Semi-colony
Topic: Paths to Modernisation: Japan, China, Korea · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 6 "Displacing Indigenous Peoples"
Meaning
A semi-colony is a country that keeps its own government, but foreign powers control much of its trade, land and laws. Nobody fully conquers it, yet its freedom to rule itself (its sovereignty) is badly cut down. The term is used for China in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Britain, France, Germany, Russia, the USA and Japan all took rights from China, but the Qing emperors stayed on the throne. The idea explains why Chinese reformers felt humiliated, and why their main aim became winning back sovereignty and equality.
Example
After the First Opium War (1839–42), China had to open treaty ports such as Shanghai and Canton to foreign merchants. In these ports, foreigners lived under their own laws and not under Chinese courts. China was still ruled by the Qing, but it could no longer decide its own trade policy.
Don't confuse with
- Colony: a foreign power takes over the state directly and rules it. India under Britain and Korea under Japan after 1910 were colonies. China was not taken over in this way.
Related concepts
- Qing dynasty
- Triangular trade
- Opium Wars
- Treaty of Nanking 1842
- Taiping Rebellion
- Self-Strengthening Movement
- Hundred Days' Reform 1898
- Kang Youwei
- Liang Qichao
- Boxer Rebellion