Kat Cendana – Page 3 – Amazing Bible Timeline with World History

Posted on October 10, 2019October 17, 2019 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Hudson Taylor (1832-1905)

Hudson Taylor (1832-1905) is one of the most formidable names in the history of Christian missions. Although he was not the first Christian missionary in China, he was one of the most daring and most innovative. He established and built the China Inland Mission (now OMF International) despite many personal tragedies and the difficulties of adapting to a fast-changing China during the twilight years of the Qing Dynasty. He was able to successfully reach the Chinese people thanks to his willingness to eschew convention and assimilate to the Chinese way of life.

Early Life

James Hudson Taylor was born in Yorkshire on the 21st of May, 1832. His father, James Taylor, was not only a chemist but also a Methodist lay preacher. His mother was Amelia Hudson.

Not much is known about Taylor’s childhood, except that his path to Christianity diverged from his parents’. In spite of his youth, he knew that he was destined to become a missionary. One religious literature that motivated him to become a missionary was “Poor Richard,” a pamphlet he had read at the age of 17. He promised himself that he would go to China as a missionary after this life-changing experience.

To prepare for the life of a missionary in China, he befriended prominent contemporary missionaries and lived with the poor in his native England. He also learned several languages, including Latin, Hebrew, Greek, and of course, Mandarin.

Despite these preparations, the journey to China did not start just yet. Taylor studied medicine in London to further prepare for the mission. During this time, he met Karl Gützlaff, a Prussian Lutheran missionary who founded the Chinese Evangelisation Society. Hudson soon volunteered to become the Society’s first missionary to China.

Shanghai and Beyond: The Early Years

Taylor dropped out of medical school in 1853 to sail to China, and arrived in the city of Shanghai on May 1, 1854. The journey to Shanghai was long and difficult. In addition to enduring a grueling voyage, he arrived in the troubled Qing Empire during the height of the Taiping Rebellion.

Life as a missionary in Shanghai was no easy task. Try as he might, Taylor couldn’t connect with his Chinese audience thanks to the language barrier and his foreign outfit. They viewed him with suspicion even when he offered his medical expertise.

However, he did not give up. Taylor adopted the Manchu queue (shaven forehead and braid) and wore the changshan (traditional Chinese dress) to fit in. His adoption of the Manchu dress and hairstyle was a hit among the locals. Distributing gospel tracts and preaching in the Shanghai and beyond were a bit easier after that.

He briefly left Shanghai and worked in Guangdong province with a fellow Englishman. He experienced several setbacks before he decided to relocate to Ningbo, a city just south of Shanghai. He left the Chinese Evangelisation Society, and formed the Ningbo Mission with English and Chinese missionaries.

Marriage to Maria Jane Dyer, Their Family, and Furlough in England

Taylor met Maria Jane Dyer in Ningbo around 1857-1858. Maria was the daughter of Reverend Samuel Dyer, a fellow missionary who was stationed in the Malaysian province of Penang. Reverend Dyer had died in 1843 after his family relocated to mainland China.

Maria, now an orphan, was working at a school for girls run by a fellow missionary when she met Taylor. The couple became husband and wife in 1858. Their daughter, Grace, was born a year later.

The Taylors, along with a young Chinese convert, sailed back to England in 1860 because of health problems. In England, he spent his time translating the English Bible to the Ningbo dialect. He also continued studying medicine at the Royal London Hospital. This time, he was able to complete his diploma.

Taylor traveled all over Britain to preach the gospel and promote missionary work in China. His family grew during their furlough in England. The couple’s daughter Grace was followed by three more children.

However, the pull of China was still strong. In 1865, he and William Thomas Berger founded the China Inland Mission. They were soon joined by other missionaries, and they were able to raise funds for the mission. Less than a year later, the Taylors, along with CIM’s team of missionaries, sailed back to China. The voyage was arduous, but they were able to reach Shanghai safely in the fall of 1866.

China Inland Mission

Life in Qing China as a missionary was hard. During the Taylors’ first few years in China, the family was beset by setback after setback. They faced criticism from other missionaries because they chose to don traditional Manchu clothes. The couple’s eldest daughter, Grace, also died of meningitis in 1867. In addition, the China Inland Mission group was torn by disagreements and discord.

China was a fast-changing, albeit troubled, empire during the 19th century. The Qing Dynasty was already on the verge of collapse due to internal discord and the arrival of technologically advanced Western powers. It was only a matter of time before the troubles would reach Taylor, his family, and the China Inland Mission.

Taylor and his group of missionaries were attacked during the Yangzhou riot (1868). They suffered injuries, and the episode resulted in the intervention of the Royal Navy. Wary of war that might explode between the two empires, British legislators tried to convince Taylor and his team to leave China, lest any more violence occurs. Despite the setbacks, Taylor did not back down and the China Inland Mission endured.

Tragedy would strike him once more when Maria and their youngest child died in 1868. Taylor’s grief and his deteriorating health pushed him to go back to England to recuperate. In England, he married fellow missionary Jane Elizabeth Faulding. The family went back to China in 1872.

In 1876, the Qing government was forced to sign the Chefoo Convention (Yantai Treaty). Finally, some good news for Taylor and the China Inland Mission. Missionary work was now legal all over this vast and uncharted empire. Taylor and his team of missionaries wasted no time in pushing deeper into the heart of China, establishing mission stations along the way.

Thanks to his wife’s promotion of the group’s work in England, English missionaries soon arrived in droves in China. The mission grew until the group was able to establish 59 churches. They were later joined by American missionaries.

Hudson Taylor also traveled to the United States where he attended the Niagara Bible Conference. He met Dwight L. Moody and Cyrus Scofield while in the US. Both men later became supporters of the China Inland Mission.

Death

Taylor and his wife relocated to Switzerland due to his health issues. He resigned from CIM in 1902 and was replaced by Dixon Edward Hoste. His wife died in 1904 in Switzerland, prompting Taylor to return to China. He was able to visit several cities before he died in the city of Changsha in Hunan province in 1905. His resting place is in the English Cemetery in Zhejiang next to Maria, his first wife.

References:

Picture: Public Domain, Link

Pollock, J. C. (1983). Hudson Taylor and Maria: Pioneers in China. Eastbourne: Kingsway.

Pollock, John C. The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church. Edited by J. D. Douglas and Earle E. Cairns. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996.

Taylor, Howard. Hudson Taylor in Early Years : The Growth of a Soul. Singapore: Overseas Missionary Fellowship, 1998.

Posted on September 18, 2018September 18, 2018 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

China Invades Tibet 1950-1951

The Tibetan king, Songtsen Gampo, was the first to establish relations with China after his marriage to a Tang Dynasty princess. The Qing Dynasty intensified the efforts to bring Tibet into its fold, but it was distracted by internal problems during the latter half of its rule. Between 1950 and 1951, however, China invaded Tibet and finally drove its ruler, the Dalai Lama, into exile. This event is recorded on the Bible Timeline Poster with World History during that time.

Origins and Early Years

Nestled between the towering Himalayas in the south and the Kunlun Mountains in the north is the vast Tibetan plateau. The western portion is bordered by Jammu and Kashmir, while the east is bounded by the provinces of Yunnan and Sichuan. At its center is the city of Lhasa, Tibet’s administrative center and revered by its people as a holy place in Buddhism.

According to their creation myth, the Tibetans descended from the Buddha of Compassion, Avalokiteśvara, who was reincarnated as a monkey in Sothang in the Yarlung Valley. This creature mated with the ogress of the rocks who then gave birth to the first Tibetans. As the years passed, their descendants came to call the region they inhabited as “Bod” (Bö/Bön). The Chinese called them “Fan” or “barbarians” (although the term is applied to all non-Han peoples), and the word later evolved into “T’oufan.” Sogdians and Turks called them “Tüpüt,” while Arab merchants and writers used variants such as “Tibbat” and “Tübbet.”

Tibet would not stay in obscurity for long. During the early 7th century AD, the gyelpos (chieftain) of Yarlung named Namri Songtsen embarked on a series of conquests against chieftains of other Tibetan clans. After defeating them, Namri Songtsen declared himself the first king of the Tibetan empire. He died in AD 620 and was succeeded by his son Songtsen Gampo.

Tibet and China

Ties between China and Tibet were solidified during Songtsen Gampo’s reign (c. AD 620-649). He led the Tibetan army in attacking China’s western frontier, forcing the Tang emperor Taizong to request an alliance with him. China’s alliance with Tibet was cemented with the marriage of the Tang princess Wencheng to the Tibetan king. Apart from the practice of heqin (marriage alliance), the two empires also sealed the friendship by signing the “Treaty of Uncle and Nephew” between AD 821-823.

Buddhism arrived in Tibet during Songtsen Gampo’s reign. It supplanted animism long practiced by the people, and monasteries soon cropped up all over the region.

Songtsen Gampo’s dynasty crumbled after his death, and it was later followed by the collapse of the Tang Dynasty. Tibet maintained its independence and isolation during the rule of the Khitan Liao Dynasty and the Jurchen Jin Dynasty. This was also the case when the Western Xia Empire of the Tanguts dominated the north. They also remained isolated during the rule of the Song Dynasty, but this isolation was broken during the reign of the Mongol Yuan Dynasty. Despite their reputation for ruthlessness, the Mongols allowed the Tibetans greater autonomy after they were brought into the fold.

Godan Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan, appointed the Buddhist scholar Sakya Pandita as ruler of the Tibetans after the Mongol invasion. Even after the Mongols were driven back to the steppes and the Ming Dynasty rose, lamas (priests or monks) remained as rulers of Tibet. China and Tibet maintained little contact during the reign of the isolationist Ming Dynasty.

Ties between China and Tibet resumed during the reign of Ngawang Lobsang Gyatso, the Fifth Dalai Lama. With the encouragement of his supporter, the Mongol leader Güshi Khan, the Fifth Dalai Lama traveled to China to establish relations with the Qing emperor. Although Tibet still had a king, the Dalai Lama served as the people’s spiritual and political leader.

Relations between China and Tibet soured when Kangxi Emperor interfered with the selection of Seventh Dalai Lama. For the first time in Tibet’s history, 2,000 Chinese troops were stationed in its territory. A Qing military governor, meanwhile, was installed to supervise the region and counter the influence of the Dzungars of the north. Ambans (Qing high officials) traveled to Tibet and served as Chinese ambassadors.

Eager to undermine the Dalai Lama’s authority, Qing officials tried to pit him against the Panchen Lama (the second-highest person in the Tibetan theocracy). To the Tibetans’ relief, the Panchen Lama refused to be enticed into this power game. The murder of the Tibetan prince Gyurme Namgyal in 1750 only intensified their opposition to Chinese interference. Qianlong Emperor then scrapped Tibetan monarchy and elevated the Dalai Lama as the ruler of Tibet. During the late 1700s, China tightened its hold on Tibet and sought to isolate it from other nations.

Tibet in the Age of Imperialism

Despite the Qing officials’ efforts to isolate Tibet, intrepid European adventurers, Christian missionaries, and British officials still managed to slip into Tibet in the early 1800s. Wars and rebellions also kept China distracted, making the entry of European explorers easier than expected. In the 1880s, Russia started to stake a claim on Tibet under the pretext that the region was a part of the Mongol empire it then held.

But its rival, Britain, preempted Russian occupation and invaded Tibet in 1904. Sir Francis Younghusband led the British contingent into Lhasa and easily overcame the Tibetan army. Tibet was forced to sign the Convention Between Great Britain and Thibet [sic], giving Britain access to the kingdom and other privileges at China’s expense. Tibetans were initially optimistic, but it did not take long for them to realize that they were nothing but pawns for the two empire builders. In 1906, Britain signed the Anglo-Chinese Convention in Beijing, thereby acknowledging Chinese authority in Tibet.

China then built military outposts, roads, and telegraph lines within Tibet. 2,000 Chinese troops traveled to the region to assert China’s authority, but the Tibetans considered this an invasion. Their army, led by 13th Dalai Lama, fought the Chinese, but their outdated arms were simply no match for Chinese artillery. The Tibetan army was decimated, and the 13th Dalai Lama was forced to flee to India where he and his supporters established a government-in-exile. Despite their appeals for help to the outside world, their pleas largely fell on deaf ears. Britain—whether out of respect for the treaty it signed with China or it underestimated China’s strength—did not intervene in the conflict.

Tibet was given a brief respite when the administration changed hands from the Qing Dynasty to the Kuomintang. Troops sent by the new Chinese government were later repulsed by Tibetan soldiers. Chinese soldiers stationed in Lhasa, meanwhile, returned to China on their own or were driven out by the Tibetans. The 13th Dalai Lama returned from exile and soon declared his country’s independence. As expected, this declaration was only ignored by China.

Over the years and as the negotiations continued, the status of Tibet’s independence remained in limbo. Thinking that Britain is the key to Tibet’s independence, the 13th Dalai Lama made moves to cement an alliance by allowing British companies to enter and do business in the domain. This move, however, became unpopular with his people, so the Dalai Lama distanced himself from the British from then on. Tibet would suffer another blow when the 13th Dalai Lama died in 1933.

After many years of searching, Tibetan monks finally found the 14th Dalai Lama in the Amdo region. The 13th Dalai Lama was reincarnated in the body of a young Tibetan boy named Lhamo Thondup who was to be renamed Tenzin Gyatso.

China Invades Tibet

As the Second World War raged outside the borders of Tibet, its government tried to remain neutral. Its administrators refused the construction of Chinese supply route through its territory for fear that this would later give the enemy a foothold inside the country. Britain and the United States both stepped in and pressured Tibet to give in. Tibet had no choice but to concede.

Tibet’s leaders were anxious to reach out to the outside world when the war ended. It established relations with neighboring nations, moving especially closer to India. India soon became Tibet’s primary (if ambiguous) ally when Britain finally left the subcontinent in 1947.

In 1949, Mao Zedong’s Chinese Communist Party overcame the Nationalists and finally drove them out to seek refuge in Taiwan. In October 1950, the People’s Liberation Army crossed Tibet’s borders and easily defeated the outnumbered Tibetan army. Chinese soldiers then proceeded to slaughter thousands of Tibetans between 1950 and 1951.

The young Dalai Lama immediately lodged a protest to the United Nations, but it was in vain as the Tibetan state was not a member. The international community was quick to condemn the invasion but made no solid action to help Tibet. To the Tibetans’ dismay, India recognized Chinese authority over them. In 1951, the Dalai Lama was forced to sign the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet which gave China sovereignty over the state.

As the years passed, China ushered Tibet into the 20th century. But this modernization was not at all benevolent as China’s communist leaders gradually tried to curb the Dalai Lama’s power and reduce the importance of Buddhism in the Tibetans’ life. During the early 1950s, relations between China and Tibet gradually improved. The Dalai Lama visited Beijing in 1956 where he was welcomed by Mao Zedong himself. But there was no doubt about China’s intention when during one dinner, Mao famously remarked to the Dalai Lama that “religion is poison.” The Dalai Lama returned to his territory, but the situation of the Tibetans only worsened as the years went by.

Under the communists, the land was taken from wealthier Tibetans and redistributed to the poor peasants. Monasteries were destroyed, while monks were pressured to return to secular life. The Tibetans organized resistance, but they suffered harsh reprisals from Chinese troops. In 1958, Chinese authorities invited the Dalai Lama to a meeting, but his supporters steadfastly refused to let him go.

Norbulingka, the Dalai Lama’s summer palace, was nearly hit by artillery shells in 1959. This alarmed the Tibetans who rallied behind their ruler in Lhasa. A Chinese general then renewed the invitation to the Dalai Lama but laid out a condition that he should come alone and unarmed. The Tibetans sensed an ambush, so they dissuaded the Dalai Lama from coming and convinced him to leave Tibet instead. The Dalai Lama agreed, and a crowd of Tibetans surrounded Norbulingka while he made his way out of the palace in disguise on March 17, 1959. He and his companions then made the dangerous trek to the Himalayas. They arrived in India two weeks later, to the relief of his people and his supporters in the international community.

The exiled Dalai Lama still lives in India, while many Tibetan refugees live in neighboring countries such as India, Nepal, and Bhutan. Other refugees have been resettled in Europe, North America, and Oceania.

References:

Picture by: User:Dr. Blofeld – http://cc.purdue.edu/~wtv/tibet/photo/songsten.jpg en:Image:Songstengampo.jpg, Public Domain, Link

Kelly, Petra K. The Anguish of Tibet. Berkeley, CA: Parallax Press, 1991.

Shakabpa, Wangchuk Deden. One Hundred Thousand Moons: An Advanced Political History of Tibet. Translated by Derek F. Maher. Leiden: Brill, 2009.

Stein, Rolf Alfred. Tibetan Civilization. Translated by J.E Stapleton. Driver. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1972.

Posted on September 13, 2018September 13, 2018 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Japanese Chinese War (The First Sino-Japanese War 1894-1895)

Between 1894 and 1895, Imperial Japan and Qing Dynasty China fought supremacy over Korea. It would be called the First Sino-Japanese War, a bloody conflict from which Japan emerged triumphantly. China was forced to cede the Liaodong Peninsula, Taiwan, and the Penghu Islands to Japan after its loss in 1895. It was also compelled to acknowledge Japan’s supremacy in Korea. This event is recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during that time period.

Japan During the Meiji Restoration

Japan was able to turn itself from a feudal society into a modern and wealthy state during the Meiji period (1868-1912). Starting in the late 1870s, the emperor and his ministers toyed with the idea of transforming the government into a more Westernized one. In 1879 and thereafter, the Japanese people were allowed to elect prefectural, town, and local representatives. By 1889, a constitution had been promulgated. This was soon followed with the election of a prime minister.

Japan learned from the humiliations it suffered during the 1850s, so it quickly transformed its military to become the strongest in Asia during the late 19th century. The army structure and discipline was copied after the Germans, while the navy was modeled after the British. The troops were made up by young men conscripted from all classes, while the military’s arsenal was among the most modern at that time. All these were implemented to counter the threats (whether real or perceived) posed by China and Russia.

It was also during this time that Japan started to dream about territorial expansion. It tightened its hold on Hokkaido, and tried to occupy the Sakhalin and Kuril Islands but was deterred by Russian presence there. It annexed the distant yet crucial Bonin and Ryukyu Islands. The Ryukyus, long a tributary of the Qing Dynasty, were taken from China.

It was not long before Japan’s ministers set their sights on Korea, the Hermit Kingdom. Korea, although long isolated from the outside world, still maintained contact with and paid tribute to Qing China. The Joseon Dynasty which ruled it since the 14th century had become weak and the kingdom itself remained backward. Western powers were already making moves to lift Korea’s veil of isolation and establish trade with the kingdom. Japan was quick to recognize this, so during the 1870s, its ministers sent envoys to Korea to establish relations with it and encourage it to become independent from China’s suzerainty.

Korea’s response to Japan’s overtures was eerily similar to the latter’s response to the West in 1853. Although the Koreans resisted at first, they were finally strong-armed into signing the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876. The treaty guaranteed Korean independence (from China only) and granted exclusive trade privileges to Japan. Japanese citizens were also allowed to reside in Korea. Taking a page from the Western playbook, Japan then demanded extraterritoriality from the host country.

China, naturally, refused to acknowledge the existence of the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876. King Gojong’s court became divided between the conservative pro-China faction and the group which supported a progressive and pro-Japan stance. Relations between Japan and China became frosty as the years passed.

The Gapsin Coup further damaged the relations between China and Japan. A group of reformers supported by Japan attempted to oust the pro-China administration in Korea in 1884. The coup, however, was unsuccessful. Riots flared up in Seoul, and a mob burned down the Japanese legation. When the furor died down, Korea was forced to grant trade and diplomatic privileges with Japan. It was also compelled to pay an indemnity for the damage the rioters had caused to the Japanese legation. Japan and China stationed troops in Korea in the same year but agreed to withdraw them after signing the Sino-Japanese Convention of Tientsin in 1885.

Korea was engulfed in rebellions between the late 1880s and the early 1890s. Despite the truce China and Japan both signed, the Nagasaki Incident of 1886 and murder of the revolutionary Kim Ok-gyun in 1894 only added fuel to the fire. The situation finally worsened when King Gojong asked Chinese authorities to send reinforcements to help him suppress the Donghak Rebellion (1894).

A rendering of the Matsushima, flagship of the Imperial Japanese Navy during the Sino-Japanese War.

2,000 Chinese troops were sent to Korea in response to King Gojong request. Japan, however, felt that this was a direct violation of the Convention of Tientsin. To counter Chinese presence in the peninsula and to protect their interests there, the Japanese authorities also sent their own troops. The hostilities became full-scale war when the Chinese and Japanese troops faced each other in combat in July 1894. The Japanese troops, however, managed to rout the Chinese in the Battle of Seonghwan (July 28-29, 1894) and Battle of Pyongyang (September 15, 1894).

The Japanese navy made quick work of the Chinese Beiyang Fleet in the Battle of the Yalu River two days later. Japanese troops then crossed the Yalu River into Manchuria and massacred Chinese soldiers and civilians alike. This gave them a foothold not only in Korea but also within the Qing Dynasty’s homeland itself. The invasion of Manchuria was quickly followed by the occupation of the distant Pescadores (Penghu Islands).

China was forced to sue for peace after the devastating defeats she suffered during the war. Representatives of both nations signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki (April 17, 1895) to end the hostilities. In this treaty, China was required to pay 200 million taels to Japan as indemnity. Japan also annexed Taiwan, the Pescadores, the Liaodong Peninsula, and Korea. France, Germany, and Russia later intervened and forced Japan to give up its claim to the Liaodong Peninsula. In exchange, China would pay Japan an additional indemnity of 30 million taels. The presence of Russian reinforcements in eastern Siberia forced Japan to abandon its claim to the Liaodong Peninsula. It was, however, free to occupy Taiwan, Korea, and the Pescadores. Japan perceived the Triple Intervention as another humiliation, and its relations with France, Germany, and Russia became frosty soon after.

References

Picture: Public Domain, Link

Meyer, Milton Walter. Japan: A Concise History. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 2012.

Nish, Ian H. A Short History of Japan. New York: Praeger, 1968.

Perez, Louis G. A History of Japan. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1998.

Posted on May 7, 2018May 7, 2018 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Methodists Separate from Church of England 1795

The 18th-century religious movement called Methodism was founded by the Anglican priest John Wesley. As Methodist converts increased, the clergy of the Church of England often refused to administer them the sacraments. Wesley adamantly encouraged the Methodists to remain in the Anglican fold, but it was not meant to be. In 1795, Methodist leaders issued the Plan of Pacification which allowed their clergy to administer the sacraments to their own members. This marked the formal separation of Methodists from the Church of England. These events are recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during that time.

Origin

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was born in the town of Epworth in 1703. He was one of the nineteen children born to the former Nonconformist and Epworth rector Samuel Wesley by his wife Susanna Wesley (also called “the mother of Methodism” by the movement’s historians). His grandparents, however, were Puritan Nonconformists. The younger Wesley studied at the Charterhouse School, Christ Church, and Lincoln College, Oxford. His ordination as a deacon came in 1725 and became an ordained priest three years later.

In 1729, he returned to Oxford and discovered that his brother Charles and a few of their friends had formed a study and spiritual improvement group called the “Holy Club.” Members of the “Holy Club” (later labeled “Methodists”) met to pray and study the Greek New Testament. John joined them, and it was not long before he became the group’s leader.

Wesley traveled to North America in 1735 at the invitation of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel. He was supposed to work as a missionary to the Native Americans in Georgia, but the time he spent in America ended in failure. However, this period in his life was not completely a waste of time. Before he returned to England in 1738, he had met a few Moravians whose beliefs and piety impressed him. He met a Moravian named Peter Boehler when he returned to London, and the two soon became friends. Boehler’s guidance and presence in Wesley’s life reinvigorated him. Another event that changed his life that year was a meeting in Aldersgate Street where he listened to a reading from Martin Luther’s commentary on the book of Romans.

After visiting a Moravian leader at Hernhut, he returned to London and started to preach on salvation through Jesus Christ. His enthusiasm ruffled the feathers of some Anglican clergymen who later barred him from preaching behind the pulpit. Far from deterred and with some encouragement from his friends, Wesley began organizing church societies in some cities and towns in England, Scotland, and Ireland. So began the religious movement called Methodism.

Life as a pioneer of a religious movement was not easy. The clerics of the Church of England viewed the Methodists with animosity. There were also a couple of instances when Wesley himself was attacked by mobs. Loyal to the core, he encouraged the Methodists to attend Anglican services and celebrate the Holy Communion with Anglican members. Anglican ministers, however, forbade Methodists from taking the Holy Communion with them. Methodist ministers began to hold the Lord’s Supper among themselves and their members–something Wesley himself discouraged. Despite these difficult experiences, he remained faithful to the Church of England and its teachings and encouraged the Methodists to do the same.

Independence from the Church of England

John Wesley is considered the founder of Methodism.

The separation between the Methodists and the Church of England became inevitable as the years passed. By the 1770s, the movement had grown to a point that there were more than a hundred Methodists preachers working in Britain and the North American colonies. The newly created United States of America, however, had a shortage of Methodist ministers. Wesley responded by bypassing the authority of the Anglican bishops and ordaining ministers with authority to dispense the Communion.

Until his death in 1791, Wesley continued to encourage the Methodists to maintain a connection with the Church of England. The rift between the two denominations only widened as the years passed. The issue regarding the dispensation of the sacraments continued to be a bone of contention between the Anglicans and the Methodists (and even among the Methodists themselves). Some members wanted to submit to the Church of England with regards to the sacraments issue, while others advocated total separation. This issue was repeatedly addressed in annual conferences starting in 1791, but no concession could be reached for another four years.

Finally, in the 1795 conference, the Methodist leaders decided to allow the administration of sacraments if the majority of church officials consented. The 1795 Plan of Pacification marked the total separation of the Methodists from the Church of England.

References:

Picture by: [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Boswell, John W. A Short History of Methodism. Nashville: The M.E. Church, South, 1903.

Skevington Wood, Arthur. The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church. Edited by J. D. Douglas and Earle E. Cairns. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996.

Telford, John. Popular History of Methodism. London: Charles H. Kelly, 1900.

Posted on March 5, 2018November 22, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Qing Dynasty 1644-1912

In 1644, the Manchu people swept into China from their homeland in the northeast, wrested power from the Ming Dynasty, and proceeded to rule the empire as the Qing Dynasty. The Manchus had a talent for expanding the empire and went on to rule China for more than 200 years. The arrival of Western nations, however, would disrupt and weaken Qing rule. These events are recorded on the Bible Timeline Poster with World History during that time.

The Resurgence of the Jurchens

In AD 1234, the Mongols overran China and drove the Jurchens of the Jin Dynasty back to their homeland in the region that is now Jilin and Heilongjiang. Their descendants later paid tribute to the Ming rulers, but they did not remain in obscurity for long. In 1599, they emerged from obscurity after they were organized into a colored banner system. This system was headed by the Jianzhou chieftain named Nurhaci (1559-1626). Over the next few years, the ambitious Nurhaci cemented alliances with neighboring Mongol tribes and Han Chinese. He incorporated them into the banner system through a mixture of subjugation and marriages.

The Jurchens watched closely as Ming rule collapsed in China. They soon took advantage of the empire’s disarray and started raiding its northern frontiers in early 17th century. These raids, however, stopped when Ming soldiers started using Portuguese cannons to drive them back. Nurhaci died in 1626 and was succeeded by his son Abahai (Hong Taiji). He continued his father’s conquests and soon turned the Koreans into tributaries and the Mongolians into allies.

It was during his reign that the Jurchens transformed themselves from a confederacy into a cohesive state. As descendants of the Jin Dynasty, Abahai believed that China was his people’s inheritance and made it his goal to reconquer it. He knew that if he wanted to gain a foothold in China, he and his people would need to assimilate, so he used the Han people in his court to acquire knowledge on and adopt the Ming system of governance. The greatest skill the Han people taught the Jurchens was how to replicate the Portuguese cannons of the Ming soldiers. Abahai later dropped the “Later Jin Dynasty” used by his father and transformed it to “Qing” (“clear” or “pure”). In 1635, he changed his people’s name from “Jurchen” to “Manchu.” Abahai died in 1643 and was succeeded by his young son (the later Shunzhi emperor) with his brothers Dorgon and Jirgalang as regents.

The Manchus’ Road to China

By the early 17th century, China was seething with rebellions and the Ming rule was disintegrating. In 1643, the popular rebel leader Li Zicheng from Henan declared the Chongzhen emperor deposed and crowned himself as China’s new ruler. He announced the creation of a new dynasty and proceeded to take Beijing. On April 24, 1644, Li Zicheng and his troops stormed Beijing and took it from the Ming. The desperate Chongzhen emperor hanged himself from a tree on the same night.

The Ming Dynasty faded, but the fight for supremacy was not yet over. Eager to crush Li Zicheng, the Ming general Wu Sangui asked the Manchus for help in retaking Beijing. The idea of asking a foreign power for help in quelling a rebellion became a fatal mistake as the Manchus, under the leadership of Dorgon, took advantage of the situation and took over China as soon as they defeated the rebels in 1645. The people rebelled against their new Manchu overlords, but any resistance was always ruthlessly crushed (such as the case of the ten-day massacre in the city of Yangzhou). The new rulers then ordered all males to adopt the Manchu queue as a sign of their submission. Men who refused to wear the queue were sentenced to death.

Ming holdouts fled to southern China, but they were also pursued and tracked down by the Manchus. Guangdong held out until 1649, but the Ming loyalist-pirate Zheng Chenggong (Koxinga) continued his fight against the Manchus in Xiamen. He attacked Nanjing in 1659 but failed to take the city. Zheng Chenggong died in Taiwan in 1662 after seizing the island from Dutch colonists.

The Qing Dynasty

The Kangxi Emperor ruled for 61 years, the longest reign in Chinese history.

Dorgon appointed Han Chinese to government posts but ensured that only Manchus would occupy the plum positions. One exception was the collaborationist Wu Sangui who was granted the title of “prince” and rewarded with a large fief in the province of Yunnan. The distrustful Manchus had a policy of removing landowners and farmers from their lands and replacing them with Manchu bannermen or other loyal vassals. Kangxi Emperor then ordered Wu Sangui (and three other feudal lords) to abandon their lands in the south and move to Manchuria. Incensed at this decision, Wu Sangui immediately launched a rebellion in 1673. This revolt, however, garnered few sympathies from the Han people as they considered the general a traitor. Wu Sangui’s doomed Revolt of the Three Feudatories continued even after his death in 1678 and lasted until 1681. The fall of Taiwan into Manchu hands soon followed in 1683.

Kangxi Emperor was one of the most remarkable and longest-serving rulers of Qing Dynasty. In 1689, he and a Jesuit advisor were able to negotiate a common border with Russia in Siberia in the Treaty of Nerchinsk. This treaty also gave China the possession of the Amur river. After securing peace with Russia, he campaigned against and successfully subdued the Dzungars.

The emperor cautiously welcomed European Jesuit friars in his realm. He retained the missionaries in his court where they worked as astronomers, diplomats, mathematicians, and architects. The Jesuits received his respect when they helped the emperor recover from malaria with the introduction of quinine. He allowed them to evangelize freely in China, but they soon fell from grace when the pope and the emperor could not agree on the issue of ancestral worship. The Jesuits were forbidden to proselytize some time after Kangxi Emperor’s death in 1722, and Christianity was officially banned in 1724.

Kangxi Emperor’s fourth son Yongzheng succeeded his father. His accession to the throne, however, was tainted with scandal as he was named emperor while his father was on his deathbed. Rumors also spread that he gained the throne after poisoning Kangxi Emperor which made him nothing but a usurper.

With this reputation, Yongzheng Emperor knew that his hold on the throne was shaky and that his brothers were only waiting for the perfect time to strike. Upon his accession, he curbed the power of his brothers by placing the Eight Banners under his direct control. He replaced most of the 24 personnel with his own trusted men and took away most of the bannermen’s privileges. He also decreased the number of troops under the bannermen’s supervision to prevent them from launching a rebellion.

The emperor also decreed that he himself would choose his successor. He departed from the Chinese custom which favored the eldest son of an empress, as well as the Manchu way which was rooted in merit and influence. The name of emperor’s chosen successor would be written in a document which would be then hidden away. The document would only be taken out after the emperor’s death.

The treasury that Yongzheng Emperor inherited from his father was drained, so he was hard-pressed to carry out tax reforms. The system used by Kangxi Emperor was the head tax. However, it was vulnerable to tax evasion as cunning landlords schemed with yamen clerks to help them conceal their assets and incomes from the central government. The emperor realized that the head tax put most of the burden to the peasants who did not have the knowledge nor means to evade taxes. To ease the peasants’ plight, the emperor decided to merge the head tax into the land tax.

Another reform Yongzheng Emperor implemented to combat corruption was the legalization of the “meltage fees.” Qing farmers and landowners usually used silver taels to pay their taxes. Before the revenues could be transported to the central treasury, the local officials needed to have the taels melted into ingots. The meltage fee was shouldered by the taxpayers, and to the government officials’ delight, this surcharge would often reach as high as 50 percent of the tax collected.

The benevolent Kangxi Emperor then made this surcharge illegal. Local officials, however, continued to keep a portion of the meltage fees for themselves to cover some of their expenses. Although he had his misgivings, Yongzheng Emperor knew that the “meltage fee” was a practical way to increase revenue. He legalized the surcharge and allowed the local administrators to keep a part of it. He believed that the money would serve as a motivation for local officials to be honest. But corruption was deeply rooted in the system, and exploitation continued during and even beyond his reign.

China under Yongzheng Emperor was stable and prosperous. He died in 1735, and he was succeeded by his fourth son, the Qianlong Emperor. During his reign, China was able to solidify its presence in Tibet and the empire’s northwestern frontiers. He launched a genocidal campaign against the Dzungars of Central Asia and was able to wipe them out from their homeland. He then resettled the area with Han, Manchu, Hui, and Uighur peoples. The Joseon Dynasty of Korea, meanwhile, continued to be a tributary and Qing ally.

China reached the zenith of prosperity and stability under Qianlong Emperor’s reign. He inherited his ancestors’ distrust of foreign influences, so he issued an order for his administrators to monitor the sea trade closely. In 1760, he ordered the closure of all ports to foreign ships and limited foreign merchants only within the port at Guangzhou. The British East India Company, meanwhile, was the empire’s main trading partner after supplanting the Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch traders during his reign.

A patron of the arts and a poet himself, Qianlong Emperor commissioned scholars to curate and compile thousands of Chinese literary works. However, this task was actually censorship as he ordered the scholars to destroy any work critical of the Manchus.

The Beginning of the End

Discontent was also growing among China’s disenfranchised. Qianlong Emperor’s reign saw the resurgence of the mystical White Lotus Society, the harbinger of doom of the previous dynasty. In 1774, Wang Lun, the sect’s leader in Shandong, led an uprising in the city. It was promptly quashed, but the uprisings continued to flare during the emperor’s reign.

The people’s discontent finally boiled over when the White Lotus sect launched a widespread rebellion starting in 1796. Henshen, the Manchu bannerman who was Qianlong’s personal favorite, led the campaigns against the rebels. Upon Qianlong Emperor’s death in 1799, the Jiaqing Emperor had Heshen arrested after discovering that he had diverted the army’s funds to his own pockets. The emperor allowed him to commit suicide after he was arrested.

References:

Pictures by: Anonymous Qing Dynasty Court Painter – Royal Academy of Arts, part of the The Three Emperors, 1662 – 1795 exhibition which ran from 12 November 2005 – 17 April 2006 in London. Website might be taken down at some point in future., Public Domain, Link

Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Fairbank, John King. China: A New History. Cambridge (Mass.): The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1994.

Peterson, Willard J., ed. The Cambridge History of China. The Ch’ing Dynasty to 1800. Vol. 9. The Cambridge History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

Roberts, J.A.G. A Concise History of China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001.

Posted on March 3, 2018November 21, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty ruled China starting in 1368 after Hongwu Emperor defeated the Yuan Dynasty and drove the Mongols back into the steppes. China, during the reign of early Ming emperors, was at the zenith of its wealth and power. It was during the Ming era that China exacted tribute from countries along the coast of the Indian Ocean through an expedition fleet. However, the empire became increasingly isolated the middle of the 15th century. Rebellions and the arrival of the Manchus from the north in 1644 removed the last Ming emperor from power. These events are recorded on the Bible Timeline Online with World History during that time.

The Fall of the Yuan Dynasty

In China, crises always preceded the fall of one Chinese dynasty and the rise of another, and the Mongol Yuan Dynasty was no exception. During the Mongols’ reign, the bubonic plague swept through Asia and Europe and killed millions of Han Chinese and Central Asians. Devastating droughts replaced the epidemic and soon added to the body count.

In 1344, the Yellow River flooded and soon changed its course, making the silted Grand Canal impassable. Unable to transport grain from southern China to the capital Dadu via the Grand Canal, the merchants had no choice but to transport their goods on ships that plied the coastal waters. This route, however, was infested with pirates who often seized the ships and their valuable cargoes. Since the north was already devastated by droughts, the seizure of the grain was a death blow to many of its inhabitants.

Burdened by droughts and famine, China’s starving peasants took comfort in their faith in Amitabha (Pure Land) Buddhism that was led by a monk called Cizhao (Mao Zhiyuan). Its members joined the White Lotus Society, a millenarian sect with roots which went all the back to the Northern Song period (AD 960–1127). The members of the sect hoped that bodhisattva Maitreya would soon appear and deliver them from their hopeless situation.

In his palace in Dadu, the Yuan emperor Toghon Temur was also feeling the pinch. He commissioned the minister and historian Toghto to head his major desilting project of the Yellow River outlet. Toghto enlisted the peasants and forced them to render corvée labor in this project. The work itself was hard, but what made it harder was that the peasants were unable to feed their own families as their fields also went unattended.

Rebellions and the Rise of the Ming Dynasty

The Hongwu Emperor was the first ruler of the Ming Dynasty.

Tired of the hard labor, a White Lotus member and self-proclaimed messiah named Han Shantong rallied disaffected workers behind him. They wore red turbans to show their unity and started an uprising against the Yuan authorities. The Red Turban Rebellion, however, was immediately quashed by the authorities. Han Shantong died in the process, but more Red Turban rebellions flared out all over the empire. Toghto was able to suppress the rebellion, but the Yuan defense fell apart when Toghon Temur removed him from his post. He was replaced by generals who spent most of their time quarreling among themselves than suppressing the rebellion.

The Red Turbans were divided into two factions: the northern faction led by the former Buddhist monk Zhu Yuanzhang and the southern group led by the government official Chen Youliang. Between 1361 and 1363, the two factions battled for supremacy. This conflict ended when Zhu Yuanzhang defeated Chen Youliang’s army at Poyang Lake in 1363.

After the defeat of his rival, Zhu Yuanzhang set his eyes on overthrowing the Mongol rulers in Dadu. He and his followers stormed Dadu in November 1367 and drove out Toghon Temur and the rest of the Mongol rulers. In the city of Nanjing in 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed himself the first emperor of a new dynasty which he called the “Ming.” He then took the era name Hongwu by which he is now commonly known. He threw out the Mongol codes used by the Yuan Dynasty and readopted the long-forgotten Tang Dynasty laws. He brought back the civil service examinations and appointed talented men as government officials. The emperor forbade eunuchs from meddling in administration early in his reign. However, he made a fatal mistake when he himself appointed some talented eunuchs as envoys and auditors.

The emperor came to the throne as a result of the rebellion, so he had a lingering suspicion that he would be deposed by one too. After more than a decade of rule, he ordered a purge of thousands of government officials. He also created a secret police called the Embroidered Uniform Guard which spied on and arrested suspected rebels. Afraid that the nobles would rise up against him, he resettled them far from their lands and made them dependent on him by giving them allowances every month. Despite these cruelties, the Hongwu Emperor never forgot his Buddhist background. He curbed his own spending and ensured that China would remain at peace.

During his reign, the Ming army was able to decimate the remnants of the Yuan Dynasty. They forced the Mongols out from Shangdu and drove them deeper into the steppes. Humiliated and scattered, the remaining Mongol tribes soon formed the Oirat confederation which harassed the Chinese in the northern frontier. The Hongwu Emperor became fearful of a renewed Mongol invasion, so he ordered several garrisons to be built to keep the “barbarians” out of China.

Yongle Emperor’s Wars and Zheng He’s Voyages

Hongwu Emperor appointed his grandson (his eldest son had died before him) as his heir before his death in 1398. His fourth son, Zhu Di, opposed this decision and started a civil war that would last for three years. He had his nephew murdered in 1402, and soon took the throne as Yongle Emperor. He also purged real or perceived enemies, including his nephew’s remaining supporters.

Yongle Emperor was desperate to legitimize his rule since he knew that the people considered him a usurper. In 1405, he launched an expedition across the Indian Ocean to exact tributes from foreign kings and boost his legitimacy. The emperor appointed an influential eunuch named Zheng He as admiral of the voyage. He then had Zheng He outfitted with a fleet made up of 317 ships manned by more or less 27,000 personnel. Zheng He and this magnificent flotilla visited the ports of India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Hormuz, and even ventured as far as the eastern coast of Africa between 1405 and 1433. These diplomatic missions and geographic explorations brought back not just information, but also exotic goods and animals which included a giraffe and some zebras.

In China, however, Yongle Emperor’s rule was anything but peaceful. While fighting the Oirat confederation, he also embarked on a quest to depose a fellow usurper in the southern kingdom of Đại Việt. The kingdom was ruled by the Hồ dynasty that had wrested the throne from the Trần dynasty between 1399 and 1400. Yongle then led his army to Đại Việt and deposed king Hồ Hán Thương. Instead of letting the Trần heir regain his position upon the removal of the Hồ ruler in 1407, the emperor turned the kingdom into a vassal state and sent a Chinese administrator to govern in his place.

The emperor had the Great Wall repaired during his reign, and pushed the Ming’s northern border past the Jurchen heartland and into the Amur river. He left Nanjing and lived in the city of Dadu. He then proclaimed it as the Ming capital and renamed it Beijing. Unlike his father, however, Yongle Emperor spent lavishly during his reign. He built a magnificent palace complex for himself and his family in Beijing which he called Forbidden City.

The naval expeditions and the palace complexes he built had been expensive, but the long war against Đại Việt guerillas drained his treasury. This conflict cost him not only money but also thousands of Ming soldiers who were sent south to counter the rebels led by a Trần nobleman named Lê Lợi and General Nguyễn Trãi. The war in Đại Việt against the Ming overlord was still ongoing when Yongle Emperor died in 1424.

The Isolated Empire

Hongxi Emperor acceded throne when his father died. His reign was cut short in the following year, and he was succeeded by his son, Xuande Emperor. Ming treasury was drained by the time of Xuande’s succession, so he was forced to withdraw his troops from the troublesome and costly conflict in Đại Việt. He also called off Zheng He’s naval expeditions in 1433, but the admiral was unable to return to China as he died at sea. Xuande, with some prodding from Confucian scholars who disliked foreign contact, then ordered the destruction of the entire naval fleet and forbade any more expensive expeditions. What little trade that came through in China was considered by Ming rulers as tributes. The restrictions on trade, however, backfired when it gave rise to Japanese (wokou) and Chinese piracy.

Xuande Emperor died in 1435 and was succeeded by his young son Zhengtong. Regents initially ruled on his behalf, but the timid emperor took the reins of power upon his coming of age. He was captured by the Oirat leader Esen Tayisi during a botched military campaign in the north but was set free when the Ming refused to ransom him. Upon Zhengtong’s return to Beijing, he found, to his dismay, that he had been deposed in favor of his brother, the Jingtai Emperor. Although he had a quick interlude as emperor once again, he remained under house arrest for the rest of his life.

The Ming emperors that follow Zhengtong were either unremarkable, incompetent, or indifferent. China remained isolated, protected from foreign incursions by the sea ban and its Great Wall. Gone were the days of voyages, tributes, and expansion plans. As years went by, administration steadily broke down as the imperial court became bogged down by squabbling eunuchs and scholar-officials.

China would not remain in its self-imposed isolation for long as the arrival of the Jurchen people and the Europeans—for better or for worse—would open it to the world during the 16th century.

References:

Picture by: User Hardouin on en.wikipedia – [1], Public Domain, Link

Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Fairbank, John King. China: A New History. Cambridge (Mass.): The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1994.

Roberts, J.A.G. A Concise History of China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001.

Posted on March 1, 2018November 21, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

The Second Opium War (Arrow War, 1856-1860)

The Treaty of Nanking fell apart despite the significant concessions China gave to Western nations during the aftermath of the First Opium War. The disagreements escalated into the Second Opium War which lasted from 1856-1860. By 1861, China had suffered another loss and was once again forced to grant concessions to Western powers. These events are recorded on the Bible Timeline Chart with World History during that time.

The Second Opium War (Arrow War, 1856-1860)

China gave major concessions to Britain after its loss in the First Opium War (1839-1842) in the Treaty of Nanking. However, the unpopular and unequal treaty collapsed as the years passed, and war once again seemed inevitable. The British blamed the Qing officials for their lack of cooperation in enforcing the terms of the treaty. The charging of transit duties on goods was another bone of contention between the two parties. They also disagreed on when the Qing officials would finally allow British citizens the freedom to live and trade inside the walls of Guangzhou.

By 1847, the patience of the Hong Kong administrator and British ambassador John Francis Davis was already wearing thin. He ordered an expedition to Guangzhou and seized several forts in Foshan. Unable to muster an adequate defense, the Viceroy of Guangdong and Guangxi provinces Keying was forced to promise that the authorities would let the British merchants and officials enter Guangzhou in 1849. This concession became unpopular with the inhabitants of Guangzhou, and news of it eventually reached the emperor. Keying was then replaced as governor-general by Xu Guangjin. In 1852, a Chinese official named Ye Mingchen replaced Xu Guangjin as governor of Guangdong.

The British merchants and officials fully expected that Guangzhou would be an open city in two years time. To their disappointment, Xu Guangjin shrugged off Keying’s promise and postponed it again in 1849. The governor of Hong Kong agreed to the postponement which only angered his compatriots.

While British troops were besieging southern China, the rest of the country was racked by civil war with the onset of the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864). It was followed by the Red Turban Rebellion in 1854 which would last for another two years. Besieged at every point, Qing officials were able to breathe a sigh of relief (though just barely) when Britain became embroiled in the Crimean War in 1854. This respite, however, would not last.

On October 8, 1856, Qing coast guards seized the lorcha named Arrow off Guangzhou on suspicions of piracy. The boat, which sailed under the British flag, was owned by a Chinese settler in Hong Kong who had registered it with the authorities in the colony. Most of the Arrow’s Chinese crew were arrested, but its captain, Thomas Kennedy, managed to secure the freedom of a couple of seamen who served as his skeleton crew. Kennedy and his men immediately returned to Hong Kong and informed the colony’s governor John Bowring of the incident.

The seizure of the Arrow compelled Bowring to authorize a siege on Guangzhou. British ships bombarded the walled city, while Governor Ye Mingchen responded by ordering the destruction of all British factories in the territory. Foreign trade was suspended, while all Englishmen in his jurisdiction were considered fair game.

The murder of missionary Auguste Chapdelaine was the official reason for France’s involvement in the Second Opium War.

When news of the conflict reached Lord Palmerston (now Prime Minister), he immediately ordered an expeditionary force to be sent to besiege China. The fleet was escorted by French forces who had come to seek vengeance for the execution of Auguste Chapdelaine, a French missionary in China. After serving as reinforcements against a rebellion in India, the fleet then proceeded to the waters off Guangdong in 1857.

The Earl of Elgin and British Consul Harry Parkes led this expeditionary force and the bombardment of Guangzhou. When the city finally fell, British soldiers arrested Governor Ye Mingchen and exiled him to India where he died in 1859. Parkes was left behind in Guangzhou as one of its temporary administrators while the British fleet continued north.

Lord Elgin led the bombardment of Taku Forts in 1858. When they came to the city of Tianjin itself, Xianfeng emperor finally sent a representative to negotiate. On June 18, 1858, both parties signed the Treaty of Tianjin (Tientsin) which forced China to:

Open ten additional ports to European trade, especially those that lead to China’s interior
Legalize opium trade
Allow the establishment of a British embassy in Beijing
Allow foreign merchants and missionaries to travel unhindered in the country

France and the United States also forced China to sign similar treaties. Russia then entered the fray and forced China to give up the land north of the Amur River in the Treaty of Taigun. It also compelled China to allow a joint administration of the land between the Ussuri River and the Sea of Japan (East Sea).

Allied forces came back to Bohai Bay in June 1859 to ratify the Treaty of Tianjin. Little did they know that while they were away, Xianfeng Emperor had ordered the fortification of Taku Forts and the improvement of its artillery. Fierce bombardment met them, and they were forced to turn back. Elated at their victory, the emperor’s ministers advised him to rescind the treaty and continue the fight against the allied troops.

The fight, however, was not yet over. A bigger allied fleet returned and easily captured Taku Forts. Allied troops soon entered Beijing where they encountered fierce resentment and resistance. Some of Beijing inhabitants captured and harassed the British and French delegation (including the vindictive Harry Parkes). Lord Elgin, in turn, ordered the splendid Summer Palace to be burned to the ground.

For Xianfeng Emperor and the Chinese people, the concessions and humiliations seemed never-ending. He was forced to allow the foreigners to use Tianjin as a treaty port and cede Kowloon (Jiulong) to the British. To top it all off, China also had to pay war indemnities to allies. Russia took advantage of the moment to nullify its earlier agreement with China and took over the land east of the Ussuri River.

The 30-year old Xianfeng Emperor died a tired and broken man in 1861. He was succeeded by his six-year-old son Zaichun (the future Tongzhi emperor) who would be guided by his father’s appointed regents.

References:

Picture by: See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Bury, J. P. T., ed. The New Cambridge Modern History. Vol. 10. The New Cambridge Modern History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960.

Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Fairbank, John King. China: A New History. Cambridge (Mass.): The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1994.

Fairbank, John K., ed. The Cambridge History of China. Late Ch’ing 1800–1911. Vol. 10. The Cambridge History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.

Roberts, J.A.G. A Concise History of China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001.

Posted on February 28, 2018November 20, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Chinese Ports Opened to Britain 1842

The First Opium War began in 1839 after China cracked down on the illegal drug trade headed by British merchants in Guangzhou. Its loss in the First Opium War forced China to open its ports to Britain (as well as other European countries) in 1842 via the Treaty of Nanking. These events are recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during that time.

The First Opium War (1839-1842): The Drug Trade and the Clash of Cultures

The British East India Company first established contact with Chinese traders in the early 1600s. British merchants bought tea and silk from Chinese traders and shipped these products back to Europe. Demand for Chinese products in Britain spiked, but the British could not find anything of their own with which to interest Chinese buyers. One exception, however, was opium, the highly addictive substance extracted from opium poppy seed pods. Grown and harvested in India, British merchants shipped the drug from their colony and offloaded the shipment at the port of Guangzhou starting in the mid-1700s.

A great number of ordinary Chinese soon became addicted to the substance which they paid for with taels of silver. Alarmed at the rise of addiction and the outward flow of their silver reserves, the Qing officials tried in vain to stop British merchants from selling the drug. The Qing government’s futile attempt to stop the opium trade lit the fuse of China’s conflict with Britain that would last for than half a century.

The British government’s lack of knowledge about the Qing Dynasty’s culture (particularly the tribute system) worsened the conflict. In 1792, Britain sent Lord Macartney as an envoy to China to negotiate a trade treaty with the emperor. Foreign ships were confined to the waters off of Guangzhou, so the British government wanted the emperor to open several ports for them. The British government also wanted the emperor to grant its nation’s merchants access to areas where tea and silk were commonly produced. Lord Macartney was tasked to request the emperor’s permission in allowing a British minister to stay at the imperial court and oversee British interests in China.

As was the custom, Macartney brought lavish gifts for the emperor. The embassy failed when the British envoy refused to perform the kowtow when they met. This breach in court etiquette offended Qianlong Emperor who later remarked disdainfully that China was self-sufficient and had no need for Britain’s products. Macartney’s requests were denied by the emperor, and he was forced to leave China soon after.

After breaking East India Company’s monopoly in Asia in 1834, the British government sent Lord Napier to China as Superintendent of Trade in Guangzhou. He broke protocol when he bypassed the hong merchants who served as brokers and requested a meeting with Qing officials upon his arrival. For the Qing officials, this was unacceptable as any nation which requested trade with China was essentially nothing more a than tributary and was not treated as a coequal. They refused to meet with Lord Napier who was also humiliated by the rejection.

In Beijing, scholars of the Spring Purification circle and government officials were debating the best course to combat the flow of opium into the Chinese market. Officials suggested the legalization of the substance so it could be taxed by the government. The scholars, however, opposed this suggestion for moral reasons. In 1838, Daoguang Emperor appointed Lin Zexu as a special commissioner to combat the drug problem. The commissioner traveled to Guangzhou in the same year and targeted consumers and dealers alike. He enlisted the help of the local hong merchants whom he tasked to compel the foreign merchants to give up their stocks of opium.

The foreign merchants naturally refused, but Lin Zexu decided to strongarm them by having their factories barricaded and the merchants detained. The British superintendent Charles Elliott had no choice but to advise them to hand their stocks over to the Chinese authorities. They finally acquiesced when Elliott promised them compensation for the loss of their stocks. After the confiscation, Lin Zexu forced them to sign an agreement to get them to stop trading opium. Merchants who refused to comply would be sentenced to death.

Charles Elliott then sent a letter to the Foreign Secretary Lord Palmerston to inform him of the situation. After lifting the detention order, the Qing authorities allowed the freed British merchants to transfer to Macau. The situation only worsened when British sailors killed a local farmer. Back in 1784, a gunner of the British ship Lady Hughes was tasked to fire a gun salute while in Guangzhou. He, however, shot two Chinese officials who died from their injuries. Chinese authorities demanded British officials to hand the gunner over to them, but the latter refused. After a long dispute, the emperor sentenced the gunner to death by strangulation. British officials had no choice but to hand him over to Chinese authorities who immediately had him strangled.

Charles Elliott did not want a repeat of the Lady Hughes incident, so he refused to hand the sailors over to the authorities. Lin Zexu enlisted the help of the Portuguese authorities in Macau and asked them to boot the English out of the colony. They had no choice but to leave Macau and set up a temporary shelter at Hong Kong (Xianggang).

Meanwhile, the opium trader Dr. William Jardine had traveled to London to inform Lord Palmerston of the merchants’ situation. Jardine encouraged the foreign secretary to send a naval fleet to evacuate the merchants, as well as to reassert Britain’s “right” to trade opium in China. He was able to convince the minister to support three main goals which included:

The disbandment of the Cohong (guild of hong merchant-brokers) that would allow the British to deal directly with Qing officials
Forcing China to compensate the British merchants for the opium stocks they lost during Lin Zexu’s crackdown
Compelling China to hand over one of its islands that the British could use as a base in East Asia

The fleet arrived off the coast of China in 1839, and immediately rescued the superintendent Charles Elliott and his companions in Hong Kong. During the greater part of 1840, Charles and his cousin Admiral George Elliott led the devastating naval attacks on China. British ships easily blockaded Guangzhou before sailing north to take Zhoushan Island off the coast of Ningbo.

Chinese soldiers pictured with gingals (a type of gun) during the First Opium War.

This was too close for comfort to the capital. Daoguang Emperor sacked Lin Zexu in frustration, and replaced him with the Viceroy of Zhili, Qishan, as chief negotiator. In January 1841, the two parties came to an agreement in the Convention of Chuanpi. Superintendent Charles Elliott represented the British side, while Qishan negotiated for the Qing. But to the emperor’s dismay, Qishan gave significant concessions to the British including the cession of Hong Kong. Despite receiving the island, the British were still unhappy with the deal. Chief negotiator and superintendent Charles Elliott was replaced with Sir Henry Pottinger when the negotiations finally broke down. Elliott’s troops, meanwhile, landed in Guangzhou and started to harass the people living in the city.

Pottinger himself was able to capture the ports of Ningbo, Zhoushan, Xiamen, and Zhapu between 1841 and 1842 in spite of the fierce resistance of the Manchu defenders. When Shanghai fell to the British navy in 1842, the emperor was forced to summon another parley. The result was the Treaty of Nanking which was signed by both parties on August 29, 1842, aboard the HMS Cornwallis. The terms of the treaty included:

The opening of the ports of Shanghai, Ningbo, Fuzhou, Xiamen, and Guangzhou to British trade
The cession of the island of Hong Kong
The establishment of fixed tariffs (set at 5 percent during the Treaty of Bogue)
The condition that Britain would no longer be a Qing tributary, but a co-equal state
The abolishment of the Cohong guild of merchants

This was later supplemented by the Treaty of the Bogue in 1843. Bullied into submission, China gave Britain the most favored nation status and allowed British citizens to enjoy the benefits of extraterritoriality. Eager to take advantage of the lucrative Chinese market, France, and the United States soon entered into similar treaties in 1844. China also granted an edict of toleration to Roman Catholicism after entering into a treaty with France.

References:

Picture by: Edward Belcher [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Bury, J. P. T., ed. The New Cambridge Modern History. Vol. 10. The New Cambridge Modern History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1960.

Ebrey, Patricia Buckley. The Cambridge Illustrated History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Fairbank, John King. China: A New History. Cambridge (Mass.): The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1994.

Fairbank, John K., ed. The Cambridge History of China. Late Ch’ing 1800–1911. Vol. 10. The Cambridge History of China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978.

Roberts, J.A.G. A Concise History of China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001.

Posted on February 26, 2018November 18, 2017 by Kat Cendana — Leave a comment

Tripoli Became a Colony of Italy 1912

In 1911, the Italian government tried to bolster its expansionist ambitions by demanding that the Ottomans leave Libya and “return” the territory to Rome. The Ottomans rejected the Italians’ ultimatum, so Rome had no choice but to declare a war against the Turks. After several months of naval and land battles, Tripoli finally fell and became a colony of Italy in 1912. These events are recorded on the Bible Timeline with World History during that time.

The Decline of Ottoman Power and the Scramble for Africa

The death of Sultan Suleiman I in 1566 was the beginning of the decline of the Ottoman Empire. Starting in the 1600s, the Empire was plagued with wars on almost all fronts. Eastern European warlords and princes, meanwhile, had also started to demand their independence. The Ottoman government was saddled with weak and corrupt leaders, so it was not long before the Empire started to burst at the seams.

Greece was among the first of the Ottoman colonies to declare itself independent from the Ottomans in 1829. Other Balkan and Mediterranean colonies also started their own struggle for independence. While the overburdened Ottomans were busy stemming the bleeding of its Empire, their European neighbors were scrambling to wrest huge chunks of it for themselves.

By the late 19th century, most of the Balkan states had declared independence or autonomy. Bosnia and Herzegovina were not as lucky as they were taken from the Ottoman Empire by Austria-Hungary. England, France, Germany, and Italy made a mad dash to take the Empire’s African territories. France (to Germany’s dismay) took Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria. Egypt, meanwhile, was firmly in the hands of Britain.

Italo-Turkish War and Italian Tripolitania

Italy was not a major colonial power during the 19th and 20th centuries. It was unified during the mid-19th century, but largely remained poor and most of its people were unemployed. Italy watched enviously as powerful France and Britain took large chunks of North Africa for themselves. To compensate, Rome then turned its gaze across the Mediterranean and decided to expand its territory by seizing two of the Roman Empire’s former territories: Tripoli and Cyrene in Ottoman Libya.

On September 28, 1911, Italy declared its intention to expand in Libya and then sent an ultimatum to the Ottoman administrators for them to “return” the territory. The Ottomans replied with a rejection the following day. This rejection only gave the Italians the perfect excuse to invade Tripoli. Italy declared a war against the Ottomans and started with a naval blockade. More than 40,000 Italian troops were dispatched to take part in this war of expansion in Libya which began on October 1, 1911. The Italians first softened Tripoli’s defenses with bombardment. This left the Ottomans with no choice but to leave the city and retreat further into the desert.

Four days later, victorious Italian troops occupied Tripoli while Ottoman volunteers and Libyan tribesmen were forced to retaliate with guerilla warfare. It was during this Italo-Turkish War that Young Turks leaders Enver Pasha and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk saw action as Ottoman volunteers. Turkish troops, however, were recalled later on as the beleaguered Ottomans prepared for the Balkan War.

The Italians also introduced some of the “firsts” of modern warfare. These included the first use of aircraft in bombardment and reconnaissance, as well as the first widespread use of machine guns and armored cars. By early November 1911, Italian troops had overcome resistance in Tripoli and soon declared its sovereignty over the colony. Despite the Italian victory, Libyan resistance continued into the latter part of 1911 and into mid-1912. As the war raged on, Italy managed to overpower the Ottoman navy in the eastern Mediterranean. Italian troops then occupied the island of Rhodes and some parts of the Dodecanese group.

By October 1912, the beleaguered Ottoman Empire was facing another war in the Balkans and it could not afford to be distracted. Ottoman representatives were forced to accept the setback and decided to sue for peace. They signed the Treaty of Lausanne (Treaty of Ouchy) on October 18, 1912, along with their Italian counterparts.

One of the terms of the Treaty was for the Italians to evacuate Rhodes and the Dodecanese. However, they failed to honor the agreement and continued to occupy the island. The Ottomans also evacuated most of their troops from Libya, but a few remained in the territory and continued to fight the enemy. Conflict flared every now and then between the Ottomans (plus their Libyan tribesmen allies) and Italian troops, but Tripoli, from then on, was firmly in the hands of the Italians.

References:

Picture by: Piri Reis, Public Domain, Link

Bury, J.P.T. The New Cambridge Modern History, Volume XII: The Shifting Balance of World Forces,1898-1945. Edited by Charles Loch Mowat. Cambridge: University Press, 1968.

Estes, Kenneth W. International Encyclopedia of Military History. Edited by James C. Bradford. New York: Routledge, 2006.

Simon, Rachel: Italo-Turkish War 1911-1912 , in: 1914-1918-online. International Encyclopedia of the

First World War, ed. by Ute Daniel, Peter Gatrell, Oliver Janz, Heather Jones, Jennifer Keene, Alan

Kramer, and Bill Nasson, issued by Freie Universit盲t Berlin, Berlin 2016-08-23. DOI:

10.15463/ie1418.10949.

Stephenson, Charles. A Box of Sand: The Italo-Ottoman War 1911-1912: The First Land, Sea and Air War. Ticehurst, East Sussex, England: Tattered Flag Press, 2014.

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Posted on February 24, 2018November 17, 2017 by Kat Cendana — 1 Comment

Franciscan Friars Founded San Diego, CA 1769

Fears of a Russian incursion in the Pacific in the mid-1700s finally forced Spain to secure its hold on Alta California. After finding few volunteers, the Spanish government decided to send Franciscan missionaries to Alta California. In 1769, the first Franciscan friars arrived in California and founded the Mission San Diego de Alcala. These events are recorded on the Bible Timeline Chart with World History during that time.

San Diego in the Age of Discovery

The Kumeyaay people were the first inhabitants of the land on which the modern city of San Diego now stands. During the Age of Discovery, the Spaniard Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo became the first European to explore the San Diego Bay area. He later named it “San Miguel” in honor of the saint whose feast day was fast approaching when he explored the region. Cabrillo and his crew continued north, but the exploration was cut short when he died of gangrene.

More than half a century would pass before the Spaniards visited the area again. In 1602, Sebastian Vizcaino and his fleet sailed from Acapulco to Alta California to explore the region. His main task was to find safe harbors for Manila-Acapulco galleons and claim the land for Spain. Vizcaino’s fleet arrived in the San Diego Bay on November 12, 1602, and proceeded to map the area for Spain. He named this territory San Diego de Alcala after the 15th-century Spanish saint and Franciscan friar Didacus of Alcala.

However, the plans to establish harbors and Spanish settlements failed to become a reality. The Age of Explorers also ended, and the adventurers were replaced by Jesuit missionaries. In 1700, the Jesuit friar Eusebio Kino was one of the first Spaniards to enter Arizona and established a mission near present-day Tucson. This adventurous and intelligent missionary also contradicted past explorers by claiming that neighboring California was not an island. Although the Mexican authorities did not believe him, Father Kino still continued his mission in Arizona. The Jesuits fell from grace as the years went by, and they were soon replaced by Franciscan friars.

The Foundation of Mission San Diego de Alcala

The Mission San Diego de Alcala was founded in 1769.

In the mid-1700s, the Danish explorer Vitus Bering and his Russian crew reached and explored some of the islands of Alaska. Although he died during the expedition, Russia was able to stake its claim on this new-found yet distant territory. Fears of a Russian incursion in the Pacific finally pushed King Carlos III of Spain to instruct Gaspar de Portolá, governor of Baja California, to secure Alta California. Spanish colonists, however, did not find Alta California attractive. They had made their fortunes in Mexico and there was no incentive for them to seek wealth in an inhospitable land.

With no volunteers in sight, the governor then turned to the priests of the Franciscan Order and commissioned them to establish a mission in Alta California. The Franciscan friars led by Father Junipero Serra and Gaspar de Portolá were escorted by Spanish soldiers as they made their way to Alta California.

Two Spanish ships sailed from Baja California to the San Diego Bay in January and February 1769. This fleet arrived in April of the same year. A separate party, meanwhile, left Baja California by land in March. Scurvy, the scourge of early explorers, easily halved the members of this expedition.

Father Serra, meanwhile, traveled with the second expedition and arrived in San Diego on the 1st of June, 1769. He was in his 50s by then and a leg infection made the journey north more difficult for him. Despite his age and condition, he was able to establish the Mission San Diego de la Alcala more than one month after the group’s arrival.

The site on which the Spaniards established the first mission, however, could not sustain them for long. The Spaniards moved to a more suitable place near the San Diego River and close to where the Kumeyaay people lived. In addition to successfully securing the area, the Franciscans also managed to gain more Kumeyaay converts.

References:

Picture by: Bernard Gagnon (Own work) [GFDL or CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Fehrenbacher, Don E. A Basic History of California. Princeton: D. Van Nostrand Company, 1964.

“History.” Mission Basilica San Diego de Alcalá. Accessed September 18, 2017. http://www.missionsandiego.org/visit/history/.

Jackson, Robert Howard, and Edward D. Castillo. Indians, Franciscans, and Spanish Colonization: The Impact of the Mission System on California Indians. Albuquerque, NM: Univ. of New Mexico Press, 2005.