IGNOU HISTORY NOTES : History Of China and Japan (1840-1949) - The Unequal Treaty System in China

IGNOU HISTORY Study Notes for IAS, UPSC Exams

History Of China and Japan (1840-1949)

The Unequal Treaty System in China

Structure

7.0 Objectivis
7.1 Introduction ,
7.2 The Period of Cooperation, 1860-1870
7.2.1 TheTrratyPorts
7.2.2 the foreign Ispeclaate of Customs .

7.2.3 China's Introduction to Modem Diplomacy
7.3 Increasing Foreign Encroachments : Friction and Conflict, 1870-1900
7.3.1 Missionary Activity and Popular Hostility
7 3.2 Fore Pressure Along China's Periphery
7.4 The "Scramble for Concessions"
7.5 Let ussum Up
7.6 Keywords
7.7 Answers to Check Your Progress Exercises

7.0 OBJECTIVES

After reading this Unit you will be able to familiarise yourself with the :

unequal treaties'" signed between China and the west& powers and Japan in the 19th century,
changing pattems and forms of imperialist f;xpansion in China up to the end of the Chaing Dynasty in 1911, and
characteristic institutions and practices of China's relationship with the foreign powers in this period.

7.1 INTRODUCITION

For a full century from ;he signing of the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, China was bound by a
series of treaties with the' Western powers and Japan. These came to be known as the
"unequal treaties" because they were imposed by the bigpwers using their military
superiority on a weak and disintegrating China.
Unlike countries such as India, China was never fully colonized by any one foreign power or
group of powers. While China was forcibly opened to foreign trade and expansion, and
compelled to make one concession after another to the foreign powers, the vestiges of her
soverei?nty were kept intact. Even if China was powerless to resist the demands of the
foreign powers, these demands were given the form of treaties drawn up and mutually
agreed upon by two sovereign states. Thus just as India's long interaction with colonialism
was best symbal&d by the British Raj, China's century of humiliation at the hands of the
colonial and imperialist powers was best represented by the series of unWd treaties. Just as
the dismantIing of the British Raj was the prime object of the Indian ilationalist movement
before 1947, the struggle against the unequal treaties was a major focus of Chinese
nationalism until the 1940s. This Unit discusses the various unequal treaties; the conditions
under which they were imposed and the impact they had on China.