ABSTRACT
Britain, Russia and France made the largest gains, and the British Empire became clearly the largest in the world. The sense of mission that underlay late nineteenth-century Western imperialism led to a determination to persist even in the event of setbacks, as with the British against the Zulus in southern Africa in 1879. The counterpart to Western imperialism was the response of others. Divisions that led to cooperation from some of the population were important, in Asia, Africa and among Native Americas. So also was the fate of attempts to develop the militaries of potentially rival non-Western states. China, the largest non-Western state, suffered defeat at the hands of Britain in the Opium War of 1839–1842, as amphibious forces seized Amoy, Canton, Shanghai and other coastal positions. The contrasting nature, but common pressures, of military and political developments was shown in East Asia, in the case of China and Japan.
