China
Prior to the 1800's, and before foreign influence, China was a powerful country, and had been ruled by many different dynasties starting with the Hsia dynasty in the second millenium B.C. to the Ching dynasty ending in 1911. (A Short History of China, pp. 12, 166.) Although dynasties had changed and several dynasties had been foreign, the Manchus (Ching dynasty) were the last foreign people to rule over China. The Manchus kept their own language and ethnic identity but maintained political order and military organization and thus insinuated themselves into China and gained the cooperation of the elite, the traditional educated gentry, who were the leading families in the communities and provided officials to the bureaucracy. In the eighteenth century the Manchus and Chinese, along with many foreigners, saw China as the world's greatest civilization, representing the highest possible attainment of humanity. China seemed to have lasting peace, a high standard of living, institutional stability, art and literature. (Imperial China,4-5.) China was considered a beautiful vast country, its people hard-working and sober, its land fertile and blessed with many lakes, rivers and canals, but so populous and crowded that most of the
They were also opposed to the Ching dynasty (Manchurians), who had ruled China for 300 years. In response to the destruction of the opium the British occupied positions around Canton and declared war. The advantages granted the three nations by the Chinese set a precedent that would dominate China's relations with the world for the next century. (A Short History of the Opium Wars. ) Although China was not interested in British products, including bronze figures, elastic garters, and fleecy hosiery, the British East India Company had illegally brought a huge stock of opium to China a year prior to the attempts of Britain to open trade. The government in Peking noted that the foreigners seemed intent on dragging down the Chinese through the encouragement of opium addiction. The Manchus did allow the representative to compromise by kissing the hand of the emperor, which was the behavior expected before the English ruler. The Taipings were a secret society who broke with Confucianism and most Chinese traditions. The upshot, however, was that China responded to King George III that it had "no need to import the manufactures of outside barbarians in exchange for our own products. The movement quickly assumed a military-evangelical-patriotic character. In 1864, in Nanking, in a confrontation with Imperial troops, the Taiping were crushingly defeated. ) In the meantime, the army became corrupt and the tax farmers cheated the people.
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