HIS 121 Chapter 2

1. HIS 121Chapter 2 High Tide of Imperialism: Africa and Asia

2. Industrialists and governments found: • they needed more and more marketplaces for all the goods they were producing • they needed sources of raw materials for their factories As a result, many European countries and the United States set out to find both

3. By the end of the 19th century, most traditional societies in Asia and Africa had been taken as colonies by European nations like Great Britain, France, Italy, Belgium, Germany, and Portugal, plus the United States ** Why did they feel they could do this?

4. The Myth of Western Superiority • Western societies believed they were direct descendants of the magnificent civilizations of Greece and Rome • Didn’t the Enlightenment take place in Europe? • Didn’t the Industrial Revolution take place in Europe? • Didn’t Europe invent the “tools” necessary to easily take over more primitive people?

5. Doesn’t that prove Europe’s innate superiority? • Not exactly, if you look at the whole picture • Europe did not invent or discover everything • Europe did not start the world trade network; they began some parts of it • Asia and Africa already had an established trade network

6. Mongols controlled the land-based trade routes in Eurasia in the 13th and 14th centuries • Muslims controlled many of the sea lanes in the East • These trade routes carried not only commercial goods like silk and spices, but also inventions and ideas like Arabic numerals and gunpowder • Many of these, including what we call Arabic numerals, originated in China or India

7. Europeans had become familiar with these goods and ideas and wanted more, especially the spices • To get them, they needed to reach India • In 1498 Vasco da Gama representing the Portuguese reached India • They found trading difficult there because the Indians were not interested in European trade goods like wool and cast iron pots, and they didn’t wish to convert to Christianity

8. Asians would, however, trade their goods for European silver bullion • Vasco da Gama also discovered that there was an already established trading network, and European countries would have to find a way to fit into it

9. The Trading Network • Stretched from the Middle East and Africa to East Asia and was divided into 3 main zones: an Arab region, an Indian region, and a Chinese region • There were peripheral regions in Japan, S.E. Asia, and East Africa • The spices bearing the highest prices came from Sri Lanka and Indonesia

10. The Portuguese realized they couldn’t keep paying silver bullion for Asian goods, so they decided to force their way into the network • They had superior ships and weapons • They took advantage of divisions or factions among the Asians in order to break into the trade network

11. From 1507 onward, the Portuguese took towns and built forts in a number of places like Ormuz (1507), Goa (1510), and Malacca (1511)

12. Goa

13. Malacca

14. Asians tried to fight back but were defeated • The Portuguese goal was to establish a monopoly over the spice trade and to license all vessels trading in their area • The Portuguese had limited success • In the 17th century, the Dutch and the English entered the trade network challenging Portugal • The Dutch took over Malacca and Batavia (today’s Jakarta, Indonesia)

15. The English took India after failing to take the “Spice Islands” • India was the first major Asian civilization to fall to a European power

16. The Rise of India • Aryans • Harappans, 1500 BCE (had agriculture) • Mauryas, 3rd century BCE (laid the foundation for technology) • Guptas, 300 CE (Hinduism enters) • Turks in the north, 11th century CE (Islamic) • Mughal, 15th century CE • Islamic • Had organized politics and culture • Peaked under Akbar in 17th century • Hindus began to challenge them • Mughals were severely weakened by the end of 18th century

17. Into this weakened area came the British who took over because they had better firepower and guile • By 1900, European nations had taken most of S.E. Asia as colonies • European nations weren’t the only ones taking new territory; the United States began taking colonies as well but called them territories • 1898 – U.S. Naval Forces under Commodore George Dewey took the Philippines

18. So European powers practiced Imperialism • Why? • to control certain goods • to spread Christianity • to make a profit • to bring prestige to their nations • to get raw materials for industry and new marketplaces • Some call it God, Gold, & Glory -- the 3 Gs

19. It is sometimes explained in higher terms: • Moral obligation • Might makes right • Survival of the fittest • To bring stability and organization • To bring God to the heathen masses

20. Africa • Although Europeans didn’t really take territory in Africa until the 19th century, they had traded with Africans since the 15th century • The Portuguese were the first Europeans to have investigated the African coast; they established trade and set up forts • The Portuguese first traded in slaves • Other Europeans later joined in this trade of slaves

21. Europeans weren’t the only ones to deal in slavery; nearly every pre-modern society around the globe has depended on slavery to some extent • It is linked to warfare and the taking of captives • Since ancient times, slaves from Africa have been taken and used by those around the Mediterranean • Slaves were also taken from other areas: Eastern Europe and Central Asia

22. All slavery, however, involved the forceful exploitation and degradation of some humans for the profit of others, the denial of basic freedoms, and the break-up of families • Before the 15th century, Africans were taken as slaves into Islamic lands of the Mediterranean, S.W. Asia, and S. Asia; it was called the Oriental Trade • European slave trade was called the Occidental Trade • from 1650-1850, the European slave trade surpassed all others

23. European nations and the United States began to outlaw the importation of slaves in the early 19th century; demand dropped and prices dropped • The formal end to slavery by Europeans occurred over a long period beginning in 1874 in the Gold Coast and ending only in 1928 in Sierra Leone in West Africa

24. The Effects on Africans • Millions were taken • Talent gone • Africans acted as middlemen • Africans had a different idea of what a slave was • They were captives who more or less became a member of the family to be used as a sacrifice if needed

25. As Europeans began outlawing slavery, legitimate trade began – trade in raw materials like palm nuts, palm oil, peanuts, timber, and hides • Europeans sent in traders, explorers, and missionaries • To protect their interests, Europeans set up settlements and sent in government officials • This caused tension with the Africans

26. When Africans tried to protect and defend their territory, Europeans annexed their territory • Ex.: the Gold Coast was the first British colony taken in 1874 • British had superiors • Used direct and indirect rule • Quinine made exploration and capture of the interior of Africa possible

27. White Settlement of South Africa • 17th century: Dutch East India Company set up a station at the Cape of Good Hope • 1657: colonization was allowed; a Dutch-speaking, slave-owning, agricultural community developed • They were called the Boers ( Dutch for peasant) • They felt entitled to 6,000 acres each • The Boers moved in and pushed out the Bantu tribe • Bantus moved into Zulu territory which resulted in a conflict called theMfecane or crushing

28. Zulus fought back in one of the most widely devastating upheavals of the 19th century • Zulus remained independent until the late 1870s • As a result of the Napoleonic Wars, the British were given control of the Cape of Good Hope in 1806 • Boers resented the British presence • 1820s: British settlers arrived and disapproved of the Boer lifestyle - slavery

29. 1830s: some Boers began to move away from the Cape of Good Hope and founded a new colony called Natal • 1830s: British gave the Cape of Good Hope a constitution and a parliamentary government; this included a non-racial franchise • Differences between the 2 groups gave rise to Afrikaner nationalism • 1845: British annexed Natal

30. The Boers moved again and set up 2 new republics : the Orange Free State and the Transvaal • The British recognized them in 1852 and 1854 • At this point South Africa had 2 British and 2 Dutch colonies • 1867: diamonds were discovered near the junction of the Orange and Vaal Rivers on the western edge of the Orange Free State • Both the British and the Dutch wanted this diamond territory; British got it

31. 1886: gold was discovered in the Transvaal at Witwatersrand near Johannesburg and a gold rush ensued • British built railroads to get to the gold; the Boers felt threatened • Many British entrepreneurs like Cecil Rhodes moved in • Cecil Rhodes became the Prime Minister of Cape Colony in the 1890s and tried to destabilize the Transvaal government; it didn’t work & ended Rhodes political career

32. War broke out between the British and the Boers, called the Boer War, 1899-1902 • The British won • After the war, the British moved towards unification • Natal, Cape Colony, Transvaal, and Orange Free State became the Union of South Africa, a dominion • Dutch and English were the official languages • Voting rights would remain as they had been before the war, so there would be no voting by blacks in former Boer republics

33. Connections • Industrial Revolution • A need for raw materials • A need for marketplaces • New inventions that made take-over easier

34. Colonies • New culture imposed • The old is destroyed