The High Tide of Imperialism

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The High Tide of Imperialism
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Colonial Southeast Asia, c. 1850
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The Spread of Colonial Rule

• Africa and Asia a source of raw materials and
  markets for European manufactured goods
• Motives for expansion
• Economic
• National grandeur
• Moral purposes
• No longer happy to deal with independent states
  maintaining access important
• Competition for control over territories
• Opportunity in the Orient Colonial Takeover in
  Southeast Asia
• Malay Peninsula
• Singapore
• Burma
• Vietnam
• Philippines

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Africa Before World War I
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Empire Building in Africa

• The Growing European Presence in West Africa
• Slave trade
• Abolished by all major countries in the world by
  1880s
• Legitimate trade
• More permanent presence
• Gold Coast and Sierra Leone
• Liberia
• New class of Africans
• Informal Empire
• Imperialist Shadow over the Nile
• Napoleon
• Muhammad Ali
• Suez Canal, 1854-1869
• Sudan
• Algiers
• Arab Merchants and European Missionaries in East
  Africa
• Bantus, Boers, and British in South Africa

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The Scramble for Africa

• European rivalries
• Trade
• Missionary factor
• Superiority in firearms
• Belgiums claim on the Congo
• Conference of Berlin, 1884
• Britain and France at Fashoda France backs down
• Cape Colony
• Boer War, 1899-1902

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The Struggle for South Africa
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The Colonial System

• Resistance from societies with long traditions of
  national cohesion
• Direct and indirect rule
• Philosophy of colonialism
• Darwinism
• Survival of the fittest
• Agent of civilization
• Bring the benefits of the West
• Assimilation/association

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Colonialism in Action

• India Under the British Raj
• Some territories taken over directly by the East
  India Company and later the British crown
• Others ruled by local maharajas and rajas
• Order and stability
• Attention to education
• Thomas Babington Macaulay
• Outlaw sati
• Introduced railroads, the telegraph, and postal
  service
• British textiles put out of work those in the
  Indian textile industry
• Zamindar system
• Failed to bring benefits of modern science and
  technology
• Psychological effects

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India Under British Rule, 1805-1931
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Gateway to India?
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The Company Resident and His Puppet
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Colonial Regimes in Southeast Asia

• Primary aim was economic
• Indirect rule
• Burma
• Malaya
• Indochina
• Slow to create democratic institutions
• Slow to adopt educational reforms
• Reluctant to take up white mans burden
• Slow economic development
• Some manufacturing in urban areas
• Problems with growth of cash crops
• Problems of population growth
• Modernizing elite

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Colonialism in Africa

• British attitude was to preserve African
  political traditions
• Advantages of indirect rule
• East Africa
• White settlers
• Southern Africa
• Independent Union of South Africa
• Representative government
• France used direct rule
• Assimilation of Africans into French culture
• Moral and social responsibility
• Racial consciousness

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The Emergence of Anti-Colonialism

• Nationalism
• Imperialism brought a consciousness of modern
  nationhood
• Introduction of western ideas of citizenship and
  representative government
• New elite
• Traditional Resistance A Precursor to
  Nationalism
• Led by existing ruling class
• Resistance in India
• Peasant revolts
• Religious resentment
• India -- Sepoy Rebellion

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Discussion Questions

• What sparked the Scramble for Africa? What did
  Europeans hope to gain from the colonization of
  Africa?
• What benefits to Indians resulted from British
  rule of India? What costs balanced those
  benefits?
• Compare and contrast the British and French
  approach to colonialism.
• How did subject peoples respond to colonialism?
  How did their response change over time?