HUNCHBACK BRIDGE, NEAR PEKING, CHINA
HUNCHBACK BRIDGE, NEAR PEKING, CHINA
North of this long range, and west of the one hundred and thirteenth meridian, on to the borders of Tibet, the country is mountainous, while to the east and from the great wall on the north to the Po-yang Lake in the south, there is the Great Plain, comprising the greater part of the provinces of Chihli, Shantung, Honan, Anhui, and Kiangsu. The Great Plain extends on both sides of the lower Hoang-ho, between the great cities of Peking and Nanking, over an area more than three times as extensive as England. Sedulously irrigated or drained, and cultivated in every corner, this great plain supports the densest agricultural population in the world.
BRIDGE AT YUEN-MING-YUEN, CHINA
BRIDGE AT YUEN-MING-YUEN, CHINA
In the provinces west from Chihli—Shansi, Shensi and Kansu—the soil is formed of what are called the loess beds, which are extremely fertile, the fields composed of it hardly requiring any other manure than a sprinkling of its own fresh loam. The husbandman in this way obtains an assured harvest two and even three times a year. This fertility, provided there be a sufficient rainfall, seems inexhaustible.
Seas, Rivers and Canals.—The semi-mediterranean seas and gulfs of the Pacific along the coasts of China are distinguished by separate names. In the north, between the Korean peninsula and the mainland of China, is the Hoang Hai or Yellow Sea, three hundred miles wide, named from the lemon color of its waters, filled with the alluvium brought down to it by the Hoang-ho, and so shallow that its muddy bed is frequently furrowed by passing vessels. Within or northward lie the Bay of Korea and the Gulfs of Pechihli and Liaotung, the two last separated almost entirely from the outer China Sea by the projecting promontories of Shantung and Liaotung. South of the Yellow Sea, between the mainland and southern Japan, with the chain of the Luchu Islands and Formosa, extends the wider Tunghai[679]or Eastern Sea; and from this the Fukien Channel, between Formosa and the coast of China, one hundred miles wide, leads into the great mediterranean called the Nanhai or South Sea of China, which is almost completely shut in by Borneo and the Philippine Islands. The coasts of the Yellow Sea bordering on the great plain are low and flat; southward thence to the Island of Hainan the shores of China rise steep, and are dotted round with rocky islets.
GREAT CHINESE WALL,erected to protect the ancient empire from the inroads of nomadic Tartars about 214 B.C. The main substance of the wall is earth or rubbish, retained on each side by a strong casing of stone and brick, and terraced by a platform of square tiles. The thickness of the wall at the base is often as much as twenty-five feet. (See full descriptionbelow.)
GREAT CHINESE WALL,
erected to protect the ancient empire from the inroads of nomadic Tartars about 214 B.C. The main substance of the wall is earth or rubbish, retained on each side by a strong casing of stone and brick, and terraced by a platform of square tiles. The thickness of the wall at the base is often as much as twenty-five feet. (See full descriptionbelow.)
The rivers of China—called for the most parthoin the north, andchiang(kiang) in the south, are one of its most distinguishing features.
Two of them stand out conspicuous among the great rivers of the world: the Ho, Hoang-ho, or Yellow River, and the Chiang, or Yang-tze-kiang. They rise not far from each other among the mountains of Tibet. The Ho pursues a tortuous course seaward through North China; the Chiang or Yang-tze through Central China. The terrible calamities caused by the inundations of the Hoang-ho have procured for it the name of “China’s Sorrow.” The Ho is not much under the Chiang in length—somewhat over three thousand miles.
Besides these may be noted the Pei-ho, which gathers the waters of the northern portion of the great plain, and forms a highway of communication between the capital city of Peking and the port of Tien-tsin, thirty-five miles above its mouth; the Min, the river of the province of Fukien, by which the Bohea teas are brought down to the port of Fu-chou; and the Si-kiang, the largest river of southern China, one of the delta branches of which forms the Chu-kiang, or river of the great port of Canton.
The three largest lakes of China lie immediately south of the course of the Yang-tze. The Tung-ting-hu, seventy miles long, and the Poyang-hu, nearly as large, are expansions of the mouths of the chief southern tributaries of the Yang-tze in Central China; the third, the Tai-hu, lies south of the estuary.
Canals.—Greatest of all the public works in China is the Grand Canal, which traverses the great plain for a distance of seven hundred miles, passing from Tientsin, on the Pei-ho, in the north, across the course of the Hoang-ho to the lower course of the Yang-tze, connecting a system of water communications which extends from the capital to the chief parts of the empire. It is but the greatest sample of the system of canals, great and small, which form a network over all parts of the lowlands of China. Steam communication, however, all along the eastern seaboard from Canton to Tientsin has now very much superseded its use.
The glory of making this canal is due to Kublai, the first sovereign of the Yüan dynasty.
PAGODA, NEAR PEKING, CHINAThe Pagoda, or “idol temple,” in China, usually distinguishes the Buddhist from the Confucian temple. It is a tapering tower, always with an odd number of stories. First-class pagodas have seven, nine, or thirteen stories, minor ones have three or five. The most famous was the Porcelain Tower of Nanking, erected in the beginning of the fifteenth century; only nine of the proposed thirteen stories, cased in white porcelain, were completed, and the height never exceeded about two hundred and sixty feet. It was destroyed by the Taipings in 1856.
PAGODA, NEAR PEKING, CHINA
The Pagoda, or “idol temple,” in China, usually distinguishes the Buddhist from the Confucian temple. It is a tapering tower, always with an odd number of stories. First-class pagodas have seven, nine, or thirteen stories, minor ones have three or five. The most famous was the Porcelain Tower of Nanking, erected in the beginning of the fifteenth century; only nine of the proposed thirteen stories, cased in white porcelain, were completed, and the height never exceeded about two hundred and sixty feet. It was destroyed by the Taipings in 1856.
After the Grand Canal, as a gigantic achievement, comes the Great Wall, on the north side next Mongolia. Not so useful as the canal, and having failed to answer the purpose for[680]which it was intended—to be a defense against the incursions of the northern tribes, there it still stands, the most remarkable artificial bulwark in the world.
It was in 214 B. C. that Shih Hwang Ti determined to erect a grand barrier all along the north of his vast empire. The wall commences at the Shanhai Pass and extends westward continuously almost into the heart of the continent for a distance of one thousand five hundred miles, over mountain and valley, and across rivers and ravines. It is a rampart of earth, ten to thirty feet high, broad enough at the top to admit of several horsemen passing abreast, and was formerly cased on the sides and top with bricks and stones, and was flanked by numerous projections or towers, gates being left at intervals for the passage of travelers and the collection of customs. Now it has fallen in many places, and its gates are negligently guarded, and northward of Peking the growing Chinese population has spread and settled the country to a considerable distance beyond its barrier.
Climate.—The climatic conditions naturally vary considerably over so large a stretch of country. In the lofty Tibetan plateau and the less elevated plains of Mongolia, the climate is exceedingly dry, and is marked by great extremes of hot and cold. The basins of the two great rivers, being nearer the Pacific, are moister and more equable. In this part of China proper the dry season lasts from November to February, the remaining months, particularly May, being extremely wet. The rainfall is of a copious tropical nature.
Generally speaking, China is a cold country in comparison with other regions in the same latitude. From July to September, however, the weather is intensely hot, and the heat is accompanied by typhoons, which are much dreaded for their violent and devastating effects.
Production and Industry.—Agricultural pursuits occupy the majority of the people, the chief products being tea, silk, indigo, cotton, cereals, rice, and sugar. Agriculture is held in higher estimation here than in any other land in the world. The land is freehold, and is held by families in small holdings.
There is much coal in all the provinces, and iron ore is also plentiful in Shansi. Copper ore is plentiful in Yunnan. Southern Yunnan also furnishes a variety of precious stones—rubies, amethysts, sapphires, topazes, opals, besides malachite, and the steatite or soapstone, in which the Chinese carve figures of all sorts.
The much prized Yu, orjade, brought formerly from Turkestan, comes now from the Hoang-ho valley; lapis lazuli (for the preparation of ultramarine) is found in the mountains of Che-kiang, in the east coast region. Large beds of porcelain clay occur in this province also, and in its neighboring one of Kiang-si.
About one-fourth of the world’s supply of new silk comes from China. Cotton and wool mills, flour and rice mills are important industries.
Before European manufactures had reached their higher development, fine “Nankeen” calico was largely imported from China to Europe. “China ware,” or porcelain, was first made by the Chinese, and so ignorant were the early Portuguese traders of its value, that they called it “porcellana,” believing it perhaps to be made of shells; the secret of its manufacture was not discovered till the beginning of the eighteenth century. In the province of Kiang-si, not far from Yao-chou, there are porcelain factories which were founded by an emperor in 1004 A. D.
The Chinese also excel in carpentry; paper[681]making from the bamboo was invented among them as early as the second century B. C. They are highly skilled in the use of metals; bronze vases exist which date from 1760 B. C., and the great bells on the towers of Peking, cast during the Ming dynasty, are still perfect; the sonorous gong metal alloy is as yet a Chinese secret; in their delicate embroideries, carvings in ivory, engravings on wood and stone, lacquered wares, and rich silks and satins, they show astonishing handicraft.
VIEW OF THE ROCK-HEWN TEMPLES AT LUNG-MENHere, as early as the seventh century, Chinese artists sculptured religious figures in the recesses of precipitous cliffs—similar to those of Upper Egypt—and turned them into hundreds of quarried temples. The huge Buddha and attendant figures in the central recess can be clearly seen. Many smaller figures and decorations in other recesses can also be discerned.
VIEW OF THE ROCK-HEWN TEMPLES AT LUNG-MEN
Here, as early as the seventh century, Chinese artists sculptured religious figures in the recesses of precipitous cliffs—similar to those of Upper Egypt—and turned them into hundreds of quarried temples. The huge Buddha and attendant figures in the central recess can be clearly seen. Many smaller figures and decorations in other recesses can also be discerned.
People, Religion and Education.—The Chinese, as we have seen in theBook of Races, belong to the Mongolian race. They are stout and muscular as compared with other eastern peoples, temperate, industrious, cheerful, and easily contented; but they are addicted to gambling.
The dress of the poor is very much alike in both sexes; and though it is regulated for all classes by sumptuary laws, it is varied among the wealthy by the richness of the materials and the various ornamentation.
The three chief religions of China are Confucianism, Tâoism, and Buddhism. It is difficult to estimate the comparative number of their adherents. To claim a majority for those of any one of them is very absurd. As a matter of fact, Confucianism represents the intelligence and morality of China; Tâoism its superstitions; and Buddhism is ritualism and idolatry, while yet it acknowledges no God.
Besides these three national systems, Mohammedanism has numerous adherents in the northern and western provinces.
There are temples of Confucius in every great town, and twice a year, in spring and autumn, sacrifices of animals, fruit, and wine are offered in honor of the sage.
The majority of the Tâoists, or followers of Laotse, imitate the Buddhists in their monastic life, and many of them live as hermits in the mountain caves of the upper Yang-tze, or in the most romantic spots of the mountains of China.
The Grand Lama of Tibet is the pope of the Buddhist Church, but the priests in China have no political power, and are viewed with contempt by the literary and governing classes. In Peking, however, several large monasteries of Tibetan and Mongolian Buddhists are supported at the expense of the government.
The native Roman Catholics of China are said to number more than a million, but Protestants are very few.
In 1906, after the Russo-Japanese war, a new system of compulsory primary education was established. The curriculum is largely based upon the Japanese. Modern sciences, history, geography, and foreign languages are taught. Special schools have been established (technical, agricultural, normal, language, etc.). Thousands of temples have been converted to educational purposes. Old style examination[682]halls have been pulled down, and colleges built on the sites. The educational facilities are, however, very inadequate. Girls’ schools, formerly non-existent, are still very few in number. The only government medical school is an army one, but the government has recognized the Union Medical College, opened in Peking by the Protestant missions there. Many Chinese students have proceeded to Japan, America, and Europe to study there. The government is using the money returned by the American government from the Boxer indemnity to send students to America.
ROYAL OBSERVATORY, PEKING, CHINAThe Chinese were among the very earliest observers of the heavens, though the Hindus, Chinese, Chaldeans, and Egyptians each claim the honor of having been the first students of astronomy. The Chinese have astronomical annals claiming to go back two thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven years B. C. These record little but the appearance of comets and solar eclipses. Professional astronomers were compelled to predict every eclipse under pain of death. The popular idea was that an eclipse was a monster having evil designs on the sun, and it was customary to make a great noise, by shouting, etc., in order to frighten it away. At an early period the Chinese appear to have been acquainted with the luni-solar Metonic cycle of nineteen years, and they had also divided the year into three hundred and sixty-five and one-fourth days. To the burning of all scientific books by one of their princes (Tsin-Chi-Hong-Ti), 221 B. C., the Chinese attribute the loss of many theories and methods previously in use.
ROYAL OBSERVATORY, PEKING, CHINA
The Chinese were among the very earliest observers of the heavens, though the Hindus, Chinese, Chaldeans, and Egyptians each claim the honor of having been the first students of astronomy. The Chinese have astronomical annals claiming to go back two thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven years B. C. These record little but the appearance of comets and solar eclipses. Professional astronomers were compelled to predict every eclipse under pain of death. The popular idea was that an eclipse was a monster having evil designs on the sun, and it was customary to make a great noise, by shouting, etc., in order to frighten it away. At an early period the Chinese appear to have been acquainted with the luni-solar Metonic cycle of nineteen years, and they had also divided the year into three hundred and sixty-five and one-fourth days. To the burning of all scientific books by one of their princes (Tsin-Chi-Hong-Ti), 221 B. C., the Chinese attribute the loss of many theories and methods previously in use.
There is a university in Peking and a number of colleges under foreign management. In 1911 there were five hundred and forty-five foreigners employed in educational work.
Government.—Until February 12, 1912, China was a monarchy, in practice almost absolute. Since that day it has been a republic under a president who holds office for a term of five years. Many changes were made at the time of the revolution. A cabinet was substituted for the old grand council, grand secretariat, and government council; the cabinet being composed of a prime minister, two associate ministers, the various ministers of state, and the heads of various boards. A privy council was also formed. Administration is carried on by the following ministries: (1) Of Foreign Affairs; (2) Interior; (3) Finance; (4) Education; (5) War; (6) Marine; (7) Justice; (8) Agriculture, Works, and Commerce; (9) Posts and Communications; (10) Colonies. There are also a large number of minor boards and offices, divided into twenty-two provinces for local administration.
Cities.—There were in 1910 about twenty-three towns with populations exceeding 50,000, but all figures are based upon estimates.
Peking, or Pei-Ching(“Northern Capital”) is situated in a sandy plain, and is surrounded by walls with sixteen gates, each surmounted by towers one hundred feet high; and it consists, in fact, of two cities—the inner and the outer—known also as the Manchu or Tartar and the Chinese, the northern and the southern.
The walls of the Manchu city average fifty feet in height, and are fully sixty feet wide at the[683]bottom; those of the Chinese city (rectangular in plan) are thirty feet high and twenty-five feet wide. The circuit of the two cities measures twenty-one miles, including an area of nearly twenty-six square miles.
The Manchu or Inner City is divided into three portions; and at the heart of it are two enclosures, into the innermost of which entrance is forbidden to all except such as have official claims to admission. It is called the “Purple Forbidden City,” is very nearly two and one-quarter miles in circuit, and in it are the palaces of the former emperors and other members of the imperial family.
The T’âi Ho, or “Hall of Grand Harmony,” is built of marble on a terrace twenty feet high, and rising itself an additional one hundred and ten feet; its principal apartment is two hundred feet long and ninety feet wide. Surrounding the Forbidden City is the “August City,” about six miles in circuit, and encompassed by a wall twenty feet high. In the western part of the “August City” is the “Western Park” with a large artificial lake, a summer-house, gardens, the copper statue of Buddha (sixty feet high), and the temple of “Great Happiness.”
In the General City are the principal offices of the government, the observatory, the Provincial Hall for literary examinations, the Colonial Office, and the “National Academy.” In the northeastern corner is the Russian mission, and west from it the “Palace of Everlasting Harmony,” a grand monastery for over a thousand Mongol and Tibetan monks. A little farther west stands, amidst cypresses, the temple of Confucius. To the “Temple of Emperors and Kings,” near the south wall, the emperors went to worship the spirits of nearly two hundred predecessors. The great Tutelary Temple of the capital is grimy, and full of fortune-tellers. All the foreign legations and Christian missions are within the Inner City. The new Roman Catholic Cathedral is conspicuous.
The Chinese or Outer City is very sparsely populated; much of the ground is under cultivation or wooded.
The “Altar to Heaven,” with its adjunct, the “Altar of Prayer for Grain,” and the “Altar of Agriculture,” are both near the southern wall. The “Altar to Heaven” stands on a splendid triple circular terrace of white marble, richly carved, in a grove of fine trees. The “Altar of Prayer for Grain,” was burned down in 1889.
The principal streets of the Chinese City are more than one hundred feet wide, but the side streets are mere lanes. The streets are seldom paved and are deep either in mud or in dust. In the smaller streets the houses are miserable shanties; in the main streets both private houses and shops are one-story brick edifices, the shops gay with paint and gilding.
There are three Catholic cemeteries (Portuguese, French, and native) and a Russian one; and there are mission buildings, Russian and others, and hospitals.
History.—Chinese historical documents begin with the reigns of Yâo and Shun. In 403 B. C. we find only seven great states, all sooner or later claiming to be “the kingdom,” and contending for the supremacy, till Ts’in (Ch’in) put down all the others, and in 221 B. C. its king assumed the title of Hwang Tî, or emperor. From that year dates the imperial form of the Chinese government, which thus existed for more than two thousand one hundred years.
The changes of dynasty were many, two or more sometimes ruling together, each having but a nominal supremacy over the whole nation. The greater dynasties have been those of Han (206 B. C.-220 A. D.), T’ang (618-906), Sung (960-1279), Yüan (the Mongol, 1280-1367), the Ming (1368-1643), and the Ch’ing (Manchû-Tartar, from the Manchû conquest of China in 1643 to the 1912 revolution).
It was not till after the Cape of Good Hope had been doubled, and the passage to India discovered by Vasco da Gama in 1497, that intercourse between any of the European nations and China was possible by sea. It was in 1516 that the Portuguese first made their appearance at Canton; and they were followed at intervals of time by the Spaniards, the Dutch, and the English in 1635. The Chinese received none of them cordially; and Chinese dislike of them was increased by their mutual jealousies and collisions with one another. In the meantime trade gradually increased, and there grew up the importation of opium from India. From the measures of the Chinese to prevent the import of opium came the first English war with China in 1840; the result of which was the opening of Canton, Amoy, Fûchâu, Ningpo, and Shanghâi to commerce, and the cession of Hongkong to Great Britain. A second war, in 1857, France being allied with Great Britain, ended in the opening of five more treaty ports. A third war (1860) and the march on Peking did even more to open China to the world.
After a war in 1884-1885 France secured permanent control of Tongking and Annam.
In 1894 Japan, reviving old claims on Korea, drove the Chinese out of Korea, and after victories on land and at sea, captured Port Arthur and Wei-hai-wei. By the treaty of 1894 Japan secured as indemnity Formosa and the Liao-tung peninsula; but the protests of Russia, Germany, and France made Japan resign Liao-tung. Russia obtained a lease of Port Arthur and Talienwan, with railway and other privileges in Manchuria; Germany obtained Kiao-chau and concessions in Shantung; and Great Britain, as an offset, obtained a lease of Wei-hai-wei and sought to secure trading freedom in the Yang-tze-kiang valley.
Russia’s refusal to evacuate Manchuria and her movements in Korea led to war with Japan in 1903, the defeat of the Russian armies in Manchuria, the destruction of the Russian fleet, and the fall of Port Arthur (1905), China being nominally neutral. By the peace (1905) Japan secured dominance in Korea, the Russian leases in Liao-tung, and great influence in southern Manchuria and on China generally.
A series of far-reaching reforms, promoted by a nationalist reform party in 1898, were summarily cancelled by the dowager empress, who assumed supreme authority. The reactionary and anti-foreign “Boxer” association (“The Fist of Righteous Harmony”), encouraged by the court, made extermination of foreigners its war cry in that year, and besieged the legislations in Peking. After a two months’ siege by an army of Japanese, Russians, British, Americans, French, and Germans this condition was relieved. The constitutional movement began in 1911, followed by a revolution. The leader of the revolt at Han-kau was the able general, Li Yuan-hung, but the inspirer of the revolution was Dr. Sun Yat-sen, at that moment in America.
On October 13 the rebels proclaimed a republic in the province of Hu-peh, with Li Yuan-hung as president, and notified the foreign consuls that the property and persons of foreigners would be respected.
On February 12, 1912, the throne issued three edicts, in which it announced its will to abide by the decision of the National Convention and accept the republic, entrusting Yuan with the task of bringing about the new constitution in conjunction with the Nan-king government, and, after exhorting all to peacefully accept the new order, announced the abdication of the dynasty.
A constitution of seventy clauses was promulgated; the emperor was to retain his title and receive a pension, and be accorded the civility due to a foreign sovereign. On February 27 the Nan-king Assembly endorsed this decision by electing Yuan president, and he was formally installed on March 10.
Yuan’s administration was hampered by the movements in Mongolia and Tibet towards autonomy, movements countenanced by Russia and Great Britain respectively. Difficulties were also put in the way of China by the European powers in the matter of a development loan, but President Yuan, supported by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, seems to have laid securely the foundations of the largest republic the world has yet seen.
President Yuan Shi-ki was assassinated in 1916, and succeeded by Li Yuan-hung.
INDIA,the Indian Empire of the British crown, is an extensive region of southern Asia, and next after China the most populous area in the world. It occupies the central peninsula of southern Asia, and has a length of some nineteen hundred miles, a breadth of sixteen hundred, and an area, inclusive of Burma, of 1,766,650 square miles. The natural boundaries of this vast region are, on the north, the range of the Himalaya Mountains, which separates it from Tartary, China, and Tibet; on the west, the mountainous frontiers of Afghanistan and, farther south, of Persia; on the southwest and south the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean; on the east the hill ranges which border upon Burma and the Bay of Bengal.
Surface.—The region presents a diversified surface and scenery. It has indeed been called “an epitome of the whole earth,” consisting as it does of mountains far above the level of perpetual snow, broad and fertile plains bathed in intense sunshine, arid wastes, and impenetrable forests.
The most prominent feature in the relief of India is the great range of snowy peaks named theHimalaya, or “abode of snow,” which rises on the edge of the Tibetan plateau, above the northern plains, stretching out in a continuous chain for nearly eighteen hundred miles. The mean height of this portion of the borders of the Tibetan plateau, defined very clearly by the channels of the Indus and the Bramaputra, is estimated at thirteen thousand feet; the mean breadth of its base is about one hundred and fifty miles. Its summits rise to twenty-nine thousand feet, and most of the difficult passes ascending from the valleys and gorges of the Indian side are not lower than about sixteen thousand feet.
Southward from the bases of the Himalaya and the Sulaiman mountains the great plain of northern India spreads out, reaching across the whole breadth of Hindustan from the Arabian Sea to the Gulf of Bengal.
Southward of the great plain the land begins to rise again. The first elevations reached in this direction are those of the long range of the Aravali hills, which extend for four hundred miles from northeast to southwest, marking the edge of the western section of the great plain. It is bold and precipitous on that side which falls toward the Indian desert, but less so on the southeast; its average height is about three thousand feet, Mount Abu, being the highest point.
Behind the Aravali hills lie the plateaus of Malwa and Bundelkhand, extending over the country generally termed central India; These are fertile tablelands of uneven surface elevated from one thousand five hundred to two thousand feet above the sea level, and traversed by a number of minor hill ridges.
The greater part of south India is occupied by the wide tableland of the Deccan. The nameghatwas originally applied by the natives to the passes in the outer slopes of the ranges which run parallel with the two coasts of the southern portion of the great promontory of India enclosing the Deccan, and which had to be ascended to reach the high interior country from the coast; but this name Ghat has been transferred to these ranges or outer edges of the tableland themselves.
The western Ghats, about eight hundred miles in length, clothed with magnificent teak forests, form by far the boldest and most continuous escarpment of the Deccan plateau, ascending abruptly from a low base, generally at a distance of about thirty miles from the sea.
The eastern Ghats differ from the western in being much lower, in rising at a much greater distance from the coast of the Bay of Bengal, and with a gentle slope, giving access by wide openings to the interior. Their average height is about fifteen hundred feet, the highest point, near Madras, only about three thousand feet above the sea. The Deccan plateau between these supporting buttresses has thus a gradual eastward slope, and is characterized by undulating treeless plains, ridges and isolated flat-topped hills capped with basalt. Large portions of it are also covered with jungle, often overgrowing the ruins of former towns and temples, but there is no extent of forest.
Between the eastern Ghats and the sea lies the extensive maritime plain generally named the Karnatic, reaching back from the Coromandel coast for about fifty miles. The soil of this plain proves abundantly fertile when it is watered, but there are few streams, and a supply of water for irrigation has to be stored in reservoirs.
Rivers.—The river system of India consists of three great rivers: the Indus, the Ganges, the Bramaputra.
The Indus rises on the northern slopes of the Himalayas, sweeps round and enters at the western extremity of the range, and waters the Punjab.
The Ganges is formed by the amalgamation of the streams which drain the southernmost slopes of the Himalayas.
The Bramaputra rises also within easy distance of the Indus in the northern slopes of the Himalayas, flows east for some considerable distance, and then enters India at the extreme eastern point of the Himalayas. It is therefore to be noticed that the river system, of such vast importance to the people of India, is the drainage of both the northern and the southern slopes of the Himalayas.
The Ganges is the sacred river of the Hindus, rises in a snow-field of the southern face of the Himalayas at an elevation of nearly fourteen thousand feet above the sea, rushing down as a torrent to the highest accessible point on its banks (ten thousand three hundred feet), where the temple of Gangotri is built. To the Hindu a bath or a drink of the sacred water at this point has wonderful atoning virtues, and those who cannot themselves make the pilgrimage hither are supplied with flasks of the holy element bottled by the priests of Gangotri. At Allahabad the Jumna, which has followed a parallel course from the mountains, adds its strength; thence, by Benares and Patna, it passes eastward to weave its many mouths with those of the Bramaputra, and to wage a battle twice daily with the inflowing tide among the malarious islands of the Sundarbans. One of the westerly delta branches, the Hugli, on which Calcutta stands, is the most frequented highway to the sea.
Climate.—The whole country has three well-marked seasons—the cool, the hot, and the rainy. The cool months are November, December, January, and a part of February; the dry hot weather precedes, and the moist hot weather follows the periodical rains. The rainy season falls in the middle of summer and is called monsoon. It is the occasional failure of the monsoons that causes the periodical famines to which the country is liable.
The central tableland is cool, comparatively, but the alternations of heat and cold differ greatly elsewhere.
In the northwest there is burning heat with hot winds in summer, and frost at night in winter.
In the south the heat is more tempered, but the winter is cool only, and not cold.
The fall of rain varies greatly in different parts of the country. In the northeastern and other outlying parts it exceeds seventy-five inches. In the Deccan, in the upper basins of the Ganges and the Indus, it is thirty, and in the lower regions of the Indus less than fifteen inches. The remainder of India is placed between the extremes represented by these damp and dry belts.
Production and Industry.—The large majority of the population of India are engaged in agricultural pursuits, nearly 200,000,000 being either engaged in tilling the soil or dependent upon those so engaged. Great irrigation works have been carried out, the area irrigated being 42,486,724 acres.
The principal crops cultivated are rice, wheat, millet, pulse, and other food grains, oil-seeds, tea, cotton, sugar-cane, tobacco, and indigo.
Tea is grown largely under European supervision in the Eastern Himalayas, and already surpasses the China teas. Coffee is grown in the south, but with checkered success. Among the dyes, indigo and lac (red) are noteworthy. The indigenous flowers are not rich, the water lilies being the best; the flowering shrubs are very fine.
Of trees in the plains near the coasts the palm order with its several varieties strikes the observer. Inland the mango fruit-tree and the orange, the umbrageous banyan, the sacred peepul, and the bamboo are features in the landscape. In the hills the teak and other useful timber trees are obtained. In the Himalayas are the cedar, the pine, the fir, the juniper.
The cultivation of opium is a government monopoly and heavy duties are levied on the exports of opium, a duty being also paid to the Indian treasury.
Almost all the metals and minerals are represented in India, but of the useful metals, excepting iron, the quantity is not known to be large. Coal exists in many parts, especially in the northeast—at Bardwan, near Calcutta, and in Assam. Gold is found in Mysore, and in the sands of many streams; copper near Delhi and elsewhere; salt is obtained in large quantity from the mines in the northwest of the Punjab, and by evaporation from the coast lagoons all round India, and from salt lakes in Rajputana. Most of the precious gems, including diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds, are found, some abundantly, some rarely, though the supply of the once famous diamonds of Golconda seems to have ceased.
Metal and textile workers, glass and pottery workers, with their dependants, number close on twenty millions, and there are large numbers employed in service.
The textile manufactures of India were famous in long past centuries throughout the civilized world; such were the gold brocades of Delhi, brought thence to imperial Rome, the muslins of Dacca, made for the Mongol court, and the pattern colored cloths of Calicut (calico), the shawls of Kashmir, and the silks and carpets of Multan. All these home-made fabrics, however, have declined before the products of the great factories.
Peoples.—The broad division of the peoples of India includes a northern group of Aryan nations, occupying the great plains and the northern seaboard on each side, and the non-Aryan inhabitants of the Deccan plateau in southern India. This division also corresponds to that of the languages of India, separating those related to the Sanscrit, the language of the Aryan conquerors of the north, from the Dravidian and Kolarian of the south. (See Book of Races.)
Languages.—Though nearly a hundred and fifty languages, derived from nearly twenty linguistic families, are spoken in India, three of those families—the Aryo-Indian, the Dravidian, and the Tibeto-Burman—represent the speech of ninety-seven per cent of the inhabitants.
Hindustani, a dialect of Hindi, has become the literary language of Hindustan, and is thelingua francaof India. English is understood by many.
Religions.—The chief religions are Hinduism (218,000,000 in 1911), Mohammedans (66,000,000), Buddhists (11,000,000), Animists (10,000,000), and Christians (4,000,000).
Government.—India is a dependency of Great Britain, consisting partly of territory under the direct administration of British officials, and partly of native states, all subordinate, in varying degrees of relationship, to British authority.
The nine great provinces are Madras, Bombay, Bengal, the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, the Punjab, Burma, Eastern Bengal and Assam, the Central Provinces, and the Northwestern Frontier Province.
In accordance with the Royal Titles Act of 1876 the King of Great Britain and Ireland assumes the additional title of Emperor of India. The Parliament of the United Kingdom is supreme over India; but all the statutes relating to India are in the nature of either constitutional enactments or financial provisions.
In India the supreme authority, both executive and legislative, is vested in the governor-general in council. The governor-general, or viceroy, who generally holds office for five years, receives a salary of eighty-five thousand dollars a year, and has power to overrule his council in cases of emergency. The council is composed of six ordinary members, all appointed, like the governor-general himself, by the crown for a period of five years. Since 1909 one of the members has been a native of India.
The work of the council is distributed among the departments of finance, commerce, home and foreign affairs, revenue and agriculture, army, legislation, education, and public works. The foreign department is under the special care of the viceroy.
The seat of the supreme government of India is Delhi, with an annual migration to the hill-station of Simla for the hot season.
Cities.—The capital, Delhi, has a population (1911) of 391,828. The other chief cities are: Calcutta (1,216,514), Bombay (972,930), Madras (517,335), Hyberabad (499,840), Rangoon (293,316), Lucknow (260,621), Lahore (228,318), Ahmedabad (215,448), Benares (204,222). In addition there are twenty cities with populations exceeding 100,000.
Delhi(Del´lee), since 1912 the capital of the Indian Empire is located on the right bank of the Jumna, nine hundred and fifty-four miles northwest of Calcutta. It was the capital of the Afghan or Pathan, and afterwards of the Mogul, empire. It is the terminus of the East Indian and Rajputana railways, the former crossing the Jumna by a fine iron bridge.
Delhi is walled on three sides, has ten gates, and stands on high ground, the famous palace of Shah Jehan, now the fort, looking out over the river and a wide stretch of wooded and cultivated country. To the north, about a mile distant, rises the historic “ridge,” crowned with memorials of the Indian mutiny, and commanding a fine view of the city, the domes and minarets of which overtop the encircling groves.
The palace buildings comprise the cathedral-like entrance hall, the audience hall, and several lesser pavilions, covering in all an area of one thousand six hundred feet by three thousand two hundred feet, exclusive of gateways. The beautiful inlaid work and carving of these buildings are the admiration of the world, and is worthy of its famous inscription: “If there is a heaven on earth, it is this—it is this!”
In the heart of the city stands the Jama Masjid (“great mosque”), one of the largest and finest structures of the kind in India, which also owes its origin to Shah Jehan. Among the notable monuments in the neighborhood are the imperial tombs, including that of Hamayun, second of the Mogul dynasty; the old Kala Masjid, or black mosque; and the thirteenth century Kutab Minar, ten miles to the south, which is two hundred and thirty-eight feet high, and tapers gracefully from a diameter of forty-seven feet at the base to nine feet at the summit.
Modern Delhi is noted for its broad main streets, the chief being the Chandni Chauk, or Silver Street, with its high clock tower, and the institute and museum.
Delhi has a large trade in wheat and other produce, and its bazaars are noted for gold and silver work, precious stones, shawls, and costly fabrics.
Simla, since 1864 the summer headquarters of the British government in India, stands on the slopes (seven thousand feet) of the Himalayas, in a beautiful situation, one hundred and seventy miles north of Delhi. Its first house was built in 1819, and it was first visited officially by the Indian government in 1827. There are two vice-regal residences, handsome government buildings, and a fine town hall. Population sixteen thousand in winter, and considerably more in summer.
Calcutta, on the left bank of the Hughly, the largest and westernmost branch of the Ganges delta, is about eighty miles from the sea. The government buildings, Bishop’s College (now an engineering school), High Court, town hall, bank, museum, university, St. Paul’s cathedral, and many other English buildings have earned for it the name “City of Palaces.” The native quarters, though improved, are still squalid, the houses of mud or bamboo. An esplanade, numerous quays, an excellent water-supply, gas, and tramway services, add to the amenities. There are extensive dockyards, warehouses, ironworks, timber yards, and jute mills. Extensive railway and steamboat communications make it the chief emporium of commerce in Asia.
Bombaystands on an island, connected with the coast by a causeway, and has a magnificent harbor and noble docks. It is rapidly surpassing Calcutta in trade, and is one of the greatest of seaports; its position promises to make it the most important commercial center in the East, as it already is in the cotton trade of the world. It swarms with people of every clime, and its merchandise is mainly in the hands of the Parsees, the descendants of the ancient fire worshippers. It is the most English town in India. It came to England from Portugal as dowry with Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II., who leased it to the East India Company for fifty dollars a year. Its prosperity began when the Civil war in the United States afforded it an opening for its cotton.
Benares, the most sacred city of the Hindus, and an important town in the Northwest Provinces, is on the Ganges, four hundred and twenty miles by rail northwest of Calcutta. It presents the amazing array of one thousand seven hundred temples and mosques with towers and domes and minarets innumerable. The bank of the river is laid with continuous flights of steps whence the pilgrims bathe; but the city itself is narrow, crooked, crowded, and dirty. Many thousands of pilgrims visit it annually. It is a seat of Hindu learning; there is also a government college. The river is spanned here by a magnificent railway bridge. There is a large trade in country produce, English goods, jewelry, and gems; while its brass work “Benares ware,” is famous.
Agra, a city in the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, is on the Jumna, one hundred and thirty-nine miles southeast of Delhi by rail, and eight hundred and forty-one miles northwest of Calcutta. The ancient walls embrace an area of eleven square miles, of which about one-half is now occupied. The houses are mostly built of red sandstone, and, on the whole, Agra is the handsomest city in upper India.
Some of the public buildings, monuments of the house of Timur, are on a scale of striking magnificence. Among these are the fortress built by Akbar, within the walls of which are the palace and audience hall of Shah Jehan, the Moti Masjid or Pearl Mosque, and the Jama Masjid or Great Mosque.
Still more celebrated is the white marble Taj Mahal, situated without the city, about a mile to the east of the fort. This extraordinary and beautiful mausoleum was built by the Emperor Shah Jehan for himself and his favorite wife, who died in 1629, and is remarkable alike for the complexity and grace of the general design, and the elaborate perfection of the workmanship. In the center, on a raised platform, is the mausoleum, surmounted by a beautiful dome, with smaller domes at each corner, and four graceful minarets (one hundred and thirty-three feet high). Of British edifices the principal are the Government House, the Government College, three missionary colleges, the English church, and the barracks.
The climate, during the hot and rainy seasons (April to September), is very trying; but the average health of the city is equal to that of any other station in the United Provinces.
The principal articles of trade are cotton, tobacco, salt, grain, and sugar. There are manufactories of shoes, pipe stems, and gold lace, and of inlaid mosaic work, for which Agra is famous.
History.—It is impossible to speak positively as to the aboriginal prehistoric populations of India; probably the most primitive peoples now left—the Dravidian hill-tribes—represent waves of invasion from the north. The history of civilization in India may, however, be traced from the invasion—probably one thousand years or more B. C.—of the Aryan race from central Asia, a race of the Indo-Germanic type in physique and speech. Their language was Sanskrit, their religion and civilization that of the Vedas, or ancient Hindu scriptures.
Out of the union of the Aryans with the earlier inhabitants the modern races of India have sprung. Buddhism arose in India with the teaching of Budda about 500 B. C, and for a while superseded the Vedic faith, corrupted as it had been by the degraded aboriginal superstitions; and India was substantially Buddhist till the revival of Hinduism, in its modern or Brahmanic form (more idolatrous and superstitious than the ancient faith), in the sixth century A. D.
In 1001 A. D. came the first wave of Mohammedanism, and soon all India fell under Mohammedan domination, though the bulk of the people clung to the Hindu religion. By the beginning of the eighteenth century a new Hindu power, that of the Mahrattas, arose, and seriously weakened the Moslem emperor, the Grand Mogul. The Dutch, Portuguese, and French, as well as the British, established themselves in the empire; in the eighteenth century the French more than rivaled the British in power. But the power of the British East India Company, originally traders, became dominant after the battle of Plassey in 1757.
Gradually English power as represented by the company, its diplomatists, and its soldiers, extended over a great part of India, and the governors—Clive, Warren Hastings, Wellesley, Amherst, Bentinck, Dalhousie, Canning—consolidated what was really the empire of Great Britain in the East. Then in 1857 came the great mutiny, stamped out in blood, and the government was assumed by the British crown in 1858. British rule in India has been steadily consolidated, but no great annexation has since taken place, except that of Upper Burma in 1886.
After the mutiny, India settled down to a period of peace, broken only by the constant suspicion of Russian intrigue in Afghanistan. This led in 1878 to the second Afghan war. The Amir was deposed, and his successor promised to receive a British resident, who was in a short time murdered, as was also his escort. This resulted in the famous march of General Roberts from Kabul to Kandahar, and eventually an Amir who was favorable to the British was set up. This Amir reigned until 1901, and his successor remained friendly to the British.
Finally, in 1907, a convention between Russia and Britain was signed, and later an agreement as to the line of delimitation of their respective spheres of influence in Persia was arrived at in 1912. Quetta and the southeastern districts of Afghanistan were annexed after the second Afghan war, and the purchase of the Suez Canal was of great use in the defense of India. British supremacy over the Afghan tribes was also recognized.
After his coronation in 1911, George V. of Great Britain visited India and held a Coronation Durbar at the beginning of 1912 in India itself, this being the first visit of an English raj to the Indian empire, and the capital of India was officially proclaimed as Delhi.
JAPAN, an island empire off the east coast of Asia, separated from Siberia by the Sea of Japan. The name Japan is a corruption ofZipangu, itself a corruption of the Chinese pronunciation of the native nameNihonorNippon(“Land of the Rising Sun”).
Japan comprises four large islands, Honshu (the Japanese mainland), Shikoku, Kiushu, and Yezo or Hakkaido; the Luchu Islands, Formosa, divided from China by the Formosa Channel; and Korea (annexed in 1910 and renamed Chosen). A small group of islands, Bonia, six hundred miles southeast of Tokio, also belongs to Japan.
The Kwantung province, including Port Arthur and Darien, was leased to Japan by Russia (with the consent of China) in 1905, while the southern portion of Sakhalin (ceded to Russia in 1875) became once more Japanese.
The empire includes also nearly four thousand small islands.
The islands comprising the Japanese Empire have been likened to the British Isles in their position relative to the Continent, the Sea of Japan and the Strait of Korea resembling the North Sea and Strait of Dover. In their general extent of surface the comparison also holds good. The three contiguous islands of Japan proper are, however, considerably larger than Great Britain, while the northern possession[688]of Yezo is three thousand square miles larger than Ireland.
The empire with its dependencies comprises an area of 235,886 square miles, with a population of 67,142,798.
Surface Characteristics.—The islands are eminently volcanic, and eighteen of the summits are still active; the chief of these, Fuji-san, or Fuji-yama, the loftiest and most sacred mountain of Japan, about sixty miles from Tokio, has been dormant since 1707. Japan is also liable to frequent, and occasionally disastrous, earthquakes.
The country is very mountainous, and not more than one-sixth of its area is available for cultivation. The numerous ranges extend in directions parallel to the length of the group, giving varied and picturesque landscapes of hill and valley. Their irregular coast-line is indented with splendid natural harbors, such as the Bay of Yedo on the southeast coast; the beautiful “inland sea” of Japan, with its intricate channel between hundreds of islets, separates the island of Shikoku from the larger one of Hondo, and the enclosed Suwonada and Bugo Channel, divide the southwestern island of Kiushu from both of these.
Lakes and Rivers.—From the mountainous character of the long narrow islands the rivers are generally impetuous, and of small economic importance, except for irrigation. Among the most important may be noted the Yodo-gawa, which flows from the fiddle-shaped Lake Biwa, the largest fresh water expanse in Japan, thirty-five miles long, to the “inland sea;” the broad and rapid Ten-riu-gawa, or “River of the Heavenly Dragon,” which flows south from the central mountains of Nippon; and the Tone-gawa, which enters the Pacific, but sends a branch to the Bay of Yedo, which is crossed within the capital by the Nippon Bassi, or bridge of Japan, from which, as a starting point, all distances throughout the kingdom are measured.
Climate.—The islands of Japan have a climate that may be compared with that of South Britain. The extremes, however, are greater, summer being hotter, and winter colder, than in England, increasing to almost Siberian rigor in the north. June, July, and August form the Satkasi, or rainiest period; the autumn succeeding is the pleasantest and most genial season of the year. Hurricanes, storms, and fogs, are frequent in the seas round Japan, where warm and cold ocean currents also bring about great differences of sea temperature.
Products and Industries.—The islands have a very beautiful flora, including many ornamental plants. The great feature of the vegetation is the intermixture of tropical growths, such as the bamboo, palms, tree-ferns, and bananas, with those of temperate regions, the pine, oak, beech, chestnut and maple. Characteristic are the paper mulberry, the vegetable-wax tree, the camphor and lacquer trees. The cultivated crops are rice, maize, wheat, barley, tobacco, tea, and cotton.
Japan is also very rich in minerals. Gold, silver, and copper are especially abundant in the north, and coal and iron beds seem to extend throughout the group. Petroleum is also being produced in large quantities, especially in the Province of Echigo.
People.—With the exception of the wilds of Yezo, peopled by eighteen thousand Ainos, the Japanese islands are inhabited by a single race speaking various dialects of the same tongue. Probably the Japanese are the issue of the intermarriage of victorious Tartar settlers, who entered Japan from the Korean peninsula, with Malays in the south and Ainos in the main island. See Book of Races.
There are two prevailing religions in Japan—Shintoism, the indigenous faith; and Buddhism, introduced from China in 552 and still the dominant religion among the people. Francis Xavier introduced Christianity in 1549, and the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Church both carry on a flourishing work in Japan. Of the Protestant missions there are also many actively at work.
In education, as well as in matters of religion, enormous changes and advances have been made in recent years. Education is in the lower grades free and compulsory. Secondary schools are state aided, and prepare for a three years’ course at the universities, which is largely devoted to the study of European languages. There are high schools for girls, and the technical and special schools are well attended. There are three State Universities, at Tokio, Kyoto, and Tohoku.
Production and Industry.—Agriculture is the chief occupation of the Japanese, and they are excellent and careful farmers. In the mechanical arts also they excel; especially in the use of metals, in the manufacture of porcelain and glass lacquered wares, and silk fabrics. The chief manufactures are silk and cotton, cotton yarn, matches, paper, glass, lacquer ware, porcelain, and bronze, and ship building is an important industry in the yards.
The chief exports are silk, cotton, yarns, rice, tea, fish, copper, matches, coal, camphor, straw plaits, porcelain, earthenware, lacquer-ware, and marine products.
The commercial development of Japan has of late been marvelous. There were five thousand nine hundred and eighty-five miles of railroad open in 1914, in addition to eight hundred and thirty-six miles open in Korea, while the South Manchurian Railway (China) is under Japanese control.
Government and Administration.—The government is an hereditary monarchy, the succession being now exclusively in the male line. The Cabinet consists of ten Ministers of State, presided over by a Minister President.
The Upper House, or House of Peers, consists of about three hundred and thirty members—male members of the royal house, life peers, peers elected either for life or for seven years, and other persons nominated by the emperor. The lower house, or House of Representatives, has three hundred and sixty-nine members, who serve for four years, elected by citizens paying taxes of not less than ten yen (five dollars) per annum. The first general election took place in 1890.
Penal and civil codes have been drafted on a European basis, and with a commercial code were published in 1890, and came into force in 1893.
Cities.—The capital of the Japanese Empire, Tôkiô, formerly called Yedo, is the residence of the emperor; population, 2,186,079. Other cities are: Osaka, 1,226,590; Kiôto, the ancient capital, 442,462; Nagoya, 378,231; Kōbe, 378,197; Yokohama, 394,303; Hiroshima, 142,763; Nagasaki, 176,480; Kanazawa, 110,994; Kure, 100,679. The chief ports are Yokohama, Kōbe, Osaka, Nagasaki, and Hakodate.
Tokio, or Tokei(“Eastern Capital”), is the chief city of the Japanese Empire. Until 1868, when the emperor removed his court thither from Kyōtō, it was known as Yedo (“Estuary Gate”). Its position at the mouth of the rivers which drain the largest plain of Japan, fits it to be a national center. The lower portion of the city, which is flat and intersected by canals, stretches between the two parks of Ueno (north) and Shiba (south), famous for their shrines. Midway rises the castle or palace, a fine structure in Japanese style, furnished in European manner, and lighted with electricity, within a double ring of high walls and broad moats. In spring-time the city is gay with plum and cherry blossoms. The immense enclosures, formerly inhabited by the nobles and their retainers, are gradually disappearing, and handsome modern buildings in brick for the use of the various government departments are taking their place. Of the fifteen city divisions the northern, Hongo and Kanda, are mostly educational, and contain the buildings of the Imperial University, Law School and other institutions. The student population is astonishingly large. The seaward districts of Nihonbashi, Kyobashi, and Asakusa are industrial and commercial, while the government offices are located in Kojimachi ku.
Yokohama is the port of entry (seventeen miles off), and a great harbor scheme to cost twenty million dollars was planned in 1911-1912. The city is subject to disastrous fires; that of April, 1892, burned four thousand houses in one morning. Tokio has three railway termini and a system of electric railways. Almost every phase of modern civilization is to be found within its vast area.
History.—Before 500 A. D. Japanese history is mere legend. Buddhism was introduced from Korea in 552; and in the next century Chinese civilization strongly influenced Japan. About the end of the twelfth century, the weakness of the emperor led the military head (Shogun) to assume a large share of the supreme power, and he handed it on to his descendants. Hence the statement often made that Japan had a Mikado or spiritual emperor who reigned but did not govern, and a “Tycoon” (Shogun) who did govern though he paid homage to the nominal sovereign. The military caste was now dominant until the reign of Iyeyasu (c. 1600), whose descendants reigned till 1868.
Total exclusion of foreigners was the rule till 1543, when the Portuguese effected a settlement; but in 1624 all foreigners were expelled and Christianity interdicted. The policy of isolation was rigidly pursued from 1638 till 1853, when Commodore Perry of the United States Navy steamed into a Japanese harbor, and effected a treaty with the Shogun. Soon sixteen other nations followed the American example, and free ports were opened to foreign commerce.
In 1867-1868 a sharp civil war broke the feudal power of the daimios or territorial magnates, suppressed the Shogunate, and unified the authority under the Mikado. In a very few years Japanese students took a place of their own in western science; and how thoroughly the Japanese had laid to heart what they had learned abroad in the military and naval arts was partially revealed by the swift and complete success of the war with China about Korea in 1894, and more impressively by their amazing triumph over the great military empire of Russia, in 1904-1905, whom they defeated in a succession of bloody battles, took Port Arthur, and utterly destroyed the Russian fleet. By the peace that followed the Russians not only evacuated southern Manchuria, but recognized Japan’s preponderance in Korea, and gave up to Japan the “leases” of Port Arthur and the Liao-tung peninsula Russia had wrested from China.
A conspiracy against the life of the emperor was discovered in September, 1910. The same year saw the passing of a bill enabling foreigners to own land in Japan proper, under certain restrictions. But the principal event of 1910 in Japanese history was the formal annexation of Korea, the treaty with the emperor of Korea being promulgated on August 29. According to the new commercial treaty with the United States, ratified by the Senate on February 24, 1911, the clause in the old treaty was omitted, wherein each side reserved the right of regulating immigration from one country to the other. In 1910 and 1911 important agreements were also made with Russia with special reference to Manchuria.
Japan entered the European war on August 23, 1914, on the side of the Entente Allies, and immediately began the blockade and siege of the German colony at Kiao-Chow on the Shantung promontory of China. In November, 1915, the present emperor, Yoshihito, was crowned.
The following tables show how the colonies of the world have been divided among the various nations: