Known as the New Territories, this valuable piece of south China real estate remained in British hands until a little more than a decade ago. Learn more about the Treaty of Nanking. Like China, pre-modern Japan had been closed to Western commerce. Like Admiral Elliot, Commodore Perry used his superior weapons and his warships to leverage commercial concessions from the Japanese. But there the similarities end. Unlike China under the Manchus, the Japanese state in the Tokugawa era was politically decentralized and even fragmented, with no single imperial hegemon able to dictate the terms of engagement with foreigners.
A modern constitution was adopted in Japan, establishing an elected parliament. Modern transportation and communications systems were imported from the West. Universal education was instituted, again patterned after the West. By the turn of the century, a modern urban middle class had begun to emerge in Japan. While Cixi was busy building herself a marble pleasure boat, Japanese industrialists were busy building themselves a modern navy. The striking contrast in the national spirit, or zeitgeist, of China and Japan in the last decades of the 19 th century would have enormous downstream consequences for both countries—most of them bad.
Unequal Treaties. Sino-Japanese War. A Chinese military and political reform movement of the second half of the 19th century. Prominent among the innovations introduced were the Zongli Yamen , an imperial office established to manage relations with foreign countries, the Jiangnan Arsenal , the Nanjing Arsenal , the Beiyang fleet China's first modern navy , and various government-sponsored modern industries. Such reforms, however, were superficial and failed to solve deep-seated institutional problems, as was made clear by China's humiliation in the Sino-Japanese War of — View all related items in Oxford Reference ».
All Rights Reserved. Under the terms of the licence agreement, an individual user may print out a PDF of a single entry from a reference work in OR for personal use for details see Privacy Policy and Legal Notice. Zeng Guofan was the more senior of the two and the more philosophical of the two. If we wish to find a method of self-strengthening, we should … regard learning to make explosive shells and steamships and other instruments as the work of the first importance. If only we could possess the superior techniques [of the Westerners], then we would have the means to return their favors when they are obedient, and … to avenge our grievances when they are disloyal.
We should carefully watch and learn their superior techniques and also observe their shortcomings. In his view, the only thing China needed to regain its past glory was modern weapons. Learn more about the Taiping Rebellion. By the mids these arsenals were producing thousands of small arms generally comparable in quality to the breechloading Remington rifles used by Europeans.
However, the program was beset from the outset by a series of major obstacles, including a lack of raw materials and insufficient technical talent. There was also rampant corruption in the awarding of construction contracts and in the hiring of overpaid and incompetent foreign advisors. Consequently, naval construction during the Tongzhi Restoration proved to be slow, costly, and wholly inefficient.
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