European Influence Overpower Asia In The 1500s

The advent of Western imperialism during the early 18th century in large parts of Asia was preceded by centuries of Asian economic dominance over the known world. Countries such as China and India were considered the economic powerhouses of the world, with many foreign traders coveting to trade with them. However, not all regions of Asia were as economically developed as these two; Korea, for the most part of the pre-modern period, suffered from little commercialism and poor crop yields. The question arises: What foundations of pre-modern Asia were set up for later modernity? The answer can be given as thus: resource-rich Asian countries were able to effectively trade with their European counterparts. This would eventually lead to European

Industrial Revolution is the shift of manufacturing process which lead to change of power source from man to machines. Britain was the first country to endure the industrial revolution. The increase of population demands a raise in food and goods. This aloud for new companies, factories and jobs to blossom. Britain had very abundant natural resources. Including the waterways, coal, iron ore and water power. Rivers were popular methods of transportation. Britain already had numerous strong ships and resources. Their ways of transportation allowed them to sail british sailors around the world to trade products with other countries. Trade granted britain numerous opportunities to make more profit and improve their economy.

The increase of manufactured goods was known as the Industrial Revolution. In the Industrial Revolution Article, it states, “It had great deposits of coal and iron ore, which proved essential for industrialization.” Britain was the birthplace of the Revolution. It had a great deal of coal and iron. Coal and Iron were essential to the Revolution, coal is much more efficient and powerful then other things, it has 3x more energy than wood, easy to mine, easy to transport, and it has more fuel (video notes). Having all the resources there was no better place than Britain.

Even though Western Europe had the essential ingredients for the recipe of Capitalism, the Industrial Revolution was the spark that ignited the fire that created true modern capitalism.  Britain was the frontrunner of this massive change. The Industrial Revolution of Britain impacted Britain mostly during the Victorian Age environmentally, economically, and with labor practice changes.

Around the early 19th century, China began to have many issues with a drug called opium. British merchants longed for Chinese goods, but the Chinese did not want many of the goods that they had. This situation caused a trade imbalance to occur between China and Britain (3). In order to pay for the Chinese luxuries that they wanted, the British increased the production of opium in India and began to trade Bengal opium in China (2). The Chinese empire objected to the opium trade many times, but the demand for opium kept increasing (2). The drug caused many problems in China because much of the population became addicted and many economic issues occurred (2). In 1839, Commissioner Lin attempted to end the foreign trade on opium in China by

There were many reasons as to why Britain was the first country to industrialize, one of the main ones being world trade. World trade increased throughout the centuries before the Industrial revolution, therefore, it increased wealth and provided access to raw materials and a market for goods in the European countries. Economic wealth was also able to be loaned by banks to be able to finance industrial expansion. Using the advantages of the technology supremacy in the 1500s involving ship making, metal working, and navigation, in Europe, European countries dominated world trade in Africa, Asia, North America, and South America. World trade helped Britain with wealth, gaining raw materials and a market for goods, and allowed them to overpower

Collectively this reasons made the British start a war when the Chinese made the importation of opium illegal and possessed all British shipments of opium.Opium was popular in china for its medicinal effects. It was used among the population to treat infirmities. However, in the seventeenth and the early eighteenth century the use of opium increased greatly. Opium was now used as a recreational drug among the Chinese population of all classes (Polachek, 116). The British took advantage of the popularity of the drug and exported large quantities of the drug to the country, which was traded for Chinese tea and other products made from the drug .

In the 17th and 18th centuries, the demand for Chinese goods in the European market created a trade imbalance because the market for Western goods in China were non-existent; China was very self-sufficient with their produce and tools that they didn’t require imported goods.(Fitzgerald, 1992 The Europeans were not allowed access into China 's interior market, the Chinese people didn’t have a necessity of imported items. European silver flowed into China when the Canton System, established in the mid-18th century, confined the sea trade to Canton and to the Chinese merchants of the Thirteen Factories. (Hanes, 2003) The British East India Company had a monopoly of British trade. The British East India Company began to auction opium grown in India to independent foreign traders in exchange for silver. (Hughs, 1972) The opium was then transported to the Chinese coast and sold to local middlemen who retailed the drug inside China. The flow of silver was increasing in numbers as well as the amount of opium addicts that had alarmed Chinese officials. (Lim, 2011) The drug weakened a large percentage of the population, and silver began to flow out of the country to pay for the opium. Many of the economic problems China faced later were either directly or indirectly traced to the opium trade. (Keller, 2012)

The Opium Trade became an immense part of the prosperity and wealth for the British during the nineteenth century. It became clear that their European influence had rapidly dominated, thus making countries such as China vulnerable to their control, especially during the opium trade. Multiple historians have argued that it was highly unlikely that countries that were so geographically apart have any influence on each other, but as seen with the British opium trade in China, it showed the strength of their influence in the world.

The Opium Wars did not work out well for China in the end it is still important to know about the uprisings in the British empire during the 19th and 20th centuries. In the 18th century British and other foreign traders illegally exported Opium, a highly addictive drug, from India to China. The trade became popular in about the 1820’s. The addiction to Opium caused China many social and economic disruptions. The Chinese government wanted to do something about it so they destroyed 20,000 chests of Opium which angered the British and the British merchants that stored the Opium in the warehouse. 2 drunk British men killed a Chinese man and did not show up to court which angered the Chinese.

By 1606 C.E., Elizabeth I was demanding the drug be purchased and transported back to her lands (Opium, 1998). It was this Western and later Eastern demand for the drug and cries for free trade pitted against the adverse societal impacts seen in China that eventually led to the first of the Opium Wars. In 1729, Chinese emperor, Yung Cheng, began limiting the sale of opium and by 1799, Emperor Kia King placed a complete ban on the sale and growth of the drug (Opium,1998). The British, who had been importing goods from China for over a century but rarely exporting to the nation, had now found a new way to increase their wealth- exporting opium to China (Brown,

The industrial Revolution started in the 1700s in England and spread to other parts of Europe. During this period mass production of goods became possible which brought great wealth to industrial European countries and increased trade all over the world. The use of the steam engine, the invention of the power loom, and the use of coal as energy revolutionized the way products were made and significantly increased the need for factory workers. The significant increase in employment in the cities prompted a rural to urban migration which transformed Europe. The industrial revolution increased the standard of living for the middle and higher class, but workers, which included children, had to endure working long hours for a very low wage and be

During the 1500’s and 1600’s Europe was dominating and taking control of Asia’s international trade market. Due to that take over, Europe became stronger while the Asian empires became weaker and weaker. By the 1800’s Europe was in the position of authority over much of Asia, which included the Indian subcontinent.

The impact of the Industrial Revolution had a major effect on the rest of Europe. Even though Europe was slowed down by the French Revolution they got caught up mostly. The UK is the leading country of the Industrial Revolution. Many new technological developments had been made through the Industrial Revolutions. In western Europe, the population had grown rapidly causing demand for more things.

The industrial revolution in Europe didn't happen overnight but only spread over the continent very gradually. One of the triggers was the unusually high growth in the population which set in around the middle of the 18th century and produced a gigantic reservoir of workers. At the same time new, more efficient methods of production became necessary in order to supply the basic needs of so many people. In this situation Great Britain enjoyed two important advantages: an extremely productive and wealthy agricultural system, and an astonishing number of creative inventors. This was why the United Kingdom dictated the rhythm of progress to the rest of Europe from 1750 onwards for the next century or so.