China and the Treaty of Versailles

IB HL HistoryWhy were Chinese hopes so bitterly disappointed by

the Treaty of Versailles?LO: To explain why the results of the ToV negotiations

led to a rise in Nationalist sentiment in China

Starter: What is the historical connection

between these two pictures?

Background

•Prewar Germany had control of Shandong province

•China joined WW1 on the side of the allies

•So did Japan who had conquered Shandong from Germany

•Chinese troops did not take part

•Large numbers of Chinese labourers were sent to France to help the war effort

Competing Demands

• Britain's promises to China in 1914 to restore Shandong to it when Germany was defeated

• The demands of Japan, and whether or not Japan's war-time treaties with China were of a voluntary character eg: Duan Qirui’s Sino-Japanese military alliance of 1918 was effectively an ‘unequal treaty’

• Britain's promises to Japan in 1917 to support its case at the Peace Conference

• Warlord era: The lack of an effective Chinese government

• China's declaration of war on Germany in 1917 and its claim to be treated as one of the victorious allies

• The insistence of US President Wilson on a peace settlement in accord with his ideals e.g.: Self-determination.

The Conference•Wilson needs to keep Japan in his plans

for the League of Nations

•Japan gets Shandong

•Chinese delegation refuse to sign the Treaty of Versailles

•Immediate violent reactions from Chinese immigrants in Paris are forewarnings of what is to come

The Cliffhanger

•“When news of the Paris decision reached Peking, Chinese faith in Wilson and the tenets of his idealism were shattered. Enraged by what they saw as Western betrayal, students vowed to defend Shantung by blood”

-I.C.Y. Hsu “Modern China”

Thinking Thematically

• Nationalism

• Foreign encroachment

• Japanese aggression

• North v South Split in China

• Modernism

• Lack of democratic traditions in China

• Unitary state/Disunity

• Racial inequality

• Disenchantment with the West

• What examples of each of these can you find?

TOK Link

•This course charts the often traumatic emergence of traditional China coping with ‘Western’ modernity.

•How do we ‘know' if an epoch has changed?

•Are we in the middle of a 21st Century change now to post post modernity? Hyper modernity?