Was there a window of opportunity in the late 19th and early 20th century that allows Japan to colonize the Philipines and Indonesia (DEI) without being stopped by the western powers?
no.
The Phillipines was a Spanish Colony from the 1500s through 1898, and belonged to the US after that.
The Dutch East Indies basically started in the 1600s
I mean.. Neither the Spaniards nor the Dutch could fight A post-Meiji Japan in a colonial war in Asia.
So as long as the he major colonial powers of the day (the British, the French, and the Americans) did not intervene, Japan could snatch the two colonies from their colonial masters if they had the political will.
The Philippines is probably doable if Japan plays its cards right, but Indonesia might be a tough pill to swallow for Britain, I foresee Australia Australia screaming blue murder about a Japan right on their doorstep.
If Japan makes a bid for the Philippines and is successful, I doubt they'll go for Korea in 1904... the Filipinos will probably be keeping them busy if they still rebel, and there's a good chance they do.
Australia didn't protest about the Dutch on their doorstep... So if Japan left the British Empire alone, and let the Aussies keep Papua, why would they care?
Racism. (filler)
If not Racism, then there was the fact that the Netherlands had been allies or at least relative neutrals (not to mention trade partners) to the British for some time during the most likely period of theoretical Japanese aggression.
Did the British view the Spanish in the same light?
Also because the center of British power Great Britian itself is right next to the netherlands and can easily get the fleet there to attack if the Netherlands does anything aggressive against Australia.
I wonder if apart from the Philippines or Java/Indonesia/Dutch East India, would there be any other state or island or archipel not yet claimed by an European power that the Japanese could make into a colony between 1870 and 1904? May be the Bismarck islands if they beat the Germans to it? (Would they be called the Meiji Islands henceforth?) May be they could claim parts of Brunei/Borneo? May be some other islands?
What's the use for them? Indonesia served as an important source of natural resources before, during and after the WWII IOTL. Japan had little use for those pacific islands.
Dreadnoughts were the early-modern equivalent of Atomic Bomb. Colonies brought real economic and strategic benefits, like OTL Korea, Taiwan, and other parts of China.The timeframe was "in the late 19th and early 20th century", so at least one generation away from the point Japan was so industrialized it depended on foreign resources like Indonesian oil and rubber. At that time, the only reason Japan would want a colony would be the same Belgium had during that timeframe: All the other great nation had them and you didn't want to be left out lest you would be considered only so-so great.
Admit it, having a colony at that time was pretty much equivalent to having an atomic bomb in ours.
Absolutely not in any way,shape or form did Japan have a Snowball's Chance in Hell of colonizing or keeping Indonesia or Philippines. The Filipinos fought the Japanese occupation tooth and nail while the Indonesians who initially welcomed the Japanese were completely disillusioned by their piss-poor treatment at the Japanese hands. Plus, while Imperial Japan was racist towards Koreans and Chinese; their attitude towards Southeast Asians was ten times worse. Romusha {forced labour},comfort women, starvation and cannibalism were just a fraction of Japanese war crimes against Asians,Europeans,
Australians and Americans. They alienated everyone including their staunchest allies. Besides that, Indonesia and Philippines were large archipelagos of islands with numerous ethnic factions in a tropical environment. The Japanese would've been overextended before twenty years.
Australia didn't protest about the Dutch on their doorstep... So if Japan left the British Empire alone, and let the Aussies keep Papua, why would they care?
IIRC, that was Showa Japan. Before then, the Japanese were bad to their colonial subjects, but they weren't that different from the other colonial powers.Absolutely not in any way,shape or form did Japan have a Snowball's Chance in Hell of colonizing or keeping Indonesia or Philippines. The Filipinos fought the Japanese occupation tooth and nail while the Indonesians who initially welcomed the Japanese were completely disillusioned by their piss-poor treatment at the Japanese hands. Plus, while Imperial Japan was racist towards Koreans and Chinese; their attitude towards Southeast Asians was ten times worse. Romusha {forced labour},comfort women, starvation and cannibalism were just a fraction of Japanese war crimes against Asians,Europeans,
Australians and Americans. They alienated everyone including their staunchest allies. Besides that, Indonesia and Philippines were large archipelagos of islands with numerous ethnic factions in a tropical environment. The Japanese would've been overextended before twenty years.