Fall of late Qing dynasty- challenges from the West - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages... These activities drew European countries that were exceedingly eager to connect with the wealthy China that ruled the continent and the seas. However, several factors arose in the 1800s that made the dynasty lose its global economic leadership. The country was hit by social turmoil, economic fracturing, and European imperialism. In this paper, I will outline the factors that made the Qing Empire collapse. Supremacy of the Qing Dynasty Qing dynasty was one of the greatest empires during the early-modern period. It existed at the same period with other empires such as Mugal Empire, ottoman, Austria-Hungary, and Russian empire (Ma, 30). The Qing Empire was the first to fall among the superior empires at the time. The empire was beset by a struggle between westerners and traditionalists during the nineteenth century. The modernizing party introduced nationalism in china as it did in Russia and Turkey. The party argued that imperialism was obsolete and obstructed the national sensibility of the majorities. The concept of nationalism had been drawn from the historical output, legal structure, and the educational system. Han Chinese, Mongols, Manchus, and Tibetans drew upon the imperial legacy to establish clear ideas of their language, religions, and aristocratic traditions (Ma, 31). This strengthened the nationalist idealism that championed for equal representation of the majority in the dynasty. This opened the avenue for encroachment by western countries. Imperial encroachment and nationalistic movements were significant in weakening the unity of the empire even before the Chinese revolt broke out in October 1911 (Ma, 35). The Qing Empire had suffered a dramatic loss of some of its territory to imperial powers. One of the losses was the Qing northern pacific coast that ceded to Russia through a treaty in 1860. The region is currently known as the Russian maritime province. Russia ceased another part of the Qing Empire in 1871 when it took over East Turkestan. Tibet followed suit when it was invaded by Britain in 1904. Britain and Tibet signed a short lived treaty and Qing paid indemnity to Britain in 1906. This brought an international consensus that forbade Britain and Tibet from signing treaties directly. However, Britain continues with their support for Tibet nationalists, which led to the 1906 Tibet independence. Mongolia followed suit and became independent in 1921 putting an end to the Outer Mongolia region of the Qing Empire. China’s civil war in the nineteenth century is not sufficiently treated as modern warfare compared to the American civil war or the Indian rebellion of 1857 (Ma, 40). The Taiping war of 1850-1864 was the bloodiest conflict during the revolution and remains to be the bloodiest conflict in history. The war caused fatalities of between 25 to 40 million people and the majorities were civilians. There were months of siege war and starvation was used as a weapon on both sides. The Taiping created a base and a bureaucratic government at Nanjing, an area that experienced the longest siege. Europe and America were attracted to the conflict due to the proclaimed Christianity by Taiping. However, the Qing Empire was economically stable, and western powers opted to support them against Taiping by providing military support. Contribution of foreign Nations Western powers sent troops and mercenaries to Qing Empire to suppress the Taiping. By 1860, several British ...Download file to see next pagesRead More