Imperialism in Asia

1
Imperialism in Asia
2
The British in India
British interests in India started with trade in
the 1600s. The British government granted the
British East India Company control over trade in
India, which lasted until 1857. For many years,
the British East India Company (as with other
similar companies from the Netherlands, France,
etc.) acted as sort of a quasi-state with the
ability to wage war, sign treaties, issue
currency and more.
Flag of the British East India Company (1842)
3
India the Jewel in the Crown
India came to be considered the most valuable
colony in the British Empire. India was put
under strict economic control.
European cloth flooded into the Indian
marketplace, and India became a valuable source
of raw materials such as tea, indigo, cotton,
jute and opium.
4
Sepoys

• After 7 Years War (1764), British East India
  Company gained de facto control of India
• Had its own private army of Indian soldiers
  called sepoys
• Usually left local princes in control locally,
  although they couldnt disobey the British

5
Maps showing the increasing influence of the
British East India Company over time
6
The Sepoy Mutiny (1857)

• Started when rumors spread among Sepoys that
  rifle cartridges were being greased with pork and
  beef fat
• Spread with encouragement of Indian princes
• Showed discontent of attempts to westernize
  Indians (attempts to spread Christianity)
• Indians massacred approx. 200 men, women, and
  children at Cawnpore
• British responded with brutality

7
Impact of colonial rule on India

• Positive
• Railroad construction by the British linked
  Indian territories and help develop the economy
• Schools, hospitals, and improvements in
  sanitation increased literacy and public health
• Put an end to much of the local warfare between
  rulers
• Improved infrastructure telephone lines, roads,
  dams, bridges, etc. built by British

• Negative
• British held political and economic power over
  the Indian people their independence was taken
• Indian people faced some discrimination/racism by
  the British
• Cash crops emphasized over food crops (led to
  some famines)
• Some Indian-owned industries, such as textiles,
  were harmed because only British products could
  be sold

8
Indian Nationalism

• Groups such as the Indian National Congress
  (formed in 1885) and the Muslim League (1906)
  fought for Indian rights and eventually for
  self-government for India
• Millions of Indian soldiers fought for the
  British side in World War I, but faced continued
  inequality upon their return

Indian soldiers at Neuve Chapelle, a WW I battle
fought in France in 1915. (Photo Realistic
Travels)
9
The Amritsar Massacre
To protest new laws that limited the right to
dissent, about 10,000 Hindus and Muslims gathered
in an enclosed area in the city of Amritsar on
April 13, 1919. The British government had
banned public meetings, and a British commander
named Reginald Dyer ordered his troops the open
fire on the crowd. About 400 people were killed
and 1,200 wounded. The incident turned many
formerly loyal Indian subjects into nationalists
against British rule.
10
Mohandas K. Gandhi and Indian Independence
After the Amritsar Massacre, Mohandas Gandhi, a
lawyer who had taken up causes of Indians facing
discrimination throughout his lifetime, emerged
as the leader of the Indian movement for
independence. Gandhi convinced many Indians to
follow a policy of civil disobedience to British
rule. He advocated nonviolent actions such as
boycotts, hunger strikes, and peaceful
demonstrations to bring about change. In 1935,
the British Parliament passed the Government of
India Act, which granted limited self-government
in India. After WW II, in 1947, India was
granted full independence (along with the newly
formed nation of Pakistan). On January 30, 1949,
Gandhi was shot and killed by a Hindu extremist.
11
Quotes from Mohandas Mahatma Gandhi
A small body of determined spirits fired by an
unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the
course of history. I object to violence
because when it appears to do good, the good is
only temporary the evil it does is
permanent. Be the change that you want to see
in the world. An eye for eye only ends up
making the whole world blind. Each one prays
to God according to his own light. I like your
Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your
Christians are so unlike your Christ. In
matters of conscience, the law of the majority
has no place. I believe in equality for
everyone, except reporters and photographers.
12
Imperialism in China
The Qing Dynasty ruled China from 1644-1911. It
was the last of the Chinese dynasties. After
many years of prosperity, the Qing leaders
gradually lost control of the country starting in
the 1800s with the arrival of the wonderful
Europeans!
13
Trade with China?

• During the 18th Century, the market in Europe and
  America for tea (a new drink in the West)
  expanded greatly
• Also a continuing demand for silk and porcelain
• However, the West had little China wanted!

14
The Opium War, 1839-42

• Finally, Europeans found something the Chinese
  wanted OPIUM!
• By the 1800s, raw cotton and opium from India
  were the two main British imports to China
  (despite the fact that opium was illegal in
  China)
• In 1839, the Qing government cracked down on
  opium traffic and destroyed 20,000 chests of
  illegal opium

15
The Opium War, 1839-42

• Britain retaliated and China was disastrously
  defeated
• Chinese self-image was injured beyond repair
• Treaty of Nanjing (1842) first of unequal
  treaties or national humiliations
• Britain got total control of Hong Kong
• China was forced to open more ports to foreign
  trade
• Extraterritoriality (exemption for British
  nationals from Chinese laws)

16
(No Transcript)
17
Foreign Domination of China

• As the Chinese government weakened from internal
  problems and external invasions, warlords
  negotiated and granted France, Germany, Great
  Britain, Italy, Japan, and Russia exclusive
  trading rights, with monopolies on certain
  trading ports in China
• The US had not acquired any territory proposed
  the Open Door Policy all foreign countries
  would have equal access to Chinese ports

• Although done for selfish reasons, the Open
  Door Policy probably kept China from being
  colonized.

18
The Boxer Rebellion

• Unhappiness among peasants and workers with the
  foreign intervention and privileges, many joined
  a secret organization known as the Society of
  Righteous and Harmonious Fists (later known as
  the Boxers)
• Policy reached climax in 1900 with the Boxer
  Rebellion
• Western response was swift
• and severe
• Boxer Protocol

19
Boxer Protocol

• Official Name
• Austria-Hungary, Belgium, France, Germany, Great
  Britain, Italy, Japan, Netherland, Russia, Spain,
  United States and China Final Protocol for the
  Settlement of the Disturbances of 1900
• China had to pay 8 world powers millions of
  dollars worth of silver
• China had to promise not to import weapons or
  create secret anti-foreign groups
• China had to make a monument to a baron of
  Germany killed in the Boxer Rebellion

20
(No Transcript)
21
JAPAN and the west

• Under Tokugawa shogunate, Japan kept out Western
  influence
• 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry of the US showed
  up with a gunboat Japan decided trading with
  the West wasnt such a bad idea, after all
• Had to accept series of
• unequal treaties (like China)
• Treaty of Kanagawa (1854)

22
Japanese Respond to Imperialism

• Japan decided it must acquire technology, or face
  domination by Europe
• Led to Meiji Restoration leading Samurai
  overthrew Tokugawa Shogun in 1868
• The young Japanese Emperor Mutsuhito led Japan on
  a path
• to modernization

23
Meiji Reforms

• Abolished feudalism
• Adopted western-style
• autocratic constitution
• Built up industry
• Government set up factories, then sold them off
  to influential families (zaibatsu) families
  came to dominate Japan
• Sent students abroad to study in West and
  established western-style universities
• Brought in foreign experts

24
Japanese Imperialism

• Japan defeated China in Sino-Japanese War
• Russia had designs on Korea and other Asian
  territory
• 1904, Russia soundly defeated in Russo-Japanese
  War Japan sunk Russias entire fleet Japan now
  recognized as a great power

Japan annexed Korea in 1910
25
(No Transcript)