In the Far East—­in the vast empire of China—­this result seemed to be coming about inevitably and rapidly.  The ancient pot-bound civilisation of China had withstood the impact of the West in the mid-nineteenth century without breaking down; but China had made no attempt, such as Japan had triumphantly carried out, to adapt herself to the new conditions, and her system was slowly crumbling under the influence of the European traders, teachers, and missionaries whom she had been compelled to admit.  The first of the powers to take advantage of this situation was France, who already possessed a footing in Cochin-China, and was tempted during the colonial enthusiasm of the ’eighties to transform it into a general supremacy over Annam and Tonking.  As early as 1874 she had obtained from the King of Annam a treaty which she interpreted as giving her suzerain powers.  The King of Annam himself repudiated this interpretation, and maintained that he was a vassal of China.  China took the same view; and after long negotiations a war between France and China broke out.  It lasted for four years, and demanded a large expenditure of strength.  But it ended (1885) with the formal recognition of French suzerainty over Annam, and a further decline of Chinese prestige.

Ten years later a still more striking proof of Chinese weakness was afforded by the rapid and complete defeat of the vast, ill-organised empire by Japan, the youngest of the great powers.  The war gave to Japan Formosa and the Pescadores Islands, and added her to the list of imperialist powers.  She would have won more still—­the Liao-tang Peninsula and a sort of suzerainty over Korea—­but that the European powers, startled by the signs of China’s decay, and perhaps desiring a share of the plunder, intervened to forbid these annexations, on the pretext of defending the integrity of China.  Russia, France and Germany combined in this step; Britain stood aloof.  Japan, unwillingly giving way, and regarding Russia as the chief cause of her humiliation, began to prepare herself for a coming conflict.  As for unhappy China, she was soon to learn how much sincerity there was in the zeal of Europe for the maintenance of her integrity.  In 1896 she was compelled to permit Russia to build a railway across Manchuria; and to grant to France a ‘rectification of frontiers’ on the south, and the right of building a railway through the province of Yunnan, which lies next to Tonking.  The partition of China seemed to be at hand.  Britain and America vainly urged upon the other powers that China should be left free to direct her own affairs subject to the maintenance of ‘the open door’ for European trade.  The other powers refused to listen, and in 1897 the beginning of the end seemed to have come.  Germany, seizing on the pretext afforded by the murder of two German missionaries, stretched forth her ‘mailed fist,’ and seized the strong place and admirable harbour of Kiao-chau, the most valuable strategic position on the Chinese