2011
Orzoff-Baranyk
Imperialism mid-19th century to 20th c.
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Read the following packet carefully,
answering any questions highlighted
in gray thoughtfully.
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Imperialism really began in the age of exploration. Imperialism is “Empire Building.”
1. Think back to our unit on Exploration. Starting in the 15th century, which European
countries were involved with Empire building? What parts of the world did they establish
colonies in?
Reasons Europeans thought Imperialism was the right thing to do
In the middle of the 19th century Charles Darwin published his book on Evolution.
This work about the biological evolution of species gave rise to new theories.
o Social Darwinism: Theory that applied “survival of the fittest” to society and
social classes by Herbert Spencer
"Society advances, where its fittest members are allowed to assert their fitness with the least
hindrance." He went on to argue that the unfit should "not be prevented from dying out."
2. How would beliefs like the one stated just above, help promote the idea that
Europeans should take over countries in Africa, Asia, and South America in the 1800s?
3. From our study of early man first semester, explain why the graphic to
the right is incorrect. Also explain how this chart was probably used to
support social Darwinism.
Read the following piece by Jules Ferry, former prime minister of France.
Underline or highlight ALL of the reasons he gives to explain why Imperialism was
seen as necessary.
Jules Ferry (1832-1893): On French Colonial Expansion
The policy of colonial expansion is a political and economic system ... that can be connected to three sets of
ideas: economic ideas; the most far-reaching ideas of civilization; and ideas of a political and patriotic sort.
In the area of economics, I am placing before you, with the support of some statistics, the considerations that
justify the policy of colonial expansion, as seen from the perspective of a need, felt more and more urgently by
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the industrialized population of Europe and especially the people of our rich and hardworking country of France: the need for outlets [for
exports]. Is this a fantasy? Is this a concern [that can wait] for the future? Or is this not a pressing need, one may say a crying need, of our
industrial population? I merely express in a general way what each one of you can see for himself in the various parts of France. Yes, what
our major industries [textiles, etc.], irrevocably steered by the treaties of 18601 into exports, lack more and more are outlets. Why? Because
next door Germany is setting up trade barriers; because across the ocean the United States of America have become protectionists, and
extreme protectionists at that; because not only are these great markets ... shrinking, becoming more and more difficult of access, but these
great states are beginning to pour into our own markets products not seen there before. This is true not only for our agriculture, which has
been so sorely tried ... and for which competition is no longer limited to the circle of large European states .... Today, as you know,
competition, the law of supply and demand, freedom of trade, the effects of speculation, all radiate in a circle that reaches to the ends of the
earth .... That is a great complication, a great economic difficulty; ... an extremely serious problem. It is so serious, gentlemen, so acute, that
the least informed persons must already glimpse, foresee, and take precautions against the time when the great South American market that
has, in a manner of speaking, belonged to us forever will be disputed and perhaps taken away from us by North American products. Nothing is
more serious; there can be no graver social problem; and these matters are linked intimately to colonial policy.
Gentlemen, we must speak more loudly and more honestly! We must say openly that indeed the higher races have a right over the lower
races ....
I repeat, that the superior races have a right because they have a duty. They have the duty to civilize the inferior races .... In the history of
earlier centuries these duties, gentlemen, have often been misunderstood; and certainly when the Spanish soldiers and explorers introduced
slavery into Central America, they did not fulfill their duty as men of a higher race .... But, in our time, I maintain that European nations acquit
themselves with generosity, with grandeur, and with sincerity of this superior civilizing duty.
I say that French colonial policy, the policy of colonial expansion, the policy that has taken us under the Empire [the Second Empire, of
Napoleon 1111, to Saigon, to Indochina [Vietnam], that has led us to Tunisia, to Madagascar-I say that this policy of colonial expansion was
inspired by... the fact that a navy such as ours cannot do without safe harbors, defenses, supply centers on the high seas .... Are you unaware
of this? Look at a map of the world.
Gentlemen, these are considerations that merit the full attention of patriots. The conditions of naval warfare have greatly changed .... At
present, as you know, a warship, however perfect its design, cannot carry more than two weeks' supply of coal; and a vessel without coal is a
wreck on the high seas, abandoned to the first occupier. Hence the need to have places of supply, shelters, ports for defense and
provisioning.... And that is why we needed Tunisia; that is why we needed Saigon and Indochina; that is why we need Madagascar... and why we
shall never leave them! ... Gentlemen, in Europe such as it is today, in this competition of the many rivals we see rising up around us, some by
military or naval improvements, others by the prodigious development of a constantly growing population; in a Europe, or rather in a
universe thus constituted, a policy of withdrawal or abstention is simply the high road to decadence! In our time nations are great only
through the activity they deploy; it is not by spreading the peaceable light of their institutions ... that they are great, in the present day.
Spreading light without acting, without taking part in the affairs of the world, keeping out of all European alliances and seeing as a trap, an
adventure, all expansion into Africa or the Orient-for a great nation to live this way, believe me, is to abdicate and, in less time than you may
think, to sink from the first rank to the third and fourth.
4. Please list with bullet points all of the reasons Ferry believed imperialism was
necessary, in your own words, below.
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Below you will find a cartoon & a poem with the same title, “The White Man’s Burden”.
The “White Man’s Burden” was yet another justification for imperialism.
5. What is going on
in the cartoon to
the Left?
The White Man's Burden, by Rudyard Kipling (1899) in response to the USA taking over the Philippines after the Spanish-American War.
Take up the White Man's burden-Send forth the best ye breed-Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild-Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.
Take up the White Man's burden-In patience to abide,
To veil the threat of terror
And check the show of pride;
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain
To seek another's profit,
And work another's gain.
Take up the White Man's burden-The savage wars of peace-Fill full the mouth of Famine
And bid the sickness cease;
And when your goal is nearest
The end for others sought,
Watch sloth and heathen Folly
Bring all your hopes to nought.
Take up the White Man's burden-No tawdry rule of kings,
But toil of serf and sweeper-The tale of common things.
The ports ye shall not enter,
The roads ye shall not tread,
Go mark them with your living,
And mark them with your dead.
Take up the White Man's burden-And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard-The cry of hosts ye humour
(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:-"Why brought he us from bondage,
Our loved Egyptian night?"
Take up the White Man's burden-Ye dare not stoop to less-Nor call too loud on Freedom
To cloke your weariness;
By all ye cry or whisper,
By all ye leave or do,
The silent, sullen peoples
Shall weigh your gods and you.
Take up the White Man's burden-Have done with childish days-The lightly proferred laurel,
The easy, ungrudged praise.
Comes now, to search your
manhood
Through all the thankless years
Cold, edged with dear-bought
wisdom,
The judgment of your peers!
,6. Looking at the cartoon and this poem, what was the “White Man’s Burden”??
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The Following Poem was written in response to Rudyard Kipling’s “The White Man’s Burden.” It was published in a London
newspaper the same year. It is called “The Brown Man’s Burden” by Henry Labouchere.
Pile on the brown man's burden
To gratify your greed;
Go, clear away the "niggers"
Who progress would impede;
Be very stern, for truly
'Tis useless to be mild
With new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half devil and half child.
Pile on the brown man's burden;
And, if ye rouse his hate,
Meet his old-fashioned reasons
With Maxims up to date.
With shells and dumdum bullets
A hundred times made plain
The brown man's loss must ever
Imply the white man's gain.
Pile on the brown man's burden,
compel him to be free;
Let all your manifestoes
Reek with philanthropy.
And if with heathen folly
He dares your will dispute,
,.
Then, in the name of freedom,
Don't hesitate to shoot.
Pile on the brown man's burden,
And if his cry be sore,
That surely need not irk you-Ye've driven slaves before.
Seize on his ports and pastures,
The fields his people tread;
Go make from them your living,
And mark them with his dead.
Pile on the brown man's burden,
Nor do not deem it hard
If you should earn the rancor
Of those ye yearn to guard.
The screaming of your Eagle
Will drown the victim's sob-Go on through fire and slaughter.
There's dollars in the job.
Pile on the brown man's burden,
And through the world proclaim
That ye are Freedom's agent--
There's no more paying game!
And, should your own past history
Straight in your teeth be thrown,
Retort that independence
Is good for whites alone.
Pile on the brown man's burden,
With equity have done;
Weak, antiquated scruples
Their squeamish course have run,
And, though 'tis freedom's banner
You're waving in the van,
Reserve for home consumption
The sacred "rights of man"!
And if by chance ye falter
Or lag along the course,
If, as the blood flows freely,
Ye feel some slight remorse,
Hie ye to Rudyard Kipling,
Imperialism's prop,
And bid him, for your comfort,
Turn on his jingo stop
7. According to Laboucher, what was the “Brown Man’s Burden”?
8. What was the issue being debated by these poems about burden??
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Types of Imperialism
Colony
Economic
Imperialism
Sphere of Influence
Protectorate
A body of people who settle far
from homeland; they remain
citizens of their home state but
employ self-rule.
American Colonies (1603-1776)
The economic control of a
remote area by a state who has
not annexed the territory.
South America’s eventually
dependence on European
factories set up there for cheap
labor.
An area under the economic
and military control of one
imperial power. The land has
not been officially annexed, but
the imperial power controls it
fully.
A state or territory partly
controlled by (but not a
possession of) a stronger state.
The protectorate retains control
of internal affairs, but still must
answer to imperial powers.
South Africa (1652-1931)
•
Dutch then British
China (1851-1912)
Egypt (1882-1922)
9. What element(s) do all of these forms of imperialism have in common? Which
form of Imperialism seems the most invasive? Which is the least?
Examples of Imperialism at work!
Africa
•
•
•
Remember, as early as the 15th century,
Europeans had coastal colonies all over Africa.
Eventually, they began to conquer land further
and further inland.
By 1914, Africa had been completely taken over
by European powers. Only Liberia (a tiny
country on the west coast) was still
independent.
Reasons Europeans wanted Africa
• Route to SE Asia (initially around S.
Africa, then through the Suez canal).
• Good land for farming.
• Mineral wealth in Central and S. Africa
(diamonds, copper, gold).
• Tropical products.
• Status among nations.
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•
•
•
Egypt
• 1832: Egypt declared independence from the Ottoman Empire.
• 1869: Egypt began to modernize and completed the Suez Canal, connecting the
Mediterranean & Red Sea.
• Egypt borrowed money from England & France and spent it carelessly
• 1878: England & France insisted on joining the government, and eventually Britain took
over making Egypt a protectorate.
Algeria
• 1830: The French invaded to stop piracy in the Mediterranean, collect debts, & gain
ports
• Faced resistance from the Muslim Brotherhood (10,000 well trained troops)
• 1841: The French won the war. Put down the last revolt in 1871
• French moved in and took over good farm land.
• The beginning of Muslim resistance to European dominance that continues into the
present.
South Africa
• 1652: The Dutch created the Cape of Good Hope Colony
• Dutch farmers were called Boers and came to speak a derivative of Dutch called
Afrikaans.
• Cape of Good Hope Colony became a place to stop on the way to India & grew
slowly
• The Dutch faced some native resistance (1816: Shaka Zulu/ 40,000 troops) but
prevailed.
• The Dutch took good farm land, displaced Africans, spread disease, & took
Africans as slaves.
• 1815: The British took S. Africa after Napoleonic Wars.
• There were conflicts with Dutch over British laws
• The British took more land from Africans
• 1870: diamonds discovered
• 1880s: largest deposit of gold found
• Competition between the Dutch & British leads to the 3 year
“Boer War” 1899-1902
• 1948-1994: Apartheid Laws: The legal separating of races in South
Africa.
• The minority white population took away many rights of the
black majority & all other people of color.
10. Which European country had the biggest impact on the African countries
mentioned above? Overall, what was the impact of Imperialism on the native
people of Africa?
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The Berlin Conference
• 1884-1885: Berlin Conference called by Prussian Chancellor, Otto Van Bismarck in order to avoid
further conflicts over Africa between European powers.
• They made rules for fixing borders of African lands, divided up lands of Africa on paper
& gave Europeans inland areas (not just coastal territories).
• Nations had to establish actual inland settlements to keep the land – This began the
“Scramble for Africa.”
• A rush to get settlers into colonies in order to keep them!
11. Why do you think Europeans felt totally justified in splitting up the Continent of
Africa without a single African representative present?
Congo
•
•
•
Given to King Leopold of Belgium, as his Private estate at the Berlin
Conference.
• This means it was HIS, not Belgium’s.
Congo was 80 times bigger than Belgium & rich in rubber, copper, other
minerals
• These raw materials were mined through enslaving the native
population
• workers were killed or maimed for resistance
1908: the Belgian Parliament took Control of Congo away from the king
because of his cruelty, but it remained one of the most harshly ruled
territories.
King Leopold of Belgium
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12. Read the report below on Belgian Congo, and underline/highlight the injustices
that the author, Roger Casement, saw there.
Report of the British Consul, Roger Casement, on the Administration of the Congo Free State
The colonial regime of the Belgian King Leopold II--the Congo Free State-- became one of the more infamous international scandals of
the turn of the century. Leopold had acquired the vast Congo region through considerable investment of his own fortune in setting up
his administration there and by cajoling the great powers at the Berlin Conference of 1884-5 to award his International Congo
Association title to what was to become the Congo Free State. By the mid-1890s the Congo Basin and its products became a source of
great wealth to Leopold who used his riches to beautify his Belgian capital Brussels while using his agents in Africa to establish a
brutal exploitative regime for the extraction of rubber in the interior forest regions of the Free State [Note: the term 'Free' signified
the free trade that the Berlin Act obliged Leopold to establish for the benefit of all nations who wished to trade there; a condition that
the King managed to flout through awarding territorial concessions for rubber extraction to a number of private companies, some of
which were mere disguises for Leopold's own aggrandizement].
Leopold's ability to administer the Congo government coupled with his gift for self-promotion and dissimulation, kept knowledge of
what was taking place there to a minimum. Inevitably the truth leaked out as it became known through missionary reports and the like
that the natives were being willfully exploited and brutally treated in the interests of amassing revenue for the King and his agents.
Foremost in the campaign to expose the regime--based on forced labor and various forms of terror--was E.D. Morel whose ceaseless
pursuit of Leopold's regime resulted in questions being raised in the British House of Commons, for Britain, after all, had been a
signatory to the Berlin Act which bound the Congo Government "to bind themselves to watch over the preservation of the native tribes
and to care for their moral and material welfare." The Report (below) of the British consul sent to investigate the accumulating
reports of torture, murder and virtual enslavement was published to the world in 1904 and from that point on the pressure for reform
mounted until, finally, Leopold was forced to yield up his private African preserve to the Belgian government which formally took over
the 'Belgian Congo' by an act of annexation in August 1908.
Leopold II has not fared well by historians. As one English historian has bitterly commented: "(Leopold) was an Attila in modern dress,
and it would have been better for the world if he had never been born."
I have the honor to submit my Report on my recent journey on the Upper Congo.
. . . the region visited was one of the most central in the Congo State . . Moreover, I was enabled, by visiting this district, to contrast its
present state with the condition in which I had known it some sixteen years ago . . and I was thus able to institute a comparison
between a sate of affairs I had myself seen when the natives loved their own savage lives in anarchic and disorderly communities,
uncontrolled by Europeans, and that created by more than a decade of very energetic European intervention . . by Belgian officials in
introducing their methods of rule over one of the most savage regions of Africa.
. . . a fleet of steamers . . navigate the main river and its principal affluents at fixed intervals. Regular means of communication are
thus afforded to some of the most inaccessible parts of Central Africa.
A railway, excellently constructed in view of the difficulties to be encountered, now connects the ocean ports with Stanley Pool, over a
tract of difficult country, which formerly offered to the weary traveler on foot many obstacles to be overcome and many days of great
bodily fatigue. . . The cataract region, through which the railway passes . . . is . . the home, or birthplace of the sleeping sickness--a
terrible disease, which is, all too rapidly, eating its way into the heart of Africa . . . The population of the Lower Congo has been
gradually reduced by the unchecked ravages of this, as yet undiagnosed and incurable disease, and as one cause of the seemingly
wholesale diminution of human life which I everywhere observed in the regions revisited, a prominent place must be assigned to this
malady . . . . Communities I had formerly known as large and flourishing centers of population are to-day entirely gone . . .
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On the whole the Government workmen (Congolese natives) . . struck me as being well cared for . . The chief difficulty in dealing with so
large a staff [3,000 in number] arises from the want of a sufficiency of food supply in the surrounding country. . . . The natives of the
districts are forced to provide a fixed quantity each week . . which is levied by requisitions on all the surrounding villages . . . This,
however necessary, is not a welcome task to the native suppliers who complain that their numbers are yearly decreasing, while the
demands made upon them remain fixed, or tend even to increase. . . . The (official in charge)is forced to exercise continuous pressure
on the local population, and within recent times that pressure has not always taken the form of mere requisition. Armed expeditions
have been necessary and a more forcible method of levying supplies [ e.g., goats, fowl, etc.] adopted than the law either contemplated
or justifies.
The result of an expedition, which took place towards the end of 1900, was that in fourteen small villages traversed seventeen persons
disappeared. Sixteen of these whose names were given to me were killed by the soldiers, and their bodies recovered by their friends . .
Ten persons were tied up and taken away as prisoners, but were released on payment of sixteen goats by their friends . . .
A hospital for Europeans and an establishment designed as a native hospital are in charge of a European doctor. . . When I visited the
three mud huts which serve (as the native hospital), all of them dilapidated . . I found seventeen sleeping sickness patients, male and
female, lying about in the utmost dirt. The structures I had visited . . had endured for many years as the only form of hospital
accommodation for the numerous native staff of the district.
. . . The people have not easily accommodated themselves to the altered condition of life brought about by European government in
their midst. Where formerly they were accustomed to take long voyages down to Stanley Pool to sell slaves, ivory, dried fish, or other
local products . . they find themselves today debarred from all such activity . . . The open selling of slaves and the canoe convoys,
which navigated the Upper Congo (River), have everywhere disappeared. . . . (but) much that was not reprehensible in native life has
disappeared along with it. The trade in ivory has today entirely passed from the hands of the natives of the Upper Congo . .
Complaints as to the manner of exacting service are . . frequent . . . If the local official has to go on a sudden journey men are
summoned on the instant to paddle his canoe, and a refusal entails imprisonment or a beating. If the Government plantation or the
kitchen garden require weeding, a soldier will be sent to call in the women from some of the neighboring towns. . .; to the women
suddenly forced to leave their household tasks and to tramp off, hoe in hand, baby on back, with possibly a hungry and angry husband
at home, the task is not a welcome one.
I visited two large villages in the interior . . wherein I found that fully half the population now consisted of refugees . . I saw and
questioned several groups of these people . . . They went on to declare, when asked why they had fled (their district), that they had
endured such ill-treatment at the hands of the government soldiers in their own (district) that life had become intolerable; that nothing
had remained for them at home but to be killed for failure to bring in a certain amount of rubber or to die from starvation or exposure
in their attempts to satisfy the demands made upon them. . . . I subsequently found other (members of the tribe) who confirmed the
truth of the statements made to me.
. . . on the 25th of July (1903) we reached Lukolela, where I spent two days. This district had, when I visited it in 1887, numbered fully
5,000 people; today the population is given, after a careful enumeration, at less than 600. The reasons given me for their decline in
numbers were similar to those furnished elsewhere, namely, sleeping-sickness, general ill-health, insufficiency of food, and the
methods employed to obtain labor from them by local officials and the exactions levied on them.
At other villages which I visited, I found the tax to consist of baskets, which the inhabitants had to make and deliver weekly as well as,
always, a certain amount of foodstuffs. (The natives) were frequently flogged for delay or inability to complete the tally of these
baskets, or the weekly supply of food. Several men, including a Chief of one town, showed broad weals across their buttocks, which
were evidently recent. One, a lad of 15 o so, removing his cloth, showed several scars across his thighs, which he and others around
him said had formed part of a weekly payment for a recent shortage in their supply of food.
. . . A careful investigation of the conditions of native life around (Lake Mantumba) confirmed the truth of the statements made to me-that the great decrease in population, the dirty and ill-kept towns, and the complete absence of goats, sheep, or fowls--once very
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plentiful in this country--were to be attributed above all else to the continued effort made during many years to compel the natives to
work india-rubber. Large bodies of native troops had formerly been quartered in the district, and the punitive measures undertaken to
his end had endured for a considerable period. During the course of these operations there had been much loss of life, accompanied, I
fear, by a somewhat general mutilation of the dead, as proof that the soldiers had done their duty.
. . . Two cases (of mutilation) came to my actual notice while I was in the lake district. One, a young man, both of whose hands had been
beaten off with the butt ends of rifles against a tree; the other a young lad of 11 or 12 years of age, whose right hand was cut off at the
wrist. . . . I both these cases the Government soldiers had been accompanied by white officers whose names were given to me. Of six
natives (one a girl, three little boys, one youth, and one old woman) who had been mutilated in this way during the rubber regime, all
except one were dead at the date of my visit.
[A sentry in the employ of one of the concessionary private companies] said he had caught and was detaining as prisoners (eleven
women) to compel their husbands to bring in the right amount of rubber required of them on the next market day. . . . When I asked
what would become of these women if their husbands failed to bring in the right quantity of rubber . . , he said at once that then they
would be kept there until their husbands had redeemed them. -- (Signed) R. Casement
Images from & about the Belgian Congo
13. Below each picture, explain these images from or about Congo.
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Harm Done To Africa
Stolen Land
o S. Africa,1913: Native Lands Act by the British/South African government closed 87% of land
to African ownership. The leftover land was bad and hard to farm.
o In other African countries land was also taken by force by Europeans.
Stolen Labor & Racism
o Taxes had to be paid in cash by conquered people. Only European mining jobs paid cash
o This forced Africans to work for the Europeans. It was like slavery
Families were split up – men were forced to live in worker housing.
Men were not paid enough to take care of their families
o Better jobs were reserved for whites
o In many African countries Europeans also treated light skinned Africans better, favoring
some tribes above others in the same country.
Belgian Congo
o “(Leopold) was an Attila in modern dress, and it would have been better for the world if he
had never been born.” - An English Historian.
14. Today, the continent of Africa has many countries engaged in Civil Wars, suffering
through poverty, lack of education, etc. Some of you have studied these countries in
geography. How do you think the current situation in Africa is in is connected to imperialism?
The Decolonization of Africa (1890-1988)
15. The chart to the right shows the colonization and
decolonization of Africa. Why do you think
decolonization really began in earnest after World
War II? How could that war have motivated this
new trend?
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The End of Apartheid in South Africa.
1960s: The UN and many other western nations started to call for an end to Apartheid in South
Africa.
1960s-1980s: There were many rebellions within South Africa calling for an end to Apartheid. Some
of them resulted in violence and many deaths.
1980s: South Africa’s economy began to suffer because many western countries refused to trade
with them while Apartheid was still in effect.
1989: South African President F.W. de Klerk called for an end to racism, released Nelson Mandela (a
native South African who had fought for equal rights) from prison after he had served 27 years, and
officially ended Apartheid.
1994: Nelson Mandela was elected as the first black African president of South Africa.
16. Why do you think the white minority in South Africa enacted Apartheid laws? Why did
they end them?
Asia
Remember, Europeans had started
setting up colonies in Asia in the 15th
century.
This map shows Asia by 1914. Look at
in on line before class. While China was
independent by 1914 – it wasn’t always.
European countries began to take over
lands in Asia, just as they had in Africa
in the 19th century.
Burma, Singapore, & Malaya
Taken over by Britain for tin, rubber,
rice, teak, timber, and oil.
Indochina (Vietnam, Laos, & Cambodia)
Taken over by France to protect French
missionaries, and to get rice & rubber.
The Vietnam War, fought by the USA
from 1955-1975 began with the French leaving Vietnam.
Indonesian Archipelago
The Netherlands expanded from Java to take over the entire region.
They wanted the oil, tin, tobacco, sugar, indigo, and good farm land.
The crops produced on these islands provided 25% of the Dutch economy.
India
The British East India Company established the first permanent colony in 1612
o For the next 150 yrs. They established trading posts with the permission
of the Mughal emperors.
o The Mughal Empire went into decline in the 18th c. leading to the East
India Company taking over further control of the country.
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1858-194: India came under the control of the British Government, instead of the
East India Company.
o Some areas called “British India” were directly controlled by the British –
about 54% of India, including 77% of the population. Other areas, “the
Princely States” were ruled by Indian Rulers.
o Recent research indicates that a series of famines in the 19th century may
have been due to British policies. Between 6-10 million people died.
Became a “Model Colony”
o Imported manufactured goods from England – exported raw
materials. 2/3 of imports were from Britain
o It was a Model because it made Britain RICH!
Became biggest provider of tea
Indian taxes paid for Railroads to be built in India
o 1915: 35,000 miles of track
India started its own Industrial Revolution
o Cotton textile mills, coal mining, steel mills
o By WWI – over 1 million worked in factories
British Rule Influenced administration, education, political philosophy
of India
o There is still debate about the economic impact of Britain on India.
Did it cause the immense poverty seen throughout India today, or
was wealth always concentrated in the hands of an elite few?
1947: the British were forced out of India.
17. What benefits did European countries get from having colonies in Asia? Why do you
think they were reluctant to give them up even though the native populations were agitating
for them to leave in the early 1900s?
China (came to be controlled gradually by European powers due to the Opium Wars of the 19th c.)
The Opium Wars
19th c. Opium was grown in the British colony of India. Opium is a hallucinogen made of the same
chemicals that heroin is made from! It was Illegal in Britain, but used as a valuable trade good in
China. Eventually, more opium than cash flowed into China from Britain.
1836: Opium was made illegal in China by the Qing Dynasty
1839: The Chinese begin to crack down on British traders. They destroyed warehouses with Opium.
They asked British queen Victoria to stop the trade. And finally, they
turned away British merchant ships
1840: England sent warships to force China to allow the trade of Opium
& won. Chinese war technology was outdated when compared to
European technology at this time. The Industrial Revolution had not
come to China.
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The Treaty of Nanking (to end the Opium War)
This was the most humiliating treaty in Chinese history, and is still a
source of national shame in China.
o Hong Kong given to the British.
o The British got a right called "extraterritoriality"
 All British citizens would be subjected to British, not
Chinese, law if they committed any crime on Chinese
soil.
o The British would no longer have to pay tribute to the imperial
administration
o Britain gained five open ports for British trade where foreigners could live and conduct
business with extraterritoriality
o No Restrictions could be placed on British Trade. The Opium trade more than doubled in
the next 3 decades
o England got "most favored nation" status when trading with China; this clause granted to
Britain any trading rights granted to other countries.
Two years later, China, against its will, signed similar treaties with France and the United States.
o Foreign establishments became centers of new industry, education, and publishing.
18. Think about China’s long and illustrious history. Why would this treaty, and what
followed, be considered the most humiliating treaty in Chinese history? Why do you think this
treaty is still a sore spot for China today?
19. The map to the right shows two things:
In the upper left hand corner it shows
areas of major rebellions. The larger map
shows areas of foreign occupation. Which
countries were occupying parts of China in
the 19th century? How do the areas of
occupation seem to match up with the
rebellions; who were the Chinese fighting?
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Impact of the Opium Wars
Opium was legalized in China.
China was weakened.
Other countries claimed land in China
o Native Rebellions against the Qing Dynasty & European powers began
 The Boxer Rebellion: Chinese nationalists attacked foreigners. The weak Qing
government could not stop them. Britain and the US had to put down the revolts.
China made a Quasi-Colony of Britain.
Growing Nationalist Movement:
o Sun Yat-Sen
 Educated in Hawaii, Christian, also educated in Hong Kong, became a doctor
 Started a two-fold revolution: against the Qing Dynasty (Manchus not native Han
Chinese, so seen as foreign), and against US, European, and Japanese powers
 The goal was to get rid of China’s Imperial Gov’t & Foreign powers
o 1911: First revolution overthrew the Qing Dynasty
 Elected a powerful military man to be the new Prime Minister, the child emperor,
Pu Yi, abdicated – imperial rule was over in China.
 The new Prime minister eventually named himself emperor, when he died – China
broke into military provinces for a decade.
o 2 strong parties emerged: Guomindang (National People’s Party) and the Communists.
 Sun Yat-sen was looked at as a leader of both parties.
 National People’s Party: Chaing Kai-Shek became the leader after the death of Sun
Yat-sen. Supported by the United States, but greatly weakened during WWII
 Communist: Mao Zedong became the leader during WWII. The US opposed
Communist influence in China. “Power comes from the barrel of a gun” - Mao
o The two parties worked together somewhat, in World War II to defeat the Japanese, but
between 1945 and 1949 they fought a vicious civil war.
o Mao Zedong emerged victorious, China became an authoritarian Communist nation, led by
Mao until his death in 1976.
20. Explain how a Nationalist movement led to the Chinese becoming Communists. What
about Communism may have appealed to the Chinese people?
A Bit about China today.
Mao Zedong closed off China to foreign countries and focused on building up the internal economy,
although he was mostly unsuccessful. Mao is regarded in China today as the savior of the nation, even
though his programs like the Great Leap Forward (industrialization/ collectivization) and The Cultural
Revolution (to remove the bourgeoisie or privileged classes, including the educated, imperial influence,
and ancient Chinese culture which was steeped in imperial tradition) were responsible for the deaths of
tens of millions & the destruction of much of China’s cultural heritage. China did not begin to really do
business with the west until his death in 1976, when his successor Deng Xiaoping opened the country to
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trade. However, the Communist Chinese government still keeps tight controls over the country, and
imposes controls over foreign businesses. For example, Google was forced to block many websites from
their search engines in China even though it was against their internal policies.
21. Is China truly a Communist country today? Is their control over companies like Google
part of Communism or something else? Be sure to go back and review your packet that
introduced you to communism before you decide. Please be sure to explain your answer!
o
The Decolonization of Asia.
o Mostly after World War II.
o After defeating the
Japanese Empire and the
Nazi Empire, how could
Europeans justify their
own empires?
The Asian Exception – the impact of Imperialism on Japan – The Meiji Restoration
• Japan had been closed to foreigners since the 17th c. when they kicked out all European powers
except the Dutch who were allowed to trade on a single island.
• 1853: US forced Japan to open with threats of war & superior military
technology.
o Extraterritoriality eventually granted
o It looked like it was going to be another China
• To stop the foreign invasion Japan took the Shogun (military leader, like
a top Feudal lord) out of power
o Emperor Meiji was restored to the throne (Japan has only had a
single dynasty throughout all of its history).
o A group of Samurai (military men) took control behind the
scenes.
o They decided to Westernize & Industrialize in order to be seen
as equals in the world.
• 1871: Japanese Ambassadors were sent to Europe, Japanese students were sent to European
schools, foreign instructors were brought to Japan (farming, science, medicine), & Japan created
a standing army
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1878: modern military equipment bought
o Army: German model
o Navy: British model
Improvements to agriculture: New seed, fertilizer,
techniques introduced.
Railway & telegraph introduced
Industrial Revolution takes place
o Cities grow & Factory jobs grow
Western style education for all boys & girls, Western style
clothing and hair cuts for official ceremonies
Meat eating (Buddhists = vegetarians)
o Sukiyaki, Kobe Beef
Rights for women (other than education) do NOT improve
Japan became an imperial power (go back to the map that shows the Spheres of Influence in
China. Japan is one of the imperial powers!)
o This is the beginning of the Japanese Empire that will culminate in Japanese expansion
before World War II and end with their defeat in World War II.
19. How did Japan become an imperial power, equal in strength to western nations, instead
of being taken over like other Asian countries?
20. How did Imperialism both HELP and HARM the world? Do you think it was more helpful
or harmful? Please write at least 3 paragraphs explaining your answer in detail.