AP World Unit 6: Causes of Imperialism and Imperialism Full Vocab

Imperialism

A policy in which a strong nation seeks to dominate other countries poitically, socially, and economically.

Queen Victoria

British Queen, under whose rule the British empire reached the height of its wealth and power, forced to accept a new, virtually powerless role after the Chartist movement

Social Darwinism

The application of ideas about evolution and "survival of the fittest" to human societies - particularly as a justification for their imperialist expansion.

Nationalism

A strong feeling of pride in and devotion to one's country

White man's Burden

idea that many European countries had a duty to spread their religion and culture to those less civilized

Rudyard Kipling

(1864-1936) English writer and poet; defined the "white man's burden" as the duty of European and Euro-American peoples to bring order and enlightenment to distant lands

Industrialization

The development of industries for the machine production of goods.

Dr. David Livingstone

British doctor who spends 30 years mapping out Central American and will discover many things like the Congo River.

Henry Morton Stanley

British-American explorer of Africa, famous for his expeditions in search of Dr. David Livingstone. He helped King Leopold II establish the Congo Free State.

King Leopold II

King of Belgium (r. 1865-1909). He was active in encouraging the exploration of Central Africa and became the infamous ruler of the Congo Free State (to 1908).

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.

Settler Colonies

Colonies in which the colonizing people settled in large numbers, rather than simply spending relatively small numbers to exploit the region; particularly noteworthy in the case of the British colonies in North America.

Manifest Destiny

the 19th-century doctrine or belief that the expansion of the US throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable.

Rubber

a tough elastic polymeric substance made from the latex of a tropical plant or synthetically.

Palm oil

A West African tropical product often used to make soap; the British encouraged its cultivation as an alternative to the slave trade.

Guano

Bird droppings used as fertilizer; a major trade item of Peru in the late nineteenth century

Quinine

a drug used for fighting malaria and other fevers

British East India Company

A joint stock company that controlled most of India during the period of imperialism. This company controlled the political, social, and economic life in India for more than 200 years.

Dutch East India Company

a trading company established by the Netherlands in 1602 to protect and expand its trade in Asia

Gunboat Diplomacy

The use or threat of military force to coerce a government into economic or political agreements.

Berlin Conference

A meeting from 1884-1885 at which representatives of European nations agreed on rules colonization of Africa

'Scramble for Africa'

Sudden wave of conquests in Africa by European powers in the 1880s and 1890s. Britain obtained most of eastern Africa, France most of northwestern Africa. Other countries (Germany, Belgium, Portugal, Italy, and Spain) acquired lesser amounts.

Otto von Bismarck

Chancellor of Prussia from 1862 until 1871, when he became chancellor of Germany. A conservative nationalist, he led Prussia to victory against Austria (1866) and France (1870) and was responsible for the creation of the German Empire (714)

Partition of Africa

During the New Imperialism period, all major European powers took control of and annexed parts of Africa. For example, Britain took control of a region including Egypt and continuing south, and also took an area around South Africa.

Sovereignty

Ability of a state to govern its territory free from control of its internal affairs by other states.

Nation-state

A state whose territory corresponds to that occupied by a particular ethnicity that has been transformed into a nationality

Colonialism

Attempt by one country to establish settlements and to impose its political, economic, and cultural principles in another territory.

Empire

A group of states or territories controlled by one ruler

Citizen

A person with certain rights and responsibilities in his or her country or community

subjects

individuals who are obliged to submit to a government authority against which they have no rights

Indirect Rule

Colonial government in which local rulers are allowed to maintain their positions of authority and status

Informal Imperialism

power is shared between local rulers, Stronger state allows weaker state to remain its independence but lessens its power

Gold Coast

Region of the Atlantic coast of West Africa occupied by modern Ghana; named for its gold exports to Europe from the 1470s onward.

Settler Colony

A form of colonization where foreign family move into a region and an imperial political power oversees the immigration of these settlers.

Concessions

Special rights given to foreign powers

Protectorate

A country whose affairs are partially controlled by a stronger power.

Spheres of Influence

Areas in which countries have some political and economic control but do not govern directly (ex. Europe and U.S. in China)

Sierra Leone

a colony that was set up by the British for former slaves to resettle in Africa

Cape Colony

Dutch colony established at Cape of Good Hope in 1652 initially to provide a coastal station for the Dutch seaborne empire; by 1770 settlements had expanded sufficiently to come into conflict with Bantus.

Afrikaners

South Africans descended from Dutch and French settlers of the seventeenth century. Their Great Trek founded new settler colonies in the nineteenth century. Though a minority among South Africans, they held political power after 1910.

Boers

Dutch settlers in South Africa

Boer Wars

a conflict, lasting from 1899 to 1902, in which the Dutch and the British fought for control of territory in South Africa.

Sepoys

Indian troops who served in the British army

British Raj

The name for the British government's military rule of India between 1858 and 1947.

Sino-Japanese War

a war between China and Japan for influence, power, and territory

Suez Canal

A ship canal in northeastern Egypt linking the Red Sea with the Mediterranean Sea

Cairo

Capital of Egypt

Corvee Laborers

Egyptian laborers who built the Suez Canal

Liberia

A West African nation founded in 1822 by the American Colonization Society to serve as a homeland for free blacks to settle

Abyssinia

the ancient name for Ethiopia

Open Door Policy

A policy proposed by the US in 1899, under which ALL nations would have equal opportunities to trade in China.

Monroe Doctrine

an American foreign policy opposing interference in the Western hemisphere from outside powers

Spanish-American War

In 1898, a conflict between the United States and Spain, in which the U.S. supported the Cubans' fight for independence

Roosevelt Corollary

Roosevelt's 1904 extension of the Monroe Doctrine, stating that the United States has the right to protect its economic interests in South And Central America by using military force

Neocolonialism

Also called economic imperialism, this is the domination of newly independent countries by foreign business interests that causes colonial-style economies to continue, which often caused monoculture (a country only producing one main export like sugar, oil, etc).

United Fruit Company

U.S. corporation that controlled the banana trade in much of Latin America

Banana republics

Term used to describe Latin American nations with corrupt governments.

Indochina

a peninsula of southeastern Asia that includes Myanmar and Cambodia and Laos and Malaysia and Thailand and Vietnam

The Great Game

Used to describe the rivalry and strategic conflict between the British Empire and the Russian Empire before WWI.

Cecil Rhodes

Born in 1853, played a major political and economic role in colonial South Africa. He was a financier, statesman, and empire builder with a philosophy of mystical imperialism.

Telegraph

A device for rapid, long-distance transmission of information over an electric wire. It was introduced in England and North America in the 1830s and 1840s.

Steamships

ships powered by steam engines used to replaced sailing ships in the mid-19th century when refined high-efficiency engines were invented

Maxim gun

was invented in 1884 was the world's first automatic machine gun.

Artillery

large-caliber guns used in warfare on land.

De Beers Mining Company

Owned by British Cecil Rhodes, this company controlled up to 90% of the world's rough diamonds.

Manchus

Northeast Asian peoples who defeated the Ming Dynasty and founded the Qing Dynasty in 1644, which was the last of China's imperial dynasties.

Qing

Manchu dynasty that seized control of China in mid-17th century after decline of Ming; forced submission of nomadic peoples far to the west and compelled tribute from Vietnam and Burma to the south.

Qian Long

This was the name of the emperor of the Qing Dynasty who oversaw the expansion of China to its greatest size and a huge population boom.

Lord Macartney

British diplomat; he visited China in 1793 to discuss expanding trade. He was sent away after his goods were found to be inferior and he refused to kowtow to the emperor

Canton System

restricted all foreign trade to the port of Canton (trading season)

Opium

a highly addictive substance made from the sap of the opium poppy

Opium Wars

Wars between Britain and the Qing Empire (mind 1800s), caused by the Qing government's refusal to let Britain import Opium. China lost and Britain and most other European powers were able to develop a strong trade presence throughout China against their wishes.

Treaty of Nanking

Treaty that concluded the Opium War. It awarded Britain a large indemnity from the Qing Empire, denied the Qing government tariff control over some of its own borders, opened additional ports of residence to Britons, and ceded Hong Kong to Britain.

Unequal Treaties

trade treaties that China signed under pressure of invasion; gave Western powers trade benefits

Extraterritoriality

Right of foreigners to be protected by the laws of their own nation.