Question

How did the First and Second Sino-Japanese War contribute to a century of Chinese humiliation?

Answer 1

Hint: The century of humiliation, also known as the hundred years of national humiliation, is a term used in China to characterize the era between 1839 and 1949 when Western powers, Russia, and Japan intervened and subjugated the Chinese Empire and the Republic of China.

Complete answer:
The First Sino-Japanese War -
The First Sino-Japanese War was a confrontation between Japan and China in 1894–95 that marked Japan's rise as a major world power and exposed the Chinese empire's vulnerability. The dispute arose from a struggle for dominance in Korea between the two countries

The Second Sino-Japanese War -
When Japan invaded China in 1931, the Second Sino-Japanese War began. The Mukden Incident was used by Japan as a pretext to invade China. After the Marco-Polo Bridge Incident, the invasion escalated into a full-fledged war. Japanese officers said that a Japanese soldier had gone missing and that they had been given permission to locate him in Beiping.

The First and Second Sino-Japanese Wars contributed to China's humiliation over the course of a century-
i) Various European powers pushed China open for trade and exploitation in the 19th century, but the nadir of Chinese weakness came when Japan - itself an Asia country - joined in.

ii) The Qing Dynasty viewed foreign merchants with disdain in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, believing that all foreigners were barbarians. Tea, silk, and ceramics were in high demand, but the Chinese government refused to accept anything but silver in exchange (which led to economic problems in much of the world). Western merchants retaliated with a strong hand, and soon discovered that smuggling opium opened all kinds of doors.

iii) The Qing tried valiantly to adapt and reassert their authority, but they were woefully inadequate. Japan, which had already been opened up in the 1850s and 1960s, proved to be much more adaptable in terms of modernization. The Japanese showed how good they were in 1894, when they occupied Taiwan, several islands, and made extraterritorial concessions of their own in the First Sino-Japanese War. It also paved the way for the conquest of Korea by the Japanese.

iv) Japan believed it could pressure China into embracing any number of conditions for the next 40 years, and Chinese nationalism developed in response. Between 1937 and 1945, an estimated 15 million Chinese died in the Second Sino-Japanese War, which was subsequently subsumed into World War II.


Note: The Qing Dynasty, which ruled China from 1644 to 1912, was the country's last imperial dynasty. It was a period marked by initial prosperity and turbulent final years, as well as the fact that it was only the second time China was not ruled by the Han people.

External powers, in the form of modern Western technology, as well as a gross miscalculation on the part of the Qing as to the strength of European and Asian imperialistic aspirations, played a major role in the demise of the last dynasty.