IMPERIALISM: MAKING OF
THE EUROPEAN GLOBAL
ORDER
CHAPTER 24
AP World History
Big Picture

Western European industrialization fundamentally
altered the nature of European overseas expansion.
In previous times, 3 Gs: Gold, God, & Glory


Sought desired material goods, in Americas seized lands for plantation crops.

Countries in Europe were little interested in acquiring expensive/unstable distant
possessions, but men on the spot were drawn into local struggles as they sought to
advance or defend their interests.

Christian missionaries sought converts. In competition with Islam.
Industrialization brought new motives for expansion, including:

Raw materials were needed to fuel industrial growth

Markets were required for its manufacturing production

Christian proselytizing continued, but private initiative replaced state direction

Increased power, fear of other imperial rivalries more than indigenous opposition.
 This pushed the Europeans into and occupied territories once closed to them by disease
or local resistance.
European
Colonial
Territories
Before and
After 1800
The Shift to Land Empires in Asia
The Dutch Advance on Java
 Established Batavia 1619
 Initially paid tribute to sultan of
Mataram
 1670s started to take part in
political rivalry between
claimants to the throne of
Mataram
 Dutch used firearms &
trained army
 These succession wars ended by
1750 with the domination of
the whole island by the Dutch
The Shift to Land Empires in Asia

Stages of Dutch
Expansion in Java
The Shift to Land Empires in Asia
Pivot of World Empire: The Rise of the British Rule in
India
 British East India Company
 Gained power as the Mughal Empire diminished
 Sepoys used to fight wars
 Seploys were Indian troops trained in
European-style fighting
 Five major wars were fought during the 18th
century British assume power after defeat of the
French, additionally:
 Battle of Plassey, 1757
 Robert Clive defeats Bengal ruler
 British control Bengal
The Shift to Land Empires in Asia


The Consolidation of British Rule
 Mughal decline gives British opportunity

Presidencies
 Capitals: Madras, Bombay, Calcutta
 Directly ruled India
 However, the rest of India was indirectly ruled
 Were controlled through agents at Indian rulers’ courts
By the beginning of the 19th century, India was becoming Britain’s
major colonial possession.
 Empire’s largest colonized population.
 Indians to served in British-led armies, powerful land force
 Indian ports were vital to British sea power.
 Manufactured goods, overseas investment, and raw
materials.
The Shift to Land Empires in Asia
The Growth of the British Empire in India,
From the 1750s to 1858
The Shift to Land Empires in Asia
Early Colonial Society in India and Java

The Europeans at first were content to leave Asian social
systems intact.
 The previous rulers ended up performing most of the
daily administrative tasks.
 They formed a new class on top of existing hierarchies
 European a dominant class
 Europeans adopted themselves to indigenous culture in
order to survive.
 local styles of dress, food, housing, work habits, and
political symbols.
 Since most of the Europeans were men, they lived with
and married indigenous women.
The Shift to Land Empires in Asia
Social Reform in the Colonies
 Rampant corruption among British East India Company officials
(Nabobs) from the 1770s, which contributed to
a
disastrous famine in Bengal, forced reform.
 Accountable to British government
 1790s Indians excluded from administration
 Lord Charles Cornwallis

Evangelical religion worked to…
 Social reform sought to
 End slave trade
 End sati


English language was the key to reform
The reforms enacted were a turning point in global history.
 Essential components of Western culture were introduced
into the Indian world.
 Attempt to reshape colonial society
Industrial Rivalries and the Partition of the
World, 1870-1914
Unequal Combat



Industrial Revolution increased Western
military superiority over the rest of the world.
 Mass-produced weapons
 Machine gun, rendered the massed charge suicidal
 Railroads, steam ships greater mobility.
Africans and Asians still fought fiercely against the imperialists
 Few won victories or long-delayed conquests
 The Zulu, defeated a British force at Isandhlwana in 1879
 Guerrilla tactics in Vietnam, prolonged, but did not defeat
 By 1914, all of Africa but Ethiopia and Liberia had fallen to Europeans
 In southeast Asia, only Siam was independent.
 China, Persia, and the Middle East remained unoccupied, but strong informal
European political and economic influence was present.
Britain dominated overseas commerce and empire building during the first half of
the 19th century; from then on, Britain was challenged by Belgium, France, Germany,
and the United States.
The Partition of Southeast Asia and the
Pacific, to 1914
Industrial Rivalries and the Partition
of the World, 1870-1914
Patterns of Dominance:
Continuity and Change


"Tropical dependencies"
 Africa, Asia, South Pacific
 Europeans rule indigenous peoples
Settler colonies (2 types)
 #1"White Dominions"
 Inhabitants mostly Europeans their descendants
 indigenous peoples were few.
 Examples: Canada, Australia
 #2 “Contested Settler Colonies”
 Large numbers of Europeans
 Large indigenous numbers
 European and indigenous peoples clashed
 control of local resources
 questions of social or cultural difference.
 Examples: South Africa, Algeria, New Zealand, Kenya, and
Hawaii
Patterns of Dominance:
Continuity and Change

Colonial Regimes and Social Hierarchies in the Tropical Dependencies
 Cultural influence
 Exploited ethnic and cultural divisions --- ‘tribes’
 Minorities, especially Christians, were favored in colonial recruiting
 English (western) language education (Java & India)
 Missionaries run schools (Africa)

Asians had more opportunities, but fear of such education denied graduates appropriate
positions.
 Such policies greatly stunted the growth of a Western-oriented middle class
Changing Social Relations Between Colonizers and the Colonized European communities
grow
 Increasing segregation
 Relations with indigenous women were not favored
 Ideas of white supremacy
 Africans were put at the bottom of racial hierarchies, most non-white, if appeared noncivilized were put in a category of savages


European racial prejudices blocked higher education for most Africans.
Patterns of Dominance:
Continuity and Change



Shifts in Methods of Economic Extraction
 Attempted to introduce scientific agricultural techniques
 Produce cheaper and more abundant raw materials
 Drive to increase production, lower costs
 Many colonies reduced to dependency
 Railways, roads built to serve extraction
Settler Colonies in South Africa and the Pacific Relations varied
 Disease decimates in some cases
 Some native peoples Westernized
 Some more resistant
The Afrikaners (Boers- mainly Dutch, German and French ancestry), and their native
tongue is Afrikaans, a language closely related to Dutch.

Formed two interior republics during the 1850s and remained independent until

Discovery of diamonds (1867)

Gold (1885)
 Boer wars (1899-1902) & Afrikaner defeat in 1902
Patterns of Dominance:
Continuity and Change
Pacific Tragedies demographic disaster and social disruption

New Zealand
 1790s, first Europeans
 Alcoholism, prostitution spread
 Maoris adopt firearms
 1850s, change
 British farmers, herders arrive
 Maoris pushed into interior
 Adopt European culture

Hawaii - James Cook
 Prince Kamehameha
 Westernization
 1810, rules Hawaiian kingdom
 Disease devastates population

Shift-exploited the economy by establishing a plantation sugar system
 Asian workers American settlers
 Push for annexation
 Weak rulers pushed out
 1893, last ruler deposed (Queen Liliuokalani)
 1898, annexed by United States