A Disappointed Nation at Paris, 1919

Abstract

The metmorphosis of China in the last few decades of its imperial history was both momentous and sweeping. Seventy years after the impact of European expansion was first seriously felt, the Middle Kingdom — a universal empire — was replaced by a nation-state, the first republic in Asia. This signified the total collapse of the traditional Chinese world order which had to give way to the European-defined international order of modern times. In the confrontation of the two civilizations, the Chinese civilization, of which China had been so proud, had to adapt itself and adopt some Western institutions such as, for example, those elaborated in international law for the conduct of relations between modern states. It was a gradual and sometimes painful process to transform the old Confucian Empire so as to be accepted by the European international system. In this way, China, half reluctantly and half willingly, was put into the framework of the European international system.