What are the causes of imperialism in China?

Answer

First we should clarify whether we are talking about Chinese imperialism or non-Chinese imperialism imposed upon China. China expanded practically to its current boundaries over two thousand years ago. Over the years, it has fragmented and re-grouped, and for a very brief time, dispatched organized missions to distant lands.

I assume that the questioner is really asking about imperialist activity that encroached on China during the 19th Century. Again, we need clarification. What caused European countries and later Japan to become aggressive in China? What Chinese conditions prevented China from effectively resisting these incursions?

European imperialism grew out of a long development of exploration and industrialization whose roots are complex and long. The European powers competed with one another for control over resources both within Europe and all over the world. They successfully colonized North and South America, Africa, the Middle East, India and Southeast Asia. There is no reason they would not do the same to China unless China was strong enough to stop them.

In fact, the Chinese were fairly strong during earlier periods of history. During a period of expansion between 1350 and 1425, the Chinese launched huge fleets of ships to greater and greater distances from China, exploring for resources. These fleets were enormous, carrying scientists whose expertise would be needed to identify mineral deposits, etc, and also skilled astronomers, whose lists of tasks on missions were similar to the tasks we assign to space explorers now when sending them to unknown distances.

The Chinese missions also carried vast stores of Chinese goods that were distributed to the officials of countries they visited to demonstrate the wealth and glory of the Chinese empire. They invited the rulers of each land to send representatives back to China to visit and serve as ambassadors. They also gathered exotic items that would be of interest back in China. There is a famous tale of the Chinese taking a giraffe from Africa back to Beijing. When it died, they went and got another one. The fleets included vessels carrying horses and soldiers, and additional vessels just to carry the water for the horses and other animals they carried.

An important mission of 1421 actually circumnavigated the globe. It passed India and sailed down the east coast of Africa, rounded the Cape of Good Hope and up to the west coast of Africa. From the west coast of Africa, a strong current helps to shorten the trip across to Brazil. The Chinese fleet was divided into three smaller fleets, each taking a different course. Two fleets sailed south. They both reached the straits of Magellen at the tip of South America. One fleet returned from there after exploring the coast of Antarctica and surveying the stars to be used for navigation. It returned to China after visiting Australia. The second fleet passed through the straits of Magellen and sailed up the coast of South America and then across the Pacific. That fleet did not stop when it got near to China, but continued northward past Japan, up to Alaska, and then down the North American Coast. One of these vessels was actually found in the Sacramento River near San Francisco. The third fleet went north after crossing the Atlantic. It mapped the Caribbean islands, landed in two locations on what is now the United States, and actually left a team on the eastern coast with the promise to pick them up on the next trip. These settlers built an astronomical watch tower which might still be standing in the northeastern part of the US. This fleet continued onward to Greenland and actually passed a winter there. It then sailed across the Arctic north of Russia and through the Bearing Straits to return to China.

When all the fleets returned, they found that a political upheaval had occurred in China. A huge amount of forest land had been destroyed to build a new capital in Beijing, and to build the large fleets. Environmental repurcussions followed the deforestation and this coincided with other economic problems. The brand new capital in Beijing burned to the ground just a few years after it was completed. The traditional civil bureaucrats had been objecting to the continued emphasis on foreign exploration and ultimately ceased power. Their policy was to close China to all foreigners and prevent Chinese from going abroad. This policy became the long standing tradition of China thereafter, up until the arrival of the Europeans. So the Chinese stopped exploring about 1425.

Ironically, some scholars now believe that the maps developed by the Chinese during these missions came into the hands of a Venetian trader, who ultimately passed the maps to the Portuguese, who led the European exploration efforts in the late 1400s. The Columbus brothers were said to have stolen a copy of this map and modified it by extending the length of Africa in order to persuade the Spanish King and Queen that crossing the Atlantic would be a faster route to China than going around Africa like the Portuguese. Ultimately the Spanish did get to America and after enslaving the natives, begin mining and hauling out huge volumes of gold and silver. The British ultimately challenged the Spanish and encouraged their pirates, like Sir Francis Drake, to attack the Spanish boats to get their gold. Somehow England ended up with a lot of the gold. Meanwhile, England colonized India and engaged in successful trade by selling Indian tea and other items in Europe. They exported sufficient British goods to India to avoid having to pay for Indian goods with gold. When they got to China, however, it was a different story. The Chinese tightly regulated trade and restricted all transactions to specific ports under the supervision of government officials. The Chinese happily sold tea, silk and rhubarb to the British but always wnated payment in gold. Over time, the British became annoyed that huge amounts of gold were ending up in China. They discovered that they could grow opium in India and sell it in China (illegally) in return for goods, or even for gold. This practice outraged the Chinese government who began demanding that the British stop the practice. In response, the British simply attacked China in the first of the European grabs. After a brief skirmish in which the Chinese were no match for the heavy firepower of the British, the Chinese signed a treaty giving the British special rights to trade. France, Germany and other countries did not want to be left out, so they each demanded treaties. China did its best to resist but it simply had no defense against the modern European military that had been so well-developed by the constant wars among the Europeans themselves.

The Europeans carved out special concessions and also demanded that the Chinese allow missionaries and traders to travel safely throughout China. Ultimately, a great amount of resentment arose among regular Chinese people. There was a popular uprising in the late 1800s called the "Boxer Rebellion". The Boxers attacked foreigners and temporarily grew to great numbers and had some small success in controling parts of China. But the European powers, along with the United States, Japan and Russia, all sent troops in to swash the rebellion. The troops marched straight to Beijing and pillaged the capital, seizing all sorts of valuable treasures and destroying others. The Chinese government had to totally surrender and gave up more concessionary rights to all of the countries involved in the incident. The Russians took advantage of this opportunity to take a piece of territory from the Chinese along the border with Russia. Japan learned that this is the proper method of operating in the modern world and began a massive buildup of its military power. It seized Korea in 1904, invaded Manchuria (northern China) in 1931 and invaded the rest of China in 1936. The Japanese were pretty vicious in China. The Chinese resisted to some extent with both the government and the Chinese Communists temporarily halting their own competition in order to focus on fighting Japan. With the defeat of Japan at the end of World War II, the Communists quickly consolidated power. Unfortunately, kicking out the Japanese and unifying the country did not stop imperialist pressure on China. Russia, who was technically China's ally, sent troops through China to North Korea and systematically removed valuable factories and equipment from the northern part of China and carried it away.

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