Spheres+of+Influence

What are the Spheres of Influence? China was facing severe economic problems. One of their worst was that their population was growing out of control, leading to mass amounts of starvation in the country. Other powerful countries saw this and realized how easy it would be to attack. China was not able to give any resistance against the multiple attacking countries. The Chinese decided to make peace treaties with them. In return, China divided its land between the countries. The imperialistic countries gained control over the Chinese economy through trade.

As China's land was taken over more people from the conquering countries came to China. These people had extraterritorial rights. Extraterritorial Rights gave the foreigners an exemption from the laws of the country. This meant that the new people didn't have to follow the same laws as the Chinese. Many of the foreign countries were mistreating the Chinese and eventually the Chinese citizens got fed up. A group soon formed called the "boxers" who went around slaughtering foreign people, missionaries, and Chinese converts. This led to the Boxer Rebellion.

Some of these problems were fixed later thanks to the United States. The US wanted to continue trading with China, and were afraid the countries controlling China wouldn' t allow that. In 1899 the US created the Open Door Policy. This policy would allow China to trade with all nations. The Europeans agreed with the policy and it eventually came to pass. The policy freed China from some of its colonization. Unfortunately, many of the foreign citizens still remained in China.

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