Failure: The Qing Dynasty, 1891–1900: Reform, War, and Xenophobia

In the final decade of the nineteenth century, how did the late Qing dynasty move step by step toward failure?

Internal reforms, foreign wars, clashes of ideas, diplomatic pressure...

A history of the late Qing from a global perspective.

In the late nineteenth century, the Qing Empire tried to meet its crises with reforms imposed from above, but one attempt after another failed, culminating at the century’s end in the Boxer Movement, a nationwide mobilization.

At the same time, the balance of power in East Asia was completely transformed. China came under direct pressure from Japan and Russia, while Western powers reassessed their relations with China in the wake of the Qing court’s repeated failures and the rising tide of anti-foreign sentiment.

Reformers either fled overseas or plotted the next round of reforms, while revolutionaries moved decisively to center stage.

Drawing on the perspective of global history, Li Li retells the story of modern China through a sweeping cast of perspectives: the Qing imperial family, high officials, gentry, reformers, revolutionaries, and Boxers, as well as European emperors, diplomats, churches, missionaries, soldiers, and journalists. The book portrays a turbulent China around the First Sino-Japanese War in its global context, revealing the wars, reforms, and failures of the final decade of the nineteenth century.