Chapter 13-2: Imperialism in Southeast Asia & the Pacific

As trade expanded beyond Africa and India to Southeast Asia, so did imperialism.

Britain established a trading post and supply station at Singapore, the French acquired influence over Indochina, the Dutch grabbed Indonesia, and the Germans dominated New Guinea, the Marshall's, and the Solomon's.

The United States was imperialistic by acquiring the Philippines and Hawaiian Islands.

The only country that successfully resisted western imperialism was Siam, which is now Thailand. It was respected as a buffer zone between the British colony of Burma and the French colony of Indochina. That gave Siam (Thailand) the best of both worlds: western technology (hospitals, railroads, communications, etc.) without losing its own culture.

The story of French imperialism in Southeast Asia is simple: since the 1800's France has dominated several countries, including Vietnam, known as French Indochina. Rubber and rice were the key crops for France, and the harvesting and exporting of these crops caused Vietnamese to resent the French. In the mid-1900's, communists in Vietnam overthrew French influence and forced the United States to pull out of the country also.

The Dutch had influence over Indonesia beginning in the 1600's, enjoying full dominance by the 1800's over this region, calling it the Dutch East Indies. The Dutch harvested rubber and extracted tin and oil from the area. Many Dutch immigrated there to work in trading posts and manage plantations.

The British, meanwhile, took control of the port of Malaysia, Burma and the port of Singapore near the Malay Peninsula. This region had a surplus of rubber, teak and tin. The British attracted many Chinese immigrants to this region, who eventually outnumbered the native Malay people which created conflict with them.

The United States engaged in some imperialism of its own around 1900 in acquiring the Philippines (and also Puerto Rico and Guam) from Spain as a result of the Spanish-American War. Separately, the United States annexed Hawaii, even making it a state after

World War II.

In 1899, Emilio Aguinaldo led an intense rebellion against the United States in order to establish independence for the Philippines (the “Filipinos”). The insurgents were brutal and unrelenting in their tactics and the American commanders concluded that they simply had to kill them all to suppress the rebellion, which the Americans did, causing criticism back in the United States.

American businesses did exploit the Philippines, displacing farms with large sugar plantations. But Americans also vastly improved the island. Decades later the United States granted the Philippines its full independence. American businesses also set up sugar plantations in Hawaii. They demanded that Hawaii be annexed to the United States so high tariffs on sugar imports. The businesses overthrew Queen Liliuokalani, a native Hawaiian, and in 1898 Hawaii was annexed to the United States as a territory. It became our 50th state in 1959.