Prior to Imperialism, European countries usually did not take over lands in Africa and Asia.

Imperialism is when a powerful empire, or nation, takes control of a smaller or weaker country. The imperializing nation takes advantage of the weaker nation.

The Industrial Revolution created new technology that made it faster and easier to travel over land and across oceans. European countries used their weapons and warships to take control of the land and people where raw materials like cotton and rubber were found.

Gold money/power God gave them the power Glory the triumph of conquering

Darwin’s Theory of Evolution was based on natural selection. His theory said that animal species change over time and that the strong animals adapt to the change around them and survive while the weaker animals die out. Imperializing nations used this theory to rationalize their control over weaker nations by saying it was natural for strong nations to control weaker nations.

The East India Company traded goods such as spices and cotton, as well as collected taxes from Indian who owned land. Great Britain gave the East Indian Company a charter that allowed them to do business in India (gave them permission)

Missionaries were people sent to other countries to spread a church’s faith or religion. They went to India because they felt that Indian religious practices, like the caste system, were uncivilized and that Christian schools and churches would help the Indian people.

Ideas: Not happy that outsiders were coming in to my country criticizing my customs and beliefs.

Caste system places Indians into the following groups:” priests and teachers, rulers, warriors, landowners, businessmen and workers and lastly untouchables (people outside the caste system). People from different caste systems are not allowed to make or change their caste.

The issues that many of the Indians had with British rule include missionaries saying that Hinduism (India’s main religion) was wrong. Indians saw railroads and telegraphs as a threat to the caste system and brought people of different caste systems together.

Sepoys were Indian soldiers trained by the British that helped the British army conquer new land in India and other parts of Asia. They made up most of the British Army.

The Sepoys were angry and refused to use a new kind of cartridge to load the gun. The end of the cartridge had to be bitten off before sue and they head the cartridges were greased with cow and pig fat and eating any parts of those animals went against their religious beliefs.

After the rebellion against the East India Company, The British government controlled India with stricter laws.

Sati was the Hindu practice of widow burning. Widow burning was when a woman killed herself or was forced to throw herself on her husbands funeral fire after he died.

Opium is an addictive drug. Many Chinese became addicted to opium. When the emperor saw that Opium was hurting his people he made the drug illegal.

They could sell it for a lot of money since the Chinese were addicted and Opium was banned from being imported or brought into the country.

To try to stop the sale of Opium, Qing officials took 20,000 chests of illegal opium from British traders.

The British government was angry and sent troops to China. War broke out and the British Navy used new steamboats to capture many Chinese cities on the coast and rivers. In 1842 Britain and China signed the Treaty of Nanjing where China gave up the island of Hong Kong to Britain. China opened five ports to British trade. China also paid Britain for the 20,000 chests of Opium.

Rebellions began breaking out in China because many Chinese blamed Qing rulers for letting foreigners and Opium into China.

The Taipings believed that everyone should share their land and money. They wanted to turn China into a “Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace”

They refused to help them unless China allowed more trade and made Opium legal. The Qing emperor refused which led to the Second Opium War. France helped Britain win the war and forced China to sign the Treaties of Tientsin. Foreign ships were not allowed to travel on China’s rivers, China opened more trade ports (had to) and opium trade was made legal again.

The Chinese were angry at the foreigners because their new technology took away jobs from Chinese workers and Christian missionaries taught Chinese people to change their customs.

The Boxers were a group from China’s poor country side who believed foreigners were evil and Chinese who converted to Christianity as traitors and started killing them all.

China signed the Boxer protocol with eleven countries in 1901 that was a list of military rules that included ordering many Boxers and Qing officials to be punished by death and that foreign powers were allowed to keep troops in Beijing. China then became a republic (people can vote for its rulers)

An Open Door Policy means all foreign countries had equal rights to China’s trade ports. The Treaty of Nanjing started an unofficial Open Door Policy in China and the US made it official.