The Qing Downfall

("Henry Pu Yi")

             The Qing dynasty ruled China for 265 years. In the beginning, they were one of the strongest dynasties. Why then, did they fall? There were three main factors involved: general poverty of the people, foreigner mistreatment of the Chinese people,  and Qing arrogance and inability to adjust to changing political conditions in the world.

            The first, the poverty of the people, led to many uprisings like that of the White Lotus Rebellion, and the Taiping Rebellion. No matter how good the people of China had it under the Qing, there was always some one going hungry. In later years, this was blamed on western interference and opium. Opium took up fields where food could have been grown, making an already difficult food situation worse. The Qing found themselves unable to focus on famine relief because they had other pressing issues with foreign powers. This didn’t leave the common person very happy.

            The Qing were not the only people exploiting the Chinese. Foreign countries like Britain contributed to a failing economy by selling opium in China, and worse yet, forcing the Chinese economy open when it had been working much better half-closed. It is important to remember that the Qing were foreign rulers in China – they were not Chinese. Their paranoia and harsh punishment of those who thought the Qing way was not the right way contributed to their downfall as well, as evidenced by the tight grip Cixi maintained on the succession and the harsh measures she took against those supporting the 100 Days’ Reform.  She executed them. (“Empress Dowager Cixi”) The Qing advocated Manchu superiority up until the very last emperor, and the Chinese finally got fed up with the combination of Manchu and European snobbery.

            The Qing also found themselves unable to adjust to the different sort of diplomacy required of them in the modern world. The emperors were used to taking tributes from other states, not negotiating with them on equal ground. The Qing maintained that they should not have to sink to the level of other foreign powers. Needless to say, this irritated nations like Great Britain and France, which were far more advanced than China was at the time. The Qing compromised with foreigners too little too late to change the course of China’s history. The demoralization that came with practically being a European colony for so many years had the Chinese sick of humiliation. In fact, the only reason that the Qing dynasty lasted for three years after the installation of Xuantong as emperor was because there was no organized regime to replace it. That changed in February of 1912, and Xuantong’s mother ended up signing the abdication for him. He was six years old.