You have the Spanish, who have been in the Philippines for several hundred years at this point. You have the Dutch in control of much of what will eventually be Indonesia. This orange color shows where the French already have a stronghold in Indochina in Southeast Asia, and in this peach color, this is what they would eventually control as we get into the latter half of the 19th century. But to really understand Japanese motivations in the 19th century, you have to think about what was happening in Qing China as we talk about in the video on the Opium Wars. The British and other imperial powers want access to Chinese markets. The Europeans want Chinese porcelain and Chinese silk, but the Chinese weren't interested in trading with the Europeans. The Europeans, especially the British, eventually do find something the Chinese want, and that's opium, which is an addictive drug.