Chapter 19 - Empire in Collision

In today's reading, it is talking about the European Empires going in for the final kill of the Middle East and East Asia. The China's Century of Crisis began in 1793-1911, about an emperor Qianlong was the last great Manchu emperor. The 19th century marks the end of China's greatness agricultural and military decline, combines with administrative and economic collapse led to higher taxes and peasant unrest. The picture on the left of the first page on the reading caught my attention while reading this chapter. It made me wonder and I think it is talking about groups of the European, Middle East, and East Asia trying to come together to form a treaty and be fair with one another however, it is not working because the man with the knife just cut the pie in half. This French cartoon is called Carving Up the Pie of China. It is from the late 1890s, the Great Powers of the day starting from the left the woman is Great Britain's Queen Victoria, the man is Germany's Kaiser Wihelm, the next man is Russia's Tsar Nicholas II, and the female figure having her hand on the Russian guy represents France, and finally the guy at the far end right is the Meiji emperor of Japan. The Germany man is dividing China, while a Chinese figure behind them tries helplessly to yell, "STOP" for cutting his country in half. There are multiple conflicts between Europe, Middle East, and East Asia. The British Opium Wars was in 1839-1842 and 1856-1858, led to the Taiping Uprising, in which China lost 20 to 30 million people, gained an ever increasing deficit, and surrender to foreign occupation. Frederick Townsend Ward was one of the White/Europeans fighter for the Manchus against the Taiping rebels. In 1895, China lost in a war with Japan and lost control of Vietnam, Korea, and Taiwan, and in 1898-1901 the internal uprising called the Boxer Rebellion led to Western including USA powers controlling China. The 19th century was not a pleasant one for China not the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East. In 1872-1881 the Chinese government sent Chinese Education Mission about 120 Chinese students to America to study Western subjects with the understanding that they would return to China to help to reform the government. The Ottoman Empire, "Sick Man of European" was still the central political fixture of a widespread Islamic world. Napoleon's invasion of Egypt, which was to cut off Britain from India was beginning of a series of invasions into Ottoman territories that Muhammad Ali conquered Egypt in 1808 and established an empire lasting until 1952. Now shifting to the Modernization Japanese Style, the technologies gave Japan an advantage and opportunity to change their country to become a more rapid environment. While reading this section, I realized there were a lot art. Art is a diverse range of human activities in creating visual, auditory or performing artifacts artworks, expressing the author's imaginative or technical skill. I think Strayer included the art in the reading to let the reader not just read and try to understand the reading, but also visualize the reading. Most people can understand the reading well with pictures, while others cannot so when the art is illustrated in the text they can see to make connection with the text. For me I am a visual learner so when I see pictures of the map or how it was like in the past I have a better connection because I can see people's emotions on their face or how difficult it was like living without technologies.

Chapter 18 - Colonial Encounters in Asia and Africa

In today's reading it is about The Colonial Encounters in Asia and Africa that began in the 1750-1950. The first wave was aimed at American however, the second wave aimed at Asia and Africa. One of the most major points that occurred during The Colonial Encounters is Industry and Empire. During the Industry and Empire, new economic needs found solution abroad. This created the need for extensive raw materials and agricultural products such as bananas from Central America, rubber from Brazil, meat from Argentina, cocoa and palm oil from West Africa, and gold and diamonds from South Africa. By the 1840, Britain was exporting about 60% of its cotton-cloth production, sending millions of yards to Europe. Between 1910 and 1914, Britain was sending about half of its savings overseas as foreign investment. Another main point to The Colonial Encounters in Asia and Africa is the Race and Culture. Europeans had defined others largely in religious terms, now they adopted the idea and techniques of more "advanced" societies. This means it is precedented by wealth, and used both to produce unsurpassed military power. It is not surprising that their opinions of other cultures dropped sharply. European eyes to the status of tribes led by chiefs as a means of emphasizing their "primitive" qualities. Still Europeans used the device of science to support their racial preferences and prejudices. Going onto the second wave of European conquests, between 1750 and 1914 was a second and quite distinct round of conquests: Asia and Africa. Construction of these new empires in the Afro-Asian world, involved military force. India and Indonesia, grew out of earlier interactions with European trading firms. British East India Company took advantage of the fragmentation of Mughal Empire and facilitated penetration for them. Also, Dutch acquisition of Indonesia was also as traders and alliances. Slowly without a plan, soon they had conquered the islands. Under the European Rule Australia and New Zealand, both taken over by the British during the nineteenth century, were more similar to the earlier colonization of North America. Also, diseases that reduced by 75%. United States practiced a policy of removing exterminating Indian people.