Legacies of Historical Globalization



Legacies of Historical Globalization

Chapter 6

Chapter Issue: To what extent do the legacies of historical globalization affect peoples of the world?

What are some of the Legacies of Historical Globalization?

• A legacy is something that has been passed on by those who lived in the past.

• Legacies include buildings, monuments, oral histories, stories, cultural traditions or celebrations, language

• Ethnocentrism is when we judge others according to our own views, beliefs, customs or traditions.

• Eurocentrism is a form of ethnocentrism that uses European ethnic, national, religious, and linguistic criteria to judge other peoples.

• Between 1876 and 1914 Imperial powers were busy Building Empires.

The Scramble for Africa

• 1884 Imperial powers met in Berlin to divide up Africa.

• This conference allowed the Imperial powers to avoid conflict as they gained control of the continents resources.

King Leopold and the Congo

• In the early 1880s, Belgium’s King Leopold II, claimed all the lands drained by the Congo River which included the Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

• Leopold took the Indigenous people’s land and harvested the rubber for his own personal wealth.

• The people of the Congo were treated brutally – as many as 10 million died during his reign.

• The Belgian government took control of the Congo in 1908.

How has cultural contact affected people?

• Every empire leaves legacies.

• Past empires include the Ottoman Turks, China, the Roman Empire, the Umayyads, Spain, France and many others (see p. 144)

Legacies and Patterns of Historical Change

• Over time imperial powers change the culture of the peoples in their colonies.

• An example of this is the language spoken in the colony.

Legacies of Migration

• The 19th and 20th centuries saw millions of peoples migrating as they searched for a better life, or fled famine and/or conflict.

Legacies of Displacement

• Indigenous people were forced off of their land when settlers needed the land.

• Traditional forms of government were ignored.

• The colonizers disregard for the Indigenous people traditions, beliefs and lives led to the destruction of cultures and communities.

Legacies of Depopulation

• The forced migration of African slaves led to depopulation.

• Depopulation results in the loss of skills, labour, and youth.

• The indenture system also depopulated India as millions were indentured.

• Famine and disease also depopulated India – ex. Between 1876-1879 – 6-10 million died and between 1896-1902 – 19 million died of starvation and disease.

How has the exchange of goods and technologies affected people?

• Example of the buffalo/bison -> Spanish and the horse -> Europeans and guns = near extinction of the buffalon (30 million in 1800 to less than 1000 in 1900)

Contact and Cultural Change in India

• The British East India Company was granted a monopoly on trading in India in 1600.

• Traditional Indian rulers formed political alliances with company officials.

• The company formed its own army of Indian soldiers called Sepoys.

• Bribery, extortion and military might ensured that other trading companies were kept out of India.

• Some historians call the British East India the world’s first transnational corporation.

• The East India Company’s corrupt and brutal rule ended in 1858 when the British government took over direct rule of India.

• This period is known as the Raj (Hindi word for rule)

Cotton and Deindustrialization in India

• During the Industrial Revolution British colonies became important sources of raw materials, as well as markets for goods manufactured in Britain.

• Advances such as the spinning jenny and cotton gin helped make cotton an important British export.

• Britain now was in competition with India its own colony as India was also a leading exporter of cotton.

• In 1700 the British government banned the import of all dyed and printed cloth from India to protect its home industry.

• Over the next 200 years more laws were passed to restrict the trade in cotton.

• This contributed to the deindustrialization or the loss of industry in India.

The cotton trade and Mohandas Gandhi

• Mahatma (Great Soul) Gandhi used cotton as a powerful symbol of British oppression and Indian desire for self-sufficiency (swadeshi) and independence.

• He believed that if all Indians spun and wore their own cotton they would not need to buy British cotton and would fix unemployment in India.

• As leader of the Indian National Congress Party Gandhi led India to independence in 1947 with his strategy of peaceful non-co-operation based on the principle of self-sufficiency (swadeshi).

How are the legacies of Historical Globalization continuing to affect people?

• Imperialism denied the Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in the colonies the ability to control their own destiny.

• Although the lives of some peoples improved, many cultures were destroyed as they suffered economic and political oppression.

• Profits benefited the wealthy in the mother countries.

• This inequality continues to exist in today’s global economy.

Cultural Changes

• European religious beliefs and architecture were exported to the colonies.

• Indigenous art changed to reflect European tastes.

• The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) refers to the values of all the goods and services produced annually within a country’s borders.

• See chart on p. 153 on GDP in some former British colonies. – what generalizations can you make?

Legacies of Imperialism in India

• Under British rule India was unified under a single political and economic system.

• In 1947 India gained its independence and became a federal republic of 22 states.

• In 1950 India adopted a constitution which made it a parliamentary democracy based on the British model.

• In 2007 India has a large number of manufacturing, technological and service industries.

• Yet it still has major problems with rapid population growth, poverty, sexual discrimination, high illiteracy rates and conflicts with neighboring countries.

India and Pakistan

• Mahatma Gandhi and the Indian National Congress wanted one unified India but the Muslim League wanted to divide India into 2 countries – 1 Hindu and 1 Muslim.

• When India received its independence from Britain in 1947 – 2 countries were created – India (Hindu) and Pakistan (Muslim)

• 1000s were killed as Muslims and Hindus tried to move from one country to the other.

• Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu extremist.

• One problem was that East and West Pakistan were divided by 1600 km of Indian land.

• In 1971 East Pakistan became Bangladesh.

• Problems also are seen in the Punjab which was a British province that was divided between India and Pakistan.

• Many Sikhs live in Punjab and they want their own independent country.

The Kashmir

• When India gained its independence the rulers of the Kashmir (Hindu) decided to join India.

• However as most of the people of the area are Muslim, Pakistan felt that Kashmir should be part of Pakistan.

• India and Pakistan have gone to war over Kashmir in 1947-49, and in 1965 with no resolution.

• Since that time India and Pakistan have become nuclear powers.

• In 2002 India and Pakistan put their nuclear forces on alert and moved troops to the borders of Kashmir.

• Fighting did not ensue due to Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD).

• Talks continue in 2006-2007 over the fate of Kashmir.

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