Chinese Meiji (continued)

This alternative history explores the possibilities of China rapidly industrializing, modernizing, and militarizing in the beginning of the 19th century as the Japanese had done during the Meiji Restoration.

The result, as presented in this alternate history universe, would have been a radically different world order during the 20th century.

The Late Qing Era (1829-1849)
See Transition Period (1830-1850) for more information.

Early Developments
In the first few years during the reign of Emperor Daoguang (1820-1850) several governmental officials were sent overseas to observe how the Europeans were doing in affairs concerning war. The most influential military observer was Wang Yiwei, who was sent to tour England and France. When he returned in 1836, the Emperor reluctantly agreed to his request to start and train a Western-styled army using hired military advisors from Europe, known as the “Experimental Army,” albeit with very limited funds and hardly any support from the ruling class. Wang went back to Europe and tour Germany, Russia, Netherlands, and Italy to study their battle strategy.

Meanwhile the Emperor appointed governmental official Lin Zexu to try to solve the vexing issue of the British opium trade. When rioting British seamen murdered a Chinese man in July 1839, the ensuing debate over extraterritoriality escalated tensions and eventually erupted into to the Opium War. During the beginning phases of the war, the traditional Qing military were repeatedly defeated by the superior British troops. A turning point occurred when Emperor Daoguang decided to mobilize the yet-untested Experimental Army. Though not fully completed and lacking a competent officer corps, the Experimental Army won two Pyrrhic victories and forced the British into a stalemate. By the Treaty of Peking, the British recognized Chinese jurisdiction and agreed to respect the ban on opium, and in exchange, the Chinese greatly modified the Canton trading system to make it less restrictive, allowing trading in nearly all major port cities.

The Chinese experience with the war led them to be disillusioned with the traditional, hereditary Qing military. The Experimental Army proved far more effective in battle than the Bannermen and Green Standards, but it had been destroyed during the course of the fighting. Wang Yiwei and military officials quickly set about restructuring the Chinese military, making drastic reforms such as non-ethnically segregated conscript army under direct control of the Board of War, Western-style academies in which to train officers for the army, abolishing the Bannermen, and hiring military advisors from Europe.

Revolution
Growing Anti-Manchu sentiment had led to the 1848 Revolution in China, inspired by the ones happening all over Europe and led by Zhang Luoxing. The movement quickly gained momentum all over the countryside, and deposed the Qing government. The rebels had rallied behind Zhu Chongqing who claimed descent from of the Ming Dynasty rulers, and installed him as the new Yonghe Emperor of the Second Ming Dynasty. The new national government was a constitutional monarchy.

The Yonghe Era
See Second Ming Expansion and Imperialism (1850-1914) for more information.

Yonghe China was ruled by a small cadre of top ministers who had a far-reaching program to modernize the country. European nations greatly benefited from the less restrictive trade provisions in the 1841 Treaty of Peking, and the volume of trade between China and the West increased dramatically. Throughout this period the Ming government tried to maintain fair relations with European nations and the United States.

In 1854, China declared war on Russia and joined the Allied side of the Crimean War. In China, the war was called the “Walk-in War” because the Chinese armies basically “walked in” and did very little fighting. By the Treaty of Paris, signed on March 12, 1856, Russia recognized the validity of the Treaty of Nerchinsk, while China agreed to return all territories north of the Outer Xing'an (Stanovoy) Mountains to Russia, although the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky would remain as a major WW2 naval base to Japan.

In 1861, Japanese lords overthrew the Tokugawa Shogunate and the emerging Empire of Japan maintained close ties with China, partially due to the cotton trade. The economic relationship was formalized by the 1875 Oriental System, and a political alliance was achieved in 1889. Another nation that shared a close relationship with China was Britain which formed a mutual defense treaty against Russia in 1894.

Domestically, internal unrest, government focus on domestic development, and the people’s generally anti-imperialistic outlook prevented China from vigorously pursuing a global empire. Throughout the Yonghe period, however, China did on several occasions exert its influence locally. The 1881 Treaty of Hanoi signed with France in the aftermath of the Nam Đình Incident granted China a sphere of influence in northern Vietnam (Tonkin). In 1893, China leased from Siam a section of the Ithmus of Kra and completed the Malay Canal there in 1907after Britain got control of Thailand, with the exclusive control of shipping through it. The nations of China, Japan, and Britain controlled the canal.

Xinhai Revolution Era (1889-1911)
See Revolutionary China (1889-1911) for more information.

The Xinhai Revolution began with the Wuchang Uprising in October 1889. Revolutionaries took control of Hubei province, and one by one, provinces in China proper seceded from the Qing Empire, forcing the Qing to retreat back into Manchuria as a rump state called the Northern Qing. Chaos continued in China proper as revolutionaries worked to establish a republic.

Anti-Manchu Backlash (1889-1905)
Anti-Manchu backlash was swift following the fall of the Qing dynasty. Manchu quarters in cities were raided and there were countless massacres. The entire Manchu and Mongol population of Beijing was forced to flee, dropping from more than half of the city's population to under one percent.

National Republican Era (1911-1931)
See National Republican China (1911-1931) for more information.

In October 1911, the hawkish government in China fell, and was replaced by the National Republican government led by Sun Zhongshan (Sun Yat-sen). The monarchy was abolished. When China stabilized, the National Republican party held dominance in the government for two decades until the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 led to a coup d’état. During this period, China experienced social unrest, runaway inflation, economic depression, and massive corruption.

Annexation of Inner Manchuria (1912)
By 1911, the rump state of the Northern Qing began to collapse due to strains stemming from foreign influence (notably Russian and Japanese). A plague outbreak in Manchuria (known as the Manchurian Plague) swept through the region from 1910 to 1911, finally causing the complete collapse of the state and the last emperor there was exiled. A period of chaos followed, and the National Republican government took control and it was annexed into China. The region remained under Chinese control until the Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931.

World War I (1914-1918)
See World War I for more information.

A complex web of alliances, colonial competition, and ethnic and nationalistic rivalries are all contributing causes to the outbreak of WW1. When the global conflict erupted in August 1914, it pitted the Central Powers against the Entente Powers. The Western Front became a stalemate as it was static in trench warfare for several years. Italy, though originally a member of the Triple Alliance, remained neutral until the Entente powers promised to give it some of Austria-Hungary's territories, which convinced it to join the Entente Powers.

While the European theater was raging, Britain and France also shifted to Africa, where the Germans and the British poured in armies to fight over the colonies.

In November 1917, Russia's tsarist government was overthrown by communist revolutionaries, becoming the Soviet Union, and the country was pulled out of the war.

France, Britain, Italy, Japan and the USA continued to fight on. In November 1918, Germany signed an armistice with France, Britain and the United States, which the Chinese viewed as peace.

China, which adopted a more conciliatory tone to its enemies, agreed to an armistice and a peace based on Wilson’s Sixteen Points. In the negotiations at Paris, diplomats from Europe and the United States redrew the world.

Military dictatorship (1931-1953)
See Military dictatorship (1931-1953) for more information

In April 1931, General Chiang Kai-shek, buoyed by mass public support, led a coup d’état against the National Republican government. In a matter of weeks, he eliminated opposition and consolidated his power. The military dictatorship he established promised to restore China’s greatness and redeem its image in the world.

Chiang made recovery from China’s economic downturn a top national priority. Two months after taking power, he implemented currency reform and overhauled the national banking system. The government financed large public works projects which mainly focused on improving infrastructure.

Federal Republic (1953-present)
As an aging Chiang Kai-Shek retired from public life, China exploded in a frenzy of democratization and liberalization. An aging Goddard resigned from his post and wrote his memoirs, A Rocket to China, detailing his life in China before he returned to the United States.

Alliance with the USA
Eisenhower famously went to Nanjing to discuss with President Jiang Sheqin a trade agreement in 1954. They both agreed to the treaty. They were also afraid of Communism (now taking root in Latin America and India, as well as Africa) spreading, so Secretary of State Richard Nixon established the policy of "containment," which meant isolating the Communist countries, as well as giving aid to the non-communist countries that feel under threat from Communism. A third faction began to rise in this Cold War, with Fascist Italy (Mussolini still gets in power ATL) and DNVP Germany founding the "European Community".