Sharina
24-03-2006, 03:43
China Factbook for Age of Imperialism
China was the world's most populous nation for hundreds of years. China has had a history older than most European nations, going back to the times of Ancient Egyptians and Babylonians. Yet, China was not an international power such as Europeans and the United States by 1900 as China was considered a Third World nation. However, this would all change in a far different way, and alter the future of the world irrevocably.
China's ascent to greatness was only beginning.
The History of China in Age of Imperialism (AoI)
1898 AD:
China had begun to work out several new reforms in education and infrastructure. One educational step included the great public examinations, which had been conducted on much the same system for seven or eight centuries past, were to be modified by the introduction of subjects suggested by recent intercourse with Western nations. There was to be a university in Peking, and the temples, which cover the empire in all directions, were to be closed to religious services and opened for educational purposes. Railroads were being considered to be employed on a larger scale, as per the order of the Emperor. However, complications arose due from foreigners.
To boost these bold reforms, a plot was conceived, under which the Empress Dowager was to be arrested and imprisoned, as the Empress was a traditionalist, resistant to modernization. However, this plot was betrayed by Yuan Shih-k`ai, and the Empress turned the tables by suddenly arresting and imprisoning the Emperor, and promptly decapitating all the conspirators, with the exception of K`ang Yu-wei, who succeeded in escaping. He had been the moving spirit of the abortive revolution as he was a fine scholar, and had completely gained the ear of the Emperor. China, for the third time in history, passed under the dominion of a woman.
(Point of Divergence)
Prince Tuan grew in anti-foreigner feelings, ideology, and beliefs right after the failed plot. The promised reforms were cancelled by the Empress, further fueling Prince Tuan's anger. Prince Tuan felt that the only way to compete aganist the foreigners was to learn about them, their ideologies, beliefs, sciences, customs, and so forth.
He recalled a passage of the ancient Chinese philosopher, Sun Tzu, that perfectly applied to this very situation.
"Know thine own enemy."
Prince Tuan began to gather covert support aganist the Empress, learning from the mistakes of the first failed coup plot. His followers adopted Sun Tzu's teachings, and formed a core of supporters. Prince Tuan also began speaking to the Chinese peasants at festivities, instilling the ideology of Sun Tzu and Confucius. The peasants spread the ideologies throughout their home villages, which eventually created a popular support base for Prince Tuan's planned coup.
1899 AD:
The Confucius and Sun Tzu teachings continued to spread throughout the Chinese populace, providing even additional fuel towards the Boxer Rebellion. The Chinese populace hated the foreigner missionaries, citizens, and officials as they enjoyed rights and access priviliges that they did not deserve. The Boxers acted upon the populace's distrust and resistance towards Christianity as the Chinese believed that Christianity veils aggression and expansion under the guise of religion, with no respect for traditions. The Chinese also felt that Christianity was a major threat to their millennia old culture and traditions, re-writing the Chinese to follow Europeans beliefs, ideals, cultures, and traditions.
The Boxers continued to grow in strength, however, unlike in actual history, they did enjoy a growing popular support thanks to Prince Tuan's efforts of speading the teachings of Sun Tzu and Confucius. More and more Chinese nobles, officials, and leaders began to gravitate towards Prince Tuan as they remembered the injustices of the Opium Wars and seeing a potential chance to finally break free of foreigner oppression.
1900 AD:
The Boxer Rebellion grows into a full blown rebellion aganist foreign occupation. Many churches and large amounts of property of foreign nationals are looted, burned, and destroyed. The countryside became rife with the hit-and-run gurriella tactics employed by the Boxers, putting all foreign nationals and missionaries at risk. Prince Tuan decides to order the Imperial Army to escort all foreign nationals back to three major cities with foreign presence already established, Peking, Shanghai, and Tienstin. This act seemed to appease, yet annoy the Great Powers, including Britain and the United States.
The Great Powers engaged in forceful diplomacy, making pointed requests and serving semi-ultimatums. Britain and the United States began sending more military personnel and forces into China under the guise of "protection" as they demanded the Chinese government to do something about the Boxer Rebellion. Several skirmishes occurred throughout the countryside, much to the Chinese Imperial Army's chargin, as they were ill-equipped to combat gurriella warfare. The flow of foreigners began, amid intense diplomatic manuevering by Prince Tuan.
The Dowager Empress Cixi continued to lose her power and influence, as Prince Tuan continued to prove himself over and over during the Boxer Crisis. Tuan's diplomacy was conducted behind Cixi's back, as he knew that Cixi would interfere and cause the destruction of China due to her old traditional and un-bending ways. The Great Powers began to acknowledge Prince Tuan as the true ruler of China, as the diplomatic wrangling continued well into late in the year.
Near the end of the year, France unexpectedly withdrew all its interests from China, and Germany was relatively silent. France appeared to have several major governmental issues, which sapped French power and resources. Germany did not engage in either diplomacy or military action during the Boxer Crisis, due to pressing European concerns, mostly France and Austria-Hungary.
With the withdrawal of France, and the lackluster activity from Germany, the remaining Great Powers, Britain and America found themselves the only major European players in China, not counting Russia which engaged in limited diplomacy and continued military build-up aganist Manchuria and possibly Korea.
1901 AD:
The Boxer leadership approached Prince Tuan in secret, believing that he did actually have the ambition, talent, and drive to lead China into a new age, free of foreigner oppression. Prince Tuan seizes this opprounity to use the Boxers as a tool instead of a nuisance, thus, he provided the Boxer leadership with intelligence on foreign assets and garrisons. Several more minor skirmishes occurred, with surprisingly low casaulties for the Boxers and the Chinese Imperial Army. The surprise raids caused Britain and the United States to demand more concessions, asking that the Chinese Imperial Army guard vital transportation hubs to protect foreign trade, nationals, and investments.
Prince Tuan asks the Boxer leadership to greatly decrease their attacks in an attempt to decieve the Westerners into believing that the Imperial Army managed to crush the Boxer Rebellion. The Boxer leadership was uncomfortable with the request, as it went aganist everything that the Boxers believed in. However, masterful dialog and diplomacy by Prince Tuan finally convinced the majority of the leadership of the importance of the plan. Several Boxer leaders disagreed, and continued their raids aganist foreign nationals, thus creating a second but short lived Boxer rebellion. The second uprising was easily crushed, thanks to increasing popular support for Prince Tuan, as well as the increasing experience of the Imperial Army in combatting gurriella warfare.
During this time, Japan and Korea sent secret diplomatic overtures to China, seeking to enter an Asian alliance, to band together aganist non-Asian powers. Prince Tuan agrees to a secret meeting, and reaches an agreement with Japan. The agreement was that Japan were to become the masters of the Pacific Ocean and its multitudes of islands, while China becomes the masters of mainland Asia.
Britain and the United States took note of China's efforts to protect foreigners and the elimination of the majority of the Boxer Rebellion. Both nations offered Prince Tuan a deal of aid and military withdrawal for promises to keep China open to foreign trade and nationals. Prince Tuan agrees to the deal, as he knew foreign investment and aid would be needed to industrialize China in the coming years. Intense diplomacy took place to assuage the nervous Boxer leadership, the Chinese populace, and the anti-foreigner factions within China. Prince Tuan finally manages to convince them through logic and practicality, as he made it clear that China needed to adopt Westerner technologies, sciences, and economics to truly become a modern power capable of fighting Westerners to a standstill should an actual Euro-China War or American-China War ever take place.
Britain and the United States began withdrawing troops and military assets as a gesture of goodwill, and begins sending railroad engineers and material to aid China in constructing a trade and transportation network, a vital step towards full industrialization. The fact that the Westerners began withdrawing from China and then sharing their secrets of industrialization gave Prince Tuan enormous boost in prestige, respect, and support throughout China. Dowager Empress Cixi's power and prestige was completely destroyed as people viewed her as nothing more than a relic of times past, and this gave Prince Tuan the perfect opporunity to take the next step.
Prince Tuan declared himself Emperor, and founded a new dynasty in China, the Guozu / Kuo-tsu Dynasty on Novemeber 24, 1901. This endeavour brought support from nearly the entirety of China, as Prince Tuan had become something akin to a hero or a legend, doing what had been thought impossible several years ago. Even the Westerners voiced their support of Tuan's dynasty, which spoke volumes of Tuan's leadership and international reputation. The aging Dowager Empress Cixi was stripped of all her power, prestige, offices, and Imperial status then sent out to live in exile.
The secret talks with Korea and Japan would continue early in the next year once Emperor Tuan consolidated his dynasty.
As the year drew to a close, China was unified under an intelligent, ambitious, open-minded, and honorable leader. The Guozu Dynasty had been formed, railroads were beginning to be built throughout China and providing hundreds of thousands of jobs, and China was well on its way to industrialization.
1902 AD:
At the beginning of the year, one of Emperor Tuan's first acts as Emperor was to re-institute the aborted reforms of 1898 that Empress Cixi rejected. Temples were opened as schools throughout China, and public examinations began in earnest. Many Westerner science textbooks including Chemistry, metallurgy, electronics, physics, medicine, among others, were either collected or purchased, then translated into Chinese. These books were re-printed and distributed throughout the temple-schools being opened. Millions upon millions of children were finally given the opporunity for education for the first time, thanks to Emperor Tuan's edict.
Construction of railroads continues to proceed, expanding China's railroad infrastructure by three-fold within the first few months of the year. Prior to the Boxer Crisis, China only had one operational railroad operating between Peking and Tienstin. Several more cities were slated to be connected via railroad by the end of the year, with dozens more within the next few years.
Chinese scientists and engineers imported dynamite from America, which aided in railroad construction and development of mines immensely. China opened its first dynamite plant in July, with plans for several more to be built in the following years. It is hoped that by opening multiple dynamite factories, China will gain a viable export resource to enrich its treasury, as dynamite is growing in popularity and demand worldwide.
Plans are drawn up for massive mining projects in Mongolia and Manchuria, especially that the the threat of the Japanese has been reduced sonsiderably with the signing of an China-Japan alliance, as well as a tentative peace with Russia. Massive damming projects are planned to greatly improve irrigation and the agricultural sector, allowing China to increase food yields. With the food surplus, despite it having one-thirds of the entire world's population, China could open up a new source of exports to Westerner nations or the food-starved areas of Africa.
1903 AD:
China continues to aggressively seek industrialization, as it constructs three more dynamite plants, and opens its first several major mining operations in Mongolia. The remainder of the Westerner forces withdraw from China, allowing China to re-integrate itself with no foreign interference or partitons for the first time in several decades. The alliance with Japan begins to solidify, as the Westerners turn their attentions back towards brewing situations in Europe.
Britain and the United States continue to supply China with firearms, machinery, factory equipment, and railroad materials. China begins construction on a railroad to link its mining projects in Mongolia to the cental cities of Peking and Shanghai. Several more branches are planned as new factories are planned to be built throughout several urban areas such as Canton, Luo-Yang, Tienstin, among others.
China begins large scale mining expeditions in Mongolia, to discover new veins of iron, coal, copper, nickel, tungsten, aluminum, and other vital industrial metals, minerals, and resources. The Emperor approves construction on the foundation of the first dam on the Yangtze River, and construction begins late in the year.
(More history to come)
------------------------------
Current Chinese Relations:
Allies:
Japan
Friendly Relations:
None
Trade Partners:
None (US and UK stopped helping China before 1910 but can be rectified by player RP)
Enemies:
None
China was the world's most populous nation for hundreds of years. China has had a history older than most European nations, going back to the times of Ancient Egyptians and Babylonians. Yet, China was not an international power such as Europeans and the United States by 1900 as China was considered a Third World nation. However, this would all change in a far different way, and alter the future of the world irrevocably.
China's ascent to greatness was only beginning.
The History of China in Age of Imperialism (AoI)
1898 AD:
China had begun to work out several new reforms in education and infrastructure. One educational step included the great public examinations, which had been conducted on much the same system for seven or eight centuries past, were to be modified by the introduction of subjects suggested by recent intercourse with Western nations. There was to be a university in Peking, and the temples, which cover the empire in all directions, were to be closed to religious services and opened for educational purposes. Railroads were being considered to be employed on a larger scale, as per the order of the Emperor. However, complications arose due from foreigners.
To boost these bold reforms, a plot was conceived, under which the Empress Dowager was to be arrested and imprisoned, as the Empress was a traditionalist, resistant to modernization. However, this plot was betrayed by Yuan Shih-k`ai, and the Empress turned the tables by suddenly arresting and imprisoning the Emperor, and promptly decapitating all the conspirators, with the exception of K`ang Yu-wei, who succeeded in escaping. He had been the moving spirit of the abortive revolution as he was a fine scholar, and had completely gained the ear of the Emperor. China, for the third time in history, passed under the dominion of a woman.
(Point of Divergence)
Prince Tuan grew in anti-foreigner feelings, ideology, and beliefs right after the failed plot. The promised reforms were cancelled by the Empress, further fueling Prince Tuan's anger. Prince Tuan felt that the only way to compete aganist the foreigners was to learn about them, their ideologies, beliefs, sciences, customs, and so forth.
He recalled a passage of the ancient Chinese philosopher, Sun Tzu, that perfectly applied to this very situation.
"Know thine own enemy."
Prince Tuan began to gather covert support aganist the Empress, learning from the mistakes of the first failed coup plot. His followers adopted Sun Tzu's teachings, and formed a core of supporters. Prince Tuan also began speaking to the Chinese peasants at festivities, instilling the ideology of Sun Tzu and Confucius. The peasants spread the ideologies throughout their home villages, which eventually created a popular support base for Prince Tuan's planned coup.
1899 AD:
The Confucius and Sun Tzu teachings continued to spread throughout the Chinese populace, providing even additional fuel towards the Boxer Rebellion. The Chinese populace hated the foreigner missionaries, citizens, and officials as they enjoyed rights and access priviliges that they did not deserve. The Boxers acted upon the populace's distrust and resistance towards Christianity as the Chinese believed that Christianity veils aggression and expansion under the guise of religion, with no respect for traditions. The Chinese also felt that Christianity was a major threat to their millennia old culture and traditions, re-writing the Chinese to follow Europeans beliefs, ideals, cultures, and traditions.
The Boxers continued to grow in strength, however, unlike in actual history, they did enjoy a growing popular support thanks to Prince Tuan's efforts of speading the teachings of Sun Tzu and Confucius. More and more Chinese nobles, officials, and leaders began to gravitate towards Prince Tuan as they remembered the injustices of the Opium Wars and seeing a potential chance to finally break free of foreigner oppression.
1900 AD:
The Boxer Rebellion grows into a full blown rebellion aganist foreign occupation. Many churches and large amounts of property of foreign nationals are looted, burned, and destroyed. The countryside became rife with the hit-and-run gurriella tactics employed by the Boxers, putting all foreign nationals and missionaries at risk. Prince Tuan decides to order the Imperial Army to escort all foreign nationals back to three major cities with foreign presence already established, Peking, Shanghai, and Tienstin. This act seemed to appease, yet annoy the Great Powers, including Britain and the United States.
The Great Powers engaged in forceful diplomacy, making pointed requests and serving semi-ultimatums. Britain and the United States began sending more military personnel and forces into China under the guise of "protection" as they demanded the Chinese government to do something about the Boxer Rebellion. Several skirmishes occurred throughout the countryside, much to the Chinese Imperial Army's chargin, as they were ill-equipped to combat gurriella warfare. The flow of foreigners began, amid intense diplomatic manuevering by Prince Tuan.
The Dowager Empress Cixi continued to lose her power and influence, as Prince Tuan continued to prove himself over and over during the Boxer Crisis. Tuan's diplomacy was conducted behind Cixi's back, as he knew that Cixi would interfere and cause the destruction of China due to her old traditional and un-bending ways. The Great Powers began to acknowledge Prince Tuan as the true ruler of China, as the diplomatic wrangling continued well into late in the year.
Near the end of the year, France unexpectedly withdrew all its interests from China, and Germany was relatively silent. France appeared to have several major governmental issues, which sapped French power and resources. Germany did not engage in either diplomacy or military action during the Boxer Crisis, due to pressing European concerns, mostly France and Austria-Hungary.
With the withdrawal of France, and the lackluster activity from Germany, the remaining Great Powers, Britain and America found themselves the only major European players in China, not counting Russia which engaged in limited diplomacy and continued military build-up aganist Manchuria and possibly Korea.
1901 AD:
The Boxer leadership approached Prince Tuan in secret, believing that he did actually have the ambition, talent, and drive to lead China into a new age, free of foreigner oppression. Prince Tuan seizes this opprounity to use the Boxers as a tool instead of a nuisance, thus, he provided the Boxer leadership with intelligence on foreign assets and garrisons. Several more minor skirmishes occurred, with surprisingly low casaulties for the Boxers and the Chinese Imperial Army. The surprise raids caused Britain and the United States to demand more concessions, asking that the Chinese Imperial Army guard vital transportation hubs to protect foreign trade, nationals, and investments.
Prince Tuan asks the Boxer leadership to greatly decrease their attacks in an attempt to decieve the Westerners into believing that the Imperial Army managed to crush the Boxer Rebellion. The Boxer leadership was uncomfortable with the request, as it went aganist everything that the Boxers believed in. However, masterful dialog and diplomacy by Prince Tuan finally convinced the majority of the leadership of the importance of the plan. Several Boxer leaders disagreed, and continued their raids aganist foreign nationals, thus creating a second but short lived Boxer rebellion. The second uprising was easily crushed, thanks to increasing popular support for Prince Tuan, as well as the increasing experience of the Imperial Army in combatting gurriella warfare.
During this time, Japan and Korea sent secret diplomatic overtures to China, seeking to enter an Asian alliance, to band together aganist non-Asian powers. Prince Tuan agrees to a secret meeting, and reaches an agreement with Japan. The agreement was that Japan were to become the masters of the Pacific Ocean and its multitudes of islands, while China becomes the masters of mainland Asia.
Britain and the United States took note of China's efforts to protect foreigners and the elimination of the majority of the Boxer Rebellion. Both nations offered Prince Tuan a deal of aid and military withdrawal for promises to keep China open to foreign trade and nationals. Prince Tuan agrees to the deal, as he knew foreign investment and aid would be needed to industrialize China in the coming years. Intense diplomacy took place to assuage the nervous Boxer leadership, the Chinese populace, and the anti-foreigner factions within China. Prince Tuan finally manages to convince them through logic and practicality, as he made it clear that China needed to adopt Westerner technologies, sciences, and economics to truly become a modern power capable of fighting Westerners to a standstill should an actual Euro-China War or American-China War ever take place.
Britain and the United States began withdrawing troops and military assets as a gesture of goodwill, and begins sending railroad engineers and material to aid China in constructing a trade and transportation network, a vital step towards full industrialization. The fact that the Westerners began withdrawing from China and then sharing their secrets of industrialization gave Prince Tuan enormous boost in prestige, respect, and support throughout China. Dowager Empress Cixi's power and prestige was completely destroyed as people viewed her as nothing more than a relic of times past, and this gave Prince Tuan the perfect opporunity to take the next step.
Prince Tuan declared himself Emperor, and founded a new dynasty in China, the Guozu / Kuo-tsu Dynasty on Novemeber 24, 1901. This endeavour brought support from nearly the entirety of China, as Prince Tuan had become something akin to a hero or a legend, doing what had been thought impossible several years ago. Even the Westerners voiced their support of Tuan's dynasty, which spoke volumes of Tuan's leadership and international reputation. The aging Dowager Empress Cixi was stripped of all her power, prestige, offices, and Imperial status then sent out to live in exile.
The secret talks with Korea and Japan would continue early in the next year once Emperor Tuan consolidated his dynasty.
As the year drew to a close, China was unified under an intelligent, ambitious, open-minded, and honorable leader. The Guozu Dynasty had been formed, railroads were beginning to be built throughout China and providing hundreds of thousands of jobs, and China was well on its way to industrialization.
1902 AD:
At the beginning of the year, one of Emperor Tuan's first acts as Emperor was to re-institute the aborted reforms of 1898 that Empress Cixi rejected. Temples were opened as schools throughout China, and public examinations began in earnest. Many Westerner science textbooks including Chemistry, metallurgy, electronics, physics, medicine, among others, were either collected or purchased, then translated into Chinese. These books were re-printed and distributed throughout the temple-schools being opened. Millions upon millions of children were finally given the opporunity for education for the first time, thanks to Emperor Tuan's edict.
Construction of railroads continues to proceed, expanding China's railroad infrastructure by three-fold within the first few months of the year. Prior to the Boxer Crisis, China only had one operational railroad operating between Peking and Tienstin. Several more cities were slated to be connected via railroad by the end of the year, with dozens more within the next few years.
Chinese scientists and engineers imported dynamite from America, which aided in railroad construction and development of mines immensely. China opened its first dynamite plant in July, with plans for several more to be built in the following years. It is hoped that by opening multiple dynamite factories, China will gain a viable export resource to enrich its treasury, as dynamite is growing in popularity and demand worldwide.
Plans are drawn up for massive mining projects in Mongolia and Manchuria, especially that the the threat of the Japanese has been reduced sonsiderably with the signing of an China-Japan alliance, as well as a tentative peace with Russia. Massive damming projects are planned to greatly improve irrigation and the agricultural sector, allowing China to increase food yields. With the food surplus, despite it having one-thirds of the entire world's population, China could open up a new source of exports to Westerner nations or the food-starved areas of Africa.
1903 AD:
China continues to aggressively seek industrialization, as it constructs three more dynamite plants, and opens its first several major mining operations in Mongolia. The remainder of the Westerner forces withdraw from China, allowing China to re-integrate itself with no foreign interference or partitons for the first time in several decades. The alliance with Japan begins to solidify, as the Westerners turn their attentions back towards brewing situations in Europe.
Britain and the United States continue to supply China with firearms, machinery, factory equipment, and railroad materials. China begins construction on a railroad to link its mining projects in Mongolia to the cental cities of Peking and Shanghai. Several more branches are planned as new factories are planned to be built throughout several urban areas such as Canton, Luo-Yang, Tienstin, among others.
China begins large scale mining expeditions in Mongolia, to discover new veins of iron, coal, copper, nickel, tungsten, aluminum, and other vital industrial metals, minerals, and resources. The Emperor approves construction on the foundation of the first dam on the Yangtze River, and construction begins late in the year.
(More history to come)
------------------------------
Current Chinese Relations:
Allies:
Japan
Friendly Relations:
None
Trade Partners:
None (US and UK stopped helping China before 1910 but can be rectified by player RP)
Enemies:
None