Yuan Dynasty (1271 - 1368) And Shanghai (1900-1950)

YUAN DYNASTY (1271 - 1368) AND SHANGHAI (1900-1950) [Your Name] [Course No.] [Professor] UNIVERSITY 30th APRIL 2018 TABLE OF CONTENT TOC \o "1-3" \u YUAN DYNASTY 1272-1368 AND SHANGHAI 1900-1950 PAGEREF _Toc512963832 \h 3 Introduction PAGEREF _Toc512963833 \h 3 Summary and Background History PAGEREF _Toc512963834 \h 3 Yuan Expansion: A Botched Invasion Attempt of Japan PAGEREF _Toc512963835 \h 6 Religion: The Rise and Spread of Islam PAGEREF _Toc512963836 \h 7 The Establishment of the Class Structure PAGEREF _Toc512963837 \h 9 Cultural Accomplishment under Kublai Khan PAGEREF _Toc512963838 \h 10 The Disintegration and Fall of Yuan Dynasty PAGEREF _Toc512963839 \h 11 Shanghai 1900-1950 PAGEREF _Toc512963840 \h 11 Overview of events in Shanghai 1900-1950 PAGEREF _Toc512963841 \h 11 The Shanghai International Settlement PAGEREF _Toc512963842 \h 12 The Economy, Culture and Trade PAGEREF _Toc512963843 \h 14 Weather and Climate PAGEREF _Toc512963844 \h 15 References PAGEREF _Toc512963845 \h 16 APPENDICES PAGEREF _Toc512963846 \h 19 Appendix 1: A view of Shanghai’s Bund in 1920s (Source: ABCNews) PAGEREF _Toc512963847 \h 19 Appendix 2: Map of Yuan (Mongol) Dynasty PAGEREF _Toc512963848 \h 20 YUAN DYNASTY 1272-1368 AND SHANGHAI 1900-1950 Introduction The Yuan Dynasty emerged from Mongol Dynasty that ruled the northern part of China that is the present day Mongolia for centuries. However, it was renamed in 1271 when Kublai Khan adopted a Chinese model of administration based on a centralized bureaucratic government, decentralized political setup and a centralized tax regime (Rossabi, 1988). Kublai Khan, the Yuan founding emperor constructed the Grand Canal and improved public infrastructure such as roads and established an efficient postal system. The Yuan dynasty further played a pivotal role in the Chinese cultural transformation that led to the formation and subsequent adoption of the novel as an important form of literary art (Mote, 1999). The re-unification of China under Kublai Khan enhanced foreign trade thus leading to economic stability. This research paper sets out to explore two primordial Chinese dynasties namely the Yuan (1271 - 1368) and Shanghai (1900-1950) dynasties. Summary and Background History Yuan dynasty was founded by Kublai Khan in 1272AD and lasted till 1368AD (Rossabi, 1994). It is documented as the Chinese dynasty with the shortest history. Khan was the founding emperor who also doubled as the head of Mongolian Borijin clan. Yuan dynasty came after the Song dynasty while its fall in 1368 paved way for the Ming Dynasty. The dynasty was largely confined towards Northern China, and expanded to cover the rest of China in 1271 (Morgan, 2007). The capital city for Yuan dynasty was Khanbaliq (present day Beijing). The official languages spoken were Mongolian and Chinese while the predominant religion was Buddhismeven though other religions such as Confucianism, Roman Catholic, Judaism, Islam and several other Chinese traditional religions existed (Allsen, 2001). The dynasty was a monarchy and was headed by an emperor who was the supreme ruler. Kublai Khan was the first emperor, and reigned from 1260-1294AD. He was succeeded by ToghonTemur who ruled the dynasty from 1333-1368AD. The dynasty was born out of the Mongol empire that was founded by Genghis Khan in 1206AD, even though it was officially declared in 1271 (Hsiao,1994). The formation of Yuan Dynasty was preceded by successive wars. These wars includes the Battle of Xianyang which lasted from 1268-1273AD. It was followed by the conquest of the Southern Song in 1276 and later the battle of Yamen and the red rebellion which occurred in 1279 and 1351-1368 respectively (Rossabi, 2012). Two key events preceded the disintegration of the Dynastynamely the decline and subsequent fall of Khanbaliq in 1368 and the creation of the Northern Yuan Dynasty that encompassed the northern Chineseterritory in 1368-1388. The Yuan Dynasty covered an expansive geographical area that was approximately 11,000,000 Km2. The Dynasty had an estimated total population of 77,000,000 in 1290AD which increased to 87, 147,000 toward the end of the Dynasty in 1350AD (Ebrey, 2010). Paper currency was introduce during the reign of Khan and was the most commonly used currency (chao) even though Chinese currency was occasionally used. By 1279, the Dynasty had expanded toward the North thus encompassing the whole of china. Khan, the founder, controlled and reigned over the greater Chinese territory including the present-day Mongolia (Allsen, 2001). Figure 1 below shows the map of the Yuan dynasty. Figure 1: Map of Yuan Dynasty The Yuan Dynasty stands out as the first Chinese Dynasty to ever reign over the entire Chinese territory. However, Khan’sreign over China was short-lived as they were deposed and pushed further northwardsto their original Mongolian empire from where they reigned over the Northern Yuan Dynasty (Allsen, 1994). The Mongolian language was the defacto language, even though other native Chinese languages were spoken as well. The Yuan dynasty became the first dynasty to pursue social, economic and political transformation. In addition, Kublai transformed the Chinesegeographical terrainto suit the nomadic lifestyle of the native Mongolians. The Khans relied on a hybrid governance model that integrated the Chinese culture, customs and the nomadic lifestyle of the native Mongolians (Yeh, 2008). Dadu(present day Beijing) became the capital city of the Yuan dynasty soon after its declaration by Kublai Khan in 1271. This era also marked an important milestone in the Khan leadership since it’s in 1271 that Kublai Khan officially declared his heavenly mandate thereby ushering in a new dispensation that saw the Dynasty rapidly expand towards Northern China(Xu, 2000). According to Morgan (1982), Kublai Khan’s declaration of his Heavenly Mandate helped link the dynasty to other traditional Chinese dynasties that had preceded his reign. This was an act of divine legitimization of his reign which helped him gain widespread acceptance across China. Xu (2000) suggests that Kublai Khan was the fifth in the lineage of the Great Khan, who reigned over the northern Mongol empire from 1260-1294 during which period China underwent significant social, political, economic and cultural transformation. After founding the Yuan Dynasty, Kublai Khan reigned as the first Yuan emperor until 1294, when he died (Morgan, 1982). Issuance of paper currency was a critical economic milestone as it transformed trade with China and foreign nations. The Yuan Empire is known to be the first government to formerly adopt paper currency in 1273AD (Mote, 1994). Consequently, there was unprecedented growth in trade volume between Yuan Dynasty and the rest of the world thus generating enormous wealth for the Khans. Yuan Expansion: A Botched Invasion Attempt of Japan After his northward conquest, Kublai planned and executed an attempt to invade Japan, then a revered military powerhouse. In 1274AD, he commissioneda battalion of approximately 800-900 armed men in warships to invade Japan even though his planaborted as hundreds of his warships were wrecked and destroyed by powerful storms. The Dynasty suffered a significant blow after the remainder of its warships and troops were destroyed and massacred by the Japanese pirates under the command of Samurai (Yeh, 2008). Kublai played a significant role in the reunification of China. As a fourth generation Mongol emperor, he managed to conquer and reunite China thus becoming the first Mongolian, and non-Chinese to reign over Chinese territory. Six years after the first botched invasion attempt, Kublai made a second invasion attempt in1280AD (Allsen, 1994). This time, he marshaled a massive and powerful force comprising of 900 warships and an additional 3,500 warships carrying over 100,000 Chinese fighters. This invasion attempt, just like the first one, also hit a brick wall. Their invasion was cut short by a protective wall that had been constructed by the Japanese to ward-off the Chinese attack (Mote, 1999).Kublai’s force faced great adversity and destruction meted by a strong typhoon that plundered the entire fleet of 900 warships. The last Japanese invasion attempt in 1281 became the most devastating and costly invasion attempt in the history of the Yuan dynasty (Rossabi, 1988). Kublai’s death in 1294AD dealt a great blow to the Yuan Dynasty that had successfully unified thevastand formerly fragmented Chinese territory. Occasioned by successive defeats on the battlefront and internal wrangles within his leadership, he dies leaving the monarchy without an effective replacement therebysparking massive public corruption in the successive regime (Mote, 1999). Religion: The Rise and Spread of Islam Following the death of Kublai in 1294AD, Buyantu Khan introduces foreign rulers who also doubled as administrators. These rulers were largely Mongols. However, the new emperor could no longer trust his own people thus accepting large numbers of Muslim immigrants who were made rulers and administrators (Rossabi, 1988). This marked the rise of Islam in China. Although the Mongols practiced Shamanism; their religion was overshadowed by Islam which quickly gained popularity among the indigenous populations..Thus Islam gained the status of a minority religion while Buddhism remained the predominant religion. Figure 2: Map of Silk Routes InThe Yuan Dynasty In 1313AD, Buyantu Khan introduced traditional examinations as a strategy of dealing with rampant corruption in public administration (Hsiao,1994). Subsequently, laws were passed as part of the reforms focused at dealing with public corruption. However, his attempt to introduce reforms came late when the dynasty was on the verge of collapsing under weight of corruption. Almost three decades after government reforms, Buyantu faced another critical setback. In 1331AD, a bubonic plague sweeps over the empire ravaging the populations (Allsen, 2001). Popularly referred to as “Black death”, the plague wreaked havoc upon the populations, killing millions of people thereby triggering instability and conflicts within the dynasty. Bubonic plague was followed by disastrous floods in 1344 which killed many people within the empire (Mote, 1999). The havoc caused by frequent floods stirred political conflict, upheaval and dissent which culminated into political instability. These frequent misfortunes and calamities weakened the dynasty, paving way for a great inflation that was exacerbated byreckless printing of currency. Buyantu’s attempt to reverse the runway inflation failed. In 1350 AD, events emanating from the inflation triggered a series of internal uprisings that led to the famous Red Turban’srebellion in 1351 on the basis that the misfortunes that were frequently bedeviling the dynasty was as a result of Buyantus poor leadership and lack of heavenly mandate (Hsiao,1994). The Yuan government crackdown on the Turban rebellion gained short term success, as a series ofclandestineuprisingsemerged thus paving way for the formation of widespread rebellion. Zhu Yuanzhang played a pivotal role in the final rebellion thataimed to overthrow the Khan monarch (Allsen, 2001). He commandeereda revolt against the Mongols and succeeded to replace them with the Han Chinese clan. This rebellion dealt the final blow to the Yuan Dynasty reign in 1368AD, when curtains closed on the Yuan Dynasty, thus marking the end of the reign of the Khan monarch, and the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. After the victory, Zhu’s army captured the then Yuan capital city (Dadu), present day Beijing, forcing the Buyantu Khan to retreat northwards from where he continued to rule as the Mongolian emperor. Zhu takes over the leadership reigns as the first emperor of the Ming dynasty (Rossabi, 1988). The Establishment of the Class Structure The Yuan dynasty comprised of class structures which placed the Genghis Khan, the ruling clan, at the apex of the class hierarchy (Hsiao, 1994). They were followed by the ruling Mongols and the Muslims who had been brought in by Kublai Khan to lend governance and administrative help. Muslims were in the same class as other fore...