Unit 5 Revolutions

Unit 5: The Fight for Supremacy & Survival

1820-1920

Topic 1: Causes of 19th-Century Imperialism  

What is Imperialism and why did it occur-

• Empire-building

• “Extending a country’s power and influence through diplomacy or military force” 

• In the 19th century, existing empires industrialized and consolidated their control over old colonies, while gaining more elsewhere.

  • Great Britain

  • France

  • Netherlands (Dutch)

• Newly industrialized nation-states also seek to establish empires to compete globally.

  • Japan

  • United States

  • Germany

  • Italy

  • Belgium

• Imperialism was caused by industrialization and the demand for new resources and markets.

What was desired?

Primarily, these empires wanted to possess foreign resources and control new markets for their gain.

• In-Demand Resources- 

  • Cotton 

  • Rubber (which Charles Goodyear learned to vulcanize in the 1830s)

  • Iron (demand for which increased following the innovations of the Bessemer Process in 1859 to create steel)

  • Coal

  • Crude Oil

  • Palm oil

  • Gold 

  • Silver

  • Copper

  • Guano freeman pedia

Where did these resources come from?

• Besides coal and iron in the process of industrialization most industrialized countries lacked a sufficient supply of these resources domestically.

• As a result, they had to go global to acquire them.

  • Because of their large size, the United States and Russia had a greater domestic supply of many of these goods.

  • However, even these countries expander considerably through the 19th century in part due to a quest for resources

• Due to environmental factors (where the resources were located) and technological supremacy, most industrialized nations targeted Africa, Latin America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia.

Economic Imperialism in Asia, Africa, and Latin America

Imperialism- to expand your country's influence through force or diplomacy

•  These regions that did not industrialize became used as export economies (similar to mercantilism)

• Western colonial powers built infrastructure within their imperial possessions to increase profits and influence there

• Western companies’ agreements with local elites in a given country often created political/ethnic divisions and forced local populations into forms of coerced/semi-coerced labor

• Best example: India under British rule

  • British gained control over India beginning in 1757 when the British East India Company defeated the Mughal Empire in battle; then in 1858, the Company gave control of their territory to Queen Victoria, beginning the British Raj.

  • Instead of increasing India’s manufacturing capability, the British reduced India to a cotton and spice exporter, as well as a captive market for finished goods.

  • This leads to fights over Resources and Market.

• When industrialized nations could not fulfill their demand domestically, they used technology and financial advantages to secure access to these new raw materials globally.

  • A new era of colonization emerges, with Africa taking center stage following 1884’s Berlin Conference

• New rivalries between industrialized countries emerged and they engaged in expeditions to secure both resources and captive markets to sell products into

  • The need for markets for finished products inspires the creation of “settler colonies” in new parts of the world.

What new ideas/beliefs inspired 19th-century people to conquer others?

• Some were rooted in science and philosophy.

• Nationalism- intense pride in one’s own nation, its people, and its culture

• Darwinism- English biologist Charles Darwin challenged the traditional Christian creation narrative with his 1859 work “On the Origin of Species”

  • While revolutionary in science, his ideas regarding natural selection and the evolution of species crossover into 19th-century socio-political thought

• Spencerism- English philosopher and sociologist Herbert Spencer blended nationalist and Darwinism ideas to describe how cultures and peoples competed in the “survival of the fittest”

• Racial hierarchy- promoted by German zoologist Ernest Haeckel, humanity is arranged into a clear hierarchy from strongest to weakest. 

The Theory of Social Darwinism and “Scientific Racism”

All of these 4 ideas come together as “Social Darwinism”

• The theory which asserts that “the principles of evolution… apply to human societies, social classes, and individuals”

• The industrialized nations of the world viewed their industrial nature as proof of their “fitness” and the upper classes of their societies viewed themselves as the most fit of all humans 

• Instead of helping the weak/poor, the strong needed to crush, subdue, or use them for their gain

They also develop into “scientific racism” where scientists of carious disciplines begin classifying human beings into clear categories of humanity with race/ethnicity playing a critical role

• “If one must draw a sharp boundary, it has to be drawn between the most highly developed and civilized man on one hand, and the rudest savages on the other hand, and the latter have to be classed with the animals” - Ernest Haeckel

  • During this time, international expositions and world’s fairs featured “human zoos” showing “less civilized” humans in their natural habitats… 

• The field of eugenics has also developed from this.

Others were rooted in economic and religious beliefs

Capitalism and Innovation

• Investors and business owners obviously see the profitability of acquiring new resources, constructing new infrastructure in underdeveloped regions, etc.

• Most vocal of the imperialist-capitalist was Cecil Rhodes, a British mining tycoon-turned-politician 

Conversion to Christianity 

• Most of the expansionist countries were dominated by Christians (Protestant Christians) 

• To use expansion into new lands as a means to carry out the Great Commission was a powerful motivator for individuals and governments.

The Civilizing Mission

When governments commuted to imperialism with these sets of ideas, the resultwase Europeans who viewed their conquests as a “civilizing mission” that subjugated people but:

• Uplifted and improved them morally and materially 

• Improved life in underdeveloped regions

• Developed more civilized habits and cultural practices amongst global populations

Throughout the 19th Century, the British led the way in taking land, resources, and power

• Pax Britannica: the period of British hegemony (1815-1914) where the British added 10 million square miles and over 400 million people to their empire

Topic 2: The Process of Imperialism

Industrialized countries expanded into new regions, conquering lands that were not theirs before the early 19th century. 1820s-1870s

Bristish Expansion (1820s-1870s)

• While the British consolidated their power over territories they had claimed in the 17th-18th century, they also claimed new lands and peoples during the “Victorian Era” (named after Queen Victoria)

• From their cases in India and Australia, the British expanded their influence over:

(first Australian settlers were all criminals)

China

• The opium wars (the 1830s-1860) and the series of Unequal Treaties that resulted in Britain's formal and informal control of Chinese lands

• The Treaty of Nanjing (1842) gave Britain control of Hong Kong while other treaties gave them rights to control trade in Canton and Shanghai. 

• Also, the whole Yangtze River valley, Tibet, and Himalayan regions come under British authority.

South and Southeast Asia

• As seen in the webcast, India was broadly placed under British rule as the British Raj after the failed Sepoy Rebellion in 1857

• Between 1824-1885 the British wage 3 wars to gain possession of Burma (the Anglo-Burmese Wars)

  • Gaining Burma gave the British more security in India, as well as valuable resources (teak, oil, rubies) and control of Indian Ocean trade Routes (continuity)

  • Burma- TRADE ROUTES

South Pacific

• The British expand from Australia to the islands of New Zealand in 1840, sparking resistance from the Maori.

• They also lay claim to the southern portion of Papua New Guinea and Fiji in the 1870s before expanding further in the 1880s and 1890s

American Expansion (1820s-1870s)

• The United States engaged in a period of imperial expansion in a period of imperialist expansion from the 1820s onto achieveg full control of North America from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean (Manifest Destiny) 

• They also hoped to keep European empires out of the entire Western hemisphere- a goal expressed in the Monroe Doctrine (1825)

• To do this Americans had to:

  • Conquer land from Native American peoples

    • 1830s- Cherokee removal from the American Southeast (Trail of Tears)

    • 1860s-1870s- Indian wars in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains 

  • Take land in the Southwest and Far West from Mexico

    • 1830s-1840s- Annexation of Texas

    • 1846-1848– Mexican American War

  • Purchase/Negotiate land rights from other empires

    • Oregon Territory from the British 1840s

    • Alaska purchased from Russia in 1867

France Expansion (1820s-1870s)

• Beginning in the 1830s, the French began expanding into Africa and the South Pacific.

North Africa Beginning with the conquest of Algeria in 1830, the French removed the Ottomans from control of a critical trade/agricultural region along the Mediterranean.

• From the 1830s on, the French established a settler colony in Algeria where many FRench citizens moved to start new lives, taking advantage of the new land left by fleeing Turks or land seized from minority groups.

• In the 1860s, the Frenctransformedrm global trade and their power over it by constructing the Suez Canal which connects the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea

• The French expanded from their major colony of Senegal and conquered much of West Africa into the Sahara

Expansion in SE Asia and S Pacific

• Took possession of “IndoChina” (Vietnam, laos, Cambodia) from the 1840s-1880s

• Inspired largely by mission work, the French lay claim to Tahiti and New Caledonia in a region that becomes known as “French Polynesia”

Empires sponsored explorenrs who set out to discover new land resources peoples (as well as achieve national deats for national glory)

• The British send a multitude of explorers to inland Africa for resarch and reconnaissance

  • Most famous was David Livingstone, the missionary explorer who traversed southern Asia from 1841-1872

  • Richard Francis Burton and John Hanning Speke who discovered the source of the Nile River in the 1850s and 1860s

    • Burton also traveled extensively throught the muslim World, seencing to Europe detailed depictioons of Islamic life within Mecca

• The Germans also sponser explorers in an attempt to claim lands in E Africa

• Others explore Africa on their own for the sake of knowledge of forign peoples and places

  • Heinrich Barth, Henry Morgan, Morgan Stanlay

Explorers of the Arctic

• In search for the “NorthWest Passage”

• The Norwegian explorer  Roald Amundsen successfully navigated the NW passsage in 1906 (though his path was not commercially viable)

  • In 1911 Amundsen also becomes the first to arrive at the south Pole

• The American Robert Peary successfully reached the Norht Pole in 1909

  • GOD GLORY AND GOLD still applies (continuity) 

  • Not looking to conquer but discover new land (change) 

  • Spread of disease (continuity) 

In the 1880s the European powers set out ot Colonize Africa

As they do the “Scramble for Africa” takes place, seshaping the present and furture of the continent and its people.

Africa in the 19th Century

• While some european countries initiated colonization efforts in Africa pre-1870s, the continent remained “unclaimed” by Europeans and independently goverened

• The majority of the people were under the authority of localized governments, with tribal, city-states, or small-kingdom levels of organization

• In this way Africa can be understood as “decentralized” politically much parts of Europe were (Germanic states, Italian states) as late as the mid 19th century

• However the successful navigation of the Congo River by Henry Morgan Stanley in the 1870s begins to change things

• European countries (namely Belgium, France, and Portugal) each try to lay claim to the Congo River and its surrounding lands

• To stop the spread of violence and secure access to African lands fro Germany,  Otto von Bismarck convenes the Berlin conference in 1884

• By the end og this 3 month conference only 2 Afican kingdoms remained independent

Topic 3: Fights against Imperialism and Conquest

Immediate Impacts of Imperialism

While the case of the Belgian Congo is extreme in some regards, it is indicative of processes that took place across the newly colonized world of the 19th century

• Indigenous peoples were turned into forced labor in export/extractive economies. 

  • No attempts were made to industrialize colonies

• Technologies of the industrialized colonies (railroads, steamships, weaponry, etc) brought more hardship than benefit to Indigenous peoples

• Intrusion of colonial economic and political structures brought chaos to existing economic and political structures

  • In Africa in particular ethnic groups who were traditional rivals were forces together into political units that bred conflict.

• Cultural practices were transmitted (cultural diffusion)from teh colonizing countries into the colonized; some go the other direction (usually food) 

  • Ex: sports (cricut rugby soccer polo), language, religion (Protestant Christianity, mostly)

• Some groups within colonies attempted to cozy up to those in power to gain advantages in society while others resisted those they viewed as oppressors

Topic 4: Migrations of the Industrial Revolution

About Migrations

Terms to know:

• Emigration- moving either permanently or temporarily, OUT of your home region/country

  • Causes- why are people leaving ____

• Immigration- moving either permanently or temporarily, INTO a new region/country

  • Causes- why are people comin into ___

• Push Factors- forces that combine to PUSH individuals to emigrate OUT of their home regions/country

• Pull Factors- forced that combine to DRAW (pull) individuals to immigrate INTO a new region/country

  • Jobs, opportunity, freedom (political and religious), relationships, ease of travel

While migration has always been a part of the human experience, the century from 1820-1920 saw about 50-70 million people migrate the largest such period of migration in world history

How did industrialization and imperialism create push factors that encouraged migration?

Changed populations/demongraphics

• Advances in thech, medicine, science, etc created a widespread pop. growth 

  • Life expectancy swelled. Mortality rates dropped significantly

  • Seems like great news, but where are these people going to go, and what are they going to do for work

Changes to local economies and traditional systems

• Across Europe and Asia, industrialization left peasents landless, As a result they more internally from rural to urban areas

  • When they move to cities they are forced into the lower class and have little to no hope for advancement.

Revolutionary wars, internal rebellions, and wars that compelled conscription into the military brought challenges to life

• Prussian Wars (19th century)

• Unification of Germany 

• Taiping Rebellion

Categorizing the causes of migration (push factors) by theme

Enviromental Causes

• Land access for peasants

• Overcrowding in Eurasian cities

• The Great Famine (Irish Potato Famine) (1840s)

  • 25% of the irish population stave to death or leave

Political Causes

• Wars and Rebellion

• Movement due to imperialism

  • Willing movement (settler colonies)

    • New opportunities to become a farmer in New Zealand to farm sheep than risk their lives in the cities

  • Unwilling movement (penal colonies, military)

• Movement from colonies to mother countries

  • From egypt -> england, senegal -> France

• Fleeing persecution

  • Political or religious persecution (marxists thrown in prison or exiled)

  • Jews from E. Europe/Russia pogroms 

Economic Causes

• Free movement for jobs and economic mobility

  • Gov’t allowed people to leave due to overpopulation

  • Primary destination: the USA (est. 65% of all trans-atlantic migrants) and south America (argentina and brazil)

  • Japanese farmers through Pacific region

• Contraceted/ coerced movement of laborers

  • Chinese “coolie” labor (contracted by Chinese or foreigners)

  • Indian indevtures servants

Effects of Migration

Within the sending countries/regoins

Reduction of populations

• Certain regions of countries were more impacted by migration than others deepnding on the severity of the push factors experienced there

• Certain countries see massive pop. decline in the period 1820-1920

  • Irelans– pop. dropped from 8.2 million in 1847 to 4.7 mil in 1891 due to famine and migration

  • Italy- 16 million people left between 1861-1914; 9 million never returned to italy

  • Greece- lost 1/6th population to emigration between 1890-1914

• Sometimes this brought economic challenges as there were fewer workers but often it relieved pressures on over-burdnened local economies.

  • Because lower populations helped breed prosperity at home, gov’ts welcomed contractors who would inspire migration or they established settler colonies

Gender roles change

• The vast maj. Of migrates in this timewere men. As male pop. decreased, the role of woman increased within sending countries

  • In general, women gained autonomy and authority as men left

• Wives would follow their husbands eventually, sometimes years later

  • Upon migrating, they often held more responsibilities in their new homes than they had possessed before, as well as more political rightds than before

Educational acess increases

• When men sent remintence boys and girls remained in school longer

Effects of Migration

Within the recieving countries/regoins

• New culutrews diffused into receiving countries

• Immigrants intended to leep their cultures and traditions as long as possible

• Immigrantscreated ethnic enclaves (ethnic blocs) where they could live amongst their own people and continue living, more or less, the same way they had in their own homes

  • Ex. chinatown in NYC and SF, the Little Italy in NYC, the Indian communities in Guyanna and the Carrib.

• New languages, religions, foods, and other customs were diffused around the world

The arrival of millions of new people brought opportunities but also new challenges

• Immigrants provide abundant and cheap labor that fuled industrial and agricultural productivity

  • Countries like the US and argentine actively recruited immigrants from Europe in the mid-late 19th century

• But their arrival sparked rapid urbanization and oppressive working conditions

  • Many imm. faced extreamly harsh living conditiopns in urban slums

  • Nativism and zenophobia emerged as social/political response to immigraton

    • Fear of other culutres influence 

Topic 5: Changing Global Politics & World War I (1914-1917)

The Great Powers of the 20th Century 

The 5 Great Powers of Europe (ca. 1900)

•  The British Empire (ranked #1)

• Germany 

• Austro-Hungarian Empire

• France

• Italy

Other Industrialized Global Powers

• The United states

• Japan

Each seek greater wealth, power, and prestige through industrialization, militarization, and imperialism

• Thse 7 ocuntreis controlled the vast majority of the people, territory, and resources in the world ca 1914

However, the 20th century will see the decline of massive centralized empires as self-determination, nationalism, etc. progress. (continuity of the 1700 major land based empires)

3 Major Empires are Collapsing

• Ottoman Empire- losing control of the Balkan Penninsula, the Middle East, and N Africa

• The Qing Dynasty- failing as foreign threats and domestic unrest flooded China

  • Rebellions (Boxer 1899-1901), (Sino-Japanese War, 1895-1896), Opium

  • Attempts at reform fail (The New Policies of 1901), removed longterm traditions like the civil service exam

  • 1911, the Xinhai REvolution took place, leading to the end of the Qing dynasty (b.1644-1911) and establishing the Republic of China

• The Russian Empire under the leadership of Czar Nicolas II was facing growing unrest as they:

  • Failed to defeat Japan in War (russo-japanese war, 1904-1905)

  • Anti gov’t protests and the protestors of which the Czar killed on Bloody Sunday in 1905 sparks anger and leads to the reforms of the (October Manifesto) 

  • Turned towards communism as a possible solution to the systematic problems 

Internal Rebellions within Established States Create Change

• 1900-1914 is a time of domestic political unrest that led to greater freedoms

Colonies in Latin America particularly Cuba and Mexico

• The Cuban people worked to free themselves from Spain (Cuba Libre Movement)with the help of the USA

• The Mexican revolution (1910-1917)

  • A result of anger towards president-turned-dictator Porfirio Diaz violent revolution consumed Mexico

  • Diaz is overthrown in a series of battles (1911) and a series of would-be successors fought for control of the country (Francisco Madero, Victorian Huerta, Emiliano Zapata)

    • Americans sent troops and officials to Mexico to assert influence but were unsucessful generally

  • Mexuco created a new Constitution in 1917 that provided reforms to oppress economix and poitical systems while protecting civil liberties

The Great War WW1 (1914-1918)

4 Main Causes of WW1

“The Powder Keg” (MAIN)

• Militarization

  •  Insdustrial production and scientific advancement led to tons of opportunity in weapons and manufacturing 

  • Euroepan leaders built up armies/navies for use ahead

    • Threatened neighboring countries and an “arms race” emerged, especially between Germany, France, and Britain

• Aliances

  • To protect their own interests and prevent continental war, the Great POwers formed alliance systems through the 19th century 

  • By 1914, 2 main alliances existed with others existing in secret. 

    • Triple Alliance: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy 

    • Triple Entente: France, Britain, and Russia

•  Imperialism 

  • Disputes over colonial possessions and interests had put Europe’s Great Powers at odds with each other.

  •  Rivalries grew in Africa/Asia and threatened to “come home”

•  Nationalism 

  • Had steadily grown in strength within all empires, creating both independence movements and calls for national unity/patriotism 

  • Nationalist movements in the Balkans in the 1910s threatened to grow into larger conflicts

The Spark

• On June 28, 1914, the dangerous situation that had built up in Europe for—some would argue, a century—is sparked by an assassination (HTDS) :45-8:30

The July Crisis

• By August of 1914 all of Europe’s great powers had declared war upon each other

• The Allied powers included

  • France (and its empire)

  • Russia (and its empire)

  • Great Britain (and its empire)

  • Soldiers from All of the colonial possessions

• The Central Powers included

  • Germany

  • Austria-Hungary

  • The Ottoman Empire

• Other Participants

  • Japan, supported the Allied Powers with mat. and naval support in exchange for Germany’s colonies in SE asia

  • The US- remained neutral and provided supplies to both sides (primarily allies) until 1917 when they declare war on Germany

    • Germany tried to convince Mexico to attack the United States

Conducting WW1

• Turns into a total war

  • Defeat not just the army but the entire country you were fighting

  • Also means all the resources and manpower is getting thrown at the war efforts

  • All parts of a country were targeted not just those fighting

• To build up theri armies they will use propaganda to heighten nationalism and promote their versions of why war was necessary

  • Ex. though they were the agressors in the fight, german propoganda convinced the people that they were at risk of invasion from Russia/ France

• Due to the merging of industrial technology and old military tactics, the destriction of WW1 was immense, miiillions died acroos Europe and the experience of those along the Western Front are remebered to this day for its horror

• If all of that isnt baf enough the goevernments of these emperors also committed aristocracies against populations in their own states

  • Genocide was commited against chirstians, armenians, within the Ottoman empire about 1 million were killed on death marches and massacres, initiated from a desire to create national unity

↓Russia←Germany

↓ ↑

Serbia -> Austria-Hungary↓ ←← French / British

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