Chapter 24:
Industrialization
and Imperialism
AP World History
Ms. Sheets
University High School
Western Imperialism and the
Scramble for Colonies


Imperialism: the policy of strengthening a country’s power into
an empire through the military and diplomatic domination of
other areas of the world (colonies)
19th c. Western Imperialism is a result of the Industrial
Revolution


European nations, using increased military superiority, competed for
raw materials to power their mechanized industries and new systems of
transportation
Scramble for Colonies: Rivalries between European countries
occur in non-Western territories.



Main areas for colonization: India, Africa, Southeast Asia
Early 1800’s: Britain was dominant overseas trader and empire builder.
Late 1800’s: Belgium, France, Germany and United States followed
with colonial empires.
Colonial Types
1) Tropical dependency colonies: few Europeans
ruled many indigenous peoples

Examples: Africa (Congo), Asia (India),
South Pacific (Java)
2) Settlement colonies:
A) White Dominions

Canada, Australia

Europeans settle in the colony
permanently to inhabit most of the
region
B) Contested Settler Colonies

New Zealand, South Africa, Hawaii

Large European populations lived
among even more numerous
indigenous peoples and continuously
clashed over resources and
social/cultural differences
European Empires by 1800
QUICK REVIEW QUESTION
1)
2)
Imperialism is a result of what?
There are two types of colonies: what are
they? Include examples for each.
Rise of British East India
Company in India




British rule lasted in India from 1612-1947.

1612-1857: British East India Company ruled

1857-1947: British Raj ruled
India was divided between a weakening Mughal Empire and
regional kingdoms
British East India Company had obtained coastal trading towns in
17th c. and began to be interested in obtaining more territory
during the decline of the Mughal Empire in 18th c..

1756-1763: British gained more control of territory as part of
victory in Seven Years’ War against France.
To maintain power, the British relied on sepoys (Indian soldiers
trained in British military style) to control territory.

Sepoys received higher pay in the British army than as local
Mughal soldiers
Weaknesses of
British East India Trading Company




Battle of Plassey (1757) gave the British (led by Robert
Clive) control of Bengal.

British needed territory to cultivate opium and
river valleys

No Indian national identity (Islam/Hindu), so no
ruler could appeal to the need for unity to drive
out foreigners.
Rampant corruption follows
Land taxes raised significantly (increased 5 times)
Great Bengal Famine of 1770 (1769-1773)

Caused by widespread forced cultivation of opium
for export to China in place of local crops

Prevented farmers from “hoarding” rice  result:
no reserves of food

10 million people die
More Challenges to
British East India Company



Company was restructured and became
accountable to the British government.
By 1790s: major social and political reforms
instituted

1830s: Sati was prohibited.

Evangelical missionaries pushed for British
ways of thinking in India: end slave trade
and Indian social abuses; promote Western
education in English.
Sepoy Rebellion (1857): revolt by Indian soldiers
in the British army

Indian Muslim and Hindu soldiers upset by
new rifles that require them to use their teeth
to tear open cartridges

Revolt ended in 1858 as a British victory.

Led to the dissolution of the British East
India Company in 1858  Creates
British Raj
The British Raj (1857-1947)






The British Raj (the British political
establishment in India directly controlled
by the Crown) remained in contact with
Britain through telegraph lines.
Madras, Bombay and Calcutta became
administrative centers.
India became a major outlet for British
overseas investments and manufactured
goods (primarily cotton and other textiles)
British put themselves at the top of the
social hierarchy instead of changing the
social system.
British adopted Indian culture, but retained
English as spoken language.
British men commonly had sexual
relationships with Indian women

Mixed marriages common.
Growth of British Empire in India
from the 1750s to 1858
After the Battle of Plassey (1757)
Mughal Decline
Collapse of Mughal Empire; Sepoy Rebellion
QUICK REVIEW QUESTION
1)
What two British groups rule British India?
2)
What was the Battle of Plassey?
3)
What was the Sepoy Rebellion? Its effects?
Scramble for Africa


Europeans clash over African colonies as Africa offered raw
materials and young markets.
The Berlin Conference of 1884-1885 (organized by Otto van
Bismarck) partitioned Africa into colonies controlled by Belgium,
France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Portugal, and Spain.

Liberia and Ethiopia not colonized; South Africa already British

No African representatives are present.

Divisions made without concern for ethnic or cultural groups
 traditional African communities disrupted.
Diversity in Africa



3,000+ distinct ethnic
groups
2,000+ languages
Africans are more
genetically diverse from one
other than the Chinese are
from Europeans
Scramble for Africa
1870
Before Berlin Conference
1914
After Berlin Conference
Colonial Wars and Unequal Combat



Industrial change justified colonial
possessions and made them easier to
acquire.
New weapons (machine gun, repeating
rifle) made the Europeans impossible to
stop in Africa and Pacific Islands.
Native responses:

Traditional tactics (shamans, religious
beliefs, ancestral spirits)

Diplomacy (African kings and diplomats)

Violence (guerrilla tactics proved to stall
– but not prevent – European advances).

1879: Battle of Isandhlwana in South
Africa (Zulu victory over the British)
Methods of Economic Extraction




African labor for colonists: plantations, bronzing,
mining (discovery of diamonds), felling forests

Plantations were established; natives forced to
labor (long hours, extremely low wages if at all)
to export crops.

Belgian Congo: rubber for tires

Palm oil from West and Central Africa for
machine lubricants
Roads and railways built to move raw materials to
ports where they could be shipped using
steamships that could travel along interior rivers.
European colonial governments imposed a tax
system on Africans, which had to be paid in cash or
cash crops; this forced free Africans to virtually
work for the colonists.
Products weren’t manufactured in Africa but were
processed in Europe instead.
Belgian Congo






Belgium’s King Leopold II wanted to exploit ivory
market and rubber exports; by the mid-1890s rubber
became the colony’s most profitable industry
Reduced native Congolese to serfs
1887 invention of inflatable, rubber bicycle tubes and
growing popularity of the automobile dramatically
increased the global demand for rubber.
Male workers often worked to death. Wives and
children held hostage until men met quotas. Those
who refused or failed had their villages burned
down, children murdered, and their hands cut off.

Local chiefs organized tribal resistance and
escape
1885-1908: Congolese native population decreased
by about ten million people.

Murder, starvation, exhaustion and exposure,
disease, and plummeting birth rates.
Leopold II never visited the Congo
Colonial Regimes and Social
Hierarchies





Europeans exploited long-standing
ethnic and cultural divisions between
peoples in colonies.

Native Christians in colonies were
favored.
Europeans lived mainly in capital cities
and had day-to-day administration
carried out by locals.
Western-language education was taught
by Christian missionaries.
Higher education was not promoted
due to European racial prejudices.
European colonial policies will stunt the
growth of a Western-style middle class
in these colonies.
Social Darwinism
Social Darwinism: application of Charles
Darwin’s theory of natural selection to race to
justify European conquest of non-Western
societies
Europeans kept to themselves in colonies and
preferred not to mix with natives.
Laws regarding interactions kept these
relationships at a minimum.
White racial supremacy was widely accepted.
Physiognomy (1800s): assessment of person’s
character based upon physical qualities
Used to justify mental and moral
superiority of whites over the rest of
mankind based on skin color
No need to socialize or adopt nonEuropean culture
Civilizing Effects



Europeans believed in the
civilizing effects of their
colonization.
Not only did they provide order
and stability, but also European
culture and societal expectations
regarding cleanliness and
decorum.
Europeans brought science and
health studies with them.

Aided in preventions against
malaria for Europeans

Improved living conditions in
colonies for indigenous
peoples: hospitals built,
sanitation improved
QUICK REVIEW QUESTION
1)
2)
3)
What occurred at the Berlin Conference?
Describe social darwinism; how does it relate
to imperialism?
What assumptions did Europeans make about
non-whites, and why did Europeans believe
their civilizing of natives was beneficial?
White Dominion Colonies

White Dominion British colonies were established in 19th
century with parliamentary governments and commercial
economies that followed British culture.


Canada

France lost Canada to Britain in 18th century (Seven Years’ War)

Large French minority still in Quebec

Canada granted self-rule in 1839 from Britain
Australia, established 1788

Indigenous hunting and gathering aborigines present

Botany Bay: Bay on the eastern coast of Australia where British
scientists discovered multiple plan and animal specimens

Made a penal colony with agricultural development and gold
discoveries

By 1840, Australia has 140,000 European immigrants
South Africa

Boers (Dutch settlers in South Africa)
gradually moved to the interior from the
coast.


Boers enslaved indigenous peoples
(Khoikhoi and San) and gradually mixed
races to form a new race.
After the British took the Cape Colony,
many Boers fled after the two groups fought.


Great Trek (1834): Boers migrated further
into the interior of South Africa and
encountered other African peoples (Zulu).
Zulu peoples fight against Boers, then
British (Anglo-Zulu Wars of 1879)
South African Boer Wars

1850s: Boers established two republics (Orange
Free State and Transvaal) in the interior.




1867: British businessman Cecil Rhodes led the
British arrival when diamonds were found in
the Orange Free State.
1885: Gold was discovered in Transvaal
Boer War (1899-1902) occurred when the Boers
declared war on the British for invading their
republics and interfering with Boer interests.


1856: Xhosa Cattle-Killing Movement (all
deceased will rise if all cattle are slaughtered)
British were victorious.
1902: British unite republics into Union of South
Africa; Africans under European control
Partition of Southeast Asia and
the Pacific to 1914


Most of Southeast Asia was comprised
of small independent kingdoms that are
easily colonized.

British: Malay States; Burma (now
Myanmar); Australia; Hawaii

French: Indochina (now Vietnam)

Dutch: East Indies

Siam (now Thailand) did not
succumb to imperial powers.
Pacific groups had lived in isolation for
thousands of years.

Sophisticated cultures and societies
had developed

No immunities, swayed by new
religions, vulnerable to lethal
weapons

Social disintegration and suffering
Dutch Expansion in Java




Srivajaya Kingdom (began in 6th c.): trading empire;
agricultural success

Controlled the Strait of Malacca

1414: Last Srivajaya king converted to Islam and
became a sultan
16th c.: Dutch paid tribute to the sultans to create good
relations

Java (the most populated island in Indonesia) was
constantly being advanced upon by the Dutch.

Goal: control over exporting of spices
1670s: Dutch became involved in royal conflicts and
succession; Dutch lent military support and received
territories in exchange.

Take advantage of already-present political divisions.
By 1750, control most Javanese kingdoms.

Cultivation System: Dutch policy that required
peasants plant a fifth of their land with export crops,
which had to be turned over to the Dutch as taxes
The Maori of New Zealand

1.
2.
Two period of disruption:
1769: Captain James Cook lands, then in the
1790s, European timber merchants and
whalers established settlements on coast.

Alcoholism and prostitution spread.

Maori traded food for weapons: society
becomes more violent and relationships
between tribes become unstable

Loss of population due to European
disease (common cold will be deadly)

Maori adjust to Europeans: follow
European farming, convert to Christianity.
1850s: British farmers and herders arrived.

British occupy the most fertile land by
force and drove Maori into interior.

Maori are again displaced but endured.
Economic Imperialism and Hawaii






Economic imperialism: exertion of economic
influence rather than political control over a region
1777-1779: English Captain James Cook voyaged to
Hawaii  first welcomed as a god; later, killed.
Protestant missionary efforts brought Christianity in
1819.
STD’s and tuberculosis devastated the island
population, as result of European presence

½ of Hawaiian population died
American companies export pineapple and sugar
using a plantation system.

Encouraged Japanese/Chinese workers to arrive
Hawaiian monarchs declined after 1872 and Hawaii
was annexed by the United States.

US Congress took over the islands in 1898.
QUICK REVIEW QUESTION
1)
2)
3)
4)
What are White Dominions?
What were the Boer Wars and why are they
significant?
Describe Dutch expansion in Java.
What is economic imperialism? What is an
example of this?