Century of Humiliation
“
The opening of 
China by 
Western powers 
through the 
Opium Wars was not about civilizing an ancient culture, but about 
commercial greed and 
imperialism.
— 
John King Fairbank
The century of humiliation was a period in 
Chinese history beginning with the First Opium War (1839–1842, 
Qing Dynasty), and ending in 1945 with 
China emerging out of the Second World War as one of the Big Four. During this period of roughly a hundred years, China was is typified by decline, defeat and political fragmentation. Foreign, mainly 
European powers like Britain and 
Russia exploited China for goods and clay. They intervened, annexed and subjugated China. In the century of humiliation, China is seen as a weak and crumbling empire.
History
Chinese 
nationalists in the 1920s and the 1930s dated the Century of Humiliation to the mid-19th century, on the eve of the First Opium War amidst the dramatic political unraveling of Qing China that followed.
Defeats by foreign powers cited as part of the Century of Humiliation include the following:
Western and Japanese Trade in Opium to China (1800s–1940s)- Defeat in the First Opium War (1839–1842)
British occupation of Hong Kong (1841-1997)
Treaty of Nanking (1842)
Treaty of Whampoa (1844)- Defeat in the Second Opium War (1856–1860)
Treaty of Aigun (1858)
Treaty of Peking (1860)
The sacking and looting of the Old Summer Palace by Anglo-French forces (1860)
Treaty of Shimonoseki (1895)
