Chapter 22 The High Tide of Imperialism

1. Chapter 22The High Tide of Imperialism

2. Colonial Southeast Asia, c. 1850 1. The Portuguese presence in Asia began in 1498 when Vasco da Gama arrived at Calicut in India. By 1511 they were in the major port of Malacca on the Malay Peninsula. It became the center of the Portuguese Southeast Asia trading network. Housed here were two hundred soldiers and three hundred civilians. 2. The Dutch spent years in Asia in the service of the Portuguese but during their war for independence in the early seventeenth century began independent trading with the Asians. By 1610 their mercantile war culminated with the capture of Portuguese Malacca. Nevertheless, the center of Dutch trade was to be at Batavia on Java. Defending the commercial center was a fort manned by 1200 Dutch soldiers and Japanese mercenaries. Although Dutch power in Asia declined in the late seventeenth century, control of Java remained as plantations produced coffee, sugar, indigo, and tea for export. Between 1811 and 1816 Java was ruled by the British who seized Dutch overseas possessions as part of the European war against France (the Dutch being a reluctant ally) 3. The European presence dotted the east Indies islands. The British held a small factory on the southern coast of Sumatra and territory on the Malaya peninsula. The Portuguese possessed half of Timor. France, which had been active in mainland Asian trade, was by this time limited to missionary activity. 4. As industrialization in Europe intensified, the need for access to raw materials increased thereby necessitating more extensive control over territories. It also exacerbated rivalries. Perceiving Burma as a threat to eastern India, between 1824 and 1826 the British drove the Burmese out of eastern India and conquered the northern and western Burmese territories. In 1852 Lower Burma was seized and finally in 1885 Mandalay in central Burma was subdued. The following year, Burma was made a province of India. 5. Catholic missionaries from France were active in Dai Vet in the 1660s. The Confucian rulers, however, looked with suspicion on the missionaries especially during the civil wars of the eighteenth century. In 1802 Nguyen Ank, with French help, emerged victorious from a civil war and proclaimed himself Emperor Cia Long of all Dai Vet which he renamed Vietnam. In 1857, France decided to force the Vietnamese to accept French protection to prevent Britain from monopolizing the trade of South China. The following year parts of southern Vietnam came under French attack (in part to avenge the murder of some French missionaries) and in 1861 Saigon (modern Ho Chi Minh City) was seized. By 1867, the rest of southern Vietnam was under French control. Northern Vietnam fell to French authority in 1883 when the ruler gave France control of Vietnam. Collaterally, as part of the French Vietnam campaign, Cambodia was seized in 1863 and made a protectorate. Laos fell to French control in 1853. Thailand (Siam) avoided succumbing to either the French or British when in 1896 it was agreed that Thailand would remain independent to act as a buffer between the two powers. 6. Spain's entrance into Southeast Asia came in 1521 with the arrival of the ill-fated Magellan voyage (1519-1521) in the Philippines. Except for Mindanao and the Sula Islands, which retained their Muslim faith, Spanish missionaries were successful in converting the native population. Manila served as the colonial capital and the commercial hub for goods going to America and Spain. Chinese traders brought to the port silks, tea, porcelain, and other Chinese and Japanese goods. In 1898 United States naval forces defeated a Spanish fleet in Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War. The Philippine Islands were transformed into an American colony to keep it from falling into Japanese hands. It also gave the Americans a stake in Asian affairs. Questions: 1. What drove British activity in Southeast Asia? 2. How did British activities fuel French expansion in Southeast Asia? 3. How did possession of the lands of Southeast Asia change hands? 4. What was the importance of Southeast Asia for the Europeans? Colonial Southeast Asia, c. 1850

3. The Spread of Colonial Rule • John A. Hobson, Imperialism: A Study, 1902 • Cecil Rhodes • Colonial Takeover in Southeast Asia • Malay Peninsula • Singapore • Burma • Vietnam • Philippines

4. Africa before World War I 1. By 1880 there were only pockets of European penetration into Africa, amounting to perhaps only ten percent of the continent. 2. France’s activities in Africa began in 1830 when it moved on Algeria but it was not until 1879 that French civilian rule was establish and substantial numbers of colonists were settled. In 1881-82 France and Britain agreed France should establish control over Tunisia in exchange for British control over Egypt. In 1912 Morocco was ceded to France as a protectorate by agreement between France and Germany. 3. British and French penetration of Egypt came as Ottoman governors Muhammad Ali and his grandson Ismail sought to build a state along western lines. Their modernization policies attracted substantial European investment and by 1876 Egypt owed foreign bondholders $450 million. When Egypt could no longer pay the debt, France and Britain forced appointment of their own commissioners to oversee Egyptian finances. A nationalist reaction was capped by bloody anti-European riots in 1882. Britain responded militarily and not only crushed the uprising but established direct British control that lasted from 1883 until 1922. 4. In southern Africa, the British seized the Dutch settlement of Capetown in 1795 as part of their war against France who occupied Holland. Britain’s fear was that France would use this location to interdict British Asian trade around the cape. The presence was made permanent in 1806. The Dutch farmers, Boers, resented the British and finally migrated north on the Great Trek in 1835. Eventually the Boers formed their own states but hostilities still existed and the two sides fell into war in 1899. The Boer War lasted until 1902 and ended with the defeat of the Boers. By 1910 the Boer states were integrated into the Union of South Africa. 5. The scramble for Africa in the late nineteenth century was initiated by the activities of Leopold II of Belgium (1865-1909) whose agents were exploiting the region along the CongoRiver. The Belgian activity alarmed the French who had signed treaties of protection in 1880 with Africans north of the Congo. Bismarck recognized the implications of the Belgian and British activities in Africa and called an international conference on Africa in 1884 to establish the rules for the occupation of Africa. Claims would now have to be based on "effective occupation." 6. German involvement in Africa began in 1884 when it created territorial protectorates over Togo, Cameroons, Southwest Africa, and German East Africa. 7. France pressed south from Algeria, east from its forts on the Senegal coast, and north from the Congo River. Britain pushed south from Egypt into the Sudan where they were temporarily halted at Khartoum by fiercely independent Muslims in 1885. The Muslim resistance was crushed in 1898 at Omdurman. Britain continued to push down the Nile to Fashoda which was held by the French. Unwilling to fight, France withdrew leaving the Sudan to Britain and settling for small territories in West Africa. 8. Only Liberia, protected by the United States as a former depository for freed slaves, and Ethiopia, with western arms and tactics, remained free from European control. Questions: 1. How did Britain and Belgium set off the scramble for Africa? 2. What advantages were to gained by carving out European colonies in Africa? Africa before World War I

5. Africa • Slave trade • Gold Coast and Sierra Leone • Liberia • Afro-Europeans • Egypt • Napoleon • Muhammad Ali • Suez Canal, 1854-1869 • Sudan • Algiers

6. Arab Merchants and European Missionaries in East Africa • Zanzibar • Slavery • David Livingstone • South Africa • Boers • Scramble for Africa • European rivalries • Missionary factor • Superiority in firearms • Belgium’s claim on the Congo • Conference of Berlin, 1884 • South Africa

7. Colonial System • Philosophy of colonialism • Darwinism • “White Man’s Burden” • Agent of Civilization • Colonial responsibility • Direct rule • Indirect rule • Education • Democratic preparation

8. The Struggle for South Africa 1. The Cape Colony was established in 1652 as a supply post for the Dutch East India Company trading between Asia and Holland. Already present were the native Khoisan and San (Bushmen) who were cattle herders and hunters with little desire to work for the Boers (Dutch farmers). In 1659 new settlers and the Khoisan clashed over land rights and cattle raids as adjacent lands were occupied by the Boers. Further complicating matters was the arrival of more settlers, including three hundred French Huguenots. By 1700 the colony extended one hundred miles from Cape Town and had a white population of 1600. A century later the boundaries had expanded to 300 miles north and 500 miles east. The population had grown to 20,000 whites. By this time most of the Khoisan had been eliminated by war and smallpox. A few survivors served as servants and laborers for the whites as did a growing number of mixed bloods. Black Africans from elsewhere in Africa and Malayans made up a slave majority of the population. 2. From the southeastern coast a Bantu-speaking people called the Nguni began expanding their territory. One of these groups were the Zulu under the leadership of Dingeswayo (1800-1818) who developed mass infantry tactics. He was succeeded by equally capable Shaka (1818-1828) who maintained a devastating internal war known as the infecane that witnessed destruction and depopulation of the southeast. By 1824 he governed perhaps a quarter of a million people. Virtual chaos characterized north and south of Zululand. 3. In 1795 Britain temporarily occupied the Cape Colony to prevent it from falling into the hands of Napoleon's navy. Following a brief interruption between 1803 and 1806, the occupation became permanent. Resentful of British religious, political, and racial attitudes, especially the abolition of slavery in 1834, several thousands of Boers migrated en masse between 1835 and 1841 across the Orange River to the grassy plains called the veld. The Great Trek resulted in wars against the Zulu and Xosa people and ultimately the formation of two autonomous and racist republics after 1850, the Orange Free State and Transvaal. Failure to occupy Natal resulted in British annexation in 1845 when it was made a dependency of the Cape Colony. Transkei became a refuge for displaced people caught up in the African and white wars. Between 1871 and 1894 colonial controls were extended over the area by the Cape Colony. The Zulus chafed at being encircled and between 1877 and 1881 there were several confrontations that eventually resulted in the area's annexation to Natal in 1897. 4. Diamonds were discovered on the borders of the Cape Colony in 1868 and gold in Transvaal in 1885. Thousands of Englishmen flooded the area and soon Britain annexed the territory on the eastern and western borders of Transvaal. As tensions rose between the British and the Boers, war broke out in 1899 ending in 1902 with a Boer surrender. Question: 1. Why did the British and Boers struggle in southern Africa? The Struggle for South Africa

9. Colonial economic policy • Global economic market • Law of the marketplace • Growth of an urban economy • Social and cultural change • Afrikaners in South Africa • Elites copy European

10. India Under British Rule, 1805-1931 1. By act of Parliament in 1814 that renewed the British East India Company for twenty years, India was opened to commerce from all British subjects (China and East Asia, however, remained a monopoly). By 1834 in the wake of sentiment for free trade, the Company lost its trading privileges, except for opium to China. Nevertheless, the Company continued to serve as a governmental agency. 2. Britain disastrously intervened into independent Afghanistan in 1838-1839. Neutral Sind was used as a military base during the war and soon the ruling princes were deposed. In 1849, after two wars against the powerful Sikhs, the Punjab was annexed. A second Afghan war from 1878 to 1881 resulted in a portion of Afghanistan being brought into India thereby creating the northern border. In the east, annexation of Lower Burma in 1852 gave Britain control of the Bay of Bengal. 3. British India consisted of eleven provinces, most of which were under governors (Englishmen) appointed by the queen and answerable to the viceroy. Ruling over the internal affairs of the Indian states was the local raj (prince). There was also present in the states a resident British official appointed by the viceroy to control the state's relations with other states and countries. 4. On May 9, 1857, sepoy troops (Indian mercenaries originally hired by the East India Company to protect British interests) stationed near Delhi rebelled. The rebellion quickly spread to Lucknow and Cawnpore. The Great Mutiny was the culmination of resentment over high handed acts of the governor-general and rumors of Christian missionaries coercing Hindus and Muslims to convert to Christianity. Among the immediate causes were concerns by troops that the paper cartridges for the new Enfield rifles were covered with animal fat and the necessity of biting open the cartridge would cause Hindus and Muslims ritual pollution. There was also concern over letting Sikhs, Gurkhas, and lower castes into the army. Within a few weeks the Ganges plain was under rebel control. By 1858, the revolt was put down as British forces were supplemented by Sikhs from the Punjab and Gurkhas from Bengal. That same year the British crown took direct rule of India. 5. One effect of the Revolt of 1857 was the creation of "cantonments" segregating the white masters from "untrustworthy" natives. 6. The Government of India Act of 1919 sought reform but did little, The franchise was restricted to property owners who were no more than three percent of the population. Moreover, the electorate was divided by granting separate representation to religious communities, landowners, and other special interest groups. Indian anger was met by harsh repression. To halt rioting in the Punjab, troops were sent to Amritsar where troops opened fire on an unarmed crowd on April 13, 1919. Killed were 379 and 1137 were wounded (a total of 1650 rounds were fired). 7. In 1921 Mohandas Gandhi was given sole executive authority by the Indian National Congress. He immediately launched a campaign of civil disobedience in accordance with satyagraha. 8. In March 1930 Gandhi led 78 followers on a "Great Salt March" to the seacoast 200 miles away to gather salt in protest of the salt tax and its burden on the poor. Indians responded to Gandhi’s defiance with strikes. Gandhi and others were jailed but the civil disobedience campaign continued. Finally, the government capitulated. Gandhi and his followers were released and the salt tax reduced. Questions: 1. How did Britain exercise authority over India? 2. What were the sources of conflict between Britain and the Indians? India Under British Rule, 1805-1931

11. India Under the British Raj • Governance • Education • End of sati • Introduction of British textiles • Zaminder system • Colonial Regimes in Southeast Asia • Indirect rule • Burma • Indochina • Slow to create democratic institutions • slow economic development

12. Colonialism in Africa • Advantages of indirect rule • East Africa • White settlers • Rise of nationalism • Traditional Resistance • Led by the existing ruling class • Peasant revolts • Religion • Reforms