Decline of China

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer notes that the development of China, through the 19th and early 20th centuries is marked with examples of successful and failed attempts to lay complete control over her resources by imperial interests. The writer discusses that the country developed through years of resistance and loss, differing only by the characters that were involved in the particular topical game. The control of resources and goods in conjunction with a sense of mutual disregard for the other's believed superiority created demonstrative social, political and economic chaos. Profit, religion and even colonial education, driven by western interest ruled much of China and limited her natural development. The writer maintains that though China may have been effective at resisting official colonial rule, she was not left unscathed by colonial drive and interests.

From the Paper:

"Fighting over little bits of Chinese land and large shares of control over her goods and demands for goods frequently ended in China becoming occupied by various nations, to protect their own interests from other European powers. One example is the initial occupation of Macao, where the British were concerned over the interest of France, under Napoleon in the territory, so they simply occupied and controlled it. China fought western infiltration, at the same time that she to some degree welcomed the trade. In 1808, one province of China even decreed that it was forbidden not only to bring opium into the kingdom but for western missionaries to enter it either."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Albertini, Rudolf von, and Albert Wirz. European Colonial Rule, 1880-1940: The Impact of the West on India, Southeast Asia, and Africa. Trans. John G. Williamson. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1982.
• Blue, Gregory. "One The British Connection." Opium Regimes: China, Britain, and Japan, 1839-1952. Ed. Timothy Brook and Bob Tadashi Wakabayashi. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000. 31-47.
• Cubberley, Ellwood P. The History of Education: Educational Practice and Progress Considered as a Phase of the Development and Spread of Western Civilization. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1902.
• Porter, Jonathan. "Herbert S. Yee. Macau in Transition: From Colony to Autonomous Region." China Review International 9.1 (2002): 294.
• Rosecrance, Richard. "Money and Power: Pondering Economic Growth and Decline." The National Interest Summer 2002: 127.

More papers on Decline of China:

• Research Paper # 99968 : "Srivijaya: The Decline of the Venice of Asia"
• Analytical Essay # 133174 : "The Rise of Inequality in China"
• Article Review # 103870 : "Literature Review Regarding Contemporary China"

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