How did the First and Second Sino-Japanese War contribute to a century of Chinese humiliation?
1 Answer
Through the 19th Century, various European powers forced China open for trade and exploitation, but for Chinese, the nadir of their vulnerability came as Japan -itself an Asia nation -- joined in.
Explanation:
In the late 18th and 19th Century, the Qing Dynasty had treated foreign traders with contempt, taking the traditional view that all outsiders were Barbarians. There was a high demand for tea, silk and ceramics, but the Chinese government refused anything but silver in return (which led to economic problems in much of the world). Western merchants took a high hand in response, and soon found that smuggling opium opened all manner of doors.
The Qing Dynasty took action and promptly lost the 1st and 2nd Opium Wars in the 1840s -- which revealed the stunning weaknesses of Qing administration and its military. Led by the British and then the Americans, foreign traders won 'extraterritorial' concessions (largely to protect their nationals from Chinese laws, which were often harsh and arbitrary). Where the British and Americans led, the French, Russians, and soon the Germans followed... all demanding increasingly advantageous concessions from China as well,
The Qing struggled to adapt and re-exert their authority, but were entirely unequal to the task. Japan, which had also been pryed open in the 1850s and '60s, proved much more adapt at modernizing itself. In 1894, the Japanese proved how successful they were and the First Sino-Japanese War resulted in the Japanese occupation of Taiwan, several islands, and extraterritorial concessions of their own. It also cleared the way to the Japanese occupation of Korea.
For the next 40 years, Japan felt it could bully China into accepting any number of conditions -- and Chinese nationalism grew accordingly. The 2nd Sino-Japanese War began in 1937, but was eventually subsumed into the Second World War; an estimated 15 million Chinese died between 1937 and 1945.
