British Imperialism over Japan

Japan was never a high priority, not when the EIC was putting all its effort into trying to get China to open. China had silk and porcelain and tea, what did Japan have that was worth messing about with the Dutch and the Shogunate for?

By the time implied by the OP*, the Dutch didn't really have the power for messing with the VOC, as it's charter had expired in 1800.

*BTW, I am runing on the assumption that the OP implies a bakumatsu POD.

well, if it was the dutch who were the big players in japan, what if they had added it to their empire, or a resurgent portugal, or better still Prussia?

Doubtful for the Dutch. They actually weren't that big - for quite a long time they were limited to 2 ships at Dejima. In fact, the declining Dejima trade cotributed to an overall decline in the VOC's fortunes. (Note: That's contributedto, not caused. Highly doubtful for Portugal - they got kicked out for a reason. And utterly ASB for Prussia.

Could Japan at some point have become a Dutch colony??

See above.

The main problems in a colonial Japan scenario are purpose and "crackability".

As already mentioned, there's very little Japan has that isn't more easily available elsewhere. It makes a nice stopover for your China traders and a base of operations for your whalers, especially once you're running on coal. But from the late 1500s onwards, it's a unitary state that has developed or is developing some very modern institutions and technology.

Japan was one of the earliest nations to widely deploy small arms on the battlefield effectively, even if they later gave them up. The merchants of my namesake city were quite sophisticated economically, as were those in Edo.

There are POD's that make for some client states and trade missions, but colony is mostly a no go without something major well before the bakumatsu period.
 
Perhaps if there were a famine or some other disaster that broke the central power of Japan? It seems to me that Japan should probably be broken first, and then have the British arrive.

You'd have to almost ASB a significantly larger disaster than the various famines, earthquakes, fires, eruptions of Fuji-san, etc. that didn't "break" the Bakufu OTL. And you'd still have the problem, quite possibly increased, of motivation.
 

boredatwork

Banned
BE in Japan seems unlikely.

Given all the difficulties cracking Japan, some serious resources would have to be invested. It isn't that the BE couldn't (in theory) find such resources, but that if the resources were found there were other, more profitable, and easier uses they could be put to - uses of which the decision makers seem to have been fully aware.

It isn't like the British had futuro-vision spectacles to see that in a century or three Japan would be the technological and economic powerhouse of today. At the time it was a bigger, stranger, more fanatical, better armed, farther away, and more resource poor version of Scotland (or possibly Spain, depending on how one looks at it). Why would the BE bleed itself for fish, iron sand, coal, and rice, especially when the same resources could be applied to India, China, Africa, etc.?

Heck, if all they're looking for is another offshore locale to support endeavors in China-Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines are both equally worthy(/less) candidates.
 
Japan was never a high priority, not when the EIC was putting all its effort into trying to get China to open. China had silk and porcelain and tea, what did Japan have that was worth messing about with the Dutch and the Shogunate for?

Other sorts of tea?
 
BE in Japan seems unlikely.

Given all the difficulties cracking Japan, some serious resources would have to be invested. It isn't that the BE couldn't (in theory) find such resources, but that if the resources were found there were other, more profitable, and easier uses they could be put to - uses of which the decision makers seem to have been fully aware.

It isn't like the British had futuro-vision spectacles to see that in a century or three Japan would be the technological and economic powerhouse of today. At the time it was a bigger, stranger, more fanatical, better armed, farther away, and more resource poor version of Scotland (or possibly Spain, depending on how one looks at it). Why would the BE bleed itself for fish, iron sand, coal, and rice, especially when the same resources could be applied to India, China, Africa, etc.?

Heck, if all they're looking for is another offshore locale to support endeavors in China-Korea, Taiwan, and the Philippines are both equally worthy(/less) candidates.

Taiwan would work, as they've got the coal needed, but were a bit far south for the whaling fleets, wasn't it?
 
Top