Asia Flashcards
The Great Game (4)
A) Russia & Britain: the 2 victors of Napoleon
B) British perceived a Russian expansion
In Central Asia
-> threat for India
In the Caucasus
-> threat for Middle East
C) Imaginary character
Arthur Conolly
Rudyard Kipling
D) Popularity due to ideological contrasts
UK: democracy, freedom, modernity
Russia: autocracy, militarism, serfdom
Further British expansion (beyond India) (3)
A) First Afghan war
1839: conquest if Kandahar & Kabul
1842: retreat following permanent insurrections
B) Conquest of Sindh
General Napier independently from the Kingdom
C) Conquest of Punjab
Sikhism: 16th c.; militarization in 17th c.
1799-1839: mighty Sikh kingdom of Ranjit Singh
1845-46 & 1848-49: first & second Punjab war
Integration & modernization
A temporary break (4)
A) British India: insurrection of 1857-58
1858: Company rule -> Crown rule
B) Russia: Crimean war (1854-56)
Russia defeated by Ottoman & European allies
C) New Russian conquests from the 1860s
1858& 1860: Far East (Khaborovsk & Vladivostok)
1860s & 70s: conquered Central Asia
D) Revived British imperialism in the 1870s
Further British expansion (beyond India) pt. 2 (4)
A) 1876: conquest of Baluchistan
B) 1877: East Turkestan to China
Agreement btw Britain & Russia
C) 1878-80: Second Afghan war
British defeated again
D) Tibet
1895: Dalai Lama starts pro-Russian policy
1904: British expedition & conquest of Lhasa
-> treaty btw Tibet & Britain
1906: China recognized as sovereign of Tibet
-> 1911: independence again after collapse of China
-> 1950s: re-conquest by Mao
End of the Great Game (2)
A) Decline of Russia
-> defeated in Russo-Japanese war
Rise of Germany
B) 1907: Alliance btw Britain & Russia following
- 1892: Franco-Russian alliance
- 1904: Franco-British alliance
-> triple Entente
Division of Persia in spheres of influence
Anglo-Burmese wars
3 wars
1824-26; 1852; 1885
Collapse of the VOC (3)
A) Gradual decline of the VOC
growing debt
Corruption
B) 1780-84: Fourth Anglo-Dutch war
Dutch defeat
End of Dutch monopoly of southeast Asia
C) 1794-1806: Batavian Republic (French puppet state)
1796: Bankruptcy of the VOC
1800: Dutch government takes over their property
The British in South East Asia (2)
A) 1811-15: Dutch East Indies occupied by Britain
1814&24: Treaty of London
Java & Sumatra to the Dutch
India & North Borneo to Britain
B) Malaysian peninsula
First: separate settlements
(1786: Penang; 1819: Singapore; 1824: Malacca)
Then: 1826: Straits settlements
1867: crown colony
Dutch expansion in the Dutch Indies (3)
A) Much resistance
Against taxes, coolies, interference
Islam as a uniting factor against Dutch
B) Gradual expansion
Different wars
E.g. Java war (1825-30) & Aceh war (1873-1908)
C) Further development
E.g. Bandung capital of Art deco
French interest in Indochina (3)
A) Religion: many French missionaries
B) Politics: competition with Britain
French exclusion from India
British expansion
C) Trade: ‘Faire de Saigon un nouveau Singapour’
Gradual industrialization in France
-> need for new markets & resources
Steppingstone to the newly opened Chinese market
-> Mekong
Conquest of Indochina (3)
A) 1860s: Cochinchina
B) 1870s & 80s: Tonkin
C) 1890s & 1900s: Laos & parts of Siam
Siam (2)
A) Single non colonized country in South East Asia
Buffer btw Britain & France
Competent kings
Use of Western knowledge for modernization
B) But:
Concedes territory
Indirect colonization
- Export in foreign hands
- Extraterritoriality & unequal treatises
Ming (2)
A) Restoration of prestige
Power over Korea, Mongolia, Siam, Vietnam
B) Contacts with Europeans
Traders (from 1514):
1557: Portuguese
1662: Dutch
Missionaries:
Matteo Ricci
Ferdinand Verbiest
Qing (Manchu) (2)
A) Powerful in the 18th century
1759-1842: trade with Europeans only in Canton
Export of tea, silk, porcelain; import of silver
Positive trade balance & tributaries
B) Decline in the 19th century
White lotus rebellion 1796-1804
Growing economic & technological backwardness
Opium trade
The first opium war (1839-42) (3)
A) Course
1839: Chinese destroy a ship with opium
British conquer Canton, Shanghai & Nanjing
B) Treaty of Nanjing 1842
Continuation of opium trade
Hong Kong to the British
Five ports open for British with fixed rates & tariffs
C) 1844: unequal treaties with France & US
Expansion of treaty ports
