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| Clive after The Battle of Plassey |
By
the late Eighteenth Century, Colonialism began to take a different shape after
the American Revolution with the British domination of India. The British
imperial movement in Asia began with a desire for trade. The British foothold
in India became solidified after the Battle of Plassey followed by the gradual
British control of the entire Indian subcontinent. Trade also led to European
domination over the isolationist Kingdom of China. While China never
experienced the level of European control seen in India, Europeans still
impacted the Chinese kingdom through enforced trade and missionary influence.
The changes within China arrived in spite of deep Chinese distrust of outsiders
and policies of isolation. The imperialism which first reached began a process
of transformation felt throughout the entire continent of Asia. The
consequences of European domination still vibrate throughout the countries and
cultures of Asia leaving no group unaffected by past Western power. The aim of
this paper is an exploration of the impact of Western imperialism and influence
within Asia through an examination of India, China, and Southeast Asia. A study
of these three regions reveals that foreign power and intervention led to many
of the most violent and traumatic events of their history.
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| Coat of Arms for the English East India Company from culturalindia.net |
The beginnings of British imperialism of India arose from the European desire for Asian spices and silks. Queen Elizabeth I granted the East India Company a charter, and the English rapidly passed the Portuguese as the dominant European power on the subcontinent. The British motive for imperialism contained at its heart a desire for trade and economic power. The Company began as a purely mercantile power but gradually gained political power as the Mughal Empire weakened. During the early years of their rule, the Company strived to avoid interference with Indian culture and religion even going as far to ban missionaries from their territories because they wanted nothing to hinder trade. But the policy of cultural non-interference faded as the Company increased its authority in an attempt to protect trade interests. Military and territorial expansion became justified as necessary for safeguarding trade and commercial interest. As the British expanded they placed pressure on local rulers for concessions and control. In 1801 the Company pressured the Nawab of Oudh to cede much of his territory. In 1803 the British occupied Delhi and gave the great-grandson of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb a puppet throne. Shah Alam received the title the King of Delhi and an allowance but only ruled within the walls of the Delhi Red Fort. (David, The Indian Mutiny, 5)
As the East India Company expanded,
one of their primary tools were the Sepoys. The Sepoys were native Hindus and
Muslims recruited by the Company to serve as soldiers in their military.
Cultural and religious conflict boiled underneath as the British imposed their
own societal expectations upon the Sepoys. Indian concerns such as caste and
overseas travel received little attention in the view of the sepoys. Sepoy
grievances culminated in the controversy over the rifle cartridges which
required animal grease for the smooth loading. The use of cow and pig fat
caused considerable consternation among both Muslim and Hindu troops and led to
the bloody Sepoy Rebellion in 1857. While the dispute over the rifle cartridges
was a primary concern for the Sepoys, their mutiny was the culmination of years
of cultural clash and dissatisfaction with British rule.
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| Two sepoy officers; a private sepoy, 1820s from Wikipedia |
Trade and economic concerns also
drove imperial ambitions in China. The British demand for tea led to an
unbalanced trade arrangement with the Chinese who gladly traded tea for silver
but had no desire for British products. China regarded foreigners as outsiders
and wanted nothing to do with people they regarded as barbarians. This attitude
of Chinese superiority appears in the letter the emperor sent to the King of
England when he said,
Strange and costly
objects do not interest me. As your ambassador can see for himself, we possess
all things. I set no value on strange objects and have not use for your
country’s manufactures.” (Hanes and Sanello, The Opium Wars, 19.)
The
British answer to the trade imbalance was the importation of opium from India
into China. The Chinese addiction for opium ravaged China, and the government
attempted to fight back by barring opium importation and destroying stocks of
opium. The British responded by using their navy and military to inflict a
humiliating defeat upon the Chinese. The Treaty of Nanking placed the Chinese
into an inferior relationship with the European powers by granting the British
and later other Westerners extraterritoriality. British citizens were no longer
subject to Chinese laws and further, the treaty forced China to open five ports
for trade. While the emperor remained on the throne, China ceded Hong Kong to
the British. Chinese humiliation over surrendering sovereignty over to the
British led to a second Opium War which also included the French. (Hanes and
Sanello, 175) Another defeat led to the Chinese surrendering more ports to
trade and continued foreign influence within the borders of China as Westerners
and missionaries traveled freely throughout the interior of the country.
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The East India Company iron steam ship Nemesis, commanded by Lieutenant W. H. Hall, with boats from the Sulphur, Calliope, Larne and Starling, destroying the Chinese war junks in Anson's Bay, on 7 January 1841 from Wikipedia |
Trade and missionary activity led to an influx of new ideas and Western religious philosophies into all regions of China. Foreign traders, who previously crowded around Canton opened at the five ports and set up trade and residency. (Spence, God’s Chinese Son, 62) Missionaries sought converts and printed Bibles and tracts in local languages. The opening of China for trade and commerce also brought foreign missionaries. The Treaty of Nanking guaranteed the rights of Westerners to spread Christianity and encouraged these outsiders to build churches and win converts. Some missionaries acted in a free-lance method, acting independently with little or no supervision. It was in this atmosphere Hong Xiuquan encountered Protestant missionary Edwin Stevens and received a Christian tract titled, “Good Words for Exhorting the Age.” Years later through a reading of the booklet and visions Hong becomes convinced that he is the younger brother of Jesus with the mission to free China from Manchu rulers of China which he identifies with the Devil. Undertaking preaching journeys, Hong finds a receptive audience among the ethnic Hakka and other peasant groups. Peasants not only respond to his spiritual message but find hope in the promise of solidarity and protection from hostile forces. (Spence, 88)With followers, Hong assembles his Taiping Heavenly Army to “reach the people and destroy the demons, so that all may live together in perpetual joy, until they are raised to Heaven to greet their Father.” (Spence, 172) The Heavenly Army attacked the Xing troops with ferocity and zealotry that matched their faith in the message of Hong Xiuquan.
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| Hong Xiuquan from Wikipedia |
Unlike the Opium Wars, there is no
direct connection between the death and destruction of the Taiping Rebellion and
the economic ambitions of Westerners. The Taiping reacted toward the corruption
and indifference of the Manchus as well as the increased poverty among the
peasants. Ethnic tensions also contributed since racial tensions were often the
center of Taiping complaints with their declarations tied to the Manchu’sancestry and pretentions. (Spence, 161) While tensions between the Chinese and
the Manchu lay close to the causes of the Rebellion, the flood of foreigners
into China after the First Opium War contributed to the problems within China.
The increasing social issues associated with the flood of opium supplied by
Westerners increasingly weakened the foundations of Chinese society causing
instability throughout China.
While foreign influence was a
peripheral cause for the Taiping Rebellion, resentment against Western presence
was a primary reason for the Boxer Rebellion. The Boxers were an obscure
peasant movement whose central creed was “anti-Christian, anti-missionary, and
anti-foreign.” (Preston, The Boxer
Rebellion, 22) Chinese economic and social conditions spread the Boxer
philosophy throughout the Chinese peasant class. Devastating floods, droughts,
and locusts’ plagues caused misery for the poor of northern China thereby
making them receptive to the Boxer message. Foreign goods flooding China put artisans
out of work while steamboats made the jobs of thousands of bargemen redundant. (Preston,
24) The anger of the peasants focused on all things they perceived as foreign.
Christian missionaries, Chinese Christians, and foreign interference received
the blame for offending China’s traditional gods, causing the gods to punish
the land and the people. (Preston, 24) Western government attempts to protect
their missionaries only added to the accusation that missionaries were in an
alliance with their nations to control China. The murder of two German Catholic
missionaries by an armed band only furthered the paranoia when the Kaiser’s
government demanded concessions and received control of the Kiaochow Bay as a
naval base. German demands that the Chinese government finance the construction
of churches and cathedrals only affirmed Boxer accusations against the
foreigners and Chinese Christians. All of these frustrations caused the Boxer
movement to seep through northern China as a “heartfelt response to desperate
and worsening conditions in northern China and an increasing sense of impotence.”
(Preston, 24)
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| Boxer Rebellion from History.com |
Both the Taiping Kingdom and the
Boxer movement rose to power because of the frustration of a peasantry that
felt powerless before foreign greed and an inflexible monarchy. Both movements
used spirituality as a tool to empower the poor in their quest to lash out at
the forces which caused their pain and both groups saw themselves as holy
warriors striking out against the devils causing Chin’s decline. The Taiping
followed Hong Xiuquan, who constructed a syncretistic form of Christianity with
Eastern beliefs. Their devotion and zealotry against the Qing rulers mirror the
ferocity the Boxers exhibited toward all things foreign. Both movements viewed
their opponents as evil, and the cause of China’s decline and misfortune. The
Taiping and the Boxers rose as revolutionary movements due to the greed of
Western imperialism and the intrusion of Christian missionaries. While some
missionaries approached Chinese culture with sensitivity, many Western
evangelists became instruments who disturbed the social fabric of Chinese life.
The Taiping adopted Christian exclusivity and attacked Chinese religious
symbols as the representatives of a demonic Qing social structure, while the
Boxers viewed Christianity as an alien element which upset the balance of life
in China. Chinese Christians became a special target of Boxer anger, as many
Chinese viewed these Christians as traitors to traditional Chinese principles.
Chinese
Christians refused involvement in the cultural and religious customs of village
life thereby causing disunion within the community. Practices such as ancestor
worship, long common among the Chinese for centuries became branded as a form
of idolatry and rejected by Chinese Christians. For many, the rejection of
long-held customs was a rejection of Chinese culture and identity. Within the
mind of the Boxers, the Chinese Christians ceased being Chinese. (Preston 26)
The fierceness of the Boxers against
the presence of foreigners and Christianity in China bears a remarkable
similarity to the actions of the sepoys during the Indian Rebellion of 1857. While
Christian proselytizing was not a complaint of the sepoys before the rebellion,
the native soldiers attacked with an aggressiveness similar to the Boxers
against all things British and Christian. (David, 73) Many Indians suspected
that missionaries were the tools of the East India Company with the goal of
remaking India in a Western image. Government and Company actions only
reinforced the suspicion. In 1813 the East India Company agreed to spend ten
thousand pounds on Indian education in an agreement to renew the Company’s
charter. The debate centered on whether the education was English or classical
Indian. The debate ended when it was agreed that an English-educated Indian
middle class was useful as a tool for governance. These educated Indians in the
minds of the British were, “interpreters between us and the millions we govern-
a class of persons Indian in colour and blood, but English in tastes, in
opinions, in morals, and in intellect. (David, 73) These changes while not causing fundamental changes
in Indian village life, accumulated with imperial practices to cause great
distrust among many Indians and the sepoys. Like the Boxers, the sepoys lashed
out with violence at the scapegoats they perceived as the cause of their
problems and both violent incidents trace the problem of an intrusive and
grasping Western imperialists. The rapid spread of revolutionary ideas and
rebellion in all of these actions demonstrate the power of an aggrieved people.
The fact that many Indians within fundamentalist Hindu groups still teach that
India is the victim of a Western conspiracy bent on changing it into a
Christian image reveals the impact of Western imperialism in the East.
The deadly violence of partition
exposes the deep divisions existing
within Indian society before independence. Much of this division existed during
the Mughal period but grew during British rule as the British cultivated
religious and sectarian differences in an attempt to make their rule essential.
Playing each group off of each other made the British the arbiters of India but
led to the tragedy of Partition. The British always maintained their rule with
the cooperation of Indians. The Mutiny of 1857 came close to ending British
rule in India and ended with a British victory because many Indians remained
loyal to their British overseers. The Indian Army remained loyal to their
British commanders through both world wars and after partition both the Indian
and Pakistani armies retained their British commanders soon after independence.
Religious divisions were one aspect that allowed the British to retain a hold
on India. The distrust nurtured by the British exploded as serious talks of
British withdrawal began. The ethnic and religious hatred boiled underneath and
partition brought death and brutality, assigning partition among the great
tragedies of the Twentieth Century.
Due to their long imperialistic hold
upon India, many British politicians believed they possessed
a deep
understanding of India but the reality was that a great chasm existed between
the mother country and the colonials. Winston Churchill fought against Indian
independence and doubted the ability of Indians to be self-governing. His
career began in the Northwest Frontier combating tribal groups. He believed
himself an expert on India, but his attitudes remained frozen since his time in
the Northwest frontier. (Hajari, Midnight’s
Furies, 38) During the height of the British Empire, India was the Jewel in
the British Empire, but after World War II the British economy was bankrupt and
India was no longer able to finance the empire. (Hajari, 7) The divisions which
aided Britain in maintaining a hold on the subcontinent tore at the fabric of
the country.
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| Winston Churchill as a 19 year old officer of the 4th Hussars: Malakand Rising, 26th July to 22nd August 1897 on the North-West Frontier of India from Britishbattles.com |
Similar to the period before the
Sepoy Rebellion, the British overestimated their understanding of India. During
Company rule contact between officers and Indian recruits remained at a minimum
with British officers remaining isolated from the concerns of their men. Likewise,
many British officials failed to understand the distrust which they helped to
foster. The violence and ferocity seen in the thousands killed in the Calcutta killings and later in the Punjab caught many British officials by surprise.
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| Caption from LIFE. "Carrion birds feast on victims of bloody religious riot in India." (Calcutta, 1946) |
| Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Image from Time.com |
The inability to discern the consequences
of past actions is similar to past movements in other countries. Missionaries
within the heart of China saw the threat of the Boxers much earlier than the
diplomats, who were slow to make preparations for an attack. Mere weeks before
the first attack British diplomat Sir Claude MacDonald sent a note of assurance
to Vice-Admiral Seymour describing the “wholesome calm” in Peking. (Preston,
66) The same attitude of confidence caught the British by surprise as angry sepoys
struck back at their former officers.
French and American involvement in Vietnam
also revealed an ignorance and inability to understand the desires and
determination of Vietnamese nationalists for self-determination. Ho Chi Minh
drifted to the Communist Party partly due to the failure of French socialists
to declare the right of self-determination for colonial people. He mocked those
who opposed Lenin with the question, “If you do not condemn colonialism, if you
do not side with the colonial people, what kind of revolution are you making?”
(Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie, 157)
Both the French and Americans approached the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong
with a paternalistic and imperialistic attitude which underestimated their
determination. John Paul Vann recognized the fortitude of the Viet Cong at the
Battle of Ap Bac where a small group of Viet Cong guerrillas decisively held
off a larger and heavily equipped force of South Vietnamese forces supported by
American advisors. American refusal to identify the ability of their enemies
involved the American military in a quagmire. The American policy of attrition required
that the U.S. increase their involvement from one as advisors then to active
participants with the need for greater military immersion in the conflict. Vann
always believed that success was possible in Vietnam through a pacification and
strategic use of military force but his inability to trust South Vietnamese
leadership caused him to advocate for an imperialistic relationship. While
Americans viewed themselves as anti-imperialistic, American actions in
Southeast Asia bore striking similarity to imperial powers both in Vietnam and
in their interference within Cambodia.
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| Battle of Ap Bac from alchetron.com |
Like the British, the French colonial policy in Indochina involved a division of the population against itself to
maintain their control over their colony and their presence in Indochina served
their economic interests. In Vietnam,
the French used the Vietnamese mandarin class as proxies. The service of the
mandarin class under the French caused their close identification with the
colonial rulers. The labor of peasants on rubber plantations was highly abusive
and exploitative and the mandarins who assisted the French eventually received
the label of collaborator. The minority of mandarins who resisted French rule
faced imprisonment and oppression but later redeemed their honor in their
leadership against French imperialism. The leadership of the Vietnamese
Communist Party derived largely from the mandarin class who rejected French
colonialism. (Sheehan, 156)
The French overwhelmed a stagnant Vietnam
in the Nineteenth Century with superior technology and organization. (Shehann,
162) French colonial practices disrupted and changed the social life of
Southeast Asia. The quest for the riches found in the rubber plantations
transformed Vietnam at all levels. French opposition to nationalist forces
decimated non-Communists alternatives in the 1930s when they sent many
nationalists leaders to the guillotine. The work of the French political police
in eliminating the Vietnamese political party, the Kuomintang left no
non-Communist nationalist alternative after World War II. Only the Communists
succeeded in rebuilding their party to oppose colonial rule. (Sheehan, 171)
The allure of imperialism caused many
colonial powers to spend more of their resources in eliminating nationalist
movements than preparing their colonial subjects for self-rule. The existence
today of a democratic India demonstrates that Indian participation in the
colonial administration and the existence of a British educated Indian leaders
aided India in a difficult transition to independence. But the horrors of
partition and the continued conflict between India and Pakistan reveal that the
British had no plans for an independent India after World War II. The French
also maintained their determination to hold fast to their colonial possessions.
They placed great prestige upon their identity as a colonial empire. But the
French defeat by the Germans and the Vichy genuflection to the Japanese
seriously damaged the French in the eyes of those in Southeast Asia. French
failures were even greater in Cambodia. The lack of an educated middle class
left the Cambodians vulnerable to rival forces and revolutionary groups within
the country. (Ngor, Survival in the
Killing Fields, 421-422) While the Cambodian monarch, Sihanouk successfully
achieved Cambodian independence while the French struggled with Vietnam, the
country was ill-prepared for self-determination. Attempting to retain
neutrality during the height of American involvement in Vietnam, Cambodia fell
victim to the powers and ideologies competing for ascendancy in Southeast Asia.
A coup in 1970 led by the Prime Minister Lon Nol led to divisions within
Cambodia as Lon Nol sought an alliance with the United States. (Ngor, 44-45)
But the failure of Lon Nol and his alliance with America allowed the Chinese
backed Khmer Rouge to gain control and begin a systematic slaughter of the
Cambodian people. The revolutionaries
desired a reconstructed revolutionary Cambodia, so the Pol Pot government
adopted the Maoist policy of the Great Leap Forward which would renovate the
country into self-sufficiency. The result was devastation and genocide. Haing Ngor encapsulates the suffering,
We had not been in
favor of the revolution. We had not been against it. We didn’t even care about
politics much. But now that the revolution, we had been bulldozed by it,
reduced to the same level as the other exiles around us. And there was no new
society building. Just the rubble of the old one. (Ngor, 119)
The entanglement between religion and
imperialism remains a complicated topic. Within China, India, and Indo-china,
missionaries gained entrance through the efforts of the imperial powers. Missionaries’
identification with imperialism became a problem for their ministries and for
the new native converts. France was very effective in its use of Christianity
in building a colonial empire. Many early Vietnamese converts saw French
occupation as an opportunity for an improved status and they served the French
as soldiers and low-level officials. Vietnamese priests became promoters of
French colonial rule. (Sheehan, 175) Vietnamese Catholics who fled the north
received priority status from the Diem government, taking land from tenant
farmers and granting it to the Catholics. (Sheehan, 183) The French use of
religion in their empire invalidated Christianity in the eyes of many in
Vietnam and Cambodia.
Religion remained central in the Sepoy
Mutiny as the sepoys believed that the British wanted them to lose their caste
and religion in the requirements of army service. Many Hindus believed they
lost caste if they undertook overseas travel but the question of the cartridges
was foremost in the minds of both Hindus and Muslims. The failure of the
Company to seriously consider the religious scruples of its soldiers was a
primary reason for the bloody conflict in 1857.
The use of religion by the British as a
means of control also led to the violence during partition and still causes
tensions today. The Muslim worry was that the replacement of
the British Raj for a Hindu Raj placed them in an oppressive position, this moved
many Muslims to demand for Pakistan under the leadership of Jinnah. Many
British officials, including Winston Churchill, favored Muslims believing they were
more trustworthy further sowing distrust.
Religious and sectarian strife still tear at each country, causing mistrust
and violence to occur between both nations. India remains at the front of
Pakistani policies and remains the controlling principle behind most of
Pakistan’s actions including their support for the Taliban with generations
determined to “defy their bigger neighbor and survive.” (Hajari, 70) Religion
remains at the center of their mutual conflict over Kashmir with India still
identifying Pakistan as the world’s number one exporter of terrorism. The spirit
of the Mutiny and Partition still haunt both countries with the threat of war
always near. The efforts of the British to employ sectarian and religious
division as a way to maintain control still produces violence and loss.
The
mixture of religion, trade, and imperialism produced a confusing situation in
China as missionaries and merchants cooperated in their efforts to penetrate
China. Some missionaries even allowed themselves to be involved in the opium
trade as seen with Dr. William Jardine of the Medical Missionary Society, who
was one of the largest opium traders in China before the First Opium War.
(Hanes and Sanello, 38) Chinese defeat in the Opium Wars paved the road for
Christian missionary penetration into the interior of China. Continued
government support for Western missionaries developed suspicion among many
Chinese which evolved into the violent fury exhibited during the Boxer
Rebellion. The free flow of new religious ideas into China impacted Hong Xiuquan
and led to the Taiping Rebellion, which causes one to surmise that even with
the rapid growth of Christianity in China today that sustained government persecution of Christians and other smaller sects continues due to the fear
caused by a possible uprising similar to the Taiping.
Lastly, the one common element in all
these movements in India, China, and Southeast Asia is the presence of brutal,
indiscriminate violence. Was Western imperialism and interference a factor
which led to the extreme violence in all these regions? The disruption that
imperialism brought to Asia certainly caused division which led to violence.
The interference in stabilizing cultural practices certainly caused violence
between different groups. But within India modern transportation and
communication systems merged India into a unity that was not possible before
the arrival of the British. An India without the British and divided into
different nations would appear much like Europe today. Distrust and violence
between Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs existed before the British, but the British
used that distrust to their advantage.
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| Emergency trains crowded with refuges during partition from thewire.in |
One reason Europeans possessed these
countries was due to their technological advances but all of the ruling powers
of these countries were weak and corrupt when Europeans arrived in force. The
Mughal Empire was at its most vulnerable and corruption allowed the British to
fill a vacuum. The isolationist Manchu rulers of China were also weak and
unwilling to compromise to modernize so to resist Western domination. Their
rigidity and corruption fueled the circumstances which led to the violent
Taiping Rebellion. The anxiety and instability of the Empress Dowager led her
to throw her support behind the boxers in an attempt to rid China of outsiders.
In Southeast Asia, the stagnant and weak Vietnamese emperor easily fell victim
to the French invaders who justified their occupation under the “pretext of
freedom of religion.” (Sheehan, 175) The Europeans were a major contributor to
the violence which consumed Asia but they took advantage of governmental and
societal ills which existed before their arrival.
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| Europeans & Japanese carve China into spheres of influence while America looks on. from Wikiwand |
