VII. The Rise of Imperalism Flashcards
Jameson Raid
a botched raid on the Transvaal republic intended to trigger an uprising by British expats. It was ineffective, but an inciting factor in the Second Boer War, and also caused British-Boer relations to deteriorate as well as Anglo-German relations.
Hobson
John Hobson, English economist, critic of imperalism. His seminal work was the 1902 ‘Imperalism’, a discourse on the negative financial, economic, and moral aspects of imperialism. It stated that imperial expansion was driven by the search for new markets overseas. He called imperialism unnecessary and immoral, the result of a misdistribution of wealth in capitalist society. It massively influenced Lenin and Trotsky.
Rhodes
Cecil, a South African politician and founder of Rhodesia who used his wealth to pursue his imperialist aims of expanding the British Empire in Southern Africa. He believed the Anglo-Saxon races were destined to greatness and wanted the British Empire to be a superpower. He also profited hugely from diamond mining in Southern Africa.
General Gordon
a British general who led a force of Chinese soldiers who put down the Taiping rebellion in the early 1860s. Eventually killed in Khartoum fighting the Mahdists.
Berlin Conference 1885
The major European powers met to decide all questions regarding the Congo River basin in Central Africa. Each power viewed the other powers’ attempts at colonial expansion with jealousy and suspicion. Formalisation of the Scramble for Africa. A period of heightened colonial activity by European powers, which eliminated or overrode most existing forms of African autonomy and self-governance - channelled latent European hostilities towards one another outward.
Sino-Japanese War
(1894–95), conflict between Japan and China that marked the emergence of Japan as a major world power and demonstrated the weakness of the Chinese empire. The war grew out of conflict between the two countries for supremacy in Korea. Clearly demonstrated the failure of the Qing dynasty’s attempts to modernize its military and fend off threats to its sovereignty, especially compared with Japan’s successful post-Meiji Restoration. For the first time, regional dominance in East Asia shifted from China to Japan; the prestige of the Qing Dynasty, along with the classical tradition in China, suffered a major blow. The humiliating loss of Korea as a vassal state sparked an unprecedented public outcry. Within China, the defeat was a catalyst for a series of political upheavals led by Sun Yat-Sen and Kang Youwei, culminating in the 1911 Revolution.
Kipling
Rudyard. British poet and novelist, who celebrated British imperialism. His sense of a civilising mission which bounded every white man to bring European culture to the uncivilised world was expressed in his 1899 poem ‘The White Man’s Burden’, written after the U.S. colonisation of the Philippines.
Spanish-American War
1898 - a conflict between the United States and Spain which ended Spanish colonial rule in the Americas and resulted in U.S. acquisition of the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico. The U.S. emerged a world power with overseas possessions and a new stake in international politics that would soon lead it to play a determining role in the affairs of Europe, while Spain turned inwards and developed economically.
Boxer Rebellion
1900 peasant uprising that attempted to drive all foreigners out of China. 19,000 overseas troops were brought in to crush the rebellion. Beijing was plundered and reparations forced on the Chinese were heavy. It marked the end of European interference in Chinese affairs, with the Europeans preferring to deal instead with the ruling dynasty, and marked the beginning of a growing Japanese influence over China.
