Themes In World History Chapter 11 Paths To Modernisation

The Examination System:

i. Entry to the elite ruling class (about 1.1 million till 1850) had been largely through an examination. This required writing an eight-legged essay in classical Chinese in a prescribed form.
ii. The examination was held twice every three years, at different levels and of those allowed to sit only 1-2 percent passed the first level, usually at the age of 24, to become what was called ‘beautiful talent’.
iii. At any given time before 1850, there were about 526,869 civil and 212,330 military provincials (sheng yuan) degree holders in the whole country. Since there were only 27,000 official positions, many lower-level degree holders did not have jobs.
iv. The examination acted as a barrier to the development of science and technology as it demanded only literary skills. In 1905, it was abolished as it was based on skills in classical Chinese learning that had, it was felt, no relevance for the modern world.

The Opium trade:

i. The demand for Chinese goods such as tea, silk and porcelain created a serious balance-of-trade problem. Western goods did not find a market in China, so payment had to be in silver.

ii. The East India Company found a new option – opium, which grew in India. They sold the opium in China and gave the silver that they earned to company agents in Canton in return for letters of credit.

iii. The Company used the silver to buy tea, silk and porcelain to sell in Britain. This was the ‘triangular trade’ between Britain, India and China.

The complete independence and unification of China.

Chinese Kuomintang:
The Kuomintang Party was established in 1912 by a nationalist leader of China, Sun Yat Sen. It had three main aims:

(i) To liberate China from the foreign domination.

(ii) To establish modern democratic institutions in China.
(iii) To liberate the peasants from the clutches of the feudal lords by introducing land reforms.

The party became very popular under Dr. Sun Yat Sen. 

2. Japan's acquisitions: Japan occupied Manchuria in 1931 and established there its puppet government. Some years later Japan invaded China with full vigour but no other country came to China's help.

3. Italy's acquisition: In October 1935, Italy invaded Ethiopia and despite League's protests annexed it.

The other countries hoped that these invasions would ultimately be directed against U.S.S.R. They did not want U.S.S.R. to emerge as a super power. So they followed a policy of appeasement towards the aggressors.

Firstly, the economic system of the two countries were quite different.

Secondly, USA had not so far given recognition to People's Republic of China. It recognised Chiang's Government of Nationalist China working in Taiwan. In the U.N. also Taiwan was recognised as real China. But in 1972, American President Nixon suddenly planned to visit China.
This development was the result of diplomatic discussions which had been going on for the last ten years. These secret negotiations are known as Ping Pong diplomacy. Pakistan also played an important role in bringing the two countries nearer.
Finally, in March 1972, Nixon visited China. He gave recognition to the People's Republic of China. Thus People's Republic of China took the place of Taiwan. So diplomatic relations were established between Communist China and the U.S.A.

Major developments were:

(i) Peasants were not allowed to carry arms, the only samurai could carry swords now.

(ii) Disarmament of the peasants helped in establish peace and prosperity.

(iii) The growth of population led to the growth of the commercial economy.

(iv) The growth of precious metals restricted.

(v) Theatre and arts were patronised in towns.

(vi) People developed reading habits.

(vii) Land surveys were made.

The Qing dynasty could not meet the challenges posed by the western powers. They utterly failed. The Qing dynasty also demanded change in the country. But they also failed in this endeavour.

Japan followed closed economy approach for 250 years. It's only after Meiji restoration Japan adopted the open economy approach and japan was modernised in all sectors including transportation, education, administration, communication and industrialisation.Japan become highly developed in first half of 20th century. As japan become highly industrialised it also entered into a race of imperialism in order to meet its increasing demands for raw material and market.Increasing aspiration for imperialism resulted in war with china in 1894 and with Russia(1904-1905).

Further, demand for raw material resulted in exploitation of natural resources. In this way, industrialisation had an adverse impact on the environment too. However, Japan’s development had challenged hegemony of west and it provided confidence to other Asian countries.

2. The daimyo was ordered to live in the capitals of their domains, each with a large degree of autonomy.

3. Land surveys identified owners and taxpayers and graded land productivity to ensure a stable revenue base.

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The Guomindang despite its attempts to unite the country failed because of its narrow social base and limited political vision. A major plank in Sun Yat-Sen's programme - regulating capital and equalising land was never carried out because the party ignored the peasantry and the rising social inequalities.
It sought to impose military order rather then address the problems faced by the people.

The Cultural Revolution began a period of turmoil, weakened the Party and severely disrupted the economy and educational system.

The question of re-unification with the mainland remains a contentious issue but 'Cross Strait' relations (that is between Taiwan and China) have been improving and Taiwanese trade and investments in the mainland are massive and travel has also become easier.

China may be willing to tolerate a semi-autonomous Taiwan as long as it gives up any move to seek independence.

The Chinese path to modernisation was very different. Foreign imperialism, both Western and Japanese, combined with a hesitant and unsure Qing dynasty to weaken government control and set the stage for a breakdown of political and social order leading to immense misery for most of the people.
Warlordism, banditry and civil war exacted a heavy toll on human lives, as did the savagery of the Japanese invasion. Natural disasters added to this burden.

The Long March was a military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China, the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang (KMT or Chinese Nationalist Party) army. There was not one Long March, but a series of marches, as various Communist armies in the south escaped to the north and west.

On 4 May 1919, an angry demonstration was held in Beijing to protest against the decisions of the post-war peace conference. Despite being an ally of the victorious side led by Britain, China did not get back the territories seized from it. 

1. As in most of the countries in the 19th century, the rising middle class in China also realized the necessity of reform. Through the efforts of students and others emerged many secret clubs eager to take their country forward.
Their premier revolutionary organization, Tong Meng Hui was led by a physician Dr. Sun Yat-Sen (1866-1925), a Christian. He was greatly helped by the prosperous Chinese diaspora.

2. The revolutionary programme of Tong Meng Hui was based on three principles namely Peoples' Rules or Democracy's Peoples Nationalism and Peoples' Livelihood. They had an agenda of political reform and played a major role in the revolution of 1911, which posted the Manchu dynasty.
Sun-Yat-Sen became the first President but only for a fortnight. Their new capital was at Nanjing. His successor, General Yuan Shikai was more inclined towards the monarchical regime, and not much really changed for the better.

3. The Chinese got a fairly liberal Constitution in 1912, but it did not last long : it was suspended. This was a signal for chaos. The rural landed gentry in collaboration with the military governors known as the Warlords were now the effective rulers of China.
They were rapacious in collection of taxes and ruthless otherwise. Sun Yat Sen had to flee abroad, and he founded another political party - Ching Kuomintang (Revolutionary Party of China).

4. Yuan Shikai enjoyed the support of the eimperial powers and he banned the revolutionary organizations. China was so weak that Japan demanded its immediate compliance with some atrocious demands known as the 21 points.

5. China joined the Allied Powers in the Ist World War. The 21 demands made by Japan on China in January 1915, was an ultimatum which had to be accepted by the later within 48 hours. It not only sought practical control over Manchuria but also a virtual dominance over China.
It has been described as the first enunciation of the policy of Asia for the Asiatic as propounded by Japan. Hence it is also called a Japanese version of 'Asiatic Monroe doctrine'. China accepted most of demands. It was a big blow to her prestige. The USA kept quiet after protesting that it was violative of the 'Open door policy'.

6. After the end of the First World War, Sun Yat-Sen with the help of warlords set up a government with headquarters at Canton. Despite political instability and growing uncertainty, China was economically doing quiet well.
Modern industries were growing up in Wuhan on the Yangtze river and Shenyang in southern Manchuria and investment was flowing in Chinese middlemen called compradors helped the western companies in their marketing operations.
Certain sectors of economy related to electricity, kerosene, tobacco, looms for textile production and stem-ships showed growth and technological improvement. Progress in the educational field was another important development. Here western influence was very important.

7. One important political development of this period was the massive demonstration by the students of Peking University on 4 May 1919, known as the May Fourth movement. It spread to other parts of the country. It was directed against their politicians and foreign powers.
Besides students, the May Fourth movement also enjoyed the support of the teachers, workers and men from the business community. It started as a protest against Shantung provisions. Boycott of forigen goods was an item on their agenda too. This movement has been seen as a part of a Large Culture Movement covering the period 1916-1921.
It was a major manifestation of the resurgent Chinese nationalism. It was then that the Communist Party was set up in Shanghai in 1921 with Lenin's Comintern providing help.

8. Sun Yat-Sen gradually came under the communist influence and revised his three principles to accommodate the Chinese Communist Party in the First United Front (1924). Backed up by them, Sun Yat-Sen set up a military academy at Whampoa, near Canton. The Kuomintang Party and the Communists then set up an United Front to tackle the political problem.

9. There were frequent clashes between the foreign owned factories protected by foreign security forces and the nationalists. Scores of Chinese protesters were killed. The Communists made use of the propaganda department of the United Front Government to popularize their ideas among the working class people.
This was one of the reasons for the final break with the Nationalist Government. Finally, the Shanghai massacres (1927) led to the end of the United Front.

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The Role of Mao Zedong in the Chinese Communist Revolution and his strategy of Revolution :

1. The Japanese went on carving out more and more areas in China and exploited them. They set up a puppet regime in Manchuria called Manchukuo. The Communists, then led by Mao Zedong were also getting organized. Rural Soviets numbering a dozen had sprung up in various parts of China by 1930.

2. The Communists generally created sociopolitical consciousness among the peasantry, initiated much needed land reforms, and generated a new atmosphere in this agrasian society.
There were armed clashes between the landed gentry and the peasants inspired by Maoist ideology. Mao had deviated from the Soviet Communist Party line (Lilisan).

3. Mao gradually consolidated his position and realized that in a less industrialized society like that of China, the peasantry alone can play a revolutionary role. He moved into the interior regions of China and set up his authority known as the 'Jiangxi Soviet'.
There were series of armed clashes between Chiang's army and Mao's men in 1934. The Communists could not stand the attack and then Mao with 1,50,000 followers had to beat a hasty retreat to the Yenan province.
It is estimated that only 30,000 of them ultimately survived and reached their destination. This retreat came to be known in the Communist folklore as the 'Long March'.

4. Chaing, then faced a rebellion from his troops, who wanted him to patch up with the Communists and put up an united challenge to the rampaging Japanese army. In fact, Chiang was even help a prisoner (December 1936) by his men. Chiang realized the urgency of the problem and confronted the Japanese but the Chinese were crushed by December 1937.
The Japanese captured the Kuomintang capital, Nanjing, after dealing ruthlessly with the Chinese-both their military and civilians. Chiang moved his capital to Chongqing. Mao had emerged as the undisputed leader of the Communists. Chiang secured the American support after 1941 while Communists consolidated themselves.

5. The Communist Party, on the other hand, was a party of workers and peasants. In the areas under Communist Party’s control, the estates of landlords had been expropriated and the land distributed among the peasants.
Because of the policies pursued by the Communist Party, it gradually had won over millions of Chinese people to its side. The Communist Party had also organized a huge army called the People's Liberation Army. After the defeat of Japan and the driving out of the Japanese forces from China the Civil War again broke out. The Government of the United State gave massive aid to Chiang kai Shek, but by 1949 his armies were completely routed.
With the remnants of his troops, Chaing kai-Shek went to Taiwan (Formosa), an island which had been occupied by Japan after she had defeated China in 1895. On Ist October, 1949, the People's Republic of China was proclaimed and the Communist Party of China under the leadership of Mao Zedong came to power.

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2. The rapid rebuilding of the Japanese economy after its shattering defeat was called a post war 'miracle'. But it was more than that it was firmly rooted in its long history.
The constitution was democratised only now, but the Japanese had a historic tradition of popular struggles and intellectual engagement with how to broaden political participation. The social cohesion of the pre-war years was strengthened, allowing for a close working of the government, bureaucracy and industry.
US support, as well as the demand created by the Korean and the Vietnamese wars also helped the Japanese economy.

3. The 1964 Olympics held in Tokyo marked a symbolic coming of age. In much the same way the network of high- speed Shinkansen or bullet trains, started in 1964, which ran at 200 miles per hour (now it is 300 miles per hour) have come to represent the ability of the Japanese to use advanced technologies to produce better and cheaper goods.

4. The 1960s saw the growth of civil society movements as industrialisation had been pushed with utter disregard to its effect on health and enviornment. Cadmium poisoning, which led to painful disease, was an early indicator, followed by mercury poisoning in Minamata in the 1960s and problems caused by air pollution in the early 1970s.
Grass-roots pressure groups began to demand recognition of these problems as well as compensation for the victims. Government action and new legal regulations helped to improve conditions.

5. From the mid 1980s there has been an increasing decline in interest in environmental issues as Japan enacted some of the strictest environmental controls in the world.
Today, as a developed country it faces the challenge of using its political and technological capabilities to maintain its position as a leading world power.

The negative example of colonised countries worked powerfully on Chinese thinkers. The partition of Poland in the eighteenth century was a much discussed example. So much so that by the late 1890s it came to be used as a verb: 'to Poland us' (bolan wo).
India was another such example. In 1903, the thinker Liang Qichao, who believed that only by making people aware that China was a nation would they be able to resist the West, wrote that India was 'a country that was destroyed by a non-country that is the East India Company'.

He criticised Indians for being cruel to their own people and subservient to the British. Such arguments carried a powerful appeal as ordinary Chinese could see that the British used Indian soldiers in their wars on China.

Above all many felt that traditional ways of thinking had to be changed. Confucianism, developed from the teachings of Confucius (551-479 BCE) and his disciples, was concerned with good conduct, practical wisdom and proper social relationships.
It influenced the Chinese attitude toward life, provided social standards and laid the basis for political theories and institutions. It was now seen as a major barrier to new ideas and institutions.

To train people in modern subjects students were sent to study in Japan, Britain and France and bring back new ideas. Many Chinese students went to Japan in the 1890s.
They not only brought back new ideas but many became leading republicans. The Chinese borrowed even Japanese translations of European words such as justice, rights, and revolution because they used the same ideographic script, a reversal of the traditional relationship.
In 1905, just after the Russo-Japanese war (a war fought on Chinese soil and over Chinese territory) the centuries old Chinese examination system that gave candidates entry into the elite ruling class was abolished.

2. The CCP had been founded in 1921, soon after the Russian Revolution. The Russian success exercised a powerful influence around the world and leaders such as Lenin and Trotsky went on to establish the Comintern o the Third International in march 1918 to help bring about a world governmnet that would end exploitation.

3. The Comintern and the Soviet Union supported communist parties around the world but they worked within the traditional Marxist understanding that revolution would be brought about by the working class in cities.
Its initial appeal across national boundaries was immense but it soon became a tool for Soviet interests and was dissolved in 1943. Mao Zedong (1893-1976), who emerged as a mzy’or CCP leader, took a different path by basing his revolutionary programme on the peasantry. His success made the CCP a powerful political force that ultimately won against the Guomindang.

4. Mao Zedong's radical approach can be seen in Jiangxi, in the mountains, where they camped from 1928 to 1934, secure from Guomindang attacks. A strong peasants council (soviet) was organised, united through confiscation and redistribution of land. Mao, unlike other leaders, stressed the need for an independent government and army.
He had become aware of women's problems and supported the emergence of rural women's associations, promulgated a new marriage law that forbade arranged marriages, stopped purchase or sale of marriage contracts and simplified divorce.

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Massive demonstrations in February 1947 had led the GMD to brutally kill a whole generation of leading figures. The GMD, under Chiang Kai-Shek went on to establish a repressive government forbidding free speech and political opposition and excluding the local population from positions of power.
However, they carried out land reforms that increased agricultural productivity and modernised the economy so that by 1973 Taiwan had a GNP second only to that of Japan in Asia.
The economy, largely dependent on trade has been steadily growing, but what is important is that the gap between the rich and poor has been steadily declining.

Even more dramatic has been the transformation of Taiwan into a democracy. It began slowly after the death of Chiang in 1975 and grew in momentum when martial law was lifted in 1987 and opposition parties were legally permitted.
The first free elections began the process of bringing local Taiwanese to power. Diplomatically most countries have only trade missions in Taiwan. Full diplomatic relations and embassies are not possible as Taiwan is considered to be part of China.

The question of re-unification with the mainland remains a contentious issue but “Cross Strait” relations (that is between Taiwan and China) have been improving and Taiwanese trade and investments in the mainland are massive and travel has also become easier.
China may be willing to tolerate a semi-autonomous Taiwan as long as it gives up any move to seek independence.

ii. Japan's programme of modernisation was carried out in an environment dominated by Western imperial powers. While it imitated them it also attempted to find its own solutions.
Japanese nationalism was marked by these different compulsions - while many Japanese hoped to liberate Asia from Western domination, for others these ideas justified building an empire.

iii. It is important to note that the transformation of social and political institutions and daily life was not just a question of reviving traditions, or tenaciously preserving them, but rather of creatively using them in new and different ways.
For instance, the Meiji school system, modelled on European and American practices, introduced new subjects but the curriculum's main objective was to make loyal citizens. A course on morals that stressed loyalty to the emperor was compulsory.
Similarly, changes in the family or in daily life show how foreign and indigenous ideas were brought together to create something new.

4. The Chinese path to modernisation was very differnt. Foreign imperialsim, both Western and Japanese, combined with a hesitant and unsure Qing dynasty to weaken government control and set the stage for a breakdown of political and social order leading to immense misery for most of the people.
Warlordism, banditry and civil war exacted a heavy toll on human lives, as did the savagery of the Japanese invasion. Natural disasters added to this burden.

5. The nineteenth and twentieth centuries saw a rejection of traditions and a search for ways to build national unity and strength. The CCP and its supporters fought to put an end to tradition, which they saw as keeping the masses in poverty, the women subjugated and the country undeveloped.