Age of Imperialism

Colonialism in Asia

Spheres of Influences in China

Middle East: Divided after WWI

Colonial Division of Africa

Spanish American War: 1898US Empire…Puerto Rico to Philippines

Why did Europe Compete for Colonies?

I. Expansion of trade

Coloniesbecomecaptive markets for Europeanmanufactured

goods.

II. National Prestige

European powers sought to ‘outdo’ each other to prove their greatness…

III. Civilization of Non-Europeans

The White Man’s Burden (Kipling)

The Christian duty of the white man is to civilize the heathen masses…

The White Man’s Burden (Kipling)

“Take up the White Man's burden--Send forth the best ye breed--Go bind your sons to exileTo serve your captives' need;To wait in heavy harness,On fluttered folk and wild--Your new-caught, sullen peoples,Half-devil and half-child.”

IV. Seizure of Raw Materials & Economic gain

Colonial landlords stripped their colonies of raw materials for manufacturing in the Mother Country

Colonies were forced to abandon traditional agricultural ways and switch to CASH CROPS for export

Colonies became captive markets for the Mother Country’s manufactured goods

Great Britain was the most successful colonial power.

6 Building Blocks of Colonialism

What have been the long term effects of colonialism on developing countries???

1. Grabbing the Cash Colonies were rich in natural resources…but

money from their crops and mines wasn’t spent in developing industries for the countries themselves. The money sailed off to Europe and USA

Example: Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) contributed one-third of the total budget of Holland. The Dutch were able to reduce their national debt, and this money paid for the construction of Dutch state railways.

Grabbing the Cash: Colonial landlords built

limited infrastructures leaving them without significant industries

These areas are poor, unindustrialized and without satisfactory agricultural outputs

British Imperial Revenues

Think About it:

If money had been used to develop Asia and Africa rather than Europe, what

differences might there be today?

2. The Raw Deal The switch to cash crops for export created

food shortages and soil depletion in colonies

Additionally, Europeans organized their colonies so that each one grew just two or three different crops

Ex: India=jute, cotton, tea; Ceylon=tea; Malaya=rubber

Think about it…

Having only one or two export crops might

cause problems later on.

What might those be???

3. The Craft Crash European countries went to great lengths to

ensure that Asians would produce raw materials to be sold (at low prices) to the Mother Country and BUY manufactured products (at high prices) from the Mother Country.

Colonialists discouraged skilled artisans in the colonies through taxation and made sure that new machinery for production wasn’t made available in the colonies.

Think about it…

How might this attack on craftspeople affect a

colony’s development???

4. Drawing the Line:Unnatural Borders

When creating a colony, people with little in common were chucked together, or those with a lot in common had a line drawn between them.

Europeans also encouraged distrust between different groups (divide and rule) in order to squash potential rebellion

Ex: In Indonesia, the Ambonese were used as soldiers to suppress other Indonesian people. Upon Independence, the Ambonese mostly fled Indonesia to live in exile in Holland

Sikhs were used as police in India

Think about it

What problems might the artificial colonial

boundaries cause later???

Civil/Sectarian/Border WarsWars and

conflict trouble most of these areas as a result of unnatural borders.

5. Holding up Hierarchies:

In order to control larger numbers of native peoples, Euros used oppression, military might and placed unpopular/unelected leaders in power

Think about it:

The colonialists used violence, oppression and military might to keep in power leaders who were not chosen by the people. What problems might this cause after

these countries became independent?

6. West is BestIn education, culture, agriculture, development and economics, the

colonialists pushed their own ideas about the world.

“…Colonialism tended not only to deprive a society of its freedom and its wealth, but of its very character,

leaving its people intellectually and morally disoriented.”

-DK Fieldhouse-

Think about it:

In schools and universities, in literature and newspapers, and in countless

other ways, Europeans insisted that Europe was the model of goodness.

How might this ‘cultural colonialism’ affect former colonies even today?

Post WWII/Cold War Era: Weakened by two major wars,

Europeans could no longer stop colonial independence movements

One by one, colonies receive their independence and join the UN

USA and USSR fight for influence in these new ‘baby states’

To get started, these new nations are offered multi-billion dollar loans

International Monetary Fund World Bank

Today: They suffer from super huge debt problems. They are unable to pay their loans due to militaristic governments, lack of resources, lack of skilled workers, lack of infrastructure, and civil wars…all due to colonialism.

So…are they truly independent??? Many argue that the

debt of these countries is simply

neo-colonialism.

(The West still

controls and

maneuvers them.)