Period 3: Industrialization, Revolutions and Global Integration, c. 1750 to c. 1900

SUMMARY OF THE PERIOD

         This period is best understood not simply going from beginning to end but by understanding the two different threads that run through it. The first major change that marks the beginning of the period is the Industrial Revolution. A change nearly as significant as the Neolithic Revolution, the Industrial Revolution changed nearly every aspect of human society. Most importantly, it increased output of manufactured goods, but also lead to increased urbanization, smaller families, created a middle/working class, increased deforestation, and air and land pollution. As Western European countries industrialized, led by Britain and later followed by Germany, the United States, Russia and Japan, these countries required greater amounts of raw materials for their factories. This lead to a new wave of imperialism, in which nearly every area of Africa, South, Southeast and East Asia were dominated by industrial powers. A core/periphery relationship developed in which core countries (areas that are industrialized) use their military power to colonize or dominate other areas (the periphery) in order to extract material and resource wealth. Also called/termed new imperialism, these new relationships between the core and periphery changed global trading patterns and led to tremendous upheavals, symbolized by the acronym POWRR-B in the course chart. The acronym is meant to symbolize the POWER that industrial countries had over their colonies/periphery.

·   P – Matthew Perry Expedition, an American sailor who forced Japan into unequal trade agreements. This ended Japanese isolation set out by the Tokugawa Shogunate since the 17^th century.

·   OW – Opium Wars – Britain defeated China and forced them into unequal treaties and spheres of influence. Spheres of influence were a form of semi-colonization: economic, but not political control.

·   R – Rebellions – various countries resisted the changes brought by imperialism and industrialization. In China, the Taiping and Boxer Rebellions; in Japan, the Satsuma Rebellion; in India, the Sepoy Rebellion which led to the colonization of India by Britain.

·   R – Reforms – some countries sought to reform their society in order to compete with industrialized nations (with varied success). Ottoman – the Tanzimat Reforms; Japan – The Meiji Reforms; China – The Self-Strengthening Movement; Russia – modernization under Sergei Witte.

·   B – Berlin Conference, in which European nations systematically carved up the continent of Africa in order to limit colonial disputes during colonization. Britain and France were the main colonizers.

This period of industrialization and imperialism is one major thread of the 19^th century.

         The other major issue that emerged was the effects of the Enlightenment and demands of the global economy. The Enlightenment, which began in the end of the Early Modern Period, transformed the way people saw their government and their place in the world. Most importantly, it changed peoples’ ideas about themselves in their governments. While the Early Modern Period saw the growth of more powerful, absolute monarchs, the Enlightenment was the rejection of this idea and encouraged (educated) people to view themselves as citizens of a nation that have a voice and say in government rather than as the monarch’s subject. This dynamic continues to play out for the remainder of World History. Most immediately, it led to the Atlantic Revolutions in the United States, France, Haiti and Latin America during the early 19^th century. These revolutions are essentially decolonization movements (except for France) that successfully threw off their European colonizers. Using the same ideas of life, liberty and equality, people began speaking out against the abuses of the Atlantic Slave Trade (lead by Britain) and began pushing for abolition within countries. By the 1850s, most nations had abolished the worst forms of chattel slavery and the Atlantic Slave Trade was abolished. Russia, the United States, and Brazil were some of the last to end slavery/serfdom in their societies. Countries, however, still demanded large quantities of raw materials and needed to replace the labor. Many countries, especially Britain, turned to a system of indentured servitude in order to fill the need for labor. Population pressures in India and China led to the large-scale migration of millions of indentured servants to tropical locations in order to continue to produce raw materials, sugar primarily.

Key Concept 5.1. Industrialization and Global Capitalism

Big Picture: Industrialization fundamentally altered the production of goods around the world. It not only changed how goods were produced and consumed, as well as what was considered a “good,” but it also had far-reaching effects on the global economy, social relations, and culture. Although it is common to speak of an “Industrial Revolution,” the process of industrialization was a gradual one that unfolded over the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, eventually becoming global. Changes brought by industrialization:

·   Social – created a working class; solidified “domestic” role for women- less economic role for women

·   Economic – increased global trade; created core/periphery relationship; increased production of goods

·   Cultural – allowed for the spread of Christianity; spread of English as a language of trade

·   Demographic – urbanization; increased labor migrants across international regions

·   Environmental – deforestation; soil, air, water pollution increased

·   Political – laissez-faire capitalism; greater protection of private property

I.       Industrialization fundamentally changed how goods were produced. Simply put, this is the change from the cottage industry to the factory system. In the cottage system, people produced manufactured goods in their home, generally for personal use. With the development of the factory system, goods could be made much more quickly and inexpensively, and were therefore available to a larger group of consumers.

A.      A variety of factors led to the rise of industrial production.

Required examples of factors leading to the rise of industrial production:

·   Europe’s location on the Atlantic Ocean – Geography is always a good starting point for explanations, though never the whole thing. Europe’s location allowed it to quickly dominate sea trade and find greater supplies of raw materials (peripheral areas that boarded the Atlantic) and access to foreign markets.

·   The geographical distribution of coal, iron and timber - coal, iron and timber were all in close proximity to industrial cities in England, allowing industrialists to combine these resources into industrial power. Coal and timber were used for energy to power the machinery while the iron was necessary in transportation and the machinery itself.

·   European demographic changes – declining death rates and increased birth rates in rural communities led to population pressures and a labor force seeking economic opportunities in urban areas; led to the increased numbers of folks willing to work factory jobs.

·   Urbanization - This goes with the demographic changes. Urbanization made labor available in concentrated areas.

·   Improved agricultural productivity – The industrial revolution is a product of the 2^nd Agricultural Revolution. This was a mechanized agriculture that allowed for greater productivity. More productivity, more people, more urbanization, more labor available for factory work.

·   Legal protection of private property – governments provided protection for individual’s property and patents so they could make greater profits. This protection of property allowed investors to take more risks with their capital in order to increase profits when companies made gains.

·   An abundance of rivers and canals – made for really easy transportation of materials and goods.

·   Access to foreign resources – colonies in the Americas initially provided significant raw materials for Europe and later imperialism in Africa and Asia continued to provide those resources.

·   The accumulation of capital – The development of joint-stock companies in the Early Modern Period allowed many entrepreneurs to gain a great deal more money. Financial capital (or money used for investment/expansion of businesses) was essential in investing in new business opportunities and these investors pooled a great deal capital to create the new factory systems.

B.      The development of machines, including steam engines and the internal combustion engine, made it possible to exploit vast new resources of energy stored in fossil fuels, specifically coal and oil. The “fossil fuels” revolution greatly increased the energy available to human societies. These machines and their ability to extract energy from resources is what literally provided the fuel for the factory system.

C.        The development of the factory system concentrated labor in a single location and led to an increasing degree of specialization of labor. As labor became concentrated around urban, industrial areas, new forms of labor and greater specialization of it developed. A wage earning class developed, which is a tremendous development in human history. People became disconnected from the “fruits” of their labor and worked for a wage. Identity developed more around one’s purchasing power instead of the quality and dignity of work.

D.      As the new methods of industrial production became more common in parts of northwestern Europe, they spread to other parts of Europe and the United States, Russia, and Japan. Britain is the most significant industrial power early on. This industrial power quickly spread to France and Belgium in Europe, and later Germany. Eventually, this technology and economic change would spread to the United States, Russia and Japan. Here are some important contrasts in the various industrialization movements. Industrialized = Core.

·   Britain was earlier than Germany, the US, Russia and Japan.

·   Japan was much more state-sponsored than the others, and much more rapid.

·   Germany and the United States were the most industrial (in terms of output) by 1900.

·   Japan’s lack of natural resources made it quickly develop into an imperial power, although all of them were imperial.

E.      The “second industrial revolution” led to new methods in the production of steel, chemicals, electricity and precision machinery during the second half of the nineteenth century. The first Industrial Revolution was almost entirely focused on the production of textiles. The Second Industrial Revolution was heavily focused on steel, the development of railroads, chemicals (primarily Germany), and electricity.

II.     New patterns of global trade and production developed and further integrated the global economy as industrialists sought raw materials and new markets for the increasing amount and array of goods produced in their factories. Because factories could produce more, they demanded a greater amount of raw materials than could be produced locally. Furthermore, as production increased, businesses needed to look for new places to sell all of their goods, and imperialism provided both the materials and markets necessary. This is a good place to elaborate on the core/periphery model for the course.

A.      The need for raw materials for the factories and increased food supplies for the growing population in urban centers led to the growth of export economies (periphery nations) around the world that specialized in mass producing single natural resources (banana republics). The profits from these raw materials were used to purchase finished goods.

Required Examples of the production and export of single natural resources:

·   Cotton – The Southern United States, Egypt and India were primary producers. Needed for textiles.

·   Rubber – The Belgium Congo in Africa, Brazil and Southeast Asia were major producers of rubber.

·   Palm oil – West Africa produced palm oil and was used as a lubricant in early industrial machines.

·   Sugar – Brazil and Caribbean remained the major producers of sugar.

·   Wheat – Western United States, Eastern Europe provided wheat to the industrialized world.

·   Meat – South America and the Western United States provided a great deal of beef and pork.

·   Guano – Guano is bat-droppings with high levels of nitrates. Major export of Peru. Used as fertilizer.

·   Metals and minerals – This is a general statement as many areas produced these things for export.

B.      The rapid development of steam-powered industrial production in European countries and the US contributed to the increase in this region’s share of global manufacturing. While Middle Eastern and Asian countries continued to produce manufactured goods, these regions’ share in global manufacturing declined. As industrial powers increased in production, they surpassed other countries’ ability to compete with the production of manufactured goods. These (peripheral) societies were therefore forced into a larger agricultural role and exportation of raw materials. Furthermore, it minimized or eliminated other traditional forms of production and altered social and demographic relationships in those (peripheral) societies.

Required example of a Middle Eastern and Asian share in Global Manufacturing:

·       Textile production in India and Egypt – India and Egypt had historically been major producers of textiles for both domestic consumption and export. As British textiles grew cheaper, India and Egypt increasingly focused on raw cotton production instead of homespun cloth.

·       Shipbuilding in India and Southeast Asia- Due to the increasing dominance of Europeans merchants in global trade and the increase of European shipbuilding, domestic shipbuilding production in India and Southeast Asia declined because it technologically lagged behind European methods.

·       Iron works in India – As the British more formally colonized India following the Sepoy Rebellion, the British Raj sought to successfully limit domestic production of iron and steel because of its connections to firearms and munitions. During the late 19^th century, the domestic production of steel and iron fell dramatically until the middle of the 20^th century.

C.      The global economy of the 19^th century expanded dramatically from the previous period due to increased exchanges of raw materials and finished goods in most parts of the world. Some commodities gave merchants and companies based in Europe and the US a distinct economic advantage.

Required example of commodities that contributed to the expansion of the 19^th century global economy:

·   Opium produced in the Middle East or South Asia and exported to China – The British East India Company, who controlled areas South Asia and parts of the Middle East, were instrumental in controlling the production, shipping and selling of opium into China. This sparked the First and Second Opium Wars, which was an attempt by the Chinese Qing government tried to restrict the importation of opium into China. Because of their technological superiority, Europeans were able to force China to accept “free trade” of opium and this opened up the areas of the spheres of influence under European control. This “semi-colonial” structure allowed Europeans to dominate Chinese markets.

·   Cotton grown in South Asia, Egypt, the Caribbean, or North America and exported to Great Britain and other European countries – Cotton was essential to the Industrial Revolution. Textiles were critical in the factories and many areas around the world, some colonies and some not, were encouraged through profit or coercion (force) to orient their economies around cotton exports. Centers of manufacturing (core) were able to leverage their power, sometimes through military force, to dominate the global economy.

·   Palm oil produced in Sub-Saharan Africa and exported to European countries – British colonial authorities oriented the Niger River Valley’s economy toward the production and export of palm oil. This oil was used as lubricants for the industrial machinery.

D.      The need for specialized and limited metals for industrial production, as well as the global demand for gold, silver and diamonds as forms of wealth, led to the development of extensive mining centers.

Required examples of mining:

·   Copper mines in Mexico – copper was used in conducting electricity and telegraph wires so was essential in the industrial development of the 19^th century. Remains incredibly important today.

·   Gold and diamond mines in South Africa – gold and diamonds, like today, are symbols of wealth and prosperity and the increased demand for these goods led to extensive mining in South Africa and other parts of Africa as well.

III.    To facilitate investments at all levels of industrial production, financiers (people with capital to invest) developed and expanded various financial institutions. Joint-stock companies and eventual stock-markets played a major role in financing increased industrialization, as well as investments in mines, transportation, other countries’ economies, agricultural production; as well as helped facilitate greater trade and access to even more supplies and markets.

A.      The ideological inspiration for economic changes lies in the development of capitalism and classical liberalism associated with Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill. Adam Smith tends to be seen as the “father of capitalism.” Capitalism is best defined as when trade, industry and the means of production are owned by individuals as private property, who, then, use these means of production with the goal of making profits. Classical Liberalism is tied directly to the Enlightenment, as its goal is to limit the power of the government. So, capitalism and classical liberalism go together, since capitalism seeks to put the economy in the hands of the individual and minimize the authority of the government in that economy, and capitalism requires a certain level of liberalism applied to government. Adam Smith is credited with articulating the ideas of capitalism in The Wealth of Nations in which he argues private ownership and greater specialization of labor can increase production. John Stuart Mill pushed the ideas of economic liberalism in which individuals should be free to pursue their economic interests. Overall, the goal of both was the increase economic productivity, protect private property and ownership and curb the power of the government by making them more beholden to the people.

(***important note*** - do not confuse classical liberalism with modern usage of the term liberalism. Classical Liberalism seeks to reduce the power and size of the central government in favor of more political and economic power in the hands of individuals. Modern American usage of the term liberalism or liberals are those who seeks to increase the power of the federal government in order to safeguard the rights of minorities, redistribute wealth in the form of safety nets and level the playing field of economic opportunities by curbing the power and wealth of the elites.)

B.      Financial instruments expanded. Financial instruments = Ways of generating new capital from investments.

Required examples of financial instruments:

·   Stock markets – stock markets provide a central place in order to pool wealth. Developed out of the joint-stock companies of the Early Modern Period, these stock markets allowed investors to pool even larger amounts of capital and create large corporations that tremendously increased production.

·   Insurance – As more wealth was accumulated, individuals sought ways to protect investments. Insurance companies were created to protect against market failures, natural disasters and other problems of capitalism. Insurance helped calm fears of investment because they could take out insurance for their investments.

·   Gold standard – As countries’ economies developed, many of them used the gold standard to regulate money supply. Countries could back their currency with the gold they held in reserves and ensure the value of their money, which would additionally bring in foreign investment.

·   Limited-Liability Corporations – This is a further way to encourage investors into major corporations and allow businesses to pool capital. By sharing the liability, investors are more likely to invest. Since investors were less liable in the case of law suits or losses, because they were only responsible as far as their investment, it furthered the development of pooling of capital as seen in the Early Modern joint-stock companies.

C.      The global nature of trade and production contributed to the proliferation of large-scale transnational businesses. Transnational businesses are businesses and companies that cross national borders. Often, investors come from numerous places around the globe and the business is carried out in various countries. Stock markets allowed these large-scale investments, and international divisions of labor and global trade facilitated their growth and popularity.

Required examples of transnational businesses:

·   The United Fruit Company based in the US – With European and American investors, this company grew fruit throughout the Caribbean and Central America. It worked with local governments, very often corrupt, and exploited local labor in order to extract as much wealth and profit from banana republics.

·   The HSBC — Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation – As Britain and other Europeans increased trade with China after the Opium Wars, the HSBC was the bank that financed the growing trade between the two areas. Over time, it created areas of control throughout East and Southeast Asia.

IV.    There were major developments in transportation and communication.

Required examples of developments in transportation and communication:

·   Railroads – By the late 19^th century, railroads were the most significant piece of overland transportation. The production of steel in the 2^nd Industrial Revolution provided the materials and railroad creation provided the transportation of goods to markets across the globe.

·   Steamships – Steamships used the steam engine to power ships, which most significantly allowed the ships to travel swiftly upriver, significantly reducing travel time between markets and areas of production.

·   Telegraphs – Telegraphs were the most important form of communication prior to the telephone. With the use of Morse code, telegraph wires were laid across the globe to facilitate business and political information. The Trans-Atlantic cable was laid in 1858 further developing international communication.

·   Canals – Canals are man-made waterways that provide for better transportation. Many canals were built locally to facilitate trade within a country, but significantly, two canals greatly facilitated global trade:

o   The Suez Canal – This waterway, initially built by the French, but taken by the British, created a waterway that connected the Mediterranean to the Red Sea. This allowed European countries to bypass the long trip around Africa and better facilitate trade between Europe and Asia.

o   The Panama Canal – This canal, built through the narrow isthmus of the country of Panama around 1900, made the trip between the Atlantic Ocean and the Pacific Ocean much quicker. The United States financed the canal with the help of the Panamanian government in return for Panama gaining its independence from Columbia. The United States maintained control of the canal for most of the 20^th century.

V.      The development and spread of global capitalism led to a variety of responses. Some industrialized countries tried to transform society because they saw it as worse than pre-industrial societies. Some countries resisted the technological changes brought about by industrialization. Others looked to industrialize and modernize to compete with industrial powers. Some created reform movements to fix some of the problems created by industrialization, but not to end it.

A.      In industrialized states, many workers organized themselves (created unions) to improve working conditions, limit hours, and gain higher wages, while others opposed capitalist exploitation of workers by promoting alternative visions of society, including Marxism. Marxism was the most significant alternative vision to industrial capitalist societies. Seen as scientific socialism, but often conflated with communism, this development by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in The Communist Manifesto saw class conflict and control of the means of production as the root of the problems of capitalist societies. Marxism sees capitalism as exploitative, as in those that own the means of production (the bourgeois) will exploit the laborers (the proletariat). Marxism seeks to turn the means of production to the ownership of the industrial workers (the proletariat).

Required examples of alternative visions:

·   Utopian socialism – utopian socialists created visions of more equal societies that were still industrial, but class differences were minimized. These visionaries were seen as idealist, naïve and unrealistic.

·   Anarchism – Anarchists sought to diminish or eliminate the power of the State (government) and replace that power with the organization of labor (labor and trade unions).

B.      In Qing China and the Ottoman Empire, some members of the government resisted economic change and attempted to maintain preindustrial forms of economic production, while other members of the Qing and Ottoman governments led reforms in imperial policies.

·       Qing China – China has been incredibly self-sufficient for its long history. This means they have not needed things from other nations. Beginning with the end of the Early Modern Period’s Asian isolation and with the onslaught of imperialism in the 19^th century, China continued to resist developments from other nations. Factory models were rejected mainly due to the fear of the other European values attached to it, such as Christianity, capitalism and Enlightenment values. By the late-19^th century, there were some reform efforts, such as the Self-Strengthening Movement and the 100 days Reform, but they were not fully embraced and tried to only partially adopt technology.  The Self-Strengthening Movement came right after the Taiping Rebellion in China (although there were numerous rebellions in China at the same time - Nian, Muslim). This movement attempted to adopt European military technology in order to prevent further rebellions and resist further imperial encroachment. However, Chinese officials did not want to adopt the full package of industrialization because they feared it would be too corrupting of Chinese tradition. For example, they would not teach the advanced mathematics for ballistics, but still tried to adopt European firearms and naval technology. The movement ultimately failed to modernize China, as demonstrated by the humiliating Chinese defeat by the Japanese in the Sino-Japanese War on 1895.

·       Ottoman Empire – Like the Qing Government, the Qing Dynasty resisted industrialization and technological change. During the 18^th century, the Ottoman Empire was slow to adopt technological change such as the printing press, mainly due to religious concerns. Muslim leaders feared printing would lead to dangerous religious ideas that would challenge the authority of the state. As reforms, such as the Tanzimat and Young Turks emerged, religious conservatives continued to move against reform because they feared it would diminish the religious authorities of the empire. These Tanzimat reforms were efforts by the Ottoman sultans to modernize the Ottoman government and better incorporate non-Turks and non-Muslims into the empire. Most of these reforms were targeted at the education and legal system in order to gain greater recognition from European powers. These reforms were designed to prevent further collapse of Ottoman borders. However, secular and religious groups both resisted Ottoman reforms for different reasons. The most important group to rise from this would be the Young Turks, a Turkish nationalist group that wanted to create their own nation-state (and eventually would – Turkey).

C.      In a small number of states, governments promoted their own state-sponsored visions of industrialization. “State-sponsored” means the government took a leading role in bringing about industrialization. This is supposed to be contrasted with the industrialization, free of government intervention that took place in Western Europe and the United States.

Required examples of state-sponsored visions of industrialization:

·       The economic reforms of Meiji Japan – Japan was the most remarkable change in response to industrialization. It began with Commodore Matthew Perry sailing into Tokyo Bay in 1853. He forced the Tokugawa government to sign unequal treaties (trade agreements) with the Americans, and soon other governments followed the US example to gain their own footholds in Japan. However, in 1867, the Emperor, historically a figurehead, was restored to power. This Meiji Restoration set off a rapid and tremendous change in Japanese history. There are three basic ideas at work in this transformation of Japan: Industrialization, Westernization, and Militarization. The government sponsored industrialization efforts through the zaibatsu system, in which family-owned monopolies and conglomerates controlled large portions of the Japanese economy. Mitsubishi family and company was one of the most important zaibatsus that helped the Japanese economy flourish. Furthermore, the Japanese military played an important role by establishing Japan as an imperial power in East and Southeast Asia. Finally, the samurai were eliminated in the process of Westernization, in which traditional dress and customs were eliminated in an effort to mirror more European practices. Ultimately, Japanese industrialization was by far the most rapid and successful of the state-sponsored efforts in the late 19^th century.

·       The development of factories and railroads in Tsarist Russia – Russia began its modernization and industrialization efforts after its loss in the Crimean War. It began by emancipating the serfs under Alexander II, and set out to modernize the Russian economy. Steel and petroleum industries began to emerge in major Russian cities and Count Sergei Witte, a finance minister, set up protective tariffs, and led the development of the Trans-Siberian Railroad to better connect the vast Russian empire. This was a long, slow process, and Russian industrialization continued throughout the 20^th century.

·       China’s Self- Strengthening Movement – The Self-Strengthening Movement in China was a response to the Taiping Rebellion in China. The Taiping Rebellion (discussed later) was incredibly destructive and deadly to Chinese society. In response, some Chinese leaders and bureaucrats realized the necessity of adopting at least some components of Western military technology in an effort to keep China strong (hence, “self-strengthening”). This effort largely failed due to the conservative policies of the Qing government and its isolationist tendencies. The Empress Dowager was the main conservative mind preventing Chinese industrial development/advancement.

·       Muhammad Ali’s development of a cotton textile industry in Egypt – Muhammad Ali (not the boxer) was a military leader and eventual ruler of Egypt (with Ottoman approval). Muhammad Ali sponsored tremendous economic reform in agriculture at first, but then used that monopoly of agricultural goods to emphasize military efforts and campaigns. While eventually it focused on textile production, this was a state-run industrialization and employed thousands of Egyptians in textile production, although with only mild success.

D.      In response to criticisms of industrial global capitalism, some governments mitigated the negative effects of industrial capitalism by promoting various types of reforms. With industrialization, came new societal problems, such as health issues, voting, education, and child-care. Some governments undertook efforts to fix some of these problems to prevent social upheaval.

Required examples of reforms:

·       State pensions and public health in Germany – under Otto von Bismarck, Germany developed one of the earliest pension systems, in which someone who reaches the age of 70 receives a weekly or monthly check from the government. This was financed by a tax on workers. It provided a way for societies to remain stable even when the elderly were no longer able to work.

·       Expansion of suffrage in Britain – Suffrage means the right to vote. England, like the United States, had established an electoral, democratic system by the 19^th century. Early on, the only voters were those who owned large estates. Throughout the 19^th century, because in industrial societies, wealth was no longer concentrated in the hands of landholders, suffrage was expanded to almost all males in England and the US, although African Americans were systematically denied suffrage in the US throughout the 19^th c.

·       Public education in many states – Efforts to prevent child labor and the concern over creating an educated work force led many industrialized countries to create more opportunities for public education.

VI. The ways in which people organized themselves into societies also underwent significant transformations in industrialized states due to the fundamental restructuring of the global economy.

A.      New social classes, including the middle class and the industrial working class, developed. In agricultural societies, there is no real notion of middle or working class. People were either aristocrats or laborers and people typically worked for food or goods. With industrialization, wages became commonplace and the working class earned wages for their time and used those wages to purchase things in society. The emergent middle class, who would be a little better off than the working class, consisted of managers and professionals, such as lawyers and doctors to provide services for a new urbanized society. Additionally, industrial societies provide a distinct division between home and work, whereas agrarian societies do not, therefore the class of individuals in agrarian societies is not even necessarily noticeable.

B.      Family dynamics, gender roles, and demographics changed in response to industrialization. With industrialization, men worked distinctly outside the home for a wage, while women became more connected with domestic work and child-rearing. Pre-industrial families tended to work more as a unit around the home to provide for the whole, whereas industrial production moved the economic function outside of the home. Ultimately, family members began leading increasingly separate lives. Women became the holders of traditional family values while men’s wages became the economic livelihood for the family. This placed greater social importance on the value of men’s work to women, and in many cases increased patriarchy. Finally, urban families tended to be much smaller and children were no longer a part of the economic unit of the family. While there was child and female labor early on in industrialization, wage-earning males often fought against this because children and women would be hired because they could be paid less, thus increasing unemployment among men.

C.      Rapid urbanization that accompanied global capitalism often led to unsanitary conditions, as well as to new forms of community. The unplanned urbanization of industrial societies led to dangerous and disease-ridden areas of cities. Tenement housing, working-class communities, and ethnic communities emerged as workers came together in communities to support one another. Because family units diminished as the focal point of community, and agrarian communities were being abandoned, new forms of community emerged and these communities worked together to provide for the general welfare of the whole community, with police, fire stations and sanitation efforts, as they were often ignored by central governments at the time.

Key Concept 5.2. Imperialism and Nation-State Formation

Big Picture: As states industrialized during this period, they also expanded their existing overseas colonies and established new types of colonies and transoceanic empires. Regional warfare and diplomacy both resulted in and were affected by this process of modern empire building. The process was led mostly by Europe, although not all states were affected equally, which led to an increase of European influence around the world. The United States and Japan also participated in this process. The growth of new empires challenged the power of existing land-based empires of Eurasia. New ideas about nationalism, race, gender, class, and culture also developed that facilitated the spread of transoceanic empires, as well as justified anti-imperial resistance and the formation of new national identities. This is the core/periphery relationship on the political level. 5.1 deals with core/periphery and its economic causes and consequences, while 5.2 is focused on the political dynamics between mother country (core) and colony (periphery). However, it is important to remember that not all periphery countries are colonies. This lasting periphery status of former colonies and semi-colonies is known as neo-colonialism (more on that later).

I.       Industrializing powers established transoceanic empires. Transoceanic empires, like the maritime empires of the Early Modern Period are industrialized (core) nations that built empires overseas for resource extraction and markets for goods.

A.      States with existing colonies strengthened their control over those colonies.

Required examples of states with existing colonies:

·   British in India – The British had been loosely in control of India since the late Early Modern Period. At the Battle of Plessey in 1757 (part of the 7 Years War), the British were able to take control away from the French. However, this was a loose control in which the British East India Company (the joint-stock company) had extensive trade agreements with Indian rulers. The Sepoy Rebellion/Mutiny of 1857 is what really strengthened British control over India. A Sepoy was an Indian soldier serving in the British army. The Sepoys were made up of the various religious and ethnic groups of India, some Muslim, some Hindu and so on.  In order for soldiers to load their weapons at that point in time, they had to bite into an ammo cartridge that was made out of animal fat (it was grease that was commonly used as a sealant). Well, Muslims do not eat pork and Hindus do not eat beef, and they saw the British use of animal fat as a lack of cultural sensitivity on the part of the British.  Eventually, this lack of sensitivity was also seen as cause to rise up against the British. Ultimately, the rebellion failed and the British government took direct control over India (as opposed to the British East India Company) in order to hold the colony more securely and established the British Raj, in which local rulers in India answered directly to British advisors and the Crown of England rather than make agreements with the British East India Company.

·   Dutch in Indonesia – The Dutch had loosely controlled the Indonesian islands (known as the East Indies) since the Early Modern Period. As industrial competition increased, Dutch officials tightened their control and extended their authority throughout the Dutch East Indies. Along with cash crops of sugar, tea, coffee and tobacco, exports of rubber and tin made the Dutch East Indies a valuable colony.

B.      European states, as well as the Americans and the Japanese, established empires throughout Asia and the Pacific, while Spanish and Portuguese influence declined.

Required examples of European states that established empires:

·       British – parts of Africa, India, spheres of influence in China, and later (after WWI) mandates in the Middle East

·       Dutch – increased control over Indonesia. Maintained some trade ports throughout Indian Ocean

·       French – parts of Africa, India (eventually lost to the British), spheres of influence in China, and later (after WWI) mandates in Middle East

·       German – very late to imperialism, but gained areas in Africa, Southeast Asia and spheres of influence in China

·       Russian – spheres of influence in China, sold Alaska to United States

·       Japan – spheres of influence in China, Korea – defeated Russia in the Russo-Japanese War of 1905

·       United States – moved west across continent; Took islands in Pacific (Hawaii, Philippines) Alaska

·       Spain – Latin American colonies (lost most by 1820s); Philippines (lost to US in Spanish American War)

·       Portugal –Brazil (lost as part of Atlantic Revolutions, although “peacefully); port cities in the Indian Ocean (eventually lost to more industrialized/powerful European nations)

C.      Many European states used both warfare and diplomacy to establish empires in Africa. The most significant event in the colonization of Africa was the Berlin Conference of 1884-85. As competition for colonization in Africa heated up, European powers used diplomacy to settle the border disputes in Africa. In order to control a territory, according to the conference, the Europeans had to have treaties with the local leaders, fly their flag there and govern the territory with a police force. This set off what is known as “The Scramble for Africa” and the British and the French were the largest stakeholders in Africa, but Belgium received the huge colony of the Congo, and the Germans, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italians also acquired some territory. 

Required examples of European States that established empires in Africa:

·       Britain in West Africa – Britain established numerous colonies in Africa, but their most lucrative were the Gold Coast (Ghana) and Nigeria. The British were primarily concerned with resource extraction, but also made some modernization efforts within their colonies. Educational reforms, infrastructure projects, and major mining operations were put in place by the British. These efforts to introduce modernization/reforms led to the extensive spread of Christianity, the English language, and European culture in West Africa.

·       Belgium in the Congo – Congo, the large tropical region in Central Africa, was directly controlled by the King of Belgium, King Leopold II. This colony produced significant amounts of rubber for European markets. However, the atrocities carried out by the Belgian authorities on the native populations of the Congo were horrendous. Workers were expected to fulfill rubber quotes, and if they did not, the authorities would amputate hands and limbs of the workers’ wives and children. Additionally, horrid conditions led to extensive spread of European disease among the local Congolese.

D.      In some parts of their empires, Europeans established settler colonies. Settler colonies are designed to function as other colonies (resource extraction) however, they differ from other colonies because they also had a significant number of migrants move to that colony from the mother country. During this period, there were large numbers of British people who moved to southern Africa (South Africa), Australia, and New Zealand; and there were large numbers of French people that moved to Algeria. Settler colonies are important because they created major demographic, economic and political problems in the 20^th century during the decolonization process post-WWII. The Europeans that moved into these colonies were often quite wealthy and acquired political and economic power within the colonial society, and as independence/decolonization emerged in the post-WWII period, the inequality between the natives of the colony and the natives of the original mother country made stability difficult.

Required examples of Europeans who established settler colonies:

·   The British in southern Africa, Australia, and New Zealand – Many British migrated to these regions for the main “pull” reasons, such as economic opportunity. Australia was initially set up as a penal colony for petty criminals and debtors (to relieve British population pressures) bringing large numbers of British migrants to Australia, but the discovery of gold in the 19^th century really fueled large scale migration of white settlers. The chart below is a 1904 census of South Africa with the demographic breakdown:

·   The French in Algeria – European population pressures in France, and the ensuing colonization of Algeria by France, led to mass numbers of people immigrating into Algeria. France asserted direct control over Algeria for over 100 years and decolonization in Algeria would be one of the most violent and bloody.

E.      In other parts of the world, industrialized states practiced economic imperialism. Economic imperialism is a different form of imperialism. Colonization implies political and economic control. Economic imperialism is was economic exploitation, without direct political control, of a peripheral. Unequal treaties, multinational corporations and investment in foreign countries facilitated one nation’s economic imperialism of another nation. Countries under economic imperialism are still part of the periphery model, even though they were not necessarily formal (politically controlled/dominated) colonies.  Examples of economic imperialism include China after the Opium Wars and Latin America after independence movements.

Required examples of industrialized states practicing economic imperialism:

·   The British and French expanding their influence in China through the Opium Wars – After the Opium Wars, the British and French forced China into a system of unequal treaties that granted European powers special trade access, extraterritoriality and free reign on the markets. Ultimately, the British, French, Germans, Japanese, Russian and Portuguese would all gain access to China through the spheres of influence. The Qing Dynasty eventually collapsed under this foreign pressure and imperialism.

·   The British and the United States investing heavily in Latin America – As the United States industrialized, by 1900 (slowly at first), they exerted control over Latin America. After the independence movements (Atlantic Revolutions of the early 1800s), the United States established the Monroe Doctrine in order to “protect” Latin American from further European colonization. Through multinational corporations, such as the United Fruit Company, US diplomatic efforts, and eventually the construction of the Panama Canal, the United States gained a great deal of economic control over Latin America.

II.     Imperialism influenced state formation and contraction around the world. State formation is the formation of countries in the modern sense. This is the first time in world history that countries (states) exist as a formal entity. States have defined boundaries, they have a government that is sovereign over that territory and will often use nationalism as a way to define what it means to be a member in that country. European, Japanese and American imperialism set the stage for these new definitions as states, as well as the Atlantic Revolutions that began to define territories as sovereign from someone else’s control. Many states formed during this period, particularly Germany and Italy, and others shrank considerably, such as the Ottoman Empire and China.

A.                       The expansion of U.S. and European influence over Tokugawa Japan led to the emergence of Meiji Japan. This was discussed earlier with the state-sponsored industrialization, but here is a recap. The Tokugawa Shogunate began isolating itself around 1600 (known as Sakoku) and remained that way until Matthew Perry’s Expedition into Edo (Tokyo) Bay in 1853. There, he forced Japan into unequal treaties with the signing of the Treaty of Kanagawa and the Harris Treaty. Internal strife over imperialism and political control allowed the Emperor (Meiji) and his advisors to wrest control away from the Tokugawa Shogunate. With the Meiji Restoration and ensuing reform movements, Japan rapidly modernized, westernized, industrialized and militarized. This was done under extreme notions of Japanese nationalism that turned the once decentralized areas of Japan into a modern nation-state and imperial nation.

B.      The United States and Russia emulated European transoceanic imperialism by expanding their land borders and conquering neighboring territories. Also discussed previously, but warrants a little further discussion. The United States in the period had completed Manifest Destiny and continued to expand control and influence in the Caribbean, Latin America, and eventually began setting up fueling stations/colonies in the Pacific. American expansion culminated in the Spanish-American War, in which the Spanish were quickly defeated and the Americans took control of numerous former Spanish colonies, including Puerto Rico, areas of Cuba, and the Philippines. Russia had continued its eastern push in the period and continued to seek warm-water seaports in order to be more imperial. Ultimately, Russia did exert some control over China. One of the most notable events around 1900 was the culmination of Japanese and Russian expansion. Both Japan and Russia wanted to have control over Northeast China and Korea, and these tensions came to a head in the Russo-Japanese War. Japan soundly defeated the Russian naval fleet swiftly and demonstrated Japanese arrival on the imperial scene. These events revealed Russian weakness and led to numerous social and political upheavals in Russia, ultimately setting the conditions for the Bolshevik Revolution during World War I in 1917.

C. Anti-imperial resistance took various forms, including direct resistance within empires and the creation of new states on the peripheries. Like China, the Ottoman Empire was collapsing slowly during this time period. Contraction means their territory was shrinking. Nationalism, ethnic conflict and other forces caused many groups to grow dissatisfied with Ottoman rule, and they began resisting and rebelling against Ottoman rule.

Required examples of the contraction of the Ottoman Empire:

·   The establishment of independent states in the Balkans – Issues in the Balkans can get incredibly complicated, so we will use some rather simple examples. Greece was one of the first major nations to declare its independence from the Ottoman Empire, and with other nations’ help, Greece did achieve its independence. Serbia, Moldova and Bulgaria also continued to fight and resist Ottoman rule and the Ottoman Empire eventually lost all of its Balkan territory.

·   Semi-independence in Egypt, French and Italian colonies in North Africa – The French and Italians had been setting up some colonies in North Africa throughout the 19^th century. France had taken Algeria during the Napoleonic Wars. Egypt plays a significant role in Ottoman decline. It was very economically productive and its loss hurt the Ottoman greatly. After Napoleon’s failed conquest of Egypt, Muhammad Ali (not the boxer) seized control of Egypt and essentially turned it into a nation of its own. Technically, it was still under Ottoman ruler (hence semi-independence) but it was able to essentially rule itself.

·   Later British influence in Egypt – As Egypt attempted to build its economy and military, it had to borrow heavily from European banks and lenders. Due to high debt from the borrowing, the Egyptian government imposed high taxes, which, predictably, sparked rebellion in Egypt. British forces moved in to occupy Egypt because they needed to look after their financial interests and protect/control the Suez Canal because it was their major transportation and communication hub with British interests in Asia/India.

New states developed on the edges of existing empires. As European empires continued to expand, some groups attempted to assert control over their territories on the edge of expanding nations. Most of these nations failed to withstand imperial expansion, with the exception of Thailand (Siam).

Required examples of such new states:

·   The Cherokee Nation – In the early 19^th century, the Cherokee tribes banded together in order to try to resist further American (European American) encroachment on their land. By adopting European systems of governance and economics, they hoped to thwart conquest. However, by the 1830s, the American government systematically removed the Cherokee from their lands in the Southeast US.

·   Siam – Siam (Thailand) was by far the most successful at maintaining sovereignty against European powers. They were able to successfully play the French in the East (Indochina) off of the British in the west (Burma-Myanmar). One of the few countries never colonized by Europeans.

·   Hawai’i – The islands had remained remarkably isolated for most of history. Missionaries and the English eventually made inroads into Hawai’i, but it was eventually annexed by Americans in the late 19^th century.

·   The Zulu Kingdom – Led by Shaka Zulu, the Zulu kingdom effectively organized resistance against Afrikaans (Dutch South African) and later British expansion in South Africa. Shaka Zulu was able to effectively negotiate and resist Europeans for most of the 19^th century; however, by the end of the 19^th century, the Zulu had been absorbed by the South African government.

III.    New racial ideologies, especially Social Darwinism, facilitated and justified imperialism. Imperialism was a major political and economic force during the Long 19^th century. Because of the exploitation and often extremely cruel treatment of individuals, people and countries developed ideas about race and ethnicity to justify these actions.

·   The most common justification came in the form of Social Darwinism. While Darwin applied the ideas of natural selection to the environment, Social Darwinists, namely Herbert Spencer, set to apply the ideas of “survival of the fittest” to human societies and civilization. It asserts that the strong people, or nations, should continue to see their wealth grow and the weak should see their wealth and power decrease. Social Darwinists applied this term to inequalities both within European and American society (industrial) as well as to the inequalities encountered with imperialism.

·   Scientific racism also flourished as “scientists” sought to demonstrate the “biological superiority” of the North-Western Europeans over other inferior races based on skull shape, nose size and skin color.

·   One final note on this comes from the ideas of the “White Man’s Burden” written by Rudyard Kipling. As part of imperialism, Europeans and European Americans sought to take the “weight” of civilizing and Christianizing the world. Europeans and Americans saw it as their responsibility to teach the rest of the world, AKA the non-White portions, how to be “civilized.”

Key Concept 5.3. Nationalism, Revolution, and Reform

Big Picture: The eighteenth century marked the beginning of an intense period of revolution and rebellion against existing governments, and the establishment of new nation-states around the world. Enlightenment thought and the resistance of colonized peoples (mostly in the Americas) to imperial centers shaped this revolutionary activity. These rebellions sometimes resulted in the formation of new states and stimulated the development of new ideologies. These new ideas in turn further stimulated the revolutionary and anti- imperial tendencies of this period. In other words, new revolutions would use the ideas of previous revolutions to justify and bolster their claim for change/revolution/decolonization.

I.       The rise and diffusion of Enlightenment thought that questioned established traditions in all areas of life often preceded the revolutions and rebellions against existing governments. The Enlightenment came out of the philosophical history of Europe dating back to the Renaissance. The application of humanism and the use of reason to religious, scientific, and political problems was the story of the Early Modern Period. Renaissance thinkers and artists sought to champion the individual in society. The Protestant Reformation sought to put the interpretation of the Christian texts into the hands of the individual, not a church. The Scientific Revolution set out to create a process by which humans could attain and understand knowledge. Finally, the Enlightenment set to apply these humanist qualities to ideas of governance. Thinkers and philosophes set out to use reason instead of revelation to making decisions and deciding what is right or best. In other words, authority was to come from human reason and understanding, not through religious texts or traditional social hierarchies. Most importantly, the Enlightenment thinkers attacked the centralized and absolute governments that had consolidated power in the Early Modern Period. These thinkers (called philosophes) began to question traditionally accepted ideas of legitimacy such as divine right, church sanction, blood line or any other arbitrary notion of power and leadership.

A.      Enlightenment philosophers applied new ways of understanding to natural world to human relationships, encouraging observation and inference in all spheres of life; they also critiqued the role that religion played in public life, insisting on the importance of reason as opposed to revelation. Other Enlightenment philosophers developed new political ideas about the individual, natural rights, and the social contract: This is a restatement of the Enlightenment as a whole. According to Enlightenment thinkers, knowledge was something that people could come to understand through reason and the scientific method. Historically, particularly in Europe, the only “knowledge” was that which was contained in religious texts. The Bible and the Catholic Church had a monopoly on teaching how the world worked; the understanding of human relationships and political and social authority. The Enlightenment as a movement turned knowledge into something that can be attained by people through reason, not revelation. Revelation in this sense refers to knowledge that is revealed by divine powers, not something that is discovered. Enlightenment ideas played out most importantly in their influence in social hierarchies and political authority. People questioned existing hierarchies (though most questioned hierarchies remained in place) and questioned notions of legitimacy of government. Some of this will be a review of the ideas of above:

Required examples of Enlightenment philosophers:

·   Voltaire – Voltaire was a French philosopher/thinker in the 18^th century. His most important contributions came in the form of attacks on organized religious (the Catholic Church particularly), and he advocated freedom of religion, freedom of expression, and the separation of church and state. All of these were “dangerous” ideas at the time, because tolerance was something looked down on in European society. Probably his most notable writing was Candide, or Optimism.

·   Rousseau – Jean-Jacques Rousseau was also a Swiss/French philosopher/thinker whose most important contribution to political thought was the further development of the notion of the social contract, an idea initially promoted by John Locke. According to Rousseau, a government’s legitimacy should be derived from the will of the people, not religious or any other authority. He argued the importance of the trade-off in the social contract. He said in the state of nature, all men are free. However, to achieve civil governance, individuals must give up some of that freedom in order to attain security. This is the social contract and Rousseau believed that governments should provide that security without overstepping the freedom of the general will. If/when the government violated the “contract,” government officials could be removed from office through democratic and republican methods.

·   Locke – John Locke was one of the most significant English political thinkers of the time. His ideas are most important in the discussion of individual’s natural rights and political philosophy. John Locke’s idea of natural rights says that all individuals are entitled to life, liberty and property and governments should be only large enough to protect those natural rights. Locke also promoted the idea that if a government violated the social contract (in this case, failed to protect the natural rights of men), then the people had the responsibility to overthrow the government and establish a new one.  His ideas will be incredibly influential in the political revolutions of the 19^th and 20^th century. Additionally, his ideas would be influential in the abolition of slavery movement that began in England and spread throughout the Atlantic world.

·   Montesquieu – Baron de Montesquieu was a French political thinker and his most important contributions to political philosophy came in the form of separation of powers. Montesquieu argued that despotism and authoritarianism, as seen in absolute monarchs, came about because someone was able to accumulate too much power. By separating powers, say in an executive, legislative and judicial branch, the separate powers could balance one another out and prevent one group from become too powerful. Many Constitutions around the world, including the United States, used this philosophy in its creation.

B.      The ideas of Enlightenment thinkers influenced resistance to existing political authority, as reflected in revolutionary documents. These are essentially the only specific primary sources (beside Hammurabi’s Code) listed in the course description. Therefore, at some point, you should read through them to familiarize yourself with them (read the original and the Wikipedia “essence” of them. Below is a brief summary of their contents and their importance.

Required examples of revolutionary documents:

·   The American Declaration of Independence - Written and signed on July 4^th 1776, 13 British colonies in North America declared their independence from Great Britain. This document essentially explains to King George III and the British Parliament why the colonists were declaring their independence. This document is an Enlightenment Manifesto that describes people’s natural (unalienable) rights and the role of the social contract (“deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed”).  Most of the Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson.

·   The French Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen – The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen is the underlying document of the French Revolution that broke out in 1789. Like the US Declaration of Independence, it uses Enlightenment philosophical ideas of natural rights, separation of powers and the social contract to denounce the monarchy and the three estates system/social hierarchy. This document, even more so than the US Declaration of Independence, would serve as one of the most important pieces of Enlightenment governance in history, on which many other revolutionary pieces of literature were written. One further point to make here is in the name: “of the Rights of Man and Citizen:” Enlightenment ideas and the ensuing revolutions was designed to turn people from the subjects of their monarch to citizens of a state of their own creation.

·   Bolivar’s Jamaica Letter – Simon Bolivar is seen as the “George Washington” of Latin American independence movements because of his military and philosophical background. His Jamaica Letter lays out his and other Creoles complaints with ongoing Spanish rule, largely its mercantilist policies. The Letter was written to get help from the British in Latin American independence, although it never came. The letter became a rallying point for Latin American elites (Creoles) in resisting Spanish rule in the Americas.

E.      These ideas influenced many people to challenge existing notions of social relations, which led to the expansion of rights as seen in expanded suffrage, the abolition of slavery and the end of serfdom. Democratic countries began to allow greater numbers of voters by ending property requirements for voters. However, most of these voting rights (suffrage) remained in the hands of white males. By the end of the 19^th century, most forms of chattel slavery and Russian serfdom had ended, although inequality among agricultural workers continued. However, Enlightenment ideas continued to play a role in breaking down inequality throughout the 20^th century by expanding rights, voting and civil, to more people.

II.     Beginning in the eighteenth century, peoples around the world developed a new sense of commonality based on language, religion, social customs and territory, the main forces of nationalism. These newly imagined national communities linked this identity with the borders of the state, while governments used this idea to unite diverse populations. Nationalism is one of the most important unifying (and dividing) forces for people and nations in the 19^th and 20^th century. As stated earlier, the 19^th century is really the first time we see the development of the idea of “countries.” Many of those countries grew out of a sense of nationalism. Nationalism can come about through many different forces. Many times it is an ethnic nationalism, in which people of similar culture, language and ethnicity band together to claim their own nation, which then deserves its own states. This is by far the most common form. However, there are other ways in which nationalism can come about. Sometimes it is a shared past or a common enemy that unites people under a nation. This can be in the form of anti-colonialism (like the decolonization of the Americas). Furthermore, there is civic nationalism, which is when a group of people within a given border is devoted to certain civic (government) ideas, as seen in the French and American Revolutions. Nationalism is often the ideological force that created the countries we know today. The French Revolution really got the ball rolling, and then other countries use those ideas along with Enlightenment ideas to create a sense of togetherness and governance to form modern day countries/nation-states.

Required examples of nationalism:

·   The German nation – The German nation was formally established in 1871 after the Franco-Prussian war in which Wilhelm of Prussia was proclaimed Emperor Wilhelm of the German Empire. However, the unification of the German states was a long process. Most notable to the process was Otto von Bismarck who was the Minister-President to Prussia prior to unification. (Prussia is the Northeastern part of modern Germany with a history of a powerful military). His “Blood and Iron” speech brought a sense of military power and economic might to the German people and Bismarck used the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War to rally all the German states and princes into the unification of the German state.  

·   Filipino nationalism – Filipino nationalism (in the Philippines) grew out of the anger and resistance to the 300 years of Spanish rule in the Philippines. After the Spanish-American War, the Philippines declared independence, but the United States wanted to maintain control of the Philippines. The Philippines remained loosely controlled by the US Government until 1946, after World War II.

·   Italian nationalism – Italy was formed as a nation in 1870. Giuseppe Mazzini formed a group called Young Italy that promoted independence from Austrian and Spanish rule and the establishment of an Italian national state. Mazzini likened the nation to a family and the nation’s territory to the family home.

·   Liberian nationalism – In the early 19^th century, Liberia was set up by the US government as a destination for former American slaves that wanted to return to Africa. Liberia was ruled by these Americo-Liberians who were incredibly repressive over the native Liberians. Native Liberians led numerous uprisings against this Americo-Liberian government and were able to assert nationalism against this common enemy of the foreign Liberian government.

III.    Increasing discontent with imperial rule propelled reformist and revolutionary movements. Imperialism and Colonialism bred discontent among those being ruled, mainly due to the ferment created by the Enlightenment philosophy and the inequality between rulers and the ruled.

A.      Subjects challenged the centralized imperial governments. This is a fairly generic but helpful statement in remembering that imperial control often caused/created resistance among its subjects. This is not new in world history (remember the Yellow Turbans against the Han Dynasty).

Required example of subjects challenging imperial government:

·   The challenge of the Marathas to the Mughal Sultans – The Marathas have historically been difficult to put under imperial rule in India. After Aurangzeb’s (last major Mughal conqueror) conquests, the Marathas were able to carry out effective raids against the Mughal rulers and lands. Ultimately, these raids weakened the Mughal government who were losing ground to the British. The Marathas were able to control large portions of India until the British were able to eventually take control of most of India through the Raj System.

·    The challenge of the Taipings to the Manchus of the Qing Dynasty - A massive civil war in mostly Southern China led by Hong Xiuquan. As part of the millenarian vision, Hong had received visions that he was the younger brother of Jesus and was sent to bring about equality for women, have shared property and replace Chinese religious with the Taiping version of Christianity. Nearly 20 million people died in this rebellion, and its costly effects led some Qing officials to begin the Self-Strengthening Movement, the attempt to adopt some Western military technology, although it largely failed. 

B.      American colonial subjects led a series of rebellion – including the American Revolution, the Haitian Revolution and the Latin American independence movements –that facilitated the emergence of independent states in the US, Haiti, and mainland Latin America. French subjects rebelled against their monarchy.

Required examples of rebellions: These rebellions/revolutions can be incredibly complex. The reading below and the chart will go through the important causes and consequences of each of the events.

                   Background Information leading up to the Revolution –

            The Seven Years War (1756 – 1763) broke out in Europe and across the world between the British and the French. This conflict spilled over into their colonies in North America and India. Without getting into too much detail, the British defeated the French which forced the French to turn over many of their colonies (including ports in India and colonies in North America including the Ohio River Valley and part of Canada). The French were able to hold onto the Louisiana Territory and Haiti (which are important later). This war placed strains on the economies of France and Britain and both kings raised taxes in order to pay for the war. The British raised taxes on their North American colonies and the French attempted to raise taxes on the lower class. This will have tremendous impacts on political and social movements in the Atlantic World.

            The American Revolution began as a result of British taxation policies on the thirteen colonies in an effort to recover revenue spent defending the colonies during the Seven Year’s War (the ones you have been learning since elementary school). The taxation policies angered the colonists as they felt they were not represented in the British government. The phrase “no taxation without representation” becomes a key idea in pushing for the British to acknowledge colonial governments. By 1775, many Americans began discussing independence (decolonization) from the British. After several skirmishes, the Declaration of Independence was drafted by Thomas Jefferson and signed by the American leaders in favor of independence from the King of England George III. This group of colonial rebels was made up almost entirely of the upper class elites from the merchant and land-owning class. The goal was to implement Enlightenment ideas of John Locke such as “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” without the king interfering, but women and slaves were excluding from the same rights. At a key point in the American Revolution, the French joined the side of the colonists, partly in revenge for losing the Seven Years War. With the help of the French, the colonists, led by General George Washington, were able to defeat the British by 1783 with the Treaty of Paris. Initially, the United States was loosely held together by the Articles of Confederation, but this governing document left the federal government very weak and unable to regulate the small, but emerging US economy. Over time, the US federal government was revised under the Constitution in 1789 with a Bill of Rights that further ensured individual civil liberties and the limits on the new federal government. While the United States is established under the ideas of federalism in the Constitution and George Washington became the first President of the United States, the French alliance in the American Revolution continued to cause economic troubles within the French monarchy. Although the government created by the colonists was a stable republic, the country left a tremendous problem in the form of slavery that would eventually tear the country in two.

            The series of wars fought by the French in the second half of the 18^th century (7 Years War and American Revolution) the French monarchy was essentially out of money. The three estates in France essentially divided the country socially but the tax burden fell heavily on the 3^rd estate. The first estate was made up of the clergy, or member of the French church authority, which owned significant amounts of property. The second estate was made up of the old aristocratic class, or nobility, that owned the land but paid very little in taxes. The third estate was made up of everyone else, including the wealthy middle class known as the bourgeoisie and the lower class of peasants and artisans. When Louis XVI (16^th) attempted to raise taxes on the 3^rd estate in 1789, the 3^rd estate and mostly from the bourgeoisie (or wealthy middle class) class revolted against the monarchy. Additionally, famine and poverty among the peasants with a seemingly unconcerned monarchy sparked a revolutionary spirit. The Storming of the Bastille, an armory, on July 14^th, 1789 signaled the beginning of the French Revolution. This revolution continued on under the leadership of the Jacobin party, primarily under the leadership of Maximillian Robespierre, one of the most important revolutionary leaders. In the ant-monarchial backlash and height of the revolution, the Reign of Terror was a period of chaos between 1793 and 1794 in which some 40,000 people were executed, many on a new invention; the guillotine. Furthermore, the King (Louis XVI) and the Queen (Marie Antoinette) were executed and the other monarchs of Europe declared war on France in an attempt to halt revolutionary spirit in France and in their own countries. The period of chaos was followed by a period of suppressing the rebellion and Jacobins under the leadership of the Directory (a legislative body). This military period of suppression and warfare allowed for the rise of the military leader Napoleon Bonaparte. Napoleon quickly seized power in 1799 and began a period of imperial expansion across Europe. He invaded most of the European continent including the Iberian Peninsula and Russia. The failures in Russia lead to the collapse of Napoleon’s Empire and by 1815 he was out of power and the French spent the next 100 years transitioning back and forth between monarchal control and Parliamentary governments. The French Revolution’s ideas continued to be essential in political revolutions and thinking into the 21^st c.

The Haitian Revolution began as a slave rebellion in 1791. The island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean consists of the modern day country of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The western third (Haiti) was historically known as Saint-Domingue and was a massive sugar and coffee growing colony for the French empire. Nearly 90% of the island was made up of African slaves who were transported from Africa to the colony in the form of chattel slavery. In 1791, a successful slave rebellion took control of nearly one-third of the island. Since the French were distracted with their own Revolution, the British came to squash the rebellion. While France did not want to lose the profitable possession of Haiti, it fought to keep the British out. While agreeing to free the slaves if victorious the French used many freed blacks and slaves in Haiti to fight against the British there. One freed black in particular, Toussaint L’Ouveture, became a very successful military leader that helped push the British out of Haiti and begin the abolition of slavery in Haiti. In 1801 He then named himself governor for life and began setting up a constitution to govern the island. However, as Napoleon came to power in France, he also did not want France to lose its possession or allow the abolition of slavery in Haiti. Napoleon then sent troops to recapture the island and told L’Ouveture he would maintain his freedom if he joined his army to the French. He was deceived and sent to prison in France where he died. For several months the revolution was dead in Haiti, but a new leadership under Jean-Jacques Dessalines, another freed black, emerged and defeated the French forces. In 1804, Dessalines officially declared Haiti as an independent country and the revolution was over. However, the social structure and economic function of Haiti changed very little after the revolution as the country remained heavily dependent upon cash crop/export agriculture and the laborers simply transitioned from chattel slavery to a form of serfdom. Although slavery was abolished, the labor system still functioned heavily in favor of elite land-owners except most were of African descent now instead of European.

Following the success of the American and Haitian Revolution, the regions that were colonized by Spain and Portugal began to voice Enlightenment ideas of liberty and government. The most important factor in facilitating the Independence movements in Latin America was the Napoleonic Wars in Europe. As Napoleon invaded the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), their governments and economies were severely weakened and many of the monarchies were replaced by Napoleon. As Latin America witnessed the success of the Haitian Revolution, many leaders, primarily Simon Bolivar, began to use these ideas in order to justify independence for Latin America. Bolivar, like most of the Latin American revolution leaders were of the Creole casta (class) that had been second class citizens to the peninsulares for several hundred years. Additionally, Bolivar’s Jamaica Letter voices opposition to the mercantilist economic structure that had hindered Latin American economic development since the early days of colonization. Bolivar took advantage of the Napoleonic distraction in Europe and lead popular uprising throughout South America, including Venezuela, Colombia and Peru. Mexico also had popular uprisings lead by a Catholic priest Miguel Hidalgo and later Jose Morelos. Argentina was led by Jose de san Martin who worked closely with Bolivar to bring about the revolution. Brazil, as a bit of a separate case, was led by the King of Portugal’s son Pedro I who simply declared Brazil an independent country after the royal family sailed back to Portugal when the Napoleonic Wars were over.  By 1825, most of the Latin American countries had gained independence from the European colonizers. These Creole revolutionaries were advocating independence for the colonies, but they were not advocating equality, very similar to the American Revolution. While most of the former Spanish colonies outlawed slavery, Brazil, however, was one of the last countries in the world to outlaw slavery in 1888. Due to the nature of the colonial system of viceroyalties in Latin America, most of the Creole class had no experience in government. This lack of experience among the new ruling elites led to tremendous amounts of corruption and military control. These new caudillos (strong men) that rose to power typically held power through the use of military control and not through effective forms of governance. Secondly, most Latin American countries remained agricultural and produced cash crops for the world market. This form of neo-colonialism would continue through to the 20^th century.

·   American Revolution

·   French Revolution

·   Haitian Revolution

·   Latin American independence movements

C.      Slave resistance challenged existing authorities in the Americas. Like anti-imperial and anti-colonial movements, slave resistance was not new. Many slaves resisted in non-violent ways, such as running away and creating maroon societies. Others performed shoddy work on plantations, while still others led violent uprisings against slave owners. One of the most important forms of slave resistance was the continuance of and blending of African culture in the New World. This culture allowed many African Americans to maintain Old World cultures in the New World, against the efforts of many slave owners who tried to “civilize” and Christianize their slaves. This form of resistance is one of the most important lasting legacies of the Columbian Exchange.

Required example of slave resistance:

·   The establishment of Maroon societies. Maroon societies were made up of runaway slaves or refugees that escaped slavery in the Caribbean, Central America, South America and North America and formed independent settlements. Often they would join runaway Native American groups, live in mountains or in coastal communities outside of the reach of authorities.

·   North American slave resistance – One of the most important slave rebellions in North America (at least in the United States) was the rebellion of Nat Turner in1831. Nat Turner led a large scale violent rebellion in Virginia. This rebellion, while killing nearly 65 people, caused widespread fear among whites in the Southern United States and in many cases led to a more harsh treatment of slaves and slave laws that further limited the mobility, assembly and other rights of enslaved peoples. This rebellion sparked a growing divide between pro-slave and anti-slave advocates in the United States.

D.      Increasing questions about political authority and growing nationalism contributed to anticolonial movements. This is one of the Rs in POWRR-B dealing with imperialism – REBELLIONS. The course description mentions two of them specifically; however several others are mentioned above. The Sepoy Rebellion (or Indian Revolt of 1857) and the Boxer Rebellion are anti-colonial movements, but also show signs of growing nationalism within India and China respectively.

Required examples of anticolonial movements:

·   The Indian Revolt of 1857 – This is also known as the Sepoy Rebellion or Sepoy Mutiny. Most of this is discussed above but here is a brief recap. Indian Sepoys rebelled against the British authorities of the British East India Company due to the perceived cultural insensitivity of the British. The violent uprising with nationalist undertones was about trying to oust the British East India Company, but it ultimately failed and the British government took official control over India, making it an official colony.

·   The Boxer Rebellion – The Boxer Rebellion occurred in China against the imperial spheres of influence that were exploiting China in the late 19^th century. The Boxers, or Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists, rose up against the imperial forces. In time, the Qing Dynasty government backed the Boxer Rebellion in trying to oust the imperial powers. However, the Boxers believed themselves to by invulnerable to cannons, rifles, and knife attacks, which predictably led to horrible defeats of the Boxers by the imperial forces. China was forced to pay a large indemnity (war debt) to the imperial powers and China began to undergo some efforts at reforms. The civil service examination system was ended and Confucianism was blamed for the failures of the Qing Dynasty and the Chinese state as a whole. This rebellion and imperial problems would lead to the Chinese Revolution of 1911 that would see the end of the Chinese dynastic system.

E.      Some of the rebellions were influenced by religious ideas and millenarianism. Millenarian ideas are religious ideas that either are looking to the end of this world, or looking to bring about a major transformation in society with a new religious/political/social organization. These are often minority groups that use these ideas to incite rebellion or resist political groups.  Despite the term’s apparent association with “millennium,” millenarian movements do not necessarily coincide with a new millennium, although some did/do.

Required examples of such rebellions:

·   The Ghost Dance – The Ghost Dance was a dance ritual/practice that became popular among North American Native American across the Western United States. The Sioux Nation’s Ghost Dance was a form of millenarianism, in that Jesus had returned to earth in the form of a Native American and he was going to rid the world of the “white man.” This made the Lakota (a branch of Sioux) particularly resistant to the United States government intervention, which ultimately led to the Wounded Knee massacre in 1890 of over 100 Native Americans that really spelled the end of white/native disputes in the United States.

·   The Xhosa Cattle- Killing Movement – The Xhosa are a Bantu ethnic group in Southern Africa. In 1856, a Xhosa prophetess, Nongqawuse, had a vision that she purportedly shared with her people: they should destroy their crops and kill their cattle, their source of wealth and food. In return, the spirits would sweep the British into the sea and the Xhosa would be able to refill their wealth with what was left behind by the British. The Xhosa carried out the prophecy by killing off their own herds of cattle, however, the British were never wiped out, and a massive famine among the Xhosa killed nearly 75% of the population. Like the others, these millenarian visions against imperial forces clearly led to numerous deaths and resulted in only weak resistance to the industrial imperial powers. This image on the right comes from a section of the South African Keiskamma Tapestry depicting the Xhosa-Cattle killing.

IV.    The global spread of European political and social thought and the increasing number of rebellions stimulated new transnational ideologies and solidarities. While some rebellions of the period were entirely nationalist or anti-colonial, other ideas of the period brought people across boundaries (transnational) together.

A.        Discontent with monarchist and imperial rule encouraged the development of political ideologies, including liberalism, socialism, and communism. Liberalism is the most important resistance to monarchial rule. It argued governments should be made quite small and it fit alongside the capitalism championed by Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill. Socialism and Communism are quite similar and used often synonymously although they do not refer to the same economic system/structure. Communism advocates for the complete abandonment of private property and abolition of social classes; claims all property should be shared and all classes equal; and for the abolition of religious ideas and institutions. It argues class conflict is at the heart of human conflict. Socialism does not go that far. Socialism does argue for some public (government or cooperative) owned property and business, but does not try to eliminate social class. Furthermore, Socialism does aim to redistribute wealth in order to provide all individuals with access to basic articles of consumption and public goods, however, not to the extent that all people would end up as “equals.” Socialism and Communism embody the major forms of discontent with the industrial capitalism occurring in industrialized cities. Labor unions and the working class were attracted to these ideologies because they argued the wealthy were exploiting their labor.

B.        Demands for women’s suffrage and an emergent feminism challenged political and gender hierarchies.

Required examples of such demands: The slowly emerging ideas of women’s rights came late as part of the Enlightenment. Some women, although faced with a great deal of resistance among men and women, began to advocate for greater rights, including civil and voting (suffrage) rights. Again, like the revolutionary documents, these are worth a Wikipedia search or a brief reading of their full contents.

·       Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman – One of the earliest pieces of feminist philosophy, written in 1792, Mary Wollstonecraft argued women should be educated effectively in society in order to be better companions to their husbands; to be more than mere wives and to be able to effectively educate children in a republican and democratic society. While never explicitly claiming men and women were equal, she did claim they should be equal in particular areas of life, thus her writings emerged as an early piece of the women’s rights and feminist movement.

·       Olympe de Gouges’ “Declaration of the Rights of Women and the Female Citizen” – Modeled directly on the French Revolutionary document The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen de Gouges argues for the equality of the sexes. Because the National Assembly of the French Revolution failed to recognize the rights of women and the equality of the sexes, de Gouges used the ideas of the Enlightenment to argue for women’s role in society.

·       The resolutions passed at the Seneca Falls Conference in 1848 – The Seneca Falls Conference was in upstate New York, United States in 1848. Led most importantly by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the Declaration of Sentiments was the first United States women convention to call for women’s suffrage. It is modeled on the Declaration of Independence and lays out the crimes played out men in the US.

Key Concept 5.4. Global Migration

Big Picture: Migration patterns changed dramatically throughout this period, and the numbers of migrants increased significantly (demographic change). These changes were closely connected to the development of transoceanic empires (Core/Periphery) and a global capitalist economy. In some cases, people benefited economically from migration (voluntary migrants and those that benefitted off of that labor), while other people were seen simply as commodities to be transported. In both cases, migration produced dramatically different societies for both sending and receiving societies, and presented challenges to governments in fostering national identities and regulating the flow of people.

I.          Migration in many cases was influenced by changes in demography in both industrialized and unindustrialized societies that presented challenges to existing patterns of living.

A.        Changes in food production and improved medical conditions contributed to a significant global rise in population in both urban and rural areas. Mechanized agriculture (the 2^nd Agricultural Revolution) and longer life expectancies contributed to a significant global rise in population. Antiseptics and anesthesia provided for better medical procedures and better sanitation and public health procedures eliminated many of the most lethal diseases. Another major medical advancement in this period was the smallpox vaccine.

B.        Because of the nature of the new modes of transportation, both internal and external migrants increasingly relocated to cities. This pattern contributed to the significant global urbanization of the nineteenth century. The new methods of transportation also allowed for many migrants to return, periodically or permanently, to their home societies. This demographic change of urbanization (people moving to cities) was a major development of industrial societies. Factories require a concentration of workers and employment opportunities coincided with population pressures in the countryside (rural areas). Railroads, steamboats, and other forms of transportation facilitated this urbanization movement.

Required examples of such temporary and seasonal migrants:

·       Japanese agricultural workers in the Pacific – Sugar plantations in the Pacific required labor as other places and seasonal migrants would travel to islands in the Pacific during cultivating season to harvest the crops. Places such as Hawai’i often attracted large numbers of Japanese seasonal workers. (image on the right is of Japanese migrant workers on pineapple plantations in Hawai’i)

·       Lebanese merchants in the Americas – Prior to Lebanon becoming a nation, it was a part of the Ottoman Empire. Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese people emigrated to the Americas and West Africa. Many of these migrants were merchants and professions and while many remained in permanent settlements and communities, some of these were only seasonal.

·       Italians in Argentina – Uruguay has had a long history of being heavily influenced by Italians and Italian immigration. During the late 19^th century, many Italian migrants worked in Uruguay seasonally in the beef and cattle industry for the global demand of beef and beef extract.

II.        Migrants relocated for a variety of reasons. Migration is always laid down to push and pull factors. Push factors are the things driving people away from an area and the pull factors are the things encouraging people to an area. Employment is always an issue, but political, social, economic, ethnic, cultural and other reasons can also be a cause to move to a new place.

A.        Many individuals chose freely to relocate, often in search of work. Freely to relocate assumes that the people are voluntary migrants, who are willing to migrate on their own accord.

Required examples of such migrants:

·       Manual laborers – many people moved to cities in search of manual labor in factories. Most of these were unskilled laborers that could sell their energy for wages.

·       Specialized professionals – Specialized professionals, such as doctors or lawyers or other skilled positions could market themselves in growing cities. Many European professionals moved to the United States looking for work in growing cities because the employment opportunities were less competitive in the United States than in Europe.

B.        The new global capitalist economy continued to rely on coerced and semicoerced labor migration. Coercive labor is labor that is done against someone’s will, with the most important example being chattel slavery. Semicoercive is just that; semi. In some cases it can be quite coercive and in other cases it was more voluntary. It is the gray area between voluntary labor such as professionals and completely coercive in the form of slavery. Indentured servitude is the most important example of this semi-coerced labor in this time period. Both slavery and indentured servitude required long-distance migrations during the long 19^th century. Abolition movements had significantly reduced the Atlantic slave trade to nearly zero, but the global economy continued to depend on the production of raw materials, and indentured servants filled the demand for crops.

Required examples of coerced and semicoerced labor migration:

·       Slavery – Slavery is the most coercive form of labor, however, this time period saw a significant reduction in the international slave trade and the use of slavery inside of countries. Enlightenment ideas influenced the abolition movement and effectively reduced the use of outright slavery in society.

·       Chinese and Indian indentured servitude – With the effectiveness of the abolition movements, sugar production labor was replaced by indentured servitude. Indentured servitude was a contract labor used by imperial forces to fulfill labor demands. Primarily driven by the British, this indentured servitude moved millions of people to sugar-producing areas in tropical climates. Because of their large populations, India and China supplied a great deal of this labor and these migrants flowed across the Indian Ocean, the Pacific and the Caribbean. Indentured servants were generally contract laborers for 5-7 years; however, death rates remained extremely high for migrants. The migrations led to the establishment of significant Indian communities in East Africa, the Caribbean, and Brazil as well as large Chinese communities in the Pacific, Southeast Asia, and Western North America. It is considered semicoercive because, although technically the migrants volunteered in order for payment to their families or passage to the New World; often, their contracts were not fulfilled by their employers and they continued to work without pay or livable conditions. Thus, indentured servitude was a semicoercive labor system.

·       Convict labor – convict labor came in the forms of persons being imprisoned for missing curfew or being in debt. It was really slavery by another name after slavery was abolished is societies, especially in colonial societies. Governments could implement laws to criminalize certain behaviors and groups and force them into labor groups and chain-gangs.

III. The large-scale nature of migration, especially in the nineteenth century, produced a variety of consequences and reactions to the increasingly diverse societies on the part of migrants and the existing populations.

A.        Due to the physical nature of the labor in demand, migrants tended to be male, leaving women to take on new roles in the home society that had been formerly occupied by men. Most indentured servants were males from India and China therefore; many women took on increasing roles in rural communities (where most of the migrants came from). However, this is just something in world history that should be familiar, not necessarily new. When males are not present, women take on additional roles in public and domestic spheres.

B.        Migrants often created ethnic enclaves in different parts of the world which helped transplant their culture into new environments and facilitated the development of migrant support networks. As people migrate, they tend to settle within ethnic communities. These communities are often vibrant and maintain a great deal of “Old World” culture. They create organized efforts at employment and social services to provide for the group. However, these ethnic communities cannot help but be influenced by the larger community in which they exist (dominant languages, religious and other cultural habits). This provides the conditions for cultural exchange.

Required examples of migrant ethnic enclaves in different parts of the world:

·       Chinese in Southeast Asia, the Caribbean, South America, and North America – Chinese indentured servants would move to ethnic communities to help support and provide for one another, often after their terms of service were completed. Think “Chinatown”.

·       Indians in East and southern Africa, the Caribbean, and Southeast Asia – Indians (South Asians) also created large ethnic communities outside of India due to indentured servitude migration. Large Indian communities bloomed in Trinidad, Guyana, and East Africa in the 19^th and 20^th century.

C.        Receiving societies did not always embrace immigrants (this should be more than obvious), as seen in the various degrees of ethnic and racial prejudice and the ways states attempted to regulate the increased flow of people across their borders. While ethnic and racial prejudice certainly played a part in negative reactions towards immigrants, economic competition was usually as large of a condition for anger over immigrants because immigrants will tend to work for much cheaper than the local population, thus causing unemployment.

Required examples of the regulation of immigrants:

·       The Chinese Exclusion Acts – 1882 in the United States, the US govt. attempted to ban (exclude) Chinese immigrants. The Chinese worked extremely hard and for little pay, angering many Americans. (cartoon on the right is on the topic of the debate in the United States over Chinese immigrants and laborers and is in first US immigration policy targeting a specific ethic group.)

·       The White Australia Policy – Because of Australian competition over gold fields and mines, the Australian/British government tried to restrict Chinese immigration and limit immigration to Australia only to people of British descent.