Social studies lesson 5

• By the 1800s, European nations controlled most of the world. Their armies crushed rebellions in China, Africa, and India. Advanced technology and weapons helped Europeans expand their overseas empires
• Imperialism


  The control of foreign lands by stronger states
• Reasons for the spread of imperialism in the 1800s


  • Europe needed raw materials to create its industrial products
  • Europe had to find new markets for their goods
  • National pride and competition for control of foreign lands
  • Belief in cultural and racial superiority
  • Desire to spread Christianity
• How the West carved up the world

  1. Europeans set up trading posts and factories

  2. Europeans gained control of trade routes and ports

  3. Europeans took control of the African interior

  4. Europeans used advanced weapons and technologies to dominate local populations
• By 1900, European countries and the United States controlled territory worldwide
• British India


  • Vast territory with a huge population of Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, and other religious groups
  • British East India Company gradually eliminated foreign competition at ports throughout India
  • After the 1857 Sepoy Rebellion, the British government established direct control of India
• During the 1800s, many Europeans emigrated to Latin America, the United States, Canada, and New Zealand, as well as areas of Asia and Africa
• Europeans used advanced weaponry


  To open up Southeast and East Asian states to Western cultural influence
• Since the early 1600s, the Dutch had controlled trade in the East Indies
• By 1799, the Dutch government took control of the most valuable parts of the East Indies and increased its hold on the rich markets
• The British developed the colony's infrastructure, including a 25,000-mile railroad network, along with a telegraph and postal system
• Some Indians viewed the British as unwelcome occupiers
• European powers acquired colonies in Southeast Asia, Asia, and the Pacific as their population soared and many emigrated to these colonies and other areas
• In Southeast and East Asia, many states resisted the influence of Western powers, but Western powers used their advanced weaponry to open these areas to their influence
• Spheres of influence


  Areas of China controlled by different European powers
• The British were angry at the restrictions on trade in Canton, China, and wanted to sell manufactured goods as well as the opium they grew on British plantations
• The Chinese government tried to stop the opium trade, leading to the Opium Wars between Britain and China
• After the Opium Wars, the Chinese government was forced to open more ports to international trade, pay the British millions of ounces of silver, and surrender the island of Hong Kong to the British
• The Chinese government lost a great deal of control over their own country as the French, Germans, and Russians joined the British in controlling large Chinese ports and maintaining separate spheres of influence
• Boxer Uprising


  A group of Chinese rebels who rose up against foreign influence and missionary activity, allied with the Chinese empress, and took control of Beijing before being defeated by an alliance of Western troops
• Gunboat diplomacy


  The use of threat of military force by Western powers to gain concessions from Japan and China
• In 1867, Japanese daimyo (leaders) overthrew the government, restored the power of the emperor, and opened up Japan to foreign culture and Western science and technology in order to compete with Europe and the United States
• The American Revolution was the first successful revolt against a European empire, and other countries in the Americas gained independence from European powers in the early 1800s
• Simón Bolívar led a successful independence movement in South America, leading to the creation of Gran Colombia, but the new nation soon began breaking apart
• Brazil declared independence in 1822 under its first king, a Portuguese monarch, and was later ruled by military dictators supported by European and US governments and businesses
• In India, the British educated Indians to help with imperial administration, leading to the rise of a highly educated elite who soon began to demand equal rights and formed the Indian National Congress party
• Mohandas Gandhi developed the idea of satyagraha, the use of nonviolent protest, to resist imperialist policies and gain Indian independence
• The First World War weakened the European powers, while nationalist movements grew worldwide, and the Second World War left European nations too poor to hold onto their empires, leading to the crumbling of the European empires in the 1950s and 1960s