired on Western ships in the Strait

of Shimonoseki, the Westerners fired back and destroyed

the Choshu fortifications. The incident convinced the

rebellious samurai of the need to strengthen their own

military and intensified their unwillingness to give in to

the West. Having strengthened their influence at the

imperial court in Kyoto, they demanded the shogun’s

resignation and the restoration of the emperor’s power. In

January 1868, rebel armies attacked the shogun’s palace in

Kyoto and proclaimed the restored authority of the em-

peror. After a few weeks, resistance collapsed, and the

venerable shogunate system was brought to an end.

The Meiji Restoration

Although the victory of the Sat-Cho faction had appeared

on the surface to be a triumph of tradition over change,

the new leaders soon realized that Japan must change to

survive. Accordingly, they embarked on a policy of

comprehensive reform that would lay the foundations of

a modern industrial nation within a generation.

The symbol of the new era was the young emperor

himself, who had taken the reign name Meiji (‘‘enlight-

ened rule’’) on ascending the throne after the death of his

father in 1867. Although the post-Tokugawa period was

termed a ‘‘restoration,’’ the Meiji ruler, who shared the

Sat-Cho group’s newly adopted modernist outlook, was

controlled by the new leadership just as the shogun had

controlled his predecessors. In tacit recognition of the real

source of political power, the new capital was located at

Edo (now renamed Tokyo, ‘‘eastern capital’’), and the

imperial court was moved to the shogun’s palace in the

center of the city.

A Gift for the Emperor. When Commodore Perry arrived in Tokyo Bay with a small fleet of U.S. warships

in July 1853, the size, speed, and armaments of the ‘‘black ships’’ frightened Japanese onlookers and

undoubtedly contributed to the willingness of the Tokugawa shogunate to seek a compromise with the

foreigners. One Japanese artist recorded his impression of the visitors, who on a later occasion offered their

hosts the gift of a steam locomotive.

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Private Collection/The Bridgeman Art Library

554 CHAPTER 22 SHADOWS OVER THE PACIFIC: EAST ASIA UNDER CHALLENGE

The Transformation of Japanese Politics Once in

power, the new leaders launched a comprehensive reform

of Japanese political, social, economic, and cultural in-

stitutions and values. They moved first to abolish the

remnants of the old order and strengthen executive power

in their hands. To undercut the power of the daimyo,

hereditary privileges were abolished in 1871, and the great

lords lost title to their lands. As compensation, they were

given government bonds and were named governors of

the territories formerly under their control. The samurai,

comprising about 8 percent of the total population, re-

ceived a lump-sum payment to replace their traditional

stipends, but they were forbidden to wear the sword, the

symbol of their hereditary status.

The Meiji modernizers also set out to create a

modern political system on the Western model. In the

Charter Oath of 1868, the new leaders promised to create

a new deliberative assembly within the framework of

continued imperial rule (see the box above). Although

senior positions in the new government were given to the

daimyo, the key posts were dominated by modernizing

samurai, eventually to be known as the genro, or elder

statesmen, from the Sat-Cho clique.

During the next two decades, the Meiji government

undertook a systematic study of Western political sys-

tems. A constitutional commission under Ito Hirobumi

traveled to several Western countries, including Great

Britain, Germany, Russia, and the United States, to study

their political systems. As the process evolved, a number

of factions appeared, each representing different political

ideas. The most prominent were the Liberal Party and the

Progressive Party. The Liberal Party favored political re-

form on the Western liberal democratic model with

supreme authority vested in the parliament as the rep-

resentative of the people. The Progressive Party called for

the distribution of power between the legislative and

executive branches, with a slight nod to the latter.

The Con stitution of 1890 During the 1870s and 1880s,

these factions competed for preeminence. In the end, the

Progressives emerged victorious. The Meiji Constitution,

which was adopted in 1890, was based on the

Bismarckian model with authority vested in the executive

branch; the imperalist faction was pacified by the state-

ment that the constitution was the gift of the emperor.

Members of the cabinet were to be handpicked by the

Meiji oligarchs. The upper house of parliament was to

be appointed and have equal legislative powers with the

lower house, called the Diet, whose members would be

elected. The core ideology of the state was called the

kokutai (national polity), which embodied (although in

very imprecise form) the concept of the uniqueness of the

Japanese system based on the supreme authority of the

emperor.

The result was a system that was democratic in form

but despotic in practice, modern in appearance but still

traditional in that power remained in the hands of a

ruling oligarchy. The system permitted the traditional

ruling class to retain its influence and economic power

while acquiescing in the emergence of new institutions

and values.

Meiji Economics With the end of the daimyo domains,

the government needed to establish a new system of

landownership that would transform the mass of the rural

population from indentured serfs into citizens. To do so,

PROGRAM FOR REFORM IN JAPAN

In the spring of 1868, the reformers drew up a pro-

gram for transforming Japanese society along

Western lines in the post-Tokugawa era. Though

vague in its essentials, the Charter Oath is a good

indication of the plans that were carried out during the Meiji

Restoration.

The Charter Oath of Emperor Meiji

By this oath we set up as our aim the establishment of the national

weal on a broad basis and the framing of a constitution and laws.

1. Deliberative assemblies shall be widely established and all

matters decided by public discussion.

2. All classes, high and low, shall unite in vigorously carrying

out the administration of affairs of state.

3. The common people, no less than the civil and military

officials, shall each be allowed to pursue his own calling so

that there may be no discontent.

4. Evil customs of the past shall be broken off and ever ything

based upon the just laws of Nature.

5. Knowledge shall be sought throughout the world so as to

strengthen the foundations of imperial rule.

Compare this program with the Declaration of the Rights

of Man and the Citizen drafted during the French Revolution and

discussed in Chapter 18. To what extent do these principles

conform to the concepts of liberal democracy as practiced in

Western societies? To what degree were they implemented

in Japan?

ARICH COUNTRY AND A STRONG STATE:THE RIS E OF MODERN JAPAN 555