Explain The Issues That Cause Tension Between Europeans And China

Before the arrival of western powers, China was very stable, agricultural, and ethnocentric. They had many factories that produced silk, cotton, and porcelain with their natural resources: salt, tin, silver, and iron mines. They had no interest of trade or interaction with foreigners. From the early eighteenth century, European and American Imperialism spread throughout China with a goal to extend their nation’s power. China was one of many territories that undertook the changes of New Imperialism. By 1912, the country was governed by outside nations: Great Britain (mostly), Russia, Germany, France, and Japan. Their influence on China resulted malignantly on the country’s economy, political ties, and lifestyle; in spite of the few

While under the rule of the Emperor Qianlong, China’s foreign policy and trade was beginning to unfold and open up to Europe. Qianlong, however, still maintained a strict and regulated administration of all foreign trade and foreign ability to exist within China. “ It is true that Europeans, in the service of the dynasty, have been permitted to live at Peking, but they are compelled to adopt Chinese dress, they are strictly confined to their own precincts and are never permitted to return home.” All outside interactions with China could only be permitted if ‘in the

While differing ecomically and politically in their responses to western penetration, Japan and China had similarities in the way of geography. China only allowed Europeans to trade with it in a limited number of ports and cities, which limited the amount of goods Europeans were allowed to transfer overseas. Japan isolated itself as a whole from trade for an entire decade, and when it did open it was cautious towards westerners. Additionally, both were bordered by the ocean at least to a certain extent – Japan was surrounded entirely, being an island, by water, and a large percentage of China’s borders was water. It is because of this that the third similarity arose – both did trade by ocean. China with Britain, simply because it was the easiest, cheapest, and most efficient form of travel between the two, and Japan because there was obviously no choice considering Japan is an island. These geographical similarities arose purely from the coincidence that both were bordered by the ocean, which created the necessity for boats and by the time the opportunity for trade

Great Britain also desired to trade with China but did not respect the restrictions. After the deliverer of a trade arrangement refused to perform the kowtow ritual to Qianlong, the emperor wrote a letter back to King George III and said that “China was self-sufficient and did not need the British.” Because of these events and others, China became more and more isolated from other countries. Later in the 1800s, the British, Dutch, and others attempted to get out of the stronghold that was China’s trade restrictions.

In the 19th Century British planned to invade China for economic reasons. It had no motives to conquer the state rather entice it to accept a free trade. The country was rich in tea which was in high demand not only in Britain but all over the world. China also had porcelain and silk which the Britons envied. The intruders did not have enough silver to buy the commodities thus opted for a barter system. Consequently, a war between the two states occurred. It was fought between 1848 and 1852 with China becoming unsuccessful due advanced military competence of Britons. The signing of an agreement between them then followed, and British was additionally awarded extraterritorial rights by China. However, the imperialism in China was a positive thing to the natives because it introduced trade and much education in the region which opened up opportunities.

Many European countries such as Germany, France, and Great Britain, as well as Russia, Japan and the United States wanted to gain control of the Chinese market and dominate the trade and goods of that country. The result of

B) China was able, thanks to the existence of its coastal navy, to prevent the establishment of European ports.

d. Contact with the West increased in the 17th century, but in the early 18th century, the Qing rulers restricted trade to land outside the walls of beijing . The 1793 British mission to expand trade did not succeed, and the emperor Qianlong explained in a letter to George III that

d. Contact with the West increased in the 17th century, but in the early 18th century, the Qing rulers restricted trade to land outside the walls of . The 1793 British mission to expand trade did not succeed, and the emperor Qianlong explained in a letter to George III that China British manufactured goods.

In the early eighteen hundreds, Britain and other European countries demanded more and more Chinese commodities, especially tea and silk. However, only the port in Canton was opened to foreign countries, and Chinese would not take any other form of payments besides silver. The desire to make China into a free market that foreigners have more access to and the increasing, though illegal, European opium import to China eventually created tension between the European countries, especially Britain, and the Chinese government (Allingham Par. 1-2). The two battles fought and won by European powers were known as the Opium Wars. China’s politics, economy, and intellects were both positively and negatively

Furthermore, this experience led to the discovery that the key to success is control over regions that produced valuable goods, since control over trade routes ultimately leads to their change.1 China with its warfare and seafaring technology never claimed to take control over the sea even after Zheng He’s voyages, since they had enough, if not more resources than everyone else, unlike Europe. The conclusive thought is that Europeans were poor, and in order for them to succeed in an otherwise rich world, force was the only option. The bias is therefore in the fact that Europeans had no

China experiences the pressure of the imperialist’s military which China did not have the knowledge or the experience to match. China went from a superior leader, self-sufficient country, that thought that everyone else were barbarians to a torn country. China accepted foreign trade, but they wanted to control and limit how much and with who the trade was used for, they felt that they European trade was unnecessary. They did not allow the western merchants to have any power or privileges and restricted them to Canton, plus they refused to open their trade system beyond Co-Hong which caused china to not become as prosperous as Japan. (Valentini 2013) Because China the believed that they were the center of civilization and that the Western culture was inferior the Chinese government refused to go along with any of the European’s request and the two nations became hostile towards

European trade with China was historically restricted. In 1793, emperor Qianlong denied King George III's request for fewer trade restrictions by declaring, “Our Celestial Empire possesses all things in prolific abundance... There was therefore no need to import

There were many problems with the system of trade in China; even before opium trading began. China, believing herself to be the most civilized and advanced country, did not feel the need to satisfy Britain, a “barbarian” country’s request for freer trade and were concerned the British wanted land. Britain however,

There has been lots of word that Russia and China are joining together to try and rule out the US dollar and compete against the US. They are doing this so that they can shake up the dominance of the US dollar. Russia’s currency today is called the Russian ruble. It is approximately 60 Russian rubles to 1 US dollar. China’s currency is called Yuan, it is approximately 7 Chinese yuan to 1 US dollar. Russia and China are trading with gold more and more now. They have become great allies, and they have joined to bypass the US dollar in the global market by shifting to gold trade.