Decline of the Qing
The Qing was
simply the latest inheritor of power in many centuries of dynastic rule.
It was administered by Confucian-trained scholars and was headed by Empress
Dowager Cixi (1834-1908), a former concubine who saw all attempts to reform
the ancient institutions of the empire as a threat to the conservative
power base of her government. In short, it was poorly equipped to adapt
to the demands of dynamic western powers who refused to enter into relations
with China as mere vassals. Reforming elements within the Qing were perpetually
thwarted; rural poverty and western influence were factors in promoting
civil unrest that emerged in four major rebellions in the mid-19' century.
The western powers went on a landgrabbing spree that carved China up into
'spheres of influence'. The first to go was China's colonial 'possessions'.
A war with France from 1883 to 1885 ended Chinese suzerainty in Indo-China
and allowed the French to maintain control of Vietnam and eventually gain
control of Laos and Cambodia. The British occupied Myanmar (Burma). By
1898 the European powers were on the verge of carving up China and having
her for dinner. Their ambition caused a strong resistance from the Chinese
people and their attempt met with a failure.
In the face of so much national humiliation it was inevitable that rebellions
aiming to overthrow the Qing would emerge. The first major rebellion was
the Taiping. Led by Hong Xiuquan, a native of Guangdong and a failed scholar
whose encounters with western missionaries had led him to believe he was
the younger brother of Jesus. The rebellion commanded forces of 600,000
men and 500,000 women.
The Taipings owed much of their ideology to Christianity. They forbade
gambling, opium, tobacco and alcohol; advocated agricultural reform; and
outlawed foot-binding for women, prostitution and slavery. Ironically,
they were defeated by a coalition of Qing and western forces - the Europeans
preferring to deal with a corrupt and weak Qing government than a powerful,
united China governed by the Taipings.
The second major rebellion to rock China was that of the Boxers United
in Righteousness, of more simply the Boxer Rebellion. It emerged in Shandong
in 1898 out of secret societies who trained in martial arts. The Boxers
were fanatically anti-foreign, saw 1900 as the dawn of the new age and
believed themselves invincible to the bullets of the foreign forces. Poorly
organised, the Boxers roamed in bands attacking Chinese Christians and
foreigners. The Empress Dowager attempted to ride the tide of anti-foreign
feeling by declaring war on the foreign powers in 1900. In the event,
a combined British, US, French, Japanese and Russian forces of 20,000
troops defeated the Boxers , occupied Beijing and started robbing and
plundering. They destroyed "Yuanmingyuan Garden", the garden
of gardens, by setting it on fire after an unbridled robbing and plundering
its rich treasures. The empress fled to Xi'an and the foreign forces levied
yet another massive indemnity on the Qing government.