Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on China's Self-Strengthening Movement. Have the paper e-mailed to you 24/7/365.
Essay / Research Paper Abstract
An 8 page paper discussing China's efforts to benefit from contact with the West in the late 19th century, for the purposes of learning about the Western technology in which China was lacking. One historian notes that most attempts to explain the China of today stems from examination of events of the 20th century only, but that the introspection, realizations and ultimate failure of the self-strengthening movement likely have had greater impact in shaping China today. Bibliography lists 5 sources.
Page Count:
8 pages (~225 words per page)
File: CC6_KSchinSelfStren.rtf
Buy This Term Paper »
Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
China in the 17th century, when Britain maintained the worlds greatest naval power. China was aloof to the interest of the West. For centuries, the Chinese had considered
themselves the center of the world order, superior to all other cultures and with nothing to learn from them. The emissaries from the West were barbarians in the view
of the Chinese; Westerners were tolerated but certainly were not welcome. A concerted effort for self-determination and national sovereignty initiated by Lin Tse-Hs?
had contributed to the first Opium War with Britain, one of several humiliations of China at the hands of Westerners. On reflection, the Chinese determined that yes, their culture
was superior to things Western in nearly all respects. The West, however, had a distinct advantage in technology and military matters. Lin Tse-Hs? and later Feng Kuei-Fen both
argued strongly in favor of learning these things from the West for the purpose of completing the circle of Chinese superiority. OBrien writes,
"The experience of defeat in two wars brought home to realistically-minded Chinese the inadequacy of Chinas reliance on naive assertions of superiority without the military means to challenge effectively the
Western barbarians," a position supported by several other historians, including Wilson (1993). Increasing Contact with the West
The West rapidly became enamored of the items they could find in the Orient. It was this early uneasy trade relationship that provided the basis for British
obsession with tea; silk and spices also were in great demand in all the British colonies that spanned much of the world. For
...