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Imperialism Introduction
NAME __________________________________________ Date _______________ Period__________
Location
South Africa
India
Hawaii
Colonists
Colonized
Motives (2)
Interesting Fact
The English sought to stake out claims in India at the expense of the Portuguese dating back to the
Elizabethan era. In 1600, Queen Elizabeth I incorporated the English East India Company (later the British
East India Company), granting it a monopoly of trade from the Cape of Good Hope eastward to the Strait of
Magellan.
Through bribes, diplomacy, and manipulation of weak native rulers, the company prospered in India, where it
became the most powerful political force, and outrivaled its Portuguese, and French competitors.
Aside from defeating the French during the Seven Years' War, Robert Clive, the leader of the Company in
India, defeated a key Indian ruler of Bengal at the decisive Battle of Plassey (1757), a victory that ushered
in the beginning of a new period in Indian history, that of informal British rule. While still nominally the
sovereign, the Mughal Indian emperor became more and more of a puppet ruler, and anarchy spread until the
company stepped into the role of policeman of India. The transition to formal imperialism, characterised by
Queen Victoria being crowned "Empress of India" in the 1870s was a gradual process.
However, by 1818 the
East India Company was master of all of India. Some portions of India were administered by the British
directly; in others native dynasties were retained under British supervision.
In the early 1900s, Indians began an independence movement aiming to end British rule in India. This came to
a height with the non-violent movement headed by Mahatma Ghandi. India finally gained independence in 1950.
The British had three major areas of interest in Africa that led to their colonization of it; strategic ports
and routes to their Asian colonies, trade interests, and political objectives such as beating the French in
the Scramble , and Christianizing the natives .
When gold was discovered in South Africa in 1886, the temptation of a far off place filled with diamonds and
gold was too great a temptation for many British fortune seekers. Thousands of British people made the trip
to South Africa to work in the gold and diamond fields, and began crossing into the Orange Free State and
Transvaal. When the British Government tried to expand and include the two Afrikaner Colonies, the Boers were
angry and in 1899 the Boer War began. It looked as though Britain might actually lose the War, but by late
1900, the tide was turned with the arrival of British reinforcements. In 1902 the British defeated the Boer's
and the Orange Free State and Transvaal officially became a part of British South Africa.
The English term "concentration camp" was first used to describe camps operated by the British in South
Africa during this conflict.
The camps had originally been set up by the British Army as "refugee camps" to provide refuge for civilian
families who had been forced to abandon their homes for one or other reason related to the war. However, the
British Army introduced new tactics in an attempt to break the guerrilla campaign and the influx of civilians
grew dramatically as a result. Kitchener initiated plans to
"flush out guerrillas in a series of systematic drives, organized like a sporting shoot, with success defined
in a weekly 'bag' of killed, captured and wounded, and to sweep the country bare of everything that could
give sustenance to the guerrillas, including women and children.... It was the clearance of civilians—
uprooting a whole nation—that would come to dominate the last phase of the war."[43]
As Boer farms were destroyed by the British under their "Scorched Earth" policy—including the systematic
destruction of crops and slaughtering of livestock, the burning down of homesteads and farms, and the
poisoning of wells and salting of fields—to prevent the Boers from resupplying from a home base many tens of
thousands of women and children were forcibly moved into the concentration camps.
In 1881 King Kalakaua, went on an extended journey around the world, leaving the 43-year-old Princess in
charge. Following her succession to the throne after her brother's death in 1891, Queen Lili'uokalani would
work secretly to frame a new constitution that would restore power to native Hawaiians. But two months into
her reign, the US government effectively revoked Hawaii's favored position on the American sugar market and
Lili'uokalani's kingdom was on the brink of economic collapse. The sugar growers were convinced there was
only one way to survive-annexation to the United Sates.
The clash of interests that ensued drew plantation owners, native Hawaiians, the US government, and the
Queen's cabinet into the fray. Eventually, Lili'uokalani would lose her throne and the Hawaiian people would
lose their kingdom.
On January 16, 1893, four boatloads of United States Marines armed with Gatling guns and hundreds of rounds
of ammunition came ashore in Honolulu, capital of the independent Kingdom of Hawaii. As the Royal Hawaiian
band played a concert at the Hawaiian Hotel, 162 troops marched through the streets of Honolulu, heading for
the palace. The Queen of Hawaii, Lili'uokalani, looked down from her balcony as the troops took up their
positions.
The following day, she surrendered at gunpoint, yielding her throne to the government of the United States. A
provisional government led by wealthy white sugar growers assumed control of Hawaii and petitioned the US for
annexation. Hawaii was recognized as part of the United States in 1898 by President William McKinley.