AP World Unit 6 Key Terms

1. Imperialism: movement to create and establish overseas empires; led in part by the need for resources to

fuel industrialization and to create new markets to sell the surplus of goods from industrialization

2. Social Darwinism: reason for Imperialism which was an adaptation to the theory of biological evolution,

and it argued that the spread of European and U.S. power proved the biological superiority of whites

3. Queen Victoria: monarch of Great Britain during the high point of British imperialism

4. White Man’s Burden: reason for Imperialism which stated that it was the responsibility of Europe and the

U.S. to give indigenous people their education, culture, and religion

5. Sino-Japanese War: East Asian conflict over Korea, as China resented the influence of Japan in the region

6. Phrenologists: people who studied skull sizes and shapes, who believed that a smaller skull size proved the

mental feebleness of indigenous people

7. British East India Company: it was granted a monopoly on trade in India, eventually it became the

British government’s managing agency in India

8. The Suez Canal: waterway built to dramatically decrease the time it took to get to Asia, the project was

managed by the French, but the labor was done by Egyptian corvee laborers who were forced to work as a

form of taxation

9. Settler Colonies: colonies which attracted large groups of Europeans who eventually lived there. An

example is Algerians

10. The Berlin Conference: a meeting of European powers to provide for the orderly colonization of Africa,

hosted by Otto von Bismarck and designed to keep peace

11. The Boer Wars: conflict between the British and Dutch settlers in southern Africa, finally won by the

British. Led to “concentration camps” where Afrikaner and African refugees were treated horribly

12. King Leopold II: personally owned the colony of the Congo and used a ruthless system of economic

exploitation to reap a profit of about $1.1 billion in today’s dollars

13. Congo Free State: ruled by Belgium, where workers were forced to harvest ivory and rubber. Severed the

natives’ hands in order to reach rubber quotas. 8 million people died as a result of Imperialism here

14. Spheres of Influence: regions in China where Europeans had exclusive trading rights and access to natural

resources

15. The Taiping Rebellion: uprising of Chinese lower class people who tried to overthrow the Qing

government because of starvation and the Qing’s foreign rule and weakness. Responsible for the deaths of

more than 20 million people

16. The Boxer Rebellion: uprising against foreign influence in China, led by young nationalists who wanted to

purify the country

17. The Trail of Tears: forced removal of the Cherokee and other Native American groups from southeastern

United States to Oklahoma reservations.

18. The Spanish-American War: fighting between Spain and the United States over Spanish colonies in the

Caribbean and the Philippines

19. The Ghost Dance: a form of resistance by Native American groups that was thought to conjure up spirits

who would remove the white man from the continent

20. Tupac Amaru II: Spanish educated ancestor of Incan leaders who attempted to start an uprising against

Spanish rule. Was crushed by the Spanish and forced to watch his wife and sons be executed

21. The Indian Rebellion of 1857: turning point in the British Raj where Indian sepoys attempted to

overthrow Company rule. Led to the British government taking control from the East India Company

22. Indian National Congress: group of well-to-do, educated Indian Nationalists who attempted to change the

ills of British rule in India

23. Xhosa Cattle Killing Movement: form of African resistance to Imperialism where they believed the

destruction of cattle and of crops would bring up spirits which would drive Europeans out of the continent

24. Anglo-Zulu War: battles between Europeans and a strong African state over land in southern Africa,

eventually the Europeans won, in large part because of technology like the Maxim Gun

25. Cecil Rhodes: British man who was sent to South Africa who eventually formed the De Beers Mining

Company and who also had a large stake in the world’s largest gold fields. Had a dream of building a

railroad from Cape Town to Cairo, Egypt

26. Guano: bird and bat excrement which was mined in South America and was used as a highly-valued

fertilizer

27. De Beers Mining Company: Britain-based business in South Africa that accounted for 90 percent of the

world’s diamond production

28. The Opium Wars: battles between the British and the Chinese in the mid-19th century about the right to

sell drugs in China. The British victory led to spheres of influence being established around a lot of the

Chinese eastern coast

29. Banana Republics: term used to describe small Central American countries under the economic power of

foreign-based corporations like the United Fruit Company

30. Indentured Servitude: a form of labor where laborers would sign a contract to work for an employer for a

certain number of years, and after the requirement was up, they would be free. Many Indian and Chinese

laborers participated in this form of labor

31. Penal Colonies: areas of land set aside for criminals, because the prisons in Great Britain were

overcrowded. Convicts from England, Scotland, Ireland, and India were sent to Australia as an example

32. Ethnic Enclaves: clusters of neighborhoods of people from the same foreign country, formed in many

cities around the world. They influenced the culture of their new homes which absorbed some of the

migrants’ cultural traditions. “Chinatowns” are an example of this

33. Chinese Exclusion Act: United States policy banning further migration of Chinese people into America

from 1882-1943

34. White Australia Policy: law to prevent further non-British immigration to Australia from the early-1900s

until the mid-1970s