Imperialism in China
and Japan
1850-1900
Chinese Immigration
• Chinese immigration began with CA Gold Rush 1848-1855
• The demand for cheap labor intensified with the building of
the transcontinental railroad—many Chinese immigrants hired
to build.
• Most Chinese immigrants were healthy male adults.
• After the law was passed verbal and physical assaults on the
Chinese intensified.
• The Chinese Exclusion Act prevented these aliens from
becoming US citizens.
Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
• The Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and signed
by President Chester A. Arthur.
• It was the first significant law restricting immigration into the
United States.
• This act provided an absolute 10-year moratorium on Chinese
labor immigration. For the first time, federal law prohibited
entry of an ethnic working group on the premise that it
endangered a community.
The only one barred out:
“We must draw the line somewhere you know.”
The China Trade
• U.S. trade with China
made up only a small
part of total American
foreign trade in the 19th
century, but the idea of
China as a great
potential market
captured the American
imagination in the late
18th century and the
idea remains potent
today.
• Packing finished tea into wooden
chests, often lined. Here, the
tight packing is ensured by the
dark-clad worker at center who is
stamping tea into a chest.
Open Door Policy
• 1899 & 1900: The
U.S. foreign policy
allowing multiple
imperial powers
access to China, with
none of them in
control of that
country.
The Boxer Rebellion
• Boxer Rebellion was a
Chinese rebellion
against foreign
influence in areas such
as trade, politics,
religion, and
technology that
occurred in China
during the final years
of the Qing Dynasty
from November 1899
to September 7, 1901.
Rebellion crushed
• British, Austrian,
German, French,
Italian, American,
Japanese and
Russian landing
forces to crush the
rebellion.
• Non-Chinese
casualties would be
light. Many Chinese
rebels were killed
and dismembered.
Christian Missionaries
• Gospel printed by
missionaries.
• Missionaries traveling
by cart in Northern
China.
• By 1865 when the
China Inland Mission
began, there were
already thirty
different Protestant
groups at work in
China. Most
missionaries came
from England, the
U. S., Sweden, France,
Germany,
Switzerland, and
Holland.
Christianity in China
• The Boxer Uprising was
in part a reaction
against Christianity in
China.
• During the Boxer
Rebellion, Chinese
Christians were abused
by western Christians.
• The number of
Protestant missionaries
in China surpassed
8,000 by 1925.
Dollar Diplomacy: Manchuria
"The diplomacy of the present
administration has sought to respond
to modern ideas of commercial
intercourse. This policy has been
characterized as substituting dollars
for bullets.” Taft, 1912
• The Taft administration
came to see investment
in railway development
and loans to the Chinese
government as the
means to increase
influence in China.
• The policy was a failure
and stirred controversy
among several
international powers.
Russo-Japanese War 1904-5
• The first great war of
the 20th century.
• It grew out of rival
imperial ambitions of
Russia and Japan over
Manchuria and Korea.
• Japan’s victory would
transform the balance
of power in East Asia,
resulting its emergence
as a world power.
Nobel Peace Prize & TR
• The Treaty of Portsmouth
resolved the Russo-Japanese War
and earned Theodore Roosevelt
recognition by the Nobel Prize
Committee.
• This made him the first American
to win a Nobel Prize in any of the
categories.
• The prize consisted of a gold
medal, a diploma in a fancy case,
and a cash award of $34,734.79,
which he donated to various
charities (incl. YMCA & Red
Cross).
• He won the prize in 1906 but
didn’t pick it up until 1910.
Commodore Matthew C. Perry
• In July 1853, President
Fillmore sent Commodore
Perry and a fleet of ships to
open trade with Japan.
• For 2 centuries Japan was
closed to most foreign
trade.
• On March 31, 1854, Perry
negotiated a treaty which
opened trade between the
US and Japan.
• Japan realized it could not
defend its self against an
outside power with naval
strength.
Gifts
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Tea
Pistols
Wine
China
Telegraph wire
Seeds
Potatoes
Clocks
Whisky
Perfume
The Great White Fleet
• The Fleet departed
from Virginia in 1907
and returned to the
U.S. in 1909.
Gentlemen’s Agreement 1907
• In 1907, the Gentlemen’s
agreement between the
United States and Japan
was enacted.
• In this agreement, Japan
would no longer issue
passports to Japanese
emigrants and the U. S.
would allow immigration
for only the wives,
children and parents of
current Japanese whom
already reside in the
United States.
Segregated Education in San Francisco c. 1906
“Yellow Peril”
• The immediate cause of
the Agreement was antiJapanese nativism in
California.
• In 1906, the San Francisco,
California Board of
Education had passed a
regulation whereby
children of Japanese
descent would be required
to attend racially
segregated separate
schools. At the time,
Japanese immigrants made
up approximately 1% of the
population of California.
Root-Takahira Agreement 1908
• Signed in 1908, the agreement
consisted of an official
recognition of the territorial
status quo as of November 1908,
affirmation of the independence
and territorial integrity
of China (i.e. the "Open Door
Policy), maintenance of free
trade and equal commercial
opportunities, Japanese
recognition of the American
annexation of Hawaii and the
Philippines and American
recognition of Japan's position
in northeast China. Implicit in the
agreement was American
acknowledgment of Japan's right
to annex Korea and dominance
over southern Manchuria, and
Japan's acceptance of
immigration limits to the U.S.