Description

Book Synopsis

Napoleon warned ''Let China sleep; when she wakes, she will shake the world''. Lawrence James''s magisterial history analyses the relationship between Britain and China between the beginning of the Opium Wars in 1839 and the transfer of power in Hong Kong in 1997.

THE LION AND THE DRAGON reveals the part that Britain played in the awakening of China, then covers relations between the two countries during the period when an aroused China did indeed shake the world. Lawrence James also follows the parallel trajectories of four competitive empires - the British, the Chinese, the Russian and the Japanese - during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and then the fortunes of a fifth imperial power, the United States.

Successive British governments saw China as a source of wealth which needed to be protected. Local objections were seen off by force (the ''Opium'' wars of 1839-42, 1856-7 and 1859-60) whose results proved that the Qing emperors could not protect their cou

The Lion and the Dragon

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    A Paperback by Lawrence James

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      Book details

      Publisher Orion Publishing Co
      Published 1 January 2024
      ISBN-13 9781474610209
      978-1474610209
      ISBN-10 147461020X
      Also in:
      History Asian history

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      Napoleon warned ''Let China sleep; when she wakes, she will shake the world''. Lawrence James''s magisterial history analyses the relationship between Britain and China between the beginning of the Opium Wars in 1839 and the transfer of power in Hong Kong in 1997.

      THE LION AND THE DRAGON reveals the part that Britain played in the awakening of China, then covers relations between the two countries during the period when an aroused China did indeed shake the world. Lawrence James also follows the parallel trajectories of four competitive empires - the British, the Chinese, the Russian and the Japanese - during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, and then the fortunes of a fifth imperial power, the United States.

      Successive British governments saw China as a source of wealth which needed to be protected. Local objections were seen off by force (the ''Opium'' wars of 1839-42, 1856-7 and 1859-60) whose results proved that the Qing emperors could not protect their cou

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