IMPERIALISM:

Aim: Did imperialism leave a legacy of ruins in the Afro-Asian world, or did it leave behind lasting benefits in the

areas that it controlled?

COLORS OF THE WIND You think you own whatever land you land onThe Earth is just a dead thing you can claimBut I know every rock and tree and creatureHas a life, has a spirit, has a name

You think the only people who are peopleAre the people who look and think like youBut if you walk the footsteps of a strangerYou'll learn things you never knew you never knew…

Q: According to this song, why is imperialism a flawed policy?

THE OLD IMPERIALISM

THINK BACK….

Q: What were the motives of the “old imperialism? (15th-16th centuries)”

European motivation(The New Imperialism- 19th-20th

centuries)

• Nationalism• Economic competition• European racism• Missionary impulse

VIEWPOINTS

Concerning Imperialism

The White Man’s Burden

Rudyard Kipling, The White Man's Burden, 1899

Take up the White Man's burden--Send forth the best ye breed--Go bind your sons to exileTo serve your captives' need;To wait in heavy harness,On fluttered folk and wild--Your new-caught, sullen peoples,Half-devil and half-child.

"Can the Missionary Reach This Old Savage?" Minneapolis Journal (March 23, 1901).

Devilfish in Egyptian Waters

• Arranged by Otto von Bismarck

• 14 European nations lay down rules for division of Africa

• Rest of continent divided with little thought of linguistic and cultural concerns

• No Africans represented

• “Scramble of Africa”

Berlin Conference of 1884-1885

Exploring Africa!

• Westerners moved into African interior following expeditions in the 18th and 19th centuries

• Mungo Park (Scotland) traced Niger River• Missionary David Livingstone explored Zambezi

basin and Victoria Falls• American Henry Stanley explored the Congo• John Speke from England located the source of

the Nile

What were the only two Africancountries that remainedindependent by 1914?

http://www.fresno.k12.ca.us/divdept/sscience/APEuro_Podcast/podafrica1914.jpg

Belgian Congo

• Belgium controlled the Congo

• Rubber plantations• Brutal working conditions• Congolese villagers were

killed or mutilated if they didn’t produce enough

• By 1911 the Congolese population dropped more than 50% from before the arrival of the Belgians

Barronshttp://www.allposters.com

Resistance in South Africa

• Shaka applied sophisticated tactics and organization to Zulu resistance

• Shaka called the “Black Napoleon”

• Zulus fought the Boers and the British

• British began to annex diamond fields in 1871• Mines were built and exploited Africans.• African laborers didn’t have rights and were

segregated• British provoked the Zulus in 1879 because

there were diamonds in Zulu territory• British won but suffered many casualties• Gold also discovered in South Africa

Emancipation of Slaves

• Slave revolts in the 18th-19th centuries became expensive to suppress

• Slaves did not work enthusiastically

• Price of slaves increased but price of sugar decreased

• Slavery abolished in British colonies in 1833

• Slavery abolished in the U.S. in 1865

The Boer War 1899-1902

• Afrikaners had migrated in the mid 1800s because of tensions with the British (“The Great Trek”)

• Afrikaners established three republics: Natal, Orange Free State, and the South African Republic. Became the South African Republic

• British annexed the republic in 1877 but the Afrikaners revolted and claimed independence in 1881

• Gold discovered in South African province in 1884 drew thousands of British miners to the area

• Cecil Rhodes, colonial financier, wanted to bring all of South Africa in to the British Empire

• Boer War 1899-1902 fought between Dutch Afrikaners and the British in South Africa

• British had a better army but Boers were good sharpshooters and used guerilla warfare

Tensions increase!

• The Germans publicly supported the Boers, angering the British

• German-British relations were further strained by German imperialism in East Africa (prevented British from building a continental railroad from Egypt to South Africa)

How did British imperialism affect India?

• Early 1700s- British East India Company paid for the British takeover of India

• British textile mills put local textile makers (usually women) out of business

• The British left taxation to Zamindars (Indian officials) who overtaxed and confiscated land from peasants

• Educational system revamped (Thomas Macaulay)• Outlawed Sati and harsh treatment of untouchables

An engraving titled "Sepoy Indian troops dividing the spoils after their mutiny against British rule" gives a contemporary view of events from the British perspective

THE SEPOY MUTINY (1857)

Reactions to Imperialism in India

• Indian National Congress (1885) formed, with British approval

• Means to discuss issues with British colonial officials

• All- Indian Muslim League (1906)

• 1915- Mohandas Gandhi returned from South Africa to preach nonviolent resistance to British rule

Qian Long: Letter to George III, 1793

Swaying the wide world, I have but one aim in view, namely, to maintain a perfect governance and to fulfill the duties of the State: strange and costly objects do not interest me. If I have commanded that the tribute offerings sent by you, O King, are to be accepted, this was solely in consideration for the spirit which prompted you to dispatch them from afar. Our dynasty's majestic virtue has penetrated unto every country under Heaven, and Kings of all nations have offered their costly tribute by land and sea. As your Ambassador can see for himself, we possess all things. I set no value on objects strange or ingenious, and have no use for your country's manufactures.

Qian Long [Ch'ien Lung], (r. 1735-1795)

Commissioner Lin: Letter to Queen Victoria, 1839

Now we have set up regulations governing the Chinese people. He who sells opium shall receive the death penalty and he who smokes it also the death penalty. Now consider this: if the barbarians do not bring opium, then how can the Chinese people resell it, and how can they smoke it? The fact is that the wicked barbarians beguile the Chinese people into a death trap. How then can we grant life only to these barbarians? . . . Therefore in the new regulations, in regard to those barbarians who bring opium to China the penalty is fixed at decapitation or strangulation. This is what is called getting rid of a harmful thing on behalf of mankind…the numerous foreign merchants… have seduced our Chinese people, and caused every province of the land to overflow with that poison. These then know merely to advantage themselves, they care not about injuring others!

http://web.jjay.cuny.edu/~jobrien/reference/ob29.html

TREATY OF NANKING (1842)

• Extraterritoriality (British subjected to their own laws, not China’s)

• Spheres of Influence

• Reparations ($ to British)

• Hong Kong to Britain (returned in 1997)

Spheres of Influence

Ringmar.net

Google images

THE BOXER REBELLION (1900)

Fei Ch'i-hao (A Chinese Christian) in 1900: “Late in July a proclamation of the Governor was posted in the city in which occurred the words, "Exterminate foreigners, kill devils." Native Christians must leave the church or pay the penalty with their lives. Li Yij and I talked long and earnestly over plans for saving the lives of our beloved missionaries.”

Empress Dowager Tsu Hsi

Q: WHY DID CHINA REMAIN ISOLATED FROM THE WEST UNTIL THE 19TH CENTURY?