Sino-Japanese War and Other Wars and Their Consequences(1839-42)
Click on the names to hear how they are pronounced
During the Sino Japanese war, about 30 million innocent Chinese and Asians were slaughtered by the Japanese army. Yet now, the Japanese want to forget all about this by chaning their textbooks. Is this allowed? Can history really be changed and forgotten??
During the late Qing, government officials became extremely corrupt
and the people lived in dire poverty. Natural and man-made calamities befell one after
another, and peasant uprisings occurred from time to time. This eventually led to the
rebellion known as the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Uprising that swept most parts of the
country, greatly shaking the rule of the Qing court. Beginning in the 1840's, the Western
powers had launched in succession the Opium War, the Second Opium War, the Sino-French
War, the Sino-Japanese War and the Eight-Power Allied Forces invasion, forcing China to
sign a series of unequal treaties, which seriously encroached upon China's sovereignty and territory. After the Sino-Japanese War,
imperialist powers began to lease land in China, set up banks and export capital to China.
By way of economic aggression, they exerted an ever greater in fluence over the Chinese
government. China sank deeper and deeper into the abyss of semi-colonialism while the Qing
government became increasingly corrupt and incompetent.
Table of Major Unequal Treaties Signed in the
Late Qing
| Name of Treaty |
Date |
Main Terms |
| Sino-British Treaty of Nanjing |
August 29, 1842 |
1.China opens Guangzhou, Fuzhou, Xiamen,
Ningbo and Shanghai as trade ports.
2.China cedes Hong Kong to Britain.
3. China pays Britain an indemnity of 21 million silver dollars.
4. Tariff on British goods are subject to negotiations between China and Britain. |
| Sino-British Treaty of Tianjin |
June 26, 1858 |
1. China opens Niuzhuang, Dengzhou,
Tainan, Chaozhao, Qiongzhou, Hankou, Jiujiang, Nanjing, Zhenjiang as trade ports.
2. British warships are allowed to sail into the trade ports.
3. Christian and Catholic missionaries are free to carry out missionary activities in
China's interior.
4. China pays Britain an indemnity of 4 million taels of silver. |
| Sino-French Treaty of Tianjin |
June 27, 1858 |
1. China opens Qiongzhou, Chaozhou,
Tainan, Danshui, Dengzhou and Nanjing as trade ports.
2. French warships are allowed to sail into the trade ports.
3. Christian and Catholic missionaries are free to carry out missionary activities in
China's interior.
4. China pays France an indemnity of 2 million taels of silver. |
| Sino-British Convention of Beijing |
October 24,1860 |
1. China opens Tianjin as a trade port.
2. China cedes a part of Kowloon to Britain.
3. China pays Britain an indemnity of 8 million taels of silver. |
| Sino-French Convention of Beijing |
October 25,1860 |
1. China opens Tianjin as a trade port.
2. China pays France an indemnity of 8 million taels of Silver. |
| Sino-Japanese Treaty of Shimonoseki |
April 17, 1895 |
1. China cedes to Japan Liaodong
Peninsula, Penghu Islands, Taiwan and its adjacent islands.
2. China pays Japan an indemnity of 200 million taels of silver.
3. China opens Shashi, Chongqing, Suzhou and Hangzhou as trade ports; Japanese vessels are
allowed to sail into these ports along China's inland rivers.
4. Japan is allowed to open factories in China's trade ports.
5. Japanese goods manufactured in China are exempt from taxation; Japan is allowed to set
up warehouses in China's interior. |
| Treaty of 1901 |
September 7,1901 |
1. China is to pay eleven countries
(Britain, U.S., Russia, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Japan, Belgium, Spain and
Holland) an indemnity of 450 million taels of silver within 39 years. The unpaid balance
carries an annual interest of 4 per cent.
2. Foreign countries are allowed to station troops in Beijing, and along the railway line
between Beijing and Shanghai Pass; the fort at Dagu and all forts from Dagu to Beijing are
dismantled.
3. A legation quarter is set up in Beijing's Dongjiaominxiang where foreign countries are
allowed to station troops.
4. The Qing government is to inflict severe punishment on "chief offenders, including
ministers," and forbids the Chinese people to set up or participate in
anti-imperialist organizations; violaters are to be put to death.
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