*Western missionaries paid visits to China started as early as 16 century.During [[Ming Dynasty]] 明朝 ,great [[scholars]] such as [[Matteo Ricci]], (1552 – 1610) 利瑪竇,[[Johann Adam Schall von Bell]] (1591年－1666年）， 湯若望 ,and [[Ferdinand Verbiest]]，(1623－1688) 南懷仁 ,plus many others not as well known missionaries.Beside spreading the words of [[Christ]],they were spreading western knowledge as well,such as mathematic,geography,astronomy,metallurgy,and modern weapons making.All the prominent missionaries were given extreme high positions in the [[Ming]] royal court,and were highly respected by Ming emperors and the bureaucrat,especially Matteo [[Ricci]],who was being granted a burial place in the Royal Capital by none other than the [[Ming Emperor]] himself.
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In less then 250 years,the high social status enjoyed by the western missionaries had turned from heaven to hell.The [[Manchu]] rulers,unlike the [[Ming]] emperors who were the true followers of [[Confucius]] Teaching,had stopped the interaction and exchange between two great cultures,that of the East and the West.
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The Manchu rulers,whose ancestors were primitive tribal nomads and pastoral farmers and slaves chieftains,decided to permanently shutting the door on western culture and religion,by systematically killing foreign missionaries and their native converts,burn down the churches and Bibles,in the end causing the downfall and collapse of their own empire,which lasted only 260 years.
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==Short Term Causes==
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*'''Harry G. Gelber''' ,is the author[http://www.johnderbyshire.com/Reviews/China/gelber.html Harry G. Gelberis] "a Professor of History and Political Science and Visiting Research Fellow, Asian Research Centre, London School of Economics and Political Economy."
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of The Dragon and the Foreign Devils: China and the World, 1100 B.C. to the Present
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In 1743,[[British]] Commodore George Anson was contemptuous of China's military power,and wrote: "in artifice, falsehood and an attachment to all kinds of lucre, many of the Chinese are difficult to be paralleled by any other people." which pretty much help shaped England's understanding of 16 century China,when [[Britain]] was on its way to becoming the [[Empire]] that the Sun never set.
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In 1793,Lord Macartney,had made another observation on the weaknesses and the falling apart of the primitive Manchu Dynasty:"tyranny of a handful of Tartars over more than 300 million of Chinese (read Han)".
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After Napoleon was defeated,European powers then began the assault on this old and tired Manchu Dynasty,whose military machine was still consisted of bow and arrow,knife and spear,when Europeans were already using machine guns and high power cannons on battle fields.On 1840-1843,with the first Opium War , Manchu suffered one of the most humiliating defeat in the hands of the Western powers; and it was the beginning of many more defeats to come.
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