AD 1800-2000

This period is marked by rebellion and dissolution of empires and tradition throughout Asia. In western Asia the Ottoman Empire suffered from a series of rebellions and wars. It gradually lost its lands, and with them, its economic, political and military power. Many of its states became European protectorates and in many cases remain sites of conflict.

In the 1800s western powers fought to maintain control of Chinese trade. China, like Thailand, remained independent but at considerable cost. The Qing fell in 1911 and was replaced by a Nationalist government. In 1949 a Communist Revolution defeated the government and Mao Zedong ruled until his death in 1976. Since the 1980s a series of economic reforms have made China one of the world’s fastest growing economies.

The British crown ruled India directly from 1857-1947 when India finally gained independence. Despite India’s growing prosperity, the region still suffers from conflicts exacerbated by its partition into the Republics of India and Pakistan.

Japan, the first East Asian country to industrialise, attempted to establish an empire. They were defeated during World War II (1939-45). America exploded two nuclear weapons in Japan, occupied it and restructured its political infrastructure. In recent years some of the economic success of the 1980s has returned but many of the traditional social safeguards have been eroded.