Abstract
In the nineteenth century, an expansionist ideology led the industrial nations to build colonial empires throughout the world. During this century, China was confronted by these imperialist powers. They aimed to exercise their domination on the Middle Kingdom. In the Marxist thought, China in the late Qing has often been described as a semi-colony. Thus, the topic of discussion refers to what extent the description of China, in the nineteenth century, as a semi-colony can be justified. China had to reluctantly start facing the modern world in 1840 with the First Opium War that consequently led to signing the first unequal Treaty of Nanjing in 1842. Less than a hundred years later, the Qing Dynasty collapsed in the 1911 Revolution. Meanwhile, the country had endured strong pressures by the imperialist powers: starting with Great Britain, France, the United states of America, Russia and later Japan and Germany, to highlight a few. We will also discuss the manifestations and the limits of foreign domination over China?
