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The Scramble for China: Foreign Devils in the Qing Empire, 1832-1914 - Couverture rigide

Bickers, Robert

 
9780713997491: The Scramble for China: Foreign Devils in the Qing Empire, 1832-1914
Couverture rigide
ISBN 10 : 0713997494 ISBN 13 : 9780713997491
Editeur : Allen Lane, 2011

Synopsis

In the early 19th century China remained almost untouched by Britain and other European powers - ferocious laws forbade all trade with the West outside one tiny area of Canton. Anyone teaching a European to speak Chinese was executed. But as new technology began to unbalance the relationship, foreigners gathered like wolves around the weakening Qing Empire. Would the Chinese suffer the fate of much of the rest of the world, carved into pieces by the Europeans? Or could they adapt rapidly enough to maintain their independence? Humiliated by military disaster, racked by rebellions that cost millions of lives and ultimately invaded during the Boxer Rebellion by thousands of foreign soldiers, it looked as though the colonial Scramble for Africa was about to be followed by the Scramble for China.

This extraordinary new book tells this epic story both from the European (mainly British) point of view and the Chinese. The degradation of China in this period is crucially important to understanding China today, whose government and people are steeped in stories of this terrible time and never wish to appear weak again. The Scramble for China is both highly original and brilliantly written - it reimagines these encounters between two equally arrogant and scornful civilizations, whether from the point of view of a Chinese governor or a British soldier. It is an epic of squalor, romance, brutality and exoticism, and it changed the world.

Les informations fournies dans la section « Synopsis » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

À propos de l'auteur

Robert Bickers is the author of the highly-acclaimed EMPIRE MADE ME. He has written extensively on Chinese history and is currently Professor of History at the University of Bristol. To write THE SCRAMBLE FOR CHINA he has travelled extensively, visiting many of the haunting sites scattered across China that feature in the book.

Les informations fournies dans la section « A propos du livre » peuvent faire référence à une autre édition de ce titre.

Éditeur
Allen Lane
Date d'édition
2011
Langue
anglais
ISBN 10 
0713997494
ISBN 13 
9780713997491
Reliure
Relié
Nombre de pages
512
Coordonnées du fabricant
non disponible
Personne responsable
non disponible