History with Leverett: Imperialism in Asia: A look at 3 Regions- India, China, & Indochina

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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.