HISB58H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Most Favoured Nation, Industrial Revolution, Macartney Embassy
Document Summary
Week 4: western changing attitude toward china in the 18th and 19th cents. Conflict of jurisdiction and competing claims for sovereignty and supremacy. Opium war imperialism, profit, and ideology of liberty, free trade, and justice. *china was soon t become a semi-colonial country after 1842. Clash of empires and the opium war (1839-42: not clash of cultures - but clash of empires: polit. /econ. Interests (1) changes of the west image of china a. Early jesuit missionaries, leibniz, voltaire vs. montesquieu, daniel defoe, adam smith, Missionaries were major informants of china to colonists. M, d, a and h were neg. a/b chinese cult. tradition - l and v were positive; hegel: china could not get itself out of barbarianism without western guidance b. Industrial revolution gave foreigners confidence in their conquest of china. Needed natural resources, cheap labour and profit for their indust. rev. as well. Amer. or chinese torture used in the west (2) trade and legal disuputes a.
