On Dangerous Ground: America's Century in the South China Sea
- ISBN-10
- 0197633994
- ISBN-13
- 9780197633991
- Series
- On Dangerous Ground
- Category
- South China Sea
- Pages
- 327
- Language
- English
- Published
- 2022
- Author
- Gregory B. Poling
Description
"The first documented moves to claim and administer some of these far-flung islands took place during the early nineteenth century. The Spanish, as the colonial power in the Philippines, undertook occasional surveys of Scarborough Shoal from 1800 onward. Spain never made a formal declaration of sovereignty over the feature but included it on some maps as part of the Philippine archipelago. Emperor Gia Long, who founded the Nguyen Dynasty in Vietnam, declared sovereignty over the Paracel Islands in 1816. Prior to that, Vietnamese authorities had been officially sanctioning salvage operations in the islands for several decades. Vietnam continued to make occasional use of the islands during the 1830s and 1840s, after which official interest lapsed. In 1843, Captain Richard Spratly aboard the British whaler Cyrus claimed to be the first to discover the island that bears his name. Eventually the entire island group would come to be known as the Spratlys. The British East India Company had been conducting surveys of the islands from the late eighteenth century and in 1868, the British Admiralty compiled the results of those efforts into a new nautical chart of the South China Sea. That map displayed nine distinct islands and reefs in the western portion of the grouping, including Spratly Island itself. In the east, it showed a largely empty expanse of water dotted with reefs whose existence could not be confirmed. The chart labeled this area "Dangerous Ground," a nickname it still bears. The map was revised in 1881 and reproduced by nearly every country with an interest in the South China Sea, including the United States. It would remain the standard chart of the area until the 1950s. No government showed much interest in the islands themselves until 1877 when the British colonial authorities in Labuan, North Borneo registered a claim to Spratly Island and Amboyna Cay on behalf of London. Those two features were listed as possessions by the British Colonial Office from 1891 to 1933, though the British never vigorously pursued the claim. Despite later revisionism, Qing Dynasty documents and actions show that Chinese officials considered Hainan Island to be the southernmost limit of their authority. There is no record of any Chinese objections to Gia Long's annexation of the Paracels or subsequent Vietnamese activity there. When German and Japanese ships carrying insured British copper wrecked on the islands in 1895 and 1896, Chinese authorities foreswore any responsibility for them. Chinese fishers had salvaged the wrecks, prompting the insurance company to demand compensation from those responsible. This was transmitted through the United Kingdom's embassy in Beijing and its consul in Hoihow (modern Haikou). In response, Chinese officials in Liangguang-supervising Guangxi and Guangdong provinces, including Hainan-insisted the islands were unclaimed as far as they were concerned"--
Get the book
Other editions
Similar books
-
On Dangerous Ground
By Jack HigginsI'd have died if the Laird hadn't got me out, and him wounded so bad he lost an eye.” “The Laird, you say?” Jackson was suddenly interested, but Tanner started to cough so harshly that he almost had a convulsion.
-
On Dangerous Ground: America's Century in the South China Sea
By Gregory B. PolingIn the east, it showed a largely empty expanse of water dotted with reefs whose existence could not be confirmed. The chart labeled this area "Dangerous Ground," a nickname it still bears.
-
On Dangerous Ground: A Theory of Bargaining, Border Settlement, and Rivalry
By Toby J. Rider, Andrew P. OwsiakA Theory of Bargaining, Border Settlement, and Rivalry Toby J. Rider, Andrew P. Owsiak ... “Bargaining over Power: When Do Shifts in Power Lead to War? ... Why Enduring Rivalries Do-or Don't-End. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner.
-
On Dangerous Ground: A 2-in-1 Collection
By Sharon Sala, Delores Fossen“Everyone in school knew that Billy Ray Shuler always had to have his way.” Then she looked up. “That's what we called him then... Billy Ray. He didn't become Raymond until he went to work at the bank. Anyway, he'd asked me out several ...
-
On Dangerous Ground
By Lamar UnderwoodOn Dangerous Ground
-
Lonely Places, Dangerous Ground: Nicholas Ray in American Cinema
By Steven Rybin, Will ScheibelThe collection also looks at Ray’s lesser-known and underappreciated films, and devotes attention to the highly experimental We Can’t Go Home Again, his recently restored final film made in the 1970s with his students at Binghamton ...
-
Dangerous Grounds: Antiwar Coffeehouses and Military Dissent in the Vietnam Era
By David L. ParsonsPeopled with lively characters and set in the tense environs of base towns around the country, this book complicates the often misunderstood relationship between the civilian antiwar movement, U.S. soldiers, and military officials during ...
-
On Dangerous Ground: Freuds Visual Cultures of the Unconscious
By Diane O'DonoghueThese erasures form an amnesic core within Freud's psychoanalytic project, an absence that includes difficult aspects of his life narrative, beginning with the dislocations of his early childhood that he declared “not worth remembering ...
-
Dangerous Ground: My Friendship with a Serial Killer
By M. William PhelpsAs the series became an international sensation, Raven became Phelps's unlikely confidante, ally—and friend.
-
Dangerous Ground: Dangerous Ground 1
By Josh LanyonWith a trio of murderous robbers trailing them, Will and Taylor are on dangerous ground, fighting for their partnership, their passion...and their lives.