Colonial Encounters in Asia, Africa, and Oceania

Flashcards about Colonial Encounters in Asia, Africa, and Oceania

Nationalism and Imperialism

Imperialism led colonies to become a status symbol. Nationalism increased competition between countries

Industrial-age Developments Enabling Overseas Expansion

Steamships, underwater telegraph, quinine, breech-loading rifles, and machine guns.

European Opinion of Other Cultures

Europeans viewed other cultures as cunning and deceitful (John Chinaman), primitive (Africans), and like big children (Pacific Islanders).

Sense of Responsibility to Civilize, aka “Civilizing Mission”

The duty to civilize “weaker races” by bringing them education, health care, Christianity, and good government.

Social Darwinism

An effort to apply Darwin’s evolutionary theory to human history, justifying the domination of certain groups over others.

Second Wave of European Conquests

A phase of European colonial conquest from 1750-1990 focused on Asia, Africa and Oceania.

New players in colonial conquest

Germany, Italy, Belgium, United States, Japan.

European Military Advantage

Advantages in organization, drill, and command structure, plus an enormous firepower advantage.

Ethiopia and Siam (Thailand) avoiding colonization

Using diplomacy and military prowess.

Promotion of European education

Governments and missionaries promoted this which led to the growth of a small class of educated people.

Indian Rebellion (1857-1858) (Sepoy rebellion)

Based on a series of grievances, including the use of animal fat in ammunition which offended both Muslims and Hindus, although for different reasons. It began as a mutiny among Indian troops, widened India’s racial divide, led the British government to assume direct control over India as opposed to the BEIC.

Limits to Education in Colonies

Education for colonial subjects was limited to practical matters and best-educated natives rarely made it into the upper ranks of the civil service.

Modernization

Colonizers were against spreading this to the colonies.

Unpaid Labor on Public Projects

Many colonial states demanded this on public projects; worst abuses were in the Congo Free State under Leopold II of Belgium. Forced rubber collection as well was common in the Congo.

Cultivation system

Peasants devoted at least 20% of their land to cash crops to pay as taxes, financed Dutch industrialization, enriched traditional authorities, led to a wave of deadly famines in Java.

Growing rice cultivation

In Mekong Delta of French-ruled Vietnam, this caused significant environmental damage to local fish and shellfish food sources and produced methane gas, contributing to global warming.

Cocoa Production in Ghana

In the southern Gold Coast (Ghana), African farmers took the initiative to develop export agriculture (leading supplier of cocoa by 1911).

Wage labor

This was common in European enterprises, both from colonized regions and from China and Japan.

Colonial cities

Were seen as centers of opportunity, segregated, unsanitary, overcrowded, created a place for a native, Western-educated middle class, created an enormous class of urban poor.

Women in Precolonial Africa

Active farmers in Precolonial Africa.

Colonial Development

This network integrated Asian and African economies into modern global exchange, but did not lead to breakthroughs to modern industrial societies.

Western education

This created a cultural divide between educated and non-educated people.

Christianity Africanized with “independent churches”

This was attractive in Africa but conflicted over gender roles and sexual norms.

Race and ethnicity

This was central to new ways of belonging especially amongst African thinkers defining "African Identity".