Ch 16 - The End of Asian Isolation

Dawn of a New Era

By the beginning of the 19th century, the industrialized West and an expansive Russia began to slowly encircle the "Unchanging East." China, Japan and Korea, long isolated from the world, became prime targets for commercial and diplomatic overtures that led to one of the most remarkable turning points in world history.

The arrival of the 18th century industrial revolution opened a new era in world history. It was an era driven by a dramatic increase in the production and distribution of machine-made goods in both Europe and North America, a dynamic growth in economic capitalism and a growing demand for new and profitable markets. Dreams of vast wealth lured merchants and traders from around the world to both fringes of the Asian continent - the Near East and the Far East - in search of the key to exploiting East Asia's massive market potential.

China, an enigma shrouded in darkness, a great land mass that was home to nearly one quarter of he earth's population, became an irresistible lure to the world's merchants and traders. Driven by an increasing demand for new markets in which to sell the burgeoning output of the industrial revolution, Europe was drawn toward China as inexorably as a moth is drawn to a flame. Fueled by industrialization and steam-powered ships, Western economic, military and political power launched itself toward the shores of Asia with a force incomparably greater than that exercised by the explorers of early 17th century Europe and in the process triggered a number of complex, world-changing events that overtook East Asia and forever altered its future.

At the dawn of the 19th century, Choson's Yi dynasty was crumbling from internal corruption, social unrest and challenges to established Confucian order. Sohak, or Western Learning, brought added pressure to bear in the form of foreign ideas, foreign beliefs and foreign technology. The emergence of Catholicism in Choson and the subtle, increasing pressure from foreign nations unsettled the Choson government and contributed to an atmosphere of anxiety throughout the country. Having already suffered numerous episodes of foreign intervention, Choson withdrew behind its heavily guarded borders and wanted no involvement with or interference from the rapidly changing outside world. By the middle of the century, Choson had become a country marked by what could best be described as self-imposed xenophobic isolationism.

In China, the aging and lethargic Manchu dynasty sought to perpetuate itself at all costs. It did so even in the face of increasing pressure from the West to open its borders to foreign trade. What the Qing Dynasty lacked in vitality and force, it more than made up for in sheer inertia. Both the Manchu and Chinese ruling classes preferred to live in the traditional ways of prior glories, unmoved by the fact that world progress was accelerating at an ever increasing rate. While the rest of the world was becoming more industrialized, more scientific and more curious about the strange and distant places and cultures, China remained aloof from and blissfully unaware of outsiders, little concerned with the fact that the world was rapidly closing in around them.

Japan, long isolated from the rest of the world, kept a small opening to the west through the Dutch trading offices on Deshima Island near Nagasaki, yet Europe remained uninformed about and unaffected by developments in Japan. The sweeping events that were shaking the rest of the world at the time in no way diminished the calm and harmony that prevailed during Japan's Tokugawa Shogunate. The American Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars had as little impact in Japan as the epic struggles within Japan had upon Europe.

The Middle Kingdom of China and its tribute states had remained relatively peaceable and orderly for centuries, not just politically, but socially and culturally as well. The Chinese system of government was as highly developed as any in the West. In fact, when compared with the prevailing conditions in Europe during the same period, East Asia had remained reasonably stable since at least the 14th century. In the Orient, the foundations of existence were secure;  the orbits in which each moved were fixed;  all was as it should be. Many nineteenth century writers described the region as the "Unchanging East."

East Asia had little to learn from the West until late in the 18th century, even in the field of production technology. Had China, Japan, or Choson for that matter, been strictly objective about their way of life and consciously set out to compare it with what was then known about Europe, or America, or anywhere else in Asia, they would have likely discovered that they suffered little by comparison. At the time, the nations of East Asia could easily have convinced themselves, without racial or cultural arrogance, that they had little to gain by changing.

It is natural for each of us to make judgments about people and the world around us. Too often however, we make the mistake of applying the wrong standards to that which is being judged. This shortsightedness inevitably led Westerners who traveled to Asia to judge its culture and civilization by contemporary European and American standards. As a consequence, many came to believe the nations of East Asia were backward, barbaric and lacking in any form of civilized culture.

Western industrialists, intellectuals and politicians considered Asians to be a backward people mainly because they lacked the great steam-driven machines of industry and the widespread benefits of applied science. One needs to understand however, that when the West made the transition from an agrarian to an industrial society near the turn of the 19th century, it made a near total break with its past. The transition occurred at a controllable pace and allowed some opportunity for society to adjust to the change. In sharp contrast, western machines and the technology that produced them were imposed on Asia during the 19th century from the outside through political and military domination, if not outright conquest. Asians had little or no opportunity to adjust or adapt. As a consequence, they lost all control over their own destiny. Only in this respect is the East now, or has it ever been, backward.

As for being barbaric, it is important to remember that Asian societies lived under the precepts of Confucianism and Buddhism, not Christianity. The stark cultural differences between East Asia and the West made it inevitable that Europeans would see Asian cultures as uncivilized and barbaric. While it's true Asians called Westerners "barbarians" as well, the label was nothing more than an uneducated reaction to the differing views each held with respect to the laws and social customs of the other. Consider this fact;  during the mid-eighteenth century, the Chinese capital of Beijing suffered less from robbery and crimes against people or property that did the English capital of London!

As for being uncivilized, Western civilization was really the application of science to the production and distribution of goods through the use of machines. If in China, or Japan, or Choson, goods were made by hand and carried to market on a man's back, and in England, France, or Germany, goods were made in a large factory and taken to market in a truck, did that make Europeans civilized and Asians uncivilized?  If so, then why did eighteenth century Europe consider the writings on Chinese politics and philosophy as a model worthy of emulation?  While it was no doubt an idealized view, it is nonetheless remarkable that during one of its culturally highest periods, Europeans thought Asians to be uncivilized while simultaneously viewing China as an ideal.

Much of East Asia's history during the 19th century was born from the complex interaction of cultural and political differences between East and West. The dramatic clash between the inertia and blindness of the Orient (an immovable object) and the intrusive and aggressive nature of Western expansion (an irresistible force) created one of the most remarkable turning points in world history.