7/8 World History

Week 33

Imperialism & European Emigration

Monday Do Now

Define the word "colonialism." Name at least one example you've learned from world history.

Objective Students will understand the history of European imperialism in Asia and Australia.

Imperialism • Once the territory of the New World was

divided up and colonized by European countries in the 1500's and 1600's, they began to turn their sights back to Africa and Asia to create more colonies in the 1700's and 1800's.

• These new colonies were created and governed in a more organized, sophisticated way thanks to new technologies and prior experience with colonization around the world, which is why this new era of colonization is given a different name: imperialism.

• The goal of imperialism was not just to take natural resources and go back home, but to transform the native society into one that was modeled after the home country, adopting their language, religion, and style of government.

British Imperialism in India • England was particularly interested in

India because of its rich spice trade and large native population. In the early 1700's, the king of Bengal (part of northeastern India) gave English merchants permission to trade in his kingdom freely.

• Over the years, the wealth and power of the English merchants in Bengal continued to grow to such an extent that the king of Bengal no longer wanted English merchants in his kingdom, taking over all the native businesses.

• When he tried to kick them out, though, the English military came in and kicked him out of power, taking the entire kingdom for themselves. Over the course of the next 100 years, the English spread out from Bengal, eventually conquering most of the rest of India.

• By the time the conquest of India was complete, England was in the middle of the Industrial Revolution. This gave them even more reasons to want to hold onto control of India.

• Besides the country's natural resources (like spices, coal, and iron), India's large population was now seen as a market for English manufactured goods. They also saw the potential for workers from India to be low-wage laborers and servants.

• To justify their presence there, the English told themselves that it was really best for the Indian people because otherwise they would be wasting their natural resources and potential.

• They also developed a more complex concept of classifying races, based on appearance. They believed that fair-skinned Northern Europeans were superior to tan-skinned Southern Europeans, who were superior to brown-skinned people like Arabs and Indians, who were superior to light-skinned Africans, who were superior to dark-skinned Africans. This idea was often called the "natural order."

• When a large group of Indian rebels tried to regain the country's independence in 1857, the British cracked down on them harshly, and at least 100,000 people were killed. This figure is probably lower than reality, though, because the English purposefully didn't keep good records of how many rebels and civilians were killed.

British Imperialism in Australia • Although the large island continent of Australia was first

discovered by Dutch explorers in the early 1600's, no one tried to colonize it because the coastline appeared dry and empty compared to the tropical islands of Indonesia to the north.

• In the 1770's, though, England sent an expedition to explore the interior of Australia on foot and discovered a rich land full of mountains and fertile plains, so they decided to colonize the island a few years later.

• Instead of starting with just a few dozen or few hundred men, as most English colonies in the past had been started, the English sent a fleet of 11 ships carrying over 1,400 people to start the new colony from the ground up.

• Most of the new colonists were actually prisoners from England, with a few hundred guards and soldiers to keep them in line and force them to perform the heavy labor of chopping down trees and constructing buildings and roads in the wilderness.

• The English were aware that Australia had a population of natives, whom they called Aborigines, but it was only after they began constructing the first colony there that they realized just how large that native population was.

Aboriginal Society • Although the first interactions between the English

colonists and the Aborigines were peaceful, they quickly descended into violence as the English began expanding their cities and turning the plains and mountains into productive farms and mining operations.

• The ancestors of the Aborigines arrived in Australia approximately 60,000 years ago, during the first waves of migration out of Africa. They remained isolated from the rest of humanity until contact with the English, and never moved beyond the use of simple stone tools. They lived in hunter-gatherer tribes, speaking hundreds of different languages across the continent.

• Like the Native Americans, the Aborigines were severely weakened by exposure to smallpox, which wiped out about 60% of their original population within the first 50 years of contact, reducing it from about 750,000 to less than 300,000.

• Despite the devastating impact that English imperialism had on Aboriginal society, the English still tried to justify it as a good thing. One English settler in Australia wrote in 1845 that "the question comes to this: who has the better right - the savage, born in a country which he runs over but can scarcely be said to occupy, or the civilized man, who comes to introduce into this unproductive country the industry which supports life?"

Imperialism in Vietnam & the Philippines • Before the mid-1800's, France did not officially have a colony in

Southeast Asia, only Catholic missionaries, who had managed to convert more than 10% of the population away from Buddhism to Catholic Christianity.

• In the 1820's, though, the emperor of Vietnam (the largest kingdom in Southeast Asia) made it illegal to practice Catholicism because he feared the influence of French ideas on the local population.

• He ended up being right to fear this, but his crackdown on Catholic missionizing did not prevent a French invasion of the country from 1859 to 1867, in which they conquered the southern half of Vietnam. From 1883 to 1886, they conquered the northern half of the country, as well as the kingdoms of Laos and Cambodia right next door, turning the area into the colony of French Indochina.

• The United States got its own taste of imperialism in Southeast Asia slightly later, in 1898. After a brief war with Spain, the United States ended up taking over the Spanish colonies of Puerto Rico in the Caribbean, and the Philippines in Southeast Asia. Like England and France, the United States was quick to justify their ownership of these places on the basis of superior race and to maximize the country's economic potential.

Exit Ticket What were the justifications for European imperialism around the world?

Homework • Australian Aborigines reading &

questions

Tuesday Do Now

What kind of relationship did European countries have with Africa before the year 1800?

Objective

Students will understand the history of European imperialism in Africa.

The Suez Canal • Prior to the Industrial Revolution, Europe had a limited

relationship with Africa compared to other parts of the world. There were a few, small trading outposts owned by Europeans around the African coast, but no large-scale colonies like in the Americas or Asia.

• During the Industrial Revolution, though, European countries began to see Africa's natural resources as a new opportunity for imperialism. One of the first European efforts to take advantage of Africa was the Suez Canal.

• The idea of creating a canal going through Egypt to connect the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea (therefore being able to avoid sailing around Africa to get to India) was nothing new. In fact, it had already existed several times in the past.

• The first time the Suez Canal was created was in 525 BCE, by the Persian king Darius after he conquered Egypt. The canal was narrow and shallow, but it successfully connected the Nile River to the Red Sea enough for small boats to pass through.

• Unfortunately, though, the Nile River regularly changes course, so after 200 years the canal was no longer connected to the river and dried up. This happened several times again over the next 1,000 years, when it finally dried up in the 700's CE for the last time and no one attempted to dig another one.

• In 1859, France made an agreement with the Ottoman government of Egypt to dig a permanent canal, connecting the Red Sea directly to the Mediterranean Sea instead of connecting it to the Nile River, deeper and wider than any that had been created in ancient times.

• It was a monumental effort to dig such a huge canal through the dry, barren desert. It took 10 years and over 1 million workers (thousands of whom died in the process) to finish before it finally opened in 1869.

• For years, the French had sole control over the canal, collecting millions of dollars a year from ships paying tolls to pass through it. Eventually the Suez Canal, and Egypt itself, were taken over by the English, and remained in English control until 1956, when Egypt took independent control over it.

• The Suez Canal continues to be an important of modern sea trading. In 2015 the Egyptian government spent over $8 billion to make the canal even wider, increasing its capacity from 49 to 97 ships per day.

David Livingstone • Once the Suez Canal was completed in Egypt, Africa

became much more important to Europe economically. One man in particular, though, named David Livingstone, helped make Europe much more interested in the rest of Africa too.

• David Livingstone was born in 1813 in Scotland to a poor family. He began working in a cotton mill at a young age, but started studying in his spare time to become a preacher. Once he was done with his studies, he learned of an opportunity to travel to Africa to be a missionary, teaching native people about Christianity for the first time.

• Once he arrived in Africa, he began writing regularly to one of London's main newspapers, and his stories about life in Africa became extremely popular. He became the first European to explore the interior of central and southern Africa, and his newspaper stories became very popular, describing his adventures visiting native people in the jungle.

• One day, though, his letters suddenly stopped arriving - days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, with no word from him. After disappearing for 6 years, the newspaper sent an investigator down to Africa to try to find him, which he eventually did, dying of a tropical disease in a remote village. His stories about the unexplored interior of Africa inspired a generation of people in England to develop an interest in Africa.

Scramble for Africa • England became the first European country to take

over a large area of land in Africa when it took over Egypt in 1882. Shortly after that, the small European kingdom of Belgium began sending settlers to the Congo, a large area in the center of Africa. Other European countries were also starting to send out settlers and explorers to different parts of Africa.

• Wanting to avoid an all-out war, all the countries in Europe interested in imperialism in Africa had a giant meeting in 1884 called the Berlin Conference. At the Berlin Conference, the countries agreed to a set of rules over how they would divide up Africa between them.

• Some of the rules were simple, like telling the other countries they were planning to settle a certain area, while others were more difficult, like a certain number of white settlers per area they were conquering.

• Now that there were rules in place, the European countries were practically tripping over each other to get settlers into Africa so they could claim new territory. This sudden land-grab is now referred to as the Scramble for Africa.

Competition for Land • In the 1870's, only 10% of Africa's land was

controlled by Europeans. After the Scramble for Africa during the 1880's and 90's, 90% of Africa's land was controlled by Europeans. Only two countries in the entire continent of Africa remained independent: Ethiopia (in East Africa) and Liberia (a small country in West Africa).

• Besides the thrill of conquering new land, European countries were interested in Africa's natural resources, which included rubber (derived from rubber trees), palm oil, and gemstones (especially diamonds from South Africa).

• By the end of the Scramble for Africa, 7 European countries had split up most of the continent. The two largest imperialists in Africa were England (with 20 different colonies, including Egypt, South Africa, and Nigeria) and France (with 24 different colonies, including Mali, Algeria, and Cameroon). Besides those, Portugal had 5 colonies, Spain and Germany each had 4, Italy had 3, and Belgium had 2.

Effects of Imperialism • The effects of European imperialism in Africa were similar to other

places around the world, but even more devastating. Due to their concept of the natural order of races, Europeans looked down on African people more than anyone else.

• The Belgian colony of the Congo is often considered the best example of European mistreatment of Africans during imperialism. Once they were in control of the country, the Belgians required millions of the Congolese people to work for the government-run rubber industry, doing back-breaking work all day long for extremely little pay. When workers didn't meet their quotas, they chopped off one of their hands, but made them continue to work afterward one-handed.

• Mismanagement of farming also led to millions of Congolese people starving to death in huge famines. Combined with frequent smallpox epidemics, an estimated 12 million Congolese people died between 1885 and 1908, well over half the population.

• The term "concentration camp" was actually invented during a rebellion in South Africa in 1900. During the war, the English soldiers rounded up thousands of the wives and children of rebels and put them in guarded concentration camps, where large numbers of them died of illness and starvation.

Exit Ticket How was European imperialism in Africa similar to other parts of the world? How was it different?

Block Day Do Now

What are some of the most common reasons that people immigrate from one country to another?

Objective

Students will analyze the push and pull factors of European emigration in the late 19th century.

The Dark Side of the Industrial Revolution • The Industrial Revolution caused

tremendous changes around the world. Transportation of goods and people became much quicker and easier, and businesses began to increase their production thanks to new inventions.

• The Industrial Revolution, though, also had its downsides. People began working longer hours at more difficult and dangerous jobs, and factories began to pollute the air and water. Advances in hygiene and medicine also caused the population of industrialized countries to rise more quickly than people could afford, leading to a rise in poverty.

• At the time, most Europeans didn't understand that the Industrial Revolution was causing these problems, and they began to look for things to blame for it. In central and eastern Europe, many people began blaming the Jews.

Anti-Semitism • Hatred and prejudice towards the

Jews, known as anti-semitism, had a long history in Europe. Starting very early during the Dark Ages, when the Catholic Church taught about Jesus' death, they emphasized the role of the Jews. The reason they emphasized this rather than the role of the Romans (who had at least an equal part in it) was because most Catholics in the Dark Ages were the descendants of the Romans.

• Anti-semitism became popular during the time of the Black Death because they didn't understand what was causing it. That fear led many people to blame the Jews, resulting in death and destruction of Jewish property. During the mid-to-late 1800's, anti-Semitism started to become popular again, leading to a wave of pogroms (Russian word for destruction) throughout Eastern Europe. During these pogroms, mobs of Christians would attack Jewish people and their homes and businesses, killing many and burning down their property.

Jewish Immigration • As pogroms became more and more common during

the 1880's and 90s, many Jewish people began leaving Eastern Europe in large numbers. Jewish people who didn't want to move somewhere completely unfamiliar chose to go to large cities just outside Russia, such as Krakow (Poland), Budapest (Hungary), and Berlin (Germany). So many Jews moved to these cities that they developed large Jewish communities, which made them feel at home.

• Jews who were willing to move further spread all over the globe, usually to large cities, such as London (England), Paris (France), and New York (USA). Jews who moved to these places also developed Jewish communities there, but they were usually smaller, which forced them to mix more with the surrounding society.

• A small number of Jews, though, chose a different path: zionism. Zionism is the belief that the Jewish people should return to their ancestral homeland of Israel (in the Middle East) instead of trying to live in other places. By the early 1900's, the Jewish population of Israel rose from almost nothing to about 8%.

European Immigration • The changes caused by the Industrial

Revolution caused more people than just Jews to leave their homelands in Europe. In the period of time from about 1870 to 1920, tens of millions of Europeans moved to other parts of the world in search of a better life.

• The push factors for this wave of immigration (reasons for wanting to move) were relatively simple. The Industrial Revolution was causing Europe to become more crowded with people, and therefore more expensive to live in. Poor Europeans, in particular, were left with very few options in their home countries, so they moved to places that were emptier and cheaper.

• Large-scale immigration began in the 1870's in Northern European, which had industrialized earlier than the rest of Europe. These countries included England, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Most people from these places ended up moving to the United States, Canada, and Australia.

• A second wave of immigration began in the 1890's and first decade of the 1900's from Southern and Eastern European, including Italy, Spain, Greece, Poland, and Russia. These countries industrialized slightly later, so it took longer for the Industrial Revolution to effect their societies.

• Although many of these newer immigrants also went to places like the US, Canada, and Australia, many also went to different places like Argentina, Brazil, and South Africa. Once they were in a new country, these immigrants had the chance to get better jobs and live more cheaply than they could have in their home country.

• Unit 9 Study Guide

Exit Ticket Do you think you need more work on the multiple choice section, short answers, or essay for your history test tomorrow? What can you do to prepare better for that section?

Homework • Finish Unit 9 Study Guide

Friday Do Now

Study for the Unit 9 test!

Objective Students will apply their knowledge in a written test setting.

• Unit 9 Exam