Early modernization and imperial decline in East Asia (1860–1912)

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.

"Chinese learning for the essence, Western learning for practical use" — adopt Western technology while keeping Confucian government unchanged.

Prince Gong established it in 1861 as China's first office for handling foreign affairs on Western terms.

The Jiangnan Arsenal (1865) and Fuzhou Navy Yard (1866) for modern weapons production, plus the Tongwen Guan (1862) foreign-language school.

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.

Rivalry between China and Japan for influence over Korea, which both saw as a vital buffer state.

It was destroyed by Japan's better-trained and better-coordinated navy in 1894.

Recognize Korean independence, cede Taiwan and the Liaodong Peninsula to Japan, and pay a large indemnity.

China modernized only military technology under Self-Strengthening; Japan's Meiji reforms rebuilt the whole state — constitution, education, and a unified military.

Emperor Guangxu backed the program, advised chiefly by scholar-reformer Kang Youwei.

It targeted institutions directly — education, the exam system, government structure, the military and the economy — not just weapons and technology.

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).

1868 event where samurai reformers overthrew the shogun and restored power to Emperor Meiji, launching rapid modernization to avoid China's fate.

"Rich country, strong army" — the Meiji government's guiding slogan for modernization.

Created an elected Diet (parliament) but kept sovereignty and military control with the emperor; limited voting rights.

Large family-run industrial and financial conglomerates (e.g. Mitsubishi, Mitsui) that grew from state-subsidized beginnings during Meiji industrialization.

Japan defeated Qing China over influence in Korea; Treaty of Shimonoseki gave Japan Taiwan and forced China to recognize Korean "independence."

Japan defeated Russia over rival claims in Korea and Manchuria — the first modern defeat of a European power by an Asian one.

Forced Korea to open its ports to Japanese trade — Korea's own "unequal treaty," ending its isolation policy.

Powerful figure at the Korean court who tried to balance Chinese, Japanese and Russian influence to preserve Korean independence; assassinated by Japanese agents in 1895.

Korean peasant uprising against corruption and foreign influence; both China and Japan sent troops to help suppress it, sparking the Sino-Japanese War.

After two victorious wars and years of tightening control, Japan formally annexed Korea, ending its independence.

Japan (Meiji): centralized state, whole government committed, succeeded. China (Self-Strengthening, see Part 1): divided bureaucracy, resistant conservatives, largely failed.

Fear of colonization — they had watched China humiliated in the Opium Wars and unequal treaties, and wanted to avoid the same fate.