Chapter 19 pg 931-957 + Chapter 19 Documents

Chapter 19:

China took an aggressive approach to industrializing their country but unlike other countries, they did not take well to the economical change that occurred. However, they still maintained their formal independence. In the sense, China was different than the other colonization's because they were able to keep their independence unlike other colonization's. Additionally, China was able to produce a great amount of crops and food which allowed their population to grow a lot, a 300 million population growth to be exact. However, since there was no major food industry however, China had to revert to other methods of growing food. Which was small farms but that was not enough to feed the whole population. Therefore, China suffered many deaths to starvation.


The two main events that occurred and had a major impact were the Opium War and the Taiping Uprising. The Opium War started from a request to British for an open trade. It opened up five different ports so that the Chinese could trade with Europeans. Once this happened it opened up the door so that Europeans could by land in China. Additionally, the Taiping Uprising changed the way the culture viewed women. This was a very important event because women did not have a lot of power in Chinese. They were no longer forced to have their feet bound and they could fight in battles. Additionally, they were also not looked upon as badly as they were before.

Chapter 19 Documents:

The document I really like was Document 19 because it shows how a women stood up for her rights. She was given away to be married at 18 to an older man. Throughout the marriage she was not happy. She then disregarded every teaching and principle of China and left her husband to pursue an education. This was a dramatic and scary thing to do, however, Qui Jin did it. Her mission was to change the injustice rules of the Quin dynasty and to appeal for womens rights. For this, she was beheaded. This really makes me think about how strong of a person this lady was. To stand up to her husband is hard enough as it is, but to stand up to your country, is unheard of. I applaud her for doing that and wonder if I would every be able to do that.

The visual source I liked was 19.2. This was because it showed China being Westernized and it showed the similarities between the two. Western things like play the piano, the violin, and the outfits were things that resembled American. This just shows you that westernization was spreading throughout the world.