The European Powers in Asia 835(which now included the Cape Colony, the Orange Free State, Transvaal,
and Natal, and which was given Dominion status by the British at that time).
The new Boer government immediately proclaimed that it would “permit
no equality between colored people and the white inhabitants either in
church or state.” Apartheid—the unequal separation of whites and blacks
by law—was the result of the Boer policy of racial domination. It proved to
be the most extreme consequence of the “scramble for Africa.”
The European Powers in Asia
The European powers and the United States divided up much of the entire
Pacific region in their quest for raw materials, markets, strategic advantage,
and prestige. From the populous Indian subcontinent, Britain expanded its
interests into and beyond Burma, accentuating a rivalry with Russia for
influence in the region. In the meantime, the Dutch extended their author
ity in Indonesia, while the French turned much of Indochina into their
protectorate. The Russian Empire had expanded well into Central Asia
and to the Pacific Ocean. By 1900, only Japan, the emerging power in Asia,
maintained real independence against European incursion, having accepted
western modernization following the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Siam (Thai
land) stood as a buffer state between British and French colonial interests,
and the Western powers dominated China, forcing trade and territorial
concessions on that weakening empire.
India, Southeast Asia, and ChinaEurope’s quest for colonies and domination in Asia had begun even earlier
than in Africa. During the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), British troops
defeated the French in India. The British East India Company, responsible to
the British Parliament, administered India. The Company ruled with the
assistance of various Indian princes. The British recognized their local prerog
atives in exchange for their obedience and assistance. Britain later expanded
east from India into Burma, overcoming Burmese resistance in a war from
1824 to 1826, and then expanded south into Malaya (see Map 21.4).
Using India as a base, British merchants, backed by British naval power,
worked to overcome barriers to trade with East Asia. In the 1830s, British
traders had begun to pay for silks, teas, and other Chinese luxury goods with
opium grown in India. In 1833, the East India Company lost its monopoly
on trade with the east, and other English traders appeared in China selling
opium. With opium addiction rampant in southern China, in 1839 the
emperor tried to limit trade with foreigners, insisting that all such trade
pass through Canton (now Guangzhou). The Royal Navy sent gunboats—
hence the origin of the term “gunboat diplomacy”—to Canton to force Chi
nese capitulation in the short, one-sided Opium War (1840—1842). British