Location
South East Asia, a sub region of Asia located in both eastern and northern hemispheres, has been subjected to years of colonial rule. This region is composed of many different countries, including Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Peninsular Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, and Singapore. To the north is China and to the west of Burma is India. Most of South East Asia is located in the Indian Ocean including smaller seas like Andaman Sea, South China Sea, and Philippine Sea. Indonesia and the Philippines are both major islands. The Irrawaddy is a well-known river in Burma. The Red River is found in Vietnam. These large water sources were the base for ancient civilizations. There are many mountain chains scattered around the region such as Arakan Yoma in Burma, Cardamon Mountains in Cambodia, Kinabalu in Malaysia, and Grand Cordillera Central in the Philippines. Because of its location on the equator, South East Asia is in the humid tropics. It may be considered a rainforest biome with tons of different animals.
Culture
Modern South East Asia obviously has many influences from the countries that colonized there. But, some countries were able to keep part of their original culture. For example, almost all of the countries have their native tongue as the main language. Laos speaks Lao, Burma speaks Burmese, Vietnam speaks Vietnamese and Malaysia speaks Malay. The one exception is the Philippines who speak Filipino and English. While the major languages of each country are generally indigenous, there are still traces of the conquering nations’ languages. A vital aspect in South East Asian society and work-life is rice paddies. Because of the vast marshy areas and la...
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...lonies from mother countries. Great Britain chose to administer this type of rule in Burma after their monarchy rebelled against conquest. It was ruled by Britain’s colonial rule in India. To validate their harsh rule, many mother countries advertised their plans to advance Western civilizations. In most cases, these plans were never enforced from fear native people would be dangerous with political rights.
Though, some nations actually did adapt European systems in South East Asia. Colonial rule began the construction of a modern economic system. Mother nations established roads, highways, and other buildings that remunerate both involved countries. There was an opportunity for entrepreneurs to share their goods with the improvement of export markets. In the Dutch East Indies, growers of natural resource could share their profits in colonial endeavors.
One country that had imperialism was India. By the mid-1880s, the British East India Company controlled three fifths of India. The cause of British domination was that the land was very diverse and the people could not unite and that the British either paid local princes or used weapons to get control. Positive effects of imperialistic rule in India were that the British set up a stronger economy and more powerful industries. They built roads and railroads. British rule brought peace and order to the countryside. They revised the legal system to promote justice for the Indians regardless of class. Indian landowners and princes, who still owned territory grew rich from exporting cash crops such as cotton and jute. The British introduced the telegraph and the postal system as a means of communication. These improvements and benefits from British rule eventually lead to Indian nationalism. The exposure to European ideas caused an Indian nationalist movement, the people dreamed of ending Imperial ...
With the Industrial Revolution in full swing, Europe was looking to bolster their trade markets abroad. Thinking of it this way: in order to sell more goods, you need more places to sell them. So, with this thinking in mind, the Europeans said to themselves, 'What better place than Africa and Asia?' Along the same lines, colonies on these continents were seen as great places to get cheap, raw materials for Europe's factories. Add to this that Europe needed a place to house and employ their surplus population, and you can see why New Imperialism held the promise of economic growth.
The assigned readings about Asian history lead a unified conclusion that the past (history) of Asia was characterized with chaos and internal divisions. “China, once again entered an era of divisiveness and chaos. Competing warlords dominated China for the next 350 years” (The Golden Age of China: 79). China is a perfect symbol of Asia’s history because if studied from the past, the history of China demonstrates how divisions took place in the country’s political and economic spheres. China’s history reveals how the religion led to emergence of chaos in the country. This shows that religion, in the history of Asia, was more divisive than uniting when individual countries considered their religions as different. Religious harmonization of Buddhism and Daoism was important to ending the wars that emerged from the struggle for influence between kingdoms (The Golden Age of China: 80). The main reason for religion causing division in Asia’s history was because of competition between two main religions, Buddhism and Daoism. Asia’s history did not have divisions that lasted forever. Certain historical events, especially the emergence of the Sui dynasty in China was crucial in unifying Asians. Leadership approach, especially Yang Jian’s, was critical in the unification of China. Art and philosophy were important aspects in the history of China according to the findings of this paper’s analysis. These aspects were used as part of the historic leadership styles in the continent. Asia’s history also has an aspect of patriarchal leadership, with only one woman becoming an emperor in China.
The state of power established through the imperialistic backdrop show that Orwell should have control over the Burmese. Orwell is a British colonial officer in Burma, which is under the control of the British, and because of this he should have authority and control over the Burmans. The presence of the empire is established when Orwell explains that, “with one part of my mind I thought of the British Raj as an unbreakable tyranny...upon the will of the prostrate people; with another part I thought that the greatest joy in the world would be to drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priest’s gut.” (144) This ideal imperialistic circumstance, where ...
Around the beginning of the sixteenth centruy, many countires had started to explore farther away and finding new territories. New products like sugar and taobacco began to emerge around the world in many places. Many countries in Europe were gaining power due to the control of colonies in the Americas. Asian countries did not explore as much, but still managed to remain large and powerful for a while. The global flow of silver had economic effects on inflating prices of goods and stimulating econimic policy of mercantilism, and social effects on negative effects on the lower class around the world during the mid-sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century.
First of all, imperialism improved the lives of the colonized people by aiding economic growth. The imperial powers prompted industrialization in the colonies, which is the development of advanced technology, leading to modernization in the colony. This is the change to a more modern, a more advanced country with new technology and better standards of living. These improvements then led to an increase in self-sufficiency, being able to maintain the colony’s economy by itself. In addition, industrialism
Stewart Gordon is an expert historian who specializes in Asian history. He is a Senior Research Scholar at the Center for South Asian Studies at the University of Michigan and has authored three different books on Asia. Gordon’s When Asia Was The World uses the narratives of several different men to explore The Golden Age of medieval Asia. The fact that this book is based on the travels and experiences of the everyday lives of real people gives the reader a feeling of actually experiencing the history. Gordon’s work reveals to the reader that while the Europeans were trapped in the dark ages, Asia was prosperous, bursting with culture, and widely connected by trade. This book serves to teach readers about the varieties of cultures, social practices, and religions that sprang from and spread out from ancient Asia itself and shows just how far Asia was ahead of the rest of the world
The Old World system was mainly Asia-centric. European states were far behind the Asian and Middle Eastern ones. According to the article of Janet Lippman Abu-Lughod which is named “The World System in the Thirteenth Century: Dead-End or Precursor”, beside the world system there were subsystems which were not “depending on each other for common survival in the thirteenth century”. There were three big circuits: Westers European, Middle Eastern, Far Eastern. “At that times the strongest centres and circuits were located in the Middle East and Asia. In contrast the European circuit was an upstart newcomer that for several early centuries was only tangentially and weakly linked to the core of the world system as it had developed between the eight and eleventh centuries.” As she mentioned, Europe joined the advanced world system of that time after 11th century, yet till 15th century it was not so effective. Although the states in east were developed, this did not reflect to political arena. Every state was powerful in its own niche and as a result of this there was not a hierarchical form of political balance. These states could be thought as pockets. Nature of this system was production. As Janet L. Abu-Lughod mentioned “the production of primary and manufactured goods was not only sufficient to meet local needs but, beyond that, the needs for export as well. Then, the way of function of this system can be understood: trade. Trade was the main economic activity of the Old System. Trade was mostly depending on exchange of goods. In spite of this, Chinese merchants were using paper money like a credit card and Arabic dinar was the dollar of that time. All of these show us that the trade was also Asia-centric. The popular trade ways were through Middle East and Asia. Beside the economic side, trade was integrating cities and societies.
As many people know, Imperialism has shaped the culture and customs all over the world. Imperialism is the dominance of one country over another politically, economically or socially. Western culture can be seen in all parts of the world; from Asia to Africa, to the Indies and the Americans. The downside of having the bits of western culture all over the world, is how it got there. Western influence was forced upon places in Asia, specifically India, Indonesia with a hellacious price; lives and poverty.
Indochina, modernly known as the Socialist Republic of Vietnam is located on the border of the eastern Indochinese peninsula and it occupies, according to the online encyclopedia (encyclopedia.com), about 331,000 kilometers squared, where in 1987, 25% of that land was under cultivation. Vietnam is bordered by the South China Sea, the Gulf of Thailand, and Gulf of Tonkin; and it is alongside China, Laos, and Cambodia. Hanoi, Vietnam’s capital since the nation’s reunification, is located in the northeast; and Vietnam’s largest city, Ho Chi Minh City, also known as Saigon, is located in the southeast of Vietnam. However, before becoming independent from Imperial China in 938 AD, Vietnam’s capital was “Đại La”, where it was located in present-day Hanoi. Additionally, the northern part of Vietnam is mainly composed of highlands and the Red River Delta; and the southern part of Vietnam is divided into coastal lowlands, large forests, and mountains of the “Annamite Range”. Vietnam’s official language is Vietnamese, and their largest ethnic group in Vietnam is the Kinh people, which takes about 86% of the nation’s population.
Wilson, Constance, Dr. "Colonialism and Nationalism in Southeast Asia." Colonialism and Nationalism in Southeast Asia. Himself, July 2005. Web. 02 Dec. 2013.
Over time, Westerners came in contact with the natives. In the book Burmese Days by George Orwell, the author tells the story of the Western dominance in Burma. During the early 20th Century, the British Westerners gained control of Burman civilizations. A group of about ten British individuals maintain control of over 2,000 natives. Each character has different reasons and methods for wanting control. The locals accepted European dominance because the Europeans had strategies to legitimize their dominance. The local Burmese people viewed the Europeans in different ways. Elizabeth, Mr. and Mrs. Lakersteen, Dr. Veraswami, U Po Kyin, and Ma Hla May all have specialized reasons for maintaining
Colonialism, which was a major cause of the north-south gap that occurred in the period following the Second World War, is the takeover by a nation of foreign territories; making them part of it to aid its own economic, social and political structures. The mother countries succeed in doing that by using the colony’s natural resources, money savings, and their lands, which leads the colony to rely on the mother country and therefore, leaving the country underdeveloped. Hence, the worldwide scramble for colonies, particularly in the late 19th – early 20th century, had a tremendous negative effect on the economic, social, and political structures of indigenous, non-industrialized peoples. Mother countries tend to take their colony’s natural resources, raw materials, and agricultural products, and then use them to manufacture their own products. This process causes the colony to depend on their mother country’s products rather than their own, which in turn leads to a tremendous deterioration of the colony’s local goods and products.
From covering Japan’s perilous imperial rule to analyzing Korea’s ambivalent adoption of democratic governance, Modern East Asia explored a broad range of subjects important for one who aspires to understand Asia holistically. Much time was even spent examining China’s horrid history at the hands of foreign meddling, giving insight into a nation feared as the future #1 economic power of the world. Although we covered a broad range of topics, each was given particular attention, never skipping major events or characters which shaped Asia’s history over the last several hundred years. Essentially, this class provided an open atmosphere for students to learn the intricate history of major Asian countries in addition to sharing ideas on the effectiveness of their pre-modern governance.
Implementing new economic systems is a tough job and it doesn’t guarantee success in the industry, but there are some countries who have created economic systems from benefitting and exploiting other countries around the world. This tremendously pushed greater economies towards all new and effective economic methods, while others suffer from the decisions. Some countries have an extensive economic history in the world. An interesting era to discuss these countries during the Post-Colonial era, an area that, in my opinion, gave birth to the economic systems we see today in Europe. The countries that contribute to these transitions may differ in ideas, but, by implementing new economic systems, they prove that everything could be much better