- Mao
Zedong
The use
of gunboat diplomacy in the 19th century in Asia expanded the dominion of
Western Empires. In that period, the charm of Asia’s wealth continued to
attract Western attention. Under the guise of civilization, warships of Western
powers anchored in different Asian ports, terrifying governments and bending them to their will. This tactic changed histories and
policies that continued to be felt to this day.
Basic Concept
Gunboat
diplomacy paralleled a school bully hitting on vulnerable children. By use of
intimidation and display of might, it subdued countries to other’s will.
James
Cable, who wrote the book Gunboat Diplomacy, defined it as:
"the use or threat of limited naval force, otherwise than as an act of war, in order to secure advantage, or to avert loss, either in the furtherance of an international dispute or else against foreign nationals within the territory or the jurisdiction of their own state."
Gunboat diplomacy used small squad of
warships sailing into a strategic area and using it as a leverage for
negotiations. In Asia during the 19th century, western navies sent their most
modern warship into these expeditions to intimidate technologically
backward countries with powerful guns and ships with large sails, bellowing
chimneys, and revolving side wheels. This display and its positioning, accompanied
by strong personalities of negotiators, petrified many Asian countries. The
fear turned eventually to “furtherance” for Western powers. “Furtherance”
that meant unequal treaties or later on annexation.
Cable’s
Aspects of Gunboat Diplomacy
Cable
also wrote the underlining principles of a gunboat diplomacy (summarized in
Wikipedia). First came the definitive force that underlined the aims the use
of gunboat diplomacy as to break a prevailing condition in a country,
ranging from discrimination, violence against foreigners, or even war.
Secondly
came the purposeful force, which called upon the use of limited naval force to
demand or to convince a change in government's attitude and policy.
Thirdly
was the Catalytic Force, or the phase where the executioner of the gunboat
diplomacy provided options through negotiations to the victim country aiming to
change the prevailing situation.
Lastly
was the Expressive Force which was simply the use of naval power to force a
government to change its policies.
Reasons
for the Use of Gunboat Diplomacy
Gunboat diplomacy allowed Western countries to
expand their Empires without a conquest of large armies and navies. It matched
the change in strategy of the West’s imperial expansion. It took advantage of
the existing situations for a reason and changing technology in warfare.
The 19th century saw a resurgence in imperialism.
Europe scrambled for Africa and Asia. But such expansion cost a lot of
resources and men to keep. By the time they devoured Asia, their military
spread thinly across the globe and thus it called for a change in strategy.
Instead of gaining outright colonies with large armies and expeditions, they began to use unequal treaties to
establish protectorates and spheres of influence that required lesser men but still allowed them to control over governments and resources of countries. If the
country rebelled, gunboats crashed them. Only if the circumstances came that
they decide to annex a country.
But in order to obtain unequal treaties, Western
power needed an excuse to enter the scene; and, coming as civilization agents
provided it. For centuries, Asians and Westerners mutually viewed each other as
aliens and barbarians. Asians feared Westerners for their religion and
colonization and protected themselves through isolation. But they saw a surge in numbers of Europeans and Americans coming because of transportation advancements. They continued to
resist and treated foreigners with hostility. This hostility gave justification to Western powers to introduce their sophisticated and civilize manners thru
gunboat diplomacy.
Gunboat diplomacy allowed the West to exact unequal
treaties in favor to them from Asian countries. Eventually, more unequal
treaties followed until some countries fell to either become protectorates and
spheres of influence or completely a dominion of Western power.
Examples
Western powers conducted gunboat diplomacy time and
again with devastating efficiency. China experienced the might of the British
navy in a gunboat diplomacy aimed in ending the Opium War. The Japanese
followed with the same coming from the Americans in an effort to end its policy
of isolation. While the Siam suffered from the French to end a war over
territorial dispute.
China
Chinese Commissioner Lin Zexu arrived in Canton in
1839 with the task of ending the scourge of opium. Opium devastated the society
and economy of China and Peking wanted to cease it. Britain, however, ran the
opium trade from the only port open to foreigners – Canton. The crackdown of
Lin, however, led to diplomatic tensions that climaxed in December 1839 when
China cut off trade relations with Great Britain. Britain responded by
declaring war on China, starting the Opium War that lasted until 1842.
British warships destroying Chinese junks in Anson Bay during the Opium War |
The unequal Treaty of Nanking secured Britain's privileges in China. It led to the opening of 4 more additional ports to foreign trade, dismantling
of the Cohong and Canton System and providing of extraterritorial rights that
gave British citizens immunity from trials from local courts and laws. It conferred the status of most favored
country to Britain that automatically gave them all benefits that the Chinese
would give to other nationalities. It ceded to Britain the Island of Hong Kong
and allowed pockets of British garrison to remain in some areas of China. It made China pay a huge sum indemnity for damages and expenses the British
incurred from 1839. In addition, It forced the Chinese to treat Britain as an equal in diplomatic negotiations and letters rather than another
tributary state or a barbarian kingdom. Britain earned fear as well as anger
from the Chinese because of the humiliation they inflicted and the unequal terms
they imposed.
Japan
Japan shared China’s experience in gunboat
diplomacy in 1853 and 1854. For two centuries, Tokugawa Japan isolated itself
from the rest of the world except from the Dutch and their enclave in Dejima Island in Nagasaki. The Americans saw Japan as strategic for its China trade and
Asian adventures. So in 1852, Commodore Matthew C. Perry sailed to Japan to
open its doors to Americans.
Perry meeting with Japanese diplomats |
When Perry returned, the Japanese felt ever more uncomfortable as Perry anchored nearer to Edo, in a spot close to Kangawa (modern day Yokohama). They negotiated furiously for Perry to agree to talk near the coast of Kanagawa instead of Edo. And so by March, the two side talked for an agreement that would end Japan’s isolation and open its doors to Americans. It concluded with the signing of the Treaty of Kanagawa.
The Treaty of Kanagawa secured the opening of some
ports for American resupply. It secured the residency of a consul in one of the
ports – Shimoda. It secured the welfare of American sailors and ships that
would be wrecked or castaway to Japanese shores. The Treaty of Kanagawa
signaled the coming of Europeans to negotiate the same terms. Few years later, in
1858, the Americans secured the Harris Treaty that gave the American
extraterritoriality and right to trade in several ports of Japan. Other
countries followed suit. The giving of extraterritoriality made much of the Treaties
that followed the Harris as unequal. But Japan conceded to keep peace and hope
to maintain its independence peacefully.
Thailand/Siam
The Southeast Asian kingdom of Thailand or back then Siam also had its
share of gunboat diplomacy by a western power. In 1893, Siam and France had
territorial dispute over the lands of modern-day Laos. The French wanted to
expand their Indochinese colony while Siam wanted to maintain its tributaries in the same area. The dispute turned violent and
armed clashes between the two sides erupted to a war.
Two French warships during the Paknam Incident |
The Siamese government received the demands of the
French on July 20. They faced the choice accepting the surrender of lands along the Mekong
River, the release captured French officers from the border clashes, and the payment of a
huge indemnity or face a French blockade or bombardment. With French artillery pointed at the Grand Palace, they
consented to accept all terms except the surrender of lands in the Mekong River. It did not satisfy
the French.
The French then commenced the blockade of Bangkok
the only major port of Siam at that time. Although lesser than a bombardment of the Grand Palace, it still devastated commerce and the economy. Siam remained recalcitrant for few weeks until
finally it gave in. Negotiations over a treaty began.
On October 3, 1893, the two belligerents signed an
agreement that mandated Siam to withdraw its forces east of the Mekong and
establishing a 25 km. demilitarized zone in the western bank of the river. Siam
lost its traditional tributaries and parts of modern day Cambodia. In addition,
it had to pay indemnities to the French. As a result, Siam was reduced to its present borders.
Effects
Gunboat diplomacy shook many
countries. It created an initial shock and fear followed by reflection and confusion, in a
sense of what direction to take. Many countries took different paths and ended
with different results.
China took the path of resistance. They neglectfully implemented the articles of the Treaty of Nanking. Attacks on
British subjects and other foreigners persisted and in 1856, a coalition of
British and French forces subjugated once again China in a Second Opium War, ending in further
singing of unequal treaties. The Qing Dynasty and the Chinese continued to view
westerners as barbarians, leading to further humiliation of China. In the last
decade of the 19th century, Peking drafted a massive modernization program to strengthen the country, but
the conservatives maneuvered to cease it, seeing foreign technologies and ways
as devil’s works. In the end, the Chinese people felt sick of the embarrassments they got from failed government policies and toppled the imperial government
in 1911. China remained chaotic until 1949 with the foundation of the People’s
Republic China, and to this day they continue to remember the humiliation that gunboat
diplomacy inflicted to them in 19th century.
Japan traversed a better path. Shock over the unequal treaties and foreign gunboats in their shores led to division between those who saw opening the country as a
practical means to survive and those who argued for resistance and rallied
under the banner of jo-i (Expel the Barbarians). In end, the Tokugawa
Shogunate, incapable to resist against modern weapons, conceded time and again
to foreign demands, to which their opponents used to call for their ouster. And
in 1868, civil war erupted between the Shogunate and the Imperialist, ending with
the fall of the Tokugawa and the restoration of imperial rule. The leaders of the restoration,
although firstly believed in jo-i, suddenly continued the opening of Japan and
started the modernization of the country. By the end of the century, Japan
poised to be an imperial power and earned respect in 1905 when they inflicted a
defeat against Russia.
King Chulalongkorn |
Gunboat diplomacy allowed western powers to exact
unequal treaties, it flared up discontent on many Asian countries. The notion
of invincibility of foreigners from local laws, loss of territories, or sudden
changes in policies led for the people to question their governments and view
foreigners as “devil” and barbarians. Many attacked foreigners as a result that led western powers to retaliate with
another gunboat diplomacy and another unequal treaty, a cycle that ultimately led to a
colonial status, which only few manage to avoid. The incapability of
governments to resist the west undermined them in the view of their people,
usually leading up to their downfall, as in the case of China and Japan.
But gunboat diplomacy had its positive effects in
some cases, such as Siam and Japan. Experiencing gunboat diplomacy led to
reflection on the weakness of their country, not just in political will but
technologically. Modern weapons made gunboat diplomacy by the west effective
and the only way to resist it was to become modern as well. As a result,
modernization became a focus. Their success only determined by how willing and
strong their leaders to break conservative conception and accept practicality.
In the case of Siam and Japan.
Gunboat diplomacy also had relations with the rise
of nationalism. Nationalism meant to defend a people’s interest, welfare, and
independence from foreigners. Thus, with humiliation inflicted by gunboat
diplomacy, nationalism spread, leading them either to resistance or to
modernize be strong to defend themselves from foreign incursions.
Summing
Up
Gunboat diplomacy served as an instrument of the
west to expand their influence and colonial empires under the guise of
spreading civilization. They used small naval squadrons placed in strategic
positions and used fear as weapons of intimidation to change a prevailing
situation and to subdue Asian countries to submit to their unequal terms.
China, Japan, and Siam had their own experience resulting to semi-colonial
status or lose of territories.
The result of the tactic varied per every Asian
country. But most develop an idea of nationalism to defend themselves either by
fighting or by reforming to modernize. By fighting proved to be more chaotic
than reforming. But even with reforms came challenges from within, from
conservatives and traditionalist, or without, if a western power decided to take a
territory. In the end, a country’s fate in managing the aftermath of a gunboat
diplomacy reside on its leadership. Luckily for some, they had the right
leaders but for others, they must endure for decades the hardship of being a
dominion of a western power.
Today, gunboat diplomacy maintained its potency in
a modern form. Instead of battleships, major powers exercised their military
influence through the use of aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, and
destroyers armed with guided missiles. The United States used these to protect
its interest. China learned from its past to execute its very own
gunboat diplomacy, using its coast guard and navy to intimidate its neighbors
and to take over the resource rich South China Sea and to protect their nine dash
line.
Gunboat diplomacy remains an instrument in Asian as well as global politics. Its form and instrument changes with time but its objective of
intimidating a country to further an interest remained the same. Gunboat
diplomacy would and will continue to play a role in politics as long as there
are waters to sail on.
See also:
Bibliography:
Fairbank, John King. China: A New History. London, England: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2006.
Hogan, Albert. Pacific Blockade. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908.
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