Business history Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Business history - Essay Example By the time of the first Sino- Japanese war in 1894-1895, her position was greatly weakened. It was not surprising that Japan won the war, having built their strength during the Meiji restoration. The loss to the Japanese marked the shift in the dominating power in Europe and the end of the beginning for the Qinq dynasty. The loss of the war was an indicator of the weaknesses within the dynasty and foreshadowed the Boxer rebellion, the revolution of 1911 and the downfall of the Qing dynasty in 1912 that would make way for the later rise of communism (Akimova 1971). By 1925, the population of china was around 450 million people, most of whom got their livelihood from agriculture. There was a great unevenness in the distribution of the land. More than half the national population was completely landless, working as laborers for the land owners who were made up of only roughly 20 percent of the population. Through out Chinese history, the imperial powers, knowing too well on what side their bread is buttered, have had a stringent control on the economy of the country. Other than land, the imperial powers had control over more than half of china’s biggest industry, textile production together with a third of the railways system whether directly or indirectly. The imperialists also monopolized the shipping on Chinese waters which accounted for 80% of her foreign trade (Blackwell, 2008). Why the revolts by the peasants were always thwarted is because they could not master the forces needed to fight against the imperial powers. This was another ploy by the imperialists to guarantee that there was no real threat because they knew the forces raised by the peasants were puny and could be easily crushed (Blackwell, 2008). Imperial china was slow to pick up what is termed as the capitalist revolution, where individuals work by themselves, to earn their own profit. It was detrimental for china to choose the communist