Unit 6 Imperialism (1750-1900)

• Imperialism


  A country building an empire in foreign countries through direct rule, indirect rule, or economic dominance
• Industrial Revolution led to overcrowding of cities, pollution, increased crime, and growing gap between the rich and poor
• Industrialism meant growing countries needed more food for the industrial process, such as food for their growing population and markets to sell their finished goods
• Industrial Revolution lead to empire building
• Causes of Imperialism

  • Culture
  • Nationalism
  • Economics
• Consequences of Imperialism


  • Rebellion
  • New labor systems
  • Migrations
• White Man's Burden


  Belief of European powers in the superiority of their culture and duty to share it
• Missionaries converting the world, establishing schools, teaching religion, math, and science, and building hospitals, and through writings/interventions helped abolished slave trade
• Social Darwinism


  Survival of the fittest, strong nations should eat weak nations
• Nationalism


  When a group of people share a strong sense of identity and become devoted to a single state, feeling of superiority over other states can lead to racism
• After loss of American colonies, Britain established colonies worldwide, earning the nickname "The Sun Never Sets" on Great Britain
• France colonised North Africa (Algeria), West Africa (Senegal), and Indochina (SE Asia)
• Japan in the late 1800s encouraged on Korea, bothered China, leading to the Sino-Japanese war, and Korea became their colony
• Rationales for Imperialism: Economics


  Industrialization led to hunger for more raw materials and needed markets to sell goods
• Britain, Dutch, and French had trade agreements with India, East Indies, and East Africa, leading to raising armies and conquering territory
• In the 1st half of the 19th century, Britain had the richest economy, later challenged by the U.S
• In the late 1800s, Europeans wanted more influence in Africa, leading to the Scramble for Africa
• Britain first had diplomatic agreements in Africa, but then took more by force (since Africans wouldn't agree to more imperialism willingly)
• France overthrew Ottomans from Algeria and settled, while Germany's Otto von Bismarck called the Berlin Conference where Europeans divided up Africa for themselves
• King Leopold II of Belgium claimed the Congo as his own private land, growing rich through brutality, forced labor to extract ivory and rubber, resulting in 8 million deaths
• Britain conquered India with its own troops and recruited Sepoys (local Indians)
• European powers divided up China into "spheres of influence" as China struggled due to internal rebellions and natural disasters
• Japan's Meiji restoration made them powerful enough to conquer Korea, parts of Southeast Asia, Pacific Islands, and parts of China, wanting raw materials
• The Dutch East India Company had some dominance in the Dutch East Indies, but eventually collapsed from corruption, with the Dutch government then taking all colonial holdings
• Britain sent convicts to Australia and established it as a penal colony, later discovering copper, wool, and making it into a regular colony
• Britain established a settler colony in New Zealand, relocating the native Maori to live in a separate colony, leading to the New Zealand wars which the Maori lost
• Americans were urged to push westward within their own continent through the concept of Manifest Destiny, leading to the Indian Removal Act and Trail of Tears
• Russia annexed Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Finland, Armenia, and a large chunk of Manchuria (China) for commerce
• The British won territory from the French and Indian War (7 Years War), reserving the Ohio River Valley for natives, but colonists disagreed and settled there anyway
• After the Declaration of Independence, Americans pushed westward, leading to the Cherokee being forced onto reservations in Oklahoma through the Trail of Tears
• The Ghost Dance resistance movement among Native Americans believed in a prophecy that their ancestors would return to drive the white men out, culminating in the Battle of Wounded Knee
• Tupac Amaru II, a caique (hereditary leader) in Peru, led an armed revolt against the Spanish colonial rulers, but was captured and executed, marking the last major native revolt against Spain
• Benito Juarez, a liberal descended of the Zapotec in Mexico, was ousted by conservative government members who conspired with European powers to install a French occupation
• In Australia, the British government told settlers to be kind to aboriginal people, but the Australian Frontier Wars resulted in thousands of native deaths as settlers pushed onto their lands
• In South Africa, the native Xhosa refused European rule for 40 years, leading to the Xhosa Cattle Killing Movement where they killed 40,000 of their own cattle, but this led to their starvation and the European victory
• The Wassoulou Empire in West Africa, established by chieftain Samory Toure, resisted the French in Samory Toure's War, but the French ultimately won
• The Asante Empire in West Africa attempted to defend their golden stool from the British, but warrior queen Yaa Asantewaa was exiled and the empire became part of the Gold Coast colony
• In Sudan, the Mahdist Revolt led by the Islamic cleric Muhammad Ahmad defeated the British, but the movement dissolved after Ahmad's death, and the British later returned and defeated the Mahdists
• In the Balkans, resentment against Ottoman rule led to nationalist rebellions and the gaining of independence by Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria
• The Sepoy Rebellion in India in 1857, where Indian soldiers rebelled against the British over the use of pig fat in their muskets, was ultimately defeated by the British