Q6. A sphere of influence is an area where an outside power claims exclusive investment or trading privileges within another country. A sphere of influence was used as a type of imperialism on another country. What were the benefits of having a sphere of influence? A sphere of influence allowed nations to control trade and investments within other nations. This would be seen as a great opportunity for nations to become wealthy by making money off of trading and investments. The European nations could have decided to colonize China like they had previously done with the countries of Africa and Asia. However, there were several facts that stood in the way and kept them from colonizing. Having a sphere of influence over China would simply be easier
To anybody, including myself, we cannot understand the trouble and efforts that must be set forth when taking over and colonizing another nation. During this time in Europe, more land equalled more power. However, the more land you took over, the weaker you became. Therefore, why would the European nations want to even go through the trouble of colonizing China? In short, colonization would be a headache. It would create battles, disagreements, and arguments between many powerful nations. One example being the United States and the European nations. The United States trade with China was very important to both countries; therefore, if Europe were to colonize, there would be many disputes. The United States would simply not give up their trading with China, there would probably be fights over the colonization of China. If the European nations were able to get control over China, the people would be very upset. There were already rebellions breaking out consistently throughout China. If the European nations had tried to colonize, the people would rebel and create more problems for the European nations. Let's just imagine that the European nations were able to fully gain control. Even if they had full control, they would still have to provide for their new colonies. The European nations would have to use their resources in order to provide, take care of, and protect their colonies. They would have to use their own military forces to ensure the safety of their colonies. By colonizing China, it would create constant headaches. The European nations would have to put in more effort then its actually worth. It would be much easier if the used a sphere of
One of the most important aspects of imperialism is the take over of government. The English accomplished this in several ways. Some of the “Unfair Treaties” forced the Chinese to allow the English ships into their ports and to allow them to have a major role in the trade market. The English wanted tea, porcelain, and silk from china. The Chinese however didn’t want to gods the English offered in return. The English began trading opium in return for the goods. Although it was illegal, many of the money hungry merchants excepted the opium in return for the things that were valuable to the English. Because of this, the first Anglo-Chinese war erupted. China underestimated the power of England and was defeated. At the end of the war, they were forced to sign the Treaty of Nanjing (1842). The treaty was one of the first treaties known as the “Unfair Treaties.” Under this treaty, china gave up the island of Hong Kong, abolished the licensed monopoly system of trade, granted English nationals exemption from Chinese laws, and agreed to give England whatever trading concessions that were granted to other countries then and later.
In this process, they succeeded in influencing Japan greatly. However, they were not as successful with China. At the end of the eighteenth century, China’s goods were much sought after by Britain. However, the Chinese saw Europeans as savages and did not want to trade with them. During trade, there was an imbalance in China’s favor, because the Europeans were forced to buy Chinese goods using silver.
With the Industrial Revolution in full swing, Europe was looking to bolster its trade markets abroad. Thinking of it this way: in order to sell more goods, you need more places to sell them. So, with this thinking in mind, the Europeans said to themselves, 'What better place than Africa and Asia?' Along the same lines, colonies on these continents were seen as great places to get cheap, raw materials for Europe's factories. Add to this that Europe needed a place to house and employ their surplus population, and you can see why New Imperialism held the promise of economic growth.
Jeremy Bentham, a leading English prison reformer of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, developed an architectural plan for an ideal prison that he called the Panopticon. Such a prison would consist of a ring of individual cells encircling an observation tower. Each of the cells would open toward the tower and be illuminated by its own outside window. So, by the effect of backlighting, a single guard in the observation tower could keep watch on many prisoners--each of whom would be individually confined--without himself being seen. And because the prisoners could not see their supervisors, they would have to assume that they were being watched at all times--even if they were not. The Panopticon was designed to maximize the power of a dominating, overseeing gaze upon a transparent society of inmates. The purpose of the Panopticon was not so much to punish wrongdoers as to prevent wrongdoing by immersing prisoners in a field of total visibility in the expectation that the possibility of constant surveillance would serve to restrain the inmates (Foucault, 1980). Such surveillance would be aimed toward the interiorization of the supervisor's gaze so that each prisoner would, in effect, become his/her own overseer. Thus, through self-policing, surveillance would become permanent and pervasive in its effects--even if it was not continuously exercised.
There were many problems with the system of trade in China; even before opium trading began. China, believing herself to be the most civilized and advanced country, did not feel the need to satisfy Britain, a “barbarian” country’s request for freer trade and were concerned the British wanted land. Britain however, had no desire for land and only wished to trade, believing it was their right to do so. These misunderstandings and differing opinions were only the start of more to come. They set the foundations to the British and Chinese hostilities.
These three places controlled the post classical world when it came to economics and politics. “The political and economic anchor[s] of the postclassical world,” refers to the impact they had. For politics, all three empires, set up armies, built their nation up and formed their government with knowledgeable people that helped keep the empire strong. For economics, they all expanded their trade routes, looked to other regions to bring in new crops and technology and they all had a market economy that made growth effortless. These factors played a big role by controlling and bringing appeal to their land.
During the nineteenth century, the Industrial Revolution gave certain countries in Western Europe a big boost of economic power. France, Britain, Italy, and Germany emerged as industrialized powers, with high population and high production. During a time when Social Darwinism was popular, it was only natural that these nations compete with each other for survival. The most important motivation for Europeans to colonize during the 19th and 20th centuries was to strengthen their own countries in order to compete with the other European powers.
In 2005, Chile and China signed a free trade agreement, the first agreement of its type ever signed in Latin America. Since the agreement was signed, trade between China and Chile has grown exponentially. Chile is the leading country in Latin America that has maintained good relations with China, beginning in 1970 when Chile was the first South American country to recognize the Peoples Republic of China (Jenkins 2009). Over the years their relationship has continued to develop through the many rounds of discussions that have taken place since the FTA was first established. By examining the economic implications the China-Chile FTA has had on the Chilean economy, it is seen that while both countries trade markets are benefiting, the Chilean market is facing more negative impacts than the Chinese economy. Although both countries have solid reasoning to invest with one another, China has had much more to gain from entering into this trade relationship.
The political and economic events caused by foreign imperialism in China led to drastic political, economic and social changes in the Qing Dynasty. Foreign imperialism during the 1800s caused internal struggles within the country and international struggles like the Opium Wars, which resulted in changes that deeply impacted Qing China.
One of the primary causes of prime American Imperialism is economics, America needed places to sell our products and at the time in the late 19th century, China was the perfect customer. Although the decade of 1890s was a crisis in America, the influx of immigrants and crowded cities added to anxiety and concern of America’s future. To add a panic caused by the failure of a British Bank led the U.S. into a horrible economic depression. Many historians say that to get out of a depression America would have to find a way to expand internationally and attempt to dominate other nations and build colonies. In order to begin that process the U.S. would needed to control the seas and dominate international commerce, tied into the push for a great
Throughout history, imperialism has led countries to extend their rule over weaker countries and then colonized those countries to expand their own power. Imperialism allows the ruling countries to use the weaker countries for their resources. Colonizing other countries would then lead to growth and a better reputation for the dominating country. There are many examples of imperialism throughout European history. When many European countries “scrambled” for Africa, it seemed as though Africa had no say in anything.
From the beginning of their establishment, the bilateral relations between the United States of America and China have changed throughout the time. The bilateral relations of the two countries emerged from 1970’s with the ‘Ping-Pong’ diplomacy and there have been many pauses in their mutual relations. The US and China enjoyed cooperation in economic and military spheres and the mutual relations grew massively during until the end of 1990’s. The heads of the two states began visiting each other’s countries and the economic ties were tightening year by year. However, the issues of human rights and free speech declined mutual Sino-American relations. The American principle of democracy promotion and human rights protection minimized the Sino- American relations after the Tiananmen Square events in 1989, the US Presidents-George Bush and Bill Clinton- playing a key role in determining the further American foreign policy towards China.
China's Foreign Policy Since the initial warming of U.S.-China relations in the early 1970’s, policymakers have had difficulty balancing conflicting U.S. policy concerns in the People’s Republic of China. In the strange world of diplomacy between the two, nothing is predictable. From Nixon to Clinton, presidents have had to reconcile security and human rights concerns with the corporate desire for expanded economic relations between the two countries. Nixon established ties with Mao Zedong’s brutal regime in 1972. And today, Clinton’s administration is trying to influence China’s course from within a close economic and diplomatic relationship.
A country’s struggle to power is much like that of two rivalling siblings. They are locked in a constant competition as they attempt to one-up the other. Countries do the same as they race against each other to produce better exports, and to attract more money into their economy. They are constantly vying against each other for the center of attention so that they are the main focal point of the international world. This competition continues until one finally relents, or blatantly falls, and allows the other to shine; much like how China is slowly managing to overtake the U.S. in terms of international influence. The success of one individual cannot remain forever, and eventually they will begin to fall. This is the current situation where the U.S. and China stand today as China is beginning to overtake the U.S. in terms of economic capability. With a superior economy, it is possible for China to overcome the challenges it faces as it moves into position as the next world power. Though, just like the pair of siblings, despite China’s recent successes, the other won’t disappear completely. The U.S. will not disappear into the background and allow China to take complete control as hegemon, or world power, and establish something akin to a uni-mulipolar system. A system where there is one main power and many already established rising powers. This uni-multipolar system allows for other countries to continuously compete for the position at the top.
China, for most of its 3500 years of history, China led the world in agriculture, crafts, and science. It fell behind in the 19th century when the Industrial Revolution gave the West clear superiority in military and economic affairs. In the first half of the 20th century, China continued to suffer from major famines, civil unrest, military defeat, and foreign occupation. After World War II, the Communists under Mao Tse Tung established a dictatorship that, while ensuring autonomy of China, imposed strict controls over all aspects of like and cost the lives of tens of millions of people. After 1978, his successor Deng Xiaoping decentralized economic decision making; output quadrupled in the next 20 years. Political controls remain tight at the same time economic controls have been weakening. Present issues in China are: incorporating Honk Kong into the Chinese system, closing down inefficient state-owned enterprises, modernizing its military, fighting corruption, and providing support to tens of millions of displaced workers. Today, China remains the major issue in U.S. security policy in Asia. The currently dominant security policy holds that China has essentially replaced the former Soviet Union as the chief strategic threat to the United States in the region, and the U.S. should essentially retain its containment strategy, with China as the new target. The basis of this new strategy includes a strengthening of cold war-era bilateral military alliances in with the development of a Theater-based Missile Defense system that would cover South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. Revelations in early-to-mid 1999 indicating a pattern of Chinese nuclear weapons and missile technology espionage dating back from the 1970s to the mid-1990s has raised fears of China as an enemy to the highest level in 20 years. China's defense budget has grown more than 50% over the course of the 1990s and is said to have increased 15% in 1999. China's occupation of 11 islands and reefs in the Spratlys, including Mischief Reef, 378 kilometers from the Philippines is also used as evidence of the expansionist nature of China. The accusations of espionage are more telling of the weaknesses in U.S. security than of providing any significant evidence that the Chinese have used this data to gain a qualitative strategic advantage relative to the United States. A more balanced conclusion would be that the espionage reveals that the privatization of the management of nuclear weapons labs did not adequately take into account the United States' national security concerns.