Asia in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

In Asia, European influence remained marginal. Nevertheless, parts of Asia, as in India and Southeast Asia, gradually fell to European colonial control.

The Dutch in Southeast Asia

Determined to monopolize the spice trade of Southeast Asia, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) adopted aggressive policies against rivals. The VOC raised huge sums of capital—ten times that of the English East India Company—and quickly began to deepen Dutch influence in Southeast Asia. Under Jan Pieterszoon Coen, the Dutch razed Jakarta and built a fortress as a base. Later, Coen’s forces liquidated the population of the Banda nutmeg islands before moving on to other targets. By 1670, Dutch ruthlessness had given them control of the Melakan spice trade. The Dutch also engaged in less violent enterprises, transporting Asian goods in legitimate transactions to provide bullion needed in the China trade. The new Dutch presence greatly diminished the role of the old cosmopolitan trading hubs of the Southeast Asian trading network. Now European-controlled outposts became dominant.

The Safavid Empire under Assault

Suffering from weak leadership, Safavid unity began to disintegrate, opening cracks in the regime. The empire eventually collapsed under the double blow of external invasion, occurring when Afghan warriors sacked the capital in 1722, and internal rebellion, which racked the government in 1773.

The Transformation of the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman successes began to reverse after Suleiman when the Habsburgs stopped Ottoman expansion in the west. Reversals and population pressures prompted many to note that the empire was in decline. Poor leadership did not help. Global economic integration and increased supplies of money made it easier for Europeans to illegally purchase Ottoman goods with silver and avoid paying taxes. Increasingly impoverished, sultans borrowing from merchants found it more difficult to restrict their illegal activities. Abundant silver but fewer goods meant inflation, which greatly pressured artisans and peasants, who rebelled in protest. Economics became hopelessly out of balance. Parts of the empire also began to show greater independence from Ottoman rule. When the sultan sent Mamluk military and administrative officers to help raise falling Egyptian tax revenues, the officers simply allied themselves with Egyptian merchants and elites and kept most fiscal revenues for themselves.

The "Koprulu reforms" allowed the Ottomans to raise revenues and regain lost territorial possessions. Enthusiasm for greatness inspired renewed attacks on Christendom and prompted plans to take Vienna. The attack, however, failed and the Ottomans were forced to relinquish major European holdings.

The Zenith and Decline of the Mughal Empire

While the Ottomans floundered, the Mughals flourished, controlling more of India than any prior empire. Akbar’s successors continued to expand into the reaches of India and, by 1689, even controlled most of the south. Indian Ocean trade proved lucrative but was not pursued overseas. Mughal leaders remained content to let trade come to them—a simple decision given the eagerness of the Europeans. Trade increased wealth, led to the use of silver as the medium of exchange, and provided new crops for Indian peasants.

Commercial prosperity, however, also strengthened the hand of local and regional magnates seeking ways to build their own autonomy and challenge centralized Mughal rule. In the south, Marathas resistance consumed military resources and court finances. Eager to keep the south, Sultan Aurangzeb raised peasant taxes while also favoring Muslims over Hindus, thus creating hostility. Aurangzeb’s death in 1707 was followed by a war of succession and outrageous taxation practices. Local elites moved to strengthen their own hands and assert independence, thus transforming centralized Mughal rule into a loose association of provincial states.

Economically, Mughal India thrived. New lands came under Mughal control while India’s textile industry spread among the peasantry. Local leaders encouraged ties with Europeans and created Indian trading companies to manage trade with the outsiders. Others ran vast networks that combined trade and tax-farming. As these local leaders grew wealthier and wealthier, they came to possess the power to undercut Mughal influence in the regional territories.

From Ming to Qing in China

Growing wealth among China’s local leaders weakened central control of the Ming as it did the Mughals in India. Still officially banned, overseas trade produced no revenues for the court but greatly enriched local merchants and smugglers.

   Administrative Problems:

Weak emperors plagued the Ming. The Wanli Emperor refused to play his role as an administrator. Being an emperor was difficult, filled with responsibilities that could be monotonous and tiring. Ceremony and dignity bored Wanli who thus began to ignore his officials and duties.

   Economic Problems:

As leadership declined, China’s economy experienced rapid growth and concomitant problems. Attracted by rising opportunities, Japanese pirates plagued the coastal regions. Silver imports stimulated growth and increased revenues but hurt the peasantry, who suffered from inflation when too much silver was injected into China’s domestic economy and who also struggled under money-changer exactions when it came time to pay taxes. In protest, peasants rebelled. Disruptions in the flow of silver from outside China had a tremendous impact on the local economy.

   The Collapse of Ming Authority:

As natural disasters led to crop failure and famine in northern China, peasant outrage increased. Government cutbacks alienated scholarly and military elites whose discontent combined with that of the peasants to create explosive rebellions. One, headed by Li Zicheng, conquered Beijing in 1644. To defeat the rebels, Ming generals invited their northern "barbarian" enemies into China. The Manchus naturally accepted the invitation, but then refused to leave when their task was complete.

   The Qing Dynasty Asserts Control:

Noting their minority status, the Manchus moved cautiously to consolidate power. They implemented policies that the Chinese could accept. Ever adapting, these leaders of the Qing Dynasty, promoted Confucian ideals and patriarchal values, reformulated traditional social hierarchies, and promoted the family. Outer regions, with their own religious majorities, received their own administrative systems based on local mores. To deepen Qing authority, marriages between Manchu and Han were forbidden, Han officials had to wear Manchu dress, and Han Chinese were required to shave their foreheads and grow a long queue in traditional Manchu fashion, at the risk of losing their heads if they did not comply. As arbiters of public morality, the Qing placed bans on certain activities, but then struggled to enforce them.

   Expansion and Trade under the Qing:

Economic activity thrived in the eighteenth century. Expansion and tributary relations greatly extended Chinese influence. Merchants fostered trade in Southeast Asia or monopolized European trade by purchasing special government licenses. Quick to keep Europeans in their place, the Qing established the "Canton system" for Europeans exclusively, which prevented them from coming into China and kept them under close scrutiny. The most important trade, however, took place within China, largely because of its sheer size and partly because it remained unencumbered by government taxes or oversight. In short, China remained vastly wealthy and stable, despite the dynastic transition of the seventeenth century.

Tokugawa Japan

In Japan, bands of samurai under the leadership of warlords, or daimyo, struggled for influence and land, dividing the country’s political authority into smaller domains. Despite the fragmentation and a laughably weak court, however, a centralized system emerged to provide some element of unity.

Unification of Japan

Hideyoshi started building centralized power, but it fell to the house of Tokugawa to complete the task. Defeating rival daimyo, Tokugawa Ieyasu assumed the title of shogun , Japan’s top military position, before constructing a new centralized system. He established clear rules of succession, moved the capital to Edo (his base, now called Tokyo), converted samurai from warriors to administrators, and secured adequate resources for his regime. An end of warfare coupled with prosperity tripled the population in fifty years.

Foreign Affairs and Foreigners

Internationally, Hideyoshi had failed to conquer Korea and rival China for regional supremacy. Tokugawa did not even try, but instead concentrated on controlling foreigners in Japan. Europeans had established considerable presence in Japan as traders and missionaries, but their constant bickering and rivalry disrupted stability. To stem foreign influence, Japanese authorities banned Christianity, leading to violent suppressions and the expulsion of foreign missionaries. Traders, who generally favored Tokugawa rivals in the west, were also restricted; only the Dutch could trade with Japan and only under strict supervision at one port. Thus, while Asian trade continued, European traders were tightly controlled. Russian interest in the north compelled the Tokugawa to take over Hokkaido as a barrier to Russian encroachments, thus providing the Japanese with more territory and a stronger sense of identity.

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