I've talked before in another presentation about this kind of nationalism or
racial identity.
It is an anti-imperialism movement too.
Japanese for example, feel like they're the leaders of a Pan-Asian movement.
I talked last time about how the Japanese are involved in
imperial acquisitions in China.
But actually back home in Japan,
the Japanese are very ambivalent about how to feel about China.
On the one hand, there are Japanese who see opportunities for
greater power there for their country.
On the other hand,
there are Japanese who feel a great sense of solidarity with the Chinese and
think that they should join in a Pan-Asian alliance to overthrow foreign rulers.
That's why some of those Chinese exiles who've been reformers in the court of
the Ching empire, when they flee, they find refuge in Japan.
So a Pan-Asian response is both anti-imperialist,
but it can be something more.
Same with a Pan-Islamic response or Pan-Slav response.
In addition to being anti-imperialist, it can actually be counter-imperialist.
In other words,
the way I'm going to counter your empire is build up an empire of my own.
I'm going to counter the European empires with a Pan-Asian empire.
And of course, any empire needs a leader.
The Japanese, for example, see themselves as the potential leaders of
a Pan-Asian federation which, of course, to some people might just seem like
a hypocritical mask for Japanese selfish ambitions.
But there's something that many Japanese sincerely believed in.
But you can see here the way the Japanese are slowly beginning to expand
their empire now to the Asian mainland.
In addition to Taiwan which became part of Japan in 1895,
they set up a protector over Korea.
And finally turn Korea into a full blown colony by 1910.
After beating the Russians in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, they get
a settlement in which Japan's spear of influence begins to spread in Manchuria.
Manchuria isn't under formal Japanese control or formal Russian control.
But the control of the Chinese government over Manchuria decays more and more.
It becomes a matter of foreigners partnering with local
warlords to try to exploit Manchurian resources.
A kind of chaos that would become a really important subject of international
politics during the 20th century.
So step back.
What we've tried to do in this whole week of discussion is look back over what
a phenomenon imperialism is in the second half of the 1800s.
And how it really takes off in the later part of the 1800s.
Sweeping across Africa and almost coming to the point of carving up China itself.
But how as you get into the early 1900s, the global empires are still there.
They're still very strong.
But all kinds of anti imperialist movements have really taken a firm grip,
not only in Europe, but also in Asia.
And we've also noticed that sometimes,
you oppose imperialism by asserting an alternative imperialism of your own.