Asia and Summary
Overview
Statewide Dual Credit Modern World History: Unit 1, Lesson 5
A discussion of the regions of Southeast Asia and East Asia in the 1500s, including the influence of European traders and the impact of Buddhism. The text also touches on the Ming Dynasty in China and the Tokugawa Dynasty in Japan.
Today Asia is generally divided into four different regions: Southeast Asia (mainland Southeast Asia and maritime Southeast Asia), South Asia (Indian subcontinent), East Asia (Far East), Central and West Asia (the Middle East and the Caucasus), and North Asia (Siberia). It is bounded by the Pacific, Indian and Artic Oceans. Nomadic horsemen, such as the Mongols and Turkic peoples, dominated the Eurasian steppes and built empires that controlled vast regions from the 13th century onward.. Russian explorers and settlers began relocating to Asia in the 16th century, a process they would complete by the 19th century. During this same period, the Ottoman Empire expanded throughout Anatolia, the Balkans and Egypt. The Manchu-led Qing dynasty (1644–1912) consolidated power over China following the fall of the Ming dynasty, expanding its control throughout the 17th century. The Islamic Mughal Empire (1526-1857) and the predominately Hindu Maratha Empire (16th to early 19th century) likewise controlled much of India from the 16th to 18th century. Japan expanded its influence over much of East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Oceania during the first half of the 20th century, particularly in the lead-up to and during World War II, until its defeat in 1945.
Southeast Asia
Over the centuries, the term “Southeast Asia” has meant different things to different people. For instance, Chinese mapmakers referred to the coastal areas of Southeast Asia as Nanyang (literally “the Southern sea”). On the other hand, Arab explorers called the region Zīrbād or Zīrbādāt (“land below the winds”). Geographers did not refer to Southeast Asia as a geographical and distinct political term until the mid- twentieth century.
Today experts refer to mainland Southeast Asia (also known as the Indochinese Peninsula), comprising Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Peninsular Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, under the general heading of Southeast Asia. Maritime Southeast Asia consists mainly of the Malay Archipelago, including Brunei, East Malaysia, East Timor, Indonesia, the Philippines and Singapore.
As in the case of Africa, European explorers, soldiers, merchants and missionaries who voyaged to Asia from the 1500s through the 1800s primarily dealt with coastal areas. For example, Portuguese merchants arrived in the region in the 1500s to dominate the spice trade. However, in the 17th century, the Dutch displaced the Portuguese by establishing trading relations with the Sultans of Java and Sumatra. By the 1800s the British East India Company dominated large sections of India and controlled Hong Kong on the south China coast and Penang and Singapore in Malaysia. Although the bulk of Spain’s overseas colonies lay in Central and South America, Madrid still maintained a tight hold over the Philippines. However, unlike the Americas where Europeans quickly imposed their religious and cultural beliefs on native populations, in Southeast Asia local cultures largely retained their practices. While European economic techniques were adopted, most Southeast Asian societies continued to follow Theravada Buddhism, Mahayana Buddhism, and Islam. In sum, prior to 1500, Europeans wielded little influence over Southeast Asia and even afterward were forced to limit such influence to the relatively small costal areas.
Spotlight On | BUDDHISM
During the sixth or fifth centuries BCE, an Indian prince named Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) founded Buddhism, a spriritual path focused on the alleviation of suffering through meditation, ethical conduct, and wisdom. As the Buddha eschewed religious dogma and urged individuals to develop their own methods of meditating and praying, Buddhism flowered throughout Asia in a variety of contrasting styles and traditions. Today Tantric, Northern Mahāyāna, and Southern Buddhism represent the three largest groups of Buddhists in the world. Native to Sri Lanka (Ceylon), Myanmar (Burma), Thailand, Cambodia and Laos, the Theravada school represents the most conservative branch of Buddhism. Theravadins (Pali; “Way of the Elders”) enshrine the teachings of Buddha’s followers, maintain a sharp division between monks and ordinary practitioners, and venerate the Buddha as not merely a spiritual leader but the perfect master.
The Mahāyāna (Sanskrit for “Greater Vehicle”) movement arose in India around the ninth century CE and spread rapidly through Central and East Asia. Central to Mahāyāna ideology is the idea of the bodhisattva, the one who seeks to become a Buddha. Mahāyāna Buddhists believe that everybody can aspire to become a bodhisattva. Bodhisattvas seek to understand the nature of reality through acquiring wisdom (prajna) and actualization through compassion (karuna). Providing an organized monastic movement and large scholastic centers, Mahāyāna Buddhism remains a very popular form of Buddhism. Mahāyāna accepts the primary scriptures and teachings of early Buddhism but also recognizes other texts that are not accepted by Theravada Buddhism, such as the Mahāyāna Sūtras, which emphasizes the history of bodhisattvas.
East Asia
Today cartographers regard China (including Hong Kong and Macau), Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea and Taiwan as part of East Asia. East Asia shares borders with Russia, Southeast Asia and Central Asia.
For nearly 300 years, the Ming dynasty provided China with a relatively stable government and economy. The Ming dynasty was the last Han Chinese dynasty to rule China, having come to power in 1368 after the fall of the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. Ming emperors promoted domestic agricultural production and tried to reduce dependency on foreign trade and merchants. Ming officials capitalized on American crops such as corn, squash, peanuts and beans introduced to Asia by European merchants to greatly increase Chinese crop yields. The Ming dynasty also established regular commercial exchanges with Japan. In the 1400s, Ming fleets led by Admiral Zheng He used sophisticated seamanship and maritime technology to reach Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Arabia and East Africa.
Negative encounters with Portuguese, Spanish and Dutch trading enterprises and missionaries led Chinese officials to expel foreigners en masse and prohibit the teaching of western religion. Losing control of the country, the Ming dynasty would be replaced in 1644 by the Qing. The Qing dynasty would, in turn, govern China until 1912.
Despite being heavily influenced by Chinese culture and politics, Japan developed its own political, cultural and economic traditions. Although nominally led by an emperor, Japan was actually ruled by daimyos (feudal lords) who competed to control the imperial government. Japan had been a fractured and violent state until the emergence of the Tokugawa dynasty (1603-1868), led by the daimyo and eventual military dictator (shogun) Tokugawa Ieyasu (1603-1868). Borrowing from Chinese precedents, Tokugawa and his successors expelled Christian missionaries and reduced their exposure to European trade and ideas. This isolation would last until the 19th century.
South Asia
Today, South Asia includes the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The region is bounded by the Himalayan mountains to the north and the Indian Ocean in the south. When Europeans traders in the 1500s and 1600s first moved into the region, they faced opposition from the Mughal Empire that dominated Northern India. However, the decline of the Mughals in the 18th century provided an opening for the British Empire, which would eventually gain control over much of the region.
SUMMARY
This chapter has laid the essential groundwork for our investigation of world history. The following chapters will build upon this information by encouraging readers to broaden their horizons and confront the past from a multitude of perspectives. As we cover more than 500 years of history, we will see that while many aspects of the human experience have radically changed, other areas retain a high degree of continuity. When reading through this text, try to identify trends of continuity and change over time. The next three chapters deal with empires that governed vast lands in Europe, America, Asia, Eurasia and the Middle East. The following three chapters examine revolutions in science and religion, social and cultural revolutions that challenged and toppled existing political orders, and a technological revolution that changed the world. We then examine how various societies dealt with the challenges of modernity and outside encroachment. Our textbook concludes with an investigation of the 20th century and our modern world.