When the Mughal empire collapsed in India in the mid-1700’s, Britain’s interests in the region turned from commercial to political. The British were able to subjugate India by taking advantage …show more content…
Firstly, China entered a period of decline. Secondly, the Industrial Revolution gave the West superior military powers and a need for expanded markets. Because of these new developments, China was seen as a target for imperialism. In the Opium War, the Chinese were easily defeated because of their outdated weapons and fighting strategies. If China had modernized its army and weapons, they might have been able to call on Britain to stop the Opium trade with no repercussions. By the mid-1800’s, Chinese reformers felt the need to adopt Western ways. But this idea divided the educated Chinese since most of them saw no reason for more industries because China’s wealth came from land. Scholar-officials vetoed any idea to adopt some Western ways. Because of China’s refusal to westernize, they were falling far behind other countries. Japan began to westernize in 1868, and it then joined the western imperialists in the race for a global empire. This pressure on China to catch up led to the Sino-Japanese War, which China lost terribly. Japan ended up with Taiwan in its possession. Had the Chinese excepted Western culture and ways, they wouldn’t have had the need to catch up to the western imperialists. Because China did not westernize or modernize when it began to decline, it became an imperialist target and lost a lot of money and