Very. They and the treaties that followed are considered humiliations that helped to seal the fate of the dynasty: the original defiance of the opium trade in 1839 is conversely considered the start of a national awakening and often of the modern era (though the truly modern national movement may be dated to 1919). So the "century of humiliation" is also that of resistance to imperialism and of the rise of republicanism and later Communism: even the first official efforts at "self-strengthening" from the 1860s were a reaction to the defeats of the previous two decades.

The practical impact on the country as a whole was less dramatic than the affront to national sovereignty and integrity: about 1% of the population came to live in the various foreign enclaves conceded by the 1890s, while imports may have reached 5% of GDP. The "unequal treaties" were largely undone from the 1920s to the 1940s, only Hong Kong remaining until its return in 1997.