Because of trade surplus, China had a satisfactory balance of trade. Westerners sold less than they actually bought from china. However, this changed in the late 1700’s; the British began to trade with China. Which lead to the Opium War in 1839. The Chinese were defeated easily because of all of the new weapons the British had. China lost another war a couple years later. This forced china to sign Treaties ordering the opening of more ports and letting Christian missionaries in China. After china then lost again in the Sino-Japanese war of 1843, the United States asserted that Chinese trade would be open to everyone, called the Open Door Policy. Many Chinese were mad about the attendance of foreigners. This caused the Boxer Uprising in 1900. Even though the Boxers failed, nationalism grew.
Chapter 25, 1, 2 and 4:
1: In 1603, Shoguns took power in Japan and stopped to visitation of foreigners. Japan became isolated from the world for over 200 years. After a while the shoguns power weakened. Then, Matthew Perry and his crew arrived forcing Japan to open its ports. Japan was not ready to defend itself so; it was forced to sign Treaties. This gave the United States rights to trade. The Japanese were humiliated that they were forced to do this. So they revolted on their own shoguns so that Emperor Mutsuhito would be back in power. Japan was a small nation, so they were short of many supply’s Vidal for industry. Which made them want to start trading; they first started to trade with Korea. This cause problem, which led to the First Sino- Japanese War, Japan easily won. By the early 1900s, Japan was the strongest power in Asia.
2: By the 1700s Merchants of Europe finally gained control in Southeast Asia, however, most of the area was still independent. Westerners controlled a lot of Southeast Asia. For example, the Dutch dominated the East Indies. The British expanded to Burma and Malaya from India. This caused Burmese to go through many defeats and deaths. But, they did counterattack British rule. Soon, the French controlled all of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia they named it, French Indochina.