Lesson Y8-U06-L04

Y8-U06-L04 Qing China The Middle Kingdom Quiz: KS3 History, Unit 12

20 questions

Written by Revision Ninja · Last reviewed 11 October 2026

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Lesson Y8-U06-L04, Qing China The Middle Kingdom: 20 multiple choice questions for the KS3 History (National Curriculum), Unit 12: Year 8: Meanwhile Elsewhere, written with Revision Ninja.

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The 20 questions

  1. What did China call itself, in the phrase 'Middle Kingdom'?

    • A republic with a parliament elected by all of its citizens
    • A small island kingdom on the far side of the Pacific
    • The land of silk, which was the only source of silk in the world
    • The centre of the civilised world, with all other lands below it

  2. What is a 'dynasty'?

    • A family of rulers who pass power down through the generations
    • A group of merchants who share the profits of a trading company
    • A council of advisers who choose the emperor each year
    • A type of palace that was built for the emperor's wives

  3. When did the Qing dynasty begin to rule China?

    • 1837
    • 1526
    • 1644
    • 1453

  4. What was the Canton System?

    • A system of canals that linked the cities of southern China to Beijing
    • A law that let all foreign merchants live in Beijing with their families
    • A plan for building a railway across the mountains of southern China
    • A rule that foreign traders could buy and sell in only one port, Canton

  5. What was a 'kowtow'?

    • A written apology that foreigners had to sign before trading, which was then published in the newspapers of Canton
    • A law that forced merchants to pay a tax on every bale of silk they sold, and which was collected at the city gates
    • A deep bow, kneeling and touching the forehead to the floor, to show the emperor was supreme
    • A type of Chinese tea that was served in silver cups at court, and which was reserved for the Emperor's own guests

  6. What is a 'trade imbalance'?

    • When one country buys far more than it sells, so its silver and money drain away
    • When two countries trade exactly the same goods in equal amounts
    • When a country refuses to trade with any foreign power at all
    • When a government sets a fixed price for silk and tea

  7. About how many people did China have in the 1700s?

    • About 3,000 million
    • About 300 million
    • About 30 million
    • About 3 million

  8. What share of the world's wealth did China make up in the 1700s?

    • Roughly a third
    • Roughly a tenth
    • Almost none
    • Roughly a twentieth

  9. What did China insist on being paid in for its tea?

    • Gold coins minted in London
    • British cloth and manufactured goods
    • Silver
    • Opium grown in the fields of India

  10. Who did Britain send in 1793 to ask the Qianlong Emperor for fairer trade?

    • Lord Macartney
    • Lord Palmerston
    • Admiral Nelson
    • Lin Zexu

  11. Why did Macartney refuse to kowtow to the Emperor?

    • He had been ordered by Parliament to visit only the port of Canton
    • He saw the kowtow as beneath Britain
    • He was too ill to kneel in front of the Emperor
    • He wanted the Emperor to kowtow to the King of Britain instead

  12. How did the Qianlong Emperor respond to Britain's gifts?

    • He was unimpressed and said that China already possessed all things
    • He praised the clocks and telescopes and agreed to open five new ports
    • He sent the gifts to a museum in Beijing for the people to see
    • He gave Macartney a large fortune of silver to take back to Britain

  13. Why did British merchants start selling opium to China?

    • To replace the silk that Britain had stopped buying from China, since the British had found cheaper cloth in India
    • To protect British sailors from illness on their long voyages, since opium was given to the crews at sea each day
    • To reverse the trade imbalance, because Britain was paying out huge silver for tea
    • To make medicine for the Emperor's doctors in Beijing, who had asked British merchants for supplies

  14. Where did British merchants grow the opium they sold in China?

    • Canton
    • Beijing
    • Hong Kong
    • India

  15. What did the Chinese official Lin Zexu do in 1839?

    • He destroyed more than 1,000 tonnes of British opium
    • He led the British navy into the port of Canton
    • He sold the opium to British merchants at a fair price
    • He negotiated the Treaty of Nanjing with the British navy

  16. Which treaty ended the First Opium War in 1842?

    • The Treaty of Versailles
    • The Treaty of Utrecht
    • The Treaty of Nanjing
    • The Treaty of Paris

  17. What did the Treaty of Nanjing force China to do?

    • Close all of its ports to foreign ships for ever
    • Send its navy to fight alongside Britain against Russia
    • Open five ports, pay a large fine, and hand Hong Kong to Britain
    • Pay a large fine to the Emperor and hand Canton to France

  18. Why is the Treaty of Nanjing described as an 'unequal treaty'?

    • The treaty was agreed by two Chinese emperors who had quarrelled
    • Britain forced China to accept terms that gave Britain a clear advantage
    • Both countries had exactly equal power and both signed the treaty freely
    • The treaty only applied to the sale of tea and silk and no other goods

  19. Why did Britain's industrial weapons succeed where its diplomats had failed in 1793?

    • Steam-powered gunships crushed China's older forces, forcing China to trade on Britain's terms
    • Britain sent a larger number of diplomats who spoke fluent Chinese and who were able to negotiate in Beijing
    • Britain offered China a permanent army in exchange for its silk, which the Emperor had said he would accept
    • Britain promised China that it would stop selling opium at once, provided the Emperor sent his fleet to London

  20. Which statement best explains the start of China's 'Century of Humiliation'?

    • China was defeated in a war with Mongolia, which ended its empire
    • China gave up its silk trade and let Britain take over its markets
    • China voluntarily opened its ports to all foreign ships and merchants
    • Foreign powers forced unequal treaties on China and carved up its trade

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