WHAP UNIT 6.4-5 Global Economic Development

6.4 Causes for economic imperialism?

Europeans wanted:

• Natural resources

• Markets

• Low-wage labor

6.4 Innovations / Goods

Aided imperialism

• Transportation: Badly maintained canals & roads from ports to interior were unusable during rain

  • Railroads: funded by Cecil Rhodes for new markets + cheaper shipping + more accessible

  • Steamships: Long distance + refrigeration

  • Telegraph: Instant communication

    • Submarine lines: B/w UK + Australia + Brazil

• Agriculture: Demand for cash crops → export economies: decreased subsistence crops, especially in colonies

  • Beef: Argentina + Brazil + Uruguay

  • Wool: New Zealand + Australia

  • Guano: Million tons of seabird shit handpicked by Chinese/Polynesian migrants in Peru/Chile b/c nitrates + phosphates = great fertilizer

  • Cotton: Competition banned in India & worked under UK + Mostly from America

  • Rubber: First cultivated by Amazonians & Congolians = slavery, environmental degradation, unmet quotas = murder/mutilation → Then in SEA w/ deforestation

  • Palm Oil: West Africa, Malaya, Dutch East Indies to lube machines + candles

  • Ivory: African elephant tusks for pianos, billiard balls, ornaments from French Ivory Coast

  • Minerals: Silver (LAm) + Copper (LAm, Africa) + Tin (LAm, SEA, Africa) + Gold (Australia, WAf) + Diamonds (South Africa)

  • Monoculture: Lacked biodiversity + deforestation + diseases

Economic Imperialism

Foreign businesses have significant influence in which trade is always organized to benefit West

India

Spices → Textiles for UK → Cotton for UK

• Low-wage labor

Indonesia

Shipping & culture system under Dutch

• Culture System: Farmers must choose cash crops (1/5 ride field & responsible for failed crops) or corvée labor (landless = 66 days gov. work)

China

Uninterested in British goods + British low in silver → Forced India to grow opium → Smuggled & widespread addiction in China

• Opium War: China criminalizes opium + burns UK ship + takes Canton warehouse + blockade in only foreign import

  • Treaty of Nanking: UK victory = more ports + UK Hong Kong + China reparations + freer trade (of opium)

  • Second Opium War: British sailors arrested

    • Treaty of Tianjin: FRN + UK victory = Kowloon + more foreign ports + envoys + free movement of missionaries

• Spheres of Influence: JPN + GRM + RUS + UK + USA = exclusive trading regions

  • Open Door Policy: Chinese trade equal for everyone

Africa

Export economies → increased land value → loss of arable lands (reserved) → famines

• Cotton: Egypt, Sudan, Uganda

• Kenya: Fertile Rift Valley → African reservations w/ bad soil/climate + worked for white farmers

• Cocoa: missionaries bring to Gold Coast + West Africa

• Palm Oil: West Africa

• Slavery: Banned in UK (1833) + France (1848) + Africa (~1925)

Latin America

Middle class wanted US/Euro trends + investments

• US involvement: Initially MEX + CUB infrastructure (railrays, shipping, banking, mining, guano, meat)

• Argentina: Richest LAm country b/c UK improved large-scale breeding/farming (Pampas) railroads, telegraphs, ports

• Brazil: Malaysian cheap rubber → BRZ declining industry

• Copper: copper = 1/3 giv. profit

• Banana Republics: Small Central American countries politically unstable & rely on one export for foreign powers (+minerals)

  • United Fruit Company: allied w/ large landowners to pressure gov.s for more profitability

• Hawaii: US sugar businesses overthrow monarchy = US state