Unit 6: Topic 2 - State Expansion Flashcards
Dutch East Indies
Consisting of the majority of present-day Indonesia, the Dutch East Indies was one of the overseas territories of the Netherlands from the early 19th century to December 1949. The Dutch East Indies was one of the most valuable colonies under European rule and contributed to Dutch global prominence in spice and cash crop trade in the 19th to early 20th centuries. The colonial social order was based on rigid racial and social structures with a Dutch elite living separate from but linked to their native subjects.
End of the V.O.C.
The Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (VOC), or the Dutch East India Company is considered the largest corporation in size in history, existing for almost 200 years since its founding in 1602. During those two centuries, the VOC commanded almost 5000 ships and sent almost a million people to Asia, more than the rest of Europe combined, while it enjoyed huge profits from its spice trade. Given the high level of overhead, it took to maintain the VOC outposts throughout Asia, the borrowing and lack of capital ultimately undermined the VOC. The Fourth Anglo-Dutch War of 1780-1784 left the company a financial wreck. The French Revolution began in 1789, leading to the occupation of Amsterdam in 1795. The VOC was nationalized on March 1, 1796, by the new Batavian Republic, and its charter was allowed to expire on December 31, 1799.
Congo Free State
State established by Belgian King Leopold II in 1885 by brutally seizing the African landmass as his personal possession, rather than a Belgian colony, as other European powers did throughout Africa. Leopold financed development projects with money loaned to him from the Belgian government. The king’s stated goal was to bring civilization to the people of the Congo, an enormous region in Central Africa. Leopold’s reign over the Congo Free State, however, has become infamous for its brutality. The people of the Congo were forced to labor for valued resources, including rubber and ivory, to personally enrich Leopold. Estimates vary, but about half the Congolese population died from punishment and malnutrition. Many more suffered from disease and torture.
French Algeria
The French Invasion of Algeria, stemming from an escalated argument between the two sides, took place between 1830 and 1903 and was characterized by a tradition of violence and mutual incomprehension between the rulers and the ruled. The paradox of French Algeria was that despotic and military rule offered the native Algerians a better situation than the civilian and democratic government.
Suez Canal
A 100-mile-long canal that connected the Red Sea with the Mediterranean Sea. This canal saved people from traveling around the entire continent of Africa. The construction of this project was led by a French company, but most of the workers were unpaid Egyptians.
Colony of the Gold Coast
A British colony known today as the Republic of Ghana on the Coast of West Africa from 1921 to 1957. It was given this name due to the large supplies and market for the gold that was there. The first European explorers arrived in 1471 and encountered a variety of African kingdoms, some of which controlled substantial deposits of gold in the soil. The European traders built several forts along the coastline which propelled the slave trade as the principal exchange and a major part of the economy for many years.
Roosevelt Corollary
A corollary, or extension of a previous idea, to the Monroe Doctrine expanding the foreign policy by stating that nations of the Western Hemisphere were not open to colonization by European powers and that the United States had the responsibility to preserve order and protect life and property in those countries, predominantly meaning Latin American countries. This policy was in response to European governments beginning the use of force to pressure Latin American countries to repay their debts. For example, British, German, and Italian gunboats blockaded Venequela’s ports in 1902 when the Venezuelan government defaulted on its debts to foreign bondholders. Many Americans worried that European intervention in Latin America would undermine their country’s traditional dominance in the region.
Manifest Destiny
Manifest destiny is the belief of American settlers that they were given the God-given right to expand Westward in the new territories. This idealogy was birthed from the philosophy that democracy and civilization should be spread across the new land. It also led to the mass removal and relocation of Native Americans from their lands. It worsened the problem of slavery as this new fertile land could be used for more farms and plantations.
James K Polk
The 11th president of the United States. Known for being a strong proponent of “manifest destiny” and expanded the territory of the United States through the Mexican-American War by annexing the Republic of Texas, the Oregon Territory, and the Mexcian Cession. Polk greatly expanded the U.S. territory, as well as its global influence, however, the annexations also divided the free and slave states, leading to even more tensions and eventually civil war.
Catherine II
Known as Catherine the Great, she was the Empress of Russia (1729-1796) and is credited for greatly increasing the territory of the Russian empire, including Crimea.
King Leopold II
King of Belgium (r. 1865-1909). He was active in encouraging the exploration of Central Africa and became the infamous ruler of the Congo Free State (until 1908).
Theodore Roosevelt
The 26th president of the United States. He expanded the powers of the presidency and of the federal government in support of the public interest in conflicts between big business and labor and steered the nation toward an active role in world politics, particularly in Europe and Asia. He won the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1906 for mediating an end to the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05), and he secured the route and began construction of the Panama Canal (1904–14).
Berlin Conference
A conference held in 1884 that included every nation who wished to participate in the spoils of the Scramble for Africa agreed on the rules of the colonization of Africa. No representatives from the African nations were present.
Colony of New Zealand
Though discovered by European explorers in 1642, New Zealand was officially brought into the British Empire in 1840 under the Treaty of Waitangi. Under the treaty, the Maiori were given the same rights as British subjects, however, disputes over the differing translations of the Treaty and settler desire to acquire land from Maori led to the New Zealand Wars in 1853. These wars, along with the effects of European infectious diseases and the imposition of a European economic and legal system led to most of New Zealand’s land passing from Maori to European ownership throughout the rest of the 19th century.
Penal Colony
A colony to which convicts are sent to peform manual labor as an alternative to prison.
