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Building up Steam: Steamship Technology in 19Th Century East Asian Colonial Warfare Matthew Mclin

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Building up Steam: Steamship Technology in 19Th Century East Asian Colonial Warfare Matthew Mclin Florida State University Libraries Electronic Theses, Treatises and Dissertations The Graduate School 2012 Building Up Steam: Steamship Technology in 19th Century East Asian Colonial Warfare Matthew McLin Follow this and additional works at the FSU Digital Library. For more information, please contact [email protected] THE FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND PUBLIC POLICY BUILDING UP STEAM: STEAMSHIP TECHNOLOGY IN 19TH CENTURY EAST ASIAN COLONIAL WARFARE By MATTHEW MCLIN A Thesis submitted to the Program in Asian Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Degree Awarded: Fall Semester, 2012 Matthew McLin defended this thesis on October 25th, 2012. The members of the supervisory committee were: Jonathan Grant Professor Directing Thesis Claudia Liebeskind Committee Member Charles Upchurch Committee Member The Graduate School has verified and approved the above-named committee members, and certifies that the thesis has been approved in accordance with university requirements. ii To Nami iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my thanks to Dr. Jonathan Grant for his direction in the preparation of this thesis. His guidance made the process far easier and rewarding than expected. Also, I would like to thank Dr. Whitney Bendeck for her constant guidance and advice in my graduate career and this thesis. She has set me a fine example for the support professors should give to students, and the professionalism necessary in an academic career. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ..................................................................................................... vi 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................ 1 2. THE BURMA WARS: MARCH 1824-FEB. 1826 & APRIL 1852-DEC. 1852 ..................... 12 3. THE FIRST ANGLO-SINO WAR: NOV. 1839 -AUG.1842 ...................................................................... 32 4. THE PERRY EXPEDITION: JULY 1853 - APRIL 1854 .................................................................. 58 5. CONCLUSION ................................................................................... 76 REFERENCES ........................................................................................ 82 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH................................................................... 85 v ABSTRACT The invention of the steamship had a widespread effect on both the world of trade and military conflict. However, current scholarship does not give sufficient credit to how important this piece of technology was. While not the sole cause of victory in colonial warfare, nor a guarantee of victory, the steamship was an indispensable tool in the expansion of colonialism in the 19th century. Allowing for the tactics of gunboat diplomacy, lightning fast wars, and vast improvements in logistics, the path of European colonialism was shaped by the steamship. In the Anglo-Burmese Wars, First Anglo-Sino War, and the Perry Expedition steamships were used to great effect in gaining favorable concessions and terms of trade for Europeans. Specifically, steamships allowed European forces to penetrate far further inland than was previously possible. Without such penetration, the large, centralized capitals of Ava, Peking, and Edo could not be threatened. Facing political challenges at home, the humiliation and danger of submission to foreign will had to be balanced by sufficient threat to these governments’ very seats of power. Connected to this was improvements in logistics and the health of troops would see the cost of conducting these wars to a point of cost-effectiveness necessary. These conflicts were largely undertaken in an attempt to create new sources of revenue for European countries, and the steamship was invaluable in reducing the cost of waging war to an acceptable level. Lack of political unity and centrally located governments on the Asian side increased the efficacy of steamships. While not an immutable guarantee of victory, the steamship molded the type of imperialism seen and thus the world we know today. vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Technological innovation has affected the course of history, playing a part in many major historical events. The history of European imperial expansion from the 16th to 20th centuries would likewise be facilitated by new technologies. The ability of European powers to use superior technology in order to impose their will upon less technologically advanced people has shaped the modern world. The initial wave of expansion, led by the Portuguese and Spanish empires, would see trade and colonies established in the Americas, Asia, and Africa. Later, England, France, and others would expand their borders in these areas as well. Britain, in particular, would see great success in establishing dominion over Africa and Asia. With the exception of India, however, their control would be limited to the coasts of these large continents. Technologically weak but large inland empires such as Burma and China would remain unassailable, due to European's lack of ability to project military power inland (Headrick, p. 18). Likewise, nations like Japan would present other geographical challenges that could not be overcome until the 19th century. With few exceptions, the idea of marching troops far inland, away from supply lines, was suicidal. European troop levels were generally quite low in colonial areas, and while many battles of the 19th century would show how a small force of Europeans wielding firearms could overcome vastly numerically superior local forces, lack of resupply, the inability to carry heavy artillery along, and the constant threat of disease would make such inland campaigns impractical or impossible (Headrick, pp. 45; 50; 63). The notable exception to this trend, that of the British conquest of India, was made possible largely due to the considerable lack of political unity in the Indian subcontinent, and the patient exploitation of land grants by the East India Company 1 (Moon, p. 5). Even then, Britain was assailed by France for much of the early period of their time in India, and the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 would show how vulnerable the EIC was to even a semi- organized resistance to their rule (Moon, p. 734). However, by the dawning of the 20th century, colonial possessions of European powers had expanded to around sixty-seven percent of Earth's landmass; an expansion from thirty five percent in 1800 (Headrick, p. 4). These expansions were mainly into the interior of previously unassailable Asian powers and the interior of Africa. While improvements in firearms and medicine, as well as political instability in these nations would help, another key piece of technology facilitated these conquests to a large degree. The steamship, while acknowledge in scholarship as an important piece of technology, was a tool without which many colonial conflicts could not have been won by European powers. This work will be an attempt to redress the lack of emphasis place upon the steamships tactical importance in colonial warfare during the 19th century. Scholars1 have failed to fully appreciate just how crucial steamship technology was in these conflicts, and thus European success in conquering a greater part of the world's landmass cannot be properly understood. As stated before, percussion cap muskets and quinine, among other inventions, were likewise vital to these conflicts. However, without steamships the victories of European powers in Burma, China, and Japan simply could not have been accomplished. The steamship, first suggested in the 17th century, went through a long period of trial and error before it would finally be developed to the point that governments would consider including them as auxiliary naval forces. However, with a few minor exceptions, most navies 1 For the research done for this thesis, authors such as Feifer, Bruce, Elleman, Gelber, and Headrick to a lesser extent make mention of steamship technology. However, they fail to connect this technology concretely to a wide range of victories 2 around the world were quite hesitant to have steam-powered ships replace those driven by sail. Fuel efficiency, danger of boiler explosions, limited range and cargo space were among the issues that would see steam relegated to a secondary propulsion source until the introduction of the iron screw steamer after 1850. While many naval forces were hesitant to allow steamers to grow in proportion to their sail counterparts, the East India Company, and the US Navy to a lesser extent, would embrace the technology with far more fervor. The East India Company would be a voracious consumer for steamers, offering prizes for those inventors that could establish a faster connection to Europe, and buying up whatever vessels happened to come into their ports. The Peiho, Pearl, Irrawaddy, Indus, Yangtze, and Euphrates rivers all could be penetrated once steam vessels arrived in Asia. Additionally, the lack of enemy battleships in the area allowed the EIC to focus on building a purely steam navy (Gardiner “Shellfire”, p. 27, p. 28) Likewise, new routes home were rendered far more viable by the utilization of steam. Specifically, the use of steamers between the United Kingdom and Alexandria would provide the first leg of a new mail route that would decrease the time taken to communicate with London considerably, down from around two years to as little as two months (Headrick, p. 130). The Honorable Company would also attempt to build steamers locally in India. Teak, available
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