IDS2935 - Global Asia Key Terms

Zheng He (1405 - 1433)

- Explorer/Trader
- Established tributary relationships with various nations within Southeast Asia from 1405 to 1433
- Used routes Muslim traders were using
- Caused Malacca to be recognized as an empire
- Grand Eunuch of the Ming Empire
- Promoted diplomacy

Ming Dynasty

- 1368 to 1644
- Successor to Yuan Dynasty
- Replaced by the Qing, defeated by Manchus
- Emphasized on maritime trade
- Single-Whip Tax Reform
- Converted prior currencies used for taxes such as rice or grain into silver
- Shifted dynasty from inclusive empire to a global trader
- Destabilized economy
- Would encourage families to send sons and daughters to work.

Tributary Relationship

- Territories around the South China Sea would pay tribute to China for permission to trade with them.
- Would bolster friendly relationships
- Was a sign of respect towards the Ming
- Exposed the Ming to foreign ideas, cultures, and goods
- Zheng He would show up with large amounts of goods and a fleet of ships to encourage the countries
- Theatrical Subordination

Nanyang (South China Sea)

- The body of water to the southeast of China where the majority of tributary trade occurred
- Connected China to the rest of Southeast Asia

Asia's Mobility Revolution (1850s - 1930s)

- Transoceanic and intra-Asian migration was seen on a massive scale
- Tens of millions of Asians left their homeland
- New inventions such as steam-powered ships and railways made this easier than ever
- Bay of Bengal: Huge center of trade
- Itinerant laborers (temporary workers) moved back and forth across the region
- Suez allowed for efficient travel
- Majority went to Southeast Asia (Myanmar, Malaysia, Sri Lanka)
- Monsoon winds facilitated movement

Assam (and the significance of tea) (1820s, 1826 annexed)

- Northeast India
- Tea plantations started here to beat China
- Tea from China used to be 80% of their exports in the 1800s
- Caused a silver deficit in Britain
- Started smuggling opium and started growing tea in India
- India started dominating China in tea exports
- Laborers were being made to work 20-30% more with the same wages through physical punishment
- Tech advancement intensified the situation

Indentured Labor (Girmityas and Coolies)

- New version of slavery
- Caribbean sugar plantations demanded labor after the abolition of slavery.
- Girmityas - Indian indentured laborers
- Coolies - Chinese laborers
- Illusion of choice
- Subhuman conditions, bachelor society
- Left their families behind
- Coerced into signing
- Melting pot of culture

Malacca (1405)

- Trade city developed by the Chinese
- Strait of Malacca was crucial to Chinese economic prowess
- Official relations with the main court, trade, commerce, military presence

Peranakan (15th century and on)

- Creole/Mixed families
- Added to diversity and showed that Chinese merchants settled in other places
- Chinese migrating to maritime SE Asia
- Peranakans that had ties to mainland China expanded trade

Kongsi (China)

- Company of merchants under the same family
- Professional and social networks linking home villages to overseas towns
- Assisted migrants with economic integration, job referrals, and social welfare
- Mutual-aid association
- "Grooving effect"

Sojourner

- Temporary resident
- Dual lifestyle

Diaspora (1850s to 1950s)

- Dispersion of people from their homeland
- Chinese: orientation towards homeland identity

Manila Galleon Trade (1565 - 1815)

- Nearly yearly voyage from Manila to Acapulco
- 110 times
- Brought goods from Asia in exchange for silver pesos to China
- Porcelain, silk
- Due to Single-Whip Tax Reform

Chinoiserie

A style in art reflecting Chinese influence; elaborately decorated and intricately patterned

Jiangnan

- Region south of the Yangtze River
- Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Shaoxing
- Most densely populated area at the time
- Used to grow rice, changed to cash crops such as silk and cotton

Single-Whip Tax Reform (1570s)

- Changed tax from labor/grains to silver
- Required currency to be silver
- Huge influence on urbanization and economy
- Encouraged men and women to go out and work for wages
- Chinese could grow cash crops

Qing Empire (1636/1644–1911)

- Overthrew Ming, new empire made of Manchus
- Distinct manuscript, turned into military machine vs. destabilized Ming silver economy
- Doubled size of China

Manchu

- Nomadic tribal group from Manchuria
- Jurchen

Koxinga (1624 - 1662)

- Zheng Chenggong, wanted Ming to retake throne
- Declared Qing as illegitimate
- Powerful businessman, owned ports and ships
- Competed with Portuguese, Dutch
- Had ties with Japan
- Defeated the Dutch and established a base in Taiwan, was eventually starved out by the Qing

Taiwan (Formosa)

- Arable land, sulfur mines
- People were seen as uncivilized
- Used as Koxinga's home base
- Intermarriage with indigenous Austronesian population
- Yu Yonghe wrote about it's potential

Yu Yonghe "Small Sea Travelogue" (1697)

- First hand account of trip to Taiwan to sulfur mines in the North
- Showed potential of land to be cultivated
- Dehumanized native people

Bay of Bengal

- Northeast part of Indian Ocean, with Bangladesh to the North
- Huge center of trade and migration
- "Forgotten part of global history"

Tea as a Global Drink (1800+)

- Opium Wars, British conquest of Assam

Indentured Labor (Shift in 1838)

- Many laborers were in debt due to conditions in India and other Southeast Asian countries, forced to seek higher pay
- Signed contracts blindly
- Caribbean sugar plantations needed labor after the abolition of slavery

"Fazal" (1845 - 1917)

- First hand account of indentured labor from laborer
- No way home, slave like conditions

Canton System (1759 -1842)

- Trade system that developed between China and foreign merchants
- Only occurred in Canton, limited how long traders could stay, where they could stay
- Only merchants, no dependents
- Merchants were subject to Qing law

Opium Wars (1839-1842, 1856-1860)

- Wars between Qing and Britain
- Profitable for Britain, degraded Qing
- Qing signed the Treaty of Nanjing
- First
- Britain traded opium to Qing for silver to earn back previous losses
- Chinese got addicted
- Opium was destroyed, leading to the wars
- Lead to Treaty

Treaty of Nanjing (1842)

- Ceded Hong Kong to Britain
- Ended canton system, established 5 ports
- Unequal

Extraterritoriality

- Extension of land
- People were tried by British court system rather than by local Chinese courts
- China had less control now

Pearl River Delta

- Region around Canton, Hong Kong
- Taiping Rebellion caused large emigration
- Significant port for Opium Trade

The Chinese Commission to Cuba (1874)

- First started because of the horrid treatment of Chinese laborers in Cuba
- Indentured workers were sent to Cuba to work on sugar plantations
- Investigated, determined that they were being abused
- Five nations supported the commissions

Zongli Yamen (Established 1861, during Qing (1860-1895))

- Office for the Management of the Business of All Foreign Countries
- Dealt with mistreatment of Chinese laborers in Cuba
- Sino-Spanish Treaty of 1877 - Coolie trade in Cuba was formally abolished
- Supported by England, France, Russia, Germany, US

Transcontinental Railroad (Started in 1862)

- First Chinese hired in 1865
- Sacramento, CA to Omaha, Nebraska
- Chinese eventually made up of 90% of workforce on railroads

Free Labor

- Every man has the right to labor for themselves

“The Tables Turned – How Our Streets Will Look Next Year as the Result of the Chinese
Invasion, ”Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, March 27, 1880 (cartoon)

- Chinese taking over the streets and businesses of women
- Eventually, Chinese will dominate industry

George Keller, “A Statue for Our Harbor,” The Wasp, November 11, 1881 (cartoon)

- Shows future if Chinese are not stopped

Thomas Logan, “The Chinese and the Social Evil Question” (1871)

- Highlights terrible living conditions of Chinese in San Francisco, California
- Social Evil: Prostitution

Samuel Gompers, “Meat Vs. Rice” (1908)

- Outlined fears about the Chinese taking over the United States

Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)

- Reversed in 1943: Magnuson Act
- Targeted Chinese workers, strengthened in 1892 (Geary Act)
- Chinese became first "illegal immigrants"

Angel Island (1910-1940)

- West Coast version of Ellis Island
- San Francisco Bay
- Immigration facility

Credit-Ticket System

- System where brokers paid for the cost of transport for workers while workers had to work until their debt was paid
- Many Chinese in the California got there this way
- Less restrictive than indentured servitude

Yellow Peril

- The threat to Western civilization said to arise from the power of Asiatic peoples

White Slavery

Intimate Labor

- Any form of work that "sustains, nurtures, and maintains interpersonal ties"
- Attends to the sexual, bodily, health, hygiene, and care need of individuals
- Massage therapy, midwives, teachers, etc

Tokugawa Shogunate