China, Southeast Asia, and The Pacific Jung-Ah Lee: South East Corie Hahn: China Ryan Lee: Pacific

China China had massive production of crops and plantations that were extremely popular in European countries. The trading relationship between European countries and China went against the European economic system: mercantilism. Because Europe only imported goods and failed to gain wealth by trading with China. Europe started to populate Opium in China. The addictive Opium in the Chinese society started to destroy the Chinese culture. For this reason, the Emperor of China forbid trading with Europe. Europe was outraged by this. They depended so much on Chinese imports. They rebelled- The Opium War (1839) The Treaty of Nanking (1842) ended the Opium war. With Britain’s win and China’s lost greatly affected by the industrialized technology of Europe. And gave Hong Kong, the trading port, to Britain.

China  From the Treaty of Nanjing, which allowed Christian population to interact with China, several foreign attacks and rebellions followed. One example is the Taiping Rebeliion, losing the city of Nanjing by Hong, the savior of the world. Although the Qing Dynasty sought to regain power over the lost regions, there were terrible lasting effects of poverty in China.  From the increasing foreign attacks and poverty, China needed to reform. Dowager Empress reformed the education and military system working with foreigners. This resulted in unbalanced mercantilism trading with foreign countries. Dowager’s reform called for more foreign attacks and rebellions by native people.  Chinese officials went around the world to study politics of strong nations and began to reform which resulted in more decline in the Chinese History.  Imperialism was nothing but chaos to China.

Map of Imperialism in China During 1911, China lost parts of its areas such as Hong Kong and Burma to Britain, Macau to Portgual, Taiwan, Pescadores, Korea and the Ryku Islands to Japan, northwestern Xinjang and Outer Manchuria to Russia, and lastly Indochina to France. This was the collapse of the Qing Dynasty. erial/chinaimp.htm

South East Asia  European countries competed for South East Asia for their rich production of sugar cane, rubber and tropical fruits etc.  The imperialism of European countries were mostly for European benefits.  Although the transportation and road systems improved from imperialism, colonization of Asian countries destroyed many of the existing native culture, economy and the government of the Asian countries.

South East Asia: The Dutch East India Company  Dutch was highly active in the South East Asia regions and took control of Melaka and Java.  Their desire for rubber production led the Dutch to take over Sumatra, Borneo, Celebs, Moluccas, Bali and Indonesia. Which later became the Dutch East Indies.  The increasing Dutch population in the Dutch East Indies led to an overtake of the native population. They developed a completely new social structure which was only beneficial to the Dutch.

South East Asia: Malayan Peninsula  British took over Malaysia for short cuts to China and India.  As Malaysia became the richest rubber exporter, British encouraged Chinese to migrate to Malaysia to work on the rubber plantation.  With these immigrations of British and Chinese, the Malayans became the minority of Malaysia.  The conflict between the Chinese and Malayans still exist today.

South East Asia: Indochina  The French were very active in parts of South East Asia and built friendly relationship with Vietnam. But as the new emperor showed his hatred for Christianity, many of the French nobility demanded military force to take control of wider overseas trading relations.  The French Emperor demanded invasions of Southern Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Northern Vietnam. These regions were named French Indochina.  As the French forced European culture to Asian majorities, the natives faced chaos. The French discouraged industries and production within the country.

The Pacific  Not long after the US became an independent country, people began to support the idea of imperialism. From the late 19 th century, the US started to build trading relationships in the Pacific.  In 1898, the US took power over the Philippine islands, Puerto Rico, and Guam.  There was chaos for US in claiming the Philippine islands after the Spanish-American war. People of Philippine claimed America’s promise for independence after the war, while America promised to educate the Philippine nation before they become independent.  Although many public works of Philippine had improved from colonization of America, the economic aspect of Philippine faced destruction.

The Pacific: Hawaii  The US power over Hawaii started with rich American sugar planters in Hawaii, producing over half of Hawaii's wealth. For this reason, many American Business men gained political power in Hawaii.  As the Tariff Act was passed down, many business leaders encouraged annexation of Hawaii for cheaper sugar imports and self-beneficial reasons.  The US even removed an empress from power because of her intentions to regain Hawaiian natives political power.  In 1898 the independent Republic of Hawaii under Sanford B. Dole was finally annexed by the US.

Siam  Siam, present day Thailand, in between regions that have been imperialized through out history, was able to maintain its independence!  Luckily, rather than taking over Siam, the two strong European countries, France and Britain, made sure the competing country would not take over Siam.  Siam’s independence relies on King Mongkut. He cleverly took action and started reforms that could prevent foreign power to take over.  For this accomplishment, Mongkut reformed the society. He simply did work many European countries did for the imperialized countries. The government of Siam educated the people, improved public works and ended slavery which also ended social structure problems.  These listed acts of the Siam government were all done by foreigners in conquered regions in Asia.

Bibliography  ments/isa/ninvest/imperial/chinaimp.htm ments/isa/ninvest/imperial/chinaimp.htm  sm sm  Modern World History Copyright 2003 by McDougal Littell Inc. pgs & pgs