Imperialism in Asia
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'''[[Imperialism]] in [[Asia]]''' traces its roots back to the late 15th century with a series of voyages that sought a sea passage to [[India]] in the hope of establishing direct trade between Europe and Asia in [[spices]]. Before 1500 European economies were largely self-sufficient, only supplemented by minor trade with Asia and Africa. Within the next century, however, European and Asian economies were slowly becoming integrated through the rise of new global trade routes; and the early thrust of European political power, commerce, and culture in Asia gave rise to a growing trade in lucrative [[commodity|commodities]]—a key development in the rise of today's modern world [[capitalism|capitalist]] economy.
In the 16th century, the [[Portuguese Empire|Portuguese]] established a monopoly over trade between Asia and Europe by managing to prevent rival powers from using the water routes between Europe and the Indian Ocean. However, with the rise of the rival [[Dutch East India Company]], Portuguese influence in Asia was gradually eclipsed. Dutch forces first established independent bases in the East (most significantly [[Batavia, Dutch East Indies|Batavia]], the heavily fortified headquarters of the Dutch East India Company) and then between 1640 and 1660 wrestled [[Malacca]], [[Ceylon]], most southern Indian ports, and the lucrative [[Japan]] trade from the Portuguese. Later, the English and the French established settlements in India and established a trade with China and their own acquisitions would gradually surpass those of the Dutch. Following the end of the [[Seven Years' War]] in 1763, the British eliminated French influence in India and established the [[British East India Company]] as the most important political force on the [[Indian subcontinent]].
Before the [[Industrial Revolution]] in the mid-to-late 19th century, demand for oriental goods remained the driving force behind European imperialism, and (with the important exception of British East India Company rule in India) the European stake in Asia remained confined largely to trading stations and strategic outposts necessary to protect trade. Industrialization, however, dramatically increased European demand for Asian raw materials; and the severe [[Long Depression]] of the 1870s provoked a scramble for new markets for European industrial products and financial services in Africa, the Americas, Eastern Europe, and especially in Asia. This scramble coincided with a new era in global colonial expansion known as "the [[New Imperialism]]," which saw a shift in focus from trade and [[indirect rule]] to formal colonial control of vast overseas territories ruled as political extensions of their mother countries. Between the 1870s and the beginning of the [[World War I]] in 1914, the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands—the established colonial powers in Asia—added to their empires vast expanses of territory in the Middle East, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. In the same period, [[Japan]], following the [[Meiji Restoration]]; [[German Empire|Germany]], following the end of the [[Franco-Prussian War]] in 1871; [[Imperial Russia|Tsarist Russia]]; and the [[United States]], following the [[Spanish-American War]] in 1898 quickly emerged as new imperialist powers in East Asia and in the Pacific.
In Asia, World War I and [[World War II]] were played out as struggles among several key imperialist powers—conflicts involving the European powers along with Russia and the rising American and Japanese powers. None of the colonial powers, however, possessed the resources to withstand the strains of both world wars and maintain their direct rule in Asia. Although nationalist movements throughout the colonial world led to the political independence of nearly all of the Asia's remaining colonies, [[decolonization]] was intercepted by the [[Cold War]]; and Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and East Asia remained embedded in a world economic, financial, and military system in which the great powers compete to extend their influence. However, the rapid postwar economic development of the [[East Asian Tigers]] and the [[People's Republic of China]], along with the collapse of the [[Soviet Union]], have loosened European and North American influence in Asia, generating speculation today about the possible reemergence of China and Japan as regional powers.
==Early European exploration of Asia==
European exploration of Asia started in [[Ancient Rome|Ancient Roman]] times. Knowledge of lands as distant as [[China]] were held by the Romans. Trade with [[India]] through the Roman Egyptian [[Red Sea]] ports was significant in the first centuries of the [[Common Era]].
===Medieval European exploration of Asia===
[[Image:Marco Polo traveling.JPG|thumb|Illustration of [[Marco Polo]]'s arrival in a [[China|Chinese]] city]]
In the 13th and 14th centuries, a number of Europeans, many of them Christian [[missionary|missionaries]], had sought to penetrate China. The most famous of these travelers was [[Marco Polo]]. But these journeys had little permanent effect on East-West trade because of a series of political developments in Asia in the last decades of the 14th century, which put an end to further European exploration of Asia. The [[Yuan dynasty]] in China, which had been receptive to European missionaries and merchants, was overthrown, and the new [[Ming dynasty|Ming]] rulers were found to be inward oriented and unreceptive to foreign religious proselytism. Meanwhile, Muslim Turks consolidated control over the eastern [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]], closing off key overland trade routes. Thus, until the 15th century, only minor trade and cultural exchanges between Europe and Asia continued at certain terminals controlled by Muslim traders.
===Oceanic voyages to Asia===
Western European rulers determined to find new trade routes of their own. The Portuguese spearheaded the drive to find oceanic routes that would provide cheaper and easier access to South and East Asian goods. This chartering of oceanic routes between East and West began with the unprecedented voyages of Portuguese and Spanish sea captains. Their voyages were influenced by medieval European adventurers, who had journeyed overland to the Far East and contributed to geographical knowledge of parts of Asia upon their return.
In 1488, [[Bartolomeu Dias]] rounded the southern tip of Africa under the sponsorship of Portugal's [[John II of Portugal|John II]], from which point he noticed that the coast swung northeast. Although his crew forced him to turn back, he was pleased with the prospect of soon finding a sea route to India. Later, starting in 1497, Portuguese navigator [[Vasco da Gama]] made the first open voyage from Europe to India. In 1520, [[Ferdinand Magellan]], a Portuguese navigator in the service of Spain, found a sea route into the [[Pacific Ocean]].
==Portuguese and Spanish trade and colonization in Asia==
''For further detail see [[Portuguese Empire]].''
===Portuguese monopoly over trade in the Indian Ocean===
[[Image:Afonso de Albuquerque 2.jpg|thumb|left|[[Afonso de Albuquerque]].]]
Early in the 16th century [[Afonso de Albuquerque]] (above) emerged as the Portuguese colonial viceroys most instrumental in consolidating Portugal's holdings in Africa and in Asia. He understood that Portugal could wrest commercial supremacy from the Arabs only by force, and therefore devised a plan to establish forts at strategic sites which would dominate the trade routes and also protect Portuguese interests on land. In 1510, he sized [[Goa]] in India, which enabled him to gradually consolidate control of most of the commercial traffic between Europe and Asia, and even between Ilargely through trade; Europeans started to carry on trade from forts, acting as foreign merchants rather than as settlers. In contrast, early European expansion in the "[[West Indies]]," (later known to Europeans as a separate continent from Asia that they would call the "[[Americas]]") following the 1492 voyage of [[Christopher Columbus]], involved heavy settlement in colonies that were treated as political extensions of the mother countries.
Lured by the potential of high profits from another expeditions, the Portuguese established a permanent base south of the Indian trade port of [[Calicut]] in the early 15th century. In 1510, the Portuguese seized [[Goa]] on the coast of India, which Portugal held until 1961. The Portuguese soon acquired a monopoly over trade in the Indian Ocean.
Portuguese viceroy [[Afonso de Albuquerque]] (1509-1515) resolved to consolidate Portuguese holdings in Africa and Asia, and secure control of trade with the [[East Indies]] and [[China]]. His first objective was [[Malacca]], which controlled the narrow strait through which most Far Eastern trade moved. Captured in 1511, Malacca became the springboard for further eastward penetration; several years later the first trading posts were established in the [[Moluccas]], or "Spice Islands," which was the source for some of the world's most hotly demanded spices. By 1516, the first Portuguese ships had reached [[Guangdong|Canton]] on the southern coasts of China. By 1557, the Portuguese gained a permanent base in China at [[Macau]], which they held until 1999. The Portuguese, based at Goa and Malacca, had now established a lucrative maritime empire in the Indian Ocean meant to monopolize the [[spice trade]]. The Portuguese also began a channel of trade with the Japanese, becoming the first recorded Westerners to have visited Japan. This contact introduced Christianity and fire-arms into [[Japan]].
The energies of Spain, the other major colonial power of the 16th century, were largely concentrated on the Americas, not South and East Asia. But the Spanish did establish a footing in the Far East in the [[Philippine Islands]]. After 1565, cargoes of Chinese goods were transported from the [[Philippines]] to [[Mexico]] and from there to [[Spain]]. By this long route, Spain reaped some of the profits of Far Eastern commerce. Spanish officials converted the island to Christianity and established some settlements, permanently establishing the [[Philippines]] as the area of East Asia most oriented toward the West in terms of culture and commerce.
===The decline of Portugal's Asian empire since the 17th century===
[[Image:2 tanga 1643 rev.jpg|thumb|A silver Indo-Portuguese coin featuring a standing figure facing right with flag struck for and minted in [[Goa]] during the reign of [[John IV of Portugal|John IV]].]]
The lucrative trade was vastly expanded when the Portuguese began to export [[Slavery|slave]]s from Africa in 1541; however, over time, the rise of the slave trade left Portugal over-extended, and vulnerable to competition from other Western European powers. Envious of Portugal's control of trade routes, other Western European nations—mainly Holland, France, and England—began to send in rival expeditions to Asia. In 1642, the Dutch drove the Portuguese out of the [[Gold Coast (British colony)|Gold Coast]] in Africa, the source of the bulk of Portuguese slave laborers, leaving this rich slaving area to other Europeans, especially the Dutch and the English.
Rival European powers began to make inroads in Asia as the Portuguese and Spanish trade in the Indian Ocean declined primarily because they had become hugely over-stretched financially due to the limitations on their investment capacity and contemporary naval technology. Both of these factors worked in tandem, making control over Indian Ocean trade extremely expensive.
The existing Portuguese interests in Asia proved sufficient to finance further colonial expansion and entrenchment in areas regarded as of greater strategic importance in nearer Africa and Brazil. Portuguese maritime supremacy was lost to the Dutch in the 17th century, and with this came serious challenges for the Portuguese. However, they still clung to Macau, and settled a new colony in [[Timor]] Island. It was as recent as the 1960s and 1970s that the Portuguese began to relinquish their colonies in Asia. [[Goa]] was invaded by India in 1962; [[East-Timor]] was abandoned in 1975 and was then invaded by Indonesia; and Macau was handed over to the Chinese as per a treaty in 1999.
==Dutch trade and colonization in Asia==
{{main|Dutch colonial empire}}
===The rise of Dutch control over Asian trade in the 17th century===
[[Image:Dutcheastindies.jpg|left|thumb|Dutch settlement in the East Indies. Batavia, Java (now [[Jakarta]]), c. 1665.]]
Portuguese decline in Asia was accelerated by the attacks on their commercial empire by the Dutch and the English, which began a global struggle over empire in Asia that lasted until the end of the [[Seven Years' War]] in 1763. The Netherlands revolt against Spanish rule facilitated Dutch encroachment of the Portuguese monopoly over South and East Asian trade. The Dutch looked on Spain's trade and colonies as potential spoils in war. When the two crowns of the Iberian peninsula were joined in 1581, the Dutch felt free to attack Portuguese territories in Asia.
By the 1590s, a number of Dutch companies were formed to finance trading expeditions in Asia. Because competition lowered their profits, and because of the doctrines of [[mercantilism]], in 1602 the companies united into a [[cartel]] and formed the [[Dutch East India Company]], and received from the government the right to trade and colonize territory in the area stretching from the [[Cape of Good Hope]] eastward to the [[Strait of Magellan]].
In 1605, armed Dutch merchants captured the Portuguese fort at [[Amboyna]] in the Moluccas, which was developed into the first secure base of the company. Over time, the Dutch gradually consolidated control over the great trading ports of the East Indies. Control over the East Indies trading ports allowed the company to monopolize the world [[spice trade]] for decades. Their monopoly over the spice trade became complete after they drove the Portuguese from [[Malacca]] in 1641 and [[Ceylon]] in 1658.
Dutch East India Company colonies or outposts were later established in Atjeh ([[Aceh]]), 1667; [[Macassar]], 1669; and [[Bantam (city)|Bantam]], 1682. The company established its headquarters at [[Batavia, Dutch East Indies|Batavia]] (today [[Jakarta]]) on the island of [[Java (island)|Java]]. Outside the East Indies, the Dutch East India Company colonies or outposts were also established in Persia (now Iran), [[Bengal]] (now Bangladesh and part of India), Mauritius (1638-1658/1664-1710), Siam (now [[Thailand]]), [[Guangzhou]] (Canton, China), [[Taiwan]] (1624-1662), and southern India (1616-1795). In 1662, [[Zheng Chenggong]] (also known as Koxinga) expelled the Dutch from Taiwan. (''see'' [[History of Taiwan]]) Further, the Dutch East India Company trade post on [[Dejima]] (1641- 1857), an artificial island off the coast of [[Nagasaki, Nagasaki|Nagasaki]], was for a long time the only place where Europeans could trade with Japan.
In 1652, [[Jan van Riebeeck]] established an outpost at the [[Cape of Good Hope]] (the southwestern tip of Africa, currently in South Africa) to restock company ships on their journey to East Asia. This post later became a fully-fledged colony, the [[Cape Colony]] (1652-1806). As Cape Colony attracted increasing Dutch and European settlement, the Dutch founded the city of Kaapstad ([[Cape Town]]).
By 1669, the Dutch East India Company was the richest private company in history, with a huge fleet of merchant ships and warships, tens of thousands of employees, a private army consisting of thousands of soldiers, and a reputation on the part of its stockholders for high dividend payments.
===Decline of the Dutch in Asia and the rise of the British===
The company was in almost constant conflict with the English; relations were particularly tense following the [[Amboyna Massacre]] in 1623. During the 18th century, Dutch East India Company possessions were increasingly focused on the East Indies. After the fourth war between the [[Dutch Republic|United Provinces]] and England (1780–1784), the company suffered increasing financial difficulties. In 1799, the company was dissolved.
The East Indies were awarded to The [[Kingdom of the Netherlands]] by the [[Congress of Vienna]] in 1815. After the [[Napoleonic Wars]], the Dutch concentrated their colonial enterprise in the [[Dutch East Indies]] ([[Indonesia]]) throughout the 19th century. The Dutch lost control over the East Indies to the Japanese during much of World War II. Following the war, the Dutch fought Indonesian independence forces after Tokyo surrendered to the Allies in 1945.
==The British in India==
===Portuguese, French, and British competition in India (1600-1763)===
[[Image:Clive.jpg|thumb|Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive.]]
The English sought to stake out claims in India at the expense of the Portuguese dating back to the era of Queen [[Elizabeth I of England|Elizabeth I]]. In 1600, Elizabeth incorporated the [[British East India Company|English East India Company]] (later the British East India Company), granting it a monopoly of trade from the Cape of Good Hope eastward to the Strait of Magellan. In 1639 it acquired [[Madras]] on the east coast of India, where it quickly surpassed Portuguese Goa as the principal European trading center on the subcontinent.
Through bribes, diplomacy, and manipulation of weak native rulers, the company prospered in India, where it became the most powerful political force on the subcontinent, and outrivaled its Portuguese, and French competitors. For more than one hundred years, English and French trading companies had fought one another for supremacy, and by the middle of the 18th century competition between the British and the French had heated up. French defeat by the British under the command of [[Robert Clive]] during the [[Seven Years' War]] (1756-1763) marked the end of the French stake in the subcontinent.
===The collapse of Mughal India===
{{main|Company rule in India}}
The British East India Company, although still in direct competition with French and Dutch interests until 1763, was able to extend its control over almost the whole of the subcontinent in the century following the subjugation of [[Bengal]] at the 1757 [[Battle of Plassey]]. The British East India Company made great advances at the expense of a [[Mughal]] dynasty, seething with corruption, oppression, and revolt, that was crumbling under the despotic rule of [[Aurangzeb]] (1658-1707).
The reign of [[Shah Jahan]] (1628-1658) had marked the height of Mughal power. However, the reign of Aurangzeb, a ruthless and fanatical man who intended to rid [[India]] of all views alien to the Muslim faith, was disastrous. By 1690, when Mughal territorial expansion reached its greatest extent, Aurangzeb's India encompassed the entire Indian subcontinent. But this period of power was followed by one of decline. Fifty years after the death of Aurangzeb, the great Mughal empire had crumbled. Meanwhile, marauding warlords, nobles, and others bent on gaining power left the subcontinent increasingly anarchic. Although the Mughals kept the imperial title until 1858, the central government had collapsed, creating a power vacuum.
===From Company to Crown===
{{main|British Raj}}
[[Image:21701760 5EastIndiaHouse.jpg|left|thumb|An 1825 painting of the British East India Company's [[East India House]], which opened in 1799]]
Aside from defeating the French during the Seven Years' War, [[Robert Clive]], the leader of the Company in India, defeated a key Indian ruler of Bengal at the decisive [[Battle of Plassey]] (1757), a victory that ushered in the beginning of a new period in Indian history, that of informal British rule. While still nominally the sovereign, the Mughal Indian emperor became more and more of a puppet ruler, and anarchy spread until the company stepped into the role of policeman of India.
The transition to formal imperialism, characterized by [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Queen Victoria]] being crowned "Empress of India" in the 1870s was a gradual process. The first step toward cementing formal British control extended back to the late 18th century. The British Parliament, disturbed by the idea that a great business concern, interested primarily in profit, was controlling the destinies of millions of people, passed acts in 1773 and 1784 that gave itself the power to control company policies and to appoint the highest company official in India, the [[governor-general]]. (This system of dual control lasted until 1858.) By 1818 the East India Company was master of India. Some local rulers were forced to accept its overlordship; others were deprived of their territories. Some portions of the subcontinent were administered by the British directly; in others native dynasties were retained under British supervision.
Until 1858, however, much of the subcontinent was still officially the dominion of the Mughal emperor. Anger among some social groups, however, was seething under the governor-generalship of [[James Andrew Broun-Ramsay, 10th Earl of Dalhousie|James Dalhousie]] (1847-1856), who annexed the [[Punjab region|Punjab]] (1849) after victory in the [[Second Anglo-Sikh War|Second Sikh War]], annexed seven princely states on the basis of [[lapse]], annexed the key state of [[Oudh]] on the basis of misgovernment, and upset cultural sensibilities by banning Hindu practices such as [[Sati (practice)|Sati]]. The 1857 [[Indian Mutiny|Sepoy Rebellion]], or Indian Mutiny, an uprising initiated by Indian troops, called sepoys, who formed the bulk of the Company's armed forces, was the key turning point. Rumor had spread among them that their bullet cartridges were lubricated with pig and cow fat. The cartridges had to be bit open, so this upset the Hindu and Muslim soldiers. The Hindu religion held cows sacred, and Muslims were not allowed to have pork. In one camp, 85 0ut of 90 sepoys would not accept the cartridges from their garrison officer. The Brithish harshly punished those who would not by jailing them. The Indian people were outraged, and on May 10, 1857, sepoys marched to Delhi, and, with the help of soldiers stationed there, captured it.Fortunately for the British, many areas remained loyal and quiescent, allowing the revolt to be crushed after fierce fighting. One important consequence of the revolt was the final collapse of the Mughal dynasty. The mutiny also ended the system of dual control under which the British government and the British East India Company shared authority. The government relieved the company of its political responsibilities, and in 1858, after 258 years of existence, the company relinquished its role. Trained civil servants were recruited from graduates of British universities, and these men set out to rule India. Lord Canning (created earl in 1859), appointed governor-general of India in 1856, became known as "Clemency Canning" as a term of derision for his efforts to restrain revenge against the Indians during the Indian Mutiny. When the government of India was transferred from the Company to the Crown, Canning became the first [[viceroy]] of India.
===The rise of Indian nationalism===
{{main|Indian independence movement}}
The denial of equal status to Indians was the immediate stimulus for the formation in 1885 of the [[Indian National Congress]], initially loyal to the Empire but committed from 1905 to increased self-government and by 1930 to outright independence. The "Home charges," payments transferred from India for administrative costs, were a lasting source of nationalist grievance, though the flow declined in relative importance over the decades to independence in 1947.
Although majority [[Hindu]] and minority [[Muslim]] political leaders were able to collaborate closely in their criticism of British policy into the 1920s, British support for a distinct Muslim political organization from 1906 and insistence from the 1920s on separate electorates for religious minorities, is seen by many in India as having contributed to Hindu-Muslim discord and the country's eventual partition.
==France in Indochina==
{{main|French Indochina}}
<!-- Unsourced image removed: [[Image:Frenchindochina.jpg|thumb|French soldiers appear with local residents at a military post in French Indochina in the early 1900s.]] -->
[[France]], which had lost its empire to the [[Great Britain|British]] by the end of the eighteenth century, had little geographical or commercial basis for expansion in Southeast Asia. After the 1850s, French imperialism was initially impelled by a [[nationalistic]] need to rival the United Kingdom and was supported intellectually by the concept of the superiority of French culture and France's special ''[[mission civilisatrice]]''—the civilizing of the native through assimilation to French culture. The immediate pretext for French expansionism in Indochina was the protection of French religious missions in the area, coupled with a desire to find a southern route to [[China]] through [[Tonkin]], the European name for the northern region of northern [[Vietnam]]
French religious and commercial interests were established in Indochina as early as the seventeenth century, but no concerted effort at stabilizing the French position was possible in the face of British strength in the [[Indian Ocean]] and [[Napoleonic Wars|French defeat]] in Europe at the beginning of the nineteenth century. A mid-nineteenth century religious revival under the [[Second Empire]] provided the atmosphere within which interest in Indochina grew. Anti-Christian persecutions in the Far East provided the immediate cause. In 1856 the Chinese executed a French missionary in southeastern China, and in 1857 the Vietnamese emperor, faced with a domestic crisis, tried to destroy foreign influences in his country by executing the Spanish bishop of [[Tonkin]]. Under [[Napoleon III]], France decided that [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholicism]] would be eliminated in the Far East if France did not go to its aid, and accordingly the French joined the British against [[China]] in the [[Second Opium War]] from 1857 to 1860 and took action against [[Vietnam]] as well. By 1860 the French occupied [[Saigon]].
By the [[Treaty of Saigon]] in 1862, the Vietnamese emperor ceded France three provinces of southern Vietnam to form the French colony of [[Cochin China]]; France also secured trade and religious privileges in the rest of Vietnam and a protectorate over Vietnam's foreign relations. Gradually French power spread through exploration, the establishment of protectorates, and outright annexations. Their seizure of [[Hanoi]] in 1882 led directly to war with [[China]] (1883-1885), and the French victory confirmed French supremacy in the region. [[France]] governed [[Cochin China]] as a direct colony, and central and northern Vietnam under the protectorates of [[Annam (French colony)|Annam]] and [[Tonkin]], and [[Cambodia]] as protectorates in one degree or another. [[Laos]] too was soon brought under French "protection."
By the beginning of the twentieth century, France had created an empire in Indochina nearly 50 percent larger than the mother country. A governor-general in [[Hanoi]] ruled [[Cochin China]] directly and the other regions through a system of residents. Theoretically, the French maintained the precolonial rulers and administrative structures in Annam, Tonkin, Cambodia, and Laos, but in fact the governor-generalship was a centralized fiscal and administrative regime ruling the entire region. Although the surviving native institutions were preserved in order to make French rule more acceptable, they were almost completely deprived of any independence of action. The ethnocentric French colonial administrators sought to assimilate the upper classes into France's "superior culture." While the French improved public services and provided commercial stability, the native standard of living declined and precolonial social structures eroded. Indochina, which had a population of over eighteen million in 1914, was important to France for its [[tin]], [[black pepper|pepper]], [[coal]], [[cotton]], and [[rice]]. It is still a matter of debate, however, whether the colony was commercially profitable.
==Russia and "The Great Game"==
{{main|The Great Game}}
[[Imperial Russia|Tsarist Russia]] is often not regarded as a colonial power such as the United Kingdom or France because of the manner of Russian expansions: unlike the United Kingdom, which expanded overseas, the Russian empire grew from the center outward by a process of accretion, like the United States. In the 19th century Russian expansion took the form of a struggle of an effectively [[landlocked]] country for access to a [[warm water port]].
While the British were consolidating their hold on India, Russian expansion had moved steadily eastward to the Pacific, then toward the Middle East, and finally to the frontiers of [[Iran|Persia]] and [[Afghanistan]] (both territories adjacent to British holdings in India). In response, the defense of India's land frontiers and the control of all sea approaches to the subcontinent via the [[Suez Canal]], the [[Red Sea]], and the [[Persian Gulf]] became preoccupations of British foreign policy in the 19th century.
Anglo-Russian rivalry in the Middle East and Central Asia led to a brief confrontation over [[Afghanistan]] in the 1880s. In Persia (now [[Iran]]), both nations set up banks to extend their economic influence. The United Kingdom went so far as to invade Tibet, a land under nominal Chinese [[suzerainty]], in 1904, but withdrew when it became clear that Russian influence was insignificant and when Chinese resistance proved tougher than expected.
In 1907, the United Kingdom and Russia signed an agreement which—on the surface—ended their rivalry in Central Asia. (''see'' [[Anglo-Russian Entente]]) As part of the entente, Russia agreed to deal with the sovereign of Afghanistan only through British intermediaries. In turn, the United Kingdom would not annex or occupy Afghanistan. Chinese suzerainty over Tibet also was recognized by both Russia and the UK, since nominal control by a weak China was preferable to control by either power. Persia was divided into Russian and British spheres of influence and an intervening "neutral" zone. The United Kingdom and Russia chose to reach these uneasy compromises because of growing concern on the part of both powers over German expansion in strategic areas of China and Africa.
Following the entente, Russia increasingly intervened in Persian domestic politics and suppressed nationalist movements that threatened both St. Petersburg and London. After the [[Russian Revolution of 1917|Russian Revolution]], Russia gave up its claim to a sphere of influence, though Soviet involvement persisted alongside the United Kingdom's until the 1940s.
In the [[Middle East]], a German company built a railroad from [[Constantinople]] to [[Baghdad]] and the [[Persian Gulf]]. [[Germany]] wanted to gain economic influence in the region and then, perhaps, move on to Iran and India. This was met with bitter resistance by the United Kingdom, Russia, and France who divided the region among themselves.
==Imperialism in China==
===Chinese territorial expansion===
Before China was under attack in the 19th century by European powers, during the 18th century the [[Qing Dynasty]] government had expanded its western borders to include areas such as [[Xinjiang]] and [[Tibet]] that had historically been under direct Chinese control only during the Han and Tang periods. Indeed the name ''Xinjiang'' itself is Chinese for ''new territory''.
The ability of Qing China to project power into [[Central Asia]] came about because of two changes, one social and one technological. The social change was that under the Qing dynasty, from 1642, China came under the control of the [[Manchu]]s who organized their military forces around cavalry which was more suited for [[power projection]] than traditional Chinese infantry. The technological change was advances in the [[cannon]] and [[artillery]] which negated the military advantage that the people of the [[steppe]] had with their cavalry (although cannons and [[firearm]]s were used in China centuries beforehand to combat similar threats, see [[Technology of Song Dynasty]]).
Qing actions in Central Asia were aided by the preference of most local rulers (particularly in Tibet) for the relative light touch of Manchu control over the heavy-handedness of Russia or the British. The Manchus-[[Jurchens]] (originally from the southern region of current-day Manchuria and the northern region of the Korean peninsula) ruled China with the support of some people from Mongolia, Korea, Tibet and Xinjiang. The Manchu ruling family was a supporter of Tibetan Buddhism and so many of the ruling groups were linked by religion. China most of the time had little ambitions to conquer or establish colonies. There were exceptions to this, such as the ancient [[Han Dynasty]] (202 BC-220 AD) establishing control over northern [[Vietnam]], northern [[Korea]], and the [[Tarim Basin]] of Central Asia. The short-lived [[Sui Dynasty]] (581-618 AD) had high imperialist aims, reinvading [[Annam (Chinese Province)|Annam]] (northern Vietnam) and attacking [[Champa]] (southern Vietnam), while they also attempted to conquer Korea, which failed (see [[Goguryeo-Sui Wars]]). The later [[Tang Dynasty]] (618-907) aided the Korean [[Silla]] Kingdom in defeating their two Korean rivals, yet became shortchanged when they discovered Silla was not about to allow the Tang to reclaim [[Goguryeo]]'s territory (as it had been under the Chinese Han Dynasty centuries before). The Tang Dynasty established control over the Tarim Basin region as well, fighting wars with the new Tibetan Empire and stripping them of their colonies in Central Asia (which was abandoned after the [[An Lushan Rebellion]]). The [[Song Dynasty]] (960-1279), in securing maritime trade routes that ran from South East Asia into the Indian Ocean, had established fortified trade bases in the [[Philippines]]. The Mongol-lead [[Yuan Dynasty]] (1279-1368) made attempts to invade [[Japan]] after securing the Korean peninsula, yet both of these military ventures failed (see [[Mongol Invasions of Japan]]). Yet even when the Chinese had established their first standing navy in the 12th century (under the Southern Song), and when they had the world's strongest and biggest naval fleet during the [[Ming Dynasty]] (1368-1644), their aim was not colonization, but [[tribute]] gathering. Rather, Chinese immigrated overseas to areas outside the control of their government. For instance, numerous southern Chinese emigrants settled in areas of Southeast Asia outside Chinese political control; to this day their descendants remain an economic elite, especially in [[Malaysia]] and [[Singapore]], and to a fair extent also in [[Indonesia]] and the [[Philippines]].
===Imperialist penetration of China===
[[Image:China imperialism cartoon.jpg|left|200px|thumb|A shocked [[mandarin (bureaucrat)|mandarin]] in [[Manchu]] robe in the back, with [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Queen Victoria]] (UK), [[Wilhelm II of Germany|Wilhelm II]] (Germany), [[Nicholas II of Russia|Nicholas II]] (Russia), [[Marianne]] (France), and a [[samurai]] (Japan) stabbing into a plate with ''Chine'' ("China" in [[French language|French]]) written on it.]]
{{main|European Enclaves in China}}
The 16th century brought many [[Jesuit]] missionaries to China, such as [[Matteo Ricci]], who established missions where Western science was introduced, and where Europeans gathered knowledge of Chinese society, history, culture, and science. During the 18th century, merchants from Western Europe came to China in increasing numbers. However, merchants were confined to Guangzhou and the Portuguese colony of Macau, as they had been since the 16th century. European traders were increasingly irritated by what they saw as the relatively high customs duties they had to pay and by the attempts to curb the growing import trade in [[opium]]. By 1800, its importation was forbidden by the imperial government. However, the opium trade continued to boom.
Early in the 19th century, serious internal weaknesses developed in the [[Qing dynasty|Manchu empire]] that left China vulnerable to Western, Japanese, and Russian imperialism. In 1839, China found itself fighting the [[First Opium War]] with Britain. China was defeated, and in 1842, agreed to the provisions of the [[Treaty of Nanjing]]. [[Hong Kong]] was ceded to Britain, and certain ports, including [[Shanghai]] and [[Guangzhou]], were opened to British trade and residence. In 1856, the [[Second Opium War]] broke out. The Chinese were again defeated, and now forced to the terms of the 1858 [[Treaty of Tientsin]]. The treaty opened new ports to trade and allowed foreigners to travel in the interior. Christians gained the right to propagate their religion—another means of Western penetration. The United States and Russia later obtained the same prerogatives in separate treaties.
Toward the end of the 19th century, China appeared on the way to territorial dismemberment and economic vassalage—the fate of India’s rulers that played out much earlier. Several provisions of these treaties caused long-standing bitterness and humiliation among the Chinese: [[extraterritoriality]] (meaning that in a dispute with a Chinese person, a Westerner had the right to be tried in a court under the laws of his own country), customs regulation, and the right to station foreign warships in Chinese waters.
The rise of Japan since the [[Meiji Restoration]] as an imperialist power led to further subjugation of China. In a dispute over China's longstanding claim of suzerainty in [[Korea]], war broke out between China and Japan, resulting in humiliating defeat for the Chinese. By the [[Treaty of Shimonoseki]] (1895), China was forced to recognize effective Japanese rule of Korea and [[Taiwan]].
China's defeat at the hands of Japan was another trigger for future aggressive actions by Western powers. In 1897, Germany demanded and was given a set of exclusive mining and railroad rights in [[Shandong]] province. Russia obtained access to [[Dairen]] and [[Lüshunkou|Port Arthur]] and the right to build a railroad across Manchuria, thereby achieving complete domination over a large portion of northwestern China. The United Kingdom and France also received a number of concessions. At this time, much of China was divided up into "spheres of influence": Germany dominated [[Jiaozhou Bay|Jiaozhou (Kiaochow) Bay]], [[Shandong]], and the [[Huang He]] (Hwang-Ho) valley; Russia dominated the [[Liaodong Peninsula]] and [[Manchuria]]; the United Kingdom dominated [[Weihaiwei]] and the [[Yangtze River|Yangtze]] Valley; and France dominated the [[Guangzhou Bay]] and several other southern provinces.
China continued to be divided up into these spheres until the United States, which had no sphere of influence, grew alarmed at the possibility of its businessmen being excluded from Chinese markets. In 1899, [[Secretary of State]] [[John Hay]] asked the major powers to agree to a policy of equal trading privileges. In 1900, several powers agreed to the U.S.-backed scheme, giving rise to the "[[Open Door Policy|Open Door]]" policy, denoting freedom of commercial access and non-annexation of Chinese territory. In any event, it was in the European powers' interest to have a weak but independent Chinese government. The privileges of the Europeans in China were guaranteed in the form of treaties with the Qing government. In the event that the Qing government totally collapsed, each power risked losing the privileges that it already had negotiated.
The erosion of Chinese sovereignty contributed to a spectacular anti-foreign outbreak in June 1900, when the "[[Fists of Righteous Harmony|Boxers]]" (properly the society of the "righteous and harmonious fists") attacked European legations in [[Beijing]], provoking a rare display of unity among the powers, whose troops landed at [[Tianjin]] and marched on the capital. British and French forces looted, plundered and burned the [[Old Summer Palace]] to the ground for the second time (the first time being in 1860, following the Second Opium War), as a form of threat to force the Qing empire to give in to their demands. German forces were particularly severe in exacting revenge for the killing of their ambassador, while Russia tightened its hold on [[Manchuria]] in the northeast until its crushing defeat by Japan in the war of 1904-1905.
Although extraterritorial jurisdiction was abandoned by the United Kingdom and the United States in 1943, foreign political control of parts of China only finally ended with the incorporation of [[Hong Kong]] and the small Portuguese territory of [[Macau]] into the [[People's Republic of China]] in 1997 and 1999 respectively.
==U.S. Imperialism in the Pacific==
{{main|History of United States overseas expansion}}
[[Image:Filipinoinsurgents.jpg|thumb|1899 photo of Filipino troops killed in the [[Philippine-American War]].]]
As the United States emerged as a new imperialist power in the Pacific, one of the two oldest Western imperialist powers in the region — Spain — was finding it increasingly difficult to maintain control of territories it had held in the region since the 16th century. In 1896, a widespread revolt against Spanish rule broke out in the Philippines. Meanwhile, the recent string of U.S. territorial gains in the Pacific posed an even greater threat to Spain's remaining colonial holdings.
In 1867, the [[Midway Islands]] were occupied by the U.S. and [[Alaska]] was purchased from Russia. The next advance was in the [[Hawaiian Islands]], where Europeans had earlier set up a lucrative [[plantation]] economy exporting sugar. In the 19th century U.S. capital poured into the islands' sugar industry; and Hawaii came increasingly under the effective control of U.S. corporations. The U.S. consolidated its influence in Hawaii in 1893, when [[U.S. Marines]] engineered a revolt that deposed the Hawaiian queen and set up a new U.S.-backed regime. Five years later, the U.S. dissolved the republic and annexed the islands.
As the U.S. continued to expand its economic and military power in the Pacific, it declared war against Spain in 1898. During the [[Spanish-American War]], U.S. Admiral Dewey destroyed the Spanish fleet at [[Manila]] and U.S. troops landed in the Philippines. Spain later agreed by treaty to cede the Philippines and [[Guam]] in the Pacific. In the Caribbean, Spain ceded [[Puerto Rico]] to the U.S. The war also marked the end of Spanish rule in Cuba, which was to be granted nominal independence but in practice be treated as a de-facto U.S. colony. One year following its treaty with Spain, the U.S. occupied the small Pacific outpost of [[Wake Island]].
The Filipinos who assisted U.S. troops in fighting the Spanish, wished to establish an independent state.{{Fact|date=April 2007}} In 1899, fighting broke out; and it took the U.S. almost fifteen years to fully subdue the [[Philippine-American War|conflict]]. The U.S. sent seventy thousand troops and suffered thousands of casualties. The Filipinos, however, suffered considerably higher casualties, through fighting, extra-judicial executions and disease.
U.S. attacks into the countryside often included scorched earth campaigns where entire villages were burned and destroyed, tortured, and concentrated into camps known as "protected zones." Many of these civilian casualties resulted from disease and famine. Reports of the execution of U.S. soldiers taken prisoner by the Filipinos led to disproportionate reprisals by American forces. Many U.S. officers and soldiers called the war a "nigger killing business."{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
In 1914, [[Dean C. Worcester]], U.S. Secretary of the Interior for the Philippines (1901-1913) described "the regime of civilization and improvement which started with American occupation and resulted in developing naked savages into cultivated and educated men." Nevertheless, some Americans deeply opposed American involvement in the Philippines, leading to the abandonment of attempts to construct a permanent naval base and using it as an entry point to the Chinese market. In 1916, Congress guaranteed the independence of the Philippines by 1945.
==World War I: Changes in Imperialism==
World War I brought about the fall of several empires in Europe. This had repercussions around the world. The defeated [[Central Powers]] included [[Germany]] and the [[Turkish people|Turkish]] [[Ottoman Empire]]. [[Germany]] lost all of its colonies in Asia. German New Guinea, a part of [[Papua New Guinea]], became administered by [[Australia]]. German possessions and concessions in [[China]], including [[Qingdao]], became the subject of a controversy during the [[Paris Peace Conference, 1919|Paris Peace Conference]] when the [[Beiyang government]] in China agreed to cede these interests to [[Japan]], to the anger of many Chinese people. Although the Chinese diplomats refused to sign the agreement, these interests were ceded to [[Japan]] with the support of the [[United States]] and the United Kingdom.
[[Turkey]] gave up her [[Arab]] provinces; [[Syria]], [[Palestine]], and [[Mesopotamia]] (now [[Iraq]]) came under French and British control as [[League of Nations Mandates]]. The discovery of [[petroleum]] first in [[Iran]] and then in the Arab lands in the interbellum provided a new focus for activity on the part of the United Kingdom, France, and the [[United States]].
==Japan==
{{main|Japanese expansionism}}
In 1641, all Westerners were thrown out of Japan. For the next two centuries, Japan was free from Western influence, except for at the port of [[Nagasaki, Nagasaki|Nagasaki]], which Japan allowed Dutch merchant vessels to enter on a limited basis.
Japan's freedom from Western penetration ended on [[July 8]], [[1853]], when [[Matthew Perry (naval officer)|Commodore Matthew Perry]] of the [[U.S. Navy]] sailed a squadron of black-hulled war ships into Edo (modern Tokyo) harbor. The Japanese told Perry to sail to Nagasaki but he refused. Perry sought to present a letter from U.S. President [[Millard Fillmore]] to the emperor which demanded concessions from Japan. Japanese authories responded by stating that they could not present the letter directly to the emperor, but scheduled a meeting on [[July 14]] with a representative of the emperor. On July 14, the squadron sailed towards the shore, giving a demonstration of their cannon's firepower thirteen times. Perry landed with a large detachment of Marines and presented the emperor's representative with Fillmore's letter. Perry said he would return, and did so, this time with even more war ships. The U.S. show of force led to Japan's concession to the [[Convention of Kanagawa]] on [[March 31]], [[1854]]. These events made Japanese authorities aware that the country was lacking technologically and needed to industrialize in order to keep their power. This realization eventually led to the [[Meiji Restoration]].
The [[Meiji Restoration]] of 1868 led to administrative modernization and subsequent rapid economic development. Japan had little natural resources of her own and needed both overseas markets and sources of raw materials, fuelling a drive for imperial conquest which began with the defeat of China in 1895.
[[Taiwan]], ceded by [[Qing Dynasty]] [[China]], became the first Japanese colony. In 1899 Japan won agreement from the [[great powers]]' to abandon extra-territoriality, and an alliance with the United Kingdom established it in 1902 as an international power. Its spectacular defeat of Russia in 1905 gave it the southern portion of the island of [[Sakhalin]], the former Russian lease of the [[Liaodong Peninsula]] with Port Arthur ([[Lüshunkou]]), and extensive rights in [[Manchuria]] (see the [[Russo-Japanese War]]).
Japan's encroachment on [[Korea]] began with the 1876 [[Treaty of Kanghwa]] with the [[Joseon Dynasty]] of Korea, increased with the 1895 assassination of [[Empress Myeongseong]] and the 1905 [[Eulsa Treaty]], and was completed with the illicit 1910 Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty. In 1910, [[Korea]] was formally annexed to the Japanese empire. For additional information, see [[Korea under Japanese rule]].
Japan was now one of the most powerful forces in the [[Far East]], and in 1914, it entered World War I on the side of the United Kingdom, seizing German-occupied [[Jiaozhou Bay|Kiaochow]] and subsequently demanding Chinese acceptance of Japanese political influence and territorial acquisitions ([[Twenty-One Demands]], 1915). [[May Fourth Movement|Mass protests in Peking]] in 1919 coupled with Allied (and particularly U.S.) opinion led to Japan's abandonment of most of the demands and Jiaozhou's return (1922) to China.
Japan's rebuff was perceived in Tokyo as only temporary, and in 1931, Japanese army units based in Manchuria seized control of the region; full-scale war with China followed in 1937, drawing Japan toward an overambitious bid for Asian hegemony ([[Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere]]), which ultimately led to defeat and the loss of all its overseas territories after World War II (see [[Japanese expansionism]] and [[Japanese nationalism]]). The Japanese treatment of the Chinese people was particularly brutal as exemplified by the [[Nanjing Massacre]].
==Post World War II era==
===Decolonization and the rise of nationalism in Asia===
In the aftermath of World War II, European colonies, controlling more than one billion people throughout the world, still ruled most of the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. However, the image of European preeminence was shattered by the wartime Japanese occupations of large portions of British, French, and Dutch territories in the Pacific. The destabilization of European rule led to the rapid growth of nationalist movements in Asia—especially in [[Indonesia]], [[British Malaya|Malaya]], [[Myanmar|Burma]], and French Indochina.
The war, however, only accelerated forces already in existence; undermining Western imperialism in Asia. Throughout the colonial world, the processes of urbanization and capitalist investment created professional merchant classes that emerged as new Westernized elites. While imbued with Western political and economic ideas, these classes increasingly grew to resent their unequal status under European rule.
====The British in South Asia and the Middle East====
In India, the westward movement of Japanese forces toward Bengal had led to major concessions on the part of British authorities to Indian nationalist leaders. In 1947, the United Kingdom, devastated by war and embroiled in economic crisis at home, granted the subcontinent its independence as two nations: [[India]] and [[Pakistan]]. The following year independence was granted to Burma and [[Ceylon]].
In the Middle East, the United Kingdom granted independence to [[Jordan]] in 1946 and two years later ended its mandate of Palestine, an action that led to the creation of the state of [[Israel]] and decades of bitter wars between this new nation and the Arab world, which continues to this day. (''see'' [[Arab-Israeli conflict]])
====The Dutch East Indies ====
Following the end of the war, nationalists in [[Indonesia]] demanded complete independence from the Netherlands. A brutal conflict ensued, and finally, in 1949, through [[United Nations]] mediation, the Dutch East Indies achieved independence, becoming the new nation of Indonesia. Dutch imperialism molded this new multi-ethnic state comprising roughly 3,000 islands of the Indonesian archipelago with a population at the time of over 100 million.
The end of Dutch rule opened up latent tensions between the roughly 300 distinct ethnic groups of the islands, with the major ethnic fault line being between the [[Javanese people|Javanese]] and the non-Javanese.
====The United States in the Pacific====
In the Philippines, the U.S. remained committed to its previous pledges to grant the islands their independence, and the Philippines became the first of the Western-controlled Asian colonies to be granted independence post-World War II. However, the Philippines remained under pressure to adopt a political and economic system similar to their old imperial master.
This aim was greatly complicated by the rise of new political forces. During the war, the ''[[Hukbalahap]]'' (People's Army), which had strong ties to the [[Communist Party of the Philippines]] (PKP), fought against the Japanese occupation of the Philippines and won strong popularity among many sectors of the Filipino working class and peasantry. In 1946, the PKP participated in elections as part of the Democratic Alliance. However, with the onset of the [[Cold War]], its growing political strength drew a reaction from the ruling government and the United States, resulting in the repression of the PKP and its associated organizations. In 1948, the PKP began organizing an armed struggle against the government and continued U.S. military presence. In 1950, the PKP created the People's Liberation Army (''Hukbong Mapagpalaya ng Bayan''), which mobilized thousands of troops throughout the islands. The insurgency lasted until 1956, when the PKP gave up armed struggle.
In 1968, the PKP underwent a split, and in 1969 the [[Maoist]] faction of the PKP created the [[New People's Army]]. Maoist rebels re-launched an armed struggle against the government and the U.S. military presence in the Philippines, which continues to this day.
====France in Indochina====
=====Postwar resistance to French rule=====
France remained determined to retain its control of Indochina. However, in [[Hanoi]], in 1945, a broad front of nationalists and socialists led by [[Ho Chi Minh]] established an independent Republic of Vietnam, commonly referred to as the [[Vietminh]] regime by Western outsiders. France, seeking to regain control of Vietnam, countered with a vague offer of self-government under French rule. France's offers were unacceptable to Vietnamese nationalists; and in December 1946, war broke out between France and the Vietminh. Meanwhile, the French managed to set up a puppet regime in [[Saigon]] in 1950. The U.S., then recognized the regime in Saigon, and provided the French military effort massive military aid.
The French were also forced to deal with resistance in Cambodia. In 1945, Cambodia declared its independence as the [[Kingdom of Kampuchea]], with [[Sihanouk]] installed as monarch and [[Son Ngoc Thanh]] acting as prime minister. The French wanted to reassert control, but were unable to act at the time. The United Kingdom supported France's efforts to reassert its control of Cambodia, but were unable to act. On [[October 8]], [[1945]], the British arrived in [[Phnom Penh]] with a detachment of [[Nepal]]i [[Gurkhas]]. Thanh was arrested; and the government was overthrown, with the French put back in charge.
Later, anticolonial militants retreated into the countryside and formed armed groups known as the ''[[Khmer Issarak]]'' ("Khmer Independence"). They operated initially along the border with [[Thailand]] and were assisted by the Thai government. In the countryside, French forces fought the Khmer Issarak. However, the French were not able to fully regain their control of Cambodia. On [[April 17]], [[1950]], the first national conference of the Khmer resistance was held and the [[United Issarak Front]] was created, with [[Son Ngoc Minh]] at the head. Sihanouk demanded sovereignty from the French and on [[November 9]], [[1953]], Cambodia was granted independence.
Meanwhile, in Vietnam, the French's war against the Vietminh regime, begun in 1946, continued for nearly eight years. The French were gradually worn down by guerrilla and jungle fighting. The turning point for France occurred at [[Dien Bien Phu]] in 1954, which resulted in the surrender of ten thousand French troops. Paris was forced to accept a political settlement that year at the [[Geneva Conference (1954)|Geneva Conference]], which led to a precarious set of agreements regarding the future political status of Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
=====Postcolonialism and the Vietnam War=====
As France withdrew from Indochina, the U.S. moved into France's old role in supporting the pro-Western Saigon regime, leading to the [[Vietnam war]].
=====Postcolonialism and war in Cambodia=====
The U.S. also became involved in [[Cambodia]]'s domestic politics. The U.S. became increasingly unhappy with Sihanouk because of his [[Non-Aligned Movement|non-aligned]] stance in the [[Cold War]] and the war between the Hanoi and Saigon regimes in Vietnam.
U.S. armed forces then entered Cambodia from the Vietnam-Cambodia border. However, massive protest by students and workers in the U.S. forced the US to withdraw its land forces from Cambodia. Sihanouk declared [[Lon Nol]]'s government illegitimate and formed a government-in-exile in [[Beijing]] known as the Royal Government of the National Union of Kampuchea (GRUNK) and a political coalition in Cambodia known as the National United Front of Kampuchea (FUNK), which in turn was aligned with the Cambodian People's National Liberation Armed Forces (CPNLAF). The U.S. Air Force attacked the base of the CPNLAF, the Cambodian countryside, dropping hundreds of thousands of tons of bombs, killing many people. By 1975, the CPNLAF had defeated Lon Nol's army and on [[April 17]], 1975 the CPNLAF entered Phnom Penh and ousted Lon Nol's regime. However, the loose coalition behind CPNLAF proved unable to establish itself as a stable postcolonial regime. The ensuing [[Cambodian Civil War]] resulted in decades of political turmoil and the emergence of the [[Khmer Rouge]], making Cambodia the stage to one of the bloodiest conflicts in the 20th century.
==List of European colonial acquisitions in Asia==
*[[Burma]] - merged with [[India]] by the British from 1886 to 1937. In 1880, the French built a railroad from [[Tonkin]] to [[Mandalay]]: fearing a French conquest, the British went to war with Burma. The Burmese king was captured and sent to India during the war.
*[[East Timor]] - Portuguese from 1702 to 1975.
*[[Hong Kong]] - British colony from 1841 to 1997.
*[[India]] (including the territory of present day [[Pakistan]] and [[Bangladesh]]) - French, Dutch, Danish, and British before British expanded control in 1757. India and Pakistan granted independence from Britain in 1947.
*[[Indo-China]] - French; including [[Laos]], [[Cambodia]], and [[Vietnam]]; successive revolts were "pacified". Granted independence in 1954.
*[[Indonesia]] - Dutch colony from 1602 - 1949. ([[Netherlands New Guinea]]; until 1962)
*[[Macau]] - Portuguese colony, the first European colony in China (1557-1999).
*[[British Malaya|Malaya]] - Portuguese, then Dutch (1644-1824), then British; rich in tin and rubber.
*[[Outer Manchuria]] - Ceded to [[Russia]] through [[Treaty of Aigun]] and [[Treaty of Peking]]
*[[Philippines]] - Spanish until the [[Spanish-American War]] (1898), then American colony (1899-1946) excluding the [[Japanese Empire|Japanese occupation]] during World War II
*[[Singapore]] - British colony from 1819 to 1959.
*[[Sri Lanka]] - conquered by [[Portugal]] (1505), the [[Netherlands]] (1644), and then [[Kingdom of Great Britain|United Kingdom]] (1796). It produced [[tea]] and [[rubber]].
*[[Taiwan]] - Spanish (1606-1634), Dutch (1634-1662).
==See also==
* [[Chinese imperialism]]
* [[Japanese imperialism]]
* [[Imperialism]]
* [[New Imperialism]]
* [[Colonialism]]
* [[Concession (territory)]]
==References and further reading==
* Erik Ringmar, [http://ringmar.net/europeanfury/ ''Fury of the Europeans: Liberal Barbarism and the Destruction of the Emperor's Summer Palace'']
[[Category:History of Asia]]
[[Category:New Imperialism]]
[[th:ลัทธิจักรวรรดินิยมในเอเชีย]]