-
1800
Europeans had been in contact with China for more than two hundred years -
1853
The rebels seized Nanjing, the second largest city of the empire, and massacred 25,000 men, women, and children. The revolt continued for 10 more years but gradually began to fall apart. -
1858
As a result of the Treaty of Tianjin in 1858, the Chinese agreed to legalize the opium trade and open new ports to foreign trade. -
1863
The SatCho alliance (from Satsuma-Choshu) forced the shogun to promise to end relations with the West. -
1868
In 1868, the new leaders signed a Charter Oath, in which they promised to create a new legislative assembly within the framework of continued imperial rule. -
1889
Traditional values were also given a firm legal basis in the 1889 constitution, which lim- ited the right to vote to men. -
1904
In 1904, Japan launched a surprise attack on the Russian naval base at Port Arthur, which Russia had taken from China in 1898. -
1905
A convention in Tokyo, Sun united radical groups from across China and formed the Revolutionary Alliance -
1907
President Theodore Roosevelt made a “gentlemen’s agreement” with Japan that essentially stopped Japanese immigration to the United States. -
1910
In 1910, Japan annexed Korea outright.
