TACTICS OF RULE
European Imperialism: Introduction
SQ Section III
Part 4
Introduction to the Excerpts: New
imperialism
• The question of colonialism evolved during the 1880s
• Europe, Japan, and the United States entered into a period of
renewed imperialism
– Europeans divided up most of Africa, Asia, and the Pacific islands
• More than ________million square miles of land were seized by
Europeans in the decades leading up to World War I
– ________million people fell subject to new European rule
• New imperialism enjoyed the popular support of _______________
– Previous forms of colonization and imperialism did not have this solid
foundation
• The scramble for Africa almost led to war in Europe
– The Berlin Conference laid the ground rules for continued European
colonization and subjugation of Africa
• New imperialism persisted in Europe through the first half of the
20th century
HERBERT SPENCER and SOCIAL DARWINSIM:
Justification for Imperialism
Imperial justifications
• Many European states relied on __________________________to
justify the new empires
– ______________________________heavily advocated the use of
Social Darwinism
– Spencer assumed that technologically advanced civilizations enjoyed a
superiority over other cultures
• The __________ used their civilizing mission as a rationale for their
expanding empire
– _____________relied on spreading their culture
– The ____________heavily advocated the “white man’s burden”
• King Leopold (1832-1905) of Belgium developed a new round of
empire building
– Belgium seized Congo in the early ________s
– Leopold ostensibly sought to bring modern technology and civilization
to the Congo Free State
• The Belgian king actually had purely economic and commercial
interests for the African region
– Historians have termed Leopold’s rule of Congo a virtual
___________________________
The excerpts themselves
• __________________(1873-1924) wrote King
Leopold’s Rule in Africa (1904)
– This book details the disease, slaughter, and depopulation
synonymous with Belgium’s rule of Congo
• The __________________________in __________ had
already confirmed the facts of Morel’s book
– These scandals did not stymie colonialism either in Congo
or other locations
• _____________________(1903-1950) penned
“Shooting an _____________” in ___________
– This short story describes the relationship between a
subject community and its imperialists
– Orwell specifically focuses on Burma from 1922 to 1927
Background Information
Edmund Morel
• Edmund Morel worked as a British _______________
in the Congo
– Morel first realized that slave labor was involved in Congo
in __________
– In ______________, he observed only guns and bullets
being loaded onto ships headed for the Congo
• These same ships had returned with ivory and other valuables
• Morel first published the expose,
___________________________, in __________
– The _______ book _________________________in Africa
continued the ideas from this work
• He collected his facts from his own experiences as well
as interviews with Belgian imperial
_________________
Forced Labor and Depopultion:
Effects on Congo
• ______________became widespread throughout
Congo during Belgian rule
• ___________________ included slaughter,
emigration, sickness, poverty, despair, and child
neglect
– ________________accompanied the slaughter of
Congolese citizens
– Morel blamed the system of oppression for causing
__________________
– __________________closely followed the poverty
– Years of Belgian tyranny led to a hopeless despair and
mental depression among the Congolese
– The mistreatment of women led to _______________
DEPOPULATION
Effects on Congo
• Depopulation and ___________________had
enormous effects for Congo
• Depopulation often occurred through the
torture of _____________
– Women were dragged from their homes for forced
labor requisitions
• Belgian officials often __________________women to
put pressure on men to supply rubber or food taxes
• Some women starved in prison along with their children
– Pregnant women were not spared this terrible treatment
• Belgian soldiers often took advantage of these female
hostages
DEPOPULATION
Effects on Congo
• Young children experienced similar neglect
and mutilation
• Most children did not survive this terrible
situation
• One Belgian official declared that the
Congolese who possessed “the __________
to show their stumps to the missionaries”
deserved such treatment
• This official served in the Belgian House
Responses to the events
• Morel wondered how civilized people could allow their
governments to remain inactive in the face of such atrocities
– The incidents in Congo harbored back to the horrors of the slave
trade
– These events even exceeded the violence of Arab slave catchers
• The Congo government boasted of its success
– Tribal _____________ stopped and the sale of tribal prisoners of
war had ceased
– Morel believed that the domestic African slave had much better
prospects than the __________________enslavement of the
Congolese by the Belgians
• Belgium M & Ms: they believed this system to be
“____________and ______________regeneration”
– Morel saw it as an invasion of primitive rights unparalleled in the
world
– The _______________and ________________of the Congolese
people faced utter destruction
Responses to the events
Only __________________
(1809-1898) could have
found an adequate
phrase to describe the
inhumanity present in the
Congo
Gladstone served _______
terms as the British prime
minister
He also spoke against the
____________ brutalities
in the Balkans in the
________ and in
__________ in the 1890s
It’s “the
NEGATION of
GOD!”
Reasons for the atrocities
• Morel sought to understand the reason for the Congolese suffering
– They had committed no crime for which they needed to be punished
– Morel thought that the suffering might serve as a further warning to Europe
• The journalist hoped that the Congolese would soon rise up in revolt
– Morel wondered about the effects of the development of brains as well as
brawn in Africa
– He then shifted away from the future, as humans can gain nothing from
conjecture
• Belgium remained morally responsible for the events in the Congo
– The country of Belgium suffered as a result
• Even if the policies of the Congo State had been rational, they still would
have been condemned
– The Congo Free State could never have been a white man’s country
– The region consisted of individuals working as part of their own selfishness
– Only the fanaticism of dividends enticed the Congolese to work
• European powers suffered stupidity and inhumanity by not stopping the
extermination of the Congo
The Belgian Investigative Commission
• The Belgian Investigative Commission released its
report in ________
– Rumors had already spread regarding the Belgian
treatment of the Congolese people
• The report supported ___________________’s
works of 1903 and 1904
• A drastic decline in ________________ resulted
from the Belgian occupation of the
inappropriately named Congo Free State
DemiTranslation
The Belgium government retains absolute control over
the Congo Free State. Economic conditions have
become stagnant and natives often cannot move.
Some are granted permission to visit a neighboring
village for a short time. Breaking these regulations
results in arrest or punishment and the demands of
agents are often excessive, as they have personal
stakes in rubber yields.
A native often has to march one to two days before he
can reach parts of the forest with rubber vines. The
native spends a few days in this region without food
or his family, exposed to the elements of weather and
natural predators. Natives barely get to spend more
than three consecutive days in their village as forty
hours must be worked per month.
DemiTranslation
Brutal officials take hostages, imprison chiefs, and force the
quartering of soldiers. The punishments and military
expeditions cannot be denied. Women are imprisoned;
chiefs are made to do degrading work; rubber collectors
are flogged. Black officials commit brutalities.
Evidence and official reports have provided substance to the
rumors of murders carried out by black soldiers. We
cannot say for certain how many murders have been
carried out. 142 black soldiers have killed in a desire for
revenge. The official reports concerning punitive
expeditions include phrases like ‘‘energetic measures’’
and ‘‘great abuses.’’ These reports also indicate that men,
women, and children have been shot as they try to escape
our own soldiers.
George Orwell: “Shooting an
Elephant”
BACKGROUND: “Shooting an
Elephant”
British history
– Photographs exist of British troops arriving in
___________________, Burma in ________
– The British made Burma a province in __________
The narrative
• “Shooting an Elephant” related the awkward position of
young colonial ___________________
– _____________________served in this position in Burma
– Colonial administrators did not know local _______________
but had to assert themselves as part of the foreign ruling elite
• This internal debate caused Orwell to decide to shoot the
elephant in the story
– Some European imperialists believed that the elephant was
worth more than any Burmese villagers it could kill
Setting the stage
• Large numbers of people hated Orwell when he served in
__________________ in Lower Burma
– Orwell was never again important enough for people to hate him
– He worked as sub-divisional police officer of Moulmein
• Orwell experienced an aimless, anti-European bitterness
• No Burmese had the nerve to start a riot
– They did commit small infractions like ___________________________on
European women in bazaars
– The Burmese baited police officers whenever no real danger was present
• One Burman _________________Orwell up on a football field and the Burman
referee looked the other way
• The crowd subsequently laughed at this obvious infraction
– Orwell faced “____________________________” everywhere
•
•
•
•
The constant insults got under Orwell’s skin
Young _________________________mounted the worst verbal assaults at Orwell
Several thousand priests lived in Moulmein
Orwell believes that the men had nothing more to do than stand on street corners
shouting insults at Europeans
Perplexed and Upset: Orwell
• Orwell determined that _______________was an evil thing and that
he needed to leave his job as soon as possible
– Orwell secretly supported the Burmese in their efforts against the British
• He hated his job much more than he could articulate in his short story
– Orwell experienced the dirty work of empire up close
– Orwell felt guilty when he saw the dirty prisoners huddled in lock-up
cages and men whose buttocks were scarred from floggings
• Orwell had to sort out these problems in silence since he was young
and ill-educated
– He had no idea that the British Empire was declining at that point
– The empires that supplanted the British Empire do not live up to the
latter’s splendor
– Orwell found himself stuck between hatred for the empire and a dislike
for colonial subjects
• He despised the ________________________as a tyranny
• Orwell also wanted to stab ______________________with bayonets
• These feelings naturally resulted from imperialism
– Any off-duty Anglo-Indian official would confirm such emotions
The day of the elephant affair
• The shooting of the elephant granted Orwell a glimpse
into the real nature of imperialism
• The sub-inspector of a police station across town called
Orwell one morning with news of a rampaging elephant
– At the time, the elephant was destroying the bazaar
– The sub-inspector asked for Orwell to come handle the
situation
• Orwell wanted to see the situation for himself
• He rode on a pony to the police station
– Orwell brought his _____________________with him
• The rifle was not powerful enough to kill the elephant
– Orwell thought the noise might terrify the elephant
– Various Burmans stopped Orwell on his way to the situation
• The elephant was tame but had entered must
The day of the elephant affair
• The animal broke its chain the previous night and escaped
– The _____________had set out in pursuit of the elephant in the
wrong direction
• Only the mahout could control the elephant in must
• At the time of the incident, the mahout was _________hours away
– The elephant suddenly reappeared in town the morning of the
shooting
• The Burmese people had no weapons to defend
themselves against the elephant
–
–
–
–
A bamboo hut had already been destroyed
The elephant had also killed a cow and raided fruit-stalls
A municipal garbage van had been overturned by the elephant
The driver escaped before he was dealt damage
The day of the elephant affair
• The Burmese sub-inspector and Indian constables waited for Orwell’s
arrival
– The neighborhood was very poor, containing bamboo huts with
thatched palm-leaf roofs
– The morning was cloudy and stuffy, as it marked the beginning of the
rains
– The local Burmans did not provide useful information as to the location
of the elephant
• Stories always become vague when examined closely in the East
• Orwell did not believe the story about the elephant until he heard
nearby cries
– He approached an old woman shooing away children from a scene
• Children gathered around the dead body of a
black_____________________coolie
– The elephant had come upon him from the corner of his hut
– The animal wrapped the man in his trunk, stepped on his back, and
crushed the Indian
Preparing for a shooting
• Orwell immediately ordered an orderly to get an elephant
rifle from a nearby friend’s house after seeing the dead
man
– Orwell also sent his pony back to prevent it from going mad
after smelling the elephant
– The orderly soon returned with a rifle and five cartridges
• Burmans arrived and reported that the elephant was in a
paddy field just a few hundred yards away
– Almost the whole local population followed Orwell to the field
• Burmans had seen the rifle and thought Orwell was going to shoot the
elephant
– The local people did not care when the elephant had ravaged
their homes
– Upon hearing the animal would be shot, the Burmans had their
interest piqued
– The Burmans saw the activity as both fun and providing meat
Orwell had NO intention
of shooting the elephant
• The rifle had meant to serve as mere protection
• The following crowd unnerved Orwell
– He felt like a fool marching down the hill
• The bottom of the hill contained a “_______________”
and paddy fields 1,000 yards across
– These soggy fields contained coarse grass and had not yet
been ploughed
• The elephant stood eight yards from the road
– The left side faced the crowd
– The animal appeared not to even notice the approaching
crowd
• The elephant tore up bunches of grass, beat them against his
knees, and then ate them
Orwell stopped on the road
• He instantly knew, upon seeing the elephant, that the
animal should ________be shot
– The elephant looked as dangerous as a cow when
peacefully eating
– The attack of must had mostly worn off
• The elephant likely would have harmlessly wandered until the
mahout returned
• Shooting a working elephant was comparable to
destroying an expensive piece of___________
– One ought to avoid this action if it can be avoided
– Orwell decided to watch the elephant for a bit and then
return home
A change of plans
• The increasing crowd had grown to ________ by
the time Orwell made his decision
– The road was blocked for a large distance on both
sides
– Every member of the crowd thought the elephant
would be shot
• While the Burmese did not like Orwell, they respected him
while he held the rifle
– Orwell then realized he would have to shoot the
elephant
• The wills of the crowd members pushed Orwell forward
Orwell then grasped the hollowness
of European dominion in the East
• The armed _________man supposedly commanded the
scene in front of unarmed natives
• The_____________actually led the actions of Orwell
• **White men destroy their own _____________ when
they become _____________
– Europeans serve as a conventionalized ___________in this role
– In order to impress the natives, white men have to act how
natives expect in every crisis
– Europeans’ faces grow to fit the mask they wear
• Orwell committed himself to shooting the elephant when
he asked for the rifle
– Trailing away feebly from the elephant would be impossible
– The crowd would _______________ at Orwell
• The white man’s life in the East consisted of attempts to not be the
subject of laughter
Orwell still did not want to shoot the
elephant
• The elephant continued beating bunches of grass against its knees
– The preoccupied _________________________ air of elephants
remained present
• Orwell thought it murder to kill the elephant
– He was not squeamish about killing animals
– Orwell had never previously shot an elephant
– Killing a large animal seemed worse to Orwell
• He also considered the_____________of the elephant
– A live elephant was worth roughly £_________
– A dead elephant’s only value was his tusks, worth approximately £____
• Orwell needed to quickly make up his mind to appear ___________
– Burmans confirmed to Orwell that the elephant had been peaceful
since arriving in the field
– Going too close to the elephant, however, might cause him to charge
The final chapter
• Orwell realized the correct course of action
– He should have walked within 25 yards of the elephant to
test its behavior
• If the animal charged, Orwell could shoot and kill it
• If the elephant remained peaceful, the situation could wait until
the mahout arrived
– Orwell knew he would not follow these moves
• He was a poor shot with a rifle
– Moreover, the ground was soft mud
• If Orwell missed with the rifle as the elephant was charging, Orwell
would die
– The main motivation for Orwell remained the evergrowing ________________
• Orwell feared being trampled by the elephant in front of the local
people
– The only course of action that remained was to shoot the
elephant and end the situation
Orwell loaded the magazine and laid
on the road to get a better shot
• The crowd grew still and breathed a collective
sigh
• The German rifle possessed cross-hair sights
• Orwell did not know how to shoot an elephant
properly
– He mistakenly aimed several inches in front of the
______________into what he believed was the
elephant’s brain
– The proper way to shoot an elephant is to aim to cut
a bar from earhole to earhole
Orwell Fired
• Orwell soon fired the first shot
–
–
–
–
–
He did not feel the kick or hear the bang of the rifle
The crowd erupted in glee upon hearing the shot
A change came over the elephant even before the bullet hit
Upon being hit, the animal appeared stricken and immensely old
After five seconds or so, the elephant sagged to its knees
• Orwell fired a second shot into the same spot
– The elephant tried to rise after the second shot hit
– The animal’s legs sagged and head drooped
• The third shot from Orwell sealed the elephant’s fate
– The last remnant of strength from the animal’s legs disappeared
after this shot
– The elephant trumpeted as his rear legs sank and he
momentarily jolted upward
– The crash of the animal shook the ground all the way to Orwell
• The Burmans ran past Orwell before he could get up
– The elephant would never get up again, but it had not yet died
– The beast breathed in rattling grasps with his side painfully rising
and falling
– His mouth lay wide open
– The breathing did not weaken as Orwell waited for the animal to
die
• Orwell then fired the two remaining shots into the location
Orwell believed to be the elephant’s heart
– Blood pumped out of the elephant but the creature still refused to
die
– The beast died a slow and agonizing death
• Watching the beast be both unable to move and unable to die affected
Orwell
– Orwell fired shot after shot into the elephant’s throat and heart to
no effect
• Orwell eventually left the elephant, unable to stand the
situation any longer
– It took the elephant half an hour to die
– Burmans stripped the body to the bone by the afternoon
The aftermath
• Endless discussion followed the events of the day
– The enraged owner of the elephant could do nothing
because he was ________________
– Orwell had legally committed the correct action
• A mad elephant had to be killed the same as any mad dog
• Opinion was divided among Europeans
– ______________supported Orwell
– _____________thought that an elephant was worth more
than any Indians it could have Killed
• Orwell was very _____________the elephant killed the
Indian after the fact
– This tragedy allowed Orwell to kill the elephant
• Orwell frequently wondered if other Europeans knew
he shot the elephant just to avoid looking like a ______
3.29 MATCHING (pp. 100-101)
_____ 1. Founder of Social
Darwinism
_____ 2. Wrote a book about
Belgium’s King Leopold II
_____ 3. Set off the new round of
empire building when he seized
the Congo in the early 1880s
_____ 4. A British journalist in the
Congo
_____ 5. They talked of spreading
“culture”
a. Leopold II
b. Edmund Morel
c. The Germans
d. The French
e. The British
f. George Orwell
g. Herbert Spencer
3.29 MATCHING (pp. 100-101)
_____ 6. Author of The Black Man’s
Burden
_____ 7. They talked of their mission to
“civilize”
_____ 8. They believed they carried the
“White Man’s Burden”
_____ 9. Commissioned a 1903
investigation in the Congo
_____ 10. Author of “Shooting an
Elephant”
_____ 11. His intentions in imperialism
were described as “purely
commercial”—his rule was described as
a “virtual
holocaust”
a. Leopold II
b. Edmund Morel
c. The Germans
d. The French
e. The British
f. George Orwell
g. Herbert Spencer
3.30 FILL IN THE BLANK (pp. 101-102)
1. Morel writes: “Outwardly the most striking effect is
______________________: slaughter, mutilation; emigration; sickness,
largely aggravated by cruel and ______________________ oppression;
Poverty and even ______________________ starvation, induced by
unlimited taxation in ______________________ and
___________________; a hopeless despair and mental
______________________ engendered by years of grinding tyranny;
______________________ of children by the general maltreatment of
women”.
3.30 FILL IN THE BLANK (pp. 101-102)
2. Morel writes of the devastation to the daily life of the
native population and the “crushing weight of
______________________, remorseless oppression; the
gradual ______________________ of everything in the
______________________ life of the natives which makes
that life worth living.”
3.30 FILL IN THE BLANK (pp. 101-102)
3. Morel writes about how men were pressured to pay their
____________________ or produce more by having their women
taken “away from their homes for forced labor requisition”. Some
women were “[seized] as ‘hostages’ and [tied up]”. Oftentimes the
women and their
______________________ were thrown in prison together where
many died of ______________________, neglect, or physical
abuse.
3.30 FILL IN THE BLANK (pp. 101-102)
4. Morel writes that the life of the
______________________ slave under the
African system is blissful beyond words if you
compare his ______________________ with that
of the ______________________ serf under the
Leopoldian system”.
3.30 FILL IN THE BLANK (pp. 101-102)
5. Morel asks whether they’ll be a future time when
Africa will bring forth a “reaction so violent than
an era of ______________________ will, for the
first time in the history of Caucasian relationship
with the _____________________ Continent,
arise, never to be ______________________”.
3.30 FILL IN THE BLANK (pp. 101-102)
6. Morel places the blame on those who did nothing to
prevent the exploitation of the Congo saying “the
wickedness of this thing is grafted in the fatuous
stupidity and inhumanity of the Powers in
allowing the extermination of the Congo races to go on
_____________________, barely, if at all, reproved.”
3.31 FINISH THE SENTENCE (p. 103)
1. According to the report, the Belgians had
“absolute and exclusive” control and
ownership of…
THE “WHOLE TERRITORY”.
3.31 FINISH THE SENTENCE (p. 103)
2. The commission reported that natives are
forbidden to change…
THEIR PLACE OF RESIDENCE.
3.31 FINISH THE SENTENCE (p. 103)
3. Belgian agents because of their own personal
interest in its yield often made excessive
demands on the production of…
RUBBER.
3.31 FINISH THE SENTENCE (p. 103)
4. In order to meet the demands put upon them
by the Belgians in charge, native men had to
travel…
• ONE OR TWO DAYS TO GET TO THE PART OF
THE FOREST WHERE A FAIR NUMBER OF
RUBBER VINES CAN BE TAPPED.
3.31 FINISH THE SENTENCE (p. 103)
5. The natives who were harvesting the rubber
faced…
• SEVERAL DAYS ALONE, HUNGRY, EXPOSED TO
THE WEATHER, AND VULNERABLE TO ATTACKS
FROM WILD ANIMALS.
3.31 FINISH THE SENTENCE (p. 103)
6. In all the settlements women were…
IMPRISONED AND TAKEN AS HOSTAGES.
3.31 FINISH THE SENTENCE (p. 103)
7. Many black soldiers were killed out of…
REVENGE FOR THE VIOLENCE THEY
PERPETRATED.
3.31 FINISH THE SENTENCE (p. 103)
8. Men, women, and children who tried to
escape were…
SHOT WHILE TRYING TO GET AWAY.
3.32 ORDERING (pp. 79-103)
• 2 (1873) Beginning of a lengthy industrial depression
which lasted to the early 1890s
• 4 (1888) Kaiser Wilhelm II took over as ruler of
Germany
• 6 (1898) Britain wins battle of Omdurman
• 3 (1878) Beginning of the Anglo-Zulu War
• 7 (1899) Beginning of the Boer War
• 1 (1869) Suez Canal opened
• 5 (1894) France formed the French Indochina Union
• 9 (1904) Beginning of the Russo –Japanese War
• 8 (1903) Belgian Investigative Commission issues its
report
3.33 CHARTING (pp. 83-101)
TRUE-FALSE
• T F 1. George Orwell was well liked in Burma.
• False—He writes that he was hated by many
for the first time in his life.
TRUE-FALSE
• T F 2. Orwell was once tripped on the football
field and a crowd of Burmans came to help
him get back up.
• False—He was laughed at by the crowd.
TRUE-FALSE
• T F 3. Orwell writes that the only people who
supported him were the Buddhist priests.
• 3. False—He writes that the Buddhist priests
were the meanest of them all, as they were
jeering Europeans seemingly all the time.
TRUE-FALSE
• T F 4. George Orwell worked for the British
Empire but secretly disapproved of
imperialism.
• 4. True
TRUE-FALSE
• T F 5. Orwell claims to be keenly aware of the
way in which the British Empire was
weakening.
• False—He writes that he was unaware of the
loss of the British Empire’s position of
dominance.
TRUE-FALSE
• T F 6. Orwell writes that the British Empire is
better than the younger empires that are
going to supplant it.
• TRUE
TRUE-FALSE
• T F 7. Orwell claims that his encounter with
the elephant helped him to realize the true
nature of imperialism.
• TRUE
3.35 ORDERING (pp. 104-106)
3.36 CONNECT THE DOTS (pp. 103-106)
STOP