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| 1897, Nov. 14 |
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| The Germans occupied Jiaozhou Bay (See 1897, Nov. 14) with Qingdao, following the murder of two missionaries in Shandong. The move had been long under consideration and was looked upon by the Germans as the logical consequence of the Tripartite Intervention (1895). Instead, it precipitated the “scramble for concessions” the following year, in which most of the European powers participated. | 1 |
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| 1898, Feb |
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| Britain secured agreements to open inland waters to foreign steamers, to not sell off any part of the Yangzi River valley to any other power, and to employ a British inspector general of customs as long as British trade remained preponderant. | 2 |
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| March 6 |
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| Germany extracted a convention giving it a 99-year lease on Jiaozhou Bay, with exclusive rights to build railways and develop mines in Shandong (the Qingdao-Jinan Railway opened in 1904). A second Anglo-German loan of 16 million pounds for 45 years at 4.5 percent interest was extended to China. | 3 |
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| March 27, May 7 |
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| Russia extorted from China a 25-year lease of the southern part of the Liaodong peninsula, including Dalian (Japanese, Dairen; Russian, Dalny) and Lüshun, with the right to construct a railroad from Harbin in the north to the newly leased ports. | 4 |
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| April 10 |
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| France received a 99-year lease of Guangzhouwan and the vicinity, with the rights to extend a railroad to Yunnan (completed, 1910) and a promise not to sell to any other power any part of the provinces bordering Tonkin. | 5 |
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| April 26 |
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| Japan secured a promise from China not to sell any part of Fujian. | 6 |
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| June 9 |
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| Britain secured a 99-year lease for Kowloon opposite Hong Kong, and (July 1) a lease of Weihaiwei to run as long as the Russian occupation of Lüshun. | 7 |
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| June 11–Sept. 16 |
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| During the HUNDRED DAYS' REFORM movement, the Guangxu emperor asserted himself with the issuance of a series of strikingly radical edicts; many of the ideas had been put forth earlier by Zhang Zhidong in his “Exhortation to Study” (1898), by Kang Youwei (1858–1927) in many pamphlets and essays, and by others. The edicts called for reforming educational institutions along Western lines and launching vocational schools, reforms in the economy and agriculture, military reforms, and the like. Although they met with general approval, the imperial decrees struck at the vital interests of the civil and military bureaucrats by abolishing sinecures. | 8 |
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| Sept. 22 |
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| For reasons still not completely understood, the empress dowager, supported by the high-level Manchu military official Ronglu (1836–1903), placed Guangxu under house arrest, ordered the arrest of six of his alleged advisers, and had the latter executed with alacrity. Reforms that were deemed contrary to the best interests of the Manchus and high officials were revoked. Government control reverted to the hands of extreme conservatives. Kang Youwei and his brilliant disciple Liang Qichao (1873–1929) escaped by different routes to Japan. Another of his disciples, Tan Sitong (1865–98), died a martyr's death as one of the six executed. | 9 |
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