Qing Dynasty Dbq Analysis

In the year 1911 one of history’s most powerful dynasties came to an end. It is highly questionable as to the series of events that led to the fall of Qing China. One thing is clear, Japan a close neighbor to China did not lead the same fate. The question is how did Japan succeed when China did not. It is known that Qing China failed in many aspects including militarily, economically, and internationally. A combination on failures caused the Qing dynasty came to an end. It is now important to reflect as to how such a powerful dynasty allowed for such failures to happen. Not only is it important to reflect as to how Chania failed but it is critical to learn from their mistakes. The lessons to be learned from the fall of Qing China should be …show more content…
In 1479 the Ming dynasty of China established the laws of isolationism (Doc 1). These laws proved to be crippling for China as they caused a lack of important progressions. In Europe, they had gone through important progressions in agriculture, science and most importantly industry. Due to a lack of incoming ideas the Chinese were limited to their agrarian systems (Doc 1). China was being surpassed by the rest of the world and there was little they could do about it. Due to a lack in progression China was susceptible to attacks from other nations. Chana was incapable of protecting itself from attacks. Starting with the Opium war of 1839 China was invaded by Brittan and forced into unequal treaties (Doc 2). As much as China tried to deal with Western powers they were overtaken by them. After the first Opium war the Chinese were forced to open their ports for trading ending and chance of continued isolation (Doc 4). The Chinese dynasty could not keep up with the West due to their advantages economically and technology. The important historical lesson to be learned from this is that isolation will lead to a lack in progression that is needed to protect a