GREV - Industrial Revolution "Inspired" Imperialism, (Those Who Lost) (Lesson)

Industrial Revolution "Inspired" Imperialism, (Those Who Lost)

The Age of Imperialism led to a race between imperialist nations looking to get ahead in the global dominions of power and wealth. But this came at a price for those nations that fell prey to imperialist ambitions. While most of the nations or regions that fell into this category had long, rich histories, the one thing that many of them had in common was a lack of industrialization. Let's have a look at those nations or regions that lost out during the Age of Imperialism.

India

In 1707 CE, Emperor Aurangzeb died leaving behind a Mughal Empire that covered the entire Indian subcontinent but was politically and financially weak, and ethnically and religiously divided. However, it had tea, sugar, salt, silk and jute (a strong fiber used to make ropes) — and was seen by rivals France and Great Britain as an excellent (and vulnerable) location and opportunity in which to compete for a trade monopoly. Both built trading posts within India's borders and sought more influence within the declining Mughal Empire. Just as their rivalry reached its peak, the Seven Years War broke out (1756-1763 CE.) The British East India Company raised an army that defeated the French on the Indian Subcontinent. Without a French presence on the subcontinent, local rulers lost the important bargaining tool of playing the two European nations against each other during trade negotiations. Throughout the rest of the 18th Century, the British East India Company took advantage of the fatigued Mughal Empire and set up administrative regions throughout the subcontinent. And that led to India becoming the most important colonial possession of Great Britain for the next century.

 

Indonesia

Following the Age of Exploration, many European nations created "East India Companies." One such nation was Holland (or the Netherlands.) The Dutch East India Company (VOC) received its charter in 1602 and was the first publicly traded company in the world as it was officially listed on a stock exchange. During the 17th Century, the VOC raked in huge profits from its trade monopoly with the Spice Islands (an archipelago within modern-day Indonesia.) This trend continued into the 18th Century. But at the beginning of the 19th Century, the Dutch government nationalized the VOC absorbing all of its debts and assets. One of the assets of the VOC was the colonial possession of the Dutch East Indies. When the Dutch government took over, it banned all trade with other European nations and ordered the Indonesian villages in its possession to convert one-third of all land to farms for coffee beans. As one doesn't eat coffee beans (and these were being grown for the international market anyway,) the food production in Indonesia dropped drastically leading to a famine in the 1840s and 1850s. Hundreds of thousands of Indonesians died during the famine. In the 1860s, the Dutch government started encouraging Dutch citizens to immigrate to the Dutch East Indies. These reforms, allegedly in the name of ending local exploitation, increased the Dutch presence in the Dutch East Indies politically, economically and territorially—which, of course, led to Indonesian rebellions. By 1904, however, the Dutch squashed all of the rebellions on the many islands and continued their pursuit of raking in wealth from their colonial possession by expanding their territory.

 

China

Before we look at the European Imperialist efforts in China, you might have been wondering about something—so now might be a good time to address that question. As you read about the Age of Exploration, the Scientific Revolution, the Industrial Revolution and the introduction to the Age of Imperialism, did you ask yourself...

China didn't participate in the Age of Exploration because the Ming Dynasty concentrated on bulking up its defenses at home and shunned foreign entanglements. China didn't participate in the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions because its most gifted minds were preoccupied with their work in the Chinese political bureaucracy. And China didn't participate in the Age of Imperialism because the Qing Dynasty didn't support the overseas expansion and trade that fueled the commercial revolution that led to Imperialism.

Besides, between 1661 and 1796 CE, China was in the middle of its own "Prosperous Age" under the Qing Dynasty. During this time, China doubled its population, expanded its borders to their greatest extent, compiled a Chinese dictionary and encyclopedia, and revitalized its work in art and literature. China was very busy domestically and had very little interest or knowledge of the revolutions that were happening in the poorer (and in their opinion, less sophisticated) nations of Europe. China's brief encounters with Europeans taught the Chinese government to be wary of what the Europeans had to offer. After all, Spanish silver caused inflation and drove one dynasty out and another one in and Christian missionaries tended to stir up trouble. Plus, other than Spanish silver, European nations really didn't have anything that the Chinese wanted. 

Up until 1842, China restricted European trade under the Canton System. And even there, the government placed strict limits on what could be bought or sold. Despite these restrictions, smugglers still managed to introduce foreign goods to China (even banned foreign goods,) the most important of which was opium.

Opium was, and is, a highly addictive narcotic drug. Initially, it was used for medicinal purposes. But in the 1700s, people mixed it with tobacco and smoked it for recreational use. The increase in opium use and drug addiction within China led to the Qing Dynasty to ban opium imports in 1729 CE. But as mentioned earlier, European and local traders were willing to smuggle products that promised a profit. In 1773 CE, British traders started exchanging opium for tea and started their very own opium monopoly in China. So, in 1799 CE, the Qing Dynasty reinstituted and strengthened their ban on the opium trade. But the British smugglers were not to be stopped. By 1839 CE, Chinese opium use and addiction was so widespread that the Qing government forbade further use or sale and seized all of the British opium waiting for trade on ships in Canton. Despite the fact that China was a sovereign nation with every legal right to confiscate an illegal substance within its borders, Great Britain considered the seizure of their "goods" an act of war.

From 1839 to 1842 CE, Great Britain and China fought in the First Opium War over whether or not Great Britain had the right to import the illegal opium into China. Due to the British superiority in weapon and naval technology (thanks to the Industrial Revolution,) Great Britain won. In the Treaty of Nanjing, China agreed to pay reparations for the destruction of the opium seized in 1839, to extend British trade to five Chinese cities and to make Hong Kong a British crown colony. Later treaties built on these concessions, including one that forced the Qing Dynasty to allow Christian missionaries to return to China. In none of these treaties, though, did Great Britain concede a thing—leading to the Chinese to refer to the Treaty of Nanjing and its additions as the "Unequal Treaties."

 

The concessions granted to the British in the "Unequal Treaties" did not sate the British appetite for trade in China. And as the only thing that Great Britain had access to that the Chinese seemed to want was opium, they stepped up their importation of the still illegal substance. Thus, between 1856 and 1860 CE, Great Britain and China fought the Second Opium War. Hostilities began when the Chinese government resisted the constant British pressure to expand trade and hostilities ended in humiliating defeat for the Qing Dynasty. This defeat led to the opening up of all of China to European trade.

 

The Opium Wars and British imperialism caused vast changes for China throughout the 19^th Century...

   

 

 

 

In the meantime, European nations kept making demands on Chinese trading rights. In concession after concession, China agreed to exclusive trading rights within various regions of its nation to European nations (Great Britain, France, Germany and Russia) and later to Japan. These "Spheres of Influence" allowed a specific foreign nation exclusive access to a specific Chinese region for trade. The "Spheres of Influence" were not colonies, per se. Instead they were economic divisions of land that established national monopolies of trade. But foreign nations did build military bases and set up business, transportation and communication operations within their "Sphere of Influence." In 1899 CE, the United States—who did not have its own "Sphere of Influence"—declared an Open-Door Policy via letters to the participating European nations. In these letters, the United States pledged to support China's sovereignty and declared an end to the "Spheres of Influence" as all international powers would have equal trading privileges in China from that point on.

As the European nations were contemplating their answer to the United States' Open Door Note, China erupted in an anti-imperialism rebellion. Fueled by resentment over the increased presence of foreigners and from the worsening conditions caused by famines and shortages, Chinese rebels, known as Boxers, led savage attacks against anything foreign during the Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901 CE.) The Boxers (whose official name was the "Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists") included Han Chinese that were Anti-Manchu (the people of the Qing Dynasty,) Anti-European and Anti-Christian. They were sick of the Qing Dynasty's humiliating defeats and concessions to Europe and Japan. Engaging in guerilla warfare, the Boxers struck out against the foreign missionaries, merchants and diplomats in China and against the Qing Dynasty for letting the foreigners in. Officials of the Qing Dynasty were split over whether to support the rebels against the foreigners or to support the foreigners (who weren't attacking the Qing at that moment) against the rebels. In the end, the foreigners (European and Manchu) formed an alliance (pictured below) and emerged victorious over the Boxer Rebels. In the "Boxer Protocol," China agreed to pay reparations that amounted to more than its annual tax revenue for the next 8 years and the government officials who had supported the Boxers were executed. In this disgraced state, the Qing Dynasty—the last imperial dynasty of what had been the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world—limped into the 20^th Century.

 

Oceania

Oceania includes the continent of Australia, the islands of New Zealand, and the tropical islands of the Pacific Ocean. Basically, it is the area in green in the map below.

By the mid-18^th Century, Europeans had mapped the coastlines of North and South America, Asia and Africa, but not Oceania. This was for several reasons.

So, while some locations in Oceania were spotted as early as 1568 CE, no one attempted to chart them until the end of the 18^th Century. By that time, an English inventor had invented a nautical chronometer that could establish longitude.

European exploration of Oceania began in earnest when British Captain James Cook set sail in 1768 CE aboard his Endeavor. Captain Cook set his course based on two sets of instructions. The first came from the scientific community in Great Britain—Captain Cook had orders to chart the path of Venus in the sky. The second set of instructions came from the political community in Great Britain and was very secret—determine if the island of Tahiti (claimed by rival France in 1767 CE) was a "gateway" to increase colonial expansion for Great Britain and to claim lands if so.

As it turned out, there were lands to be claimed—a whole continent, in fact—which Captain Cook claimed for Great Britain during his voyage. Following the loss of its Thirteen Colonies on North America during the American Revolutionary War, Great Britain started settling Australia. At first, Great Britain used Australia as a penal colony—sending prisoners there in an attempt to relieve overcrowded prisons in Great Britain. In January 1788 CE, the first fleet of convicts arrived in the colony known as New South Wales.

At the time, the continent of Australia was already sparsely populated by roughly 300,000 people organized in hunter-gatherer societies. But this was not a population that worried the British soldiers with their superior weapons (and their superior egos) or the free British settlers that joined them in the 1820s. Rather, the first problem encountered in the new colony stemmed from the unique character of the Australian environment. European agricultural techniques were not suitable for the new terrain. Once better land was found farther west, things picked up for the fledgling colony. But the real difference came from the breeding of Merino sheep in Australia that led to a thriving wool industry. The second boost to the colony's economy came from passing whaling ships that stopped at the new port of Sydney to trade.

Throughout the rest of the 1800s, British settlers flocked to the new colony. By 1860 CE, there were over a million Europeans calling the continent their home. In time, Great Britain established six colonies there and in 1901 they formed a union and became the Commonwealth of Australia.

 

Africa

Prior to the Industrial Revolution, the continent of Africa held little interest for Europe. Other than North Africa (with its long history of trade with the continent across the Mediterranean Sea) and the coastal ports along West Africa (due to the slave trade and as stops in route to Asia,) Europe had very little interaction with Africa and knew nothing about its interior.

Between 1807 and 1820 CE, the majority of European nations and the United States banned the international slave trade (just the trade part, not the institution of slavery itself—although the practice of slavery within Europe did not exist at that time, it continued in the Americas.) So, at least officially, that stopped being a reason to visit Africa. And throughout most of the 1800s, Imperialist Europe was very busy establishing monopolies in those areas of the world in which they did trade.

As European maps of Africa were conspicuously blank in the middle, the continent came to be known as the mysterious "Dark Continent" to the Europeans who were not "enlightened" of what lay in its interior. Many factors kept Europeans "in the dark" on non-coastal Africa:

1. Europeans were not immune to the diseases indigenous to Africa. Yellow fever, malaria, and sleeping sickness were contracted from the bites of mosquitoes and tsetse flies. Europeans could not repel the insects and their immune systems were not adapted to fighting the diseases once bitten. Mortality rates of Europeans in Africa were so high that some started referring to the continent as "the white man's grave."
2. Europeans found it difficult to travel into the interior of Africa—both land and water exploration proved hazardous. European horses—the European explorers' mode of transportation on land—were not immune to nagana (a disease similar to sleeping sickness that impacted animals and was spread by the dreaded African tsetse fly.) Europeans could not travel long distances on land without their favorite mode of transportation. Also, African rivers were very dangerous to navigate—especially if you didn't know where you were going—as there were rapids, waterfalls, and plenty of animals that would enjoy a meaty dish that might fall (or be knocked) out of a boat.
3. African empires were not keen on allowing Europeans to enter their lands without a purpose that would benefit the empire. Trade was a natural exception as African empires made exchanges to profit the leader and his realm—but when the international slave trade ended, it had a ripple effect on African/European trade dealings.

But a number of things happened in the mid-1800s to overcome these hurdles:

1. The use of quinine to modify the effects of malaria became widespread. First used by the Native Americans in South America as a muscle relaxant, the juice from the cinchona tree bark was part of the Columbian Exchange during the Age of Exploration. But it was not until the mid-1800s that quinine (in the form of tonic water) became a widespread ingredient of European explorers' diets, thereby ending the notion of Africa as "the white man's grave." Once the Europeans solved this problem, they were free to explore those parts of Africa that had been medically out of bounds.
2. Using the design for the Watt steam engine, Englishman Robert Fulton built the first steamship in 1807. It soon propelled Great Britain as a naval superpower. The steamship was used successfully for conquests in India and China—but the rivers there weren't as treacherous as the ones in Africa. In the 1860s, however, the British developed a steamship small enough to be dismantled and carried around the dangerous rapids found in Africa. With the switch from iron to steel to construct the steamship, the Europeans began their race against one another to explore the inner territories of Africa by river.
3. Following the American Revolution and other imperial conquests, the British learned that any attempt to take on a local population when they had the home turf advantage led to military disasters. So, Europeans outfitted their steamships with cannons and guns, essentially weaponizing them, and used them to subdue resisting populations. This tactic worked well in India and China. Once the Europeans solved the issue of getting around rapids, they used this tactic in Africa as well. This, as well as the invention of the Maxim Machine Gun in the early 1880s, gave the Europeans a military advantage over the local populations of Africa.

With these particular roadblocks cleared, Europe started its "Scramble for Africa." Egypt was the first victim of this "scramble." Having completed the Suez Canal in 1869, Egypt linked the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea and shortened the ocean voyage from Europe to India by over 4,000 miles. With support from the French, Egypt built the canal over a ten-year period and funded the project through the sale of stocks. At first, Great Britain disparaged the project—but once the canal opened, the nation bought Egypt's shares of the stock in the canal. Later, the Khedive (regal official) of Egypt requested assistance from Great Britain to put down a local uprising. And...

Great Britain stayed in Egypt, thereby taking control of the Suez Canal in 1882 CE—the only shipping lane available to Europeans to sail from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean without traveling over 4,000 miles around Africa.

This sent the rest of Europe into something of a panic attack (and France into a tizzy as they had considered Egypt to be part of their "Sphere of Influence" ever since Napoleon invaded it in 1805.) In 1884 CE, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck of Germany called for an international conference to discuss the future of Africa. By invitation, representatives from Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Belgium met at the Berlin Conference. There, the representatives discussed and determined the rules to be followed for future colonization in Africa. [Side note: Did you notice what continent's nations weren't invited to the meeting?] A decade before the Berlin Conference, European colonialism in Africa constituted roughly 10% of the continent. By 1914, all of Africa—with the exception of Liberia and Ethiopia—were under European rule.

So, why the sudden interest in Africa? It really wasn't a sudden interest—it was just that Europeans were not able to penetrate Africa's interior prior to this time. A combination of the solution to those hurdles and ...

• European competition over potential business ventures,
• European publications that made Africa sound enticing and exciting,
• The lure of building one's personal fortunes,
• And the desire to convert "heathens" to Christianity...

resulted in the "Scramble for Africa."

Due to the Industrial Revolution, European technology far outstripped any weaponry available to African leaders. Ultimately, in the face of the European invasion, African leaders had two choices—give up and attempt to negotiate some form of local autonomy OR fight. Most made the first decision; but there were a handful who took the second option. Usually, the second option did not result in success for the decision-maker. Africans were accustomed to large battles and sophisticated weaponry, but their style of warfare reflected their agrarian tradition. African warriors were used to fighting quick battles in short bursts during the agricultural "off-season." Then when seasonal farm work required that soldiers return to their homes to tend the crops, they did. But the Europeans didn't fight seasonally and their machine guns were terrifying. Still, there were some success stories—

Samori Touré (1830-1900)

Menelik II (1844-1913)

Touré, of the Wassoulou Empire in modern-day Guinea, successfully battled French armies from 1882 to 1898. Only after he was captured and exiled, did France claim his region.

As Emperor of Ethiopia, Menelik II negotiated with several European nations to secure weaponry, peace treaties and assistance from advisors. Among his people, he was known for his selfless acts that inspired a great loyalty towards him. The combination of his diplomatic acumen and the loyalty of his people led to Ethiopia's defeat of the invading Italian army in 1896. After this victory, Menelik II's Ethiopia gained absolute independence and was recognized as a sovereign nation.

But these men and their victories were the exception, not the rule. Within thirty years, different European nations claimed 90% of the African continent—only the nations of Liberia and Ethiopia maintained African rule.

In the end, the "Scramble for Africa" resulted in a "Scramble of Africa" as Europeans drew new boundary lines without regard for traditional ethnic divisions. Roughly 70% of the new borders did not correspond with traditional borders based on ethnicity, language, culture or community. As Europeans settled their new colonies, they brought in European-styled schools, business practices, churches and languages thereby interrupting African traditions and cultures.

 

The Americas

Thus far, we have only discussed the European role in Imperialism, but there were other players in the competition for global influence. The fledgling nation of the United States was one of them. Following the revolutions throughout the Western Hemisphere that ousted European governments, the United States worried that the new nations of the Caribbean and South and Central America would not be able to withstand a European attempt to retrieve its lost colonies. In 1823 CE, U.S. President James Monroe issued the Monroe Doctrine during his State of the Union Address. The Monroe Doctrine declared that the Western Hemisphere was off-limits to European aggression. A new nation telling the most powerful continent to mind its own business might not have been successful but it sat well with Great Britain who liked the idea of its European competitors being blocked from their previous colonies (especially Spain.) Therefore, European nations continued their trade with and to invest in South and Central American businesses, but they stopped short of making any territorial claims.

Even as the United States issued its decree for Europeans to forget any imperialist ambitions in the Western Hemisphere, it set its own imperial course in what the nation referred to as "Manifest Destiny." According to this belief, the United States was destined by God to expand across North America (despite the fact that it was already occupied by Native Americans and claimed by foreign nations.) Some of this expansion came from purchase of lands, others from tricky treaties and others from outright invasion and war. Below is a map that illustrates the United States' fulfillment of its "Manifest Destiny."

According to the belief of "Manifest Destiny," the United States should have been finished with its expansion once it reached from "sea to shining sea." But that didn't happen. Instead, the United States continued its westward journey. In 1867 CE, the United States bought the Alaska Territory from Russia. In 1894, Americans living in Hawaii staged a coup overthrowing the Hawaiian monarch beginning a chain of events that led to the American annexation of Hawaii.

As of 1895, one of Spain's last colonial territories in the Western Hemisphere was located 90 miles off the southern tip of Florida—Cuba. That year, led by José Martí, Cuba rebelled against their colonial government. Using the Monroe Doctrine as an excuse, the United States got involved in the Spanish-American War in 1898. The war only lasted ten weeks. When it was over, the United States held temporary control of Cuba and outright ownership of Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines—expanding the territorial control of the United States well past "sea to shining sea."

An American military celebrity of the Spanish-American War, Theodore Roosevelt became President of the United States in 1901 CE. As an ardent Imperialist, President Roosevelt expanded upon the Monroe Doctrine in 1904 CE with his Roosevelt Corollary. This addition stated that the United States had a duty to exercise "international police power" to end any political unrest in the Western Hemisphere. If there had been any doubt as to the United States' international ambitions before, they ended with that statement.

 

 

 

 

 

Recap Section

Watch the videos below to review what you have learned.

 

 

 

RESOURCES IN THIS MODULE ARE OPEN EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES (OER) OR CREATED BY GAVS UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. SOME IMAGES USED UNDER SUBSCRIPTION.