6.1 SE Asia

THE NEW IMPERIALSIM
In the 1800s European nations began a new push of imperialism—the extension of a nation’s power over other lands.
A new phase of Western expansion into and trade with Asia and Africa began in the nineteenth century. Asia and Africa were seen as a source of raw materials for industrial production and as a market for Europe’s manufactured goods.
This “new imperialism,” as some historians have called it, was not content to have trading posts and agreements, as the old imperialism was, but wanted direct control over territories.
There was a strong economic motive for Western nations to increase their search for colonies after 1880. Europeans wanted direct control of the raw materials and markets it found in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
European nations also acquired colonies to gain an advantage over European rivals looking for colonies and world power. Having colonies was a source of national prestige as well.
The new imperialism was tied to racism and Social Darwinism. To Social Darwinists, the imperialist European nations were simply exerting themselves in the struggle for the fittest to survive. Losing nations were racially inferior nations, these people argued erroneously. Others believed that the Western nations had a moral or religious duty to “civilize” Asian, African, and Latin American nations, which often meant to Christianize them.

COLONIAL TAKEOVER IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
By 1900 almost all of Southeast Asia was under Western rule.
Great Britain led the way in nineteenth-century imperial colonialism. In 1819 Great Britain founded a colony on a small island called Singapore (“city of the lion”). In the new age of steamships, Singapore soon became a major port for traffic to and from China.
The British moved deeper into Southeast Asia in the next decades. Britain took control of Burma (present-day Myanmar) to protect its possessions in India and to have a land route to South China.
France had interests in Vietnam and was alarmed by British expansion into Southeast Asia. To stop any British move on Vietnam, the French government decided in 1857 to force the Vietnamese to accept French protection. By 1884, the French had seized control of the country and made the Vietnamese Empire into a French protectorate—a political unit that depends on another government for its protection. In the 1880s France extended protection over neighboring Cambodia, Laos, Annam, and Tonkin.
In the final quarter of the nineteenth century, both Britain and France tried to make Thailand into a colony. Two remarkable rulers prevented the takeover—King Mongkut (memorialized in The King and I) and his son King Chulalongkorn. Both promoted friendly relations with the West and Western learning. In 1896 France and Britain agreed to maintain Thailand as an independent buffer state between their possessions.
The United States naval forces under Commodore George Dewey defeated the Spanish in Manila Bay in the Philippines. President William McKinley believed it was his moral duty to civilize other parts of the world. Colonizing the Philippines would also prevent it from coming under Japanese rule and would serve the United States’s interest in securing a jumping-off point for trade with China.
Many Filipinos objected to the colonization—for example Emilio Aguinaldo, the leader of an independence movement. His guerrilla forces fought against the Spanish and the United States, who defeated the guerrillas.

COLONIAL REGIMES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
The chief goal of the Western powers in their colonies was to exploit the natural resources and open up markets for Western manufactured goods. The colonial powers ruled either indirectly or directly.
Indirect rule was used when allowing local rulers and political elites their authority best achieved the goals of the Western parent country. This approach was the preferred route because it made ruling easier and less costly.
Especially when local elites resisted foreign conquest, indirect rule was not practicable. In these cases new officials from the mother country were put in charge of taxes, law and order, and other governmental matters. This system is called direct rule. This was Britain’s approach in Burma, for example, where the British abolished the monarchy.
France used direct and indirect rule in Indochina. It imposed direct rule in the southern provinces in the Mekong delta, which had been ceded to France as a colony after the first war in 1858 to 1860. In the northern parts of Vietnam, France used indirect rule (protectorate).
Western powers often justified their conquests by arguing they brought civilization and development. These same powers, however, often feared the indigenous peoples gaining political rights. The native peoples might want full participation in the government or independence.
Colonial powers did not want their colonists to develop their own industries. Thus, the parent countries stressed exporting raw materials—teak wood, rubber, tin, spices, tea, coffee, sugar, and others.
In many places the native people worked as wage laborers on plantations owned by foreign investors. Plantation owners kept wages at a poverty level. Conditions on plantations often were horrible. Colonial governments often levied high taxes on the peasants.
Colonial rule did bring benefits to Southeast Asia. It began a modern economic system and improved infrastructure. Expanded exports developed an entrepreneurial class in rural areas, even though most of the export profits went to the mother country.

RESISTANCE TO COLONIAL RULE
Initial resistance to colonial rule came from the ruling classes among the subject peoples. Sometimes resistance to Western rule took the form of peasant revolts. Peasants often were driven off land to make way for plantation agriculture.
Early resistance movements were overcome by Western powers. At the beginning of the twentieth century, a new kind of resistance based on the force of nationalism emerged. The leaders often were a new class created by colonial rule: westernized intellectuals in the cities.
These new leaders were part of a new urban middle class—merchants, clerks, students, and professionals—which had been educated in Western schools, spoke Western languages, and knew Western customs. At first the resistance movements organized to protect religious traditions and traditional cultural customs. In the 1930s these resistance movements began to demand national independence.