COLONIALISM & IMPERIALISM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

SOURCES

• Steinberg, David Ed. (1987) In Search of Southeast Asia
• Beeson, Mark (2009) Contemporary Southeast Asia
• Tarling, Nicholas (2010) Imperialism in Southeast Asia
• Murphey, Rhoads (2009) A History of Asia
• Tarling, Nicholas Ed. (1994) The Cambridge History of SEA

PERIODIZATION (STEINBERG)

• 18th Century - 19th Century
• 1870-1914 (High Colonial Era)
• Colonialism & Imperialism
• Protection & Intervention

18TH CENTURY -- 19TH CENTURY

• Dynasties in Mainland SEA
• Konbaung dynasty in Burma (1752-1885)
• Chakri dynasty in Thailand (1782-)
• Nguyen dynasty in Vietnam (1802-1945)
• Dominated by internal issues (war, dynasty)

18TH CENTURY -- 19TH CENTURY

• The role of the West was limited to trade
• Philippines was already governed directly
• West lacked the power to acquire territories
• Industrial Revolution in Britain
• New commercial and maritime ambitions

18TH CENTURY -- 19TH CENTURY

• British intrusion in SEA
• SEA's position bet. China and India
• To secure territories in E. India
• To protect its routes to China

1870-1914 (HIGH COLONIAL ERA)

• SEA became compartmentalized
• Colony became linked to the mother country
• Rapid process of change
• New economic and social structures
• Responses: to deflect or to accommodate?

Untitled Slide

COLONIAL REGIMES IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

• British in Burma and Malaya
• French in Vietnam, Cambodia & Laos
• Dutch in Indonesia
• Spanish & Americans in the Philippines
• Siam

BURMA

KONBAUNG DYNASTY (1752-1885)

• Replaced the Toungoo dynasty
• Alaungp'aya emerged as the leader
• Powerful army
• Attacked Rangoon, Pegu, Ayudhya
• Death of Alaungp'aya led to political instability

KONBAUNG DYNASTY (1752-1885)

• Bodawp'aya, Alaungp'aya's son managed to control
• Large military campaign
• Conquered Arakan, Manipur, Assam (NW)
• Warfare with Siam
• Political conflict, jealousies within the royal family

KONBAUNG DYNASTY (1752-1885)

• Bodawp'aya died in 1819
• Bagyidaw replaced him
• General Bandula: governor of NW
• To control the British efforts
• Anti-Konbaung rebels in British territory

BRITISH IN BURMA

• Next door to India, gateway to China
• Burma's westward expansion (Arakan)
• They refused to deal with the British
• Anglo-Burmese Wars (British initiative)
• British East India Company

BRITISH IN BURMA

• Irrawaddy delta in Lower Burma (rice)
• Upper Burma (timber, teak, oil)
• Rangoon (colonial capital)

ANGLO-BURMESE WARS

• First Anglo-Burmese War (1824-1826)
• Second Anglo-Burmese War (1852-1853)
• Third Anglo-Burmese War (1885-1886)

FIRST ANGLO-BURMESE WAR (1824-1826)

• British and Indian troops conquered Ava
• Treaty of Yandabo (1826)
• Ceded Arakan and Tenasserim to the British
• Yielded their position in Assam and Manipur
• Indemnity (5 million USD)

FIRST ANGLO-BURMESE WAR (1824-1826)

• Commercial treaty
• Gave the BEIC special trading rights
• Exchange of diplomatic representatives
• Accepted a British Resident at Ava---Mandalay

BRITISH-BURMESE RELATIONS

• Bagyidaw sent a mission to Calcutta
• Major Henry Burney (British Resident in Ava)
• Tharrawaddy, Bagyidaw's brother seized the throne
• Status quo with the British
• Revolutions: Pagan Min (1846) & Mindon Min (1852)

BRITISH-BURMESE RELATIONS

• Maung Ok (myo-wun)
• Appointed in Rangoon
• Imposed heavy trading taxes and other payments
• Complaints from the merchants
• Commodore Lambert from India investigated

SECOND ANGLO-BURMESE WAR (1852-1853)

• British captured the ports of Burma
• Pagan Min was replaced by his brother Mindon Min
• British annexed Prome, Pegu (Lower Burma)
• British right to run steamers (Irrawaddy)
• Commercial treaties

MINDON MIN (1853-1878)

• Associated himself with Alaungp'aya
• Opposed the Second Anglo-Burmese War
• He tried to persuade the British to give up L. Burma
• Mindon refused to sign any treaty
• "Neither recognized nor openly challenged the British"

MINDON MIN (1853-1878)

• Capital moved to Mandalay
• British dominated riverine commerce
• Maintained Konbaung independence
• Supported Theravada Buddhism
• Strengthened the admin, military, economy

MINDON MIN (1853-1878)

• Established reforms, realized new ways of ruling
• Abolished myo-sa system, ahmudan service class
• New tax and provincial administration
• Constructed factories with European machinery
• Agricultural products (sugar, cotton, silk)

MINDON MIN (1853-1878)

• Exposed to Western culture
• Commercial treaties with the British
• Burma aimed for arms; British to enter China
• Diplomatic relations ended towards the end of 1860s
• British Burma integrated into the Indian empire

MINDON MIN (1853-1878)

• Internal changes also happened (coup attempt 1866)
• Killing of crown prince, ministers (succession problems)
• Signed a commercial treaty with the French (1873)
• Tried to play the British off against the French

THIBAW (1878-1885)

• Last king of the Konbaung Dynasty
• Continued to play with the French

THIRD ANGLO-BURMESE WAR (1885-1886)

• British annexed Lower Burma
• Exiled Thibaw
• Administered as a province of British India
• Commercial treaties

MALAY PENINSULA

BRITISH IN MALAYA

• To break into the China market
• Rich deposits in tin and rubber
• Penang, NW Malay coast (1786)
• Took Melaka from the Dutch (1795)
• Established Singapore (1819)

BRITISH IN MALAYA

• Chinese immigrants from Southern China
• Indians also came as laborers, merchants
• Growing resentment from the locals

BRITISH IN MALAYA

• British-owned Straits Settlements:
• --Penang, Melaka, Singapore
• Sultanates (rest of Malaya):
• --Sultans with British residents
• Federated Malay States (1895)

MALAY PENINSULA

• Bugis century (18th Century)
• Malays and Dutch vs. Bugis in Selangor
• Malays vs. Dutch in Borneo
• Bugis remained in Selangor, Borneo

MALAY PENINSULA

• British in Penang (1786) thru Sultan of Kedah
• Siam vs. Sultan of Kedah
• Malay coalition (Sultan Mahmud of Johore-Riau)
• Malay coalition vs. Dutch and British
• Europe: French vs. Dutch

MALAY PENINSULA

• Temporary cessation of British-Dutch rivalry
• Entry of British troops into Dutch possessions

SINGAPORE (1819)

• Thomas Stamford Raffles
• British Java returned to the Dutch in 1816
• Acquired Singapore in 1819
• British base, free port; BEIC
• Chinese immigrants, miners

ANGLO-DUTCH TREATY (1824)

• Dutch were annoyed; Napoleonic Wars
• British: Singapore, Malacca
• Dutch: Sumatra
• Two parts of the Malay world

BRITISH-SIAMESE AGREEMENT (1826)

• Henry Burney, British envoy to Siam
• British recognition of the Siamese in the Malay states
• Southern boundary of Kedah
• British trading and duty procedures in Bangkok
• Recognized Perak and Selangor independence

BRITISH IN BORNEO

• Dutch rule never penetrated N.Borneo
• British North Borneo Company in Sabah
• Independent sultanates
• Run as private preserves by the British
• Brooke Family (James Brooke)

BRITISH IN BORNEO

• James Brooke, an English adventurer
• Recognized by the Sultan of Brunei
• Chief of Sarawak River District (1842)
• White raja, succeeded by Charles Brooke
• Fought the Iban marauders, pirates

VIETNAM

FRENCH IN VIETNAM

• The French were eliminated from India
• Persecution of French Catholic Missionaries (1862)
• Annexed Southern Vietnam (Saigon) Mekong Delta
• Annexed Cambodia and Laos
• Defeated the Chinese in Northern Vietnam (1885)

FRENCH IN VIETNAM

• French rule was oppressive
• Imposed French culture
• Executed, jailed and exiled Vietnamese leaders
• Ho Chi Minh (1890-1969)
• Vietnamese Communist Party

LE DYNASTY (1427-1788)

• Peasant rebellion (1771-1802)
• Tayson brothers of S. Vietnam
• Tayson emperors
• Quang-trung (1788-1792)
• Tayson power collapsed in 1802

NGUYEN DYNASTY (1802-1945)

• Emperor Gia-long (1802-1820)
• Dissolution of Tayson bureaucracy
• Civil service examination
• Peasant uprisings due to heavy labor

JESUIT MISSIONARIES

• Vietnamese Confucian elite reacted with hostility
• French Roman Catholic missionaries
• Alexandre de Rhodes (1591-1660)
• From Chinese characters to European letters
• Mandarins considered this as subversive

GIA-LONG (1802-1820)

• French aided the anti-Tayson campaign
• Prince Canh, his son refused the conversion
• Conversion would weaken the monarchy

MINH-MANG (1820-1840)

• Gia-long's fourth son by a concubine
• First decree outlawing dissemination of Christianity
• Persecution and execution of missionaries
• Christianity continued to spread
• Minh-mang created "canton teachers" to lecture

MINH-MANG (1820-1840)

• Le Van Duyet, his major political enemy
• Hoped the French missionaries could obtain him guns
• Admirer and user of Western products
• Read the Old Testament and found it absurd

THIEU-TRI (1841-1847)

• French gunboats visited Vietnam
• European, Vietnamese priests were killed
• French navy attacked and seized S. Vietnam
• Treaty of Saigon of 1862
• French colony known as Cochinchina

THIEU-TRI (1841-1847)

• Allowed the French to disseminate Christianity
• Religious conflict in small-scale villages

TU-DUC (1847-1883)

• Reformer and prisoner of Confucian bureacracy
• Reformer and prisoner of Confucian bureacracy
• Threatened by pro-Catholics and anti-Catholics
• Coup attempts
• Coup attempts
• Pro-Catholics: Freedom of Vietnamese Catholics
• Anti-Catholics: Response to the Treaty of 1862
• Anti-Catholics: Response to the Treaty of 1862

TU-DUC (1847-1883)

• Vietnamese Catholic scholars loyal to Tu-duc
• They knew more about the West
• Nguyen Truong To (1827-1871)
• Proposed administrative reforms
• Proposed administrative reforms
• Reducing the provinces against bribery

TU-DUC (1847-1883)

• Separation of powers against Confucianism
• Military schools
• Military schools
• Taxation based on new population census
• Romanized Vietnamese
• Civil service examination (law, science)

CAMBODIA & LAOS

CAMBODIA

• Internal struggles and rebellious factions
• Territorial losses, political disorder, wars
• Assistance of Siam and Vietnam
• Territorial grants and workers
• Royal succession determined by the protecting power

ANG ENG

• Ang Eng was selected as king in 1779
• Power remained in the pro-Siamese advisers
• Crowned by Siamese officials in Bangkok
• Ang Eng died in 1796 and his son, Ang Chan replaced him
• Crowned in Bangkok; Sought Vietnamese recognition

"The kingdom was divided into three parts--Siam, Vietnam and the court remained independent."

1829-1832

• Cambodian court accused the officials
• Dismantled diplomacy with Siam and Vietnam
• Vietnam invaded Cambodia and expelled the Siamese
• Reinstated Ang Chan; Ang Chan died in 1834
• Cambodia Tran Tray (western commandery of Vietnam)

ANG CHAN

• Vietnamese installed Ang Chan's daughter as queen
• Real power fell to a Vietnamese group
• Remodeled Cambodian society and administration
• "Civilizing mission"
• Offensive to the bureaucratic elite of Cambodia

ANG DUONG

• Revolts broke out
• Vietnamese troops withdrew
• Siamese moved in
• Installed Ang Duong, Ang Chan's brother
• Siamese-Vietnamese war

TREATY OF 1846

• Peace negotiations due to exhaustion
• Both sides agreed to withdraw
• Accepted Ang Duong as king
• Resumption of Siamese influence
• Was unwilling to be anybody's puppet

ANG DUONG

• Ang Duong secretly communicated with the French
• Miscommunication with the French
• Ang Duong died in 1860
• Succeeded by his son, Norodom
• Series of dynastic and religious rebellions

NORODOM

• French on the Mekong delta
• Norodom welcomed the French
• Signed an agreement with the French (1863)
• French protection with the Vietnamese
• Norodom secretly negotiated with Siam

INDONESIA

DUTCH IN INDONESIA

• Batavia (now Jakarta)
• Plantation crops: sugar, coffee, tea, tobacco
• Rubber, tin, oil
• Contolled trade in Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes,
• Moluccas, Bali, Southern Philippines

DUTCH IN INDONESIA

• Dutch control was oppressive
• Indonesians were excluded from the government
• Denied education and freedom of expression
• Peasants

JAVA

• Mataram dynasty
• Dutch East India Company (VOC)
• 1755-1757
• Batavia
• Maintained Javan institutions

DUTCH-JAVA

• Recognized the priyayi rulers
• Patron-client relations, bribery
• Rice, teak, indigo, coffee, sugar
• Harsh work of the peasants

PRIANGAN SYSTEM

• Priangan, West Java
• Annual quotas of coffee to the company
• Regents levied from their subjects as tax

CULTIVATION SYSTEM

• Culture system (1830)
• Johannes van den Bosch
• Peasants were required to deliver specified
• Export product, land or labor
• Exploitation of resources due to wars

PRIYAYI CULTURE

• Literature
• Art of batik
• Wayang kulit, wayang orang
• Priyayi vs. peasants

SIAM

SIAM

• Independence (Buffer State)
• Between British Burma and French Indochina
• British Malaya-Thai foreign trade in S. Thailand
• French annexed Thai territory in W. Cambodia & Laos
• Special trade & privileges were given to the West

FALL OF AYUDHYA

• Ayudhya
• Political conflict and succession problems
• Invasions by Alaungp'aya and successors
• Ancient capital fell on April 7, 1767; new capital: Thonburi
• Taksin emerged as the king in December 1767

TAKSIN

• Military achievements against the Burmese
• Not successful as a politician
• Attempted the monks to accept him as a bodhisattva
• Revolt against some of his officers in 1782
• Chaophraya Mahakasatsuk began his reign as Rama I

RAMA I (1782-1809)

• Open consultation and discussion
• Restored the orthodoxy of the Buddhist monkhood
• Relationship between the king and the elite
• Religious, legal, and literary work
• Commissioned the copying of a new set of Tipitaka

RAMA I (1782-1809)

• Convened a commission to edit Siamese law
• Siamese poetry and literature
• Ramakian, a version of Ramayana
• Military and political power
• Rama II, his son succeeded to the throne in 1809

RAMA II (1809-1824)

• Too lenient with his dependencies and client states
• Political administration
• British envoy to the Siamese court to secure Penang, Kedah
• To increase Siamese trade with Penang, Singapore
• Siamese troops expelled the British in 1819

RAMA III (1824-1851)

• Prince Chetsadabodin, son of Rama II by a concubine
• His maturity, administrative experience
• Prince Mongkut, his half-brother entered the monkhood
• Captain Henry Burney went to Bangkok in 1825
• To seek Siamese participation in the Anglo-Burmese War

RAMA III (1824-1851)

• Treaty of Yandabo; threat to the Siamese
• British-Siamese Agreement (Burney Treaty 1826)
• British recognition of the Siamese in the Malay states
• British trading and duty procedures in Bangkok
• Chaophraya Phrakhlang (Dit Bunnag) trade reforms

RAMA III (1824-1851)

• Siamese foreign trade increased (Singapore)
• New system of tax (Chinese)
• Strengths of the monarchy
• Open working relationship
• Receptiveness to the outside world

RAMA III (1824-1851)

• West indirectly affected the kingdom
• British annexation of Tenasserim reduced Siam's security risk
• Siamese military campaign against Lao, Cambodia, Malay
• Military experience

WESTERN INFLUENCE

• Prince Mongkut entered Buddhist monkhood
• Studied languages, science, foreign ideas
• Prince Chuthamani, his brother studied military affairs
• Closely followed the Opium War in China
• Activities of Western powers in Asia (Burma)

WESTERN INFLUENCE

• American & British governments came to Bangkok in 1850-51
• Demanded free trade and extraterritoriality
• Unsuccessful but they started to entertain accommodation
• Rama III died in 1851
• Prince Mongkut and Prince Chuthamani

RAMA IV (1851-1868)

• Sir John Bowring, British governor of Hongkong
• Minister to China
• Arrived in Bangkok in 1855
• Second Anglo-Burmese War
• Revived Western demands

RAMA IV (1851-1868)

• Mongkut & Suriyawong successfully handled the British
• Suriyawong = Chuang Bunnag; minister of war
• Bowring Treaty in 1855

BOWRING TREATY

• Extraterritoriality
• Abolition of trading monopolies and transit dues
• Establishment of ad valorem rates
• 3% on imports, 5% on exports
• Taxes were fixed at low rates

BOWRING TREATY

• Import and sale of opium was a government monopoly
• Siamese gave away a great deal for the sake of security
• New excise monopolies imposed to the Chinese
• Opium, gambling, lottery, alcohol monopolies
• Siam became one of the largest exporters of rice, teak

RAMA IV (1851-1868)

• Borrowed Western ideas
• Foreign relations, military forces
• Shelling of Trengganu by a British warship in 1862
• Elimination of Siamese influence in Cambodia
• Mongkut died in 1868; Chulalongkorn, his son

PHILIPPINES

SPANISH AND AMERICANS IN THE PHILIPPINES

• US acquired the Philippines from Spain (1898)
• Partnership with rich Filipinos
• Rise of educated elite
• Elite dominated Philippine politics

CONCLUSION

"Southeast Asia is a region defined by its relationship with other regions rather than by anything intrinsic to itself." (Robert Elson)

"In Southeast Asia, the sea unites, the Europeans used it to divide." (Tarling)

"European controlled city created a mixture of foreign and indigenous elements in its physical structure, government, economic affairs and inhabitants." (Tarling, 1994)

"Mestizo or mixed racial/ethnic communities (intermediaries): bridged the social, economic, cultural and technological gaps which divided the foreign groups from SEA." (Tarling, 1994)