How Did Imperialism Change China

China was impacted by Imperialism in a big way. The imperialism in china started because of Opium Trade. The british were the start of the Opium Trade. The Chinese people were pulled in to the drug because they were addicted to it. The people who traded the the drug had become aware that it was becoming a problem. So, they thought stopping would solve it but at this point the Chinese people were in need of it because of how high their addiction was. When the Chinese saw that the trade was being pulled back by the british they turned to fight and created a war between the two. Obviously at the time Britain had the most resourceful and powerful military on the planet, so they undoubtedly won the war.

There can be no denying that the first half of the 20th century was such an important period in Chinese history. Within the span of 38 years, China overthrew two different national governments. In 1911, the Qing Dynasty was overthrown, and the Republic of China (ROC) took its place. In 1949, the People’s Republic of China would replace the ROC. Though both were revolutions, there were significant factors that differentiated the two.

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

Imperialism was the cause of the economy to beginning to boom in numbers in China. China’s sudden wealth made some eastern nations such as Japan and France very curious. These nations believed that if China was to be colonized that it would make it so much easier for them to have trade routes to and from China. Not only is imperialism impacting the economy but also the culture of China. China’s culture began to change when people all over Europe began to move to China. This is what made the culture of China so diverse. Without Imperialism China would not be the nation that it is today.

The Chinese just like the Russian revolution both became communist governments in the end. In the positions that

Imperialism was good for China. They gained new things due to imperialism it helped them learn new things and have new technology. They gained new things like education and technology.

Imperialism is Good As a citizen of a European imperialist nation, I personally believe that the imperialism in China is a good thing. Before the imperialism in China, China wasn’t really using their resources but once imperialism in China started, there was finally a use for them. European nations are able to have access to China’s abundance of resources and in return we pay them with gold, silver, and sometimes opium.

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.

An anti-foreigner movement was organized in 1900, attacking foreigners across China, urging a multinational force to stop the movement. As expected, the boxers were easily defeated and China was once again forced to succumb to Westernization. However, the Chinese nationalism spread from the failure of this movement and Sun Yat-sen, a passionate spokesman, “organized the Revolutionary Alliance to rebuild China” on the “Three Principles of the People.” These principles included the ideas of nationalism, democracy and economic security for everyone. However, little progress was made and China quickly fell into chaos against the “twin evils” of warlord uprisings and foreign imperialism, collapsing the last Chinese dynasty. This set China to path of an eventual Chinese communist state, living up to Sun Yat-sen’s “Three Principles of the

As many other countries around the world China has its long history of a struggle for equality and prosperity against tyrants and dictatorships. The establishment of People’s Republic of China in 1949 seemed to have put an end to that struggle for a better life. “The Chinese people have stood up!” declared Mao Tse-tung, the chairman of China’s Communist Party (CPP) – a leading political force in the country for the time. The people were defined as a coalition of four social classes: the workers, the peasants, the petite bourgeoisie and the national-capitalists. The four classes were to be led buy the CPP, as the leader of the working class.

China made its modernisation through revolutions. There are two historical event scholars believes can be threat as milestone of the transformation: 1911 Xinhai revolution, which brings an end to the two thousand year of monarchy; May fourth movement which carried out by students in Beijing protesting against the unfair treatment China get on the 1919 Paris Peace Conference. The word revolution means ‘the fundamental change of power’, where the word movement is ‘a group

There are two historical event scholars believes can be treated as milestone: 1911 revolution, which brings an end to the two thousand year of monarchy and the May fourth movement which were carried out by students in Beijing protesting against the unfair treatment. This paper will make the argument that the May fourth movement was more important than the 1911 revolution. The May fourth movement is the defining event that marked the passage from a tradition based society to modernity in twentieth century Chinese history. The May Fourth Movements was a significant turning point in Chinese history challenging traditional Chinese values.

Before the May Fourth Movement, Marxism has begun to spread in China but did not form a broad new thought tide among the Chinese people. After the May Fourth Movement, Marxism spread rapidly in China with the rise of national sentiment, the increased consciousness of anti-warlord and anti-imperialist and the publication of New Youth by Chen Du-xiu (September 1916). Plus, the influence of October Revolution in Russia. In 1921, Li Daz-hao and Chen Du-Xiu were with the help of Russians, who established the Communist Party of China in Shanghai. The establishment of the Communist Party has a profound and long-lasting (far-reaching) impact on the political development of China in the

The class structure in China at the beginning of the PRC was built on the idea that was brought up by Mao. He believed that “the people” of the whole country could be divided into the following classes: the working class, the peasantry, the petty bourgeoisie and the national bourgeoisie (60). Other than the “people”, there were also “the running dogs of imperialism”, which included the old landlord class and bureaucratic bourgeoisie, and also, the KMT reactionaries (59). Obviously, the 80% of the countryside people formed the dominating class in China, which was also what the CCP wanted to take advantage of – by having a united front (59), which based on the alliance of workers and peasants (58), attracting the petty and national bourgeoisie, the government expected to utilize all the elements of urban and rural capitalism (59). However, the new-founded country also met several crises regarding their ambitious goals: the territorial unification (64), the lack of material prerequisites for socialism (107), unemployment and the economic backwardness (104, 114, 156), the workers did not share a large political role as the CCP expected (117), the growing power of Party bureaucrats (123), and finally, Mao’s political role and his personal hero worship (164).

Although the movement was a national reaction to imperialism, China's intellectuals analyzed that the imperialism was not the only threat to their nation; the considerable part of the problem was domestic. If in 1911, revolutionaries revolted against Manchus as non-Chinese outsiders in 1919, students would have recognized that the traitors were Chinese. The May fourth incident was an epochal event in Chinese history, and it is regarded as the turning point in modern Chinese history. It emerged during the early republican era and underscored the potential for radical change that the revolution of 1911 had unleashed. The attempt of this paper is to redefine the movement regarding modernity, democracy, and human rights, and illustrate the political and cultural consequences of it as the beginning of China's revolutionary era and the new stage after the Xinhai revolution.