Islands
The Dutch and the Spanish controlled much of Southeast Asia during the early 1800s. The Dutch East Indies was renowned for its rich soil which allowed the harvesting of crops such as: coffee, pepper, cinnamon, sugar, indigo, and tea. Mines were formed to exploit the rich deposits of tin and copper. Forests yielded valuable timber including teak, ebony, and other hardwoods. The Dutch became notorious for the use of forced slave labor, known as the culture system, to gather these raw materials, while purposely discouraging westernization, or the spreading of European culture.
The Spanish used similar methods to reap the rewards from their tobacco and sugar plantations located in Cuba and the Philippine Islands. However, in 1898, the Philippines were sold to the United States as part of the settlement for the Spanish loss of the Spanish-American War. The United States joined the imperial powers by gaining the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico, and, indirectly, Cuba.
Mainland
The British took control of Burma from their colonial stronghold in India in the early 1800s. Meanwhile, the French imperialized modern-day Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam forming French Indochina in the 1880s. Siam became the embattled buffer zone between these two European powers, but was eventually guaranteed its independence by a treaty negotiated between France and Great Britain.
After the Meiji Restoration led to massive industrialization in Japan, the nation found itself in great need of natural resources. Industrialization makes a nation dependent upon iron, coal, and oil, none of which were found in great quantity on the Japanese archipelago. Japan willingly and quickly industrialized. It was the first Asian nation to do so on a large scale, and, as a result, became an imperial power, competing with European nations. This need led them to invade mainland Korea and China in order to exploit the natural resources there. During this conquest, many crimes against humanity were committed. Because of that, there's lasting conflict between some Japanese and Koreans.
Outcome
Japan took over much of the coast of China and the rest of Southeast Asia, eventually forming the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, which provided even more natural resources to feed its vast military-industrial complex. Much like the United States, Britain, Belgium, and other European powers, Japan was building an empire through military force. East Asian raw materials such as oil from the Dutch East Indies and rubber from French Indochina kept Japan’s manufacturing industry and military in China well supplied. The Japanese war machine gained power and momentum, and set its gaze over to the East - and, partially due to Roosevelt's Neutrality Acts, hit the United States in WWII with the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Japan vastly underestimated the US's ability to recover from bombings and war; they originally believed that they would be able to conquer the Pacific Islands and make their way over to the mainland within three years, which was their predicted time frame of a US recovery. The US recovered from Pearl Harbor and won the Battle of Midway in the Pacific in six months.
The French left French Indochina in the 1950s after years of warfare with nationalist groups. Communism began spread into the region from China. The U.S. foreign policy of containment of communism would lead to their involvement in the area in the unpopular Vietnam Conflict. Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos all eventually became communist in the 1970s. As a result of the policy of containment, the US fought in the Vietnam and Korean War as satellite wars in the 1950s-70s. Both were unpopular wars in the United States, and led to student-led nonviolent protests. In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot orchestrated mass killing of intellectuals and so-called reactionaries, in what became known as the Killing Fields.
The Dutch and the Spanish controlled much of Southeast Asia during the early 1800s. The Dutch East Indies was renowned for its rich soil which allowed the harvesting of crops such as: coffee, pepper, cinnamon, sugar, indigo, and tea. Mines were formed to exploit the rich deposits of tin and copper. Forests yielded valuable timber including teak, ebony, and other hardwoods. The Dutch became notorious for the use of forced slave labor, known as the culture system, to gather these raw materials, while purposely discouraging westernization, or the spreading of European culture.
The Spanish used similar methods to reap the rewards from their tobacco and sugar plantations located in Cuba and the Philippine Islands. However, in 1898, the Philippines were sold to the United States as part of the settlement for the Spanish loss of the Spanish-American War. The United States joined the imperial powers by gaining the Philippines, Guam, Puerto Rico, and, indirectly, Cuba.
Mainland
The British took control of Burma from their colonial stronghold in India in the early 1800s. Meanwhile, the French imperialized modern-day Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam forming French Indochina in the 1880s. Siam became the embattled buffer zone between these two European powers, but was eventually guaranteed its independence by a treaty negotiated between France and Great Britain.
After the Meiji Restoration led to massive industrialization in Japan, the nation found itself in great need of natural resources. Industrialization makes a nation dependent upon iron, coal, and oil, none of which were found in great quantity on the Japanese archipelago. Japan willingly and quickly industrialized. It was the first Asian nation to do so on a large scale, and, as a result, became an imperial power, competing with European nations. This need led them to invade mainland Korea and China in order to exploit the natural resources there. During this conquest, many crimes against humanity were committed. Because of that, there's lasting conflict between some Japanese and Koreans.
Outcome
Japan took over much of the coast of China and the rest of Southeast Asia, eventually forming the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere, which provided even more natural resources to feed its vast military-industrial complex. Much like the United States, Britain, Belgium, and other European powers, Japan was building an empire through military force. East Asian raw materials such as oil from the Dutch East Indies and rubber from French Indochina kept Japan’s manufacturing industry and military in China well supplied. The Japanese war machine gained power and momentum, and set its gaze over to the East - and, partially due to Roosevelt's Neutrality Acts, hit the United States in WWII with the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. Japan vastly underestimated the US's ability to recover from bombings and war; they originally believed that they would be able to conquer the Pacific Islands and make their way over to the mainland within three years, which was their predicted time frame of a US recovery. The US recovered from Pearl Harbor and won the Battle of Midway in the Pacific in six months.
The French left French Indochina in the 1950s after years of warfare with nationalist groups. Communism began spread into the region from China. The U.S. foreign policy of containment of communism would lead to their involvement in the area in the unpopular Vietnam Conflict. Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos all eventually became communist in the 1970s. As a result of the policy of containment, the US fought in the Vietnam and Korean War as satellite wars in the 1950s-70s. Both were unpopular wars in the United States, and led to student-led nonviolent protests. In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge under Pol Pot orchestrated mass killing of intellectuals and so-called reactionaries, in what became known as the Killing Fields.