Chapter 24: Global Links and Imperialism, 1750-1900 Flashcards
Great Game
The Russian-British rivalry for power in Central Asia.
imperialism
Under economic and political motives, Western European countries targeted lands in Africa and Asia to add to their empires. The US targeted Latin America, the Caribbean, and the Pacific. Russia expanded east- and- southward. The Russian-British rivalry for Central Asia was known as the Great Game. Japan targeted East Asia.
Scramble for Africa
In Western Europe, building an empire was one way for a country to compete for power and assert its national identity in the global arena. Europe’s “Scramble for Africa” epitomized competition for colonies out of economic desires and wishes to outdo each other. These countries included GB, Germany, FR, Belgium, IT, Portugal, and the Netherlands.
sepoys
Sepoys were Indian soldiers under employ in the British colonial army.
sepoy mutiny
The Sepoy Mutiny broke out amongst Hindu and Muslim soldiers who believed that their rifle cartridges had been greased with the fat of cows and pigs. They were convinced that the British were trying to convert them to Christianity, and violently lashed out against British settlers and officials.
Raj
The British Raj was the colonial government which was in charge of India until its independence in 1947. The Raj took its orders directly from the British gov’t in London.
King Leopold II
King Leopold II of Belgium oversaw the invasion and pacification of Congo in central Africa. He owned the colony personally and kept the $1 billion profits made by the Congo Free State. The conditions were brutal for the laborers who were forced to harvest rubber. Congolese workers received no payment and if they refused to work, Leopold’s agents would sever their hands to terrorize others into submission. Workers who couldn’t meet their quotas were beaten or killed. Their spouses were held captive so that workers wouldn’t run away. After Belgium took control of the Congo as a regular colony, though, conditions improved.
Congo Free State
King Leopold II of Belgium oversaw the invasion and pacification of Congo in central Africa. He owned the colony personally and kept the $1 billion profits made by the Congo Free State. The conditions were brutal for the laborers who were forced to harvest rubber. Congolese workers received no payment and if they refused to work, Leopold’s agents would sever their hands to terrorize others into submission. Workers who couldn’t meet their quotas were beaten or killed. Their spouses were held captive so that workers wouldn’t run away. After Belgium took control of the Congo as a regular colony, though, conditions improved.
Berlin Conference
Fierce competition among European nations led to this conference on the future of Africa. Its purpose was not to divide Africa among the major Western powers, but to set rules for establishing colonies there. However, it was clear that European powers were preparing to seize more land in Africa for colonies. No African representatives were invited to the conference.
Though the borders drawn in the conference initially were artificial and did not impact the people who lived within them, the borders eventually became significant. The borders tore apart unified societies or placed rival groups under the same colonial gov’t. This would lead to increased division and 20th century civil wars.
Abyssinia
By 1900, there were only two African countries unclaimed by Europeans. Of these two was Abyssinia in modern-day Ethiopia. Italy attempted to conquer Abyssinia, but the native forces were too strong for the Italians.
Liberia
By 1900, there were only two African countries unclaimed by Europeans. Of these two was Liberia, a country founded by formerly enslaved people from the US. Because Liberia had a dependent relationship with the US, it was not fully independent.
Zulu Kingdom
The British fought this kingdom located on the South African coast of the Indian Ocean in the Anglo-Zulu War. While this war initially favored the Zulus, the British eventually defeated them and added the Zulu Kingdom to the British colonial empire.
Anglo-Zulu War
The British fought the Zulu Kingdom located on the South African coast of the Indian Ocean in the Anglo-Zulu War. While this war initially favored the Zulus, the British eventually defeated them and added the Zulu Kingdom to the British colonial empire.
Boer Wars
These conflicts between the British and Afrikaners for land were bloody and brutal. In the end, the British army drove the Afrikaners and the Africans from their lands, forcing many into refugee camps, or concentration camps, that were segregated by race. Medical care and sanitation were very poor and food rations were so meager that many of the interned died of starvation.
Roosevelt Corollary
The Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine stated that if Latin American countries demonstrated “instability,” the US would feel free to intervene. Indeed, Roosevelt sent US troops to occupy the Dominican Republic in 1904 until it repaid its foreign debts.
Indian National Congress
Elite groups of Asians and Africans were educated in European schools where they learned about Enlightenment ideals like natural rights, sovereignty, and nationalism. They eventually used the education that imperialism provided them to drive out their conquerors. In South Asia, such intellectuals established the Indian National Congress in 1885. Though it began as a form for airing grievances to the colonial gov’t, the Congress eventually fought for self-rule.
Pan-Africanism
By the end of WWI, Western-educated Africans had developed a sense of shared identity and nationalism known as Pan-Africanism.
export economics
Instead of serving their own economic interests, colonies were turned into export economies, meaning that the goods they produced were sent to colonial powers to sell for profit, rather than used domestically. The thirst for natural resources led to the development of cash crops in the colonies.
cash crops
Due to the thirst for natural resources from export economics, cash crops developed within the colonies. They included tea, cotton, sugar, palm oil, rubber, and coffee. If a crop was particularly profitable, the colonized nation was forced to produce that crop in mass quantities at the expense of other agricultural products. This led to monocultures, or a lack of agricultural diversity, particularly in African nations.
tea
The Dutch East India Company brought tea from China to Europe, making it a profitable crop for the British, who introduced tea plantations to South Asia later on. Tea became a cash crop in southern India and in Ceylon.
Cecil Rhodes
British-born Cecil Rhodes, founder of De Beers Diamonds, was enthusiastic about investing in a railroad project that was to stretch from Cape Town to Cairo. It was supposed to connect all of the British-held colonies and act as a transportation network which could extract as many resources as possible from subject lands while paying colonial laborers as little as possible. The project was never completed because the British never gained control over all the land on which the railroad was to be built.
Goa
Portugal controlled a coastal trading post in the southwestern state of Goa.
Pondicherry
France controlled a city named Pondicherry in the southeastern state of Tamil Nadu.
corvee laborers
The Suez Canal connected the Red Sea with the Mediterranean, shortening the route to Asia from Europe. This canal was ordered by a French company who used Egyptian corvee laborers, who were forced, unpaid workers. As many as 1.5 million of them were forced to work on the canal; thousands died over the course of ten years.
indentured laborers
Indentured servants agreed to work for a period of years, during which they sent money home to their families and looked forward to returning home. However most indentured laborers stayed in their new country. Some sent for their families to join them, while others could not afford the return trip. Regardless, these indentured laborers brought their home cultures to their new lands and altered the demographics of these lands. For example, people of Asian descent form the majority of Hawaii’s population.
penal colony
Great Britain established a penal colony in Australia made up of convicts from England, Ireland, Scotland, and British colonies like India. There, these people performed hard labor and suffered harsh treatment.
convicts
The British government shipped convicts from England, Ireland, Scotland, and British colonies like India to penal colonies in Australia, where they would perform hard labor and suffer through harsh treatment. Most of them performed labor for free settlers, record-kept for the gov’t, or worked on gov’t-sponsored road and railway building. Most of them earned their freedom after a prescribed number of years of service. Some were never allowed to return to Great Britain, and others couldn’t because transportation was too expensive, so most people stayed in Australia. Eventually, Britain abolished the program, largely because a stay in Australia was not considered much of a punishment.
monocultures
If a crop was particularly profitable, the colonized nation was forced to produce that crop in mass quantities at the expense of other agricultural products. This led to monocultures, or a lack of agricultural diversity, particularly in African nations. Land fertility quickly declined and crop diseases and pests spread more easily; from this land damage, former African colonies have been unable to rediversify their land, so many African nations must import basic agricultural goods in order to feed their people.
quinine
Quinine is the medicine that treats the tropical disease malaria. It helped imperial powers gain unlimited presence in the Africas.
Suez Canal
This canal connected the Red Sea with the Mediterranean, shortening the route to Asia from Europe. This canal was ordered by a French company who used Egyptian corvee laborers, who were forced, unpaid workers.
Charles Darwin
His theory of natural selection stated that over the course of millions of years, biological competition had “weeded out” the weaker species in nature and the “fittest” species were the ones that had survived. Advocates of Social Darwinism, including British philosopher Herbert Spencer, applied this theory to European and US dominance, arguing that whites had used their “biological superiority” to compete victoriously with the other races of the world.
phrenologists
They were people who studied skull sizes and shapes who claimed that a smaller skull size proved the mental feebleness of Africans, indigenous Americans, and Asians.
Social Darwinism
Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection stated that over the course of millions of years, biological competition had “weeded out” the weaker species in nature and the “fittest” species were the ones that had survived. Advocates of Social Darwinism, including British philosopher Herbert Spencer, applied this theory to European and US dominance, arguing that whites had used their “biological superiority” to compete victoriously with the other races of the world.
Herbert Spencer
Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection stated that over the course of millions of years, biological competition had “weeded out” the weaker species in nature and the “fittest” species were the ones that had survived. Advocates of Social Darwinism, including British philosopher Herbert Spencer, applied this theory to European and US dominance, arguing that whites had used their “biological superiority” to compete victoriously with the other races of the world.
David Livingstone
Some Christian missionaries, such as David Livingstone from Scotland, traveled to Sub-Saharan Africa where they worked to end the illegal slave trade.
Afrikaners
The Afrikaners are the descendants of 17th-century Dutch settlers. They moved east of the Cape Colony after the British replaced the Dutch in the Cape Colony, where they came into conflict with indigenous groups, including the Zulus, with whom they fought several wars.
Xhosa Cattle Killing Movement
While fighting the British, the native Xhosa people in the region east of the Cape Colony discovered that some of their cattle was getting sick and dying. These Xhosa cattle may have caught an illness from British cattle. The Xhosa began to kill their cattle and destroy their crops in the belief that these actions would cause spirits to remove the British settlers from their lands. Some 400,000 head of the Xhosa cattle may have been killed. The immediate result of this movement was famine and the deaths of thousands of people, and the British were not driven out of the area.
concentration camps
During the Boer Wars, conflicts between the British and Afrikaners for land were bloody and brutal. In the end, the British army drove the Afrikaners and the Africans from their lands, forcing many into refugee camps, or concentration camps, that would be segregated by race. Medical care and sanitation were very poor and food rations were so meager that many of the interned died of starvation. After the news of these camps reached Britain, activists tried to improve the lives of displaced refugees, but they mainly tended to white camps; conditions in black camps remained despicable.
Aborigines
The coming of the Europeans spread diseases among the indigenous Aborigines of Australia just as they had among Native Americans. In addition, the white settlers took over most of the lands of the Aborigines, dispersing them throughout the continent. The indigenous people of mainland New Zealand, or the native Maori, lost about 75 percent of its population to disease and warfare with the British.
Maori
The indigenous people of mainland New Zealand, or the native Maori, lost about 75 percent of its population to disease and warfare with the British.
White Australia Policy
This policy restricted the immigration of nonwhites to Australia.
