the chinese revolution

long before the Manchu dynasty reached its lowest ebb, reform efforts were made to prevent furture decay. reformers basicly sought remedial measures to abolosh an inefficient and corrupt bureaucracy. they attempted to strengthen the imperal goverments capability to meet unrest and rebelion in the countryside, the sourse of China's manpower, food suply, and goverment revenues. unrest and rebelion were trigerred by the demands of an increased population on the limited supplies the land could produce and by the perennial occurrence of drought, flood, and famine. confidence in the Manchu dynasty's ability to govern received a sereve blow in 1842, when european goverments forced open the closed doors of china wiith unequal treaties that provided for special territorial concessions to strngthen the old chinese empire by making changes in such traditional instituions as examination system and the military establishment. the optimism of the reformers was dashed when china received her greatest huiliation-defeat by japan in 1895. this defeat convinced some that reform alone could not possibly save the empire, and it gave rise to the idea that a revolution might be necessary to over-throw the traditional imperial system.