Chapter 20 APMWH Vocab

Emperor Menelik II

Emperor Menelik II

an Ethiopian ruler who focused on getting the most recent firearms from Europe to strengthen his power.

His army won against the invading Italian army after the Berlin Conference, using the purchased firearms. Ethiopia became one of the only countries in Africa that was never colonized.

Colonialism

sending colonists to settle and establish political, social, economic, and cultural structures that allowed imperial powers to dominate

Cecil John Rhodes

A man who built a fortune by exploiting African laborers to mine for diamonds in southern Africa. He became an advocate for the extension of British rule to the rest of the world because of his success

Abyssinian Campaign of 1862

the British conservative party used an incident where British citizens were taken hostage by Ethiopia as a way to spur nationalist outrage against Ethiopia and the ruling British liberal party. The liberals were defeated, and conservatives voted into power

Suez Canal

the main route to India from Britain, controlled by Egypt

facilitated the building and maintenance of empires by allowing naval vessels to travel faster between the world’s seas and oceans. It lowered the costs of trade between imperial powers and subject lands

mission civilisatrice

“civilizing mission”

French imperialist justification for expansion into Africa and Asia

Rudyard Kipling

an English writer and poet who said it was the “white man’s burden” of Europeans and Euro-Americans to bring the ideas of order and enlightenment to far places

Battle of Omdurman

a battle that was the first step in the establishment of British colonial rule in Sudan

When a British army with 20 machine guns and 6 gunboats engaged a huge Sudanese force that wanted to expel the British from the area at Omdurman. The British force lost a few hundred, while the Sudanese lost 20,000 people in 5 hours. 

Jesuit Bark

Bark from Cinchona Trees that worked well against malaria

Pierre Pelletier and Joseph Caventou

two French chemists who extracted alkaloid of quinine from cinchona bark, which allowed Europeans to survive in Africa (without dying from malaria)

Panama Canal

facilitated the building and maintenance of empires by allowing naval vessels to travel faster between the world’s seas and oceans. It lowered the costs of trade between imperial powers and subject lands

British East India Company

British joint-stock company that grew to be a state within a state in India; it possessed its own armed forces.

“doctrine of lapse”

part of British expansion policy that said that if an Indian ruler failed to have a biological male heir, his territories lapsed to the British East India Company at death

Sepoys

an Indian soldier serving under British or other European orders

Sati

the Indian practice of widows burning themselves on their husband’s funeral pyres

This practice was ended by the British

“Great Game”

Nineteenth-century competition between Great Britain and Russia for the control of central Asia.

Thomas Stamford Raffles

Founded the port of Singapore after signing a treaty with the local rulers of the island. This port soon became busiest trade center in the Strait of Melaka

Raden Adjeng Kartini

• A noble-born on Java, which was part of the Dutch colony of the East Indies.

• She attended Dutch school, and became a critic of colonial racism and the oppression of women, which were issues in Dutch and Java culture.

• She opened the first primary school for Indonesian girls, despite their social class.

• She wrote a letter to the Dutch feminist Stella Zeehandelaar about Dutch prejudice and the coming emancipation of Indonesian men and women

“Scramble for Africa”

Period between about 1875 and 1900 in which European powers sought to colonize as much of the African continent as possible because of the prospects of exploiting African resources and because of geopolitical rivalries

Dr. David Livingstone

a Scottish minister who made 3 documented trips to Africa to explore the unknown territories and convert Africans to Christianity

He disappeared during his third journey for four years, and was found by Henry Morton Stanley

Henry Morton Stanley

An American journalist sent to lead an expedition to find Dr. David Livingstone. He found him in the town of Ujiji, Tanganyika.

He was hired by Leopold II to help develop commercial ventures and establish a colony called the Congo Free State

Leopold II

a king of Belgium who established the Congo Free State, in which he very violently treated native Congolese people in his pursuit for influence and capital (from rubber)

Khoikhoi

a group of African people that Europeans encroached on, and nearly went extinct because of warfare, enslavement, and smallpox brought by the Europeans

Xhosa

A group of African people that Europeans encroached on, who became decimated ands loss lots of life, land, and resources to European settlers

Afrikaners

the Dutch word for African, that was used to describe Dutch settlers in Africa

Formerly known as Boers

Voortrekkers

Afirkaans for “pioneers”

South African War

Boer War

Where Britons and Afrikaaners fought over the right to control land and resources of the Orange Free State and Transvaal

Union of South Africa

the united territories of Cape and Natal with the Orange Free State and Transvaal, which occurred after the British won against the Afrikaners in the South African War

Berlin West Africa Conference

Meeting organized by German chancellor Otto von Bismarck in 1884–1885 that provided the justification for European colonization of Africa

German Colonial Society for German Southwest Africa

an example of a “concessionary company” that was an early approach to colonial rule

Direct Rule

When colonies had administrative districts led by European personnel who collected taxes, recruited for labor and military, and maintained law and order

Indirect Rule

having control over subject populations through indigenous institutions and the introduction /implementation of invading country’s ways

Brederick D. Lugard

A British colonial administrator who was the driving force behind doctrine of indirect rule

He stressed the moral/financial advantages of having control over subject populations through indigenous institutions

He wanted to use “tribal” authorities and “customary laws” as the foundations of colonial rule

Maori

Indigenous people of New Zealand

“Terra Nullius”

Concept meaning “land belonging to no one” used frequently by colonial powers who sought to justify the conquest of nomadic lands.

Treaty of Witangi

Treaty between British government and indigenous Maori peoples of New Zealand in 1840 that was interpreted differently by both sides and thus created substantial Maori opposition to British settlement.

 New Zealand Wars

a series of military confrontations between autonomous Maori groups and Britih troops and settlers

Maori King Movement (Kingitanga)

A movement meant to forward Maori unity and sovereignty

Kingdom of Tonga

the only Pacific Islands kingdom that remained independent by 1900, that accepted British protection against encroachment by other imperial powers

Monroe Doctrine

American doctrine issued in 1823 during the presidency of James Monroe that warned Europeans to keep their hands off Latin America and that expressed growing American imperialistic views regarding Latin America.

Lili’uokalani

1838–1917 C.E. The first and only queen of Hawaii, and the last Hawaiian sovereign to rule the islands prior to Hawai’i’s annexation by the United States in 1898.

Spanish-Cuban-American War

conflict between the United States and Spain that ended Spanish colonial rule in the Americas and resulted in U.S. acquisition of territories in the western Pacific and Latin America

Roosevelt Corollary

A corollary added to the Monroe Doctrine by President Roosevelt that exerted the US right to intervene in domestic affair of nations in the hemisphere if they demonstrated the inability to provide security for US investments

Sino-Japanese War

the conflict between Japan and China in 1894–95 that marked the emergence of Japan as a major world and imperial power and demonstrated the weakness of the Chinese empire

Japan gained control of lots of Chinese territories and waterways

Russo-Japanese War

A conflict fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1905 over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and the Korean Empire

Japanese victory in the war transformed Japan into a major imperial power

Indentured Labor

a form of labor where an individual is under contract to work without a salary to repay an indenture or loan within a certain timeframe

They were often offered free passage to destinations, and provided with food, shelter, clothing, and modest compensation for their services for commitment to work for 7 years.

Can Vuong Movement

“Loyalty to the King” movement in Vietnam that sought to expel colonial intruders and return territories to their precolonial rulers

Ham Nghi

the ruler of the Nguyen dynasty until he had to flee from a French raiding force on his palace

He became the center of the resistance movement to put the king back on the throne and drive the French out of Indochina

He was captured and executed by the French

Scientific Racism

Nineteenth-century attempt to justify racism by scientific means; an example would be Gobineau’s Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races.

Count Joseph Arthur de Gobineau

A French nobleman who took race as the most important index of human potential, and thought there was no basis for separating humans into different races because physical differences don’t signal biological differences

“Survival of the Fittest”

the slogan for Darwin’s theory of evolution

The species that evolved would survive, flourish, and reproduce, but those that didn’t evolve would decline or become extinct

the Origin of Species

the book written by Charles Darwin, an English biologist who argued that all living species evolved to survive

Scientific racists drew from these writings

Social Darwinists

theorists who seized Darwin’s ideas and applied them to biological matters. They used his views to explain the development of human societies

Herbet Spencer

An English philosopher who relied on theories of evolution to explain the difference between the strong and weak: successful individuals and races competed better in the natural world and evolved to higher states than other, less fit peoples

Moshweshewe I

the founder of the Basutoland and the chief of the Basuto people in South Africa

He at first accepted the British into his land, which brought lots of issues

George Napier

the British governor of the Cape Colony in South Africa and its high commissioner

He marked down limits on the treaty he made with Moshweshewe

Ram Mohan Roy

 1772–1833 C.E. Bengali intellectual who sought to harmonize aspects of European society with those of Indian society with the goal of reforming India along progressive lines.

“Father of modern India”

Indian National Progress

a reform group that was founded as a forum for educated Indians to communicate their views on public affairs to colonial officials

Kingdom of Siam

the only kingdom/region in Southeast Asia to not be under European imperial rule.

It preserved its independence mostly because colonial officials regarded it as a buffer state between British Burma and French Indochina

Battle of Adwa

when the Ethiopians beat the Italian invaders and established their permanent soveriegnty