#102 Qianlong and Macartney at the Apogee of Empire

Essential question: Imperialism

• One of our essential questions is: “How—as historians—do we make sense of “imperialism”? Is it always Western? Does it have a meaning independent of colonialism?​”
  • What points of information might be relevant to addressing that question from last night’s readings and videos?
  • In what sense were the Qing and the British both engaged in imperialism in the 1700s? Do you see these empires as fundamentally similar or different?

Analyzing Visual Sources

• Introduce method for analyzing visual sources (link to Discovering History page)
• Apply the method to the image that appeared in the final slide of the second video: “The reception of the diplomatique and his suite, at the Court of Pekin,” by James Gillray (1792):

Examine the exchange

• First, read document excerpts of the Qianlong emperor’s exchange with George III (Google Doc).
  Consider:
  
  • What did the Chinese consider to be “normal” international relations? How did that vision differ from the British perspective at the time? Do you see a common logic to both positions?
    
  • What did the two sides seem to understand and misunderstand about one another?
    
  • Who is the audience for the Qianlong emperor’s reply to Macartney?
    
  • What analogies might be appropriate between this circumstance and today? Who would be the Qianlong emperor? Who would be Lord Macartney? What would they be discussing?