Opium Wars, Taiping Rebellion and the fall of the Tokugawa Shogunate
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Question
Who was Commissioner Lin Zexu?
Answer
Qing official sent to Canton in 1839 to stop the opium trade; destroyed over 20,000 chests of British opium, triggering the First Opium War.
Question
What did the Treaty of Nanjing (1842) do?
Answer
Ended the First Opium War: ceded Hong Kong Island to Britain, opened five treaty ports, paid an indemnity, and abolished the old Canton trade monopoly.
Question
What is 'extraterritoriality'?
Answer
A right that let foreigners in China's or Japan's treaty ports be tried under their own country's laws instead of the host country's laws.
Question
What did the Treaty of Beijing (1860) legalise?
Answer
The opium trade — alongside opening more ports and allowing foreign diplomats to live in Beijing, ending the Second Opium War.
Question
Who was Hong Xiuquan?
Answer
Failed civil-service exam candidate who believed he was Jesus Christ's younger brother; led the Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864) to build a 'Heavenly Kingdom.'
Question
Name three causes of the Taiping Rebellion.
Answer
Ethnic resentment (Hakka minority), economic hardship (overpopulation, high taxes), and a weak central government exposed by the Opium Wars.
Question
How did the Taiping Rebellion end, and at what cost?
Answer
Qing forces recaptured Nanjing in 1864 after Hong Xiuquan's death; an estimated 20–30 million people died, making it one of history's deadliest conflicts.
Question
Who was Zeng Guofan?
Answer
Loyalist Qing official who built a regional army that helped crush the Taiping Rebellion, shifting real power away from Beijing toward provincial leaders.
Question
Why was Tokugawa Japan's class system under strain before 1853?
Answer
Merchants (officially lowest class) grew wealthy from trade and lending, while samurai fell into debt and peasants suffered famine and heavy taxes — the rigid system no longer matched economic reality.
Question
What did Commodore Perry's expedition (1853–1854) achieve?
Answer
Forced Japan to sign the Convention of Kanagawa (1854), opening two ports and ending over 200 years of sakoku isolation.
Question
What does 'sonno joi' mean, and why did it matter?
Answer
'Revere the emperor, expel the barbarians' — a slogan expressing anger at the shogunate for caving to foreign treaties without consulting the emperor; fuelled the movement that toppled the shogunate.
Question
How did the Tokugawa Shogunate actually fall?
Answer
Domains Satsuma and Choshu allied against the weakened shogunate; Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigned in 1867, and the Boshin War (1868–1869) confirmed its collapse, restoring power to Emperor Meiji.
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Topic 20.7 hub
Challenges to traditional East Asian societies (1700–1868)
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