Wednesday, March 20, 2024
Fragments from East Asia (Part I)
The Winter Palace, the City of Peking, China, the Great Qing Empire, January 1889.
The Guangxu Emperor, His Imperial Majesty, the Son of Heaven, Prince Zaitian of the Imperial Manchu Aisin-Gioro Clan, and the 10th Emperor of the Qing Dynasty; sat at his desk within the complex of private apartments, chambers and rooms reserved solely for the imperial master of the Great Qing Empire, inside the Forbidden City, the Imperial Winter Palace and Residence of the Emperors of China. The massive palace complex akin to a city within a city, encircled within it's own massive compound of walls and gates, called the Imperial City, which sprawled across and dominated the center of the city of Peking. He reached for the cup of green tea, that rested near at hand, as he studied the various documents that lay before him, and made notations in his diary.
His primary concern at the moment, was foreign intervention in Chinese affairs, particularly interventions by France, with it's considerable colonial possessions in French Indo-china. The last significant wars between China and France had been in 1882 and 1884-85, in which France had secured it's hold over the tributary states of Tonkin, Annam and Cochin-china and consolidated them with Cambodia, to augment their considerable East Asian colonial empire. A massive anti-French revolt in 1886 in Annam had not significantly altered this situation, however much it had alarmed the French adminstration at the time. Another war between China and France was, in and of it self only a matter of time, and probably it would happen sooner rather then later. France, rebuilding after the disasters of the Franco-German War of 1881-82 and desperate for colonial or economic successes to restore it's damaged pride, was putting enormous pressure upon the Kingdom of Laos to accept a French protectorate, which would effectively annex them into the Republic of France's colonial domains.
The Kingdom of Siam would immediately declare war upon France, if this happened. Siam was caught in a stratgic vice formed by the British and French empires pressure to come within their respective spheres of influence and if Laos fell, Siam's freedom to manover both politically and economically as well as militarily between and separately of the two Great Powers, would be severely compromised. Brunei and Tonga, were under the same steady pressure from Great Britain to accept protectorates, though they had so far stood firm and maintained their own soveriegnty, but the pressure was still there, and Brunei might in the future fall. They had at least the advantage that the Austrian and German Empire's who both had territory in the island of Borneo regarded this development with considerable distrust and had moved to quitely support the Sultan in resisting, British economic and political pressure. Samoa, still in the throes of a civil war was stabalizing but with several Great Powers interested in the outcome, preferably to their exclusive benefit, that could not be expected to continue in a reasonable way for Samoa.
Along the long border ranging between China and British India and Burma, stood the independent nations of Tibet, Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan. To the Imperial Qing Dynasty, the four nations were an irritant, especially their continued independence which was intolerable to the imperial government. The young emperor chose however to see them differently, and that was as a most effective barrier against further British encroachment from that direction, as their fierce independence and their considerable success in crushing any military expeditions mounted upon them from either side of their borders, made them even bigger irritants to the British Vice-Roys of India and the British government in London!
The Russian Empire's aspirations in East Asia, had for the time being been forstalled, especially in regard to China's western and northern most provinces and for the present, they accepted the semi-independence of Outer Mongolia as a useful if nominal buffer state rather then moving to annex it outright, which would provoke a war the Russians did not need at present with both China and Japan. With Russian attention elsewhere for the time being, China could breath for a bit in that direction, although not restfully, the eighteen year old emperor reflected silently. Russian eyes and aspirations were for the moment turned to their western and southwestern borders, and the majority of the European Great Powers were welcome to it, as far as the emperor and his officials were concerned.
Similarly, Great Britain and Portugal were satisfied with their enclaves in Macao and Hong Kong, as were the other Great Powers with equal access to establishing trade concessions within the Treaty Ports of Tientsin and Shanghai and conducting a vigourous and prosperous trade with China. Portugal, in point of fact, while not adverse to colonial expansionism at any time in it's history of trade and exploration, was not in a position to do so. Portugal, had sufficient problems just holding on to what they already had in the Atlantic, India and the East Indies against some of the other European Great Powers. Great Britain, was more worrying to his mind, as historically it was not adverse to acquiring territory anywhere it could to secure either it's economic dominance in a region or to protect territory it had already seized or otherwise obtained. Both he and his immediate predecessor, the Tongzhi Emperor, had carried out a steady policy of extensive reforms and internal improvements that had greatly benefitted China, and also allowed his government to reverse or discard many of the detested Unequal Treaties, that the Qing Dynasty's previous emperors had been forced to agree to following various unsuccessful wars or conflicts of interest with the various Great Powers.
Of the Great Powers, only Austria could be considered a genuine friend by China or indeed many of the other seven states. The Austrians were purely interested in trade with China, their own colonial ambitions were very modest compared to the other Great Powers and they had what they both needed for purposes of trade and status and had little desire or even interest to acquire more. Further the Austrians were as a rule willing to work together with the Chinese government on trade and economic terms that were generally acceptable to both parties and profitable for both in the long term, as well as the short term. This was most unlike many of the other Great Powers, which desired to control trade with China to their exclusive benefit. The Emperor suspected that the Austrians felt a good deal of sympathy for the Qing, the Habsburgs themselves had once ruled an empire, that covered a great deal of the known world which had reached it's zenith under the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V and then watched other Great Powers steadily chip away at it til it was little more then a memory of better days.
He considered again the idea, that had been put forth by the King of Hawai'i, of forming an east asian/pacific association or league of nations, which excluded the Western colonial powers. Principally, the Empires of China and Japan, the Kingdoms of Hawai'i, Siam, Laos, Tonga and Samoa, and the Sultanate of Brunei. All eight nations were under the threat of political, economic or territorial encroachment by one or more of the European Great Powers, so pooling their military and economic resources to counter the outsider encroachment in a constructive way could only be beneficial to all of them. The foreign ministers and embassy officials of the various countries he had just named had begun serious if unoffical discussion of the idea early last year. The King of Hawai'i had actually originally prosposed the idea some twenty years earlier but because of real conflicts of interest and fierce competition between some of the nations necessary to make it a functioning reality, as well as the hostile reaction of many of the Great Powers, the idea had to be dropped. That said, the idea had never entirely been abandoned, either by the Hawaiian king or by supporters within the other seven nations, for it made good sense whatever the practical difficulties.
It had been decided in a series of highly unoffical and secret "round table" meetings, after much discussion and considerable argument it had to be said, to make the association of east asian nations into an economic and political block, with the King of Hawai'i as the permanent chairman. This dealt with concerns that had been raised, that China or Japan would use the position of chairman to dominate the association for their own sole benefit and in effect make the other member states effectively political and economic vassals of one or the other empires. China and Japan as the two most significant military powers amoung the eight nations, it was agreed would co-chair the Permanent Security Committee of the association with one of the other nations holding the deputy chair on a rotary basis every four years, their primary concern was checking or halting Great Power encroachments on the member states territories and fighting the various seagoing or airel pirate or rogue privateering groups that were still a significant problem for all of them (and even the Europeans for that matter) in Asian and the wider Pacific waters.
There had been much and not unreasonable debate on where to set up a headquarters and permanent meeting place for the association, which would be acceptable to all eight members. Honolulu many felt, including many Hawaiians, was too far away from many of the other members and there would be a significant time lag in dealing with routine or emergency situations even with the web like network of submarine telegraphic cables that criss crossed much of the Pacific Ocean or via even the speediest nautical or airel mail or despatch boats. The Japanese port city of Nagasaki had finally been settled upon after some lively debate, it was a well established trade port with a history of carrying out international trade and had prosperous commerical links and connections all over the world, which would be very advantageous to all eight of the association's member states. Further it was better placed for many of the nations, particular Siam, Laos, Brunei to reach in a convient time for meetings, true it was distant from Hawai'i, Samoa and Tonga, but that would have been true of almost any other port or city agreed upon, in any case.
Once Nagasaki had been decided upon, the idea had been put forward of forming a special monetary fund or bank of the association, that all eight members could access and use, which would useful for commerical or economic projects that were of benefit not only to the individual nations but also for interconnected projects that affected several members equally. Such a financial organization would also make it easier for member states to obtain funds via low interest loans and not have to rely on the financial institutions of the Great Powers, such as the Bank of France or the Bank of England to which they would normally have to turn.
Putting such a Bank on a working footing, from scratch would have been a considerable problem, both in organizing and providing with funds to make it a working concern. However, the idea had been so persuasive to the officials involved in the association negotiations that, they had worked hard to overcome the difficulties. The young emperor had even offered to place some of his own vast personal wealth at the bank's disposal which had surprised but pleased everyone involved in the negotiations. This offer had been matched by the Emperor of Japan, and by the Sultan of Brunei, easily the richest of the monarchs involved aside from himself. The Kings of Siam, Laos, Hawai'i and Tonga had also agreed to make a sizeable contribution within their respective means. The King of Samoa, had offered to assist but expressed concerns that the ongoing civil war and the post-war recovery meant, both his personal and his governmental funds were regrettably at a premium for purely Samoan use. It was agreed that they would contribute to the bank as circumstances allowed, in due course. With the monarchial funds provided, in addition to the funds put forth by seven of the eight nations, the Bank of the East Asian Association would be placed on a firm financial footing. Bonds sales to private individuals within each of the nations were also expected to add to the working capital of the Bank in due course.
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