The revolution of 1911

Essay, Pages 8 (1966 words)

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Introduction

In this essay, an essential part of the Chinese history will be examined, the revolution of 1911. More specifically, it is the empress dowager Tz'u-hsi, one of the last emperors of China, which will be the focus of the study, and why the Chinese empire fell only three years after her death in 1908. In the essay, arguments will be presented both for and against the statement that it was due to the empress dowager that the empire did not fall before 1908.

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In order to address the question, multiple sources will be used. The aim is to use sources with varying perspective, with differing date of publication and nationalities of authors. By doing this, a wider picture will be given instead of only using sources written from the same perspective. Secondary sources with primary sources included in them will be used.

In the essay, two of the sources used will be evaluated in detail by critical reading and comparing figures. The sources evaluated will be The revolution of 1911 and China this century.

The young girl that was to become empress Tz'u-hsi

In 1851 the young girl that was to become empress Tz'u-hsi entered the court as a concubine. She gave birth to the emperor's son and after the death of the emperor she came to take a big part in the rule of the country since her son was too young to climb the throne. When her son came to the age where he could take power, also he died and Tz'u-hsi came to rule the country as the empress-dowager Tz'u-hsi.

Thirty years after the death of the emperor, a three-year old child came to power through manipulations from empress Tz'u-hsi and the child was given the name Kang-hsu. When putting him in power, she broke the dynastic laws of succession, but no one dared to oppose her. If the laws had been followed, she would have lost almost all of her power. But now, she could continue her rule behind the throne3. Years later, the emperor Kang-hsu tried to break free from Tz'u-hsi and attempted reforms, but she immediately squelched his attempts and put him into house arrest for the following ten years.

The ruling people were of the Manchu family, or the Ch'ing dynasty. They came from a minority-people, the Jurchens, who took power in China during mid 17th century. The gap between the ruling people and the Chinese was growing wider and wider, and many of the Manchus were anti-chinese.

The middle of the 17th and the middle of the 19th centuries

Between the middle of the 17th and the middle of the 19th centuries, the population of China grew enormously. From about 100 million people, to 350 or 450 millions, and this caused many problems and the standard of living amongst the Chinese decreased rapidly. Emigration increased, but it was far from enough to counter the growth of population. The number of landless, homeless and hungry people continued to grow rapidly.

At this time, the empire of China was in a sorry state. Western powers had control of most of the country, and China was more or less a colony of the western powers who tried to gain as much as possible from her.

The economy of the country was a disaster at the time, the government refused to invest any money in industry, instead they focused on the agriculture, and by that came far behind competing western powers. The rule of the Manchus was an autocratic one and anything that they did not approve of was banned. Many books were burnt during this time and intellectuals were persecuted, and the country became isolated from the surrounding world.

In order to pay the western powers, taxes were raised to absurd levels, and soon uprising after uprising started. However, the empress still managed to keep the power with the aid of the western powers. They gave military assistance to suppress the uprisings, since it was in their interest to keep the country in one part.

On the 14th of November 1908, emperor Kang-hsu died and was followed by Tz'u-hsi the following day.

The two-year old succeeding emperor

The succeeding emperor was the two-year old P'u-i, son of Kang-hsu's brother Tsai-feng. But it was the Lady Xiaoding, widow after Kang-hsu who should rule the country together with Tsai-feng until the emperor was old enough to wield the power. Soon, they initiated some changes, and after a year, all able and experienced people in the government were gone. They established provincial assemblies, which only could advice the local governors, but these assemblies soon came to be important as platforms for opposition against the government. More changes were to come, a cabinet government was introduced but soon it showed to be of no democratic value since most of the seats would be taken by the Manchus and the government would still be under the authority of the emperor.

The straw that broke the camels back soon came, when the Manchus tried to raise more money through loans from abroad to put the central railway system under government control. This caused the entire country to protest. The members of the provincial assemblies and all men of property became uncertain and suspicious, two important groups that had been pro-Manchus during the rule of Tz'u-hsi. By its last measures the government alienated these two big groups.

Soon after this, the final revolution came. The government tried to suppress the uprising with force, but the army turned against them to. The revolution spread, and soon all provinces had declared themselves independent.

Only three years after the death of Tz'u-hsi, the rule of the Manchus and the feudalism in China ended in the revolution of 1911.

"The Revolution of 1911"

"The Revolution of 1911" was first published in 1976 and is a translation from a Chinese original. The only author mentioned is the"members of the history department of Futan University and Shanghai Teachers' University". The translation has been made by Chinese translators and the book is printed in China. Some changes have been made in the translation to English.

The greatest value of this book has been to provide the Chinese revolutionary perspective, and not as a source of facts. It seems as if the purpose of the book is to depict the Manchus as traitors to the Chinese people and the allied forces as evil personified, "After signing the protocol of 1901, the Ching government had sold out completely to the foreign imperialists and the people of China were crying for the overthrow of the traitor regime"12, "They learned that imperialism is their most ferocious enemy, and that they should entertain no illusions whatsoever about imperialism but on the contrary wage a most resolute and thorough struggle against it."13 The political climate in China at the time when the book was written does not increase its reliability as a source of facts since the book printed under the communist government, and could be seen as an attempt to glorify the revolution. The authors do not mention any sources used, and that does not increase its reliability either.

China this Century

Written by Rafe de Crespigny and published in 1992, at Oxford University Press but printed in Hong Kong. The author has studied China for the last fifty years and has written much about its geography and history, both ancient and modern.

The book was valuable as a source of facts and to give a more objective perspective. In the preface, the author admits that it is impossible to entirely avoid being bias, though he has put great emphasis on trying to not take any sides. The book is mainly focused on the foreign policy of china, and not as much on the people behind the politics. Sources are given were appropriate and the end of each chapter includes lists of further reading. As a limitation, it could be mentioned that the book was first written in 1970, when China only had begun to open for journalists, historians and other and only a limited amount of sources that could be trusted was available. However, since that time the book has been edited once.

Analysis

In this study it has been attempted to find out why the revolution came so soon after the death of the empress, and how important she was in keeping the revoltion back when she was alive. Even though huge problems faced the empire, she maintained the power, and after she was gone, it took no more then three years for the empire to fall. The short time it took for the empire to fall when she was gone is an indication of how skilled she was in keeping the country together.

If the empress had lived past the age of seventy-three, she would probably have continued the policies that she had practiced before. She was very reluctant to leave any of her power to anyone else, unless she had control over that person. This is seen from what happened to Kang-hsu when he tried to initiate his own reforms, he was put into house arrest. So it is not likely that she would have made any drastic changes to her policies if she had lived past 1908.

The country had gotten so far behind the western powers mainly because of the refusal of the government to put money into industrialization of the society, and because of the persecution of the intelligentsia. The Manchus showed no intention to alter that policy, and that caused the country to fall further and further behind competing countries. Together with a rapidly increasing population this brought on anger and distrust within the people against the government.

Increasing pressure from the western powers was a big problem that faced the rulers of China and the people were angerd that their government failed to put up a fight against the foreign invaders which the Chinese saw as barbarians. Tz'u-hsi managed to keep the fine balance between pleasing the western powers but still keeping her people in place. This was something that the new rulers failed to do.

The ruling minority had almost no contact with the common people, instead there was a mutual hostility. This was one of the mayor reasons for the revolution to break out and it is not likely that the empress would eased the anti-chinese politics such as letting more chinese into positions of power.

It is likely to assume that Tz'u-hsi never would have alienated the last of her allies within the country as the new rulers did. How she would have solved the increasing demands from the western powers no one can say, but she knew that she could ill afford to make more enemies within her own country and was therefore cautious with her actions towards the end.

When the new rulers came to power, they were afraid that their positions were threatened and therefore sent away or dismissed all able and experienced people in the court, so the people running the country at the time of the revolution lacked in both experience and skill. If the people that knew how to run the country had stayed maybe the history would have been different. The empress Tz'u-hsi was safe on her place and no one dared to threaten her, and therefore she would never have gotten rid of all the skilled people that surrounded her.

Conclusion

Based on the evidence presented and analysed it is found that the revolution of 1908 was inevitable, and the empress was only delaying it. As soon as she was gone, the road was open for the revolutionaries which gained even more support due to the moves of the new government. The complexity of the difficult situation in China in late 19th and early 20th centuries would have defied even the most able statesman, and the ancient system of feudalism in China was destined to end.