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Why British,French made India , many African countries their colonies and not Japan , Korea,China ?

The Europeans like British, French,Dutch,Portugese, Spanish wanted to expand their rule to Asia, Africa, America in earlier times. When they got success in their effort in India and many African countries, why it was not possible for them to initiate ventures in Japan ,Korea etc??

Public Comments

1. The Japenese took over a large part of China in WWII, is why they still hate each other
2. Too far away?
3. hong kong was a british colony for hundreds of years..
4. The French, British and Germans did try to colonize China and the British did succeed in Hong Kong. But partly because the Chinese had a strong Imperial government in place that could organize resistance, they were largely unsuccessful.
5. it's is very difficult to win a land war in asia!! Asia is so far away that the armies would have to travel long distances. By the time they got there, the troops would be exausted. All the other places that they did colonize were closer, or easier to get to by sea. Most of those places were actually colonized when they were trying to get to Asia!! There is no short-cut to Asia- that's what Christopher Columbus was looking for when he found North America.
6. Controlling the colonies they controlled also allowed them to control major waterways as well as more natural resources. Asia proper was not that attractive to the French...though they did control what is now Vietnam and the british did control parts of China(see boxer rebellion). Japan and Korea had little if any natural resources of interest to the French/British so they left them alone. Keep in mind at one point the British Empire stretched so far that it was always daylight somewhere in the Empire...to do this they HAD to have interests in Asia. Hope this helps
7. They needed money. Japan, China and Korea were fine with what they had.
8. The cost of colonizing those areas was probably not worth the benefit to the European powers. Some of these areas may have been difficult to conquer, hold, and administer. They may have lacked resources that were of value at the time, or were too far from normal trade routes to efficiently exploit. Japan, for example, was an island nation at the farthest ends of Asia. It would have been relatively hard to take possesion of Japan and defend it against other European powers. It's people were fiercely independent and arguably xenophobic. Japan didn't have the spices of India or the jewels of Africa, so colonization probably didn't seem worth the effort, especially when many European powers were already committed in the Americas, the Carribean, and Africa. One or more of these reasons probably explain why some parts of the world were colonized, while others were not.
9. In the day of the early explorer and the "New World", it was extremely difficult to get to such places, as you had to sail either all the way around Africa, through the Indian Ocean, and across the Philippines to even make it to Southeast Asia. The other way would be to sail all the way across the Atlantic, down around South America, back up to North America, and across to Southeast Asia. You have to take into account that a) all of the ships were made of wood, and any major storm would sink most ships in the area, b) The Suez and Panama canals were not opened until fairly recent history, c) all five of your examples were ordered to attack any of the others on site, d) there was no refrigeration for supplies, e) most ports in Africa and the Americas were not well established enough to re-supply such a long journey, f) pirates were amazingly heavy around the Canary Islands and in the Caribbean (as well as in the Mediterranean), and g) it takes an immense amount of money to keep such an expedition going, and without political backing, one couldn't go very far. I hope this winded explanation answers your question.
10. They made Asian and African countries their colonies because of the naturally available resources in these countries like spices, cotton, jute and other grown products. They were either interested in these products or cheap labor like australia.
11. China was carved into spheres of influence, with each European power having exclusive trading rights in their specific sphere. It is more efficent and less expensive to trade and excercise limited control of a territory than outright conquering a region. If one European power made a grab for all of China, you would have likely had a European continental conflict as well. Japan was forced to trade thanks to Perry's 'Gunboat Diplomacy'. Japan industrialized very quickly after that point and was capable of defending itself... i.e. the Russo-Japanese War. And Korea.. not quite sure... but they were subjected to the sphere of influence as in China. But, they were conquered by Japan in 1911 and did become a colony. Remeber, Japan was a colonial power itself.
12. China was almost divided by UK, Germany, Russia, France, and Japan. Japan won the war with Russia and China. Korean peninsula was ceded from China to Japan. Japan have never been a colony in the history.