China's Search for Renewal: Self-Strengthening to the Hundred Days (1861–1898)
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Question
What is the Tongzhi Restoration?
Answer
The Qing dynasty's recovery period after the Taiping Rebellion, beginning in 1861 when the boy-emperor Tongzhi took the throne under regents Prince Gong and Cixi.
Question
What was the guiding principle of the Self-Strengthening Movement?
Answer
"Chinese learning for the essence, Western learning for practical use" — adopt Western technology while keeping Confucian government unchanged.
Question
Who ran the Zongli Yamen and when was it established?
Answer
Prince Gong established it in 1861 as China's first office for handling foreign affairs on Western terms.
Question
Name two concrete achievements of the Self-Strengthening Movement.
Answer
The Jiangnan Arsenal (1865) and Fuzhou Navy Yard (1866) for modern weapons production, plus the Tongwen Guan (1862) foreign-language school.
Question
Why was the Self-Strengthening Movement structurally weak, even with real achievements?
Answer
It copied Western machines but never reformed politics, the civil service exams, or national command — power stayed with regional officials, and funds were sometimes diverted to court spending.
Question
What triggered the Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895?
Answer
Rivalry between China and Japan for influence over Korea, which both saw as a vital buffer state.
Question
What happened to the Beiyang Fleet at the Battle of the Yalu River?
Answer
It was destroyed by Japan's better-trained and better-coordinated navy in 1894.
Question
What did the Treaty of Shimonoseki (1895) require of China?
Answer
Recognize Korean independence, cede Taiwan and the Liaodong Peninsula to Japan, and pay a large indemnity.
Question
Compare the scope of reform in Qing China versus Meiji Japan before 1895.
Answer
China modernized only military technology under Self-Strengthening; Japan's Meiji reforms rebuilt the whole state — constitution, education, and a unified military.
Question
Who led the Hundred Days' Reform of 1898, and who was the key scholar-reformer behind it?
Answer
Emperor Guangxu backed the program, advised chiefly by scholar-reformer Kang Youwei.
Question
How did the Hundred Days' Reform differ in scope from Self-Strengthening?
Answer
It targeted institutions directly — education, the exam system, government structure, the military and the economy — not just weapons and technology.
Question
How did the Hundred Days' Reform end?
Answer
In September 1898, Cixi staged a coup backed by conservative officials, placed Guangxu under house arrest, cancelled the edicts, and had reformers executed or exiled (Kang Youwei fled abroad).
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Topic 20.9 hub
Early modernization and imperial decline in East Asia (1860–1912)
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