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MICHAEL LYNCH
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ISBN 978 1471839184

Contents
CHAPTER 1 China 1839-60 1

1 The nature of Manchu rule 1
2 The Opium Wars 8
3 Rebellions and the Qing response to them 17
CHAPTER 2 The opening of China to foreigners 1860-1901 22

1 Missionaries in China 22
2 The self-strengthening movement 26
3 The Sino-Japanese War 1894-5 32
4 The Boxer Uprising 1898-1900 34
CHAPTER 3 Defeat and revolution 1901-25 47

1 The downfall of the Manchu dynasty 1901-11 48
2 Key debate 55
3 The rule of Yuan Shikai 1912-16 56
4 Warlord China 61
5 The 4 May Movement 1919-27 63
6 The Nationalists (GMD) under Sun Yatsen 1912-25 67
7 The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) 69
CHAPTER 4 Nationalists and Communists 1924-45 73

1 The GMD-CCP United Front 1924-7 73
2 The Communists under Mao Zedong 81
3 The Guomindang under JiangJieshi (Chiang Kaishek) 89
CHAPTER 5 The Japanese threat and Communist takeover 1931-49 101

1 TheJapanese occupation of China 1931-7 102
4 The Communist takeover 1945-9 121
CHAPTER 6 China and the wider world 1949-76 129

1 The PRC's international position and regional issues 130
2 The PRC's relations with the USA 131
3 The PRC's relations with the Soviet Union 136
4 The impact of the Cultural Revolution on external affairs 149
CHAPTER 7 Government, economy and society under Mao after 1949 154
1 Government of China under Mao after 1949 154
2 Key debate 161
3 The economy: industry 163
4 The economy: agriculture 172
5 Social change under Mao 178
v
Contents
CHAPTER S The Cultural Revolution 1966-76 187

1 Origins: the power struggle 1962- 6 188
2 The course of the Cultural Revolution 195
3 The Red Guards 202
4 The PLA and the last stage of the Cultural Revolution 208
5 The effects of the Cultural Revolution 215
6 Key debate 223
CHAPTER 9 Deng Xiaoping 228

1 The power struggle after Mao's death 228
2 Economic reform: Deng's Four Modernisations 234
3 Political repression and the pro-democracy movement 1979-89 241
e:MQd;lial China and the wider world 1978-97 252

1 China as a regional power in Asia 252
2 Reconciliation with old enemies 257
3 The PRC and Hong Kong 260
4 China's membership of international organisations 264
CHAPTER 11 Concluding survey 271

1 The government and rulers of China 1839-1997 271
2 The economy and the growth of industry 1839-1997 273
3 Society in China 1839-1997 276
4 China and the wider world 1839-1997 278
5 Ideologies and individuals behind economic growth 1860-1997 280
Study guide 285
Glossary of Chinese names 305
Glossary of terms 306
Further reading 314
Index 317
Dedication
Keith Randell (1943-2002)
The Access to History series was conceived and developed by Keith, who created a series to 'cater for
students as they are, not as we might wish them to be'. He leaves a living legacy of a series that for over
20 years has provided a trusted, stimulating and well-loved accompaniment to post-16 study. Our aim
with these new editions is to continue to offer students the best possible support for their studies.
vi
China 1839-60
In 1839, China was an antique empire ruled by the Manchu dynasty. Politically and socially
conservative, it considered itself superior to all other nations. Yet within 30 years it had
been forced by stronger Western powers to surrender much of its independence and key
parts of its territory to them. These developments and the shock they caused to the
Chinese are the subject of this chapter, which studies the material under the following
headings:
* The nature of Manchu rule
* The Opium Wars
* Rebellions and the Qing response to them
Key dates
2200sc Beginning of China's recorded 1841 Convention of Ch'uan-pi

history
1842 Treaty of Nanjing
551-479sc Life of Confucius
1850 Beginning of Taiping Rebellion
1644 Beginning of Manchu rule of China
1794 McCartney's mission to China 1856-60 Second Opium War
1839-42 First Opium War 1860 Treaty of T ianjin
The nature of Manchu rule

� What were the distinctive characteristics
I
of Manchu China?
�
L----------------------------------------------------------·
KEYTERMS
Recorded history in China dates from around 2200Bc and is customarily
measured by reference to the fifteen imperial dynasties which ruled from Imperial dynasties Rule by
that time until the early twentieth century AD. In 1839, the reigning emperor heredrtary emperors belonging
to a particular house.
was a member of the Manchu house, the last dynasty to rule China before the
overthrow of the imperial system in the revolution of 1911 (see page 48). Manchu Also known as the
Qing, the last imperial dynasty
The Manchu (Qing) dynasty (I 644-191 I).
There was an oddity about the position of the Manchus as emperors of China.
As their name indicates, they came from Manchuria, a large north-eastern
1
China 1839-1997
state that originally lay outside China. Strictly speaking, therefore, the rule of
the Manchu was the imposition of foreign authority over China. It is true that
the Manchu came to absorb so many aspects of Chinese culture that to the
outside observer it seemed that the different peoples were indistinguishable.
Nevertheless, the majority Han Chinese never lost their sense of being subject
to alien rulers, which explains why when Chinese nationalism began to develop
in the nineteenth century it often expressed itself in the form of anti-Manchu
agitation. An interesting example of this was the symbolic cutting off by the
Chinese of their pigtails, the traditional Manchu hairstyle which had been
imposed upon them.
Imperial rule
The emperor was the principal ruler and magistrate, entitled to complete
obedience from his subjects and government officials. The imperial title was
hereditary and claimed an absolute authority. The right to hold such authority
l� KEY FIGURE was based on a fundamental feature of Chinese political and social thinking:
Confucianism, a set of ideas drawn from the teaching of the philosopher
Confucius (551-479ac) Confucius, who lived from 551 to 479sc.
The Latinised name of the
Chinese scholar Kong Fuzi, Confucianism
whose ideas influenced China Confucianism is sometimes loosely defined as a religion, but this is misleading.
for thousands of years and
Confucius was not a religious thinker. It was this world and the people within
continue to shape Chinese
it that mattered. His basic principle was that unless people lived an ordered life,
thinking today.
social harmony would be impossible to achieve and chaos and conflict would
follow. To achieve harmony and order it was necessary that society should be
� KEVTERM structured in accordance with four essential rules. These were:
Status quo The existing • the acceptance of the status quo

political and social system . • the obedience of children to their parents
• the obedience of wives to their husbands
• the obedience of the people to the emperor and his officials.
It was not surprising that Confucianism, with its insistence on deference to

authority and the need to conform to existing laws, proved highly attractive to
China's emperors. The absolute right of the emperor to rule had originally been
established by force of arms. What was needed was a justification for holding
power that did not depend solely on military might. Confucianism provided
exactly that by asserting that obedience to proper authority was essential to the
existence of a virtuous, harmonious society. Emperors consistently claimed that
anyone who disputed their control was damaging the proper and natural order
of things and was not to be tolerated. Such challengers became social outcasts
and were treated with great severity. China gained a reputation for the merciless
way it dealt with internal rebellions. Convicted rebels were treated as common
criminals and publicly executed by methods such as beheading or strangulation.
2
Chapter I China 1839-60
The imperial court

� KEYTERMS
The emperor, formally referred to as 'His Celestial Highness', resided in the
Forbidden City in Beijing (Peking), venturing outside only on special occasions Forbidden City Beijing's
to perform public ceremonies, such as blessing the seasonal harvest. It was in greatest monument, a
spacious walled inner city that
the Forbidden City that all the government offices were situated and where
had been the home of the
the courtiers who served the emperor lived. The absolutism of the emperor
emperors and the court since
meant that power was not spread downwards. It was unthinkable that the 1368.
people should have any say in government. The result was that ideas such as
Eunuchs Selected young
democracy, parliamentary and representative government were unknown in
men who were castrated at
Chinese politics. Such politics as did occur took place within the court and were an early age and spent their
essentially a matter of rival individuals and groups competing for the emperor's life at court. T he position was
attention and favour. eagerly sought after and to
be chosen was regarded as a
Court life was heavily regulated and formal. Among the courtiers were a great honour.
significant number of eunuchs responsible for the everyday running of the
Concubines Girls and young
court. One of their particular duties was to watch over the concubines, chosen women chosen for their
women who lived in a court harem and whose role singly or collectively was to attractiveness and brought to
satisfy the emperor's sexual needs and whims. Despite the gossip and intrigue court. To be selected brought
that flourished in such a closeted atmosphere, the pattern of imperial court great pride upon the girl and
her family.
proceedings had remained substantially the same for four millennia.
Mandarins A class of
The mandarins educated bureaucrats who
assisted the emperor in
It was the predominance of Confucianism in official thinking that secured the governing China.
position of a particularly influential class in imperial China- the mandarins.
These were scholars trained in the subtleties of Confucian learning. They went
through a series of rigid examinations. Once they had passed these, they joined
an exclusive class of officials who ran China under the authority of the emperor.
As government officials in the emperor's court and as local governors in China's
provinces, they were indispensable to the operation of imperial rule. The
importance administratively of the mandarins made them a social and political
elite, who zealously guarded their privileges. Although they did not survive long
into the twentieth century, their existence over thousands of years left a tradition
of bureaucratic control by an exclusive group of privileged officials that was to be
paralleled by the rule of the Communist Party in twentieth-century China (see
page 154).
The Manchu view of China's place in the world

The Chinese word for China is zhongguo, meaning 'the middle kingdom' or 'the
centre of the world'. Until the nineteenth century, China had regarded itself as
a society superior to all others. It did have occasional contacts with the outside
world, but it never considered these as especially significant. It retained a sense
of its own uniqueness. Over thousands of years, under the rule of its emperors,
it had developed a deep belief that it was a self-sufficient culture which needed
nothing from foreign nations. The dismissive Chinese term to describe the
3
China 1839-1997
people of other nations was 'barbarians'. This was a clear example of the
� KEVTERMS
essentially Sino-centric nature of Chinese thinking, which resulted from its
Sino-centric Inward centuries of detachment from outside influences. Until the nineteenth century,
looking, preoccupied with Chinese map-makers always put China in the centre with the rest of the world
China. 'Sino' is a prefix circling round it.
meaning Chinese.
One crucial consequence of this self-regarding view of themselves was that
Kowtow T he requirement
the Chinese were slow to develop a concept of progress. China's rulers saw no
that, when entering the
emperor's presence, visitors need to introduce reform. Why change when the nation had all it required?
showed respect by not This derived not from idleness or lack of imagination but from adherence to
looking upon him and by the Confucian patterns of thought that laid great emphasis on maintaining the
prostrating themselves face
existing order of things.
down and tapping their head
nine times on the floor. The belief that China was wholly self-sufficient, both culturally and materially,
meant there was no value in maintaining contact with foreigners. Yet, on
occasion, China did need goods and materials from outside. What developed,
therefore, was an elaborate tribute system. China would enter into commerce
with other nations, but any trade in which it engaged was regarded as being
made up of gifts received from inferiors. Ironically, what China gave in return
was often greater in amount and worth than it received. But this strange pattern
of commerce preserved the notion of China's supremacy.
Striking examples of this were to be found in Sino-British relations. In the late

eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a number of British delegations
approached the Chinese emperor with proposals for closer trading links. The
Chinese answer on every occasion was to thank the British for their courtesy
but to point out that, since Britain had nothing of real value to offer China, there
was no point in establishing such relations. When, in 1794, King George III's
representative, Lord McCartney, was eventually allowed to enter the Forbidden
City in Beijing to be received by the emperor, he caused acute diplomatic
embarrassment by refusing to kowtow in the traditional way. Unsurprisingly,
the talks that followed were not a success, as was evident from the letter handed
to McCartney on his departure. It was from the Emperor Qianlong and was
intended for King George III. A key passage read: 'We possess all things. I set
no value on objects strange or ingenious, and have no use for your country's
manufactures.'
In their separate ways, McCartney's disregard of Chinese sensibilities and

Qianlong's belief in Chinese self-dependence may be seen as anticipating the
trauma that China was to experience when Western imperialism began to
impose itself a few decades later (see page 14).
Society under the Manchus

Confucianism became integral to Chinese culture. Its key precepts of placing
the good of society before the rights of the individual and of obeying legitimate
authority continue to this day to colour Chinese thinking.
4
Status of women in imperial China

� KEVTERMS
Imperial China was a patriarchal system. Confucius had taught that for a
society to be harmonious it had to follow a set of rules, one of which required Patriarchal Male
dominated.
the obedience of wives to their husbands. As a result, it had become traditional
for women to be discriminated against in China. On rare occasions females Bride-price T he payment
did play a leading role in public life - one example was Cixi (Xi Xi, see made by the groom's family
to the bride's family to seal a
page 27) - but these were exceptions. Most women were treated very much as
marriage contract.
subordinates. They were denied a formal education since it was considered that
their essential role was domestic: the raising of children and running the home.
A fascinating example of women's subordination was Wen Qimei, the mother
of Mao Zedong, China's great revolutionary leader in the twentieth century
(see page 81). Wen Qimei was not a name; it simply means 'seventh daughter',
an indication of the depersonalised way in which female children were often
classified.
Forced marriage
Mao Zedong's early life (he was born in 1893) offers further fascinating insights
into how restricted women's lives were in imperial China. At the age of fourteen,
Mao was informed by his father that a betrothal had been arranged for him;
he was to marry a twenty-year-old woman from a nearby village. Arranged
marriages were customary in imperial China. Love and compatibility were not
a consideration. The arrangement was purely economic. The boy's family paid
money to the girl's family, the amount being calculated on how many children
she was likely to produce. The benefit for the groom's family was that they
gained, in effect, an unpaid domestic servant since the usual practice was for
the bride to become a skivvy under her mother-in-law's orders. As it happened,
Mao rejected all this; he declined to cooperate in the match-making even
when his father told him that the bride-price had already been paid. Mao had
successfully defied his father and Chinese social convention.
As a young man, Mao had witnessed the execution of a young girl in his home
village of Shaoshan in Hunan province. As punishment for taking a lover and
rejecting the man she was betrothed to, the girl had been tied to a weighted
plank and held underwater until she drowned. Mao often recounted this story
as a depiction of the social oppression of women that had prevailed in imperial
China.
Foot-binding
The girl's killing was an extreme example of the ill-treatment to which women
were subjected. More common was the notorious practice of foot-binding. This
involved the tight bandaging of the feet to prevent their growth. The purpose
was two-fold: to hobble the women so as to restrict their movements and to
make them more attractive to potential husbands, Chinese men customarily
regarding small feet as highly erotic. Interestingly, one of the first reforms Mao
5
China 1839-1997
made as leader of China was to prohibit foot-binding, evidence that it had

survived as practice in rural China until at least the 1940s.
The im perial economy

In 1839, there were a number of aspects of China's economy that merit attention.
Population
Ethnically, China was composed of four main peoples: Han, Manchu, Mongol
and Tibetan. Of these four groups, the Han were by far the most numerous,
forming 95 per cent of the population. It was this Han predominance that
historically had given China its sense of being one nation, despite its great size
(slightly larger in area than the modern USA) and its many linguistic, regional
and climatic variations. In 1839, China had a population of 300 million, which
would double by 1900 and double again by the end of the twentieth century.
Agrarian problems
� KEYTERM
In 1839, China's internal economy was overwhelmingly agricultural, with the
great mass of the people being peasants who lived in villages and rented the
Feudalism A system in land on which they worked. Despite feudalism having been formally abolished
which peasants held land but in the eighteenth century, the relationship between peasant and landowner
never fully owned it since
was still essentially one of dependence. The landlord could turn the renter off
it remained the property of
his property simply by raising the rent prohibitively. Even where the peasant
the landlord for whom they
worked. was buying rather than renting, he was still very vulnerable since invariably he
had borrowed the money (usually from the landlord) and was, therefore, at the
mercy of the lender, who was free to raise the interest rate should he choose.
Hatred of landlords was a potent and persistent feature of Chinese society and
one which Mao Zedong would later effectively exploit (see page 87).
The type of food produced on the land was determined by the local soil and
climatic conditions and, consequently, in a country as large as China, varied
considerably. An understanding of the variation can be gained by study of the
map shown in Figure 1.1. At its most efficient, Chinese peasant family life had
an attractive simplicity, as described (Source A) by a British observer of the
pattern of agrarian activity in Fukien province:
SOURCE A
China from the 1800s to

? According to Source A,
From the Mitchell Report 1854, quoted in Jack Gray,
2000, Oxford University Press, 2010, p. 79.
•
what are the main
features of the farming The Fukien farmer, among his other crops, raises a certain proportion of sugar.
pattern in Fukien?
This sugar he dispenses of in the spring to a trader at the nearest seaport, who
ships it to Tientsin or some other northern port during the summer monsoon,
undertaking to pay the farmer for it, part in money, part in northern cotton
when his junk returns.
6
When the harvest is gathered, all hands in the farmhouse turn to carding,
spinning and weaving this [northern] cotton, and out of this homespun stuff, a
heavy and durable material, they clothe themselves; and the surplus they carry
to the market town, the manufacture varying from the coarsest dungaree to the
finest nanking [or nankeen, a kind of cotton cloth], all costing the producer
nothing beyond the raw material, or rather the sugar he exchanged for it.
That description, however, offered an idealised and oversimplified picture.

Things seldom worked as smoothly as that. China's rapidly growing population
put great pressure on its food production and explains why famines and
rebellions caused by poverty were a common occurrence in China. The problem
was not land shortage; there was sufficient space for new areas to be cultivated.
The difficulty arose from the peasants' inability to prepare the ground with the
speed and efficiency required for crops to be sown and harvested. This failure
was not from lack of will or effort but because the peasants did not have the
equipment to do it efficiently. For example, the basic pattern of ploughing had
not changed in centuries. Wooden implements were still used, deep blade metal
ploughs being unknown. Until China adopted the technological advances that
had modernised farming in Europe and the USA, China's food needs would run
ahead of its capacity to meet them.
Trade
Although China's rulers claimed they had no need of trade with outside
countries (see page 4), foreign commerce had increased considerably, rising by
an annual four per cent during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries,
which led to the growth in size and importance of the coastal and river ports.
0 400 mls
I
I I
0 600 km
...
,_
..__, -
"'" "-- - ,
, , __ ... ........ .... ..., '
N
t
�'
J Rice
1
-1
,,
\ ... - .... '"-
' I
,_.._)
Figure 1.1 Main areas of food and crop production in China.
7
China 1839-1997
China's exports were principally furs, tobacco, porcelain, silk and tea, the
last three items being especially notable. The huge demand for white tea
� KEYTERMS
that developed in Britain in the later eighteenth century meant that within a
generation it had become China's most profitable export. The European taste for
Chinoiserie Chinese artistic tea was part of a general quickening of interest in Chinoiserie which helped to
items such as delicately stimulate China's silk and porcelain exports.
painted silk screens and
decorated porcelain jugs and Yet although external trade had grown, as long as the official court view was
vases. that China had no real need of it, it was unlikely to receive much government
Opium Produced from the
support. What shattered this condescending air of detachment was the issue
seed of the poppy flower, of opium imports. It was opium that was destined to change the character and
which grew profusely in history of China and its people.
parts of India. Smoked in
its crushed form, it induces
feelings of relaxation and
well-being.
The Opium Wars
Free trade (also known as
loissez-foire). A commercial
I
� Why did China become involved with Britain in wars over opium?
system based on the I
conviction that governments �. What impact did the Opium Wars have on China?
I
should not attempt to
regulate trade but should China's belief in its own unique greatness was severely shaken by enforced
leave it entirely in the hands contact with the West, beginning with the Opium Wars in the middle decades of
of the traders.
the nineteenth century.
East India Company
A private British company The First Opium War 1839-42
which had achieved a huge
commercial success in foreign The first open conflict broke out in 1839, when the Manchu government rejected
trading and had been largely British demands that China increase its purchases of opium from British India.
responsible for the growth The war had both long- and short-term causes.
of Britain's preponderant
influence in India.
Long-term causes
• By the 1830s, Britain's expansion as a major European free trade power led
to its exploitation of China as both a market and a source of materials. This
made war highly likely, if not inevitable, since Britain's thrusting economic
ways were alien to the Chinese.
• The East India Company, which had control of the opium trade in India and
Burma and issued licences to merchants, had expanded rapidly by the 1830s.
In 1767, it had exported 1000 chests of opium to China; in 1800, the figure
had risen to 4500 chests; by 1838, the figure stood at 40,000 chests. One chest
contained an average of 133 pounds (60 kg) of opium.
• These figures did not indicate a growth in genuine Chinese demand. It was
more a matter of the licensed traders' pressuring Chinese importers to take
more. Nor were the traders above using illegal means. Ignoring the attempts
of the Chinese authorities to restrict the imports, they did deals with corrupt
officials and smugglers to ensure that the intake of opium was maintained.
8
• The money that Britain received from the opium trade was a vital source of
income from which it paid for its increasing imports of tea from China. Any
serious disruption of this would badly affect Britain's balance of payments, a � KEYTERM
situation which it was hardly likely to tolerate.
• Imperial China's lack of modernity made it suspicious of European European expansionism
expansionism. China was unready economically and culturally to adapt to The desire of the major
European powers to open
Britain's demanding style.
up new areas for commercial
• Britain's awareness of China's relative military weakness made it ready to
exploitation.
push things to the point of conflict since it had every expectation of winning
any war that might follow. Acknowledged internationally as the world's
greatest naval power, Britain had little to fear from China's antiquated
warships.
• A feature of history is that stronger nations or powers tend to dominate
weaker ones and force them to conform to their territorial or economic
demands. Should the weaker nation attempt to resist, it is subjected to
invasion or attack. The relationship is, therefore, one in which war is a
constant likelihood. The relationship between China and Britain as it had
developed by the second quarter of the nineteenth century was a recipe for
conflict.
To these long-term causes of tension were added a set of immediate reasons for
conflict.
Short-term causes
• The vital first step towards the outbreak of war was the realisation by the
Chinese government that its purchase of opium was rapidly draining the
treasury of its financial reserves. Sino-British trade was conducted in silver.
Up to the 1830s, there had been a rough balance between the value of
Britain's import of Chinese tea and China's import of British opium. But,
by the late 1830s, this balance had been broken. China was paying out
$18 million in silver.
• To this was added a growing awareness in government circles of the
disruptive impact of opium on Chinese society. The lethargy and apathy that
the drug produced in addicts were destroying work habits, family relations
and social harmony. It was a matter of scale. Opium, which was acceptable
when taken by a few, became intolerable when taken by the many.
• It was on these economic and social grounds that the Qing government
decided to assert itself in 1839 by ordering the seizure of the opium stocks in
Canton, the port through which 90 per cent of the drug was distributed.
• The difficulty was that the Qing already had in place decrees which
prohibited the use of opium. These had not been acted on consistently and
a mistaken impression had developed among the foreign traders that the
Chinese government, rather than tightening restrictions, was about to declare
opium legal. This followed from a misreading of the reports of discussions
held between 1836 and 1838 in the Manchu court. Foreign observers often
9
China 1839-1997
found it difficult to interpret court debates accurately. Expecting wrongly,

that 1838 would see the full legalisation of the opium trade, merchants had
stockpiled their supplies in Chinese warehouses.
• However, the traders found that instead of their markets widening, they were
closed down and their stocks seized and destroyed.
• Lin Zexu (1785-1850) was sent as special imperial commissioner to Canton
(Guangzhou) to supervise the operation. His appointment proved critical. Lin
was a court mandarin who became a leading administrator under the Qing.
His fierce objection to the opium trade was not simply because it drained
China of bullion and affronted Chinese independence. He condemned it on
moral and health grounds and ordered a campaign to be mounted against it.
(The scale of the operation is clear from the figures in the box.)
Lin's anti-opium campaign, March to May 1839

• 50,000 pounds of opium were seized by the Chinese authorities.
• 70,000 opium pipes were confiscated.
• 1600 Chinese opium addicts were arrested.
Initially, Lin's strong line was supported by the Qing; Emperor Daoguang
praised him for his forceful assertion of China's independence. After the war,
Daoguang was to back down and turn on Lin, claiming that his tough stance
had led to conflict, whereas a more accommodating approach would have
avoided hostilities. This was both unfair and inaccurate; initially, Lin had tried
to maintain workable relations with foreign merchants, telling them that his
aim was to prevent trade not in legitimate goods but only in opium. However,
when they declined to consider abandoning their lucrative trade, Lin continued
with the seizure and destruction of all known opium stocks and the arrest of the
major traders.
Lin produced a powerful moral argument to justify his action. One remarkable
example of this was a letter he sent to the young Queen Victoria asking by what
right did the British enforce a 'poisonous drug' on the Chinese people, a drug
that was forbidden in Britain. 'Where is your conscience?', he asked.
That the letter probably never reached the queen and that opium consumption
was not illegal in Britain did not detract from the sense of moral outrage that was
being expressed. Lin's resolute stand was the cue for many in the international
community to leave Canton and seek safety in Portuguese Macao. It was from
there that the British merchant contingent, led by their chief spokesman, Charles
Elliot, appealed directly to the British government to intervene militarily on
their behalf. Viscount Palmerston, the foreign secretary, had initial misgivings
about becoming involved, but in the face of sustained lobbying by a large body
of textile manufacturers in Britain, who feared losing their valuable Chinese
markets, he gave way and ordered gunboats to be sent to Chinese waters.
10
SOURCE B
From Lord Palmerston's despatch to the minister of the emperor of China,

20 February 1840, quoted in Frederick Whyte, China and the Foreign Powers,
On what grounds does ?
Palmerston, in Source B, •
Oxford University Press, 1928, p. 42.
justify using armed force
The Undersigned, Her Britannick Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for against China?
Foreign Affairs, has the honour to inform the Minister of the Emperor of China,
that Her Majesty The Queen of Great Britain has sent a Naval and Military
Force to the Coast of China, to demand from the Emperor satisfaction and
redress for injuries inflicted by Chinese Authorities upon British Subjects
resident in China, and for insults offered by those same Authorities to the
British Crown.
Her majesty cannot permit that her subjects residing abroad should be treated
with violence, and be exposed to insult and injustice; and when wrong is done
to them, Her Majesty will see that they obtain redress.
Character of the war

The arrival of the British gunboats in Chinese waters in 1840 marked the
beginning of the Opium Wars.
� KEYTERMS
• The war on land was largely a matter of siege and counter-siege, with
Chinese forces obliging Westerners to take refuge in the foreign settlements Foreign settlements
only for British troops to break the sieges, free the beleaguered Westerners, In addrt:ion to the British, a
number of other Westerners,
and in turn force the Chinese to take shelter in their own areas.
principally French, Russian
• Although the Chinese forces often resisted courageously, their weapons and
and American traders and
equipment did not match those of the British. The steamships, which had a missionaries, had set up bases
draft of less than two fathoms (12 feet, 3. 7 m), were able to sail many miles in China.
inland up river, outmanoeuvre the slow-moving Chinese junks and blast Junks Slow-moving, flat
them with superior cannon power. On land, the British forces were equipped bottomed, sailing vessels.
with rifles whose quick-loading mechanisms, long range, and relative
Flintlock muskets
accuracy were of immense advantage over the flintlock muskets carried by Cumbersome weapons, long
the Chinese. abandoned by European
• The British made a point of capturing vital warehouses and river barges in armies, which required
which the silver raised in taxes was stored, thus denying the Chinese the considerable time and effort
to load and fire.
ability to pay their soldiers and fund the war effort.
• In June 1840, a British force largely made up of troops from the British Indian
army, sent from Singapore, arrived by sea to put Canton and other ports and
towns under siege.
• A fleet of 25 steam ships armed with cannon bombarded the coastal forts on
China's east coast and up the Yangzi (Yangtse) and Pearl Rivers.
• In 1842, reinforcements increased Britain's strength to the point where it was
able to capture the Bogue forts, which commanded the entrance to the Pearl
River delta. By the summer of that year, the British forces were in a position
to seize the key city of Shanghai, a defeat which obliged the Chinese to make
peace.
11
China 1839-1997
Convention of Ch'uan-pi, January 1841
� KEYTERMS Early in 1841, in an effort to call a halt to the fighting, which was going badly
for the Chinese, Qishan, the provincial governor of Guangdong (Kwangtung),
Plenipotentiary A special entered into discussions with Charles Elliot, acting as a British plenipotentiary.
government representative These talks became known as the Convention of Ch'uan-pi (variant English
invested with full power to
spellings are Chuanbi, Chuenpee Chunpi, Qunbi). They concluded with the
negotiate.
following terms:
'Most favoured nation'
Special economic privilege • China to pay Britain $6 million in compensation.
and status extended by one • Canton to be fully open to British trade.
nation to another. • Hong Kong island to be ceded to Britain.
'Unequal treaties' One • The Qing government to be permitted to collect taxes from Hong Kong.
sided agreements forced on • Britain to withdraw from the islands it had temporarily occupied during the
the Chinese government, war.
which obliged China to
recognise foreign trading and The Convention did not become a formal treaty since neither China nor Britain
territorial rights. was happy with it. Learning of the negotiations, the Emperor Daoguang,
asserting that Qishan had no authority to enter into such agreements, dismissed
him. In effect, this was only a partial delay in the implementation of the main
terms. The British insisted that they be made into a binding agreement. The
result was that a year later, following the defeat of the Chinese forces, the Qing
were obliged to accept the Treaty of Nanjing, whose main terms are set out
below.
Treaty of Nanjing 1842 (supplemented by the Treaty of

Bogue 1843)
• The Qing government was required to pay Britain $21 million in
compensation for damage and lost opium sales resulting from the war.
• China agreed to cede Hong Kong island to Britain as a colony 'in perpetuity'
(permanently).
• Britain was granted special trading rights in China's main ports: Shanghai,
Xiamen, Fuzhou and Guangzhou.
• British subjects were to be entitled to purchase property and take up residence
in the treaty ports.
• British residents were exempt from local Chinese law.
It was in the aftermath of the Nanjing and Bogue treaties that the Chinese
government entered into similar agreements with France and the USA, the
Treaty of Wangxia (1845) granting the United States 'most favoured nation'
status. The government's motive was less a desire to open China to the French
and the Americans and more a wish to be in a position in which it could play
off Britain against other Western nations. The treaties marked a key stage in the
opening of China to British and European influence. It became the model for all
the succeeding 'unequal treaties' imposed on China (see page 15).
12
The Second Opium War 1856-60

Having being forced to sign the humiliating peace treaties of 1841-2, the
Chinese authorities were left embittered and resentful, a situation which left a
� KEYTERMS
strong likelihood that hostilities would break out again. This duly happened in
1856 with the Second Opium War. Second Opium War
Known to the Chinese as the
Causes Anglo-French War.
1842, France and the USA had succeeded in imposing their

Aware that, after Import levies Payments that
foreign traders were required
own commercial agreements on China, Britain, in 1854, citing the right granted
to pay to the Chinese
under the terms of the Nanjing treaty to renegotiate terms, made the following
government as a condition of
demands: trade.
• All Chinese ports were to be fully open to British traders.

• China to accept that opium imports from British India and Burma were
wholly legal.
• British goods coming into China to be free of import levies.
• A permanent British embassy with full diplomatic powers to be established in
Beijing.
The Manchu government played for time; for two years it declined to give a
clear response to the demands. But an event occurred in 1856 that led directly
to the renewal of war. In October of that year, Canton port police impounded
the Arrow, a ship known to have been involved in piracy and opium smuggling.
Although it was legally registered as a Chinese ship, the Arrow's Chinese owners
lived in British Hong Kong and their ship sailed under a British flag. It was on
these grounds that they appealed for British protection. Britain responded by
taking up the owners' cause and demanding that the ship be released and its
imprisoned crew freed. When the Chinese were slow to react, Palmerston (see
page 10) sanctioned the shelling of Canton by British warships.
Backed by France, Russia and the USA, who claimed that in various separate
incidents their own nationals had been abused and assaulted by the Chinese,
Britain proceeded to enforce its will on China. In 1857, an Anglo-French
coalition force seized Canton. A year later, a naval force drawn from the same
two countries brought Tianjin, the main northern port serving Beijing, under
European control.
Treaty of Tianjin, 1858
In the following year, China bowed to the demands of Britain and France, and
signed the Treaty of Tianjin, whose main terms were:
• Eleven Chinese ports were to be opened up to foreign trade.

• Britain, France, Russia and the United States were to be granted the right
to set up embassies in the capital, Beijing, traditionally a city closed to
foreigners.
13
China 1839-1997
• Foreigners were to be entitled to travel in China without restriction and to

engage in trade and religious missionary work.
• China's principal river, the Yangzi, was to be open to foreign shipping
(including warships).
• Foreign and Chinese Christians were to be entitled to worship openly
without interference from the Qing authorities.
• China was required to pay $10 million in silver dollars to both Britain and
France.
• A further $5 million was to be paid to British merchants in reparation for their
losses during the fighting.
• In official correspondence, the Chinese authorities were to drop all slighting
references to the British, such as the word 'barbarian'.
In 1860, Britain and France, claiming that the Chinese were not putting the
treaty terms into practice, sent another joint force, this time to China's capital
itself. In an operation that caused a lasting sense of outrage among the Chinese,
� KEYTERMS
who regarded it as clear proof of European barbarism, a British force attacked
Summer Palace A set of and burned down the buildings of the Summer Palace in Beijing. The attack
picturesque buildings, lakes had been approved by Lord Elgin, the British high commissioner, who defended
and gardens that dated from
the action as retaliation for the killing by the Chinese of two British journalists.
the thirteenth century AD, but
He also asserted that since the original plan had been to destroy the Forbidden
had been allowed to fall into
disrepair by I 860. City (see page 3), the attack on the Summer Palace was an act of clemency.
Indentured labourers
Convention of Beijing 1860
Workers tied to their
employers by harsh legal Despite their anger, the Chinese no longer had the means to resist and in
restrictions. The Chinese October 1860 accepted the Convention of Beijing, which ratified the Tianjin
'coolies', as the indentured treaty of 1858. They also confirmed the separate agreements China had
labourers became
reached between 1858 and 1860 with France, Russia and the USA. Two added
disparagingly known, played
a vital part in the construction
concessions made by the Qing government were of particular note:
of the US railways in the

• The port of Kowloon opposite Hong Kong island was granted to Britain on a
nineteenth century.
permanent basis.
• The Manchu government was to grant permission to Chinese nationals to
emigrate to North America as indentured labourers.
Results of the Opium Wars

Few events in Chinese history had such momentous consequences as the Opium
Wars. They showed what the Chinese had long been unwilling to admit, that
advances in Western technology had given the European powers a military and
economic superiority over China. The inability of the Chinese to match this
European firepower came as a shattering revelation. It brought into question the
hitherto unchallenged notion of Chinese supremacy and raised doubts about
the true character of Chinese culture and identity. W hile China had previously
regarded itself as special, other parts of the world had not. To the profound
dismay of the Chinese, the Opium Wars brought home to them that they were
not strong enough to resist European demands.
14
Here was a cultural trauma from which the Manchu never fully recovered.
The regime was clearly incapable of effective resistance to the foreigners,
who imposed a series of 'unequal treaties' on China. This reduced the esteem
in which the imperial system had been traditionally held and encouraged
revolutionary nationalism among those Chinese who yearned to see their nation
recover its former greatness.
A humiliated China had to accept a huge increase in the import of opium, a

drug that debilitated many of its people, and to hand over territory, including
Hong Kong, to British control. Where Britain had led, other Western nations
were quick to follow. By the end of the century, dotted along China's coastline
and up the major rivers, there were 50 'treaty ports' in British, German, French
or Portuguese hands. These Western enclaves, such as Shanghai, Qingdao,
Guangzhou and Hong Kong, became European mini-states in which the laws of
the occupying European power took total precedence over those of the Chinese,
who were forced to grant the foreigners a range of commercial, legal and
religious privileges.
The result was that the West, by a series of unequal treaties, was able to assert
� KEYTERMS
a hold on China, which saw many regions in its major cities and ports became
enclaves of foreign control, containing international settlements known International settlements
as 'concessions'. Chinese people found themselves subject to alien laws and (concessions} Zones in
which the foreign expatriates
conventions. They were victims of a cultural takeover against which they had no
lived and in which their
right of appeal.
laws, religion and practices
China's island neighbour and traditional rival, Japan, also exploited the operated to the exclusion of
the Chinese.
situation, by making increasing demands on China for territory and economic
concessions. This pressure was to culminate in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-5 'Compradors' Chinese
nationals who acted as
in which China was crushed (see page 32).
go-betweens between
Defeat in the Opium Wars produced a double response among China's the foreign companies and
population. Some Chinese developed a fierce dislike of the foreign exploiters and government officials.
their barbarian ways. Others, while dismayed by their country's humiliation,

were impressed by the economic and military prowess of the Westerners and
resolved that only by copying the best of those ways could China begin to
modernise itself.
This was first expressed in the willingness of many Chinese to become

employees and local representatives of Western companies and concerns that
rushed in after 1860 to exploit China. This invariably enabled them to receive
higher wages and benefit from expanded career opportunities. A significant
class of Chinese 'compradors' developed, who became invaluable agents for the
foreign businesses.
Whatever the positive benefits that may have subsequently accrued to many
Chinese from the foreign presence in their land, the Opium Wars became a
defining moment in China's modern history. By reference to them, the Chinese
could explain both why they had fallen under foreign domination and why they
15
China 1839-1997
RUSSIAN
EMPIRE
0 400 800 km
I I
I I I
0 200 400 mls
CHINA
YelloW A. 0
Ningho
Chongqing
0
0
il p.. c
'(e,\'19
[7
�
Ha1 kou •
Guangzhou Wan 0 t
HAINAN
Figure 1.2 Map of treaty ports established under the 'unequal treaties' in the nineteenth century.
were so resolved to win back their independence. Interestingly, Deng Xiaoping

(leader of China 1978-97) made constant allusion to the Opium Wars to explain
to British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher why China was utterly determined
to reclaim Hong Kong in 1997 (see page 260).
The British in Shanghai

Shanghai had always been an important Chinese administrative centre. Having
established control of it by the late 1840s, the British showed remarkable speed
in developing it into China's major port. Much of the marshland in the area was
16
drained and sections of the banks of the Yangzi River delta on which Shanghai
stood were strengthened. Piers and jetties were constructed in the harbour
and extensive office buildings and warehouses erected. The impact of all this is
suggested by the following details:
• By the late 1850s, consular offices dealing with Sino-British trade had been
created. Learning from this example, the French and the Americans soon
followed, creating their own offices in their concession areas. Cooperation
between Britain and the USA proved so mutually helpful diplomatically and
economically that the two countries merged their concession areas in 1863 to
form the Shanghai International Settlement.
• In the same period, over 100 trading offices with their scores of British and
Chinese staff had been opened.
• A Western hospital had also been set up and a Christian church, served by
twent y missionaries, had been built.
• The number of ships using the harbour rose from 44 in 1844 to 437 in 1855.
• An indication of the trade boom which Shanghai experienced was the statistic
that the import-export value of textiles stood at over £5 million in 1860.
• Shanghai's success attracted a growing number of foreign commercial and
financial interests, a process which over the succeeding decades turned it into
one of the world's most prosperous and cosmopolitan cities.
• Much as Britain and other outsiders may have profited from Shanghai's
expansion, the problem for China was that it did not share proportionally
in the wealth generated. This left the paradox of the Chinese regarding
Shanghai as both a reproach and an inspiration; a reproach in that it had
required foreigners to develop the cit y, an inspiration in that it showed what
opportunities for wealth creation lay within China.
Shanghai was not simply of value to the British as a port in its own right. What
its possession gave to the British was access inland. The penetration up river
along the Yangzi valle y opened whole regions of central China to British trade
and influence.
Rebellions and the Oing

response to them
I
� What was the scale of the Taiping Rebellion?

I
I
� What did the rebellion reveal about the character of imperial
China?
The Opium Wars coincided with an internal event which was as damaging to
the reputation of the imperial s y stem as was its subjection to foreign demands.
Between 1850 and 1864, there occurred the most destructive rebellion in China's
histor y, that of the Taiping. Peasant risings against the imperial government
17
China 1839-1997
had been frequent throughout Chinese history. Invariably, these had been local
affairs, which were crushed with ease and were followed by the rebel leaders'
summary execution for daring to challenge the divine rule of the emperors.
The Taiping Rebellion that began in 1850 was different; it lasted for fifteen
years, affected large areas of China, and was eventually put down only with the
greatest difficulty. Approximately 50 million people died before the rebellion
was finally crushed.
The Taiping Rebellion 1850-64

Initially, the rebellion was a movement in Guangdong province among the
l� KEY FIGURE Hakka people, a branch of the Han race, protesting against their economic
conditions, which had been depressed by harvest failures and heavy government
Hong Xiuquan taxation. Led by the charismatic Hong Xiuquan, it became an amalgam of
(1812-64) nationalist resentment against the rule of the alien Manchu dynasty and a
Having failed in his ambition demand that peasant conditions be improved. However, what gave the Taiping
to become a mandarin, Hong Rebellion its particular character was its embracing of religion. Proclaiming that
turned to religion. Subject to he was ushering in the era of the Taiping (the Celestial Kingdom of Heavenly
hallucinations and inspired by
Peace), Hong preached bitter hatred against the Manchu as the oppressive
a distorted grasp of the
instruments of the Devil.
Christianity he had learned
from missionaries, he claimed It is doubtful that many of the superstitious peasants who joined Hong ever
to be a younger brother of understood his weird theology. Nevertheless, through force of personality and
Jesus Christ.
by playing on the economic grievances of the peasants and their dislike of the
Manchu, Hong gathered a force of some 20,000 followers by 1850. By 1853, with
� KEVTERM their army growing in numbers and strength, the Taiping had repulsed all the
government's attempts to contain them and had reached and taken Nanjing in
Taiping T he Celestial a blood orgy during which they killed their 30,000 Manchu prisoners. It was
Kingdom of Heavenly Peace. at Nanjing that Hong Xiuquan proceeded over the next decade to construct a
communist community based on strict notions of equality and shared resources.
However, to maintain such ideals the Taiping resorted to the most restrictive
methods of control, including torture and beheadings. The severity of the rule
was a factor in the imposition of Taiping control over a large area of southern
China. By the early 1860s, the Taiping army had grown to over half a million.
It is interesting that the religious aspect of the Taiping movement had at first
appeared attractive to many of the foreign missionaries. But such sympathy
as they initially felt soon evaporated when the ferocious methods used by the
rebels to enforce control became impossible to ignore. A similar change of
attitude occurred among Westerners in China. Prepared in the first instance
to look favourably on the rebellion since any threat to the Manchu government
increased Western influence over it, the British, French and Americans then
turned against the rebels when the disorder caused by the rebellion threatened
Western interests.
Disturbed by the scale of the challenge to the imperial rule presented by the
rebellion (see the map on page 19), the imperial government was initially slow
18
to react, but then steadily amassed its own huge army. Organised by Zeng
Guofan (see page 26) and drawing on the expertise of foreign mercenaries, such
� KEY FIGURE J
as the English commander Charles Gordon, the Manchu forces were able to Charles Gordon
break attempts by the Taiping to seize Shanghai in 1860 and 1862. The failure (1833-85)
to take Shanghai, which owed much to the British presence there, marked the A British army officer who
beginning of the end of the rebellion. Internal dissensions, often involving the gained the title 'Chinese
assassination of opponents, saw the movement gravely weakened. Nevertheless, Gordon' for his success in
it took another three years before the Taiping were finally overcome, a result leading a Manchu government
which led to Hong's suicide in Nanjing in 1864. force in suppressing the

Taiping.
Reasons for the failure of the rebellion

• The brutality of Taiping methods alienated many Chinese, who might
otherwise have shown sympathy for the movement.
• Dissension within the Taiping ranks weakened the planning and
development of the rebellion.
• The Taiping remained a movement of the peasants, never winning over the
influential gentry who turned against it.
• Having been initially stunned by the rebellion, the Manchu government
recovered its nerve and showed resolution in suppressing the Taiping.
0 400 mls
I MONGOLIA
I I
0 600 km
�
�"
1
,..---
I
'-
......
<::
,.�
I
,rl
�
/
I
!..1''-T
'
/:;;.
/
I
CHINA
\
�
I
\
I
\
�I
'
'
\
... ,\
... ..,
'-1
'
......
- -, ............. �
INDIA
,- .... "'-, .... \"'
v
\ __
Pacific
,-------�
) Ocean
D Main areas of rebellion: ,. ...
CD Taiping �-
1
® Nian ''
-�J
\..'-c
�'-
@ Panthay ..
@ Dungan
THAILAND
Figure 1.3 Map of the anti-Qing rebellions.
19
China 1839-1997
• Britain and France turned against the Taiping when the disruption that
accompanied the rebellion threatened British and French interests in China.
• Zeng Guofan showed remarkable skill in organising Manchu military
resistance to the Taiping.
• Western military commanders, especially General Gordon (Britain), August
Protet (France) and Frederick Ward (USA), assisted in suppressing the
rebellion.
Further risings
Despite its eventual failure, the Taiping rebellion also inspired a series of further
risings against the Qing. Among the most troublesome were the following:
• T he Nian Rebellion (1853-68) occurred in northern China in the regions

between Beijing and Nanjing. Essentially a protest against the Qing
reluctance to provide funds for repairs following devastating Yellow River
floods, it eventually failed through its inability to link effectively with the
other rebellions.
• T he Panthay Rebellion (1856-73) took place in Yunnan province in south
western China as a movement among Muslims against Qing oppression.
With French assistance and playing on divisions among the rebels, the Qing
suppressed the rising with great severity.
• T he Dungan Rebellion (1862-77) was not primarily aimed against the
Qing, although the disturbance caused considerable worry to the imperial
authorities. Centred in the province of Gansu, it was essentially a confused
set of local struggles between rival groups of Muslims and Han Chinese. It
took fifteen years before the rebels were beaten and scattered, many of them
making their way to Russia.
incapable of preventing a series of unequal treaties

being imposed on China, which granted territorial
and trading privileges to a number of Western
powers. Contemporaneous with the Opium Wars,
In 1839, China stood on the verge of modernity,
there occurred a threatening set of internal revolts
but it was not a modernity it had chosen for itself.
against the rule of the Qing, the most disruptive
Ruled by an absolute emperor, it was a nation that
of which was the Taiping Rebellion ( 1850-64).
by age-old tradition believed in its own Confucian
This movement, which took fifteen years to
based cultural superiority and regarded the outside
suppress, further illustrated how ill-equipped central
world as barbarian. This detachment was severely
government in China was to deal with the reality of
challenged when it was forced by military and
a changing world. Growing demands from outside
economic weakness, as evident from its defeat in
and increasingly political and economic grievances
the Opium Wars (1841-60), to open itself to foreign
within were combining to place China in crisis.
economic and political intrusion. Its Manchu rulers,
locked into traditional ways of government, were
20
Use these questions to remind yourself of the key 9 Why did the issue of opium imports cause a
material covered in this chapter. breakdown in Sino-British relations?
I 0 What role did Lin Zexu play in the first Opium

I What social principles were basic to Confucianism?
War?
2 Why had China's imperial rulers been so drawn to
I I Why did the First Opium War go so badly for the
Confucian principles?
Chinese?
3 What powers were wielded by the Chinese
12 What was the significance of the Treaty of Nanjing
emperors?
(1842)?
4 What function did the mandarins perform in
13 Why was there a second Opium War?
imperial government?
14 What was the significance of the Convention of
5 How did imperial China traditionally see its place in
Beijing (1860)?
the world?
IS What were the 'unequal treaties'?
6 Why was it customary for the Chinese to regard
foreigners as 'barbarian'? 16 What grievances led to the Taiping Rebellion
(1850-64) and why did it take so long for the Qing
7 What role did women traditionally play in imperial
to suppress it?
China?
8 What weaknesses were there in the agricultural

system in Manchu China?
21
The opening of China to foreigners
1860-1901
In the aftermath of the Opium Wars, increasing numbers of foreigners came to China, keen
to exploit the economic and missionary opportunities that the opening of the country
offered. The Chinese sense of humiliation over this led to resentment towards the intruders
but also to a desire to modernise China. By the end of the nineteenth century, its attempt at
reasserting its independence led China to war with Japan and a further unavailing act of
resistance against further foreign encroachment. These developments are examined under
the following headings:
* Missionaries in China
* The self-strengthening movement
* The Sino-Japanese War 1894-5
* The Boxer Uprising 1898-1901
Key dates
1861 Cixi became empress dowager 1897-9 Western 'scramble for concessions'
1870 T ianjin Massacre 1898 I 00 days reforms
1894-5 Sino-Japanese War
1898-1900 Boxer Uprising
1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki
Triple Intervention 1899 USA's 'open door' policy
1897 Imperial Bank of China founded 1901 Boxer Protocol
Missionaries in China
� What impact did religious missionaries have on Chinese society?
I
�----------------------------------------------------------·
The Treaty of Tianjin (see page 13\ granting extensive residence rights to
foreigners in China, had the immediate effect of encouraging a large influx of
foreign missionaries. The clergy, priests and nuns, were now a very visible and
growing Western presence.
Status of the missionaries

Christian missionaries had been present in China since the thirteenth century.
They had seldom been warmly welcomed, but, since they were few in number,
22
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—Sin embargo, señora, un ladrón de semejante estofa no puede
ser patrocinado por nadie. Horribles cosas se ven en las guerras
civiles; pero nosotros los franceses entraremos en Cádiz.
—Esa es mi esperanza.
—¿No tiene usted valimiento con los ministros liberales?
—Ninguno. Mi nombre solo les sonará a proclama realista.
—Entonces....
—Cuento con la protección de los jefes del ejército francés.
—Y con los servicios de un leal amigo... El objeto principal es
detener al ladrón.
—¡Detenerle y amarrarle y arrastrarle! —exclamé con furor—. Pero
deseo hacer mi justicia a espaldas de la curia, porque aborrezco los
pleitos, aun cuando los gane.
—¡Oh!, eso es muy español. Se trata, pues, de cazar a un hombre
¿por ventura eso es fácil todavía?
—Fácil no.
—Y para una dama...
—Pero yo no estoy sola. Tengo servidores leales que solo esperan
una orden mía para...
—Para matar...
—No tanto —dije riendo—. Esto le parecerá a usted leyenda
novela, romance o lo que quiera; pero no, mis propósitos no son tan
trágicos.
—Lo supongo... pero siempre serán interesantes... ¿Ha dejado
usted criados en Sevilla?
—Uno tengo a mis órdenes. Le mandé por delante, y en Cádiz está
ya.
—¿Vigilando...?
—Acechando.
—Bien: le seguirá de noche embozado hasta las cejas, espiará sus
acciones, se informará de su método de vida. ¿Y ese criado es fiel?
—Como un perro... Examinemos bien mi situación, señor conde
¿Se puede entrar en Cádiz?
—Es muy difícil, señora, sobre todo para los que son sospechosos
al gobierno liberal.
—¿Y por mar?
—Ya sabe usted que en la bahía tenemos nuestra escuadra.
—¿Cuándo tomarán ustedes la plaza?
—Pronto. Esperamos a que venga Su Alteza para forzar el sitio.
—¿Y podrán escaparse los milicianos y el gobierno?
—Es difícil saberlo. Ignorarnos si habrá capitulación; no sabemos e
grado de resistencia que presentarán los insurgentes.
—¡Oh! —exclamé sin saber lo que decía, obcecada por mis
pasiones—. Ustedes los realistas no sirven para esto. Si Napoleón
estuviera aquí, amigo mío, mañana, mañana mismo, sí señor, mañana
sería tomada por asalto esa ciudad rebelde y pasados a cuchillo los
insensatos que la defienden.
—Me parece demasiado pronto —dijo Montguyon sonriendo—. En
fin, comprendo la impaciencia de usted.
—Sí, quien ha sido robada, vilmente estafada, no puede aproba
estas dilaciones que dan fuerza al enemigo. Señor conde, es preciso
entrar en Cádiz.
—Si de mí dependiera, señora, esta tarde mandaba dar el asalto —
repuso con entusiasmo—. Sorprendería a la guarnición, encarcelaría a
los diputados y a las Cortes, y pondría en libertad al rey.
—Ya eso no me importa tanto —dije en tono de conquistador—. Yo
entraría al asalto sorprendiendo la guarnición. Dejaría, a los diputados
que hicieran lo que les acomodase, mandaría al rey a paseo...
—¡Señora!...
—Buscaría a mi hombre, revolvería todos los rincones, todos los
escondrijos de Cádiz hasta encontrarle... y después que le hallara...
—Después...
—Después, señor conde... ¡Oh!, mi sangre se abrasa...
—En los divinos ojos de usted, Jenara —me dijo—, brilla el fuego
de la venganza. Parece usted una Medea.
—No me impulsan los celos —dije serenándome.
—Una Judith.
—Ni la idea política.
—Una...
—Parezca lo que parezca, señor conde, es preciso entrar en Cádiz.
—Entraremos.
—¿No sirve usted ahora en el Estado Mayor del general Bourmont?
—En él estoy a las órdenes de la que es imán de mi vida —repuso
poniendo los ojos en blanco.
—¿Será Bourmont nombrado comandante general de Cádiz, luego
que la plaza se rinda?
—Así se dice.
—¿Hará usted prender a mi mayordomo?...
—Le haré fusilar...
—¿Me lo entregará atado de pies y manos?
—Siempre que no huya antes, sí, señora.
—¡Huir! Pues qué, ¿tendrá ese hombre la vileza de huir, de no
esperar?...
—El criminal, amiga mía de mi corazón, pone su seguridad ante
todo.
—¿No dice usted que hay una especie de escuadra?
—Una escuadra en toda regla.
—¿Pues de qué sirven esos barcos, señor mío —dije de muy ma
talante—, si permiten que se escape... ese?
—Quizás no se escape.
—¿De qué sirve la escuadra? —añadí con la más viva inquietud—
¿Quién es el almirante que la manda? Yo quiero ver a ese almirante
quiero hablar con él...
—Nada más fácil; pero dudo...
—Me ocurre que si hay capitulación, será más fácil atraparle...
—¿Al almirante?
—No; a... a ese.
—Sin duda. En tal caso se quedaría tranquilo en Cádiz, al menos
por unos días.
—Bien, muy bien. Si hay capitulación, arreglo, perdón de vidas y
libertad para todos... Señor conde, aconsejaremos al príncipe que
capitule... ¡Pero qué tonterías digo!
—Está patente en su espíritu de usted la obsesión de ese asunto.
—¡Oh!, sí. No puedo pensar en otra cosa. El caso es grave. Si no
consigo apoderarme de ese hombre... no sé... creo que me costará la
vida.
—Yo también le aborrezco... ¡Hombre maldito!... Pero le cogeremos
señora. Me pongo al servicio de este gran propósito con la sumisión de
un esclavo. ¿Acepta usted mi cooperación?
Al decir esto, me besaba la mano.
—La acepto, sí, hombre generoso y leal, la acepto con gratitud y
profundo cariño.
Al decir esto, yo ponía en mi semblante una sensibilidad capaz de
conmover a las piedras, y en mis pestañas temblaba una lágrima.
—Y entonces —añadió Montguyon con voz turbada—, cuando
nuestro triunfo sea seguro, ¿podré esperar que el hueco que se me
destina en ese corazón no sea tan pequeño?
—¿Pequeño?
—Si es evidente, por confesión de él mismo, que ya tengo una
parte en sus sublimes afectos, ¿no puedo esperar...?
—¿Una parte? ¡Oh! no. Todo, todo.
El inflamado galán abrió sus brazos para estrecharme en ellos; pero
evadí prontamente aquella prueba de su insensato ardor, y
poniéndome primero seria y después amable, con una especie de
enojo gracioso y virtud tolerante, le dije que ni Zamora ni yo podíamos
ser ganadas en una hora. Al decir esto, violentos cañonazos me
hicieron estremecer y corrí al balcón.
—Son los primeros tiros de las baterías que se han armado para
atacar el Trocadero —me dijo el conde.
—¿Y esas bombas van a Cádiz?—pregunté poniendo inmenso
interés en aquel asunto.
—Van al Trocadero.
—¿Y qué es eso?
—Un fuerte que está en medio de las marismas.
—¿Y allí están...?
—Los liberales.
—¿Muchos?
— Mil y quinientos hombres.
—¿Paisanos?
—Hay muchos paisanos y milicianos.
—¡Oh!, morirá mucha gente.
—Eso es lo que deseamos. Parece que siente usted gran pena po
ello.
—La verdad —repuse, ocultando los sentimientos que bruscamente
me asaltaban—, no me gusta que muera gente.
—A excepción de su enemigo.
—Ese..., pero ¿estará en el Trocadero?
—¡Quién sabe!... Está usted aterrada.
—¡Oh!, yo quiero ir al Trocadero.
—Señora...
—Quiero ir al Trocadero.
—Eso mismo deseamos nosotros —me dijo riendo—, y para
conseguirlo enviaremos por delante algunos centenares de bombas.
—¿Dónde está el Trocadero? —pregunté corriendo otra vez a la
ventana.
—Allí —dijo Montguyon asomándose y alargando el brazo.
Hízome explicaciones y descripciones muy prolijas de la bahía y de
los fuertes; pero bien comprendí que antes que mostrar sus
conocimientos deseaba estar cerca de mí, aproximando bastante su
cabeza a la mía, y embriagándose con el calor de mi rostro y con e
roce de mis cabellos.
XXXIII
¡Qué aparato desplegaron contra aquellas fortalezas que se alzan

entre charcos salubres y que llevan por nombre el Trocadero! Desde
que llegó Su Alteza a mediados de agosto, no hacían más que
disparar bombas y balas contra los fuertes, esperando abrir brecha en
sus gloriosos muros. ¡Figúrese el buen lector mi aburrimiento
Considere con cuánta tristeza y tedio vería yo pasar día tras día sin
más distracción que oír los disparos y ver por las noches las
majestuosas curvas de los proyectiles. Me consumía en mi casa de
Puerto sin tener noticias del interior de Cádiz, ni esperanza de pode
penetrar en la plaza. Ni parecía aquello guerra formal y heroica como
creía yo que debían de ser las guerras, y como las que vi en mi niñez y
en tiempo del Imperio. Casi todo el ejército sitiador estaba con los
brazos cruzados: los oficiales paseaban fumando; los soldados hacían
menos pesado el tiempo con bailoteo y cantos.
No debo pasar en silencio que el duque del Infantado, que llegó de
Madrid en aquellos días, me llevó a visitar a Su Alteza, nuestro
salvador y el ángel tutelar de la moribunda España por aquellos días
Luis Antonio era un rubio desabrido, cuyo semblante respiraba
honradez y buena fe; pero la aureola del genio no circundaba su
frente. Fuera de aquel sitio, lejos de aquella deslumbradora posición y
con otro nombre, el hijo del conde de Artois habría sido un joven de
buen ver; mas no en tal manera que por su aspecto descollase entre la
muchedumbre. Para hallar en él lo que realmente le distinguía era
preciso que un trato frecuente hiciese resaltar las perfecciones
morales de su alma privilegiada, su lealtad sin tacha y aquel levantado
espíritu caballeresco sin quijotismo que le hacía estimable en la corte
de Francia. Era valiente, humanitario, cortés, puntual y riguroso en e
cumplimiento del deber. Si estas cualidades no eran suficientes a
formar un gran guerrero, ¿qué importaba? La pericia militar diéronsela
sus prácticos generales y nuestros desaciertos, que fueron el principa
estro marcial de la segunda invasión.
Recibiome Angulema con la más fina delicadeza y urbanidad; pero
de todas sus cortesanías la que más me agradó fue la de disponer e
asalto del Trocadero. «¡Al fin, al fin —exclamaba yo—, será nuestro e
horrible fuerte que nos abrirá las puertas de Cádiz!»
El 19 abrieron brecha; pero hasta la noche del 30 no se dio e
asalto, habiéndose guardado secreto sobre esto en los días anteriores
aunque yo lo supe por el conde de Montguyon, que no me ocultaba
nada referente a las operaciones. ¡Noche terrible la del 30 al 31 de
agosto! Noche que me pareció día por lo clara y hermosa, así como
por el estrépito guerrero que en ella resonara y las acciones heroicas
dignas de ser alumbradas por el sol... Apretado fue el lance del asalto
según oí contar, y Su Alteza y el príncipe de Carignan se portaron
bravamente, combatiendo como soldados en los sitios más peligrosos
No fue el hecho del Trocadero una de aquellas páginas de epopeya
que ilustraron el Imperio: fue más bien lo que los dramaturgos
franceses llaman succès d’estime, un éxito que no tiene envidiosos
Pero a la Restauración le convenía cacarearlo mucho, ciñendo a la
inofensiva frente del duque los laureles napoleónicos; y se tocó la
trompa sobre este tema hasta reventar, resultando del entusiasmo
oficial que no hubo en Francia calle ni plaza que no llevase el nombre
del Trocadero, y hasta el famoso arco de la Estrella, en cuyas piedras
se habían grabado los nombres de Austerlitz y Wagram, fue durante
algún tiempo Arco del Trocadero.
Yo me había trasladado a Puerto Real para estar más cerca. En la
mañana del 31, cuando vi pasar a los prisioneros hechos en los
fuertes, me sentí morir de zozobra. Entre aquellas caras atezadas a
cada instante creía ver la suya. Largo rato tardaron en pasar, porque
eran más de mil entre paisanos y militares. Creo que los miré uno po
uno; y al fin, cuando ya quedaban pocos, redoblé mi atención. ¡Oh
misericordioso Dios, qué estupendas cosas permites! En la última fila
casi solo, más abatido, más quemado del sol, más demacrado, con los
vestidos más rotos que los demás, pasó él, él mismo... no podía
dudarlo, porque le estaba viendo, viendo, sí, con mis propios ojos
arrasados de lágrimas. Llevaba la mano izquierda en cabestrillo, hecho
con un andrajo, y su paso era inseguro y como dolorido, sin duda po
tener lleno de contusiones el cuerpo. Al verle extendí los brazos y grité
con toda la fuerza de mi voz. Mi enamorada exclamación hizo volver la
cabeza a todos los que iban delante y a los curiosos que le rodeaban
Él, alzando los amortiguados ojos, me miró con expresión tan triste
que sentí partido mi corazón y estuve a punto de desmayarme. Creo
que pronunció algunas palabras; pero no oí sino un adiós tan lúgubre
como campanada funeral, y movió la mano en ademán de cariñoso
saludo, y pasó, desapareciendo con los demás en una vuelta de
camino.
Mi primera intención fue correr tras él: pero en la casa me
detuvieron. Cuando serenamente me hice cargo de la situación, formé
diversos planes; pero todos los desechaba al punto por descabellados
Pensándolo bien, comprendí que no era tan difícil conseguir su
libertad. Me congratulaba de que al cabo de tantas fatigas el destino
me le presentara prisionero, para poder decir con más calor que
nunca: «Ahora sí que no se me puede escapar.»
XXXIV
Envié recados al conde de Montguyon; pero no se le podía

encontrar por ninguna parte. Unos decían que estaba en el Trocadero
otros que en el Puerto, otros que había ido a las fragatas con una
comisión. Por último, averigüé con certeza su paradero, y le escrib
una carta muy cariñosa. Mas pasó un día, pasaron dos, y yo me moría
de impaciencia, sin poder ver al prisionero, ni aun saber dónde le
habían llevado. El conde, robando al fin un rato a sus quehaceres, vino
a verme el día 4. Yo estaba otra vez medio loca; no tenía humor para
hacer papeles, y espontáneamente dejaba que se desbordasen los
sentimientos de mi corazón.
—¡Oh, cuánto me alegro de ver a usted! —le dije—. Si usted no
viene pronto, señor conde, me hubiera muerto de pena.
Con estas palabras, que creyó dictadas por un vivo interés hacia él
se puso el noble francés un poco chispo, que así denomino yo a
embobamiento de los hombres enamorados. Se deshizo en
galanterías, a las cuales daba cierto tono de intimidad cargante, y
después me dijo:
—Pronto, muy pronto, libertaremos a Su Majestad el rey de España
y entraremos en Cádiz. El sol de ese día, señora, ¡cuán alegremente
brillará sobre toda España, y especialmente sobre nuestros corazones
—Mi estimado amigo —indiqué riendo—, no diga usted tonterías.
Montguyon se quedó cortado.
—Basta de tonterías —añadí— y óigame usted lo que voy a decirle
Ya he encontrado al hombre que buscaba...
—¿Dónde... cómo... ese malvado?
—No es malvado.
—¿Cómo no? Me dijo usted que le había robado sus alhajas.
—¡No es ese... por Dios! ¿Cuándo entenderá usted las cosas a
derecho?
—Siempre que no se me expliquen al revés.
—He encontrado a ese hombre... Pero entendamos. ¿No dije a
usted que había venido delante de mí un fiel criado de mi casa, el cua
entró en Cádiz?...
—¡Ah! sí... entró para observar los pasos del ladrón.
—Pues ese fiel criado tiene el defecto de ser algo patriota..
¡debilidades humanas! y como es algo patriota, se puso a pelear en e
Trocadero por una causa que no le importaba.
—Ya comprendo: y ha caído prisionero. ¿Le ha visto usted?
—Le vi cuando los prisioneros pasaron por aquí, pero no le he visto
más; y ahora, señor conde, quiero que usted me le ponga en libertad.
—Señora, si Cádiz se rinde pronto, como creo, y todo se arregla
espero conseguir lo que usted me pide.
—¡Qué gracia! Para eso no necesito yo de la amistad de un jefe de
brigada —dije con enfado—. Ha de ser antes, mañana mismo.
—¡Oh! Señora, usted somete mi amor a pruebas demasiado
fuertes.
—¿Quiere usted que dejemos a un lado el amor —le dije
poniéndome muy seria— y que hablemos como amigos?
Montguyon palideció.
—¿Esa persona —me dijo— interesa a usted tanto que no puede
esperar a que concluya la guerra, dando yo mi palabra de que e
prisionero será bien atendido?
—No basta que sea atendido —afirmé con resolución—. No basta
eso: quiero su libertad; quiero atenderle yo misma, cuidarle, curar sus
heridas, tenerle a mi lado, llevarle a sitio seguro...
Me expresé, al decir esto, con vehemencia suma, porque me era ya
muy difícil contener mi corazón, que iba al galope en busca de las
anheladas soluciones. El conde me oía con cierto terror.
—¿Tanto interesa a usted —repitió—, tanto interesa a usted... un
criado?
—No es criado.
—¿Tal vez un anciano servidor de la casa?
—No es anciano.
—¿Un joven?... Supongo que no será el ladrón.
—¿Qué ladrón?
—El ladrón de quien usted me habló...
—¡Ah! No me acordaba... Ya no me ocupo de eso.
—¿Abandona usted la empresa de detener y castigar a ese
miserable?
—La abandono.
—¡Qué inconstancia!
—Yo soy así.
—Pero ese, ese otro... ¿interesa a usted tanto...?
—Muchísimo.
—¿Es pariente de usted?
—No. Es compañero de la infancia.
—¿Es militar?
—Paisano, señor conde —dije con el tono de severa autoridad que
sé emplear cuando me conviene—. Si se empeña usted en se
catecismo, buscaré otra persona más galante y más generosa que
sepa prestar un servicio, economizando las preguntas.
—Creo tener algún derecho a ello —repuso con gravedad.
—No tiene usted ninguno —afirmé con desenfado—, porque este
derecho yo sola podría darlo, y yo lo niego.
—Entonces, señora —objetó, encubriendo su ira bajo formas
urbanas—, he padecido una equivocación.
—Si cree usted que le amo, sí. La equivocación no puede ser más
completa.
Montguyon se levantó. Sus ojos, en los cuales se leía el furo
mezclado con la dignidad, me dirigieron una mirada que debía ser la
última. Yo corrí a él, y tomándole la mano le rogué que se sentase a m
lado.
—Es usted un caballero —le dije—. Ningún otro ha merecido más
que usted mi estimación, lo juro. Dios sabe que al decir esto hablo con
el corazón.
— Dios lo sabrá —repuso Montguyon muy afligido—; mas para mí
y de aquí en adelante, las palabras de usted están escritas en el agua.
—Considere las que le diga hoy como si estuvieran grabadas en
bronce. La que confiesa hechos que no le favorecen, ¿no tiene
derecho a ser creída?
—A veces sí. Confiéseme usted que su conducta conmigo no ha
sido leal.
—Lo confieso —repliqué bajando los ojos, y realmente
avergonzada.
—Confiese usted que yo no merecía servir de juguete a una muje
voluntariosa.
—También es cierto.
—Declare usted que ama a otro.
—¡Oh!, sí, lo declaro con todo mi corazón, y si cien bocas tuviera
con todas lo diría.
El leal caballero se quedó atónito y espantado. Estaba, como ellos
dicen, foudroyé. Durante breve rato no me dijo nada; pero yo
comprendí su martirio y le tenía lástima. ¡Oh, qué mala he sido
siempre!
—Ese hombre... —murmuró Montguyon—, ese hombre...
—Ahora, reconociéndome culpable, reconociéndome inferior a
usted —dije—, le autorizo para que me abrume a preguntas, si gusta
y aun para que me eche en cara mi ligereza.
—Ese hombre... —prosiguió el francés—. Perdone usted; pero nada
es más curioso que la desgracia. El amor desairado quiere tener miles
de ojos para sondear las causas de su desdicha. Ese hombre... ¿quién
es?
—Un hombre.
—¿De familia ilustre?
—No, señor: de origen muy humilde.
—¿Le ama usted hace tiempo?
—Hace mucho tiempo.
—Él... ¿la ama a usted?
—No estoy muy segura de ello.
—¡Oh! ¡Qué iniquidad! Es un miserable.
—Un ingrato, y es bastante.
—¿Y a pesar de su ingratitud le ama usted?
—Tengo esa debilidad, que no puedo dominar.
—Aborrézcale usted.
—Si fuera fácil... Difícil cosa es esa.
—¡Es verdad, difícil cosa! —exclamó Montguyon con tristeza—. ¿Y
ese hombre...?
—¿Pero hay más preguntas todavía?
—No, ya no más. Me basta lo que sé, y me retiro.
—Se conduce usted como un cualquiera —le dije afectuosa
deteniéndole—. Me abandona, precisamente cuando mi sinceridad
merece alguna recompensa. ¿Será posible que cuando yo empiezo a
tener franqueza, deje usted de tener generosidad?
—¡Oh! señora, toca usted una fibra de mi corazón que siempre
responde, aun cuando la hieran con un puñal.
—Sí, sí, amigo mío. Es usted generoso y noble en gran manera
Para que la diferencia entre los dos sea siempre grande, para que
usted sea siempre un caballero y yo una miserable, págueme usted
como pagan en todas ocasiones las almas elevadas. Pues yo me he
portado mal, pórtese usted bien conmigo. Haga cada cual su papel
Cumpla usted el precepto que manda volver bien por mal. Así crecerá
más a mis ojos; así me abatiré yo más a los suyos; así su generosidad
será mayor y mi culpa también, y usted tendrá en su vida una página
más gloriosa que la victoria que acaba de alcanzar frente al enemigo.
—Comprendo lo que usted me dice —murmuró el francés
descansando por breve rato su frente en la palma de la mano—. Yo
seré siempre digno de mi nombre.
—¡Caballero leal antes, ahora y siempre!
—Bien, señora —dijo levantándose y alargándome la mano, que
estreché cordialmente—. Lo que usted desea de mí es bastante claro.
—Sí.
—Y yo —añadió con manifiesta emoción— empeño mi palabra de
honor...
—¡Oh! Lo esperaba, lo esperaba.
—Bajo mi palabra de honor, haré cuanto esté en mi mano para
devolver a usted la felicidad, entregándole a su amante.
—Gracias, gracias —exclamé derramando lágrimas de admiración y
agradecimiento.
Saludándome ceremoniosamente, el conde se retiró. De buena
gana le habría dado un abrazo.
XXXV
¡Cuántos días pasaron! Yo contaba las horas, los minutos, como s

de la duración de ellos dependiese mi vida. Entre españoles y
franceses era opinión corriente que la guerra acabaría pronto, que
Cádiz expiraba, que las Cortes se morían por momentos. Sin embargo
aún resistía el gobierno liberal y sus secuaces, como la bestia herida
que no quiere soltar su presa mientras tenga un hálito de existencia
Esta constancia no carecía de mérito, y lo tendría mayor si se
empleara en causa menos perdida. ¡Inútil sacrificio! No tenían
hombres, porque los alistamientos no producían efecto. No tenían
dinero, porque el empréstito que levantaron en Londres produjo... una
libra esterlina. Yo creo que si mi espíritu hubiera estado en disposición
de admirar algo, habría admirado la perseverancia de aquel gobierno
que no pudo encontrar en toda Europa quien le prestase más de cinco
duros.
Mi deseo era que se rindiese todo el mundo, que el rey y la nación
arreglasen pronto sus diferencias, aunque las arreglaran devorándose
mutuamente. Yo quería tener el campo libre para el desenlace de m
campaña amorosa, que veía ya seguro y feliz.
Casi todo septiembre lo pasaron Angulema y las Cortes en dimes y
diretes. Mil recados atravesaban la bahía en un bote; callaban los
cañones para que hablaran los parlamentarios. Tales comedias me
ponían furiosa, porque no se decidía la suerte de los infelices
prisioneros del Trocadero, que habían sido repartidos entre los
Dominicos del Puerto y la Cartuja de Jerez.
Montguyon me visitó el 12 para informarme de que había visto a
prisionero, cuyo nombre y señas le había dado yo oportunamente.
—Está sumamente abatido y melancólico —me dijo—. Se ha
negado a recibir los auxilios pecuniarios que le ofrecí de parte de
usted; pero se ha mostrado muy agradecido. Al oír que Jenara tenía
gran empeño en conseguir su libertad, pareció muy turbado
pronunciando palabras sueltas cuyo sentido no pude comprender.
—¿Y no desea verme?
—Parece que lo desea ardientemente.
—¡Oh! ¡Estas dilaciones son horribles! ¿Y qué más dijo?
—Cosas tristes y peregrinas. Afirma que desea la libertad para
conseguir por ella el destierro.
—¡El destierro!
—Dice que aborrece a su país, y que la idea de emigración le
consuela.
—Le conozco, sí... Esa idea es suya.
Otras cosas me dijo el conde; pero se referían al trato que se daba
a los prisioneros y a las excepciones ventajosas que él estableciera en
beneficio de mi amado. ¡Cuánto le agradecí sus delicadezas! Mientras
viva tendré buenos recuerdos de hombre tan caballeroso y
humanitario.
Interrumpidos los tratos por la terquedad de las Cortes, tomó de
nuevo la palabra el cañón, y el día 20 fue ganado por los franceses
con otro brioso asalto, el castillo de Sancti-Petri. Después de este
hecho de armas Angulema habló fuerte a los tenaces liberales
pegados como lapas a la roca constitucional, y les amenazó con pasa
a cuchillo a toda la guarnición de Cádiz si Fernando VII no era puerto
inmediatamente en libertad. El 26 se sublevó contra la Constitución e
batallón de San Marcial, que guarnecía la batería de Urrutia en la
costa; y la armada francesa, secundando el fuego de las baterías de
Trocadero, arrojaba bombas sobre Cádiz. No era posible mayo
resistencia. Era una tenacidad que empezaba a confundirse con e
heroísmo, y la Constitución moría como había nacido, entre espantosa
lluvia de balas, saludada en su triste ocaso, como en su dramático
oriente, por las salvas del ejército francés.
Por fin llegaba el anhelado día.
—Habrá perdón general —decía yo para mí—. Todos los
prisioneros serán puestos en libertad. Huiremos. ¡Cuán grato es e
destierro! Comeremos los dos el dulce pan de la emigración, lejos de
indiscretas miradas, libres y felices fuera de esta loca patria
perturbada, donde ni aun los corazones pueden latir en paz.
Montguyon me trajo el 29 malas noticias.
—El duque ha resuelto poner en libertad a todos los prisioneros de
guerra. Pero...
—¿Pero qué?
—Ha dispuesto que sean entregados a las autoridades españolas
los individuos que en Cádiz desempeñaban comisiones políticas.
—¿Él está comprendido?
—Sí, señora. Desgraciadamente, se tienen de él las peores
noticias. Había recorrido los pueblos alistando gente por orden de
Calatrava; había venido desde Cataluña con órdenes de Mina para
realizar asesinatos de franceses. Había organizado las partidas de
gente soez que en el tránsito de Sevilla a Cádiz insultaron a Su
Majestad.
—¡Oh, eso es falso, falso, mil veces falso! —grité sin pode
contener mi indignación.
Y en efecto, tales suposiciones eran infames calumnias.
—Ha llegado al Puerto de Santa María —añadió Montguyon— e
señor don Víctor Sáez, Secretario de Estado. ¿Por qué no le ve usted?
—No quiero nada con hombres de ese jaez —repuse con enojo—
Usted me ha dado su palabra de honor; usted ha empeñado su
nombre de caballero, y con usted solo debo contar. ¡Oh, señor conde!
si mi prisionero es entregado a la brutalidad de las autoridades
españolas, sedientas hoy de sangre y de venganza, sospecharé que
usted me hace traición.
Palideció el caballero francés. Dirigiéndome una mirada desdeñosa
me dijo al despedirse:
—Todavía, señora, no sabe usted quién soy yo.
A pesar de mis propósitos, determiné visitar a Sáez, porque bueno
es tener amigos aunque sea en el infierno. Vencí mis recientes
antipatías, y tomando un coche me encaminé al Puerto de Santa
María. Era el 1.º de octubre, día solemne en los fastos españoles.
Hallé al buen canónigo más soplado y presuntuoso que nunca
como todo aquel que se ve en altura a donde nunca debió llegar; pero
contra lo que yo esperaba, recibiome afablemente, y no me dijo una
sola palabra acerca de mi conversión al absolutismo. Parecía no da
valor a estas pequeñeces, y ocuparse tan solo, como Jiménez de
Cisneros, en los negocios públicos de ambos mundos.
—Hoy es día placentero, señora, día feliz entre todos los días
felices de la tierra —me dijo—. Su Majestad don Fernando, ese ilustre
mártir de los excesos revolucionarios, es ya libre.
—¿Ya?
—Hoy nos le entregan. Al fin han comprendido esos locos que su
resistencia les podría costar muy cara, pero muy cara. El duque tiene
malas moscas.
—Felicitémonos, señor don Víctor —dije con afectado entusiasmo
—, de esta solución lisonjera. España y el mundo están de
enhorabuena. Mas para que se completara la dicha, convendría que
tantas y tan graves heridas no se ensañasen con la venganza y la
crueldad del partido vencedor, y que un generoso olvido de los errores
pasados inaugurase la venturosa era que empieza hoy.
—Así será, señora —repuso sonriendo de un modo que me pareció
algo hipócrita—. Su Majestad ha dado ayer en Cádiz un manifiesto en
que ofrece perdonar a todo el mundo y no acordarse para nada de los
que le han ofendido. ¡Cuánta magnanimidad! ¡Cuánta nobleza!
—¡Oh, sí, conducta digna de un descendiente de cien reyes, digna
de quien da el perdón y del pueblo que la recibe! Si Fernando cumple
lo que promete, será grande entre todos los reyes de España.
—Lo cumplirá, señora, lo cumplirá.
Aunque no tenía gran confianza en las afirmaciones de Sáez, d
crédito a estos propósitos por creerlos inspiración del duque de
Angulema.
Invitome luego a presenciar el desembarco de Su Majestad, a lo
que accedí muy gustosa. Nos trasladamos al muelle, y habiendo sido
colocada por un oficial francés en sitio muy conveniente para ver todo
presencié aquel acto, que debía ser uno de los más notables recodos
uno de los más bruscos ángulos de la historia de España en e
tortuoso siglo presente.
¡Espectáculo conmovedor! La regia falúa, cuyo timón gobernaba e
almirante Valdés, glorioso marino de Trafalgar, se acercaba al muelle
En ella venía toda la familia real, la monarquía histórica secuestrada
por el liberalismo. La conciliación ideada por cabezas insensatas era
imposible, y aquellos regios rehenes que la nación había tomado, eran
devueltos al absolutismo, contra el cual no podían prevalecer aún los
infiernos de la demagogia. En una lancha volvían del purgatorio
constitucional las ánimas angustiadas del rey y los príncipes.
Mientras el victorioso despotismo recobraba sus personas
sagradas, allá lejos, sobre la gloriosa peña inundada de luz y ceñida
por coronas de blancas olas, los pobres pensadores desesperados, los
utopistas sin ilusiones, los desengañados patricios lloraban sus
errores, y buscando hospitalidad en naves extranjeras, se disponían a
huir para siempre de la patria a quien no habían podido convencer.
Así acaban los esfuerzos superiores a la energía humana, las
luchas imposibles con monstruos potentes de terribles lazos, y que
hunden en el suelo sus patas para estar más seguros, como hunde
sus raíces el árbol. Tal era la contienda con el absolutismo. Querían
vencerle cortándole las ramas, y él retoñaba con más fuerza. Querían
ahogarle, y regándole daban jugo a sus raíces. ¡A vosotros, oh
venideros días del siglo, tocaba atacarlo en lo hondo, arrancándolo de
cuajo!... Pero advierto que estoy hablando la jerga liberal. ¡Qué horror
Verdad es que escribo veinte años después de aquellos sucesos; que
ya soy vieja, y que a los viejos, como a los sabios, se les permite
mudar de parecer.
Fernando puso el pie en tierra. Dicen que al verse en suelo firme
dirigió a Valdés una mirada terrible, una mirada que era un programa
político: el programa de la venganza. Yo no lo vi, pero debió de se
cierto, porque me lo dijo quien estaba muy cerca. Lo que sí puedo
asegurar es que Angulema, hincando en tierra la rodilla, besó la mano
al rey; que luego se abrazaron todos; que don Víctor Sáez lloraba
como un simple, y que los vivas y las exclamaciones de entusiasmo
me volvieron loca. Los franceses gritaban, los españoles gritaban
también, celebrando la feliz resurrección de la monarquía tradicional y
la miserable muerte del impío constitucionalismo. El glorioso imperio
de las caenas había empezado. Ya se podía decir con toda el alma
«¡Viva el rey absoluto! ¡Muera la nación!»
XXXVI
Faltaba la solución mía. Mi corazón estaba como el reo cuya

sentencia no se ha escrito aún. El 1.º de octubre por la tarde y el día 2
hice diligencias sin fruto, no siéndome posible ver a Sáez ni a
Montguyon, a quien envié frecuentes y apremiantes recados. Ninguna
noticia pude adquirir tampoco de los prisioneros. Creo que me hubiera
repetido el ataque cerebral que padecí en Sevilla, si en el momento de
mi mayor desesperación no apareciese mi generoso galán francés a
devolverme la vida. Estaba pálido y parecía muy agitado.
—Vengo de Cádiz —me dijo—. Dispénseme usted si no he podido
servirla más pronto.
—¿Y qué hay? —pregunté con la vida toda en suspenso.
—Deme usted su mano —dijo Montguyon ceremoniosamente.
Se la di y la besó con amor.
—Ahora, señora, todo ha acabado entre nosotros. Mi deber está
cumplido, y mi deber es perdonar, pagando las ofensas con beneficios.
Yo me sentía muy conmovida y no pude decirle nada.
—Ni un momento he dudado de su hidalguía —indiqué con acento
de pura verdad—. A veces tropezamos en la vida con el bien y
pasamos sin verlo. Señor conde, mi gratitud será eterna.
—No quiero gratitud —díjome con honda tristeza—. Es un
sentimiento que no me gusta recibido, sino dado. Deseo tan solo un
recuerdo bueno y constante.
—¡Y una amistad entrañable, una estimación profunda! —exclamé
derramando lágrimas.
—Todo está hecho.
—¿Conforme a mi deseo...? ¡Bendito sea el momento en que nos
conocimos!
—Señora, su prisionero de usted está sano y salvo a bordo de la
corbeta Tisbe, que parte esta tarde para Gibraltar.
—¿Y cómo?
—Por sus antecedentes debía ser condenado a muerte. Otros
menos criminales subirán al cadalso, si no se escapan a tiempo. Yo le
saqué anoche furtivamente de los Dominicos y le embarqué esta
mañana. Ya no corre peligro alguno. Está bajo la salvaguardia de
noble pabellón inglés.
—¡Oh, gracias, gracias!
—Además del servicio que a usted presto, creo cumplir un deber de
conciencia arrancando una víctima a los feroces ministros del rey de
España.
—¿Pues qué —pregunté con asombro—, Su Majestad no ha
ofrecido en su manifiesto de Cádiz perdonar a todo el mundo?
—¡Palabras de rey prisionero! Las palabras del déspota libre son las
que rigen ahora. Su Majestad ha promulgado otro decreto que es la
negra bandera de las proscripciones, un programa de sangre y
exterminio. Innumerables personas han sido condenadas a muerte.
—Esto es una infamia... Pero, en fin, ¿está él en salvo?...
—En salvo.
—¿Y sabe que me lo debe a mí..., sabe que yo...? ¡Oh, seño
conde!, no extrañe usted mi egoísmo. Estoy loca de alegría, y puedo
repetir con toda mi alma: «Ahora sí que no se me puede escapar.»
—Sabe que a usted lo debe todo, y espera abrazarla pronto.
—¿Cómo?
—Muy fácilmente. Comprendiendo que usted desea ir en su
compañía, he pedido otro pasaporte para doña Jenara de Baraona.
—¿De modo que yo...?
—Puede embarcarse usted esta tarde antes de las cuatro a bordo
de la Tisbe.
—¿Es verdad lo que oigo?
—Aquí está la orden firmada por el almirante inglés. Me la ha dado
con las que ponen en salvo a los exregentes Císcar y Valdés
impíamente condenados a muerte por el rey.
—¡Oh..., soy feliz, y todo lo debo a usted!... ¡Qué admirable
conducta!
Sin poder contenerme, caí de rodillas, y con mis lágrimas bañé las
generosas manos de aquel hombre.
—Así castigo yo —me dijo, levantándome—. Prepárese usted. A las
tres y media vengo a buscarla para conducirla a bordo del bote francés

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China 1839 1997 1st Edition Michael

Management Principle Contemporary Sixth Edition Ronald

Politics Managerialism and University Governance

Chemistry First Edition C.L. Lynch

Peacebuilding : The Twenty Years’ Crisis, 1997-2017 1st

Reflections on Irish Criminology: Conversations with

The Nature of Truth second edition Classic and

Wanted by the Fae 01 0 Glamour Eyes 1st Edition Jessica

Crisis and Conflict in Han China 104 BC to AD 9 1st

China 1839-1997 is available as a Student eTextbook.

Acknowledgements: are listed on page 322.

First published in 2016 by

Cover photo© Photos 12/Aiamy

ISBN 978 1471839184

CHAPTER 1 China 1839-60 1

CHAPTER 2 The opening of China to foreigners 1860-1901 22

CHAPTER 3 Defeat and revolution 1901-25 47

CHAPTER 4 Nationalists and Communists 1924-45 73

CHAPTER 5 The Japanese threat and Communist takeover 1931-49 101

CHAPTER 6 China and the wider world 1949-76 129

CHAPTER S The Cultural Revolution 1966-76 187

CHAPTER 9 Deng Xiaoping 228

e:MQd;lial China and the wider world 1978-97 252

CHAPTER 11 Concluding survey 271

Study guide 285

Glossary of Chinese names 305

Glossary of terms 306

Further reading 314

* The nature of Manchu rule

* The Opium Wars

* Rebellions and the Qing response to them

2200sc Beginning of China's recorded 1841 Convention of Ch'uan-pi

1794 McCartney's mission to China 1856-60 Second Opium War

1839-42 First Opium War 1860 Treaty of T ianjin

The nature of Manchu rule

The Manchu (Qing) dynasty (I 644-191 I).

Status quo The existing • the acceptance of the status quo

It was not surprising that Confucianism, with its insistence on deference to

The imperial court

The Manchu view of China's place in the world

Striking examples of this were to be found in Sino-British relations. In the late

In their separate ways, McCartney's disregard of Chinese sensibilities and

Society under the Manchus

Status of women in imperial China

made as leader of China was to prohibit foot-binding, evidence that it had

The im perial economy

China from the 1800s to

That description, however, offered an idealised and oversimplified picture.

Figure 1.1 Main areas of food and crop production in China.

found it difficult to interpret court debates accurately. Expecting wrongly,

Lin's anti-opium campaign, March to May 1839

• 70,000 opium pipes were confiscated.

• 1600 Chinese opium addicts were arrested.

From Lord Palmerston's despatch to the minister of the emperor of China,

Character of the war

Convention of Ch'uan-pi, January 1841

Treaty of Nanjing 1842 (supplemented by the Treaty of

The Second Opium War 1856-60