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Western Powers Rule Southeast Asia: Vietnam and the Philippines. 641-644 and 722-727. Historical Background Information:.
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Western Powers Rule Southeast Asia: Vietnam and the Philippines. 641-644 and 722-727
Historical Background Information: • When Napoleon had attacked the Netherlands, the Dutch ruler gave all of his overseas territories to Britain in order to avoid allowing France to capture them. Britain also gained lands by attacking French colonies. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars, they returned some of these territiories, but maintained control of the Cape Colony, British Guiana, Trinidad, Ceylon, Malacca, and Mauritius. The British valued the Cape Colony and other African colonies as stopping points between Britain and the British colony on the Indian subcontinent. • Britain also established colonies in Southeast Asia. Thomas Stamford Raffles help the East India Company establish a port at Singapore, which acted as a center of trade between the Indian Ocean and China. British India ruled the “Straits Settlements,” which included Singapore and Malacca among other territories. British India continued to push into Southeast Asia, annexing territories in Malaya, Burma, Assam, and the port of Rangoon. These areas were important because of their rice and timber trade. • Britain colonized areas in order to trade with them, not to gain land. They desired free trade with all parts of the world. Regions such as Africa, Asia, and the Pacific lands became involved in British trade networks. They traded their resources in exchange for manufactured goods from industrialized nations. Although both sides benefitted from this increase in worldwide trade, the industrialized nations were the ones who benefitted the most. • Technological advancements in ships, specifically clipper ships, helped the increase in trade. New ships could travel faster for lower costs, and could also carry larger quantities of goods. Timber from British colonies in Southeast Asia was in high demand because it was used for building clipper ships.
Historical Background Information: • When they began to use advanced weapons, Russia was finally able to defeat the nomads of the steppe who they had been in conflict with for over seven hundred years. Lands that had been previously used by the nomads as grazing lands was turned over to Russian farmers, and the nomads starved. The Russian government claimed that the nomads did not deserve rights because they were “semibarbarous.” This idea was similar to that of other European imperialist powers who believed that the natives in the lands they colonized were lesser beings than themselves. As Russians pushed further into Central Asia, they gained fertile farmlands and many Muslim subjects. They never attempted to change the lives of their subjects. Instead, the only major changes that were made were abolishing slavery, building railroads, and planting cotton fields. • Southeast Asia and Indonesia were desired by European imperialist powers because of their climates, good agricultural techniques, low populations, and natural resources. Java, the Spice Islands, and northern Sumatra were taken over by the Dutch; Indochina was controlled by France; and Malaya and Burma were under the control of the British. Most of these regions had been taken over gradually in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Only Siam remained independent. In exchange for the profits that the European powers gained from these areas, natives received food and the guarantee of peace. • As American production grew so that supply outweighed demand, many Americans believed that the country should become expansionist. America annexed Hawaii in 1898, using it as a gateway into Asia, a military base, and an agricultural center. Immigrants from Japan, China, and the Philippines were imported to work as farm laborers, and they soon grew larger than the native population. • After the rebellion ended in 1902, America began projects to improve Manila and the Philippines, and the economy. Filipinos gained some say in the government. America granted the Philippines their independence in 1946.
Analyze the effects of imperialism from historical and modern day perspectives: Many groups suffered because of takeover by imperialist powers. Nomadic groups lost their grazing lands and starved as Russia took over the Central Asian steppe. In Malaya, groups who lived in the mountains and forests and practiced hunting and gathering were pushed out of their homelands. Filipinos were tortured and moved into reconcentration camps as revolts against the American occupation broke out. Imperialist countries began to have the attitude that they were superior to the natives living in the lands that they colonized. Many aspects of culture in the British colonies were lost because of British attempts to bring social change and convert natives to Christianity. The only good thing that came out of European imperialism in Southeast Asia was education. As natives were exposed to Europe, they were able to improve their countries by combining their own traditions with modern practices used by Europeans. This instilled a sense of nationalism and strengthened countries. Exposure to Europe through imperialism brought Southeast Asia into the modern world.
What were the responses to imperialism within the region or country? Who were the individuals or groups that aided resistance within the country or region? When and how did your country or region gain independence? • Descendants of French and Dutch settlers living in the Cape Colony called themselves Afrikaners. They grew unhappy as the British created laws against expansion of the white settlement and other laws that protected Africans’ rights and responded by embarking on the “Great Trek” in which groups of Afrikaners left the Cape Colony for the veld. This lead to the foundation of three new colonies; two Afrikaner colonies called the Orange Free State and Transvaal, and the British colony of Natal. • Great social change was taking place in the Southeast Asian colonies. The population increased exponentially, and became a mix of Indians, Chinese, and natives. As the number of people in agricultural and commercial pursuits increased, they pushed out groups of hunter-gatherers in the mountains and forests. Islam spread rapidly despite attempts by Christian missionaries. As the Southeast Asian peoples grew more educated about Asian and world events, specifically the Russo-Japanese War, they became inspired and modernized their political views. • Filipinos were unhappy with Spanish imperial rule. The beginnings of a revolution could be seen among young Filipinos studying in Europe and eventually in the Philippines. Two notable revolutionaries were José Rizal and Emilio Aguinaldo. Rizal was arrested for writing patriotic novels and novels against church involvement in political affairs. Aguinaldo was the leader of a secret society that proclaimed the Philippines to be a republic in 1898. Revolutionaries believed that they would be able to gain their independence because Spain was already occupied with trying to suppress a revolution in Cuba. However, the Philippines were instead turned over to America when, after winning a war against Spain, America purchased the islands in order to avoid their capture by another imperialist power. When Aguinaldo rebelled against the American government in 1899, American armies responded by torturing prisoners, burning villages and crops, and forcing Filipinos into “reconcentration camps.” 200,000 Filipinos were killed in the three-year conflict.
Filipino Independence This picture shows the president of the Philippines, Manuel Roxas, being congratulated when the Philippines was granted its independence from American rule on July 4th, 1946. Before being ruled by America, the Philippines were under the control of Spain. In the Philippines today, Independence Day is celebrated on June 12th instead of July 4th in honor of the day that the leader of the rebel movement, Emilio Aguinaldo, declared independence from Spain in 1898.
Philippine-American War This image shows casualties of the Philippine-American War. The war began when Emilio Aguinaldo led a rebellion against American imperialist rule and America responded harshly; torturing prisoners, burning villages, and forcing Filipinos into “reconcentration camps.” The war, which lasted from 1899 to 1902, resulted in 200,000 Filipino deaths and 5,000 American deaths.
