Transcript uploads/4/8/0/6/48063503/ch_17x - Mr. Davis

The age of Western Imperialism
CH 17
New Imperialism 1870’s-1919
 “the policy of extending a nation’s authority
by territorial acquisition or by establishing
economic and political hegemony over other
nations”
The Age of British Imperial
Dominance
 1st half of the 19th century-settlements that
became nations of Canada, Australia, and
New Zealand, and expanded parts of India
 Focus on the Imperialism of free trade
 Britain becomes the “workshop” of the world
 Free trade and the absence of government
controls-unlimited growth of wealth
The Opium Wars with China
 British desire to import Chinese tea, silk,
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porcelain-Chinese disdain for British goods
British sell opium to Chinese
Manchu Dynasty resists
1839-1842-Opium Wars
Unequal treaty systemsBritish get Hong KongChinese forced to open ports
Most favored Nation status
India-The Crown Jewel
 British India-Current day India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh
 Central to the Imperial strategy of the British
empire
 India-vast non-white population with
numerous political allegiances, complex
social arrangements, and non-Western
religions (Hinduism and Islam)
 1st ruled by the British East India Company
The Great Sepoy Mutiny-1857
 Sepoys-Indian troops revolt against British
officers
 Cultural issue of offense over cartridges used
with soldiers muskets
 Pork or beef fat?
 10,000 of Britons and Indians killed
 Government of India Act-1858-transferred
political authority to the British crown
Crown control of India
 Tried to restrain the “civilizing mission” of
British
 Tried to work more closely with local Indian
rulers
 1/3 of India under rule of Indian princes that
swore allegiance to crown
 More British troops stationed in India
Queen Victoria-the Empress
of India
Indian nationalism
 1885-Founding of the Indian National
Congress
 1887-Founding of the Muslim League
The New Imperialism
 1870-1900-west gained control of 150 million
people
 1/5th of the world’s area and 1/10 of population
 Included United States and Japan
 New techniques of direct or indirect control
 Direct Colonial rule
 Protectorates-placed officials in foreign state to
oversee its government
 Spheres of influence-received special commercial and
legal privileges
Motives
 Economics??
 Imperialism A Study J.A. Hobson
 Capitalists and bankers behind imperial
ambitions
 Imperialism The Highest Stage of Capitalism
 Lenin
 “Imperialism is the monopoly stage of
capitalism”
Other motives
1. “civilizing mission”
2. Prestige and power of nation-state
3. The eastern Question of the decay of the
Ottoman Empire
4. Weaknesses in the Qing Dynasty in China
5. Geopolitical strategic interests
The Partition of Africa
 “Scramble for Africa”
 1900-85% of Africa controlled by Europeans
France and Italy
 Algeria-1st taken in the 1830’s-became the
most important colonial possession of
France-considered an extension of France
 Tunisia-1881-1882-Protectorate
 Morocco-1901-1912-Protectorate
 Local rulers retained as French puppets
 Italy-seized Libya from Turkey in 1911-1912
British in North Africa
 1869-Suez Canal built by French engineers
 Connected med Sea to the red Sea
 India becomes more important market for British
goods
 British government purchase controlling interest
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in canal
Egypt in debt to European creditors
1881-Nationalist rebellion
British send troops and defeat
Egypt never an official colony, British dominate
British in North Africa
 British desired political and military stability
 Built naval base at Alexandria
 Rise of Egyptian Islamic militancy-The
Muslim Brother hood
 British determination to secure the Upper
Nile and the Sudan
 1898-Fashoda Incident-Tense incident
between French and British in Sudan
Fashoda Incident
West Africa
 1895-French West Africa had 12 million
 British had 4 West African Colonies-Sierra
Leone, Gambia, The Gold Coast (Ghana), and
Nigeria
 Nigeria run by indirect control-most
successful for British missionaries-largest
Christian population of Africa
The Belgian Congo
 Personal property of King Leopold 2 of
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Belgium
1876-Formed the International African
Association
Recruited Henry Stanley-journalist who had
searched and found Dr David Livingstone
1885-Berlin Conference gave Congo to
Leopold
Brutal economic exploitation and slave labor
The Heart of Darkness
The Berlin Conference
 1885-The Partition of Africa
 Process of power sharing in Africa
 German entry into arena of imperial
competition
South Africa
 Dutch settlers in Cape Colony-1600s
 British dominance in the 1830’s
 Dutch farmers-Boers-Great Trek north and east of
the cape
 Afrikaner states Natal, Transvaal, and the Orange
free State
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1886-Gold discovered
1899-Boer War British v Boers
British Concentration Camps
Boers Guerilla tactics
Union of South Africa-1910
 Racial system of Apartheid-decades of
oppression, racial tensions, and economic
exploitation
Expansion in Asia
 Russia-Tsars consolidated control around
Balkan Sea
 Russians did not regard the nomads of Asia as
equals
Transcaucasus regions
 Christian Georgians, Armenians, and
Azerbaijanis
 The Muslim peoples of the Caucasus regionsChechnya, Dagestan, and Circassia
Imam Shamil of Chechnya and
Dagestan surrendering to
Russian general Baryatinsky
in 1859
Nomads of central Asia
 Vast Steppe of central Asia where the
Kazakhs lived
Southern Middle Asia-1860’s
 Present day Uzbekistan, Turkistan, and the
areas bordering Afghanistan-Muslim Areas
Russian-British Rivalry over Afghanistan
 “the Great Game”-Sometimes brought Russia
and GB to the state of war
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Caption from a 1911 English satirical magazine reads: "If we hadn't a thorough
understanding, I (British lion) might almost be tempted to ask what you (Russian
bear) are doing there with our little playfellow (Persian cat)."
French and IndoChina
 Indo China-Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia
 Roman Catholic Missionaries
 1862-French forces controlled Saigon
 1880’s-France controlled all of Indo China
 Vietnamese Catholic Converts-minority
 Large scale plantations-source of tea, rice,
coffee, and rubber
French in Indochina
The United States and
Imperialism
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1853-Commodore Matt Perry and Japan
1867-US buys Alaska from the Russians
1893-American based coup in Hawaii
1898-Victory in the Spanish American War
US has informal protectorate in Cuba, and annexes
Puerto Rico
US annexes the Philippines and Hawaii
1903-US secures canal zone in Panama from Columbia
1904-US starts building the Panama Canal
1907-Sailing of the Great White Fleet and (1914)
completion of the Panama Canal
China and the Boxer
rebellion
 Qing Dynasty in state of near collapse
 Western powers had forced China to give
special status
 1899-US under SOS John Hay proposes Open
Door Notes
 US feared that Europe and Japan would close
China off to American interests
 Wanted free and equal access to Chinese
markets
Boxer rebellion
 Chinese Secret Society-the Society of
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Righteous and Harmonious Fists
Hatred of foreign missionaries
Kill the “foreign devils”
1900-Attack on the foreign legate in Beijing
August 1900-Foreign army occupies China
1901-Qing agrees to execute the officials who
had helped the rebellion
1912-Collapse of the Qing Dynasty
French troops behead Boxers
US Marines sent to China
Russian Cannons firing
Japanese Marines
Troops of the Eight nations
alliance of 1900. Left to
right: Britain, United
States, Australian colonial,
British India, Germany,
France, Russia, Italy, Japan
Tools of Empire
 Western domination based on technological
domination
Naval superiority
 1830’s-rise of steam powered iron warships
 “gunboat diplomacy”
Nemesis and the Opium Wars
 The “devil ship”
Tropical Diseases
 Malaria constant problem for Europeans
 Quinine pills the solution
 Enabled the rapid exploration and partition of
Africa
 Cultivated in Dutch East indies and British
India
Firearms
 Fully barreled rifles
 Mid 1850’s-British Lee-Enfield Rifle
 1900’s-Use of maxim Machine guns
 Use of dum-dum bullets
Missionary Movements
 1900-Evangelical Protestant Missionaries-
over 10,000 missionaries in India
 Providential moment for the evangelization
of non-Christian peoples in the Asia and
Africa
 French Roman Catholics-Society for the
Propagation of the faith-Vietnam and China
 Over ½ million members
Women and Missionary
Activity
 Women and Cultural practices oversees
 1. Ottoman empire-harems for affluent
women
 2. India-practice of sati
 3. China-Foot binding of young girls
 Missionaries had “civilizing” intentions to try
to help women, many female missionaries
traveled abroad
Sati
Footbinding
Issues with Missionaries
Tensions with imperial administrations
Missionaries established schools
Fear that missionaries might be a destabilizing
force
Engaged local peoples in way that admin could
not-learned languages
Indigenous religious movements established
Religious divide between northern and
southern hemispheres
takeaways
 1. Missionary goals were dynamic and
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changed
2. enormous amount of printed materials
3. Skilled at pressuring their own
governments for missionary freedomopposition to colonial authorities
4. Non-western Christians moving
Christianity away from Western dominance
5. Made Christianity a world wide faith for
the 1st time