The Emergence of New Imperial Powers

Jui-Chi Wu

8 December 2015

The Emergence of New Imperial Powers

The Qing dynasty in China was most powerful during 1683-1839 in the rules of Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong emperors, which the Western called the “High Qing”. However, in 1840, Chinese was hardly beaten by Britain in the Opium War, followed by another failure in the second Opium War in 1858, which they were forced to sign unequal treaties. Eventually, they realized the gap between the West and China and therefore started the Self-Strengthening Movement to study Western science, technology and machine manufacturing. Around the same period, Japan, recognizing how China had been made to concede their power, started to feel pressure from the increasingly rising of Western power. Finally, during the Japanese Ansei era, Japan too was forced to sign an unequal treaty- Ansei Five-Power Treaties, which triggered a movement that led to enormous changes in Japan's political and social structure- the Meiji Restoration. In 1894, the Sino-Japanese War broke out. Japan won the war and emerged as a new imperial power. The Sino-Japanese War demonstrated the success of Japan’s Meiji Restoration as well as the failure of the Qing Empire's Self-Strengthening Movement. As both movements were drove by similar incidents, “Why did Japan succeed and not China?” In this paper, I will compare the two movements and draw out factors that led to Japan’s success.

Due to the contrast in their history backgrounds, the two countries showed different attitudes toward changes. Chinese had always seen themselves as Tianxia, meaning under heaven, thinking that they were the center of the world, contemning all foreign things. Moreover, since ancient times, assaults on the frontier for Chinese were from nomads living in the northern region, whose culture lagged behind Han Chinese. The results for them invading the Central Plains were always accepting Han culture in varying degrees, and sometimes even became a member of the big...