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History Optional PYQ Master Pack · Model answer

Why is the period from 1842 to 1900 considered as half a century of humiliations in the history of China? What was the reaction of China?

  • UPSC 1988
  • Imperialism and Colonialism

Between the Treaty of Nanking (1842) and the Boxer Protocol (1901), China moved from proud civilizational self-sufficiency to a state repeatedly defeated, carved up, and indemnified by foreign powers — a trajectory Chinese nationalists themselves would later call the "century of humiliation."

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What the full answer covers

  • The Catalogue of Humiliations
  • China's Reaction: Denial, then Adaptation
  • China's Reaction: Radical Reform and Violent Backlash

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