2019 Year 12 IB Extended Essays

Investigation Context The 19 th

Century saw the peak of European Power in Asia. In 1839, British frustration with Chinese trade restrictions resulted in the First Opium War. The subsequent British victory in this war would lead to the creation of what would come to be known as the Unequal Treaty System. The Unequal Treaty System was an informal, ad-hoc series of official, legally binding diplomatic treaties between Oriental countries (primarily China and Japan) and the Imperial powers. Unequal Treaties usually included articles or clauses which forced the Oriental country to ease off trade restrictions, and open (or cede) their ports for foreign trade. (Treaty of Nanjing, 1842) Many of these treaties would also grant legal protection for foreign subjects living in the Oriental country via extraterritoriality, allowed for missionaries to proselytise, and generally increase foreign influence in the Orient. (Silbey D. J., 2012) Century China was the Taiping Rebellion of 1850-1864. The primary causes of the rebellion are often ascribed to the lack of popular support for the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the agitation of the Christian minority in China and the personal zeal of the Taiping leaders. The Taipings formed a highly centralised, militant state which was intent on conquering all of China. The 14-year long rebellion devastated China, crippling its infrastructure and resulting in the death of around 20 million people. In the aftermath of the revolt, the Chinese attitude to the Westerners who had brought Christianity to China but backed the Qing severely deteriorated. Another effect of the rebellion was that the Han ethnic majority of China lost a lot of faith in the Manchu Qing Dynasty. The Boxers and later the Kuomintang and Chinese communist party were all influenced by the devastation if the Taiping Rebellion. Meanwhile, Japan was experiencing its own seminal events – the Bakumatsu period of 1853-1867. Japan had limited its contact with Europe for centuries through the isolationist policy of Sakoku. The arrival of American warships in 1853 had forced Japan into abandoning its restrictions against international trade. During the Bakumatsu, the Japanese Emperor and his allies asserted his authority and began to modernise Japan along western lines in order to bridge the technological gap between Japan and the west. Once Japan modernised, it adopted a bellicose stance towards its neighbours. Many Japanese politicians and military leaders believed that Japanese control and influence over its neighbouring territories would help protect Japan from the foreign powers. To take control of these lands the Japanese would conquer them by force or provide aid and asylum to political figures (and revolutionaries) who Japan could influence. (Gordon, 2002) The most devastating event in 19 th