Topic: State Expansion

Imperialism in Africa

• Although European countries banned slave trading in the 1800s, they continued to export manufactured goods to Africa in exchange for natural resources like palm oil and diamonds.

• In the 1800s European rule in Africa was limited to trading posts but with the help of military technology, they expanded their influence.

• Suez Canal: Man made waterway connecting the Mediterranean sea to the red sea for efficient travel to Asia.

• Corvee Workers: Unpaid workers who preformed labor as a form of taxation.

• Although nations like Britain used some diplomacy to expand their power in Africa, European competition for African colonies made warfare inevitable.

• Settler Colony: Colonies where large numbers of people settled to live, rather than sending just military or economic administrators to exploit a region.

• Algeria became a settler colony after France drove the Ottoman Empire out, it was attractive for European immigrants and led to French trading posts expanding in Africa.

The Scramble for Africa

• As European imperialist powers looked for resources in Africa for their industrial demands, tensions rose and fear of war did as well.

• Berlin Conference: Formed by Otto Von Bismark of Germany, European nations agreed on the orderly colonization of Europe and free trade movement along major African rivers.

• As a result of no African leaders being invited to the Berlin Conference, unified societies were divided and rivals were put in the same colony by the poorly made boundaries.

• Boer Wars: Conflicts over rich mineral land between British against Africans and Afrikaners. The British eventually drove them out of the region into concentration camps where they were poorly treated and discriminated.

• King Leopold II of Belgium personally owned the colony of Congo where he grew very rich from ruthless economic exploitation of the harvest of ivory and rubber (Congo Free State).

• Laborers in the Congo Free State were worked to death and as many as 8 million died before Belgium took over Congo as a regular colony in 1908

Imperialism in South Asia

• The French loss in the Seven Years’ War to Britain drove them out of India where they were hoping to expand their economic potential.

• Seven Years’ War: Known as the French and Indian War, was the prelude to the American Revolution and was the first global war (1756-1763).

• England’s East Indian Company steadily took over the falling Mughal Empire’s land until they took over the entire Indian subcontinent through military.

Imperialism in East Asia

• China kept political control despite European economic imperialism being successful.

• Taiping Rebellion: Revolt against the Qing Dynasty, motivated by religious and political tensions, and set up future revolutions in China.

• Boxer Rebellion: Anti imperialists (boxers) tried to clear China of foreigners, but ended up mostly killing Chinese Christians, and failed to prevent Western power and influence in China.

• Meiji Restoration: The Japanese overthrew their traditional government with the goal of protecting the country from Western influence ruining the distinctive Japanese culture.

• Japan begun to industrialize rapidly and sought territory where they could get industrial resources.

• Japanese agricultural workers were encouraged to take contract work on Pacific islands

Imperialism in Southeast Asia

• Dutch seized control of Spice Islands in 1641, where the Dutch East India company profited off spice trade for many years until bankrupt in 1800.

• The French formed Indochina, consisting of Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam, where they grew cash crops (motive for imperialism).

• The British controlled the Malaya Peninsula, investors attracted by the abundance of minerals but also implemented cash crops.

• With the aid of their diplomatic relations with European imperial powers, Siam escaped the trend of imperialism and managed to create reforms for industrialization and education.

Imperialism in Australia and New Zealand

• The British took total control of Australia in the 1820s and used it as a penal colony.

• New Zealand was made into a separate colony for the Maori people but protected by Britain, yet open war broke out over land (Maori Wars).

U.S. Imperialism in Latin America and the Pacific Islands

• Trail of Fears: Rough forced migrations of Native Americans to new Indian territories in Oklahoma.

• Monroe Doctrine: Issued by President James Monroe in 1823, stated that European countries were not allowed to intervene with Western Hemisphere affairs.

• Manifest Destiny: Idea that the United States had a natural right from god to expand their territory and culture.

• The United States rose to power the second industrial revolution and decided that they would occupy any country in the Pacific or Latin America that displayed instability from their view.

Russian Expansion

• Under Empress Catherine II and her grandson Alexander I, Russia started to take control of territory from the weakening Ottoman Empire.

• The Russian-America Company explored and settled in Alaska but sold it to the U.S. in 1867.

• The Great Game: Rivalry between Russia and Britain for control over Afghanistan in the 19th century, settled by the Anglo-Russian Act (1873).