WHAP UNIT 6.2 State Expansion

Scramble for Africa

1800s European competition = Slave trade illegal BUT still traded ivory + gold + palm oil (no machine rust) + diamonds ←→ manufactured (guns) + alcohol European dominance

• Quinine: Treatment for Malaria allowed colonization in interior

• British Egypt: Suez Canal directly connected Europe to Asia under French company corvee laborers (overworked and died)

• British West Africa: Spread language, edu, religion in Sierra Leone, Gambia, Lagos, Nigeria, Ghana

• France: settler colony in Algeria

Berlin Conference

Berlin Conference: late 1800s European countries orderly colonize Africa w/o African leaders or acknowledging culture to prioritize free movement of foods

• South Africa: Dutch → UK Cape Colony of Afrikaners (Dutch settlers) push native Zulu off land

  • Boer Wars: UK defeats Afrikaners for land → segregated refugee/concentration camps w/ bad medicare, sanitation, food

• Belgian Congo: Leopold II’s personal colony under company Congo Free State (cut off hands, killed spouses, beat/kill for unmet quotas, overworked, no pay) for ivory and rubber → Belgian colony

• Free States: Abyssinia (Ethiopia) + Liberia (former US slaves)

South India

UK defeats France in Seven Year’s War → Expanded w/ sepoys (Indian soldiers against Mughal rule) from Pakistan to Ceylon/Sri Lanka

China

Internal conflict + European spheres of influence weaken China

• Taiping Rebellion: Qing w/ UK & FRN defeat civil war led by Hong Xiuquan (failed civil servant) and working class

• Huanghe River: change course = drought/flooded + bubonic plague

• Boxer Rebellion: Dowager Cixi encourages anti-imperialists Boxers to kill foreigners → kills mainly Chinese Christians

Japan

Island + Little farmland/natural resources + rural pressure + desire for foreign knowledge

• Colonization Society: Seasonal contract to work in Pacific Islands + Latin America + China + SEA + Korea

Southeast Asia

Colonized by PRT + SPN → NTH + UK

• Dutch East Indies: Replaced VOC for tea, rubber, sugar plantations w/ little rice subsistence

• FRN Indochina: Wins Sino-French War for cash crops in Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam

• UK Malaya: EIC exploits tin, gold, pepper, tobacco, palm oil+ #1 rubber producer

• Siam: no Thai colony b/c industrialized w/ railroads + west-like schools

Oceania

British settler colonies

• Australia: Penal colony → settler colony b/c good fine wool industry + gold + copper

• New Zealand: Maori had limited rights (Treaty of Waitangi) + sheep grazing + dairy + food for migrant/native workers

USA Imperialism

Manifest Destiny: White America’s natural & inevitable right to expand westward (Transcontinental Railroad)

Monroe Doctrine: European nations don’t interfere in Americas

• Trail of Tears: Natives forced to Oklahoma reservation (die) from exposure, malnutrition, disease, exhaustion

• Spanish-American War: Gained Philippines, Cuba Puerto Rico, Guam

• Roosevelt Corollary: USA can intervene in LAm if there’s instability (ex. Dominican Republic occupied until paid debts)

Russian Imperialism

Expands westward into Finland, Poland, Moldova and southward into Manchuria

• Great Game: UK & RUS fail to get Afghanistan

Types of Imperialism

State-run Colony: Western institutions “help” (dominate) local cultures often thru social hierarchies

Settler Colony: Settlers drive natives off land

Economic Domination: Independent gov. exploited for resources & labor