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The Making of Modern China, 1860–1997

  • 19 subtopics
  • 57 things to know
  • Paper 3
  • Paper 3 themes option, chosen from sixteen

What The Making of Modern China, 1860–1997 covers

A Paper 3 option combining aspects in breadth on communications, industry and the ideas that drove economic change with aspects in depth on the unequal treaties and foreign penetration, the war with Japan, the Sino-Soviet split, and China's re-entry into world affairs.

Where it is assessed

Paper 3

Themes in breadth with aspects in depth, one option of sixteen.

Check the Pearson Edexcel specification ↗

The 19 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Evaluation

Why did Self-Strengthening fail to modernise China?

Process

How did Deng's reforms transform the Chinese economy?

Key term

What industrial development took place in Manchuria in the 1930s?

Key term

What economic model inspired China's early 1950s industrialisation?

Key term

How did growing foreign contact affect the Chinese elite?

Key term

What was the Boxer Rebellion (1898–1900)?

Numbers

What triggered all-out war in 1937?

Key term

Why was 7 December 1941 significant for China?

Who and when

What did Mao accuse Khrushchev of?

Numbers

What agreement arranged Hong Kong's return?

Who and when

How did railways contribute to industrial growth in the Qing Empire?

Numbers

Why was China slow to build railways?

Key term

What was China's first plan of 1953?

Key term

What were the Four Modernisations, launched in 1978?

Key term

What was the Treaty of Tianjin (negotiated 1858, ratified 1860)?

Numbers

What was the Second Opium War?

Key term

Which city was the centre of British trade in China?

Key term

What were treaty ports?

Who and when

What did the new foreign-language schools teach?

Key term

What were China and Japan fighting over in 1894?

Numbers

What caused the Sino-Japanese War?

Key term

What was the Triple Intervention of 1895?

Who and when

What new concessions did Britain gain in 1898?

Numbers

How did the Boxer Rebellion end?

Key term

What happened in Manchuria after September 1931?

Key term

What was the Tanggu Truce (1933)?

Numbers

What was the East Hebei Autonomous Council?

Key term

What was the Rape of Nanjing (1937)?

Key term

What caused tension between Khrushchev and Mao in 1958?

Numbers

What was the Brezhnev Doctrine and why did it alarm China?

Numbers

What was the Third Front?

Key term

What happened militarily in 1969?

Key term

What happened at Zhenbao Island in March 1969?

Who and when

How did the Sino-Soviet split affect China's wider policy?

Key term

What was China's attitude to international organisations before 1971?

Key term

What obstacles remained in relations with Japan?

Numbers

How did Sino-American relations develop after 1972?

Numbers

Why did Hong Kong's future have to be settled in the 1980s?

Numbers

How did steam shipping change Chinese trade?

Key term

What drove China's industrial growth in the late twentieth century?

Evaluation

What was the Self-Strengthening Movement of the 1860s–70s?

Numbers

Who established China's first modern bank, and when?

Who and when

What did the Convention of Peking of 1860 add to the Tianjin terms?

Key term

What was the significance of the Yangzi penetration?

Key term

What was the Tianjin Massacre of 1870?

Who and when

What was the Battle of the Yalu in 1894?

Numbers

Why did Germany seize Jiaozhou in 1897?

Key term

What caused the Boxer Rebellion?

Numbers

What was Manchukuo?

Who and when

Why did Japan escalate in 1937?

Key term

Why does the Nanjing Massacre remain politically significant?

Key term

What were the Soviet demands of 1958?

Who and when

How did the border dispute develop?

Numbers

How was the immediate crisis defused?

Who and when

How did China use its Security Council position?

Key term

What was Deng's 1979 visit to the United States?

Numbers

What was the Basic Law of Hong Kong?

Take The Making of Modern China, 1860–1997 further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

  • First Five-Year Plan (1953–57) vs Great Leap Forward (1958–61)

    First Five-Year Plan (1953–57): a Soviet-modelled plan prioritising heavy industry, which achieved significant industrial growth. Great Leap Forward (1958–61): Mao's drive for rapid industrialisation and communal farming, including backyard steel furnaces, which caused a catastrophic famine.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    How did communications improve in China after 1860?

    Model answer

    By telegraph, by steamers on rivers and along the coast, by railway, and later by road and by air.

  2. 2

    How did railways contribute to industrial growth in the Qing Empire?

    Model answer

    Once they spread, raw materials and goods moved cheaply, which helped mines and factories to grow.

  3. 3

    Why was China slow to build railways?

    Model answer

    Officials feared foreign control, disruption of feng shui and of canal and porter employment, so the first line at Wusong was bought and dismantled in 1877.

  4. 4

    How extensive was China's railway network by 1911?

    Model answer

    About 9,000 kilometres, much of it foreign-built and foreign-controlled, concentrated in the north east and along foreign spheres of influence.

  5. 5

    What was the significance of the telegraph in China?

    Model answer

    Introduced from the 1870s, it allowed central government to communicate with distant provinces in hours, and became a tool of both control and rebellion.

  6. 6

    How did steam shipping change Chinese trade?

    Model answer

    Foreign and then Chinese steamers on the Yangzi and the coast cut costs and times, and the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Company of 1872 was a Chinese response.

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The Making of Modern China, 1860–1997 revision questions

What does The Making of Modern China, 1860–1997 cover in Edexcel A-Level History?
19 subtopics: improved communications and the application of western technologies, 1860–1997, the growth of mining and manufacturing, 1860–1997, ideas and ideologies promoting change, 1860-1997, the roles of individuals in promoting economic growth, 1860–1997, the treaty of tianjin, 1860, treaty ports and the significance of growing foreign trade, foreign language schools and missionaries, the sino-japanese war of 1894-95, the triple intervention and new concessions, the boxer rebellion, 1898-1900, the manchurian crisis of 1931-33, reasons for all-out war in 1937, the impact of war, 1937-39, and the role of the usa, russian demands and the khrushchev-mao clash, mao's growing fears of the soviet union, military confrontation in 1969, china's growing importance in world organisations, closer cooperation with japan and the usa and the peaceful return of hong kong, 1997. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
How is The Making of Modern China, 1860–1997 organised?
By the Edexcel 9HI0 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.

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