Spheres+of+Influence

In time, western nations grew tired of leading foreign lands and in result created the spheres of influence within China. This guaranteed exact trading rights to each country within its individual sphere. Austria, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, and Russia all declared different sections of China for their own restricted trading rights. They separated China into regions called the spheres of influence. Some countries even declared to own land inside their spheres.

The desire to create spheres of influence in China came mainly from the belief in social Darwinism, or that one country is superior to another because of more abundant resources, a certain culture, or stronger technological advances. Each country believing that they had a certain degree of superiority, they all had the desire to spread their influence to China, affecting it economically and culturally.



This is a map of the assigned spheres. -- This political cartoon shows Britain, Germany, Russia, France, and Japan dividing China. --

After the Spheres were created, the United States, in hope to obtain vast resources, wanted power within China, but the spheres of influence endangered their hopes. Looking for a way into China, American John Hay came up with the idea of the “Open Door” policy, which would promise equivalent trading rights to all and stop one country from discriminating against another within its sphere. The nations of the spheres of influence, in response said that they liked the idea of the policy but they could not enforce it. The “Open Door” policy was politely refused.

While the exterior nations continued to fight over the power, China became tired of being controlled by the invading nations and started thinking over ways to make peace. Numerous Chinese citizens became part of what was named the Boxer Rebellion to get rid of the intruders. The rebellion sadly failed and the spheres of influence were made permanent.

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