Group 4 April 14, 2014 HIST 125 AC1 Paper Group #2 The end of the 18th century is punctuated

by the switch of the center of innovation from Asia to Europe. The European countries supported by their colonies and becoming richer and stronger, started innovating, by getting inspired of old objects to create new machines. One of the major events of that period is the Industrial Revolution, which started in Britain at the end of the 18th century, before spreading from Europe to East Asia (Russia) and later to the United States. The notion of developed and undeveloped countries came out, and European countries rose to a position of global dominance that deeply impacted the rest of the world. This paper will discuss the source of the dominance of Britain and the United States through the British industrialization, their free-trade imperialism with China and their civilizing mission in Africa, but also through the American imperialism on countries like the Philippines. It will also discuss the impact those countries had on the dominated ones, based on examples like the extreme sale of opium in China, the Japanese westernization and the civilizing mission in Africa. First of all, Great Britain was the first country to industrialize in 1780. Due to the industrialization, Britain wanted to extend its domination and its power by conquering new territories, and by exporting as many products as possible. China is the perfect example where Great Britain imposed its free-trade imperialism. They didn't settle in China, but they took advantage of the Chinese economy and caused a huge decrease of silver in China by exchanging it with opium (Zexu, Letter to Queen Victoria, 1839). In fact, at the time, China was an important country in terms of commerce, exchanges, and resources. The Chinese markets were significant and efficient enough to get the attention of the Western nations and

especially Great Britain which was at the time one of the most powerful countries of the world. Trading with China wasnt easy at the beginning due to the fact that the British had nothing that appealed to the Chinese, and that is why the British merchants started later to export and sell opium to the Chinese (Zexu, Letter to Queen Victoria, 1839). Britain was aware of the addictive effect of opium, but they kept exporting it because it gave them a hold on China and increased the British trade with other Asian countries, making Britain even more powerful. Later on, another Western country, the United States, developed their imperialism through the Philippines. Imperialism is the policy of extending the authority of an empire or nation over foreign countries, or of acquiring and holding colonies and dependencies. Western nations had started it right after the Industrial Revolution around the 1800s, and it is in 1890 that the world saw the United States join the imperialist countries. In order to be part of this global dominance, they conquered new lands that later became territory of the United States, and one of them even became a colony: The Philippines. The Philippines were the one colony the United States veritably had and was really proud of. One reason to that is its localization. In fact, Beveridge (1900) asserts that, The Philippines give us a base at the door of all the East. Lines of navigation from our ports to the Orient and Australia, from the Isthmian Canal to Asia, from all Oriental ports to Australia (p. 1). Due to the Philippines location in the Pacific Ocean, the United States could trade with the entire Pacific countries and extend their domination even over the countries around the Philippines: it was an asset for them, a door to the East. It helped the United States connecting with China, Australia, and others nations. The Pacific represented an important place where commerce was really developed and significant, so controlling it made the United States one of the most powerful nations in the world. From an economical point of view, Britain was also dominant through its advanced industrialization, and the central role it had in world trade. In fact, as said before, Britain was

the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution that emerged in Europe at the end of the 18th century and all along the 19th century. There are many reasons explaining that Britain was the first industrialized country. First of all, there were many resources from the English colonies in the country, such as abundant coal deposits or colonial iron (Parliamentary Report on English Female Miners, 1842). On the other hand, there was a significant labor shortage in Britain, and replacing men with machinery became essential after the war with France. Thus, Britain quickly became massively industrialized, to the point where the whole society was impacted. Indeed, women and children started to work in the factories, expanding even more the production, and giving Britain a major role in the world trade (Parliamentary Report on English Female Miners, 1842). Beside its European dominance, Britain also expanded into Asia, becoming one of the foreign countries which controlled the Japanese coastal trade. According to Iwasaki Yataro in his letter to the Mitsubishi employees, this British dominance on Japan was mainly due to the lack of knowledge and wealth of the Japanese, who had lived isolated for a very long time, and who rarely participated to the trade with other countries. Moreover, the Japanese had really little navigational knowledge, compared to the British who were known for having the best navy army. By being one of the countries occupying the major Japanese maritime transport lines, Britain became even more powerful, and was able to expand its trade with the rest of the Asian world. This also may be explained by the fact that Britain was one of the countries which had always traded with Asia, as well as one of the mother countries of the American colonies, and this is the reason why it already had a lot of knowledge about trade. Finally, by becoming industrialized in a time when trade production was based on hand work, Britain played a central role in world trade for a long time during the 19th century and until it was caught up by the other European countries. The power of the dominant countries like Britain could also be explained from a social

and cultural point of view. In fact, countries like the United States or Great Britain were so powerful that other countries all over the world imitated them. This is called the westernization, and Japan is one of the countries that knew a quick development in the 20th century due to its westernization. Even though they were attached to their traditions, the Japanese knew that in order to survive, they needed to leave their isolationist policy and trade with the rest of the world (Okuma, From Fifty Years of New Japan, 1907-08). They also knew that in order not to be dominated, they needed to get stronger and to be equal to the dominating countries like Britain or the United States, by expanding their maritime and industrial knowledge for example. Thus, by taking the Western countries as examples, they made them stronger and even more popular. Another form of the domination of Britain on the rest of the world could be expressed through the notion of civilizing missions. After the discovery of what is called Social Darwinism, Europeans started thinking that they were the most civilized and the most perfect humans in the scale of evolution. Thus, they used this pretext to pretend that it was their duty to expand their perfect Western civilizations into what they saw as the less civilized countries. This is how Britain started sending missionaries in Southern and Central Africa starting from 1840 (Livingston, Cambridge Speech, 1857), whose mission was to expand Christianity, based on a moral duty which actually became a form of imperialism. In addition to the expansion of Christianity among African countries, the British introduced the notion of commerce in Africa, and this made them even stronger because there were many precious resources in Africa that weren't even used. By civilizing those African countries, the British were then able to trade with them and to take advantage of all the resources they had and which weren't found in Britain, such as bananas and pineapples: in fact, David Livingstone (1857) said in his speech in Cambridge that bananas and pineapples grow in great luxuriance (p. 1). Thus, the civilizing mission of Britain in Africa, as well as its imperialism

on some African countries increased even more its dominance. Now that the source of Britain's and the United States' dominance has been discussed, it is time to move to the second part of the paper, which is about the impact this dominances had on the dominated countries as Japan, Southern and Central Africa, but also China. East and South Asia were regions of the world which went insistently and in depth through the Western domination in the 19th century. The Western nations had impacted a lot of countries of this region, but the one that had been really touched by the Westernization is Japan. Due to the imperialism of the European nations and the United States, Japan completely changed (Okuma, From Fifty Years of New Japan, 1907-08). In fact, the Japanese extended their territory, saw a growth in their population, as well as many changes in the government. They also improved their educational and military systems. Japan accomplished all those things due to the influence of the Western nations. The country learned how to use what Europeans had in order to improve their own territory. Okuma (1910) expressed this in his book by saying that Foreign intercourse it was that animated the national consciousness of our people, who under the feudal system lived localized and disunited, and foreign intercourse it is that has enabled Japan to stand up as a world power (p. 1). Japan used and applied all those things Western nations could offer, for the sake of becoming a powerful country in its turn, and in order to be able to stand up to the developed countries like Britain or the United States. The Japanese found the balance between westernization and their own culture and beliefs, and this is what made Japan a power in East and South Asia, but also and later in the world. On the other hand, in the 1800s, a lot of Chinese products like tea and silk were very famous in the world, and foreign countries like Britain for instance used to import them from China. In order to compensate everything they were importing, Britain needed to sell some of its products to the Chinese. Trading with China was also important knowing that the Chinese

were among the main traders in Asia, and China constituted the meeting point between Europe and the other Asian countries. This is why Britain started selling opium to China in the 1800s, making, after a while, millions of Chinese addicted to opium and leading later to what is known as the Opium war between Britain and China. Even if the British were aware of the bad effect the opium had on the Chinese, they kept selling it because it brought them money, and increased their trade with the rest of Asia. In addition to their dependence to opium and so to Britain, the Chinese were also losing big amounts of silver, since they were selling it to Britain in exchange of the opium they were importing (Zexu, Letter to Queen Victoria, 1839). It also affected the Chinese world trade and economy by making them decrease. Some of the opium that was traded was even sometimes sold illegally, and the sale of opium was so high that Lin Zexu (1839), a Confucian commissioner who took part to the opium's anti-campaign, sent a letter to Queen Victoria trying to persuade her to stop it, by explaining to her that there is a "new law which says that any foreigner who brings opium to China will be sentenced to death by hanging or beheading. Our purpose is to eliminate this poison once and for all and to the benefit of all mankind" (p. 2). Through its civilizing missions, Britain also had a big impact on Africa, and especially on the Southern and Central parts. Even if the British imperialism in Africa might have bad aspects, there were also some good sides. One of them is that before the arrival of the British in Southern and Central Africa, and beside the slave trade, African merchants had an arduous time trading with the rest of the world, even though they had some very precious resources and products (Livingston, Cambridge Speech, 1857). In his speech, David Livingston explains that when the British first arrived to Africa in the 1800s, their main purpose was to expand Christianity and commerce there. For that, they improved the communication and the transportation systems, by building railroads for instance. Thanks to the better health conditions brought by the British, the African

population started to increase, as well as the African trade which started to emerge. However, beside those improvements, the British arrival in Southern and Central Africa also had bad sides. One of them is that the British used many African people as slaves. Slavery had increased because slaves were considered as cheap laborers. On the other hand, Britain started to build an extensive empire in West Africa, by colonizing many countries. This colonization was often led by violence, and many Africans have died under the dominance of the Europeans. To conclude, the Western nations rose to a power of global dominance in the 19th century due to the Industrial Revolution and its consequences such as the increase of world trade. This revival of free trade encouraged the Western countries like Britain or the United States to extend their power and their territory over lands, looking for resources but also for more and more countries to trade with. They instituted their global dominance through political, economical, social and cultural dimensions over countries overseas, such as the Philippines, China, Japan, Southern and Central Africa. By holding those countries as colonies or dependencies, Great Britain and the United States impacted them in good and bad ways. In fact, even if they helped them be part of the world commerce and trade system, and even cured them by improving their health systems, they still affected them culturally and socially through the spread of Christianity for example, but also by sometimes completely controlling and exploiting them to their own advantage.

Bibliography Beveridge, A. J. (1900). Speech about the Philippines question. Livingstone, D. (1857). Cambridge Speech of December 1857. Okuma. (1910). Fifty Years of New Japan (Kaikoku Gojunen Shi), 2d Ed. Great Britain, Parliamentary papers. Parliamentary Report on English Female Miners, 1842. Yataro, I. Letter to Mitsubishi employees. Zexu, L. (1839) Letter to Queen Victoria.