Chapter 10: Strayer Ways of the World 4th Edition

scientific racism

nineteenth-century theories of race that characterize a period of feverish investigation into the origins, explanations, and classifications of race

Civilizing Mission

The notion that colonialism was a duty for Europeans and a benefit for the colonized.

Social Darwinism

The belief that only the fittest survive in human political and economic struggle.

Scramble for Africa

Term given for the rapid invasion of Africa by the various European powers. This began imperialism in Africa.

Indian Rebellion, 1857-1858

Massive uprising of much of India against British rule; also called the Indian Mutiny or the Sepoy Mutiny from the fact that the rebellion first broke out among Indian troops in British employ.

Congo Free State

a large area in Central Africa that was privately controlled by Leopold II of Belgium. He was able to secretly treat the people of the colony very badly until he was forced to give it up.

cultivation system

System of forced labor used in the Netherlands East Indies in the nineteenth century; peasants were required to cultivate at least 20 percent of their land in cash crops, such as sugar or coffee, for sale at low and fixed prices to government contractors, who then earned enormous profits from further sale of the crops.

Cash Crop Production

Agricultural production of crops for sale in the market rather than for consumption by the farmers themselves; operated at the level of both individual farmers and large-scale plantations.

female circumcision

any of several forms of ritual cutting or excision of parts of the female genitalia

Africanization of Christianity

Process that occurred in non-Muslim Africa, where millions who were converted to Christianity sought to maintain older traditions alongside new Christian ideas; many converts continued using protective charms and medicines and consulting local medicine men, and many continued to believe in their old gods and spirits.

Hinduism

A religion and philosophy developed in ancient India, characterized by a belief in reincarnation and a supreme being who takes many forms

Swami Vivekananda

Leading religious figure of nineteenth-century India (1863-1902); advocate of a revived Hinduism and its mission to reach out to the spiritually impoverished West.

African Identity

A new way of thinking about belonging that emerged by the end of the nineteenth century among well-educated Africans; it was influenced by the common experience of colonial oppression and European racism and was an effort to revive the cultural self-confidence of their people.

Edward Bylden

Prominent West African scholar and political leader who argued that each civilization, including that of Africa, has its own unique contribution to make to the world.

idea of "tribe"

A new sense of clearly defined ethnic identities that emerged in twentieth-century Africa, often initiated by Europeans intent on showing the primitive nature of their colonial subjects, but widely adopted by Africans themselves as a way of responding to the upheavals of modern life.