Transcript Africa, India and New British Empire, 1750-1870

Africa, India and the New British
Empire, 1750-1870
Chapter 25
Suddenly
• European leaders, especially the British, who had
seemed content to be just trading partners,
sought to control areas politically, militarily,
culturally, economically
• And they could
• Military, communications and transportation
technologies made conquest possible
• Ideas at home made it seem like the right thing to
do, both morally and to keep the factories
running and employing people back home
Changes and Exchanges in Africa
• In the century before 1870 Africa underwent
dynamic political changes and a great expansion
of foreign trade
• Indigenous African leaders, Middle Eastern and
European imperialists built powerful new states
and expanded old ones
• As the slave trade died under British pressure,
trade in other goods rose sharply
• In return Africans imported large quantities of
machine made textiles and firearms
• Let’s look at different regions
New African States
• Internal forces produced clusters of new states
in two parts of sub-Saharan Africa between
1750 and 1870
• In southern Africa a powerful Zulu kingdom
arose
• In inland West Africa Islamic reformers
created the Sokoto Caliphate and companion
states
Shaka
• For centuries the Nguni people had farmed and raised cattle in the
fertile coast-lands of SE Africa
• When a drought hit the area at the beginning of the 19th century, a
military genius named Shaka created the Zulu kingdom in 1818
• Strict military drill and close-combat tactics made the Zulu the most
powerful and feared fighters in southern Africa
• Shaka expanded the kingdom by raiding his neighbors, seizing their
cattle and capturing their women and children
• Many displaced refugees
• Some neighboring states dreated their own states—the Swazi north
of the Zulu, Lesotho in southern Africa’s moutains—both Lesotho
and Swaziland are states today
• Shaka forged a powerful identity for his people
Islamic Reform Movements
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Another cluster of powerful states in the savannas of West Africa
Islam had long been a force in the politics of the region
But Islam made slow progress with the rural people of Africa so rulers had been
tolerant of non-Muslims
In the 1770’s, however, scholars began preaching against the accommodation of
non-believers
And called for the forcible conversion of “pagans”
Called a “jihad” it also added to the lands of Muslim rulers
The largest of these was the Hausa states in northern Nigeria
The united Hausa states were called the Sokoto Caliphate
Centers for Islamic learning and reform
Schools to train boys in Koranic study spread, and the great library at Sokoto
attacted many scholars
Suppressed local indigenous practices, occasional jihad against unbelievers
Many slaves from among the unbelievers, who grew food, making it possible to
seclude women in the house
Modernization of Egypt
• In NE Africa the ancient state of Egypt underwent growth and
modernization
• Napoleon’s army had withdrawn from Egypt in 1801, but Egyptians
considered this a shocking display of European strength and Egyptian
weakness
• A wake-up call
• Muhammad Ali ruled Egypt from 1805-1849 and began a series of reforms
to modernize Africa
• European technical expertise and debts to Europeans to pay for it
• In the 1830’s Egypt was the strongest Islamic state in the world
• By the end of his reign the population of Egypt had nearly doubled, trade
with Europe had expanded by almost 600%
• Ali’s grandson Ismail placed even more emphasis on westernization, “my
country is in Europe now”
• The American Civil War an opportunity, but when over Egypt slipped into
terrible debt and had to give concessions to its European lenders
Modernization of Ethiopia
• State building and reform also underway in
Ethiopia
• Beginning in the 1840’s modern weapons were
bought from Europe
• Then manufactured in Ethiopia, but attempts to
coerce more technical expertise backfired when
they kidnapped some British officials
• England invaded
• The leader committed suicide to avoid being
taken prisoner, and the British withdrew
Here come the Europeans-Algeria
• France’s conquest of Algeria—provided grain for
France’s conquest of Egypt, but never paid for it
• Causing difficult diplomatic relationships, then
France invaded in 1830 because the govt was
unpopular at home and hoped to stir patriotic
feelings and govt support
• 18 year war, finally won by killing farm, animals,
destroying crops and slaughtering villagers
• No way to start a relationship
Explorers of the Interior
• Using their own funds (so Romantic) or financed by
geographic societies they wished to uncover the
secrets of inner Africa
• Often they wished to trace the great rivers inland—to
find the source of the Nile
• And to look for mineral wealth
• Dr. Livingstone, a Scottish missionary doctor explored
southern and central Africa to find locations for
Christians missions made his way all over the place
with usually warm receptions
• Henry Morton Stanley fought his way through, and of
course found Livingstone in 1871
Abolition
• The successful slave revolt ended slavery in the largest
plantation colony of the W Indies
• Elsewhere slave revolts brutally suppressed
• Which drew the attention of humanitarians
• Both England and US made it illegal for their citizens to
import slaves in 1807
• Once the greatest slave traders, the British became the
most enthusiastic abolitionists
• They sent ships to patrol the African coast and prevent
the slave trade, but is was difficult to stop
Legitimate Trade
• Instead of slaves, Africans began to trade other things
• And the trade continued to grow
• The most important trade good though, was palm oil
which was used for soap, candles and lubricants
• The trading states of the Niger Delta the leading
exporters of this palm oil
• The British took over the small colony of Sierra Leone
as a base for their anti-slave trade naval operations
• Other Western influences included the Republic of
Liberia founded by and African Americans
Secondary Empires in Eastern Africa
• As the slave trade lessened on the west coast,
it continued and increased on the east coast
• To the Middle East and North Africa, and also
kept on the coast for plantations
• Traders made their way from the coast inland
and brought out ivory and other goods
• Often trading for weapons which spread
violence into the interior
India Under British Rule
• The people of South Asia felt the impact of European
commercial, cultural and colonial expansion more than
the Africans
• Nearly all of India, with 3 times the population of
Africa, came under British rule
• The (British) East India Company founded in 1600 and
over the next 250 years British interests
commandeered the colonies and trade of the Dutch,
fought off the French and Indian challenges and picked
up the pieces of the decaying Mughals
• By 1858, India was British
Company Men
• As Mughal power weakened they were defeated by
Iranians forces in 1739 who sacked Delhi
• An upraising of Marathas in the Deccan left them with
holdings larger than the Mughals
• Various other states broke with the Mughals and
established their own trade relationships with the
Europeans
• Hard-driving and ambitious “company men” convinced
Indian Princes to allow them to establish trading posts on
the Indian coast
• They used native troops, or sepoys, to guard these posts
• In divided India these troops came to hold the balance of
power
The Black Hole of Calcutta
• IN 1691 Britain’s East India Company persuaded a nawab (a Muslim
Prince) to establish a trading post at a little fishing port of Calcutta
• In 1756 a new nawab wanted more tribute and overran the post
• He imprisoned a group of EIC men in a small cell where many died of
suffocation
• To avenge the deaths of these men, a large force overthrew the nawab
• The weak Mughal emperor allowed the EIC to rule Bengal directly in 1765
• Now the EIC collected taxes, as well as the profits from trade
• A similar military takeover occurred in southern India in Madras (Chennai)
• The third major area the EIC annexed was the city of Bombay (Mumbai)
• Some areas around Bombay remained in the hands of local princes who
accepted the political control of the EIC
1818-1856
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In 1818 the East India Company controlled more people than in all of western
Europe with 50 times the population of the NA colonies they had lost
The British Raj wished to remake India along British lines and change her through
social reform, economic development, and with new technology
It was difficult to do given the strength of India’s traditions and culture
The EIC’s main goal was to create a powerful and efficient government backed by
military power and with Christian missionaries working to convert Indians
Few Indians converted, but missionaries exerted efforts to “reform” Indian society
Two competing approaches by the British to Indian society, some wanted to
change India, but their was also a tradition to study Indian culture
The British and Indian elites sometimes worked together, and sometimes against
each other, but both worked to exploit the Indian population
New jobs in trade, but also the decimation of traditional industries like textiles
Sepoy Rebellion, 1857 aka Revolution
of 1857
• Various local rebellions in response to the changes
attempted
• But the big one was the Sepoy Rebellion—200,000 sepoys,
38,000 British troops
• Which began when troops were required to rip open with
their teeth paper wrapped ammunition cartridges which
were greased with animal fat—from cows? From pigs?
• Both Muslims and Hindus were offended
• Although the procedure was quickly changed, the rebellion
spread to the general population
• It took a year of hard and brutal fighting to end the uprising
• And it marks the beginning of India’s independence
movement
But also,
• The end of company and Mughal rule
• Instead the British created a secretary of state in London to over
see India policies, and a representative in India called a Viceroy
• Queen Victoria in 1858 guaranteed all Indians “equal protection of
the law” and freedom to follow their various customs
• The Viceroys lived in great splendor, ala Mughals, with periodic
great displays of pomp called durbars
• And treated the local “Princes” with elaborate courtesy
• And created a powerful and efficient Indian Civil Service, chosen by
examination who held the important posts—but of about 1000 in
1900, only a few dozen were Indian
• Thousands of Indians worked in lesser posts to run India
• Because the British held unfortunate racist ideas about Indian
Infrastructure Investment
• After 1857 the British invested millions of pounds
sterling improving harbors, building in cities, building
and improving canals and irrigation
• Forests were felled to build plantations for tea, and
opium, cotton and jute
• Trade grew rapidly
• Starting in 1840 a system of railroads was built—by
1870 the fifth largest system in the world
• Almost 5000 miles of track, and 14,000 miles of
telegraph lines
• New mobility of Indians did lead to the spread of
epidemic diseases, especially cholera
Indian Nationalism
• A realization that Indians had lost control of their destinies
• Deep divisions in about what India was, and should be
• Many educated Indians like western ideas—and the British
were pretty good at establishing schools and colleges
• Many liked traditional Indian ideas as well
• But maybe widow burning (sati) and female infanticide
should go, and the whole untouchable thing
• The educated middle classes for sure knew that British
business policies were not good for Indians
• The first Indian National Congress met in 1885, they asked
for less government expenditure on the military and more
to alleviate the horrific conditions of the poor
Britain Builds an Empire in the Far East
• In 1750 Britain’s overseas empire was some plantations
and some settler colonies in the Americas
• A century later it was focused on its holdings in India
and the Far East
• How? Military victories pushed rivals aside
• Free trade over mercantilism
• Changes in shipbuilding increased the speed of
overseas commerce
• New settler colonies in S Africa, New Zealand, and
Australia
Dominance in the Indian Ocean
• Napoleon’s defeats ended French as serious rivals
• Napoleons invasion of the Netherlands led to the dismantling of
most of the Dutch colonies—Britain moved into the Cape and
seized Malacca and Ceylon (Sri Lanka)
• Then Dutch Guiana and Trinidad
• The Cape Colony was valuable because of its location as a stop on
the way to India
• But the 20,000 Dutch had a very strong identity as Boers, or
Afrikaners
• And they wished to expand into the lands of Africans, which their
new British rulers opposed
• Afrikaners from 1836-1839 made the “great Trek” leaving the
British ruled Cape and moving to the fertile high plateau “veld” and
founded the Orange Free State and the Transvaal
The Free Port of Singapore
• In 1824 this was a small fishing village with a
superb harbor
• It became the center of trade attracting British
merchants and Chinese businessmen and
laborers
• The center of trade between the Indian Ocean
and China
Burma
• A powerful kingdom by 1750 unsuccessfully
attempted to annex Siam (Thailand)
• Then tried to expand into to the East, into
British controlled Assam, which led to a war
with the British
• Which the British won
• And Burma was annexed
Free Trade
• The goal of all this territorial expansion was trade,
either to provide ports on the way, or as centers of
distribution and production of materials
• A new philosophy in trade—Free Trade instead of
Mercantilism
• The whole globe drawn into a rapidly expanding
trading system of raw materials exchanged for
manufactured goods
• Both sides benefitted, but no question the
industrialized nations benefitted more
• From 1778-1860 British shipping quadrupled
Australia/New Zealand
• British colonists displaced the indigenous people of
Australia and New Zealand
• At the time of Cook’s visit there were about 650,000
Hunter-gatherers in Australia and 250,000 Maoris in New
Zealand
• Who were vulnerable to the diseases of Afro-Eurasians—by
1890’s only 93,000 indigenous people in Australia, 42,000
Maoris
• Penal colonies in Australia, then a discovery of gold in 1851
brought a million settlers, then a million more
• Drawn more slowly to New Zealand
• Both encouraged to be self-governing similar to Canada
New Labor Migrations
• Between 1834 and 1870 many thousands of Indians,
Chinese and Africans went overseas to work especially on
sugar plantations
• After 1870, tens of thousands of more Asians
• Linked to the end of the slave trade—there was still a need
for labor
• People impoverished by changes in trade and economies
signed on
• Although conditions were regulated, many died on the
voyages from diseases
• All served under contracts of indenture—usually a 5 year
contract with some pay
• Many stayed on in the country they were transported to