Colonial Encounters 1750-1914 

<<Raw materials<<

• Wheat from American Midwest and southern Russia
• meat from Argentina
• bananas from Central America
• rubber from Brazil
• cocoa & palm oil from West Africa

<<British Exports<<

• By 1840, 60% cotton cotton
  • 200 million yards to Europe.
  • 300 million yards to Latin America.
  • 145 million yards to India.
• Sending out half of its saving to foreign investments

“Yesterday I attended a meeting of the unemployed in London and having listened to the wild speeches which were nothing more than a scream for bread, I returned home convinced more than ever of the importance of  imperialism….In order to save the million inhabitants of the United Kingdom from a murderous civil war, and create new markets for the products of the mines and factories.”

--Quoted in Heinz Gollwitzer, Europe in the Age of Imperialism

<<Competitiveness/Technology<<

• Unification of Italy and Germany increase competition.
• desire to be a “Great Power.”
• Steam power allowed more and quicker navigation.
• quinine protected against  malaria and death rates in the tropics decreased.
• Breech-loading rifles and machine guns increased the military gap with non-Europeans.

<<Changing European Attitudes about Asians and Africans<<

1500s to 1600s

• heathens--not Christians
• Chinese highly praised
• African nations

<<1750 to 1900s<<

• still heathens
• Chinese--”John Chinaman--weak cunning-- “Yellow Peril”
• African tribes
• Pacific Oceania--”big children who lived closer to nature

<<European View of Global Expansion<<

• Christianizing
• Good Government
• Work discipline and production for the market to “lazy natives.”
• clothing the naked
• limited education
• suppressing native customs

• Construction of 2nd-wave European empires in Africa and Asia involved military force or the threat of using it
• Although they would have preferred non-violent takeovers, Europeans often had to fight in wars of conquest to create their empires
  • Always won in the end 🡪 superior militaries and weapons

<<Various Paths to Colonial Status<<

• India and Indonesia = colonial conquest grew out of earlier interactions with European trading companies
  • India = became controlled by Britain
  • Indonesia = became controlled by the Dutch
  • Neither country had a clear-cut plan for conquest
  • Conquest evolved slowly as local authorities and European traders made and unmade a variety of alliances
  • Acquisition of India and Indonesia = fairly easy because both were fragmented territories with no political unity
• Australia and New Zealand = both taken over by the British
  • Similar to the earlier colonization of North America
  • Conquest accompanied by: massive European settlement and diseases that reduced native numbers
  • Became settler colonies = “neo-European” societies in the Pacific
• Africa, mainland Southeast Asia, and the Pacific islands = occurred later = in the 2nd half of the 19th century
  • More abruptly and deliberately than anywhere else

<<The “Scramble for Africa”<<

• Until the 1800s = Europeans knew very little about Africa

• 1840 = David Livingstone went to Africa

  • Traveled around and explored there for 30 years
  • He lost contact with the outside world for 6 years in the 1860s
  • American Journalist Henry Stanley was sent to look for him -- ended up leading several expeditions himself

• Journeys of Livingstone and Stanley increased interest in Africa and its many resources

• One European country after another began to claim parts of Africa

  • Able to take African territories easily because they had superior weapons and a lot of money

• 1885 = the Berlin Conference = Several European nations met in Berlin to decide how to divide up Africa

  • No African leaders invited
  • Peaceful negotiations made between the European powers that officially decided “who got what”

• By 1914 = Europeans controlled 90% of Africa

  • European powers often had to use extensive and bloody military action to maintain control within their acquired African territories
  • Varying Responses to European Encroachment

• Some tried to enlist Europeans in their own internal struggles for power or in their external rivalries with neighboring states

• Some tried to pit imperial powers against each other

• Some wanted to fight back against the Europeans

• Some believed resistance was futile and acceptance of the situation was the only option

• Some negotiated with Europeans in an effort to keep as much independence and power as possible

<<Under European Rule: Cooperation<<

• Many groups and individuals willingly cooperated with colonial authorities
• Many men found employment, status, and security in the European-led armed forces
• Colonial rulers = expensive, in short supply, and could rarely communicate with their subjects
  • Result = local intermediaries needed
  • Local intermediaries = typically from elite or governing families
  • Local intermediaries = could retain their status and gain wealth  by exercising authority at the local level
• Many found it beneficial to pursue Western education
  • Western-educated class served the colonial state, European businesses, and Christian missions as teachers, clerks, translators, and lower-level administrators
  • Some with even more education = became lawyers, doctors, engineers, journalists, etc.

<<Under European Rule: Rebellion<<

• Periodic rebellions (both big and small) = a constant problem for colonial regimes everywhere
• Most famous colonial rebellion = the Indian Rebellion of 1857-1858
  • Also known as: the Sepoy Rebellion or Sepoy Mutiny
  • Sepoys = Indian soldiers in the service of European powers

<<Indian Rebellion of 1857-1858<<

• Triggered by the introduction into the colony’s forces of a new cartridge smeared with animal fat from cows and pigs
• Remember: Indian troops = Hindus and Muslims
  • Hindus = find cows sacred
  • Muslims = regard pigs as unclean
  • Both = viewed this military “innovation” as a plot to harm them and convert them to Christianity
• Indian troops in Bengal mutinied against their British superiors
• Indian Rebellion spread from Bengal to other regions and other social groups
• Many social groups within India were upset with British colonial rule
  • Local rulers = lost power
  • Landlords = deprived of their estates and/or rent
  • Peasants = overtaxed and exploited by urban moneylenders and landlords
  • Weavers = unemployed (displaced by machines)
  • Religious leaders = opposed to Christian missionary preaching
• Crushed in 1858 🡪 but important results followed:
  • Widening of the racial divide in colonial India between native Indians and their British rulers 🡪 eroded British tolerance for their subjects
  • British = became more conservative and cautious when it came to trying to change Indian society 🡪 didn’t want another rebellion
  • British government assumed direct control over India 🡪 ended the British East India Company’s rule there

<<Colonial Empires with a Difference<<

• Major factor distinguishing the rulers from the ruled = race
• Education for colonial subjects = very limited
  • Limited to practical subjects
  • Europeans were afraid that education and knowledge would lead to power for colonial subjects
• Colonies with large European settler populations = blatant pattern of racial segregation
  • Example = apartheid
  • Racial segregation in South Africa
  • Racial system provided for separate: “homelands,” educational systems, residential areas, public facilities, etc.
• European powers were much more involved and “hands on” with their colonial states in the 19th century
  • Affected the daily lives of people far more than empires had in the past
  • Centralized tax-collecting agencies
  • New modes of transportation and communication
  • Imposed changes in landholding patterns
  • Integration of colonial economies into global trade network
  • Public health and sanitation measures
• European colonizers felt the need to count, classify, and organize their colonial subjects
  • Wanted a way to manage the unfamiliar, complex, varied, and changing societies that they now controlled
  • Made colonial administration easier
  • Ex: In African colonies, Europeans identified and sometimes even invented distinct tribes 🡪 each with its own territory, language, customs, chief, etc.

<<Colonial Empires with a Difference<<

• European colonial policies contradicted their own values and practices at home