HIST 117T(S) Clash of Empires: China and the West, 1800-1900 (Same as Asian Studies 117T) (W)*

As ever greater numbers of Western traders sought access to China's products and markets in the early nineteenth century, their ideas of free trade, hopes for commercial expansion, and expectations for international intercourse clashed with the policies and practices of the Qing Dynasty's multi-ethnic empire. This conflict reached a climax in the mid-century Opium Wars, in which China's defeat inaugurated a period of Western domination by several powers (including Britain, France, the United States, and later, Japan). Despite its weakened position, the Qing dynasty continued to contest the definition and scope of Western privilege in China through the end of the century. Historians have long disagreed over how to interpret this "clash of empires," some seeing Western involvement in China as exploitative imperialism and others seeing it as a positive, modernizing force. In either case, however, this conflict profoundly affected China's national development in the twentieth century, and continues to inform contemporary China's view of itself and its international position.
This tutorial course will examine a series of significant points of contention between the Qing Dynasty and expanding Western powers during this period. These will include the opium trade, Christian missionaries, extraterritorial privilege, Western technology, the looting of Chinese artworks and antiquities, and contests over sovereignty in Tibet and Manchuria. We will examine both Western and Chinese perspectives on these conflicts, how the period has been remembered and interpreted, and how it continues to affect Chinese and Western perceptions of China's place in the world.
Format: tutorial. Students in the tutorial will meet in weekly one-hour sessions with the instructor and a classmate. Each week, students will alternate between writing a 5- to 7-page paper on the assigned readings (to be presented orally in class) and writing and presenting a 2-page critique of his/her classmate's paper. The course will conclude with a final paper that examines one of the issues raised in class in greater depth.
No prerequisites. Enrollment limit: 10 (expected: 10). Preference will be given to sophomores, and then first-year students, who have not previously taken a 100-level tutorial.
Group C

Tutorial meetings to be arranged. A. REINHARDT