Changes

Siam's final tribute mission to China took place in [[1853]].

Siam's final tribute mission to China took place in [[1853]].

The Taiping Rebellion ended in 1864, and the Imperial Court set in motion the [[Tongzhi Restoration]], a series of reforms aimed at slowing or reversing the dynasty's decline.

The Taiping Rebellion ended in 1864, and the Imperial Court set in motion the [[Tongzhi Restoration]], a series of reforms aimed at slowing or reversing the dynasty's decline. While the expansion of foreign presence and influence in China at this time was widely seen in a negative light, the end of the Taiping Rebellion brought at least a respite from the war and chaos of previous decades, and is said to have been encouraging enough in that alone to warrant some calling the period a "revival" or "restoration."<ref>Wm. Theodore de Bary and Wing-sit Chan, ''Sources of Chinese Tradition'', vol 2, Columbia University Press (1964), 43.</ref>

Japan's emergence into the world of modern nation-states began to have significant impacts on China's foreign relations as early as the 1870s. The [[1876]] [[Treaty of Ganghwa]], concluded between [[Meiji period]] Japan and [[Joseon Dynasty]] Korea, acknowledged Korea as an independent nation-state, creating difficulties for China, which still saw Korea as a tributary state. Disputes between China and Japan over claims to Ryûkyû and Taiwan lasted throughout much of the 1870s, finally culminating in the Japanese [[Ryukyu Shobun|abolition of the Ryûkyû Kingdom]] and annexation of its territory in [[1879]]. Japan would then gain control of Taiwan in [[1895]], in the [[Treaty of Shimonoseki]] which ended the Sino-Japanese War. In addition to Taiwan, the Japanese exacted other considerable indemnities from the Chinese; Japan also gained control of the [[Liaodong peninsula]] in northeastern China, though Japan was forced to return the peninsula after Russia, France, and Germany objected (an incident known as the [[Triple Intervention]]). China was also obligated to pay sizable monetary reparations to the Japanese government.

Japan's emergence into the world of modern nation-states began to have significant impacts on China's foreign relations as early as the 1870s. The [[1876]] [[Treaty of Ganghwa]], concluded between [[Meiji period]] Japan and [[Joseon Dynasty]] Korea, acknowledged Korea as an independent nation-state, creating difficulties for China, which still saw Korea as a tributary state. Disputes between China and Japan over claims to Ryûkyû and Taiwan lasted throughout much of the 1870s, finally culminating in the Japanese [[Ryukyu Shobun|abolition of the Ryûkyû Kingdom]] and annexation of its territory in [[1879]]. Japan would then gain control of Taiwan in [[1895]], in the [[Treaty of Shimonoseki]] which ended the Sino-Japanese War. In addition to Taiwan, the Japanese exacted other considerable indemnities from the Chinese; Japan also gained control of the [[Liaodong peninsula]] in northeastern China, though Japan was forced to return the peninsula after Russia, France, and Germany objected (an incident known as the [[Triple Intervention]]). China was also obligated to pay sizable monetary reparations to the Japanese government.