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About this Lecture

Lecture

In this module, we think about the final decade of the Qing dynasty, focusing in particular on: (i) the state of China by 1900; (ii) the Late Qing reforms (also known as the New Policies); (iii) the reintroduction of ideas that had been seen in the Hundred Days' Reform, but the absence of the reformers themselves – Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, Sun Yat-sen, etc.; (iv) the main features of the Late Qing reforms, including the creation of a constitutional assembly and the provincialisation of border territories such as Tibet, Xianjian, Mongolia and Manchuria; (v) the abolition of the traditional examination system and the establishment of western-style universities; (vi) the abolition of the opium trade; (vii) the continued existence of extraterritoriality; (viii) the increase in Chinese nationalism, and the reasons for its growth at precisely this point; (ix) the sequence of events in 1911 that leads to the collapse of the Qing Empire; and (x) the early years of the Republic of China, including the figures of Sun Yat-sen and Yuan Shikai, and their relationship.

Course

In this course, Dr Lars Laaman (SOAS, University of London) explores the history of China between the end of the First Opium War (1839-42) to the collapse of the Qing dynasty in 1911. In the first module, we think about the immediate aftermath of the First Opium War and the growing influence of the western powers up to the sweeping changes introduced by the Treaty of Tianjin in 1858. After that, in the second module, we shift our focus to two huge rebellions that took place almost simultaneously in different parts of the country – the Taiping Rebellion (1850-64) and the Nian Rebellion (1851-68) – before turning in the third, fourth and fifth modules to explore the three phases of the Self-Strengthening Movement (1861-72, 1872-85, 1885-95). In the sixth module, we think about the Hundred Day’s Reform – an abortive attempt to introduce sweeping cultural, political and educational reforms to the Qing Empire – before turning in the seventh module the causes, course and consequences of the Boxer Rebellion (1898-1900). Finally, in the eighth module, we look at the final decade of Qing rule, in which the Qing administration made one last attempt at reform before its final collapse in 1911.

Lecturer

Dr Lars Laamann is a Lecturer in the History of China at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London. He specialises in the history of imperial China, including popular religion, medicine, drugs and healing and Manchu culture in the Qing empire. His publications include Narcotic Culture: A History of Drugs in China (co-authored with Frank Dikotter and Xun Zhou, 2004) and Christian Heretics in Late Imperial China (2006).