The major European nations of the time (Britain, France, Portugal, and Germany) played a significant role in imperialism in China. As well, other important nations that carried out expansion into China included Russia and Japan.
Colonialism in China, which initially started in only a few treaty port areas during the 1840s, gradually expanded over time and continued for more than a century, finally to end in 1945 after Japan was defeated in World War II.
Although British imperialism never politically took hold in mainland China, as it did in India or Africa, its cultural and political legacy is still evident today. Honk Kong remains a significant center of global finance and its government still functioned in much of the same ways as it did under British colonialism.
Macau: China's First And Last European Colony.
During the European powers' attempt to control the world, the Chinese Empire was not easy to conquer as it had a powerful army and government like the Ottoman Empire. Its large size became an advantage, making it an elusive target for colonization.
Imperialism in China is considered to have occurred primarily in the 19th century, but outside interest in China began centuries earlier. The major European nations of the time (Britain, France, Portugal, and Germany) played a significant role in imperialism in China.
There were two major reasons why China began to lag behind the West during the past two centuries. First, the Chinese were arrogant and believed themselves to be superior to all other foreigners. Second, China had a conservative Confucian-based bureaucracy governing the state.
The Earliest Settlements: The earliest known Chinese culture was the relatively sophisticated Yang-shao, whose people lived in simple, bare settlements and hunted for game with carved stone spears. The Yang-shao settled near the Huang He River around 10,000 BCE, over 12,000 years ago.
The primary German colony in China was Kiautschou Bay with the principal city being Kiautschou, The bay was seized by Germany in 1897, but after treaty negotiations, Germany leased it from the government of China. The colony existed from 1898 to 1915.
Genghis Khan's grandson, Kublai Khan, defeated the Chinese Southern Song in 1279, and for the first time all of China was under foreign rule. In 1271 Kublai Khan named his dynasty Yuan which means "origin of the universe." The Yuan dynasty in China lasted from 1279 to 1368.
Hong Kong–a small peninsula and group of islands jutting out from China's Kwangtung province–was leased by China to Great Britain in 1898 for 99 years.
The handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China was at midnight on 1 July 1997. This event ended 156 years of British rule in the former colony.
Italian explorer Marco Polo was born on 15th September 1254 and died on the 8th or 9th January 1324.
A favorite tactic of the British was to play on pre-existing internal divisions, from Ireland to the North American tribes to India. This would not have worked with China, and the British didn't see an invasion as worth it if there were easier pickings elsewhere.
Seeking raw materials to fuel its growing industries, Japan invaded the Chinese province of Manchuria in 1931. By 1937 Japan controlled large sections of China, and war crimes against the Chinese became commonplace.
The Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory was a German leased territory in Imperial and Early Republican China from 1898 to 1920. Covering an area of 552 km2 (213 sq mi), it centered on Jiaozhou Bay on the southern coast of the Shandong Peninsula. The administrative center was at Qingdao.
The Chinese Empire is commonly seen as economically inferior to the European imperial powers. However, for much of its history, imperial China was vastly wealthier and commanded the world economy.
Germany also used military force to insert itself into east Asian affairs. Capitalizing on the murder of two German missionaries, the country attacked and invaded the city of Qingdao in 1897, establishing what amounted to a German colony in Shandong province.
1600-1050 B.C.: Shang Dynasty - The earliest ruling dynasty of China to be established in recorded history, the Shang was headed by a tribal chief named Tan. The Shang era is marked by intellectual advances in astronomy and math.
Over the centuries, Zhongguo was at times used in diplomatic dispatches to foreign vassal states but the dynastic name was still the official one. The first time Zhongguo was used as the Chinese nation's official name was in the Sino-Russian Treaty of Nerchinsk of 1689.
The oldest recorded civilization in the world is the Mesopotamia civilization. Overall, the 4 oldest civilizations of the world are Mesopotamia Civilization, Egyptian Civilization, Indus Valley Civilization, and Chinese Civilization. This article will briefly throw light on the oldest civilizations of the world.
Beyond the health problems related to opium addiction, the increasing opium trade with the Western powers meant that for the first time, China imported more goods than it exported. Settling this financial problem eventually led to the First Opium War between Great Britain and China, from 1839 to 1842.
In 1839, Britain invaded China to crush opposition to its interference in the country's economic and political affairs.
Unlike Europe, it was politically united for long periods during that time. During the Song dynasty (960–1279), the country experienced a revolution in agriculture, water transport, finance, urbanization, science and technology, which made the Chinese economy the most advanced in the world from about 1100.