The Policies and Interests of Great Britain and Holland in the Far East

1938 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 727-735
Author(s):  
Lennox A. Mills

The Policies and Interests of Great Britain and Holland in the Far East. No traveller in Eastern Asia can fail to be impressed by the widespread alarm and hostility towards Japan's intentions and her economic penetration. This feeling is first to be encountered in Ceylon, where, despite the Singapore naval base, there is a distinct undercurrent of uneasiness among the Ceylonese political leaders. The attitude is much more pronounced in British Malaya, and becomes steadily stronger as one nears Japan. Sympathy for China is the dominant sentiment; but at the same time one encounters the belief that in the long run the Chinese may prove the more serious problem. A very important Dutch official typified this attitude when he remarked that he believed that Japan's ambitions in China would fatally overstrain her resources so that in a few years she would cease to be a menace, “but even after a couple of centuries the problem of the Chinese immigrants will be as serious as ever.”

Author(s):  
Pavel Nikolaevich Dudin

Based on the previously unexamined treaties and agreements, this article analyzes the civilian mechanism of ensuring Russia’s interest in Manchuria on the background of establishment and development of statehood of Hulunbuir District, also known as Barga. Having lost the Russo-Japanese War and a number of backbone territories, the Russian Empire took all necessary steps towards retention and strengthening of its influence in the region, was able to form the zones of primary interests, and this control the process of acquisition of relative autonomy by Barga. It is concluded that within the framework of considered agreements, Russia’ national interests in the Far East were reliably protected. It was achieved by the concessions, which by their legal nature significantly differed from the concessions and settlements created by the foreign powers in Eastern China, although were capable of ensuring Russia’s presence and safeguarding the strategic interests. Despite the fact that the created system demonstrated its effectiveness, it did not survive the political crises caused by the revolutionary events and demise of the Russian Empire. China’s leadership took advantage of the situation that unfolded in Russia, and liquidated the autonomy of Outer Mongolia, and later the status of Hulunbuir, stipulated in the agreements.


1937 ◽  
Vol 31 (5) ◽  
pp. 942-948 ◽  
Author(s):  
William C. Johnstone

Hostilities now in progress in the Far East may produce significant changes in the status of foreign concessions and settlements in China. It may be useful, therefore, to classify these areas and to survey their status prior to the present “undeclared war.” Among the several privileges gained by Great Britain, the United States, and France in their treaties with China in 1842–44 was the right of foreign residence in the five ports opened to trade by these treaties: Amoy, Canton, Foochow, Ningpo, and Shanghai. Arrangements for the residence of foreigners and their families in these ports were to be made by the consular officials and the local Chinese authorities acting “in concert together.” These arrangements resulted in the delimitation of areas for foreign residence, generally called “settlements,” which grew into municipalities exempt from Chinese jurisdiction and completely under foreign control. As more ports were opened for trade by the various treaties negotiated after 1844, certain nations requested exclusive areas in many of them. Such areas were generally called “concessions.”


Author(s):  
Richard Stoneman

This chapter focuses on the sage Apollonius, from the city of Tyana in south-eastern Asia Minor, who gained fame for his wisdom and his extensive travels in the first century CE. In the following century Philostratus wrote a fictionalized biography of the sage, but it is nearly impossible to determine where fact ends and fiction begins. According to this biography, Apollonius travelled to the Far East and had discussions with the Brahmans of Taxila. Apollonius outdoes Alexander by travelling as far as Ethiopia and western Spain: even Heracles had only spanned the world from east to west. His ambit is the entire Roman empire. Though presented as a second, “holy” Alexander by Philostratus, Apollonius is also important as a historical “witness” for Hellenistic Taxila. How we judge this importance depends on the assessment of the historicity of Philostratus' account.


1970 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 706-720
Author(s):  
Peter Lowe

Until August 1914 the European powers dominated the Far East. Japan was growing rapidly in stature and strength following her victories over China in the war of 1894–5 and over Russia in the war of 1904–5 but she was not in a position to challenge the European powers. Britain was concerned primarily with maintaining the status quo in the Far East and in particular with defending British commercial supremacy in China, especially in the great Yangtze valley. These objectives had involved her in growing friction with her ally, Japan, for Japanese leaders wished their country to play a more effective political and economic role in China. The outbreak of war in August 1914 transformed the situation in the Far East. The European powers were divided and interested principally in winning the conflict in Europe. War spread to the Far East, however, as a result partly of German naval strength necessitating a British request to Japan for assistance but essentially because of Japanese determination to seize the opportunity to extend Japanese power in the region. The German fortress at Tsingtao in Shantung province of China and the German islands in the Pacific north of the equator were in Japanese hands by November 1914. The next Japanese objective was to replace European hegemony in China with Japanese hegemony and in January 1915 a list of twenty-one demands was handed to the president of the Chinese republic, Yuan Shih-k'ai. Yuan had become president after the revolution of 1911–12 which had terminated the ancient Chinese empire.


1958 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-175
Author(s):  
A. E. Campbell

When, in the last years of the nineteenth century, the United States shared the general expansive urge, the major Power with which she came most vigorously and immediately into conflict was Great Britain, which alone had a substantial footing in the western hemisphere. On at least three important occasions the two countries clashed–over Venezuela, over the building of an isthmian canal, and over the Alaskan boundary–and on each the United States won a complete diplomatic victory, as a natural result of power and strategic advantage. These victories roused little resentment in Britain and their significance was minimized. One important reason for the readiness with which Britain gave way to the United States was that the two countries were supposed to have some mystic community of interest which over-rode any conflicts and made them of no importance. Often the argument, if so it may be called, rested there, and it was merely asserted that ‘in the last resort’ the Anglo-Saxon nations would be found on the same side–not a prospect of much concern to the practising diplomatist. Sometimes, however, it was implied that the United States was on the brink of a great burst of international energy, which would, as a result of the similarity of race, ideology and tradition, be exerted in directions which the British would find good. The same American aggressiveness whose first victim was Britain would later check the rivals of Britain.


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