Sino-East Indian War

### Result

Treaty of Batavia* Qing dynasty recognizes the East Indies' purchase of the Philippines
* Qing dynasty relinquishes colonial ambitions in East Indies
* Five year moratorium placed on all Chinese colonial enterprises

## Belligerents

### Defender(s)

* East Indies
	+ **Auxilaries:**
		- New South Wales
		- Cape Colony
		- British India
* United Kingdom
	+ East India Company
		- **Expeditionary Forces:**
			* Mysore

## Commanders and Leaders

### Defenders

* **Stefan van Delden**
* **Diederick Penning**
* **Henry Addington**
* **Marquess Wellesley**

## Meta

### Timeline

Game 2.2

The **Sino-East Indian War**, also known as the **Anglo-Chinese War** due to its heavy British involvement, was fought between the Qing dynasty and the United Provinces of the East Indies from 1804 to 1805, with the British Empire providing auxilary units to the East Indies in the beginning and joining the conflict directly in its second half. The war was originated with an attempt by the Qing dynasty to purchase the Philippines from Spain under threat of war, which led Spain to sell the Philippines to the East Indies, causing the Qing dynasty to invade. Merchants in British colonies, particularly India, believed that China was unworthy of a colonial empire and believed Chinese colonial enterprise of any kind in the East Indies posed a threat to their economic interests, and a result provided support to the East Indies. Viewing the East Indies as a vital ally in a period of increasing diplomatic isolation, when the sovreignty of the East Indies was directly threatened Britain joined the war. Increasing internal instability, the breakaway of Tibet, and the threat of a full scale invasion of China by British and East Indian forces pressured the Qing dynasty to sue for peace with the allies, resulting in a treaty that greatly curtailed Chinese colonial ambitions.

Qing interest in colonialism dated back to the start of the Jiaqing Emperor's reign in the late 1790s. Though Chinese rulers had long viewed colonial ventures as unnecessary given China's immense wealth and productive ability, the British conquest of India combined with industrialization in the metropole were making Britain a formidable economic competitor to China. Though Jiaqing pursued friendly relations and open trade with the British, he sought a colonial empire of his own, and viewed Oceania and Polynesia as prime locations for such ventures. However, Jiaqing's advisors warned him that the United Provinces of the East Indies would not take kindly to Chinese expansion in what was considered their domain. Initially not desiring war with a trade partner of China, Jiaqing instead turned to Spain, expressing interest in purchasing the Philippines in 1798. This offer was dismissed out of hand by the Spanish foreign ministry, and mocked throughout Europe as a sign of Chinese hubris.

Following the rebellion of several major Spanish colonies in the Americas, which began while Spain was already heavily involved in the French Revolutionary War against Prussia and Austrian, the Qing dynasty began to consider an invasion of the Philippines, presumably learning from British diplomats that it was the East Indies' ambition to conquer the islands. In 1803, Jiaqing sent a letter to the East Indian President, Stefan van Delden, inquiring about the subject. In the correspondence exchanged between the two heads of state that year, van Delden made clear that any attack on the Philippines by the Qing dynasty would be viewed as an attack on the East Indies. Offers by the Qing to partition the Philippines between the East Indies and the Qing dynasty were rejcted out of hand by van Delden. Sensing that the Qing would likely attempt to seize the Philippines from Spain regardless, the East Indian ambassador to Britain met with the Secretary of State to discuss the prospect of British involvement in the war. The diplomats agreed that the Qing dynasty was undeserving of colonies, and the British Secretary told the East Indian ambassador that while Britain may be publicly neutral, it would lean toward the East Indies in the event of a war between it and the Qing dynasty.

In 1804, as the van Delden had predicted, the Qing dynasty issued an ultimatum demanding Spain sell the Philippines or face war. The Philippines had recently been partitioned from the Viceroyalty of New Spain, leaving its own defenses extremely weak. Furthermore, Spain's military and diplomatic focus was squarely on major wars in Europe and the Americas. However, Spain, like the East Indies and Britain, also considered China unworthy of colonies, and did not wish to face the humiliation of losing the Philippines to China, whether in war or as a result of accepting the ultimatum. Also forseeing the advantage of turning members of Britain's trade network against one another, Spain elected instead to sell the colony to the East Indies for nearly half the price the Qing had offered. Enraged, Jiaqing issued an ultimatum to the East Indies demanding control of the Philippines without, which van Delden 'found laughable' and rejected, prompting the Qing dynasty to declare war against the East Indies.

Upon learning of the imminent Chinese invasion of the East Indies, the British Governors of New South Wales and India, after recieving permission from London, sent part of their own colonial garrisons and militias to join the Army of the East Indies as auxilaries.. This prompted Jiaqing to raise auxilaries of his own from Tibet, which in turn led the British Cape Colony to also send auxiliary units to the East Indies. Throughout the war, around half of the Army of the East Indies was made up of auxilaries from British colonies. Allegedly, when British diplomats in Peking were questioned about this by the Qing government, the Qing were told that this was being done simply to make the war a 'fair fight' given China's immense manpower advantage, and that Britain would remain neutral. At the same time, when questioned by East Indian diplomats, the British promised that it would intervene directly against the Qing dynasty if the war was pushed beyond merely the Philippines and British forces were not tied down elsewhere.

The promise of British neutrality seems to have boosted the confidence the Qing army, which, rather than seize the Philippines as was the stated goal of the war, invaded the center of the East Indies in Java. The invasion began with a nearly successful assault on the East Indian capital Batavia, an early failure that was quickly rectified by the Chinese capture of the important port city of Surabaya as well as Batavia in a second assault. The opening stage of combat made the war appear it would be an easy victory for the Qing dynasty, deeply alarming the East Indies, which, upon learning that the Chinese military objective was Batavia, implored the British to intervene directly. When British diplomats confronted the Qing government on the matter, they found that Jiaqing believed an invasion of the East Indies was justified given van Deleden's constant diplomatic belittling of the Qing dynasty, and was angered that British colonies had lent troops to the East Indies despite British promises of neutrality. Dutch informants in Peking caught wind of the discussions, leading the Batavian Republic to issue a declaration that if Britain were to get involved in the war so would the Netherlands. British diplomats were quick to point out that the Batavian Republic could not go to war with Britain under the terms of the 1798 Treaty of Hanover, and in order to prevent the Netherlands from attack the East Indies Britain issued a guaruntee of its independence. Though the gesture had been directed at the Hague, it further soured relations between London and Peking.

With the East Indies in such a poor position by late 1804, its attempts to recapture Batavia having ended in bloody disaster, Britain began to consider direct intervention. Being involved at the time in a war against Northwestern Confederacy in North America and fearing an outbreak of war in India, Britain at first limited its change of policy towards the Qing dynasty to issuing an embargo against China and its client state Tibet, but already began considering sending troops to China. Despite extremely hostile relations between the United Kingdom and Spain, a secret meeting was held between British and Spanish diplomats in Gibraltar to discuss the situation in China. It was revealed to the Spanish that the British had considered striking up a deal with the Qing to recall the auxilaries, embargo the East Indies, and resume trade with China under a nonaggression pact in exchange for control of Ceylon, but that negotiations on this deal had proved difficult as the Chinese also demanded the return of Hong Kong as compensation for allowing Britain to control Ceylon. The Spanish, being firmly opposed to Chinese control of any part of the East Indies, claimed that the East Indies would likely be willing to trade Ceylon to the British if Britain were to invade China. When asked if Spain would consider joining an invasion of China, the Spanish declined, noting that they had to attend to their colonial rebellions in America and that Britain was perfectly capable of defeating China on its own. When the British expressed fears over attacks by local kingdoms on their holdings in India, the Spanish suggested that Britain simply sign nonaggression pacts with the kingdoms. The meeting concluded with Spain promising that it would under no circumstances help the Batavian Republic fight Britain if such a war would be to the Qing's benefit.

Just as the British began talks with the Indian kingdoms, the East Indies recieved an extremely insulting peace offer from the Qing, which demanded the cession of Ceylon and the Mariana Islands in addition to the East Indies becoming a Chinese colony. It is believed by some that the rage van Delden felt upon learning what the Qing dynasty's ambitions in the East Indies were contributed to his death by heart failure a few weeks later. Around the same time the British recieved word of the peace offer, they also recieved word that British India's neighbors had all agreed to a six year peace treaty with Britain. With the potential threat of the Indian kingdoms neutralized for the moment, the British Parliament did not hesitate to declare war on the Qing dynasty after hearing of the outrageous peace offer. Though the Chinese won a very small victory in being able to immediately encircle the British garrison at Hong Kong, a large invasion force was quickly raised in British India, with Mysore, an Indian princely state under British protection, attaching its entire army to the British Indian Army. Upon learning of the British declaration of war, East Indian agents in Peking began spreading false rumors that a mass conscription to defend against the British would soon be enforced by the Emperor, causing widespread unrest that shattered Tibet's trust in the Qing dynasty, leading Tibet to recall its auxilaries. Around the same time, the Chinese were forced out of Surabaya by the construction of East Indian fortifications near the city. The Chinese defenses weakened, the British Indian Army landed in Batavia and quickly liberated the city. British Indian forces then directly assaulted Peking, but failed to capture the city despite defeating the Qing navy.

The British entry into the war combined with the mass unrest began to persuade Jiaqing that his military's adventure in the East Indies may no longer be worth the cost. Fearing a Tibetan revolt, especially after learning of the elevation of an infant to the role of Dalai Lama, the Qing dynasty released Tibet of its obligations as a client state on the condition that Tibet remain neutral in the conflict with Britain, something that Tibet already firmly intended to do. In the opening months of 1805, the Qing dynasty began making desperate separate peace offers to Britain, all of which were shared with the East Indian ambassador in London, who reportedly made a hobby out of meeting with the British Secretary of State every few days to share some wine and laugh at Jiaqing's latest plea. The offers, which still operated under the assumption that China would defeat the East Indies, were all rejected by Britain. Following yet another Qing defeat at sea and nearly successful assault on Peking by British regulars, the Qing dynasty lightened the terms of a possible separate peace with Britain, offering to keep the war contained to the Philippines should Britain withdraw. By this point, however, it was agreed by the British and East Indians that China was on its knees, and that nothing less than a full renunciation of Qing colonial ambitions would be sufficient for peace, which would be signed by Britain and the East Indies together. After some more deliberation, and an alleged threat from British ambassadors that further Chinese aggressions could cause the direct intervention of more European powers or a civil war in China, the Qing finally relented, and a peace conference was held in Batavia.

The Treaty of Batavia took months to negotiate, as the Qing dynasty and East Indies had difficultly coming to an agreement. Jiaqing's diplomats arrived in Batavia offering an armistice, a return to the status quo antebellum, and a renunciation of Qing colonial ambitions. Wanting to make sure the treaty was as clear as possible, the newly elected East Indian President Diederick Penning insisted that the Qing be very specific about what colonial ambitions they were giving up and when. Initially, the Qing offered to give up all colonial ambitions for a period of five years, but this was rejected by the East Indies, whose representatives marked out on a map a sphere of influence that the Qing would be prohibited from entering, which included all of mainland southeast Asia in addition to Oceania and Polynesia. The Qing countered this offer by shrinking the exclusion zone to not contain southeast Asia or Polynesia, though agreed to at least remain outside of the original exlcusion zone for five years, which the East Indies found unaccpetable. Willing to concede a little bit, the East Indies presented a third version of the exclusion zone which was the same as the first except in that it no longer contained Burma or Northern Indochina. The Qing made another counter-offer which was similar to the second proposed exclusion zone except in that it no longer contained northwestern Polynesia. The East Indies still rejected this, declaring that it would never recognize any Chinese expansion into the Pacific. To lighten the demand somehwat, the East Indies conceded all of Indochina except Cambodia to the Qing. At last, this offer was accepted. In exchange for the lifting of the embargo, the Qing also returned Hong Kong to Britain.

Though short in its duration, the Sino-East Indian War had a major impact on the geopolitical situation. It reaffirmed the partnership between the East Indies and Great Britain that had been established during the Second East India Company War while also providing an example to the Chinese of European military might and willingness to go to war to protect economic interests. Though it remains to be seen whether the war tempered Chinese ambitions on the world stage in the long term, it certianly did so temporarily. In the East Indies, the war was celebrated as a glorious triumph of European civilization over a barbarous enemy, and proof of the East Indies' 'manifest destiny' to control Oceania and Polynesia. The cooperation between the East Indies and the British during the war also convinced the government of the Batavian Republic that, despite ideological similarities between the its government and that of the East Indies, the Netherlands' former colony had become an effective British puppet, further setting the stage for another major European war.