Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Imperialism Asia
Imperialism Asia
in Asia
Europeans had long
been interested in the
riches of the Orient,
especially after the
Portuguese explorer
Vasco da Gama proved
it was possible to travel
by sea around Africa to
India.
[Image source: http://www.thornr.demon.co.uk/kchrist/vasco.gif]
Sir Robert Clive,
an agent of the
British East
India Company,
was instrumental
in positioning
Great Britain to
seize all of the
Indian sub-
[Image source: http://opioids.com/opium/robert-clive.gif] continent.
His defeat of the French at the
Battle of Plassey in 1757 gave the
British a free hand in India.
[Image source:
http://mss.library.nottingham.ac.uk/images/late_news/06_may/portrait2.jpg]
Imperialism in China
China was a
[Image source:
http://www.wwnorton.com/college/history/ralph/ralimage/map21chi.jpg]
powerful
empire in
her own
right when
European
explorers
arrived
during the
Age of
Discovery.
China was
ruled by
emperors of
the Manchu
Qing (Ch’ing)
Dynasty from
1644 to 1911. [Image source http://www.chinapage.com/emperor/qing1207.jpg]
The Qing (Ch’ing)
emperors were
assisted by a
professional
bureaucratic corps
of Confucian-
trained scholars
known as
mandarins.
[Image source: http://www.lcsc.edu/modernchina/images/Linzexu.gif]
The mandarins controlled virtually
every aspect of Chinese life.
Ethnic Han Chinese were expected to
shave their foreheads and wear their
hair in a long queue as a sign of their
subservience to their Manchu overlords.
Europeans initially came to
exchange goods with the Chinese.
One of the
items the
British
traded for
in large
quantity
was tea.
Fleets of
China
clippers
plied the
high seas,
bringing the
riches of the
Orient to the
people of the
West.
There was little if anything the people
of the Middle Kingdom wanted from
the Barbarians of the West.
[Image source:
http://www.sustainablepetaluma.net/films_may-2002/opium-poppypic.jpg]
Many Chinese quickly became
addicted to opium, and money began
to flow back into British coffers.
[Image sourec:
http://home.planet.nl/~pbdavis/HongKong.gif]
British actions highlighted just how weak
China was, and soon other European
powers were imposing their will on the
Middle Kingdom.
[http://www.historywiz.com/images/china/chinaimperialism.gif]
Taiping Rebellion
(1851-64)
• one of the longest, most
devastating war in Chinese
history
• spread rapidly throughout the
countryside
• was an attempt to overthrow
the Qing dynasty
Taiping Rebellion
(1851-64)
• rebel philosophy a fusion of
Christianity and traditional
beliefs
• put-down with aid of Western
powers
• ravaged country and greatly
weakened China
In 1884, the
French
inflicted a
series of
humiliating
defeats on a
weakened
China.
[Image source:
http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/multimedia/pictures/asia/vietnam/history/hunghoa.jpg]
France acquired
control over the
tributary states of
Tonkin, Annam,
and Cochinchina, as
well as eventually
establishing a
sphere-of-influence
over southeast
[Image source: http://www.ehistory.com/vietnam/maps/images/018.jpg]
China proper.
Sino-Japanese War
(1894-95)
Formosa
Established on 10 October
1911 after a brief revolution.
Dr. Sun Yat-sen
(1866-1925)
1. Nationalism
2. Democracy
3. Livelihood
Yuan Shih-kai
(1859-1916)
• Qing (Ch’ing) general
who replaced Dr. Sun
Yat-sen as president of
China in early-1912
• tried to reestablish the
monarchy with himself
as emperor
[Image source:
http://www.lib.byu.edu/estu/wwi/comment/c
-was deposed in 1916
hinawwi/images/China03.jpg]
Kuomingtang
(aka Nationalist)