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Concept
Century of humiliation
Summary
"Century of humiliation" or "hundred years of national humiliation" is a term used in China to describe the period of intervention and subjugation of the Qing dynasty and the Republic of China by Western powers and Japan from 1839 to the 1940s.
The use of "humiliation" arose in the atmosphere of rising Chinese nationalism opposing the Twenty-One Demands made by the Japanese government in 1915 and grew with protests against China's treatment the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. The Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party) and Chinese Communist Party popularized the characterization in the 1920s, protesting the Unequal Treaties and loss of territory. In the 1930s and 1940s, it became common to refer to "A Century of Humiliation." Although the formal treaty provisions were ended, the idea remains a central concept in Chinese nationalism, widely used in both political and popular culture.
Chinese nationalists in the 1920s and the 1930s dated the Century of Humiliation to the mid-19th century, on the eve of the First Opium War amidst the dramatic political unraveling of Qing China that followed.
Defeats by foreign powers cited as part of the Century of Humiliation include the following:
Western and Japanese trade in opium to China (1800s-1940s)
Defeat in the First Opium War (1839–1842) by the British and the occupation of Hong Kong.
The unequal treaties (in particular, Nanjing, Whampoa, Aigun, and Shimonoseki)
Defeat in the Second Opium War (1856–1860) and the sacking and looting of the Old Summer Palace by Anglo-French forces.
The signing of the "unequal treaties" of Aigun (1858) and Peking (1860) during the Second Opium War, which ceded Russian Manchuria to Russia.
The partial defeat during the Sino-French War (1884-1885), which resulted in losing suzerainty over Vietnam and influence in the Indochinese Peninsula.
The British Sikkim expedition (1888).
Defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895) by Japan, which resulted in the Japanese colonization of Taiwan and suzerainty over Korea.
Official source
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