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The countries of China and Japan provide a contrast in how non-European societies reacted to European Imperialism and how this has affected their development into modern societies. Generally, China tried to maintain its systems by ignoring Western Powers while Japan chose to change and adopt Western systems with the goal of maintaining its independence.
The Chinese Imperial government tried to keep the Europeans out of China by allowing them to only do business in the city of Canton and would only allow the Europeans to buy Chinese goods with silver. The Chinese looked down on the Europeans and did not want to buy any European goods. The British began to smuggle opium into China to trade for Chinese goods. The Chinese emperor reacted by having all the captured opium destroyed. This sparked the First Opium War in 1839, in which the British used modern steam powered gunships to sink the Chinese navy and forced the Chinese to open themselves to trade with Europe. The Chinese government reacted to the defeat in the Opium War by holding to its traditions and refusing to adopt modern technology and ideas. The Europeans then fought several more “Opium Wars” with the Chinese to force the Chinese to give the Europeans more benefits and trading rights. Many Chinese were humiliated that the Europeans had beaten them and that now the Europeans could freely do whatever they wanted in China. China was troubled with several rebellions against both the Chinese government and the Europeans powers in China. The first of these major rebellions was the Taiping Rebellion which lasted from 1850 to 1864 and consumed most of southeastern China. It is estimated that up to 20 million people died in this rebellion. The Chinese government was only able to put down the rebellion with the assistance of European and American military leadership and weapons. After this, the Chinese government became dependent on American and European support and the Europeans began to directly take over some parts of China. Throughout this period, the Chinese government worked with the Europeans and did not try to modernize the way it ruled China. When the Emperor tried to start a process of modernization, he was removed from power by his mother, the Empress Dowager Cixi had him removed from power and the reforms stopped. This only increased Chinese anger and 1898 the Boxer Rebellion swept across China. Groups of Chinese attacked Europeans and Americans living in China. In response, Europe and America sent a combined army to China and defeated the Boxers. After this, the Europeans and Americans stationed armies in China and the Chinese had to pay these armies. The combination of the weakness of the Chinese government and the anger of the Chinese over European Imperialism lead to the Xinhai Revolution in 1912 that overthrew the Chinese government.
The reaction of Japan to European imperialism stands in contrast to that of China. For centuries, the government of Japan had ruled that the country be isolated from the rest of the world. During this time, Japan was dominated by the shogun, or “imperial general” who ruled the country with the loyal support of the noble samurai warriors. Japan did have an emperor, but he only had symbolic power. The shogun believed that if Japan did not have any contact with the rest of the world then it would not be taken over. However, in 1853 the American navy arrived in Japan and demanded that it open itself up to the world. Unlike China, which did not change in response to the rest of the world, Japan opened itself up to the rest of the world and embarked on a process of rapid modernization based on copying Europe and America. The Japanese call this process the Meiji Restoration because it began with the shogun losing his power and emperor becoming the ruler of Japan. After this, Japan sent experts to study European and American governments, industries and militaries. When they returned they wrote a new constitution for the government based on Germany, built factories based on American and British models and created a modern military. In the space of a few decades, Japan was transformed from a weak traditional society into a modern country that was of equal strength to any European country. Japan also began to act like a European country by using its newly developed industrial power and military to build an empire in Asia. Similar to the Europeans, the Japanese were interested in taking over other places to get resources, like coal and iron, which they did not have in their own country. The Japanese used their new military power to take over Korea and parts of China – working with the Europeans to defeat the Boxer Rebellion in China. Japan’s military power made it equal to many European powers, which can be seen in the fact that Japan signed a military alliance with England in 1902 and defeated Russia in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905.
Source # 1 - Video on Opium War in China - click here
Source # 2 - Video clip on Yaturo Iwasaki and the rapid modernization of Japan - click here (To watch the video on Google Docs - click here)
Source # 4 - Video on Battle of Tsushima in the Russo-Japanese War - click here
Note - you have to be logged into your Bedford Google account to watch this video
Source # 3 - The Tomioka Silk Mill - The Tomioka Silk Mill is a good example of the way Japan modernized during the period of the Meiji Restoration. In 1859, when Japan opened itself to trade with the rest of the world, it became clear that silk production would become a large Japanese export. However, the traditional way of producing silk by hand could not produce enough silk to meet the foreign demand for silk. The Japanese government decided to develop a modern industrial silk industry. In 1871, the Tomioka Silk Mill was built and it began production in 1872. Silk reeling machines were imported from France along with French engineers and instructors, to train 300 Japanese mill workers. Similar to factories in Europe and the United States, young women were employed to work in the mill. Because many families were hesitant to send their daughters to work, Junchu Odaka, the Japanese mill manager, sent his own daughter Yuu to work in the factory. In addition, Samurai sent their own daughters to work in the factory. These young women then went on to train other Japanese women in silk production as the industry grew in Japan. By 1876, the Tomioka Silk Mill was fully operated by Japanese management and workers and the French engineers and instructors left Japan. In 1893, the Japanese government sold the silk mill to the Mitsui, a private Japanese company. The factory produced silk until it was closed in 1987. It is now a United Nation's World Historic Site.
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