1. Chapter 24
Western Imperialism

2. Western Imperialism
Imperialism: the policy of strengthening a country’s power into an empire through the military and diplomatic domination of other areas of the world into colonies:
Effect of Industrial Revolution
Need for raw materials
European rivalries =Scramble for colonies
Britain dominated = early 1800’s (India)
Late 1800’s: Belgium, France, Germany and United States followed with colonial empires.

3. Colonial Types
1) Indirect rule colonies (White dominion): few Europeans ruled many indigenous peoples. Used locals as leaders
Congo, India, Java
2) Settlement colonies:
A) White Dominions
Canada, Australia
Europeans settle in the colony permanently to inhabit most of the region
B) Contested Settler Colonies
New Zealand, South Africa, Hawaii
Large European populations lived among even more numerous indigenous peoples and continuously clashed over resources and social/cultural differences

4. European Empires by 1800

5. Quick Review Question
Imperialism is a result of what?
There are two types of colonies: what are they?

6. Rise of British East India Company in India
B.E.I.C. interests = As Mughals collapsed
Gain influence through alliances with regional princes (who fought each other for control)
Territorial gains with 7-Yrs. War victory over France
The British relied on Sepoys (Indian soldiers trained in British military style) to control and crush any potential uprisings
Sepoys received higher pay in the British army
India was divided, no national unity could be formed to combat the British.
Regional: Hindu/Muslim divide

7. Challenges to British East India Company
B.E.I.C. officials = corruption and mismanagement.
Led to Bengal Famine 1770 (1/3 of population died).
Sepoy Rebellion, 1857 (Indian soldiers revolt). Ends with British victory.
Led to dissolution of B.E.I.C.
British government takes over
British Raj

8. The British Raj
The British Raj (the British political establishment in India)
Telegraph lines = communication with British government.
India a market for British manufactured goods and a source of raw materials.
British put themselves at the top of the social hierarchy instead of changing the social system
Adopted Indian culture
Mixed marriages

9. Growth of British Empire in India
from the 1750s to 1858

10. Reform in British India
Started c (as British government took on greater role from B.E.I.C.).
Western technology – telegraph, railway
Outlawed traditional Hindu practices
Eg. Sati (the burning of a wife on her deceased husband’s funeral pyre) outlawed, c. 1830
Slavery
Western education for upper-classes
Promoted Western ideals (eg. Punctuality)
English a common language

11. Quick Review Question What is the British Raj?
What reforms did the British enact in India in the 19th century?
Speculate on the effects of western education on the Indian upper- classes.

12. Scramble for Africa
Europeans clash over African colonies as Africa offered raw materials and young markets.
The Berlin Conference of (organized by Otto van Bismarck) partitioned Africa into colonies controlled by Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Portugal, and Spain.
Liberia and Ethiopia not colonized; South Africa already British
No African representatives are present.
Divisions made without concern for ethnic or cultural groups  traditional African communities disrupted.

13. Before Berlin Conference After Berlin Conference
Scramble for Africa
Before Berlin Conference After Berlin Conference

14. Colonial Wars and Unequal Combat
Industrial change justified colonial possessions and made them easier to acquire.
New weapons (machine gun, repeating rifle) made the Europeans impossible to stop in Africa and Pacific Islands.
Natives will try traditional tactics and sometimes diplomacy.
Only guerrilla tactics proved to stall – but not prevent – European advances.
1879: Battle of Isandhlwana in South Africa (Zulu victory)

15. Methods of Economic Extraction
African labor for colonists: plantations, bronzing, mining (discovery of diamonds), felling forests
Plantations were established; natives forced to labor (long hours, extremely low wages if at all) to export crops.
Belgian Congo: rubber for tires
Palm oil from West and Central Africa for machine lubricants
Roads and railways built to move raw materials to ports where they could be shipped using steamships that could travel along interior rivers.
European colonial governments imposed a tax system on Africans, which had to be paid in cash or cash crops; this forced free Africans to virtually work for the colonists.
Products weren’t manufactured in Africa but were processed in Europe instead.

16. Belgian Congo (1880’s – early 1900’s)
Most egregious example of exploitation:
King Leopold II
Belgium = Rubber incredibly profitable
Why? Industrialization
Native Congolese reduced to serfs
Men worked to death
Wives held hostage until quotas met
Hands cut off if you refused to work or if quotas not met.
Murder, starvation, exposure
: Congolese population declined by 10 million

17. Colonial Regimes and Social Hierarchies
Europeans exploited ethnic and cultural divisions in Africa
Borders created based on European agreements without consideration of African cultural tradition.
Higher education was not promoted
Rampant exploitation of African population
All “stunted the growth” of African civilizations.
No middle class develops
Western languages taught by missionaries

18. Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism: application of Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection to race to justify European conquest of non-Western societies
White racial supremacy was widely accepted.
Used to justify mental and moral superiority of whites over the rest of mankind based on skin color
No need to socialize or adopt non- European culture

19. Civilizing Effects
Europeans believed in the civilizing effects of their colonization.
Not only did they provide order and stability, but also European culture and societal expectations regarding cleanliness and decorum.
Europeans brought science and health studies with them.
Aided in preventions against malaria for Europeans
improved living conditions in colonies for indigenous peoples: hospitals built, sanitation improved

20. Quick Review Question
Describe Social Darwinism; how does it relate to imperialism?
What assumptions did Europeans make about non-whites, and why did Europeans believe their civilizing of natives was beneficial?

21. White Dominion Colonies
Part of British Empire
Basically governed themselves
Based on British political and economic model
“Imported” British culture
Had small indigenous populations
Many British settlers
Canada (from France after 7 yrs. War)
Australia, established 1788
Penal colony
Influx of settlers after gold discovered

22. South Africa
Boers (Dutch settlers in South Africa) gradually moved to the interior from the coast.
Mixed with indigenous peoples (new race)
British took Cape Colony
Great Trek (1834): Boers migrated further into the interior of South Africa
Zulu peoples fight against Boers, then British (Anglo-Zulu Wars)

23. South African Boer Wars
1850s: Boers established two republics (Orange Free State and Transvaal) in the interior.
1867: Diamonds in Orange Free State
1885: Gold was discovered in Transvaal
Boer War ( ) Boers vs. British
British were victorious.
1902: British unite republics into Union of South Africa; Africans under European control
Apartheid begins

24. Partition of Southeast Asia and the Pacific to 1914
Small kingdoms, not industrialized, easily colonized.
British: Malay States; Burma
French: Indochina (now Vietnam)
Dutch: East Indies
Pacific groups had lived in isolation for thousands of years.
Sophisticated cultures and societies had developed
No immunities
Social disintegration and suffering

25. Dutch Expansion in Java
Modern day Indonesia
Traditionally a major player in Indian Ocean trade (spices).
Srivajaya Kingdom
Buddhism in region, then Islam
Dutch enter picture 16th c.
Alliances between Dutch and some sultans
Dutch help Sultans, victorious Sultans cede territory to Dutch.
Dutch slowly take over. By 1750 control most of Java.

26. The Maori of New Zealand
British colonization for natural resources (timber). Eventually settled by British farmers and herders by 1850’s.
Effects on Maori
Disease, displaced from fertile land, convert to Christianity, adopt European farming techniques.
Maori resisted, adjusted, and endure.

27. Economic Imperialism and Hawaii
Economic imperialism, not political
: English Captain James Cook voyaged to Hawaii.
U.S. Missionaries bring Christianity in 1819.
Disease devastates native population.
American companies move in = sugar plantations. This is economic imperialism.
Hawaiian monarchs declined after 1872 and Hawaii was annexed by the United States.
US Congress took over the islands in 1898.

28. Quick Review Question
What are White Dominions?
Describe Dutch expansion in Java.
Why did the U.S. government annex Hawaii?