WH imperalism test

British Empire

• Largest empire in the world

• Spread Guinness beer

• Spread soccer

• Spread English 

• ^one of the largest examples of Imperialism

Reasons for Imperialism

• Imperialism: Domination by one country of political, economic, or cultural life of another country or region

1. Economy and Trade

• Industrial Revolution

  • Creates a need for raw materials like rubber and copper

• There's a need for foreign markets to sell manufactured good

• Investment Opportunities

  • Colonial Governments protected investors

• Encouraged ppl to buy from within the empire

2. Military Power

• Secure access to war materials

  • Like you want acess to rubber and gunpowder etc

  • Needed bases for their warships called coaling stations, where warships would go if they ran out of coal

• European Nations wanted to maintain a Balance of Power

• Aka if a a nation is getting wayy too big other countries have to grab up more land and more colonies to try to keep up

3. National Pride

• European nations wanted to demonstrate their power and win prestige by conquering other nations

• You could conquer a colony you get literally nothing from, like a no economic benefit but they wanted to just conquer more

• “We wish to throw no one in the shade but we demand out own place in the sun”

• Chauvinism and Jingoism mean: Patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy

  • Comes from “we don’t want to fight but by Jingo if we do We’ve got the ships, we’ve got the men, we’ve got the money too” -G. W. Hunt

4. Civilizing Mission

• Europeans felt obliged to bring “Civilization” to foreign nations

  • Christianity

  • Ended the slave trade

  • Stopped piracy

• “White Man’s Burden” from a poem by Rudyard Kipling

5. Social Darwinism

• Belief that successful cultures are those that are willing to prey upon weaker cultures

• “Survival of the fittest”

• ^leads to Racism and ethnocentrism

Forms of Imperialism

1. Colonies

• Imperial power controls directly (like india, 13 American Colonies)

2. Sphere of Influence

• A region in which the imperial power claims exclusive investment or trading privileges

British India

• East India Company becomes rulers of Bengal at the Battle of Plassey

• British is fighting france and they do this to try to kick the french out of India

• EIC spreads its power over india by several methods

1. Annexation for “Mismanagement”

• They station troops in a region, paid for at the ruler’s expense (they gotta pay for food, baracks, etc etc)

• After ruler of the region goes into debt, they say “dang bruh u fr cant control this region ur sorry” and they takeover

2. Doctrine of Lapse

• If there's no direct heir to the throne when a ruler dies, then they inherit the region

3. Conquest

• They have too big of an army of Sepoys (highly trained indian soldiers) too lose battles despite being a company so they can just conquer

• Conquered Sikhs and Sind,

• The eventually end up just fully conquering India

• Large Indian banking families financed the EIC bc they preferred the company rule bc they felt they would make more money w them

• British dont understand Indian Culture at all

• Yoga is watered down into something like an exercise when it used to be an extreme spiritual act

• EIC ends the practice of widow-burning and suppressed the cult of Thugs

Sepoy Rebellion

• EIC trained native troops called sepoys

• The Sepoy Rebellion broke out due to rumors that the British were using cow/pig fat to grease cartridges. This rebellion was brutally suppressed

• For example, against mutineers that were muslim, they got them drunk and killed them in a pigskin bag to guarantee they wouldnt go to heaven

Results of the Sepoy Rebllion

• The ETC is dissolved and India is ruled directly by the British gov (this is called the Raj)

• British use “martial races” (Sikhs, Gurkhas) for armies to reduce risk of mutiny

• There is more racism against Indians

• Raj ended the Doctrine of Lapse and controlled India through Indirect Rule by controlling the existing ruler

  • British Residents lived with the remaining Indian princes to advise them and make sure they were following rule of British Empire

• Ornamentalism, system of awards to show favor to the controlled princes

Colonial Archive

Problems of the “Colonial Archive” (the act of records keeping and keeping census etc causes problems)

1. EIC consulted Brahmins and Muslim clerics to make separate codified law for each faith

• Leads to extremely conservatives interpretation of law

• Law favored Brahmins

• Ppl were forced to choose an identifty of Muslim or Hindu and it detemined what court system you go to

• Leads to a lot of issues bc these religions were practice in tandem and ppl were often both religions or came from both backgrounds

2. British conduct a census which classified Indians by Religion and caste

• Made switching caste/religion v difficult

• Had laws specific to the castes  and made caste and religion relations v hostile

• Laws reinforced caste identity

Economic Effects of Colonialism

• Built railroads in India

  • This was to collect tons of goods in the interior and then move them to ports

• Built masonry dams in India

• Peasantification

  • Free trade is forced w/ England drives artisans out of business

    • Laws were set up to make it impossible for Indians to build big factories and so they get outcompeted by British Businesses

    • Bc of this artisans have to move to rural areas and can only get business by selling raw materials for British factors

• Extreme Poverty due to protected castes and regressive taxes (taxing the poor instead of the rich)

  • Salt tax, extreme showing of regressive tax bc everyone needs salt to live

• Low social investment

  • British wasnt investing that much in healthcare and education, etc etc
    

• The British trained Indians to serve the colony, creating a class of English-speaking, westernized elites 

  • Overtime, this class of ppl become unhappy bc all the jobs they work for, will only exist for white ppl

  • For example had a civil service exam where ANYONE could take it and work in the civil service, however it was only hosted in London, had stuff on latin and greek, had questions on like horseriding 

  • These elites will eventually lead the independence movement

Imperialism in South Africa

• Dutch East India Company creates colony at Cape Town in south Africa. 

• Settlers known as Boers but called themselves Afrikaners

• Boers subjugated and enslaved the click-speaking Khoisan

• Cape Colony became part of british empire

• They had higher taxes and were scared of British taking their slaves so they started the Great Trek into Interior Africa

• Boers used wagon circles to drive off attackers like Zulus

Afrikaners establish 2 boer republics: Transvaal and Orange Free State

Zulu and Boers

• Organized by Shaka into a war machine that dominated Southeast Africa

• Made his warriors tough by making them do things like run 60 miles or run on brambles, etc 

• Had age-regiments

• Short stabbing spear

• Bull-horn formation

  • He put veteran troops in center and engaged the enemy, had younger troops encircle the enemy from the sides, similar to a bull head and its horns

• Shaka is eventually overthrown by his brother

• Rise of Zulu coincided w the Mfecane a terrible period of constant warfare, migration, and depopulation

• British found that Zulus are a problem and demands that they disarm

• Zulu refused and Birtish invaded and annexed, but Zulus’ got their one in cs they cooked them at Isandlwana

• Diamonds were discovered at Kimberley. Production was consolidated by Cecil Rhodes, who would soon create a world-wide monopoly on diamond

• Gold is discover in Transvaal

• Native miners are forced to live in closed compound in order to stop theft

• This system of controlling workers becomes the basis for the apartheid

• British declared war on Boer republics to “protect” the outlanders (foreign miners) living there

• British armies are repeatedly humiliated by Boer soldiers

• Boer units called commandos waged guerilla war against the incompetent British generals

• British by herding Boer women and children into concentration camps and by practicing scorched-earth (all the houses, crops, factories, etc., in an area are destroyed) were the British able to win the (2nd) Boer War

• ^doing this created controversy in British Empire bc they claimed to be more moral but were using these barbaric methods

Various colonies were united into Union of South Africa

Britain in Africa

• Europeans know like nothing abt africa

• Maps that they had of africa were completely wrong 

• Had an idea of a man named Prester John who’s this Christian king in africa, but its fully a myth

• Africa’s harsh terrain made it hard to get real info about it

• Giant deserts, vast swamps, diseases from mosquitos and tsetse fly

• Britian abolishes the slave trade, and sends a naval squadron to stop slave ships

  • Sierra Leone founded as a home for rescued slaves

  • Liberia is founded as a home for free blacks

• Europeans explorers search for the source of the Nile

  • Burton and Speke discover lake Victoria

• Dr. Livingstone explores central Africa, he tries being a missionary but is trash at it, so instead he explores more and calls attention to Swahili slave trade

• Eventually he gets lost and no one hears from him for a long time, but he is found by Henry Stanley

• ^ famously says “Dr. Livingstone, I presume” after finding him

• Leopold II of Belgium hired Stanley to explore the Congo and establish a claim

• English is called into africa by the Suez Canal

• Suez Canal is completed by French Enginners

• Britain seizes Egypt to take control of the Suez Canal

•  

• Gordor besieged at Khartoum by the forces of the Mahdi (Muslim messiah); British rescue attempt fails

• British defeat the Madhists at Omdurman, conquering Sudan

• ^ british basically destroyed them in the battle bc of the Maxum gun

• Cecil Rhodes wanted a “Cape-to-Cairo” Railroad to connect British colonies

  • Created a private army to conquer southern Africa for Britian

  • Railroad was never completeted

Berlin Conference

• Berlin Conference: meeting of western powers called by Bismarck to establish rules for peacefully colonizing Africa but 0 African delegates were invited, they decided that..

1. Congo is given to Leopold II

2. Nations with coastal colonies given right to conquer the land inland

3. An “effective occupation” is required to establish a claim an area

• Leopold II exploited Congo for rubber

  • Women and children are taken hostage. If men do not collcet enough rubber, hands and feet are cut off

• Public outcry forced Leopold II to hand over the Congo to Belgium

Effects of the Scramble for Africa

1. Colonial borders become basis for national boundaries

• Ignored tribal, ethnic, and cultural boundaries, leads to a lot of tensions and instability between groups in colonies

2. Mono-economies

• Economy based on production of one or a few things

• Meaning if the world price of something drops, their entire economy is destroyed

3. Cultural disruption

• Religions, languages, culture etc is suppressed in favor of languages of the motherland

Ethiopia is the only county that stayed independent

• Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia is stopped at the Battle of Adwa, leaving Ethiopia and Liberia as the only independent African Nations

Imperialism in China + Boxer Rebellion

• China majority of the time was the most technologically advanced, had the most money, had the most ppl but several factors combined to weaken China in 18th century

1. Isolationism

• They adopt a policy of isolationism and shuts itself off from the world, aka from technological innovations

• Trade is very heavily restricted 

2. Malthusian Crisis

• Population rises without a rise in food productions

• The agricultural peasant base of China is getting poorer and poorer, and gov doesnt realize

• Theres less food surplus, so less taxes can be taken

• ^governemnt doesnt even realize 

3. European Trade

• Negative balance of trade due to opium demand

• Silver flows out of the country

• Peasants cannot pay taxes now, bc they had to pay tax in silver, and now all the silver is flowing out of the country from buying opium

• Opium den = well lit public places where wealthy people were buying and smoking opium

• So many government officials were smoking this that ¼ of all civil servants were addicted

• By 1830s, British merchantmen were carrying thousands of tons of Indian opium to China each year. The Emperor appointed Lin Zexu to end the trade

• Opium merchants and addicts were executed

• British warehouses are forced to surrender opium, which was destroyed

• Lin considered all the other countries weak, he was v arrogant 

• British get mad  at this and they declared war

• The First Opium War was a humiliating defeat for the Chinese

• Chinese was brought to a halt, cities were burned, etc

The peace terms from the war were

1. China opens five ports to trade (used to only have 1)

2. They had to pay the cost of the war AND the cost of the opium they destroyed, (indemnity paid in silver ($21 M)

3. British receive extraterritorial rights (if a british person commits a crime in china, they are tried in london)

4. Tariffs lowered

5. Hong Kong ceded

• ^^ the Treaty of Nanjing was the first Unequal Treaty

  • Series of treaties were forced onto weak china by Western Powers and Japan

• The bloody Taiping Rebellion along with a series of devastating floods on the Yangtze weakened China further

• The efforts to reform China were defeated by the arch-conservative Empress Dowager Cixi

  • She supported the Boxers,a secret society dedicated to ridding China of all foreign influence

• The Boxer Rebellion

• Boxers began atking Christian missionaries and converts

• Boxers march on Beijing and besiege foreign embassies with cixi’s support

• The Eight-Nation Alliance of western pwrs and japan sent troops to rescue the legations. China forced to pay massive reparations

• US convinced the other allies to agree to an Open Door Policy: all powers would enjoy each other’s treaty rights

• As a result, china isnt partitioned by powers

• The Qing dynasty collapsed in 1911, a short-lived Republic replaced the empire, but by 1919 China was controlled by warlords

Meiji Restoration

• Commodore Perry sailed an american fleet into tokyo bay and forced the Shogun to open Japan’s ports to trade, Japan’s era of isolation was forcefully ended

• ^this was done after news of sailors being killed in Japan

• There was massive revolt against the shogunate, because they were proved inable to protect Japan against fleets, and people were terrified after seeing what happened to China

• This forced Shogun to resign and restored full power to Emperor

• This leads to the Meiji Restoration

• In order to make Japan powerful enough to avoid colonization, Meiji began Westernization 

• Japan sent its gov abroad to study the systems of Europes and the USA

• Meiji Reforms

1. Samurai lose privileges bc they have no chance of defending japan

2. Shinto becomes state sponsored religion

3. Japanese Diet (Parliament) is established

4. Economy Modernized

• They privatize government owned industries

  • Leads to zaibatsu which are groups of companys that arent technically together but they help each other a ton and like give each deals etc etc

5. Education system had reforms

• Took it from america, employed stardized schools and a university system

6. Military Modernized 

• Navy based on Great britain’s

• Army based on France

• Once you hit 20 men basically have to go to the army

• This ensure that japan will aways have a army, AND that if the time calls then literally every man is trained for war

Japanese Imperialism

• Japan’s effort to establish control over Korea led to wars w china and Russia

1. First Sino-Japanese War

• China cedes Taiwan

• China signs an “unequal treaty” with Japan

• China has to recognize Korea’s independence

• ^shows that Japan has its eyes on korea and wants it

2. Russo-Japanese War

• Russia was preparing to move into korea, had started building a railroad to Korea

• Once railroad is done, Japan is basically cooked bc they can supply things and soldiers at any time

• Japan has to act quickly

• Russia’s fleet is destroyed at the Battle of Tsushima Strait

• Russia had to withdraw from Manchuria

• Russia also has to recognize Japanese control of Korea

• And in 1910, Japan annexes Korea

• By defeatomg a major Eiropean nation and creating an empire, Japan has become the first non-Western Great Power