Qing China under strain: from Qianlong's empire to the Opium Wars
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Flip to reveal answersWho was the Qing emperor whose long reign (1735–1796) marked the empire's territorial peak but also its first hidden cracks?
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All 12 Flashcards — Qing China under strain: from Qianlong's empire to the Opium Wars
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Question
Who was the Qing emperor whose long reign (1735–1796) marked the empire's territorial peak but also its first hidden cracks?
Answer
Qianlong — expanded the empire hugely, but late in his reign corruption (Heshen) and population pressure began weakening the state.
Question
What was the Mandate of Heaven?
Answer
The belief that the emperor ruled with Heaven's approval; disasters or rebellions were read as signs that approval was being withdrawn.
Question
Who was Heshen and why does he matter?
Answer
A corrupt official who used his closeness to the aging Qianlong to drain the treasury and install loyal allies, weakening the Qing bureaucracy just before the crises of the 1800s.
Question
What was the White Lotus Rebellion (1796–1804)?
Answer
A major internal uprising by a secret religious sect, rooted in poverty and corruption, that exposed the weakness of the regular Qing Banner army.
Question
Why did the Qing need local militia to defeat the White Lotus rebels?
Answer
The regular Banner army had grown weak after decades without major war, so gentry-funded local militia had to help crush the revolt.
Question
What was the Canton System?
Answer
The Qing policy (from 1757) restricting all Western trade to the port of Canton, controlled through licensed Chinese merchant guilds called the Cohong.
Question
What was the Macartney Mission (1793) and why did it fail?
Answer
A British embassy seeking equal trading rights with Qianlong's court; it failed because Britain refused to perform the tribute rituals China required.
Question
Why did Britain start selling opium to China?
Answer
Britain bought far more Chinese goods (tea, silk) than China bought from Britain, draining British silver; opium reversed that trade imbalance by creating Chinese demand.
Question
Who was Lin Zexu and what did he do in 1839?
Answer
The Qing commissioner who seized and destroyed British opium stocks at Canton, directly triggering the First Opium War.
Question
Compare the causes of the First and Second Opium Wars.
Answer
First (1839–42): triggered by Lin Zexu's opium crackdown. Second (1856–60): triggered by the Arrow incident and Britain/France's demand for further trading rights.
Question
What were the key terms of the Treaty of Nanjing (1842)?
Answer
China ceded Hong Kong Island, opened five treaty ports, paid an indemnity, and accepted fixed low tariffs.
Question
What made the Nanjing, Tianjin and Beijing treaties 'unequal treaties'?
Answer
China had no real bargaining power: they granted extraterritoriality, fixed tariffs China couldn't change, and forced open trade — humiliating the Qing state.
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Topic 20.7 hub
Challenges to traditional East Asian societies (1700–1868)
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