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Century of humiliation

The century of humiliation (simplified Chinese: 百年国耻; traditional Chinese: 百年國恥; pinyin: bǎinián guóchǐ; Wade–Giles: pai³ nien² kuo² chi³), also known by permutations such as the hundred years of national humiliation, refers to the period of intervention and imperialism by Western powers and Japan in China between 1839 and 1949.

The term arose in 1915, in the atmosphere of rising Chinese nationalism opposing the Twenty-One Demands made by the Japanese government and their acceptance by Yuan Shikai, with the Guomindang and Chinese Communist Party both subsequently popularizing the characterization.

History

The beginning of the Century of Humiliation is usually dated to the mid-19th century, on the eve of the First Opium War amidst widespread opium addiction and the political unraveling of Qing dynasty China that followed.

Major events cited as part of the Century of Humiliation include:

First Opium War

The First Opium War (1839–1842) revealed the outdated state of the Chinese military. The Qing navy, composed entirely of wooden sailing junks, was severely outclassed by the modern tactics and firepower of the British Royal Navy. British soldiers, using advanced muskets and artillery, easily outmaneuvered and outgunned Qing forces in ground battles. The Qing surrender in 1842 marked a decisive, humiliating blow to China. The Treaty of Nanjing, the first of the unequal treaties, which granted an indemnity and extraterritoriality to Britain, demanded war reparations, forced China to open up the Treaty Ports of Canton, Amoy, Fuchow, Ningpo and Shanghai to western trade and missionaries, and to cede Hong Kong Island to Britain. It revealed weaknesses in the Qing government and provoked rebellions against the regime.

Taiping Rebellion

A scene of the Taiping Rebellion, 1850–1864

The Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864) in the mid-19th century was the first major instance of anti-Manchu sentiment. Amid widespread social unrest and worsening famine, the rebellion not only posed the most serious threat towards Qing rulers, it was the largest conflict in China since the Qing conquest in 1644, and it also ranks as one of the bloodiest wars in human history, the bloodiest civil war, and the largest conflict of the 19th century, with estimates of the war dead ranging from 20–70 million to as high as 100 million, with millions more displaced. Hong Xiuquan, a failed civil service candidate, in 1851 launched an uprising in Guizhou province, and established the Heavenly Kingdom of Peace (or Taiping Heavenly Kingdom) and Hong himself as Heavenly King.

For a decade the Taiping occupied and fought across much of the mid and lower Yangtze valley, some of the wealthiest and most productive lands in the Qing empire. Nanjing, was taken by the Taiping rebels in March 1853 and, renamed Tianjing, served as the Kingdom's capital. The Taiping nearly managed to capture the Qing capital of Beijing with a northern expedition launched in May 1853, and were successful in capturing large parts of Anhui, Jiangxi and Hubei provinces with the concurrent Western Expedition. Qing imperial troops proved to be largely ineffective in halting Taiping advances, focusing on a perpetually stalemated siege of Nanjing. In Hunan, a local irregular army called the Xiang Army or Hunan Army, under the personal leadership of Zeng Guofan, became the main armed force fighting for the Qing against the Taiping. Zeng's Xiang Army proved effective in gradually turning back the Taiping advance in the western theater of the war.

In May 1862 the Xiang Army began directly besieging Nanjing and managed to hold firm despite numerous attempts by the numerically superior Taiping Army to dislodge them. Hong died on June 1, 1864, and Nanjing fell shortly after, on July 19. A small remainder of loyal Taiping forces continued to fight in northern Zhejiang, rallying behind Hong's teenage son Tianguifu, but after Tianguifu's capture on October 25, 1864, Taiping resistance was gradually pushed into the highlands of Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian and finally Guangdong, where the last Taiping loyalist, Wang Haiyang, was defeated on January 29, 1866.

During this conflict, both sides tried to deprive each other of the resources needed to continue the war and it became standard practice to destroy agricultural areas, butcher the population of cities, and in general exact a brutal price from captured enemy lands to drastically weaken the opposition's war effort. This war was total in the senses that civilians on both sides participated to a significant extent in the war effort and that armies on both sides waged war on the civilian population as well as military forces.

After the outbreak of Taiping Rebellion, there were also revolts by the Muslims and Miao people of China against the Qing dynasty, most notably in the Miao Rebellion (1854–73) in Guizhou, the Panthay Rebellion (1856–1873) in Yunnan and the Dungan Revolt (1862–77) in the northwest, Nian Rebellion in the North, and Punti-Hakka Clan Wars. All rebellions were ultimately put down, but at enormous cost and with millions dead, seriously weakening central imperial authority.

Second Opium War

The Western powers, largely unsatisfied with the Treaty of Nanjing, gave grudging support to the Qing government during the Taiping and Nian Rebellions. China's income fell sharply during the wars as vast areas of farmland were destroyed, millions of lives were lost, and countless armies were raised and equipped to fight the rebels. In 1854, Britain tried to re-negotiate the Treaty of Nanjing, inserting clauses allowing British commercial access to Chinese rivers and the creation of a permanent British embassy at Beijing.

In 1856, Qing authorities, in searching for a pirate, boarded a ship, the Arrow, which the British claimed had been flying the British flag, an incident which led to the Second Opium War (1856–1860). France joined the British action against China, prompted by complaints from their envoy, Baron Jean-Baptiste Louis Gros, over the execution of a French missionary, Father Auguste Chapdelaine, by Chinese local authorities in Guangxi province, which at that time was not open to foreigners.

In 1858, facing no other options, the Xianfeng Emperor agreed to the Treaty of Tientsin, which contained clauses deeply insulting to the Chinese, such as a demand that all official Chinese documents be written in English, legalized the import of opium, and a provision granting British warships unlimited access to all navigable Chinese rivers.

Destruction of the Old Summer Palace

Looting of the Old Summer Palace by Anglo-French forces in 1860 during the Second Opium War.

Ratification of the treaty in the following year led to a resumption of hostilities and in 1860, with Anglo-French forces marching on Beijing, the emperor and his court fled the capital for the imperial hunting lodge at Rehe. Prince Gong, a younger half-brother of the emperor, who had been left as his brother's proxy in the capital, was forced to sign the Convention of Beijing.

Once in Beijing, the Anglo-French forces sacked and plundered the Old Summer Palace and, in an act of revenge for the arrest of several Englishmen, Lord Elgin, the British High Commissioner to China, ordered the destruction of the Palace. It took 3,500 British troops to set the entire place ablaze, and the massive fire lasted for three days. Unknown to the troops, some 300 remaining eunuchs and palace maids, who concealed themselves from the intruders in locked rooms, perished with the burnt palace buildings. Only 13 buildings survived intact, most of them in the remote areas or by the lakeside. Meanwhile, the humiliated emperor died the following year at Rehe.

Once the Old Summer Palace had been reduced to ruins, a sign was raised with an inscription in Chinese stating, "This is the reward for perfidy and cruelty". The burning of the palace was the last act of the war. (The palace would be sacked once again and completely destroyed in 1900 when the forces of the Eight-Nation Alliance invaded Beijing.)

The burning of the Old Summer Palace is still a very sensitive issue in China today. The destruction of the palace has been perceived as barbaric and criminal by many Chinese, as well as by external observers.

Unequal treaties

See also: Unequal treaty

Sino-French War

Starting with the Cochinchina Campaign in 1858, France expanded control of Indochina. By 1883, France was in full control of the region and had reached the Chinese border. The Sino-French War (1884–1885) began with a surprise attack by the French on the Chinese southern fleet at Fuzhou. After that the Chinese declared war on the French. The Chinese armies performed better than in other nineteenth-century wars (a French invasion of Taiwan was halted) and Chinese forces defeated the French at the Battle of Cầu Giấy (Paper Bridge), Bắc Lệ ambush, Battle of Phu Lam Tao, Battle of Zhenhai, the Battle of Tamsui in the Keelung Campaign, and culminated in French defeat on land in the Battle of Bang Bo, which triggered the French Retreat from Lạng Sơn and resulted in the collapse of the French Jules Ferry government in the Tonkin Affair.

However defeat at sea, and the resulting threat to steamship traffic to Taiwan, and Japan threatening to enter the war against China due to the Gapsin Coup forced China to end the war with negotiations." The war ended on unfavorable terms for China with the Treaty of Tientsin (1885) and the Chinese recognition of the French protectorate in Tonkin (northern Vietnam), and the French achieving most of their aims in the Treaty.

First Sino-Japanese War

Chinese generals in Pyongyang surrender to the Japanese during the Sino-Japanese War, October 1894.

The rise of Japan since the Meiji Restoration as an imperial power led to further subjugation of China. In a dispute over China's longstanding claim of suzerainty in Korea, war broke out between China and Japan, but the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) resulted in a humiliating defeat for China. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces, annihilation of the Qing government's modernized Beiyang Fleet which had then been deemed to be the strongest naval force in Asia, and the loss of the port of Weihaiwei, the Qing government sued for peace in February 1895.

The Treaty of Shimonoseki was signed on 17 April 1895 and forced to recognize effective Japanese rule of Korea while Taiwan and the Pescadores were ceded to Japan until its recovery in 1945 at the end of the WWII by the Republic of China. The original agreement stipulated the cession of Liaodong Peninsula to Japan, but Russia, with its own designs on the territory, along with Germany and France, in what was known as the Triple Intervention, successfully put pressure on the Japanese to abandon the peninsula.

For China, the war demonstrated the failure of the Qing Empire's attempts to modernize its military and fend off threats to its sovereignty, especially when compared with Japan's successful Meiji Restoration. For the first time, regional dominance in East Asia shifted from China to Japan; the prestige of the Qing Empire, along with the classical tradition in China, suffered a major blow. Traditionally, China viewed Japan as a subordinate part of the Chinese cultural sphere. Although China had been defeated by European powers in the 19th century, defeat at the hands of an Asian power and a former tributary state was a bitter psychological blow. The humiliating loss of Korea as a tributary state sparked an unprecedented public outcry.

The Manchu population was devastated by the fighting during the First Sino-Japanese War and the Boxer Rebellion, with massive casualties sustained during the wars and subsequently being driven into extreme suffering and hardship in Beijing and northeast China. Anti-foreign sentiment and agitation grew, which would later culminate in the form of the Boxer Rebellion five years later.

Suppression of the Boxer Rebellion

See also: List of former foreign enclaves in China and Eight-Nation Alliance

Imperialism 1900: The bear represents Russia, the lion Britain, the frog France, the sun Japan, and the eagle the United States.

China's defeat at the hands of Japan was another trigger for future aggressive actions by Western powers. In 1897, Germany demanded and was given a set of exclusive mining and railroad rights in Shandong province. Russia obtained access to Dairen and Port Arthur and the right to build a railroad across Manchuria, thereby achieving complete domination over a large portion of northwestern China. The United Kingdom and France also received a number of concessions. At this time, much of China was divided up into "spheres of influence": Germany dominated Jiaozhou (Kiaochow) Bay, Shandong, and the Yellow River valley; Russia dominated the Liaodong Peninsula and Manchuria; the United Kingdom dominated Weihaiwei and the Yangtze Valley; and France dominated the Guangzhou Bay and several other southern provinces.

The erosion of Chinese sovereignty and seizures of land from Chinese by foreigners amidst widespread drought in North China, and the instability of the Qing government contributed to the violent anti-foreign, anti-colonial, and anti-Christian Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901), launched by the Militia United in Righteousness (Yihetuan), known in English as the "Boxers". After several months of growing violence and murder, in Shandong and the North China plain, against the both foreign and Christian presence there, Boxer fighters, convinced they were invulnerable to foreign weapons, converged on Peking (today Beijing) along with the Chinese Imperial Army in June 1900 to besiege the Legation Quarter where diplomats, foreign civilians and soldiers as well as Chinese Christians had sought refuge.

In response to the siege, a coalition of Japanese, Russian, British, French, American, German, Italian and Austro-Hungarians (the Eight-Nation Alliance) dispatched their armed forces and entered China without diplomatic notice, much less permission in the name of "humanitarian intervention", to defend their respective nations' citizens, as well as a number of Chinese Christians who had taken shelter in the legations. Cixi declared war on all of these nations, only to lose control of Beijing after a short, but hard-fought campaign.

Chinese officialdom was split between those supporting the Boxers and those favoring conciliation, led by Prince Qing. In response to reports of an armed invasion to lift the siege, the initially hesitant Empress Dowager Cixi supported the Boxers and on June 21 issued an Imperial Decree declaring war on the foreign powers.

After being initially turned back, the Eight-Nation Alliance, brought 20,000 armed troops to China, defeated the Imperial Army and Boxers, and arrived at Peking on August 14, relieving the siege of the Legations. Empress Dowager Cixi, the Guangxu Emperor and high government officials fled the Forbidden City for Xi'an and sent Li Hongzhang for peace talks with the Alliance.

In the aftermath, Beijing, Tianjin, and other cities in northern China were occupied for more than one year by the international expeditionary force under the command of German General Alfred Graf von Waldersee. Atrocities by foreign troops were common and an unknown number of people suspected to be Boxers were beheaded both during and after the uprising while uncontrolled plunder of the capital and the surrounding countryside ensued. One newspaper called the aftermath of the siege a "carnival of loot", and others called it "an orgy of looting" by soldiers, civilians and missionaries and each nationality accused the others of being the worst looters. In a research article, Kenneth Clark states: "Following the taking of Peking, troops from the international force looted the capital city and even ransacked the Forbidden City, with many Chinese treasures finding their way to Europe."

German and Japanese soldiers witnessing the street execution of a Chinese boxer, 1900.

British and French forces looted, plundered and burned the Old Summer Palace to the ground for the second time. French troops ravaged the countryside around Beijing on behalf of Chinese Catholics. The Catholic Beitang or North Cathedral was a "salesroom for stolen property." An American diplomat, Herbert G. Squiers, filled several railroad cars with loot. The British Legation held loot auctions every afternoon and proclaimed, "looting on the part of British troops was carried out in the most orderly manner." However, one British officer noted, "it is one of the unwritten laws of war that a city which does not surrender at the last and is taken by storm is looted." For the rest of 1900–1901, the British held loot auctions everyday except Sunday in front of the main-gate to the British Legation. Many foreigners, including Sir Claude Maxwell MacDonald and Lady Ethel MacDonald and George Ernest Morrison of The Times, were active bidders among the crowd. The American commander General Adna Chaffee banned looting by American soldiers, but the ban was ineffectual.

German forces, although late taking part in the initial fighting, were particularly severe in exacting revenge for the killing of their ambassador due to the orders of Kaiser Wilhelm II, who held anti-Asian sentiments, while Russia tightened its hold on Manchuria in the northeast until its crushing defeat by Japan five years later in the Russo-Japanese War. From the Chinese point of view, as well as reports from contemporary Western observers, German, Russian, and Japanese troops received the greatest criticism for their ruthlessness and willingness to wantonly execute Chinese of all ages and backgrounds, sometimes burning and killing entire village populations. A U.S. Marine wrote that he saw German and Russian troops bayonet women after raping them.

The Qing court evacuated to Xi'an threatened to continue the war against foreigners, until the foreigners tempered their demands in the Boxer Protocol, promising that China would not have to give up any land and gave up the demands for the execution of Dong Fuxiang and Prince Duan. The Boxer Protocol of 7 September 1901 provided for the execution of government officials who had supported the Boxers, provisions for foreign troops to be stationed in Beijing, and 450 million taels of silver—approximately $10 billion at 2017 silver prices and more than the government's annual tax revenue—to be paid as indemnity over the course of the next thirty-nine years to the eight nations involved.