Western imperialism in Asia

Western imperialism in Asia was the political, military, and economic domination or influence exerted by Western powers over Asian territories and societies, especially from the early modern period through the twentieth century.

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East India Company: An English joint-stock company that governed large parts of the Indian subcontinent and built a commercial empire in Asia. Its trade monopoly and territorial rule show how a chartered company could become an imperial power.
British Raj: The period of direct British Crown rule over most of the Indian subcontinent, from 1858 to 1947. It was one of the largest and most institutionalized Western colonial regimes in Asia.
Age of Discovery: The period of European maritime exploration and overseas expansion beginning in the fifteenth century. Its new sea routes enabled Western powers to establish trading posts and territorial footholds in Asia.
Decolonization of Asia: The mid-twentieth-century process through which Asian territories ended Western colonial rule and became independent states. It dismantled most formal Western empires in Asia after the Second World War.
Japanese imperialism: Japan’s expansion of political and military control over other Asian territories from the late nineteenth century to 1945. Japan became an imperial power in Asia rather than remaining only a target of Western expansion.
Unequal treaty: A treaty imposed under pressure that grants one party privileges and limits the other’s sovereignty. Such agreements secured ports, extraterritorial rights, and commercial access for Western powers.
Dutch East Indies: The Dutch colonial possessions across the Indonesian archipelago, later forming the independent state of Indonesia. Dutch rule combined commercial extraction, coerced labor, and territorial expansion across an island empire.
Portuguese India Armadas: The fleets sent annually by Portugal to connect Europe with its trading posts in the Indian Ocean. They carried the first sustained Portuguese military and commercial presence into Asian waters.
Partition of India: The 1947 division of British India into the independent states of India and Pakistan. British withdrawal and colonial-era political arrangements shaped a partition accompanied by mass displacement.
Sino-Russian imperial rivalry: The competition between China and Russia for territory and influence in northeast and central Asia. It highlights imperial expansion within Asia alongside Western intervention.