-Under the Tributary system, the Chinese were able to sell more goods than they bought from the foreigners, and this led to China experiencing economic success during this period. 

But, by the late 1700s, this changed:

-The Industrial Revolution led to the need for new markets for European products and caused the Westerners to have far more powerful militaries than the Chinese. 

-During this period, China started to embark into a rapid decline.

The Tributary System showed that before the Industrial Revolution and their rapid decline in the late-1700s, China was an incredibly powerful country that had a bright future. They had large advantages over other countries when it came to trading with them, and this is reflected in their very successful economy during this era. The Tributary System started the decline of China since  when the European powers started to become more powerful and advanced than the Chinese, China started to lose a lot of the leverage that they had when they traded with the Western powers

-20 years before the First Opium War, a lot of the Chinese people became addicted to the deadly drug during the same time as a currency shortage in China.

-The Chinese government gave harsh punishments for people found trading the opium, including capital punishment for Chinese drug dealers starting in 1838.
- China tried to get the British to stop trading the opium, but the British didn't listen to them.

-In 1839, Chinese warships had a skirmish with British merchants, which led to the Opium War. 
-The British were easily able to crush the Chinese because of their far superior military. 

The Opium Trade and War led to the downfall of China because it showed other nations that China had a considerably weaker military compared to them. China's weak army and navy prevented them from protecting their empire from foreign attacks, which meant that they were at the mercy of the Western countries that were looking to increase their control in their trade with them. Also, the Chinese economy was weakened a lot by the Opium Trade and War, which made it harder for the Chinese to keep up with the rapidly industrializing Europeans.

-The British required the Chinese to fulfill many demands that had to be met in order for them to withdraw their forces from Nanjing: 

-The Chinese pay them large sums for the expenses that they incurred during the Opium War. 
-China needed to open ports that could be used by the British to trade with them. 

-The Chinese had to give Hong Kong away to the British 

-British citizens living in China had the right to follow their own laws and be tried in their own courts. 

The Treaty of Nanjing played a big role in China's downfall because China lost a lot of its very beneficial trade advantages after they were forced to sign the Treaty of Nanjing by the British. Since the Chinese needed to open more ports and had to give Hong Kong away to the British, Britain will have an increasingly larger influence on the Chinese economy and trade. Now, other European countries, like the British, will be able to exploit the weak Chinese and force them to sign more trade agreements that will cause China to lose a lot of the benefits that they previously had in their trade with foreign countries.

-Since the irrigation systems and canals in China were not taken care of properly, there was a lot of flooding in the Huang He valley. 

-This time period was especially hard on the peasants, due to there being a massive population boom a few centuries earlier 

-Also, there was extreme corruption and high spending in the Chinese courts and the rich often didn’t pay their taxes, which made it even worse for the peasants. 

-Even the respected courts of China faced scandals. 

The Internal Conflicts in China led to the decline of China because it showed that the Chinese had a numerous amount of serious internal problems that they had to deal with on top of the threat of foreign invaders. The Chinese courts and the rich people in society failed to take care of the poor and used their privileges in unethical ways, which angered the peasants and made them lose their faith in the Chinese government. At this point, the Chinese peasants were probably planning and getting ready to conduct a large-scale revolt against China’s authorities, and this would lead to a lot of casualties on both sides and force the Chinese government to spend massive amounts of money on repelling the rebels.

-The rebellion’s leader, Hong Xiuquan, was influenced by the ideas of the Christian missionaries and wanted to create a Christian state named Taiping Tianguo.

-The Taiping rebels set out to destroy the “demons” of China (mainly the Manchu rulers and the Imperial court), sweeping through southern China and capturing Nanjing in 1853.

-The Qing lifted a ban on ethnic Chinese not being able to command the military and allowed a renowned military scholar named Zeng Guofan build and lead his Huan army after a series of major blunders by the rebels.

-With the help of the Western countries and the Ever-Victorious Army, Zeng Guofan’s army were able to retake Nanjing shortly after Hong’s death in the summer of 1864.

-After the rebellion, the government’s confidence was shattered and Chinese scholar-generals acquired a lot of power

The Taiping Rebellion was a big part in the downfall of China since it showed that the general population of China was unhappy with the ruling power, the Qing Dynasty, and wanted there to be a change in China’s leadership that would address their needs and lead China as a whole better. This meant that after the Qing Dynasty crushed the Taiping Rebellion, a majority of the population would completely turn their backs and stop listening to the government entirely, creating a divided China. Also, the ruling powers in China lost a lot of confidence in themselves and had to share their power with Chinese scholar-generals, which led to a weaker central government in China.

-She seized the throne from her son in 1865 and was a ruthless and greedy ruler.

-Ci Xi and her advisors were very conservative, so they resisted any attempts to modernize China

-She put her own interests above the needs of China and lived a lavish life filled with luxuries.

-She surrendered her power to her son, Guangxu, when he turned 17, but took away his rule and exiled him shortly that year, erasing the reforms he made in the Hundred Days of Reform

-In 1898, Ci Xi staged another coup and imprisoned Guangxu again when she learned that he was making reforms behind her back.

The Dowager Empress (Ci Xi) led to the decline of China because it showed that the Dowager Empress Ci Xi was a big obstacle in China’s modernization and reform movements. Since she and all of her government officials were conservative, they heavily resisted any efforts of the Chinese people to modernize/reform China. Also, her luxurious lifestyle drained the government’s funds that could’ve been spent on China's outdated military and her greed for power prevented any new leaders who wanted to improve China from coming into power.

-The Treaty of Tianjin was signed in 1858 after China helped Japan end anti-Japanese revolts in Korea and its forces weren’t strong enough to win against the Chinese.

-After this, Japan significantly strengthened their military so that they could fight the Chinese.

-The war started after Japan defied the Treaty of Tianjin when they stormed the Seoul Palace and got rid of the pro-Chinese Korean government during the Tonghak peasant revolts of 1894.

-War was officially declared on August 1, 1894, with the Japanese severely damaging China’s military strongholds and forces, defeating the Chinese by November 21, 1894. 

-The Treaty of Shimonoseki,signed on April 1895, China suffered a wave of huge losses, including having to give up Taiwan and opening up new ports on the Yangtze River so the Japanese could trade along it. 

The Sino-Japanese war played a major part in the decline of China because it showed that the Chinese experienced huge losses from the aftermath of the Sino-Japanese War and the Treaty of Shimonoseki, ceding even more of their control and influence over East Asia to one of their closest competitors. Japan’s large victory over the Chinese signified to the Western powers that China could be easily taken over and was no longer a strong force to be reckoned with. It also indicated that Japan was the strongest country in East Asia, not China.

-In 1898, a young emperor named Guang Xu launched a reform movement called the Hundred Days of Reform’

- In the reform movement, laws were passed that set out to modernize the civil service exam, make the government more efficient and effective, and give support to new industries.

-But, conservatives opposed the reform efforts, imprisoning Guang Xu and re-asserting the elderly empress Ci Xi into power.

 

Guangxu’s Reforms were a large factor in the decline of China since showed that a lot of Chinese people were willing to modernize China. But, the conservatives in the Chinese government were stubborn and foolish and didn’t want to make China more Westernized so that they could keep their old, outdated ways. The governments' resistance to Guangxu's reforms showed the people of China that in order for China to become a global power again, they needed to extinguish and replace the Qing Dynasty with a better form of government. 

-The British took the Yangtze River Valley, the French took the territory located next to their colony named Indochina, and the Germans and Russians took land in northern China.

-The United States, who traded with China for a long time, didn’t participate out of fear that the European merchants wouldn’t let them sell their goods in China.

-In 1899, the US called for an Open Door Policy (everybody would get equal trading rights) in China, and all of the imperial powers agreed, but without permission from China.

The Spheres of Influence led to the downfall of China because it showed that in the late 1800s, China was completely defenseless to the European powers. Since they couldn’t fight back against the Western countries, who had far more superior militaries than them, all China could do was just sit there and watch them lose even more land to the foreign nations. China didn’t even have control over their own trade, as the Europeans made the Open Door Policy without notifying them. 

-On June 20, 1900, the society conducted a siege on the district in Beijing that held foreign diplomats, and the day after Qing Empress Ci Xi declared war on foreign countries with diplomats in China.

-On August 14, a multinational force led by the Western powers and Japan fought through China and arrived in Beijing, helping the foreigners and Chinese Christians to safety.

-The Boxer Uprising ended on September 7, 1901 with the Boxer Protocol.

-After the Boxer Uprising, China again had to make pricey concessions to foreign countries, but they were finally able Westernize themselves and improve their economy in the years following the rebellion.

The Boxer Uprising led to the downfall of China because in the years following it, the Chinese realized that they had to modernize themselves in order to become a successful nation like they were a few hundred years ago. So, the Chinese government made quite a few reforms, including developing industries in China and Westernizing its schools. The Boxer Uprising also marked the beginning of the end of the obsolete Qing Dynasty, which lost a significant amount of its power and was overthrown a little more than a decade after the Boxer Rebellion.

-A monarchy was introduced in 1901, but some reformers wanted a republic

-A big supporter of the Chinese republic was Sun Yixian, who organized the Revolutionary Alliance in 1900.

-Sun Yixian thought that China could be rebuilt through the “Three Principles of the People” (freeing China from foreign domination, a representative form of government, and economic security for all of the Chinese).

-Sun Yixian was named the president of the new Chinese Republic in 1911, shortly after the Qing Dynasty was overthrown when Ci Xi died in 1908.

-For the next 37 years, the Chinese republic faced a lot of problems, constantly being at war with either itself or foreign nations.

The Nationalist Revolution/ Sun-Yat Sen (Sun Yixian) was the final step in the downfall of China, as the Chinese people were able to unite as one and topple the controlling Qing Dynasty that was slowing their progress. The leader of the new Republic, Sun Yijian, was very educated and had good intentions, along very detailed plan to return China to its former glory. But, from the beginning, the republic faced an onslaught of challenging problems that lasted for quite a while and was a large obstacle that prevented them from reestablishing themselves as a global power.