Download Chapter 29 Industrialization and Imperialism

Chapter 29
Industrialization and Imperialism:
The Making of the European Global Order
OUTLINE
I.
Introduction
Industrialism changed European expansion. Instead of luxury goods, Europe sought raw
materials for its factories and markets for its manufactured goods. While Christian missionary
work continued, European governments, no longer threatened by Islam, did not promote it.
Industrialization made it possible to build true overseas empires on a much wider scale than
before.
II.
The Shift to Land Empires in Asia
A.
Introduction
In the early stages of imperial advance, the great trading companies sought to avoid
involvement in political rivalries in those civilizations brought into the world trade system.
Wars and the need to establish political administrations cut into company profits. Inevitably,
the local representatives of the great merchant companies were drawn into regional conflicts.
With the slow communications that existed prior to industrialization, however, local
commanders conquered large regions before officials in their home countries knew what was
happening.
B.
Prototype: The Dutch Advance on Java
The Dutch at Batavia were initially satisfied to be the vassals of the sultan of Mataram, the
kingdom that controlled much of Java’s interior. By intervention in succession wars within
Mataram in the 1670s, the Dutch received greater control over the region immediately around
Batavia. After 1670, repeated interventions in the succession to the throne of Mataram won
the Dutch most of Java. The sultans were able to retain only a small kingdom on the south
central portion of the island. Java became the core of the Dutch Asian empire.
C.
Pivot of World Empire: The Rise of the British Rule in India
As with the Dutch in Java, the British only gradually assumed a position of superiority over
indigenous rulers in India. The establishment of British control in India had much to do with
an imperial rivalry with the French that spanned the globe. It was a contest from which the
British emerged as victors and masters of an Asian empire. The British representative of the
East India Company was Robert Clive. After winning initial victories in southern India, Clive
won a major battle over the ruler of Bengal at Plassey in 1757. Clive had, with the help of
Hindu bankers, successfully bought off the chief general and most important allies of his
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Muslim enemy, Sirãj-ud-daula. Clive’s victory sealed the British supremacy over the French
in India.
D.
The Consolidation of British Rule
After Plassey, the British representatives of the East India Company involved themselves in
succession disputes and wars among the Indian rulers who bordered Bengal. Bit by bit, the
British wrested control of the Indian kingdoms from the declining Mughal Empire. Madras,
Bombay, and Calcutta became the administrative centers of the British Presidencies, which
incorporated most of the territory actually controlled by the East India Company. Other
Indian states were left as dependent allies. Despite their awareness of the growing power of
the British, Indian princes continued to squabble among themselves and to supply recruits for
the British armies. Armies recruited from Indian peoples became a potent force in the creation
of a worldwide British empire. By the 19th century, Indian armies served British masters
throughout the colonial empire.
E.
Early Colonial Society in India and Java
At first the British and Dutch colonial representatives simply established themselves atop the
indigenous social hierarchies in Asia. Europeans living in tropical climates had to
accommodate themselves to an unaccustomed ecology. New types of housing, dress, and
work habits were adopted. Because most of the colonial representatives were male, liaisons
with indigenous women were common.
F.
Social Reform in the Colonies
By the 1770s, rampant corruption within the East India Company forced the British
government to enact reforms. The most sweeping of these reforms were undertaken by Lord
Charles Cornwallis in the 1790s. Cornwallis’ reforms resulted in the cleansing of the East
India Company administration but also constricted the participation of Indians in their own
government. Evangelical religious movements in Britain also induced reform. Slavery was
abolished, and campaigns were launched against what were viewed as Indian social abuses.
British utilitarians supported the cries for social reform and plans for the erment of the Indian
population. Both Evangelicals and Utilitarians pressed for the introduction of Englishlanguage instruction in India and an infusion of British technology. At the center of the social
reform program was the abolition of the practice of sati. Despite some resistance, the British
insisted on an end to the practice. The British intentionally transmitted to India what they
regarded as the centerpieces of Western civilization, including education, technology, and
administrative organization, in an attempt to recast Indian civilization in the Western image.
III.
Industrial Rivalries and the Partition of the World, 1870-1914
A.
Introduction
Industrialization increased Europe and North America’s military and technological advantage
over other regions, and it also heightened competition among European nations and the United
States. One of the fields of competition was the race to establish international empires.
Colonies were regarded as economic insurance for industrialized nations. They supplied raw
materials, markets, and places to which disgruntled workers could potentially be shipped.
Improved transportation and communications permitted national leaders to play more direct
roles in imperial conquest. National presses gave governments the ability to build up public
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support and to publicize victories abroad.
B.
Unequal Combat: Colonial Wars and the Apex of European Imperialism
By the late 19th century, European nations could wage war with devastating effect. The
peoples of Asia and Africa were no longer able to provide effective resistance to determined
colonialists. Machine guns, steam power, and iron hulls gave the Europeans insurmountable
technological advantages. Despite overwhelming odds, Asian and African leaders continued
to resist the European advance. Although they were able to win some victories, indigenous
peoples could not sustain conventional wars against European forces. In many cases, most
effective resistance was offered by guerrillas.
IV.
Patterns of Dominance: Continuity and Change
A.
Introduction
Widespread conquest led to a growing sense among Europeans of their superiority and of a
desire for Western learning among Asian and African elites and middle classes. There were
two primary types of colonies: tropical dependencies and settlement colonies. In the first
type, small numbers of Europeans ruled large numbers of indigenous peoples. Within the
settlement colonies there were two patterns. In the White Dominions, such as Canada and
Australia, much of the population descended from European immigrants. In contested settler
colonies, such as Algeria, Kenya, New Zealand, and Hawaii, large numbers of European
immigrants vied with indigenous populations for control of the land and its natural resources.
B.
Colonial Regimes and Social Hierarchies in the Tropical Dependencies
During the 19th century, European colonizers followed models already established in India and
Java. By exploiting religious or ethnic divisions, the Europeans gained control over vast
regions of Asia and Africa. Administrators rigidified differences by the division of indigenous
peoples into artificial tribes. Small numbers of Europeans governed masses of indigenous
peoples with the help of Western-educated African and Asian subordinates. The British also
drew on a ready supply of educated Indians to supplement the administrative cadre of the
empire. In Africa, unlike other colonized regions, education was left in the hands of
missionaries rather than the state, a policy which stunted the growth of an African middle
class. Such policies intentionally eliminated the development of nationalist leaders among the
colonized peoples.
C.
Changing Social Relations Between Colonizer and Colonized
After 1850, Europeans in the colonies of Asia and Africa tended to isolate themselves from
indigenous peoples. The inclusion of European women in the colonies ended the earlier
practice of easy liaisons between European males and indigenous females. Laws were
established forbidding mixed marriages. Measures were passed to prevent social interactions
between European women and the indigenous peoples. Social exclusivity was fostered by the
growing acceptance of theories of white racial supremacy. Administrators and colonists both
attempted to create European enclaves in the midst of what they increasingly saw as savagery.
D.
Shifts in Methods of Economic Extraction
Economic administration continued to rely on the support of indigenous subordinates to
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manage colonial economies. Efforts were made to increase the production of exportable
products, in many cases by coercive means. Head and hut taxes were imposed payable only in
commodities. In the worst circumstances, such as in the Belgian Congo, labor quotas
represented little more than slavery. To facilitate the movement of raw materials and
agricultural crops, imperial nations built roads and railroads from colonial interiors to ports.
Mining and agricultural productivity increased in the colonies, but profits went to European
imperialists. African and Asian workers scarcely benefited from their labor. Colonial
economies were rapidly reduced to dependence on industrialized Europe.
E.
Settler Colonies in South Africa and the Pacific
As in the White Dominions, contested settler colonies attracted large numbers of European
immigrants. Unlike earlier settler colonies, where disease decimated indigenous populations,
19th-century settler colonies were in areas with large indigenous populations that remained
intact. Thus conflict and competition between indigenous and settler populations would shape
the history of these colonies.
F.
South Africa
From their initial foothold at Cape Colony, Boer farmers penetrated the South African interior
in search of farm land. As in Australia, the Boers found much of the interior sparsely settled
and encountered little resistance to their advance. The Boers enslaved the first indigenous
people they encountered, the Khoikhoi. The arrival of the British and their annexation of Cape
Colony in 1815 set South Africa on a separate course. By the 1830s, the Boers fled the Cape
Colony to seek independence and the right to continue a pattern of life now long established.
In the Great Trek, the Boer population crossed the Great Fish River into the South African
plains, where they encountered for the first time the Bantu states of the Zulus and the Xhosa.
War between the Bantu states and the Boer settlers was common during the middle decades of
the 19th century. At the same time, the British established a second colonial outpost on the
eastern coast of South Africa at Natal. In the 1850s, the Boers established two independent
republics, the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. When gold and diamonds were
discovered in the Boer republics, the finds drew British investors, such as Cecil Rhodes, into
the region. Relations between the British colonies and the Boer republics deteriorated until
war was declared in 1899. The Boer War paved the way for decolonization in South Africa
and established the political dominance of the Boers over indigenous Africans.
G.
Pacific Tragedies
In the Pacific, European, American, and Japanese colonialism resulted in demographic
disasters and social disruption. The cases of New Zealand and Hawaii serve as examples of
the impact of imperialism in the Pacific.
1.
New Zealand.
The first contact between Europeans and the indigenous Maoris occurred at the end of the 18th
century. Although European settlement was not extensive, exposure to European diseases and
dissemination of firearms among the militant Maori tribes resulted in massive population loss.
By the middle of the 19th century, the surviving Maoris had begun to establish sedentary
agricultural communities based on European technology and domesticated animals. British
settlement began in earnest in the 1850s. As the European immigrants seized the most fertile
lands, the Maoris were driven to the interior of the islands. The Maoris survived by
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acculturating to British law and government. New Zealand was able to construct a multiracial
society in which elements of the Maori culture flourished.
2.
Hawaii.
Captain James Cook opened Hawaii to Western development in 1777. With the use of
Western weapons, King Kamehameha united the various clans of Hawaii between 1794 and
1810. Kamehameha encouraged economic exchange with Western merchants. Beginning in
1819, missionaries from the eastern United States began a vigorous campaign to convert the
Hawaiians to Christianity. The missionaries brought in their wake cultural change and
Western education. As in New Zealand, exposure to Western diseases decimated the
population of the Hawaiian islands. Westerners soon began to experiment with plantation
crops. As the Hawaiian monarchy declined, planter groups called for more active U.S.
intervention. The United States formally annexed Hawaii as a colony in 1898.
V.
Global Connections: A European-Dominated World Order
Industrialization provided the motive and the means for global empire. Political power made it
possible for Europeans to reorganize the global economy around their own industrial societies.
This was the first true globalization. By pressing to inculcate European culture among the
colonized peoples, Europeans produced resistance to colonial rule. Successful mobilization of
nationalist sentiment in colonized nations often came from the ranks of men educated in
Western schools. European dependence on indigenous subordinates to manage colonial
economies made the imperialists vulnerable to challenges from within.
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TIMELINE
Insert the following events into the timeline. This should help you to compare important historical
events chronologically.
battle of Plassey
Zulu victory at Isandhlwana
United States annexes Hawaii
beginning of Boer War
discovery of diamonds in Orange Free State
establishment of a Christian mission in New Zealand
┌─── 1757
│
├─── 1814
│
├─── 1867
│
├─── 1879
│
├─── 1898
│
└─── 1899
TERMS, PEOPLE, EVENTS
The following terms, people, and events are important to your understanding of the chapter. Define
each one.
Mataram
Plassey
Princely States
Isandhlwana
contested settler colonies
Natal
Boer War
sepoys
Robert Clive
nabobs
true colonies
miscegenation
Boer Republics
Captain James Cook
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British Raj
Presidencies
Lord Charles Cornwallis
White Dominions
white racial supremacy
Cecil Rhodes
King Kamehameha
MAP EXERCISE
The following exercise is intended to clarify the geophysical environment and the spatial relationships
among the important objects and places mentioned in the chapter. Locate the following places on the
map.
Mark the colonial possessions of the following countries: Great Britain, France, Germany, Portugal,
and Belgium.
Compare the colonial holdings of the European nations in 1914 to the colonial ventures of the
17th century. What nations became more significant as imperial powers? What nations ceased
to play a major role in worldwide imperialism? How does this reflect the political changes in
Europe?
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MAKING CONNECTIONS
The following questions are intended to emphasize important ideas within the chapter.
1.
Contrast the motives for imperialism in the preindustrial era with those of the industrial era.
2.
In what way did the Dutch control of Java provide a model for early European industrial
advance?
3.
Contrast social interaction with indigenous peoples before and after 1850.
4.
What were the motives behind the global scramble for colonies?
5.
Compare and contrast tropical dependencies, White Dominions, and contested settler colonies.
6.
How did the 19th-century European imperialists transform their methods of economic extraction?
7.
How were European settler colonies established in the 1800s different from those from earlier
centuries, and what impact did those differences have?
8.
In what ways were the European colonial systems vulnerable?
PUTTING LARGER CONCEPTS TOGETHER
The following questions test your ability to summarize the major conclusions of the chapter.
1.
Compare European imperialism in the initial period of expansion after 1450 to the colonial
movement between 1750 and 1914.
2.
If you were a 19th-century imperialist, how could you defend imperialism? If you were a member
of a colonized culture, how would you condemn it?
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SELF-TEST OF FACTUAL INFORMATION
1.
Which of the following was NOT an aspect of imperialism in the period following European
industrialization?
a.
b.
c.
d.
2.
the search for markets for European-manufactured products
the absence of Christian missions
the establishment of European colonies in the interior of Africa and Asia
the search for raw materials to feed the machines of Europe
In what way was the intrusion of the British East India Company into India similar to the Dutch
entry into Java?
a. the conversion of the Indian elite to Christianity
b. the intervention into local squabbles among the indigenous princes in return for authority over
land
c. the British removal of all local rulers in the 18th century
d. the direct intervention of the British government in the process
3.
The bulk of the territories that the British East India Company ruled directly were administered
through the three
a.
b.
c.
d.
4.
Which of the following statements concerning the Indian resistance to British colonialism is most
accurate?
a.
b.
c.
d.
5.
Following the defeat at Plassey, the Princely States unified to oppose British advance.
Following Plassey, there was no resistance to British control of India.
The greatest opponent of British colonialism in India was the resurgent Mughal Empire.
Indian princes continued to fear and fight with each other despite the British threat.
The intrusion of Europeans into early colonial society
a.
b.
c.
d.
6.
Princely States.
nawabs.
sepoys.
Presidencies.
actually strengthened the control of Javanese and Indian lords over the peasantry.
totally disrupted the indigenous social systems of Java and India.
displaced the ruling classes within indigenous hierarchies.
led to the creation of large middle classes in India and Java.
What was the most critical issue for British reformers considering India in the 1830s?
a.
b.
c.
d.
sacred cows
multiple marriages
infant marriages
sati
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7.
Which of the following nations did NOT enter the competition for colonial empire and
international supremacy after 1870?
a.
b.
c.
d.
8.
Germany
Belgium
Spain
the United States
Which of the following statements is most accurate?
a. Faced with advanced military technology, indigenous peoples ceased resisting the imperial
advance.
b. Europeans were unable to overcome the Asian advantages in population.
c. African and Asian peoples often fiercely resisted colonial rule, although without realistic
chances of permanent success.
d. No African or Asian military forces ever won set battles.
9.
Which of the following is an example of a contested settler colony?
a.
b.
c.
d.
Australia
Senegal
New Zealand
Canada
10. Which of the following statements concerning the internal economies of the European colonies is
most accurate?
a. The introduction of European technology, such as railways and telegraphs, was intended to
improve the internal economies of the colonies.
b. Slowly the industrial system of the West was introduced into Asia and Africa.
c. By 1914, Asian and African colonies had won economic independence from the European
colonizers.
d. Colonial economies were steadily reduced to dependence on the European-dominated global
market.
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