104 HISTORY OF GREECE, ROME, AND ASIA 



in Central Asia, then in the basin of the Amoor River, all rush to 

 the conquest of new territories; appetites are sharpened, rivalries 

 created; means of more rapid locomotion shorten distances; a new 

 nation, Japan, is born to civilization, or to what it pleases us to call 

 civilization; and Central and Eastern Asia, being no more isolated, 

 are dragged into the inharmonious concert of universal politics. 



The Chinese problem, simple in 1842, when England signed the 

 treaty of Nanking, became more complicated from year to year by 

 the introduction of fresh and powerful interests, following in this the 

 ordinary laws of politics. The arrival of the Russians by the north, 

 the transformation of Japan to a modernized empire, the occupation 

 of Indo-China by France and England, the taking possession of two 

 Oceanic archipelagoes by the United States, the newly born colonial 

 ambitions of Germany, new means of transport with a rapidity which 

 could not be foreseen half a century ago, at last the magnificent 

 prey at stake, made the problem, so simple at first, one of increas- 

 ing complexity. 



The Chinese question, which is but one of the aspects of the foreign 

 politics of some nations, such as France, the United States, and even 

 England, is vital for Japan, to a lesser degree for Russia, which by 

 a check will only be delayed in her designs for a more or less pro- 

 tracted period. Political problems are interwoven one with another; 

 Far Eastern problems are connected with Oceanic problems, and 

 among the Powers who are to play a part in the Pacific, we must 

 reckon the young and active British Colony, the Commonwealth 

 of Australia, which is beginning its international life and will one 

 day be called upon for some considerable deeds. In this rapid sur- 

 vey I can make but a passing allusion to the certain effect which 

 the accomplishment of the great work of cutting a canal across the 

 Isthmus of Panama will bring into the relations of the whole world. 



In fifty years the alterations in the ways of intercommunication 

 have completely changed not only the politics of Asia but also 

 of the rest of the world. China, which, in 1842, had to stand but 

 against Great Britain, in 1858 had to reckon, besides this Power, 

 with France, the United States, and Russia. The most audacious 

 people might hesitate to undertake remote expeditions involving a 

 journey of several months by the Cape Route; the way of Siberia, 

 taken again by the Russians led by Muraviev (1856), was long and 

 difficult; the opening of the Suez Canal (1869), coinciding with im- 

 provements to the steam-engine, permitted the establishment of more 

 direct and frequent relations between the peoples of the West and 

 those of the Far East; finally the completion of the Siberian Rail- 

 way during recent years, placing Pe-king within three weeks from 

 Paris and London, could not longer allow any European country 



