10.4 Lecture – India and Southeast Asia

I. British Expand Control Over IndiaA. East India Company Dominates

1. Regulated both in London and India.2. Sepoy = Indian Soldier(s)

3. India was a major supplier of raw materials4. “Jewel of the Crown”

a. British considered India the most valuable of all of the British colonies.

5. India must produce raw materials for British manufacturing and to also buy British made goods.

a. Indian competition of goods produced was prohibited.

B. British Transport Trade Goods1. Railroad network created

a. Transported raw products from the interior to the ports and manufactured goods back again.

b. Most of the product of raw materials was agricultural.1. Crops included tea, coffee, cotton, and

opium.2. The British shipped opium to China and

exchanged it for tea, which they sold in England.

C. Impact of Colonialism1. Negative

a. British held much of the political and economic power.b. Restricted Indian-owned industries such as cotton textiles.

c. Loss of self-sufficiency for many villagers due to cash crops.d. Famine due to cash crops.e. Threat to traditional Indian life.

1. Religion and social customs. 2. Positive

a. World’s third largest railroad network.1. Enabled India to develop a modern economy and

brought unity to the connected regions.b. Modern road network, telephone and telegraph lines, dams,

bridges, and irrigation canals.c. Sanitation and public health improved.d. Schools and colleges were founded.e. Ended local warfare among competing local rulers.

D. The Sepoy Mutiny1. Many Indians were upset with the British trying to convert them to Christianity.2. Cartridges of new Enfrield rifles were greased with beef and pork fat.

a. To use the cartridges, soldiers had to bite off the ends.b. Both Hindus, who consider the cow sacred, and Muslims, who do

not eat pork, were outraged.3. Soldiers refused to accept the cartridges and were placed in jail.4. May 10, 1857 the Sepoy rebelled.

a. Marched to Delhi and captured the city.b. The rebellion spread to Northern and Central India.

5. Later became known as the Sepoy Mutiny.6. Turning point

a. British government took direct control of India.1. Raj = British rule over India from 1757 until 1947.

b. A cabinet minister in London directed policy, and a British governor – general in India carried out the government’s orders.

1. This official held the title of viceroy.c. The mutiny increased distrust between the British and the Indians.

E. Nationalism Surfaces in India1. Change was desired away from old traditional Indian customs.

a. No more arranged child marriages and the rigid caste separation as part of religious life.

b. If changes were not made then outsiders would continue to control India.

2. Indians hated being second-class citizens in their own country.a. Nationalist Groups Formed

1. Indian National Congress in 18852. Muslim League in 1906

b. Desire for self-governmentII. Asian and Western Dominance

A. As trade with these regions grew, so did their attractiveness to imperialists eager for economic benefits and national prestige.

1. Europeans had traded with Asia since the 16th century.a. Britain controlled Indian and Burma.b. Spain occupied the Philippines.c. Netherlands controlled most of the East Indies (now

Vietnam, Kampuchea, and Laos.)2. The existence of these Asian colonial possessions had inspired

the building of the Suez Canal.

3. The land of Southeast Asian was perfect for plantation agriculture.a. Sugar cane, coffee, cocoa, rubber, coconuts, bananas, and

pineapple.b. As these products became more important in the world trade

markets, European powers raced each other to claim lands.

B. Central Asia1. 1865-1876 Russian forces advanced into Central Asia.

a. Nomads, who lived east of the Caspian Sea, fought bravely but in vain.

b. The fertile land of Kazakhstan attracted 200,000 Russian settlers.

2. Russia claimed not to interfere in indigenous customs, they declared communally owned grazing lands “waste” or “vacant” and turned them over to farmers from Russia.

a. The nomads were fenced out and reduced to starvation.3. European Imperialists

a. International rights cannot be taken into account when dealing with semi-barbarous peoples.

4. 1860s-1870s the Qing Empire was losing control over Central Asian, so it was fairly easy for Russian expeditions to conquer the indigenous peoples.

a. Russia thereby acquired land suitable for cotton, along with a large and growing Muslim population.

5. Russian rule brought few benefits to the people.a. The Russians abolished slavery, built railroads to link the

region with Europe, and planted hundreds of thousands of acres of cotton.

b. They did not attempt to change the customs, languages, or religious beliefs of their subjects.

C. Southeast Asia and Indonesia1. Subject to Portuguese and Dutch domination.

a. Until the mid 19th century, most of the region was made up of independent kingdoms.

2. There was considerable variation in the history of different parts of the region.

a. Burma (now Myanmar), nearest India, was gradually taken over by the British in the course of a century.

b. Indochina fell under French control piece by piece until it was finally subdued in 1895.

1. Called French Indochina.2. French held all governmental positions.3. Major rice production and exported.4. Controlled South Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, and

Northern Vietnam.

c. Malaya (now Malaysia) came under British rule in stages during the 1870s-1880s.

1. British sought a trading base that would serve as a stop for their ships that traveled the India-China sea routes.

2. Found a large sheltered harbor on Singapore, an island just off the tip of the Malay Peninsula.

i) Became the world’s busiest port.3. Malayans became a minority in their own country due to the mass amount of Chinese labor force that moved to this territory.

d. 1900s the Dutch subdued northern Sumatra the last part of the Dutch East Indies to be conquered.

1. Dutch East Indies.i) Ruled the island chain of Indonesia.ii) Desired oil, tin, and rubber.

2. Many Dutch moved, lived, and called Indonesia their home.

i) Created a rigid social class.- Dutch were on top- Wealthy and educated Indonesians- Plantation workers on bottom

3. Dutch forced farmers to plant one-fifth of their land in specified export crops.

e. Only Siam (Thailand) remained independent, although it lost several border provinces.

3. Despite their varied political histories, all these regions had features in common.

a. Fertile soilb. Constant warmthc. Heavy rainsd. The people of the region had a long tradition of intensive

gardening, irrigation, and terracing.4. Europeans found it easy to import landless laborers from China and India seeking better opportunities overseas.5. Most of the wealth of Southeast Asia and Indonesia was exported to Europe and North America.

a. In exchange, the inhabitants of the region received two benefits from colonial rule: peace and a reliable food supply.

b. Their numbers increased at an unprecedented rate.

6. Colonial Impacta. Colonialism and the growth of population brought many social

changes.

b. Millions of people from other areas of Asia and the world migrated to work on plantations and mines.

1. Became a melting pot of Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and Buddhists.

c. The resulting cultural changes often led to racial and religious clashes.

d. European missionaries attempted to spread Christianity.1. Islam, however, was much more successful in gaining

new converts, for it had been established in the region of centuries and people did not consider it a religion

imposed on them by foreigners. e. The more numerous agricultural and commercial peoples

gradually moved into mountainous and forested areas, displacing the earlier inhabitants who practiced hunting and gathering or shifting agriculture.

D. Hawaii and the Philippines 1878-19021. 1890s the United States had a fast-growing population and industries that produced more manufactured goods than they could sell at home.2. Merchants and bankers began to look for export markets.

3. Political mood was also promoting expansion.4. Some Americans had been looking outward for quite some time, especially across the Pacific to China and Japan.

a. 1887 it secured the use of Pearl Harbor in Hawaii.b. Became a stepping-stone to Asia.

1. Hawaii’s strategic location brought in inflow of U.S. military personnel, and its fertile land caused planters

to import farm laborers from Japan, China, and the Philippines.

i) These immigrants soon outnumbered the native Hawaiians.

5. The people of the Philippines were sinking under their Spanish rulers.a. The movement for independence began among young Filipinos

studying in Europe.

b. The Revolutionaries had a good chance of winning independence, for Spain had their hands full with a

revolution in Cuba.c. The US went to war with Spain in 1898 and quickly overcame

Spanish forces in the Philippines and Cuba. 1. US did not want to lose the islands after defeating Spain.2. US purchased the Philippines from Spain for $20 million.

i) The US decided that its global interests outweighed the interests of the Filipino people.ii) In rebel areas, a U.S. army of occupation-tortured prisoners, burned villages and crops, and forced the inhabitants into re-concentration camps.

- Many American soldiers tended to look on Filipinos with the same racial contempt with which Europeans viewed their colonial subjects.

3. The US attempted to soften its rule with public works and economic development projects.i) New buildings, roads, harbors, railroads.

ii) Elect representatives to a legislature assembly.

6. In 1916 the Philippines were the first US colony to be promised independence, a promise fulfilled 30 years later.