INTRODUCTION: Colonialism first stepped into China after the victory of the British Navy in the first opium war (1839-42). This war is marked in history as the first in which steam-driven ships were used as the main force (Spence, J. D. 2013: 157).
Was China colonized by any country? Yes, China was colonized directly by Britain, Portugal, Russia, and China. Many other countries had control over trade in much of China.
The primary motive of British imperialism in China in the nineteenth century was economic. There was a high demand for Chinese tea, silk and porcelain in the British market. However, Britain did not possess sufficient silver to trade with the Qing Empire.
Likewise, China was never formally colonized, but the Opium Wars of 1839-1842 and 1856-1860 were fought to ensure that British opium merchants had access to Chinese markets.
Japan invades China in 1937, occupying much of the east coast of China and forcing the Nationalist government out of Nanking.
The war in China, 1937–41
In 1931–32 the Japanese had invaded Manchuria (Northeast China) and, after overcoming ineffective Chinese resistance there, had created the Japanese-controlled puppet state of Manchukuo.
China. Like the Ottoman Empire, Qing China was too large for any single European power to simply grab. Instead, Britain and France got a foothold through trade, which they then expanded through the First and Second Opium Wars.
However, no country has ever controlled the entire territory. During the European powers' attempt to control the world, the Chinese Empire was not easy to conquer as it had a powerful army and government like the Ottoman Empire. Its large size became an advantage, making it an elusive target for colonization.
The Chinese Empire is commonly seen as economically inferior to the European imperial powers. However, for much of its history, imperial China was vastly wealthier and commanded the world economy.
Britain seized Hong Kong during the First Opium War, and China's Qing Dynasty formally ceded it to the U.K. in a treaty in 1842. Until July 1997, Hong Kong was run by a British colonial administration.
The handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China was at midnight on 1 July 1997. This event ended 156 years of British rule in the former colony.
The majority of the European powers, as a result, owned either colonies or dependencies, while Russia became the unique country that had both at the same time. In sum, the Soviet Union inherited a complex history—in which Russia was conqueror and colonizer as well as conquered and colonized.
British settlement of Australia began as a penal colony governed by a captain of the Royal Navy. Until the 1850s, when local forces began to be recruited, British regular troops garrisoned the colonies with little local assistance.
Tianchao and Tianxia. Tianchao (天朝; pinyin: Tiāncháo), translated as "heavenly dynasty" or "Celestial Empire;" and Tianxia (天下; pinyin: Tiānxià) translated as "under heaven," are both phrases that have been used to refer to China.
Colonialism in China, which initially started in only a few treaty port areas during the 1840s, gradually expanded over time and continued for more than a century, finally to end in 1945 after Japan was defeated in World War II. What was the overall impact of colonialism on China?
In 1839, Britain invaded China to crush opposition to its interference in the country's economic and political affairs. One of Britain's first acts of the war was to occupy Hong Kong, a sparsely inhabited island off the coast of southeast China.
The primary German colony in China was Kiautschou Bay with the principal city being Kiautschou, The bay was seized by Germany in 1897, but after treaty negotiations, Germany leased it from the government of China. The colony existed from 1898 to 1915.
The first Dutch ship arrived in 1600, and in 1609 the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie, or VOC) established a trading factory in Hirado. Following the expulsion of the Portuguese in 1639, the Dutch became the only Europeans allowed to remain in Japan.
United Kingdom (Britain) The British Empire was the largest of its kind in history, and once covered about one quarter of all the land on Earth.
Japan had traditionally sought to avoid foreign intrusion. For many years, only the Dutch and the Chinese were allowed trading depots, each having access to only one port. No other foreigners were permitted to land in Japan, though Russia, France, and England tried, but with little success.
There were two major reasons why China began to lag behind the West during the past two centuries. First, the Chinese were arrogant and believed themselves to be superior to all other foreigners. Second, China had a conservative Confucian-based bureaucracy governing the state.
According to Rummel, in China alone, from 1937 to 1945, approximately 3.9 million Chinese were killed, mostly civilians, as a direct result of the Japanese operations and a total of 10.2 million Chinese were killed in the course of the war.
The United States and China Became Allies
After the United States and the United Kingdom joined the fight against Japan after Pearl Harbor, the flow of equipment, money and military advisors to China increased along with its global stature.
China had been at war with Japan since 1937 and continued the fight until the Japanese surrender in 1945. The United States advised and supported China's ground war, while basing only a few of its own units in China for operations against Japanese forces in the region and Japan itself.