China entered the nineteenth century still convinced of its superiority over barbarian Western countries possessing a belief in its own greatness. The Chinese referred to their land as the Middle Kingdom, around which the rest of the world revolved. For centuries China's claim to superiority was probably valid. It had achieved much in the fields of science and the arts. In Confucianism, it believed it had solved the problem of government. Militarily it dominated all its neighbours, such as Korea and Indochina, who were forced to pay an annual tribute as 'vassal states'. .
However, by the nineteenth century, the economic and military superiority of the West over China had become apparent. As the Industrial Revolution proceeded, particularly in Britain, western European powers sought raw materials and markets in China. When Western nations appeared in the Far East, China viewed them with disdain and mistrust: disdain because Westerners were merely uncivilised barbarians, mistrust because they brought with them new ideas and new methods that might undermine Manchu rule. The West wanted what China had to offer but China did not want what the West had to offer. The West's solution to this proved to be the cause of the first Anglo-Chinese war in 1839. .
By the 1830s Western powers, especially Britain, were trying to open up China, a move that China resisted. The opium trade gave Britain its chance to enter the China trade and this provided the pretext for war between Britain and China in 1839, a war which the British won easily. Britain forced China to sign the first of many 'unequal treaties'. Soon most European nations followed Britain's example and signed treaties which gave them trading opportunities, territorial concessions and various other rights. .
On occasions China resisted, but its military inferiority always meant that the Western powers got what they wanted. Inside China there was a great debate about how to react to the West.
