Industrialization and Imperialism

Kingdom of Mataram

controlled most of interior Java in the 17th century; weakness of the state after the 1670s allowed the Dutch to expand their control over all of Java

Sepoys

Indian troops, trained in European style, serving the French and British

Raj

The British political establishment in India

Plassey (1757)

battle between the troops of the British East India Company and the Indian ruler of Bengal; British victory gave them control of northeast India

Robert Clive

architect of British victory at Plassey; established foundations of the Raj in northern India

Presidencies

three districts that comprised the bulk of British-ruled territories in India during the early 19th century; capitals at Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay

Princely states

ruled by Indian princes allied with the Raj; agents of the East India Company were stationed at their courts to ensure loyalty

Nabobs

name given to British who went to India to make fortunes through graft and exploitation; returned to Britain to live richly

Charles Cornwallis

British official who reformed East India Company corruption during the 1790s

Isandhlwana

Site of a Zulu defeat of a British army; one of the few indigenous victories over 19th-century European armies

Tropical dependencies

Western European possessions in Africa, Asia, and the South Pacific where small numbers of Europeans ruled large indigenous populations

White Dominions

a type of settlement colony—as in North America and Australia—where European settlers made up the majority of the population

Settler colonies

colonies—as South Africa, New Zealand, Algeria, Kenya, and Hawaii—where minority European populations lived among majority indigenous peoples

White racial supremacy

belief in the inherent superiority of whites over the rest of humanity; peaked in the period before World War I

Great Trek

migration into the South African interior of thousands of Afrikaners seeking to escape British control

Boer republics

independent states—the Orange Free State and Transvaal—established during the 1850s in the South African interior by Afrikaners

Cecil Rhodes

British entrepreneur in South Africa; manipulated the political situation to gain entry to the diamonds and gold discovered in the Boer republics

Boer War (1899–1902)

fought between the British and Afrikaners; British victory and post-war policies left Africans under Afrikaner control

James Cook

his voyages to Hawaii from 1777 to 1779 opened the islands to the West

Kamehameha

Hawaiian prince; with British backing he created a unified kingdom by 1810; promoted the entry of Western ideas in commerce and social relations