Asia And Globalization Analysis

Europe and Asia became increasingly connected through the exchange of commodities with the opening of sea routes and the expansion of international trade in the 18oos. Yet this did not lead to any process of globalization of industrialization or the creation of a global economy with all its parts having an equal share of the economic pie. Instead the vast regions of Asia and Africa became colonial hinterlands, useful as a source of raw materials for the European countries and as a ready market for their goods. Thus the shape of their individual economies began increasingly to diverge. While the European and particularly Western European countries developed modern industrial economies, the Asian economies remained overwhelmingly rural

As Europe grew in technological and economic power, increasingly it encroached on Asia and ultimately this led to the political subjugation and domination of

Asia by Europe. What followed this political domination was economic domination . India served to produce commodities for England at cheap prices and serve as a ready market for English products. The growth of the Indian manufacturing sector was arrested and hamstrung while the artisan class was wiped out as an economic power. China served as a ready market for opium and was parcelled out among the European powers into spheres of influence where their political domination enables their economic domination . Thus, the initial divergence between Europe and Asia arose with the growth of urban capitalism and technological innovation in Europe, together with the European initiative in creating a globalized European trading network. With the onset of colonialism, Asian and European economies were more closely connected than ever before, but in an unequal relationship of exploiter and exploited

Various European powers asserted themselves by military means in China and gradually

Chinese international trade passed into Western hands, at great profit to the westerners. Various territorial enclaves were obtained by the Western powers . The British gained Hong Kong Island, while

Guangzhou and Shangri ports were opened to British trade. Germany obtained mining and railroad rights in Shandong province. Russian obtained the right to build a railroad across Manchuria and access to Darien and Port Arthur. The same period also saw the rise of Japanese power and the defeat of China at the hands of Japan in 1895. This spectacle of Chinese weakness was a spur to the western powers to increase their influence in China. Gradually China was divided into spheres of influence by the various

European powers. Germany's sphere of influence was Jiaozuo (Kiaochou) Bay, Shandong and the Huang-

He(Hwang-Ho) valley, Russia was dominant in Manchuria and the Liaodong peninsula, the sphere of influence of Britain was Weihaiwei and the Yangtze valley while France was dominant in Guangzhou