Qing China and the consequences of the golden age Essay Example for Free

Qing China and the consequences of the golden age Essay Introduction The â€Å"Prosperous Age† was a period where Qing China experienced a drastic increase in population, flourishing trade and commerce, and a remarkable level of social and political stability during the reign of Emperor Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong. However, its brilliance was overshadowed by its subsequent consequences and China was soon at its breaking point in the 19th century. This essay would then evaluate on the implications of the â€Å"Prosperous Age† and how the long-term consequences proved to be more negative in the 19th century due to a string of crisis, and subsequent problems that continued even in modern China of the 20th century. Negative Unanticipated Long Term Consequences Reversal of Trade Fortunes with Britain During the 18th century, there was mounting European demand for Chinese goods (Hung, 2011). Britain in particular, had strong liking and demand for Chinese goods especially tea. Hence, it led to the outflow of British silver into China, but little inflow of silver back into the British economy resulted in China enjoying a trade surplus (City University HK, 2007) while Britain suffered from a trade deficit. To redress this deficit, Britain began to smuggle and sell opium in China (City University HK, 2007). China’s attempt to prohibit opium then resulted in the Opium Wars and suffered a tragic defeat. The defeat in the Opium War led to the signings of unequal treaties . Upon signing of the unequal treaties, much Chinese marked it as the beginning of a century of shame and humiliation. Although China was never formally colonized, the lack of ability to defend its basic sovereign rights and ability to govern its own country made it look like a like semi-colonized state of Britain. Consequently, the Qing government was seen as weak and inefficient to combat against the foreigners and much Chinese lost faith in the Manchurian Qing government. As a result, this gave rise to the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901) where violent revolts and attacks were targeted against foreigners as a sign to resist their influence. Boxers,  supported by China, suffered a yet another defeat and were forced to sign yet another unequal treaty: Boxer Protocol, where the reparations drastically crippled the Chinese economy till the mid 20th century (Zheng, 2009). Thus, we can see that the initial trade surplus, a sign of â€Å"Prosperous Age† resulted in British to redress the situation by selling opium to the Chinese led to the Opium Wars and the unequal treaties which greatly weakened Qing China internally and externally in the 19th century. China’s failure to counter foreign influence led to their continued defeat in the Boxer Rebellion at the end of 19th century, where another unequal treaty continued to cripple her till mid 20th century , thereby demonstrating the long term consequence of the â€Å"Prosperous Age† was indeed negative in the long run, especially since the consequences did not confine just to the 19th century but even stretched to the 20th century. Reforms did not keep up with population boom During the â€Å"Prosperous Age†, China’s population tripled from less than 150 million to over 400 million (Perkins, 1969). Civil Service Exam however continued its strict quota for passing (Bentley Ziegler, 2003) and that meant a lower ratio of scholar to population passes. The frustration of students led to the rise of influential leaders like Hong Xiuquan who sought for reforms which led to the Taiping Rebellion . Coincidentally, the backbone of his rebels were the poor peasants who were forced out of arable lands and were socially upset and frustrated, which was also due to the consequence of the population boom. The consequence of the Taiping Rebellion led to a weakened Qing as they were forced to decentralize power to provincial elites to deal with the crisis and this power was never fully recovered even after the rebellion was suppressed (Sng, 2011). Provincial elites who did not return the power were a growing sign of defiance and could have the possibility of rising up against the imperial court. The unneeded civil unrest caused by Taiping Rebellion also served to exacerbate subsequent crisis like the Northern Chinese Famine (1876-1879) where the government was severely blamed for not providing sufficient aid. The excess unrest and loss of power proved to be detrimental in the 19th century as it  crippled China and the country with no official political bloc stepping up to assist with the problems and crisis. In short, China was in a total disarray and chaotic. Lack of technological advancement Qing China favoured political and social stability over technological innovation which they feared would lead to unsettling changes. Furthermore, the vast population available to firms was a cheaper alternative to increase output, rather than investment of new technologies which was costly (Bentley Ziegler, 2003). This proved to be adverse in the 19th century when China engaged in wars. In the Opium Wars, the Qing military was no match against the British who utilized better technology to triumph (Tanner, 2010). The first defeat resulted in Treaty of Nanjing which ceded Hong Kong to Britain. Subsequent wars like the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1985) had China suffering a crushing defeat against a more superior and modernized Japanese army. China then ceded Taiwan, Penghu and the Liaodong peninsular to the Japanese. It clearly implied that China could not defend its own sovereign ground and indicated how backward the Chinese army. It questions the right of China to even claim rights over those territories if she could not even defend it properly. The problem gets exemplified into the 20th century when China continued to suffer several defeats to the Japanese in the Second Sino-Japanese War . Even with the Self-Strengthening Movement (1861-1895) which was embraced to modernize China was insufficient. The subsequent defeats to Allied forces in the Boxer Rebellion and Japanese in the Sino-Japanese Wars marred the success of the movement. Especially significant was the defeat in First Sino-Japanese war as for the first time in over 2000 years of history, regional dominance in East Asia shifted from China to Japan (Johnson, 2010). Coupled with the defeat, China’s international and regional standings were challenged and staged subsequent revolutions that led to other problems and the eventual demise of Qing. Positive Long Term Unanticipated Consequences Building a new foundation based on common people The end of Taiping Rebellion inspired nationalists (Del Testa Lemoine Strickland, 2001) to fight for the betterment of Chinese. It was because of the consequence of the â€Å"Prosperous Age† that led to the decisive rise of nationalist to seek for reforms. An example would be the decentralizing of power, which meant many parties would be involved in decision-making process, rather than just the monarch government. This would ensure that concerns are taken into deliberation before decision-making that will benefit majority of the Chinese, rather than the imperial court only. The nationalist dream then culminated in the 1911 Revolution in the early 20th century, where the Qing was overthrown and the Republic of China was established. Nevertheless, the dream of the nationalist was short-lived due to a power struggle within. Even though election was scheduled for 1913, but it soon became clear than Yuan Shikai wanted to establish his own power base. Sun Yat Sen was then forced into exile after he stepped down as head of the newly formed Kuomintang (Foster, 2007). The new government was then monopolized by Yuan and led to decades of political division and warlordism, including monarchy restoration (Blecher, 2010). Therefore we can see that the perceived benefits from the consequence of â€Å"Prosperous Age† in the 19th century did not fully materialize in the 20th century. Monarchy restoration was attempted and defeats the purpose of the promised sharing of power with the people initially. Political and social unrest persisted even with the new government which culminated in the May Fourth Movement (1919). Hence, we can see that China did not become better even with the end of Qing. It would be judgmental to argue that the initial rise of nationalists had resulted in a better China. It would be fairer to argue that the initial rise of nationalists led to more power struggle and dissident movements like the Chinese Warlord Era (1916-1928) as there were no strong political forces to enforce stability and order until the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) came in 1949. Conclusion Hence, we can see that the consequences of the â€Å"Prosperous Age† proved to be more negative. The severity of the negative consequences shed light on the  crises in the 19th century which crippled China internally and externally. The impact of the consequences was so overwhelming that it even snowballed to the 20th century and further crippled modern China. In contrast, the perceived positive consequences was that it built the foundation but the problem was that the foundation was weak and unstable which in turn led to more problems which culminated in more movements and revolutions. Furthermore, problems like sovereign issues were not solved by reforms or China’s surge in military strength but rather treaties that returned territories to her under imminent conditions . Thus, we can see that the long term consequences were more negative in the 19th century as it continued the crippling of China economically, socially and militarily and as well as set the stage for the movements and revolutions in the 20th century which did not necessary bring about stability and communal power amongst its people until the CCP came into power in 1949. References Hung, H.F. (2011), Protest with Chinese characteristics: demonstrations, riots, and petitions (p24-26). USA: Columbia University Press Qian Long Emperor’s Letter to George III, 1793, retrieved from Sanders Morillo Nelson Elleberger (2005), Encounters in World History: Sources and Themes from the Global Past, Volume 2 (p289). McGraw-Hill Sng, T.H (2011, Oct 4). Size and Dynastic Decline: The Principal-Agent Problem in Late Imperial China 1700-1850.   City University of HK Press (2007), China: Five thousand years of history and civilization (p109). Hong Kong: City University of HK Press Perkins, D.H. (1969). Agricultural development in China, 1369-1968. Chicago: Aldine Bentley Ziegler (2003). Traditions and Encounters (p724-740). New York: McGraw-Hill Tanner, H.M. (2010), China: From the Great Qing Empire through the People’s Republic of China 1644-2009 (p77). USA: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc. Del Testa Lemoine Strickland (2001). Government leaders, military rulers and political activist (p86). Greenwood Publishing Group Foster, S (2007). Adventure Guide China (p18-19). Hunter Publishing, Inc. Blecher, M.J. (2010). China against the tides: restructuring through revolution, radicalism, and reform (p205). Continuum International Publishing Group Johnson, R.E. (2010). A Global Introduction to Baptist Churches (p267). Cambridge University Press Zheng, J.G. (2009). Historical dictionary of modern China 1800-1949 (p32). USA: Scarecrow Press

Phonics and Whole language methods Essay -- essays papers

Phonics and Whole language methods Phonics is a technique that teaches beginning readers to associate a particular sound with each letter of the alphabet or letter combination (Unger, 1996). Students receive explicit instruction in the mechanics of reading before they begin the actual process. Once students know what sounds correspond with each letter or letter combination, they move on to sounding out words. The English language has only about forty-four sounds, so when students begin to read, they move along in strict order so that he or she only sees words whose letter sounds they have already learned (Flesch, 1983). An example from Rudolf Flesch‘s book Why Johnny Still Can‘t Read is that students would have learned the sounds of n, d, m, p, short a, and short I before trying to read the sentence: â€Å"Ann and Dan pin up the map,† (1983). Students continue learning to read in such a way, using basal (beginning) readers. The sentences get progressively harder as students learn more letter and letter combination sounds. Phonics instruction also emphasizes the memorization of rules that help the student sound out words. Some of these rules include that of the â€Å"silent e† and double vowels. The â€Å"silent e† rule is used in words such as like, make, and use. In each of these words, the e does not make a sound, but it makes the preceding vowel â€Å"say its name.† In other words, the vowel preceding the e is long. The double vowel rule includes such letter combinations as oa, ai, ea, and ee. These pairs make the sound of the first letter (Wilber, 2002). Some students are taught a short poem to help them remember this rule: â€Å"When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.† Other rules that phonics instructors teach... ...ics and whole language, dean says. Retrieved October 9, 2002, from Purdue University News Website: http://www.purdue.edu/UNS/html4ever/9804.Haring.literacy.html Moats, L. C. (2000, October). The illusion of balanced reading instruction. Retrieved November 17, 2002, from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation website: http://www.edexcellence.net/library/wholelang/moats.html Reading/literacy. (2002). Retrieved November 19, 2002, from the Education Commission of the States web site: http://www.ecs.org/html/issue.asp?issueid=97 Schlafly, P. (1996, July). Phonics vs. whole language. The Phyllis Schlafly Report, 29(12). Retrieved on October 9, 2002, from http://www.eagleforum.org/psr/1996/july96/psrjul96.html Wilber, P. M. (2002, April). Phonics vs. whole language. Teach a child to read. Retrieved on October 23, 2002, from http://www.succeedtoread.com/phonics.html Phonics and Whole language methods Essay -- essays papers Phonics and Whole language methods Phonics is a technique that teaches beginning readers to associate a particular sound with each letter of the alphabet or letter combination (Unger, 1996). Students receive explicit instruction in the mechanics of reading before they begin the actual process. Once students know what sounds correspond with each letter or letter combination, they move on to sounding out words. The English language has only about forty-four sounds, so when students begin to read, they move along in strict order so that he or she only sees words whose letter sounds they have already learned (Flesch, 1983). An example from Rudolf Flesch‘s book Why Johnny Still Can‘t Read is that students would have learned the sounds of n, d, m, p, short a, and short I before trying to read the sentence: â€Å"Ann and Dan pin up the map,† (1983). Students continue learning to read in such a way, using basal (beginning) readers. The sentences get progressively harder as students learn more letter and letter combination sounds. Phonics instruction also emphasizes the memorization of rules that help the student sound out words. Some of these rules include that of the â€Å"silent e† and double vowels. The â€Å"silent e† rule is used in words such as like, make, and use. In each of these words, the e does not make a sound, but it makes the preceding vowel â€Å"say its name.† In other words, the vowel preceding the e is long. The double vowel rule includes such letter combinations as oa, ai, ea, and ee. These pairs make the sound of the first letter (Wilber, 2002). Some students are taught a short poem to help them remember this rule: â€Å"When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking.† Other rules that phonics instructors teach... ...ics and whole language, dean says. Retrieved October 9, 2002, from Purdue University News Website: http://www.purdue.edu/UNS/html4ever/9804.Haring.literacy.html Moats, L. C. (2000, October). The illusion of balanced reading instruction. Retrieved November 17, 2002, from the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation website: http://www.edexcellence.net/library/wholelang/moats.html Reading/literacy. (2002). Retrieved November 19, 2002, from the Education Commission of the States web site: http://www.ecs.org/html/issue.asp?issueid=97 Schlafly, P. (1996, July). Phonics vs. whole language. The Phyllis Schlafly Report, 29(12). Retrieved on October 9, 2002, from http://www.eagleforum.org/psr/1996/july96/psrjul96.html Wilber, P. M. (2002, April). Phonics vs. whole language. Teach a child to read. Retrieved on October 23, 2002, from http://www.succeedtoread.com/phonics.html

Lather and Nothing Else (Short Story) by: Tellez Essay

Q: What is the possible message of Tellez’s story? Explain In the short story â€Å"Lather and Nothing Else†, the possible message of the story would be how our roles determine our actions. In society today the work we do, the responsibilities we have and the work or decisions we choose to do is what would determined our actions. In the short story theres two main facts proving that our roles do determine our actions. Firstly, when Captain Torres talks about killing the revolutionaries subject proves how he once killed those specific people because of his job and that is what he is known for: â€Å"some of them we brought back dead; others are still alive. but they’ll be all dead.† not one will escape; not a single one (Tellez 35)†. These comments proves and explains how Torres is really eager to kill everyone. This shows Torres’s role how he acts like a dictator and kill the revolutionaries. His action were chosen for him and that were to kill the revolutionaries. Secondly, the part when the barber talks to himself and convinces himself that he has to do his job no matter what: â€Å"I would gave to shave his beard just like any other, carefully, neatly, just as though he were a good customer, talking heed that not a single pore should emit a drop of blood (Tellez 36)†. This part shows how the barber’s role is to shave the beard without any choice, because that is his job and this is what he is known for. His actions is chosen for him too because of his profession. These situations shows our profession determines our actions, our decisions and our actions will determine our work. Whether it is a future that we would enjoy or a future we will not enjoy.

Food And Agriculture Sector ( Fa ) - 2833 Words

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While the US farms manufacture together about $181 billion in crop, greenhouses, and nurseries; eggs, poultry, milk, seeds, and grains are the top five manufacturing in the country (Food and Agriculture Sector-Specific Plan An Annex to the National Infrastructure Protecti on Plan, 2010 10). The FA sector also import from other countries and is creating like this a more complicated network of processing, supplying, transporting, and distributing (Food and Agriculture Sector-Specific Plan An Annex to the National Infrastructure Protection Plan, 2010 10). While a natural disaster could affect the critical infrastructures in the nation, the FA Sector has a surplus of about 100,000 manufacturing and processing factories domestically, and globally as well,Show MoreRelatedThe Factors Affecting The Food And Agriculture Sector Essay2268 Words   |  10 Pagesthe Food and Agriculture sector can arguably be ranked among the most important. 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