90 



CHINA. 



Great, about contemporaneously with the seizure 

 of Macao by the Portuguese, who also conquered 

 Formosa, which later fell to the Dutch and was 

 retaken from them by the Chinese. After the 

 war of 1841 Hong-Kong was ceded to Great Brit- 

 ain. This war was waged against China by the 

 English chiefly for the purpose of removing the 

 imperial interdict against the importation of 

 opium. When its importation was legalized once 

 more, the Emperor issued edicts prohibiting its 

 use, which, however, could not be enforced. The 

 war of 1856 was likewise occasioned in part by the 

 necessity felt by the British for preserving the 

 opium trade and the revenue derived from it by 

 the Indian Government. Cambodia, Annam, and 

 later Tonquin, once tributary countries, were 

 wrested from China by France, while Great Brit- 

 ain conquered first Lower Burma, the tributary 

 Himalayan states, and finally Upper Burma, and 

 Chinese influence in Central Asia receded before 

 Russian conquests. Despite these successive en- 

 croachments of the military powers of Europe the 

 Pekin court still maintained its arrogant reserve. 

 European ambassadors were not received in audi- 

 ence by the Emperor till 1873, and then only in 

 a pavilion outside of the palace. In 1890 the pres- 

 ent Emperor, on coming of age, received them in 

 the building where envoys from Korea and Annam 

 have been accustomed to present the annual trib- 

 ute to the Son of Heaven. In 1894 the foreign 

 ambassadors were first admitted within the por- 

 tals of the palace. Diplomatic business can only 

 be done with the Tsung-li-Yamen, the board cre- 

 ated for the purpose after the signing of the treaty 

 of Tientsin. This board consisted at first of 3 

 members, and now it has 11. Although strength- 

 ened by the inclusion of members of the Grand 

 Council, still it possesses no real power, as all its 

 decisions must be approved by the Grand Coun- 

 cil and ratified by the Emperor. 



In 1897 Russia, having intervened after the 

 Japanese victories to preserve Manchuria for 

 China, obtained, in connection with the privilege 

 of building a branch of the Siberian Railroad 

 through Manchuria to a seaport on the Gulf of 

 Pechili, a lease for ninety-nine years of the seaport 

 of Talienwan to serve as the terminus of the rail- 

 road and also of the military harbor of Port 

 Arthur. Germany, in the guise of retributory 

 damages for the murder of two missionaries by 

 a mob, demanded and obtained the port of Kiao- 

 chau, after landing troops there in the spring of 

 1898, and preferential commercial and political 

 rights throughout the -peninsula of Shantung, 

 thus establishing a claim to a sphere of influence 

 in China. The British Government, receding from 

 the position of the open door which it had first 

 taken in opposition to the Russian and German 

 claims to exclusive spheres, acquired a lease of 

 Wei-Hai-Wei, a naval port on the Gulf of Pechili, 

 on the identical terms of the lease of Port Arthur 

 to Russia, and an agreement by the Chinese 

 Government never to alienate any of the terri- 

 tories in the provinces adjoining the Yangtse- 

 Kiang to any other power, whether under lease, 

 mortgage, or any other designation. The French 

 Government, which as protector of Roman Cath- 

 olic missionaries and as an active and important 

 military power formerly had more frequent diplo- 

 matic dealings with China than any other, though 

 French trade in the country was comparatively 

 small, and which had engaged in hostilities with 

 China on account of the participation of the Black 

 Flags in the Tonquinese rebellion, now demanded 

 and obtained a coaling station on the mainland 

 opposite the island of Hainan, also on a ninety- 

 nine-year lease. The nonalienation assurances 



which had already been obtained regarding Hai- 

 nan were extended to the Chinese provinces ad- 

 joining Tonquin. Great Britain, asserting that 

 parts of these provinces of Kwangtung, Kwangsi, 

 and Honan lie in the Yangtse valley, and unwill- 

 ing to concede to France preferential treatment in 

 the trade of the West river or in territory adja- 

 cent to Burma as well as to Tonquin, demanded 

 compensation in the shape of an extension of the 

 Kaulung settlement opposite Hong-Kong, and an 

 assurance, identical in terms with that given to 

 France, that two of the provinces would not be 

 alienated. Japan, which after the victorious war 

 of 1895 had been forced by European intervention 

 to be content with the cession of Formosa, secured 

 the promise now that the provinces opposite that 

 island would never be alienated to any other na- 

 tion, but did not seek any preferential economical 

 advantages in those provinces. Italy put forward 

 a demand for a coaling station on lease, and this, 

 though formally supported by Great Britain, was 

 contemptuously refused. Thirteen out of the 

 18 provinces of China have thus been marked 

 out as spheres of influence by various European 

 powers, and innumerable mining, railroad, and 

 commercial concessions have been granted to for- 

 eigners. The number of treaty ports has gradu- 

 ally been increased to 32, some of them situated 

 far in the interior, where the people have never 

 yet come into contact with Europeans. 



The Imperial Government at Pekin has retained 

 its authority, aside from the sentimental or sym- 

 bolical reverence which Chinamen are bound by 

 tradition to pay to the Emperor, by means of its 

 controlling the only efficient military force in 

 China, the Manchu banner troops of the imperial 

 province, and by the complete control that it ex- 

 ercises over the official hierarchy, for the most 

 powerful viceroy must submit to removal or 

 degradation. This power, however, is used only 

 for reasons that command the general approval 

 of the official class, the support of which is the 

 main security of the Manchu dynasty. The Im- 

 perial Government has never ventured to advance 

 to high office any favorite or tool, but only those 

 who have entered the service by the recognized 

 channel and risen through the regular stages and 

 are therefore imbued with the traditional prin- 

 ciples of government and the bureaucratic spirit. 

 The Chinese people have never willingly sub- 

 mitted to the Tartar conquerors. There have been 

 four serious rebellions, the last of which, that of 

 the Taipings, was only suppressed by the aid of 

 European support. The great secret societies of 

 China the White Lily, the Triad, the Redhead, 

 and others were started with the object of expel- 

 ling the Tartars and restoring a Chinese dynasty. 

 Still, the Manchu rule has not been oppressive, 

 and in recent times it has been weak. Except 

 the tribute rice, the Chinese contribute little to, 

 the support of the imperial clan and the Manchu 

 army. 



For the last forty years the Empress Dowag 

 and her clique have managed imperial affairs. 

 Tsu-Hsi, born Nov. 17, 1834, was a secondary 

 wife of the weak Emperor H ion-Feng, who died 

 in Mongolia, whither he had flod when the British 

 and French troops occupied Pekin. The law of 

 succession in China permits the Emperor to select 

 his successor from among the sons of his first 

 three wives. Tsu-Hsi, originally a concubine, had 

 been raised to the dignity of a secondary wife 

 on giving birth to a son, who was the only heir 

 to Hien-Feng, and on his father's sudden death 

 was declared Emperor under the style of Tung- 

 Chih. As he was an infant, the first Empress and 

 his own mother ruled as co-regents, but the latter, 



