The Fall and Rise of China
(published by The Great Courses)
This course traces China’s tumultuous 200 year journey from a collapsing 19th century empire to the aspiring 21st century superpower we know today. In 48 lectures, award winning Professor Richard Baum of the University of California, takes us from the decline and fall of the Qing dynasty under the dual stresses of increasing foreign penetration and rising domestic disorder, through the violent and traumatic years of radical revolutionary Maoism, until China rises phoenix like from the ashes to become a global economic powerhouse.
The first lecture we will see today focuses on the Opium Wars. During the early 1800s, British and other foreign traders increasingly flouted Chinese law by smuggling larger and larger quantities of opium into China. The first Opium War in 1841-42 clearly demonstrated the superiority of western arms and encouraged the western forces to extract territorial, trade and financial concessions from China. The second Opium War 1856-60 resulted in the sacking of the Summer Palace in Beijing.
The second lecture covers the same time period but focuses on internal rebellions rather than external aggression. Peasant rebellions broke out in several areas of China as tens of millions of farmers were driven into debt through heavy taxation and devastating floods. At the height of the Taiping Rebellion, rebel armies controlled seven provinces and an estimated 20 million people, primarily civilians were killed. The rebels were defeated in 1864 but the combination of external aggression and internal rebellion fatally weakened the Qing dynasty’s hold on power.
About the Professor
Dr Richard Baum is Distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Los Angles, where he specialises in modern Chinese politics and foreign relations. He earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley. Professor Baum has lived and lectured extensively throughout China and Asia and has served as a visiting professor at a number of leading universities including Peking University, Meiji Gakuin University, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He has been a consultant to the White House, the United Nations, and the Rand Corporation and a commentator on Chinese and East Asian affairs for the BBC World Service, CNN International. and National Public Radio.