Western imperialism in Asia

Part of a series on
New Imperialism
History
Western imperialism in Asia Great Game European colonisation of Southeast Asia Scramble for Africa Historiography of the British Empire
Theory
The Expansion of England Gentlemanly capitalism The Imperialism of Free Trade Imperialism: A Study Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism Porter–MacKenzie debate
See also
Imperialism Colonialism Decolonization
v t e

The influence and imperialism of the West peaked in Asian territories from the colonial period beginning in the 16th century, and substantially reduced with 20th century decolonization. It originated in the 15th-century search for trade routes to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, in response to Ottoman control of the Silk Road. This led to the Age of Discovery, and introduction of early modern warfare into what Europeans first called the East Indies, and later the Far East. By the 16th century, the Age of Sail expanded European influence and development of the spice trade under colonialism. European-style colonial empires and imperialism operated in Asia throughout six centuries of colonialism, formally ending with the independence of Portuguese Macau in 1999. The empires introduced Western concepts of nation and the multinational state.

European political power, commerce, and culture in Asia gave rise to growing trade in commodities—a key development in the rise of the free market economy. In the 16th century, the Portuguese broke the monopoly of the Arabs and Italians in trade between Asia and Europe by its discovery of the sea route to India around the Cape of Good Hope.^[1] The ensuing rise of the rival Dutch East India Company gradually eclipsed Portuguese influence in Asia.^{[note 1]} Dutch forces first established independent bases in the East and between 1640-60 wrested Malacca, Ceylon, some southern Indian ports, and the lucrative Japan trade from the Portuguese. The English and French established settlements in India and trade with China and their acquisitions surpassed the Dutch. After the Seven Years' War in 1763, the British eliminated French influence in India and established the East India Company as the most important political force on the Indian subcontinent.

Before the 19th century Industrial Revolution, demand for oriental goods such as porcelain, silk, spices, and tea remained the driving force behind European imperialism. The European stake in Asia was confined largely to trading stations and outposts necessary to protect trade. Industrialization, however, dramatically increased European demand for Asian raw materials. The 1870s Long Depression provoked a scramble for new markets for Western European products and services in Africa, the Americas, Eastern Europe, and especially Asia. This coincided with an era known as "the New Imperialism", which saw a shift in focus from trade and indirect rule to colonial control of large overseas territories as political extensions of their mother countries. Between the 1870s and World War I in 1914, the UK, Netherlands and France—the established colonial powers in Asia—added to their empires in the Middle East, Indian Subcontinent, and Southeast Asia. The Empire of Japan following the Meiji Restoration; the German Empire after the Franco-Prussian War in 1871; Tsarist Russia; and the US following the Spanish–American War in 1898, emerged as new imperial powers in East Asia and the Pacific Ocean area.

In Asia, the World Wars were played out as struggles among imperial powers, with conflicts involving the European powers along with Russia and the rising American and Japanese. None of the colonial powers however, possessed the resources to withstand the strains of both wars and maintain their direct rule in Asia. Although nationalist movements throughout the colonial world led to the political independence of nearly all of Asia's remaining colonies, decolonization was intercepted by the Cold War. Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and East Asia remained embedded in a world economic, financial, and military system in which the great powers competed to extend their influence. However, the rapid post-war economic development and rise of the industrialized developed countries of Republic of China on Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Japan and the developing countries of India, China, along with the collapse of the Soviet Union, have greatly diminished European influence in Asia. The US remains influential with trade and military bases in Asia.

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