How China Rose From the Ashes The 100 Year Rebuild After the Opium Wars

Описание: "How did China recover from the Opium Wars and 110 years of foreign domination? We trace the exact economic strategies that rebuilt an empire—and why they still shape global politics today."

In 1840, Britain forced China into the opium trade, fracturing its economy and independence for over a century. Yet between 1842 and 1949, China executed one of history's most deliberate economic reconstructions. In this video, we examine the strategies, setbacks, and pivotal moments that allowed a humiliated empire to rebuild—and why understanding this history is essential to understanding modern China's economic and geopolitical strategy.

What You'll Learn:

How the Opium Wars destroyed China's self-sufficient economy and opened it to unequal trade
The Self-Strengthening Movement's attempt to absorb Western technology (1860–1900)
Why the Republican era (1911–1937) saw China's first wave of indigenous industrial capitalism
How wartime mobilization (1937–1949) decentralized China's economy and laid the foundation for later growth
Why modern China's emphasis on technological self-sufficiency and state-directed investment is rooted in 19th-century trauma
The connection between historical humiliation and contemporary geopolitical behavior
Sources Used:

Fairbank & Goldman, China: A New History (2006)
Pomeranz, The Great Divergence (2000)
Feuerwerker, The Chinese Economy 1912–1949 (1968)
NBER Working Paper w29404: "The Economic Consequences of the Opium War"
Maddison Project Database (Historical GDP estimates)
Spence, The Search for Modern China (1990)
Asia Pacific Curriculum: "The Opium Wars in China"
U.S. State Department History: "The Opium War and the Treaty of Wangxia" (1830–1860)
ScienceDirect Topics: "Opium Wars Overview"
Huang, "China's Struggle for Naval Development, 1839–1937" (Academic Journal)
Eastman, Seeds of Destruction: Nationalist China in War and Revolution 1937–1949 (1974)