Spice, Opium, Oil and Colonialism in East Asia

Min Shu

Waseda University

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Outline of the Lecture

• A brief history of colonialism in East Asia

• Participating in East Asian trade networks• Spice trade in the early colonial era

• In search for market in East Asia• The Opium Wars

• Competing for the cotton/ textile market

• Securing essential natural resources• Oil and the origin of the Pacific War

• The economics and politics of colonialism in East Asia

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A brief history of colonialism in East Asia

• Three waves of colonialism in East Asia• 16c~18c: Early European engagement with maritime East Asia

• 19c~early 20c: Western competition for mainland East Asia and direct administrative controls

• Early~mid-20c: Japanese imperialism

• Background of colonialism in East Asia• The discovery of new maritime trade routes

• Industrial revolution and mass production

• Competition for interests and influences in East Asia

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Early European engagement with maritime East Asia

• Key events of the first wave of colonialism in East Asia• Portugal conquered Malacca in 1511

• Spain arrived at the Philippines in 1521

• Treaty of Saragossa between Spain and Portugal in 1529

• The Dutch East India Company (VOC) established Batavia (modern Jakarta) in 1619, and captured the Malacca in 1641

• French missionaries in coastal Vietnam in the early 17c; the French contact with Ayutthaya

• The early phase of Western colonialism• Exploited the conflicts among indigenous kingdoms

• Confined to the coastal areas and limited to commercial activities

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Western competition for mainland East Asia

• Key events of the second wave of colonialism in East Asia• Treaty of London between Britain and the Netherlands in 1824• The British Straits Settlements established in 1826• The Opium War with Qing China in 1840 and 1856• Japan opened Yokohama to international trade in 1859• Three Anglo-Burmese Wars annexed Burma to India in 1885• French Indochina (including Vietnam and Cambodia) formed in 1887• The Federated Malay States established in 1895• Spain ceded the Philippines to the US in 1898

• The second phase of Western colonialism• Competition for sphere of influences among Western powers• Growing administrative controls in colonialized territories

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Japanese imperialism in East Asia

• The rise of Japan• The Meji restoration in 1868• The Meji Constitution (of the Empire of Japan) in 1889/1890• Successful treaty revision with the Western powers in the 1890s

• Aggressive military and territorial expansion• The Ryukyu Kingdom annexed in 1879• The Russo-Japanese war in 1904-05• First Sino-Japanese war in 1894, Taiwan ceded to Japan in 1895• The Korean peninsular annexed in 1910• The Japan-controlled Manchukuo established in 1932• Second Sino-Japanese war in 1937-45• Outbreak of the Pacific war in 1941, and the occupation of Southeast Asia

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The political economy of colonialism in East Asia

• Three economic motivations for colonialism• Participating in East Asian trade networks

• In search for new market in East Asia

• Securing essential (natural) resources

• Political consequences of colonialism• Territorial integrity lost

• National borders redefined

• The pursuit of independence and sovereignty

• Worries about the return of imperialism

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Spice trade in the early colonial era

• Spices in early international trade• cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, pepper, and turmeric...• The Mediterranean-Middle East-India trade route, historically dominated by Egypt,

Rome (including Byzantine) and Venice, played a vital part in spice trade before the colonial era

• The search for an alternative route of spice trade motivated the age of discovery in the late 15th and early 16th century

• After the conquest of Malacca in 1511, Portugal dominated the spice trade in the 16th century

• Spain reached the Philippines and then the spice island in early 16c, creating the eastern route of Manila Galleon trade

• The Dutch reached the spice island in the late 16c, the subsequent expansion of VOC consolidated the Dutch domination in spice trade

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The Opium Wars

• The opium trade with China• For the Western powers that traded with China (except Spain and Portugal),

the high demand for Chinese silk, tea and porcelain was not matched by the Chinese interests in their products

• The gradual addition to opium in Qing China offered a possible method to correct the trade imbalance

• The British East India Company monopolized the opium cultivation in India in late 18c, and was actively engaged in the opium trade

• The amount of opium imported into China increased from 200 chests in 1729 to about 1,000 chests in 1767, and further to 10,000 in the 1820s

• The balance of payment was for the first time in favor of Britain when China imported 40,000 chests opium in 1838

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The Opium Wars

• The first opium war• Qing decided to ban the opium trade in 1839• Britain sent royal navy to China, and the two sides fought a series of battles in

1840~1842, with victory on the British side• The Treaty of Nanjing (1842), opened five trade ports, allowed extra-territorial

jurisdiction and ceded Hong Kong to Britain

• The second opium war• Britain demanded renegotiation of the Nanking Treaty• The British and French joint forces attacked and occupied Canton in late 1857; their

late campaigns against Tianjing and Beijing resulted in the Qing forces’ major defeat and the looting of the Old Summer Palace in 1860

• The Tianjing Treaties (1858) and the Beijing Convention (1960) legalized opium trade, opened the Yangzi River, permitted Christian missionaries, and allowed foreign residence in Beijing

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Competing for the cotton/textile market

• The empire of cotton• Cotton was one of the earliest industrial products

• In the early 19c, the global cotton industry relied on slave plantation in America, industrial production in England, capitals in London, and the colonial markets around the world

• The development of cotton cloth industry in Japan• The Japanese efforts to increase cotton-plantation in Korea

• Korean cotton export to Japan grew from 37m in mid-1900s to 165m pounds in late 1910s

• Meanwhile, China became the most important market for Japan’s cotton cloth export• After the Russo-Japanese war, Japan’s share in Manchuria rose quickly

from 0.2% in 1905 to 24% in 1907, and further to 60% in 1910

• Japan became the world’s largest the cotton cloth exporter in 19332017/11/6 14

Oil and the origin of the Pacific War

• The oil production and its strategic importance“On no one quality, on no one process, on no one country, on no one company, and no one route, and on no one oil field must we be dependent. Safety and certainty in oil lie in variety, and in variety alone.” ---- Churchill, 1913• However, the global oil production was controlled by a few Western companies (e.g.,

American Standard Oil, British Shell, and Royal Dutch) in the early 20th century

• Japan’s efforts to secure oil import before the Pacific War• In the 1930s, oil became the major fuel for Japanese navy; in particular, crude oil

was the only source of aircraft fuel for Japanese fighters• Japan managed to import oil from Mexico for a limited period in 1938~1940• However, Japan failed to secure aircraft fuel and oil import form the Dutch East Indie

in 1940~41• US froze the Japanese assets in July and imposed oil embargo in August 1941

• The attack on the Pearl Harbor in December 1941, and Japan’s complete colonialization of Southeast Asia ensued

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The economics and politics of colonialism in East Asia

• The economic rationale behind colonialism• The control of the valuable trade routes brings enormous profits

• Raw materials and markets crucial for domestic industrial production

• Addressing the problem of trade imbalance

• The political rationale behind colonialism• Providing support for overseas commercial and military operations

• Cooperation and competition for the sphere of influences

• Colonialism in East Asia reconsidered

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