Western Pressures in the 19th Century

Western Pressures in the 19th Century

Japan's and China's Response

In the 19 century, China and Japan came across western pressures and both countries dealt with them differently. The 19th century was marked by a crisis of the empire of China, which was due to growing international pressure from the West on Japan and China. The opening up of trade between China and Britain led to the first serious trouble. The British wanted to expand their trade relations, so they tried to build with the Chinese Empire Diplomatic Relations. China, with its long history of economic self-satisfaction was not in favor of this new and growing trade interests. The proximity to less developed nations and their tribute payments encouraged the Chinese to become upper class. China's contact with others was undesirable, especially with Western countries. An equality of another country with China was unthinkable (Ellen, 2008).

Britain also started to act against the wishes of China in the course of opium trade. The resulting controversy led to the two Opium Wars. Western weapons were way powerful, and China had no equal strength to oppose them. The peace treaties guaranteed the benefits of British trade and extra-territorial trading locations. The Chinese government refused to sign these contracts, then marched British-French troops in China, and started penetrated to Peking. China then signed the treaties still in force even until 1943. Accordingly, these contracts opened Chinese ports to foreign trade and the residents of western states. Hong Kong and Kowloon were ceded permanently to Britain (Liu, 1998).

The foreign nationalities of the parties have been granted extraterritoriality, i.e. Foreigners living in China were treated by their own judges, or the embassies to the laws of their home countries. All contracts contained a most favored nation clause, which stated that all ...