1. Ch. 24 Imperialism

2. Causes of imperialism A. Political Causes B economic causes
Cultural-Ideological causes

3. Political reasons for Imperialism
1) Rise of nationalism
2) Creation of nation-states
“Scramble for Africa:” –players: Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Portugal, Netherlands, Japan.

4. B) Economic causes for imperialism
1) need of raw materials to supply the needs of Western European factories : cotton, copper, rubber.
2) need for more markets in order to sell the manufactured products.
3) used locals
as cheap labor (workings conditions: meager wages, difficult, dangerous and dirty labor conditions).
The locals were used as labor force for large-scale projects: railroads, telegraph lines.

5. Economic causes for imperialism
Agricultural resources
-the colonies produced goods that were sent to the “ mother country” /colonial power for profit.
-developed plantations with cash crops: tea, cotton, sugar, palm oil, rubber, coffee.
-the cash crops led to monocultures that damaged the diversity and fertility of the soil, making it very difficult to recover

6. Economic causes: examples
1) Cotton: India was the no. 1 supplier of finished cotton textiles for centuries.
-by the 18th century, the British traders( form East India Company) pushed the Indian textile artisans out of business.
-by the end of the 19th century India produced only raw cotton for Britain, not finished cotton textiles anymore.
British factories processed India’s cotton-Indians bought the “ finished “ British textiles at a very high price.
2) Opium- led to opium Wars, , ; opium=cash crop grown in India, smuggled and sold to China.
3) Tea-grown in Sri Lanka, sold everywhere.

7. Econ. causes : Railroads
-colonial powers used the railroads as proof that imperialism helped the peoples of Asia and Africa.
-in reality, railroad technology was serving the colonizers in order to extract as many resources as possible.
Ex. Of transnational companies:
De Beers Incorporated( diamonds)
United Fruit Company
Hong Kong
Shanghai Banking Company

8. Japan had an empire( 1890- end of World War II) in East Asia( China, Korea, SE Asia) .
Labor system: Indentured Servitude
Australia: was a penal colony form 1700s to 1850.
-people worked for the government or railroad building.
-immigrants brought diseases to Australia.

9. C) Ideological reasons
-misuse of science: social Darwinism “ survival of the fittest” ( ideas promoted by Europeans).
-racism
-missionaries: humanitarianism and religious reasons.
Ex. David Livingstone-explorer and missionary in Sub-Sahara Africa.

10. Imperialism in South Asia
-18th century: competition among British and French.
: Sepoy Rebellion, Sepoys were defeated by the British who took over India and transformed it into a British Colony, named the “ pearl of the British Crown” :

11. Imperialism in Africa -early 19th century: Europeans
exported to Africa: guns, alcohol an factory goods.
Imported: palm oil, gold, ivory.
-2nd half of the 19th century Europeans expanded their presence in Africa with the help of military technology( weapons) , steamship, and quinine( a medication that treats malaria).
Congo –became Congo Free State ( 1875) –personal colony of Belgium king Leoplod II, source of ivory & rubber.
-horrible work conditions for laborers that were mutilated, beaten, killed.
-1908 Belgium took over the colony and the conditions improved.

12. French built the Suez Canal (connected Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea) using corvee laborers.
1882 British took control of Egypt

13. Imperialism in China China was divided into “spheres of influence”
“ the spheres” gave foreign powers trading rights and access to natural resources within that land they took over.

14. Imperialism in SE Asia Dutch
SE Asia was dominated by Dutch East India Company ( VOC) that extracted spies from the islands( Indonesia.
-by 1800 the Dutch government replaced the VOC to control the Dutch East Indies.
-Dutch islands exported tea, rubber, sugar on the expense of rice cultivation.

15. Imperialism in SE Asia French
France defeated China( Sino- French war)
France conquered N Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia ( reasons: cash crops)
Siam ( today Thailand) resisted due to industrialization , and modernization( railroads, Western-style schools)

16. United States in Latin America and Pacific
1823 Monroe Doctrine: European nations should not interfere in the affairs o the countries of Western Hemisphere; the doctrine gave U.S. to right to intervene.
U.S.-Mexican war, U.S. gained territories in the SW from Mexico.
1898 Spanish –American War, U.S. got Guam, Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines

17. Scramble for Africa
Berlin Conference -goal: to set rules for establishing colonies in Africa.
-the entire Africa was divided among European powers except Ethiopia( former Abyssinia) an Liberia.
S Africa
in 16th century S Africa : establishment of Dutch people( named Afrikaners)
19th century British moved into S Africa and Afrikaners moved E of the Cape Colony ( there they got in contact with Zulu warriors) .
1870s British fought the Zulu kingdom and later defeated it.

18. Boer Wars I Boer War : 1880-1881 II Boer War 1899-1902
-as a result of these 2 bloody wars the British drove the Afrikaners out of their lands, forcing them into refugee camps.

19. Responses to Imperialism
-nationalism movements emerged as a response to imperialism.
-the African and Asian educated elites educated in European schools, worked for Europeans , later drove out their conquerors.
1885 Indian National Congress
Pan –Africanism led to the emergence of National African Congress.