Unit 6: Imperialism Flashcards
Treaty of Tordesillas
After Christopher Columbus discovered America, the Pope issued the Treaty of Tordesillas and divided the continent, giving east to Portugal and the west to Spain
Hernan Cortez and Francisco Pizarro
Spain sent explorers to America to conquer the Aztec and Inca empires in modern-day Mexico and Peru
Social Hierarchy
In Latin American countries/colonies, there was a social hierarchy based on race: peninsular (Europeans) at the top, creoles (of European descent), mestizos (European and Indian), mulattoes (European and African), Indians, and slaves
Imperialists’ objectives
god, gold, and glory
Columbian Exchange
the free flow of resources between Europe and the Americas
“new imperialism”
interested in spreading commerce, Christianity, and civilization
Otto von Bismarck
the first German Chancellor who held the 1885 Berlin Conference to “fairly” divide the continent of Africa among the imperialists
King Leopold II
Belgian; referred to the Congo as his “slice of the magnificent cake” & terrorized the colony (30x the size of Belgium), exploiting the land for its rubber, and amputating the arms of rebels
Queen Victoria
King Leopold II’s cousin; died a year before the British won the Boer Wars
Boer Wars
British won defeating the Dutch and the Zulus and securing South Africa
Cecil Rhodes
Diamond businessman who said the British Empire should span “from Cairo to Cape Town”
By the turn-of-the-century
British controlled 2/5 of the earth and 1/3 the population; they were dominant because they had superior technology
Herbert Spencer
British sociologist who applied British evolutionary scientist Charles Darwin’s theories of natural selection and “survival of the fittest” to humans in what is known as Social Darwinism (racist)
The Dutch East India Company
valued the archipelago of Indonesia for its spices
Indochina
Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos; French held on to Indochina as a colony until the 1950s
What was the Sepoy Mutiny
The Indian soldiers rebelled after they were ordered to bit bullets that were greased with animal fat . After the Company lost control the Crown took over and the government was known as the British Raj
Mahatma Gandhi
believed in non-violent civil disobedience to secure Indian self-rule; was assassinated in 1948
Jawaharlal Nehru
disciple of Gandhi; became the first Prime Minister of India; India was the “Jewel in the Crown” until after WWII when it became independent and it was partitioned into India and Pakistan
Spanish American War
the US goal was supposedly to free the Cubans from the Spanish imperialists, but after the war the US acquired territories in the Caribbean and Pacific (including Puerto Rico, Guam, and The Philippines
Rudyard Kipling
in response to the American annexation of the Philippines, Kipling wrote the pro-imperialist poem “The White Man’s Burden”
Mark Twain
in response to the American annexation of the Philippines, Twain wrote the anti-imperialist treatise “To the Persons Sitting in Darkness”
William Seward
Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of State who purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867
Sanford Dole
a planter who helped depose Queen Liliuokalani and seize Hawaii in 1917
John Hay
William McKinley’s Secretary of State who negotiated the Open Door Policy in 1899 to open isolationist China to trade with the West; and despite the Boxer Rebellion, Western influence brought the end of the traditional dynastic system
1868 Meiji Restoration
the return of the Emperor and the international education of the samurai in Japan
