APWH: Unit 6

• Europe

  • Had coal and iron for power and factory equipment
  • Needed raw materials that didn't grow there
  • Solution = colonization
• Transnational Businesses


  International corporations that strengthened Europe's economic power in Asia and Africa (their conquered territories)
• Europe was very ethnocentric - other cultures were barbaric and uncivilized, even as progressives were denouncing the slave trade
• Social Darwinists


  Applied natural selection to sociology - there were dominant races or classes, therefore Britain was the most powerful/fit
• Moral obligation to civilize others

  Rudyard Kipling's poem "White Man's Burden" described colonization as justified
• Luxuries India had for Europeans

  • Tea
  • Sugar
  • Silk
  • Salt
  • Jute
• France and England battled each other in Seven Year's War for colonial superiority over India ..and Britain won
• British East India Company

  Joint-stock company like a multinational corporation - had exclusive British trade rights in India - led by Robert Clive
• Sepoy Mutiny


  Indians who worked for British as soldiers were called Sepoys - they rebelled against British Muslim/Hindu disrespect in 1857, but it failed
• British then made all of India a crown colony - Queen Victoria made Empress of India above almost 300 million Indian subjects
• India became model of British imperialism - upper castes taught English, Christianity spread, industrialization and urbanization - but more and more Indians dreamed of being free from Britain
• 1885: group of Indians formed Indian National Congress to fight for independence - wouldn't be achieved until mid-20th century
• Up until 1830s, Europe could only trade with China in city of Canton - China was relatively isolationist, until Europe gained industrial power and barged in with weapons
• Opium Wars


  British traders brought Opium to China in 1773 and widespread addiction was caused - forbidden and seized in 1839
• Treaty of Nanjing: China forced to sign unequal treaty that gave Britain considerable rights to expand trade with China
• Hong Kong was declared crown possession of Britain in 1843
• Second Opium War occurred in 1856 for four years when Britain tried to further trade and China lost again - all of China opened to trade
• White Lotus Rebellions


  Buddhists who were frustrated over taxes and government corruption (beginning of 19th century)
• Taiping Rebellion


  Rebels led by religious zealot who almost succeeded in taking down Manchu government (mid-19th century)
• Self-Strengthening Movement


  Manchu Dynasty attempt to get its act together, which failed (1860s)
• Korea declared independence from China in 1876
• Sino-French War (1883): Chinese lost control of Vietnam
• China was Defeated by Japan in Sino-Japanese War
• Treaty of Shimonoseki (1895): China forced to hand control of Taiwan to Japan and give them trading rights
• France, Germany, Russia, Britain took their own spheres of influence in China - not quite colonies as Manchu Dynasty still had authority.. (its sorta similar to the Berlin Conference but in China ok)
• US pledged to support sovereignty of Chinese government and equal trading to prevent full British takeover (Open Door Policy) - despite barring Chinese immigrants from US in 1882 (Chinese Exclusion Act)
• Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists, or Boxers


  Chinese peasant nationalists attempted to rebel by slaughtering Christian missionaries and controlling foreign embassies in response to government's defeats and concessions to the West, but failed
• Japan kept Europeans away in 17th and 18th centuries - until European and US appetite for power intensified and Commodore Matthew Perry arrived from US in a steamboat in 1853 - Japan felt obligated to join industrialized world
• Treaty of Kanagawa (1854) was a trade agreement between Japan the West
• Samurai revolted against shogun who ratified it and restored Emperor Meiji to power
• Meiji Restoration


  Era of Japanese westernization - Japan became a world power
• 1870s: Japan built railways and steamships, abolished samurai warrior class
• Japan Prioritized military power - took control of Korea and Taiwan from China in 1895 - military pageantry became a cultural movement
• 1890s: Japan became powerful enough to reduce European and US influence
• Boxer Protocol: China forced to pay Europeans and Japanese with rebellion costs
• Chinese culture also started to crumble - imperial government ended in 1911 and a republic was established in China
• 1807-1820: most European nations abolished slave trade as Enlightenment principles gained more force - slavery abolished a few decades later
• South Africa: Dutch first arrived and settled Cape Town - British seized it in 1795
• South African Dutch (Boers) moved northeast and discovered diamonds and gold - British followed and fought the Boer War (1899-1902) to gain rights to resources, which they won
• Egypt: when Napoleon tried to take control of Egypt in 18th century during the weak Ottoman rule, Muhammad Ali defeated the French and the ruling Ottoman Empire in 1805 - began industrialization and agriculture expansions