chapter 32 Flashcards
Who was an 18 year old student at Oxford University who in 1871 went to south Africa in search of a climate what would relieve his tuberculosis, only to come to control 90 percent of the world’s diamond production?
Cecil John Rhodes (the Elon Musk of the 19th century) (1853-1902)
After also building a healthy stake in the gold mining business, how did Cecil John Rhodes enter African politics?
served as prime minister of the British Cape Colony
Rhodes considered _________ society the most noble, moral, and honorable in the world, and he regarded imperial expansion as a duty to humankind.
British
Industrialization equipped the ________ ____________ states with the most effective tools and the most lethal weapons available anywhere, and three centuries of _________ experience provided them with unparalleled knowledge of the world and its peoples.
western European; maritime
What does “imperialism” refer to?
the domination of European powers (and later the United States and Japan as well) over subject lands in the larger world
What does “colonialism” refer to?
Not just to the sending of colonists to settle new lands but also to the political, social, economic, and cultural structures that enabled imperial powers to dominate subject lands
In what lands did European powers establish settler colonies populated largely by migrants from the home societies?
North America, Chile, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, and south Africa
In what ways did European agents, officials, and busniesspeople turn the lands of India, southeast Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa into colonies, and influence their historical development?
- controlling domestic and foreign policies
- integrating local economies into the network of global capitalism
- introducing European business techniques
- transforming educational systems according to European standards
- promoting European cultural preferences
Why did European merchants and entrepreneurs support British imperial expansion?
would secure and enhance their own enterprises/personal fortunes
Aside from satisfying the interests of wealthy entrepreneurs, how else did Europeans justify imperialism (economic reasons)?
- argued that imperialism was in the economic interests of European societies as well as individuals
- overseas colonies could serve as reliable sources of raw materials not available in Europe
What were some of the most important raw materials popularized by industrialization?
- rubber
- tin (available from colonies in southeast Asia)
- copper (available in colonies from central Africa)
- petroleum (found in U.S. and Russia)
Even if colonies weren’t economically beneficial, why did imperialists still believe it was crucial for military and political reasons to maintain them?
- overseas colonies may occupy strategic sties on the world’s sea lanes, harbors or supply stations for commercial and naval ships
- desire for power and prestige (i.e; French imperialism after defeat in Franco-Prussian War)
- pride and validations (especially after achieving nationhood)
- defuse social tension and inspire patriotism by focusing public attention on foreign imperialist ventures
What were some cultural justifications for imperialism?
- spiritual campaigns of missionaries
- missionaries often facilitated communication between imperialists and subject peoples
- Missionary settlements served as convenient meeting places for Europeans overseas as distribution centers for manufactured goods
French imperialists routinely invoked what as justification for their expansion into Africa and Asia?
mission civilisatrice (“civilizing mission”)
- sought to bring subject peoples “civilization” in the form of political order and social stability
Who was the English writer and poet that defined the “white man’s burden” as the duty of European and Euro-American peoples to bring order and enlightenment to distant lands?
Rudyard Kipling (1864-1936)
During the 19th century, industrialists devised effective technologies of ________, ____________, __________, and _____ that enabled European imperialists to have their way in the larger world.
medicine; transportation; communication; war
What was one of the most common, debilitating, and often deadly diseases of the tropical and subtropical regions of the world?
malaria
Effective treatment of malaria came in the form of what, and became a powerful weapon in the European quest to conquer and rule distant lands during the 19th century?
quinine
The remedy for malaria came to Europe from ______.
Peru
- Spanish, including Jesuit missionaries, had discovered that indigenous peoples used the bark from the cinchona tree to treat various fevers
What was quinine known as amongst the Spanish and Jesuit missionaries, when passed along to Europeans as a remedy for malaria?
“Jesuit bark”
What were the French chemists Pierre Pelletier and Joseph Caventou known for doing?
extracting the alkaloid of quinine from cinchona bark
The alkaloid of quinine came from what?
cinchona bark
The most important innovations in transportation involved what two forms of transporation?
steamships and railroads
Because they could travel much _______ upriver than sailboats, which depended on convenient winds, ____________ enabled imperialists to project power deep into the interior regions of foreign lands.
farther; steamships
What was the name of the British gunboat that led an expedition up the Yangxi River and brought the Opium War to a conclusion in 1842?
“Nemesis”
What were the two main advantages of steamships in addition to their military uses?
- traveled much faster than any sailing vessel
- could ignore the winds and travel in any direction
What two main canals facilitated the building and maintenance of empires by enabling naval vessels to travel rapidly between the world’s seas and oceans?
- Suez Canal (completely shortened the travel time to the Indian Ocean/Red Sea from the Mediterranean, no longer had to round Africa to get to India from Europe)
- Panama Canal (easy access to Pacific Ocean from the Carribean/Atlantic without having to go around South America)
What were the characteristics of the mid-19th century breech-loading firearms?
- rifled bores, far more accurate and reliable than muskets
What three main ways did rail transportation enable colonists to maintain their hegemony and organize local economies to their own advantage?
- enabled colonial officials and armies to travel quickly through the colonies
- facilitated trade in raw materials
- distribution of European manufactured goods in colonies
What were the characteristics of the early 19th century smoothbore, muzzle-loading muskets?
- could cause havoc among opponents if large infantry fired muskets at once
- took skilled musketeer about one minute to reload a weapon
- smoothbore = not very accurate firearm
By the 1870s, Europeans were experimenting with what weapon?
rifled machine guns
In the 1880s, Europeans adopted what weapon that had what characteristics?
Maxim gun
- light and powerful weapon
- fired eleven bullets per second
What battle opened the door for British colonial rule in Sudan?
the battle of Omdurman
- British army with twenty machine guns and six gunboats encountered Sudanese force at Omdurman
- five hours of fighting, British lost a few hundred men while machine guns and explosive charges fired from gunboats killed close to 20,000 Sundanese
What mode of transportation reduced the time required to deliver messages from imperial capitals to colonial lands?
oceangoing steamships
- correspondence between London and Bombay took 4 months round trip instead of 2 years
- opening of Suez Canal in 1869, traveled from Britian to India in less than 2 weeks
Telegraph wires carried communications over land from the ______, but only in the ______ did engineers devise reliable __________ _______ for the transmission of messages through the oceans.
1830s; 1850s; submarine cables
By 1870, submarine cables carried messages between Britain and India in about how long?
5 hours
What advantages did imperial powers’ monopoly on telegraphic communications provide over their subject lands?
- imperial officials could rapidly mobilize forces to deal with troubles
- merchants could respond quickly to developments of economic and commercial significance
Imperial expansion began with the British conquest of what land?
India
The British empire in south Asia and southeast Asia grew out of the mercantile activities of the English ______ _______ __________, which enjoyed a monopoly on English trade with India?
East India Company
What did the English trade with the Mughal emperors of India for throughout the 17th and 18th centuries?
17th- mostly for Indian pepper and cotton, Chinese silk and porcelain, and fine spices from southeast Asia
18th- tea and coffee = most prominent trade items
What was part of British policy during their conquest that was greatly resented by Indians? What did it do?
the “doctrine of lapse”
- if an Indian ruler failed to produce a biological male heir to the throne, his territories lapsed to the East India Company upon his death
How did the Mughal state enter a period of decline/when did the East India Company take advantage of Mughal weakness to strengthen and expand its trading posts?
after the death of the emperor Aurangzeb in 1707
- 1750s, company officials embarked on outright conquest of India
- through diplomacy or military campaigns, the company conquered autonomous Indian kingdoms and reduced Mughal rule to only a small area around Delhi
By the mid-19th century, the English East India Company had annexed huge areas of India and had established control over present-day ________, ___________, ______, and _____ _________.
Pakistan; Bangladesh; Burma; Sri Lanka
By what two main groups was the rule of the English East India Company enforced?
- a small British army
- large number of Indian troops known as sepoys
What were Indian troops that helped enforce the East India Company’s rule known as?
sepoys
What were sepoys forced to do for newly issued rifles lubricated with mixture of pig and cow fat, that was offensive and insulting to both Hindus and Muslims?
had to bite off the ends of lubricated cartridges in order to load the rifles
What was the conclusion of what had begun as rebellion by Indian troops in the employ of the East India Company that turned into a full-fledged war for independence against British rule?
several months of inconclusive battles, British forces gained the upper hand by late 1857
- peace officially declared on 8 July 1858
After victory against Indian troops in their war for independence, how did the British government secure their rule over India/how did British imperial and colonial administration change?
- abolished Mughal empire and exiled emperor Muhammad Bahadur Shah to Burma
- British crown abolished the East India Company in favor of direct rule of India by the British government
- Queen Victoria (r. 1837-1901) assigned responsibility for Indian policy to the newly established office of secretary of state for India
- viceroy represented British royal authority in India and administered the colony through an elite Indian civil service staffed almost exclusively by the English
British colonial officials made little effort to promote __________, but established English-style schools for the children of Indian elites, whom they sought as supporters of their rule.
Christianity
What three main industrializing changes did the British make to India to make their administration and colony more economically efficient?
- cleared forests, restructured land-holdings, and encouraged cultivation of valuable crops like tea, coffee, and opium
- built extensive railroad and telegraph networks tightening links between India and larger global economy
- constructed new canals, harbors, and irrigation systems to support commerce and agriculture
The weakening of the __________ and _______ empires turned central Asia into a political vacuum and invited _______ expansion into the region.
Ottoman; Qing; Russian
What prompted the beginning of the “Great Game”?
Cossacks (peoples of southern Russia and Ukraine had overcome the great caravan cities of the Silk Roads, and approached the ill-defined northern frontier of British India
- next half-century, military officers and imperialist adventurers engaged in a risky pursuit of influence and intelligence that British agents referred to as the “Great Game”
How did Russia and British explorers prepare for the anticipated war for India?
- ventured into parts of central Asia never before visited by Europeans
- mapped terrain, scouted mountain passes
- sought alliances with local rulers from Afghanistan to the Aral Sea
What two big events ensured that the contest for India never took place?
- the outbreak of global war in 1914 (World War I)
- the collapse of the tsarist state in 1917
Along with cash crops of sugar, tea, coffee, and tobacco, exports of what two other products made the Dutch East Indies a valuable and productive economy?
rubber and tin
Where did Dutch officials extend their authority to tighten their control over the southeast Asian islands?
throughout the Dutch East Indies, the archipelago that makes up the modern state of Indonesia
Who founded the port of Singapore, which soon became the busiest center of trade in the Strait of Melaka in 1824?
Thomas Stamford Raffles
By the 1880s, the British had established colonial authority where, which became a source of teak, ivory, rubies, and jade?
Burma (modern Myanmar)
Administered by the colonial regime in India, Singapore served as the base for the British conquest of __________ (modern Malaysia) in the 1870s and 1880s.
Malaya
What were the two main advantages of bringing Malaya under British conquest?
- offered outstanding ports that enabled the British navy to control Sea lanes linked the Indian Ocean and South China Sea
- provided abundant supplies of tin and rubber
What colony did French imperialists build that consisted of the modern states of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos, between 1859 and 1893?
French Indochina
By the century’s end, all of southeast Asia had come under European imperial rule except for what kingdom? Why did this kingdom largely escape imperialism?
kingdom of Siam (modern Thailand)
- preserved its independence largely because colonial officials regarded it as a convenient buffer state between British-dominated Burma and French Indochina
What did French colonial officials do to their new subject peoples of French Indochina?
- introduced European-style schools and sought to establish close connections with native elites
- French officials encouraged conversion to Christianity, Roman Catholic church became prominent throughout French Indochina, especially in Vietnam
Where were the only sizable European possessions in Africa?
- Portuguese colonies of Angola and Mozambique
- French settler colony in northern Algeria
- cluster of settler colonies populated by British and Dutch migrants in south Africa
The “scramble for Africa” refers to what?
period between 1875 and 1900 in which European powers sought to colonize as much of the African continent as possible
Who was the best known of European missionaries who traveled through much of central and southern Africa in the mid-19th century in search of suitable locations for mission ports?
Dr. David Livingstone, Scottish minister
Who were the two English explorers who ventured into east Africa seeking the source of the Nile River?
Richard Burton and John Speke
Which king of Belgium employed Henry Morton Stanley to help develop commercial ventures and establish the Congo Free State in the basin of the Congo River?
King Leopold II (r. 1865-1909)
How did King Leopold II forestall competition from Belgium’s larger, more powerful European neighbors when it came to his colony of the Congo Free State?
announced that the Congo region would be a free-trade zone accessible to merchants and businesspeople from all European lands
- carved out a personal colony and filled it with lucrative rubber plantations run by forced labor
What were conditions like in the King Leopold II’s Congo Free State?
working conditions so brutal
taxes so high
abuses so many
- humanitarians protested Leopold’s colonial regime
- predatory rule culminated in the death of 4-8 million Africans
How did the Belgian government react to Leopold II’s Congo Free State?
1908, took control of the colony, and it was known thereafter as Belgian Congo
How did Egyptian rulers end up in great debt to European lenders?
sought to build up their army, strengthen the economy, and distance themselves from Ottoman authority
- borrowed heavily from European lenders
- 1870s, crushing debt forced Egyptian officials to impose high taxes, which provoked popular unrest and military rebellion
As a result of their crushing debt, what did the British army do with Egypt?
1882, British army occupied Egypt to protect British financial interests and ensure the safety of the Suez Canal, crucial to British communications with India
What did the Dutch East Indian Company establish as a supply station for ships en route to Asia? (with this establishment, they were able to create a presence in the southern tip of the African continent)
Cape Town
What were Dutch settlers into south Africa known as, and believed that God had predestined them to claim the people and resources of the Cape?
first as Boers (the Dutch word for “farmer”) and then as Afrikaners (the Dutch word for “African”)
During the 18th century, a steady stream of European migrants from what three main groups, flowed into the Dutch’s south African Cape Town?
- Dutch
- Germans
- French Huguenots (fleeing religious persecution)
As European settlers in south Africa spread beyond the reaches of the original Cape colony, they began encroaching on lands occupied by what two indigenous groups?
- Khoikhoi
- Xhosa
- century of intermittent warfare, Khoikhoi and Xhosa populations decimated to European settlers
In what conflict did the British take over the Dutch Cape in south Africa?
during the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815)
- established British rule in 1806
What implications did the British’s abolishing of slavery in 1833 have on Afrikaner populations?
- eliminated the primary source of labor for white farmers
- dealt a crippling blow to Afrikaner financial viability and lifestyles
Unable to live comfortably under British rule, Afrikaners started to leave their farms in Cape Colony and gradually migrated east in what they called the _______ _______.
Great Trek
What was the Afrikaner world for “pioneers”?
voortrekkers
- superior firepower overcame Ndebele and Zulu resistance
- saw successful expansion as evidence that God approved of their dominance in south Africa
