Southeast Asiaand Korea

Fall Under Colonial Rule

February 7, 2013

Review

•Where was Japan’s first colony?

•What provided the excuse for Japan to fight China in 1894-95?

•Who did Japan fight against in 1904-05?What was the reason for that war?

•What happened to the royal family of Korea in the 19th century?

The Taewŏn’gunand foreign visitors

• Who was the Taewon’gun? (p. 354). He controlled the government from 1864 to 1873.

• He tried to strengthen royal authority, upsetting the balance between the court and the yangban (the aristocrats who controlled the bureaucracy). (p. 359)

• He persecuted Catholics, including having French priests killed. That brought Western naval forces to Korean shores.

• He refused to negotiate with foreigners.

Korea loses its autonomy

• King Kojong was forced to open Korea to the Japanese and then to Westerners, starting with the Kanghwa Treaty of 1876, an unequal treaty. (Ebrey, pp.361-62)

• Attempts at radical reform, such as the 1884 failed coup, failed for lack of popular support and lack of support among the ruling elite (the yangban). (p.363-4)

• China sent Yuan Shikai to try to both make sure Korea stayed in China’s camp and help Korea resist the Japanese and the West. (Ebrey, p. 364)

• The Tonghak Rebellion (1894-95) led to a Sino-Japanese War, and Japan replacing China as the dominant power on the Korean peninsula. (p.365)

Why was Korea unprepared?•Korea lacked the financial resources needed to

modernize the military and the economy

•Korea had a government that was remarkably stable (that’s how it lasted five centuries) but did not allow much room for innovation. (The king and the yangban checked each other’s actions)

•Having a Chinese resident in Seoul in the 1880s (Yuan Shikai) limited Korean freedom of action.

•Koreans were more committed to their culture than to their nation. (Nationalism didn’t exist yet.)

Imperialism stimulates nationalism

• Creation of a centralized administration staffed by bureaucrats (creating a modern state).

• establishment of modern educational institutions teaching modern subjects, including the history of nations.

• faster and more efficient means of transportation and communication, creating a national community

• Modern financial institutions, creating a national network.

• Promotion of a national language

• plantations pull peasants out of their villages

the Philippines (pp. 112-117)

• The independence movement had its roots in a 19th century movement for equality for native-born clergy. Three priests executed in 1872 are considered the first martyrs for Filipino independence.

• At first, Filipino meant a Spaniard born in the Philippines. Later it came to mean the local people.

• The first nationalists (illustrados--enlightened ones) were often at least partially of Chinese or Spanish descent.

• Rebellion against the Spanish in 1898 led to the US takeover in 1900, and an alliance between the US and a few illustrados.

Indonesia (pp. 93-97)

• It took the Dutch until the early 20th century to bring all of what we now call Indonesia under their colonial rule, beginning with Java. In the process, they had to conquer independent countries such as the sultanate of Acheh and Hindu kingdoms in Bali. It is Dutch rule that created the the nation of Indonesia, just as Spanish rule created the nation of the Philippines.

• The Dutch divided the population into three categories: Dutch (including people of Eurasian heritage), “Foreign Orientals” (Chinese), and locals.

• Between 1830 and 1870, the Dutch forced Indonesians to grow cash crops (This is the so-called “Cultivation System.”)

• With steamships, more Muslims could travel to Mecca.

Burma (Myanmar) (pp. 108-10)

• There was a long history of kingdoms in what is now Myanmar, but it was under the British that the Burmese were placed together with tribal peoples under one government. (Until 1937, the British treated Burma as a province of India rather than as a separate colony)

• For the Burmese, just as with the Sinhalese in Sri Lanka, Buddhism became a vehicle for asserting a distinctive national identity.

• The British refused to recognize that the king played both a political and a religious role. They withdrew official support for Buddhism, which angered many Burmese. Moreover, they promoted Christian schools.

Malaya (pp.97-102)

• Most of the people on the Malay peninsula today are the descendants of people who immigrated from Indonesia, China, or India starting in the late 19th century.

• There was no one country called Malaya before the British began constructing it. And Singapore was just a fishing village.

• In some cases, the British ruled through local sultans.

• The Malays began emphasizing their religion (Islam) and their purported local roots to distinguish themselves from the Chinese and the South Asians, and to claim that Malaysia is their country.

Indochina (pp. 102-107)

•The French moved into Vietnam to stop the persecution of Catholics there, and to “bring civilization” to the Vietnamese.

•They established five separate administrative regions under overall French colonial rule: Cochinchina (south), Annam (central), Tonkin (north), Cambodia, and Laos.

•They had to overcome Vietnamese Confucian and royalist resistance. However, they also found many local people, even from the old elite, willing to work with them (They kept local rulers sitting on their thrones in Annam, Cambodia, and Laos.

Siam (pp. 110-112) •The only Southeast Asian country to

escape European colonial rule.

•To maintain its independence, it had to give up some of what it considered its traditional territory to the French and the British.

•A modernizing Siamese monarchy began creating a national Thai identity, under the slogan of “Nation, Religion, and King,” and promoted the nationwide use of the version of Thai spoken in central Thailand over regional dialects.

Imperialism in Asia by 1900

• Tibet was under Manchu rule

• Taiwan was under Japanese rule

• India, Ceylon, Burma, and Singapore/Malaya were under British rule

• The East Indies was under Dutch rule

• Indochina was under French rule

• The Philippines was coming under American rule

• Siam remained independent, as did the Qing (though it had to allow foreign concessions) and Japan.