Earlier this year I prepared an essay Opium which, while discussing opium, related the international
events that eventually led to China
being subjugated after two wars. If the
reader is interested in additional detail on how opium brought about the
downfall of China,
I suggest that Opium be read first.
Introduction
In the early 19th century, China was among
the wealthiest, most self-sufficient nations on earth. Western interests in Chinese porcelain, silk
and tea ran up huge trade deficits that were not offset by China buying
foreign goods. This imbalance of trade
remained until the British discovered the Chinese taste for opium. The British began shipping opium into China from
fields of poppy grown in India. Addicts smoked it in ‘dens’ not unlike
today’s ‘crack houses.’ With continued
use, addicts suffered from dementia and eventual death, while unknowingly
becoming infected with tuberculoses and influenza, diseases as deadly in those
days as AIDS is now. Through their
coughing and spitting, they spread the diseases to nonaddicts. Eventually, addiction spread through the army
and civil service. With declining
administration and infrastructure collapsing from neglect, China ceased
buying foreign goods and destroyed crates of opium stored in British
warehouses..
Britain
declared war defeating the Chinese fleet and, in the Opium War of 1839-42,
forced China
to cede the island
of Hong Kong to Britain. The island became the hub of the drug trade
where local criminal elements joined forces with foreign smugglers to disperse
the drugs everywhere throughout China.
For four decades China suffered through the Taiping
Rebellion, a civil war that cost 30 million lives. Using the civil war as an excuse to bring peace to the country, England, France, Germany and Russia carved
up China
like a ripe melon. In the Opium War of
1856-60 Britain,
France,
Germany
and Russia
returned to take what was left of China, including a number of ports,
and created an International Zone which they occupied through the Japanese
invasions and into the beginning of World War II.
A New Century Opens
Foreign influence in China’s trade, politics, religion
and technology bred an anti-foreign, anti-imperialistic peasant-based movement
in the north. Called Boxers, they
attacked foreigners and Chinese Christians in November 1899 who were building
railroads. By June 1900, they attacked Beijing and killed 230
foreigners. Tens of thousands of Chinese
Christians were also killed in the provinces.
Diplomats, foreign civilians, soldiers and some Chinese retreated to the
legation quarter occupied by the eight-nation alliance of Austro-Hungary, Britain,
France,
Germany,
Italy,
Japan,
Russia
and the United States. The legation quarter was besieged for 55 days
before being relieved by an international force 20,000 troops. The uprising ended on September 7, 1901 with the Manchu
Dynasty being subsequently overthrown by Sun Yat-sen, leading to the formation
of modern China.
In suppressing the Boxers, Japan provided slightly less than
half of the final allied force of 49,255 and just under a third of the
warships, gaining prestige in the process, and for the first time was considered
as a power. In July 1900, while the
Boxers were attacking Beijing,
Russia made
inroads into the eastern provinces of Manchuria. By the end of the year Russia had
occupied all of Manchuria, an area which Japan
considered within its sphere of influence, setting the stage for the
Russo-Japanese War.
Previously, in 1891, construction of the Trans-Siberian
railroad was begun by Russia. Five years later, China and Russia sign a
secret treaty granting Russia
the right to build the Chinese Eastern Railroad through Manchuria
and in 1898, granted Russia
a 25-year lease on the Liaotung
Peninsula and the right
to build a South Manchurian Railroad. That
same year the Russians begin work on the Chinese Eastern Railroad. The effect of the treaties and grants was to
give Russia
direct access into China,
through Manchuria, into Port Arthur before the Boxer Rebellion. In 1901, the Trans-Siberian Railroad was completed
except for the Lake
Baikal gap, where ferries
were used.
Negotiations in 1902 recognize Chinese sovereignty over Manchuria and Russia agreed to remove its troops
but failed to do so creating public protests in Japan during 1903. That same year, both Russia and Japan reinforced
their Far Eastern Fleets. The following
year, Russia
opened the Chinese Eastern Railway to regular traffic and reinforced its troops
in Manchuria, but a frozen Lake Baikal
and the not yet completed South Manchurian Railroad, delayed deployment. During 1904, efforts by France, Japan, Korea, Russia and China to reach
a settlement failed.
War and Postwar
The world went to war when Archduke Ferdinand of Austria was
assassinated by a Serbian. Japan joined
the Allies against the Central Powers.
During World War I, Japan’s contribution was primarily
one of joining Australia
and New Zealand
in attacking and occupying Germany’s
Pacific Ocean colonies. When the war ended, the League
of Nations recognized Japan’s effort by mandating to
Japan a number of Pacific
Islands and chains. In violation of its mandate, Japan fortified
the islands during the period between world wars, violated its naval treaty
obligations with Great
Britain and the United States, and left the League.
With the Great Depression, Japan turned to Fascism, but unlike
Germany
and Italy,
established economic goals for developing an empire.
“…due to the lack of resources on Japan’s home islands, in
order to maintain a strong industrial sector with strong growth, raw materials
such as iron, oil and coal largely had to be imported. Most of these materials came from the
United States. (Emphasis added). So,
for the sake of the military-industrial development scheme, and industrial
growth on a whole, mercantilist theories prevailed, and the Japanese felt that
resource-rich colonies were needed to compete with European powers. Korea (1910) and Formosa (Taiwan, 1895)
had earlier been annexed as primarily agricultural colonies. Manchuria’s
iron and coal, Indochina’s rubber, and China’s vast
resources were prime targets for industry.
“Manchuria was invaded and
successfully conquered in 1931, with little trouble. Ostensibly, Japan did this to liberate the
Manchus from the Chinese, just as the annexation of Korea was supposedly an act of
protection. As with Korea, a puppet
government (Manchukuo)
was installed. Jehol, a Chinese
territory bordering Manchuria, was taken in
1933.
“Japan
invaded China
in 1937, creating what was essentially a three-way war between Japan, Mao
Zedong’s communists, and Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalists. Japan took control of much of China’s coast
and port cities, but very carefully avoided European spheres of influence. In 1936 before the Chinese invasion, Japan signed an
anti-communism treaty with Germany
and another with Italy
in 1937.”
The Panay
Incident
The Yangtze Patrol was initiated in 1854 after the first
Opium War, causing many countries to maintain fleet units in and around China. The stability of China deteriorated markedly in 1890
after the second Opium War and the American naval presence in the form of gunboats
patrolling the Yangtze together with units of the British Royal Navy, increased,
as did other naval units patrolling the China coast. The purpose of the Yangtze Patrol was to show
the flag, escort American merchant ships through bandit infested gorges, fight
pirates and bandits and represent American interests.
“On December
12, 1937, the river gunboat USS
Panay, well-marked and escorting neutral merchant ships, was attacked and
sunk near Nanking by renegade Japanese air and
ground forces. With neither government
willing to risk war at that time, apologies were extended, and restitution
made.” That same day Japanese shore
batteries had fired on the British gunboat HMS
Ladybird. Opinions of knowledgeable
parties center about the attack being an effort of the Japanese government to
determine how the British and American governments would react, allowing for
both vessels being relatively minor fleet units and Japan making quick apology and an offer
of restitution.
The Last Incident
When Japan
invaded China
during the Second Sino-Japanese War, the United States demanded that Japan withdraw,
Japan
refused and the United
States placed an oil embargo on Japan depriving
them of a critical item of war. Japan responded
by attacking Pearl Harbor, causing
considerable death and destruction. The
United States declared war.
References
Harvey, Paul. There
was a Nation . . . . Reader’s
Digest, January 1989. The Reader’s
Digest
Association, Inc., 1989.
November 2007
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