2019 and History

Another year comes to a close, and not only is there a new year on the horizon, but also a new decade. 2019 has seen many anniversaries and events which have parallels in history, so we'll be discussing some of them today. As always, I'm more of a modern historian so I will be gearing this towards more recent history, and I cannot cover everything which has happened this year. Let's see what happened over this year, and what parallels we can find.

100 Years since the Spartacist Uprising

We discussed the Spartacist Uprising back in January, and its legacy would impact the Left for the next century. By the end of the First World War the German Empire was collapsing - setbacks in the war, continued censorship, and rising mortality due to the British blockade was causing civil unrest. Marxist and socialist writers found new audiences in downtrodden and angered masses, and in October 1918 at the port city of Kiel sailors joined with local socialists taking over the city. This started a chain reaction where city after city saw the establishment of workers' councils, the soviets, across Germany. The newly established Spartacists under Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht saw this as the steps to bringing about a revolution, as what recently happened in Russia, so formed the Communist Party (KPD). On January 5 1919 protests in Berlin against the censorship by the new republic of Friedrich Ebert, who opposed revolution, quickly escalated into an armed uprising by workers. However, things did not go well for the Spartacists. Despite earning support from working-class Berliners the uprising was opposed by Berlin's wealthier communities. Splits within the Spartacists and less radical parties weakened them, and soon Ebert made an alliance with the Freikorps - a hard-right paramilitary whose members would later join the Nazis. The Freikorps would murder Luxemburg and Liebknecht, throwing their bodies into the Landwehr Canal. The two would become martyrs on the Left - especially Luxemburg being a Jewish, disabled, woman having to fight antisemitism, misogyny, and ableism. In the short term German socialism was taken over by more authoritarian Marxist-Leninists. Most of the libertarian Marxists were killed in the uprisings or fled to the Soviet Union where they would later be purged by Stalin, although there were still libertarian socialists around - most notably Clara Zetkin and Walter Benjamin. In the long-term the Spartacists offered guidance to new paths to an equal society, and Luxemburg has become a feminist icon.

China's Anniversaries

This year China has seen three anniversaries which offers a troubling legacy for president Xi Jinping. The first is the centenary of the May Fourth Movement. Inspired by the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, and the overthrow of the Chinese emperor in 1912, students and intellectuals began an ambitious and radical movement to fundamentally change China. New theorists, such as Lu Xun, began radically critiquing society and started demanding a new China. The abolition of the Confucian social system, anti-imperialism, feminism, policies against footbinding, and socialism all were advocated, and at times implemented. Through this movement the Communist Party (CPC) emerged. This brings us to the second anniversary, the founding of the People's Republic. In October 1949, seventy years ago, the CPC finally won the decades long Civil War as Mao Zedong declared the new system in Beijing. Coming from the ideological roots of the May Fourth Movement it began a radical transformation of Chinese society. The final anniversary is the thirtieth anniversary of the Tienanmen Square Massacre. By the 1980s officials in the CPC had began a series of reforms adopting aspects of market capitalism, enriching themselves in the process. With future job prospects uncertain, and inspired by pro-democracy protests in the Eastern Bloc, beginning in April students started protesting. This was deeply embarrassing for the ruling CPC - while Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev visited students went on hunger strike, and despite the CPC trying to paint the protesters as Western stooges they sang the world socialist anthem, The Internationale. However, the movement was heavily divided about what its aims were, they were united by their opposition to corruption and authoritarianism. Eventually the government cracked down on June 4 - the resulting reprisals killed many, possibly in the thousands. 

These legacies have proved problematic for the Chinese government. Since the 1980s China has dropped socialism, only keeping the aesthetic of socialism, so the CPC has the staggering paradox of having billionaires being members. An authoritarian, state capitalist party had to, therefore, celebrate two moments in history which aimed for the opposite (their achievements can be debated), and trying to suppress any memories of the third. Just as in the past the CPC has recently faced its own crisis of authority. Protesters have found new ways to criticise the state - consequently Winnie the Pooh is banned due to people comparing Xi Jinping to Winnie - resulting in embarrassments for the state. Marxist and Maoist students have been arrested for protesting the government; social media hashtags were shutdown because they were inadvertently revealing intense pollution in rivers; and since 2008 has been facing an underground Maoist movement. The liberatory rhetoric of May Fourth and Mao, (although in practice after 1949 he stopped this), comes at odds with China's current policies in restricting feminist activism, removing LGBT rights, and attempting to destroy Uighur culture through new policies and concentration camps. Xi Xinjing and the CPC, therefore, have to face this stark contrast in legacies.

Bolivia

I want to discuss Bolivia in a wider context of protests globally, but the YouTuber Bad Empanada discussed it well. I have put the link to his video here and I would recommend watching it.

The Death of Mugabe

On September 6 Zimbabwe's aged former dictator Robert Mugabe died aged 95. Mugabe leaves an uncertain legacy for Zimbabwe and the ruling ZANU-PF party. Before Zimbabwe's official independence in 1980 the country was ruled by one of the most unequal societies in the world during that time. A white minority settler government held the land, judiciary and government leaving the majority black African population landless, disenfranchised, and impoverished. With the exception of a few families who managed to get an education, the majority of the black population were excluded from society. Political repression led to a guerrilla war. Mugabe himself became a martyr for the amount of time he spent in prison, and he later became a key figure in the guerrilla movement coming to lead ZANU. When the war came to an end in 1980 he was elected president, and began an ambitious reform policy reducing unemployment, gave Zimbabweans easier access to education, and started tentative land redistribution. However, immense power was given to Mugabe, and he was hampered by how much economic power the settler population had. Land reform was further hampered as it could only happen when Britain paid Zimbabwe to redistribute land. Mugabe himself made things worse. He quickly moved to stamp out opposition - in 1983 he used a new force called Fifth Brigade to destroy the opposition party, Zapu, in what has been known as the Gukurahundi. As parties fell along ethnic lines this led to a genocidal campaign against the Ndebele killing 20,000. Corruption, especially from the 1990s, crept in where war veterans were left without land or employment so Mugabe could enrich his loyalists. The next almost thirty years was characterised by spikes in inequality, corruption, and poverty until Mugabe was ousted in a coup in 2017. His death now leaves a conflicting legacy. Mugabe was the one who broke white settler power in Zimbabwe, but he also snatched its future for his own greed. The current president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, has been described as 'Mugabe's bodyguard', so the future of Zimbabwe has uncertainty in it.

A Year of Protest

Across the world this year we have seen protests against the reversal of rights, or against the status quo. Many of these movements have been led by young or marginalised peoples, and can be compared to the protests which broke out in 1968 worldwide. Then, as today, young and marginalised people took to the streets worldwide to protest capitalism, racism, misogyny, and the complacency of an entrenched elite. This year we have seen protests against aged leaders, (Algeria, Sudan); corruption and economic inequality (Chile, Lebanon, France, Haiti); imperialism (West Papua); racism and the reversal of rights (Bolivia, Hong Kong, India); authoritarianism (Iran); or a mixture (the UK, Brazil, Ecuador). These protests have purposefully created links to the past, or their origins can be found in the past. For example, protests against Algeria's Abdelaziz Bouteflika have described themselves as finishing the Revolution of 1962, the war which liberated Algeria from French rule. Within the last month strikes in France have led to monumental protests and strikes led by radicals, and have directly linked themselves to both the Yellow Vests of last year, and France's radical past ranging from the 1789 Revolution to 1968. Protests in India and Hong Kong have arisen thanks to attempts to centralise authoritarian state power. India's far-right Narendra Modi over this year has removed the autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir, attempted to isolate that region, and has recently had laws passed which threatens to remove the citizenship of Assamese and non-Hindus, mainly Muslims. As a result, protests have erupted across India opposing this which have been compared to the fight for independence. Quite telling is that one of those arrested is India's most important historian Ramachandra Guha. In Hong Kong an extradition bill was passed which could allow people from Hong Kong to be taken to court in China. Over a million have came out since June to have this reversed, but splits in the movement have meant that they still drag on. A more radical branch, inspired by the anti-colonial riots of 1967, want to make it the start of a more equal and democratic Hong Kong, while others want the status quo - some controversially calling for US aid or waving colonial flags. 

There have been a wave of anti-colonial protests as well. The situation in Assam, Kashmir, and Jammu are legacies of the arbitrary nature of how Britain divided empire. Hindutva, Hindu nationalist, groups, like the far-right RSS, have tried in Assam to forcibly convert the indigenous people to Hinduism. As a result, the protests in these regions have been a way to fight continued colonial attitudes to indigenous peoples. West Papua has similarly come back into attention for the Indonesian government's imposition of militarised forces in the region resulting in deaths. In Latin America, indigenous communities have been out to protest the neo-liberal, or authoritarian, states in which they live as they were most impacted by these policies. Indigenous activists took over Ecuador's capital of Quito forcing the government to evacuate themselves; Mapuche in Chile flew their flags from prominent places in the capital; and indigenous peoples have recently protested against Bolivia's new and openly white supremacist government which came to power when Aymara president Evo Morales was ousted in a coup. Linking this to the past, Mapuche in Chile decapitated a statue of Christopher Columbus and placed the head in the arms of a statue of a Mapuche leader. 1492 still affects indigenous peoples today. Gay pride, worldwide, has become increasingly radical as we have seen the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, which we discussed here, and communities across the world have reminded us how much we still need to fight. While there has been successes, (this year Ghana had its first gay pride, Botswana legalised homosexuality, and Austria legalised gay marriage), there have been major setbacks. Transphobia has become socially accepted in the UK in particular, which has been the focus of a new young generation of activists to resist - inspired by Stonewall.

Climate Crisis

It is not surprising that climate change is drastically changing the planet. As I am writing this fires have swept Australia and have already claimed 400 million animals - it is almost certain that we might see the extinction of several species within the decade, including the koala. Intense hurricanes have hit the Caribbean, floods devastated South Asia, and northern England (where I'm from) saw destructive floods as flood systems failed. Intense weather conditions are being caused by climate change, something being caused thanks to the activities of humans. When we discussed the Little Ice Age we saw how climate change deeply impacts societies. Flooding and bad rains destroy crops, drier temperatures cause other crops to fail, and the impact this has on natural habitats destroys local communities. As natural resources fail, just like in the 1600s, this creates conflict. We have already seen this recently. ISIS in Syria managed to recruit from young, unemployed men who had recently moved to the countryside because harsher weather had made farming less profitable. If human-caused climate change is not tackled this could become worse. The future is not too bright. The UK, Australia, US, and Brazil have noted opponents of reform, or outright climate change deniers, in power - Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro purposefully burned the Amazon this year. Consumption in the economically wealthy states means that climate change continues - India and China produce so much carbon dioxide largely to feed the needs of the global north, and the Amazon was burnt to make way for farming to feed the global north. There is a small beacon of hope. Inspired by Greta Thunberg, millions have since taken part in Climate Strikes across the world demanding states act to reduce their carbon output. Key politicians, such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in the US, have pledged to create a 'Green New Deal' to tackle climate change. 

Trump's Impeachment

Very recently the US House of Representatives voted on December 18 to impeach Donald Trump making him the third president, and only member of the Home Alone 2 cast, to be impeached. The first was Andrew Johnson in 1868; he was Lincoln's vice-president who got the role when his predecessor was assassinated. Johnson had sympathies with the former slave holding planters in the South so had worked to block legislation which would have given increased rights for the former slaves. A tired Congress put him on trial, but he never ended up being formally impeached by both houses. The Senate, twice, failed to vote to impeach him, and the trial was adjourned. As the election was underway, and Congress knew that Johnson wasn't running, impeachment by both houses was abandoned. The second president to be impeached was not actually Richard Nixon (the president I believe is most like Trump), as he resigned before impeachment proceedings could formally happen. Instead, the second one was Bill Clinton for obstructing justice and lying under oath about his affair with Monica Lewinsky in 1998. Again, the Senate failed to vote about whether to impeach so only the House was the only one to impeach him. As the Republicans currently have a majority in the Senate, and a two-thirds majority in favour of impeachment is required, but then there is also not enough for an acquittal.

Thank you for reading and that's the last blog post for not only 2019 but also the 2010s. What 2020 will bring we cannot be certain, but until then I hope the rest of your 2019 is good. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

World History: China's Changes - From Empire to Republic

On World History we have been looking at how several states during the 1800s tried to cope with the rise of industrialism and imperialism. We have already discussed Russia and Japan, and last time we began looking at China's 'Century of Humiliation'. When we last left off the ruling Qing dynasty was facing its biggest crisis in authority since the dynasty began in the seventeenth-century. Western powers had humiliated China in two wars, the so-called 'Opium Wars', and the state itself had faced domestic unrest - most notably the infamous Taiping Rebellion. With this post we will be looking at how the Qing tried to cope with these issues, and how one of the oldest empires in human history gave way to a republic. This should be read in tandem with the previous World History post, and for further information I would recommend The Search for Modern China by Jonathan Spence - it covers from the late-Ming all the way up to the Tienanmen Square Massacre in 1989. 

The Re-Emergence of Anti-Manchu Sentiment

The ruling Qing dynasty were not Han Chinese, the largest population in China, but were instead Manchu. After the initial conquest there was an upsurge in anti-Manchu sentiment, but as the decades went along, and as Manchu rulers adopted more Han culture, these sentiments started to abate. These differences, and at times hostilities, never went away. For example, while, normally elite, Han women would have their feet bound elite Manchu women never did so, and Cao Xueqin's Dream of the Red Chamber references characters bowing 'in the Manchu way'. Even before outright collapse of the Qing Empire there had been underground anti-Manchu groups - the White Lotus Society, which we discussed last time, had hoped to possibly bring back the Han Ming dynasty to replace the Manchu Qing in the 1800s. The decline of the Qing's authority, especially in the context of external invasion, caused a resurgence of anti-Manchu sentiment. Humiliation by the imperial powers was blamed on the Manchus for weakening China - when Japan annexed the Ryukyu islands in 1879 this was used as prime evidence. The Ryukyu king had paid tribute to China for centuries, and Japan had always been seen as a lesser state, so the annexation of the islands by a perceived lesser state provided evidence that the Manchus had weakened China. The leader of the Taiping, Hong Xiuquan, gave a speech declaring:

Can the Chinese still consider themselves men? Ever since the Manchus poisoned China, the flame of oppression has risen up to heaven, the poison of corruption has defiled the emperor’s throne, the offensive odour has spread over the four seas, and the influence of demons has distressed the empire while the Chinese with bowed heads and dejected spirits willingly became subjects and servants.

A big reason why the Taiping had such early success was that they managed to tap into anti-Manchu sentiment - Hong alleged that the Manchu were sent by the devil to corrupt China. This anti-Manchu sentiment would later be tied to republicanism and anti-imperialism. 

Treaty Ports and New Communities

Avenue Petain, Shanghai

Foreign powers carved up China between themselves - the UK, France, Germany, Russia, Japan, the US, and even Austria-Hungary - where they exerted control over areas. Mainly, these were the 'Treaty Ports', the port cities forcibly opened to foreign trade due to the unequal treaties. In these cities imperial powers began enforcing their own culture, and capitalist structures, greatly changing them. These cities would later become China's biggest cities - although Shanghai was already growing by the 1830s it exploded after Britain used it as one of the main ports used for trade. Through these ports Chinese intellectuals could access Western literature, and Christian missionaries used them to begin introducing Christianity to China. Sun Yat-sen, for example, would be baptised in Hong Kong and would later study abroad in Japan and Hawaii. Missionaries would use their presence to attempt to bring about reforms against aspects of Chinese culture - most notably footbinding. However, it should be stressed that missionaries didn't start these critiques, Chinese officials had attempted, or promoted reforms, before them. Li Ruzhen, who we saw last time, wrote metaphorical stories about how men would react if they were dropped in a world where gender roles were reversed. This also caused anti-Christian responses due to the abrasive attacks on local culture - in 1870 thanks to a rumour French missionaries were killed in the Tianjin Massacre causing an international crisis. Elsewhere, port cities would become drastically changed. They grew as rural populations moved there for work creating an urban working populace. How cities looked further started changing. In the areas of cities owned by Europeans they started designing how the city looked based off of European ones. In the French area of Shanghai Avenue Petain was created to resemble a Parisian street, the Monument Street Baptist Church was constructed in Dengzhou in 1872 across from a temple, and HSBC bank proudly boasted a lion representing the British empire outside their Shanghai branch. However, it was very clear that these treaty ports were imperial holdings. Britain sent Sikh troops from India to act as police in Shanghai, for example. Stories further abounded about how parks supposedly barred Chinese from entry. Although not true, it was socially expected that Chinese were the subjects of the imperial powers, so certain areas or recreational sites were barred from Chinese usage.

San Francisco's Chinatown, 1800s

The widespread wars, poverty, and destitution made many Chinese move abroad. With the opening of treaty ports it allowed greater movement for traditionally static communities. Many moved to the growing ports, others started settling in long conquered territories like Tibet and Xinjiang, but many chose to move out of China itself. Most settled in with already established Chinese communities in southeast Asia in Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia. In Dutch-controlled Indonesia they were used as tax-collectors and managers in the Dutch-owned opium monopolies. Chinese expatriates soon moved across the world - the Caribbean, London, California, Latin America, South Africa, and Australia were just some of the places where they went. In a tale similar to wider histories of immigration most who emigrated were young men hoping to earn money to send back home, or to find their riches abroad before returning home to China. For example, in 1880 100,000 Chinese men lived in California, to 3,000 women. Outside of southeast Asia most ended up working in hard and labour intensive jobs. Strict contracts stopped meant that many in Cuba chose to runaway or commit suicide to get out of their slave-like jobs. Mining, especially gold mining, attracted many emigrants because of the quick money which could be earned, if they survived. As a result, northern Australia, South Africa, and California became sought after places to migrate to - San Francisco was initially called Jinshan, or 'Mountain of Gold', in Chinese. In 1873 the foreign department, the Zongli Yamen, started setting up foreign departments to see how Chinese abroad were being treated - the first embassy was created in Singapore. Racism soon emerged alongside exploitation. The formations of 'Chinatowns' was seen as Chinese workers rejecting the nation, in the US they became associated with decadence and lawlessness thanks to a series of gang wars called the 'tong wars'. Outright hostility and racism broke out quickly - a race riot broke out in San Francisco in 1871 after two police were killed during a tong war battle leading to the deaths of 19, and in 1885 white miners in Wyoming Territory beat a worker to death with a shovel leading to a race riot killing a further 28. Misogyny mixed with racism as Chinese were accused of being feminine with 'sing-song' voices, and in Sonora, Mexico they were accused of 'stealing' women. In 1882 the US Senate passed the first of several legislation restricting Chinese migration viewing them as being inferior so were 'polluting' America.

The Self-Strengthening Movement

The 'Century of Humiliation' gives the implication that Chinese officials were defenceless against imperialistic onslaught, however, this ignores attempts they made to stop this. Even rebellions, like the Taiping Tiangguo, can be seen this way - by replacing the Qing the Taiping viewed themselves as 'saving' China. Court officials involved with foreign wars or stopping rebellions - such as Prince Gong and Li Hongzhang - began looking at why China had seemingly fallen behind. This began a period of attempted reforms which came to be known as the 'Self-Strengthening Movement', and more eager reformers claimed it was the Tongzhi Restoration. They believed that under the Tongzhi Emperor China's power would finally be restored. Echoing the later Meiji Restoration in Japan, Li sent students abroad to study engineering, sciences, and military sciences so they could return with skills which could be applied to China. Feng Guifen strongly advocated for learning languages managing to open an Interpreter's School in 1862, and in 1867 it transformed into a full college inviting foreign lecturers. A key aspect of the Self-Strengthening Movement was inviting Westerners to China to help their military development - Halliday Macartney supervised cannon casting, John Fryer translated technical books, and W.A.P. Martin taught languages and science in Beijing. Li Hongzhang, who became an important reformer after 1874 with the death of Zeng Guofan, amassed a personal staff of foreign advisers. This period also saw, for the only time in the Qing's history, a woman held considerable power - Empress-Dowager Cixi. The mother of Tongzhi she remained a shrewd and powerful figure in China until her death in 1908. A quote by her perfectly sums up her life: Although I have heard much about Queen Victoria, I do not think her life is half as interesting and eventful as mine. Unlike Victoria, Cixi had a much more direct impact on the fate of her state. She became so powerful that she could determine who became emperor; it is widely believed that she forced the suicide of her pregnant daughter-in-law so she could control who came to power.

Cixi

As we refer to it as the 'Century of Humiliation' we can say that this movement failed to 'modernise' China, in contrast to Japan which propelled it to an imperialist power. One of the key reasons was how conservative the movement was, the reformers wanted to reshape China but keep things the same. This idea was known as ti-yong, (essence-use), how could China use Western ideas and technology but without giving up China's essence? This was also seen in Japan, but not as conservatively applied. The Confucian system was left untouched which prevented the economic and social reforms which the reformers wanted to enact. This is effectively seen when Li met with Japanese official Mori Arinori - he questioned how Japan could so quickly 'abandon' its culture. It did not further help that the Tongzhi Emperor died young in 1875 at the age of 18 - officially by smallpox but unofficially by overindulgence and exhaustion in the pleasure quarters of Beijing. With such a top-heavy state a strong ruler was required to enact such reforms which the Qing was lacking. The Self-Strengthening Movement was set-back by the reliance on foreign powers. Anti-Chinese rhetoric prevented Li from sending more students to the US in the 1880s, and although a new navy had been created, Li was wary of its weakness so backed down to foreign powers seizing former tribute states. Within a few years Japan had seized Ryukyu, Britain had seized Burma, and France seized Hanoi. The Self-Strengthening Movement showed its failure with the humiliating defeat by Japan in 1895 during the Sino-Japanese War - Japan managed to annex Taiwan and Liaodong, made Korea a protectorate, build factories in China, and pay money to Japan. This inspired the young Guangxu Emperor in 1898 to 'modernise' China - in a series of so many reforms over a hundred days it became known as the Hundred Days' Reform. Radical in scope they planned rapid industrialisation, a new educational system which went beyond Confucianism, establishing a university in Beijing, updating the military, becoming a constitutional monarch, and planning to curb Cixi's power. These reforms ended in a palace coup. Relying on the military figure Yuan Shikai, his plan was to use the military to arrest Cixi's key allies so he could then oust her from court - instead Yuan told Cixi's allies. Guangxu was placed under house arrest ending the reforms.

Reformers and Revolutionaries

Kang Youwei

As we have seen, there have throughout the 1800s figures pushing to reform the Qing government. The Self-Strengthening Movement and Hundred Days' Reform were just two aspects of this reform. Some focused on specifically social issues, mainly women's issues which we'll discuss later, and others the wider Qing government. Two notable reformers were close allies of Guangxu - Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao. Both were strong advocates of constitutional monarchy, and aimed to influence Guangxu in enacting these reforms. Kang was more radical than Liang, but his theories weren't compiled into the Da Tongshu into the 1930s. Although heavily inspired by prevailing social Darwinistic tendencies - he argued for some version of eugenics and believed that Confucianism and Buddhism were 'higher faiths' - he started advocating for radical changes. Inspired by both Buddhism and European socialists, he is seen as one of the first advocates for communism in China. Seeing capitalism as evil he argued that humanity could only be liberated through socialism; the family unit promoted injustice so had to be replaced by a communal child-raising system; that marriage would be a year-long contract which could be renewed when both partners wanted; and that the adoption of new technology could bring this about. The Da Tongshu would later become incredibly influential - Mao Zedong would be especially inspired by this. However, he never got to implement his ideas. The palace coup forcing Guangxu into house arrest caused Kang and Liang to go into exile where they exiled for a constitutional monarchy. A new generation was emerging, one who wanted revolution and not reform.

Sun Yat-sen

One of the most important revolutionaries was Sun Yat-sen, now often referred to as the 'Father of the Nation'. From a Hakka and Cantonese background to a labouring family. He had a global education being educated in Guangdong, Hawaii, and Hong Kong where he became introduced to a wide range of ideas, as well as becoming a doctor. While in Hong Kong he became involved with other student activists which became known as the 'Four Bandits'. Frustrated at the conservatism of the Qing reforms, he even wrote an 8,000-character letter to Li urging more radical reforms, he moved back to Hawaii becoming involved with the Revive China Society. Aligning with poorer Chinese migrants the Revive China Society advocated for revolution and the establishment of a republic. In 1905 he would help found the Revolutionary Alliance to offer a group to overthrow the state, and wrote the influential Three Principles of the People. These were three ideas which would benefit the Chinese people: Minzu, often called 'nationalism' but more literally as 'people', an anti-imperialist idea uniting all the peoples in China, not just the Han; Minquan, 'democracy' or 'People's Power'; and Minsheng, 'People's Livelihood', where everyone has access to mobility and rights, which has been heavily debated. It has been argued that this meant socialism, in 1905 he did make ties with the Second International as an example. There were other revolutionaries. Zou Rong was a contemporary of Sun, but in The Revolutionary Army (1903) argued for a more ethnic nationalism calling the Han 'slaves' of the Manchu. He even argued for the genocide of the Manchus. In 1906 The Communist Manifesto was first translated, and anarchism soon emerged including the New World Society, formed in 1906. Before the eventual overthrow of the empire in 1912 there were several republican uprisings, even by the Revolutionary Alliance. Between 1906 and 1908 there were seven uprisings by them.

The Boxer Rebellion

While this was ongoing imperial forces continued to tear chunks out of China's sovereignty. A group known as the Righteous and Harmonious Fists became increasingly frustrated about how reform was being hampered by Chinese conservatives and foreign imperialists. American missionaries nicknamed them the 'Boxers' due to their combination of spiritualism with physical and marital actions. The end of the Hundred Days' Reform sparked the uprising beginning in Shandong by local militias and impoverished peasants. They appeared to take an anti-Manchu stance, but then began advocating for the rights of the emperor and expelling foreigners. Missionaries and converts were killed, and soon the foreign legations in the cities were put under siege. The 'Boxer Rebellion' lasted for three years and split the Chinese court. Cixi decided to support the rebellion, seeing it as a way to protect her standing, but many officials tried to remain neutral. This was especially the case as the 'Boxers' were incredibly successful. They managed to isolate the legations, and destroy infrastructure isolating Beijing. An alliance of British, Japanese, Russian, American, French, Italian, German, and Austrian invaded and brutally crushed the rebellion. Imperial powers rejoiced in the destruction - the movie 55 Days in Peking would be made decades later to celebrate it.

Women in a Changing China

A statue of Qiu Jin

A key part of the reforms were the role of women. As we saw when we discussed feminism, there was a discussion about women's role in society from women, missionaries, and domestic reformers. In particular, they focused on arranged marriage, footbinding, and a disparity in education. A common trend worldwide was the influence of Henrik Ibsen's A Doll's House, and it would inspire advocates for reform to change society. Kang Youwei, for example, saw the family as an inherently restrictive institute which had to be fundamentally changed if women wished to be liberated. Mao Zedong was very influenced by feminists and feminist writing. In 1919 he would write a short piece called Miss Chao's Suicide discussing the recent suicide of a 'Miss Zhao'. Forced into a marriage she killed herself, so Mao criticised a society which forced women into suicide due to their inability to express their rights. Women were instrumental in trying to bring about change. One notable woman was Qiu Jin. She was forced into marriage and footbinding, but she rebelled and moved to Japan after becoming involved with revolutionary movements. Editing a journal she called for women to rise up against patriarchy to end forced marriage and footbinding, something she would further link to the overthrowing of the Manchu dynasty. In 1906 she would bring 2,000 students back to China, also forming a new journal with feminist poet Xu Zihua, with the intention of forming a revolutionary movement. As the plan to lead an uprising in Anqing resulting in her execution, but she would become a martyr for revolution and feminism. As early as 1923, Xiang Jingyu pressured the recently formed Communist Party to form a women's branch. However, women's emancipation would not come for decades, and still has not been fully achieved.

The End of the Qing

China's final dynasty ended extremely suddenly - so suddenly that Sun Yat-sen was actually raising funds in the US at the time. On 9 October 1911 a bomb exploded in the house of anti-Qing revolutionaries in Wuhan. The next day the local army mutinied; the Revolutionary Alliance had infiltrated the military knowing that a united army could easily prevent their success. The mutiny saw the seizing of Wuhan and the declaration of a Chinese Republic. A fire then started sweeping over China. People rebelled for various reasons - Han restoration, republicanism, local grievances, independence. Sun stayed to raise funds but returned in time to be elected the first president of a republic; he would design a new flag with each colour representing an ethnicity, including the Manchus. However, the revolutionaries were in a weak position so had to rely on Yuan Shikai, the co-crusher of the Hundred Days' Reform, to help bring down the Qing. Yuan gave them a deal - if he was declared president he would secure the army's loyalty and gave the monarchy to stand down. Threatening to kill the emperor he managed to get the Empress-Dowager Longyu to get the six-year-old Puyi to abdicate bringing an end to the Chinese Empire after millennia. 

Puyi in 1922

However, Sun Yat-sen's dream soon turned into a nightmare. Despite his Alliance winning the 1913 elections for the role of prime minister, Yuan ensured that he was soon assassinated. Yuan created links with foreign banks and took out massive loans, something Japan took as an excuse to try and extract more demands from China. Fearing for his life Sun fled to Japan and called for a Second Revolution, something which came quite quickly. In 1915, to solidify his power, Yuan declared himself emperor, but popular opposition forced him to return to presidency a year later. He would die in 1916 but China would remain in crisis.

1919 and After

The years 1916 to 1923 are seen as some of the most revolutionary of the twentieth century, until the 1960s at least, where worldwide new movements emerged challenging old orders - from the Russian Revolution to socialist uprisings Argentina. The Revolutionary Alliance was reconstituted into the Koumintang (KMT) as a way to effectively resist the growing political disintegration in China - Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles was adopted as its ideology. After Yuan Shikai's death a period known as the 'Warlord Era' began - regional leaders carved out their own territories. The newly established Soviet Union offered aid to the KMT seeing it as a way to bring socialism to China, and a leading figure in the movement, Chiang Kai-shek, was sent to Moscow for training. The Treaty of Versailles enraged China - it was ignored and how Japan was allowed to keep German territories in China which had seized. This began a cultural movement known as the May Fourth Movement. This was an intellectual movement by radical students, writers, thinkers, and activists which wanted social change and resistance to imperialism. Blaming Confucianism for holding back society they wanted to resist traditional class roles, bring equality to women, and unite China under a shared desire for equality. It saw many influential thinkers take part including a young Mao Zedong, leading writer and socialist Lu Xun, and anarchist Ba Jing. From this movement, in 1921, the Communist Party would emerge, directly inspired by the October Revolution. Communism would soon emerge as a popular ideology in China with a large and impoverished population, but there would be setbacks. In 1925 Sun Yat-sen died early leaving Chiang Kai-shek in control of the KMT. The initial alliance with the Communist Party remained while the warlords were slowly defeated, but he began moving away from Sun for a more authoritarian system. In 1927 he ordered a mass killing of communists in Shanghai which began the Chinese Civil War, lasting up until 1949.

Conclusion

We have traced the movement of China from a Confucian-based empire to a republic inspired by very different ideas. This period, the 'Century of Humiliation', would directly inspire the rest of China's history throughout the twentieth century. The liberatory ideas of the May Fourth Movement would create an ideology becoming hotly contested in China, and the opposition from Chiang's KMT would create an alternate path. However, this will be discussed in the future when we look at the Second World War, and China's place in it, and the rise of the People's Republic.

The sources I have used are as follows:

-Jonathan Spence, In Search for Modern China, (New York: 1990)

-Ono Kazuko, Chinese Women in a Century of Revolution, 1850-1950, (Stanford: 1978)

-Immanuel Hsu, The Rise of Modern China, Sixth Edition, (New York: 2000)

-Kumari Jayawardena, Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World, (London: 1986)

-Frances Wood, No Dogs and Not Many Chinese, Treaty Port Life in China, 1843-1943, (London: 1998)

-Chun-tu Hsueh, (ed.), The Chinese Revolution of 1911: New Perspectives, (Hong Kong: 1983)

-Mao Zedong, 'Miss Chao's Suicide,' Marxists.org, (1919), (Accessed 16/12/2019)

-Jonathan Spence, 'China: 1368-1911', in John Whitney Hall, (ed.), History of the World: Earliest Times to the Present, (East Bridgewater: 2013), 532-559

Thank you for reading. For other World History posts please see our list. For other posts please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

World History: China's Changes - From the Opium War to Taiping

A naval battle from the First Opium War

The last time we discussed China we looked at the Qing, but even then faults were emerging in the empire. Today, we will look at, some, of the period which has been referred to as 'The Century of Humiliation'. From the 1830s until 1949 China saw itself attempt to reform itself in the face of domestic turmoil and imperial aggression which would lead to the rise of republicanism, civil war, and colonialism. Over the next two posts we'll be looking at the immense changes which China underwent during the 1800s and early-1900s. Naturally, we cannot cover everything, but the bibliography at the end will contain the sources which I have used, and they give an interesting narrative of this period. In particular, I would recommend The Search for Modern China by Jonathan Spence; it covers a huge span of Chinese history, from the late-Ming up to 1989, but it is an easy and informative read. This post, we will look at the the cracks which emerged at the end of the 1700s until the brutal war with the Taiping; next post we'll look at the aftermath of the Taiping until the Warlord Period. From the 1830s until 1949 this period is often referred to as the 'Century of Humiliation.'

The Cracks Begin

It is often seen that imperial intervention is what brought down the Qing - after all the 'Century of Humiliation' is often dated from 1839 with the beginning of the 'Opium War'. However, imperialism exacerbated domestic tensions, and these tensions predate the arrival of imperial ships. Immanuel Hsu has identified six factors about why Qing authority started to wane when the Jiaqing Emperor took over in 1795 after the abdication of Qianlong. The first, administrative inefficiency - strict regulation of administrators meant that, quoting one high courtier, success in government was to 'kowtow more and talk less.' Power was concentrated with the emperor, and such a system succeeded when the emperor was competent - while Qianlong was, his successors were not. However, this administrative inefficiency caused future emperors to be inefficient - they had to contend with an inactive administration preventing efficient rule. Second, corruption was widespread. Qianlong's imperial bodyguard Ho-shen amassed a fortune of 800 million taels (about $1.5 billion), so that, following his execution in 1799, it was joked that 'When Ho-shen fell, Jiaqing feasted.' Third, the degradation of the bannermen. Like the samurai in Tokugawa Japan, the Manchu bannermen had brought military victory to the early-Qing, but through centuries of privileged land ownership, coupled with corruption, meant they stopped being efficient. Fourth, the Qing coffers were running dry. Qianlong loved big displays of power which cost the state over 120 million taels, and constant wars of expansion further drained the treasury. Corruption made this worse, officials purposefully postponed fighting the White Lotus Rebellion (1796-1804) so they could get more money. Fifth, rising population. Large landowners controlled arable land, and they kept it despite the growing population. From 1644 to 1812, the land available rose by 50%, whereas the population rose by 100%. As land was not redistributed to accommodate this, it created a poor and unemployed rural population who turned to rebels or bandits. Sixth, intellectual decline. Thanks to tight restrictions on what administrators could do by the late-1700s scholars, who made up the civil service, stopped being administrators. Why bother applying knowledge when bribes and kowtowing could do the same quicker and more safely?

When we think of Qing era revolts we either think of the Ming loyalists of the 1600s, or the revolts which emerged in the mid to late-1800s. However, the late-1700s saw a wave of secret societies emerge or outright rebel. Since the 1300s there had been a Buddhist secret society called the White Lotus; it attracted Han Chinese who were enticed by the idea that soon the new Buddha would arrive. There had been several White Lotus uprisings and movements throughout Chinese history, and one broke out in 1774. Rebels led by a herbalist called Wang Lun rose up to challenge to a general antagonism to the ruling Manchu order - Wang famously stated that 'If I call on Heaven, Heaven will assist me; if I call on Earth, Earth will give me magical strength. Their guns will not fire. What men will dare impede me?' Although Wang Lun's rebellion, after initial early success, was crushed it would inspire other rebellions. In the 1780s, the Heaven and Earth Society rose up in Taiwan and declared a new dynasty 'Obedient to Heaven'; in Gansu province two Muslim revolts emerged opposing the state appointed Muslim officials; and in the southwest Miao tribal people revolted. Most importantly, in 1799 a new White Lotus rebellion emerged directly more political than Wang Lun's rebellion. They directly linked their rising to local tax inequalities and managed to spread across Sichuan, Hubei, Shaanxi, and Henan. All these rebellions were eventually crushed, but it showed one thing - Qing rule was being rocked. 

Imperialism and the First Opium War

Lin Zexu, c.1843

For decades the imperialist powers was eyeing up China - now free from the Napoleonic Wars and the rise of Industrial capitalism made China a new market for expansion. As we saw previously, China had rebuffed the Macartney mission in the 1790s, this was an attempt for Britain to open an embassy in Beijing. Europeans, and especially missionaries, were only allowed to operate in either Macau or Canton, and even then they were only allowed to trade with permission from local officials. In 1834 William John Napier arrived at Canton and demanded that he be allowed to trade, he was refused and war almost broke out. These feelings festered for five years, and in the meantime Britain started illegally selling opium. Britain was more reliant on Chinese goods than China was on Britain creating a trade imbalance which Britain disliked. Consequently, Britain decided to sell opium grown in India through Canton to address this; opium had been banned by the Jiaqing Emperor so British merchants became the primary source of opium. Within only a few years the amount of opium sold to China exploded - by 1835 it had passed 30,000 chests and within three years it exceeded 40,000. More and more people became addicted, and a significant chunk of Chinese silver went towards the opium trade. It was decided to stamp out the opium trade, so Lin Zexu was sent to Canton to stamp it out in 1839. As governor-general of Hubei and Hunan he had virtually wiped out opium through ruthless means; he wrote a letter to good friend and outspoken reformer Gong Zizhen that he wished to hang all opium smokers and all peddlers should be beheaded. He quickly set to work against opium. Using a mixture of reason, persuasion, and coercion he quickly started wiping out opium. Students and gentry were told the dangers of opium, and were allowed to anonymously give the names of addicts and distributors. Within three months he had arrested over 1,600 people; had seized over 78,000 pounds of opium; and had seized a further 55,000 opium pipes. Having a weak navy he tried a different approach with Europeans going as far as to write a letter to Queen Victoria urging her as a 'honourable nation' to help 'remove the source of evil'. When foreigners refused to hand over all the opium he had them blockaded, had Chinese workers leave their employment, and even had gongs banged all night to keep them awake. After six weeks 3 million pounds of raw opium were handed over and eventually funnelled into the sea. Lin made a special prayer saying that 'you [the Southern Sea] who wash away all stains and cleanse all impurities...tell the creatures of the water to move away for a time, to avoid being contaminated.' 

A British depiction of the Battle of Chinkiang

The British were enraged about another nation destroying their trade, and wealthy opium merchant William Jardine even returned to Britain to help calls for military action against China. Lin continued to firmly stamp out the opium trade, and was even mobilised locals against the British after they refused to hand over someone who had murdered a villager outside Kowloon near Hong Kong. Angered, Britain sent a fleet under George Elliott which blockaded Canton and Ningbo, and seized Zhoushan in 1840. To avoid war and reopen trade governor-general Qishan saw that Lin was dismissed and banished, an indemnity paid, and that the British could meet the Qing court. However, the prime minister, Lord Palmerston, wanted to dominate China and sent Sir Henry Pottinger to enact this. The Qing were unprepared for the strength of the British military. Steam-powered British ships, like the Nemesis, allowed quick transport and superior firepower compared to the Chinese ships. That does not mean that the Qing did not put up a serious fight - Lin had commissioned scholars to study Western ships, and the invading British army found near-complete warships in Wusong, Xiamen, and Shanghai. However, the British still won an easy victory occupying several ports including Shanghai, Xiamen, Nanjing, and Ningbo. The ensuing Treaty of Nanjing, the first of many Unequal Treaties, was humiliating for the Qing, and is now seen as the beginning of the Century of Humiliation. The Daoguang Emperor himself was forced to agree to pay an indemnity of $21 million, lift restrictions on trade, open five cities (Canton, Shanghai, Xiamen, Ningbo, and Fuzhou) to trade, station British consuls in each port city, and perpetually cede Hong Kong. This was the first setback the Qing had seen since they came to power, and would shatter the image of their security. The earlier mentioned faults in Qing power would come spilling out.

Societal Changes

From a HSBC advert for their Shanghai branch

There were shifts emerging in society even before the humiliating defeat in what is now seen as the First Opium War. Landlessness and unemployment had fuelled the rise of banditry, rebellions, and exoduses to urban areas; pressures in urban areas worsened thanks to corruption and the British purposefully encouraged a surreptitious opium addiction among the unemployed to create a continuous demand for opium; and the image of the Qing had been shattered. Modern Triads emerged during this period as an avenue for the landless and unemployed to find a living, or those in British Hong Kong to resist imperialism. Although we'll discuss life in the treaty ports more next time, it is worth discussing it briefly here. Russia, the US, and France soon joined Britain in having Unequal Treaties signed with China under the threat of war. Especially from the 1850s, an increasing European presence could be found in the treaty ports. Indian troops became a common site and locals in Shanghai combined local traditions with imperial capitalism when the first European banks were opened in Shanghai. Lions were seen as lucky, and HSBC banks had lion statues outside them, so photos show statues with shiny paws after repeated rubbing. Local Chinese were further exploited and discriminated against. The ports became integral parts of colonial empires, albeit more informally; a myth emerged that a Shanghai park had a sign, written in English, saying 'No dogs or Chinese allowed'. Although not true many wanted it to be, and in certain areas it practically was true. Ethnicity made a resurgence. Han nationalism started to emerge as the ruling Qing were Manchu - the weakness of China was increasingly blamed on Manchus, and many rebellious organisations, especially the Triads, were made of only Han. Minorities, often referred to as 'Guest Peoples', also began agitating against Manchu rule. Christian missionaries further made their mark - Christian texts were smuggled out of Canton, and later missionaries followed them. The arrival of a new faith shifted how things were understood in China. We will discuss women more in detail elsewhere but the emergence of women's emancipation can be seen during this time. Scholar Li Ruzhen in 1825 wrote Flowers in the Mirror which sees the characters travel to a world where women rule, and they have to have their feet crushed before being confined to the isolation in a critique of how women were treated.

The Second Opium War

In the 1850s and 1860s the Qing faced major military actions - another war against Europeans, and three major revolts. Britain, America, France, and, to an extent, Russia were seeking treaty reform with the Qing - their expanding economies wanted even more domination over China. In 1856 they got their excuse. Searching for opium shipments China was accused of raiding a British ship in Hong Kong called the Arrow, so to 'defend' themselves Britain went to war. Initially set back by the 1857 Indian Rebellion, which can be read about here, Canton was captured in December 1857 and its governor-general exiled to Calcutta. This shows how much Britain viewed China as its colony - it felt powerful enough to exile another state's officials. Capturing the Dagu forts in the far north the road to Beijing was open so a new treaty was signed. The 1858 Treaty of Tianjin destroyed Chinese autonomy - Christian missionaries were allowed free access to the country, four treaty ports would be opened when the rebellions were crushed, six would immediately be opened, communication would only be done in English, and the character yi (barbarian) was banned. One of the negotiators, Prince Gong, would be inspired by this treaty to bring change to China. However, not everyone at court accepted this and fighting continued.

The Yuanmingyuan today

The second half of the war came to an end in 1860 but was devastating for China. It, arguably, was the most devastating part of the Century of Humiliation until the Rape of Nanjing in 1937. Anglo-French forces wanted to punish China for daring to rebel against the Treaty of Tianjin, so they opted to destroy a cultural icon when they reached Beijing. Originally the Forbidden Palace was chosen as the residence of the emperor, but this was scrapped in favour of the Summer Palaces. As mentioned when we discussed the Qing, the Summer Palaces were one of the greatest icons of Chinese culture. The army destroyed the Yuanmingyuan and looted the Yiheyuan destroying centuries of Chinese culture. The Yuanmingyuan remains destroyed to this day as a symbol of imperialism, and if you visit a museum in Britain or France today and see a Chinese artefact obtained, or dated, from the 1850s/1860s it was looted from the Yiheyuan. The destruction of the Summer Palaces still is a deep rupture in Chinese culture and political thinking. In 1860 the Convention of Beijing made China an informal part of the Euro-American empires: the Treaty of Tianjin was to be ratified, an indemnity of up to 16 million taels had to be paid, opium was legalised, Kowloon was ceded to Britain, and Tianjian (which was close to Beijing) was open to trade. This was not the end of China's troubles.

The Nian and Muslim Revolts

Li Hongzhang in 1896

Although these revolts occurred concurrently with, or after, the Taiping I want to quickly discuss them here. Originating in the north, the Nian Revolt had its roots in the earlier White Lotus Rebellions. The Nian were raiders who took in poor or former peasants, and following floods in Jiangsu in 1851 their numbers boomed. Despite only numbering between 30,000 to 50,000 troops their access to firearms and ability to isolate Beijing while government forces were fighting the Taiping allowed them to be powerful. Their leader Zhang Luoxing became popular thanks to his raiding on other areas to feed local villages, and his attempts to curb rape and raiding. Even though Zhang was killed by General Senggelinqin at Anhui the Nian continued in 1863 the Nian Rebellion continued for another five years. Senggelinqin's massacres of the population became coupled with his continuous falling into traps helped the rebellion drag on. He was replaced by Zeng Guofan, who was integral in toppling to Taiping, and even he failed to defeat them, so his protege Li Hongzhang was given control. Li managed to defeat the Nian in 1868. Meanwhile, heavy taxation and expulsions of Muslims from their land to access mines led to revolts in the west from 1862. Another scholar turned general, Zuo Zongtang, was instrumental in putting it down. Zeng, Li, and Zuo will become very important in our next World History post.

The Taiping 

The Taiping Rebellion remains one of the bloodiest events in history causing up to 30 million people to be killed. It began in a strange way. A member of the Hakka minority Hong Xiuquan was born in the very poor province of Guangxi. His family worked hard to allow their son to go for the examinations, something very difficult for a minority and peasants, but he would end up failing the exams four times. As a young man he had been introduced to Christianity by American missionary Edwin Stevens, theorised by Spence as we're not actually sure, but after having strange dreams years later inspired him to read the text. Hong had dreams where two golden haired men, calling him son and brother, had visited him, and he realised that they were God and Jesus. Hong believed himself to be the son of God, and younger brother of Jesus, who would throw down the corrupt Manchu. Isolated from the rest of China, his influence quickly garnered over 10,000 followers. His harsh criticisms of the Manchu, calling them demons sent by the devil, and preaches of equality, inspired by Christianity, caused his following to grow. In 1850 Lin Zexu was brought back from exile but died on the way to fight Hong, and his successor was roundly defeated. On January 11, 1851 Hong Xiuquan declared himself the Heavenly King of the Taiping Tianguo. In 1853 he took Nanjing and ruled there for a decade. 

The Taiping Tianguo was a state of contrasts. While sexes were rigidly segregated it offered a way to grant women increasing independence. As Hakka women did not bind their feet it allowed them to bolster their armies where Su Sanniang became one of the most important generals of the Taiping. Ono Kazuko has further emphasised how women had considerable power in choosing who they married. This did not mean that women were truly equal - Hong did promote men over women, and said 'Can the Chinese even consider themselves men?' as they had been conquered by the Qing. There were attempts to rebuild society - opium addiction was successfully dealt with, dancing was banned, exams became based on Christianity, a communal bank was opened, and Hong tried to redistribute land equally in the most ambitious land policy until the communists of the 1950s. Why then, despite ruling from Nanjing with a population of over 30 million, did the Taiping fail to oust the Qing? Jonathan Spence identifies several reasons. Hong declared other generals 'kings' but the most capable were killed early on or tried to challenge Hong for power - Yang Xiuqing was killed in a palace coup in 1856 and Shi Dakai was killed by the Qing in 1863 when he tried to form his own kingdom. Losing key allies Hong's rule became increasingly erratic and inefficient. For this reason his land policy fell through losing support of the peasantry. Hong's isolation and aestheticism prevented collaboration with other revolts - his rigid rules in Nanjing alienated many Han. Although Euro-American powers initially toyed with supporting the Taiping in order to create a Christian China, Hong's view on Christianity put them off - the person who converted Hong, American missionary Issacher Roberts, distanced himself from Hong. The 'Ever-Victorious Army' under Auguste Protet and Charles Gordon allied with Qing officials, like Zeng Guofan, to fight the Taiping. Protet would be killed, but Gordon would be Christened 'Chinese Gordon' - he would later be killed trying to put down an anti-colonial rebellion in Sudan. In 1864 Hong died - either from suicide or eating a poisoned mushroom - as Nanjing was starving, people had resorted to eating grass and their dead. With him the Taiping Tianguo came to a close.

Conclusion and Next Time

The first half of the 1800s would be used by reformers to bring change to China. Those involved in the Opium Wars and rebellions would see their defeats as a way to 'modernise' China - the self-strengthening movement would soon emerge. Reform would lead to revolution, and the eventual collapse of the Chinese Empire. Observing the Second Opium War and Taiping Tianguo Karl Marx would observe how institutional government came under threat by the greed of colonial exploitation, and how a revolutionary China would break the international system exploiting it. He would reflect that European conservatives would one day flee from the proletariat hoping to find refuge in a conservative power only to find written on the Great Wall, 'Chinese Republic: Liberty, Equality, Fraternity'. Before then we have to see the successes and failures of reform, Sun Yat-sen, more colonial exploitation, rebellions, Chinese communities abroad, and civil war.

The sources used are as follows:

-Jonathan Spence, In Search for Modern China, (New York: 1990)

-Ono Kazuko, Chinese Women in a Century of Revolution, 1850-1950, (Stanford: 1978)

-Immanuel Hsu, The Rise of Modern China, Sixth Edition, (New York: 2000)

-Kumari Jayawardena, Feminism and Nationalism in the Third World, (London: 1986)

-Frances Wood, No Dogs and Not Many Chinese, Treaty Port Life in China, 1843-1943, (London: 1998)

-Chun-tu Hsueh, (ed.), The Chinese Revolution of 1911: New Perspectives, (Hong Kong: 1983)

-Jonathan Spence, God's Chinese Son: The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom of Hong Xiuquan, (New York: 1996)

Thank you for reading, and for other World History posts please see our list here. For future blog updates please see our Facebook or catch me on Twitter @LewisTwiby.

Comics Explained: Victor Zsasz

Batman over the years has had many twisted and sadistic villains over the years, and one good example of them is Victor Zsasz. Since his debut in 1992 Zsasz has never been close to one of Batman's main villains, but he has been in the background fairly often. Especially since his extremely brief appearance in the movie Batman Begins, he has steadily been appearing more and more. He regularly appeared in the hit video game series Batman:Arkham, has featured in the TV show Gotham, and is set to appear in the upcoming Birds of Prey movie. 

Origins

In the grand scheme of Batman's publication history Zsasz is a very recent addition - he first debuted in Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1 in 1992. Created by Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle he was initially disturbing serial killer, as the main focus of the story was the ongoing renovations on Arkham Asylum and the new warden Jeremiah Arkham vowing to 'cure' a chained Batman. Zsasz was noticeable as his body was covered in scars forming tally marks - it was later revealed that each tally represented a person murdered by him. This was part of a story called The Last Arkham - it turned out that Zsasz had been manipulating Jeremiah Arkham, and had managed to bribe a contractor while the asylum was being restored to build a passage out of his cell. During the day, Zsasz would slowly chip away at Arkham's sanity, and at night he would leave to commit further murders. Batman and Commissioner Gordon made a plan getting Batman committed where he could search for clues on the inside. Although Zsasz was stopped, whenever a breakout happened his killing spree started again.

Batman Chronicles #3 later told how Victor Zsasz became who he was. Like Bruce Wayne he was born into a life of luxury. His owned his own international corporation, and received further funding from his incredibly wealthy parents. However, aged 25, they were killed driving him into a deep depression. Unlike Bruce Wayne, who became the Batman, Zsasz turned to gambling to take his mind off of his depression, but this became an addiction. He spent days upon days at the Iceberg Lounge - a club and casino owned by the Penguin. Seeing an easy mark the Penguin kept challenging to games which made Victor lose more and more of his money. Eventually, Zsasz lost everything, and stumbling away from the club decided that he was destined for suicide. While attempting to jump from Gotham Bridge, a desperate mugger came at him with a knife. Instead, Zsasz grabbed the weapon and used it to end the mugger's life. In that moment - seeing the life leave the eyes of the mugger - everything changed. He saw nothing and meaningless in the eyes of the mugger, and viewed his murder of the man as bringing him a 'gift'. He realised that he was the only actual human, everyone else were 'zombies' and he had to liberate them. As a sign that he had liberated someone, and to prove that he was the only real human, he carved a tally into his skin. Now, he commits murders and places the victims in real-life positions so they could be 'real' in death. After every kill he carved another tally onto himself. In later stories it was revealed that Zsasz would have a breakdown if he couldn't leave his mark or kill someone - often saying that he 'has to have the mark'/

Knightfall and No Man's Land

In Knightfall, to break Batman both mentally and physically Bane released all the inmates from Arkham Asylum - everyone from the Joker to the Mad Hatter were released. One of those to escape was Zsasz. He broke into an all-girls boarding school taking them all hostage. As they were the daughters of Gotham's elite he wanted to make a statement by 'liberating' such high-class zombies. Even when the girls tried to overpower him he remained strong - Zsasz is very strong once dislocating Batman's shoulder in Detective Comics #368. The two police officers who were sent in to get him were also killed by the serial killer. By this time Batman was becoming increasingly exhausted hunting down escaped villains, so the agile and strong Zsasz proved to be a match. The killer's taunts started driving Batman to the edge causing him to snap and savagely beat the killer after he suggested that they were the same. Kevin Smith in 2008 would explain this in Batman: Cacophony as Batman hates Zsasz the most for his outlook on people and life. It took detective Renee Montoya dragging Batman off of the killer to stop the beating.

In No Man's Land Gotham experienced an earthquake isolating it from the rest of the country, so the villains took over. Poison Ivy, Joker, Bane, and Mr. Freeze were just some of the villains to take over parts of Gotham. Zsasz similarly claimed an area to kill as he pleased. Being one serial killer facing off against super-powered individuals and gangs meant he was soon injured and sent to Dr. Leslie Thompkins's field hospital. Her good nature and care started shattering Zsasz's worldview. In Thompkins there was evidence that people were not simply empty vessels - they were hopeful and good. As he couldn't cope with this shift in perception he decided to ignore and run away from the field hospital.

With Other Villains

Part of Riddler's gang with Scarecrow, Deathstroke, Two-Face, Firefly, Killer Croc and Clayface

Zsasz has occasionally ran with other villains, but his nihilistic and homicidal view on humanity means that he is often kept at arm's length. After Batman was killed by Darkseid a new story called Battle for the Cowl began. During this a new Black Mask, later revealed to be Jeremiah Arkham, managed to hire Zsasz as one of the members of his new gang. With a large amount of money he let Zsasz purchase a warehouse which could host battles-to-the-death between Gotham's runaway or kidnapped child population. Children would be forced to fight one another with the provision that the last one standing could fight Zsasz and earn their freedom. This enraged Damian Wayne, Bruce's son and the new Robin, who became traumatised seeing the bodies of the dead children. Damian was not raised by Bruce so was very willing to kill, and he almost killed Zsasz by slashing him with a sword before kicking him into the river. He would survive and continue working with Black Mask, and would sometimes move away to continue killing by himself. In 2017 DC published the War of Jokes and Riddles story - told in flashback it tells a Gotham wide gang war between Joker and the Riddler. More and more villains ended up picking a side; Zsasz would end up joining Riddler's gang.

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