아편전쟁과 동아시아 근대화과정에서 나타난 중․일의 대응방식 분석

Abstract

This study analyzed how to readdress the external political changes in China and Japan exhibited in the process of modernization. The Opium Wars from 1839 to 1842 helped determine the military superiority between the West and the Orient, and England's victory lead the western powers to govern East Asia. With its defeat in the Opium Wars, China concluded the Sino-British Treaty in 1842 Nanjing Agreement, which was an unfair agreement which demanded that they pay compensation to the British and lead to a decline in Chinese power. It could not correspond to the rapidly changing world because of its feudalism system of government centering on the emperor. As well, its political system, closed to foreign business, was not strong enough to overcome the western powers which had already had the Industrial Revolution. The inability of the upper elites of China to understand foreign powers and reform systems, unstable political conditions and financial panic due to the unfair treaty were main reasons of Chinese failure to modernize. Meanwhile, Japan was a representative country which corresponded to rapidly changing foreign trends after the Opium Wars. Its international relations with western powers were different from Chinese due to strategic values western powers expected from Japan such as centralized authoritarian rule and elites' recognition on foreign powers. That is, Japanese modernization was successful because the strategic values of the western powers were consistent with Japanese elites' recognition of foreign powers, and its intention to reform all systems of government in Japan which were dominated by the ranks of power. In conclusion, though both national systems of China and Japan at the time of Opium Wars were pre-modern based on feudalism, after the wars, Japan succeeded in modernization as its ranks of power had more advanced consciousness of foreign trends and intention to reform. Historical experiences exhibited in the process of modernization in East Asia will give both countries important lessons for setting national strategies and goals in the 21st century.