Peshawar Lancers Redux: Asia

The Fall had a great impact on Asia as well as Europe and the Americas. Japan had just completed 17 years of being open to the west when The Fall had occourred. Japan was in a state of transition and it had begun to race to modernize. The Japanese Imperial Army and its Navy were both begin to grow. Japan had purchased several warships from foreign countries. Some of them were made for Japan and others were surplus ships.
It became clear to the Japanese Government and the Emperor that Japan was facing a real threat to its peoples existence. Japan's northern most island was becoming uninhabitable as the cold and snow got worse, The population was evacuated but even the main island was seeing the arctic type weather seeping down. Japan needed to gain territory in regions that were more inhabitable.
A likely target was the Island of Formosa. Officially part of the Chinese Empire the Japanese Military had strong doubts of the ability of that empire to oppose them. China was suffering Chaos and the western Powers were too busy to interfere with Japan. Thus a mission of conquest was ordered. It would be the first of many strikes to gain both territory and resources.
 
In 1871 the population of Manchuria began to migrate southward as the cold Manchurian winter got worse and spring and summer seemed to be just brief chances to move to the south before the cold returned all too quickly. Chaos seemed to be seeping into the Empire everywhere. The Imperial Chinese Army was having a hard time maintaining order. China had lost its ability to control any territory not on the mainland. The Imperial Chinese Capital moved to the more climate friendly south.
By 1876 Japan had conquered Formosa and the flood of Japanese settlers began. An effort was made to assimilate the native population. The Japanese next seized Hanan Island . They had also established a foothold on the mainland having defeated the Imperial Chinese Army units sent against it. Word arrived in Hong Kong og clashes between the Imperial Chinese Army and the forces of the Empire of the Rising Sun.
 
Hong Kong 1871-1876 The Royal Crown Colony of Hong Kong appeared to be on its own. The Fall had resulted in the entire attention of the British Government being on the relocating of the population from Britain to India or South Africa or Australia. Still at least once a month a ship arrived in the port bearing supplies and payroll. The Governor General had known that he would have to strengthen his hand. The way to do that would be to increase the Colony's defense forces. The colony's European Population was called upon to help form the first of several battalions of British-Chinese Units. With what surplus weapons were available the British garrison trained 4 battalions of British-Chinese Infantry and a battalion of Artillery. Retired British officers volunteered to command the units. While the bulk of the manpower was Chinese the units did have Europeans and Eurasians serving in it.
 
Netherlands East Indies: The Dutch were evacuating the Netherlands population from Europe to several location: Dutch Guinea . Netherlands East Indies and South Africa. The majority of the population was being sent to the Far East much as the British were relocating to India. Some asked to be allowed to relocated to South Africa because they felt that the climate would be more like that of the Netherlands but much depended upon the British government.. Still the European population in the Netherlands East Indies took a considerable jump.
Philippines: The Spanish Governor General received the Spanish forces that had been on Guam. It gave him a needed shot in the arm. He had been increasingly worried about conditions in Spain. The Hawaiian Government was anxious to gain additional resources but it urged the Spanish to act wisely. If he was to get any additional supplies they would have to come from Hawaii, Australia, Netherlands East Indies or New Zealand. There was some goods coming from Latin America.
 
French Indo-China: The Government of France was still concentrating its resources on the conquest of North Africa and the relocation of the French population to North Africa. The result was that there was a lack of resources that might be spared for Indo-China. The French Governor General and the military commander were forced to raise colonial units to strengthen the colony's defenses. Thus Vietnamese, Laotian and Cambodian units were being raised under the command of French officers. In addition some Legionnaire units added native recruits to their units to keep them combat ready.
 
The government of Japan was now fully engaged in attempting to destroy the Chinese Empire. It forces had captured Shanghai and established an enclave there. It was the first of many as Japan slowly attempted to control more and more of China. Japanese representatives sought to reassure the British that there would be no threat to Hong Kong. In fact they sought to trade with the British Colony.
 
1877: Japan had secured two of the largest islands that had been part of China. Japan was pushing further inland to gain more resources. Formosa now had 250,000 Japanese settlers and Hanan Island had nearly 70,000 after the Imperial Japanese Army landed on the mainland and ensured that no Chinese forces could get anywhere near the coast. The Japanese were anxious to buy foodstuffs from anywhere that it could get it. Hawaii had supplied Japan with fruits. Japan had paid for it with a mixture of gols and minerals
 
The British were sending personnel into Tibet in an attempt to reach out to the Dalai Lama and establish relations with Tibet. The British were still worried about the Russians, Imperial Chinese Government and the new Empire of the Rising Sun.
 
The government of the Kingdom of Siam or Thailand had been quiet but it had problems with the French. The question was did it feel strong enough to Challenge the French. The British had maintain forces in Burma and Malaya so there would be no trouble there.
 
The situation in China by the start of the 1880s seemed to be moving in Japan's direction. The control of the Imperial Chinese government was collapsing due to the combination of the effects of the Fall and the pressure from Japan. The Chinese were having to also move forces to deal with attacks by the Mongolians The result was the rise of Warlords as the Chinese Monarchy continued to see power slipping away from it. The Empire of the Rising Sun was finding that the Chinese population was willing to co-operate with them in order to provide security from bandits and make sure that food was available.
 
The Empire of the Rising Sun continued to press to dominate China. It simply needed the resources that China had to survive. Coal, food and minerals were needed by Japan's Industry to build everything that it needed. With nearly 750,000 Japanese on Formosa and 250,000 on Hanan Island there was a great demand for housing and other items on both islands. Formosa had a roadway and a railway being built.
 
Japan the Winter weather continued to plague Northern Japan. It was considered unsafe to go any further North than 25 miles North of Tokyo. Thus there was still a need to move more of Japan's population to someplace better. That meant Formosa or Mainland China. Formosa was safer and under firm Japanese control. The Imperial Japanese Army had gained the upper hand on the Chinese but it was clear that Japan would need to develop better weapons if it was to finally crush all opposition. Japan had gained access to plans for a Machine gun and already its industry was attempting to build it. Many wondered was it like the Maxim or the American Colt MG.
 
The Fall seemed to be playing a big roll in China, The weather had driven the population out of Manchuria and into Northern China. The Imperial capial of Peking had been abandon due to the cold weather. China was finding itself having to face not only the Japanese invaders but the Mongols . The Imperial Chinese Army was seeing deserters and the rise of Warlords.
The British Governor General of the Royal Crown Colony of Hong Kong had established a bigger defensive position. Thus the colony was larger. There had been some reinforcements coming from India but mainly it was weapons (rifles, Machine guns and artillery pieces plus ammo).
 
With the weather continuing to be colder than normal the battle to control China continued to be a three way struggle. The Chinese and the Japanese were fighting but both the Japanese and the Chinese had to deal with bandits and the Mongols
 
The British in India were well aware that a struggle was taking place in China. Unfortunately the British government was still straining to recover from The Fall. The old homeland had been lost for now and with it had gone a lot of Britain's industry. It had taken all of the rest of the 1870s to attempt to build anything resembling the industry that had been lost. India had not had the capacity to build the warships needed. As thing stood maintaining the fleet was a strain. True more had been built but estimates were that it would take until 1890 for the industrial capacity to finally reach a level to allow Britain to build the new warships that it would need. The Prime Minister had been told that in another 2 years British India would finally be able to build enough locomotives to allow expansion and export. Yes the Fall had set things back tremendously . It was extremely lucky that Thomas A Edison had been in Hawaii attending a scientific conference when the Fall had taken place as a result of an invite from the Hawaiian King. Or that Alexander Graham Bell and his family had escaped from Canada and had also made it to Hawaii. His invention The Telephone was revolutionizing communication. He had been Knighted by King Kamehameha IV
 
Britain's main efforts were to maintain order on the Northwest frontier, frontier with Tibet, Burma, Malaya and to insure that the sea lanes were open. For the rest of the 1870s that was a much as the Empire could handel. It wasn't until the 1880s that British India, Australia and South Africa combined were able to begin to slowly make some kind of headway
 
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