CAS PO 350 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Lin Zexu, Confucianism, Extraterritoriality
25 Nov 2017
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
1/27 lecture: china and the impact of the west. Chinese carving up for control/influence of western powers. Obviously driven by western pressures of greed and profit. Also allowed by its own victimization to some degree. Wars and regime backwardness allowed for some invasion. China was never fully colonized but suffered from the separation of the states by multiple. Confucianist style of thinking resisted change, favored what it thought would be stability. Investments in technological innovation didn"t happen, so industrialization didn"t either. Diplomacy was an issue because any outsiders were subject to an inferior position in front of the chinese officials/emperors, refused to meet as equals. Because of industrialization, western nations had to expand markets to sell their goods, and ultimately the scarcity of resources pressured them to colonize. Western diplomacy took two forms: equal diplomacy and imperialism. Often the distinction was the discrepancy of power, defined largely by the development of weaponry.
