chapter 18: colonial encounters in asia and africa – Flashcards

1. gave rise to economic needs, many of which found solutions abroad: enormous productivity and Europe's growing affluence now created the need for extensive raw materials and agricultural products 2. Europe needed to sell its own products: industrial capitalism periodically produced a surplus of goods 3. European investors found it more profitable to invest their money abroad than at home 4. wealthy Europeans saw social benefits to foreign markets, which served to keep Europe's factories humming and its workers employed 5. imperialism promised to solve the class conflicts of an industrializing society while avoiding revolution or the serious redistribution of wealth 6. provided new technology to achieve their goals: steam-driven ships, underwater telegraph, discovery of quinine, and improved weapons 7. occasioned a marked change in the way Europeans viewed themselves and others 8. Europeans developed a secular arrogance that fused with or replaced their notions of religious superiority

1. even as they held onto the sense of religious superiority, Europeans adopted many of the ideas and techniques of more advanced societies 2. developed a secular arrogance that fused with or replaced their notions of religious superiority 3. based on their own standards of unlocking the secrets of nature, creating a society of unprecedented wealth, and the use of both to produce unsurpassed military power, their view of other cultures dropped sharply 4. viewed the culture and achievements of Asian and African peoples through the prism of a new kind of racism, expressed now in terms of modern science: increasingly used the prestige and apparatus of science to support their racial preferences and prejudices 5. biologists applied the classification of varieties of plants and animals to human beings 6. as the germ theory took hold, it was accompanied by fears that contact with inferiors threatened their health 7. Social Darwinism: the idea of survival of the fittest suggested that European dominance inevitably involved the displacement or destruction of backward peoples or unfit races 8. The White Man's Burden - the idea that it was the duty of the "superior" race to civilize the "inferior" races by bringing Christianity to the heathen, good government to disordered lands, work discipline and production for the market of "lazy natives," a measure of education to the ignorant and illiterate, clothing to the naked, and healthcare to the sick, all while suppressing native customs than ran counter to western ways of living

1. generally through informal control, which operated through economic penetration and occasional military intervention, but without a wholesale colonial takeover 2. conquest and outright colonial rule where rivalry with other European states or where local governments were unwilling to cooperate 3. grew out of earlier interaction with European trading firms (Dutch East India Company in Indonesia and British East India Company in Indonesia) 4. the fragmentation of the Mughal Empire and absence of any overall sens of cultural unity both invited and facilitated European penetration: similar situation of many small and rival states assisted the Dutch acquisitions of Indonesia 5. for most of Africa, mainland Southeast Asia, and the Pacific islands, colonial conquest came later, more abruptly, and more deliberately 6. among decentralized societies without any formal state structure European confronted no central authority with which they could negotiate or might decisively defeat, it was a matter of village-by-village conquest against extended 7. Japan's takeover of Taiwan and Korea marked similarities to European acquisitions 8. Russian penetration of Central Asia brought additional millions under European control as the Russian Empire continued its earlier territorial expansion 9. Filipinos acquired new colonial rulers when the US took over from Spain 10. US freed slaves migrated to West Africa where they became a colonizing elite

cooperate: 1. many men found employment, status, and security in European-led armed forces 2. shortage and expense of European administrators and the difficulties of communicating across cultural boundaries made it necessary for colonial rulers to rely heavily on a range of local intermediaries, and rulers from elite or governing families found it possible to retain much of their earlier status and privileges while gaining considerable wealth by exercising authority at the local level 3. both colonial governments and private missionary organizations had an interest in promoting a measure of European education: arose a small Western-educated class whose members served the colonial state, European businesses, and Christian missions resistance: 1. offense to local traditions: introduction into the colony's military forces of a new cartridge smeared with animal fat from cows and pigs in India 2. grievances generated by colonial presence: local rulers who had lost power, landlords deprived of their estates or their rent, peasants overtaxes and exploited by urban moneylenders and landlords, unemployed weavers displaced by machine-manufactured textiles, and religious leaders outraged by missionary preaching

1. prominence of race in distinguishing rulers and ruled, as the high tide of "scientific racism" in Europe coincided with the acquisition of Asian and African colonies 2. extent to which colonial states were able to penetrate the societies they governed: touched the daily lives of many people far more deeply than in earlier empires -centralized tax-collecting bureaucracies, new means of communication and transportation -imposed changes in landholding patterns -integration of colonial economies into a global network of exchange -public health and sanitation measures -activities of missionaries 3. their ways of counting and classifying their subject people -collected a vast amount of information, sought to organize it "scientifically", and used it to manage the unfamiliar societies that they governed 4. gender entered into European efforts to define themselves and their newly acquired subject peoples -by linking the inferiority of women with that of people of color, gender ideology and race prejudice were joined in support of colonial rule 5. European colonial practices contradicted their own core values and their practices at home to an unusual degree

1. required and unpaid labor on public projects 2. forced subjects to collect goods for the state, often under brutal conditions (Congo) 3. cultivation system of Indonesia required peasants to cultivate 20% of their land in cash crops to meet their tax obligation to the state: for the peasants, it meant a double burden of obligations to the colonial state as well as to local lords: many became indebted to moneylenders and the loss of land and labor contributed to a wave of famine

1. advantage of local farmers 2. British authorities in Burma acted to encourage rice production among small farmers by ending an earlier prohibition on rice exports, providing irrigation and transportation facilities, and enacting land tenure laws that facilitated private ownership of small farms: local farmers benefited considerably, standards of living improved sharply, and huge increases in rice production fed millions of people 3. a shortage of labor in Ghana fostered the employment of former slaves as dependent and exploited workers and also generated tensions between the sexes when some men married women for their labor power but refused to support them adequately; brought a huge influx of migrants from interior West Africa, generating racial and class tensions 4. many colonies came to specialize in one or two cash crops, creating an unhealthy dependence when world market prices dropped

1. driven by the need for money, by the loss of land adequate to support their families, or by orders of colonial authorities 2. across Southeast Asia, huge plantations sprouted, which were financed from Europe -impoverished workers came great distances to these plantations, where they were subject to strict control -disease was common, and death rates were at least double that of the colony as a whole 3. mines were a source of wage labor for many Asians -drew impoverished Chinese workers -appalling living conditions, disease, and accidents generated extraordinarily high death rates 4. Trinidad, Fiji, Malaysia, Ceylon, South Africa, Kenya, and Uganda had laboring as indentured workers and independent merchants 5. in Africa some people stayed as "squatters" working for new landowners as the price of remaining on what had been their own land 6. western educated people everywhere found opportunities as teachers, doctors and professional specialists but more often as clerks in government bureaucracies 7. british colonial authorities in India facilitated the migration of millions of Indians to work sites elsewhere in the British Empire

1. as the demands of the colonial economy grew, women's loves increasingly diverged from those of men 2. where cash-crop agriculture was dominant, men often withdrew from subsistence production in favor of more lucrative export crops 3. men often took over crops that had previously been traditionally grown by women when it acquired a cash value 4. men acted to control the most profitable aspects of cash-crop agriculture and in doing so greatly increased the subsistence workload on women 5. labor migration further increased women's workload and differentiated their lives from those of men 6. as growing numbers of men sought employment elsewhere, their wives were left to manage the domestic economy almost alone 7. in many cases, women also had to supply food to men in the cities to compensate for very low urban wages 8. often took over such traditionally male tasks as breaking the ground for planting, milking the cows, and supervising the herds, in addition to their normal responsibilities 9. many sought closer relations with their own families rather than with their absent husbands' families 10. women introduced labor-saving crops, adopted new farm implements, and earned money as traders 11. established a variety of self-help associations 12. colonial economy sometimes provided a measure of opportunity for enterprising women, particularly in small-scale trade and marketing 13. women sometimes came to dominate a sector of the economy by selling foodstuffs, cloth, and inexpensive imported goods, while men or foreign firms controlled the more profitable wholesale and import-export trade 14. sometimes gave women considerable economic autonomy 15. women of impoverished rural families, by necessity, often became virtually heads of household in the absence of their husbands 16. some took advantage of new opportunities in mission schools, towns, and mines to flee the restrictions of rural patriarchy

yes: 1. served to further the integration of Asian and African economies into a global network 2. many colonized groups and individuals benefited from their new access to global markets 3. spread some element of modernization to the colonies no: 1. nowhere did a major breakthrough to modern industrial society occur

1. to previously illiterate people, the knowledge of reading and writing often suggested an almost magical power 2. it could mean an escape from obligations of living under European control, such as forced labor 3. meant access to better-paying positions in government bureaucracies, mission organizations, or business firms and to the exciting imported goods that their salaries could buy 4. often provided social mobility and elite status within their own communities and an opportunity to achieve equality with white in racially defined terms 5. often led to an embrace of European culture 6. societies had a new cultural divide: between the small number who had mastered the ways of their rulers and the vast majority who had not 7. many among the Western-educated elite saw themselves as a modernizing vanguard, leading the regeneration of their societies in association with colonial authorities 8. in India, Western-educated men organized a variety of reform societies, which drew on inspiration from the classical texts of Hinduism, while seeking a renewed Indian culture that was free of idolatry, caste restrictions, and other errors that had entered Indian life over the centuries: much of this reform effort centered on improving the status of women

1. military defeat shook confidence in the old gods and local practices, fostering openness to new sources of supernatural power that could operate in the wider world now impinging on their societies 2. widely associated with modern education, and mission schools were the primary providers of Western education 3. oppressed groups in African societies found new opportunities and greater freedom in association with missions 4. spread of Christianity was less the work of Christian missionaries than those of many thousands of African teachers, catechists, and pastors

1. leading intellectuals and reformers began to define the region's endlessly varied beliefs, practices, sects, rituals, and philosophies as a more distinct, unified, and separate religion now known as Hinduism 2. effort to provide for India a religion wholly equivalent to Christianity 3. a revived Hinduism, shorn of its distortions, offered a means of uplifting the country's village communities, which were the heart of Indian civilizations 4. offered spiritual support to a Western world mired in materialism and militarism 5. provided a cultural foundation for emerging ideas of India as a nation, but it also contributed to a clearer sense of Muslims as a distinct community in India 6. British had created separate inheritance laws for all Muslims and others for all Hindus

1. before the colonial period, African peoples had long recognized differences among themselves based on language, kinship, clan, village, or state, but these were seldom sharp or clearly defined 2. few people on the continent had regarded themselves as African, but well-educated Africans began to think in broader terms, and an effort to revive the cultural self-confidence of their people by articulating a larger, common, and respected African tradition 3. the idea of an Africa sharply divided into separate and distinct "tribes" was in fact a European notion that facilitated colonial administration and reflected their belief in African primitiveness 4. but while Europeans may have created or sought to impose these categories, Africans increasingly found ethnic or tribal labels useful; this was especially true in rapidly growing urban areas, where migrants found it helpful to categorize themselves and others in larger ethnic terms

violence and coercion: 1. many colonies were grabbed with military force 2. rebellions were regularly suppressed using violence 3. forced labor was regularly extracted from the populations of colonies voluntary cooperation and benefits: 1. local leaders were often used as intermediary rulers between the colonial administrators and the populations, thus those local leaders were able to maintain much of their social prestige and often gained in wealth 2. a small number of Western-educated members of colonial societies benefited from better-paying jobs, elite status within their own societies, and escape from the most tough obligations of living under European control, such as forced labor 3. some regular folks benefited by gaining access to foreign markets for their cash crops or by obtaining relatively good employment, working as soldiers, on railways, at ports, or for other parts of the colonial regime

1. cash-crop farmers in Burma and Ghana who benefited from colonial trade 2. some African women became small-scale traders within the colonial system, gained opportunities for education and professions, gained status as the head of the household and control their own wealth 3. some people gained Western education and were able to use it to get better-paying positions that allowed to buy exciting imported goods as well as a higher social status 4. local rulers became intermediaries between local populations and colonial powers and benefited by retaining their former power

transforming or revolutionary: 1. experience of African women, some of whom found greater autonomy over their day-to-day lives than before because of changed living patterns that removed men to the cities, and some of whom found new economic autonomy as they took advantage of opportunities in trade. 2. new opportunities offered to some farmers of cash crops, like those in Burma or Ghana, who were able to tap into the colonial trade networks for their own benefit 3. large-scale conversion of some populations to Christianity was also a transformative experience for those who converted. 4. minority who secured Western educations, which transformed both their lives and often their vision of their own society. freezing or preserving: 1. detrimental aspects of the colonial economy, which meant that no colonial society underwent industrialization in anything like the manner of Japan: effectively meant that the economies of colonized countries remained based in agriculture and the production of raw materials and cash crops 2. stunted the growth of the middle class in those countries. 3. tendency of colonial states to rule through local elites had the effect of maintaining the social status quo

-Europe in the nineteenth century utilized immense new resources created by the Industrial Revolution to drive its expansion -European states were more powerful in the nineteenth century and were able to field more military resources in their imperialist competition with each other -To a greater extent than before, in the nineteenth century Europe integrated other parts of the world in networks of trade, investment, and sometimes migration. This eventually generated a new world economy -unlike the early modern period, in the nineteenth century European expansion brought with it a new culture of modernity—its scientific rationalism and technological achievements, its belief in a better future, and its ideas of nationalism, socialism, feminism, and individualism -new religious movements