How did the Chinese Qing Empire Collapse? [Complete History Documentary]

hey and welcome to my complete documentary about the fall of the Chinese Empire in the collapse of the ching dynasty over the past couple of months I've been working on this documentary series and I've uploaded videos about this event every week chronologically so from the opium wars all the way through the Taiping rebellion the self strengthening movement that sino-japanese war and eventually the ching hai' revolution in 1912 which led to the application of the Last Emperor Puyi it has been extremely fascinating to research this and to work on this documentary I've spent hundreds of hours on creating this and I don't think I could have spent them any better now the idea behind this documentary is that you're able to listen to it like a podcast or to just watch it since all the videos have been edited and still have visual aid so images and videos somewhere in order to support the story now I'm already working on my next big project which is about something completely different it's still historical in nature but it's about something completely well it's not relatable to this one it's a different take on history so to say and I'm having a lots of fun doing it lots of reading obviously and lots of jotting down notes but let's know it's a lot of fun to do and it'll probably be done in around two or three months because like I said lots of time goes into these in-depth documentaries so for the next two months or three months depends on how long this takes I'll be uploading two videos a week every week about interesting snippets of history that I find fascinating that I discovered and that I feel like writing a script about so there will be content on this channel and then the next very big documentary will be out pretty somewhere in September and you'll probably hear a lot more about it in the next couple of months so without further ado I hope you enjoy the fall of the Chinese Empire kingdom had been one of the mightiest powers in the world for centuries there are Gemini led to its isolation from most geopolitical developments and world politics after all China elect no products within its borders according to the channel an emperor when the British Empire demanded trading rights contemptuous refusal was all that was given the Chinese would soon be strong-armed into allowing Western powers to trade on their territory however and all this happened during two wars that we came known as the opium wars the early stages of the 19th century had been tumultuous for China the white LED his rebellion waged over provinces in central China as for its international relations that consisted of tributary states that assumed a subordinate role to the Empire when the British Macartney expedition reached China McCartney himself was rather surprised the Chinese emperor refused all their requests such as trade and exchanging diplomatic contacts aside from this different take on international relations the industrialized West far superseded China in terms of industrial and military power there was an enormous discrepancy in power relations of which China was not yet aware it was during this time the British started shipping opium from rich controlled India into China unable to directly trade with China Western powers were forced into a separate trading area the 13 factories outside of Canton and had to rely on Chinese middlemen that charged high taxes thing is tea porcelain and silk were goods sold with an enormous profit in Europe as such trade continued though the situation was far from ideal now opium was traded for China's silver currency leading to the outflow and drain of silver from the country it had a rather negative effect on China's currency system resulting in hardship on all levels of the population while opium trade and usage was banned several times the Brits simply started smuggling opium into the country there was a movement in China that poised our support for the legalization of opium it legalized the chain could levy tariffs and taxes on it they reasoned this movement was opposed by the Beijing Court however when in 1934 British Lord Napier arrived in Canton as the first superintendent of one of many misunderstandings rose he refused to trade via Chinese middlemen instead demanding relations with the Chinese governor-general Chinese officials were forbidden from holding relations with foreigners however traditional system and all when refused napier forces fleet of to canton he passed away of malaria before fighting seriously escalated but his death postponed war by only a few years cooperation between the governments remained impossible as suppressing opium trade and smuggling didn't work out the Chang has stated more rigorous measures such as the death penalty for both users and smugglers all the wild tensions kept rising we're searching allowed Western trade in Canton slowly became more problematic for Britain but for China - the situation remained extremely negative silver flowed out of the country at an incredible pace in 1839 the Qing government sent the Imperial and violent seshu to Canton he was authorized by the Dragon Emperor to put a halt to opium trade known for being incorruptible and efficient he seemed like the perfect man for the job he even sent a letter to Queen Victoria in which he wrote suppose there were people from another country who carried opium for sale to England and seduced your people into buying and smoking it certainly you would deeply hate it and be bitterly aroused I feel that this letter properly describes the opium trade in China Lin wanted to root out the opium importers and distributors in Canton he proved very able to do so initially not willing to use force much less to provoke war British merchants resisted and Lin saw it necessary to isolate them in their 13 factories they were forced to rescind their opium stock which Lin publicly destroyed then certainly was efficient he secured over 20,000 chests of opium but his treatment of British citizens was seen as a crime against the London government and Her Majesty Queen Victoria the Chinese did not fully realize how their course of action would be perceived British merchants demanded compensation the British government pointed to the Ching as those that had to pay up Lord Palmerston the British Minister of Foreign Affairs was initially unsympathetic to British merchants not abiding to Chinese law it changed his opinion in 1839 and now started advocating for British trading rights tensions worsened further when a drunken English sailor killed a Chinese citizen in Canton the British refused to have him tried under Chinese law the case was symbolic for the two different perceptions of international relations all the while then continued the cleanse of the Guangdong province addicts and dealers were arrested and the price of opium skyrocketed when news of opium seizure reached England Parliament photo to take retaliatory action wealthy opium merchants such as William Jardin even returned to England to advocate their cause though Parliament was angry war was not officially declared British warships under Admiral George Eliot's command from the Indian squadron appeared in China's Pearl River in June 1840 by then there had already been skirmishes between British and Chinese at Hong Kong local population in Canton and onk-onk poisoned Wells and refused to sell food to the British troops Chinese soldiers Braves and junks were mobilized instead of attacking Chinese fortifications Elliot's fleet simply blocked the harbor and silt they're forced north blocking other harbors along the way sailing along the coast the British eventually reached that daggoo forts were serious negotiations with chief Zhang governor-general of the region were undertaken while Zhi Shan was initially praised by the Emperor for his negotiation tactics within half a year he would be sentenced to death as it became clear the British didn't adhere to Chinese demands on the British side p.m. Lord Palmerston was equally furious with Eliot replacing him with Sir Henry Pottenger all the while fighting on the Chinese coast and countryside continued often led by Chinese Gentry militants attacked the Brits these would retaliate by virtually annihilating Garrison's fortresses junks and occupying parts of Canton with less than 7,000 armed troops the British managed to beat the Ching both on sea and land it was their technological and naval superiority that made the Ching barely a match for them the chain's military backwardness became evident on land as the Bannerman that fought the British troops were often scrambled to gather rubes of undisciplined soldiers in August 1841 Pottenger silk north once again and seized multiple ports he decided to force the Ching to capitulate by cutting off China's main river and seizing Shanghai and Gen John local officials were afraid to report the extreme defeats and as such the Emperor received fabricated reports of victories over the bridge but when the expeditionary force conquered Shushan island south of Shanghai it became clear that Lin had filled his task it was dismissed in disgrace it wasn't difficult for the Brits to amass victory over victory the amount of casualties by the end of war shows this all too clear there were under thousand British casualties while the Chinese suffered around 20,000 they now started to wonder how to capitalize on their overwhelming military power after all they weren't eager to gain more territory in China they simply wanted to be able to use the country as their foreign market open it up so to speak eventually British forces started to close in on Nanjing China's second largest city but injera refused to negotiate with the Ching until they agreed to a complete deal eventually the Ching gave in they had to give him if it wanted to continue its rule over the Chinese people retained some form of domestic stability and maintain its Mandate of Heaven the Treaty of Nanjing was signed by Aichi all demands by the British were met ironically the reason this war started opium was not mentioned at all to begin with Cheng conceded Hong Kong which would become a British stronghold in China furthermore Canton Shanghai my future an impo were the first treaty ports opened to foreign trade China was only allowed to raise extremely low terrorists which could not be altered British merchants were not subjected to Chinese law but to British law as long as a trader within the treaty port Britain was acknowledged as a diplomatic equal and lastly the most favored nations clause was implemented this meant all privileges other powers enjoyed in China the Brits now automatically would enjoy as well an indemnity to pay for confiscated opium and war reparation had to be paid other Western powers now hurry to the table to force similar treaties upon the Qing in short an entire system of treaties was signed referred to as unequal treaties in Chinese historiography the British supplementary treaty American treaty and French treaty followed in the years after the Nanjing treaty these treaties and Western powers gaining a foothold in China undermining the traditional power eventually led to a second set of Wars and treaties in the late 1850s after the peace of nanjing tensions again rose after all the king accepted the peace terms with much reluctance the Treaty of Nanjing was considered a temporary setback and the most favored nation clause was considered a way to pit the Western powers against each other opium trade expanded along the Chinese coast during the 1850s opium import rose to between 50 and 60,000 chests a year double that of the 1830s oakum addiction increased and silver kept flowing out of the country in 1851 the anti-western seen Fang Emperor ascended to the throne he was faced with the deadliest civil war the world had ever seen the Taiping rebellion and concurrent naen and muslim rebellions now although the rebellion spread foreign trade in tea silk and opium increase when the provisions of the Nanjing treaty came up for debate in 1854 the Emperor refused to concede any more treaty ports nor should Westerners be allowed to move freely within China allowing foreign diplomats in Beijing was completely out of the question in treaty ports themselves Westerners were continuously subjected to anti-foreign sentiment unstable tariffs and corruption the assassination of a French missionary and the disregarding of a British flag on a Chinese vessel named arrow provided the pretext to once again wage war against China and as such the French too were dragged into the conflict French and British naval fleets sailed on to Canton and without too much trouble the port was captured and a puppet government was installed in the city in 1858 the [ __ ] quickly sued for peace accompanying the British and French delegation were American and Russian bending potenti Aires they secured near-identical treaties for their own countries one of the treaty terms stated that Jiang had to allow foreign diplomats to stay in Beijing considering this would uproot the entire traditional system of tributary state the king became hesitant I decided not to concede this point although it had been agreed to in drafts when British and French ministers wanted to enter Beijing they were refused passage British warships were sunk out of nowhere and the delegations were repelled from the capital for now in 1860 a year later the French and British returned with a vengeance of matching the Qing troops under Prince angered in Chen in both technology and numbers the bannermen were quickly defeated Beijing was captured and the Emperor fled to a whole British negotiator Lord Elgin was subsequently arrested during negotiations even though he flew a flag of truce 20 of his men were executed as a reprisal once he was released algún made sure to burn down the Emperor's Summer Palace friends gone now the main Chinese negotiator agreed to a treaty encompassing all those demands of 1858 this treaty is considered the official opening of the Chinese Empire to the Western world Foreign privileges had been increased and trade would soon blossom for the West these with some powers would play a big role in the next couple of decades of Chinese history and friends gong to played an important role in Chinese politics most notably as a proponent of the self strengthening movement in 1858 the import of opium was legalized yet ever since 1839 that rarely were any obstacles imposed by the Chinese to its import it was not until the last phase of the Ching in 1906 and laws were implemented to object-- opium usage and trade actual effective combating had been in place since 1949 over a century after the First Opium War as the French and Brits waged war against China the Taiping rebellion the deadliest civil war the world had ever seen broke out these concurrent events were testament to the dire instability the Ching dynasty found itself in during these years after the Second Opium War a movement propagating Chinese reform led by Prince Gong was launched this self strengthening movement was opposed by hardline conservatives in Chinese politics led by Empress Dowager Dushi 14 years the Taiping rebellion waged over China 17 provinces were ravished and the estimated loss of life is between 20 and 25 million it is the deadliest civil war one of the deadliest Wars ever and the largest conflict of the 19th century the Ching dynasty Ivor was not only faced with the Taiping rebellion during this time but with several other rebellions throughout the country and the second opium war it is one of the bloodiest episodes in Chinese history which really says something and this raises an interesting question how did the Qing managed to stay in power during this carnage the First Opium War between China and the United Kingdom wage from 1839 to 1842 the result was the humiliating Treaty of Nanking which did not mention opium the primary cause of the war at all the Second Opium War or the era war broke out after the United Kingdom and France had won the Crimean War in the European theater against Russia this meant they could concentrate their troops in the Far East and once again wage war against China in 1860 the French and British forces reached and over to Beijing China's capital upon which that scene Fang Emperor fled to Yeol all this will be delved into in a video about these Wars but it is important to note this took place during the Taiping rebellion this already gives an idea of the chaotic situation within China well in 1851 in southern China the Kangxi province to be exact a rebellion under hunts Yoochun broke out it would become known as a taiping rebellion many reasons and causes can be given for the outbreak of this rebellion with one of the major ones being the horrible conditions the peasantry was living in the quality of life in rural China during this age and basically up until far into the next century was abhorrent and why did it break out in the south well it was in lost territory consolidated under the Ching dynasty and was located furthest away from the capital the area was notorious for its secretive sex with anti domestic convictions furthermore China's defeat during the First Opium War had severely tainted the prestige of the dynasty especially in the south as a majority of the war had taken place there one of the concessions after the war was a China had to open ports other than Canton in turn leading to large unemployment around this area as harbors such as Shanghai or closer to the silk and tea producing areas now one less reason was pirates after 1842 Chinese pirates were driven inland by the British Navy after a campaign of pirate suppression all these elements were a poisonous cocktail that was very likely to end up in a rebellion but a rebellion of this magnitude nobody had foreseen that figure out what the roots of this typing movement were China had a history with rebellions driven by an ideological force such as Buddhism for example the White Lotus rebellion or secret societies that adhere to a fork Taoists ideology the Taiping rebellion was unique as it had a Christian impulse there had been European Protestant missionaries active on the southern Chinese coast for several decades and among others their preaching reached a village school teacher in quasi by the name of who Monsieur Tron a member of the minority Hakka people who had felt the Chinese state exempts four times heavily influenced by a poorly understood Christian Tractatus it is said he became delusional during one of these episodes he had visions that convinced him he was a new Messiah in conclusion he logically realized he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ these tracks that influenced him were written by jung-hwa and who decided to base his religion on the old rather than the New Testament this in turn created a more militant ideology which adhered to the Ten Commandments but not the Sermon on the Mount in short he created his own justification alright so who knew Trump had a charismatic personality and he convinced several people to follow him as he was still convinced he was Jesus's younger brother a distant cousin of his Thank You Xiang created the god worshiper society based on whose idea of Christianity this cult quickly crew as more disaffected people were recruited over the years peasants pirates tried members and jaquez it didn't matter then in 1850 armed resistance against government troops broke out smoker skirmishes occurred until eventually in 1851 the Indian armed revolt was the first major success of the typing typing forces routed forces loyal to the Ching dynasty it marked the official beginning of the Taiping rebellion and as you do when you rise Imperial forces hung declared himself heavenly king of the heavenly kingdom of internal peace typing Jenko what would follow was the deadliest Civil War ever so much for eternal peace as hyung declared his heavenly kingdom the cult saw it as its goal to establish its own Empire with hyung at his head the rebellion quickly expanded and gained momentum killing and recruiting thousands on its path the bands of peasants and rebels quickly transformed into over a million disciplined extremely zealous warriors with strict more restrictions upon which we will touch later the organization of the army was elaborate and strict indoctrination occurred to such a degree that many times typing troops chose death even suicide over capture several Chinese southern provinces were taken over in record tempo and eventually even none King the second city of China only behind Beijing was captured in 1853 man Kings name was changed to Chongqing or heavenly capital now ruling southern China hung felt rather confident and sent a northern expedition towards the Ching capital Beijing well this expedition filled it did manage to penetrate chance in another important city before it was four super trees the Taiping empire consolidated itself amidst the yangtze river and several more attempts to capture the rich agricultural grounds of yunnan filled the philosophy of the Taiping rebels was a mixture of old confusion and new Christian elements Puritanism was very present as prostitution opium and gambling were prohibited on their territory its followers were inspired by its dogmatic and Puritan worldview the Taipings offered an ideological and societal eternity to being a peasant once your tongue considered a proper way of carrying out his divine task of repenting demons by destroying traditional Buddhist highways temples and Confucian estándar tablets this magnitude and severity of iconoclasm has never seen before in China aside from the slaughter thousands if not tens of thousands of ancient Chinese temples and other relics were destroyed the Taiping was revolutionary in another sense as well women's emancipation the century-old practice of foot binding was outlawed and women could even serve in the army as officers and there were plenty of women that did serve considering the typing at forces that numbered in the tens if not hundreds of thousands even a fraction was female it was already more than armies generally employed during this time private property was abolished and land was distributed between families that were clustered as religious military and political units hope this was only put into practice at a small scale as the Taiping grip over their conquered territories wasn't too tight due to their lack of caterers especially the gentry which would have supplied the Taiping with educated leaders were scared by the revolutionary doctrines and practices one could argue that this is where one of the main reasons like for the eventual demise of the Taiping now as a historical footnote a little under 100 years later mouths communists consolidated their power over China the Taiping served as an example of a precursor of the eventual communist revolution because of their primitive style communism and resistance towards the gentry and any old religious and ideological sentiments jealousy of several military commanders of the typing proved fatal young shoot King the Machiavellian commander-in-chief of the typing pretended he went into trances during which he spoke with the Holy Trinity while who claim to be the Son of God he did not fake these kind of experiences young being the most influential commander of the Taiping he was a real threat to him in 1856 young challenged Holmes leadership demanding a title only reserved for the Emperor kun Casas king of the north white chun-li to assassinate young way did so together with the general Cheng Li dong but in the process in massacred Jiang's family two and thousands of his followers well hung felt it was only right to assassinate way after this complete onslaught another general she doc I grew worrisome and decided to take his followers leave Nanjing and cut ties with whom the rest of the Taiping generals were quick to fall as intrigues and conspiracies managed to really thin out the military command of the movement they left hung with supper relatives and loyalists to lead the army and govern the provinces of the kingdom the kingdom would last for another eight years mainly thanks to the military genius lee soo-chang governing the Taiping troops at the lower Yangtze now the King weren't just sitting idly by during this time sank well fun was tasked with reorganizing the Imperial Army he organized the Hunan army which became a powerhouse within the Ching military establishment but loyal primarily to thing this meant its military control became decentralized and this Hunan army will play a role again during the period of war it ISM over 60 years later for nowt same tosses young disciple Liang Chun to build up the Unruh army in order to support his unum army raising tribute and grain from territories around the Yangtze he was properly financed but Western arms and increased the army size to 70,000 it was the largest professional standing army serving the Imperial Government the Taiping kingdom was crumbling and its soldiers were pushed back more and more the incentive to purchase Western arms was given by the victory against the typing of the so called ever victorious army under the American Frederick Thomson board as the typing forces can closer to the outskirts of Shanghai in 1862 the small Western army defended the treaty port and repelled the typing afterwards death that same year British major Charles Chinese Gordon to cover command Chinese troops were recruited into the force and this sign of foreign army captured su Chou while a similar Franco Chinese force captured Hangchow basically the Taiping were locked in nanjing at this point when Jing was surrounded by chanko funds younger brother by 1862 and the siege would last for over two years but the city was eventually captured without any foreign assistance as for the leaders of the ones my heat typing heavenly kingdom who committed suicide a month before the city fell but well that's one of version of the story another one is that food supplies ran low and the eight weeds he ate weeds and fell ill which resulted in his death okay sporadic typing uprisings would continue to occur throughout the region for the next four years interestingly enough the commander leaf was young leading sadaqa his army was defeated in 1871 seven years after his death you can see some branches lost for a while and it underlined the lack of control Chang forces had in some regions nevertheless in essence hung suicide meant the bloody and brutal end of the Taiping rebellion the armies under saying that the bulk of the fighting and the Ching dynasty was saved by his loyal bureaucratic machine and army commanders what I find rather fascinating about the time period of the Taiping rebellion is that as the Taiping rebellion was waging over the Chinese mainland in other areas massive rebellions broke out as well completely separate from the Taiping one of the most dangerous of those rebellions was the young rebellion in northern China it was inspired by the White Lotus sect with the direct reason for the outbreak being the poorer socio-economic situation of the peasants and the flooding of the Yellow River these rebels defeated the qing troops from their fortified villages and the rebellion would wage on until 1868 and caused over 100,000 deaths and an economic collapse of the region in several other areas muslim population of china revolted against the Han Chinese and Manchu led Ching dynasty the Panther rebellion known in China as a do and Chu rebellion broke out in 1856 and lasted for 17 years however two million people died during this bloody revolt the Dungan revolt broke out in 1862 under the leadership of yaqoob beg in which a Muslim minority in western China faced the troops of the Qing Dynasty it is estimated over 17 million people died during this war famine disease and atrocities from both sides being the main causes just like the Taiping rebellion these mid century rebellions were crushed without Western participation although many Western arms were used you're probably wondering how the Ching managed to stay in power with massive rebellions going on in virtually every province Farah Menken Russia or write that the monopolization of administrative talents played a central role those that knew how to govern the Chinese Empire were loyal to the tradition of scholar governments and more importantly referred the Manchu Qing Dynasty instead of a group of revolutionary rebels Sangin li furthermore appointed their own supporters to important positions within the bureaucratic machine the Ching would never regain control for all of China after the disastrous Taiping rebellion period of self strengthening followed in which the Qing attempted to regain control over the country that Jiang would manage to stay in power for several more decades but the several decades saw an increase in Western ouch meant rebellions and Wars with both Western powers and the new rising Asian power Japan if that sounds interesting consider subscribing to my channel as I'll be making a video series on that thank you for watching this video and what is a person or event from Chinese history that you would like to know more about and perhaps see you video of let me know your thoughts in the comments and if you enjoyed this video consider subscribing to my channel see you next time focus hasn't been on Asian history you may have vaguely heard of the first sino-japanese war the aftermath of the war assured in a new era for China Japan and the presence of European powers in Asia as a balance of power shifted but what's fascinating is that the war was fought over the Korean Peninsula and there were so many power dynamics intricacies and conflicting political interests going on that it makes for a fascinating story to analyze a geopolitical situation of Korea in combination with the Japanese and Chinese Empire the decades preceding this war without further ado I present you a modest overview of sino-korean relations combined with Japan pursuing its own interests in the region all leading up to the sino-japanese war when Japan was opened up by Matthew Perry's notorious gunboat diplomacy in 1854 the country had embarked on an entirely different path than China this push from the outside had caused a large-scale revolution and a successful attempt to restore the practical abilities and consolidate the political system under the Emperor of Japan Meiji in 1868 a group of modern reformers such as ki totaku yoshimori our newly issued a policy of modernization and westernization this movement was much stronger than the Chinese self-strengthening movement which took place around the same time the goal of the Reformers was to develop a modern education system and a powerful military apparatus most importantly however was a large-scale industrial modernization which was financed through taxes from the agrarian sector the first confrontation any country had with modernized Japan was China when they got into a dispute with Japan over Korea now Japan and Korea had a history going back centuries one of the most telling events was that at the end of the 16th century Toyotomi Hideyoshi the second great unifier of Japan invaded Korea a shock from Japan's viewpoint Korea was seen as either a bridge to the mainland or the spear that could penetrate Japan's heart northern part of Korea had been incorporated in the Chinese and Empire ages ago in 108 before Christ pyongyang housed the Chinese commander II which remained an outpost for over four centuries it wasn't until the seventh century that Korea was unified his culture was more or less modeled after China whereas Vietnam was influenced by Southeast Asian cultural elements Korea adopted all of its major features from Chinese culture as such it became China's foremost tributary state regardless of the language and historical difference not to mention the vigorous sense of their separate identity combine these with cultural aspects a very deeply rooted urge of political conservatism that was prevalent in Korean society this political conservatism can be seen in the two dynasties that ruled Korea in its history the curio dynasty that reunified Korea back in 935 this dynasty lost it for 474 years and its successor the Chosun dynasty which lasted from 1392 to 1910 a period that is nearly as long as the Chinese Ming and Qing dynasties combined fed headed that Korea's geography wasn't a real advantage to the peninsula it lay at the crossroads where China Japan and Russia met and clashed multiple times the Chinese imperial system and tributary system put its mark on Korea for hundreds of years the only foreign interaction Korea had was sending tribute to China and very rarely to Japan virtually every Korean King was hostile to European explorers just like the Chinese and Japanese by the way Japan and China eventually caved in to the European powers which did not happen by diplomatic means well gunboat diplomatic means Korea was dubbed the Hermit Kingdom for adhering to their policy of seclusion until it nearly was too late for them to participate in diplomacy at all we'll leap to the 1860s when the Korean state was met by both domestic and foreign challenges both China and Japan had faced similar challenges years previously we'll start with the religious element as Catholic Christianity reached Korea via the Jesuits of Beijing these writings became known as Western learning smuggled across the border Catholics and its missionaries were persecuted in Korea it was kind of foreign Menace and heterodox sects automatically Christianity became an underground society and Chinese and French priests were smuggled into the country in response around the 1860s the religious cult known as Tom Hawk also known as Eastern learning was established and violently arose against Western learning all the while borrowing some of its concepts the poverty-stricken peasantry was fascinated by this new religious sect and many joined it as a result the cult spread rapidly they supported uprisings in the south and southeast of Korea such as a massive into peasant revolt and Hippias revolt the rulers of Korea responded exactly the way you'd expect the Hermit Kingdom to respond to these domestic problems and Western influences Christianity was banished even more and a policy of seclusion was instated tonic was suppressed and a rigorous program of conservative reforms to counter the hardships the Chosun dynasty faced was pursued by penguin or Grand Prince the father of the boy king gojong and as such the Hermit Kingdom remained exactly that vigorously exclusionist the Chinese general that was instrumental in defeating the Taiping maintained its focus on the ever-growing threat of Japanese power the Korean Peninsula could easily be a liability for China if Japan grew too influential Korea adhered to its nickname and restricted any contact other than Japanese trade at Busan on a restricted basis which was somewhat comparable to the Dutch trade at Nagasaki centuries before the only consistent foreign contact the Korean Kingdom had was the annual tribute conducted at Beijing throughout the 19th century Western vessels occasionally visited the Korean coast due to the bad weather conditions shipwrecks and general misfortune these were subsequently expelled to China all forms of contact were violently opposed whether it was trade or negotiation among the European powers this included a certain rivalry who would open the Korean Peninsula the way Commodore Perry had opened Japan several years before multiple missions were sent often violent causing plenty of Korean casualties but the Kingdom didn't budge meanwhile several disgruntled Japanese samurai attempted to provoke a war with Korea in 1873 these plans were thwarted by a less aggressive Lobby within the Japanese government but nonetheless opening up Korea and draw it away from China was high on Tokyo's list eventually however this wasn't done through force in 1875 five Japanese warships were fired upon from Korea Tokyo opposed an invasion of Korea is retribution it instead attempted to open Korea peacefully the yung-chun adhered to the old signer centric concept of Chinese morale suzerainty but respecting the self-governing ability of Korea or its domestic and foreign policy he did advise Korea to start negotiations with Japan and in 1876 the Treaty of ganghwa an unequal treaty modeled after the treaties the West closed with China and Japan opened three ports to Japanese trade Busan Incheon then known as Jammu Po and one son the treaty referred to Korea as an independent state and China having difficulty to translate the ancient tributary relationships to modern ones did not object but that did not mean that China did not attempt to keep Korea under its control the chain imperial government realizing opening up Korea may have been detrimental to sign our Korean relations attempted to keep Korea under Chinese control the Yong Chun urged Korea to embark on a self strengthening policy not just modeled after the Chinese one but controlled by the Chinese the moderate Chinese reform program was competing with the more profound modernizing influences of Japan the Korean sues moderate and incremental reforms like China or fast paced modernization like Japan now there was a third way to make it even more complicated both the Chinese and Japanese ways of modernization were opposed by the fundamentalist conservatives like Taiwan goon although king gojong dismissed him in 1873 they won't grow and played a large role in inciting anti-foreign sentiment on the peninsula this anti-foreign sentiment culminated in 1882 during an uprising soldiers and a mob said a Japanese government building on fire and attacked the Japanese Legation shocked at the violent outburst both Japan and China sent troops to the peninsula in order to restore control the uprising was swiftly crushed by foreign forces and Korea had to pay Japan indemnity both Japan and China agreed to withdraw their troops from the peninsula wasn't everything though as China - so that the Conservatives were the reason for opposition to Korean modernization on the way out of the country that took something with them they took taewoon goon who was locked up and held in China for three years now the pro Chinese min faction at Korean Court represented by king gojong squeen was able to gain influence and Chinese oriented policy followed the self strengthening of Korea modelled on the Chinese movement and indirectly overseen by China wasn't completely altruistic the jung chung tried to combine Korea self-strengthening with China's building up its Navion army get a bit of profit out of it furthermore in order to prevent Korea from being absorbed by Russian or Japanese encroachment he persuaded the country to accept treaties with all trading ports he figured and not wrongly might I add that vested interest in Korea as an independent trading partner would prevent war the first success was the negotiation between Korea and the United States which Lee Young Saeng brokered commander RW shufelt agreed to the Treaty of Jensen in 1882 well Lee Young Saeng acted as a middleman of source it is very ironic to consider he filled to get a clause in the treaty that mark Korea as a dependent state of the Chinese Empire the u.s. treaty as a matter of fact recognized Korea as an independent state and other European powers that agreed to treaties with Korea would explicitly note its independence the years to come these diplomatic relations backfired for China to put it mildly day one gun was still residing in a Chinese prison and his enemies controlled the Korean Court the min family represented by the wife of king gojong queen min cooperated with china the conservative policies Ian stated were structurally dismantled Chinese influence in Co became more prevalent during the 80s but at the same time so did the number of Western and Japanese diplomats and missionaries that espoused Korean independence the main factor was Japan Japan actively instilled the idea of patriotism and advocated Korean independence Western ideas of nationalism and reform it was Japanese liberals such as fukuzawa yukichi that advised young Korean reformers like Kim o Cuban and Park Jung Yeo ruling min faction and Chinese presence for humanely opposed any voices demanding western-style reforms as the camp of Western reformers grew these contradictions eventually culminated in the 1884 gapsin coup plans were made to assassinate Chinese oriented ministers and kidnap king gojong thing is this wasn't just korean coup plotters the Japanese Legation was fully aware of these plans even more than that after the king was abducted by kim hong-kyun and his conspirators he was put under guard by the Japanese Legation guards although the conspirators had the support of Japan the coup feel thanks to the Chinese General Yuan Shikai who was in Korea to train new Korean military units his troops defeated the guards of the Japanese Legation and rescued the king a diplomatic crisis understandably followed the crisis was eventually overcome when Liang Chun and the Japanese statesman Ito Hirobumi signed the leader Convention in it was agreed that both China and Japan could only send troops to Korea if they had informed each other about this beforehand this convention marked the end of Korea as China's tribute state and this convention will be extremely important in order to understand the sino-japanese war and Yuan Shikai he became the Chinese resident general and CEO in 1885 training Korean troops and meddling in domestic politics for the years to come Pro Japanese reform movement was growing during these facing the main faction at court that favor China now remember the religious sect I talked about the Tanakh as all these events we just talked about transpired the general misery of the Korean population simmered on it wasn't sustainable and would eventually culminate in the tongue hug rebellion that film hagreb Elyan was the direct reason for the sino-japanese war but that's a story I'll tell you next week thank you for watching this video and what is a person or event from Chinese Korean or Japanese history that you would like to know more about and perhaps you video off let me know your thoughts in the comments and if you enjoyed this video consider subscribing to my channel see you next time the ones mighty Imperial China had faced enormous hardships by the 1860s the Taiping rebellion - opium wars multiple concurrent rebellions and several devastating natural disasters the country was backward in terms of military compared to Western powers fortunately several important commanders were aware that China was in need of modernization marking the beginning of the self strengthening movement under Prince Gong the mother of the young panderer Emperor and priest algid says she was an arch-conservative however and would slowly but surely go further and further in her attempts to obstruct performance even as far as murder after the British occupied beijing in 1860 the ching dynasty stood with its back against a wall in several areas in china the realization that reform was necessary became apparent the manchu prince gong brother of the cheng feng emperor signed the peace treaty with Western powers ending the Second Opium War a year later in 1861 the chumphon Emperor passed away he was succeeded by his five-year-old son Chun juror whose mother the Empress Dowager says she accepted Regency after launching a coup together with prince gong and empress dowager at sea on sue she would be the main figure in Chinese politics until her death in 1908 shortly before the fall of the Ching dynasty for now it says she a staunch conservative was obliged to accept certain reforms prince gong advocated after all he helped her ascend to the Regency and the throne albeit indirectly under young emperor Chun juror there was an attempt at dynastic restoration in combination with Chang victory over the Tai ping nian and Muslim rebellions the chain managed to restore a certain degree of the bureaucracy prosperity and restrain rural unrest the primary reasons for those rebellions magistrates and gentry and Shirdi populated areas were habituated again thanks to the government will decrease ensuring tax reductions for those that moved their irrigation networks vital truth Chinese agrarian life were restored and what works were erected Texas on agrarian products were reduced if not abolished altogether the government certainly made an attempt to restore the facilities that had been lost during the rebellions and Wars most importantly the zombie Amon was established something that resembled a Ministry of Foreign Affairs why did China not have an institution such as this one before well because it considered itself the center of the world didn't need to enter into relations with other countries other countries simply had to subject themselves and pay tribute to China the Ching dynasty lost bits of influence in provinces thanks to the gentry and magistrates standing at the forefront of the restoration furthermore the armies that were created to crush rebellions such as a Yunnan and unmei army would continue to exist with its leaders most notably tank well fun and Liang Chun becoming very powerful individuals men that had acquired influential positions salt to find the root of the reasons China had fit suffered defeats those past years not surprisingly many looked at the military superiority of the West or barbarians as many Chinese referred to Europeans zeng guofan li hung-chang and so tung tung attempted to get the country on par with the west when it came to military prowess the so-called self strengthening movement and it wasn't aspiring to pursue far-reaching reforms in Chinese society on the contrary it wanted to modernize its military in order to protect its society and culture against Western influence using the barbarians to control the barbarians now during the Taiping rebellion military leaders such as the aforementioned men had already started to arm troops with Western weaponry these developments were now taken further not just arming forces on land but modeling a naval fleet after the Western motto and constructing modern Arsenal's and armament factories indeed by the mid-1870s China was manufacturing thousands of small arms in terms of quality these were comparable to the arms Europeans were using oh these modernization efforts were made on the basis of the input of Western advisors most commanders wanted to get rid of these expensive and often incompetent Western advisors a project to establish schools educating Chinese in Western languages and science was launched international law was taught as well in order for the next generation of diplomats to be capable of beating Western powers at their own game zeng guofan once said we should carefully watch and learn their superior techniques and also observe their shortcomings if they had been in good relations and break their covenant we would then have the weapons to oppose them he of course referred to the west powers ingenious ways to handle Foreign Relations and collect custom dues build modern ships and weaponry and just start teaching international law were explored the rudiments of modern science were established self-strengthening took off in a hopeful direction perhaps the future of China was more secure than it had been though rural areas still marked by tax evasion and corrupt holders of power the chain was regaining some of his former strain it would certainly benefit the dynasty if it could ensure a forceful Imperial leadership and a resolute Grand Council young scholars were even sent to the United States and Europe to study the state systems industrial technology military tactics and progress in science during these years the American Civil War was waging on just a given and small idea of the time frame we're talking about these types of reforms had unintended consequences however those students that did return began advocating radical forms of educational reforms China of course had the traditional state exam system to educate bureaucrats in service of the Ching dynasty now these students were advocating for reform in all kinds of subjects from chemistry and mathematics to foreign languages conservative Confucian scholars were afraid for the loss of traditional values in Chinese society the most important opponent of these reforms was the Empress dowager's as she regent of the Emperor and she would attempt to undermine Prince Khan at every turn unfortunately for the Ching any real forceful leadership remained absent Chung juror passed away in 1875 at the age of 19 the boy had recently become of age and thus did not need a regent anymore though the official cause of death was noted as smallpox historians believe his mother says she played a role supporting this hypotheses is the suicide of the pregnant empress shortly after with many historians believing she was driven to suicide by Jews she murdering those that opposed to Xi's will would remain a pattern throughout her career and told juror wouldn't be the last emperor she would allegedly kill so she could only same power she continued her role as regent and as such the three-year-old nephew of the tongue juror emperor guangxu was appointed with Jews she as his regent against Chinese tradition Guang XI was of the same generation as Tung juror instead of a generation off doesn't seem that important though nevertheless says she silenced opposition though one upright Confucians official committed suicide outside Tom Druce tone to protest 2ch decision when it came to policy especially foreign policy and reforms as she professed badly with Prem's gong at one point Gong ordered the execution of one of the issues eunuchs since he was personally offended it is interesting to note that one of the reasons for the collapse of the Ming Dynasty before the chain well as the domination of court by eunuchs gun may have been trying to prevent this nevertheless he would not hold any position of power for a long time as for the powerful provincial statesman zeng guofan passed away in 1872 when shown in 1876 and third some tongue remained preoccupied with the muslim rebellions on china's periphery the men residing in Beijing generally were conservative not very eager to reform China self strengthening programs were initiated in China still but a disproportionate amount of these programs were initiated by one man Liang Chun both governor-general and Commissioner of trading ports sushi trusted him he was besides too she perhaps the most important figure in China during last decades of the 19th century the soldier diversified China's enterprise into areas that would have long-range effects on the country's overall development the food Owen additional Chinese society was modernizing in some aspects albeit slowly the biggest weakness of the self strengthening movement was in the modesty of its goals no matter whether it was during the early stages of military modernization or later on when schools with a Western curriculum were established these modernization elements were always on the fringe at most they were curious or beings in a very traditional society China's traditional exam system was a big hurdle for self strengthening Confucian scholars had access to the bureaucracy basically the only way to climb up the social hierarchy for many Chinese the movement wasn't pro-police guided by the Ching Court by a Ching hard I mean says she as she practically reigned by herself after Prince Gong was sidelined nevertheless she was faced with the increased independence of provincial governors the tangible execution of the self strengthening movement more often than not was very dependent on the amount of conflict which mean subordinate option rival authorities every attempt at modernization that was successfully implemented was constantly endangered by the corruption of the bureaucracy so she was no less guilty of this either one of the most notorious cases was the northern biome fleet honey story the goal was set during the 1880s to modernize the outdated fleet allocating an enormous amount of funds to it when the sino-japanese war broke out in 1894 it turned out this fleet was neglected it was completely destroyed and was barely a match for the Japanese fleet when tracing the funds that were allocated to the fleet it turned out Empress Dowager Tzu she and her courtiers had spent most of the money on the rebuilding of the summer palace in the Forbidden City destroyed by European powers during the Second Opium War over three decades earlier there were more of these instances of type of corruption in essence crippling China's modernization lost Lee but certainly not least was the aversion towards self strengthening Chinese society was still very much conservative even when it came to the military this can be seen decades later even during the Boxer Rebellion Boxer sect refused to fight with guns much preferring sticks and swords considered more traditional as you can see there was a rift between conservatives and modest reformers these would clash many times until the downfall of the ching fifty years later in this video I've attempted to briefly summarize the trends that were going on in China offered faced one of its deadliest episodes as we can see Empress Dowager says she cemented her power in a ruthless manner and we've seen that Liang Shan was the primary figure instigating reforms though modest in several areas once Prince Gong was gotten rid of next video will be all about the sino-japanese war which will make horribly clear that China's modernization program was insufficient to put it mildly if you're wondering what transpired during the last decades of China's once mighty Qing Dynasty consider checking out the playlist on the screen right now covering the history of both China and the Qing Dynasty from the Taiping rebellion all the way to the Kings eventual downfall in the 20th century it covers all wars rebellions and political developments in between thank you for watching this video and don't forget to subscribe see you next time throughout most history Japan has been heavily influenced by China in terms of culture philosophy law just to name a few well this all changed after the Meiji Restoration when Japan came to see China as bold and weak against Western powers back in 1894 the small power of Japan faced a colossal Chinese Empire in the sino-japanese war fought over the Korean Peninsula this war would be the ultimate test between the two powers and their respective modernization projects and trust me it was an absolute steamroll campaign for one side of the conflict during the 1880s the bond between Japan and Korea Chosun dynasty worsened as Korea leaned more and more towards its conservatism in 1894 the pro-japanese korean leader kim hong-kyun who was involved with the gapsin coup a decade previous was assassinated in shanghai the aftermath was a bit of a grisly affair as authorities in shanghai decided laws against extradition did not apply to corpses his body was subsequently shipped to Korea and paraded around its provinces serving as an example of what would happen to those that dared support Japanese influence just to give you an impression of the domestic hostility between the pro-chinese and for Japanese comes there even was a senior post created by the Ching in seal held by Yuan Shikai furthering Chinese presence on the peninsula he was primary objective was to abhor China's privileged status in Korea and they sure that Japan did not gain a foothold after all historically speaking Korea was China's most important tributary state throughout the 90s Japan's influence on the peninsula became more prevalent and tensions kept rising and then midtone a peasant revolution broke out and swept over Korea this revolt induced by a religious sect was a direct threat to the Korean monarchy and its king gojong now Tong Rock was a sect that oppose anything westernized and the uprising started as such anti-japanese an anti-western in its aim but it quickly deteriorated into an all-out civil war several areas of Korea became rebel controlled and the rebels advanced on to seal the government of king gojong rather a frightened immediately requested military aid from their ally the Ching dynasty the chain sent around 2,700 soldiers to the peninsula in order to protect the royal family now if you've watched my video about the geopolitical situation preceding the sino-japanese war you might remember that 10 years ago an event very similar to this one occurred on the peninsula namely the gapsin coup both China and Japan sent troops to the Korean Peninsula following this failed coup but they eventually agreed that both countries had to withdraw all their troops they were only allowed to send their troops to Korea if they notify the other party first it seems like a clear agreement right well the chinks empo troops without notifying Japan violating this Tencent treaty when Japanese Prime Minister into Hirobumi got wind of this he called a special meeting there was the site at Japan would send a much larger force that Oshima composite Brigade Japan was able to mobilize and transport troops at a fast pace rendering China's time advantage useless around 4,000 Japanese troops landed in Korea in early June only two days after the qing troops landed skirmishes erupted around the countryside though nothing too serious yet and the Japanese troops managed to quickly move up to seal Korea's capital and it's one hug for billion the reason China and Japan sent their troops to Korea well it was rather quickly suppressed by mixture of Korean and Qing troops under Yuan Shikai his command that wasn't the end of the fighting though actually it was just the beginning a Japanese commander in Korea ohtori Kazuki receives explicit orders to remain in Korea for as long as possible Lian Zhang the prominent Chinese statesman attempted to resolve the conflict with diplomacy but to no avail when king gojong was presented with a list of reforms by Japanese troops in Korea instead demand that the Japanese withdraw their force from Korea altogether it would take less than a month for the Japanese to decide to cease king gojong after he had refused to carry out reforms multiple more times Japanese troops seized the Korean palace in seal on the 21st of July and installed a region loyal to their interests officially it was only the first of august 1894 that Japan declared war on China did not mean there was an absence of skirmishes and hostility over the first sino-japanese war would be the absolute test regarding the results of the Chinese self-strengthening movement and Japanese modernization it makes an interesting case for their comparative analysis between both countries both embarking on their respective modernization projects on the 25th of July the first naval battle of kundo was fought their Japanese Naniwa under the command of captain Togo Heihachiro sunk three ships and caused over 1,000 casualties the amount of casualties had something to do with the Japanese refusal to rescue the Chinese sailors off further ship was son four days later the Battle of his son was fought to Korean soil it was the first overseas battle Japan had fought in over 300 years Japan was once again victorious although the majority of Chinese soldiers managed to escape and meet up with the rest of the Chinese army at Pyongyang meanwhile soldiers from both sides were still pouring on the peninsula China had dispatched over 20,000 Chinese soldiers into Korea and the Japanese under general aji Thermal Yamagata had landed on Incheon with their goals to speed through the Korean land on the 16th of September the two armies met at Pyongyang for the first time since the official declaration of war the Japanese attacked Pyongyang from several directions of who running the Chinese defenders on a general yezi Chou the Chinese suffered very heavy losses compared to the Japanese five hundred to seven thousand casualties Chang forces were decisively defeated in a series of battles ran Co and Pyongyang the Japanese were able to advance northward not much later they again matching forces at the Battle of the Yalu River Japan emerged victorious once again now officially entering Qing territory it had been a steamroll campaign no one had expected with [ __ ] forces suffering defeat after defeat Yamagata's first army cross the Yalu River undetected during the night writing Chinese guards allowed persimmon Sharia well part of Yamagata's army under general cat surah taha pursued the routed Chinese forces the other part under general knows Oh Richard sua advance towards the city of Mukden well Yamagata asserted his dominance in northern korea a second army corps under a yamaha landed on the lee igyeong peninsula capturing the last strongholds of the chinese army and laying siege on Lucian Cao better known as Port Arthur within four weeks it was captured what followed was the infamous Port Arthur massacre where Japanese soldiers wreaked havoc on citizens of soldiers still residing in the port though difficult to calculate the amount of Chinese slaughtered it is estimated these number in the thousands if not tens of thousands in affected men that Japan had asserted its complete control over Korean territory within two months Japan's land forces could now enter China proper well the Ching government was pestered by extreme institutional corruption what transpired with his fleet makes that all too clear the Japanese fleet under Ito sukiyaki and Tsuboi kozo faced the Chinese Bayon fleet under Admiral dingo Chung and Leo Bhushan the Bao fleet was in a dreadful condition due to extreme corruption among its leadership consisting of at least two battleships ten cruisers and two torpedo boats it had faced a Japanese assault at the Yellow River in September suffering losses though no extremely mortal wounds the fleet retreated to the heavily fortified port of airway there the fleet would lay dormant behind a curtain of protective minds not participating in any battles and ensured that Japanese gain control over the Yellow Sea and boosted the morale of Japanese troops and the homefront even more it also severely upset the balance of power in the region in China and internationally and inspired a rivalry among imperialist powers competing to encroach on China's periphery the Bayon fleet lay dormant in the port of a highway but on land the Qing forces were beaten back by the advancing Japanese the land forces retreated to way away as well but according to Jonathan spent surprised by the rapid advancement by the Japanese they were at flanked by a brilliant maneuver of Japanese forces on land and by the fleet under Admiral Ito sukiyaki the siege of way away followed in which the Japanese suffered minor losses although Japanese Major General o Dara yes Azumi did die during the fighting after 23 days of seating as Japanese forces seized the way away defensive forts from the landward side as Japanese troops entered the town of a away several Chinese sailors mutiny the Chinese Admiral dingo Chung took his own life together with his deputy Luo Bhushan and the senior Ching Commandant's of the fort's turning the guns on the Chinese fleet whilst penetrating the mine fields with torpedo boats the Japanese destroyed whatever was left over of the BAM fleet although admittedly this was barely anything the better way away was the last major battle of the war China simply did not have a fleet anymore they truly suffered defeat upon defeat it was total chaos peace negotiations were instigated throughout the negotiations there were several skirmishes between Japanese and Chinese troops although none noteworthy China truly was a beaten nation on the 17th of April 1895 China could do nothing but sign the peace treaty of shimonoseki the disgraced prince gung was approached by the Qing Court just as he had 35 years before after the Second Opium War when the Summer Palace had been burned he is noted as lamenting to a Western diplomat that he had been given the job of piecing together the cup which the present ministers have smashed to the floor I don't think he was too wrong about that assisting Prince Gong was Leo hyung joong sent as a Chinese envoi to Japan tasked with signing the treaty acknowledging the independence of Korea Korea instantly became a de facto Japanese protectorate now this Treaty of Shimonoseki was absolutely disastrous for China it is interesting to know that these terms would have been even worse had a Japanese assassin not shot at Lee while he was negotiating the treaty in Japan aside from Korea's independence it ceded in perpetuity the pescadores Taiwan which now would remain a colony of Japan until 1945 and the Leoben peninsula of southern Manchuria China had to pay an indemnity of 200 million silver taels and grown Japan commercial and industrial privileges on its territory a right that was only reserved for European powers up until now it had to open for ports and allow Japanese to manufacture locally in China Japan suddenly gained access to an enormous market and could invest even more capital into the modernization of its industries due to the shift in the balance of power Russia feared for its sphere of influence because Japan suddenly gained early Odone Peninsula harboring the very strategically located Port Arthur Russia said its own eyes on the peninsula and it managed to get Germany and France to support its protests together they managed to force Japan to relinquish its claim under this triple intervention Japan's arm was twisted into retro seating the Leo Tong Peninsula back to China port arthur would be the crucial porter in the russo-japanese war ten years later but for now would cost China an additional 30 million silver taels in order to pay off these debts China had to borrow money from a foreign power against terrible rates rush I got Russian and French banks alone China about half of the amount required to pay its indemnity to Japan a year later in 1896 Russia managed to get a concession from the Chinese to build the trans-siberian railway through Manchuria to Vladivostok which was more efficient than building it through Russia's own territory the fact that China allowed Russia to build a real work through Manchuria would have far-reaching consequences however in the end the sino-japanese war and China's humiliating defeat marked the dark inclusion of China's hopeful attempt at self strengthening after Russia had gained permission to build their trans-siberian railway across Manchuria they negotiated a secret recipes Treaty of alliance also known as Ali lobanov treaty in short this meant both countries had to come to each other's aid in case of Japanese aggression well a year later Russia took it upon themselves to send a naval squadron into Port Arthur and in 1898 they received a 25-year lease for the entire leo Tong peninsula which would be vital during the russo-japanese war only seven years away they basically abused their newfound alliance with China the Qing dynasty's weakness had been exposed after the sino-japanese defeat the fact that Russia obtained her ice-free port and managed to collect it by a real way to Europe convinced the other European powers they had to act quickly to maintain their own sphere of influence France Britain and Germany started encroaching onto the Chinese periphery and sometimes straight up seized ports and trading posts the practice was pretty much in line with modern imperialism common during that time a more detailed overview of the scramble for concessions will be outlined in my video about the Boxer Rebellion next week and as for domestic politics in China the defeat was extremely humiliating and caused a rift between the Conservatives and the progressives there was no way around it China won center of the world was on the back foot in Beijing China's brightest young scholars had gathered around unanimously denouncing the Treaty of Shimonoseki and demanding a new modernized and stronger program of economic growth and governmental reform during the closing century elements of old and new existed side-by-side in China the years after the sino-japanese war saw a reform movement that emphasized the need to use Western learning for practical developments while Chinese learning was to remain the essence the Guangzhou Emperor was eventually convinced to issue radical reforms much to the dismay of the arch conservatives these arch conservatives among whom the Empress dowager's as she immediately started planning ways to obstruct the Emperor even ways to get rid of him the Western powers victorious in multiple Wars had not just impose our will on China but encroached on Chinese territory as well the impact of foreign imperialism was profound and intensified the tense atmosphere already present in China due to the self strengthening movement contained mainly to treaty ports with Western presence modern influences in China were barely noticeable in the mainland even European merchants attempting to move inland had to rely on Chinese middlemen foreigners were regarded as exotic the deeper into China one went marriages were arranged girls feet were still bound and there was barely any access to formal education her bright young men their career path was set in stone as had been for many centuries memorizing Confucian classics studying hard to pass local exams provincial exams and eventually the National exam in order to enter the Chinese bureaucratic order following the sino-japanese war a new reformist movement sprung up attempting to reassure the value of Chinese self strengthening Chong Chi tomb popularized the slogan Chinese learning for the essential principles Western learning for practical applications holding on to the belief that Chinese tradition is moral and philosophical values gave meaning to civilization this position did allow for the adoption of Western practices and the hiring of Western advisors earlier in the 19th century a group of scholars among whom valuing began to put their focus of the work on practical political and economic challenges and problems this was the so called statecraft school during the same time the new tech school of Confucianism emerged this new tech school propagated the notion that the new text versions of the Han classics allowed for state reforms to be instigated now this is extremely important generations upon generations of scholars had been indoctrinated by their studies in the om bracing social theory of Confucianism which emphasized strict hierarchy and traditional values as such it was crucial for a change to be sanctioned by these very same ideas adopting Western weaponry during the opium wars and Western ideas to reform the administration had to be justified by old texts and as such basing his works on Confucius Khan started writing a far-reaching program of modernization for China its goal was sumoto China after a constitutional monarchy based on Japanese and European examples sino-japanese war the opportunity came had been waiting for presented itself or so it seemed the disastrous defeat of China against a smaller Japan and the encroachment of Western powers right after led to an extreme Chinese response already in 1895 there were protests in Beijing during the National exam over 1300 exam candidates signed a petition led by no other than Kanye and another scholar Lee Chiu Chow had requested the Ching not accept the peace demands of the peace treaty as for the rest of China in many areas secret societies sprung up in which its members debated about how to reform China in combination for the first time in journals and newspapers were circulated outside treaty ports introducing many Chinese to political commentary well these developments were suppressed in some areas in Hunan and Hebei provinces they were welcomed reforms and modernization were pushed by its governor-general none other than cheung chiu-hung pressed for the development of a railway line from Hangzhou to Beijing and built up coal and iron mines he modernized the capital streets were paved streetlights were built telegraph lines constructed and modern curricula in school was instated yet chang was on good terms with the arch conservatives most notably the Empress Dowager it says she as he too was convinced of the need of the traditional Confucian ethical system says she was on semi-retirement in her new bold summer palace and the reform memorial by khun finally reached the emperor Khan and Leon were overjoyed when Kang was invited for an imperial Aldean the first imperial audience lost it for five hours it is the longest official audience in the history at least of which the written record survives during it Cong was not only full of proposals but also remarked that if the Emperor were to rely on the Conservatives for reform it would be like climbing a tree to see her fish in 1898 can you a together with his younger accomplices Leung Chiu Chow and tonsure Cunha received the support of the 27 year old Gwangju Emperor between June in September that year China was flooded with her for medics which would change China drastically in virtually every aspect the government institutions a traditional exam system the army everything would be modernized the Emperor wanted to reduce the importance of traditional poetry in exams transform old academies to modern schools and demolished the eight-legged Si altogether too many this was about time he furthermore addressed the need to strengthen China's armed forces its Navy was destroyed after the sino-japanese war and the funds allocated to the rebuilding of the Navy went into the construction of the summer palace of su Chi yeah really conquer pose that the traditional internal administration with safeguards against enemies from within was useless against the current Western enemies from outside in his opinion a cabinet type of domestic administration had to replace the traditional six ministries and grant council observing their Japanese example he noted a parliament was more efficient at raising taxes and checking corruption coño a was appointed as secretary in the zone leader Yaman the government body in charge of foreign policy European diplomats eagerly welcomed these reforms but it goes without saying that these modern reforms spark much resistance from the Conservatives and traditionalists not to mention those that simply were bound to it from the old Chinese order now conservative opposition was loud and strong and one of the several reasons was the fact that all reformers were Chinese except for the Emperor who was of course a Manchu now that Chinese reformers were influencing Imperial policy incumbent Manchus feared for their positions does that held a degree from the traditional examination system feared educational reform would threaten their qualifications he warned organized corruption threatened well nearly everyone that held office in short the young Emperor was waging a war on the entire Chinese establishment and quickly found himself cornered from all sides radical reformers had the most influencing court but that would change very soon distressed and quietly observing the reforms at first Empress Dowager it says she saw our entire power base threatened by the attack on her two pillars of power organized corruption and classical learning she started to plot the course of action with several arch conservatives on the 21st of September 1898 palace guards and eunuchs entered emperor guangxu s-- palace in the Forbidden City and seized all documents pertaining to reforms sue she returned to the Forbidden City as well and issued an edict two days later stating the Emperor had fallen ill it was only right for her to assume Regency and as such rule over China once again how convenient the emperor would remain under house arrest virtually powerless until he died under mysterious circumstances in 1908 suspiciously just one day before the Empress Dowager herself passed away at any rate since she was in power and there was hell to pay for all those that were in favor of reforms six intellectuals the so-called six gentlemen of wushu were arrested and executed including consumer brother and the famous philosopher Tom Seaton Kong and Leung managed to escape through Japan the length of the intensive reforms of the emperor would only just pass 100 days a revolution from above had filled in contrast to the Meiji Restoration in Japan decades earlier it suggested that the revolutionary change had to come from below for now the dreams for a reform program ended in disaster as a result of the radical 100 days of reform a reactionary period or less than three years by the Conservatives led by disease she now followed they even considered ejecting Westerners with brutal [ __ ] it just so happened to be that in northern China anti-christian and anti-western sentiments led to a violent climax a group that was distantly related to the secret White Lotus society sparked a rebellion that would once again dramatically changed the course of China's history this group was called the fists of harmony and justice more commonly known as the boxers next week we'll look at the unlikely alliance between this group of rebels and Empress dowager's is she in a desperate attempt to regain control over China the Boxer and largest war Imperial China fought against Western powers during the 19th century oddly enough in its early stages the Boxer movement was pitted against both Western influences in China and the Manchu LED Ching dynasty the Ching Empress Dowager says she however saw the possibility to use these rebels for her own ends and managed to court its leaders in order to forge an anti-western alliance it turned out to be a bit of a misjudgment on her side to put it mildly the Boxer Rebellion served as a testament to the instability and chaos at pester China and it definitely was one of the most interesting and tense episodes of Chinese history by the time the Boxer Rebellion said China ablaze the reigning Qin Dynasty and Chinese people had suffered major hardships and defeats for decades around the 18th century it was one of the most prosperous empires of the entire world according to Agnes medicine statistical estimates China had the biggest share in the world's GDP making it the largest economy in the world during the 18th century but then to opium wars between China and the British Empire ended in severe humiliating Chinese defeats combined with the deadliest civil war ever seen the Taiping rebellion together with several other massive rebellions China's GDP plummeted treaties were signed sovereignty was conceded and Western powers gained a foothold in the country following the opium wars the Chinese tried to reform and embarked on a self strengthening policy the sino-japanese war three decades later led to the near total annihilation of China's fleets complete defeat of its army and subsequent humiliating peace treaty it was a dark conclusion of China's failed reforms a domestic crisis followed protests swept over the country something had to be done disasters were not only accredited to the Qing but to foreigners as well to German Catholic missionaries were murdered in the Shandong province under governor Li Bing hang in 1898 this was used as a pretext to occupy multiple port cities and mining and railway rights by the Germans at first only for the British French and Russians to quickly seize what they could get never waste a good crisis right some Chinese rightly so feared their country was about to be carved up like a melon it was in 1898 the Chinese Guangxu Emperor embarked on a radical reform program known as the 100 days of reform these radical institutional reforms were unprecedented and would change China for good if successful arch conservatives within the government noticed this as well and weren't too happy the Empress Dowager does she manage to sway several conservative Manchu princes to support her and get rid of the Emperor after barely 100 days of reform palace guards and eunuchs entered the Emperor's Palace seize the documents pertaining to reform and she announced the Emperor had suspiciously fallen ill it was only right for her to soon leadership she reasoned how convenient and sushi she would be the central figure during the Boxer Rebellion now that we know the background of the Boxer Rebellion I don't think it's too difficult to grasp exactly why this anti-western rebellion occurred in 1898 one spark was enough to ignite a full-scale rebellion in northern China the G Hesh one crudely translated two fists of harmony and justice more commonly known as boxers where let's park there were a secret society loosely affiliated with a White Lotus Society and big sword society embodying anti-foreign and anti-christian sentiments located in northwestern Shandong without real clear leadership Boxer militias were composed mainly of peasants they took to the streets and their slogan removed the Ching destroy the foreigners immediately called the attention of many disgruntled Chinese peasants their anti domestic sentiment was due to their conviction that the Ching dynasty had lost their Mandate of Heaven their interesting name the boxers was based on their special way of boxing that was akin to a rhythmic like exercise in an attempt to harmonize both spirit and muscle in preparation for combat what followed was a ritual like formula a chant breathing through clenched teeth and frothing the boxers would claim they were possessed by spirits and were invulnerable to Sabres and foreign bullets well when demonstrations of this feat were held it wouldn't always go according to plan nevertheless during combat they relied on their fists and his sticks rather than modern weaponry there were female boxer roots as well most famous the red lantern shining they hold alongside the boxers as rebellion broke out the initial targets were Chinese Christians and the occasional Western missionary over time the Boxer Rebellion gained momentum and spread across and on sweeping village after village without Beijing undertaking any country measures the rest of the world wasn't too invested in his obscure rebellion in China they would not be until 1900 when this rebellion overtook the front page of Western newspapers pushing the ongoing Boer War to this second page the brutality of the boxers which shocked the world Hawks are slaughtered and plundered as I made their way from the countryside towards Chinese cities among which Beijing and over there in Beijing the European diplomat Legation was housed these diplomats did not feel threatened for now when the ching finally decided to take action against the boxers in late 1899 it wasn't a surprise the boxers suffered some massive defeats against [ __ ] troops the boxers now probably realized I could not fight two enemies at once and took a more accommodating stance towards the Ching dynasty their anti dynastic rhetoric became more moderate Empress dowager's is she sold the success of the Boxer Rebellion as an instrument she could use to counter the encroachment of these European powers to whom the boxers referred to as heroines so she issued several edicts serving to protect boxers in early 1900 she decided to join forces with the boxers against these heroines as such the boxers knew battle cry would be support the chain government and exterminate the foreigners as further Western diplomats residing in the capital Beijing not too far away from this she who was now plotting to wage war against her nations the diplomats were confident of Western superiority and were slow to recognize that the Empress Dowager after decades of unequal treaties suppression and approachment was finally prepared to let this popular movement challenge the West by force some Chinese governors were happy with his new alliance the governor of Shandong for example a Manchu by the name of youth Tron publicly encouraged the boxers to take action against Christians as they saw fit he even helped them out massacring all Christians he gathered in his capital under the pretense of protection since she did not enjoy popular support from all civil servants those that served in the provinces that were suffering under the boxers violence considered the pro boxer stance of this she to be self-destructive but I could do nothing against the boxers without unleashing an all-out Civil War and as such boxers continued to pillage a murder so she didn't mind the Christian purges and a position to Western influence although the cost for some provinces certainly was heavy all right so during the spring of 1903 issued several more decrees that implicitly supported the Boxer movement foreign diplomats slowly waking up to what was going on protested against it and decided that they had to resort to violence if the Qing government didn't undertake any action against these thugs meanwhile a squadron of seventeen Western warships had anchored just outside Taku as the boxers were advancing towards Beijing massacring and pillaging along the way the diplomats requested military protection and the fleet at 455 Marines disembark once I reached Beijing their number was described as dangerously low regardless of their number this iconic photograph was the result of these eight nations fighting together some diplomats were worried but others among which sir Claude MacDonald the British ambassador weren't necessarily worried about the boxers more so about the possibility of an international scramble for concessions if the Ching were to collapse they had to get their fair share after all all the while the boxers kept advancing on to Beijing destroying railway lines on the way isolating the capital as boxers and encircled the city days later the worries about the scramble for concessions faded to the background even for Claude MacDonald that same afternoon MacDonald had requested with urgency reinforcements from the British Admiral Sir Edward Seymour Seymour stationed several days of travel away left with two thousand soldiers composed of eight different nationalities the next morning he planned to travel the entire distance by train repairing the railroads on the way on the planned date of arrival several trucks were waiting at the Beijing station to transport the reinforcements that would arrive but none arrived Seymour was referred to as si no more from then on wasn't really his fault though as soon as Seymour left his force was attacked by a mixture of boxers and [ __ ] troops later that day in Beijing Sugiyama Akira the Chancellor of the Japanese Legation went to the railway station unaccompanied wearing a bowler hat and a Western suit he seemed like a perfect target for boxers and loyalists Qing troops he was apprehended by cancer Braves Muslims loyal to the chain hacked into pieces and beheaded his you chelated corpse left on the street meanwhile same or abandoned the expedition there were several skirmishes between boxers and Westerners throughout the province and dagger ports were seized by Western troops to provide cover for troop landing within Beijing tensions rose the reactionary and pro boxer Prince Tuan was appointed as a Minister of Foreign Affairs he issued an order which allowed the boxers to enter the capital roaming the streets dressed in motely uniforms of red black or yellow turbans and red leggings killing Chinese Christians several days later as she was informed will be it falsely that the European powers wished her to abdicate in favor of the emperor in a rage she ordered all diplomats to leave Beijing in the next day the next morning German imperial envoy Bevin claimants from Kichler left allegation in order to discuss the situation with Chang representatives he was shot and killed in the middle of the street none of the diplomats even considered leaving the legation after this but leaving the city meant defying the Xi's will however delegations were fortified as the boxers started surrounding the area waiting for the ultimatum to expire this was one of the most tense moments for the Europeans locked in their legation quarter the foreign legations would number around 60 men given normal circumstances during the siege there were 475 foreign civilians 450 Marines and 3,000 Chinese Christians that were granted asylum at the last minute the legation under siege was divided in various ethnic squadrons under the command of McDonald the presence of 150 ponies ensured fresh meat the real problem was the lack of ammunition though the Japanese didn't have more than 100 bullets per man and the best-equipped defenders and didn't have more than 300 as she's ultimately expired the boxers opened fire the siege of the legation had begun the next day on the 21st of June the Qing Imperial government officially declared war on the European powers after receiving news about the daggoo fortresses boxers now a loyal militia took the opportunity to launch a series of attacks on mission compounds around Jiang Shi hey Bayon Hainan a little bit further down the road the roman catholic cathedral was in even more trouble Bishop pavilion is 3,000 followers among which 800 converted Chinese schoolgirls were protected merely by 43 French and Italian Marines boxer started setting fire to the surrounding buildings the famous national cat with her irreplaceable library was torched a while back the Chinese government had bought new Krupp guns ideal for situations such as this one the General Ron Lu refused to use them instead he ordered his troops to fire empty shells who knew wasn't the only channel fissure refusing official orders from corn however the she didn't have much support from other Chinese governors and many provinces refused to send troops towards Beijing declaring themselves neutral China's political system of a relatively decentralized government had proven of some practical use Farington ratio or right I'll give you an example Liang Shan together with continent governor-general and imperial Commissioner Li okuni ignored sushis declaration of war and as such china except for the northern provinces remained neutral the convenient fiction was accepted and the Boxer outbreak was a rebellion instead of a war supported by the Qing Dynasty after a month of siege the casualties and the negation were heavy and the amount of boxers and Jing forces were even heavier it was a dire situation but on the 17th of July much to the surprise of the legation the Chinese declared an armistice thing is communication was obviously rather slow as a wink to contemporary times what happened in the newspapers all over the world can be considered a historic example fake news the Daily Mail published an article stating the legation had fallen and all those inside had been slaughtered The Times published the obituary of Macdonald around the 23rd of July a memorial was organized in the United Kingdom in order to commemorate the Fallen negation the memorial was probably cancelled however once News Reese Europe that the legation hadn't fallen at all the article in The Daily Mail did have its consequences however the German emperor Kaiser Wilma ii told his fleet that was preparing to sail towards china no mercy no prisoners kill although she can capture and make them remember the German name eventually the German soldiers made sure many would remember the name indeed nearby chance in a new international military force was congregating under Lieutenant General Alfred gastly the factor foreign force numbering in the thousands was gathering hurry played a role in the jinx decision to proclaim an armistice Jensen was swiftly captured but instead of immediately advancing towards bridging the commanders decided to wait until they gathered over 20,000 troops the military force wouldn't leave Jensen for three more weeks meanwhile the situation around the legation turned sour again leaving hanging the anti-foreign governor arrived in Beijing at the end of July the armistice was broken and the legation was once again under siege two weeks later the relief was finally arrived at the gate of Beijing gathering around the city walls it was agreed the European divisions would assault the city at dawn no international rivalry probably inspired the decision by the Russians to attack that night on their own suffering heavy casualties not the most tactical decision but they did breach the walls nevertheless that morning others followed and it was a Brit that managed to reach the legation first shortly thereafter the Japanese rescued the cathedral Boxer resistance crumbled and ki Ching commanders took their own life the Europeans immediately started looting the city the Germans arriving late were exceptionally zealous and torch the villages surrounding the city I certainly followed Kaiser Willems orders mass executions took place with hundreds of boxers beheaded on the streets as the European troops entered Beijing sushi and the Ching imperial court fled the city traveling on farmers carts the Guangxu Emperor too was evacuated but in last act of spite sushi refused to allow his favorite concubine to travel with him the concubines life would end at the bottom of a well in the Forbidden City the boxers were defeated and over 45,000 soldiers of foreign powers were standing in northern China the she and the Qing Imperial Court had fled towards the room as young peace negotiations from the Chinese side were conducted by Liang and international rivalry between the European powers meant they couldn't gain too much and punished China too harshly installing a regime such as in British India would have caused more chaos and as such the European powers demanded that pro boxer civil servants were punished in large indemnities had to be paid the Qing Dynasty however the Chinese Empire and their own privileged positions were maintained and for sell goods as she could stay on as a regent on the 17th of September the boxer protocol was signed in it the death penalty was demanded for high-ranking civil servants such as Yoochun and many more boxers in 45 cities exams were canceled for five years which meant the high posts in the civil servant apparatus could not be attained anymore all imports of arms into China was probated for two years and Western troops should be allowed to permanently reside within China three hundred and thirty three million dollars had to be paid as indemnity spread over a period of thirty nine years with interest which meant the total amount paid would be more than double the amount was staggering for it was nearly four times the total annual ching income the UK and US voltage so severe they offered to return some of the money as educational funds for Chinese students studying abroad the siege of Beijing law stood for 55 days 55 foreigners were murdered whereas during the entire rebellion over 200 missionaries 2,000 foreign soldiers and over 30,000 Chinese Christians were murdered the official death toll among the chain troop and boxers has never been released though it must have numbered in the thousands if not tens of thousands and that's how China entered the 20th century the defeated nation that once again had to give a blend wealth and lives for the sake of European powers as sushi could stay on his region the next decade would be marked by an ambitious reform program by the Ching it was too little too late however the last decades hi Ursula concurrent rise of a strong reform movement and the first truly modern Chinese Revolutionary Party the gloaming dong of dr. Samuelson this week will look into the background of the important reformers and revolutionary movements within China but eventually topple the Qing Dynasty - affair this video centered more on soon Yeltsin as the most important reform movements have already been covered in two previous videos see how it sounds story over whoa the man certainly lived an adventurous life to say the least for the 100 days of radical reform under the Guangxu Emperor in 1898 Empress dowager's as she launched her conservative coup d'etat those reformers that managed to flee established the Society of protecting the emperor their goal was to realize a constitutional monarchy under emperor guangxu and the incremental creation of a parliament china ought to modernize and it needed the full support of its nation a constitutional monarchy was China's best bet to successfully modernize come you ate together with the young child the principal architects of the 100 days reform managed to flee to Japan I received much support from young Chinese many of whom study in Tokyo and Kyoto due to educational reforms on the Chinese mainland Hong's idea finds support from the new Chinese intelligentsia school under the new system what exactly were the ideals by combat met so much resistance by the Ching and support among the young intelligentsia well-hung reinterpreted many confusion classics he interpreted a passage in the book of rites as prescribing linear growth and evolution pre stages he defined word disorder approaching peace and small tranquility and great peace and great unity based on this analysis China was currently moving from a period of disorder towards approaching peace and small tranquillity Kong in essence managed to align all Chinese texts with Western theories of evolution and progress this is very important as reform in China ought to be based on the classic text and confusion thought that so many civil servants and Gentry were schooled upon part of the gentry especially merchants and middle-class citizens living in urban areas longed for modernization Chinese emigrant communities and capitalists longed for a stronger state that was able to protect their interests at any rate Poong stayed for time at Prince of kumis the founder of the Japanese Progressive Party he had been japan's Prime Minister albeit briefly in 1898 and was the author of the Okuma doctrine in essence this doctrine propagated the notion that due to Japan modernizing before China they doubt the country a debt of aiding it with this process of modernization guaranteeing his freedom in Ukiah follower of Okuma went to great lengths to have Chinese political exiles and revolutionaries meet each other in okay even managed to issue a meeting between Kanye and the founder of the revived Chinese society dr. you soon Yeltsin can refuse to meet soon unless he pledges allegiance and the two men had fundamentally different notions of reformist thought soon considered a revolution necessary in order to establish a republic well conveyed his loyalty to the Guangxu Emperor collaboration was unlikely but soon and soon he would become very important in China's history for the decades to come to 1905 the considerable moderate group of performers would be surpassed in popularity by a much more radical organization led by dr. Sorenson so what exactly were their objectives and who was serious in himself well like on us we had sent to was originally from Canton although from early on he had travelled all over the world confirmed traditionally at the center of Western imperialism in China our groups of Chinese with strong anti Western men anti Ching feelings as the Ching had been unable to protect the Chinese against the Westerners whereas Kang was educated based on confusion classic Sunni at sin received an entirely westernized education the son of French were also known as the tonkin were an China's defeat of 1885 sparked his patriotism after experiencing the world clothes so Yoon San was ambivalent during his early life however asking himself whether he wanted to reform China or lead a revolution it boiled down to one question there China have to be destroyed for it to be build up they're not fruitful so yat-sen attempted to receive Lee Hyun Jung's advice about and support for his reform ideas young Jang was the military leader of the anti typing forces during the rebellion and notable proponent of the self strengthening movement during the 1860s and 70s it was convinced the usage of Western weaponry and military tactics would be necessary to safeguard the traditional Chinese values and rebuild Chinese strength and power in order to prevent further Western influence you see barbarians to control their variants as I said interestingly enough they stood in stark contrast with soo nonsense conviction who attempted to convince Lee that the wealth strength and power of Western powers was not due to their gunboats and weaponry but thanks to their education and the belief that people ought to develop fully to their capability free markets and usage of land the developed codes of law were among other things Lee did not even bother to grunt soon an audience as soon persistently argued in favor of these reasons bitter and disappointed in 1894 in Honolulu Hawaii he founded the revived China Society arete achill antimension secret organization it's 112 members swore to expel the manchu and install a Federal Republic in 1895 together with 3,000 sympathizers soon attempted to seize control control the whole rebellion was badly organized and had inadequate weaponry and funding qing authorities got wind of it rounded as many revolutionaries up as they could and 48 were to be executed soon fled the country now officially living in exile as a revolutionary from Hong Kong soon went to Japan and the United States eventually traveling to Europe Imperial were agents attempted to kidnap soon multiple times throughout these years one of the more famous and admittedly clumsy attempts was a kidnap attempt in London where soon was locked up by Ching agents in the Chinese Legation in London the goal was to ship him back to China have him central and have him executed he was free diver and the botched abduction turned him into somewhat of a celebrity around Europe soon traveled all over Europe and the United States refining his political Fulton views well in exile the Conservative coup against the Emperor by Empress dowager's is she and the ameliorating boxer protocol of 1901 only grew since prestige well that of the dynasty dwindled soon I was seeking support from the same groups that pan y'avait was seeking support from they had shaped a bitter rivalry between the two men whose political views as we touched upon before were far apart though both condemned by Beijing one such supporter was Charlie soon his three daughters would play a major role in Chinese politics during the next century Ching Ling married soon Yeltsin only to join the Communist under mouths of doom after since death and mailing marry Chiang kai-shek the leader of the growing demand the staunch opponent of Mao's communists you will hear more about them in a separate video senior sense political program encompassed three main points which I will elaborate a bit upon first was a principle of nationalism swing-out sin wanted to liberate the Chinese from the foreign Manchu domination due to political and strategic reasons some did not resist the foreigners and on multiple occasions explicitly confirmed he would comply with treaty agreements that Chiang had signed after all soon's revolution would have no chance of succeeding if he turned on the Western powers the second principle was a people's power and it encompassed the gradual implementation of western-style democracy the first stage after the Revolution would be a military-style dictatorship the second phase in incremental democracy and the last phase would be the implementation of a proper democracy the institutions within the state would consist of five powers where Montesquieu skills política legislative judiciary and executive powers supplemented with two traditionally Chinese institutions a control hold it branch and an examination branch in order to select civil servants mostly the third principle is as translated as people's welfare and livelihood a government for the people if you will it was a socio-economic part of soon's program emphasis was put on among others Jon Stewart's mill theory that the value of land would increase due to industrialization the increase in value should find a tax in the land be distributed among the Chinese population it would be the solution to social inequality interestingly enough these three principles remain as of today the Credo of China's Nationalist Party in Taiwan in 1905 under Japanese encouragement sue Nelson was brought into contact with one Singh and others of the Union group I would go on to establish the roaming done in 1911 but for now in Tokyo in 1905 the two men we the revolutionary alliance was established soon was its chief executive Wang Singh was the second in command and other prominent revolutionaries were assigned to keep us the two men we had offices all over the world chrome Brussels to Singapore it had branches in 17 Chinese provinces the two men we was becoming a force to be reckoned with Republican and socialist ideas in line with soon's ideology were distributed via the official two men we Journal the people in power so Leung Chiu Chow and convey his ideas for reform and and constitutional monarchy following Japan's example or vigorously attacked it was argued that China would be able to surpass the West if only a few strong men to control the country interestingly enough Japan was used as an example from this point of view as well since three-stage program for democracy was backed by the magazine though it seemed a bit simplistic it was more appealing than the moderate views of a benevolent monarch at any rate after the Guangxu Emperor suspiciously passed away in 1908 one day before Empress dowager's is she died and the three-year-old Hui ascended to the throne well I was barely a case to be made in favor of that theory anyway throughout the years there were several setbacks the revolutionary suffered soon instigated ten rebellions between 1906 and eleventh all of them filled in 1907 soon Yeltsin was expelled from Japan after a repeated requests by the Ching to the Japanese government soon and one sink settled in Hanoi a French Indochina and orchestrated six rebellions in China were residing there the French realized those revolutionaries were inspiring the Vietnamese to stage their own uprisings and expelled them as well 1909 after four years of barely any results but many casualties we're - - filled rebellions or government crackdowns foreign financial aid in support of the Revolution dwindled once again soon embarked on a fundraising campaign to Eastern Europe and the United States some other members dissenting from the two men we resorted to anarchism it was one Qing Wei who tried to bomb the Prince Regent June his assassination attempt failed and he was arrested and imprisoned nevertheless an touching sentiment among the Chinese population kept increasing one Singh figured supporting troops of the Imperial Army had the best chance of succeeding an army revolt in Canton in 1910 however was suppressed another count on rebellion a year later was doomed when lunch troops tried to seize government buildings one of the battalions mistook another group of their soldiers for imperial soldiers and a firefight between the two groups of revolutionaries ensued a bid garnered widespread sympathy and is memorialized with the large concrete obelisk but on earth the 72 revolutionaries that lost their lives now soon instigated ten rebellions right well across China in 1909 there are 113 documented rebellions most instigated by hungry peasants the next year there were 285 I think these numbers clearly portray the instability of the country most rebellions occurred around the region where the Taiping rebellion waged 50 years before still rides elderoy broke out without a revolutionary ideology at the basis the peasant peace riots in Hunan in nineteen oh ten and eventually the provincial railway protection movement that swept says one in 1911 contributed to the erosion of chinked stability and control was a railway controversy that would directly contribute to the sequence of events that would lead to the demise of the Qing Dynasty I felt it was only right to provide a bit of background to the revolutionary movement that had played a crucial part in this ching hai' revolution next week I'll cover that revolution oddly enough sparked by accident and the application of puyi the last emperor marking the demise of the Qing Dynasty which had now truly lost its Mandate of Heaven we've seen China devastating rebellion such as the Taiping rebellion the country suffered a humiliating defeat after the sino-japanese war and the Boxer Rebellion so China suffered massive losses at the hand of eight different nations and yet the Ching dynasty was still standing after all that had happened the Ching embarked on a period of institutional and social reforms these reforms however were an exemplary case of too little too late and the once mighty ching dynasty would survive for just little under a decade following the Chinese defeat after the Boxer Rebellion the imperial ching court was convinced a new approach was required for its reign to continue this conviction were a bit of resemblance with the attitude after China got defeated during the Second Opium War in 1860 as a result during this period until 1911 many reforms proposed in 1898 were now realized ironically Empress Dowager says she and our conservative ally is launched a coup against these reformers under the Guangxu Emperor in 1898 and the post of them the irony is hopefully not lost so many these reforms will be implemented though it would not be enough to save the Ching dynasty consider a political quicksand the more the dynasty attempted to save itself the deeper it sank during the Boxer Rebellion several Governor General's of provinces remain neutral towards both foreign powers boxers and the Ching dynasty among these were qianxi two men and Leo Cooney two of the most famous officials during that time these men now presented three joint memorials to Empress dowager's is she in which they outlined a program that was reminiscent of the one hundred days reform with several understate Prince apparent in the text they still managed to point out the dire situation that ching dynasty found itself in and convinced the she of the necessity of reform now china's example when it came to modernization was its island neighbor japan reason for this was that the island seemed to have discovered the answer to Western aggression an encroachment during the sino-japanese war it already showcased its superiority in military tactics and equipment the years officer Japan agreed to treaties with Western powers that weren't on unequal footing like the other Asian powers had been forced to sign one of the most telling was the 1902 anglo-japanese alliance Japan could take a tougher stance against Russia with whom it attends relations due to the Russians not only withholding Port Arthur from the Japanese after the sino-japanese war but occupying the Lee odham Peninsula themselves several years later and if you remember the video about the geopolitics / citing the sino-japanese war both countries were still dead set on gaining influence in Korea and Manchuria Russian troops in Manchuria eventually led to the russo-japanese war if you're interested in a more detailed background i've made two videos about that Japan defeated Russia and the war saw the largest battle in world today Japan's victory impressed all Asian nations as it was the first time in modern times a Western power was defeated by an Asian one in China especially Japan became even more of an example for reforms at the top of the long list of reforms proposed to Empress dowager's as she was a reform of education in order to create a new competent elite immediately after 1900 the government embarked on a thorough reform of education it had heard to the traditional Chinese notion that recruiting talent is the most important element to realize good governance what's interesting is that the Japanese educational system became the blueprint and China attempted to attract Japanese teachers like in 1898 a modern imperial university was established in Beijing labayda the Qing government invested heavily in erecting modern schools although at its core the system remained weak these modern schools it was thought would supplant the traditional examination system in a decade the traditional system could not be abolished immediately due to the scholar officials with vested interest in it after all they enjoyed the natural dominance in both urban and rural areas due to exactly that system the goal of the modern schools was not to educate the Chinese masses nor a liberal education of the individual it was to train and select officials more effectively one of the first steps of modernity was the abolition of the traditional aid legged essay it had existed for nearly five centuries by that point unfortunately the traditional route of education remains than the costly new modern schooling official shunned the new government schools and to top it all off the new schools faced off competition from Western missionary schools established in strategic treaty ports and cities private enterprises also spurred up a perfect exemplar of the trunk polling and Yin Xiu who opened a Middle School in tents in acquiring a campus over the years eventually growing into the nan Chi University right so I mentioned that Japan was an example to China when he came to modernization well chun-hee to him sent two missions to Japan in order to study its educational system and import his textbooks Japanese professors were imported to China as well and Chung started to see Japan as a more favorite training ground for teachers as opposed to Europe it was cheaper there obviously was a similar cultural element and many Western books had already been translated to japanese after japan won the russo-japanese war the chinese program for our educational modernization accelerated and the state exam system was formally abolished that same year this event cannot be emphasized enough it basically tore away the fundamental Confucian his basis China was built on traditional education made way for a mix sino Western curriculum Western words were translated to Chinese by among others Lin Shu and Gen foo the latter concluded that the secret to Western power was in Western thought he translated Huxley Adam Smith John Stuart Mill Montesquieu and many others it truly was a massive shift in Chinese thought and education before 1905 several important reforms had already been issued first of all the central governmental apparatus was modernized the ancient six ministry organ was supplemented with several other ministries such as education Foreign Affairs trade police and Industry attempts to adequately manage government funds met with much resistance from those that were personally benefitted from the traditional tax law the Qing government faced much resistance from the provincial authorities as well as these felt their autonomy was directly threatened by the centralization of power more modest attempt was made to reform Chinese law this reform was absolutely necessary if the Western powers would ever want to cede their extraterritorial rights the modernization of the army was rather successful many civil servants tasked with raising troops use Japanese knowledge experience and officers while Chinese officers such as no other than junga shek traveled to Japan in 1907 to receive advanced military education though the following is an interesting story about Chinese military by 1901 there were three main types of military organizations the traditional Manchu bannered forces together with a decentralized Chinese Constabulary the army of the green standard these were pretty much useless and backward compared to modern military forces archery sword rendering and lifting a heavy stone or criteria to be selected as a soldier we can imagine that these ancient rituals were of no use against a modern force the second military force in China were regional armies under controlled by Chinese civil officials examples are the Union Army built by Jang Hwa thundering the Taiping rebellion well it had been formally disbanded together with Liam junks onwe army these forces continued to exist these soldiers were regionally recruited and weren't part-time farmer soldiers but professional fighters also referred to as Braves the umbrella term for these forces and I've named too but there were several more was a defense army there was rivalry among these forces and they elect standardized armament though they had more modern Western weaponry as compared to the Manchu banners the last one was a military organization created in response to Japanese aggression in the 1880s liang jongmin qianxi to set up military academies and hired german officers to train their new chinese forces well Chung created an army based on the German model in Nanking the unit developed on the yuan shikai was more significant we met him in Korea around 20 years ago as Lee's proconsul but he now laid the basis of the so-called pay unclick and became the father of the Warlord's and that's no understatement among his early officers at least 10 of them would become military governors after Beijing high Revolution and 5 became presidents or premiers the Beijing government under the Republic his army was a most disciplined modernized and best paid after li hung-chang and leonid died in 1901 and 1902 respectively Yuan Shikai was a chief army builder as you can imagine we will hear much more from yuan at later stages after the Boxer Rebellion the early stages of a modern economy became visible during the piece of Shimonoseki in 1895 japan enforce a right to establish factories at treaty ports thanks to the most favored nations clause other countries could now establish their own factories in these areas as well foreign industrial activities using cheap chinese labor stimulated chinese competition after 1900 this growth expanded though still modest from the treaty ports to Chinese companies more inland everywhere in China chambers of commerce were established and once the Ministry of Trade and Industry was created this economical development was stimulated even more during the last decade the Ching dynasty was empowered the cleavage between the gentry and merchants and industrialists started to fade the gentry started to focus on trading and industrial endeavors which was indirectly stimulated by the abolishing of the estate exam system meanwhile the loyalty towards the Ching dynasty started to weaken even more as more Chinese Gentry but other classes as well started to prioritize their own regional economic fortunes over dynastic stability the Qing government attempted to solidify the support they enjoyed and during this process it became very clear the loyalty of its citizens had been worn down after japan defeated russia in 1905 constitutionalism seemed to be the type of government that provided the basis for unity between rulers and ruled this notion was underpinned not just due to Japan's constitutionalism now Russia as a result of losing the war made plans to move towards a parliamentary government via the Duma themselves I have detailed Russia's first Parliament and constitution in a separate video if that interests you the ching issued representative bodies for which japan once again served as a blueprint Empress dowager's is she announced in 1908 the incremental introduction of a constitution in Parliament transition period would be nine years just like in Japan where a parliament was promised in 1880 and it finally met in 1889 the first step would be the implementation of a Provincial Assembly in 1909 where as chung shu-kun sent two delegations to Japan to study the educational system the chain courts in two delegations to Europe and the United States and one to Japan the delegates met with prince ito the president of the advisory council to the emperor ito emphasized the importance of an emperor maintaining supreme power standing above the population if you will while promoting crucial elements such as public debate but rather important and game-changing that same year in 1908 empress dowager disease she passed away but there was an emperor dethroned during the conservative coup ten years earlier right and poor guanxi who was only 37 and didn't suffer from health problems well he died under mysterious circumstances exactly one day before this she passed away this she had in fact appointed a three year old puyi as her successor Prince Joon huis father became their Prince Regent Prince Choon barely managed to influence Chinese policy and the de facto strongest men of the country was General Yuan Shikai well you wann offered his services to the Emperor Prince June 3rd the ones influenced is missing it he won't complied though bitterly offended dismissing yuan would have far-reaching consequences for the Qin Dynasty chung shu-kun died in october that same year all right so the qing dynasty faced another problem when it came to administrative function the central administration was reorganized under the aforementioned eleven ministries but the Ching did not want to create an agency to control and coordinate these ministries simply put the person at its head would assume too much power the representative of all 16 new provincial assemblies however did meet and its delegates turned out to be rather unruly and difficult to control regional interests trumped rational interests and the delegates demanded to speed up the establishment of the Constitution and Parliament in turn parliamentary representation was promised by the region Prince tun to be realized by 1913 instead of 17 1911 the first Minister cabinet was established by prince tuned out any work in favor for the dynasty Fairbank and raja her wife at with incredible ineptitude he appointed eight men choose one Mongol bannermen and only four Chinese it was one of the Lost Witches of the dying dynasty provincial versus central interest came to a climax of her real way building Western powers had managed to acquire rights to establish and control their own railways as these railways were considered the tools of economic imperialism the local Chinese gentry and merchants started to gather their own funds to establish their railways this patriotic rights recovery movement did so in two ways they either bought foreign railway companies if possible and secondly they funded the actual building of Chinese railroads the Qing government feared that these local initiatives to establish railways would further a weakened the dynasty and just as important that Dynasty itself did not have enough funds to start working on the relational railroad the funds that it did have were managed by corrupt officials all these reasons led to the decision to nationalize the real worlds in 1902 ten funds once again proved the biggest obstacle dug under Shang chuan high centralization of Railways had in part already taken place and he now agreed to a loan from a group of foreign bankers the so called consortium the final contract by the consortium coincided with an imperial decree advocated by shame which nationalized and bought out all local railroads bringing them under Beijing supervision a wave of protests erupted in if you ponder on this act for a little I did imagine you to come to the conclusion that in essence it seemed that Shang and by extension the ching or selling china to foreign bankers in order to prevent this nationalization of railways riots erupted in Szechuan in 1911 which quickly spiraled out of control this time the gentry took a leading role in the rebellion the fatal blow the qing government received was an unexpected and unplanned military riot in would shot on the 11th of october 1911 this riot spread at such a fast pace that all the qing court could do was call upon you and shikai today has been all about the field reforms that king issued a decade after the Boxer Rebellion these reforms were too little too late next week we'll look at the wushan rebellion which was the catalyst of the Xinhai rebellion the end of vampire and abdication of PE the lost Emperor which would follow shortly as we have seen the past couple of weeks China's Ching dynasty suffered massive defeats and hardships throughout the 19th century surely this couldn't go on for much longer and indeed it wouldn't in 1911 the sequence of events was triggered that would result in the application of China's Last Emperor and collapse of the Qing Dynasty many plots had been devised for this to happen twisted irony had it that it started with an accidental bomb explosion with no master plan at all and suets and principal architect of the revolution was thousands of miles away over the years Ching power in their Mandate of Heaven had eroded movements such as the Wrights recovery movement the Yunnan peasant riots and natural disasters were all signs of a dynasty in severe decline to give you an idea of China State there had been 285 uprisings and rebellions during nineteen oh ten the majority of which were sparked by peasants barely anywhere modern in the sense that they did not have a clear vision or ideological basis but there was one modern revolutionary movement attempting to overthrow the Ching the revolutionary alliance or tongmenghui dr. singleton was the founder of the domain week China's first modern revolutionary secret society I provided a bit of background about soon and its organization in the video about Chinese reformers and revolutionaries although he instigated ten rebellions between 1906 and eleven all of these were vaguely planned and none succeeded nevertheless the amount of members of the Tong men we roasted 10,000 by 1911 its members were from all walks of life but generally well-educated Chinese that had studied abroad most in Japan some revolutionaries were students others were civil servants members of the new provincial assemblies even and several were soldiers or officers in the new army units thing is many revolutionaries figure the best way to eventually spark revolution was two superb Qing troops they wanted to get the soldiers that weren't yet revolutionaries on their site so to say revolutionaries joined the army maintaining a low profile and recruiting other soldiers for their revolutionary cells throughout China especially around the would Xiang Han Jung and Hankou districts in Wuhan who buys capital Ching opposition blossomed radical young Chinese from DREV illusionary cells in these big cities in 1911 big he's generally had multiple revolutionary cells it was during this year soon Yeltsin embarked on a fundraising campaign to the United States after all the revolution desperately needed funds if it was to succeed in southern China the strategy of infiltrating the new army units was adopted working with revolutionary branches active in the region most cities at a sizable portion of the army secretly engaged in revolutionary activity not really a stable combination to put it mildly in order to recruit new members for their movement these revolutionaries often created an elaborate guise of book clubs and fraternities if authorities grew suspicious of these clubs and decided to investigate I would simply disband their fake clubs early to regroup under a different name after some time at a different location to give you an idea of how widespread this was in 1911 run five to six thousand of the who by new army troops turned out to be members of various secret revolutionary societies this was about 1/3 of the total military force can you imagine the fact that such a sizable amount of the military was part of secret resistance or was only a matter of time for things to turn sour on the 9th of October 1911 a group of revolutionaries were fiddling with their bombs in their safe house located in the Russian concession area of Ankou they were planning a terrorist attack unfortunately for them something went wrong and the bomb exploded prematurely well oftentimes Western powers would bribe Qing authorities if something happened on their territory the blast of this bomb was too heavy not to let authorities investigate the safe house was raided by qing police and military it quickly became clear what transpired and the three men that had survived the blast were identified as revolutionaries no time was wasted and they were executed immediately fate added that the membership registers in which all names of revolutionaries were written thousands of them survived the blast the chain authorities seized these and now possessed the names of most if not all revolutionaries in the city thing is on this list were the names of their colleagues at least 5,000 of them obviously alarmed at the amount of soldiers on the list soldiers began running up or revolutionary soldiers they could find soldiers that were members of secret societies understood that if they like fast I too would be put against the wall the first first that mutinied was a small force which hang aid engineer battalion on the morning of october 10th ever since celebrated as double 10 day they cease the ammunition depot of the city and were subsequently joined by transport and artillery units who change hordes were captured and by the end of the day three other regiments joined the resistance after failed attempts to raise a sizable amount of loyal troops to protect his office the governor-general ruechang manchu fled the city together with the army commander forces that were still loyal to the [ __ ] were routed and over five hundred were killed the next day October 11th hye-young was captured by the revolutionaries it's military Arsenal and Iron Works were seized it was after the capture of Hanyang the mutineers established the military government of Hawaii but I didn't have a prestigious public figure to take control and lead the revolution the principal architect of the revolution in China soon at Sen was in the United States he would not learn about the revolution until one month later reading about it in a Denver newspaper instead of quickly returning to China and assumed leadership of the revolution he first went to the United Kingdom and France in order to secure European neutrality he managed to sway the British government they would not learn any capital to the Qin anymore some eventually returned to China but only over two months after the revolution had started in October the revolution confined to Wuhan for now was still looking for its leader the first person the revolutionaries approached was the president of the provincial assembly was quick to decline the offer one of the who by new army commanders popular among his troops leave on home was a second one to receive the request he wasn't a revolutionary but that played a prominent role during the railway controversy against the Ching and was liked by those in the provincial assembly it is said he was forced at gunpoint to take the assignment of leading these rebels I'm not sure how true that is but he certainly was hesitant but eventually accepted the next day uncrewed troops mutiny to captured the city and the revolutionaries were on their way to capture the rest of the province once the Imperial government found out what was going on in there who made province our response was understandably to do everything in their power to absolutely annihilate these revolutionaries the Minister of War in Chang coordinated the counter-attack on Wuhan with two divisions of the Beiyang army in Beijing the Ching and especially Prince Jun regions to five-year-old Emperor Puyi was about to swallow his pride the bayon army needed a competent general that was known by senior officers and respected by his troops yuan shikai was that person he had led the Bey young army for years and served the Ching dynasty for decades it just so happened to be Prince tun force yuan into retirement two years before and you one still held a grudge against the Ching because of it while he held a grudge it was an excellent negotiator and I'm a noted the [ __ ] he was highly ambitious for now he waited but when he finally gave in he would come to power on his own terms ten days after the who by military government was proclaimed in both Shanxi and Hunan province the new army mutiny massacres against a Manchu population took place and Qing commanders were killed the members of the provincial assembly for the provinces explicitly voiced their support for the revolution the uprising now spread over China at a fast pace in Shanxi the governor and his family were killed in the southwest in Yunnan and southeast and jiangshi students teachers and merchants joined the army officers in revolt declaring their independence from the Qing as well the Tong Lang we took the central leading role upon itself in three provinces and formed anti-qing alliances in many other provinces now that more provinces were swept by revolts and military significance of Railways became apparent troops from Beijing were sent to Wuhan only to be cut off by rebellions from chonchi the supply lines of young chunks army were blocked and all their senior commanders in the north started defying Qing orders instead of moving their troops out by rule these commanders now met up and sent a telegram to Beijing containing 12 to months the demands ranged from a functioning Parliament and an elected Prime Minister ratified by the Emperor to amnesty for all political offenders and blocking Mancha's from official positions as outrageous as these amounts see the fact that she agreed to them within a week shows the dire situation the dynasty was in during this time you one was still negotiating both publicly and secretly on various levels the Jing appointed him as a commander of all Qing forces he was backed by most senior military commanders enjoyed the loyalty of many troops and on November 8th 1911 he was elected prime minister of China by members of the Beijing provisional national assembly it was not to form a cabinet which he did primarily appointing his loyalists it seemed that China was moving towards a constitutional monarchy just like Russia and Japan at the entire month of November yuan shikai played a political game pressuring both the revolutionaries and the chain attempted to get the most profit out of the whole situation the tongmenghui of soon Yeltsin enjoyed an enormous amount of support among the Chinese non king was captured by the revolutionaries in early December it was the second-biggest city of China and the former capital the symbolic defeat was crushing to the already weak king it was reminiscent of Prince Wu s defeat in 1645 and of course the capture of the city by typing rebels under Hong Xiuquan in 1853 in honking the two men we set up its provisional government in the meantime you won negotiated primarily with Prince Jun regent of PE and his concerts then in December the mother of we took a leading role in the negotiations she pushed the resignation of prince tune and authorised Yuan Shikai drew as prime minister with the Emperor Hasan puyi only retaining a ceremonial role it was reminiscent of the raw Empress Dowager Zhu she had allocated to herself the past decades and that's not very popular several victories of UN's troops over the revolutionaries followed but he realized that with the suppression of the revolution his usefulness to the chain would again fade on Christmas Day in 1911 soon yurts and arrived in Shanghai arriving at the provisional government in Nanjing soon was just in time to be elected provisional president of the Chinese Republic by delegates from 16 provincial assemblies on New Year's Day 1912 he assumed office and the New Republic of China was born it meant China now had both a Manchu Emperor in Beijing and a Republican president in a situation that definitely could not go on for long soon realized he needed an army to consolidate his power a charismatic man with a keen eye for political moves he sent you on shikai a telegram stating he only accepted the provisional presidency so Iran could later on assume the official presidency as long as you would support the new Republic all the while UN had been playing both sides of the conflict and he now realized choosing the revolutionary side was probably going to be the most advantageous to him as such he won was willing to work with soon but indeed only if he could assume the presidency he spent the next couple of weeks negotiating both secretly and publicly with both the provisional government in nanjing and the imperial government in beijing late january 1912 44 senior commanders of the bayon army serving under UN Sheikh I sent a telegram to Beijing urging them to create a republic the chains Mandate of Heaven had now truly waned southern China had basically seceded and you and Shi Kai now attempted to convince puas regions that abdication was the only option left on the table some Manchu prince has fled to Manchuria to lead the resistance but the Emperor's mother negotiated with you one she managed to receive reassurance that puyi could reside in the Forbidden City with his servants for years to come and a generous stipend to say the least we China's lost Emperor abdicated on the 12th of February 1912 the Ching dynasty the ancient monarchy and Chinese Empire had officially come to an end Yuan Shikai was granted full powers to organize a provisional republican government soon godsends staying true to his word abdicated in favor of yuan one day later the deal was that yuan would travel to nanjing to set up his government but unrest broke out in beijing which allowed you one to remain in Beijing in order to keep control it is neurosurgeon yuan has something to do with these episodes of unrest and as such ominously you won shakaal was sworn in in Beijing the imperial capital not managing the Republican capital it was have supreme power with loyalists appointed at crucial positions it's China's military and bureaucracy a parliament was to be elected and full constitutional government was going to be established as time went on however it became clear that UN shikai had other plans when he came to both his own position and China as a whole in 1912 after decades of hardships and an erosion of their Mandate of Heaven the Ching dynasty finally collapsed after a brief period where dr. Sun yat-sen was China's first president Yuan Shikai overtook this post and started his tenure he prevented an all-out Civil War but was too betrayed the revolutionaries later on if you want to know how China and the Ching dynasty got up to this point with all revolutions rebellions wars and political intrigues consider checking out the playlist on the screen detailing the collapse of the ching dynasty from the opium wars all the way up to this point next week will be the last chronological episode in this series it covers the decline of the Republic into a period of warlordism feudalism having served on a yuan shikai were now fighting for influence in their respective provinces this warlord era is a fascinating yet often forgotten period I am certainly looking forward to it thank you for watching this video don't forget to subscribe see you next time 19:12 China's Last Emperor Puyi abdicated China now comments into uncharted political territory became a republic one day after pwease abdication dr. Sun yat-sen provisional president of the Chinese Republic abdicated in favor of general yuan shikai given that he'd respect the Chinese Republic when she had other plans however among which eventually reinstating the monarchy not for nostalgic and sentimental reasons though now he himself would be the Emperor of China she won shik I was inaugurated as president one of his first acts was to acknowledge the independence of Eastern Mongolia and Tibet both had declared their independence once we had abdicated as a result he ones regime earned international recognition Japan had come into contact with you and back in 1885 when he was China's Viceroy in Korea they were well aware of humans antics and were the most reluctant of international powers after some pressure they eventually caved in anyway the Republic of China under President Yuan Shikai was now internationally recognized one of the first problems that presented itself to the New Republic were its state finances they were in disarray the Beijing Treasury was depleted and provinces barely paid their taxes against extremely unfavorable terms yuan managed to receive a reorganization loan from the international consortium a group of international bankers that also issued the loans back when the Ching wanted to nationalize railways in short the Republic of China immediately became dependent upon foreign loans and capital now as forgot the governmental institutions of China drastic reform was required the council was tasked with ensuring the establishment of a healthy Chinese democracy a provisional Constitution was drafted in March of 1912 and procedures were designed to ensure the formation of a legitimate government on April 5th it was voted to move the provisional government to Beijing ROM Nanjing which had been the revolutionary capital China was now officially for the first time a real United Republic it now began preparing for their first-ever national elections which would be held in December that year only about 40 million men were allowed to vote mayor 10% of the population women illiterates those that were bankrupt and opium smokers were some of the group's excluded from voting rights considering the establishment of democratic institutions dr. sue Nelson figured his revolutionary Alliance that humming we was right to transform into a party that was able to participate in a democracy in August the tongue man we transformed into the Roman dong-su Nelson became its chairman and soldier on its prime minister tossed with this organization son just 30 years old was adamant about ensuring the protection of the rights of Parliament and the limiting of the President's powers the situation had it that you one she comminuted the provisional cabinet as he had merely appointed loyalists and confidence as the December election came closer it was clear the Kuomintang enjoyed mass support over there 3 main rivals a Progressive Party headed by young Chicho famous for his role during China's 100 days reform the Republican Party and the unification party these parties were three of the main contestants in total there were over 300 parties that had a chance to receive at least secede in Parliament in a struggle to maintain his power u1 resorted to bribery military force assassinations coerced the Parliament revised the Constitution and eventually it would even attend to revive the monarchy for now as December world alone China's first ever democratic elections were held it was an incredible success for the Grohmann done winning 269 out of the 596 seats in the lower house and 123 of the 274 Senate seats it meant the Grameen downnow had a strong mandate to push for the election over presidents and a dominant role in establishing the cabinet the members of parliament that were elected now made their way to Beijing to start fulfilling their posts some jaren overjoyed with a success of his party took the train to Beijing from Shanghai about to board a train waiting on the platform a man walked up to son and shot him twice it was a twentieth of March song would die two days later two weeks before his 31st birthday and a few days before he was expected to be elected as China's prime minister it is widely believed he won shake I was the chief Orchestrator of the assassination but all those that were either implicated or investigating the assassination we're themselves murdered or simply disappeared you will never face justice for ordering the assassination in fact a traditionally anti-qing revolutionist weapon when she kind now adopted assassination as a way to remain in power he already ordered various assassinations on pro revolutionist generals he gave a signal to all over China the power holder is above the law after son's murder the growing gang delegates that did assemble in Parliament quickly attempted to curb EWTN's influence by developing a permanent Constitution and demanding a new open presidential election national finances were another issue the unfavorable owned by the consortium was heavily criticised it seemed he was mortgaging China's revenues to foreigners roaring 21 million pound sterling from the six power consortium Western powers China would have to repay with interest until 1960 mounting over triple the amount borrowed feeling the heat you want shikai use bribes to buy of roaming done legislators in Parliament those that refuse to rescind their seeds were soon visited and harassed by the police and military roaming down military governor's were dismissed in southern provinces during May southern provinces rose up against yuan and declared their independence but they were no match for one's professional army and senior commanders the rebellion was swiftly crushed within two months Nanjing was captured by the reactionary general zhang xuan he would in later years attempt to put puyi on the throne again on October 6 Yuan Shikai was elected president after strong-arming the Parliament into voting for him it took three ballots to get a majority but yeah there wasn't really anything Parliament could do to oppose him at this point when selected you one marked the gloaming done as a seditious organisation and ordered it to be dissolved soon one and other Kuomintang members fled to japan or dreams of a Chinese Republic in shambles in January 1914 in true autocratic fashion UN dissolved parliament within a month of provisional assemblies and local government organizations were dissolved as well this cabinet resigned shortly after he won was now officially China's dictator legitimize his dictatorial reign on May 1st 1914 a constitutional compact drafted by 66 men from the cabinet replaced the Constitution he won now had a limited power of her war finance foreign policy and citizens rights he relied on loans as his annual income through taxes was only 2 million yen recive ching annual income was 260 he ran a deficit of 13 million every month he one attempted to push through several reforms nevertheless using overpaid and underused foreign advisers he hired a foreign policy expert railway specialist military attache and jurist he wanted to establish an independent judiciary ironic considering he just subverted the Constitution basically in all these sectors yuan had big ambitious plans they were a bit unrealistic as well considering the circumstances still in 1914 the first world war broke out in Europe this bloody slaughter couldn't have come at a better time for yuan without foreign interference you won figured he'd be able to cement his position as China's Altec red European powers were preoccupied in Europe but one nation was motivated as ever to get involved in China the Japanese formally allied with Britain since 1902 declared war on Germany in August 1914 and started to occupy the German concession in China it was time to execute its design and expand influence in China the so called 21 demands were presented to you on Japan wanted even more economic rights joint control of China's iron and coal works and China to permit Japanese military and police in northern China one was very aware of China's military inferiority and tried to modify some conditions but yielded nonetheless it wasn't worth the fight his hands were tied before the demands could be implemented however its content was leaked to Chinese press anti-japanese an anti you on nationalism swept china once again provinces started declaring their independence disgruntled with yuan so willing to capitulate to japanese demands as opposition grew louder so did you want crackdowns against the opposition newspapers were censored and forced to run articles glorifying yuan perhaps in order to polish his prestige rumors were spread many people actually wanted you on to reinstate the monarchy after some appropriate hesitation one site in December 1915 a representative Assembly voted allegedly unanimously in favor of you want to become emperor Oh 1993 of them it would not last for long foreign observers and advisors figure the Chinese yearned for a central figure of power but it was a miscalculation the backlash was enormous barely anyone was eager to welcome a new imperial dynasty officers allies officials and his military Protege is abandoned him almaas once again massive protests swept the country and provinces started declaring their independence you won declared you'd reverse a monarchy but Western support he was hoping for was not forthcoming and his prestige was in shambles he died on June 16th 1916 at the age of 56 a broken man rumours that he was poisoned lost to this day the twenty-one demands by Japan were not instated nor did yuan managed to establish his empire Lee Wong Hong who reluctantly became the face of the Wu hen revolutionaries now once again reluctantly accepted the defamed position of president his future as president was not right however it didn't take long for China to deteriorate into political chaos regional military chieftains known as warlords led their respective provincial armies into battle against each other back in 1911 revolutionaries without an army but with a party did not manage to consolidate their power during the warlord era between nineteen sixteen and twenty eight warlords with armies but no parties proved equally ineffective because without saying this period was pushing to the limits the amount of suffering the Chinese population could take within a year of liang hong becoming president and military coup occurred zhang xuan served as the field marshal under li yet in june 1917 he seized beijing and declared the restoration of the ching dynasty under Puyi now an eleven year old boy many civilians in Beijing including come UA who resided there hurried to the Forbidden City to serve the new emperor within a month however Beijing was sieged by rival warlords and Zhang Jun was defeated he fled to the Dutch Legation leaving Chinese politics for good who he remained in the Forbidden City until 1924 considering the coup was suppressed by other warlords any credibility of the central government had evaporated and the next decade was tainted by feuding warlords often from extremely varying backgrounds they had several of her lopping characteristics primarily most had a strong personality and a loyal subordinate force of soldiers and officers that didn't mean their characters didn't vary widely some were former bandits others were educated men attempting to instill a sense of morality on their troops janki's warlord jung geun's stated he had created the perfect ideology to run his province which was supported by the fact he was one of the longest sitting warlords until 1949 at any rate often a large city was subjected to paying tax and ensuring these soldiers were fed we're not the protectors of local civilians but were an absolute terror secondly throughout the political chaos these warlords often assault support from Chinese institutions this meant seeking appointments to official rank seeds and documents signed by civil officials they needed the support of civilian politicians and government the discrepancy and their power resulted from the modern technological and military capabilities such as steamboats railways and certain guns in combination with institutions that had not even existed for a decade mostly the nature of warlords and their politics was extremely confusing to nearly everyone serving shifts in Alliance and treason was not uncommon all warlords attempted to increase their political power whilst acknowledging the existence of the Chinese states there were three warlords that stood out not indebted to yuan shikai for their early careers two of them often teamed up on the third double-crossing each other multiple times the first was Chang su Ling the warlord of Manchuria a bandaged earlier in life he allied with Japan against Russia in 1905 and had been mugged ins military governor ever since ii was whooping foo educated in the Confucian classics by Japanese officers British and Chinese often publicly supported him as I figured he was the best bet for peace and stability in China the third was Feng Yu Xiang originally a peasant this large man was converted to Protestantism which earned him the nickname Christian general his troops were extremely well disciplined and he had the habit to bless his troops before going into battle he felt under root by foods command at first only to betray the bayon warlords in 1924 by launching a coup that broke their power there were many more warlords to give you an idea between 1922 and 26 there were six wars between provinces official casualties have not been recorded but the systematic pillaging taxation and slaughter obviously caused incredible suffering upon the Chinese population under premier and warlord Rancher E China entered World War one on the Allied side under pretence that if Germany was defeated the German concessions in Shandong among other places would be returned imagine the surprise of China's delegation and country as a whole when they were told at the conference of the Versailles Treaty that German concessions were to be given to Japan several more disadvantageous treaties had been signed behind the back of most Chinese grunting the Japanese more influence on the mainland during this world Lord Cale soon yat-sen managed to return to China in 1917 he arrived in Canton and for the next years played a visible but inconclusive role in Chinese politics looking back at its political career he too must have realized China seemed much weaker and more divided than it would have been under the Qing it is testament to his tenacity and perseverance that he continued his struggle and followed the dream he had a vision for China the betrayal of the Versailles Treaty sparked a new generation of nationalists an anti-western sentiment they would struggle for a better China in the coming decades often taking very different political approaches I feel this is a good time to wrap up this documentary series about the fall of the Qing Dynasty over seventy years of Chinese Wars rebellions upheavals and reforms we have come to an end of this documentary about the downfall of the ching dynasty reading about the last decades of the ching dynasty has been captivating interesting frustrating at times but never has it been boring or a chore I could go on and extend it's documentary to the power struggle within the Grohmann done after since death the rise of China's Communist Party and Mao Zedong the ensuring civil war Japan occupied China in World War two or even the civil war after World War two once again between the Communists and the Nationalists all the way up to the Communist victory in 1949 and perhaps even further than that I could I'm perhaps I will for now I have over 80 pages of script in over 130 pages of notes pertaining to this documentary series if you have watched it up to this point over two hours of footage in total I hope you learned a bit and found it interesting it has been an incredible joy to work on this hundreds of hours were spent and I don't think I could have spent them any better thank you for watching I am humbled by the positive response this project has received and I am planning on creating many more in-depth documentaries such as this one I am already working on one and for the next two months uploading will remain as usual at two videos per week if you have any suggestions for future topics feel free to leave a comment don't forget to subscribe see you next time

Channel: House of History

Views: 10,110

Rating: 4.8740158 out of 5

Keywords: House of History, history documentary, history, documentary, collapse of the qing dynasty, collapse of the chinese empire, fall of the qing dynasty, fall of the chinese empire, how did the qing empire fall?, the last emperor, puyi, boxer rebellion, taiping rebellion, history of china, china documentary, xinhai revolution, chinese revolution documentary, what was the chinese revolution?, why did the qing fall, what ended the qing dynasty?, why did the qing collapse, qing collapse

Id: EdY5-uLyp94

Length: 158min 0sec (9480 seconds)

Published: Fri Jun 28 2019