27.2: From the Edo Period to Meiji Restoration in Japan

27.2.1: The Edo Period

Learning Objective

Characterize the Edo Period in Japan

Key Points

• Shogun was the military dictator of
  Japan from 1185 to 1868 (with exceptions). In most of
  this period, the shoguns were the de facto rulers of the
  country, although nominally e appointed by the Emperor. The shogun held almost absolute power over
  territories through military means. A shogun’s office or administration is the
  shogunate, known in Japanese as the bakufu. Between 1603 and 1868 Japanese society was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate, a period known as the Edo period. 
• This period brought 250 years of stability to Japan.
  The political system evolved into what historians call bakuhan, a
  combination of the terms bakufu and han (domains)
  to describe the government and society of the period. In the bakuhan,
  the shogun had national authority and the daimyōs had regional
  authority. This represented a new unity in the feudal structure, which featured
  an increasingly large bureaucracy to administer the mixture of centralized and
  decentralized authorities. 
• A code of laws was established to regulate the daimyō houses.
  It encompassed private conduct, marriage, dress, types of weapons, and
  numbers of troops allowed. It required the feudal lords to reside in Edo every
  other year, prohibited the construction of ocean-going ships, proscribed
  Christianity, restricted castles to one per domain (han), and stipulated
  that bakufu regulations were the national law. The
  Tokugawa shogunate also went to great lengths to suppress social unrest. 
• Edo society had an elaborate social structure
  in which everyone knew their place and level of prestige. At the top were the
  Emperor and the court nobility, invincible in prestige but weak in power. Next
  came the shogun, daimyōs, and layers of feudal lords. A social order called “the four divisions of
  society” was adapted to stabilize the country, comprised of samurai,
  farming peasants, artisans, and merchants. The classes were not arranged by wealth or capital but by what philosophers
  described as their moral purity. 
• The Edo period witnessed the growth of a vital
  commercial sector, burgeoning urban centers, relatively well-educated elite,
  sophisticated government bureaucracy, productive agriculture, highly developed
  financial and marketing systems, and a national infrastructure of roads. Rice was the base of the economy. About 80% of
  the people were rice farmers. Rice production increased steadily, but
  population remained stable, so prosperity increased.
• Japan also developed an advanced forest management policy. Increased demand for timber
  resources for construction, shipbuilding, and fuel led to widespread
  deforestation, which resulted in forest fires, floods, and soil erosion. In
  response, the shogun instituted a policy to reduced
  logging and increased the planting of trees.

Key Terms

Shogun

The military dictator of Japan during the period from 1185 to 1868 (with exceptions). In most of this period, they were the de facto rulers of the country, although nominally they were appointed by the Emperor as a ceremonial formality. They held almost absolute power over territories through military means.

Edo period

The period between 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when Japanese society was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and the country’s 300 regional daimyō. The period was characterized by economic growth, strict social order, and isolationist foreign policies.

Sakoku

The foreign relations policy of Japan under which severe restrictions were placed on the entry of foreigners and Japanese people were forbidden to leave the country without special permission on penalty of death if they returned. The policy was enacted by the Tokugawa shogunate under Tokugawa Iemitsu through a number of edicts and policies from 1633–39 and largely remained officially in effect until 1866. The arrival of the American Black Ships of Commodore Matthew Perry, which started the forced opening of Japan to Western trade, eroded its enforcement severely.

Tokugawa shogunate

The last feudal Japanese military government, which existed between 1603 and 1867. The head of government was the shogun and each was a member of the Tokugawa clan. The regime ruled from Edo Castle and the years of the shogunate became known as the Edo period.  

Example

Shogun and Shogunate

Shogun was the military dictator of Japan from 1185 to 1868 (with exceptions). In most of this period, the shoguns were the de facto rulers of the country, although nominally they were appointed by the Emperor as a ceremonial formality. The shogun held almost absolute power over territories through military means.
A shogun’s office or administration is the shogunate, known in Japanese as the bakufu. The shogun’s officials were collectively the bakufu and carried out the actual duties of administration, while the imperial court retained only nominal authority. In this context, the office of the shogun had a status equivalent to that of a viceroy or governor-general, but in reality shoguns dictated orders to everyone including the reigning Emperor.

Tokugawa Shogunate

During the second half of the 16th century, Japan gradually reunified under two powerful warlords, Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
In the hope of founding a new dynasty, Hideyoshi asked his most trusted subordinates to pledge loyalty to his infant son Toyotomi Hideyori. Despite this, almost immediately after Hideyoshi’s death (1598), war broke out between Hideyori’s allies and those loyal to Tokugawa Ieyasu, a feudal lord (daimyō) and former ally of Hideyoshi. Tokugawa Ieyasu won a decisive victory at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 and although it took him three more years to consolidate his position of power over the Toyotomi clan and the daimyōs, Sekigahara is widely considered to be the unofficial beginning of the Tokugawa bakufu. 

In 1603, Emperor Go-Yōzei declared Tokugawa Ieyasu shogun.

Ieyasu abdicated two years later to groom his son as the second shogun of what became a long dynasty. Despite laws imposing tighter controls on the daimyōs, the latter continued to maintain a significant degree of autonomy in their domains. The central government of the shogunate in Edo, which quickly became the most populous city in the world, took counsel from a group of senior advisors known as rōjū and employed the samurai as bureaucrats. The Emperor in Kyoto was funded lavishly by the government but had no political power.

Tokugawa Ieyasu, first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate, by Kanō Tan’yū, Osaka Castle main tower

Ieyasu had a number of qualities that enabled him to rise to power. He was both careful and bold—at the right times, and in the right places. Calculating and subtle, Ieyasu switched alliances when he thought he would benefit from the change.

A painting of Tokugawa Ieyasu

The period of the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate, known as the Edo period, brought 250 years of stability to Japan. The political system evolved into what historians call bakuhan, a combination of the terms bakufu and han (domains). In the bakuhan, the shogun had national authority and the daimyōs had regional authority. This represented a new unity in the feudal structure, which featured an increasingly large bureaucracy to administer the mixture of centralized and decentralized authorities. 

A code of laws was established to regulate the daimyō houses. The code encompassed private conduct, marriage, dress, types of weapons, and numbers of troops allowed. It required the feudal lords to reside in Edo every other year, prohibited the construction of ocean-going ships, proscribed Christianity, restricted castles to one per domain (han) and stipulated that bakufu regulations were the national law. Although the daimyō were not taxed per se, they were regularly levied for contributions for military and logistical support and for such public works projects as castles, roads, bridges, and palaces. The various regulations and levies not only strengthened the Tokugawa but depleted the wealth of the daimyōs, thus weakening their threat to the central administration. The han, once military-centered domains, became mere local administrative units. The daimyōs did have full administrative control over their territories and their complex systems of retainers, bureaucrats, and commoners. 

The Tokugawa shogunate went to great lengths to suppress social unrest. Harsh penalties, including crucifixion, beheading, and death by boiling, were decreed for even the most minor offenses, although criminals of high social class were often given the option of seppuku (“self-disembowelment”), an ancient form of suicide that became ritualized. Christianity, which was seen as a potential threat, was gradually restricted until it was completely outlawed. To prevent further foreign ideas from sowing dissent, the third Tokugawa shogun, Iemitsu, implemented the sakoku (“closed country”) isolationist policy, under which Japanese people were not allowed to travel abroad, return from overseas, or build ocean-going vessels. The only Europeans allowed on Japanese soil were the Dutch, who were granted a single trading post on the island of Dejima. China and Korea were the only other countries permitted to trade and many foreign books were banned from import.

Social Structure

Edo society had an elaborate social structure in which everyone knew their place and level of prestige. At the top were the Emperor and the court nobility, invincible in prestige but weak in power. Next came the shogun, daimyōs, and layers of feudal lords, whose rank was indicated by their closeness to the Tokugawa. The daimyōs comprised about 250 local lords of local han with annual outputs of 50,000 or more bushels of rice. 

The Tokugawa government adapted a social order called “the four divisions of society” (shinōkōshō
or mibunsei) that stabilized the country. This system was based on the ideas of Confucianism that spread to Japan from China. Society was composed of samurai, farming peasants, artisans, and merchants. Samurai were placed at the top because they started an order and set a high moral example for others to follow. The system was meant to reinforce their position of power in society by justifying their ruling status. Peasants came second because they produced the most important commodity, food. According to Confucian philosophy, society could not survive without agriculture. Third were artisans because they produced nonessential goods. Merchants were at the bottom of the social order because they generated wealth without producing any goods. As this indicates, the classes were not arranged by wealth or capital but by what philosophers described as their moral purity. In actuality, shinōkōshō does not accurately describe Tokugawa society as many were excluded from this simplified division (e.g., soldiers, clergy, service providers like cleaners, etc.).

The individual had no legal rights in Tokugawa Japan. The family was the smallest legal entity and the maintenance of family status and privileges was of great importance at all levels of society. 

Terakoya, private educational school (here specifically for girls) by Issunshi Hanasato

The first terakoya made their appearance at the beginning of the 17th century, as a development from educational facilities founded in Buddhist temples. Before the Edo period, public educational institutions were dedicated to the children of samurai and ruling families, thus the rise of the merchant class in the middle of the Edo period boosted the popularity of terakoya. They were common in large cities as Edo and Osaka, as well as in rural and coastal regions.

A painting showing students and an instructor studying

Economic Development

The Edo period witnessed the growth of a vital commercial sector, burgeoning urban centers, relatively well-educated elite, sophisticated government bureaucracy, productive agriculture, highly developed financial and marketing systems, and a national infrastructure of roads. Economic development included urbanization, increased shipping of commodities, a significant expansion of domestic and initially foreign commerce, and a diffusion of trade and handicraft industries. The construction trades flourished, along with banking facilities and merchant associations. 

By the mid-18th century, Edo had a population of more than one million, and Osaka and Kyoto each had more than 400,000 inhabitants. Many other castle towns grew as well. Japan had almost zero population growth between the 1720s and 1820s. This is often attributed to lower birth rates in response to widespread famine, but some historians have presented different theories, such as a high rate of infanticide as a means to artificially control population. 

Rice was the base of the economy. About 80% of the people were rice farmers. Rice production increased steadily, but population remained stable, so prosperity increased. Improved technology helped farmers control the all-important flow of irrigation to their paddies. Large-scale rice markets developed, centered on Edo and Ōsaka. The daimyōs collected the taxes from the peasants in the form of rice. Taxes were high, about 40% of the harvest. In the cities and towns, guilds of merchants and artisans met the growing demand for goods and services. The merchants, though low in status, prospered, especially those with official patronage. They invented credit instruments to transfer money, currency came into common use, and the strengthening credit market encouraged entrepreneurship.

It was during the Edo period that Japan developed an advanced forest management policy. Increased demand for timber resources for construction, shipbuilding, and fuel had led to widespread deforestation, which resulted in forest fires, floods, and soil erosion. In response, the shogun, beginning around 1666, instituted a policy to reduced logging and increased the planting of trees. The policy mandated that only the shogun and daimyōs could authorize the use of wood. By the 18th century, Japan had developed detailed scientific knowledge about silviculture and plantation forestry.

27.2.2: Isolationism in the Edo Period

Learning Objective

Describe Japanese isolationism in the Edo Period

Key Points

• Sakoku was the foreign relations policy of Japan, enacted by the Tokugawa shogunate through a number of edicts and policies from 1633–39, under which severe restrictions were placed on the entry of foreigners to Japan and Japanese people were forbidden to leave the country without special permission. Historians have argued that the sakoku policy was established to remove the colonial and religious influence of Spain and Portugal and for the Tokugawa to acquire sufficient control over Japan’s foreign policy.
• Japan was not completely isolated under the sakoku policy, but strict regulations were applied to commerce and foreign relations by the shogunate and by certain feudal domains (han). The shogunate maintained limited and tightly controlled trade relations with the Dutch, China, Korea, the Ainu people, and the Ryūkyū Kingdom.
• The growing commerce between America and China, the presence of American whalers in waters off Japan, and the increasing monopolization of potential coaling stations by the British and French in Asia were all contributing factors in the decision by U.S. President Millard Fillmore to dispatch an expedition to Japan. The Americans were also driven by the idea that Western civilization and Christianity would benefit and thus should be imposed on Asian nations.
• The Perry Expedition, under Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry, left the U.S. in 1852 and reached Japan in 1853. Perry employed various techniques to intimidate the Japanese and refused their demands to leave or to proceed to Nagasaki, the only Japanese port open to foreigners. Eventually the Japanese decided that simply accepting a letter from the Americans would not constitute a violation of Japanese sovereignty. After presenting the letter, Perry departed for Hong Kong, promising to return the following year for the Japanese reply.
• Perry returned in 1854, after only half a year. After initial resistance, he was permitted to land at Kanagawa, where after negotiations lasting for around a month the Convention of Kanagawa was signed on March 31, 1854. The convention effectively meant the end of Japan’s policy of national seclusion by opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American vessels. It also ensured the safety of American castaways and established the position of an American consul in Japan. 
• Externally, the treaty led to treaties with the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, and France. Internally, debate over foreign policy and popular outrage over perceived appeasement to the foreign powers was a catalyst for the eventual end of the Tokugawa shogunate.

Key Terms

Sakoku

The foreign relations policy of Japan under which severe restrictions were placed on the entry of foreigners to Japan and Japanese people were forbidden to leave the country without special permission, on penalty of death if they returned. The policy was enacted by the Tokugawa shogunate under Tokugawa Iemitsu through a number of edicts and policies from 1633–39 and largely remained officially in effect until 1866, although the arrival of the American Black Ships of Commodore Matthew Perry, which started the forced opening of Japan to Western trade, eroded its enforcement severely.

Perry Expedition

A diplomatic expedition to Japan involving two separate trips by warships of the United States Navy, during 1853–54. The primary goal was to force an end to Japan’s 220-year-old policy of isolation and open Japanese ports to American trade, through the use of gunboat diplomacy if necessary. It led directly to the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and the western Great Powers and eventually to collapse of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate.

Convention of Kanagawa

The first treaty between the United States of America and the Tokugawa Shogunate. Signed on March 31, 1854, under the threat of force, it effectively meant the end of Japan’s 220-year-old policy of national seclusion (sakoku) by opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American vessels. It also ensured the safety of American castaways and established the position of an American consul in Japan. The treaty precipitated the signing of similar treaties establishing diplomatic relations with other western powers.

gunboat diplomacy

The pursuit of foreign policy objectives with the aid of conspicuous displays of naval power implying or constituting a direct threat of warfare, should terms not be agreeable to the superior force.

Harris Treaty of 1858

A treaty, known formally as the Treaty of Amity and Commerce, between the United States and Japan signed on the deck of the USS Powhatan in Edo (now Tokyo) Bay on July 29, 1858. It opened the ports of Kanagawa and four other Japanese cities to trade and granted extraterritoriality to foreigners, among a number of trading stipulations.

Tokugawa shogunate

The last feudal Japanese military government, which existed between 1603 and 1867. The head of government was the shogun and each was a member of the Tokugawa clan. The regime ruled from Edo Castle and the years of the shogunate became known as the Edo period.

Sakoku

Sakoku was the foreign relations policy of Japan under which severe restrictions were placed on the entry of foreigners to Japan and Japanese people were forbidden to leave the country without special permission, on penalty of death if they returned. The policy was enacted by the Tokugawa shogunate under Tokugawa Iemitsu, the third shogun of the Tokugawa dynasty, through a number of edicts and policies from 1633–39. It largely remained officially in effect until 1866, although the arrival of Commodore Matthew Perry in the 1850s began the opening of Japan to Western trade, eroding its enforcement. 

Historians have argued that the sakoku policy was established to remove the colonial and religious influence of Spain and Portugal, perceived as posing a threat to the stability of the shogunate and to peace in the archipelago. Some scholars, however, have challenged this view as only a partial explanation. Another important factor behind sakoku was the Tokugawa government’s desire to acquire sufficient control over Japan’s foreign policy to guarantee peace and maintain Tokugawa supremacy over other powerful lords in the country.

Japan was not completely isolated under the sakoku policy, but strict regulations were applied to commerce and foreign relations by the shogunate and certain feudal domains (han). The policy stated that the only European influence permitted was the Dutch factory at Dejima in Nagasaki. Trade with China was also handled at Nagasaki. Trade with Korea was limited to the Tsushima Domain. Trade with the Ainu people was limited to the Matsumae Domain in Hokkaidō and trade with the Ryūkyū Kingdom took place in Satsuma Domain. Apart from these direct commercial contacts in peripheral provinces, trading countries sent regular missions to the shogun in Edo and Osaka Castle. Due to the necessity for Japanese subjects to travel to and from these trading posts, this trade resembled outgoing trade, with Japanese subjects making regular contact with foreign traders in essentially extraterritorial land. Trade with Chinese and Dutch traders in Nagasaki took place on an island called Dejima, separated from the city by a small strait. Foreigners could not enter Japan from Dejima, nor could Japanese enter Dejima, without special permissions or authority.

Western Challenges to Japanese Isolationism

The growing commerce between America and China, the presence of American whalers in waters off Japan, and the increasing monopolization of potential coaling stations by the British and French in Asia were all contributing factors in the decision by U.S. President Millard Fillmore to dispatch an expedition to Japan. The Americans were also driven by the idea that Western civilization and Christianity would benefit and thus should be imposed on Asian nations, which were seen as “backwards.” By the early 19th century, the Japanese policy of isolation was increasingly challenged. In 1844, King William II of the Netherlands sent a letter urging Japan to end the isolation policy on its own before change would be forced from the outside. Between 1790 and 1853, at least 27 U.S. ships (including three warships) visited Japan, only to be turned away. There were increasing sightings and incursions of foreign ships in Japanese waters and leading to debate in Japan on how to meet this potential threat to Japan’s economic and political sovereignty. 

In 1851, U.S. Secretary of State Daniel Webster drafted a letter addressed to the “Japanese Emperor” with assurances that the planned expedition under the authority of Commodore John H. Aulick had no religious purpose, but was only to request “friendship and commerce” and supplies of coal needed by ships en route to China. The letter also boasted of American expansion across the North American continent and the technical prowess of the country. It was signed by President Fillmore. However, Aulick became involved in a diplomatic row with a Brazilian diplomat and quarrels with the captain of his flagship and was relieved of his command before he could undertake the expedition. His replacement, Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry (1794–1858) was a senior-ranking officer in the United States Navy and had extensive diplomatic experience.

Perry Expedition

In 1852, Perry was assigned a mission to force the opening of Japanese ports to American trade, through the use of gunboat diplomacy if necessary. On November 24, 1852, Perry embarked from Norfolk, Virginia, in pursuit of a Japanese trade treaty. On his way, he met with American-born Sinologist Samuel Wells Williams, who provided Chinese language translations of his official letters, and with the Dutch-born American diplomat, Anton L. C. Portman, who translated his official letters into the Dutch language. Perry finally reached Uraga at the entrance to Edo Bay in Japan on July 8, 1853. His actions at this crucial juncture were shaped by a careful study of Japan’s previous contacts with Western ships and what he knew about the Japanese hierarchical culture. As he arrived, Perry ordered his ships to steam past Japanese lines towards the capital of Edo and turn their guns towards the town of Uraga. He refused Japanese demands to leave or to proceed to Nagasaki, the only Japanese port open to foreigners.

Matthew Calbraith Perry, photo by Mathew Brady, ca. 1856-58.

When Perry returned to the United States in 1855, Congress voted to grant him a reward of $20,000 (USD $514,000 in 2017) in appreciation of his work in Japan. He used part of this money to prepare and publish a report on the expedition in three volumes, titled Narrative of the Expedition of an American Squadron to the China Seas and Japan.

Photo portrait of Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry

Perry attempted to intimidate the Japanese by presenting them a white flag and a letter, which said that if they chose to fight, the Americans would destroy them. He also fired blank shots from his 73 cannons, which he claimed was in celebration of the American Independence Day. Perry’s ships were equipped with new Paixhans shell guns, cannons capable of wreaking explosive destruction with every shell. He also ordered his ship boats to commence survey operations of the coastline and surrounding waters over the objections of local officials.

In the meantime, the Japanese government was paralyzed by the illness of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyoshi and political indecision on how to handle the unprecedented threat to the nation’s capital. On July 11, the chief senior councilor (rōjū) Abe Masahiro decided that simply accepting a letter from the Americans would not constitute a violation of Japanese sovereignty and Perry was asked to move his fleet slightly southwest to the beach at Kurihama, where he was allowed to land. After presenting the letter to attending delegates, Perry departed for Hong Kong, promising to return the following year for the Japanese reply.

Perry returned on February 13, 1854, after only half a year rather than the full year promised, with ten ships and 1,600 men. Both actions were calculated to put even more pressure on the Japanese. After initial resistance, Perry was permitted to land at Kanagawa, where after month-long negotiations the Convention of Kanagawa was signed on March 31, 1854. Signed under the threat of force, the convention effectively meant the end of Japan’s 220-year-old policy of national seclusion by opening the ports of Shimoda and Hakodate to American vessels. It also ensured the safety of American castaways and established the position of an American consul in Japan. 

Consequences

In the short-term, both sides were satisfied with the agreement. Perry had achieved his primary objective of breaking Japan’s sakoku policy and setting the grounds for protection of American citizens and an eventual commercial agreement. The Tokugawa shogunate could point out that the treaty was not actually signed by the Shogun or any of his rōjū, and by the agreement made, had at least temporarily averted the possibility of immediate military confrontation.

Japanese 1854 print relating Perry’s visit

After the signing of the convention, the Americans presented the Japanese with a miniature steam locomotive, a telegraph apparatus, various agricultural tools, and small arms as well as 100 gallons of whiskey, clocks, stoves, and books about the United States. The Japanese responded with gold-lacquered furniture and boxes, bronze ornaments, porcelain goblets, and upon learning of Perry’s personal hobby, a collection of seashells.

Externally, the treaty led to the United States-Japan Treaty of Amity and Commerce, the Harris Treaty of 1858, which allowed the establishment of foreign concessions, extraterritoriality for foreigners, and minimal import taxes for foreign goods. The Kanagawa Convention was also followed by similar agreements with the United Kingdom (Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty, 1854), the Russians (Treaty of Shimoda, 1855), and the French (Treaty of Amity and Commerce between France and Japan, 1858).

Internally, the treaty had far-reaching consequences. Decisions to suspend previous restrictions on military activities led to re-armament by many domains and further weakened the position of the Shogun. Debate over foreign policy and popular outrage over perceived appeasement to the foreign powers was a catalyst for the sonnō jōi movement (the movement to overthrow the Tokugawa shogunate) and a shift in political power from Edo back to the Imperial Court in Kyoto. The opposition of Emperor Kōmei to the treaties further lent support to the tōbaku (overthrow the Shogunate) movement, and eventually to the Meiji Restoration.

27.2.3: Art and Culture in the Edo Period

Learning Objective

Identify some artistic trends during the Edo Period

Key Points

• During the Edo period, the Japanese studied Western sciences and techniques (called rangaku, “Dutch studies”) through the information and books received from Dutch traders in Dejima. The main areas of study included geography, medicine, natural sciences, astronomy, art, languages, physical sciences, and mechanical sciences.
• The flourishing of neo-Confucianism was the major intellectual development of the Tokugawa period. Although this system of thought was not new during the Edo period, its major tenets became more popular, including a secular view of man and society, ethical humanism, rationalism, and historical perspective of neo-Confucian doctrine. 
• By the mid-17th century, neo-Confucianism was Japan’s dominant legal philosophy and contributed directly to the development of the kokugaku. This school of Japanese philology and philosophy worked to refocus Japanese scholarship away from the then-dominant study of Chinese, Confucian, and Buddhist texts in favor of research into the early Japanese classics. It held that the Japanese national character would reveal its splendor once the foreign (Chinese) influences were removed.
• Advanced studies and growing applications of neo-Confucianism contributed to the transition of the social and political order from feudal norms to class- and large-group-oriented practices. The rule of the people or Confucian man was gradually replaced by the rule of law. New laws were developed and new administrative devices were instituted.
• For the first time, urban populations had the means and leisure time to support a new mass culture. Their search for enjoyment became known as ukiyo (the floating world), an ideal world of fashion, popular entertainment, and the discovery of aesthetic qualities in objects and actions of everyday life. Yoshiwara was a famous district of such enjoyment in Edo. Prostitution based on the indentured servitude of girls and young women became the critical component of the district’s identity. 
• Music, popular stories, kabuki and bunraku (puppet theater), poetry, literature, and art all flourished during the Edo period. A new style of painting and printmaking known as ukiyo-e emerged in fine arts. In literature, many genres debuted, helped by a rising literacy rate among the growing population of townspeople and the development of lending libraries.

Key Terms

ukiyo-e

A genre of art flourished in Japan from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties, kabuki actors, and sumo wrestlers, scenes from history and folk tales, travel scenes and landscapes, flora and fauna, and erotica. The term translates as “picture[s] of the floating world.”

Chōnindō

A distinct culture that arose in cities such as Osaka, Kyoto, and Edo
during the Edo period of Japanese history. It encouraged aspiration to bushido (samurai code of conduct) qualities—diligence, honesty, honor, loyalty, and frugality—while blending Shinto, Neo-Confucian, and Buddhist beliefs. Study of mathematics, astronomy, cartography, engineering, and medicine were also encouraged. Emphasis was placed on quality of workmanship, especially in the arts.

Shinto

A Japanese ethnic religion that focuses on ritual practices to be carried out diligently and establishing a connection between present-day Japan and its ancient past. Its practices were first recorded and codified in the written historical records of the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki in the 8th century.

Neo-Confucianism

A moral, ethical, and metaphysical Chinese philosophy influenced by Confucianism that became prominent in Japan during the Edo period. It was an attempt to create a more rationalist and secular form of Confucianism by rejecting superstitious and mystical elements of Taoism and Buddhism that had influenced Confucianism.  

Yoshiwara

A famous pleasure and red-light district in Edo, present-day Tōkyō. In the early 17th century, there was widespread male and female prostitution throughout the cities of Kyoto, Edo, and Osaka. To counter this, an order of Tokugawa Hidetada of the Tokugawa shogunate restricted prostitution to designated districts to prevent the nouveau riche (townsmen) from engaging in political intrigue.

Kokugaku

An academic school of Japanese philology and philosophy that originated during the Tokugawa period. Its scholars worked to refocus Japanese scholarship away from the then-dominant study of Chinese, Confucian, and Buddhist texts in favor of research into the early Japanese classics.

Intellectual Trends

During the Edo period, the Japanese studied
Western sciences and techniques (called rangaku,
“Dutch studies”) through the information and books received from Dutch traders in Dejima. The main areas of study included geography,
medicine, natural sciences, astronomy, art, languages, physical sciences such
as the study of electrical phenomena, and mechanical sciences as exemplified by
the development of Japanese clockwatches, or wadokei,
inspired by Western techniques.

The flourishing of neo-Confucianism was
the major intellectual development of the Tokugawa period. Confucian studies
had long been kept active in Japan by Buddhist clerics,
but during the Tokugawa period, Confucianism emerged from Buddhist religious
control. Neo-Confucianism was an attempt to create a more rationalist and
secular form of Confucianism by rejecting superstitious and
mystical elements of Taoism and Buddhism that
earlier influenced Confucianism. Although the neo-Confucianists were
critical of Taoism and Buddhism, the new philosophy borrowed terms and concepts from both.
However, unlike the Buddhists and Taoists, who saw metaphysics as
a catalyst for spiritual development, religious enlightenment, and immortality,
the Neo-Confucianists used metaphysics as a guide for developing a rationalist ethical philosophy.
Although this system of thought was not new during the Edo period, its major
tenets,  including a secular view of man
and society, ethical humanism, rationalism,
and historical perspective of neo-Confucian doctrine, grew in popularity. 

By
the mid-17th century, Neo-Confucianism was Japan’s dominant legal philosophy
and contributed directly to the development of the kokugaku, a school of Japanese philology and philosophy that
originated during the Tokugawa
period. Kokugaku scholars worked to refocus Japanese scholarship away from
the then-dominant study of Chinese, Confucian, and Buddhist texts
in favor of research into the early Japanese classics. The Kokugaku school held that the Japanese national
character was naturally pure and would reveal its splendor once the foreign
(Chinese) influences were removed. The “Chinese heart” was different
from the “true heart” or “Japanese heart.” This true Japanese
spirit needed to be revealed by removing a thousand years of Chinese learning. Kokugaku contributed
to the emperor-centered nationalism of modern Japan and the revival of Shinto
as a national creed in the 18th and 19th centuries. Some purists in the
kokugaku movement, such as Motoori
Norinaga, even criticized the Confucian and Buddhist influences—in effect,
foreign influences—for contaminating Japan’s ancient ways.

Members of the samurai class
adhered to their ways of life (a code of conduct known as bushido) with a
renewed interest in Japanese history and in cultivation of the practices of
Confucian scholar-administrators. Another special way of life—chōnindō—also
emerged. Chōnindō (“the way of the townspeople”)
was a distinct culture that arose in cities such as Osaka, Kyoto, and Edo. It
encouraged aspiration to bushido qualities—diligence, honesty, honor, loyalty,
and frugality—while blending Shinto, Neo-Confucian, and Buddhist beliefs. Study of
mathematics, astronomy, cartography, engineering, and medicine were also
encouraged. Emphasis was placed on quality of workmanship, especially in the
arts.

Cultural Trends and Japanese Social
Order 

Advanced studies and growing
applications of neo-Confucianism contributed to the transition of the social
and political order from feudal norms to class- and large-group-oriented
practices. The rule of the people or Confucian man was gradually replaced by the rule of
law. New laws were developed and new administrative devices were
instituted. A new theory of government and a new vision of society emerged to justify more comprehensive governance by the shogunate. Each person
had a distinct place in society and was expected to work to fulfill his or her
mission in life. The people were ruled with benevolence.
Government was all-powerful but responsible and humane. Although the class
system was influenced by neo-Confucianism, it was not identical to it. Whereas
soldiers and clergy were at the bottom of the hierarchy in the Chinese model,
in Japan, some members of these classes constituted the ruling elite.

For the first time, urban populations
had the means and leisure time to support new mass culture. Their search for
enjoyment became known as ukiyo (the floating world), an ideal world of fashion,
popular entertainment, and the discovery of aesthetic qualities in objects and
actions of everyday life. This increasing interest in pursuing recreational
activities developed an array of new industries, many
found in an area known as Yoshiwara. The region was better known for being the
center of Edo’s developing sense of elegance and refinement. This center of
pleasure and luxury became a destination for the elite and wealthy merchants
who wished to flaunt their fortune. For many who inhabited and
worked in this region, maintaining the illusion of grandeur was the only way of
supporting their businesses.

Yoshiwara
was home to many girls and women who provided services to lure
guests into returning. These included dancing, singing, playing an
instrument, gossiping, or providing companionship, which usually meant prostitution.
Girls were often indentured to the brothels by their parents between the ages
of seven and 12. Some would become an apprentice to a high-ranking courtesan.
When the girl was old enough and had completed her training, she would become a
courtesan herself and work her way up the ranks. The young women often had a
contract to the brothel for five to ten years, but massive debt sometimes
kept them there for life. The alleged cost of living at
Yoshiwara perpetuated the cycle of abuse as women were forced to pay the cost
of rent, clothing, make-up, gifts, and even their work contract. One way a woman could get out of Yoshiwara was for a rich
man to buy her contract from the brothel and keep her as his personal wife or concubine.
Another was if she managed to be successful to buy her
own freedom. This did not occur very often. Many women died of sexually
transmitted diseases or from failed abortions before completing their contracts. A
significant number served out their contracts and married a client, went into
other employment (including other forms of prostitution), or returned to their
family homes. 

Prostitutes on display in Yoshiwara during the Meiji period (the period following the Edo period in the Japanese history), possibly by Kusakabe Kimbei.

The area was damaged by an extensive fire in 1913, then nearly wiped out by an earthquake in 1923. It remained in business, however, until prostitution was outlawed by the Japanese government in 1958 after World War II.

Arts and Literature

Music, popular stories, kabuki and bunraku (puppet
theater), poetry, literature, and art all flourished during the Edo period.  

Around 1661, painted hanging scrolls known
as Portraits of Kanbun Beauties gained popularity. The
paintings of the Kanbun era (1661–73), most of which are
anonymous, marked the beginnings of a new style of painting and printmaking
known as ukiyo-e. The paintings of Iwasa
Matabei (1578–1650) are seen by some scholars as evidence that Matabei
he was the genre’s founder. In response to the increasing demand for ukiyo-e
works, Hishikawa Moronobu (1618–1694) produced the
first ukiyo-e woodblock prints. By 1672, Moronobu was so successful that he
began to sign his work—the first of the book illustrators to do so. He was a
prolific illustrator who worked in a wide variety of genres and developed an
influential style of portraying female beauties. Most significantly, he began
to produce illustrations, not just for books, but as single-sheet images which
could stand alone or be used as part of a series. The Hishikawa school
attracted a large number of followers.

Suzuki Harunobu produced
the first full-color nishiki-e prints in 1765, a form that has become
synonymous with ukiyo-e. The genre peaked in technique towards
the end of the century with the works of such artists as Kiyonaga and Utamaro. As the
Edo period came to an end, a great diversity of topics proliferated: warriors,
nature, folklore, and the landscapes of Hokusai and Hiroshige.
The genre declined throughout the rest of the century in the face of
modernization that saw ukiyo-e as both old-fashioned and laborious to produce
compared to Western technologies. Ukiyo-e was a primary part of the wave of Japanism that
swept Western art in the late 19th century.

Katsushika Hokusai’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa, 1831 (from
Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji).

This  one of the best-known works of Japanese art represents ukiyo-e.
Although it is often used in tsunami literature, there is no reason to suspect that Hokusai intended it to be interpreted in that way. The waves in this work are sometimes mistakenly referred to as tsunami but they are more accurately called okinami, great off-shore waves.

Due in large part to the rise of the
working and middle classes in the new capital of Edo (modern Tokyo), forms of
popular drama developed which would later evolve into kabuki. The jōruri and
kabuki dramatist Chikamatsu Monzaemon became popular at
the end of the 17th century and is known as Japan’s Shakespeare.
Many genres of literature made their début during the Edo Period, helped by a
rising literacy rate among the growing population of townspeople and the
development of lending libraries. Although there was a minor Western
influence trickling into the country from the Dutch settlement at
Nagasaki, it was the importation of Chinese vernacular fiction that proved
the greatest outside influence on the development of early modern Japanese
fiction. Ihara Saikaku is credited for the birth of modern
Japanese novel, mixing vernacular dialogue into his humorous and cautionary
tales of the pleasure quarters. Jippensha
Ikku wrote Tōkaidōchū Hizakurige, a mix of
travelogue and comedy. Tsuga Teisho, Takebe Ayatari, and Okajima Kanzan were
instrumental in developing the yomihon,
historical romances almost entirely in prose, influenced by Chinese
vernacular. Other genres included horror, crime stories, morality stories,
comedy, and pornography—often accompanied by colorful woodcut prints.

During the Tokugawa
period, as in earlier periods, scholarly work continued to be published in
Chinese, considered the language of the learned much as Latin was in Europe.

27.2.4: The Meiji Restoration

Learning Objective

Explain why the Meiji Restoration occurred

Key Points

• Bakumatsu refers to the final years of the Edo
  period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, Japan ended
  its isolationist foreign policy known as sakoku and changed
  from a feudal Tokugawa shogunate to the pre-modern empire of the Meiji government.
  The major ideological-political divide during this period was between the
  pro-imperial nationalists called ishin shishi and the
  shogunate forces, which included the elite shinsengumi swordsmen.

• During the last years of the Bakumatsu, the
  shogunate took strong measures to try to reassert its dominance, although its
  involvement with modernization and foreign powers made it a target of
  anti-Western sentiment throughout the country.
• Tokugawa Yoshinobu (informally known as Keiki)
  reluctantly became head of the Tokugawa house and shogun following the
  unexpected death of Tokugawa Iemochi in 1866. In 1867, Emperor Kōmei died and
  was succeeded by his second son, Mutsuhito, as Emperor Meiji. Tokugawa
  Yoshinobu tried to reorganize the government under the Emperor while preserving
  the shogun’s leadership role, a system known as kōbu gattai.
• The civil war known as the Boshin War decided the fate of the Tokugawa shogunate. An alliance of western samurai, particularly the domains of Chōshū, Satsuma, and Tosa, and court officials, secured control of the imperial court and influenced the Emperor Meiji. Tokugawa Yoshinobu, realizing the futility of his situation, abdicated political power to the emperor,
  essentially ending both the power of the
  Tokugawa and the shogunate that had ruled Japan for over 250 years.
• A new era, Meiji, was proclaimed. The first reform was
  the promulgation of the Charter Oath in 1868, a general statement of the aims
  of the Meiji leaders to boost morale and win financial support for the new
  government. Implicit in the Charter Oath was an end to
  exclusive political rule by the bakufu (a shogun’s direct administration
  including officers), and a move toward more democratic participation in
  government. To implement the Charter Oath, a short-lived constitution was drawn
  up in 1868.
• The Meiji government assured the foreign powers
  that it would follow the old treaties. Mutsuhito selected a new reign title—Meiji, or Enlightened
  Rule—to mark the beginning of a new era in Japanese history. The capital was relocated from Kyoto to Tokyo (Eastern Capital), the new name for Edo. In a
  move critical for the consolidation of the new regime, most feudal lords voluntarily
  surrendered their land and census records to the Emperor in the abolition of
  the han (feudal domain) system, symbolizing that the land and people were under
  the Emperor’s jurisdiction.

Key Terms

Bakumatsu

The final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867 Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as sakoku and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunate to the pre-modern empire of the Meiji government.

Charter Oath

The 1868 oath that outlined the main aims and the course of action to be followed during Emperor Meiji’s reign, setting the legal stage for Japan’s modernization. It remained influential, less for governing than inspiring, throughout the Meiji era and into the 20th century and can be considered the first constitution of modern Japan.

Boshin War

A civil war in Japan, sometimes known as the Japanese Revolution, fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and those seeking to return political power to the Imperial Court.

Tokugawa shogunate

The last feudal Japanese military
government, which existed between 1603 and 1867. The head of government
was the shogun and each was a member of the Tokugawa clan. The regime
ruled from Edo Castle and the years of the shogunate became known as the
Edo period. 

Bakumatsu

Bakumatsu refers to the final years of the Edo period when the Tokugawa shogunate ended. Between 1853 and 1867, Japan ended its isolationist foreign policy known as sakoku and changed from a feudal Tokugawa shogunate to the pre-modern empire of the Meiji government. The major ideological-political divide during this period was between the pro-imperial nationalists called ishin shishi and the shogunate forces, which included the elite shinsengumi swordsmen. Although these two groups were the most visible powers, many other factions attempted to use the chaos of Bakumatsu to seize personal power. There were two other main driving forces for dissent: growing resentment among outside feudal lords and growing anti-western sentiment following the arrival of Matthew C. Perry and the resulting end of isolationism. The feudal lords fought against Tokugawa forces at the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600 and had from that point on been excluded permanently from all powerful positions within the shogunate. The anti-Western sentiment was often expressed in the phrase sonnō jōi, or “revere the Emperor, expel the barbarians.” 

During the last years of the Bakumatsu, the shogunate took strong measures to try to reassert its dominance, although its involvement with modernization and foreign powers made it a target of anti-Western sentiment throughout the country. Naval students were sent to study in Western schools for several years, starting a tradition of foreign-educated future leaders. By the end of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1868, the Japanese navy of the shogun already possessed eight western-style steam warships. A French Military Mission to Japan (1867) was established to help modernize the shogunate armies. Japan sent a delegation to and participated in the 1867 World Fair in Paris.

Tokugawa Yoshinobu (informally known as Keiki) reluctantly became head of the Tokugawa house and shogun following the unexpected death of Tokugawa Iemochi in 1866. In 1867, Emperor Kōmei died and was succeeded by his second son, Mutsuhito, as Emperor Meiji. Tokugawa Yoshinobu tried to reorganize the government under the Emperor while preserving the shogun’s leadership role, a system known as kōbu gattai. Fearing the growing power of the Satsuma and Chōshū feudal domains, other domains called for returning the shogun’s political power to the emperor and a council chaired by the former Tokugawa shogun. With the threat of an imminent Satsuma-Chōshū led military action, Yoshinobu moved pre-emptively by surrendering some of his previous authority.

Tokugawa Yoshinobu, the last shogun, in French military uniform, c. 1867

Tokugawa Yoshinobu took over the position of shogun at the time of massive turmoil. The opening of Japan to uncontrolled foreign trade brought massive economic instability. While some entrepreneurs prospered, many others went bankrupt. Unemployment and inflation rose. Coincidentally, major famines increased the price of food drastically. Incidents occurred between brash foreigners, qualified as “the scum of the earth” by a contemporary diplomat, and the Japanese.

Boshin War

After Keiki temporarily avoided the growing conflict, anti-shogunal forces instigated widespread turmoil in the streets of Edo using groups of masterless samurais known as rōnins. Satsuma and Chōshū forces then moved on Kyoto in force, pressuring the Imperial Court for a conclusive edict demolishing the shogunate. Following a conference of feudal domains (daimyōs), the Imperial Court issued such an edict, removing the power of the shogunate in 1867. The Satsuma, Chōshū, and other domain leaders and radical courtiers, rebelled, seized the imperial palace, and announced their own restoration on January 3, 1868. Keiki nominally accepted the plan, retiring from the Imperial Court to Osaka at the same time as resigning as shogun. Fearing a feigned concession of the shogunal power to consolidate power, the dispute continued until culminating in a military confrontation between Tokugawa and allied domains with Satsuma, Tosa, and Chōshū forces in Fushimi and Toba. With battle turning toward anti-shogunal forces, Keiki then quit Osaka for Edo, essentially ending both the power of the Tokugawa and the shogunate that had ruled Japan for over 250 years.

A teenage Emperor Meiji with foreign representatives at the end of the Boshin War

The Meiji Restoration and the resultant modernization of Japan influenced Japanese self-identity with respect to its Asian neighbors, as Japan became the first Asian state to modernize based on the European model, replacing the traditional Confucian hierarchical order that persisted previously under a dominant China with one based on modernity.

Meiji Restoration 

The fall of Edo in 1868 marked the end of the Tokugawa shogunate, and a new era, Meiji, was proclaimed. The first reform was the promulgation of the Charter Oath in 1868, a general statement of the aims of the Meiji leaders to boost morale and win financial support for the new government. Its main provisions included the establishment of assemblies, the involvement of all classes in carrying out state affairs, the revocation of class restrictions on employment, the introduction of “the “just laws of nature,” and seeking international expertise to strengthen the foundations of imperial rule. Implicit in the Charter Oath was an end to exclusive political rule by the bakufu (a shogun’s direct administration including officers), and a move toward more democratic participation in government. To implement the Charter Oath, a short-lived constitution was drawn up in 1868. Besides providing for a new Council of State, legislative bodies, and systems of ranks for nobles and officials, it limited office tenure to four years, allowed public balloting, provided for a new taxation system, and ordered new local administrative rules.

The Meiji government assured the foreign powers that it would follow the old treaties negotiated by the bakufu and announced that it would act in accordance with international law. Mutsuhito, who was to reign until 1912, selected a new reign title—Meiji, or Enlightened Rule—to mark the beginning of a new era in Japanese history. To further dramatize the new order, the capital was relocated from Kyoto, where it had been situated since 794, to Tokyo (Eastern Capital), the new name for Edo. In a move critical for the consolidation of the new regime, most daimyōs voluntarily surrendered their land and census records to the Emperor in the abolition of the han (feudal domain) system, symbolizing that the land and people were under the Emperor’s jurisdiction. Confirmed in their hereditary positions, the feudal lords became governors and the central government assumed their administrative expenses and paid samurai stipends. The han were replaced with prefectures in 1871 and authority continued to flow to the national government. Officials from the favored former han, such as Satsuma, Chōshū, Tosa, and Hizen, staffed the new ministries. Formerly old court nobles and lower-ranking but more radical samurai became a new ruling class.

27.2.5: The Meiji Constitution

Learning Objective

Extrapolate the main ideas of the Meiji Constitution

Key Points

• After the Meiji restoration, the leaders of
  the samurai who overthrew the Tokugawa shogunate had no
  pre-developed plan on how to run Japan. With no official centralized government, the
  country was a collection of largely semi-independent feudal domains (the han system). In 1868, the new Meiji government summoned delegates from all of the domains
  to Kyoto to establish a provisional consultative national assembly. The Charter
  Oath and the administrative code
  known as Seitaisho were promulgated to establish the new
  administrative basis for the Meiji government.
• In 1869, the central government led by Ōkubo
  Toshimichi of Satsuma felt strong enough to effect centralization. After
  merging the armies of Satsuma and Chōshū into a combined force, Ōkubo convinced the feudal lords (daimyō) of Satsuma, Chōshū, Hizen, and Tosa to surrender their domains to the emperor. Other daimyō were
  forced to do the same and all were reappointed as governors to their respective
  domains. By the end of 1871, Japan
  had become a fully centralized state.
• Prior
  to the Meiji Restoration, Japan had no written constitution and the
  idea of one became a subject of heated debate. In 1881, Itō Hirobumi was appointed to chair a
  government bureau to research various forms of constitutional government and in
  1882, Itō led an overseas mission to observe and study various systems
  first-hand. The
  Reichstag and legal structures of the German Empire, particularly that of
  Prussia, proved to be of the most interest to the Constitutional Study Mission.
  Influence was also drawn from the British Westminster system.
• The
  draft committee included Japanese officials along with a number of foreign
  advisers, in particular some German legal scholars. The central issue was the
  balance between sovereignty vested in the person of the Emperor and an elected
  representative legislature with powers that would limit or restrict the power
  of the sovereign. The final version, drafted without public debate, was
  submitted to Emperor Meiji in 1888. 
• The new constitution was promulgated in 1889,
  but came into effect in 1890. The first National Diet of Japan, a new
  representative assembly, reflected both Prussian and
  British influences, most notably in the inclusion of the House of
  Representatives as the lower house and the House of Peers as the upper
  house.
  The Constitution established clear limits
  on the power of the executive branch and the Emperor and guaranteed some civil rights and liberties,
  although in many cases they were subject to limitation by law.

• The Meiji Constitution was ambiguous in wording
  and in many places self-contradictory. The leaders of the government and
  political parties were left to interpret whether the
  Meiji Constitution could be used to justify authoritarian or liberal-democratic
  rule. It was the struggle between these tendencies that dominated the
  government of the Empire of Japan.

Key Terms

Boshin War

A civil war in Japan, sometimes
known as the Japanese Revolution, fought from 1868 to 1869 between forces of
the ruling Tokugawa shogunate and those seeking to return political power
to the Imperial Court.

Han

The Japanese historical term for the estate of a warrior after the 12th century or of a daimyō (feudal lord) in the Edo period (1603–1868) and early Meiji period (1868–1912).

Charter Oath

The 1868 oath that outlined the
main aims and course of action to be followed during Emperor Meiji’s reign,
setting the legal stage for Japan’s modernization. It remained influential, less for governing than inspiring, throughout the Meiji era and into the
20th century and is considered the first constitution of modern
Japan.

Tokugawa shogunate

The last feudal Japanese military
government, existing between 1603 and 1867. The head of government
was the shogun and each was a member of the Tokugawa clan. The regime
ruled from Edo Castle and the years of the shogunate became known as the
Edo period.

Meiji Constitution

The constitution of the Empire of Japan proclaimed on February 11, 1889. It established mixed constitutional and absolute monarchy based on the Prussian and British models. In theory, the Emperor of Japan was the supreme ruler and the Cabinet, whose Prime Minister would be elected by a Privy Council, were his followers. In practice, the Emperor was head of state but the Prime Minister was the actual head of government. The Prime Minister and his Cabinet were not necessarily chosen from the elected members of the Diet.

New Imperial Government

After the Meiji restoration, the leaders of the samurai who overthrew the Tokugawa shogunate had no clear agenda or pre-developed plan on how to run Japan. Immediately after the resignation of Tokugawa Yoshinobu in 1867, with no official centralized government, the country was a collection of largely semi-independent feudal domains (the han system), held together by the military strength of the Satchō Alliance (military alliance between the feudal domains of Satsuma and Chōshū formed in 1866 to combine their efforts to restore Imperial rule) and the prestige of the Imperial Court. In 1868, with the outcome of the Boshin War still uncertain, the new Meiji government summoned delegates from all of the domains to Kyoto to establish a provisional consultative national assembly. The Charter Oath was promulgated, in which Emperor Meiji set out the broad general outlines for Japan’s development and modernization. The same year, administrative code known as Seitaisho was promulgated to establish the new administrative basis for the Meiji government. It was a mixture of western concepts such as division of powers and a revival of ancient Japanese structures of bureaucracy.

Centralization: Abolition of Han System

In 1869, the central government led by Ōkubo Toshimichi of Satsuma felt strong enough to effect centralization. After merging the armies of Satsuma and Chōshū into a combined force, Ōkubo and Kido Takayoshi convinced the feudal lords (daimyō) of Satsuma, Chōshū, Hizen. and Tosa to surrender their domains to the emperor. Other daimyō were forced to do the same and all were reappointed as governors to their respective domains, now treated as sub-divisions of the central government. In 1871, Ōkubo and several other leaders held a secret meeting and decided to completely abolish the han domains. Eventually, all of the ex-daimyō were summoned to the Emperor, who issued a decree converting the domains to prefectures headed by a bureaucratic appointee from the central government. The daimyō were generously pensioned into retirement and their castles became the local administrative centers for the central government. By the end of 1871, Japan was a fully centralized state. The transition was made gradually to avoid disruption to the lives of the common people and outbreaks of resistance or violence. The central government absorbed all of the debts and obligations of the domains and many former officials found new employment with the central government.

In 1871, the central government supported the creation of consultative assemblies at the town, village, and county levels. The membership of the prefectural assemblies was drawn from these local assemblies. As the local assemblies only had the power of debate and not legislation, they provided an important safety valve without the ability to challenge the authority of the central government.

Constitution

Prior to the Meiji Restoration, Japan had no written constitution, and the idea of one became a subject of heated debate. The conservative Meiji oligarchy viewed anything resembling democracy or republicanism with suspicion, favoring a gradual approach. The Freedom and People’s Rights Movement demanded the immediate establishment of an elected national assembly and the promulgation of a constitution. In 1881, Itō Hirobumi was appointed to chair a government bureau to research various forms of constitutional government and in 1882, Itō led an overseas mission to observe and study various systems first-hand. The United States Constitution was rejected as too liberal. The French and Spanish models were rejected as tending toward despotism. The Reichstag and legal structures of the German Empire, particularly that of Prussia, proved to be of the most interest to the Constitutional Study Mission. Influence was also drawn from the British Westminster system, although it was considered being unwieldy and granting too much power to Parliament.

The Council of State was replaced in 1885 with a cabinet headed by Itō as Prime Minister. The draft committee included Japanese officials along with a number of foreign advisers, in particular some German legal scholars. The central issue was the balance between sovereignty vested in the person of the Emperor and an elected representative legislature with powers that would limit or restrict the power of the sovereign. The final version, drafted without public debate, was submitted to Emperor Meiji in 1888. 

Meiji Constitution promulgation by Toyohara Chikanobu, undated.

The Meiji Constitution consists of 76 articles in seven chapters, amounting to around 2,500 words. It is also usually reproduced with its Preamble, the Imperial Oath Sworn in the Sanctuary in the Imperial Palace, and the Imperial Rescript on the Promulgation of the Constitution, which come to nearly another 1,000 words.

The new constitution was promulgated by Emperor Meiji on February 11 (the National Foundation Day of Japan in 660 BC), 1889, but came into effect in 1890. The first National Diet of Japan, a new representative assembly, convened on the day the Meiji Constitution came into force. The organizational structure of the Diet reflected both Prussian and British influences, most notably in the inclusion of the House of Representatives as the lower house and the House of Peers as the upper house. The second chapter of the constitution, detailing the rights of citizens, bore a resemblance to similar articles in both European and North American constitutions of the day.

The Meiji Constitution established clear limits on the power of the executive branch and the Emperor. It also created an independent judiciary. Civil rights and civil liberties were guaranteed, although in many cases they were subject to limitation by law.
Unlike its modern successor, the Meiji Constitution was founded on the principle that sovereignty resided in person of the emperor, by virtue of his divine ancestry “unbroken for ages eternal,” rather than in the people.
The emperor had the right to exercise executive authority and to appoint and dismiss all government officials. He also had the sole rights to declare war, make peace, conclude treaties, dissolve the lower house of Diet, and issue Imperial ordinances in place of laws when the Diet was not in session. Most importantly, command over the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy was directly held by the Emperor and not the Diet. Cabinet consisted of Ministers of State who answered to the Emperor rather than the Diet. The Privy Council, an advisory council to the Emperor of Japan, was also established. Not mentioned in the Constitution were the genrō, an inner circle of advisers to the Emperor, who wielded considerable influence.

The Emperor meets with his Privy Councilors, ukiyo-e woodblock prints by Yōshū Chikanobu, 1888.

The Privy Council consisted of a chairman, a vice chairman (non-voting), 12 (later expanded to 24) councilors, a chief secretary, and three additional secretaries. All privy councilors were appointed by the emperor for life, on the advice of the prime minister and the cabinet. In addition to the 24 voting privy counselors, the prime minister and the other ministers of state were ex officio members of the council.

The Meiji Constitution was ambiguous in wording and in many places self-contradictory. The leaders of the government and the political parties were left to interpret whether the Meiji Constitution could be used to justify authoritarian or liberal-democratic rule. It was the struggle between these tendencies that dominated the government of the Empire of Japan. Following Japan’s defeat in World War II, the Meiji Constitution was replaced by a new document, the postwar Constitution of Japan. This document—officially an amendment to the Meiji Constitution—replaced imperial rule with a form of Western-style liberal democracy.

27.2.6: Japan’s Industrial Revolution

Learning Objective

Analyze the success of Japan’s rapid shift to industrialization

Key Points

• The Industrial Revolution in Japan began about
  1870 as Meiji period leaders decided to catch up with the West. In 1871, a
  group of Japanese statesmen and scholars known as the Iwakura Mission embarked
  upon a voyage across Europe and the United States. The mission aimed to gain recognition for the newly reinstated imperial dynasty and begin preliminary renegotiation of the unequal treaties, but it was the exploration of modern Western industrial, political,
  military, and educational systems and structures that became its most consequential outcome. 
• Japan’s
  Industrial Revolution first appeared in textiles, including cotton and
  especially silk, traditionally made in home workshops in rural
  areas. By the 1890s, Japanese textiles dominated the home markets and competed
  successfully with British products in China and India. Japan largely skipped water power and moved
  straight to steam-powered mills, which were more productive. That in
  turn created a demand for coal.
• To
  promote industrialization, the government decided that while it should help
  private business allocate resources and plan, the private sector was best
  equipped to stimulate economic growth. In the early
  Meiji period, the government built factories and shipyards that were sold to
  entrepreneurs at a fraction of their value. It also provided infrastructure, building railroads, improving roads, and
  inaugurating a land reform program to prepare the country for further
  development.
• Important
  social changes supported by the government also fueled
  industrialization. One of the biggest economic impacts of the
  Meiji period was the end of the feudal system. Japanese people now had the ability to
  become more educated as the Meiji period leaders inaugurated a new, more accessible Western-based
  education system.
• The
  government initially was involved in economic modernization, but by the 1890s largely relinquished direct control of the
  modernization process.
  Hand in hand, industrial and financial business
  conglomerates known as zaibatsu and government guided the
  nation, borrowing technology from the West.
  The private sector embraced the government-promoted Western model of capitalism. 
• The
  phenomenal industrial growth sparked rapid urbanization, and most
  people lived longer and healthier lives. Like in other rapidly industrializing countries,
  poor working conditions in factories led to growing labor unrest, and many
  workers and intellectuals came to embrace socialist ideas. The
  government also introduced social legislation in 1911, setting maximum work
  hours and a minimum age for employment.

Key Terms

Iwakura Mission

A Japanese diplomatic voyage to the United States and Europe conducted between 1871 and 1873 by leading statesmen and scholars of the Meiji period. Although it had a number of political, diplomatic, and economic goals, it is most well-known and possibly most significant in terms of its impact on the modernization of Japan after a long period of isolation from the West.

zaibatsu

Industrial and financial business conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, whose influence and size allowed control over significant parts of the Japanese economy from the Meiji period until the end of World War II.

Iwakura Mission

The Industrial Revolution in Japan began about 1870 as Meiji period leaders decided to catch up with the West. In 1871, a group of Japanese statesmen and scholars known as the Iwakura Mission embarked upon a voyage across Europe and the United States. The aim of the mission was threefold: to gain recognition for the newly reinstated imperial dynasty under the Emperor Meiji, to begin preliminary renegotiation of the unequal treaties with the dominant world powers, and to explore modern Western industrial, political, military, and educational systems and structures.

The mission was named after and headed by Iwakura Tomomi in the role of extraordinary and plenipotentiary ambassador, assisted by four vice-ambassadors. It also included a number of administrators and scholars, totaling 48 people. In addition to the mission staff, about 53 students and attendants joined. Several students were left behind to complete their education in the foreign countries, including five young women who stayed in the United States.

Leaders of the Iwakura Mission photographed in London in 1872: Kido Takayoshi, Yamaguchi Masuka, Iwakura Tomomi, Itō Hirobumi, Ōkubo Toshimichi

The mission is the most well-known and possibly most significant in terms of its impact on the modernization of Japan after a long period of isolation from the West. It was first proposed by the influential Dutch missionary and engineer Guido Verbeck, based to some degree on the model of the Grand Embassy of Peter I.

Of the initial goals of the mission, the aim of revision of the unequal treaties was not achieved, prolonging the mission by almost four months but also impressing the importance of the second goal on its members. The attempts to negotiate new treaties under better conditions with the foreign governments led to criticism that members of the mission were attempting to go beyond the mandate set by the Japanese government. The missionaries were nonetheless impressed by industrial modernization in America and Europe and the tour provided them with a strong impetus to lead similar modernization initiatives.

Industrialization in Japan

Japan’s Industrial Revolution first appeared in textiles, including cotton and especially silk, traditionally made in home workshops in rural areas. By the 1890s, Japanese textiles dominated the home markets and competed successfully with British products in China and India. Japanese shippers competed with European traders to carry these goods across Asia and even in Europe. As in the West, the textile mills employed mainly women, half of them younger than age 20. They were sent by and gave their wages to their fathers. Japan largely skipped water power and moved straight to steam-powered mills, which were more productive. That in turn created a demand for coal.

To promote industrialization, the government decided that while it should help private business to allocate resources and to plan, the private sector was best equipped to stimulate economic growth. The greatest role of government was to help provide the economic conditions in which business could flourish. In the early Meiji period, the government built factories and shipyards that were sold to entrepreneurs at a fraction of their values. Many of these businesses grew rapidly into larger conglomerates. Government emerged as chief promoter of private enterprise, enacting a series of pro-business policies. The government also provided infrastructure, building railroads, improving roads, and inaugurating a land reform program to prepare the country for further development.

Social Changes 

Important social changes supported by the government also fueled industrialization. One of the biggest economic impacts of the period was the end of the feudal system. With a relatively loose social structure, the Japanese were able to advance through the ranks of society more easily than before by inventing and selling their own wares. The Japanese people also now had the ability to become more educated. The Meiji period leaders inaugurated a new Western-based education system for all young people, sent thousands of students to the United States and Europe, and hired more than 3,000 Westerners to teach modern science, mathematics, technology, and foreign languages in Japan. With a more educated population, Japan’s industrial sector grew significantly. 

The first Japanese study-abroad female students to the United States, sponsored by the Meiji Government. From left: Shigeko Nagai (age 10), Teiko Ueda (16), Ryōko Yoshimasu (16), Umeko Tsuda (1864–1929, age 9 in the picture), and Sutematsu Yamakawa (1860–1919, age 12 in the picture).

Tsuda Umeko, who left Japan to study in the US at the age of 7, returned to Japan in 1900 and founded Tsuda College.
It remains one of the most prestigious women’s institutes of higher education in Japan. Although Tsuda strongly desired social reform for women, she did not advocate feminist values and opposed the women’s suffrage movement. Her activities were based on her philosophy that education should focus on developing individual intelligence and personality.

Government vs. Private Sector

The government initially was involved in economic modernization, providing a number of “model factories” to facilitate the transition to the modern period. Economic reforms included a unified modern currency based on the yen, banking, commercial and tax laws, stock exchanges, and a communications network. Establishment of a modern institutional framework conducive to an advanced capitalist economy took time, but was completed by the 1890s. By this time, the government had largely relinquished direct control of the modernization process, primarily for budgetary reasons.

From the onset, the Meiji rulers embraced the concept of a market economy and adopted British and North American forms of free enterprise capitalism. The private sector—in a nation with an abundance of aggressive entrepreneurs—welcomed such change.
Hand in hand,
industrial and financial business conglomerates known as zaibatsu and government guided the nation, borrowing technology from the West.
Many of the former feudal lords, whose pensions had been paid in a lump sum, benefited greatly through investments they made in emerging industries. Those who had been informally involved in foreign trade before the Meiji Restoration also flourished. Old firms that clung to their traditional ways failed in the new business environment.

After the first twenty years of the Meiji period, the industrial economy expanded rapidly with inputs of advanced Western technology and large private investments. Implementing the Western ideal of capitalism into the development of technology and applying it to their military helped make Japan into both a militaristic and economic powerhouse by the beginning of the 20th century. Stimulated by wars and through cautious economic planning, Japan emerged from World War I as a major industrial nation.
Japan gradually took control of much of Asia’s market for manufactured goods. The economic structure became very mercantilistic, importing raw materials and exporting finished products—a reflection of Japan’s relative poverty in raw materials.

Consequences 

The phenomenal industrial growth sparked rapid urbanization. The proportion of the population working in agriculture shrank from 75 percent in 1872 to 50 percent by 1920. Japan enjoyed solid economic growth during the Meiji period and most people lived longer and healthier lives. The population rose from 34 million in 1872 to 52 million in 1915. Like in other rapidly industrializing countries, poor working conditions in factories led to growing labor unrest, and many workers and intellectuals came to embrace socialist ideas. The Meiji government responded with harsh suppression of dissent. Radical socialists plotted to assassinate the Emperor in the High Treason Incident of 1910, after which the Tokkō secret police force was established to root out left-wing agitators. The government also introduced social legislation in 1911, setting maximum work hours and a minimum age for employment.

27.2.7: Japanese Militarization

Learning Objective

Interpret the reasons for Japan’s militarization

Key Points

• In
  1854, after Admiral Matthew C. Perry forced the signing of the Treaty of
  Kanagawa, Japanese elites concluded that they needed to modernize the state’s
  military capacities or risk further coercion from Western powers. The Tokugawa
  shogunate did not officially share this point of view and not until the
  beginning of the Meiji Era in 1868 did the Japanese government begin to
  modernize the military. Two first arsenals were opened in 1868 and 1870.
• In 1868, Masujiro Omura established Japan’s first
  military academy in Kyoto. Omura, regarded
  today as the father of the modern Japanese army, sought to
  introduce conscription and military training for commoners rather than
  rely on a hereditary feudal force. He faced opposition from many
  of his peers, including most conservative samurai, who recognized that these ideas would end not only the livelihood of thousands of samurai but also
  their privileged position in society. In 1869, a group of ex-samurai
  assassinated Omura.  
• When the Emperor Meiji assumed all the powers of
  state, he ordered the formation of Imperial Guard to protect himself, the
  Japanese imperial family, and their properties. In 1867, the Imperial Guard was
  formed from loyal retainers and former samurai. This unit would go on to form
  the nucleus of the new Imperial Japanese Army.
• In 1873, the Conscription Law was passed requiring every able-bodied male Japanese citizen, regardless of class, to
  serve a mandatory term of three years with the first reserves and two
  additional years with the second reserves. This monumental law, signifying the
  beginning of the end for the samurai class, initially met resistance from both
  the peasants and warriors. The law aimed for social control, placing the unruly samurai class back into their
  roles as warriors and allowing the military to educate the enlisted.

• In conjunction with the new law,
  the Japanese government began modeling their ground forces after the French
  military, and the new Japanese army used the same rank structure as the French.
  The French government contributed substantial training to Japanese officers.
  Many were employed at the military academy in Kyoto.

• Despite
  the Conscription Law of 1873 and other reforms and progress, the new
  Japanese army was still untested. In 1874,
  Japan launched a successful military expedition to Taiwan to assert their claims to
  the Ryukyu Islands. At
  home, the decisive test for the new army came in 1877, when Saigō Takamori led
  the Satsuma Rebellion, the last rebellion of the samurai. The national
  army’s victory validated the modernization of the
  Japanese army and ended the era of the samurai.

Key Terms

Satsuma Rebellion

An 1877 revolt of disaffected samurai against the new imperial government. Its name comes from the domain, which was influential in the Meiji Restoration and became home to unemployed samurai after military reforms rendered their status obsolete. The rebellion was decisively crushed and its leader, Saigō Takamori, ended his life.

Treaty of Kanagawa

The first treaty between the
United States and the Tokugawa Shogunate. Signed on March 31,
1854, under the threat of force, it effectively ended Japan’s
220-year-old policy of national seclusion (sakoku) by opening the ports
of Shimoda and Hakodate to American vessels. It also ensured the
safety of American castaways and established of an American
consul in Japan. The treaty precipitated the signing of similar
treaties establishing diplomatic relations with other western powers.

Imperial Guard

An organization dedicated to protection of the Emperor of Japan and his family, palaces, and other imperial properties. Originally formed in 1867, it was dissolved at the conclusion of World War II and replaced by a civilian counterpart in 1947.

samurai

The military nobility and officer caste of medieval and early-modern Japan.

Meiji Militarization Efforts

In 1854, after Admiral Matthew C. Perry forced the signing of the Treaty of Kanagawa, Japanese elites concluded that they needed to modernize the state’s military capacities or risk further coercion from Western powers. The Tokugawa shogunate did not officially share this point of view, and not until the beginning of the Meiji Era in 1868 did the Japanese government begin to modernize the military. 

In 1868, the Japanese government established the Tokyo Arsenal, in which small arms and associated ammunition were developed and manufactured.
In 1870, another arsenal opened in Osaka. At that site, machine guns and ammunition were produced and four gunpowder facilities were opened. Also in 1868, Masujiro Omura established Japan’s first military academy in Kyoto.
Under the new Meiji government, Omura, regarded today as
the father of the modern Japanese army, was appointed to the post equivalent to vice minister of war. He was tasked with the creation of a national army along western lines and sought to introduce conscription and military training for commoners, rather than rely on a hereditary feudal force. He also strongly supported the abolition of the han system (feudal domains) and with it the numerous private armies maintained by the feudal lords, which he considered a drain on resources and a potential threat to security. Omura faced opposition from many of his peers, including most conservative samurai who saw his ideas on modernizing and reforming the Japanese military as too radical, ending not only the livelihood of thousands of samurai but also their privileged position in society. In 1869, a group of ex-samurai assassinated Omura.  

When the Emperor Meiji assumed all the powers of state, he ordered the formation of Imperial Guard to protect himself, the Japanese imperial family, and their properties. In 1867, the Imperial Guard was formed from loyal retainers and former samurai. This unit would go on to form the nucleus of the new Imperial Japanese Army. By the 1870s the Imperial Guard, which had been organized and trained along French military lines, consisted of 12,000 officers and men. In 1873, the Conscription Law was passed, requiring every able-bodied male Japanese citizen, regardless of class, to serve a mandatory term of three years with the first reserves and two additional years with the second reserves. This monumental law, signifying the beginning of the end for the samurai class, initially met resistance from both the peasants and warriors. The peasant class interpreted the term for military service, ketsu-eki (blood tax), literally and attempted to avoid service by any means necessary, including maiming, self-mutilation, and local uprisings. The samurai were generally resentful of the new, western-style military and at first refused to stand in formation with the lowly peasant class. The Conscription Law was also a method of social control, placing the unruly samurai class back into their roles as warriors. The Meiji Restoration initially caused dissent among the samurai class and the conscription system was a way of stabilizing that dissent. Some of the samurai, more disgruntled than the others, formed pockets of resistance to circumvent the mandatory military service. Many committed self-mutilation or openly rebelled.

The law also allowed the military to educate the enlisted, providing opportunities for both basic (e.g., learning how to read) and advanced education and career advancement. The government realized that an educated soldier could be a more productive member of society, and education was seen as a path to the advancement of the state. Military service also required a medical examination. Those unable to pass the exam were sent back to their families. While there was no material penalty for failing the exam, the practice created a division between those able to serve the country and those who were not. The latter were often marginalized by society.

In conjunction with the new law, the Japanese government began modeling their ground forces after the French military, and the new Japanese army used the same rank structure as the French. The French government contributed substantially to the training of Japanese officers. Many were employed at the military academy in Kyoto and many more were feverishly translating French field manuals for use in the Japanese ranks.

Reception by the Meiji Emperor of the Second French Military Mission to Japan, 1872, from a drawing by Deschamps, Le Monde Illustre, February 1, 1873.

The task of the mission was to help reorganize the Imperial Japanese Army and establish the first draft law, enacted in 1873. The law established military service for all males for a duration of three years, with additional years in the reserve.

End of the Samurai Class

An imperial rescript of 1882 called for unquestioning loyalty to the emperor by the new armed forces and asserted that commands from superior officers were equivalent to commands from the emperor himself. Thenceforth, the military existed in an intimate and privileged relationship with the imperial institution. Top-ranking military leaders were given direct access to the emperor and the authority to transmit his pronouncements directly to the troops. The sympathetic relationship between conscripts and officers, particularly junior officers who were drawn mostly from the peasantry, tended to bring the military closer to the people. In time, most people came to look for guidance in national matters from military commanders rather than from political leaders.

Despite the Conscription Law of 1873 and other reforms and progress, the new Japanese army was still untested.
In 1871, a Ryukyuan ship was shipwrecked on Taiwan and the crew was massacred. In 1874, using the incident as a pretext, Japan launched a military expedition to Taiwan to assert their claims to the Ryukyu Islands. The expedition featured the first instance of the Japanese military ignoring the orders of the civilian government as the expedition set sail after being ordered to postpone.

At home, the decisive test for the new army came in 1877 when Saigō Takamori led the Satsuma Rebellion,  the last rebellion of the samurai.
Its name comes from Satsuma Domain, which became home to unemployed samurai after military reforms rendered their status increasingly obsolete. Kumamoto castle was the site of the first major engagement when garrisoned forces fired on Saigō’s army as they attempted to force their way into the castle. Two days later, Saigō’s rebels, while attempting to block a mountain pass, encountered advanced elements of the national army en route to reinforce Kumamoto castle. After a short battle, both sides withdrew to reconstitute their forces. A few weeks later the national army engaged Saigō’s rebels in a frontal assault at what now is called the Battle of Tabaruzuka. During this eight-day battle, Saigō’s nearly 10,000-strong army battled hand-to-hand the equally matched national army. Both sides suffered nearly 4,000 casualties. Due to conscription, however, the Japanese army was able to reconstitute its forces, while Saigō’s was not. Later, forces loyal to the emperor broke through rebel lines and managed to end the siege on Kumamoto castle after 54 days. Saigō’s troops fled north and were pursued by the national army. The national army caught up with Saigō at Mt. Enodake. Saigō’s army was outnumbered seven-to-one, prompting a mass surrender of many samurai. The rebellion ended following the final engagement with Imperial forces, which resulted in the deaths of the remaining 40 samurai including Saigō, who was honorably beheaded by his retainer after suffering a fatal bullet wound. The national army’s victory validated the the modernization of the Japanese army and ended the era of the samurai.

Imperial Japanese Army officers of the Kumamoto garrison, who resisted Saigō Takamori’s siege, 1877

Financially, crushing the Satsuma Rebellion cost the government greatly, forcing Japan off the gold standard and causing the government to print paper currency. The rebellion also effectively ended the samurai class, as the new Imperial Japanese Army built of conscripts without regard to social class had proven itself in battle.

27.2.8: Foreign Policy in the Meiji Period

Learning Objective

Characterize the foreign policy goals of the Japanese government in the Meiji period

Key Points

• Meiji
  Japan’s foreign policy was shaped by its need to reconcile its
  Asian identity with its desire for status and security in an international
  order dominated by the West. The principal foreign policy goals of the Meiji
  period (1868–1912) were to protect the integrity and independence of Japan
  against Western domination, including
  gaining international respect through the modernization and expansion of the military. 
• Japan’s unequal status was symbolized by the treaties imposed on the country when it was forcefully opened to foreign influences. Many social
  and institutional reforms of the Meiji period were designed to remove the
  stigma of backwardness and inferiority. The major task of Meiji diplomacy was to press for the revision of the unequal treaties.
• The newly created military was used to extend
  Japanese power overseas as many leaders believed that national security
  depended on expansion and not merely a strong defense.
  In 1873 and 1874, friction came about between
  China and Japan over Taiwan. Later, after Japan’s victory in the First Sino-Japanese
  War in 1894–95, the peace treaty ceded the island to Japan. Perhaps
  most importantly, Japan gained enormous prestige by being the first non-Western
  country to operate a modern colony.
• In
  1894, China and Japan went to war over Korea in the First Sino-Japanese War. The 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki
  recognized Korean independence, established indemnity to Korea from China, and ceded Taiwan, the Penghu Islands,
  and the Liaodong Peninsula to Japan, although Japan gave back
  Liaodong in return for a larger indemnity from China under the pressure of Russia, Germany, and France.
  Ironically,
  in the wake of the later Russo-Japanese War, Japan forced
  Korea to sign the Eulsa Protective Treaty, which made Korea a protectorate of
  Japan. In 1910, Korea was formally annexed to the Japanese empire.

• Japan also succeeded in attracting a Western
  ally to its cause. Japan and Britain, both of whom wanted to keep Russia out of
  Manchuria, signed the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Alliance in 1902. This recognized Japanese
  interests in Korea and assured Japan they would remain neutral in case of a
  Russo-Japanese war, but would become more actively involved if another power (an
  allusion to France) entered the war as a Russian ally.
  In the following Russo-Japanese War (1904–5), Japan won possession of southern Sakhalin and a position of paramount influence in Korea and southern Manchuria.

• U.S.-Japanese relations at the time were shaped by anti-Japanese
  sentiment, especially on the West Coast, and an eventual informal Gentlemen’s
  Agreement  of 1907 assured Japan the U.S. would not bar Japanese immigration if Japan ensured little or no movement to the U.S. The agreement also rescinded the
  segregation order of the San Francisco School Board in California, which had
  humiliated and angered the Japanese.

Key Terms

First Sino-Japanese War

An 1894 – 1895 war fought between the Qing Empire of China and the Empire of Japan, primarily over influence of Korea. After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the Chinese port of Weihaiwei, the Qing government sued for peace in February 1895.
For the first time, regional dominance in East Asia shifted from China to Japan.

Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Alliance

A 1902 treaty signed by Lord Lansdowne (British foreign secretary) and Hayashi Tadasu (Japanese minister in London). A diplomatic milestone that saw an end to Britain’s splendid isolation, the treaty was renewed and expanded in scope twice, in 1905 and 1911, before its demise in 1921. It was officially terminated in 1923.

Triple Intervention

A diplomatic intervention by Russia, Germany, and France in 1895 over the terms of the Treaty of Shimonoseki, signed between Japan and Qing Dynasty China that ended the First Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese reaction against the Triple Intervention was one of the underlying causes of the subsequent Russo-Japanese War.

Russo-Japanese War

A 1904 – 1905 war between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and Korea. The major theaters of operations were the Liaodong Peninsula and Mukden in Southern Manchuria and the seas around Korea, Japan, and the Yellow Sea.

Treaty of Shimonoseki

An 1895 treaty between the Empire of Japan and the Qing Empire, ending the First Sino-Japanese War.
It accomplished several things: recognition of Korean independence, cessation of Korean tribute to China, a 200 million tael (Chinese ounces of silver, the equivalent in 1895 of US $150 million) indemnity to Korea from China, cession of Taiwan, the Penghu Islands, and the Liaodong Peninsula to Japan, and opening of Chang Jiang (Yangtze River) ports to Japanese trade.

unequal treaty

A term applied to any of a series of treaties signed with Western powers during the 19th century by late Tokugawa Japan after suffering military defeat by the foreign powers or threat of military action by those powers. The term is also applied to treaties imposed during the same time period on late Joseon Korea by the Meiji era Empire of Japan.

Goals of Meiji Foreign Policy

Meiji Japan’s foreign policy was shaped at the outset by the need to reconcile its Asian identity with desire for status and security in an international order dominated by the West. The principal foreign policy goals of the Meiji period (1868–1912) were to protect the integrity and independence of Japan against Western domination and win equal status with the leading nations of the West by reversing the unequal treaties. Because fear of Western military power was the chief concern for the Meiji leaders, their highest priority was building up the military, an important objective of which was to gain the respect of the Western powers and achieve equal status in the international community. 

Japan’s unequal status was symbolized by the treaties imposed when the country was first forcefully opened to foreign influences. The treaties were objectionable to the Japanese not only because they imposed low fixed tariffs on foreign imports and thus handicapped domestic industries, but also because their provisions gave a virtual monopoly of external trade to foreigners and granted extraterritorial status to foreign nationals in Japan, exempting them from Japanese jurisdiction and placing Japan in the inferior category of nations incapable of determining their own laws. Many of the social and institutional reforms of the Meiji period were designed to remove the stigma of backwardness and inferiority represented by the unequal treaties, and a major task of Meiji diplomacy was to press for the revision of the treaties.

Overseas Expansion

The newly created military was used to extend Japanese power overseas as many leaders believed that national security depended on expansion and not merely a strong defense. In 1873 and 1874, friction came about between China and Japan over Taiwan, particularly when the Japanese launched a punitive expedition into Taiwan in the wake of the killing of several Okinawans by Taiwanese aborigines. Later, after Japan’s victory in the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894–95, the peace treaty ceded the island to Japan. The Japanese realized that its home islands could only support a limited resource base and hoped that Taiwan, with its fertile farmlands, would make up the shortage. By 1905, Taiwan was producing significant amounts of rice and sugar. Perhaps more importantly, Japan gained enormous prestige by being the first non-Western country to operate a modern colony. To maintain order, Japan installed a police state. 

The Korean Peninsula, a strategically located feature critical to the defense of the Japanese archipelago, occupied Japan’s attention in the 19th century. Earlier tension over Korea had been settled temporarily through the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876, which opened Korean ports to Japan, and through the Tianjin Convention in 1885, which provided for the removal from Korea of both Chinese and Japanese troops sent to support contending factions in the Korean court. In effect, the convention made Korea a co-protectorate of Beijing and Tokyo at a time when Russian, British, and American interests in the peninsula were also increasing.

In 1894, China and Japan went to war over Korea in the First Sino-Japanese War.
After nine months of fighting, a cease-fire was called and peace talks were held. The eventual Treaty of Shimonoseki accomplished several things: recognition of Korean independence, cessation of Korean tribute to China, a 200 million tael (Chinese ounces of silver, the equivalent in 1895 of US$150 million) indemnity to Korea from China, cession of Taiwan, the Penghu Islands, and the Liaodong Peninsula to Japan, and opening of Chang Jiang (Yangtze River) ports to Japanese trade. It also assured Japanese rights to engage in industrial enterprises in China. Ironically, a decade after the Treaty of Shimonoseki forced China to recognize Korean independence, Japan, in the wake of the Russo-Japanese War, effectively forced Korea to sign the Eulsa Protective Treaty, which made it a protectorate of Japan. In 1910, Korea was formally annexed to the Japanese empire, beginning a period of Japanese colonial rule of Korea that would not end until 1945.

Signing of the 1895 Treaty of Shimonoseki

The Triple Intervention triggered by signing the Treaty of Shimonoseki is regarded by many Japanese historians as a crucial turning point in Japanese foreign affairs. The nationalist, expansionist, and militant elements began to join ranks and steer Japan from a foreign policy based mainly on economic hegemony toward outright imperialism.

Western Response 

Immediately after the terms of the treaty became public, Russia—with its own designs and sphere of influence in China—expressed concern about Japanese acquisition of the Liaodong Peninsula and the possible impact of the terms of the treaty on the stability of China. Russia persuaded France and Germany to apply diplomatic pressure on Japan for return of the territory to China in exchange for a larger indemnity (Triple Intervention). Threatened with a tripartite naval maneuver in Korean waters, Japan decided to give back Liaodong in return for a larger indemnity from China. Russia moved to fill the void by securing from China a 25-year lease of Dalian (Dairen in Japanese, also known as Port Arthur) and rights to the South Manchurian Railway Company, a semi-official Japanese company, to construct a railroad. Russia also wanted to lease more Manchurian territory, and although Japan was loath to confront Russia over this issue, it did move to use Korea as a bargaining point. Japan would recognize Russian leaseholds in southern Manchuria if Russia would leave Korean affairs to Japan. The Russians only agreed not to impede the work of Japanese advisers in Korea, but Japan was able to use diplomatic initiatives to keep Russia from leasing Korean territory in 1899. At the same time, Japan was able to wrest a concession from China that the coastal areas of Fujian Province, across the strait from Taiwan, were within Japan’s sphere of influence and could not be leased to other powers. 

Japan also succeeded in attracting a Western ally to its cause. Japan and Britain, both of whom wanted to keep Russia out of Manchuria, signed the Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Alliance in 1902, which was in effect until in 1921 when the two signed the Four Power Treaty on Insular Possessions, which took effect in 1923. The British recognized Japanese interests in Korea and assured Japan they would remain neutral in case of a Russo-Japanese war but would become more actively involved if another power (an allusion to France) entered the war as a Russian ally. In the face of this joint threat, Russia became more conciliatory toward Japan and agreed to withdraw its troops from Manchuria in 1903. The new balance of power in Korea favored Japan and allowed Britain to concentrate its interests elsewhere in Asia. Hence, Tokyo moved to gain influence over Korean banks, opened its own financial institutions in Korea, and began constructing railroads and obstructing Russian and French undertakings on the peninsula.

In response to the alliance, Russia sought to form alliances with France and Germany, which Germany declined. In 1902, a mutual pact was signed between France and Russia. China and the United States were strongly opposed to the alliance. Nevertheless, the nature of the Anglo-Japanese alliance meant that France was unable to come to Russia’s aid in the Russo-Japanese War of 1904, as this would mean war with Britain.

A scan of a cartoon from The New Punch Library, Vol. 1, p. 44, published in London in 1932 (first published in 1905).

The cartoon (1905), accompanied by a quote from Rudyard Kipling, that appeared in the British press after the Anglo-Japanese alliance was renewed in 1905 demonstrates that the British public saw the alliance as an equal treaty between two powers.

The cartoon shows a British official and a Japanese official shaking hands. Below the image, a quotation dated October 4, 1905 from Rudyard Kipling reads: “Oh, East is East, and West is West…/But there is neither East nor West, Border, nor Breed, nor Birth,/ When two strong men stand face to face, tho’ they come from the ends of the earth!”

Russo-Japanese War 

When Russia failed to withdraw its troops from Manchuria by an appointed date, Japan issued a protest. Russia replied that it would agree to a partition of Korea at the 39th parallel, with a Japanese sphere to the south and a neutral zone to the north, but Manchuria was to be outside Japan’s sphere and Russia would not guarantee the evacuation of its troops. The Russo-Japanese War broke out in 1904 with Japanese surprise attacks on Russian warships at Dalian and Chemulpo (in Korea, now called Incheon). Despite tremendous loss of life on both sides, the Japanese won a series of land battles and then decisively defeated Russia’s Baltic Sea Fleet (renamed the Second Pacific Squadron) at the Battle of Tsushima in 1905. At an American-mediated peace conference in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, Russia acknowledged Japan’s paramount interests in Korea and agreed to avoid “military measures” in Manchuria and Korea. Both sides agreed to evacuate Manchuria, except for the Guandong Territory (a leasehold on the Liaodong Peninsula) and restore the occupied areas to China. Russia transferred its lease on Dalian and adjacent territories and railroads to Japan, ceded the southern half of Sakhalin to Japan, and granted Japan fishing rights in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Bering Sea.

Relations with the U.S.

In the late 19th century, the opening of sugar plantations in the kingdom of Hawaii led to the immigration of many Japanese. Hawaii became part of the U.S. in 1898, and the Japanese have been the largest element of the population ever since. However, there was friction over control of Hawaii and the Philippines. The two nations cooperated with the European powers in suppressing the Boxer Rebellion in China in 1900, but the U.S. was increasingly troubled by Japan’s denial of the Open Door Policy that would ensure that all nations could do business with China equally. President Theodore Roosevelt played a major role in negotiating an end to the war between Russia and Japan in 1905-6.

Anti-Japanese sentiment, especially on the West Coast, soured relations in the 1907–1924 (beyond the Meiji period). Washington did not want to anger Japan by passing legislation that would bar Japanese immigration to the U.S. as had been done with Chinese immigration. Instead, there was an informal Gentlemen’s Agreement  of 1907 between the U.S. and Japan whereby Japan made sure there was very little or no movement to the U.S. The agreement also rescinded the segregation order of the San Francisco School Board in California, which had humiliated and angered the Japanese. It remained in effect until 1924 when Congress forbade all immigration from Japan.

The adoption of the 1907 Agreement spurred the arrival of “picture brides” — marriages of convenience made at a distance through photographs. By establishing marital bonds at a distance, women seeking to emigrate to the United States were able to gain a passport, while Japanese workers in America were able to gain a mate of their own nationality. Because of this loophole, which helped close the gender gap within the community from a ratio of 7 men to every woman in 1910 to less than 2 to 1 by 1920, the Japanese American population continued to grow despite the Agreement’s limits on immigration.

27.3: British India

27.3.1: The East India Trading Company

For about 250 years, the British East India Company evolved from a company chartered by the British Crown to trade with the East Indies into de facto British administrator of India, which set off the era of British colonization of the Indian Subcontinent. 

Learning Objective

Describe the East India Trading Company

Key Points

• After 1588, London merchants presented a
  petition to Queen Elizabeth I for permission to sail to the Indian Ocean.
  Permission was granted to several ships, but in 1600 a group of merchants known as the Adventurers succeeded at gaining a Royal Charter under the
  name Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading with the East Indies.
  For 15 years, the charter awarded the newly formed company a
  monopoly on trade with all countries east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of
  the Straits of Magellan.
• English traders frequently
  engaged in hostilities with their Dutch and Portuguese counterparts in the
  Indian Ocean. The Company decided to gain a
  territorial foothold in mainland India with official sanction from both
  Britain and the Mughal Empire. The requested diplomatic
  mission launched by James I in 1612 arranged for a commercial treaty that would give the
  Company exclusive rights to reside and establish factories in Surat and other
  areas. While Portuguese
  and Spanish influences in the region were soon eliminated, competition against the Dutch resulted in the Anglo-Dutch Wars of
  the 17th and 18th centuries.
• In
  an act aimed at strengthening the power of the EIC, King Charles II granted the
  EIC (in a series of five acts around 1670) the rights to autonomously acquire territory, mint money, command fortresses and troops and form
  alliances, make war and peace, and exercise both civil and criminal jurisdiction
  over the acquired areas. These decisions would eventually turn the EIC from a
  trading company into de
  facto an
  administrative agent with wide powers granted by the British government. 
• In 1698, a new “parallel” EIC was established. The two companies wrestled
  with each other for some time but it quickly became evident that in practice, the original
  company faced scarcely any measurable competition. The companies merged in
  1708 by a tripartite indenture involving both companies and the state. With the advent of the
  Industrial Revolution, the EIC became the single largest player on the British global market.
  With the
  backing of its own private army, it was able to
  assert its interests in new regions in India without further
  obstacles from other colonial powers.

• In the hundred years from
  the Battle of Plassey in 1757 to the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the EIC began to function more as an
  administrator and less as a trading concern. The proliferation of the Company’s
  power chiefly took two forms: the outright annexation of
  Indian states and subsequent direct governance of the underlying regions, or asserting power
  through treaties in which Indian rulers acknowledged the Company’s hegemony
  in return for limited internal autonomy. 

• In the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, under the provisions of the Government of India Act 1858, the
  British government nationalized the EIC. The Crown took over its Indian
  possessions, its administrative powers and machinery, and its armed forces. The
  EIC was officially dissolved in 1858 and the rebellion also led the British to
  reorganize the army, the financial system, and the administration in
  India. The country was thereafter directly governed by the Crown as
  the new British Raj.

Key Terms

British Raj

The rule of the British Crown in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947.

Battle of Plassey

A decisive victory of the British East India Company over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies on June 23, 1757. The battle consolidated the Company’s presence in Bengal, which later expanded to cover much of India over the next hundred years.

Indian Rebellion of 1857

A rebellion in India against the rule of the British East India Company from May 1857 to July 1859. It began as a mutiny of sepoys of the East India Company’s army in the cantonment of the town of Meerut and soon escalated into other mutinies and civilian rebellions.
It led to the dissolution of the East India Company in 1858. India was thereafter directly governed by the Crown as the new British Raj.

East India Company

An English and later British joint-stock company formed to pursue trade with the East Indies but actually trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and Qing China. The company rose to account for half of the world’s trade, particularly in basic commodities including cotton, silk, indigo dye, salt, saltpetre, tea, and opium. It also ruled the beginnings of the British Empire in India.

Government of India Act 1858

An Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (21 & 22 Vict. c. 106) passed on August 2, 1858. Its provisions called for the liquidation of the British East India Company, which had been ruling British India under the auspices of Parliament, and the transference of its functions to the British Crown.

Founding of East India Company

Soon after the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588, London merchants presented a petition to Queen Elizabeth I for permission to sail to the Indian Ocean. Permission was granted and in 1591, three ships sailed from Torbay around the Cape of Good Hope to the Arabian Sea on one of the earliest English overseas Indian expeditions. In 1596, three more ships sailed east but were all lost at sea. In 1599, another group of merchants that eventually became known as the Adventurers stated their intention to sail to the East Indies
and applied to the Queen for support of the project. Although their first attempt had not been completely successful, they nonetheless sought the Queen’s unofficial approval to continue, bought ships for their venture, and increased their capital. 

The Adventurers convened again a year later. This time they succeeded and on December 31, 1600, the Queen granted a Royal Charter to “George, Earl of Cumberland, and 215 Knights, Aldermen, and Burgesses” under the name Governor and Company of Merchants of London trading with the East Indies. For 15 years the charter awarded the newly formed company a monopoly on trade with all countries east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan. Anybody who traded in breach of the charter without a license from the Company was liable to forfeiture of their ships and cargo (half of which went to the Crown and the other half to the Company), as well as imprisonment at the “royal pleasure.”

Early Operation

Between 1601 and 1608, four voyages left Britain to establish trade with East Indies. Initially, the company struggled in the spice trade because of the competition from the already well-established Dutch East India Company. The East India Company (EIC or the Company) opened a factory in Bantam on the first voyage and imports of pepper from Java were an important part of the Company’s trade for 20 years. In the next two years, it established its first factory in south India in the town of Machilipatnam in Bengal. The high profits reported by the Company after landing in India initially prompted King James I to grant subsidiary licences to other trading companies in England. But in 1609, he renewed the charter given to the EIC for an indefinite period, including a clause that specified that the charter would cease if the trade turned unprofitable for three consecutive years.

English traders frequently engaged in hostilities with their Dutch and Portuguese counterparts in the Indian Ocean. The Company decided to explore the feasibility of gaining a territorial foothold in mainland India with official sanction from both Britain and the Mughal Empire, and requested that the Crown launch a diplomatic mission. In 1612, James I instructed Sir Thomas Roe to visit the Mughal Emperor Nuruddin Salim Jahangir to arrange for a commercial treaty that would give the Company exclusive rights to reside and establish factories in Surat and other areas. In return, the Company offered to provide the Emperor with goods and rarities from the European market. This mission was highly successful.

Expansion

The Company, which benefited from the imperial patronage, soon expanded its commercial trading operations, eclipsing the Portuguese Estado da Índia, which had established bases in Goa, Chittagong, and Bombay. Portugal later ceded this land to England as part of the dowry of Catherine de Braganza, kind Charles II’s wife. The EIC also launched a joint attack with the Dutch United East India Company on Portuguese and Spanish ships off the coast of China, which helped secure their ports in China. By 1647, the company had 23 factories and 90 employees in India. The major factories became the walled forts of Fort William in Bengal, Fort St George in Madras, and Bombay Castle. With reduced Portuguese and Spanish influence in the region, the EIC and Dutch East India Company entered a period of intense competition, resulting in the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 17th and 18th centuries.

In an act aimed at strengthening the power of the EIC, King Charles II granted the EIC (in a series of five acts around 1670) the rights to autonomously acquire territory, mint money, command fortresses and troops and form alliances, make war and peace, and exercise both civil and criminal jurisdiction over the acquired areas. These decisions would eventually turn the EIC from a trading company into a de facto administrative agent with wide powers granted by the British government. 

Monopoly

The prosperity that the officers of the Company enjoyed allowed them to return to Britain and establish sprawling estates and businesses and obtain political power. The Company developed a lobby in the English parliament. Under pressure from ambitious tradesmen and former associates of the Company, who wanted to establish private trading firms in India, a deregulating act was passed in 1694. This allowed any English firm to trade with India unless specifically prohibited by act of parliament, thereby annulling the charter that had been in force for almost 100 years. 

By an act passed in 1698, a new “parallel” East India Company (officially titled the English Company Trading to the East Indies) was floated under a state-backed indemnity of £2 million. The two companies wrestled with each other for some time, both in England and in India, for a dominant share of the trade. It quickly became evident that in practice, the original company faced scarcely any measurable competition. The companies merged in 1708 by a tripartite indenture involving both companies and the state. Under this arrangement, the merged company lent to the Treasury a sum of £3,200,000 in return for exclusive privileges for the next three years, after which the situation was to be reviewed. The amalgamated company became the United Company of Merchants of England Trading to the East Indies.

With the advent of the Industrial Revolution, Britain surged ahead of its European rivals. Britain’s growing prosperity, demand, and production had a profound influence on overseas trade. The EIC became the single largest player on the British global market. Following the Seven Years’ War (1756–63) and the defeat of France, French ambitions on Indian territories were effectively laid to rest, thus eliminating a major source of economic competition for the EIC. The Company, with the backing of its own private well-disciplined and experienced army, was able to assert its interests in new regions in India without facing obstacles from other colonial powers, although it continued to experience resistance from local rulers. 

Changing Political Role

In the hundred years from the Battle of Plassey in 1757, in which the EIC defeated the ruler of Bengal Nawab and his French allies and consolidated the Company’s presence in Bengal, to the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the EIC began to function more as an administrator and less as a trading concern.
The proliferation of the Company’s power chiefly took two forms. The first was the outright annexation of Indian states and subsequent direct governance of the underlying regions, which collectively comprised British India. The second form of asserting power involved treaties in which Indian rulers acknowledged the Company’s hegemony in return for limited internal autonomy. In the early 19th century, the territories of these princes accounted for two-thirds of India. When an Indian ruler who was able to secure his territory wanted to enter such an alliance, the Company welcomed it as an economical method of indirect rule that did not involve the economic costs of direct administration or the political costs of gaining the support of alien subjects. In return, the company pledged to defend its allies. 

This Company painting probably depicts William Fullerton of Rosemount, who joined the East India Company’s service in 1744, by Dip Chand, c. 1760-64.

Company style or Company painting is a term for a hybrid Indo-European style of paintings made in India by Indian artists, many of whom worked for European patrons in the British East India Company or other foreign Companies in the 18th and 19th centuries. The style blended traditional elements from Rajput and Mughal painting with a more Western treatment of perspective, volume, and recession.

In the early 19th century, the Indian question of geopolitical dominance and empire holding remained with the East India Company. The Company’s independent armies, with some locally raised irregular forces, expanded to a total of 280,000 men by 1857. First recruited from mercenaries and low-caste volunteers, the Bengal Army eventually became composed largely of high-caste Hindus and landowning Muslims. Within the army, British officers always outranked Indians, no matter how long their service. Indian officers received no training in administration or leadership so they would remain dependent on the British officers. During the wars against the French and their allies in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the EIC’s armies were used to seize the colonial possessions of other European nations, including the islands of Réunion and Mauritius.

Indian Rebellion of 1857

The Indian Rebellion of 1857, which eventually led to the dissolution of the EIC,  had diverse political, economic, military, religious and social causes. A direct trigger wad the grievances of the sepoys, a generic term used for native Indian soldiers of the Bengal Army, against the EIC administration, caused mainly by the ethnic gulf between the European officers and their Indian troops. The spark that led directly to a mutiny in several sepoy companies was the issue of new gunpowder cartridges for the Enfield rifle. In 1857, British officers insisted that the new cartridges be used by both Muslim and Hindu soldiers, but the cartridges were made from cow and pig fat. Loading the Enfield required tearing open the greased cartridge with one’s teeth. This insulted both Hindu and Muslim religious practices. Underlying grievances over British taxation and recent land annexations by the EIC were ignited by the sepoy mutineers and within weeks, dozens of units of the Indian army joined peasant armies in widespread rebellion. The old Muslim and Hindu aristocracies, who were seeing their power steadily eroded by the EIC, also rebelled against the British rule.

In the aftermath of the Rebellion, under the provisions of the Government of India Act 1858, the British government nationalized the EIC. The Crown took over its Indian possessions, its administrative powers and machinery, and its armed forces. The EIC was officially dissolved in 1858 and the rebellion led the British to reorganize the army, the financial system, and the administration in India. The country was thereafter directly governed by the Crown as the new British Raj.

Capture of the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar and his sons by William Hodson in 1857, by Robert Montgomery Martin, c. 1860.

The East India Company had a long lasting impact on the Indian Subcontinent. Although dissolved following the Rebellion of 1857, it stimulated the growth of the British Empire. Its armies were to become the armies of British India after 1857, and it played a key role in introducing English as an official language in India.

27.3.2: The British Raj

In the aftermath of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British government dissolved the East India Company and established the formal colonial rule in India that would become known as the British Raj. 

Learning Objective

Explain why the British Raj was established in India

Key Points

• The
  control of rich Bengal gained in the aftermath of the Battle of Plassey brought
  India into the public spotlight in Britain, and Parliament established regulations to manage the affairs of the
  East India Company. Although some wanted the Company’s territories to be taken over by the
  British state, the eventual compromise asserted that the Company could act as a
  sovereign power on behalf of the Crown while subject to oversight and regulation by the British government and
  parliament.

• Under
  the terms of The Charter Act of 1833, the British Parliament revoked the
  Company’s trade license, which made the Company a part of British
  governance, but administration of British India remained the responsibility
  Company officers. The Act also charged the
  Governor-General-in-Council (to whose title was now added “of India”)
  with the supervision of civil and military administration of India as well as the exclusive power of legislation. 
• After the
  Indian Rebellion of 1857, the British government took control of the Company. All power
  was transferred from the EIC to the British Crown, which began to administer
  most of India as a number of provinces. The Crown controlled the Company’s
  lands directly and had considerable indirect influence over the rest of India. What
  followed became known as the British Raj: the rule of the British
  Crown in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947.
• The Government of India Act 1858 made changes in
  the governance of India at three levels: in the imperial government in London,
  in the central government in Calcutta, and in the provincial governments in the
  presidencies (and later in the provinces).
  In
  London, it provided for a cabinet-level Secretary of State for India and a
  fifteen-member Council of India. In
  Calcutta, the Governor-General remained head of the Government of India, commonly called the Viceroy.
• If the Government of India needed to enact new
  laws, it followed the decisions of a Legislative Council, half of which consisted of British officials with voting power and half
  comprised Indians and domiciled Britons in India who served only in an advisory capacity. All laws enacted by Legislative
  Councils in India required the final assent of the Secretary of State in
  London. This prompted Sir Charles Wood, the second Secretary of State, to
  describe the Government of India as “a despotism controlled from
  home.” 
• A
  princely state was a semi-sovereign
  principality during the British Raj that was not directly governed by the
  British, but rather by a local ruler. The princely states varied greatly in status, size, and wealth.
  Their courts
  existed under the authority of the respective rulers. The British controlled the external affairs of the
  princely states absolutely. As the states were not British possessions,
  however, they retained control over their own internal affairs, subject to a
  degree of British influence which in many states was substantial.

Key Terms

princely state

A semi-sovereign principality on the Indian subcontinent during the British Raj that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by a local ruler, subject to a form of indirect rule on some matters.

Charter Act of 1833

An 1833 act that intended to provide for an extension of the royal charter granted to the East India Company. It extended the charter by 20 years, redesignated the Governor-General of Bengal as the Governor-General of India, and deprived the Governors of Bombay and Madras of their legislative powers. The Governor-General and his executive council were given exclusive legislative powers for the whole of British India. The act ended the activities of the British East India Company as a commercial body and it became a purely administrative body.

East India Company

An English and later British
joint-stock company formed to pursue trade with the East Indies. It ended up trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and Qing China. The
company rose to account for half of the world’s trade, particularly in basic
commodities including cotton, silk, indigo dye, salt, saltpetre, tea, and
opium. It also ruled the beginnings of the British Empire in India.

Indian Rebellion of 1857

A rebellion in India against the
rule of the British East India Company from May 1857 to July
1859. It began as a mutiny of sepoys of the East India Company’s
army in the cantonment of the town of Meerut and soon escalated into other
mutinies and civilian rebellions. It led to the dissolution of the East India
Company in 1858. India was thereafter directly governed by the Crown as
the new British Raj.

Government of India Act 1858

An Act of the Parliament of
the United Kingdom (21 & 22 Vict. c. 106) passed on August 2, 1858.
Its provisions called for the liquidation of the British East India Company,
which had been ruling British India under the auspices of
Parliament) and the transference of its functions to the British Crown.

British Raj

The rule of the British
Crown in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947.

East India Company vs. British Government

Until the 1757 Battle of Plassey, the East India Company (EIC or the Company) territories in India, which consisted largely of the presidency towns of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, were governed by the mostly autonomous—and sporadically unmanageable—town councils, all composed of merchants. The councils barely had enough powers for the effective management of their local affairs and the ensuing lack of oversight of the overall Company operations in India led to some grave abuses by Company officers and their allies. The control of rich Bengal gained in the aftermath of the Battle of Plassey brought India into the public spotlight in Britain and the Company’s money management practices were questioned. 

By 1772, the Company needed British government loans to stay afloat and there was fear in London that the Company’s corrupt practices could soon seep into British business and public life. Consequently, the Parliament established regulations at aimed to manage the affairs of the EIC. Although some wanted the Company’s territories to be taken over by the British state, the eventual compromise asserted that the Company could act as a sovereign power on behalf of the Crown and while subject to oversight and regulation by the British government and parliament. From 1784, the British government had the final word on all major appointments in India.  

With increased British power in India, supervision of Indian affairs by the British Crown and Parliament increased as well. By the 1820s, British nationals could transact business or engage in missionary work under the protection of the Crown in the three presidencies. Finally, under the terms of The Charter Act of 1833, the British Parliament revoked the Company’s trade license altogether. This made the Company a part of British governance, but administration of British India remained the responsibility of Company officers. The Charter Act of 1833 also charged the Governor-General-in-Council (to whose title was now added “of India”) with the supervision of civil and military administration of the totality of India and the exclusive power of legislation. 

The proliferation of the
Company’s power chiefly took two forms. The first was the outright
annexation of Indian states and subsequent direct governance of the underlying
regions that came to comprise British India. The second involved treaties in which Indian rulers acknowledged the
Company’s hegemony in return for limited internal autonomy. In the early 19th
century, the territories of these princes accounted for two-thirds of India.
When an Indian ruler who was able to secure his territory wanted to enter
such an alliance, the Company welcomed it as an economical method of indirect
rule that did not involve the economic costs of direct administration or the
political costs of gaining the support of alien subjects. In return, the company
pledged to defend its allies. 

British Raj: “Despotism Controlled from Home”

The Indian Rebellion of 1857, a large-scale rebellion by soldiers employed by the EIC in northern and central India against the Company’s rule, was brutally suppressed. The British government took control of the Company and all power was transferred from the EIC to the British Crown, which began to administer most of India as a number of provinces. The Crown controlled the Company’s lands directly and had considerable indirect influence over the rest of India, which consisted of the princely states ruled by local royal families. What followed became known as the British Raj, the rule of the British Crown in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947.

A 1909 map of the British Indian Empire,
Edinburgh Geographical Institute, J. G. Bartholomew and Sons, Oxford University Press, 1909.

The British Raj extended over almost all present-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, except for small holdings by other European nations such as Goa and Pondicherry. This area is very diverse, containing the Himalayan mountains, fertile floodplains, the Indo-Gangetic Plain, a long coastline, tropical dry forests, arid uplands, and the Thar desert.

The Government of India Act 1858 made changes in the governance of India at three levels: in the imperial government in London, in the central government in Calcutta, and in the provincial governments in the presidencies (and later in the provinces). In London, it provided for a cabinet-level Secretary of State for India and a 15-member Council of India, whose members were required, to have spent at least ten years in India no more than 10 years ago. The Act envisaged a system of “double government,” in which the Council ideally served both as a check on excesses in imperial policy making and as a body of up-to-date expertise on India. However, the Secretary of State also had special emergency powers that allowed him to make unilateral decisions and, in reality, the Council’s expertise was sometimes outdated.

In Calcutta, the Governor-General remained head of the Government of India and now was more commonly called the Viceroy on account of his secondary role as the Crown’s representative to the nominally sovereign princely states. He was, however, now responsible to the Secretary of State in London and through him to Parliament. The Governor-General in the capital, Calcutta, and the Governor in a subordinate presidency (Madras or Bombay) was each required to consult his advisory council. However, in the years of the post-rebellion reconstruction, Viceroy Lord Canning found the collective decision making of the Council to be too time-consuming for the pressing tasks ahead, so he requested the “portfolio system” of an Executive Council, in which the business of each government department (the portfolio) was assigned to and became the responsibility of a single council member. Routine departmental decisions were made exclusively by the member, but important decisions required the consent of the Governor-General and in the absence of such consent, required discussion by the entire Executive Council. This innovation in Indian governance was promulgated in the Indian Councils Act 1861.

If the Government of India needed to enact new laws, the Councils Act allowed for a Legislative Council—an expansion of the Executive Council by up to twelve additional members, each appointed to a two-year term—with half the members consisting of British officials of the government (termed official) and allowed to vote and the other half comprising Indians and domiciled Britons in India (termed non-official) and serving only in an advisory capacity. All laws enacted by Legislative Councils in India required the final assent of the Secretary of State in London. This prompted Sir Charles Wood, the second Secretary of State, to describe the Government of India as “a despotism controlled from home.” Moreover, although the appointment of Indians to the Legislative Council was a response to calls for more consultation with Indians, those appointed were from the landed aristocracy, often chosen for their British loyalty. 

Princely States

A princely state, also called native state, refers to a semi-sovereign principality during the British Raj that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by a local ruler, subject to a form of indirect rule on some matters. The princely states varied greatly in status, size, and wealth.
The British Crown’s suzerainty over 175 princely states, generally the largest and most important, was exercised in the name of the British Crown by the central government of British India under the Viceroy. The remaining approximately 500 states were influenced by agents answerable to the provincial governments of British India under a Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, or Chief Commissioner. A clear distinction between “dominion” and “suzerainty” was supplied by the jurisdiction of the courts of law: the law of British India rested upon the legislation enacted by the British Parliament and the legislative powers those laws vested in the various governments of British India, both central and local. In contrast, the courts of the princely states existed under the authority of the respective rulers of those states.
By treaty, the British controlled the external affairs of the princely states absolutely. As the states were not British possessions, however, they retained control over their own internal affairs, subject to a degree of British influence which in many states was substantial.

Viceroy Lord Canning meets Maharaja Ranbir Singh of Jammu & Kashmir, March 9, 1860 by William Simpson, 1867.  

Suzerainty over 175 princely states, some of the largest and most important, was exercised (in the name of the British Crown) by the central government of British India under the Viceroy. The remaining approximately 500 states were dependents of the provincial governments of British India under a Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, or Chief Commissioner (as the case might have been).

By the beginning of the 20th century, relations between the British and the four largest states – Hyderabad, Mysore, Jammu and Kashmir, and Baroda – were directly under the control of the Governor-General of India in the person of a British Resident. Two agencies, for Rajputana and Central India, oversaw 20 and 148 princely states respectively. The remaining princely states had their own British political officers, or agents, who answered to the administrators of India’s provinces. 

27.3.3: The “Civilising Mission”

The British used the rationale of “civilising mission” to justify their imperial control of India and to introduce limited reforms to produce a qualified white-collar labor force that loyally supported colonial rule.  

Learning Objective

Define the “civilising mission”

Key Points

• The mission civilisatrice, a
  French term that translates literally into English as civilising
  mission, is a rationale for intervention or colonization, purporting to
  contribute to the spread of civilization and used mostly in relation to the
  colonization and Westernization of indigenous peoples in the 19th and 20th
  centuries. Its advocates postulated a duty of Europeans
  to help “backwards” peoples “civilize.” 
• In
  India, the British “civilising mission” focused largely on
  educational reforms designed to speed up modernization and reduce administrative charges. Colonial
  authorities fervently debated the question of the best policy. The orientalists believed that education should
  happen in Indian languages while the utilitarians (also called anglicists)
  strongly believed that traditional India had nothing to teach regarding modern
  skills and the best education would happen in English.
• One
  of the most influential reformers was Thomas Babington Macaulay, who in 1835 authored “Minute on Indian
  Education.” In it, he urged the Governor-General to reform
  secondary education on utilitarian lines to deliver “useful
  learning,” which to Macaulay was synonymous with Western culture. He argued that Sanskrit and Persian were no more accessible than English to the
  speakers of the Indian vernacular languages and existing Sanskrit and Persian
  texts were of little use for “useful learning.” 
• Macaulay’s
  text largely coincided with Governor-General William Bentinck’s views and
  Bentinck’s English Education Act 1835 closely matched Macaulay’s
  recommendations. Under Macaulay, thousands of elementary and secondary schools
  were opened, typically with all-male student bodies. However, Macaulay’s
  views enjoyed little support in London and subsequent Governors-General
  took a more conciliatory approach to existing Indian education.
• Missionaries
  opened their own schools that taught Christianity and the 3-Rs (reading,
  writing, and arithmetic). Universities in Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras were
  established in 1857. The government opened 186 universities and colleges of higher education by 1911. All these benefits, however, went
  to the Indian elites and middle classes, who were expected to serve as loyal
  supporters of the British rule in India. 
• The
  “civilising mission” rhetoric continued, but soon became an alibi
  for British misrule and racism without the pretense that Indian
  progress was ever a goal. Those who advocated actual reforms became less influential. The British assumed Indians had to be
  ruled by heavy hand, with democratic opportunities postponed indefinitely.

Key Terms

civilising mission

A rationale for intervention or colonization purporting to contribute to the spread of civilization, used mostly in relation to the colonization and Westernization of indigenous peoples in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Whig history

An approach to historiography that presents the past as an inevitable progression towards ever greater liberty and enlightenment, culminating in modern forms of liberal democracy and constitutional monarchy. In general, historians representing this approach emphasize the rise of constitutional government, personal freedoms, and scientific progress. The term is often applied generally (and pejoratively) to histories that present the past as the inexorable march of progress towards enlightenment.

Intellectual Origins of “Civilising Mission”

The mission civilisatrice, a French term which translates literally into English as civilising mission, is a rationale for intervention or colonization, purporting to contribute to the spread of civilization and used mostly in relation to the colonization and Westernization of indigenous peoples in the 19th and 20th centuries. It was influential in the French colonies of Algeria, French West Africa, and Indochina and in the Portuguese colonies of Angola, Guinea, Mozambique, and Timor. The rationale was also used by the British in their Asian and African colonies. The European colonial powers argued it was their duty to bring Western civilization to what they perceived as backward people. In addition to governing colonies, the Europeans also attempted to Westernize them in accordance with a colonial ideology known as “assimilation.” They aimed to influence indigenous elites who would loyally support imperial rule. 

The intellectual origins of the mission civilisatrice trace back to the European thinkers, who discussed the idea of social change by using a development metaphor. In the 18th century, many saw history as a linear unending inevitable process of social evolutionism with the European nations running ahead. Racism underlined the arguments of two dominant lines of thought that emerged from this assumption. Some Europeans saw the “backward” nations as intrinsically incapable of reaching what Europeans saw as a more advanced level of social development. Others did not deny non-European societies these capabilities but postulated a duty to help those peoples “civilize.” 

The Role of Education

In India, the British “civilising mission” focused largely on educational reforms. Education in English became a high priority with the goal to speed up modernization and reduce administrative charges. Colonial authorities fervently debated the question of the best policy, falling roughly in one of the two main camps. The orientalists believed that education should happen in Indian languages and favored classical or court languages like Sanskrit or Persian. Conversely, the utilitarians (also called anglicists) strongly believed that traditional India had nothing to teach regarding modern skills and the best education would happen in English.

One of the most influential reformers, Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859), belonged to the latter group. Macaulay was a historian and politician who represented the tradition of Whig history, according to which the past is an inevitable progression towards ever greater liberty and enlightenment, culminating in modern forms of liberal democracy and constitutional monarchy. In general, Whig historians emphasize the rise of constitutional government, personal freedoms, and scientific progress. 

Macauley went to India in 1834 and served on the Supreme Council of India until 1838. At the time, he authored his famous “Minute on Indian Education” (1835), in which he urged the Governor-General to reform secondary education on utilitarian lines to deliver “useful learning,” which to Macaulay was synonymous with Western culture. Macaulay argued that Sanskrit and Persian were no more accessible than English to the speakers of the Indian vernacular languages and existing Sanskrit and Persian texts were of little use for “useful learning.” Although he did not know Sanskrit or Arabic, he claimed that all Western experts could not “deny that a single shelf of a good European library was worth the whole native literature of India and Arabia.” Hence, he advocated that from the sixth year of schooling, students should be taught a European curriculum in English. This aimed to create a class of anglicized Indians to serve as cultural intermediaries between the British and the Indians. Macualay assumed that the creation of such a class was necessary before any reform of vernacular education. 

Macaulay’s text largely coincided with Governor-General William Bentinck’s views and Bentinck’s English Education Act 1835 closely matched Macaulay’s recommendations. Under Macaulay, thousands of elementary and secondary schools opened, typically with all-male student bodies. However, Macaulay’s views enjoyed little support in London and subsequent Governors-General took a more conciliatory approach to existing Indian education.

Missionaries opened their own schools that taught Christianity and the 3-Rs (reading, writing, and arithmetic). Universities in Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras were established in 1857, just before the Rebellion. By 1890, some 60,000 Indians had matriculated, chiefly in the liberal arts or law. About a third entered public administration and another third became lawyers. The result was a very well-educated professional state bureaucracy. By 1887, of 21,000 mid-level civil service appointments, 45% were held by Hindus, 7% by Muslims, 19% by Eurasians (European father and Indian mother), and 29% by Europeans. Of the 1,000 top-level positions, almost all were held by Britons, typically with Oxbridge degrees. The government, often working with local philanthropists, opened 186 universities and colleges of higher education by 1911 and enrolled 36,000 students (over 90% men). By 1939, the number of institutions had doubled and enrollment reached 145,000. The curriculum followed classical British standards et by Oxford and Cambridge and stressed English literature and European history. All these benefits of education, however, went to the Indian elites and middle classes, who were expected to serve as loyal supporters of the British rule in India. Historians of Indian education have generally linked the idea of educational reform under the British rule to colonial dominance and control.

The “civilising mission” rhetoric continued, but soon became an alibi for British misrule and racism, this time without even pretending that Indian progress was ever a goal. Those who advocated actual reforms became less influential. Instead, the British assumed Indians had to be ruled by heavy hand with democratic opportunities postponed indefinitely, although some English historians argued that the so-called liberal imperialists truly believed that the British rule would bring the benefits of “ordered liberty” and Britain could fulfill its moral duty. Much of the debate on the role of Britain in India took place in Britain, where the imperialists worked hard to convince the general population that the “civilising mission” was well under-way. This campaign served to strengthen imperial support at home and thus bolster the moral authority of the elites who ran the Empire.

University of Bombay

A photo of University of Mumbai’s Fort Campus taken in the 1870s. Rajabai Clock Tower, seen here shrouded in scaffolding, was completed in 1878.

27.3.4: The Great Uprising of 1857

The Indian Rebellion of 1857, triggered by numerous grievances of both Indian soldiers (sepoys) and civilians against the East India Company, ended the Company’s rule in India and established the formal imperial rule of the British Crown across the region. 

Learning Objective

Analyze the reasons for the Great Uprising of 1857

Key Points

• The
  Indian Rebellion of 1857 resulted
  from an accumulation of factors over time rather than any single event. In the military,
  sepoys
  had a number of grievances, including losing their perquisites as
  landed gentry and the anticipation of increased land-revenue payments
  that the 1856 annexation of Oudh might bring about; being convinced that the Company was masterminding mass conversions of
  Hindus and Muslims to Christianity; changes in the terms of
  professional service; and the issue of
  promotions based on seniority. 
• The
  final spark was provided by the ammunition for the new Enfield P-53 rifle.
  To load the rifle,
  sepoys had to bite the cartridge open to release the powder, but the grease used on
  these cartridges was rumored to include tallow derived from beef, offensive to Hindus, and pork, offensive to Muslims. While the Company was quick to reverse the effects of the
  policy to quell the unrest, this convinced many sepoys that the rumors were true and their fears
  were justified. 
• Civilians developed their own grievances
  against the Company. The nobility felt it interfered with a traditional
  system of inheritance through the Doctrine of Lapse. Rural landlords
  lost half their landed estates to peasant farmers as a result of the land
  reforms in the wake of annexation of Oudh. Some historians have suggested that heavy land-revenue assessment in some areas resulted in many
  landowning families losing their land or going into great debt.
• The
  rebellion began as a mutiny of sepoys on May 10, 1857, in the cantonment of the
  town of Meerut, and soon escalated into other mutinies and civilian rebellions,
  largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with the major
  hostilities confined to present-day Uttar Pradesh, western Bihar, northern
  Madhya Pradesh, and the Delhi region. In general, the rebels were disorganized, had
  differing goals, were poorly equipped, led, and trained, and had no outside
  support or funding. 
• The rebellion and its aftermath resulted in the
  deaths of more than 100,000 Indians. The alleged killings of women and children
  by the rebels left many British soldiers
  seeking revenge. Most of the British press and British public,
  outraged by the stories of alleged rape and the killings of civilians and
  wounded British soldiers, did not advocate clemency of any kind. 
• The
  rebellion saw the end of the East India Company’s rule in India. By
  the Government of India Act 1858, the company was formally dissolved and its
  ruling powers over India were transferred to the British Crown. The rebellion also transformed both the native and
  European armies of British India.

Key Terms

Government of India Act 1858

An Act of the Parliament of
the United Kingdom (21 & 22 Vict. c. 106) passed on August 2, 1858.
Its provisions called for the liquidation of the British East India Company,
which had been ruling British India under the auspices of
Parliament and the transference of its functions to the British Crown.

East India Company

An English and later British
joint-stock company formed to pursue trade with the East Indies but trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and Qing China. The
company rose to account for half of the world’s trade, particularly in basic
commodities including cotton, silk, indigo dye, salt, saltpeter, tea, and
opium. It also ruled the beginnings of the British Empire in India.

Indian Rebellion of 1857

A rebellion in India against the
rule of the British East India Company from May 1857 to July
1859. It began as a mutiny of sepoys of the East India Company’s
army in the cantonment of the town of Meerut and soon escalated into other
mutinies and civilian rebellions. It led to the dissolution of the East India
Company in 1858. India was thereafter directly governed by the Crown as
the new British Raj.

sepoy

A term used in the forces of the British East India Company that initially referred to Hindu or Muslim soldiers without regular uniform or discipline. It later referred to all native soldiers in the service of the European powers in India.

Causes of 1857 Rebellion

The Indian Rebellion of 1857 (known also as the Great Uprising of 1857) resulted from an accumulation of factors over time rather than from any single event.

In 1772, Warren Hastings was appointed India’s first Governor-General, and one of his first undertakings was the rapid expansion of the East India Company’s army. New sepoys (local soldiers, usually of Hindu or Muslim background) were recruited and to forestall any social friction, the Company took action to adapt its military practices to the requirements of their religious rituals. Over time, however, sepoys developed a number of grievances. After the annexation of Oudh (Awadh) by the EIC in 1856, many sepoys were disquieted both from losing their perquisites as landed gentry and from the anticipation of any increased land-revenue payments that the annexation might bring about. Furthermore, by 1857, some Indian soldiers, interpreting the presence of missionaries as a sign of official intent, were convinced that the Company was masterminding mass conversions of Hindus and Muslims to Christianity. Finally, changes in the terms of professional service also created resentment. As the extent of the EIC’s jurisdiction expanded with victories in wars or annexation, the soldiers were now expected not only to serve in less familiar regions but also without the “foreign service” remuneration that had previously been their due. Moreover, the new recruits of the Bengal Army, who until 1856 had been exempted from overseas service in observance of certain caste rituals, were now required a commitment for general service. There were also grievances over the issue of promotions based on seniority. This as well as the increasing number of European officers in the battalions made promotion slow, and many Indian officers did not reach commissioned rank until they were too old to be effective.

The final spark was provided by the ammunition for the new Enfield P-53 rifle. These used paper cartridges that came pre-greased. To load the rifle, sepoys had to bite the cartridges open to release the powder. The grease used was rumored to include tallow derived from beef, offensive to Hindus, and pork, offensive to Muslims. There were rumors that the British sought to destroy the religions of the Indian people and forcing the native soldiers to break their sacred code certainly increased this concern. The Company was quick to reverse the effects of the policy in hopes that the unrest would be quelled. Colonel Richard Birch, the Military Secretary, ordered that all cartridges issued from depots were to be free from grease and that sepoys could grease them themselves using whatever mixture “they may prefer.” A modification was also made to the drill for loading so that the cartridge was torn with the hands and not bitten. This, however, convinced many sepoys that the rumors were true and that their fears were justified. 

Civilians developed their own grievances against the Company. The nobility, many of whom lost titles and domains under the Doctrine of Lapse which refused to recognize the adopted children of princes as legal heirs, felt that the Company had interfered with a traditional system of inheritance. In the areas of central India where such loss of privilege had not occurred, the princes remained loyal to the Company, even in areas where the sepoys had rebelled. Rural landlords called taluqdars lost half their landed estates to peasant farmers as a result of the land reforms that came in the wake of annexation of Oudh. Some historians have also suggested that heavy land-revenue assessment in some areas resulted in many landowning families either losing their land or going into great debt (money lenders, in addition to the Company, were particular objects of the rebels’ animosity). Eventually, the civilian rebellion was highly uneven in its geographic distribution and historians still attempt to explain why some areas rebelled while others remained calm.

“The Sepoy Revolt at Meerut,” Illustrated London News, 1857.

At Meerut, a large military cantonment, 2,357 Indian sepoys and 2,038 British soldiers were stationed along with 12 British-manned guns. The station held one of the largest concentrations of British troops in India and this was later cited as evidence that the original rising was a spontaneous outbreak rather than a pre-planned plot.

Rebellion of 1857

The rebellion began as a mutiny of sepoys on May 10, 1857, in the cantonment of the town of Meerut, and soon escalated into other mutinies and civilian rebellions, largely in the upper Gangetic plain and central India, with the major hostilities confined to present-day Uttar Pradesh, western Bihar, northern Madhya Pradesh, and the Delhi region. The rebellion posed a considerable threat to EIC’s power in that region. Other regions of Company-controlled India, the Bombay Presidency and the Madras Presidency, remained largely calm. The large princely states of Hyderabad, Mysore, Travancore, and Kashmir, as well as the smaller ones of Rajputana, did not join the rebellion. In some regions such as Oudh, the rebellion took on the attributes of a patriotic revolt against European presence. Some rebel leaders, such as Lakshmibai, the Rani of Jhansi, became folk heroes in the nationalist movement in India half a century later. In the Bengal Presidency, the revolt was entirely centered on Bihar, which experienced multiple disturbances in the Shahabad region where the revolt was led by Kunwar Singh. In Punjab, the Sikh princes backed the Company by providing soldiers and support. In general, the rebels were disorganized, had differing goals, were poorly equipped, led, and trained, and had no outside support or funding. The rebellion was contained only with the Indian defeat in Gwalior on June 18, 1858, during which Rani of Jhansi was killed. By 1859, rebel leaders Bakht Khan and Nana Sahib had either been slain or had fled.

Aftermath

The rebellion and its aftermath resulted in the deaths of more than 100,000 Indians. The alleged killings of women and children by the rebels as well as wounded British soldiers left many British soldiers seeking revenge. The mutineers were hung or blown from cannon,  an old Mughal punishment where sentenced rebels were tied over the mouths of cannons and blown to pieces when the cannons were fired. Most of the British press, outraged by the stories of alleged rape and the killings of civilians and wounded British soldiers, did not advocate clemency of any kind. When Governor-General Canning ordered moderation in dealing with native sensibilities, he earned the scornful sobriquet “Clemency Canning” from the press and later parts of the British public.

Sepoy execution by blowing from a cannon

Incidents of rape allegedly committed by Indian rebels against European women and girls appalled the British public. These atrocities were often used to justify the British reaction to the rebellion. A series of exhaustive investigations were carried out by British police and intelligence officials into reports that British women prisoners had been “dishonored” at the Bibighar and elsewhere. The consensus was that there was no convincing evidence of such crimes having been committed, although numbers of European women and children had been killed outright.

The rebellion saw the end of the East India Company’s rule in India. In August, by the Government of India Act 1858, the company was formally dissolved and its ruling powers over India were transferred to the British Crown. A new British government department, the India Office, was created to handle the governance of India, and its head, the Secretary of State for India, was entrusted with formulating Indian policy. The Governor-General of India gained a new title, Viceroy of India, and implemented the policies devised by the India Office. On a political level, the British assumed that the previous lack of consultation between rulers and ruled was a significant factor in contributing to the uprising. In consequence, Indians were drawn into government at a local level, although on a limited scale. Nonetheless, a new white-collar Indian elite comprised of a professional middle class was starting to arise, in no way bound by the values of the past. 

The Bengal army dominated the Indian army before 1857 and a direct result after the rebellion was the scaling back of the size of the Bengali contingent. The Brahmin presence in the Bengal Army was reduced because of their perceived primary role as mutineers. The rebellion transformed both the native and European armies of British India. The old Bengal Army almost completely vanished from the order of battle. These troops were replaced by new units recruited from castes hitherto underutilized by the British and from the minority so-called “martial races,” such as the Sikhs and the Gurkhas. There were also fewer European officers, but they associated themselves far more closely with their soldiers. More responsibility was given to the Indian officers.

27.3.5: The Economy in British India

The economy of British India was largely designed to protect and expand interests of the British economy, but the British collaborated closely with the Indian elites who, unlike the masses of ordinary Indians, benefited from the many economic changes.  

Learning Objective

Describe the economy of British India and how it fit into Britain’s mercantilism

Key Points

• Both the direct administration of India by
  the British Crown and the technological change ushered in by the Industrial
  Revolution closely intertwined the economies of India and
  Great Britain. Railways, roads, canals, and bridges were rapidly
  built in India and telegraph links established so that raw materials, most
  notably cotton, from India’s hinterland could be transported more efficiently
  to ports for subsequent export to England. Finished goods from
  England were transported back just as efficiently for sale in the burgeoning
  Indian markets. 
• Despite
  Britain’s position as the global leader of industrial development, India’s
  industrialization was limited beyond textiles. Historians
  have pointed to two causes: relatively low labor costs that discouraged investment in new labor-saving technologies and
  British control of trade and exports of cheap
  Manchester cotton. Entrepreneur Jamsetji Tata became the symbol of local industrial success, establishing a company that remains an influential global brand today. 
• A
  plan for a rail system in India was first put forward in 1832. A few short
  lines were built in the 1830s, but they did not interconnect. In 1844,
  Governor-General Lord Hardinge allowed private entrepreneurs to set up a rail
  system in India. The colonial government encouraged new railway companies
  backed by private investors under a scheme that would provide land and
  guarantee an annual return of up to five percent during the initial years of
  operation. Encouraged
  by the government guarantees, investment flowed in and a series of new rail
  companies were established, leading to rapid expansion of the rail system in
  India. 
• The
  railways were privately owned and operated and run by British
  administrators, engineers, and skilled craftsmen. At
  first, only the unskilled workers were Indians. Like hiring practices, building and maintaining the railways were
  designed to benefit mostly British companies.
  India thus provides an example of the British Empire
  pouring its money and expertise into a well-built system designed for
  military purposes with the hope that it would
  stimulate industry.
• The Indian economy grew about 1% per year
  from 1880 to 1920 and the population also grew at 1%. The result was, on
  average, no long-term change in income levels. Agriculture was still dominant,
  with most peasants at the subsistence level. Extensive irrigation systems were
  built, providing an impetus for growing cash crops for export and for raw
  materials for Indian industry, especially jute, cotton, sugarcane, coffee, and
  tea.
• Historians
  continue to debate whether the long-term impact of British rule accelerated or hindered the economic development of India. Some argue that
  the new economy brought by the British in the 18th century was a form of
  “plunder.” Others note the British takeover did not make any sharp break with the past. Many scholars in India and the West agree today that the British power depended upon excellent cooperation with Indian
  elites and that the British rule did not change the highly divisive caste-based hierarchy of the Indian society.

Key Terms

East India Company

An English and later British
joint-stock company formed to pursue trade with the East Indies but
trading mainly with the Indian subcontinent and Qing China. The
company rose to account for half of the world’s trade, particularly in basic
commodities including cotton, silk, indigo dye, salt, saltpeter, tea, and
opium. It also ruled the beginnings of the British Empire in India.

Indian Rebellion of 1857

A rebellion in India against the
rule of the British East India Company from May 1857 to July
1859. It began as a mutiny of sepoys of the East India Company’s
army in the cantonment of the town of Meerut and soon escalated into other
mutinies and civilian rebellions. It led to the dissolution of the East India
Company in 1858. India was thereafter directly governed by the Crown as
the new British Raj.

Limited Industrialization

In the second half of the 19th century, both the direct administration of India by the British Crown and the technological change ushered in by the Industrial Revolution closely intertwined the economies of India and Great Britain. Many of the major changes in transport and communications typically associated with Crown Rule of India began before the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Railways, roads, canals, and bridges were rapidly built in India and telegraph links established so that raw materials, most notably cotton, from India’s hinterland could be transported more efficiently to ports for subsequent export to England. Finished goods from England were transported back just as efficiently for sale in the burgeoning Indian markets. Imports of British cotton covered 55% of the Indian market by 1875. 

Despite Britain’s position as the global leader of industrial development, India’s industrialization was limited, prompting historians to examine why. In the 17th century, India was a relatively urbanized and commercialized country with a buoyant export trade, devoted largely to cotton textiles but also including silk, spices, and rice. India was the world’s main producer of cotton textiles and had a substantial export trade to Britain and many other European countries via the East India Company. Yet while the British cotton industry underwent technological revolution in the late 18th century, the Indian industry stagnated and industrialization in India was delayed until the 20th century. 

Historians have suggested that occurred because India was still a largely agricultural nation with low wages. In Britain, wages were relatively high, so cotton producers had the incentive to invent and purchase expensive new labor-saving technologies. In India, by contrast, wages were low, so producers preferred to increase output by hiring more workers rather than investing in technology. British control of trade and exports of cheap Manchester cotton are cited as other significant factors. 

Despite the unrivaled quality of Indian cotton, universally recognized as late as the end of the 18th century, Indian textile exports declined significantly over the 19th century. High tariffs against Indian textile workshops and British restrictions on Indian cotton imports quickly transformed India from the source of textiles to a source of raw cotton.
Industrial production as it developed in European factories was unknown until the 1850s when the first cotton mills opened in Bombay, posing a challenge to the cottage-based home production system based on family labor.

The entrepreneur Jamsetji Tata (1839–1904) began his industrial career in 1877 with the Central India Spinning, Weaving, and Manufacturing Company in Bombay. While other Indian mills produced cheap coarse yarn (and later cloth) using local short-staple cotton and cheap machinery imported from Britain, Tata imported expensive longer-stapled cotton from Egypt and bought more complex ring-spindle machinery from the United States to spin finer yarn that could compete with imports from Britain. In the 1890s, Tata launched plans to expand into heavy industry using Indian funding. The Raj did not provide capital, but aware of Britain’s declining position against the U.S. and Germany in the steel industry, it wanted steel mills in India and promised to purchase any surplus steel Tata could not otherwise sell. The Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO), headed by his son Dorabji Tata (1859–1932), opened its plant in 1908. It became the leading iron and steel producer in India, with 120,000 employees in 1945. TISCO became India’s proud symbol of technical skill, managerial competence, entrepreneurial flair, and high pay for industrial workers.

Railway Industry 

A plan for a rail system in India was first put forward in 1832. A few short lines were built in the 1830s, but they did not interconnect. In 1844, Governor-General Lord Hardinge allowed private entrepreneurs to set up a rail system in India. The colonial government encouraged new railway companies backed by private investors under a scheme that would provide land and guarantee an annual return of up to five percent during the initial years of operation. The companies were to build and operate the lines under a 99-year lease, with the government having the option to buy them earlier.

Encouraged by the government guarantees, investment flowed in and a series of new rail companies were established, leading to rapid expansion of the rail system in India. Soon several large princely states built their own rail systems and the network spread across regions.

British investors and engineers built a modern railway system by the late 19th century. It was the fourth largest in the world and was renowned for quality of construction and service. The government was supportive, realizing its value for military use in case of another rebellion as well as its value for economic growth. All the funding and management came from private British companies. The railways at first were privately owned and operated and run by British administrators, engineers, and skilled craftsmen. 

At first, only the unskilled workers were Indians. Historians note that until the 1930s, both the Raj lines and the private companies hired only European supervisors, civil engineers, and even operating personnel such as locomotive engineers. Like hiring practices, building and maintaining the railways were designed to benefit mostly British companies. The government required that bids on railway contracts be made to the India Office in London, shutting out most Indian firms. The railway companies purchased most of their hardware and parts in Britain. There were railway maintenance workshops in India, but they were rarely allowed to manufacture or repair locomotives. 

“The most magnificent railway station in the world,” Victoria Terminus, Bombay, completed in 1888

By 1875, about £95 million (equal to £117 billion in 2012) was invested by British companies in Indian-guaranteed railways. It later transpired that there was heavy corruption in these investments, on the part of both members of the British Colonial Government in India and companies who supplied machinery and steel in Britain. This resulted in railway lines and equipment costing nearly double what they should have.

India provides an example of the British Empire pouring its money and expertise into a well-built system designed for military purposes after the Rebellion of 1857 with the hope that it would stimulate industry. The system was overbuilt and too expensive for the small amount of freight traffic it carried. However, it did capture the imagination of the Indians, who saw their railways as the symbol of an industrial modernity—but one that was not realized until after Independence.

Economic Impact

The Indian economy grew at about 1% per year from 1880 to 1920 and the population also grew at 1%. The result was, on average, no long-term change in income levels. Agriculture was still dominant, with most peasants at the subsistence level. Extensive irrigation systems were built, providing an impetus for growing cash crops for export and for raw materials for Indian industry, especially jute, cotton, sugarcane, coffee, and tea. Agricultural income imparted the strongest effect on GDP. 

Historians continue to debate whether the long-term impact of British rule was to accelerate or hinder the economic development of India. In 1780, conservative British politician Edmund Burke raised the issue of India’s position. He vehemently attacked the EIC, claiming that Warren Hastings and other top officials had ruined the Indian economy and society. Indian historian Rajat Kanta Ray (1998) continues this line of attack, arguing that the new economy brought by the British in the 18th century was a form of plunder and a catastrophe for the traditional economy of the Mughal Empire. Ray accuses the British of depleting the food and money stocks and of imposing high taxes that helped cause the terrible Bengal famine of 1770, which killed a third of the city’s people.

P. J. Marshall shows that recent scholarship has reinterpreted the view that the prosperity of the formerly benign Mughal rule gave way to poverty and anarchy. He argues the British takeover did not make any sharp break with the past, which largely delegated control to regional Mughal rulers and sustained a generally prosperous economy for the rest of the 18th century. Marshall notes the British went into partnership with Indian bankers and raised revenue through local tax administrators, keeping  the old Mughal rates of taxation. Many historians agree that the EIC inherited an onerous taxation system that took one-third of the produce of Indian cultivators. Instead of the Indian nationalist account of the British as alien aggressors, seizing power by brute force and impoverishing all of India, Marshall presents the interpretation (supported by many scholars in India and the West) that the British were not in full control but instead were players in what was primarily an Indian play and in which their rise to power depended upon excellent cooperation with Indian elites. Marshall admits that much of his interpretation is still highly controversial among many historians. However, historians agree that the British rule did not change the divisive caste-based hierarchy of the Indian society and thus ordinary Indians remained excluded from the benefits of economic growth. 

The railway network in 1909, when it was the fourth largest railway network in the world

In 1907, almost all the rail companies were taken over by the government. The following year, the first electric locomotive made its appearance. With the arrival of World War I, the railways were used to meet the needs of the British outside India. With the end of the war, the railways were in a state of disrepair and collapse.

27.3.6: The Indian National Congress

The Indian National Congress has dominated Indian politics since leading the Indian independence movement. In the post-independence era, it has remained the most influential political party in India under the continuous leadership of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty. 

Learning Objective

List the key goals of the Indian National Congress and the reasons for its formation

Key Points

• The Indian National
  Congress was founded in 1885 by Indian and British
  members of the Theosophical Society to obtain a greater
  share in government for educated Indians and create a platform for civic and
  political dialogue between educated Indians and the British Raj.

  Within the next few years,
  the organization decided to advocate in
  favor of the independence movement. After internal conflicts over how to win independence, the moderate faction advocating gradual reforms won leadership over the radical faction that called for an open rebellion.

• Mahatma Gandhi returned
  from South Africa in 1915. With the help of the moderate group led by Ghokhale,
  Gandhi became president of the Congress and in the years following World
  War I, he remained its
  unofficial spiritual leader and icon. Gandhi’s ideas and
  strategies of non-violent civil disobedience initially appeared
  impractical to some Indians and congressmen. In the end, however, Gandhi’s
  vision brought millions of ordinary Indians into the movement, transforming it
  from an elitist struggle to a national one. 
• In
  1929, under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Congress declared complete
  independence as the party’s goal. In 1936-37, the British
  government allowed provincial elections in India. The Congress gained power in eight out of 11 provinces. However, in
  1939, the Viceroy Linlithgow declared India’s entrance into World War II
  without consulting provincial governments. In protest, the Congress asked all
  its elected representatives to resign from the government. The Congress also supported the actions of the Azad
  Hind, an Indian provisional government established in Singapore during WWII.
• After
  Indian independence in 1947, the Indian National Congress became the dominant
  political party in the country. In 1952, in the first general election held
  after independence, the party swept to power in the national parliament and most
  state legislatures. It held power nationally until 1977, returned to power
  in 1980, and ruled until 1989, when it was once again defeated. It formed the
  government in 1991 at the head of a coalition as well as in 2004 and 2009. During this period, the Congress
  remained center-left in its social policies while steadily shifting from a
  socialist to a neoliberal economic outlook.
• Throughout the post-independence period, Congress leadership was dominated by the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty. From
  1951 until his death in 1964, Jawaharlal Nehru was the Congress’ paramount
  leader under the tutelage of Mahatma Gandhi.
  After Nehru’s death, Lal Bahadur Shastri took over but his death in 1966 elevated to power Indira Gandhi,
  Nehru’s daughter. Over time,
  Gandhi’s
  government grew increasingly more authoritarian and unrest among the opposition
  grew.
• In
  1984, Indira Gandhi’s son Rajiv Gandhi became nominal head of the Congress and
  prime minister upon her assassination. His government was accused of corruption and in 1991, Gandhi was
  killed by a bomb. He was succeeded
  as party leader by P. V. Narasimha Rao, who is often referred to as the “father of Indian economic
  reforms.” Rao was
  succeeded as president by Sitaram Kesri, the party’s first non-Brahmin leader, but in order to boost the party’s popularity, Congress
  leaders urged Sonia Gandhi – widow of Rajiv Gandhi – to assume the
  leadership of the party, which she holds until today.

Key Terms

Indian National Congress

One of two major political parties in India, founded in 1885 during the British Raj. In the late 19th and early to mid-20th centuries, it became a pivotal participant in the Indian independence movement, with over 15 million members and over 70 million participants in its opposition to British colonial rule in India.

Indian National Army trials

The British Indian trial by courts-martial of a number of officers of the Indian National Army (INA) between November 1945 and May 1946. INA was
an armed force formed by Indian nationalists in 1942 in Southeast Asia that fought against the British. Charges included treason, torture, murder, and abetment.

Azad Hind

An Indian provisional government established in occupied Singapore in 1943 and supported by Japan and Nazi Germany.

British Raj

The rule of the British
Crown in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947.

Early Years

The Indian National Congress (INC or the Congress) was founded in 1885 by Indian and British members of the Theosophical Society. Its objective was to obtain a greater share in government for educated Indians and create a platform for civic and political dialogue between educated Indians and the British Raj. The first session was held in December 1885 and attended by 72 delegates. Representing each province of India, the Party’s delegates comprised 54 Hindus and two Muslims. The rest were of Parsi and Jain backgrounds.

Within the next few years, the demands of the Congress became more radical in the face of constant opposition from the British government. The organization decided to advocate in favor of the independence movement because it would allow a new political system in which the Congress could be a major party.
In 1907, the Congress was split into two factions. The radicals, led by
Bal Gangadhar Tilak, advocated civil agitation and direct revolution to overthrow the British Empire and the abandonment of all things British. The moderates, led by leaders like Dadabhai Naoroji and Gopal Krishna Gokhale, wanted reform within the framework of British rule. Tilak was backed by rising public leaders like Bipin Chandra Pal and Lala Lajpat Rai, who held the same point of view. Under them, India’s three major states, Maharashtra, Bengal, and Punjab, shaped the demand of the people and India’s nationalism. Gokhale criticized Tilak for encouraging acts of violence and disorder. But the Congress of 1906 did not have public membership and thus Tilak and his supporters were forced to leave the party.

Mass Movement

Mahatma Gandhi returned from South Africa in 1915. With the help of the moderate group led by Ghokhale, Gandhi became president of the Congress and formed an alliance with the Khilafat Movement,  a pan-Islamic, political protest campaign launched by Muslims to influence the British government and increase Hindu Muslim unity.  In protest, a number of leaders resigned to set up the Swaraj Party. The Khilafat movement soon collapsed and in the years following World War I, the party became associated with Mahatma Gandhi, who remained its unofficial spiritual leader and icon.

Gandhi’s ideas and strategies of non-violent civil disobedience, which
had to be carried out non-violently by withdrawing co-operation with the corrupt state,

initially appeared impractical to some Indians and congressmen. In the end, however, Gandhi’s vision brought millions of ordinary Indians into the movement, transforming it from an elitist struggle to a national one. The nationalist cause was expanded to include the interests and industries that formed the economy of common Indians. For example, in Champaran, Bihar, Gandhi championed the plight of desperately poor sharecroppers and landless farmers who were forced to pay oppressive taxes and grow cash crops at the expense of the subsistence crops that formed their food supply. The profits from the crops they grew were insufficient to provide for their sustenance. Proposals aimed at eradicating caste differences, untouchability, poverty, and religious and ethnic divisions made the Congress a forceful group that dominated the Indian independence movement. Although its members were predominantly Hindu, it had members from other religions, economic classes, and ethnic and linguistic groups.

In 1929, under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru, the Congress declared complete independence as the party’s goal. In the winter of 1936-37, the British government allowed provincial elections in India that were held in eleven provinces. The Congress gained power in eight of the provinces. However, in 1939, the Viceroy Linlithgow declared India’s entrance into World War II without consulting provincial governments. In protest, the Congress asked all elected representatives to resign from the government. In 1943 Azad Hind, an Indian provisional government, was established in Singapore and supported by Japan. In 1946, Indian soldiers who had fought alongside the Japanese during World War II were tried by the British in the Indian National Army trials. In response, the Congress helped to form the INA Defense Committee, which assembled a legal team to defend the case of the soldiers of the Azad Hind government. The team included several famous lawyers, including Bhulabhai Desai, Asaf Ali, and Jawaharlal Nehru. 

Gandhi and Nehru in 1942

Nehru emerged as the paramount leader of the Indian independence movement under the tutelage of Mahatma Gandhi and ruled India from its establishment as an independent nation in 1947 until his death in 1964. He is considered to be the architect of the modern Indian nation-state: a sovereign, socialist, secular, and democratic republic.

Post-Independence Congress

After Indian independence in 1947, the Indian National Congress became the dominant political party in the country. In 1952, in the first general election held after independence, the party swept to power in the national parliament and most state legislatures. It held power nationally until 1977. It returned to power in 1980 and ruled until 1989, when it was once again defeated. It formed the government in 1991 at the head of a coalition as well as in 2004 and 2009, when it led the United Progressive Alliance. During this period, the Congress remained center-left in its social policies while steadily shifting from a socialist to a neoliberal economic outlook. The Party’s rivals at state level have been national parties the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM), and various regional parties.

From 1951 until his death in 1964, Jawaharlal Nehru was the Congress’s paramount leader under the tutelage of Mahatma Gandhi. During his tenure, Nehru implemented policies based on import substitution industrialization and advocated a mixed economy, where the government-controlled public sector co-existed with the private sector. He believed the establishment of basic and heavy industries was fundamental to the development and modernization of the Indian economy. The Nehru government directed investment primarily into key public sector industries – steel, iron, coal, and power – promoting their development with subsidies and protectionist policies. Nehru embraced secularism, socialistic economic practices based on state-driven industrialization, and a non-aligned and non-confrontational foreign policy that became typical of the modern Congress Party. The policy of non-alignment during the Cold War meant Nehru received financial and technical support from both the Eastern Bloc and the Western Bloc to build India’s industrial base.

After Nehru’s death, no leader except
Lal Bahadur Shastri had his popular appeal. Shastri retained many members of Nehru’s Council of Ministers and appointed Indira Gandhi (no relation to Mahatma Gandhi), Jawaharlal Nehru’s daughter and former Congress President, Minister of Information and Broadcasting. Shastri died in 1966, reportedly of a heart attack but the circumstances of his death remain mysterious.
After Shastri’s death, the Congress elected Indira Gandhi as leader.

In the parliamentary elections held in 1971, the Gandhi-led Congress won a landslide victory on a platform of progressive policies such as the elimination of poverty. However, from 1975, Gandhi’s government grew increasingly more authoritarian and unrest among the opposition grew. In 1975, the High Court of Allahabad declared Indira Gandhi’s election to the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India’s parliament, void on the grounds of electoral malpractice. Gandhi rejected calls to resign and announced plans to appeal to the Supreme Court. She moved to restore order by ordering the arrest of most of the opposition participating in the unrest. In response to increasing disorder, Gandhi’s cabinet and government recommended that President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed declare a state of emergency. During the 19-month emergency, widespread oppression and abuse of power by Gandhi’s unelected younger son and political heir Sanjay Gandhi and his close associates occurred. This period of political oppression ended in 1977, when Gandhi released all political prisoners and called fresh elections to the Lok Sabha.
The opposition Janata Party won a landslide victory over the Congress.

Indira Gandhi, second-longest-serving Prime Minister of India and the only woman to hold the office

Gandhi served as her father’s personal assistant and hostess during his tenure as prime minister between 1947 and 1964. She was elected Congress President in 1959. Upon her father’s death in 1964, Gandhi refused to enter the Congress party leadership contest and instead chose to become a cabinet minister in the government led by Lal Bahadur Shastri. In the Congress Party’s parliamentary leadership election held in early 1966, upon the death of Shastri, she succeeded Shastri as Prime Minister of India.

In 1978, Ghandi and her followers seceded and formed a new opposition party, popularly called Congress (I)—the I signifying Indira. During the next year, her new party attracted enough members of the legislature to become the official opposition. In the same year, Gandhi regained a parliamentary seat. In 1980, following a landslide victory for the Congress (I), she was again elected prime minister. The national election commission declared Congress (I) to be the real Indian National Congress for 1984 general election and the designation I was dropped. As prime minister, Gandhi became known for her political ruthlessness and unprecedented centralization of power. In 1984, two of Gandhi’s bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, shot her with their service weapons in the garden of the prime minister’s residence.

In 1984, Indira Gandhi’s son Rajiv Gandhi became nominal head of the Congress and became prime minister upon her assassination, leading the Congress to a landslide victory. His administration took measures to reform the government bureaucracy and liberalize the country’s economy. After his government became embroiled in several financial scandals, however, his leadership became increasingly ineffectual, although Gandhi was regarded as a non-abrasive person who consulted other party members and refrained from hasty decisions. In 1991, Gandhi was killed by a bomb concealed in a basket of flowers carried by a woman associated with the Tamil Tigers.

Rajiv Gandhi was succeeded as party leader by P. V. Narasimha Rao, who was elected prime minister in 1991. His administration oversaw a major economic change and several home incidents that affected India’s national security. Rao, who held the Industries portfolio, is often referred to as the “father of Indian economic reforms.” By 1996, the party’s image was suffering from allegations of corruption and in elections that year the Congress was reduced to 140 seats, its lowest number in the Lok Sabha to that point, becoming parliament’s second largest party. Rao later resigned as prime minister and as party president. He was succeeded as president by Sitaram Kesri, the party’s first non-Brahmin leader.

Congress Today

In the 1998 general election, the Congress did not regain its leading position. To boost its popularity and improve its performance in the forthcoming election, Congress leaders urged Sonia Gandhi – widow of Rajiv Gandhi – to assume the leadership of the party. She had previously declined offers to become actively involved in party affairs and stayed away from politics. After her election as party leader, a section of the party that objected to the choice because of her Italian origins broke away and formed the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), led by Sharad Pawar. Sonia Gandhi remains the leader of the Congress, highlighting the long Indian tradition of politics as a dynastic affair. 

27.3.7: Calls for Independence

The Indian independence movement, which achieved its goal in 1947, was one of many independence struggles that intensified after World War II across Asia and Africa.  

Learning Objective

Connect calls for independence in India to worldwide movements for independence

Key Points

• The
  decades following the Indian Rebellion of 1857 were a period of growing
  political awareness, manifestation of Indian public opinion, and emergence of
  Indian leadership at both national and provincial levels. Members of the
  upwardly mobile and successful western-educated elites established organizations that
  aimed to ensure that they would gain influence in Indian politics but were not focused on the question of Indian independence.
• By 1900, although the Indian National Congress, the leading independence movement organization, emerged as an all-India political organization, its achievement
  was undermined by its failure to attract Muslims. In response, the All India
  Muslim League was founded to secure the interests of the Muslim diaspora in British
  India. In the 1940s, the League played a decisive role during the 1940s in the
  Indian self-rule movement and developed into the driving nationalist force that
  led to the creation of Pakistan in the Indian subcontinent. 
• The
  early part of the 20th century saw a more radical approach towards political
  self-rule (swaraj) propagated by
  increasingly influential Mahatma Gandhi.
  From the 1920s, the Congress adopted Gandhi’s policy of
  nonviolence and civil resistance and Muhammad Ali Jinnah focused on constitutional struggle
  for the rights of minorities in India. Some
  activists preached armed revolution, literary professionals used texts as a tool for political awareness, feminists
  promoted the emancipation of Indian women, and some groups championed the cause of the disadvantaged sections of Indian
  society. The
  work of these various movements led ultimately to the Indian Independence Act
  1947, which ended the suzerainty in India and the creation of Pakistan.
• In the aftermath of
  World War II, European colonies, controlling more than one billion people
  throughout the world, still ruled most of the Middle East, southeast Asia,
  Africa, and  until 1947 the Indian subcontinent. Independence
  movements
  emerged across Africa and in regions of Asia that remained under the European control. They often referred to the 1941 Atlantic Charter and applied a number of strategies, both militant and based on
  the civil disobedience model.

• New modernizing forms of African nationalism gained strength in the
  early 20th-century with the emergence of Pan-Africanism. By
  the 1930s, the colonial powers in Africa had cultivated, sometimes inadvertently, a small
  elite group of leaders who advocated the idea of
  self-determination. The struggle culminated in 1960, known today as the Year of Africa, when the
  number of independent countries rose from nine to
  26 and African nations were recognized as a force to be reckoned with on the international arena.
  Many colonies continued to fight for their independence
  throughout the 1960s and 1970s. 

• In
  Asia, the image of European pre-eminence was shattered by the wartime Japanese
  occupations of large portions of British, French, and Dutch territories in the
  Pacific. The destabilization of European rule led to the rapid growth of
  nationalist movements, and nearly all Asian colonies gained independence in the aftermath of World War II, sometimes as a result of violent conflicts.

Key Terms

Indian National Congress

One of two major political parties
in India, founded in 1885 during the British Raj. In the late 19th and
early to mid-20th centuries, it became a pivotal participant in the Indian
independence movement, with over 15 million members and over 70 million
participants in its opposition to British colonial rule in India.

swaraj

A Hindi term that means generally self-governance or self-rule and was used to refer to Gandhi’s concept for Indian independence from foreign domination. It put stress on governance not by a hierarchical government, but through individual self-governance and community building focused  on political decentralization.

Quit India Movement

A civil
disobedience movement launched in Bombay by Mahatma Gandhi on August 8,
1942, during World War II, demanding an end to British Rule of
India. Gandhi made a call to do or die in a
speech delivered in Bombay at the Gowalia Tank Maidan. The All-India
Congress Committee launched a mass protest demanding what Gandhi called
“An Orderly British Withdrawal” from India. Almost the entire
leadership of the Indian National Congress was imprisoned without trial within
hours of Gandhi’s speech.

Pan-Africanism

A worldwide intellectual movement to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all people of African descent. Based upon a common fate going back to the Atlantic slave trade, the movement extends beyond continental Africans, with a substantial support base among the African diaspora in the Caribbean and the United States. It is based on the belief that unity is vital to economic, social, and political progress and aims to “unify and uplift” people of African descent.

Atlantic Charter

A pivotal policy statement issued in 1941 that defined the Allied goals for the post-war world. The leaders of the United Kingdom and the United States drafted the work and the Allies of World War II later confirmed it. The document stated the ideal goals of the war: no territorial aggrandizement; no territorial changes against the wishes of the people; right to self-determination; restoration of self-government to those deprived of it; reduction of trade restrictions; global cooperation to secure better economic and social conditions for all; freedom from fear and want; freedom of the seas; and abandonment of the use of force, as well as disarmament of aggressor nations.

Indian Civil Service

The elite higher civil service of the British Empire in British India during British rule in the period between 1858 and 1947.

Year of Africa

A term used to refer to 1960 because of the independence of 17 African nations that took place that year, highlighting the growing Pan-African sentiments in the continent. The year brought about the culmination of African independence movements and the subsequent emergence of Africa as a major force in the United Nations.

All India Muslim League

A political party established during the early years of the 20th century in the British Indian Empire. Its strong advocacy for the establishment of a separate Muslim-majority nation-state, Pakistan, successfully led to the partition of British India in 1947 by the British Empire.

Indian Independence Movement

The decades following the Indian Rebellion of 1857 were a period of growing political awareness, manifestation of Indian public opinion, and emergence of Indian leadership at both national and provincial levels.
Members of the upwardly mobile and successful western-educated elites, engaged in professions such as law, teaching, and journalism, established organizations to ensure they would gain influence in Indian politics (e.g., East India Association in 1867, Indian National Association in 1876, the Indian National Congress in 1885). Despite their claims to represent all India, these organizations initially voiced the interests of urban elites, and the number of participants from other social and economic backgrounds remained negligible.

This new middle class of educated professionals, although spread thinly across the country, expressed the growing sense of solidarity, empowerment, and discontent with the British rule, fueled by success in education and accordant benefits, including employment in the Indian Civil Service. Many Indians were especially encouraged when Canada was granted dominion status in 1867 and established an autonomous democratic constitution. Furthermore, the work of contemporaneous scholars like Monier Monier-Williams and Max Müller, who presented ancient India as a great civilization, contributed to the growing feeling of national pride. Discontent, on the other hand, came not just from policies of racial discrimination at the hands of the British in India, but also from specific government actions like the use of Indian troops in imperial campaigns (e.g. in the Second Anglo-Afghan War) and the attempts to control the vernacular press.

Viceroy Lord Ripon’s partial reversal of the Ilbert Bill (1883), a legislative measure that proposed putting Indian judges in the Bengal Presidency on equal footing with British ones, that transformed the discontent into political action. The event contributed to the establishment of the Indian National Congress, the single most influential organization of the Indian independence movement. During its first twenty years, Congress primarily debated British policy toward India. However, its debates created a new outlook that held Great Britain responsible for draining India of its wealth. Britain did this, the nationalists claimed, by unfair trade, restraint on indigenous Indian industry, and using Indian taxes to pay the high salaries of the British civil servants in India.

By 1900, although the Congress had emerged as an all-India political organization, its achievement was undermined by its singular failure to attract Muslims, who felt that their representation in government service was inadequate. In response, the All India Muslim League was founded in 1906. In 1916, the League’s leader, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, joined the Indian National Congress. Like most of the Congress at the time, Jinnah did not favor outright self-rule, considering British influences on education, law, culture, and industry as beneficial to India.
To secure the interests of the Muslim diaspora in British India, the League eventually played a decisive role during the 1940s in the Indian self-rule movement and developed into the driving nationalist force that led to the creation of Pakistan in the Indian subcontinent. 

The nationalistic sentiments among Congress members led the movement to be represented in the bodies of government and the legislation and administration of India. Congressmen saw themselves as loyalists, but wanted an active role in governing their own country, albeit as part of the Empire. However, the early part of the 20th century saw a more radical approach towards political self-rule (swaraj) propagated by increasingly influential Mahatma Gandhi. Swaraj put stress on governance not by a hierarchical government, but by individuals and community building. The focus was on political decentralization. Since this was against the political and social systems followed by Britain, swaraj advocated India’s discarding British political, economic, bureaucratic, legal, military, and educational institutions. 

Demonstration against the British rule in India, c. 1930s

By 1929, in the midst of rising political discontent and increasingly violent regional movements, the call for complete sovereignty and end of British rule began to find increasing grounds within the Congress leadership. Under the presidency of Jawaharlal Nehru at his historic Lahore session in December 1929, the Indian National Congress adopted a resolution calling for complete self-rule and end of British rule.

The last stages of the self-rule struggle from the 1920s saw the Congress adopt Gandhi’s policy of nonviolence and civil resistance, Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s constitutional struggle for the rights of minorities in India, and several other campaigns. Some activists preached armed revolution to achieve self-rule. Poets and writers used literature, poetry, and speech as toolS for political awareness. Feminists promoted the emancipation of Indian women and their participation in national politics. Others championed the cause of the disadvantaged sections of Indian society within the larger self-rule movement. The period of the Second World War saw the peak of the campaigns by the Quit India Movement, which
demanded what Gandhi
called “an orderly British withdrawal” from India, and the Indian National Army movement
– an armed force formed by Indian nationalists in
1942 in Southeast Asia that fought against the British. The work of these movements led ultimately to the Indian Independence Act 1947, which ended the suzerainty in India and the creation of Pakistan. India remained a Dominion of the Crown until 1950, when the Constitution of India came into force, establishing the Republic of India. Pakistan was a dominion until 1956, when it adopted its first republican constitution. In 1971, East Pakistan declared independence as the People’s Republic of Bangladesh.

Decolonization as Global Struggle

The independence struggle of India was only one of many that succeeded in the post-World War II era.

In the aftermath of World War II, European colonies, controlling more than one billion people throughout the world, still ruled most of the Middle East, southeast Asia, Africa, and until 1947 the Indian subcontinent.
Independence movements applying a number of different strategies, both militant and based on the civil disobedience model, emerged across the African continent and in regions of Asia that remained under the European control.

In Africa,
Britain, and France had the largest holdings, but Germany, Spain, Italy, Belgium, and Portugal also had colonies. As a result of colonialism and imperialism, a majority of Africa lost sovereignty and control of precious natural resources.
By the 1930s, the colonial powers had cultivated, sometimes inadvertently, a small elite of leaders educated in Western universities and advocated the idea of self-determination. These leaders came to lead the struggles for independence and included leading nationalists such as Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya), Kwame Nkrumah (Gold Coast, now Ghana), Julius Nyerere (Tanganyika, now Tanzania), Léopold Sédar Senghor (Senegal), Nnamdi Azikiwe (Nigeria), and Félix Houphouët-Boigny (Côte d’Ivoire).

In the northeast the continued independence of the Empire of Ethiopia remained a beacon of hope to pro-independence activists. However, with the anti-colonial wars of the 1900s barely over, modern forms of African nationalism gained strength in the early 20th-century with the emergence of Pan-Africanism.
This worldwide intellectual movement aims to encourage and strengthen bonds of solidarity between all people of African descent. It was based on the belief that unity is vital to economic, social, and political progress and aims to “unify and uplift” people of African descent.
Modern Pan-Africanism began around the start of the 20th century. The African Association, later renamed the Pan-African Association, was established around 1897 by Henry Sylvester-Williams, who organized the First Pan-African Conference in London in 1900. 

The red, black, and green Pan-African flag designed by the Universal Negro Improvement Association in 1920

Variations of the flag have been used in various countries and territories in Africa and the Americas to represent Pan-Africanist ideologies. Among these are the flags of Malawi, Kenya, and Saint Kitts and Nevis. Several Pan-African organizations and movements have often employed the emblematic red, black, and green tri-color scheme in variety of contexts. Additionally, the flags of a number of nations in Africa and of Pan-African groups use green, yellow, and red. This color combination was originally adopted from the 1897 flag of Ethiopia and was inspired by the fact that Ethiopia is the continent’s oldest independent nation.

In 1941, United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met to discuss the postwar world, resulting in the Atlantic Charter. It was not a treaty and was not submitted to the British Parliament or the Senate of the United States for ratification, but became a very influential document. Among the principal points of the Charter were post-war territorial adjustments to be decided in accord with the wishes of the peoples concerned and the statement that all people had a right to self-determination. While
Churchill rejected its universal applicability when it came to the self-determination of subject nations, after World War II, the U.S. and the African colonies put pressure on Britain to abide by the terms of the Atlantic Charter. 

In Asia, the image of European pre-eminence was shattered by the wartime Japanese occupations of large portions of British, French, and Dutch territories in the Pacific. The destabilization of European rule led to the rapid growth of nationalist movements—especially in Indonesia, Malaya, Burma, and French Indochina.
In the Philippines, the U.S. remained committed to its previous pledges to grant the islands their independence, and the Philippines became the first of the Western-controlled Asian colonies to become independent post-World War II. However, the Philippines remained under pressure to adopt a political and economic system similar to their old imperial master.

A year after India gained its independence, the exhausted British granted independence to Burma and Ceylon. In the Middle East, Britain granted independence to Jordan in 1946 and two years later ended its mandate of Palestine.
Following the end of the war, nationalists in Indonesia demanded complete independence from the Netherlands. A brutal conflict ensued and in 1949, through United Nations mediation, the Dutch East Indies achieved independence, becoming the new nation of Indonesia.
France granted the State of Vietnam based in Saigon independence in 1949 whilst Laos and Cambodia received independence in 1953.

In Africa, the struggle culminated in 1960, known today as the Year of Africa, when
the number of independent countries rose from nine (with population 95 million) to 26 (population 180 million), gaining their independence from Belgium, France, and the United Kingdom. The Year of Africa altered the symbolic status of Africans worldwide by forcing the world to recognize the existence of African nations on the international arena. It marked the beginning of a new, more Afrocentric era in African studies and it was a major boost for African Americans, who were engaged in a civil rights strife within their own country. The struggle of independence in Africa, however, did not end but was fueled by the events of 1960 as many colonies continued to fight for their independence throughout the 1960s and 1970s. 

27.4: Indochina

27.4.1: Pre-French Indochina

The diverse cultures of what would eventually become French Indochina traced their roots to pre-modern kingdoms and empires. For centuries this area was shaped by numerous influences, most notably the expansive trade and political contacts of South and East Asia. 

Learning Objective

Describe the cultures of Indochina before French colonialism

Key Points

• In
  the pre-modern era, significant parts of the region that would later become
  French Indochina belonged to what was known as Greater India. The kingdoms that belonged to
  Greater India and eventually overlapped with what would become French Indochina
  were Funan and its successor Chenla, Champa, and the Khmer Empire. 
• Champa controlled what is now
  south and central Vietnam since approximately 192 CE. The dominant religion was
  Hinduism and the culture was heavily influenced by India.
  Between
  the 3rd and the 5th centuries, Funan and its successor, Chenla, coalesced in
  present-day Cambodia and southwestern Vietnam. For more than 2,000 years, what
  was to become Cambodia absorbed influences from India. The Khmer Empire,
  with the capital city in Angkor, grew out of the remnants of Chenla, becoming
  firmly established in 802. 
• After
  a long series of wars with neighboring kingdoms, Angkor was sacked by the
  Ayutthaya Kingdom and abandoned in 1432. The period that followed is today known as the
  Dark Ages of Cambodia, the historical era from the early 15th century to 1863. In
  the 19th century a renewed struggle between Siam and Vietnam for control of
  Cambodia resulted in the Siamese–Vietnamese War
  (1841–1845) that placed the country under joint
  suzerainty. 
• Laos
  traces its history to the kingdom of Lan Xang (Million Elephants), founded in
  the 14th century by Lao prince Fa Ngum. Ngum made Theravada Buddhism the state religion. Within 20
  years of its formation, the kingdom expanded eastward to Champa and along the
  Annamite mountains in Vietnam. In 1421, Lan Xang collapsed into warring factions
  for the next 100 years. In
  the 17th century, Lan Xang would further expand its frontiers and in today’s
  Laos, this period is often regarded as the country’s golden age. 
• In
  the 18th century, Burmese armies overran northern Laos and annexed Luang Phrabang,
  while Champasak eventually came under Siamese suzerainty. Chao Anouvong was
  installed as a vassal king of Vientiane by the Siamese. Under Vietnamese pressure, he
  rebelled against the Siamese in 1826. The rebellion failed and Vientiane was
  ransacked.
• In
  938, the Vietnamese lord Ngo Quyen defeated the forces of the Chinese Southern
  Han state and achieved full independence for Vietnam after a millennium of
  Chinese domination. Renamed as Dai Viet (Great Viet), the state enjoyed a
  golden era between the 11th and the beginning of the 15th centuries. Between the 11th
  and 18th centuries, Vietnam expanded southward, eventually conquering the
  kingdom of Champa and part of the Khmer Empire. Internal conflicts between local lords divided the country that eventually fell under the French rule.

Key Terms

Indochina

A geographical term originating in the early 19th century and referring to the continental portion of the region now known as Southeast Asia. The name refers to the lands historically within the cultural influence of India and China and physically bound by India in the west and China in the north. It corresponds to the present-day areas of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and (variably) peninsular Malaysia. The term was later adopted as the name of the French colony of today’s Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.

Greater India

A term most commonly used to encompass the historical and geographic extent of all political entities of the Indian subcontinent and beyond. To varying degrees, these entities were transformed by the acceptance and induction of cultural and institutional elements of pre-Islamic India.

Dark Ages of Cambodia

The historical era from the early 15th century to 1863, the year that marks the beginning of the French Protectorate of Cambodia. As reliable sources for the 15th and 16th century in particular are very rare, a fully defensible and conclusive explanation for the decline of the Khmer Empire, recognized unanimously by the scientific community, has so far not been produced.

Indochina

Indochina, originally Indo-China, is a geographical term originating in the early 19th century for the continental portion of the region now known as Southeast Asia. The name refers to the lands historically within the cultural influence of India and China and physically bound by India in the west and China in the north. It corresponds to the present-day areas of Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, and (variably) peninsular Malaysia. The term was later adopted as the name of the colony of French Indochina (today’s Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos), and the entire area of Indochina is now usually referred to as the Indochinese Peninsula or Mainland Southeast Asia. 

An 1886 map of Indochina, Scottish Geographical Magazine (Vol. II) edited by Hugh A. Webster and Arthur Silva White.

The origins of the name Indo-China are usually attributed jointly to the Danish-French geographer Conrad Malte-Brun, who referred to the area as indo-chinois in 1804, and the Scottish linguist John Leyden, who used the term Indo-Chinese to describe the area’s inhabitants and their languages in 1808. As the French established the colony of French Indochina, use of the term became restricted to the French colony and today the area is usually referred to as Mainland Southeast Asia.

Greater India

In the pre-modern era, significant parts of the region that would later become French Indochina belonged to what is known as Greater India. Although the term is not precise, Greater India is most commonly used to encompass the historical and geographic extent of all political entities of the Indian subcontinent and beyond that had to varying degrees been transformed by the acceptance and induction of cultural and institutional elements of pre-Islamic India. Since around 500 B.C. Asia’s expanding land and maritime trade resulted in prolonged socioeconomic and cultural stimulation and diffusion of Hindu and Buddhist beliefs into regional cosmology, particularly in Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka. The kingdoms that belonged to Greater India and eventually overlapped with what would become French Indochina were Funan and its successor Chenla, Champa, and the Khmer Empire. 

Champa controlled what is now south and central Vietnam since approximately 192 CE. The dominant religion was Hinduism and the culture was heavily influenced by India. By the late 15th century, the Vietnamese—descendants of the Sinic civilization sphere—conquered the last remaining territories of the once powerful maritime kingdom of Champa. The last surviving Chams began their diaspora in 1471, many resettling in Khmer territory. 

Between the 3rd and the 5th centuries, Funan and its successor, Chenla, coalesced in present-day Cambodia and southwestern Vietnam. For more than 2,000 years, what was to become Cambodia absorbed influences from India, passing them on to other Southeast Asian civilizations that are now Thailand and Laos. The Khmer Empire, with the capital city in Angkor, grew out of the remnants of Chenla, firmly established in 802 when Jayavarman II declared independence from Java. He and his followers instituted the cult of the God-king and began a series of conquests that formed an empire, which flourished in the area from the 9th to the 15th centuries. Around the 13th century, monks from Sri Lanka introduced Theravada Buddhism to Southeast Asia. The religion spread and eventually displaced Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism as the popular religion of Angkor. 

After a long series of wars with neighboring kingdoms, Angkor was sacked by the Ayutthaya Kingdom and abandoned in 1432 because of ecological failure and infrastructure breakdown. This led to a period of economic, social, and cultural stagnation when the kingdom’s internal affairs came increasingly under the control of its neighbors. The period that followed is today known as the Dark Ages of Cambodia: the historical era from the early 15th century to 1863, the year that marks the beginning of the French Protectorate of Cambodia. As reliable sources from this period are very rare, a fully defensible and conclusive explanation for the decline of the Khmer Empire, recognized unanimously by the scientific community, has so far not been produced.

In the 19th century a renewed struggle between Siam and Vietnam for control of Cambodia resulted in a period when Vietnamese officials attempted to force the Khmers to adopt Vietnamese customs. This led to several rebellions against the Vietnamese and appeals to Thailand for assistance. The Siamese-Vietnamese War (1841–1845) ended with an agreement to place the country under joint suzerainty. This later led to the signing of a treaty for French Protection of Cambodia by King Norodom Prohmborirak.

Angkor Wat, the front side of the main complex, photo by Bjørn Christian Tørrissen.

Angkor was the capital city of Khmer Empire, which flourished from approximately the 9th to 15th centuries. It was a megacity supporting at least 0.1% of the global population during 1010-1220. The city houses the magnificent Angkor Wat, one of Cambodia’s popular tourist attractions. In 2007, an international team of researchers using satellite photographs and other modern techniques concluded that Angkor had been the largest pre-industrial city in the world.

Lan Xang

Laos traces its history to the kingdom of Lan Xang (Million Elephants), founded in the 14th century by Lao prince Fa Ngum, who with 10,000 Khmer troops took over Vientiane. Ngum made Theravada Buddhism the state religion. Within 20 years of its formation, the kingdom expanded eastward to Champa and along the Annamite mountains in Vietnam. Following the exile of Ngum, his eldest son, Oun Heuan, came to the throne under the name Samsenthai and reigned for 43 years. During his reign, Lan Xang became an important trade center. After his death in 1421, Lan Xang collapsed into warring factions for the next 100 years.

In the 17th century, Lan Xang would further expand its frontiers and in today’s history of Laos, this period is often regarded as the country’s golden age. In the 18th century, Burmese armies overran northern Laos and annexed Luang Phrabang, while Champasak eventually came under Siamese suzerainty. Chao Anouvong was installed as a vassal king of Vientiane by the Siamese. He encouraged a renaissance of Lao fine arts and literature. Under Vietnamese pressure, he rebelled against the Siamese in 1826. The rebellion failed and Vientiane was ransacked. Anouvong was taken to Bangkok as a prisoner, where he died.

Lan Xang had ethnic diversity from trade and overland ethnic migrations. The multiple hill tribe peoples were grouped into the broad cultural categories of Lao Theung (which included most indigenous groups and the Mon-Khmer) and Lao Sung. The Lao Loum were ethnically dominant and there were several closely related Tai groups. Perhaps because of the complicated ethnic diversity of Lan Xang, the structure of society was fairly straightforward, especially in comparison to the Khmer with their complex caste system and concepts of a divine kingship or devaraja.

Dynastic Vietnam

In 938, the Vietnamese lord Ngo Quyen defeated the forces of the Chinese Southern Han state and achieved full independence for Vietnam after a millennium of Chinese domination. Renamed as Dai Viet (Great Viet), the state enjoyed a golden era between the 11th and the beginning of the 15th centuries. Buddhism flourished and became the state religion. In the 15th century, Vietnamese independence was briefly interrupted by the Chinese Ming dynasty, but was restored by Le Loi, the founder of the Le dynasty. The Vietnamese dynasties reached their zenith in the Le dynasty of the 15th century. Between the 11th and 18th centuries, Vietnam expanded southward, eventually conquering the kingdom of Champa and part of the Khmer Empire. From the 16th century, civil strife and frequent political infighting engulfed much of Vietnam. Although the state remained nominally under the Le dynasty, actual power was divided between the northern Trinh lords and the southern Nguyen lords, who engaged in a civil war for more than four decades before a truce was called in the 1670s. During this time, the Nguyen expanded southern Vietnam into the Mekong Delta, annexing the Central Highlands and the Khmer lands there.

The division of the country ended a century later when the Tay Son brothers established a new dynasty. However, their rule did not last long, and they were defeated by the remnants of the Nguyen lords aided by the French, who soon took over the region.  

27.4.2: The French Protectorate in Indochina

To ensure their presence in Southeast Asia, the French used the pretext of anti-Catholic persecution in Vietnam to take advantage of the internal weaknesses of Cambodia and Laos, establishing a colony with the predominant goal of economic exploitation. 

Learning Objective

Analyze the French reasons for establishing a protectorate in Indochina

Key Points

• The
  French were determined to establish their presence in Southeast Asia and used religious persecution as pretext for intervention.
  In 1857, the Vietnamese emperor Tu Duc executed two Spanish
  Catholic missionaries. It was not the first incident of this nature but this time,
  it coincided with the Second Opium War. France and Britain had just
  dispatched a joint military expedition to the Far East, so the French had troops on hand and could easily intervene in Annam. 
• In
  1858, a joint French and Spanish expedition landed at Tourane (Da Nang) and
  captured the town. What began as a limited punitive campaign known as
  Cochincina Campaign ended as a French war of conquest. By
  1884, the entire country gradually came under French rule. Cochichina, Annam, and
  Tonkin were formally integrated into the union
  of French Indochina in 1887.
• During the 19th century, the kingdom of Cambodia was reduced to a vassal state of the
  kingdom of Siam. In 1863, King Norodom of Cambodia, installed as
  a leader by Siam, requested a French protectorate over his kingdom. In 1867, Siam renounced
  suzerainty over Cambodia and officially recognized the 1863 French
  protectorate on Cambodia. Under the treaty with the French, the
  Cambodian monarchy was allowed to remain, but power was largely vested in a
  resident general to be housed in Phnom Penh.
• After
  the acquirement of Cambodia in 1863, French explorers went on several
  expeditions along the Mekong River to find possible trade relations for the
  territories of French Cambodia and Cochinchina to the south. In 1885, a French
  consulate was established in Luang Prabang, which along with the province of
  Vientiane was a vassal kingdom to Siam. Following French intervention in a conflict
  between Chinese forces and Siam, King Oun Kham, who had
  received support from the French, requested a French protectorate over his
  kingdom. Luang Prabang became a protectorate of France in 1889.

• In
  1893, France went to war with Siam. The kingdom was quickly forced to recognize
  French control over the eastern side of the Mekong River. Pavie continued to
  support French expeditions in Laotian territory and gave the territory its
  modern-day name of Laos. Following Siam’s acceptance of the ultimatum to cede
  the lands east of the Mekong including its islands, the Protectorate of Laos
  was officially established and the administrative capital moved from Luang
  Prabang to Vientiane. 

• On
  paper, Cochinchina was the only region of French Indochina with direct
  rule,  but the differences between direct and indirect rule were
  purely theoretical and political interference was equally intrusive across the
  entire area. The
  French adopted a policy of assimilation rather than association. However, their settlement in Indochina
  did not occur at a grand scale as French Indochina was seen as a colonie
  d’exploitation économique (economic colony) rather than a colonie
  de peuplement (settlement colony).

Key Terms

Cochincina Campaign

An 1858–1862 military campaign fought between the French and Spanish on one side and the Vietnamese on the other. It began as a limited punitive campaign and ended as a French war of conquest. The war concluded with the establishment of the French colony of Cochinchina, a development that inaugurated nearly a century of French colonial dominance in Vietnam.

French Indochina

A grouping of French colonial territories in Southeast Asia consisting of three Vietnamese regions of Tonkin (north), Annam (center), and Cochinchina (south), Cambodia, and Laos, with the leased Chinese territory of Guangzhouwan added in 1898. The capital was moved from Saigon (in Cochinchina) to Hanoi (Tonkin) in 1902 and again to Da Lat (Annam) in 1939. In 1945 it was moved back to Hanoi.

Background: French Imperial Ambitions in Indochina

The French had few pretexts to justify their imperial ambitions in Indochina. In the early years of the 19th century, some in France believed that the Vietnamese emperor Gia Long owed the French a favor for the help French troops had given him in 1802 against his Tay Son enemies. However, it soon became clear that Gia Long felt no more bound to France than he did to China, which had also provided help. Gia Long believed that as the French government did not honor its agreement to assist him in the civil war—the Frenchmen who helped were volunteers and adventurers, not government units—he was not obliged to return any favors. Vietnamese leaders were interested in reproducing the French strategies of fortification and in buying French cannon and rifles, but neither Gia Long nor his successor Minh Mang had any intention of coming under French influence.

However, the French were determined to establish their presence in the region and it was religious persecution that they eventually used as pretext for intervention. French missionaries had been active in Vietnam since the 17th century and by the middle of the 19th century, there were around 300,000 Roman Catholic converts in Annam and Tonkin. Most of the bishops and priests were either French or Spanish. Many in Vietnam were suspicious of this sizable Christian community and its foreign leaders. The French, conversely, began to claim responsibility for their safety. The tension built up gradually. During the 1840s, persecution or harassment of Catholic missionaries in Vietnam by the Vietnamese emperors Minh Mang and Thieu Tri evoked only sporadic and unofficial French reprisals. In 1857, the Vietnamese emperor Tu Duc executed two Spanish Catholic missionaries. It was neither the first nor the last such incident and on previous occasions the French government had overlooked them. But this time, the incident coincided with the Second Opium War. France and Britain had just dispatched a joint military expedition to the Far East, so the French had troops on hand and could easily intervene in Annam. 

Seizing Control

In 1858, a joint French and Spanish expedition landed at Tourane (Da Nang) and captured the town.
What began as a limited punitive campaign, known as Cochincina Campaign, ended as a French war of conquest.
Sailing south, French troops captured the poorly defended city of Saigon in 1859. In 1862, the Vietnamese government was forced to cede three additional provinces and Emperor Tu Duc was forced to cede three treaty ports in Annam and Tonkin as well as all of Cochinchina, the latter formally declared a French territory in 1864. In 1867, three other provinces were added to French-controlled territories.
By 1884, the entire country had come under French rule, with the central and northern parts of Vietnam separated in the two protectorates of Annam and Tonkin. The three Vietnamese entities were formally integrated into the union of French Indochina in 1887.

French marine infantrymen in Tonkin, c. 1884-1888

French troops landed in Vietnam in 1858 and by the mid-1880s had established a firm grip over the northern region. Nationalist sentiments developed in the 19th century and intensified during and after World War I, but all the uprisings and tentative efforts failed to obtain any concessions from the French overseers.

During the 19th century, the kingdom of Cambodia had been reduced to a vassal state of the kingdom of Siam (present-day Thailand), which had annexed its western provinces while growing influence from the Vietnamese Nguyen Dynasty threatened the eastern portion of the country. In 1863, King Norodom of Cambodia, installed as a leader by Siam, requested a French protectorate over his kingdom. At the time, Pierre-Paul de La Grandière, colonial governor of Cochinchina, was carrying out plans to expand French rule over the whole of Vietnam and viewed Cambodia as a buffer between French possessions in Vietnam and Siam. The country gradually fell under the French control. In 1867, Siam renounced suzerainty over Cambodia and officially recognized the 1863 French protectorate on Cambodia in exchange for the control of Battambang and Siem Reap provinces, which officially became part of Thailand. These provinces were ceded back to Cambodia by a border treaty between France and Siam in the first decade of the 20th century. Under the treaty with the French, the Cambodian monarchy was allowed to remain, but power was largely vested in a resident general to be housed in Phnom Penh. France was also to be in charge of Cambodia’s foreign and trade relations and provide military protection. 

After the acquisition of Cambodia in 1863, French explorers went on several expeditions along the Mekong River to find possible trade relations for the territories of French Cambodia and Cochinchina to the south. In 1885, a French consulate was established in Luang Prabang, which along with the province of Vientiane was a vassal kingdom to Siam. Siam soon feared that France was planning to annex Luang Prabang and signed a treaty with them in 1886 that recognized Siam’s suzerainty over the Lao kingdoms. By the end of 1886, however, Auguste Pavie was named vice-consul to Luang Prabang and was in charge of expeditions occurring in Laotian territory, with the possibility of turning Laos into a French territory. Following French intervention in a conflict between Chinese forces and Siam, King Oun Kham of Luang Prabang who had received support from the French, requested a French protectorate over his kingdom. Luang Prabang became a protectorate of France in 1889.

In 1893, France went to war with Siam. The kingdom was quickly forced to recognize French control over the eastern side of the Mekong River. Pavie continued to support French expeditions in Laotian territory and gave the territory its modern-day name of Laos. Following Siam’s acceptance of the ultimatum to cede the lands east of the Mekong including its islands, the Protectorate of Laos was officially established and the administrative capital moved from Luang Prabang to Vientiane. However, Luang Prabang remained the seat of the royal family, whose power was reduced to figureheads, while the actual power was transferred over to French officials.

Outcome

On paper, Cochinchina was the only region of French Indochina with direct rule imposed, with the province legally annexed by France. The rest of the provinces, Tonkin, Annam, Cambodia, and Laos, had the official status of French protectorate. However, the differences between direct and indirect rule were purely theoretical and political interference was equally intrusive across the entire area.

Map of French Indochina from the colonial period showing its subdivisions, c. 1930

French Indochina was formed on October 17, 1887, from Annam, Tonkin, Cochinchina (which together form modern Vietnam), and the Kingdom of Cambodia. Laos was added after the Franco-Siamese War in 1893.

The French adopted a policy of assimilation rather than association. This allowed the colonialists to rule through native rulers while upholding their traditional cultures and hierarchy, similar to British rule in Malaya. However, the French chose to adopt the policy of assimilation. French was the language of administration. The Napoleonic Code was introduced in 1879 in the five provinces, sweeping away the Confucianism that has existed for centuries in Indochina.

Unlike Algeria, French settlement in Indochina did not occur at a grand scale. By 1940, only about 34,000 French civilians lived in French Indochina, along with a smaller number of French military personnel and government workers. The principal reason why French settlement did not grow in a manner similar to that of French North Africa (which had a population of over 1 million French civilians) was that French Indochina was seen as a colonie d’exploitation économique (economic colony) rather than a colonie de peuplement (settlement colony).

27.4.3: Economic and Social Impacts of Imperialism in Indochina

As French Indochina was the colony of financial exploitation, economic and social development in the region aimed to benefit the French and a small group of local wealthy elites, with limited investments to produce immediate returns rather than long-term benefits for the local populations. 

Learning Objective

Explain how French imperialism affected the people of Indochina

Key Points

• The Vietnamese, Lao, and Khmer ethnic groups
  formed the majority of their respective colony’s populations. According to a 1913 estimate, around 95% of French Indochina’s population was
  rural and urbanization grew slowly over the course of French rule. French was the principal language of
  education, government, trade, and media, widespread among urban
  and semi-urban populations and the elite and
  educated. Local populations still largely spoke their
  native languages. 
• French Indochina was designated as a colonie
  d’exploitation (colony of economic exploitation) by the French
  government, but both exploitation and economic development differed
  significantly across the main regions of the colony. The
  economic and social policies introduced under Governor-General Paul Doumer, who
  arrived in 1897, determined the
  development of French Indochina. 
• Vietnam
  was to become a source of raw materials and a market for tariff-protected goods
  produced by French industries. Funding for the colonial government came from taxes on local populations, and the French government established a
  near monopoly on the trade of opium, salt, and rice alcohol. The
  exploitation of natural resources for direct export was the chief purpose of
  all French investments, with rice, coal, rare minerals, and later rubber
  as the main products. 
• At
  the turn of the 20th century, the growing automobile industry in France
  resulted in the growth of the rubber industry in French Indochina. Plantations were built throughout the colony, especially in Annam and Cochinchina.
  France soon became a leading producer of rubber and Indochinese rubber was prized in the industrialized world. The success of rubber plantations in French
  Indochina resulted in an increase in investment in the colony by various firms.
  However, because all investments aimed to attain immediate high returns for
  investors, only a small fraction of profit was reinvested.
• Economically,
  the French did not develop Laos and Cambodia to the scale that they did Vietnam. The colonial government’s budget originally relied largely on tax
  collections in Cambodia as its main source of revenue, and Cambodians paid the
  highest taxes per capita in French Indochina.
  As French rule strengthened, development slowly began in Cambodia, where rice and pepper
  crops allowed the economy to grow. As the French automobile industry grew, rubber
  plantations like the ones already in Cochinchina and Annam were built and run
  by French investors.

• Economic progress made under the French benefited the French and the
  small class of the local wealthy created by the colonial regime. The masses
  were deprived of economic and social benefits. The
  French imposed high taxes to finance their ambitious program of public
  works and recruited forced labor from local populations without protection against exploitation in the
  mines and rubber plantations.

Key Terms

French Indochina

A grouping of French colonial
territories in Southeast Asia consisting of three Vietnamese regions of Tonkin
(north), Annam (center), and Cochinchina (south), Cambodia, and Laos, with the
leased Chinese territory of Guangzhouwan added in 1898. The capital was moved
from Saigon (in Cochinchina) to Hanoi (Tonkin) in 1902 and again to Da Lat
(Annam) in 1939. In 1945 it was moved back to Hanoi.

colony of economic exploitation

A colony conquered to exploit its natural resources and native population. The practice contrasts with the colonies of settlement conquered to establish a branch of the metropolis (Motherland) and for the exploitation of its natural resources and native population.

French Indochine Society

The Vietnamese, Lao, and Khmer ethnic groups formed the majority of their respective colony’s populations. Minority groups such as the Muong, Tay, Chams, and Jarai were collectively known as Montagnards and resided principally in the mountain regions of Indochina. Ethnic Han Chinese were largely concentrated in major cities, especially in Southern Vietnam and Cambodia where they became heavily involved in trade and commerce. According to a 1913 estimate, 95% of French Indochina’s population was rural and urbanization grew slowly over the course of French rule.
Since French Indochina was seen as a colonie d’exploitation économique (economic colony) rather than a colonie de peuplement (settlement colony), by 1940 only about 34,000 French civilians lived in the region, along with a smaller number of French military personnel and government workers.  

During French colonial rule, French was the principal language of education, government, trade, and media. It became widespread among urban and semi-urban populations and among the elite and educated. This was most notable in the colonies of Tonkin and Cochinchina, where French influence was particularly prominent, while Annam, Laos, and Cambodia were less influenced by French education. Despite the dominance of French among the educated, local populations still largely spoke their native languages. 

A French government official and Lao children in Luang Prabang, 1887, French National Library.

The French did not plan to expand the Laotian economy and geographic isolation also led to Laos being less influenced from France compared to other French colonies. In a 1937 estimate, only 574 French civilians along with a smaller number of government workers lived in Laos, a figure significantly smaller than in Vietnam and Cambodia.

Economy

French Indochina was designated as a colonie d’exploitation (colony of economic exploitation) by the French government, but both exploitation and economic development differed significantly across the main regions of the colony. 

The economic and social policies introduced under Governor-General Paul Doumer, who arrived in 1897, determined the development of French Indochina. The railroads, highways, harbors, bridges, canals, and other public works built by the French were almost all started under Doumer, whose aim was a rapid and systematic exploitation of Indochina’s potential wealth for the benefit of France. Vietnam became a source of raw materials and a market for tariff-protected goods produced by French industries. Funding for the colonial government came from taxes on local populations and the French government established a near monopoly on the trade of opium, salt, and rice alcohol. The trade of those three products formed about 44% of the colonial government’s budget in 1920 but declined to 20% by 1930 as the colony began to economically diversify. Indochina was the second most invested-in French colony by 1940 after Algeria, with investments totaling up to 6.7 million francs.

The exploitation of natural resources for direct export was the chief purpose of all French investments, with rice, coal, rare minerals, and later also rubber as the main products. Doumer and his successors up to the eve of World War II were not interested in promoting industry, which was limited to the production of goods for immediate local consumption. Among these enterprises—located chiefly in Saigon, Hanoi, and Haiphong (the outport for Hanoi)—were breweries, distilleries, small sugar refineries, rice and paper mills, and glass and cement factories. The greatest industrial establishment was a textile factory at Nam Dinh, which employed more than 5,000 workers. The total number of workers employed by all industries and mines in Vietnam was some 100,000 in 1930.

At the turn of the 20th century, the growing automobile industry in France resulted in the growth of the rubber industry in French Indochina and plantations were built throughout the colony, especially in Annam and Cochinchina. France soon became a leading producer of rubber and Indochinese rubber became prized in the industrialized world. The success of rubber plantations in French Indochina resulted in an increase in investment in the colony by various firms. With the growing number of investments in the colony’s mines as well as rubber, tea, and coffee plantations, French Indochina began to industrialize as factories opened in the colony. These new factories produced textiles, cigarettes, beer, and cement, which were then exported throughout the French Empire. Because the aim of all investments was not the systematic economic development of the colony but the attainment of immediate high returns for investors, only a small fraction of the profits was reinvested.

Palace of the Governor-General (Norodom Palace) in Saigon, about 1875, photo by Émile Gsell.

Saigon became a principal port in Southeast Asia and rivaled the British port of Singapore as the region’s busiest commercial center. By 1937, Saigon was the sixth busiest port in the entire French Empire. French settlers further added their influence on the colony by constructing buildings in the form of Beaux-Arts and added French-influenced landmarks such as the Hanoi Opera House and Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica.

Economically, the French did not develop Laos to the scale that it did Vietnam, and many Vietnamese were recruited to work in the government in Laos instead of the Laotian people, causing conflicts between local populations and the government. Economic development occurred very slowly in Laos and was initially fueled primarily by rice cultivation and distilleries producing rice alcohol.
Although tin mining and coffee cultivation began in the 1920s, the country’s isolation and difficult terrain meant that Laos largely remained economically unviable to the French. More than 90% of the Lao remained subsistence farmers, growing just enough surplus produce to sell for cash to pay their taxes.

Originally serving as a buffer territory for France between its more important Vietnamese colonies and Siam, Cambodia was not initially seen as an economically important area. The colonial government’s budget originally relied largely on tax collections in Cambodia as its main source of revenue and Cambodians paid the highest taxes per capita in French Indochina. Poor and sometimes unstable administration in the early years of French rule in Cambodia meant infrastructure and urbanization grew at a much slower rate than in Vietnam, and traditional social structures in villages remained in place. However, as French rule strengthened after the Franco-Siamese War, development slowly began in Cambodia, where rice and pepper crops allowed the economy to grow. As the French automobile industry grew, rubber plantations like the ones in Cochinchina and Annam were built and run by French investors. Economic diversification continued throughout the 1920s, when corn and cotton crops were also grown. Despite economic expansion and investment, Cambodians still continued to pay high taxes and in 1916, protests broke out demanding for tax cuts.

Infrastructure and public works were developed to some extent under French rule, and roads and railroads were constructed in Cambodian territory. Most notably, a railway connected Phnom Penh with Battambang on the Thai border.
Industry was later developed but was primarily designed to process raw materials for local use or for export. As in nearby British Burma and British Malaya, foreigners dominated the work force of the economy due to French discrimination that kept Cambodians from holding important economic positions. Many Vietnamese were recruited to work on rubber plantations and later immigrants played key roles in the colonial economy as fisherman and businessmen. Chinese Cambodians continued to be largely involved in commerce but higher positions were given to the French.

Effects of Colonial Rule

Whatever economic progress was made under the French, it benefited the French and the small class of the local wealthy created by the colonial regime. The masses were deprived of economic and social benefits. Through the construction of irrigation works, chiefly in the Mekong delta, the area of land devoted to rice cultivation quadrupled between 1880 and 1930. During the same period, however, the individual peasant’s rice consumption decreased without the substitution of other foods. The new lands were not distributed among the landless and the peasants but were sold to the highest bidder or given away at nominal prices to Vietnamese collaborators and French speculators. These policies created a new class of Vietnamese landlords and a class of landless tenants who worked the fields of the landlords for rents of up to 60 percent of the crop, which was sold by the landlords at the Saigon export market. The mounting export figures for rice resulted not only from the increase in cultivable land but also from the growing exploitation of the peasantry.

The peasants who owned their land were rarely better off than the landless tenants. Peasants continually lost their land to the large owners because they were unable to repay loans given them by the landlords and other money lenders at exorbitant interest rates. As a result, the large landowners of Cochinchina (less than 3 percent of the total number of landowners) owned 45 percent of the land, while the small peasants (who accounted for about 70 percent of the owners) owned only about 15 percent of the land. The number of landless families in Vietnam before World War II was estimated at half of the population.

The French had imposed high taxes to finance their ambitious program of public works and recruited forced labor with no protection against exploitation in the mines and rubber plantations, although the scandalous working conditions, the low salaries, and the lack of medical care were frequently attacked in the French Chamber of Deputies in Paris. The mild social legislation decreed in the late 1920s was never adequately enforced.

Apologists for the colonial regime claimed that French rule led to vast improvements in medical care, education, transport, and communications. The statistics kept by the French, however, appear to cast doubt on such assertions. In 1939, for example, no more than 15 percent of all school-age children received any kind of schooling and about 80 percent of the population was illiterate, in contrast to precolonial times when the majority of the people possessed some degree of literacy. With more than 20 million inhabitants in 1939, Vietnam had one university with fewer than 700 students. Medical care was well organized for the French in the cities, but in 1939 there were only two physicians for every 100,000 Vietnamese.

27.4.4: Resistance to French Rule

The first wave of resistance to French rule emerged in Indochina shortly after France colonized the region, with particularly active nationalist movements in Vietnam, more limited and mostly elite-based opposition in Cambodia, and fragmented, often ethnically-divided rebellions in Laos. 

Learning Objective

Evaluate instances of resistance to French rule

Key Points

• Nationalist
  sentiments emerged in French Indochina shortly after colonial rule was
  established. In 1885, Phan Dinh Phung led a rebellion against the colonizing power. The Can
  Vuong movement, which sought to expel the French and install the boy Emperor
  Ham Nghi at the head of an independent Vietnam, initiated the revolt. The insurrection in Annam spread and flourished in 1886, reached
  its climax the following year, and gradually faded out by 1889. The Can Vuong
  movement was the first resistance movement that saw all of Vietnamese
  society, royalty, scholar-gentry, and peasantry, working together against the
  French.
• At
  the beginning of the 20th century, two parallel movements emerged. The Dong Du
  (“Go East”) Movement led by Phan Boi Chau planned to send Vietnamese students to Japan to learn modern skills so in the
  future they could lead a successful armed revolt against the French. Duy Tan (“Modernization”) led by Phan Chau
  Trinh favored a non-violent struggle to gain independence, stressing education for the masses and modernization. The
  French suppressed both movements and Vietnamese revolutionaries began to radicalize.
• Phan
  Boi Chau created the Viet Nam Quang Phuc Hoi in Guangzhou, planning armed
  resistance against the French. In 1925, French agents captured him in Shanghai
  and spirited him to Vietnam. Due to his popularity, Chau was spared from
  execution. In 1927, the
  Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang (Vietnamese Nationalist Party) and the party launched the armed Yen Bai
  mutiny in 1930 in Tonkin, which resulted in
  many leaders captured and executed by the guillotine.
• In
  1885, Si Votha, half brother of king Norodom and contender for the throne, led
  a rebellion to dispose of the French-backed Norodom after returning from
  exile in Siam. Gathering support from opponents of Norodom and the French, Si
  Votha led a rebellion that was primarily concentrated in the jungles of
  Cambodia and the city of Kampot. French forces later aided Norodom to defeat Si
  Votha. Unlike
  in Vietnam, Cambodian nationalism remained relatively quiet during much of
  French rule, although Khmer nationalism began to emerge outside of Cambodia. 
• In
  1901, a revolt broke out in the south of Laos among
  groups of Lao Theung led by Ong Kaeo. The revolt challenged
  French control over Laos and was not fully suppressed until 1910. Between
  1899 and 1910, political unrest in the northern Phongsali Province occurred as
  local hill tribe chiefs challenged French rule and assimilation policies being
  carried out in the highlands. Although the revolt initially
  started as a resistance against French influence, it focused on stopping French suppression
  of the opium trade.
• Instability
  continued in the north of Laos in 1919.  Hmong groups, the chief
  opium producers in Indochina, revolted against French taxation and special
  status given to the Lao Loum, minorities in the highlands, in a
  conflict known as the War of the Insane. After the revolt, the French government granted
  Hmongs partial autonomy in the Xiangkhouang Province.

Key Terms

War of the Insane

A Hmong revolt against taxation in the French colonial administration in Indochina lasting from 1918 to 1921. Pa Chay Vue, the leader of the revolt, regularly climbed trees to receive military orders from heaven. The French granted the Hmong a special status in 1920, effectively ending the conflict.

Yen Bai mutiny

An uprising of Vietnamese soldiers in the French colonial army in 1930 in collaboration with civilian supporters who were members of the Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang (Vietnamese Nationalist Party).

Can Vuong
movement

A large-scale Vietnamese insurgency between 1885 and 1889 against French colonial rule. Its objective was to expel the French and install the boy emperor Hàm Nghi as the leader of an independent Vietnam.

Nationalist Movements in Vietnam

Nationalist sentiments emerged in French Indochina shortly after the colonial rule was established. By the mid-1880s, French troops established a firm grip over the northern region of Vietnam and in 1885, Phan Dinh Phung, a prominent imperial court official, led a rebellion against the colonizing power. The Can Vuong
movement, which sought to expel the French and install the boy Emperor Ham Nghi at the head of an independent Vietnam, initiated the revolt in 1885 when Ton That Thuyet, another court official, launched a surprise attack against the colonial forces after a diplomatic confrontation with the French. Thuyet took Ham Nghi northwards to the Tan So mountain base near the border with Laos after the attack failed. 

The Can Vuong movement lacked a coherent national structure and consisted mainly of regional leaders who attacked French troops in their own provinces. It initially prospered but failed after the French recovered from the surprise of the insurgency and poured troops into Annam from bases in Tonkin and Cochinchina. The insurrection in Annam spread and flourished in 1886, reached its climax the following year, and gradually faded out by 1889.
The Can Vuong movement was the first resistance movement that saw all of Vietnamese society, royalty, scholar-gentry, and peasantry, working together against the French. However, although there were some 50 resistance groups, they lacked collaboration and unifying military authority. Actions taken by the resistance were never national, but the narratives of their struggle against foreign domination were passed down to the next generations.

At the beginning of the 20th century, two parallel movements emerged. The Dong Du (“Go East”) Movement started in 1905 by Phan Boi Chau. Chau’s plan was to send Vietnamese students to Japan to learn modern skills so that in the future they could lead a successful armed revolt against the French. With Prince Cuong De, he started two organizations in Japan: Duy Tan Hoi and Viet Nam Cong Hien Hoi. Due to French diplomatic pressure, Japan later deported Chau. A second movement, Duy Tan (“Modernization”), led by Phan Chau Trinh, favored a peaceful, non-violent struggle for independence. It stressed education for the masses, modernizing the country, fostering understanding and tolerance between the French and the Vietnamese, and peaceful transitions of power. 

The French suppressed both movements and
Vietnamese revolutionaries began to turn to more radical paths, particularly

after witnessing revolutionaries in action in China and Russia. Phan Boi Chau created the
Viet Nam Quang Phuc Hoi in Guangzhou, planning armed resistance against the French. In 1925, French agents captured him in Shanghai and spirited him to Vietnam. Due to his popularity, Chau was spared from execution and placed under house arrest until his death in 1940. In 1927, the Viet Nam Quoc Dan Dang (Vietnamese Nationalist Party), modeled after the Kuomintang in China, was founded. The party launched the armed Yen Bai mutiny in 1930 in Tonkin, which resulted in its chairman Nguyen Thai Hoc and many other leaders captured and executed by the guillotine.

Resistance in Cambodia

The first decades of French rule in Cambodia included numerous reforms into Cambodian politics, including the reduction of the monarch’s power. In 1884, the governor of Cochinchina, Charles Anthoine François Thomson, attempted to overthrow the monarch and establish full French control over Cambodia by sending a small force to the royal palace in Phnom Penh. The movement was largely unsuccessful as the governor-general of French Indochina prevented full colonization due to possible conflicts with Cambodians and the monarch became a mere figurehead. In 1885, Si Votha, half brother of king Norodom and contender for the throne, led a rebellion to dispose of the French-backed Norodom after coming back from exile in Siam. Gathering support from opponents of Norodom and the French, Si Votha led a rebellion that was primarily concentrated in the jungles of Cambodia and the city of Kampot. French forces later aided Norodom to defeat Si Votha under agreements that the Cambodian population be disarmed and acknowledge the resident-general as the highest power in the protectorate.

King Norodom, the monarch who initiated overtures to France to make Cambodia its protectorate in 1863 to escape Siamese pressure

In 1904, King Norodom died and the French passed the succession to Norodom’s brother Sisowath, whose branch of the royal family was more submissive and less nationalistic. Norodom was viewed as responsible for the constant Cambodian revolts against French rule. Norodom’s favorite son Prince Yukanthor, his natural successor, had on one of his trips to Europe stirred up public opinion about French colonial brutalities in occupied Cambodia.

Unlike in Vietnam, Cambodian nationalism remained relatively quiet during much of French rule. The population had limited access to education, which kept literacy rates low and prevented nationalist movements like those in Vietnam from widely circulating their message. However, among the French-educated Cambodian elite, the Western ideas of democracy and self-rule and French restoration of monuments such as Angkor Wat created a sense of pride and awareness of Cambodia’s powerful status in the past. Cambodian students resented the favored status of the minority Vietnamese. In 1936, Son Ngoc Than and Pach Choeun began publishing Nagaravatta (Notre cité),  a French language anti-colonial and at times, anti-Vietnamese newspaper. Minor independence movements, especially the Khmer Issarak, began to develop in 1940 among Cambodians in Thailand who feared their actions would have led to punishment if they operated in their homeland.

Resistance in Laos

In 1901, a revolt broke out in the south of Laos in the Bolaven Plateau among groups of Lao Theung led by Ong Kaeo, a self-proclaimed “holy man” who led a messianic cult. The revolt challenged French control over Laos and was not fully suppressed until 1910 when Ong Kaeo was killed. His successor Ong Kommadam became an early leader in the Lao nationalist movement.

Between 1899 and 1910, political unrest in the northern Phongsali Province occurred as local hill tribe chiefs challenged French rule and assimilation policies being carried out in the highlands. At the height of the revolt, the unrest spread to the highlands of Tonkin (northern Vietnam) and was largely concentrated among the minority groups of the Khmu and Hmong. Although the revolt initially started as a resistance against French influence and tightening of administration, it later focused on stopping the French suppression of the opium trade.

Instability continued in the north of Laos in 1919 when Hmong groups, the chief opium producers in Indochina, revolted against French taxation and special status given to the Lao Loum, minorities in the highlands, in a conflict known as the War of the Insane. Hmong rebels claimed that both Lao and French officials treated them as subordinate and uncivilized groups. They were defeated in 1921. After the revolt, the French government granted Hmongs partial autonomy in the Xiangkhouang Province.