Changes Between 1920s China And Japan

From the 1800s to the 1920s China and Japan have both drastically changed. These changes are reflected in their political structure, and military power. Both countries have dealt with these changes in different ways, with Japan being more successful than China.
1800s - 1920s China The early China ruling system was made up of dynasties. A dynasty is when a house takes control of the country. The ruler in this instance was called an emperor and the emperor title is inherited from father to eldest son. The last dynasty was knows as the Qing dynasty. In fact "the rulers of this dynasty were not what the Han Chinese, which made up over 85% of the population, called Chinese. Instead, the Qing rulers were Manchus, a distinct ethnic group." (Huang, Week 2 lecture, p.1). This dynasty would last until 1911. Europe had started importing Opium into China and by 1840 Europe was making a huge profit. This ruined the economy of China because of the amount of silver exported from China. Another concern was that opium was highly addictive "and turned thousands of previously productive civil servants and healthy soldiers into useless addicts" (Huand, Week 2
A national land tax system was established that required payment in money instead of rice, which allowed the government to stabilize the national budget." (Huand, Week 3 lecture, p.3). It wasn't smooth sailing for Japan to get there, During these changes there were muiltiple rebellions but they were all shut down the the new national army. In 1894 Japan went to war with China and the Japanese navy quickly sunk China's fleet, and in 1905 Japan went to war with Russia. Russia was defeated by Japan and was the first east country to do so. This told the rest of the world that Japan was no small country anymore. (Huand, Week 3 lecture,