Chapter 19 and Chapter 19 Documents

Chapter 19
Although China attempted to match agricultural and industrial revolutions like the Americas or Europe, they fell short. There were too many people in China and they couldn't produce enough. Especially overseas. Their internal expansion and their western expansion fell short of the wealth and success of Europe's overseas empires. Starvation, lack of crops, and overpopulation all contributed to the growing pressure taking place. All of these factors led to violent rebellions and gangs. This led to the Taiping Uprising. They rejected all of the traditional ideologies such as Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism. They spread their own custom and unique form of Christianity. I believe this is taken from the influence of Europe. Because Asia would not have heard of Christian ideology if it weren't from the Europeans.  One thing that stood out about this revolution was the gender roles were different then most. Women in the Taiping uprising fought with soldiers. Also they rejected the traditional Asian ideology of foot binding. Also women who were under the uprising and previously had been foot binding were required to stop. This short lived period unfortunately was not strictly monitored and they had ambivalence toward the equality of women. Taiping power swept out southern China in 1853 and set up their capital in Nanjing. China's evolving relaionship with Europe was most drastically changed during a time period called the Opium Wars. Countries became familiar with opium and it's powerful effects. People in China claim is was "fit for Buddha." China then consistently imported many smuggled chests of opium in 1773. Chinese law became aware of this growing problem and tried to crack down on it. They were mostly bribed and stilled smuggled into the country. Britain then tried to exterminate these laws so they could profit from the export of opium. This is what is known as the opium war.

Chapter 19 Documents
Kang Youwei was a confucian scholar that described what China needed in "Memorial to Emperor Guangxu. He talked about even though the Chinese empires are evolving, for the leaders to consistenly read confucion writings.
Also the documents describe educational reform in a mainly Confucious teaching environment. Gender reform and revolution focused on documents written by women and how women should be treated.