Imperialism and Its Variations WHAP/Napp

“The people of South Asia felt the impact of Europeancommercial, cultural, and colonial expansionmore immediately and profoundly than did thepeople of Africa. While Europeans were laying claim toonly small parts of Africa between 1750 and 1870,nearly all of India (with three times the population ofall of Africa) came under Britain’s direct or indirect rule. During the 250 years after the founding of East IndiaCompany in 1600, British interests commandeered thecolonies and trade of the Dutch, fought off French and

Indian challenges, and picked up the pieces of the decayingMughalEmpire. By 1763 the French werestymied; in 1795 the Dutch East India Company wasdissolved; and in 1858 the last Mughal emperor was dethroned,leaving the vast subcontinent in Britishhands.

As Mughal power weakened inthe eighteenth century, Europeanswere not the first outsidersto make a move. In 1739 Iranian armies defeatedthe Mughal forces, sacked Delhi, and returned homewith vast amounts of booty. Indian states also took advantageof Mughal weakness to assert their independence. By midcentury, the MarathaConfederation, acoalition of states in central India, controlled moreland than the Mughals did. Also rulingtheir own powerful states were the nawabs (a termused for Muslim princes who were deputies of theMughal emperor, though in name only): the nawab ofBengal in the northeast; the nawab of Arcot in thesoutheast, Haidar Ali (1722–1782) – the ruler of the southwestern state of Mysore;and many others. British, Dutch, and French companies were also eagerto expand their profitable trade into India in theeighteenth century. Such far-flung European tradingcompanies were speculative and risky ventures in 1750. Their success depended on hard-drinking and ambitious young ‘company men,’ who used hard bargaining,and hard fighting when necessary, to persuade Indianrulers to allow them to establish trading posts at strategicpoints along the coast. To protect their fortified warehousesfrom attack by other Europeans or by nativestates, the companies hired and trained Indian troopsknown as sepoys. In divided India these private armiescame to hold the balance of power.

In 1691 Great Britain’s East India Company had convinced the nawab of the large state of Bengal innortheast India to let the company establish a fortifiedoutpost at the fishing port of Calcutta. A new nawab,pressing claims for additional tribute from the prosperingport, overran the fort in 1756 and imprisoned a groupof British East India Company men in a cell so small that many died of suffocation. To avenge their deaths in this ‘Black Hole of Calcutta,’ a large British East India force from Madras, led by the youngRobert Clive, overthrew the nawab. The weak Mughalemperor was persuaded to acknowledge the East IndiaCompany’s right to rule Bengal in 1765.” ~ The Earth and Its Peoples

1. Which of the following was NOT an economic motivation for imperialism?
(A) Cheap raw materials from factories.
(B) Overseas colonies offered markets for manufactured goods.
(C) Overseas colonies offered a haven for the settlement of surplus populations.
(D) European and American industry needed more sources of coal. / 2. British rule undermined the Indian cotton industry by
(A) Undercutting the cost of Indian cloth with cheap British textiles.
(B) Forbidding the manufacture of cotton cloth in India.
(C) Imposing tariffs on cotton cloth imported into India.
(D) Allowing only Muslim manufacturing.
Key Words/ Questions / I. The Age of Imperialism
A. The nineteenth century was Europe’s age of global expansion
  1. Behind Europe’s expansion lay the Industrial Revolution
  2. Europe needed to sell its own products
  3. Industrialization also provided new means for achieving goals
  4. Steam-driven ships made moving through the Suez Canal faster
  5. Quinine to prevent malaria reduced European deaths in tropics
  6. Breech-loading rifles and machine guns increased Europe’s advantage
II. New European Attitudes
  1. Chinese, who had been praised in 18th century, seen in 19th century as
    weak, cunning, conservative, and a distinct threat, the “yellow peril”
  2. African societies demoted in 19th century in European eyes to the status of tribes led by chiefs to emphasize their “primitive” qualities
  3. New kind of racism, expressed now in terms of modern science
  4. Europeans saw a hierarchy of races, with whites on top
  5. Europeans saw imperialism as inevitable outgrowth of superiority
  6. Some Europeans adopted “social Darwinism” – the belief that stronger groups dominate weaker ones
  7. Another viewpoint: a genuine, if condescending, sense of responsibility to the “weaker races”: expressed in poem “The White Man’s Burden”
III. Imperialism and China
A. Stunning reversal of fortune
  1. Corruption was endemic and harsh treatment of peasants was common
  2. Taiping Rebellion set much of China aflame between 1850 and 1864
1. Ideology was based on a unique form of Christianity
  1. Hong Xiuquan (1814-1864) proclaimed himself Jesus’ younger brother
  2. Sent to cleanse world and establish “heavenly kingdom of great peace”
  3. Called for abolition of private property; redistribution of land; gender equality; end of foot binding, prostitution, opium smoking
  4. Denounced Qing dynasty as foreigners who had “poisoned China”
  5. Days of Qing appeared over but divisions within Taiping leadership
  6. By 1864, the rebellion was crushed
  7. Shifting balance of global power led to famous Opium Wars
  8. British began to use opium, grown in India, to cover trade imbalance
  9. By 1830s, an enormously profitable and highly addictive drug in China
  10. By 1836, the emperor decided on suppression
  11. Chinese destroyed without compensation 3 million pounds of opium
  12. British began first Opium War in 1839
  13. Treaty of Nanjing, ended conflict in 1842, largely on British terms
  14. Chinese to pay a $21 million indemnity to British and cede Hong Kong
  15. Also required China to open five ports to trade and granted foreigners right to live in China under their own law (extraterritoriality)
  16. Western nations plus Japan and Russia carved out spheres of influence
  17. Chinesetried reform or “self-strengthening” but resisted by scholars
  18. By 1911, the Qing Dynasty collapsed; it was the last Dynasty of China

  1. Land redistribution, reforms to simplify Chinese writing, equality for women, and armed struggle were major features of which pair of Chinese movements?
(A)Taiping Rebellion, Communist
(B)May Fourth Movement, Taiping Rebellion
(C)Nationalist, Taiping Rebellion
(D)May Fourth Movement, Communist
(E)Nationalist, Boxer Rebellion
  1. Which of the following best describes China’s trade relations with the rest of the world by about 1750?
(A)Export of Chinese manufactured and luxury goods in exchange for Western manufactured and luxury goods
(B)Export of Chinese manufactured and luxury goods in exchange for silver
(C)Import of Western manufactured and luxury goods in exchange for silver
(D)Negligible levels of trade with the rest of the world since China produced all it needed
(E)Mercantilist expansion colonizing the Philippines, Indonesia, and Southeast Asia
  1. Which does NOT belong in a group of nations that achieved territorial concessions in China by 1914?
(A)Japan
(B)Italy
(C)Britain
(D)Germany /
  1. Which of the following does NOT belong in a list of Chinese movements resentful of foreign domination?
(A)Boxer Rebellion
(B)May Fourth Movement
(C)Tanzimat Reform Movement
(D)Chinese Communist Movement
(E)Kuomintang (Nationalist) Movement
  1. Which thinker is most closely associated with formulating the theories of “Social Darwinism”?
(A)Karl Marx
(B)Jean-Jacques Rousseau
(C)Thomas Hobbes
(D)Herbert Spencer
(E)Charles Darwin
  1. Which of the following was a new Western motive for overseas territorial expansion in the industrial era?
(A)Missionary drive to convert non-Western peoples to Christianity
(B)Seizure of land to be put to use raising cash crops
(C)Drive to dominate sources of precious minerals and metals
(D)Need for raw materials for factory production
(E)Access to new markets for sale of Western manufactured goods

Thesis Practice: Comparative

Analyze methods and outcomes of European imperialists in Africa and China. ______

Readings:

A Civilization at Risk: Rebellion and Failed Reforms.

“The dislocations caused by theEuropean incursions spawned a massive rebellion in southern China during the 1850s and 1860s. A semi-Christian prophet, Hong Xiuquan, began the Taiping Rebellion. The dissidents offeredprograms of social reform, land redistribution, and liberation of women. They attacked thetraditional Chinese elite. The provincial gentry rallied to the Qing and assisted in the defeat ofthe rebellion. In the last decades of the century, dynamic provincial leaders led a “self-strengthening”movement aimed at countering the challenge of the West. They encouragedforeign investment in railways and factories and military modernization. They wanted only topreserve the existing order, not to transform it. Although they professed loyalty to the dynasty,the Manchu increasingly were unable to control the provinces. Despite a defeat by Japan in1894-1895, the Manchu and their allies among the scholar-gentry resisted reform. The lastdecades of the dynasty were dominated by the dowager empress, Cixi; in 1898 she crushed aserious reform effort. The involvement of members of the royal household in the BoxerRebellion further weakened China.

After the defeat of the Taipings, resistance tothe dynasty centered in secret societies. The revolts they inspired failed, but they were a trainingground for more serious resistance. By the end of the century, sons of the scholar-gentry became involved in plots to overthrow the regime and to create a governmentmodeled on that of the West. Sun Yat-sen was one of their most articulate leaders. Therevolutions were deeply hostile to European involvement in Chinese affairs. Sporadic outburstsfailed until 1911. A spreading rebellion forced the abdication of the last Manchu in 1912 and ledto the establishment of a republican government. The ending of the civil service exams in 1905was as important a watershed for Chinese civilization as the fall of the Qing in 1912. This stepsignified the ending of the use of Confucian values as a base for governing society. The era ofthe scholar-gentry had closed. Nonetheless, many Confucian attitudes survived to influencedevelopments in the newly emerging China.”

~ World Civilizations

Identify and explain the following key terms and key dates:

  • 1850 and 1864
  • 1905
  • 1911
  • Qing Dynasty
  • Opium Wars
  • Treaty of Nanjing
  • Extraterritoriality
  • Spheres of Influence
  • Taiping Rebellion
  • Boxer Rebellion
  • Self-Strengthening Movement
  • Sun Yat-sen
  • Nationalism
  • Dr. Sun Yat-sen’s Three Principles of the People