Imperial failure in the industrial age: China, 1842–1911

Summary

ABSTRACT.Never having met the industrial world or any serious threat by sea, China was slow to understand the challenge of the West, and of the westernizing Japanese. Preoccupied by major civil wars, the Qing empire was willing to buy foreign naval technology, but(unlike Japan) had no idea of changing its traditional policies. When it did attempt fundamental reform in the early 20^th century, it unleashed half a century of civil war.

RÉSUMÉ.n'ayant jamais rencontré de sérieuse menace par la mer ou fréquenté le monde industriel, la Chine mit du temps à comprendre le défique représentaient l'Occident et l'occidentalisation du Japon. Pour faire face aux importants conflits civils qu'il subissait, l'empire Quing désira acquérir la technologie navale étrangère sans pour autant, contrairement au Japon, se soucier de changer sa politique traditionnelle. Au début du XX^e siècle, le pays entreprit finalement une réforme fondamentale de son système, déchaînant une guerre civile qui dura un demi-siècle.

During the Qing dynasty, the Chinese did not understand the developing maritime dimension of their national security and prosperity. Prior to the Industrial Revolution, there was no significant maritime dimension to either, beyond pirates who sometimes harassed the coast, and the domestic coastal junk trade, which was secondary to the internal overland, riverine, and canal trade and tax-collection system. So the Qing dynasty, beyond buying an assortment of incompatible naval ships late in the dynasty, never turned to the sea and suffered dire foreign policy consequences as a result. China illustrates the problem of not understanding the problem.

China became the victim of its highly successful traditional national security paradigm that focused on landward threats. The Industrial Revolution, however, brought a seaward threat that the Chinese government failed to understand until the last decade of the Qing dynasty. Initially, China's leaders construed the emerging maritime problem narrowly in terms of military technology and imported a great deal during the Self-strengthening Movement(1861–1895). But they failed to understand the civil as opposed to military origins of Western power, let alone the organizational and institutional origins. The Industrial Revolution ushered in a global maritime order based initially on overseas trade, freedom of navigation, and international law to facilitate trade and diplomacy. Ultimately, the Industrial Revolution would spell the end for the traditional world of continental empires that had spawned so many great civilizations, China's included.