China

Europeans had been trading in South China since the early sixteenth century, buying luxury goods in a commerce that was lucrative to local merchants but economically insignificant on a national scale. During the eighteenth century that situation changed, and a large scale commodity trade began to develop. Throughout the century, British merchants came to dominate the trade between Europe and China. The trade was almost all in one direction; the Chinese had little interest in European goods. The British would find a commodity to balance the trade - opium.

Unit Description:

1.  Discussion of the Silk Trade that existed between China and foreign merchants and the diary writings of Marco Polo and his observations of China.

• The isolation policy of the Ming dynasty

• European goals in China

• The Chinese philosophy towards foreigners

2. Trade Simulation: Students are divided into groups of two. They then can pick a group of two to compete against. One group will be Chinese merchants and one group will be English traders. They will trade silk for silver.

•  Introduction of the Simulation game (picking teams and opponents)

•  Strategy Meetings with each team ( rules, procedures, strategies)

•  Trade Simulation ( one full period to trade and sign an agreement)

•  Debrief Simulation and declare winning and losing teams 

3. Lecture and discussion concerning the English use of opium to balance the trade with the Chinese

• The initial gift of Opium

• The Opium War

• The Treaty of Nanking

• War with the Japanese

• The Taiping rebellion

• The Boxer Rebellion

4. Chart describing the Conflicting Points of View between China and England

5. Lecture and Discussion: The Fall of the Qing dynasty

Textbook Readings:

• The Mongol and Ming Empires (pages 314-319)

• China and the New Imperialism (pages 649-653)

Links:

http://www.megastories.com/china/glossary/opium.htm (Opium Wars)

http://encarta.msn.com/find/Concise.asp?ti=0088D000 (Opium Wars)

http://serendipity.magnet.ch/wod/hongkong.html (Opium Wars and the loss of Hong Kong to England)

http://mojo.calyx.net/~schaffer/heroin/opichin1.html (Opium in China)

http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/OLDNEWS/opium.htm (Emperor declares war on drugs)

http://www-unix.oit.umass.edu/~zongli/extended.html (The Opium War and the Opening of China)

http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~dee/CHING/OPIUM.HTM (Ch'ing China and the Opium Wars)

http://www.easc.indiana.edu/pages/easc/curriculum/china/1996/EACPWorkBook/modern/opium.htm (The Opium Wars and the Treaty of Nanking)

http://www.isop.ucla.edu/eas/documents/nanjing.htm (The actual Treaty of Nanking)

http://www.watson.org/rivendell/historyeasttaiping.html (The Taiping Rebellion)

http://www.watson.org/rivendell/historyeasttaiping.html (The Taiping Rebellion)

http://encarta.msn.com/find/Concise.asp?ti=062AF000 (The Taiping Rebellion)

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0847654.html (The Taiping Rebellion)

http://www.mrdowling.com/613-taiping.html (The Taiping Rebellion)

http://www.quoteland.com/baronies/war/boxer.html (The Boxer Rebellion)

http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/CHING/BOXER.HTM (The Boxer Rebellion)

http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/fists.html (The Boxer Rebellion)