Transcript Nineteenth Century Imperialism

Imperialism:
Causes and Context
Background to Imperialism
Old v. New Imperialism
“Old Imperialism”

After the Age of Exploration in the 1500-1600s, European countries
took colonies in many other regions

From the 1500s until the Industrial Revolution, the countries of
England, France, Holland, Portugal, and Spain were dominant

Fought wars over colonies, ex. French and Indian War
New Imperialism—Late
1800s

Reasons for imperialism:

Economic
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Political

Social
Economic Reasons for
Imperialism

Economic: Second Industrial Revolution led to an
increased demand for raw materials such as tin, rubber,
copper AND a new market for finished products
Political Reasons for
Imperialism

Political: Increased Nationalism

Colonies represent political and economic power AND
pride

“The sun never sets on the British Empire.”—literally!
Social Reasons for
Imperialism
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Social:
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Belief in Social Darwinism


“White Man’s Burden” by Rudyard Kipling
Religious desire to convert native peoples

Sending of missionaries to China, Africa
What Was New?


European Beliefs
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That they could divide up huge regions (ex. Africa)

That racism was truly a science—eugenics
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That they should use modern weapons to win colonies
Technology
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Ability of mother countries to communicate more quickly
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Scale of raw materials taken from colonies

Spheres of influence v. colonies (ex. China)

Dominant countries
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Great Britain, United States, France, Germany, Italy, and
Japan

Pace of settlement was increased
Case Study: India
Britain Dominates
Examples of Imperialism:
India

The British East India Company had a monopoly over
trade in India since the 1600 CE, but it wasn’t
considered to be an actual colony

Eighteenth Century:

1700-1750: British traded at posts along the coasts
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1750s—Britain started to take over India

They started in the east and the southeast and continued in
the rest of the country

The British army and Indian army
members (sepoy) enforced order
Examples of Imperialism:
Sepoy Rebellion, 1857


Rifle cartridges that the sepoys used were thought to
have pig & cow fat on them, and that offended both the
Muslim and the Hindu soldiers

Built-up frustration about British control

Started in West Bengal in the eastern part of the country
At first the rebellion was small, but the British
responded harshly, so the rebellion grew quickly and
spread; it lasted for a year
Examples of Imperialism:
Effects of the Sepoy Rebellion

Effects
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Thousands of casualties

Huge property damage in northern India


Rebuilding programs

Reorganizing the army and fixing the ratio of British to Indian
soldiers
British government, not the East India Company, now
clearly controlled the country as a colony
Case Study: China
From isolation to forced trade
Examples of Imperialism:
China

Britain traded with China [East India Company], but it
was limited because the Chinese did not want a lot of
British products and because they did not want to
change their culture

Britain wanted a product that it could exchange for
Chinese silver

Began growing opium in India and shipping it to China

Trade grew quickly, despite being illegal

Opium dens grew and the number of addicts grew
Examples of Imperialism:
China—The Opium War

By 1830s, the Chinese government realized it had a BIG
problem and destroyed 20,000 opium chests

This action started a war with Britain that lasted from
1839-1842

Treaty of Nanjing (1842) ended the war

Chinese had to

give British the island of Hong Kong

open several ports to British trade
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allow British citizens to ignore Chinese laws

give British most-favored nation status
Examples of Imperialism: China
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In addition to the Treaty of Nanjing (1842), other
treaties were signed with many European powers and,
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“By 1900,
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ninety Chinese ports were under the effective control of
foreign powers,
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foreign merchants controlled much of the Chinese economy,
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Christian missionaries sought converts throughout China,
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and foreign gunboats patrolled Chinese waters” (Bentley,
719).
Examples of Imperialism:
China
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Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864)
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Leader: Hong Xiuquan
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Goals:

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Abolish private property
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Prohibit footbinding and having concubines
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Provide free public education
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Simplify the written language

Equality of men and women
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Threatened the government
Result: Foreign forces helped defeat the rebels, the
leader committed suicide, famine conditions, and between
20-30 million people died
Examples of Imperialism:
China

Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901)
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Boxers were upset at all of the foreigners coming into and
controlling China

They called themselves the Society of Righteous and
Harmonious Fists

Started in northern China and they killed foreigners,
Christians, and even innocent people

They believed that foreigners could hurt them, so 140,000
Boxers stormed foreign embassies in summer 1900
Examples of Imperialism:
China
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Boxer Rebellion, continued
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Foreign forces defeated them: coalition of British,
French, Russian, U.S., German, and Japanese
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The Chinese government had to pay money to these
foreign powers and allow troops in Beijing
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Because Empress Dowager Ci Xi had backed the Boxers,
the people who wanted to start a revolution gained power
Examples of Imperialism:
China

After the Boxer Rebellion, spheres of influence
developed in which European countries each controlled
trade in their particular region
Examples of Imperialism:
Central and Southeast Asia
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Russia took over Central Asia, the area from Afghanistan
south
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Britain took over Burma, Malaysia, and Singapore
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France took over Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos
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Pushed conversion to Catholicism
Examples of Imperialism:
Japan
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1853—Commodore Matthew Perry took a huge fleet to
Japan and demanded that the U.S. be able to trade
with Japan and use their ports
Examples of Imperialism:
Japan
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As western nations demanded trade with Japan, the
Tokugawa Shogunate ended and the leaders started the
Meiji Restoration
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Emperor was just for show
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Modernize and industrialize to be competitive
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Japan developed a sphere of influence that extended to
part of China, Manchuria, Taiwan, and Korea
By 1910, Japan was an imperial power
Case Study: Africa
Examples of Imperialism:
Britain in Africa
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Cecil Rhodes
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He went to southern Africa in 1871
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By 1889, he controlled 90% of the world’s diamond
production
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He later branched out to search for gold
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After he was dominating economically, he tried to help
Britain gain territory
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He said, “We are the finest race in the world, and the
more of the world we inhabit, the better it is for the
human race” (Bentley 731)
Examples of Imperialism:
Africa
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Berlin Conference, 1884-1885
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Meeting in Berlin in which the main powers divided up the
map of Africa
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Competition heightened for Africa in the 1880s
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Why? New inventions
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Quinine to fight off malaria
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First automatic machine gun
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Steamship, railroad, telegraph
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Suez Canal (1859)
Examples of Imperialism: Africa
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The “scramble for Africa”
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Between 1875-1900, Europe colonized most of Africa
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Europeans wanted
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raw materials
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to be more powerful than each other
Examples of Imperialism:
Africa
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Congo Free State
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King Leopold II of Belgium hired Henry Morton Stanley to
explore and start businesses in this region
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Forced natives to work in the rubber plantations
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4-8 million killed
In 1908, it became the Belgian Congo, which was run by
the Belgian government
Examples of Imperialism:
Africa
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South Africa
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First settled in 1652 when the Dutch East India Company
established Cape Town
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Boers (Dutch farmers) later called Afrikaners
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They believed that God had given the control over the natives
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More settlers came in the 18th c., and this led to more conflict
Examples of Imperialism:
Africa
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South Africa, continued
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British conquered Cape during Napoleonic Wars and then
outlawed slavery
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Dutch slaveholders had to move to new areas
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Discoveries:
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Diamonds in 1867
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Gold in 1886
Conflict over these resources led to the Boer War (18991902)
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British concentration camps in Namibia
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British beat the Afrikaners and took over their land
Examples of Imperialism:
Africa
South Africa
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1913—the Native Land Act was passed
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This put the blacks into reservations
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This system of separation or Apartheid lasted until the
1990s