https://padlet.com/mfrishberg23/ydo1s33s7zq2msvu china yay en-us 2021-03-11 02:56:02 UTC 2026-03-04 08:01:37 UTC hello@padlet.com rchase23 https://padlet.com/mfrishberg23/ydo1s33s7zq2msvu/wish/1308575903 During the mid 19th century, China had control over most of the trade in the Eastern part of the world. With their control over many commodities such as teas, silk, and porcelain, they were able to make a lot of money in their trade. In addition, they were also self sufficient so they did not need to trade with outside nations. This led to a power shift where China had almost full control over the trade industry. In addition to being a self-sufficient nation, this also gave them the ability to be above other nations when it came to negotiating terms of trade (Beck) . This led to them being able to only have commodities exported with no commodities imported so they lost no money. This was the case for a while until the British East India Company realized they had a commodity that China didn’t; The British East India Company had Opium. At the time, Opium was a hot commodity and was used to treat every illness ranging from a cough to a cold. The British East India Company used this to create an illegal trade route that flooded China with this commodity and eventually got them addicted (Beck). China tried to fight back but eventually lost the Opium wars which caused a shift in power from China being at the top of the trade, to Britain being at the top of the trade. Due to the loss of the opium war and weakened central powers of China, its trade, which was once only controlled imports, became a one sided influx of western powers ready to take advantage of a fragile trading empire. After China lost the first and second Opium war, there was a shift in power and the development of the European sphere of influence in china (Bentley and Ziegler 892-899). This ended up making other nations want to trade in China and ended up forcing China to have outside spheres of influence. When the Chinese people revolted against the foreigners in the Boxer Rebellion, the Chinese officials asked for Westerners help and led to the Germans sending a warship fleet to occupy Jiaozhou Bay causing a large German sphere of influence. In these spheres of influence, the nations occupying them wanted trade to be easier so they started to industrialize them. This led to a boom in the number of railroads in these spheres of influence to help make trade easier. Overall, the Industrialization of China is a large part of Chinese history and the history of the British East India Company. 

]]> 2021-03-15 01:39:38 UTC https://padlet.com/mfrishberg23/ydo1s33s7zq2msvu/wish/1308575903 mfrishberg23 https://padlet.com/mfrishberg23/ydo1s33s7zq2msvu/wish/1308614886 2021-03-15 01:54:44 UTC https://padlet.com/mfrishberg23/ydo1s33s7zq2msvu/wish/1308614886 mfrishberg23 https://padlet.com/mfrishberg23/ydo1s33s7zq2msvu/wish/1308715849 China, from the mid-19th century to the early 20th century, had little to no political stability due to a weak central government, a skewed national identity, and a failure of the government to respond sufficiently to the needs of its people.  Firstly, China had a weak central government due to an unhappy, growing population that couldn’t be controlled. From 1800-1900, the population of China grew from 300,000,000 to 475,000,000 (Bentley and Zieger 893). Because of this, there was an extreme strain on resources which caused Chinese people to eat non-food objects like leather, hemp, and in dire situations, other humans (Bentley and Zieger 893). This lack of resources caused many uprisings, one of the most prominent being the Taiping rebellion. The Taiping rebellion, which started with one man, grew to a coalition of millions of people. The Taiping rebellion revolted for 14 years, from 1850 to 1864, and stormed Beijing and Shanghai (Bentley and Zieger 894). Although the dynasty’s army subdued the storming of Beijing, the storming of Shanghai years later wasn’t so successfully defeated. The Taiping revolt is just an example of one of many revolts which took over China and exemplified the apathy towards the government from the Chinese people. This shows a weak central government because governmental strength can only exist if subjects agree to be governed. In turn, this shows a lack of political stability because there was no force that could govern the people to keep the state stable. Second, there was no political stability because rebellions like the Boxer rebellion and Taiping rebellion skewed national identity into being based off of ethnicity and religion rather than shared traits or citizenship. Because of food shortages and unhappiness with the government, many started to blame the unrest in the country on the foreign origin of the Qing dynasty (Bentley and Zieger 893). In addition, due to the weakened central government, many western nations were establishing spheres of influence all around China. This, in turn, caused more hatred of foreigners from the Chinese people because they felt like their country was being torn apart by outsiders. Overall, the impact of this was a complete lack of tolerance from the Chinese people. Chinese citizens, especially those who were part of the Boxer rebellion, would often shout phrases like “Death to foreign devils!” during revolts (Beck). Skewed national identity shows a lack of political stability because it shows the amount of unrest in the country and a lack of uniformity and national identity. Finally, China had no political stability due to a failure to respond to the needs of the people in a sustainable way. When rebellions like the Taiping were at their peak, the Qing dynasty ignored the grievances of the people and instead worked towards getting rid of the movement. After the Taiping revolts, the government realized radical change was needed and implemented  a confucian style of government from 1860 to 1895 (Bentley and Zieger 895). This style of governing, also known as the self-strengthening movement, implemented more western ideas with the slogan “Chinese learning at the base, Western learning for use”. While this system was better, the Chinese people weren’t satisfied with it and still revolted. Finally, in 1895, a young, progressive emperor named GuangXu listened directly to the protestors and enacted a Constitutional monarchy (Bentley and Zieger 897). This settled the revolts and satisfied the people, but didn’t last long. Guangxu’s aunt, empress CiXi, nullified the governmental style after just 103 days and put her endorsement behind the Boxer rebellion, since she was getting old and needed a backup plan for if she died in office. This, consequently, caused racially motivated rampages and for western nations to come in and settle down the revolts (Bentley and Zieger 899). Overall, although the dynasty tried to listen to its people, it didn’t do enough to make sustainable change. This shows a lack of political stability because a government that doesn’t listen to its people isn’t upholding its side of the social contract and therefore is not stable.]]> 2021-03-15 02:39:07 UTC https://padlet.com/mfrishberg23/ydo1s33s7zq2msvu/wish/1308715849 mfrishberg23 https://padlet.com/mfrishberg23/ydo1s33s7zq2msvu/wish/1308822171 2021-03-15 03:29:23 UTC https://padlet.com/mfrishberg23/ydo1s33s7zq2msvu/wish/1308822171