Imperialism



Imperialism

Imperialism-- domination by one country of the political, social, economic and cultural life of another country

#1 Cause

Economic Interests

The Industrial Revolution created a need for certain raw materials that were not available in European countries.

Rubber (for tires), Manganese (for steel), Petroleum, palm oil (for machinery)

#2 Cause

Political & Military Interests

Steam-powered merchant ships and naval vessels needed bases around the world to take on coal and supplies.

The seized islands or harbors to satisfy their needs.

Some claimed colonies for national security.

#3 Cause

Humanitarian & Religious Goals

Missionaries, doctors, and colonial officials believed they had a duty to spread western civilization, including medicine, law, and Christianity.

#4 Cause

Social Darwinism

European races thought they were superior to all others.

Europeans applied Darwin’s ideas of natural selection and survival of the fittest to human societies and nations.

They thought that the conquest and destruction of weaker races were simply nature’s way of improving the human species.

Why was Imperialism successful?

Europeans had the advantages

Strong economies

Well-organized governments

Powerful armies and navies.

Improved medical knowledge that allowed them to survive deadly tropical diseases.

Maxim machine gun, repeating rifles, and steam-driven warships.

Some older civilizations were in decline, especially the Ottoman Middle East, Munghal India, and the Qing in China

The draining effects of the slave trade had undermined established empires, kingdoms, and city states in Africa

What do you know about Africa?

It is a huge continent, four times the size of Europe

The people spoke hundreds of languages and developed varied governments.

Some people lived in large centralized states, and others lived in village communities, some herded food and others were food-gathering societies

North Africa-

fertile along the Mediterranean

Huge Sahara Desert

Influenced by Muslim world including Egypt, ruled by the Ottoman empire.

West Africa

grassy planes

Islamic forces

Some small states felt no loyalty to central government turned on each other for protection from others.

The European imperialists exploited the lack of unity.

East Africa

Islam had long influenced the region from the Red Sea down the coast of East Africa,

Some of the port cities were controlled by the Portuguese

Southern Africa

Early 1800s it was in turmoil

Shaka Zulu united the Zulu nations, his conquests set off mass migrations and wars

1830s the Zulus were battling the Boers, who were migrating north from Cape Colony

Forms of Imperial Control

Colonies- European countries sent out governors, officials, and soldiers to control the people and set up a colonial bureaucracy.

The French practiced direct rule, sending officials from France to administer their colonies. Their goal was to impose French culture on the colonies and turn them into French provinces.

The British used indirect rule. They used sultans, chiefs, or other local rulers as their agents in governing their colonies. They encouraged the children of the local ruling class to get an education in Britain.

Protectorates- a system where local rulers were left in place and expected to accept the advice of European advisers on an issue such as trade or missionary activity. It cost less to run a protectorate than a colony and it did not require a large military commitment.

Sphere of influence- an area in which outside power claimed exclusive investment or trading privileges. Example- The United States claimed Latin America as a sphere of influence.

Berlin Conference 1884--Africa is Carved up by the Europeans

European Leaders met in Germany to divide up Africa peacefully– they did not invite any Africans.

European leaders tried to avoid wars with other Europeans

Impact of the slave trade

In the early 1800s European nations outlawed the slave trade.

Abolitionists began the idea of returning freed slaves to Africa.

In 1787 the British organized Sierra Leone in West Africa as a colony for freed slaves.

Freed slaves from USA settled in Liberia. By 1847 Liberia became an independent republic.

The Boer War 1899-1902

Britain gained control of Cape Colony in Southern Africa from the Boers (Dutch Farmers) in 1806.

The Boers hated British rule and moved to the north to avoid the British.

In the late 1800s the Boers found gold and diamonds on their land which set off the Boer War.

The British won the Boer War.

Apartheid

In 1910, the British united the Cape Colony and the former Boer republics into the Union of South Africa- under British rule.

They set up a government run by whites and laid the foundation for a system of complete racial segregation (Apartheid) that would remain in force until 1993.

Nelson Mandela

Born 1918

Jailed 1962 for acting out against Apartheid

Freed 1990

South Africa ends Apartheid in 1993

Elected President of South Africa in 1994

Nobel Prize Speech 1993

“We stand here today as nothing more than a representative of the millions of our people who dared to rise up against a social system whose very essence is war, violence, racism, oppression, repression, and the impoverishment of an entire people”

The British take over India

India

How did Britain manage to take over India?

India was very diverse

Mughal power was crumbling

Indians spoke dozens of languages with different traditions and could not unite against Britain

British East India Company

Goals for British East India Company:

1# Make Money

But the British East India Co. also

improve roads, preserved peace, and reduced banditry

tried to westernize the education and legal procedures in India.

Sent Missionaries who tried to Christianize the Indians.

The Sepoy Rebellion

Sepoys- an Indian troop who was forced to fight for the British

The Sepoy Rebellion

The British East India Company took several unpopular steps…

1. They required the Sepoys to travel overseas… which was against their religion

2. They encouraged widows to remarry, which was totally against Hindu tradition…

3. In 1857, the British issued new rifles to the Sepoys.

▪ The cartridges were greased with animal fat --, either cows (sacred) or pigs (forbidden)

▪ Angry Sepoys brutally massacred a few British men, women, and children.

▪ The British retaliated, torching villages and slaughtering thousands of innocent Indians.

Results: Fear, Hatred, Mistrust on all sides.

India: Another piece of the British Pie

1858: The British ended the rule of the British East India Company.

They placed India directly under British rule– which was very unpopular with the Indians.

The British also taxed the Indians very heavily to help pay for the troops who were stationed in India.

India was a market for England and a source of raw materials.

The British built roads and an railroad system to help trade.

After Suez Canal (1869) connected Mediterranean Sea with Red Sea, British trade with India soared.

Tragedy for India: The British flooded India with inexpensive machine-made textiles, ruining India’s prosperous weaving industry.

The British introduced…

medical improvements

farming methods

Result= rapid population growth

The growing number of people + farmland was being used for cash crops (poppy) = strained the food supply and there were terrible famines in India.

Some upper class Indians benefited from British policies; rich Indians sent their sons to British schools and were trained for posts in the civil service and military.

Mohandas K. Gandhi

Born 1869 in India

Goes to South Africa to practice Law in 1893

Returns to India to fight for civil rights

Used peaceful non-violent protest

Gandhi’s Salt Marches

England grants India independence in 1947

Gandhi is assassinated in 1948

China

Closed Door Policy

Chinese rulers placed very strict limits on trade with foreign countries.

China sold silk, porcelain, and tea, in exchange for gold and silver.

China enjoyed a favorable balance of trade-- exporting more than they imported.

Western Countries had a trade deficit with China, buying more from the Chinese than they sold them.

Tough times in China

By the late 1700’s

1. China entered a period of decline

2. Industrial Revolution created a need for expanded markets and European goods.

Britain discovered they could make huge profits selling opium (cash crop from India) to the Chinese in exchange for tea.

Soon, many Chinese people became addicted to the Heroin-like drug.

Gold and sliver flowed out of China to buy opium, ruining the Chinese economy.

Chinese Government fights Back

The Chinese outlawed opium and executed drug dealers

They begged the British to stop selling opium-- but the British refused.

In 1839, Chinese warships clashed with the British merchants ships, triggering the

Opium Wars

Addicts in China, no match!

China signs the Treaty of Nanjing in 1842

1. China had to pay Britain a huge indemnity, or payment for losses in war

2. The British also gained Hong Kong– and kept it till July 1, 1997.

3. British citizens in China were granted extraterritoriality, or the right to live under British rule and be tried in British courts, all while living in China

The Taiping Rebellion

The most devastating Rebellion in history!

1850 to 1864, led by a school teacher who was forced to take a bogus exam and failed!

The Taiping rebels won control of large parts of China and held out for 14 years. In the end the Chinese government crushed the rebels

Results: The Taiping rebellion caused 20-30 million deaths

Boxer Uprising

The Righteous Harmonious Fists, a group with anti-foreign feelings formed a secret society and they tried to drive foreigners out of China.

Japan crushed the Boxer Rebellion

Although the Boxer rebellion was not successful, the flames of Chinese Nationalism spread.

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