Colonial Conquest of Africa and Asia

Distinctive European empires

One was the prominence in of race in distinguishing the rulers and the ruled Education for colonial subjects were both limited and skewed toward practical subjects rather than scientific and literary studies which were regarded as inappropriate for the primitive mind of the natives Particularly affected were those whose Western education and aspirations threatened the racial divide Europeans were exceedingly reluctant to allow even the most highly educated Asians and Africans to enter the higher ranks of colonial civil service In colonies that had a larger European settler population, the pattern of racial separation was much more pronounced than in places such as Nigeria which had a few whites South Africa: A large European population and widespread use of African labor in mines and industries brought races into more contact This caused for race to be a legal feature of South African society-this racial system provided for separate homelands, educational systems, residential areas, and public facilities. This was known as apartheid where African whites attempted to create an industrializing economy based on African labor, while limiting their political and social mobility Another feature-Centralized tax collecting bureaucracies, new means of communication and transportation, imposed changes to landholding patterns, integration of colonial economies into a global network of exchange, public health and sanitation measures, and the missionaries affected daily lives far more deeply. European colonizers were extraordinary in their ability to classify and count their subject peoples With missionaries and anthropologists (human scientists) collected a vast amount of information and tried to organize it scientifically and used it to manage the complex societies they governed In India, the British found classical texts and a Brahmin ideology of a caste system with 4 castes or varnas. The British invented a Brahmin version of traditional India which they sought to preserve and this system benefitted the upper classes In African colonies, Europeans identified, and sometimes invented distinct tribes, each with its own clearly defined territory, language, customs, and chief This tribal Africa expressed the Western view that African societies were primitive or backward, representing an earlier stage of human development This also made African society a more manageable state Colonial policies contradicted their own core values and policies at home While nineteenth century Britain and France were becoming more democratic, their colonies were dictatorships. Empire was wholly at odds with European notions of national independence and racial classification was against both Christianity and the Enlightenment Many Europeans were reluctant to encourage the kind of modernization-urban growth, industrialization, individual values, and religious skepticism- that was sweeping their own societies They feared that this social change often known as detribalization would encourage unrest and challenge colonial rule They much preferred traditional rural society with its established authorities and social hierarchies, though scorned of abuses such as slavery and sati-widows dying

New technologies

A desire for oversea expansion spurred new innovations: Steam-driven ships, moving through the new Suez Canal, allowed Europeans to reach distant Asian and African ports more quickly and predictably and to travel in interior rivers as well, the underwater telegraph made possible almost instant communication with far-flung outposts of the empire. The discovery of quinine prevented malaria and greatly reduced European death in the tropics. Breech-loading rifles and machine guns vastly widened the military gap between the Europeans and everyone else.

Meiji Restoration

Aware of what had happened to China after they resisted European demands, Japan agreed to a series of unequal treaties with various Western powers This further eroded the support for the shogunate, triggered a brief civil war, and by 1868, led to a political takeover by a group of young samurai from southern Japan This was called the Meiji Restoration as they were restoring power to the young Meiji. Their goals were to save Japan from foreign domination not by resistance but by a thorough transformation of Japanese society, drawing upon all that the modern West had to offer Differences with China and the Ottoman Empire: Acquires a government without massive violence or destruction and in contrast the Taiping Revolution had devastated China Japan was of less interest to Western powers due to it not having the riches and huge market of China and the geographic location of the Ottoman Empire At this time, the American civil war was taking place The first task was genuine national unity which required an attack in the power and privileges of both the daimyo and the samurai The new regime ended the semi-independent domains of the daimyo, replacing them with governors appointed by and responsible to the emerging national government The central state, not the local authorities, now collected the nation's taxes and raised a national army with members of all the social classes The samurai gave up their ancient role as warriors and the Confucian-based social order with special privileges was dismantled and almost all Japanese became legally equal as commoners and subjects of the emperor A segment of the ruling class abolished their own privileges and many of these elites found a place in the army, bureaucracy, or business enterprises. Widespread and eager fascination with everything Western Knowledge about the West-its science and technology, it's various political and constitutional arrangements, its legal and educational systems, and other aspects of its culture were eagerly sought out by hundreds of students sent to study abroad and by many ordinary Japanese at home. Japan continued to borrow more selectively and combine foreign and Japanese elements in distinctive ways For example, the constitution of 1889, influenced by Germany, introduced an elected parliament, political parties, and democratic ideals, but that constitution was a gift from a sacred emperor descended from the Sun Goddess The parliament could advise, but ultimate power, and particularly control of the military, lay theoretically with the emperor and with prominent reformers acting in his name A modern educational system, which achieved universal primary schooling by the early twentieth century was also laced with Confucian-based moral instruction and loyalty to the emperor. State guided industrialization program: The government itself established a number of enterprises, later selling many of them to private investors. It also acted to create a modern infrastructure by building railroads, creating a postal system, and establishing a national currency and banking system Japan's industrialization was organized around a number of large firms known as zaibatsu. The country became a major producer of textiles and was able to produce its own munitions (military related goods) and industrial goods as well. All of this was accomplished through its own resources and without the massive foreign debt. Taxed heavily to pay for Japan's modernization program, many peasant families slid into poverty. Urban workers were treated badly-their pay was low and their working conditions terrible. Anarchist and socialist ideas circulated among intellectuals Efforts to create unions or strikes were met with harsh repression The economic growth of Japan persuaded the Western powers to revise the unequal treaties in Japan's favor The Anglo-Japanese Treaty of 1902 acknowledged Japan as a equal player of the Great powers of the world Empire-building enterprise: Successful wars against China and Russia established Japan as a formidable military competitor in East Asia and the first Asian state to defeat a major European power. Japan also gained colonial control of Taiwan, Korea, and Manchuria

Ottoman Response

Defensive modernization that was earlier more sustained and far more vigorous than in China. Reasons: Absence of any internal upheaval such as the Taiping uprising in China; nationalist revolts on the periphery The Middle East did not experience explosive population growth The long-established Ottoman leadership was Turkic and Muslim, culturally similar to its core population unlike the Qing leaders Reforms began in the eighteenth century when Sultan Selim the second sought to reorganize and update the army and to draw on European advisers and techniques Even these modest innovations stirred the hostility of powerful factions among both the ulama and the Janissaries who saw them in conflict with Islam and institutional interests Opposition to these measures was so strong that Selim was overthrown and murdered Subsequent sultans crushed the janissaries and brought the ulama more thoroughly under state control More far-reaching reformist measures know as Tanzimats took shape as the Ottomans leadership sought to provide the economic, social, and legal underpinnings for a strong and newly centralized state Factories, mines, resettlement of agricultural land, telegraphs, steamships, railroads, and a modern postal service, Western style law codes and courts, elementary and secondary schools all of these new reforms began a long process of modernization and westernization Even more revolutionary were changes in the legal status of the empire's diverse communities which now gave non-Muslims equal rights under the law. Christians were appointed to high office, tide of secular legislation and secular schools competed with traditional Islamic schools Lower-level officials, military officers, people who were educated in a modern Western-style education called themselves the Young Ottomans sought major changes in the Ottoman political system. They favored a more European-style democratic, constitutional regime that could limit the absolute power of the emperor Known as Islamic modernism, Muslim societies argued that they needed to embrace Western technical and scientific knowledge, while rejecting materialism. Islam could accomodate a full modernity without sacrificing its essential religious character. The Young Ottomans experienced a short victory when the sultan Abd al-Hamid accepted a constitution and elected a parliament Under the pressure of war with Russia, the Sultan soon suspended the reforms and reverted to an older style of absolute rule for the next thirty years Opposition to this revived monarchy soon surfaced among both military and civilian elites known as the Young Turks Largely abandoning any reference to Islam, they advocated for a militantly secular public life, were committed to thoroughgoing modernization along European lines, and increasingly thought of the Ottoman Empire as a Turkish national state. A military coup in 1908 allowed the Young Turks to exercise real power They pushed for secularization of schools, courts, and law codes; permitted elections and competing parties; established a single Law of Family Rights for all regardless of religion, and encouraged Turkish as the official language. Also opened up modern schools for women However, this nationalist concept of Ottoman identity antagonized non-Turkic peoples and helped stimulate Arab and other nationalisms in response This divided the Ottoman Empire following World War 1 The Chinese Empire and the Ottoman Empire were semi colonies within the informal empires of Europe, although they retained sufficient independence for their government to launch catch up efforts of defensive modernization. However, these efforts were not able to create the industrial economies or strong states The collapse of the Ottoman following World War 1 led to the creation of a new but much smaller nation-state in the Turkish heartland of the old empire, having lost much of its European and Arab land China's twentieth century revolutionaries rejected Confucianism far more thoroughly than the secularizing leaders of modern Turkey rejected Islam

Labor for WAGES

Driven by the need for money, by the loss of land adequate to support their families, or sometimes colonial orders, millions of colonial subjects across Asia and Africa sought employment in European owned plantations, mines, and construction projects Southeast Asia: Huge plantations arose which were financed by Europe Hundreds of thousands of impoverished workers came from great distances and found their way to these plantations, where they were subject to strict control, often housed in barracks, and paid poorly British colonial authorities in India allowed for the migration of millions of Indians to work sites elsewhere in the British Empire with some working as indentured laborers and others as independent merchants In Africa (more than Asia), people migrated to European farms and plantations because they had lost their own land In settler colonies of Africa, permanent European communities, with the help of colonial governments, obtained huge tracts of land, much of which had previously been home to African societies Much of highland Kenya, home to the Gikuyu and Kamba peoples, was taken over by some 4,000 white farmers Some Africans stayed working for new landowners as the price of the remaining on what had been their own land Others were displaced to native reserves, limited areas that could not support their growing populations, thus forcing many to work for wages on European farms In South Africa, such reserved areas, known as Bantusans, became greatly overcrowded-soil fertility declined, hillsides were cleared, forests shrank, and erosion scarred the land Rapidly swelling cities of the colonial world attracted wage earners Traditional elites, landlords, and Chinese businessmen occupied the top rungs of Southeast Asian cities Western-educated people everywhere found opportunities as teachers, doctors, and professional specialists, but more often as clerks in European offices and government bureaucracies Skilled workers on the railways or in the ports represented a working-class elite while a few labored in the factories that produced agricultural goods or manufactured basic products Far more numerous were the construction workers and servants that made up the urban poor

Racism and Social Darwinism

Europeans had largely defined their superiority in religious terms: "they" were heathen; "we" were Christian Even with this sense of religious superiority, Europeans adopted many of the ideas and techniques of more advanced societies. They held many aspects of Chinese and Indian civilization in high regard, they freely mixed and mingled with Asian and African elites and often married their women Europeans developed a secular arrogance after the industrial revolution that fused with or was in some cases replaced with their notions of religious superiority Their opinions of other cultures dropped sharply Europeans viewed the culture of African and Asian peoples through a new kind of racism, expressed now in modern science For example, they used allegedly scientific methods and instruments to classify the size and shape of human skulls and concluded that white skulls are larger and more advanced than the African skulls Biologists who classified plants and animals formed a hierarchy of races with the whites naturally on top and the less developed child races below them The germ theory of disease was accompanied by fears that contact with the inferior peoples threatened the health and even the biological future of more advanced and superior peoples. The Europeans felt a sense of responsibility (White Man's Burden) to the weaker races that Europe was fated to dominate The civilizing mission as Europeans regarded it included bringing Christianity to the heathen, good government to disordered land, work discipline and production for the market to lazy natives, a measure of education to the ignorant and illiterate, healthcare to the sick, while suppressing native customs that ran counter to Western ways of living. Effort to apply or misapply the evolutionary thinking of Charles Darwin to human history This concept was social Darwinism, where the survival of the fittest suggested the European dominance inevitably involved the displacement or destruction of unfit races.

African women

In precolonial times, African women were almost everywhere active farmers while men cleared the land, built houses, herded the cattle, and in some cases assisted with field work Women were expected to feed their own families and were usually allocated their own fields for that purpose Many were also involved in local trading activity In colonies where cash crop agriculture was dominant, men often withdrew from regular production in favor of more lucrative export crops Among the Ewe people of southern Ghana, men almost completely dominated the highly profitable cacao farming, whereas women assumed near total responsibility for domestic food production In the Ivory Coast, women had traditionally grown cotton for their families' clothing; but when that crop acquired a cash value, men insisted that cotton grown for export be produced on their own personal fields Labor migration: As more and more men sought employment in cities, settler farms, and mines, their wives were left to manage the domestic economy almost alone In the Luo of Kenya, women introduced labor saving crops, adopted new farm implements, and earned some money as traders In the cities, they established a variety of self-help associations The colonial society provided opportunity for enterprising women, in small scale trade and marketing In some parts of West Africa, women came to dominate this sector of the economy by selling local goods or cheap imported goods while men or foreign firms controlled the profitable wholesale and import-export trade. The Nupe women in northern Nigeria had gained sufficient wealth as itinerant traders that they were contributing more to the family income than their husbands Among some Igbo groups in southern Nigeria, women's crops came to have cash value during the colonial era and women were entitled to keep the profits from selling it Took advantage of new opportunities in mission schools, towns, and mines to flee the restrictions of rural patriarchy Various responses from men: Accusations of dishonesty

Cash CROPS

In some places, colonial rule created conditions that facilitated and increased cash-crop production to the advantage of local farmers British authorities in Burma acted to encourage rice production among small farmers by ending an earlier prohibition of rice exports, providing irrigation and transportation facilities, and enacting land tenure laws that facilitated private ownership of small farms. The population of the Irrawaddy Delta boomed, migrants from Upper Burma and India poured into the region, and rice exports soared Local small farmers benefited considerably because they were able to own their own land, build substantial homes, and buy imported goods Standards of living improved sharply and huge increases in rice production fed millions of people in other parts of Asia In the Mekong River delta of French ruled Vietnam, their rule had several environmental consequences. It involved the destruction of mangrove forests and swamplands along with the fish and shellfish that supplemented local diets New dikes and irrigation canals inhibited the depositing of silt from upstream and thus depleted soils in the deltas of these major river systems This kind of agriculture generated large amounts of methane gas Profitable cash crop farming also developed in the southern Gold Coast-British territory in West Africa Planting cacao trees in huge quantities, they became the world's leading supplier of cocoa. It was compatible with continued production of foods and did not require so much labor time A shortage of labor fostered employment of former slaves as dependent and exploited workers and also generated tensions between the sexes (some men married women for their labor power but didn't treat them well) The labor shortage brought a huge influx of migrants from the drier interior parts of West Africa, generating ethnic and class tensions Many colonies came to specialize in one or two cash crops, creating an unhealthy dependence when world market prices dropped

Different methods for colonial takeover

In the century and a half between 1750 and 1900, a second and distinct round of colonial conquest took place. It was focused on Africa and Asia. Number of new countries-Germany, Italy, Belgium, the United States, Japan-who were not all involved in the earlier phase, while the Spanish and Portuguese had only minor roles. This second wave of European colonial conquest was supported by the Industrial Revolution European activities and motives were shaped by the military capacity and economic power that the Industrial Revolution conveyed The European advantage was in firepower, deriving from recently invented repeating rifles and machine guns In the end, Europeans emerged victorious almost everywhere, largely against adversaries who did not have Maxim guns or in some cases any guns at all African and Asian peoples of all kind incorporated within one another of the European empires For the peoples of India and Indonesia, colonial conquest grew out of earlier interaction with European trading firms The British East India company played a leading role in the colonial takeover of South Asia after the fragmentation of the Mughal Empire A similar situation of many small and rival states assisted the Dutch acquisition of Indonesia It evolved slowly as local authorities and European traders made and unmade a variety of alliances in India In Africa, mainland Southeast Asia, and the Pacific islands, colonial conquest came later and more abruptly. The process involved endless but peaceful negotiations among the competing Great Powers and extensive and bloody military action The most difficult to subdue were decentralized societies without a formal state structure Europeans confronted no central authority with which they could negotiate or that they might decisively defeat It was a matter of village-by-village conquest against extended resistance In Australia and New Zealand, conquest was accompanied by massive European settlement and disease that reduced native numbers by 75 percent or more by 1900. These became settler colonies in the Pacific Japan's takeover of Taiwan and Korea marked similarities to European actions The westward expansion of the United States and the Russian penetration of Central Asia brought millions under European control Filipinos acquired new colonial rulers when the United States took over from Spain after the Spanish American War. Some 13,000 freed slaves seeking greater freedom migrated to West Africa where they became a colonizing elite in the land they named Liberia Ethiopia and Thailand were notable for avoiding the colonization to which their neighbors were susceptible (their countries' military and diplomatic skills, willingness to make modest concessions to the Europeans, and the rivalries of the imperialists). Many initially sought to enlist Europeans in their own internal struggles for power or in their external rivalries with neighboring states or peoples As pressures mounted and European demands escalated, some tried to play off imperial powers against one another Many societies were sharply divided between those who wanted to fight and those who believed that fighting was useless. Others negotiated attempting to preserve as much independence and power as possible The rulers of the East African kingdom of Buganda saw opportunity in the British presence and negotiated an arrangement that substantially enlarged their state and personally benefited the kingdom's elite class.

Hinduism

Intellectuals and reformers began to define their region's endlessly varied beliefs, practices, sects, rituals, and schools of philosophy as a more distinct, unified, and separate religion that we now know as Hinduism Swami Vivekananda-one of India's most influential religious figures, claimed that a revived Hinduism offered a means of uplifting the country's village communities Offer spiritual support to a Western world in materialism and militarism This new notion of Hinduism provided a cultural foundation for emerging ideas of India as a nation, but it also contributed to a clearer sense of Muslims as a distinct community in India

Rebellions and Taiping Rebellion

It's prosperous economy and American food crops had enabled massive population growth No Industrial Revolution accompanied this vast increase in the number of people, nor was agricultural production able to keep up China's famed and centralized bureaucratic state did not enlarge itself to keep pace with the growing population The state was increasingly unable to perform many functions such as tax collection, flood control, social welfare, and public security. The central state lost power to provincial officials and local gentry Among such officials, corruption was widespread, and harsh treatment of peasants was common. The declining dynasty gave rise to growing numbers of bandit gangs roaming the countryside and, even more dangerous, outright peasant rebellion. The culmination of China's internal crisis lay in the Taiping Uprising, which occurred between 1850 and 1864. Hong Xiuquan claimed he was the younger brother of Jesus and was sent to cleanse the world of demons and to establish a peaceful kingdom. They called for the abolition of private property, redistribution of land, the equality of men and women, the end of foot binding, and an organization of military camps for men and women His cousin, Hong Reagan, developed plans for transforming China into a industrial revolution-railroads, health insurance, newspapers, and widespread public education Taipeng forces swept out of southern China and established their capital in Nanjing But decisions and indecisiveness within the Taiping leadership and their inability to link up with several other rebel groups also operating separately in China provided an opening for Qing dynasty loyalists to rally and crush these peasant rebellions. Western military support for pro-Qing forces contributed to their victory. However, provincial gentry landowners, fearing the radicalism of the Taiping program, mobilized their own armies, which in the end crushed the rebel forces. The Qing dynasty remained but was weakened as the provincial gentry consolidated their power at the expense of the state. The intense conservatism of imperial authorities and their gentry supporters postponed any resolution of China's peasant problem, delayed any real change for China's women, and omitted vigorous efforts at modernization until the communists came to power. The devastation and destruction of the civil war disrupted and weakened China's economy.

Japan

Japan had been governed by a shogun from the Tokugawa family who acted in the name of the powerless emperor. The Tokugawa shogunate aimed to prevent the return of civil war among the 260 rival feudal lords known as daimyo The samurai in the absence of wars to fight evolved into a salaried bureaucratic or administrative class Shoguns gave Japan more than two centuries of peace To control the daimyo, the daimyo were required to have second homes in Edo (capital) where they had to live in during alternate years and when they left for their rural residences, families stayed behind, like hostages. Nonetheless the daimyo retained substantial power and behaved like independent states To further stabilize the country, the Tokugawa regime issued highly detailed rules governing the four hierarchical groups: samurai, peasants, artisans, and merchants Centuries of peace contributed to the remarkable economic growth, commercialization, and urban development Entrepreneurial peasants using fertilizers and other agricultural innovations grew more rice than ever before and engaged in rural manufacturing enterprises as well By 1750, Japan had become the world's most urbanized country, with about 10 percent of its population living in cities or towns. The influence of Confucianism encouraged education and generated a remarkably literate population. Some samurai found the lowly but profitable path of commerce too much to resist, Many merchants, though in the lowest class, prospered in the new commercial environment and supported a urban culture, while some daimyo sought loans from them Many peasants moved to the cities, becoming artisans or merchants and imitating the ways of their social betters Social change undermined the Tokugawa regime Corruption was widespread and the shogunate's failure to deal successfully with a severe famine in the 1830s eroded confidence in its effectiveness and a mounting wave of peasant uprisings and urban riots expressed many grievances Japan had deliberately limited its contact with the West to a single port, where only the Dutch were allowed to trade The United States and Europe was turned away and shipwrecked sailors or whalers were expelled, jailed, or executed The United States forced the issue, sending the Commodore Party in 1853 to demand humane treatment for castaways, the right of American vessels to refuel and buy provisions, and the opening of ports to trade.

Self Strengthening

Known as "self strengthening", their policies during the 1860s and 1870s sought to reinvigorate a traditional China An examination system designed to recruit qualified candidates for official positions sought the good men who could cope with the massive reconstruction China faced in the Taiping rebellion Support for landlords and the repair of dikes and irrigation helped restore rural social and economic order A few industrial factories producing textiles and steel were established, coal mines were expanded, and a telegraph system was initiated. A number of modern arsenals, shipyards, and foreign language schools sought to promote industrialization Self strengthening was inhibited by the fears of conservative leaders that urban, industrial, or commercial development would erode the power and privileges of the landlord class The new industries remained largely dependent on foreigners for machinery, materials, and expertise They served to strengthen local authorities who largely controlled them, rather than the central Chinese state

Cooperation/Rebellion

Many individuals willingly cooperated with colonial authorities to their own advantage Many men found employment, status, and security in European-led armed forces The shortage and expense of European administrators and the difficulties of communicating across cultural boundaries made it necessary for colonial rulers to rely on intermediaries African, Muslims, and Indians often from elite or governing families were able to retain their earlier status and privileges while exercising legal or local authority The colonial state of France contained 385 French administrators and more than 50,000 African chiefs. Promoted a measure of European education From this process, arose a small Western-educated class, whose members served the colonial state, European businesses, Christian missions, and lower level state administrators. Some returned home after an extensive education abroad and became lawyers, doctors, engineers, or journalists Thus periodic rebellions both large and small punctuated the history of colonial regimes The Indian Rebellion was triggered by the introduction of the colony's military forces a new cartridge smeared with animal fat from cows and pigs (offensive to Hindus and Muslims and they believed the Europeans were attempting to convert them to Christianity through this practice). Local rulers who had lost power, landlords deprived of their estates or their rent, peasants overtaxed and exploited by urban moneylenders and landlords alike, unemployed weavers displaced by machine-manufactured textiles, and religious leaders exposed to missionary preaching. It began with mutiny among troops in Bengal Some rebel leaders wanted to revive the Mughal Empire The rebellion greatly widened the racial divide in colonial India and eroded British tolerance for those who had betrayed them Convinced British government to assume direct control over India (ending British East India Company)

Opium/Opium Wars

Opium had long been used on a small scale as a drinkable medicine Had not become a serious problem until the eighteenth century when the British began to use opium, grown and processed in India, to cover their persistent trade in balance with China. By the 1850s, British, American, and other Western merchants had found an enormous, growing, and very profitable market for the highly addictive drug. China faced many problems: Because opium importation was illegal, it had to be smuggled into China, this breaking Chinese laws. Bribed to ignore the illegal trade, many officials were corrupted. A massive outflow of silver to pay for the opium reversed China's centuries-long ability to attract much of the world's silver supply, and this imbalance caused serious economic problems China found itself with many millions of addicts The emperor decided to suppress opium Commissioner Lin Zexu led the campaign against opium use with measures including seizing and destroying, without compensation, more than 3 million pounds of opium from Western traders and expelling them from the country The British, offended by this violation of property rights, sent a large naval expedition to China, determined to end the restrictive conditions under which they had long traded with the country This began the first Opium War which was suppressed by the Treaty of Nanjing, which ended the war largely on British terms, imposed numerous restrictions on Chinese sovereignty and opened five ports to European traders. Britain's victory in a second Opium War was accompanied by the brutal vandalizing of the emperor's exquisite Summer Palace outside Beijing and resulted in further humiliation Still more ports were opened to foreign traders Now these foreigners were allowed to travel freely and buy land in China, to preach Christianity under the protection of Chinese authorities, and to use some of China's rivers. Following military defeats at the hands of the French and Japanese, China lost control of Vietnam, Korea, and Taiwan By the end of the century, the Western Nations plus Japan and Russia had carved out spheres of influence within China, granting themselves special privileges to establish military bases, extract raw materials, and build railroads. China's encounter with European imperialism had reduced the proud Middle Kingdom to dependency on the Western powers Restrictions imposed by the unequal treaties clearly inhibited China's industrialization as foreign traders and foreign investment flooded the country unrestricted

Race vs. Tribe

Previously, few if any people on the continent had regarded themselves as Africans-members of local communities, usually defined by language or the Islamic religion or they were part of another state or empire Well educated Africans began to emphasize nationalism An effort to revive the cultural self-confidence of their people by articulating a larger, common, respected "African tradition" equivalent to Western culture African culture and history possessed the characteristics that Europeans exalted-large empires, complex political systems African intellectuals pointed with pride to the ancient kingdoms of Ethiopia, Mali, Songhai, and others Egypt influenced the world and Egypt was influenced by Africa (another belief of nationalism) Hundreds of thousands of Africans took part in World War I during which they encountered other Africans and Europeans and various intellectuals further stimulated among a few a sense of belonging to an even larger pan-African world Such notions underlay the nationalist movements that contested colonial rule The idea of an Africa sharply divided into separate and distinct tribes was a European notion that facilitated colonial administration and reflected European's belief in Africa's primitiveness Urban areas: Surrounded by a variety of people, and immense competition, migrants to the city found it helpful to categorize themselves and others in larger ethnic terms (same language, ethnicity, geographic area) They organized a variety of ethnic and tribal associations to provide mutual assistance while in the cities and to send money back home to build schools or clinics Migrant workers, far from home and concerned to protect the rights of their land and families, found a sense of security in being part of a recognized tribe with its authorities Igbo people eagerly seized Western education and moved in large numbers to the cities and towns of colonial Nigeria They were organizing on a national level and calling on Igbos everywhere in order to sink all differences and achieve tribal unity

How did colonial power transform economic lives?

Required and unpaid labor on public projects such as railroads, constructing governmental buildings, and transporting goods. In French Africa, all natives were legally required for statute labor (unpaid labor required by law) of ten to twelve days a year that was much resented. Congo Free State governed by Leopold II of Belgium-private companies in Congo, operating under the authority of the state, forced villagers to collect rubber, with a reign of terror that cost millions of lives These outrages were widely publicized in Europe, forcing the Belgium government to take control of Congo in 1908 and ending Leopold's reign of terror. A variation of this forced labor took place in the cultivation system of the Netherland's Indonesia Peasants were required to cultivate 20 percent or more of their land in cash crops to meet tax obligations by the state These crops were then sold to government contractors at fixed and low prices, those crops, when resold on the world market proved highly profitable for Dutch traders and shippers and the state and citizens Also enriched and strengthened the position of traditional authorities who used lashings and torture on the behalf of the Dutch For the peasants of Java, it meant a double burden to the colonial state and the local lords Many had to borrow loans from moneylenders These demands, along with the loss of land and labor excluded from food production led to several famines In German East Africa, it was successfully resisted-the cultivation of cotton interfered with the production of local food crops and this prompted a rebellion which forced Germans to end the forced growing of cotton In Mozambique where the Portuguese enforced cotton cultivation, a combination of peasant sabotage, the planting of unauthorized crops, and the smuggling of cotton across the border to more profitable markets ensured that Portugal never achieved its goal of becoming self sufficient in cotton production

Decline of the Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman Empire ruled over Anatolia, much of the Arab world, Egypt, North Africa, and the Balkans. However, in the middle, and certainly by the end of the nineteenth century, the Ottoman Empire was unable to prevent region after region from falling under the control of Christian powers. The Ottoman Empire's territory shrank considerably due to Russian, Austrian, and French aggression Napoleon's invasion of Egypt, which had long been the province of the Ottoman Empire, led to a virtually independent Egypt that pursued a modernizing and empire-building program of its own after the French left. Other parts of the empire such as Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, and Romania achieved independence based on their own surging nationalism and support from the British or Russians The central Ottoman state had weakened particularly in its power to raise revenue, as provincial authorities and local warlords gained greater power. The Janissaries, once the effective and innovative elite infantry units of the Ottoman Empire lost their military edge, becoming a highly conservative force within the empire. The early centrality of the Ottoman and Arab lands in Afro Eurasian commerce diminished as Europeans achieved direct oceanic access to Asia. Competition from cheap European manufactured goods hit Ottoman artisans hard and led to urban riots protesting foreign imports. A series of agreements known as capitulations between European countries and the Ottoman Empire granted Westerners various exemptions from Ottoman law and taxation Considerable dependence on Europe: Came to rely on foreign investments to finance its efforts at economic development, by 1882, its inability to pay the interest on those debts led to foreign control of much of its revenue generating system and the outright occupation of Egypt by the British.

Industrial Revolution

The enormous productivity of industrial technology and Europe's growing affluence now created the need for extensive raw materials and agricultural products. Europe needed to sell its own products. Europe and America were targeting China as its enormous population represented much potential for the market. Capital: Investors often found it more profitable to invest their money abroad than at home Wealthy Europeans also saw social benefits to foreign market, which served to keep Europe's factories prospering and its workers employed. Imperialism promised to solve the class conflicts of an industrializing society while avoiding revolution or the serious redistribution of wealth Growth of mass nationalism: The unification of Italy and Germany made Europe's always competitive political system even more so and much of this rivalry spilled over into the struggle for colonies or economic concessions in Asia and Africa. Colonies and spheres of influence abroad became a symbol of national "Great Power" status, and their acquisition was a matter of urgency, even if they possessed little economic value.

Boxer Rebellion

The general failure of self strengthening came became apparent when an anti foreign movement known as the Boxer uprising erupted in northern China and led by militia organizations, the Boxers killed numerous Europeans and Chinese Christians and laid siege to the foreign embassies in Beijing When Western powers and Japan occupied Beijing to crush the rebellion and imposed a huge payment on China as punishment, it was clear that China remained a dependent country, substantially under foreign control. Growing numbers of educated Chinese including many in official elite positions believed that the Qing Dynasty was both foreign and ineffective in protecting China. By the late 1890s, such people were organizing a variety of clubs, study groups, and newspapers to examine China's desperate situation and explore alternate paths They admired not only Western science and technology but Western political parties that limited the authority of the ruler and permitted wider circles of people to take part in public life They believed that only a truly unified nation in which rulers and the ruled were closely related could save China from imperialists-this led to an immensely powerful force of Chinese nationalists More extensive reform in the early twentieth century including the end of the old examination system and the promise of a national parliament In 1911, the Qing Dynasty collapsed

Christianity

Widespread conversion to Christianity occurred in New Zealand, the Pacific islands, and especially, non-Muslim Africa. Some 10,000 missionaries had descended on Africa and converted 50 million Africans Military defeat shook confidence in the old gods and local practices, fostering openness to new sources of supernatural power that could operate in the wider world Christianity was widely associated with modern education, and, especially, in Africa, mission schools were the primary providers of Western education The young, the poor, and women found new opportunities and greater freedom in some association with missions Christianity became Africanized: converts continued using protective charms and medicines and consulting with local medicine men and many missionary mentors felt they were moving into bad ways/error Others believed that old gods and spirits were evil and sought for their destruction Thousands of separatist movements established a wide array of independent churches, which were thoroughly Christian but under African rather than missionary control