The Ming dynasty in the 1600s made considerable and deliberate efforts in a bid to ensure that its regions remain under one ruler. A Buddhist monk who was also a peasant found the dynasty, rose to the rank of an army general and led a rebellion against the Mongols. The monk assumed the name of Hong Wu and made the decision to have Nanjing as the capital of China, but a latter emperor of the dynasty moved the capital back to Beijing. One of the major roles that Hong Wu assumed as the emperor include reorganizing every aspect of government ad transforming the society in such a way as to prevent other people from taking over power. First, he eliminated the rank of the prime minister and assumed full control of over the civil service. The emperor also facilitated the enactment of new codes of law while also preventing the kind of social mobility that could enable peasants to rise to the status of emperor. Consequently, Hong Wu decided to restructure occupations to make them hereditary by establishing three classes of soldiers, peasants and artisans. Further, the armies of the Ming dynasty conquered the northern part of Vietnam, expanded the Great Wall in a bid to keep away the Mongols, redesigned the watchtowers and increased the cannons. It is also important to note that during its peak, the dynasty had considerably heavy protection with about one million men guarding it and its interests. Such protection was the major trigger of the economic growth in China with notable changes in various areas of the economy including agricultural, commercial, industrial, and naval exploration sectors. Ultimately, the Chinese naval technology during the Ming dynasty surpassed all other marine technologies in the world.
However, the maritime expeditions by the Ming dynasty came to a sudden stop given that they became expensive yet the conservative Neo-Confucian system of government concluded that the Chinese maritime developments were too much ahead of other nations that the dynasty could not gain much from foreign contacts. This move enabled the European powers to take over the Asian seas gradually. It is important to note that the European powers were aware of the silk and good spices that were originating from the Asian countries. As such, most European countries began to seek alternative routes through the seas in a bid to create channels through which they could gain access to the material goods in the regions of East Asia. Ultimately, the Ming dynasty heralded a commercial revolution in China during the 1600s as it began extensive and direct trade with other nations, especially in the European region. The extensive trade between China and various nations made the Chinese economy one of the major manufacturing countries in the world as the Chinese exchanged textiles, porcelain, and other manufactured goods with raw materials from foreign nations.
Although the Ming dynasty achieved considerable social and economic objectives, it began to decline as the competence of the emperor dwindled given that all the political power was concentrated on the ruler. Accordingly, the emperor concentrated considerable resources towards fighting the Mongols and the aggressive Manchus. The dynasty passed the burden of the foregoing expeditions to the public through heavy taxation, and this situation fuelled the rebellion. Increased rebellion required the dynasty to collect more taxes to sustain the resistance but by 1643, the treasuries of the Ming dynasty had no money left and without much resistance the Manchus marched on China and set up an administration system that had ministries. A Manchurian prince and five assistants who constituted at least one Chinese and one Mongol ran each of the ministries and this became the Ch’ing government. This government became the new establishment in China until 1911.
During the period when the Ch'ing (Qing) Empire ruled China, it became one of the most populated nations in the world and its economy thrived due to its flourishing trade with tea, porcelain, silk and other luxury goods. Accordingly, the arts industry flourished despite the fact that there was the propensity to lean towards conservative thinking. It is notable that the extensive export of manufactured goods from China had profound effect on the development and success of visual arts thus influencing the textiles, metalwork, ceramics, as well as architecture. Consequently, the Ch'ing Empire oversaw the construction of factories for the manufacture of porcelain and for the development of ceramics, which were still the main trading goods with the Western counties. During the eighteenth century, the Chinese began to blend the European and Chinese themes and techniques in their manufactured goods in a bid to increase trade with the West (The Metropolitan Museum of Art). The successive emperors under the Qing dynasty extended their influence to central Asia, especially between the mid and late eighteenth century. These emperors also developed the tributary system of international relations, but the foreign policy in some places such as Taiwan was similar to the control policy during colonialism (Teng 42).
One of the most notable emperors in the Qing dynasty was the Kangxi whose reign was the longest having been emperor for sixty-one years. To date, most scholars consider emperor Kangxi as one of the greatest rulers in Chinese history, mainly because his reign brought about relative wealth and lasting stability following years of conflict and turmoil (Magill). Some of Kangxi’s other achievements include the assemblage of the Kangxi dictionary. The Kangxi era is associated with the increase in the recognition of the work of missionaries and scholars. In order to show the way the emperor appreciated missionaries, it is noteworthy that various missionaries held important positions as mathematicians, astronomers, weapons experts, and consultants to the emperor.
The efforts of the Kangxi emperor laid a formidable foundation for the Chinese economy and military prowess to thrive. It is because of this foundation that between the year 1735 and 1796, the Chinese empire as able to reach its economic and military peak. However, towards the end of the seventeenth century, the empire experienced its initial decline in wealth and imperial control. This is because the population continued to grow reaching about 400 million people, yet the Qing Empire continued to maintain a low tax regime that was likely to lead to a financial crisis due to low government revenues. This condition led to corruption and frequent rebellions to test the legitimacy of the government, but most importantly, the ruling class failed to change their way of thinking despite considerable changes in the universal system. After the Opium War that took place from 1839 to 1842, the European powers were able to impose free trade, unequal treaties, extraterritorial ports that were under the control of foreign powers. The other setbacks during the reign of the Qing dynasty included the Taiping rebellion between the early 1850s and 1864 as well as the Dungan revolt from 1862 to 1877 in the central Asia that caused the death of about twenty million people. Notably, the Han Chinese elites began the defense of the Qing dynasty and the confusion order during the 1860s and this led to considerable gains. However, some of the achievements of the Han Chinese elites were eroded in the late nineteenth century during the First Sino-Japanese War that caused the Qing dynasty to lose the influence that it had over Taiwan and Korea. The Yihetuan who were mainly anti-foreign met the invasion of China by foreign powers with violence after the declaration of war against the latter by Empress Dowager and the war led to defeat. Following the war, the regime signed the Boxer Protocol that led to considerable administrative and fiscal reforms that established a new legal system, an electoral process, and eradication of the pre-existing examination system paving way for Confucian learning and neo-Confucian culture to thrive (Rowe 32). It is important to note that since the first opium war, the country of China became semi-feudal and semi-colonial therefore, there was no absolute peace and the volatility was finally exposed in the 1911 revolution headed by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, which eventually ended the reign of the Qing dynasty.
The modern era in the Chinese history began after the 1911 revolution. One of the key achievements of the revolution was the abandoning of the monarchical form of government and establishing a republican form of government. However, the republican principles soon crashed with the traditional Chinese values as some people sought to introduce Western principles while others, mainly the bourgeois, wanted to preserve the traditional Chinese culture based on Confucianism. As the conflicts between the pro-traditionalism and anti-traditionalism views, some scholars in favor of eradicating the traditional culture began to argue that the Confucian principles were responsible for the inability of the Chinese government to resist the Western and Japan influence in relation to political and military invasions during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The new culture movement began in 1915 and sought to establish a new culture after becoming disappointed with the traditional Chinese Confucian culture after the collapse of the republican government that had been established in 1912 for the purposes of addressing the challenges that China was experiencing. The failure of the republican government led to the “Warlord period” where various factions began to fight each other in an effort to take control. During this period, China’s foreign relations continued to decline and in 1919, the terms that the Treaty of Versailles imposed on China led to the May Fourth Movement that became a national movement to protest the situation on China. The protests were successful given that the Chinese government did not sign the Treaty of Versailles (Ebrey 271).
During the early 1920s, some people began the narrative that portrayed Marxism as the solution to China’s continued subjugation by imperial powers. For instance, Sun Yat-sen embraced the Marxist principles and entered into an association with the Soviet Union, which helped his revolutionary movement to forge an alliance with the Communist Party of China. Ultimately, the establishment of the communist party in China marked the beginning of socialist ideology among the Chinese people. Chinese Communist Party, which was founded in 1921 for the sole purpose of establishing a revolution based on the socialist ideology. The movement began popularizing the Marxist principles in rural areas urging peasants to embrace new reforms and resist the Japanese influence (Asia for Educators n. pag). Following the defeat of Japan during the First World War in 1945, the communists and the nationalists resumed the civil war that had began before World War I as the two movements fought for the right to lead the Chinese economic and political growth towards re-establishing China as a competitive world power. Under the stewardship of Mao Zedong, the communist movement triumphed over the nationalist faction in 1949 and the former established the People’s Republic of China (Ebrey 271). Those supporting the defeated nationalist movement relocated to Taiwan where the Japanese forces that had occupied the territory surrendered to the Republic of China troops after the end of the World War II (Imperial General Headquarters n. pag).
Under the leadership of Mao Zedong and the People's Republic of China, the Chinese government embarked on ambitious social and economic strategies. In order to achieve the projected socio-economic objectives, the Chinese government perpetrated millions of deaths as it began a system of forced labor. Accordingly, from the 1966, the government began a cultural movement whose inspiration was the struggle for power within the leading People’s Republic of China party. The movement also generated apprehension of the Soviet Union, a situation that caused recurrent disruptions within the Chinese society. With regard to the foreign affairs, it is important to note that the Mao and Zhou Enlai made efforts to establish relations with other nations as evidenced by their meeting with the then U.S. President, Richard Nixon, in the Chinese capital Beijing as the two Chinese leaders were keen to establish cordial relations with the United States. Those efforts were fruitful as evidenced by the fact that the United Nations admitted the People’s Republic of China as its member with a permanent membership to the UN Security Council. Although there was a power struggle following the death of Mao, Deng Xiaoping became the paramount leader even though he never ascended to the leadership of the party or the state. Xiaoping’s influence became apparent following the considerable influence he had on the Chinese economic reforms. Under Xiaoping, the communist party eventually relaxed its clasp over the personal lives of the people and there was the disbandment of the communes as the government facilitated the issuing of land leases to the peasants in a bid to motivate the citizens to increase agricultural production. In this regard, the Xiaoping regime facilitated China’s transition to a mixed economy through providing an open market environment while abandoning the previous economy, which was pre-planned (Hart-Landsberg n. pag). It is important to note that during the reign of Xiaoping the People’s Republic of China adopted the constitution that is in use to date. Ultimately, the market socialism that the Xiaoping regime created during his reign until his retirement in 1989 created some level of democracy, which was elusive during previous regimes.
The death of Hu Yaobang, a high-ranking member of the Communist Party and an ally of Xiaoping, who had managed to pursue various political and economic reforms despite resistance from some of the senior leaders of the Party, caused protests. The opponents of Yaobang did not want to continue with market liberalization and transparency. The university students had staged protests in 1986 to influence the government to adopt the freedoms like the ones enjoyed in the Western nations and despite pressure from senior officials in the government including Xiaoping to have Yaobang dismiss the student leaders from the communist party the latter took no action. His opponents within the Communist Party forced Yaobang to resign from the position of the general secretary of the party. The promotion of Li Peng to the position of premier did not dampen the mood of the students to demand for greater freedoms and Yaobang’s death in 1989 triggered more protests against alleged nepotism in the regime (Brook 26). It is important to note that the freedom of speech that Yaobang had promoted during his reign as the general secretary of the Communist Party had considerable influence on the protests. Realizing that the continued debate regarding the political reforms that Yaobang championed was likely to destabilize China, the government decided to deal with the protests decisively leading to the death of many protesters in the hands of security forces. Subsequently, the government decided to censor all debates and publications about Yaobang and his legacy. This censorship marked the begging of the end of the freedom of expression and press in China as the government began to control debates and publications that were likely to harm its reputation.
Although the Chinese government received much international condemnation for its violent reaction to the protesters and its policies that limited freedom of speech and press, it was able to continue motivating economic growth. The Chinese economic reforms under subsequent regimes continued to liberate millions of peasants from poverty while maintaining a sustainable growth domestic product eventually becoming a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the year 2001. Notably, at the height of economic reforms in the 1980s, China was able to sign various regional trade agreements making it gain the observer category with the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) and began to work towards becoming a member from 1986. Accordingly, the Chinese government was keen on being a founding member of the WTO but it faced frustration from foreign economic powers such as Japan, the United States, and European nations that wanted China to make several changes to its policies to embrace an open market policy. The inclusion of China as a founding member of WTO would have elevated its status to a global economic power; nevertheless, it achieved the status in 2001 (Bransetter 655). Today, China has a rapid economic growth, an aspect that translates to improved living standards for the Chinese people. However, with an unprecedented increase in manufacturing industries, concerns regarding pollution and the effects it has on the people have been on the rise causing the government to begin adopting stringent economic measures in the recent past.
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