"God created man's many races with the intent that they be diverse in culture and tradition. The noble White man was raised in the cradle of Athenian politic, and is therefore inclinded towards the aristocratic democracy of Westminster. The Asiatic was raised by the likes of Attila, and is therefore inclined towards authority. It is therefore that I, a White man upholds the noble authoritarian tradition of the Asiatic; in the expectation that the Asiatic shall liberate the White man from Napoleanic-Goodyearian populist dictatorship. Such is the duty of Britain's sons."
-James Brooke, Marquis of Yiyong
THE INDIAN EXILE
James Brooke was born in 1803 in Calcutta. His father was a self-made colonial lawyer under the employ of the Honourable British East India Company; while his mother was the illegitimate child of a Scottish peer unimportant in the schemes of history. From birth, James seemed destined to live out his life as a conquistador pushing forth the Empire's frontiers in Asia. For the adventurous child, it was not a bad life.
But then, the world went mad. Napoleon's France emerged like a phoenix from the ashes of the Bourbon monarchy, and had subjugated continental Europe within the span of a decade. England was on the chopping block, and Napoleon had great plans to avenge France's humiliating loss so many years ago. Britain was destroyed, partitioned. Though remnants of the old English aristocracy remained, they had been left powerless. To many in the British aristocracy, the wholesale destruction of their way of life was disheartening. The honorable fled to Canada for the Empire's last stand; those less so knelt before the Caesar and surrendered Britain.
India faced a different dilemma. Unlike Canada, swarmed with refugees, information from Europe could only trickle into the ears of General Paul Horace Greer and the East India Company's men on the ground. The likes of Greer had been bred to follow orders--nothing more, nothing less. With London a French puppet and the Company's Board of Directors scattered to the winds, there were no orders to follow. For months, British India was paralyzed with indecision, until Greer and his lieutenants agreed to take decisive action. If Britain had truly fallen, Greer would take up the Empire's legacy by seceding from it. In Delhi, British troops deposed the ailing Mughal Emperor; and in Calcutta, Greer ascended to the Indian throne as
Emperor Paul I, Padishah of Hindustan.
This act was met with great wariness amongst British colonists in the subcontinent. Some (rightfully) feared French invasion in this moment of confusion; others wanted to wish the madness away through inactivity. However, the Brooke family, alongside men in the "colonial middle class" like William Jardine enthusiastically welcomed the Emperor's ascension as the last, best chance to maintain the British way of life.
Soon, the French came. After the brutal pacification and partition of Britain, Napoleon was free to extend his will to lands like India or Canada. A series of backhanded deals with Britain's former "allies" in Russia and Austria allowed France a mandate to take the lion's share of the Indian cake. A 9-year war for survival began--a war that India was destined to lose.
India battles for her survival
People like James Brooke had long since seen the writing on the wall. His parents had left for East Australia in 1823; while James and his friend William Jardine had fled to the most unlikely of places--China. James and William found a way to help finance Greer's war. Smuggling. India had long been home to the
Papaver somniferum, better known as Opium. By illegally selling the plant to a quickly growing market in China, India would have access to a unique source of income. Jardine and Brooke Holdings was founded in a shady opium den in the streets of Canton, the first shareholders being members of the small European community that resided in the city.
The company's clippers: the ostentatiously named RIMS Brittania and RIMS Paullus Rex were renowned for their speed and agility, evading both French and Chinese attempts at boarding. The Clippers were sharp-lined, agile craft, designed to skirt the water, flying across the seas with astonishing speed. They were to carry opium and only opium, with no armor, and only a ram and bow-mounted 12-pounder for offense.
Company men were well paid and regularly risked their lives braving the French blockade, always arriving whole and intact to deliver chests of Chinese silver taels to Emperor Paul's officials. Whole armies were raised with revenue from Jardine and Brooke Holdings, with both men soon knighted by Emperor Paul for their service to Emperor and country--though neither Jardine nor Brooke were able to make for India to attend the occasion.
Despite the pair's best efforts, India's fate was never in question. From the day French flags first appeared off Ceylon, the Indian Empire had been hurtling towards her demise, with the end finally arriving in 1825 as Greer's Empire collapsed into feuding Diodachi with his death. The Indian Empire scattered, loyalists fled to Australia and Canada. Some even returned to England, but found themselves wholly unwelcome. James Brooke would personally sail one last time to Calcutta upon the RIMS Pallus Rex, this time filling the clipper not with opium, but with a few enterprising young Englishmen and their immediate families. 100 "Indian exiles" who would flee for the most unexpected of places--China. The exiles had bought with them one last treasure: the Kooh-i-noor diamond, offerred up by the governor of Calcutta for Brooke's safekeeping as French forces marched on the Indian capital.
J&B Holdings continued to operate as usual for a few years. Their motley band of Englishmen in Canton formed
His Majesty Paul I's Indian Government-in-exile, though the experiment amounted to nothing but a place for fellow English exiles to gather and have a beer or two. The Opium business dwindled when plantations in India were taken over by a new colonial elite loyal to Paris, forcing J&B to sell their two clippers just to continue operations. Jardine would find work under an Austrian plantation owner, and soon resigned his position as co-owner of the ailing company.
In mid-1827, a drunk Brooke stumbled into the Chinese quarter of Canton in the dead of night, humming to the tune of
What Shall We Do with a Drunken Sailor. In his left hand, Brooke held a bicorne hat he had won in a gambling den; and in his right hand, Brooke clutched his trusty Collier Revolver. A Cantonese child by the name of Ah Mai happened to pass by, torch in hand, reported to be looking for his father at the local opium den.
What shall we do with a drunken sailor?
A drunken Brooke saw a light at the corner of his eye, and a large shape approaching him.
What shall we do with a drunken sailor?
It was a darned copper wasn't it--a French copper, here to get him at last.
What shall we do with a drunken sailor?
Brooke whipped out his pistol and pointed it in the vague direction of the figure. He cocked the safety, and with that-
Early in the Mornin'!
Brooke unloaded six rounds into Ah Mai. The shots rang through the neighborhood, jolting awake a local militiaman on patrol. Rifle in hand, the miltiaman rushed to the scene and saw a dead boy lying in a pool of blood. Nearby stood a drunken
gweilo pissing on the pavement. He contemplated killing Brooke on site, but feared a diplomatic incident. "Good for nothing piece of shit", cursed the militiaman, and with a swing of a musket, Brooke was knocked unconscious, falling to the floor.
Brooke woke up the next morning with half his head bandaged. A Chinaman dressed in tanned servant's clothes noticed that Brooke was awake and ran off. Soon, a considerably better dressed man strode in and introduced himself as Ruan Yuan, Viceroy of Canton, the most powerful man in the city. Even a dazed Brooke could recognize the man's stature and fell to his knees immediately. As it turned out, the Viceroy was a worldly man, and had had his eyes on Brooke for a long time, believing his keen entrepreneurial skills to be rather admirable. Ruan had personally intervened and saved Brooke from the city magistrate--who would surely have laid out a death sentence. Now, he had a business proposal: Brooke would gather the employees at J&B and bring to the table all the knowledge he had on running an Opium plantation. J&B employees would be granted a tidy sum of cash, and Brooke could have a multitude of benefits, be it Chinese maidens, immunity from the law, or even a modest country villa.
Seeing little alternative, Brooke agreed. The next morning, he gathered his belongings and announced to his employees that they would be moving their operations North. Those who signed up would see increases in pay; those who didn't would be granted a lump sum of money for their resignation. 23 joined Brooke's Northward mission, and soon found themselves masters of several hundred farmers in the idyllic Cantonese countryside.
The operation continued for three years, with Brooke and his fellow Englishmen amassing a small fortune. William Jardine on the other hand, had been caught by Portugese police smuggling opium through Macau. In a show of friendship, Jardine was sent off to English authorities and summarily executed in 1829. Jardine's young nephew, Joseph had come to seek Brooke's help--Brooke, kind at heart and offered Joseph a job at the plantation as a serf-driver. Unfortunately, news of the operation was discovered by a eunuch in the
Neiwufu, with Brooke and co. captured and tried by a magistrate. Brooke however, had one last gambit: unveiling the Kooh-i-noor, Brooke declared that the Indian exiles were heirs to a royal dynasty in the land of India. The dazzling beauty of the diamond shocked the magistrate, who deemed such matters far above his pay grade. The Indian exiles were carted Northwards and would face the Emperor's justice.
STRANGE MEN IN A STRANGE LAND
Luck would have that Brooke found work in the hands of his captors. Emperor Tao'kwang had hoped for all his life to recreate the prosperity of the early Qing, and sought to emulate his great-great grandfather Kang'hsi's welcoming of the Jesuits by welcoming the Indian exiles. There were terms and conditions, namely that the Indian exiles were not allowed to postlyerize, and were required to teach the Emperor's 6 sons on matters of practical and not spiritual use, be it musketry (this the Emperor placed an especial emphasis on), language or history. 5 men were soon caught preaching to the court eunuchs, with their stated reason being to "rebuild the Anglican church free from Bonaparist corruption". Brooke himself was assigned to the Emperor's youngest, the newborn Aisin Gioro Yixin, later Prince Kung and Emperor Ming'zhi.
Realizing that Tao'kwang had somewhat overestimated his academic prowess, Brooke attempted to talk his way out of the deal but was swiftly rebutted. Brooke had never received a University education, and could only teach the future Emperor Ming'zhi French and English. He later proceeded to talk about commercial practices, which Confucianism looked down upon. Brooke was harshly reprimanded by Ming'zhi's chief Confucian tutor, and almost got executed in the process. In response, Brooke grew quieter and made a point of staying out of the way of Confucian bureaucrats. Soon, he faded from Emperor Tao'kwang's memory and would spend his lessons with Emperor Ming'zhi talking about the strangeness of life in Europe.
Nevertheless, Brooke had made his mark. An education in English and French had made Ming'zhi a rarely open-minded fellow. The two grew close, though accusations of homosexuality are vehemently denied by the Qing's official histories as a "coordinated Euro-American plot to defame the holy virtues of James Brooke."
Brooke in scholarly attire
Tao'kwang's death in 1861 was a period of mourning for all of China. Brooke, as an imperial official was obligated to spend three years in national mourning. But mourning didn't mean that the gears of state had stopped spinning. In 1863, Brooke persuaded the new Emperor Ming'zhi to issue an "Edict of Self-Stengthening", outlining the path that China would take in the next half-century. There is much to say about this topic: from the purchasing of new weapons to the establishment of a diplomatic network. It was a movement that aimed to transform China from the top down.
Brooke as an individual was wholly unremarkable. The one marketable skill he had to teach was commercial practices, and that was in no shortage amongst China's wealth of conniving businessmen. Brooke's most valuable asset was his connections. Since the establishment of
Jardine and Brooke Holdings in 1823, Brooke had built up ties with British exiles and royalists alike all across the world. He had donated a sizable portion of his plantation fortune to Ernest Augustus' attempted invasion of the Australian Commonwealth in 1845, but the money had been stolen by the few fillibusters King Ernest I could summon. Nevertheless, the act won Brooke much respect from the restorationist community, and was a diplomatic victory if anything.
In 1864, posters went up across Canada's cities. A particularly stout John Bull pointed at the reader, with the words, "YOUNG BRITISHERS NEEDED IN THE ORIENT. ADVENTURE. GOLD. GLORY". The posters had directions to an office for the
Canadian Asiatic Society, a name that didn't give away much on the job's nature. The mystery attracted many young men--in particular former noblemen who felt disenfranchised and underused. These disenfranchised noblemen were descendants of the British redcoats that had come to Canada
en masse in the War of 1812. After the war, these young men spiraled into desperation as their world crumbled around them. These members of the officer class were "discharged seamen, deserters and other drifters that made Canada their home, and could gleefully be tempted away by the promise of adventure, pay, and loot."
General Charles George "Manchu" Gordon, the Ever-Victorious Army
Commodore Fredrick Townsend Ward, "Hua the Flying Dragon", Eastern Seas Fleet
The young Britishers boarded a clipper, and after months of travel, arrived in the port of Tianjin. They were given a simple task: to construct a Chinese officer corps based off the old British model. Decades later as the Qing officer corps took shape, one could find that it resembled the British one in many ways. These were members of the scholarly gentry who had come to learn the ways of war. They were stubbornly elitist; had been trained to lead, not to fight; and valued discipline over all else. Gone were the rag-tag peasant militias of olden times: the military was under the calm leadership of the officer class which made the Chinese army what it was. For this contribution, James Brooke was named Marquis of Yiyong.
Newcomers to China were termed the "Red Canadians", named so for many of them being descendants of redcoats. In truth, many members of the Conservative New England upper class, almost exclusively aligned against the AFC would join the Red Canadians in their oriental exodus. Many had been disillusioned with the changing times in America, stating that powerful figures like that of Lincoln were twisting the "natural order of things". Many said that mankind had stumbled upon a Pandora's Box the moment the Bastille was stormed, and that it was the duty of young Amero-Britishers to close the box once more. The obvious medium was that of China, whose new strength let the most optimistic dare dream of the restoration of the old order.
Upon his deathbed in 1871, Brooke could say that he had lived an exciting life even by the standards of the time. He was surrounded by a strange community of exiles he had helped create, and had helped kickstart a dying empire. The last years of his life had been spent peacefully as his many students took flight and bore on their shoulders the responsibilities of empire. Brooke could perhaps die fulfilled and content.
So ended the life of James Brooke, exile, smuggler, murderer and teacher.