Unit 6: Topic 3 - Indigenous Responses Flashcards
Sepoy
Indian soldiers under British employ made up the majority of the British armed forces in colonial India. Most were Hindus or Muslims.
Indian Rebellion of 1857
Also known as the Sepoy Mutiny, this was ignited when word spread that the British began using rife cartridges that had been greased with a mixture of the fat of cows and pigs. Hindus, who view the cow as sacred, and Muslims, who refuse to slaughter pigs, were both furious. The Rebellion was eventually crushed by the British, but it marked the emergence of Indian Nationalism. Some consider it the beginning of Indian Independence.
Indian National Congress
After the Sepoy Mutiny, many Indians attended British universities. In 1885, several British-educated Indians established the Indian National Congress. Though began as a forum for airing grievances to the colonial government, it quickly became a place to express Indian Nationalism and began to call for self-rule.
Battle of Adwa
An 1896 military clash at Adwa, in north-central Ethiopia, between the Ethiopian army of Emperor Menelek II and Italian forces. The Ethiopian army’s victory checked Italy’s attempt to build an empire in Africa and had further significance for being the first crushing defeat of a European power by African forces during the colonial era.
Inkarri
Considered one of the most famous Incan legends. According to the legend, when the Spanish conquistadores executed the last ruler of the Inca people, Atahualpa, he vowed that he would come back one day to avenge his death. The Spaniards buried his body parts in several places around the kingdom: His head is said to rest under the Presidential Palace in Lima, while his arms are said to be under the Waqaypata in Cuzco and his legs in Ayacucho. Buried under the earth he will grow until the day that he will rise, take back his kingdom, and restore harmony in the relationship between Pachamama (the earth) and her children.
1853 Enfield
The full name is the Enfield Pattern 1853 rifle-musket or P53 Enfield, a .577 caliber Minie-type muzzle-loading rifled musket used by British Empire from 1853-1867. The Enfield rifle-musket was a contributing cause of the Indian rebellion of 1857. Sepoys in the British East India Company’s armies in India were issued with the new rifle in 1857, and rumors were spread that the cartridges were greased with beef tallow, pig fat, or a combination of the two – a situation abhorrent to Hindu and Muslim soldiers based on religious beliefs.
War of the Golden Stool
Considered the final Anglo-Ashanti war, the War of the Golden Stool, which lasted about six months in 1900, began when the British governor, Sir Frederick Mitchell Hodgson, demanded the surrender of the Golden Stool as an admission by the Ashanti of their submission to British rule. The Golden Stool was a symbol of Ashanti national unity and was considered extremely sacred to the Ashanti people. However, the Queen Mother, Yaa Asantewaa refused the British demand and led an army of 5,000 Ashanti fighters against the British troops, succeeding at first but eventually succumbing to the increased numbers of British troops. The British captured Yaa Asantewaa and 15 of her advisors and banished them all to Seychelles. Today, the War of the Golden Stool also is known as the Yaa Asantewaa War.
Ghost Dance
A ceremony introduced by the Northern Paiute tribe that was incorporated into numerous Native American belief systems in the late 19th century. First practiced in 1889, proper practice of the dance would reunite the living with the spirits of the dead, bring the spirits to fight on their behalf, end American westward expansion, and bring peace, prosperity, and unity to Native American peoples throughout the region. The practice of the Ghost Dance movement was believed to have contributed to Lakota’s resistance to assimilation under the Dawes Act. The Lakota resistance was met with US Army occupation in what is considered the Ghost Dance War, resulting in the Wounded Knee Massacre wherein the 7th Cavalry killed over 250 Lakota, primarily unarmed women, children, and elders, at Wounded Knee on December 29, 1890.
Xhosa Cattle Killing
400,000 head of cattle were killed by the Xhosa in an attempt to drive the Europeans out of their area. They believed that these actions would cause spirits to remove the British settlers away.
Mahdist War
Also referred to as the Battle of Omdurman, it was a decisive 1898 military engagement in which Anglo-Egyptian forces defeated the forces of Mahdist leader Abd Allah and won Sudanese territory that had been controlled by the Mahdists since 1881.
La Boriquena
The official national anthem of Puerto Rico was originally composed by Manuel Fernandez Juncos in 1901.
Cherokee Nation
An indigenous group of people in North America, around the area of modern-day Georgia. They assimilated to white settler culture, adopting practices such as farming, weaving, and building. They also developed an alphabet and educated themselves to be literate. Despite assimilating, they were forced off their land westward. This is exemplified by the Indian Removal Act of 1830.
Opium Wars
The British desired many things such as porcelain, silk, and tea from the Chinese, but the Chinese didn’t want many things from the British. This trade imbalance directly went against Europe’s Imperialistic ideals. As a result, the British sold the drug Opium to the Chinese, getting them addicted. China criminalized the sale of this drug, which led to the Opium Wars with Britain, in 1839 and 1856. Due to China being non-industrialized, they were defeated. These wars showed the global power shift in the world to the industrialized nations.
Taiping Rebellion
A large-scale revolt, waged from 1851 until 1864, against the authority and forces of the Qing Empire in China, conducted by an army and civil administration inspired by Hakka, self-proclaimed mystics named Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing. Hong, Yang, and their followers established the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom (also, and officially, Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace) and attained control of significant parts of southern China. Some historians estimate the combination of natural disasters combined with political insurrections may have cost as many as 200 million Chinese lives between 1850 and 1865. While the rebellion had popular appeal, its eventual failure may have stemmed from its inability to integrate foreign and Chinese ideas.
Self-Strengthening Movement
The movement was launched by the Manchus in the late 19th century to bring back the glory of their dynasty after the Taiping Rebellion. The movement aimed to merge modern Western industrial technology with China’s Confucian institutions and values.
