Episode 19 - Babb on China's "Century of Humiliation"

Dr. Geoff Babb joins Dr. Jonathan Abel and Dr. Angela Riotto to talk about China's "Century of Humiliation," referring to the period from around 1840 to 1950 when internal issues and outside powers combined to destroy the Qing Dynasty and eventually see the seizure of power by the Chinese Communist Party.  Babb begins with the intervention of the British and other foreign powers in China in the mid-nineteenth century and the internal unrest that followed, including the Taiping and Boxer Rebellions.  He then discusses the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in the early twentieth century and the ensuing Chinese Civil War between the nationalists and the communists of Mao Zedong.  Finally, he explains how the Japanese invasions of the 1930s provided the catalyst for the communist victory in the war.  He concludes with an explanation of how the current Chinese government speaks of the period, envisioning it as a "century of humiliation" against which it feels it must react.

"History is only a confused heap of facts." - Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield

Host: Dr. Jonathan Abel, CGSC DMH

Artwork: Daniel O. Neal

Music: SSG Noah Taylor, West Point Band