Transcript America: A Concise History

Robert W. Strayer
Ways of the World: A Brief Global
History with Sources
Second Edition
Chapter 18
Colonial Encounters in Asia and Africa, 1750–1950
Copyright © 2013 by Bedford/St. Martin’s
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More important inventions coming your
way…
Telegraph- invented in 1837 by American Samuel Morse, it allowed people to communicate
across great distances within seconds.
– How does this contribute to second-wave imperialism?
•
Telephone- invented in 1876 by American Alexander Graham Bell, it further improved longdistance communication.
– Again, how does this contribute to imperialism?
•
Lightbulb-invented in 1879 by American Thomas Edison.
– What economic impact does this have?
•
•
Internal combustion engine- invented in 1885 by German Gottlieb Daimler. Leads to more
efficient engines, including car engines.
Moving assembly line- first used by Henry Ford. Reduced the need for skilled labor in
manufacturing and made it cheaper and easier to produce goods.
– What economic and cultural impact will this have on the US and
Europe?
•
•
Radio- invented in 1890s by Italian Guglielmo Marconi, based on an Edison design. Made it
easy to transmit information. Enabled propaganda, advertisement, expansion of
entertainment industry and pop culture, all of which helped to create national unity
(patriotism/nationalism) and expanded consumerism to new heights.
Moving pictures- invented in 1895 by Frenchman Louis Lumiere. Allowed expansion of
entertainment industry, pop culture, and nationalist indoctrination.
– For example, first complete American movie was Birth of a Nation, a retelling of US
history from the perspective of the KKK.
– What cultural impact do radio and moving pictures have?
I. Industry and Empire
A.
B.
C.
D.
Colonies as suppliers of raw materials and food
Colonies as markets
Colonies as investments
Nationalism and imperial expansion
I. Industry and Empire
E. The tools of empire
F. Technological superiority as racial superiority
G. Social Darwinism
II. A Second Wave of European
Conquests
A.
B.
C.
D.
New European players in Asia and Africa
European military superiority
Slow imperial creep in India and Indonesia
The Scramble for Africa and rapid expansion
elsewhere
II. A Second Wave of European
Conquests
E. Settler colonialism and mass death in the Pacific
F. American and Russian expansion
G. Japanese colonization in Taiwan and Korea
H. Defiant Ethiopia and diplomatic Siam
III. Under European Rule
A. Cooperation and Rebellion
1. Soldiers, administrators, and local rulers
2. A small Western-educated elite
3. Indian National Congress
III. Under European Rule
B. Colonial Empires with a Difference
1. Racial boundaries
2. Settler colonialism in South Africa
3. Impacts on daily life
III. Under European Rule
B. Colonial Empires with a Difference
4. “Traditional India” and “tribal Africa”
5. Gendering the empires
6. Political contradictions and hypocrisies
IV. Ways of Working: Comparing
Colonial Economies
A. Economies of Coercion: Forced Labor and the Power
of the State
1. Unpaid required labor on public works
2. King Leopold II’s Congo Free State
3. Cultivation system in the Dutch East Indies
4. Resistance to cotton cultivation in East Africa
IV. Ways of Working: Comparing
Colonial Economies
B. Economies of Cash-Crop Agriculture: The Pull of the
Market
1. Encouragement of existing cash cropping
2. Rice in the Irrawaddy and Mekong deltas
3. Cacao in the Gold Coast
IV. Ways of Working: Comparing
Colonial Economies
C. Economies of Wage Labor: Migration for Work
1. Internal migrations to plantations, mines, and cities
2. International migrations of Indians, Chinese,
Japanese, and others
3. “Native” labor in settler colonies
IV. Ways of Working: Comparing
Colonial Economies
D. Women and the Colonial Economy: Examples from
Africa
1. Men grew cash crops while women grew food
2. Labor migrations separated husbands and wives
3. Women became heads of households
4. Repression of female sexuality
5. Increase in prostitution and sexual slavery
IV. Ways of Working: Comparing
Colonial Economies
E. Assessing Colonial Development
1. Jump-start or exploitation?
2. Global integration
3. Some elements of modernization
4. No colonial breakthrough to modern industrial
economy
V. Believing and Belonging: Identity and
Cultural Change in the Colonial Era
A. Education
1. The door to opportunities
2. Adopting European culture
3. Modernity?
4. Colonial glass ceiling
V. Believing and Belonging: Identity and
Cultural Change in the Colonial Era
B. Religion
1. Christian missionaries in Africa and the Pacific
2. Religious conflicts over gender and sexuality
3. Colonial definition of Hinduism
4. Colonial identification with Islam
V. Believing and Belonging: Identity and
Cultural Change in the Colonial Era
C. “Race” and “Tribe”
1. Rise of an African identity
2. Pan-Africanism
3. Colonial creation of “tribes”
THE HYPOCRISY OF REFORM
•
Although industrial reform movements were happening all over the
European and American world, those reforms were not expanded to
include overseas colonies.
– Progressive movement in US- focus on women’s suffrage,
temperance, minimum wages, better working conditions,
democratizing political reforms. Refuse to give Philippines
independence, use military to intervene on behalf of US companies
all over Latin America, military take-over of Hawaii, take-over of
Samoa. None of those territories gain the same Progressive
reforms. Overseas labor was exploitive, dangerous, and repressive.
– Labour Movement in GB- focused on many of the same social
and economic reforms as the Progressives (without the ban on
booze and political reforms). Did not extend these reforms to their
empire overseas either.
– Bolshevik Revolution in Russia- communist take-over of Russia
under Vladimir Lenin does not result in improved lives for the
majority of Russians. Strict rationing, forced industrialization,
political oppression, and imperialism lead to mass famines and
repressive violence. USSR expands territory across western Asia,
brutally exploiting the resources and people of those areas.
VI. Reflections: Who Makes History?
A. Colonizers’ efforts to shape the colony
B. Colonized people’s agency
C. “History from below”