Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

In the 19th and early 20th century (1840s-1920s), “imperialism” by a new group of European powers, the United States, and

Japan created new “colonial” arrangements with Latin America, China, the Middle East, India, and Africa.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

Internal revolutions wracked most of Latin America from the 1790s to the 1830s.

European powers went from holding over 20 colonies in Latin America in 1790 to

holding control over just 6 in 1832.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

Hacienda Tabi, in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. Such large-scale

plantations remained the centers of political and economic power in post-

independence Latin America.

This late 19th c. portrait reveals the social orders of colonial Latin America. On the right are the creole elites. On the left is a

mixed-race laborer. Such class-based and race-based divisions

continued well into the 19th century and fueled internal conflicts.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

Trench warfare during the Paraguayan War of 1864-1870.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

As the map above shows, the United Fruit Company was heavily invested in Latin

America, both in terms of physical capital – such as the Great White Fleet and its ports and piers – and in terms of import routes.

The popular cocktail Cuba Libre serves as an ironic reminder of Coca-Cola’s powerful role in the Cuba sugar trade from the 1890s

until the 1950s.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

Jamaican workers load railcars with bananas for the United Fruit Company (parts

of it remain today as Chiquita Banana), c. 1940s.

Nitrate mine in operation in Chile, c. 1930s. U.S. and

European companies regularly operated extractive

enterprises like mining and oil drilling in Latin America

outside the boundaries of U.S. law, such as those that

regulated air and groundwater pollution.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

Expansive urban slums developed outside every Latin American city during the late 19th century. By the late 20th century, few pieces of evidence illustrated the social stratification in Latin American societies like the expansion of suburban favelas

outside cities like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo.

“Brazilification” in numbers

1% = elite families (urban and rural)

8-10% = working middle class( generally urban)

90% = working poor (generally rural peasants

and urban workers)

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

Execution without the benefit of trial was a common aspect of

wartime policy for both sides in the Mexican Revolution.

The Mexican Revolution erupted in response to the dire economic

circumstances of many Mexican peasants and workers in the early 20th century.

Pictured here are revolutionists with their leaders Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapata.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

China was still an “independent” nation by 1911, but it was internally fractured

and strongly influenced by various European powers and Japan.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

The extent of the Taiping Rebellion – and

subsequent regime – was extensive,

crisscrossing China from 1853-1864.

The Taiping Rebellion was a costly civil war, eventually resulting in the

deaths of 20-30 million Chinese and the further unsettling of

Chinese stability in the face of European influence.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

Busting an opium shipment sent to Britain, c. 1920s. Despite long-term attempts to

crack down on the opium trade, it continued well into the 20th century.

Opium was a profitable (though illegal) drug for both British and Chinese buyers and sellers.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

The Boxer Rebellion of 1899-1901 was led by a rebel group known as

The Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists, pictured above.

This was the last military response to Western intrusions in China.

Chinese military officers with a with a French-made cannon, 1883. The

“Self-Strengthening Movement” was an attempt to update the military and infrastructure of China in the face of the increased Westernization of late

Qing dynasty China.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

From 1800-1924, the Ottoman Empire experienced a long century of decline in territorial control, economic power, and cultural prestige.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

Combat during the Crimean War of 1853-1856, which pitted Russia against an alliance of

Ottoman, French, and English armies. Termed the “first modern war” because of its use of modern weaponry and tactics, this war was

one in a long line of wars over border territories in the Ottoman Empire.

Burning of Ottoman flagships in Greek harbors during the Greek

War for Independence, 1822.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

This trade map for England’s Liverpool Steamship Service is instructive. The routes of trade had, by the late 1800s especially, reoriented around ocean

trading between Europe, Asia, and the Americas. The old land trade routes through the Ottoman Empire had declined, thus affecting the Ottomans’ economic standing.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

The Tanzimat movement attempted to usher in a

“modernized” Ottoman Empire through efforts like public education of youth in both

religious and technical training.

Photo series from 1860s celebrating Tanzimat infrastructural developments,

such as bridges and administrative buildings.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

Muslim identity movements had resulted in revolts against the Dutch in Indonesia

during the 1820s and 1830s. Here, a Dutch general accepts the surrender of rebel leader Prince Dipo Negoro, 1830.

Muslim responses to French incursions in Algeria (in Northern

Africa) also illustrated distinct forms of resistance to

“Westernization.” Here, Muslim revolutionaries in Algeria

welcome the anti-Western sultan Abderrahmane, 1830.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

Postcard depicting establishment of Ottoman Constitution in 1895, with the angel delivering “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity” to the Ottoman sultan and people. A conservative sultan -- Abd al-Hamid II – worked

to overturn such “excesses in Westernization” from 1896-1909.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

First Congress of the “Young Turks” meeting in Paris, 1902. They would overturn Hamid’s rule and establish a Turkish state in

the Ottoman Empire.

After World War I, the League of Nations

decided to put Arab nations in Palestine and Iraq under the

mixed control of Britain and France.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

The British Empire at its height in 1921. India – highlighted in purple – was the “centerpiece” for British imperialists, allowing the British Crown to exude imperial power over 458 million people,

or nearly 25% of the world’s population in 1920.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

The East India Company’s headquarters, c. 1800. One of

the first truly global corporations, the EIC dominated trade and

society in India after the 1850s.

The EIC enjoyed “Company Rule” over India for over 100

years between 1757 and 1858. It even had its own private army in

India, known as the sepoys.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

The British army engaged in a vicious counter-

insurgency known as “the Devil’s Wind” during the

Indian Rebellion of 1857.

In tandem with common forms of public execution, such as

hanging, captured rebels were also executed en masse by

tying them to the ends of cannons and firing away.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

During the British Raj, or “Crown Rule” of India, the railway system became the fourth largest in the world. Heavy taxation of goods

produced by Indian subjects, however, laid the groundwork for

such infrastructural developments.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

Imperial control of India made Indian peasants particularly susceptible to

environmental change and weather. If the rains did not fall – or fell too much – mass famine could result, which it did often between 1875-

1902, resulting in an estimated 7-8 million deaths in those years.

Life for Indian agricultural workers and peasants was particularly difficult. These

migrant workers ride the rails during the 1920s in search of

steady work.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

Lord Minto, a British official partly responsible for the Government

of India Act of 1909.

Swami Vivekananda, whose reflections on Hinduism fell in the context of “Hindu Consolidation”

during the British Raj. His views on shruti and smriti also informed

religious thinking in India and abroad.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

Groups like the All-India Muslim League expressed the separatist political ideals of Muslim elites and other common Muslims in the 1910s

and 1920s. By the late 1940s, when this photo was taken of League leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah (far right), Muslims and Hindus were dividing into a competition for control of post-independence India.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

Results of the “Scramble for Africa” by 1914. Note that

there are only a handful of independent states. The rest are colonies of various European powers.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

Zulu military leader Dabulamanzi on horseback in 1879 in the midst

of the Anglo-Zulu War. South Africa was much like the rest of the continent – divided between

numerous African states and tribes, large and small. There, English and

Dutch imperialists vied for control of the continent’s southern cape.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

Cartoon depicting German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck negotiating with other

European leaders the distribution of imperial power in Africa. The Berlin

Conference in 1884 served as a formal starting point for the “Scramble for Africa.”

King Leopold II of Belgium, who established the Congo Free State and oversaw its development into a brutal

regime.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

Despite their own complicity in forwarding imperial violence in Africa,

British dignitaries and journalists criticized the harsh treatment of the

Congolese people in Leopold II’s Congo Free State.

The Congo Free State quickly became a place defined by terror and violence.

These children were mutilated as punishment for not meeting their daily

quota of rubber.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

Mining facility in the Gold Coast, c. 1930s. Outsider investors enjoyed the cheap labor that Africa offered,

redirecting the continent’s raw materials for sale in European-

centered markets.

Advertisement for aristocratic winter homes in Africa, all provided by the Ugandan

railway, c. 1910s.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

Although formal education was generally reserved for a very small African elite, others used European missions as a place to garner an education and

ward off the harsher experiences of imperialism. German missionary with his first grade class in Windhuk, Southwest Africa, 1915.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

Christian missionaries were quite successful in Africa – by the 1940s, approximately ½ of non-Muslim Africans were Christian. Yet, their

Christianity took on aspects unexpected and unintended by European missionaries. Kikuyu Mission in Kenya, 1915.

Dominance and Interchange in the Colonial World

When looking at this map, remember that forms of imperialism existed in Latin America and China as well. Though “independent,” both were

under the direct influence of outside interests.

This brings up an important question: Which parts of the world were not influenced by 19th c. imperialism?