Chinese Nationalism

In the 1800s China was facing many issues within and outside. Within there was the Taiping uprising lead by Hong Xiuquan, who thought he was the younger brother of Jesus, he wanted to get rid of the Qing dynasty. However he did not want to bring back the old dynasty, instead he wanted to bring a revolutionary change. Some of these changes included equality of men and women; to end foot binding, opium smoking, and more. Instead they wanted a industrial nation which consisted of health insurance, railroads, public education, etc. The Taiping uprising seemed to be succeeding at one point, the Qing dynasty seemed to be disappearing. However Qing loyalists put and end to this. Then the Chinese saw problems with opium many were addicted to the drug so the emperor decided to make it illegal. Lin Zexu led the campaign against opium by destroying millions of pounds of opium from western traders and kicking them out of the country. However this led to the first Opium War with Britain because they felt their rights were being violated. At the end of the war there were terms one being that allowed foreigners to live in China under their own laws, and opening ports for trade. The second Opium War gave more power to the British. The Chinese were losing control over China. Lastly there was also Boxer Rebellion, this rebellion killed many Europeans and even Chinese Christian. They laid a siege on Beijing foreign embassies. In the end however they were still under foreign rule. The Taiping uprising and the Boxer rebellion, which was a bit extreme, were all for one cause they wanted their country back. The Chinese were losing to much power and control over their country as you can see from the Opium wars the British gained too much power. Their idea of a nation was just pure Chinese as you can see from the Boxer rebellion. Their nationalism was directed against outer/foreign countries. Even though they didn't succeed, you can see that China was trying to take their country back into their own hands showing nationalism.

Strayer, 565-571