Chapter 20: The Apex of Global Empire Building- Vocab

Question 1

Berlin West Africa Conference

Answer 1

Meeting organized by German chancellor Otto von Bismarck in 1884–1885 that provided the justification for European colonization of Africa.

Question 2

Cecil John Rhodes

Answer 2

An English man who built a massive fortune by exploiting African laborers to mine for diamonds in southern Africa. He advocated for the extension of British rule to the rest of the world.

Question 3

Direct Rule

Answer 3

A style of colonial rule typical of French colonies with administrative districts headed by European personnel. It aimed to remove strong kinds/leaders, keep the populations in check, and engage in a “civilizing mission.” Difficulties were personnel shortages, limited communication, and limited cultural understanding.

Question 4

East India Company

Answer 4

British joint-stock company that grew to be a state within a state in India; it possessed its own armed forces.

Question 5

Emilio Aguinaldo

Answer 5

1869–1964 C.E. Filipino revolutionary who declared independence from Spain and then fought against the United States during its war of occupation.

Question 6

Great Game

Answer 6

Nineteenth-century competition between Great Britain and Russia for the control of central Asia.

Question 7

Indentured Labor

Answer 7

A trade of indentured laborers starting in the 1820s when French and British colonial officials sent Indian migrants to work on sugar plantations on Indian Ocean islands, Malaya, South Africa, and Pacific islands.

Question 8

Indian National Congress

Answer 8

A forum for educated Indians to communicate their views on public affairs to colonial officials formed in 1885. Representatives aired grievances about poverty, wealth transfer, harmful trade and tariff policies, relief programs, racism, etc.

Question 9

Indirect rule

Answer 9

A style of colonial ruling typical to British colonies promoted by Frederick D Lugard, where indigenous institutions gave moral and financial advantages of exercising control. This rule worked in regions where there was already organized states, but sometimes it wasn’t effective.

Question 10

Khoikhoi

Answer 10

South African people referred to pejoratively as the Hottentots by Europeans.

Question 11

Leopold II

Answer 11

The King of Belgium who wanted to gain a role in world affairs by acquiring colonies like Britain and France did. In the 1870s, he hired Henry Morton Stanley to develop commercial ventures and establish the Congo Free State.

Question 12

Lili’uokalani

Answer 12

1838–1917 C.E. The first and only queen of Hawaii, and the last Hawaiian sovereign to rule the islands prior to Hawai’i’s annexation by the United States in 1898.

Question 13

Maori

Answer 13

Indigenous people of New Zealand.

Question 14

Mission civilsatrice

Answer 14

The “civilizing mission” of French Imperialists; ideas like European style legal systems, modes of dress, gender relations, market consumerism, etc. that was justification for their expansion into Africa and Asia.

Question 15

Monroe Doctrine

Answer 15

American doctrine issued in 1823 during the presidency of James Monroe that warned Europeans to keep their hands off Latin America and that expressed growing American imperialistic views regarding Latin America.

Question 16

Omdurman

Answer 16

A battle in 1891 where a large British army engaged a Sudanese force seeking to expel the British from omdurman near Khartoum. In 5 hours of fighting, the British lost a few hundred men and their guns and gunboats killed 20,000 Sudanese.

Question 17

The Origin of Species

Answer 17

A book by Charles Darwin in 1859 that argued that all living species had evolved over thousands of years in a ferocious contest for survival.

Question 18

Panama Canal

Answer 18

A canal built from 1904 to 1914 that facilitated the building and maintenance of empires by enabling naval vessels to travel more rapidly on oceans and lowered the costs of trade between imperial powers and subject lands.

Question 19

Ram Mohan Roy

Answer 19

1772–1833 C.E. Bengali intellectual who sought to harmonize aspects of European society with those of Indian society with the goal of reforming India along progressive lines.

Question 20

Roosevelt Corollary

Answer 20

A proposition added by Teddy Roosevelt to the Monroe Doctrine in 1904. It exerted the US right to intervene in nations in the Western Hemisphere if they couldn’t maintain the security necessary to protect Us investments.

Question 21

Russo-Japanese War

Answer 21

A war in 1904 between Japan and Russia over territorial ambitions in the Liaodong peninsule in China, Korea, and Manchuria. By 1905, Japan had won the war along with international recognition of its colonial authority.

Question 22

Scientific Racism

Answer 22

Nineteenth-century attempt to justify racism by scientific means; an example would be Gobineau’s Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races.

Question 23

Scramble for Africa

Answer 23

Period between about 1875 and 1900 in which European powers sought to colonize as much of the African continent as possible.

Question 24

South African War

Answer 24

A conflict in 1899 where Britons and Afrikaners fought over the right to control the land and resources of the Orange Free State and the Transvall. It was expensive and brutal, and the British prevailed at a high cost and had to resort to imprisoning Afrikaner women and children.

Question 25

Spanish-Cuban-American War

Answer 25

A war from 1898-1899 started when the US battleship “Maine” exploded and sank while anchored in Havana, so the US leaders declared war on Spain. They defeated them and took posession of Cuba and Puerto Rico, then destroyed the Spanish fleet at Manila and took over Guam and the Philippines.

Question 26

Suez Canal

Answer 26

A canal built from 1859-1869 that facilitated the building and maintenance of empires by enabling naval vessels to travel more rapidly on oceans and lowered the costs of trade between imperial powers and subject lands.

Question 27

Survival of the fittest

Answer 27

The theory that species that adapted well to their environment survived, reproduced, and flourished, while others declined and went into extinction. It was a byword for Darwin’s theory of evolution, and social Darwinists applied these ideas to the development of human societies.

Question 28

Terra nullius

Answer 28

Concept meaning “land belonging to no one” used frequently by colonial powers who sought to justify the conquest of nomadic lands.

Question 29

Treaty of Waitangi

Answer 29

Treaty between British government and indigenous Maori peoples of New Zealand in 1840 that was interpreted differently by both sides and thus created substantial Maori opposition to British settlement.

Question 30

Xhosa

Answer 30

An African tribe that had their lands encroached on by European settlers. After a century of intermittent warfare, they had been decimated (losing lives, land, and resources to Europeans).