THE AGE OF
IMPERIALISM
THE RACE FOR AFRICA
• Why? Huge natural resources like diamonds, gold,
cocoa, rubber, copper, tin, etc.
• How could they do it? Maxim gun (first automatic
weapon), quinine, transportation, communication,
African disunity
• Berlin Conference (1884-1885)- Europeans carve up
Africa
• By 1914 the only free countries left were Ethiopia and
Liberia
WHY WAS
COLONIZATION IN ASIA
POSSIBLE?
• Europeans’ more advanced weaponry
and resources
• Transportation- railways, steamboats
(1869 Suez Canal)
• Communication- telegraph
• Rivalry among European nations
DUTCH IN JAVA
• 17 th and 18 th centuries the Dutch
slowly controlled the islands in
Indonesia through a series of
alliances with local princes and
interfrence in local warfare
BRITISH IN INDIA
• Origins: British East India Company
and port cities of Madras, Bombay,
and Calcutta
• Sepoys- Indian soldiers
• Battle of Plassey 1757- key battle to
British control of India
EARLY COLONIAL SOCIETY
IN JAVA AND INDIA
• Colonizers orginally tried to import
European customs but later adapted
these to local lifestyles
SOCIAL REFORM IN THE
COLONIES
• Shift from loose control of British East
India Company to more direct control
• Utilitarians and evangelicals pushed
to westernize the Indians (end
practice of sati)
• Ram Mohun Roy
SOCIAL RELATIONS
WITHIN THE COLONIES
• Rising African and Asian middle class
• Segregation between the colonizers
and the local population
• White racial supremacy
What was the effect on
the economies of Africa
and Asia?
• Economies were reorganized to meet
the demands of the European
• Locals lost farming land and the
ability to self-sustain because
Europeans developing cash crop
plantations
SETTLER COLONIES
• Europeans migrated with the intention
of permanent residence
• Canada, United States, Argentina,
Chile
• South Africa
o
Boer War (1899-1902) between the British
and the Boers (Dutch farmers)
SETTLEMENT IN THE
PACIFIC RIM
• New Zealand (Maori)
• Hawaii (annexed by the U.S. in 1898)