Sino-British Opium War

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feifei

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popular emphasis has tended to be on qing as the chief culprit of Sino-British Opium War , but in my view,Confucius Culture have an vast impact on Sino-British Opium War，histroy clear show technological progress，such as firearm，ship，has generally provoked resistance form Confucius Culture in China.so individual volition have the ablitiy to block technological progress temporarily and then failed to live up to expectation.
in short, individual volition is not key question.
 
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Damingli85

Junior Member
I always thought China during that time was ignorant and thought that they were superior. However I realized from reading that LinZeXue himself realized how strong the English were naval wise, and actually fortified and defended Guangdong. With that said, why didn't the entire country do the same?
 
Roger604

Roger604

Senior Member
Actually, the Qing Dynasty was extremely powerful in its first 60 years!

But from the year 1700 to the year 1800, China did not advance at all. When the Europeans came knocking on the door in 1800, China was still stuck at the same technology level as 100 years ago. Meanwhile, 1700-1800 was a most dramatic century for Europe.

The main reasons for the freeze in development from 1700 to 1800 were:

- The widespread corruption of officials that lead to the fall of the Ming in 1640 was still there, not uprooted

- Exhaustion of the treasury accumulated from Ming Dynasty from long distance wars

- Problematic relations between semi-Sinocized Manchu rulers and Han Chinese, leading to strict "thought control" policy stifling formerly innovative Chinese civilization
 
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Damingli85

Junior Member
I don't get it, didn't the Kangxi Emperor hire westerners? I am sure the Qianlong Emperor also hired westerners, couldn't they hire western weapon manufacturers? I believe that the skills and capability for advanced weaponry was there, but most of the officials were too stupid or arrogant to utilize them. Hell, the Euros traded for a few decades in the 1800s, there is no way that the empire didn't realize that their cannons were useless. I am sure they could very well spend some money to buy their cannons. All in all, the Qing officials were too arrogant and stupid to realize reality.
 
FriedRiceNSpice

FriedRiceNSpice

Captain
They were more interested in astronomy (with a dash of astrology thrown in) and Western style gardens and architecture than weapons... In fact, a whole section of the summer palace was built with Western style architecture. Ironically, it was Western armies that burnt the palace down. However, this wasn't always the case. Early on in the Qing era, there was actually a Jesuit adviser to the emperor that helped in improving Qing cannon-making techniques. As time went on, the Manchus became more close minded and ignorant.
 
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Spike

Banned Idiot
The Qing depended on the Jesuits for much of their early information from Europe, usually on academic subjects such as astronomy, mathematics, etc. They were not so interested in what the Jesuits truly wanted to "teach" them: religion and philosophy.

Anyways, remember that in Europe there was a huge controversy brewing between the scientific community and the Catholic Church. The Jesuits, being an agency of the Catholic Church, had transferred a lot of scientific/astronomical knowledge to the Chinese that had actually been proven incorrect by other European scientists. When the Chinese found out, this cooled their receptiveness to European, or at least Jesuit knowledge.
 
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Violet Oboe

Junior Member
Repelling an amphibious invasion with the contemporary available means was not an easy task in the mid 19th century. E.g. Russia did not even attempt to prevent or delay the anglo-french landings on the Crimea in 1853 (Crimean War 1853-56) since the necessary railway links for transporting troops and materiel down to the Black Sea region were simply not existent. Similarly St. Peterburg could only watch in frustration as a British expeditionary fleet occupied and destroyed the Russian baltic sea naval base on the archipelago of Aland in 1855.

As China was in comparison militarily thoroughly inferior to Russia during this period of time the only option would have been to draw invading forces deep into the Mainland of China employing scorching earth tactics and waging a total peoples war. Possibly the course of history would have been altered if the rotten Qing regime would have been only capable of organizing determined resistance but this alternative was of course never explored...
 
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Spike

Banned Idiot
Violet Oboe said:
Repelling an amphibious invasion with the contemporary available means was not an easy task in the mid 19th century. E.g. Russia did not even attempt to prevent or delay the anglo-french landings on the Crimea in 1853 (Crimean War 1853-56) since the necessary railway links for transporting troops and materiel down to the Black Sea region were simply not existent. Similarly St. Peterburg could only watch in frustration as a British expeditionary fleet occupied and destroyed the Russian baltic sea naval base on the archipelago of Aland in 1855.

As China was in comparison militarily thoroughly inferior to Russia during this period of time the only option would have been to draw invading forces deep into the Mainland of China employing scorching earth tactics and waging a total peoples war. Possibly the course of history would have been altered if the rotten Qing regime would have been only capable of organizing determined resistance but this alternative was of course never explored...
Click to expand...
There was an incident along the Yangtze where a British landing party was repulsed... by peasants (led by local gentry) with cruddy weapons. It proved that local forces could be more effective, but the risk was that they could get out of control. The Qing did not resort to this tactic until they were desperate during the Taiping rebellion. Some of their reservations were proven correct during the warlord period.
 
FriedRiceNSpice

FriedRiceNSpice

Captain
There was an incident along the Yangtze where a British landing party was repulsed... by peasants (led by local gentry) with cruddy weapons.
Click to expand...

Are you referring to the incident in which the British had their gunpowder ruined by rain/moisture, and had to fight using only bayonets?
 
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