Global History II: Unit 2 - Age of Imperialism

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the motives, technological factors, administrative methods, and regional effects of 19th-century European imperialism across Africa, India, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East.

Imperialism

The expansion of a nation's power and influence through the control and acquisition of other territories.

Social Darwinism

A social theory that applied ideas about natural selection to human societies, claiming that those who were the fittest enjoyed wealth and success and were superior to others, which served to justify European imperialism.

Berlin Conference (1884-1885)

A meeting where European nations established rules for dividing and claiming land in Africa without consulting African leaders, drawing colonial borders with little regard for existing ethnic and linguistic groups.

Maxim gun

An advanced weapon technology that provided European armies with a major military advantage in overcoming African resistance movements.

Menelik II

The leader of Ethiopia who preserved his country's independence by stockpiling modern weapons, building an army, and exploiting rivalries among European powers.

Cash crops

Crops, such as cotton, grown primarily for export and commercial sale rather than for local consumption, which reduced land for food production and led to agricultural shortages.

Geopolitics

An interest in or taking of land based on its strategic location or valuable products, such as the competition surrounding the Ottoman Empire and Persia.

Crimean War

A conflict in which Great Britain and France supported the Ottoman Empire to block Russia from acquiring territory and sea access, which ultimately revealed the Ottoman Empire's military weakness.

Suez Canal

A strategically vital waterway in Egypt that Great Britain occupied and took control of after Egypt could not repay debts owed to European lenders.

Sepoy

An Indian soldier serving under British command.

Sepoy Mutiny (1857)

An uprising of Indian soldiers that failed due in part to religious divisions between Hindus and Muslims, leading the British government to dissolve company rule and assume direct control of India in 1858.

British East India Company

The commercial enterprise that governed India through economic imperialism prior to the establishment of direct British government control in 1858.

"Brightest jewel in the crown"

The term used by Great Britain to describe India as its most valuable colony due to its large population and vast reserves of raw materials.

Paternalism

A European colonial policy of governing subject peoples in a parental, protective manner by providing for their needs while denying them political rights.

Assimilation

A French colonial policy designed to encourage and compel colonized populations to adopt French institutions, language, and culture.

Direct Control

A method of colonial administration utilizing foreign officials, permitting no self-rule, basing institutions solely on European styles, and aiming for assimilation.

Indirect Control

A method of colonial administration that relied on local government officials, allowed limited self-rule, integrated local rules into European-style institutions, and aimed to train future leaders.

"The White Man's Burden"

An 1899 concept and political cartoon illustrating the belief among imperialists that industrialized nations had a moral obligation to modernize and civilize non-industrialized parts of the world.

French colonial policy in Vietnam

A direct-rule economic policy that provoked local peasant resistance by exporting large quantities of domestic rice, significantly reducing the local food supply.

Persian Sphere of Influence

The competitive commercial and geopolitical struggle between Great Britain and Russia to dominate and commercially exploit Persian territory.

Muhammad Ali's agricultural reforms

Agricultural shifts implemented in Egypt that forced peasants to cultivate export cash crops like cotton instead of local food crops.