Just slightly over a century ago, colonialism was at its peak. The western powers empowered by science or enlightened by a certain religion (according to some of their less empowered ones), were ruling over most of the world.
The 'grab of Africa the final continent' had just begun. If this sounds like the 'final frontier' in Star Wars, it's because everyone copies. Especially the less imaginative ones - go read Eridu Genesis and Epic of Gilgamesh for other samples of more mis-divine copies.
One of the then most notable colonial 'prize' was of course India whose 300+ million submitted meekly to 2,000 British men. They became so priceless they were called the jewel of the crown. I still cannot figure this one out but perhaps they submitted to the power of the cross - the one they affix to the top of gunpowdered canons, not the other canons that blow hot air.
The similarly numerous Chinamen were on a 'higher' plane and did not submit to either type of crosses. The ones that did found that it did not help despite their clear closer to god numerical advantage - go read about the 4 sons of god and brothers of JC in Taiping Revolution.
'High' on opium (from India of course) Chinamen did not submit entirely but were happily paying out 'damages' and giving up land parcels everytime those powers whacked them at their home. (If this sounds a bit like Palestine today, it is because both should thank the British)
The British started whacking the Chinamen first, got tonnes of silver and land pieces like Hong Kong for free and showed how profitable that strategy was, that they & others took turns and did it time and again for more than half a century. Chinamen just sucked it in (the opium, there was little pride left) and paid.
Chinamen's then barbarian 'sea ghost' and 'red hair ghost' hot air views of the white men was not hot enough to scare the others but was not unlike Rudyard Kipling's reverse view below.
The British also got the continued right to sell opium - it was justified under 'free market principles' according to the Scot Adam Smith famous for his 'invisible hand'. With Indians, Chinamen and likes working for them for so little at faraway lands, no wonder that fella imagined there existed a mysterious invisible hand that fed him while he loitered and pondered for enlightenment. May be in his mind, his god's mysterious ways could have a hand in it too.
Along with it the powers also got things like 'most favoured nation' status which accorded each power the same rights that other 'MFN' nations got. That meant that when one whacked the Chinamen and got something new, the others all get the same 'favour' automatically - who said Chinamen were not generous? Stupid maybe but generous nevertheless.
To the powers, China was therefore like high heaven - on a higher plane.
With close to nothing left, the worst-off of the Chinamen losers left the colonialists' heaven and went overseas and produced most of the oversea Chinamen we have today. Don't know about you but me included. Any oversea Chinaman who thinks he is so smart & good in great enlightenment should note this.
The places where these Chinamen landed were colonies ruled by the same powers that whacked them in China. The reason why this was the case was 2 fold: shipping and cheap labour.
With the colonialists shipping things out more than into the colonies (the cancer part of things), their ships were usually empty one way. Paying Chinamen cargoes helped maximise revenues of the shipping companies.
Being cheap, hardworking and generally docile, the colonialists found such Chinamen to be convenient resources in lands where the natives were less forthcoming. As result, these Chinamen were treated more decently than at home or compared to the natives.
Given the comparatively better life (than back in China), these places were like high heaven to these Chinamen. So they gave these places names like Gum San (gold mountains) for certain part of the northern hemisphere, Sun Gam San (new gold mountains) for a part of the southern hemisphere, or Sai Gum San (small gold mountains) for a part nearer my current home.
With the seemingly 'higher status' but not aware of the shrewdness in their masters' motives, some of them and their offsprings took that heavenly feeling as divine rewards which their previous CHinamen deities could not offer and promptly submitted to their masters' deities in gratitude.
Some of the more useless ones just simply converted so as to get free food that the likes of the Jesuits were handing out. The funding for the food of course came from people like opium smoking Chinamen in China but it was not apparent to such Chinamen.
In contrast, the sharper Chinamen in China were not impressed and called the act of eschewing traditional deities for the food-giving ones Sik Gao (or eat via religion) - such people were only eschewing for some chew, no big dew.
Soon the Gum San stories spread like wildfires in China and more and more Chinamen losers began to appear in those gold mountains. Alarmed, the colonialists on the bigger Gum Sans already with intentions to keep them to themselves for good decided to restrict entry of more such Chinamen. And came up with ideas behind the 'green cards' or 'lotteries' that some present day Chinamen so cherish.
As opposed to proof of capability to make investments and other 'reasonable' qualifying requirements of present days, the requirements then were less demanding.
For example, in one of the gold mountains Chinamen then only had to prove that they were not an idiot, imbecile or insane to qualify for entry. But with those Chinamen who were illiterate and could only sqeak 'kagi gu kagi' and not the tongue of the colonial masters, it was easy for the immigration officers to dispatch any Chinaman off as any of those. To them 'kagi gu kagi' sounded like nuts speaking in tongue. Their child-like stupidity as described by Rudyard Kipling below was convenient too.
At the same time, the Germans had just gotten their nation building act together and wanted their 'fair share' of the colonial pie but was intentionally under-rewarded by the existing powers. See an example of this in Mark Twain's King Leopold's Soliloquouy http://cckplanetblog.blogspot.com/2004_11_01_archive.html
Knowing how good protestors the Germans make, the British, French & Russians (who later pulled out due to Lenin's revolution) would later gang up with the Zionists (see Balfour Declaration) to whack the Germans in WWI, and try to apply the same 'Chinaman pay' trick on the Germans when they surrendered under a good dose of American trickery.
With so many colluding to to keep those Goths down it was no wonder that the 'war to end all wars' was to duly set up the Germans for the blame of WWII. Unlike Chinamen the proud Germans would not pay for such humiliation. After all, they were the ones that last protested successfully against the popes, and anyone that dared to do that has no need for respect of other lesser beings, co-divined or special children of god notwithstanding.
To oil their industries and oversea adventures, the British, French and Americans of WWI also whacked the German's ally the Ottomans (Turks) and divided the spoils among themselves. Along the way they screwed the Arabs by way of legends like Lawrence of Arabia, and gave us 'modern' Middle East, Israel and the problems we still see today in places like poor terrorist Palestine and submissive Jordan. And the likes of rich Exxon-Mobil and BP.
At the same time, the Japanese after being humiliated 20 years earlier by the Americans whose Commodore Perry showed them how science can enlighten their ego through the Canon (not your popey type, hor), wanted the same. A few years later, they were all over the head of Chinamen (in Manchuria) gunning for the same 'Chinaman pay'.
The Americans, after pretending to free their slaves that their deity never talked about (they created a new country in Africa called Liberia for the 'free blacks' to lighten the burden on the Land of the Free tells something), refocused their effort in whacking the Spaniards and taking whatever they had.
They began by calling it their Monroe Doctrine. By the end of the 19th century, they had unrolled the Spaniards all the way down the Americas and up the Land of Philip, Philippines. If you think the Land of the Free meant to free up those ex-Spanish subjects from South America to Philippines (who so willingly traded themselves in for the Spanish cross), just look at where they all are today. Then apply it to Iraq's future.
By then, the British were beginning to feel the strain of 'ruling' their huge empire where the sun never sets and of withstanding competition from the likes of Russia and the upstart Germans and Japanese. The 'grab of Africa the last continent' that was only beginning would add greater demands for enlightenment.
So impressed by the American's final grab-all-Spanish act in Philippines, they decided to call upon their fellow and upcoming Anglo-Saxons from the Land of the Free to take over some of their so-called burden.
The more arrogant amongst them like a 'writer' by the name of Rudyard Kipling believed it was their divine duty (you know driven by what book hor, can guess lah) to rule over the lesser life-forms above which the idiot writer called 'half devil, half child' in his famous poem known as 'The White Man's Burden'.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Man
The other Whiteman duly obliged and we have the 'American hegemony' many talk about today. I know of some strangely endowed ones who till recently still thought this is all conspiracy theories.
The same Kipling-type enlightenment continued through the 20th century where another bunch of similarly arrogant and idiotic Anglo-Saxon sons of criminals south of me helped enlightened the locals they call Aborigines with their 'lost generation'.
They of course enlightened the locals of more than that, they took over the entire continent, enthroned themselves as boss (later to be deputy sheriff in the vicinity) and, like their fellow Anglo-Saxons in Amerigo's land, packed the locals off to some far and small corners of their own land. If not for this, the richest guy in Kangaroo land today would not be called a Packer.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6926447.stm
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/australasia/article279686.ece
Thus, if you are a half-devil, half-child who cannot wait to be enlightened by the Whiteman's divinity, it is no wonder. You are not only keeping up with lost history and genes of your forefathers. You perhaps do wish to lighten your burden on some divinely nice people with their dynamite loaded canon balls. Or you can choose, their canons or balls.
Too bad you were not there to help the Taiping Revolution fellas win. Otherwise, your descendents would have much to be proud of - FOUR yellow-skinned sons of god leh, where to get?
But then you would have to pit your divinity against science for the British and Americans finally helped the Qing rulers canoned this bunch of idiotic mis-divined Chinamen all the way to meet their lord. They figured it was better to have one opium smoking Chinaman emperor rather than four mis-enligthened yellow-skinned lords of their book.
Ah-men....
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