1. Opium War Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement

The outbreak of the Opium War

The seeds of capitalism that appeared after the middle of Ming Dynasty developed further in the early Qing Dynasty, but for various reasons, the development of capitalist factors within China society was very slow. Before the Opium War, China was a self-sufficient feudal country with a dominant natural economy. In the late Qing Dynasty, politics gradually became corrupt, land was concentrated, and class contradictions became increasingly acute. When the feudal rule of Qing Dynasty declined, world capitalism was on the rise. Developed capitalist countries include Britain, France and the United States, among which Britain has the highest level of development. In order to compete for raw materials and markets, these countries actively invaded foreign countries. /kloc-At the beginning of the 9th century, Britain pointed its finger at China. At that time, the Qing government implemented a closed-door policy, opening only vast areas to trade with foreign countries. In Sino-British trade, China is in a super position. In order to change this situation, British capitalists transported opium to China, plundered China's silver and cleared the government's fiscal revenue. Bureaucrats and landlords use opium, which makes politics more corrupt. The soldiers smoked opium, which weakened the combat effectiveness of the army. In order to maintain his rule, Daoguang sent Lin Zexu to Guangdong to ban smoking. After the news that Lin Zexu banned smoking spread to Britain, Britain decided to launch a war of aggression, which was the reason for the outbreak of the Opium War.

Zhongying treaty of nanking

1. Signing date: 65438+August 0842.

2. Content: Cut Hong Kong Island to Britain; Compensation 2 1 ten thousand yuan; Open Guangzhou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Ningbo and Shanghai as trading ports; Allow Britain to send consulates in five trading ports; The taxes paid by British businessmen on import and export goods should be agreed by the two countries.

3. 1843, Britain forced the Qing government to sign the Annex of treaty of nanking. From this, Britain gained the right to establish concession, "consular jurisdiction" and unilateral "most favored nation treatment".

The signing of treaty of nanking and its annexes destroyed China's independence and territorial integrity, China's tariff autonomy and judicial power, increased the burden on the people of China, facilitated the invasion of foreign capitalism, and caused serious harm to China. consular jurisdiction

The privilege that foreigners from imperialist countries are not bound by the laws of the country of residence. The main content is: when a foreigner commits a crime in his country of residence or becomes the defendant in a civil lawsuit, he will only be tried by his own consul or court in the country of residence according to his own laws. This is a privileged system for imperialism to oppress colonial and semi-colonial people. Since the signing of the Humen Treaty between China and Britain in 1843, Britain, the United States, France, Russia and Japan have successively obtained this privilege in old China.

Unilateral MFN treatment

Also known as unilateral MFN clause. In international treaties, both parties enjoy the same treaty rights (generally including trade, shipping, taxation, investment, residence, etc. If the other party has given or will give it to a third country, it is called MFN treatment; Only one contracting party enjoys this right without giving the other party reciprocal rights or benefits, which is one-sided MFN treatment. 1843 The Humen Treaty between China and Britain stipulates that if China has "New Enshi and other countries, the British will be allowed to share them", which is the beginning of China's unilateral MFN treatment for foreign invaders in modern times.

give in

In the cities or trading ports of semi-colonial countries, imperialist countries forcibly demarcate a part of the area, and all administration, finance, police and municipal affairs are under their control, which is called concession. Concession is the monopoly of one country, such as the "Japanese Concession" in Shanghai and Hangzhou's old China; There are also several countries, such as the "public concession" in old Shanghai.

The beginning of China's modern history

The Opium War ended with the defeat of China and the signing of treaty of nanking between China and Britain. Treaty of nanking ceded Hong Kong and destroyed the territorial integrity of China. The tariff agreement undermined China's autonomy in customs clearance. Consular jurisdiction and one-sided MFN treatment destroyed China's judicial power and expanded the aggressive rights and interests of capitalist countries. Later, Britain, France and other countries successively opened up "concessions" in Shanghai and other places, and based on the concessions, they strengthened their political, economic and cultural control over China. Economically, huge reparations have increased the burden on the people of China. After the war, opium smuggling became more serious, silver flowed out, the price of silver rose, and the burden of working people increased greatly. After the five-port trade, the industrial products of capitalist countries began to be dumped on the China market, China's self-sufficient natural economy began to collapse, and the small-scale peasant economy gradually went bankrupt. After the Opium War, China began to become a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. The main contradiction in China society has changed from the contradiction between the landlord class and the peasant class to the contradiction between foreign capitalism and the Chinese nation, feudalism and the masses of the people, and the contradiction between foreign capitalism and the Chinese nation has become the main contradiction among all kinds of contradictions. Since then, the China Revolution has entered the period of the old democratic revolution. Therefore, the Opium War was a turning point in China's history and the beginning of China's modern history.

The old democratic revolution:

It is led by the bourgeoisie and aims to establish bourgeois society and bourgeois dictatorship. Revolution against foreign aggression and domestic feudal rule. The 79 years from 1840 Opium War to 19 19 May 4th Movement were the period of the old democratic revolution. Among them, the Revolution of 1911 was an old democratic revolution in a relatively complete sense. The British and French allied forces looted and burned Yuanmingyuan.

1860, 10, 10 On October 6th, the British and French allied forces occupied Yuanmingyuan. The Allied Command ordered that officers and men were free to rob for three days. These greedy and ferocious robbers robbed all the gold, silver and jewels in the garden. Anyone who can't move them is beaten with a stick and destroyed at will. A reporter from the British Times sent back a communication from Beijing: "Every soldier present plundered a lot. After entering the palace, no one knows what to take. I lost my silver in order to get gold, and I lost my gold in order to get watches and gems inlaid with pearls and jade. Valuable porcelain and enamel are broken because they are too big to take away. " A British officer named Harris grabbed a golden flowerpot for the first time. A Huang Jinshu with a height of 1 ft was planted in the pot, and sapphire fruit with ruby as the core hung on the tree. He put the golden flowerpots and other treasures into seven baskets and kept them for himself. The second time, he robbed a 7-foot-high golden pagoda and a lot of treasure. 65438+1October 1 1, the British invaders organized a huge robbery team consisting of 1200 cavalry and an infantry regiment to rob Yuanmingyuan again. 10 June 18 In the early morning, 3,500 British cavalry marched straight into Yuanmingyuan, holding torches and setting fires everywhere. According to the records at that time: "Thick smoke and dense fog appeared in dozens of places ... Soon, these wisps of smoke gathered into clouds of smoke, and then they gathered into a mass of black stuff. The flame in Qian Qian broke out, and the smoke was black, covering the sun. All temples, palaces and ancient buildings are regarded as sacred and solemn things in the country, and their collections are full of royal atmosphere.

Causes and consequences of the Second Opium War

The root cause of the Second Opium War is that the western capitalist countries want to further open the China market and expand and deepen the aggressive rights and interests gained by the First Opium War, which is the same as the first Opium War in nature and can also be said to be the continuation and expansion of the first Opium War, so this war is called the Second Opium War. As a result of this war, China was defeated, and the Qing government was forced to sign a series of unequal treaties such as Tianjin Treaty and Beijing Treaty. China lost more territory and sovereignty. The forces of foreign aggression extended to the coastal provinces of China and went deep into the interior. The degree of semi-colonialism in China has further deepened. After the war, capitalist countries colluded with the Qing government to suppress the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement.

Vigorous Tianjin Defence War

1 June, 864, there were only 30,000 people in Tianjing City. Excluding residents, there were only110,000 Taiping troops, and only 34,000 soldiers could defend the city. On July 3, the underground city fell, and the enemy was in command, shelling all day, and stepping up the excavation of tunnels and burying explosives to break the city. 19, Xiang army blew down the city wall and swarmed in. The Taiping Army guarding the city shouted "Leave half a piece of rotten cloth and have fun with the demon" and launched a street battle with the enemy. Many Taiping soldiers held on to their houses and bombarded the enemy with guns. It was when they couldn't keep it, they resolutely lit the explosives and died with the enemy, shedding the last drop of blood for the kingdom of heaven.

The Taiping army guarding Tianjing caused great losses to the Qing army. Zhu Hongzhang, the general of the Qing army in charge of the siege, later recalled the battle and wrote with a lingering fear: "It was not easy to conquer this city in those days, but now it is sad. All 400 elite soldiers were wiped out, and 3,000 strong men spent half their lives. "

After the Xiang army captured Tianjing City, Zeng Guofan wrote in a memorial to the Qing court: "... the fierce struggle with fierce thieves has never been seen by practitioners for a long time. ..... Since the beginning of June, the battalions have been attacked in turn, causing many casualties. ..... If it is half a month, without a moment's rest, the skin is thin and the damage to the elite is countless. The company commanders Chen Wansheng and Wang, known as Raojiang, were killed for the second time in a few days, especially on Benjamin's side. "

Reasons for the failure of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom

Subjectively, after the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom made Tianjin its capital, some extremely serious mistakes occurred within the leading group. For example, the enterprising spirit is gradually fading, the construction is strictly hierarchical, and it is increasingly divorced from the masses. In the end, it was so serious that Shi Dakai led his troops to flee, which seriously weakened his own strength, ruined the great situation of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom revolution and turned the revolution from strategic attack to strategic defense. There were also mistakes in the general plan of using troops, such as sending troops to the Northern Expedition, but the preparation was insufficient, which made the Northern Expedition army go deep alone and without backup, and finally the whole army was wiped out. In addition, in terms of guiding ideology, the use of "worshipping God" has played a role in organizing and mobilizing the masses in a certain period, but it is superstitious about religion and has no scientific theoretical guidance. Objectively speaking, the collusion between Chinese and foreign reactionary forces and the suppression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement are also important reasons for the failure of the revolution.

The Historical Significance of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement

Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was a great peasant movement against feudalism and aggression in China's modern history. It established political power, promulgated "China Land System" and stipulated reform measures such as land distribution system. This system stipulates that both men and women can be allocated a piece of land according to their age, with the aim of establishing an ideal society with "farmland, food, clothing, money to earn, uneven everywhere and no one starving". This programmatic document that impacted feudal land ownership is unprecedented. Hong Ren wrote "Senior Minister's New Chapter" and put forward the idea of imitating western capitalist countries, reforming internal affairs and building the country. It reflects the desire of some advanced China people to develop capitalism after the Opium War. In the peasant war, the plan to develop capitalism was unprecedented. Taiping Heavenly Kingdom organized a powerful armed force-Taiping Army. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom fought tirelessly for 14 years, and its power developed to 18 province, which successively captured more than 600 cities. In the defense war of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he defeated foreign invaders and foreign guns several times. Near Shanghai, more than 130 enemy camps were destroyed. In a battle in Zhejiang, he killed Wall, the leader of the foreign gun team. The peasant war hit foreign strategists hard, which is unprecedented. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom dealt a heavy blow to Chinese and foreign reactionary forces.

Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was a great peasant movement against feudalism and aggression in China's modern history. It established political power, promulgated "China Land System" and stipulated reform measures such as land distribution system. This system stipulates that both men and women can be allocated a piece of land according to their age, with the aim of establishing an ideal society with "farmland, food, clothing, money to earn, uneven everywhere and no one starving". This programmatic document that impacted feudal land ownership is unprecedented. Hong Ren wrote "Senior Minister's New Chapter" and put forward the idea of imitating western capitalist countries, reforming internal affairs and building the country. It reflects the desire of some advanced China people to develop capitalism after the Opium War. In the peasant war, the plan to develop capitalism was unprecedented. Taiping Heavenly Kingdom organized a powerful armed force-Taiping Army. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom fought tirelessly for 14 years, and its power developed to 18 province, which successively captured more than 600 cities. In the defense war of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he defeated foreign invaders and foreign guns several times. Near Shanghai, more than 130 enemy camps were destroyed. In a battle in Zhejiang, he killed Wall, the leader of the foreign gun team. The peasant war has dealt a heavy blow to foreign strategists, which is unprecedented. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom dealt a heavy blow to Chinese and foreign reactionary forces.