The 500 year story of Wave 4: Decades of Disasters

The 500 period that started around 1370 and ended at about 1900 was one full of dismal events for china. The main theme during this period was one decades of disaster, around every ten years a tragedy occurred in China. One of the earliest events, and maybe the most disastrous, was the introduction of Christianity. Christianity was brought to China by the many Western explorers and missionaries that were traveling the seas at the time. At first the missionaries and Confucians got along, as shown in the relationship between Matteo Ricci and the Ming Court. But the relations soon dissolved and the Western Christians wanted the Chinese Christians to stop practicing their beliefs and so on. This led to the Rites Controversy, the first of the disasters. This downfall in the relationship between the West and China indirectly led to many other catastrophes such as the Opium wars and Taiping Rebellion. The Taiping Rebellion was another event in Chinese history where Religious strife led to conflict. The leader of this rebellion, Hong Xiuquan, thought he was the brother of Jesus and needed to purge China of its corruption. His revolution didn't succeed but it did result in needless deaths. There was a constant struggle between Religions throughout this 500 year period. Another important theme that occured during this dynasty was that of political strife. There was major disagreement between the governments of Great Britain and China. The first major political strife was the first opium war which opened China's doors to oncoming calamities such as the second opium war and the Boxer Rebellion. Event after terrible event has made this time period for China one of great struggle. I believe the main theme, or trend was that of political and religious strife with foreigners.