imperialism in asia

Imperialism in Asia occurred in the 19th century when European powers, Japan and the United States occupied Asian regions.

The expansion to Asia was due to economic factors such as the guarantee of raw materials for industries, market for products and ideological factors such as civilizing these peoples.

Colonization of Asia

The occupation of the Indies, the generic name for the discovered lands, began during the so-called Commercial Revolution that took place between the 15th and 17th centuries.

In this way, products such as spices, porcelain and a whole range of goods that were not found in Europe were guaranteed.

The Portuguese were the first Europeans allowed to establish ports in certain regions of India, China and Japan.

However, with the Industrial Revolution, the European economic scenario changed. With the emergence of factories, more was produced and more raw materials were needed. At the same time, less labor was needed and unemployment increased.

In this way, industrialized nations such as France and England will be the new protagonists of the imperialist conquest of Asian countries.

Imperialism in Asia:Summary

In this context, England, France and Holland were occupying territories in Africa and Asia. Later, the German Empire would also set out to conquer regions on these continents.

Likewise, Japan took the opportunity to invade the Korean peninsula and part of China. The United States will begin to occupy islands in the Pacific and the symbol of this conquest will be Hawaii.

India

India was gradually occupied by the English and French from the 18th century onwards. However, the French had to renounce and conquer more territories in this region after the Seven Years' War.

Thus, areas belonging to Great Britain were under the administration of the East India Company, while others were managed under a protectorate regime.

This meant that many of the local governors, the maharajas, retained their power, but agricultural activity shifted to cotton and jute cultivation, destined for English factories.

As a result, food was scarce and there was famine in the countryside. This situation, together with the increasing discriminatory measures imposed by the British authorities, led to uprisings such as the Sepoy Revolt, which took place in 1857.

The Indians were defeated two years later and, among the consequences of the revolt, was the hardening of British power.

The East India Company is dissolved and India is officially incorporated into the British Empire, through the coronation of Queen Victoria as Empress of India in 1876.

China

British impositions on China were devastating. The Chinese government hampered the commercial transactions of tea claimed by Great Britain, which found in opium the solution to obtain more profit.

The substance, due to its devastating effects, was banned in Great Britain, but was sold to the Chinese population.

Before long, people became addicted and the Chinese government urged the British not to market it anymore. All this was in vain.

As a reaction, in 1839 the Chinese burned at least 20,000 cases of opium in the port of Canton. Then they decided to close it to the British who took this attitude as an aggression and declared war on the country.

Opium War

The episode became known as the Opium War and had catastrophic effects for the Chinese, forced to sign the Treaty of Nanking in 1842.

The treaty called for the opening of five Chinese ports to the British and the transfer of Hong Kong to Great Britain. The Treaty of Najing was the first in a series of "unequal treaties" where the UK had far more trade advantages than China.

France and the United States took advantage of China's fragility to sign trade agreements with this country.

Taiping Uprising

The biggest blow, however, occurred in 1851, in the Taiping Revolt (1851-1864), motivated by religious reasons, the peasants' dissatisfaction with the imperial government and with the foreign invasion.

The Americans and British militarily supported the Emperor in order to secure future advantages. It is estimated that the conflict left 20 million people dead among war-wounded, famine and disease.

The reigning dynasty never regained prestige after the civil conflict and still had to grant more commercial benefits to European powers.

In 1864, defeated, the Chinese saw their territory being divided between Germany, the United States, France, Great Britain, Japan and Russia. Another defeat occurred after the Boxer War, a Chinese nationalist movement.

This time, China was forced to accept the open-door policy , where it was obliged to open all ports to the commercialization of foreign products.

Read more :

• Victorian Era
• Neocolonialism
• Imperialism in Africa
• Causes of World War I