WHAP Unit 6 Key Terms

Imperialism

movement to create and establish overseas empires; led in part by the need for resources to fuel industrialization and to create new markets to sell the surplus of goods from industrialization

Social Darwinism

reason for imperialism which was an adaptation to the theory of biological evolution, and it argued that the spread of European and U.S. power proved the biological superiority of whites

Queen Victoria

monarch of Great Britain during the high point of British imperialism

White Man's Burden

reason for Imperialism which stated that it was the responsibility of Europe and the U.S. to give indigenous people their education, culture, and religion

Sino-Japanese War

East Asian conflict over Korea, as China resented the influence of Japan in the region

Phrenologists

people who studied skull sizes and shapes, who believed that a smaller skull size proved the mental feebleness of indigenous people

British East India Company

it was granted a monopoly on trade in India, eventually becomes the British government's managing agency in India

The Suez Canal

waterway built to dramatically decrease the time it took to get to Asia, the project was managed by the French but the labor was done by Egyptian corvee laborers who were forced to work as a form of taxation

Settler Colonies

colonies which attracted large groups of Europeans who eventually lived there.
Example: Algerians

The Berlin Conference

a meeting of European powers to provide for the orderly colonization of Africa, hosted by Otto von Bismarck and designed to keep peace

The Boer Wars

conflict between the British and Dutch settlers in southern Africa, finally won by the British.
led to "concentration camps" where Afrikaner and African refugees were treated horribly

King Leopold II

personally owned the colony of the Congo and used a ruthless system of economic exploitation to reap a profit of about $1.1 billion in today's dollars

Congo Free State

ruled by Belgium, where workers were forced to harvest ivory and rubber. Severed the natives' hands in order to reach rubber quotas
8 million people died as a result of Imperialism in the Congo

Spheres of Influence

regions of China where Europeans had exclusive trading rights and access to natural resources (mostly Europeans)

The Taiping Rebellion

uprising of Chinese lower-class people who tried to overthrow the Qing government because of starvation and the Qing's foreign rule and weakness
responsible for the deaths of more than 20 million people

The Boxer Rebellion

uprising against foreign influence in China, led by young nationalists who wanted to purify the country

The Trail of Tears

the path signifying the forced removal of the Cherokee and other Native American groups from southeastern United States to Oklahoma reservations

The Spanish-American War

fighting between Spain and the United States over Spanish colonies in the Caribbean and Philippines

The Ghost Dance

a form of resistance by Native American groups that was thought to conjure up spirits who would remove the white man from the continent

Tupac Amaru II

Spanish educated ancestor of Incan leaders who attempted to start un uprising against Spanish rule
was crushed by the Spanish and forced to watch his wife and sons be executed

The Indian Rebellion of 1857

turning point in the British Raj where Indian sepoys attempted to overthrow Company rule
led to British government taking control from the East India Company

Indian National Congress

group of well-to-do, educated Indian Nationalists who attempted to change the ills of British rule in India

Xhosa Cattle Killing Movement

form of African resistance to Imperialism where they believed the destruction of cattle and of crops would bring up spirits which would drive Europeans out of the continent

Anglo-Zulu War

battles between Europeans and a strong African state over land in Southern Africa, eventually Europeans won in large part because of technology

Cecil Rhodes

British man who was sent to South Africa who eventually formed the De Beers Mining Company and who also had a large stake in the world's largest gold fields
had a dream of building a railroad from Cape town to Cairo, Egypt

Guano

bird and bat excrement which was mined in South America and was used as a highly-valued fertilizer

De Beers Mining Company

Britain-based business in South Africa that accounted for 90 percent of the world's diamond production

The Opium Wars

battles between the British and the Chinese in the mid-19th century about the right to sell drugs in China
British victory led to spheres of influence being established around a lot of the Chinese eastern coast

Banana Republics

term used to describe small Central American countries under the economic power of foreign-based corporations like the United Fruit Company

Indentured Servitude

a form of labor in which a person is contracted to work without salary for a specific number of years

Penal Colonies

areas of land set aside for criminals, because the prisons in Great Britain were overcrowded

Ethnic Enclaves

clusters of neighborhoods of people from the same foreign country, formed in many cities around the world.
influenced culture of their new homes which absorbed some of the migrants' cultural traditions

Chinese Exclusion Act

United States policy banning further migration of Chinese people into America from 1882-1943

White Australia Policy

law to prevent further non-British immigration to Australia from the early-1900s until the mid 1970s