THE ROCK OF ALL AGES.

"...you are My witnesses. Is there any God besides Me, Or is there any other Rock? I know of none.'" - Isaiah 44:8

Matthew Henry Commentary
2:31-45 This image represented the kingdoms of the earth, that should successively rule the nations, and influence the affairs of the Jewish church. 1. The head of gold signified the Chaldean empire, then in being. 2. The breast and arms of silver signified the empire of the Medes and Persians. 3. The belly and thighs of brass signified the Grecian empire, founded by Alexander. 4. The legs and feet of iron signified the Roman empire. The Roman empire branched into ten kingdoms, as the toes of these feet. Some were weak as clay, others strong as iron. Endeavours have often been used to unite them, for strengthening the empire, but in vain. The stone cut out without hands, represented the kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ, which should be set up in the kingdoms of the world, upon the ruins of Satan's kingdom in them. This was the Stone which the builders refused, because it was not cut out by their hands, but it is become the head stone of the corner. Of the increase of Christ's government and peace there shall be no end. The Lord shall reign, not only to the end of time, but when time and days shall be no more. As far as events have gone, the fulfilling this prophetic vision has been most exact and undeniable; future ages shall witness this Stone destroying the image, and filling the whole earth.- Daniel 2:33 Commentaries

His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay. - Daniel 2:33

"The civil government structures in the western and eastern portions of the Empire were identical, but the military power structures in the two portions differed in some details. The civil governmental structure was the basically the creation of the Emperor Diocletian, as was the division of the Empire into western and eastern administrations. The Empire was divided into prefectures each governed by ministers called praetorian prefects. As shown below, there were two prefectures in the east and two in the west. The prefectures were divided into dioceses, each ruled by a vicar. The terminology is familiar because the Roman Catholic Church adopted the organizational structure of the Roman Empire. The dioceses might be divided into provinces ruled by governors.

The composition of the prefectures was as follows:

Western Empire

Prefecture of the Gauls: Gaul, Britain, Spain/Portugal and Morocco

Prefecture of Italy: Italy, Switzerland, provinces betweeen the Alps and the Danube, and the coastal lands of North Africa except for Egypt and Morocco

Eastern Empire

Prefecture of Illyricum: Balkans except for Thrace

Prefecture of the Orient: Byzantium, Thrace, Egypt and Asiatic territories" 
Souce: http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/barbarians.htm

The Heirarchy of the Roman Empire now called the Roman Church. 

Vatican City is a landlocked state within the city of Rome, Italy. It is governed by the Bishop of Rome (called the Pope) are in fact clergymen. 

It is the smallest sovereign state in the world. 

Caesar Constintine began the "corporate takeover" by renaming all the old Roman offices, this evolution of name changing still occurs. Name changing allows a person to hide their tracks of origin. 

The Baptism of Constantine is a painting by assistants of the Italian renaissance artist Raphael. It was most likely painted by Gianfrancesco Penni, between 1517 and 1524. - WIKIPEDIA

Roman Empire offices & their modern names:

Roman Empire (Imperium Romanum) renamed: Roman Catholic Church

Curia (legal body of Senators) slight name change: Curia (legal body of Cardinals) 

Roman Emperor renamed: Roman Pope (head of all church and state affairs)

Civil government matters of state: Extra-Ordinary affairs (matters of civil-state governments)

Religious orders matters: Church "ecclesiastical" matters

Roman College of Senators renamed: College of Cardinals

Magistrate of College of Senators renamed: Dean of College of Cardinals 

Departments of the Roman Senatorial Curia renamed: Congregations

Political Ambassador renamed: Pro-Nuncio (highest civil ambassador sent to other governements, ie Wash.DC, London etc)

If a government has not signed a treaty with Rome which makes the Romans the head of the foreign country as certified in the Roman Code of Canon Law. This rebel nation which has no official ties has an ambassador called an Apostolic Delegate. The United States and the United Kingdom never allowed the Vatican to serve as their legal head until President Reagan quickly signed into law on January 10, 1984. This Treaty for the very first time in U.S. history recognized full diplomatic relations between the United States and the Vatican State.

In 1534 when the United Kingdom realized that the Treaty with the Vatican City-State made them subject to all the Popes rules they voided the treaty. Formal plomatic relations between England and Vatican State were broken. Full diplomatic relations with the the Pope's Vatican State were never restored for 448 years until 1982.

Roman Senators renamed: Cardinals

Roman Governors renamed: Archbishops

Roman Senator with no territory: Bishop (Code of Canon Law 376)

(Large) Roman Province renamed: Archdiocese

(Small) Roman Territory renamed: Diocese

Imperial Chair of Jupiter where Caesar sat renamed: Throne of St. Peter

Vestal Virgins renamed: Nuns

Pontifex Maximus (high priest of College of Senators) renamed: Supreme Pontiff of College of Cardinals

Pontiff or "high priest " of a pagan religious order (Zues, Apollo, Diana, Mars, Jupiter, Baal, Dionysys, Pythia etc) same name: Pontiff

A Pontiff (Latin: "pontifex") means bridge-builder or priest between man and the gods of the underworld. 

The Roman Calender and Holy Days of the gods renamed: Calendar Holidays of the Saints

Voice of the gods speaking through Caesar: Ex-Cathedra: Voice of God speaking through Pope

Meeting of the Pontiffs (high priests) of the pagan religious orders renamed: Ecumenical Council of the Bishops

Legal act of creating a god (of a living or dead human, as was done to most of the Caesars) "Apotheosis of the Gods" renamed: Canonization of the Saints 

A decree of Caesar (dictator for life): Pope's infalliable Dogma

Praying to a dead human god renamed: Praying to a saint

In the US the highest law of the land is the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, in the Vatican State the Constitution is called the Code of Canon Law.

Source:http://letsrollforums.com//heirarchy-roman-empire-catholic-t10440.html?s=cd784a1b03a0e397a56a0bb2aa2db02e&t=10440&highlight=vestal+virgins

The East–West Schism, also called the Great Schism and the Schism of 1054, was the break of communion between what are now the Eastern Orthodox and Catholic churches, which has lasted since the 11th century.It is not to be confused with the Western Schism (which is sometime called the "Great" Schism).- WikiPedia


Catholic Church and the Age of Discovery

The Catholic Church during the Age of Discovery inaugurated a major effort to spread Christianity in the New World and to convert the Native Americans and other indigenous people. The evangelical effort was a major part of, and a justification for the military conquests of European powers such as Spain, France and Portugal. Christian Missions to the indigenous peoples ran hand-in-hand with the colonial efforts of Catholic nations. In the Americas and other colonies in Asia and Africa, most missions were run by religious orders such as the Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, and Jesuits. In Mexico the early systematic evangelization by mendicants came to be known as the "Spiritual Conquest of Mexico."

Antonio de Montesinos, a Dominican friar on the island of Hispaniola, was the first member of the clergy to publicly denounce all forms of enslavement and oppression of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.Theologians such as Francisco de Vitoria and Bartolomé de las Casas drew up theological and philosophical bases for the defense of the human rights of the colonized native populations, thus creating the basis of international law, regulating the relationships between nations.


In the early years most mission work was undertaken by the religious orders. Over time it was intended that a normal church structure would be established in the mission areas. The process began with the formation of special jurisdictions, known as apostolic prefectures and apostolic vicariates. These developing churches eventually graduated to regular diocesan status with the appointment of a local bishop. After decolonization, this process increased in pace as church structures altered to reflect new political-administrative realities. - Source:Wikipedia

"Since the 16th century, genuine European colonial powers such as Spain, Portugal, France and Britain were distinguished by developing a concept of their world rule and basing it on the legacy of Rome. This does not mean that stragglers like Italy, Belgium and Germany did not produce their own forms of imperial thought and had specific colonial systems with which they caught up to the great historical empires."1

"They also participated in the virtually Europe-wide debate about the possible model function that the Roman Empire had for Europe. However, unlike the empires of the late 19th century, Spanish world rule was characterized by being pre-modern, and British colonial rule no later than 1750 held a geographical sway without example, which makes a thorough concept of empire and expansionism a precondition. Their shared reference frame was the Atlantic world, which as a historical concept for determining colonial practices had gained acceptance.15 In this case, "imperiality" and "globality" were one and carried by a Christian universalist, almost messianic claim to leadership. However, the price that Spain came to pay for its position as world-empire was high and due to the European constellation of powers. Its global superiority was offset by rejecting the claim to the imperial title of the Holy Roman Empire as a consequence of the division of the Habsburg inheritance."2

"The empires of the modern nation state were not exposed to a loss of unity associated with the global dimension. Their expansion drive was primarily conditioned by worldly factors such as profit and prestige, in any case not a concept of universal monarchy indebted to Christian salvation, peace and justice. The world empire thought of Charles V (1500–1558)  survived to the extent that the civilising mission of the modern European imperialisms became a transnational, but not primarily religious motor. Their driving forces were very different, not necessarily ideological but, in the French case, they constituted a part of the cost/benefit calculation."3

"The overseas as well as the continental colonial empires of Europe were together characterised by constructing their imperial rule over a developmental differential against the "Other" and, thus, significantly contributed to a changed self-perception of Europe in the world. Essentially, it was more about self-image than the image of others. Rule was alien rule over peoples perceived as being "subject". It had to be achieved with violent conquest and secured with colonial methods to guarantee economic, military and cultural exploitation. Therefore, the European claim to superiority legitimised the logic of the unequal interrelationship between colonial societies and a novel capitalism in Europe, especially the British "gentlemanly capitalists" whose global reach came to bear in a particularly pronounced form as the slave economy. Nowhere was the ambivalence between ruthless hegemonic ambition on one hand and concepts such as world citizenship, cosmopolitanism and human rights, which were derived from the Enlightenment, more clear than in slavery on the other hand. Slavery, which made use of the idea of the different natures of people, culminated in the race theories of High Imperialism. Probably no European colonial power remained aloof from this discussion, which with the help of medicine, anthropology, ethnology etc. was founded on pseudoscience, guided by practical benefit and brought the contradictions and perversions of imperialism to a climax."4

"Therefore, the concept of a "Europeanisation of the world" signifies the dilemma. On one hand, there are positive achievements, such as modern statehood, urbanisation, rationalism and Christianity, European thought systems such as Liberalism, Socialism and Positivism, which was received with great enthusiasm in France and England as well as in Brazil and Japan. On the other hand, there are negative legacies, such as Caesarism, racism and colonial violence. It can also raise the question whether European history between about 1450 and 1950 cannot be predominantly read as a history of expansion, especially if one treats the history of the empires beyond Eurocentrism as world history but without underlaying it with a universal theory and without constructing it as a historical unity. With the treaty to divide the world of 1494, a more intensive interaction of nation, expansion and "Europeanisation of the world" began that was not a unilateral creation of dependencies but a process of give and take with reciprocal influences beyond fixed imperial boundary drawing. According to this multipolar dynamic, Europe was not decentralised or provincialised, but Europe is equally unsuitable as the only perspective in the interpretation of the global modern period."5

"The Vatican has been the most powerful institution in Europe, and although its influence declined at the time of the Reformation it has made a significant recovery in the past two centuries. The Protestant nations of Europe that were religiously, politically and economically freed from a totalitarian Roman Church seem now to be blindly returning to her yoke.

The Vatican Bank’s tax exempt status in Italy has made it possible for her to manipulate many of the largest multi-national corporations This influence is however as nothing when compared with her power in Europe and in the world of politics and religion. A Jesuit priest writing in ‘Inside the Vatican’ stated, “Despite the importance of the papacy for the Catholic church and its prominent role in international affairs, its internal workings are little known to Catholics, to world leaders, or to the world at large.”*

This lack of knowledge is particularly evident when it comes to the role the Vatican is playing in the making of the EU. If the Protestant nations of Europe are to remain free, true believers on both sides of the Atlantic must address the issue of Rome and the EU and take it to our God in prayer. The alternative may well prove to be the return of the Inquisition.

It is the authors’ desire that this study of one of the most powerful institutions in the world today be carefully examined. Our purpose is to sound the alarm and to stimulate others to do so too."


* Inside the Vatican: The Politics and Organization of the Catholic Church, by Thomas J. Reese, Harvard University Press, 1996, 4

COLONIALISM AND NATIONALISM  IN SOUTHEAST ASIA by Rey Ty   

Introduction

"The major colonizers of Southeast Asia were Europeans, Japanese and the U.S. All in all, there were seven colonial powers in Southeast Asia: Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Great Britain, France, the United States, and Japan.  From the 1500s to the mid-1940s, colonialism was imposed over Southeast Asia. 

For hundreds of years, Southeast Asian kingdoms had been engaged in international commercial relations with traders from East Asia (China), South Asia (India), and West Asia (the “Middle East”).  Asian sojourners also brought religion, customs, traditions, and court practices to the region. Hence, their relationship was economic and cultural at the same time. Moreover, local Southeast Asian rulers used and indigenized practices of kingship institutions from South Asia (rajadharma) and West Asia (sultanate).

European travelers did not only have economic relations with Southeast Asians but also imposed their political—and in some cases, cultural—domination over Southeast Asian peoples and territories. Hence, European colonialism covered a large chunk of Southeast Asian history. 

Aside from European colonials, Japanese and U.S. colonials controlled much of Southeast Asia. Japanese aggression took place during the “Pacific War” of World War II. The Japanese occupied much of Asia, including Southeast Asia.  The U.S. colonized the Philippines in the aftermath of the Spanish-American War of 1898. 

Southeast Asian response to colonialism was both collaboration and nationalism in all its forms.

Historical Background

Indigenous peoples practicing animism have lived in Southeast Asia (SEA) since historical times.  Later, people from China moved southward to reach SEA (Barton 26).  As early as 300 BC, the age of bronze and iron had passed from China into SEA (Fodor 64). The Chinese under the Sung Dynasty by the 12^thcentury had become involved more and more in international trade, including with SEA (Fodor 67). Hence, there were Chinese and Indian migrants who have reached and lived in SEA for a long time now.  The Chinese and Indian civilizations have greatly impacted SEA societies.  Many parts of SEA have been indianized from 500BC to 1000 AD (Barton 47).  

South and Southwest Asians used the monsoon seasonal-reversal wind route from Arabia and India to travel to Southeast Asia (Barton 46). SEA is home to several ancient civilizations, including the Angkor and the Sri Vijaya kingdoms.  At about 1300, there were two major kingdoms: the Sukhotai in Mainland SEA and the Majapahit empire in insular SEA.  During the 12^th to the 14^th centuries, there was an active spice trade in the region (Fodor 67-8).  

Hence, Southeast Asia was exposed to different civilizations, cultures and religions for thousands of years now: animism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Hinduism and Islam. Culture, trade, religion, and monarchy played a role in the state formation of SEAsian countries. 

COLONIALISM

Colonialism is alien or foreign political rule or control imposed on a people. Colonialism can take many forms: it can be political, legal, economic, cultural and social. A political, economic and cultural policy and practice by which several foreign states explored, conquered, settled, exploited, maintained and extended their control over large areas of foreign lands and its people who ceased to control their own territories, resources and national destiny. 

The age of colonialism began about 1500, following the European discoveries of a sea route around Africa's southern coast (1488) and of America (1492).  

LEGACY OF COLONIALISM

European, American, and Asian powers colonized SEA.  The major European colonizers in SEA included Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Britain, and France.  The American power was the U.S.A.  Europeans introduced Protestantism and Roman Catholicism to SEA.  During World War II, Japan was the only major Asian country that colonized SEA.

MOTIVES

There are three motives for colonialism: political, economic, and cultural.  Reasons for colonialism are manifold: to expand territory, to seek mercantilist profit, to import cheap raw materials, and to extract precious metals.  The booming economies needed an assured supply of raw materials, assured new markets and new places in which to invest. 

1. Political Aggrandizement

1. Aggrandizement of Political Power
2. Nationalism
1. Territorial Expansionism to Other Areas
2. Increased National Pride
3. Increase Military Might
4. Status as World Power
3. Intra-European Competition and Rivalry
4. European “Age of Discovery” = Southeast Asian “Age of Colonialism”. One phenomenon, two interpretations

First Circumnavigation of the World 

2. Economic Profits:

1. Commercial Enterprise and International Trade
2. Need to Strengthen the economy by increasing wealth
3. Mercantilism: Precious Metals
4. Accumulation of Capital
5. Sea Route to the East

Because the spice trade could make them wealthy, explorers were motivated to find a faster and cheaper sea route. The European routes were blocked by powerful rivals such as the Italian city-states of Venice and Genoa and later the Turkish merchants of Constantinople (present-day Istanbul). Their ships had control of the eastern Mediterranean where trade with the Arabs abounded. After Vasco da Gama's famous voyage around the Cape of Good Hope, the Portuguese had to battle Muslim forces and rival traders to gain a piece of the spice trade. The rulers of Portugal and Spain sought different routes to the Indies. While the Portuguese concentrated their efforts to the south and east, the Spanish sought alternative routes to the west. 

6. Search for Raw Materials, esp. Spices (Moluccas: Spice Islands”)

Spices such as pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, or cloves were like treasures to Europeans. All these products were produced in India, Ceylon, and the Moluccas (known as the Spice Islands).  

7. 1800s: Industrial Revolution
1. Search for New Raw Materials
2. New Markets

3. Cultural

Colonialism is linked with the idea that the way of life of the colonizers are better than that of the colonized.  

1. “White Man’s Burden”

• Rudyard Kipling coined the term
• Englishmen Cecil Rhodes, "I contend that we Britons are the first race in the world, and the more of the world we inhabit, the better it is for the human race. I believe it is my duty to God, my Queen, and my country..."
• White Supremacy: whites are supreme beings
• The supposed or presumed responsibility of white people to govern and impart their culture to nonwhite people, often advanced as a justification for European colonialism.
• Duty to spread the ways of the superior beings to inferior beings with inferior ways of living
• Devaluation of indigenous cultures
• “Civilizing Mission”: Bring Civilization to the “uncivilized world”

2. Conversion to Christianity
• Spain and Portugal spread Roman Catholicism to their colonies by converting the indigenous peoples
• local religions are inferior

COLONIAL HISTORY

On June 7, 1494, the Spanish and the Portuguese signed the Treaty of Tordesillas that divided the world in two spheres. The imaginary line ran through the Atlantic: Spain gained lands to the west, including all the Americas, except Brazil, which was granted to Portugal. The eastern half including Africa and India was given to Portugal. In the absence of accurate measurements of longitude, the issue of where the line should be drawn in Asia refused to go away. 

Portugal (1511-1641/1975): The Portuguese were the first Europeans to dominate trade in SEA and the first to set up trading posts in military-occupied ports (Barton 50).  They defeated Moslem naval forces in 1509 and seized Malacca in 1511 (Barton 50), until the Dutch captured it in 1641. Southeast Asia felt Portuguese impact the least. The Portuguese controlled only the small territory of East Timor. 

Spain (1565-1898): Ferdinand Magellan reached the Philippines in 1521. Spanish expeditions from 1525 to 1536 claimed the Philippines.  In 1565, Spain conquered Cebu.  In 1571, Spain established the city of Manila and by 1600 it had gained control of most of the archipelago (Barton 50). The Katipunan (KKK)—Filipino  revolutionaries—under Andrés Bonifacio fought against the Spaniards and became the first Asian country to be independent in 1898, except that the U.S. took the reigns of power thereafter. 

Magellan: Magellan led the first circumnavigation of the globe. He was born to a family of lower nobility and educated in the Portuguese court. Just like Columbus who came before him, Magellan believed the Spice Islands can be reached by sailing west, around or through the New World. As Magellan did not get any support from the Portuguese monarchy, he sought and got the assistance of  the teenaged Spanish king, Charles I (a.k.a. the Holy Roman emperor Charles V) on March 22, 1518. Magellan got five ships. In September, 1519, he sailed with 270 men. His Italian crewmember, Antonio Pigafetta, kept a diary of and recorded the voyage. They sailed on to the Philippines, arriving on March 28, 1521. On April 7, 1521, he arrived in Cebu and befriended an island king—Datu Humabon. On April 14, 1521, Datu Humabon and 800 of his people were drawn in a mass baptism. Later, though, Lapu-Lapu killed Magellan in a battle in Mactan on April 27, 1521.  

Sebastian del Cano took over the remaining three ships and 115 survivors. The two remaining ships sailed from the Philippines on May 1 and made it to the Moluccas (Spice Islands) in November, loaded with valuable spices. Hoping that at least one ship would return to Spain, the Trinidad went east across the Pacific, while the Victoria continued west. On September 6, 1522, the Victoria and 18 crewmembers—including Pigafetta—arrived in Spain. It was the first vessel to circumnavigate the globe. 

Spain and Portugal used the Cross and the Sword. The U.S. beat and replaced Spain.  

The Netherlands (1605-1799 & 1825-1940s): The Dutch arrived in Indonesia in 1596.  Dutch colonialism was carried out initially by the Dutch East India Company (V.O.C.) from 1605 to 1799.  It’s main preoccupation was profits in trade through monopolies, not political rule. 

When it collapsed in 1799, the government of Netherlands took over VOC’s assets in 1825 and put Indonesia under its administrative authority, the process of which was completed in the 1930s (Wilson). The Dutch had taken control of most of the commercial islands in the East Indies and occupied Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, and Java (Barton 50).  They built a port at Batavia and kicked out the Portuguese from the Indies, except for East Timor (Barton 50).   

The Dutch could not keep the Netherlands East Indies after WWII as they hoped to because the Indonesians fought a war of national liberation to set up a republic in 1945.  The U.N. recognized Indonesian independence in 1949. 

The Dutch acquired their empire to protect their trade. And they were after commodities. But not as raw materials: these were spices, for resale. The Dutch were 250 years in Indonesia.  

Britain (1824-1957): Britain acquired parts of its empire through, or to aid, its traders. Using their navies, the British penetrated SEA from the west side, while the French from the east (Barton 50). The British used force to annex Burma between 1826 and 1888 (Barton 50) in three Anglo-Burmese Wars. The British maintained Burma as a province of British India, unlike other colonies which kept their ethnic identities. Top British and middle Indian administrators ruled Burma.  In 1935, Britain consented to separate Burma from India and this was put into force in 1937 (Wilson).  In 1948, Burma negotiated with Britain for its independence. 

The British (Raffles) set up Singapore in 1819 and the Netherlands ceded Malacca to Britain in 1824 (Barton 50). Britain governed Penang (acquired in 1786), Singapore, and Malacca as the Straits Settlements from which Britain expanded into the Malay Peninsula from 1874 to 1914 (Wilson). The Malay States negotiated for and gained independence as the independent Federation of Malaya in 1957. Penang, Malacca, Sabah, Sarawak, and Singapore became part of Malaysia in 1963, but Singapore was told to withdraw in 1965 (Wilson). Brunei decided to stay out of the new country and is now an independent country. 

France (1859-1954): The French, under Louis XIV, exchanged embassies with Siam from 1600 to 1700.  European influence on SEA amplified. The French went to Vietnam in 1858 and seized Saigon in 1859 (Wilson).  By 1867, the French annexed Cochin China (the south) and Cambodia.  The French used Cochin China as the base from which they moved westward and northward.  By 1893, they set up protectorates over Annam, Laos, and Tonkin, all of which became the “French Indochina” (Barton 50). By 1907, the French completed their conquest of Indochina (Wilson). 

At the end of WWII, the French fought a war trying to maintain its control over its SEAsian territories.  French Indo-China ended with the French humiliation at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. At the Geneva Conference of 1954, Vietnam gained its independence. 

Myth about Thailand: There is a long-standing myth that Thailand was never colonized.  Factually speaking, though, Siam was being squeezed from the west by the British and from the east by the French (Barton 58).  Siam had to give up large chunks of land in exchange for keeping its territorial integrity. Only the middle core of Siam was unoccupied (Barton 58). 

U.S.A. (1898-1946): After the global triumph of the U.S. over Spain in 1898, the U.S. moved in to colonize the Philippines. Admiral Dewey defeated Spain in Manila Bay on May 1, 1898. Aguinaldo declared Philippine independence on June 12, 1898 and the Philippine Republic on January 23, 1899 but the U.S. did not recognize it. Hence, the Philippine-American War started in 1899 and went on for about 10 years.  About 400,000 to 600,000 Filipinos were killed and 10,000 Americans died. On Feb. 6, 1899, the U.S. Senate voted to annex the Philippines. On July 4, 1901, U.S. President McKinley set up civil government and appointment the Philippine Commission which was headed by William Howard Taft. 

Mark Twain was the most famous literary adversary of the Philippine-American War and he served as a vice president of the Anti-Imperialist League from 1901 until his death. The Philippines became a commonwealth in 1935 and independent in 1946 after World War II.  

The western colonial powers had economic, social, political, and cultural impact on the peoples and states of SEA. They brought about rapid changes in SEA.

EFFECTS

1. MASS ECONOMIC BITTERNESS
2. SOCIO-CULTURAL CLEAVAGE
3. ECONOMIC GROWTH

COLONIAL PARTNERS

1. COOPTATION
2. COLLABORATION

RESPONSE

1. NATIONALISM
2. STRUGGLE FOR SELF-DETERMINATION
3. ANTI-COLONIAL NATIONAL LIBERATION MOVEMENTS
4. JAPANESE AGGRESSION
5. DECOLONIZATION

Nationalism, Decolonization, and Independence

Colonial experience had an impact on the rise of anti-colonial as well as anti-fascist (anti-Japanese aggression) nationalist fervor that spawned independence movements. Southeast Asian elites responded to western colonialism in a continuum anywhere from adaptation, collaboration, to resistance. The traditional elite failed in their struggle. Many Filipino intellectuals identified themselves with colonial Spain and the U.S.  

Cultural and indigenous religious movements surfaced and emphasized a national identity based upon traditional religious and cultural values. For instance, the Young Man’s Buddhist Association in Burma set up in 1906 aimed to bring down western influence. In Indonesia, the Sarekat Islam which was a nationalist political party (1912) aimed to bring Moslem Indonesians under its reformist agenda. 

Western-style political movements were created; they drew inspiration from western ideologies and models. Western education sons of the traditional aristocracy or the bureaucratic elite at the national level and school teachers, government officials and clerks at the local local level led nationalist movements. In Burma, University of Rangoon students formed the Dobayma Asiyone (“We Burman”) society in 1935. Dobayman Asiyone members  called themselves Thakins (“Master”).  Furthermore, Aung San, U Nu and Ne Win would rise to become key figures in independent Burma.   

In the Philippines, some leaders who were exposed to western ideals waged a revolutionary war against Spain. Others later cooperated with the U.S.  

In Malaya, educated Malays joined the civil service and worked closely with the British rulers (Wilson). 

Dutch-educated Indonesians formed the Indonesian Nationalist Party (PNI) in 1927. It later became a clandestine movement and the leaders went into political exile. 

In Indochina, only in Vietnam was the nationalist movement present.   

Communist leaders and parties rose in many parts of SEA. They were active in Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.   

Moreover, new economic, administrative and political elites emerged within which ideals of modernization and tradition competed.  New national identities were created; they drew upon traditional cultural symbols and western systems. Charismatic national leaders such as Ho Chi Minh and Sukarno embody national resurgence.

World War II in the Asia-Pacific Region

Japan attacked Pearl Harbor and Clark Air Base on December 7, 1941.  Japanese aggression took place in many parts of Asia and the Pacific, including Southeast Asian countries.  

Japan occupied Indochina through a treaty with the pro-German Vichy government in France (Wilson). 

In the Philippines, the last U.S. forces surrendered to the Japanese in May 1942. The Japanese set up an “independent” puppet “Philippine Republic”. On October 20, 1944, US forces returned to the Philippines.  On July 4, 1946, the U.S. granted independence to the Philippines. 

On March 29, 1942, Filipinos organized the Hukbalahap (People’s Anti-Japanese Army). In Southeast Asia, only the Filipinos fought the fiercest battle against the Japanese aggressors.  At its height, there were 260,000 anti-Japanese guerrillas.   

The U.S. dropped nuclear bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  On August 6, 1945, the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Approximately 130,000 were killed, wounded, or missing, while 90% of the city was flattened.  On August 9, 1945, the U.S. dropped the second atomic bomb on Nagasaki.  About 75,000 people were killed or injured, while more than 1/3 of the city was destroyed.  On August 14, 1945, Japan surrendered to the Allied forces in Tokyo, Japan." 

OPERATION PAPERCLIP



Operation Paperclip was the codename under which the US intelligence and military services extricated scientists from Germany, during and after the final stages of World War II. The project was originally called Operation Overcast, and is sometimes also known as Project Paperclip.

Of particular interest were scientists specialising in aerodynamics and rocketry (such as those involved in the V-1 and V-2 projects), chemical weapons, chemical reaction technology and medicine. These scientists and their families were secretly brought to the United States, without State Department review and approval; their service for Hitler's Third Reich, NSDAP and SS memberships as well as the classification of many as war criminals or security threats also disqualified them from officially obtaining visas. An aim of the operation was capturing equipment before the Soviets came in. The US Army destroyed some of the German equipment to prevent it from being captured by the advancing Soviet Army.

The majority of the scientists, numbering almost 500, were deployed at White Sands Proving Ground, New Mexico, Fort Bliss, Texas and Huntsville, Alabama to work on guided missile and ballistic missile technology. This in turn led to the foundation of NASA and the US ICBM program.

Much of the information surrounding Operation Paperclip is still classified.

NEW WORLD ORDER after the HOLOCAUST.

The New World Order, which both Bushes, Clinton, Blair and Brown have all spoken of is well on its way. Indeed, the NWO has been on its way arguably since the 1060s, when the Normans conquered both Britain and Sicily. It was at that time, in my view, that the ahrimanic powers were given the English people as an instrument to prepare for the incarnation of Ahriman. In his remarkable lecture of 15.1.1917, one of the most comprehensive and illuminating lectures on history Steiner even gave, he said:
    "What is the aim of the secret brotherhoods? They do not work out of any particular British patriotism, but out of the desire to bring the whole world under the yoke of pure materialism. And because, in accordance with the laws of the 5th P-A period, certain elements of the British people as the bearer of the consciousness soul are most suitable for this, they want, by means of grey magic, to use those elements as promoters of this materialism.
Notice that Steiner says “certain elements”, not the whole people, but “certain elements”.

He goes on:
    No other national element, no other people has ever before been so usable as material for transforming the whole the whole world into a materialistic realm. Therefore those who know want to set their foot on the neck of this national element and strip it of all spiritual endeavour – which of course lives equally in human beings. Just because karma has ordained that the consciousness soul should work here particularly strongly, the secret brotherhoods have sought out elements in the British national character.
The British Empire has been effectively dead since the end of World War II. In 1947 India was given up and by 1964 almost all Britain’s African possessions had become independent. Of course one could argue that the British continued to dominate these newly independent countries economically in ‘indirect colonialism’, but the old formal Empire was over. In the 33 years from 1964, when Sir Alec Douglas Home, Macmillan’s successor and the last prime Minister in the old aristocratic mould, went out of office, until 1997, when the last signficant colony, Hong Kong, was surrendered, Britain seemed to be at the beck and call of the USA. After the Suez debacle in 1956 the French had decided never again to trust the Americans and took up a policy of resistance. The British establishment, by contrast, opted to do whatever America said. The only significant exception was Harold Wilson’s refusal to send British troops to Vietnam . Those 33 years also saw a tremendous decline in the British merchant marine. Generations of Britons had spent years on the oceans. This was no longer the case. Now they spent longer on beaches abroad and couches at home, on football terraces and online. In 1997 then, exactly 100 years after its  bombastic acme in Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, the Empire came to an end.


There remain of the once vast Empire only a few rocks here and there around the world, and it is only a matter of time before Gibraltar is returned to Spain and the Malvinas to Argentina. Britain’s imperial position was given as a major reason why the UK did not join in the construction of the EEC in the 1950s. The question before the British people now is: quo vadis ? where to? In 1973 Prime Minister Edward Heath (below, left) lied to the British people when he took the country into the EEC, arguing that the EEC was not a political project but merely an economic arrangement. It seemed as if the country had decided to turn its back on imperial remnants and Commonwealth and embrace the continent. But since  Margaret Thatcher’s government and the metamorphosis of the old Labour Party into the “New Labour”  of Blair and Brown, a new imperial project has hoved into view. Europe is now no longer seen as an alternative to Britain’s relationship with the USA. The Anglo-American elite and their allies in the elites of the continental countries, not least those here in Germany, have determined that N. America and Europe should be as one – a new Anglophonically-led empire with global military reach, ready and willing to take on ‘the East’, and I have tried to indicate today that that was always the intention since the start of the Cold War.

Source:The Roots of the New World Order – the development of the Anglo-American Imperial Idea 1900 – 2008

Watch and Pray; Sound an Alarm in Zion

"The Church of Rome is one of the major players in the “creeping totalitarianism” of the New World Order. Her designs on the EU are a major part of the unfolding global strategy. We need to watch and pray as the “Fourth Reich” emerges out of its embryo. A watchman of old was expected to guard against robbers and disturbers of the peace. We are all commanded to be watchmen, “to watch and pray”. There has been a dreadful apathy that has afflicted the household of God, an indifference to the clear threat to our ancient liberties and Protestant identity from both the EU and the Church of Rome. As watchmen of the Lord today we are to guard against false teachers and false religion. We are to watch and discern the actions and words of the one who would seek to supplant the Gospel with apostasy and tyranny. Our task under God is to sound an alarm, “blow ye the trumpet in Zion . . .let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand.” Now even more than in the days of old the commands of the Lord are to be obeyed, “son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.” As we make our stand, so also we pray expecting to see the power of God at work in Europe, “they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.” We owe the liberty that we yet enjoy to Jesus Christ the Lord. By His faithfulness and perfect sacrifice He has satisfied the demands of the broken law of the All Holy God. It is He, the Son of God, who has made us free. “If the Son of God shall set you free you will be free indeed.”

There is genuine unity of all true believers throughout the world. There is but one faith. All true believers are converted by the same Holy Spirit, and receive the same work of grace, which places them in the Beloved. In Christ Jesus we are spiritually one and called to stand fast in this liberty, and stand firm in His truth. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be ye not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.”7



TO BE CONTINUED...

Blogger Footnotes:
1,2,3,4,5 - Quotes taken from Colonialism and Imperialism, 1450–1950
by Benedikt Stuchtey Original in German, displayed in English, Published: 2011-01-24 - http://ieg-ego.eu/en/threads/backgrounds/colonialism-and-imperialism/benedikt-stuchtey-colonialism-and-imperialism-1450-1950
6 - http://www.seasite.niu.edu/crossroads/ty/colonialism_%20in_se%20asia.htm
7 - http://www.the-highway.com/eu_Bennett.html

CALVIN BUT NOT LUTHER?

CALVIN BUT NOT LUTHER? is extracted from WHO WAS JOHN CALVIN AND WHY WAS HE IMPORTANT? You can read the whole article by clicking HERE

"When Trevin Wax first released his list of the Top-Five Theologians perhaps the most controversial part of the list was the choice of Calvin over Luther. I agree with his choice (as do many scholars, not all of them Reformed) and so a few words need to be said about why Luther is not above Calvin.

The debate comes down to how one defines the importance of a theological figure. With Luther, no one would doubt the influence of his reformation. One could easily point out that without Luther there would be no Calvin—indeed there would be no Protestantism. His stance before the Holy Roman Emperor is iconic, almost a microcosm of the Reformation itself.

"Still Luther’s influence is truncated by a few factors, not the least of which is that few Protestants today would share Luther’s theological position on several things beyond the doctrines of grace, justification, and the Law. His doctrine of the sacraments is unique to the Lutheran expression of the faith and a bone of contention between Lutherans and many other Protestant denominations. Luther’s views on baptism, too, would leave many outside his definition of the sacraments, and he retained an abnormally high view of Mary amongst the reformers.

So if we take the words ‘most influential’ to mean ‘the one who influenced the start of the Reformation,’ then obviously Luther would be in the lead. But this would be a poor definition—in fact it would mean that only Luther can fit this definition, which is hardly a debate.

Instead we should take ‘most influential’ in the broader sense to mean those who shaped the most people over the centuries. Which figure sold the most books, spawned the most movements beyond their immediate context, and even influenced the most hostile ideas against their theology? (Not all influence is positive, of course.)

On this definition, many historians would grudgingly choose Calvin over Luther, but again not in a way that sees Luther as less than vital to the Reformation and evangelical history. Still, given the international influence of Calvinism—both in the Reformation and today in places like Korea—most would place Calvin ahead of Luther. But not without feeling a sense of chagrin that we can’t fit them both in the list.

Another important factor is that the other dominant theology of evangelicalism, Arminianism, was itself spawned out of a rejection of certain points of Reformed theology, and Arminianism has always seen Calvinism as its chief opponent. Wesleyan, Baptist, and Congregational churches that embrace Arminianism, then, will always stand against against Calvin and rarely Luther. The specter of Calvinism on these groups is enormous and weighs into the decision as to Calvin’s influence.

So on these terms the choice of Calvin over Luther is not based only on being a ‘homer’ for Calvin, but on a wider view of the influential theologies within evangelicalism. Calvin’s influence on both his theological advocates and enemies is unrivaled from the early generations of the Reformation—at least insofar as Calvin’s name became synonymous with subsequent developments within Reformed thinking.

But if we had extended the list to 10 instead of 5, it hardly needs to be said that Luther would easily be on the list. For now, we’ll stick with Calvin." - Extracted from WHO WAS JOHN CALVIN AND WHY WAS HE IMPORTANT? You can read the whole article by clicking HERE.