Overview
• Two Hundred Years of Trade with China (1784 to 1979) [Reading]
This unit explores the 200-year history of U.S. trade with China. Discussion questions and a U.S.-China Trade Timeline are included.

18th Century
• Macartney and the Emperor (1792) [Reading]
The Qing Dynasty's policy of imposing restrictions on Western trade increasingly frustrated Europeans, especially the British. In 1792 Great Britain sent a diplomat, Lord Macartney, to present its demands to the emperor. This unit describes that encounter and includes the following:
~ introductory note to teachers with suggestions for teaching about Macartney's mission
~ student reading discussing European contact and trade with China prior to and on the eve of Macartney's mission to China
~ primary-source reading: "Two Edicts from the Emperor" (the Qianlong Emperor's response to the Macartney mission)
~ discussion questions and suggested activities

19th Century
• The Opium War and Foreign Encroachment [Reading]
In the fifty years after Macartney's visit (see Teaching Unit "Macartney and the Emperor," above), Western powers pushed their demands further, leading to war and the gradual shift from tribute to treaty relations. This unit examines the events surrounding the Opium War and the Treaty of Nanking (Nanjing), which concluded the Opium War, and the increasing foreign encroachments upon China during the nineteenth century, and includes the following:
~ student reading discussing the trade imbalance between England and China, Britain's solution to this problem, and the growing foreign demands, encroachments, and resulting "unequal treaties"
~ primary-source reading: "The Treaty of Nanking, August 1842"
~ primary-source reading: Commissioner Lin Zexu's "Letter of Advice to Queen Victoria" (1839)
~ discussion questions and suggested activities