Effects Of Imperialism In East Asia

East Asia in the 19th to the early 20th century was a time period of change, new approaches and constant pressures. After a lengthy era of isolationism East Asia was experiencing pressure from outside forces. The West approached with strong intentions and new ideas and unique cultural traditions. The Eastern Asian countries were finding themselves behind in advances in several different realms, such as, the military and in technology. Japan and China were suffering under the pressures to surrender to outside forces and open up trade with foreign merchants.
With the increase of imperialism, the western forces/countries were pushing harder for trade. They wanted to increase trade and therefore vied with Eastern Asian countries to have accessible and open boundaries and an expansion of ports. The West was backed with military that China and the other Eastern counties could not combat. After a large bout of animosity and restraining, including wars such as The First Opium War, new ports for trade were established. China’s façade of being a strong and leading nation …show more content…
The Eastern Asian nations ruled with great force for many centuries with isolationistic tendencies; they believed that their way of governing was without issue and did not need reform. The isolation was seen as a proper reaction to the Asian populations but was not seen as rationale reaction to the Western and outside forces. The two different populations did not agree on the ideas of expansion on trade and introducing new traditions and cultures. China and Japan had similarities in relation to each other’s rulings and cultures before the pressures of the Western nations but reacted in a different manner. Japan reacted to imperialism with at first disagreement but eventually began to comply with new ideas; they progressed and modernized. China abstained from imperialistic threats and did not want to divert from their comfortable isolation