The focus is on the rise of Asian nationalism. Embittered by the failure of the victorious powers to dismantle their imperial empires in the Pacific, their peoples racked by poverty, famine and cultural ferment, Asia's leaders sought new strategies for change. Chinese writer Lu Xun and Japanese right-wing philosopher Kita Ikki are profiled as intellectuals who sought to resolve the conflict between the national character and international standing of their homelands. .
At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, there was a national awakening in China. The factors responsible for this rise of nationalism were the ruthless economic exploitation of the country by the European imperialists. Besides this, the social, economic and political exploitation of the Chinese by the reigning Manchu dynasty in collaboration with the Chinese landlords and the warlords resulted in great poverty in China. This aggravated the nationalist spirit of the masses. In 1900 the Boxer Rebellion broke out, with the aim of overthrowing the Manchu dynasty and of expelling all foreigners from the soil of China. However this rebellion was ruthlessly crushed by the combined armed forces of England, Russia, Germany, Japan and the U.S.A. In 1901, China was forced to accept the humiliating terms of the Treaty of Peking with the European powers. .
Sentimental Imperialists: America in Asia .
This video examines American attitudes toward Asia from 1776 to the present: the merchants, missionaries, and Marines who-however well-intentioned-often saw in Asia and Asians what they wanted to see, rather than the realities of those cultures and peoples. .
A U.S. civil government in 1902 replaced the military authority in the Philippines with William Howard Taft becoming the first civil governor. Taft later became an American president. American politics affected the islands as Taft and his successors were unwilling to delegate very much authority to the Filipinos.