Glimpses of World History

by Jawaharlal Nehru

  The Treaty of Nanking opened the door to Britain in China. But Britain was not going to have all the fat plums to herself. France and the United States stepped in and also made commercial treaties with China. China was helpless, and this compulsion exercised on her did not make her love or respect the foreigner. She resented the very presence of these “barbarians”. The foreigner, on his side, was still far from content. His appetite for exploiting China grew. The British again took the lead.

  It was a very favourable time for the foreigners, as China was busy with the Taiping Rebellion and could offer no resistance. So the British set about to find a pretext for war. In 1856 the Chinese Viceroy of Canton had the Chinese crew of a ship arrested for piracy. The ship belonged to the Chinese, and no foreigner was involved. But it flew the British flag because of a permit from the Hongkong Government. As it happened, even this permit had expired. Nonetheless, as in the fable of the wolf and the lamb at the river, the British Government made this the excuse for war.

  Troops were sent to China from England. Just then the Indian Revolt of 1857 broke out, and all these troops were diverted to India. The China War had to wait till the Revolt was crushed. In 1858 this second China War began. The French, meanwhile, had also discovered a pretext for taking part in it, for a French missionary had been killed somewhere in China. So the English and the French swooped down on the Chinese, who had their hands full with the Taiping Rebellion. The British and the French Governments tried to induce Russia and the United States of America to join them, but they did not agree. They were quite prepared, however, to share in the loot. There was practically no fighting, and new treaties, extorting more privileges, were signed by all the four Powers with China. More ports were opened to foreign trade.

  But the story of the Second China War is not yet over. There was another act to the play, with a still more tragic sequel to it. When treaties are made it is customary for the governments concerned to ratify or confirm them. It was arranged that this ratification of the new treaties should take place within a year at Peking. When the time came for this, the Russian envoy came direct to Peking, overland from Russia. The other three came by sea and wanted to bring their boats up the river Peiho to Peking. This city was being threatened by the Taiping rebels just then, and the river had been fortified. The Chinese Government therefore asked the British, French and American envoys not to come by the river route, but to travel by a land route farther north. It was not an unreasonable request. The American agreed to it. Not so the British and French envoys. They tried to force their way up the Peiho river in spite of the fortifications. The Chinese fired upon them and forced them back with heavy losses.

  Arrogant and over-proud governments, which would not even listen to a request from the Chinese Government to change their travel route, could not tolerate this. More troops were sent for to take vengeance. In 1860 they marched on the old city of Peking, and their vengeance took the form of the destruction and looting and burning of one of the most wonderful buildings in the city. This was the Imperial Summer Palace, the Yuen-Ming-Yuen, completed in the reign of Chien Lung. It was full of rare treasures of art and literature, the finest that China had produced. There were old bronzes of great beauty, and amazingly fine porcelain, and rare manuscripts, and pictures and every kind of curio and work of art for which China had been famous for 1000 years. The Anglo-French soldiery, ignorant vandals that they were, looted these treasures and destroyed them in huge bonfires which kept burning for many days! Is it any wonder that the Chinese, with a culture of thousands of years behind them, looked upon this vandalism with anguish in their hearts, and considered the wreckers ignorant barbarians who only knew how to kill and destroy? And memories of the Huns and the Mongols and many other old-time barbarian wreckers must have come to them.

  But the foreign “barbarians” cared little what the Chinese thought of them. They felt secure in their gunboats and with their modern weapons of war. What did it matter to them that the rich and rare treasures which had been collected during hundreds of years were no more? What did they care for Chinese art and culture?

  Whatever happens,

  We have got

  The Maxim gun,

  And they have not!

  115

  China in Difficulties

  December 24, 1932

  In my last letter I told you of the destruction by the British and French of the wonderful Summer Palace of Peking in 1860. This was done, it is said, as a punishment for a Chinese violation of a flag of truce. It may have been true that some Chinese troops had been guilty of such an offence, but still the deliberate vandalism of the British and French almost passes one’s comprehension. This was not the act of a few ignorant soldiers, but of the men in authority. Why do such things happen? The English and the French are civilized and cultured peoples, in many ways the leaders of modern civilization. And yet these people, who in private life are decent and considerate, forget all their civilization and decency in their public dealings and conflicts with other people. There seems to be a strange contrast between the behaviour of individuals to each other and the behaviour of nations. Children and boys and girls are taught not to be too selfish, to think of others, to behave properly. All our education is meant to teach us this lesson, and to a small extent we learn it. And then comes war, and we forget our old lesson, and the brute in us shows his face. So decent people behave like brutes.

  This is so even when two kindred nations, like the French and Germans, fight each other. But it is far worse when different races are in conflict; when the European faces the races and peoples of Asia and Africa. The different races know little of each other, for each is a closed book to the other; and where there is ignorance there is no fellow-feeling. Racial hatred and bitterness increase, and when there is a conflict between two races, it is not only a political war, but something far worse— a racial war. This explains to some extent the horrors of the Indian Revolt of 1857, and the cruelty and vandalism of the dominant European Powers in Asia and Africa.

  It all seems very sad and very silly. But where there is the domination of one nation over another, one people over another, one class over another, there is bound to be discontent and friction and revolt, and an attempt by the exploited nation or people or class to get rid of its exploiter. And this exploitation of one by another is the very basis of our present-day society, which is called capitalism, and out of which imperialism has emerged.

  In the nineteenth century the big machines and industrial progress had made the western European nations and the United States of America wealthy and powerful. They began to think that they were the lords of the earth and that the other races were far inferior to them and must make way for them. Having gained some control over the forces of Nature, they became arrogant and overbearing to others. They forgot that civilized man must not only control Nature, but must also control himself. And so we see in this nineteenth century progressive races, ahead of others in many ways, often behaving in a manner which would put a backward savage to shame. This may perhaps help you to understand the behaviour of European races in Asia and Africa, not only in the last century, but even today.

  Do not imagine that I am comparing the European races to ourselves or to other races to our advantage. Far from it. We all have our dark spots, and some of ours are pretty bad; or else we might not have fallen quite so low as we have done.

  We shall go back to China now. The British and French had given a demonstration of their might by destroying the Summer Palace. They followed this up by forcing China to ratify the old treaties and extorted fresh privileges out of her. In Shanghai the Chinese customs service was organized under foreign officials by the Chinese Government in accordance with these treaties. This was called the “Imperial Maritime Customs”.

  Meanwhile the Taiping Rebellion, which had enfeebled China and thus given an opportunity to the foreign Powers, was still dragging on. At last, in 1864, it was finally put down by a Chinese Governor, Li Hung Chang, who became a
leading statesman of China.

  While England and France extorted privileges and concessions out of China by terrorism, Russia in the north achieved a remarkable success by more peaceful methods. Only a few years before, Russia, hungry for the possession of Constantinople, had attacked Turkey in Europe. England and France were afraid of Russia’s growing strength, and so they joined the Turks and defeated Russia in what is known as the Crimean War of 1854-56. Defeated in the west, Russia began to look towards the east, and had great success. China was persuaded by peaceful means to cede to Russia a province in the north-east, adjoining the sea, with the city and harbour of Vladivostok. This triumph for Russia was due to a brilliant young Russian officer, Muravieff. In this way, Russia gained far more by friendly methods than England and France had gained after their three years’ war and insensate destruction.

  So matters stood in 1860. The great Chinese Empire of the Manchus, which by the end of the eighteenth century covered and dominated nearly half Asia, was now humbled and disgraced. Western Powers from distant Europe had defeated and humiliated it; an internal rebellion had almost upset the Empire. All this shook up China completely. It was obvious that all was not well, and some effort was made to reorganize the country to meet the new conditions and the foreign menace. So this year 1860 might almost be considered the beginning of a new era when China prepares to resist foreign aggression. China’s neighbour, Japan, was similarly occupied at this time, and this also served as an example. Japan succeeded far more than China, but for a while China did hold back the foreign Powers.

  A Chinese mission, under an American named Burlingame, who was a warm friend of China, was sent to the treaty Powers, and he succeeded in getting somewhat better terms from them. A new Sino-American treaty was signed in 1868, and it is interesting to find that in this the Chinese Government agreed, as a favour and a concession to the United States, to permit the emigration of Chinese workers to the States. The United States were busy then developing their western Pacific States, especially California, and labour was scarce there. So they imported Chinese labour. But this became the source of fresh trouble. The Americans began to object to cheap Chinese labour, and there was friction between the two governments. The United States Government later stopped Chinese immigration, and this humiliating treatment was greatly resented by the Chinese people, who boycotted American goods. But all this is a long story which brings us into the twentieth century. We need not go into it.

  The Taiping Rebellion had hardly been crushed when another revolt broke out against the Manchus. This was not in China proper, but in the far west, in Turkestan, the centre of Asia. This was largely inhabited by Muslims; and the Muslim tribes, under a leader named Yakub Beg, rose in 1863 and drove out the Chinese authorities. This local revolt has interest for us for two reasons. Russia tried to take advantage of it by seizing Chinese territory. This, of course, was a well-established European manoeuvre whenever China was in difficulties. But, to every one’s surprise, China refused to agree, and ultimately made Russia disgorge. This was due to an extraordinary campaign by the Chinese General Tso Tsung-tang in Central Asia against Yakub Beg. This general took matters in a most leisurely fashion. He marched slowly, allowing year after year to pass by before he reached the rebels. Twice he actually halted his army long enough to plant and reap a crop of grain to provide for its use! The problem of providing food supplies for an army is always a difficult one, and this must have been formidable when the Gobi desert had to be crossed. So General Tso solved it in a novel way. He then defeated Yakub Beg and put an end to the rebellion. His campaign in Kashgar and Turfan and Yarkand, etc., is said, from a military point of view, to have been a wonderful one.

  Having settled satisfactorily with Russia in Central Asia, the Chinese Government soon had trouble in another part of their wide-flung but disintegrating empire. This was in Annam, which was a vassal State of China. The French had designs on it, and there was fighting between China and France. Again, to every one’s surprise, China did rather well, and was not cowed down by France. There was a satisfactory treaty in 1885.

  The imperialist Powers were sufficiently impressed by these new signs of strength in China. It seemed as if she were recovering from her weakness of 1860 and before. There was talk of reform, and many people thought that she had turned the corner. It was because of this that England, when annexing Burma in 1886, promised to send every ten years the customary tribute to China.

  But China was far from having turned the corner yet. There was still a great deal of humiliation and suffering and disruption in store for her. What was wrong with her was not merely the weakness of the army or navy, but something which went far deeper. Her whole social and economic structure was going to pieces. As I have told you already, it was in a bad way early in the nineteenth century when many secret societies were formed against the Manchus. Foreign trade and the effects of contact with industrialized countries made matters worse. The appearance of strength which came over China after 1860 had little reality behind it. There were some local reforms by energetic officials here and there, especially by Li Hung Chang. But these could not touch the roots of the problem or cure the disease which enfeebled China.

  The chief reason for the outward showing of strength by China during these years was the presence at the head of affairs of a strong ruler. This was a remarkable woman, the Empress Dowager Tzu Hsi. She was only twenty-six when power came into her hands, as the nominal Emperor was her infant son. For forty-seven years she ruled China with vigour. She chose efficient officials and impressed them with some part of her own vigour. It was largely due to this and to her that China made a braver show of strength than she had done for many a year.

  But meanwhile, across the narrow seas, Japan was performing wonders and changing out of all recognition. To Japan, therefore, we must now go.

  116

  Japan Rushes Ahead

  December 27, 1932

  It is long since I wrote to you about Japan. Over five months ago I told you (in letter 81) of the strange way in which this country shut herself up in the seventeenth century. From 1641, for over 200 years, the people of Japan lived cut off from the rest of the world. These 200 years saw great changes in Europe and Asia and America, and even in Africa. Of some of the stirring events that took place during this period I have already told you. But no news of them reached this secluded nation; no breath from outside came to disturb the old-world feudal air of Japan. Almost it seemed as if the march of time and change had been stayed, and the mid-seventeenth century held captive. For though time rolled on, the picture seemed to remain the same. It was feudal Japan, with the landowning class in power. The Emperor had little power; the real ruler was the Shogun, the head of a great clan. Like the Kshattriyas in India, there was a warrior class called the Samurai. The feudal lords and the Samurai were the ruling class. Often different lords and clans quarrelled with each other. But all of them joined in oppressing and exploiting the peasantry and all others.

  Still, Japan had peace. After the long civil wars which had exhausted the country this peace was very welcome. Some of the great warring nobles—the Daimyos—were suppressed. Slowly Japan began to recover from the ravages of civil war. People’s minds turned more to industry and art and literature and religion. Christianity had been suppressed; Buddhism revived, and later Shinto, which is a typical Japanese worship of ancestors. Confucius, the sage of China, became the ideal to be looked up to in matters of social behaviour and morals. Art flourished in the circles of the Court and the nobility. In some ways the picture was similar to that of the Middle Ages of Europe.

  But it is not so easy to keep out change, and though outside contacts were stopped, inside Japan itself change worked, though more slowly than it might otherwise have done. As in other countries, the feudal order moved towards economic collapse. Discontent grew, and the Shogun, being at the head of affairs, became the target for this. The growth of Shinto-worship made people look more to the Emperor, who was supposed to
be the direct descendant of the Sun. Thus a spirit of nationalism grew out of the prevailing discontents, and this spirit, based as it was on an economic breakdown, would have inevitably led to a change and the opening of Japan to the world.

  Many attempts had been made by foreign Powers to open up Japan, but they had all failed. About the middle of the nineteenth century the United States of America became especially interested in this. They had just spread out to the west in California, and San Francisco was becoming an important port. The newly opened trade with China was inviting, but the journey across the Pacific was a long one. So they wanted to call at a Japanese port to break this long journey and take supplies. This was the reason for America’s repeated attempts to open up Japan.

  In 1853 an American squadron came to Japan with a letter from the American President. These were the first steamships seen in Japan. A year later the Shogun agreed to open two ports. The British, Russians and Dutch, learning of this, came soon after and also made similar treaties with the Shogun. So Japan was open again to the world after 213 years.

  But there was trouble ahead. The Shogun had posed as the Emperor before the foreign Powers. He was no longer popular, and a great agitation rose against him and his foreign treaties. Some foreigners were also killed, and this resulted in a naval attack by the foreign Powers. The position became more and more difficult, and ultimately the Shogun was prevailed upon to resign his office in 1867. Thus ended the Tokugawa Shogunate which, you may or may not remember, began with lyeyasu in 1603. Not only that, but the whole system of the Shogunate, which had lasted for nearly 700 years came to an end.