To what extent is the description of China in the 19th century as a semi-colony justified?

Résumé du document

In the nineteenth century, an expansionist ideology led the industrial nations to build colonial empires throughout the world. During this century, China was confronted by these imperialist powers. They aimed to exercise their domination on the Middle Kingdom. In the Marxist thought, China in the late Qing has often been described as a semi-colony. Thus, the topic of discussion refers to what extent the description of China, in the nineteenth century, as a semi-colony can be justified. China had to reluctantly start facing the modern world in 1840 with the First Opium War that consequently led to signing the first unequal Treaty of Nanjing in 1842. Less than a hundred years later, the Qing Dynasty collapsed in the 1911 Revolution. Meanwhile, the country had endured strong pressures by the imperialist powers: starting with Great Britain, France, the United states of America, Russia and later Japan and Germany, to highlight a few. We will also discuss the manifestations and the limits of foreign domination over China?

Extraits

[...] In 1911, the imperialist powers had imposed China a diplomatic policy, the acceptance of new religions on its soil, and had even seized some of its territory. The limits of foreign domination in China may justify the country being dubbed as semi-colony rather than a colony. First, the foreigners' physical presence in China was quite limited. Except for the missionaries, they stayed essentially in the Treaty port cities within their concession areas, which were only a small part of the wide Chinese territory. [...]

[...] Foreigners were granted the privilege of extraterritoriality as well. Even though it would have been considered in the Western world as a rude infringement to one country's sovereignty, extraterritoriality may have been traditionally quite common in China[7]. Thanks to the most favoured nation clause, other parties as France, the United States, and later Russia, Japan or even Germany were granted the same privileges. Another strong infringement to China's national sovereignty, part of the treaty of Nanjing, was the right granted to the British gunboats to anchor at the ports and to navigate the Yangtze. [...]

[...] The French Treaty of Whampoa imposed in 1844 toleration to the Catholics, and to the Protestants in 1845. At the same time, foreigners were allowed to construct “hospital, churches and cemeteries” in the Treaty ports. In 1858, the Treaty of Tianjin allowed the preaching of Christianity, considered by the Chinese authorities as a heterodox doctrine. Missionaries played an important part in Western imperialism. They had rights that the Chinese hadn't as the one to publish newspapers outside the Treaty ports. [...]

[...] Only Shanghai could boast an important foreign population, with about a hundred merchants and members of consular staffs, thanks to wide concession areas made available for them to settle[13]. In these concessions, the foreigners were essentially self-governing[14]. Those small alien communities among the Chinese masses would be targeted by the Boxers during the 1900 uprising. The alienation of the rest of a very wide country took other forms. Various aggressive nations were preying over China. Hence, a certain kind of equilibrium had been created, like in Europe. [...]

[...] The concessions and other annexed territories only represented a small part of the whole Chinese territory. In the rest of China, imperialist powers had to content themselves with spheres of influence. The wide extent of the foreign control over the Chinese economy in the nineteenth century, supported by a diplomatic action of the Treaty powers, was an expression of informal imperialism. Military actions were undertaken by the most aggressive countries, and some Chinese territories occupied. It was a more formal form of imperialism. [...]