A New Branch of History

Imperialism is a product of the greed and materialism found in the Industrial Revolution. However, it was so different as to introduce an entirely new dynamic of interactions amongst nations. The Industrial Revolution produced materialism by flooding society with a surplus of objects that were not essential for survival. Imperialism was a logical continuation of the Industrial Revolution, except now they exploited others in order to improve their own way of life. It was completely new in that it pushed the suppressed peoples of colonies to create new forms of government such as communism and socialism. An example was Vietnam which, under the harsh French colonial rule, forced people to turn to communism. Even today it remains a socialist nation. 

Imperialism and Us

Imperialism follows a trend of fighting for power that can be seen throughout history, though some of of the specifics are different.  All throughout history are examples of countries attempting to gain ultimate power. Napoleon, Hitler, Alexander the Great and many others. In the Ottoman Empire, Suleyman tried to conquer all of Europe for power. During imperialism, the British Empire attempted a similar thing, controlling strategic outposts all over the world not only for cultural influence, but also in order to fully manipulate trade, much like the Ottomans did within their own Empire. All these examples focus on control. A controversial idea is revolutions. Revolutions focus on overthrowing superiors and taking back control, and going forth with ideas they believe is right. 

While the general idea was the same in previous years and during imperialism, there were some key specific differences. For example treatment of native people in conquered lands was different because in previous history,  like during the Ottoman Empire, treatment of native people was a lot better than it was when the British went and conquered places like South Africa. The British treated these native people terribly, and did not allow them to have any power whatsoever in their own land. 

Imperialism (not to be confused with Star Wars)

Imperialism is yet another advancement in MWH because it follows the trends of our studies while simultaneously shaping the way we do things today. Along with past events such as the French Rev and the Industrial Rev, Imperialists used fear and superiority to maintain power over their laborers and subjects. This historical trend highlights the origins of human interaction and how it has shaped our world today. For instance, the Committee of Public Safety during the French Rev used the guillotine as a method of ensuring absolute loyalty from their citizens. The Third Estate leaders instilled fear in citizens to maintain power over them, as with the Imperialists leaders. In the Congo Free State, King Leopold cut off people's body parts to make sure that they would not disobey him. He too instilled fear to keep power. This highlights the way people interact when there is an inbalance of wealth or a difference in government policies. Economic incentives affect how people treat each other for the better or worse, as shown through imperialism and the demand for naural resources.

The Joys of Colonialism

Colonialism was the next logical step in history because all of its aspects have been seen before in the cultures we have studied. During the Industrial Revolution, a new atmosphere of "go and get 'em" permeated Europe.  It started a snowball effect on new ideas and worldwide trade. This effect gave the Europeans a new sense of confidence that led them to colonize far away countries. Also, the new technologies allowed them to easily communicate with each other. The Industrial Revolution created a new interest in trade in many countries, which followed with a need for resources and new trading destinations. This created a huge interest in connections with other countries, which led to European trading posts and people in many smaller, less-developed countries. Once these countries were occupied by the Europeans, they saw no reason to leave and began to colonize the new countries. 

Algeria Takes a Stand; its Opinion on Colonialism

Our group has decided that colonialism is the natural progression of history with one exception. Colonialism did not start inequality between human beings; as shown on our last DBQs concerning the Slave Trade.Colonization was not responsible for any major technological advancements; it was the testing ground for the innovations that accompanied the Industrial Revolution. The only new idea that came from colonization was that governments began to exploit weaker native peoples for their economic benefit instead of using colonization to gain political favor and power.
Inequality was already present between nations. It only made sense that, with all the new technology and weapons present in the country, the benefiting country would want to take over other countries. They colonized for power. This is a consistent theme throughout history. Slavery was an example of power. The richer and stronger country was able to take people from one country, and sell them in another. Not just any country can do this. The country had to be powerful. After the slave trade was banished, they needed to show their power in another way. With all their new technology, they decided to colonize.
Colonialism did not create any helpful new technologies. The innovations like breech loaders and steamboats from the Industrial Revolution allowed colonization to occur. The new technology that accompanied the Industrial REvolution made colonization affordable and safe; it gave colonists a huge edge over the natives that they were conquering.

Not only did the Industrial Revolution and the new technology and goods it spawned make colonization more affordable, but it made colonization immensely profitable. Countries like Britain and France wanted to gain power overseas. In fact some countries were experiencing some opposition to their government domestically and so by bringing in loads of cash through their economic exploitation of weaker countries they could gain more power. Countries were now turning their attention to colonialism and realized that power was better achieved through economics than politics. Smaller, less developed countries like the Congo, Algeria, Vietnam and South Africa had valuable resources that big and powerful countries could take advantage of. And after going through revolutions countries didn't want to have to continue dealing with issues in its own country.

Life in Colonial South Africa

-Spread of Diseases when British Immigrants & Dutch Invaded the colonies

-The Colored people were discriminated against on account of their working class status as well as their racial identity

-The Boer wars killed many women and children. British put them in concentration camps and killed over 26,000 dutch people. 

-Black communities then were able to recolonize land that was lost in conquest. Could regain some native land.

Social Classes:

1. British

2. Dutch

3. Native South Africans

-Racially Discriminated Against so they couldn't advance classes

- no technology so couldn't fight back

-White People felt they were superior b/c of colour and forced the natives out of their land b/c of their greed. 

Life Under Colonial Rule: Algeria

Napoleon III had an Arab dream.

At the beginning of French colonization in Algeria, the military was in charge. Depending on who was in charge of the military, there would be either limited of total occupation. The political rulers were fighting over how much freedom the Algerians would have. As France became more established in Algeria, the French people living in Algeria, called the colons, wanted more power. They brought the power away from the military.

When Napoleon III was in power, he had an "Arab dream." He really respected Algerian culture, and didn't want to impose too much French culture on them. A French defeat in Prussia caused his dream to be ruined.

The French hadn't thought about what to do with the native Algerians. They decided that there would be absolute subjugation to the French. They did this in order to help the needs of the colonization. In 1881, a Code de l'Indigénat was put into effect. It was made official that theses repressive measures would be put into place. Culturally, the way of life of the native Algerians was put on hold.

Economically, things started becoming bad for the Algerians around the 1840s to the 1860s. This occurred because the French started seizing on Algerian farmlands. Their economy was based on farming. This took the ower away from the Algerians, who becam dependant on loanes.

The Invasion of Vietnam

Reasons

In the French's mind, the Vietnamese were inferior people, and they wanted to educate them with the French culture and religion. For example to enhance Vietnamese infrastructure, they built roads, railways, and a bridge across the Red River at Hanoi, and, to better their culture, set up multiple opera houses. In addition, Vietnam's copious natural resources were very appealing to a developing France. Rubber, the second largest export after rice, was produced by plantations across Vietnam. The French were just as interested in coal deposits, and output of the Hongay Coal Mines quadrupled in fourteen years. Another motivation in the eyes of the French was that the commercial success in Vietnam decreased the burden of taxpayers across France.

Method

The French colonized Vietnam in 1858. 2,500 soldiers took the port of Tourane and returned to take the capital, Saigon, in 1861. The French imposed an extremely harsh rule, which caused the Vietnamese people to become second class citizens in their own country. Only a very small percentage of the population were able to retain any amount of social standing while the majority of the Vietnamese were forced to slave away as the lowest working class. 

British East India Company

The East India company began as a privately owned company and became one of the largest colonized areas in Asia. The company didn't take political power immediately, but very gradually. They set up trading posts without taking any power and kept the relationship purely for economic purposes. Eventually the company spread their power by conquering the state of Bengal in 1757. Their puppet ruler went unchallenged for almost a decade while the company demanded more and more taxes. In 1764 the Mughal Empire rebelled against the Brittish because of the outragous expenses they forced them to pay. The brittish armies defeated the Mughals and set more restrictions in place.

- It was the largest colonized area in Asia.
- India company was Privately owned business.
- Established trading posts without becoming in-control
- 1757, conquered Bengal and put in puppet ruler
- 1764, Mughal empire fought against British troops but were defeated and British put puppet rulers everywhere and took control.
- company collected tax from Bengals as a result of uprising of Mughal
- soon after company went onto annex onto other companies
- landowners had to pay tax
- Debts of rural Indians was little concern. Calls for reform focused on Company's monopoly. Criticism of colonial methods mounted as the company's arbitrary rule in India became better known in London.
-Company assembled military and administrative departments becoming imperial power in its own right.

LIfe Under Colonial Rule- Congo

Life in Congo under the rule of King Leopold II was gruesome. The villagers in the Congo were not treated as humans, but rather as property.  Rubber and ivory were in high demand, and Leopold forced the villagers to supply all the rubber and ivory that was needed, or suffer punishment. Punishments included, for men, cutting off their hands, and for women, being sold into prostitution. The soldiers in the Belgian army also forced the villagers to supply all the fish, meat, vegetables and fruits they ate, all year round. Most of these goods are only abundant during certain seasons, and the villagers had to travel far in harsh conditions in order to supply what the soldiers needed. If they couldn't, they were forced to sell a son or daughter into slavery. Local laborers of the Congo were forced to wear European clothing to show Belgium's superiority. Disease from malnutrition and lack of sleep also greatly increased during Belgium rule, and populations decreased more than 60 percent between 1890 and 1990. During the Belgian colonization of the Congo, the local Congolese laborers started a temporary mutiny against the Belgian officers. The Congolese people's goal was to humiliate the officers, not kill them. However, a few dozen Belgian officials were killed over the course of the colonization period. Evidently, both sides (Congolese and Belgian) had something to worry about, making the experience problematic for both the Belgian and Congolese people. Surely overall, the experience devastated the Congolese population far more, leaving permanent effects on this territory and all of Africa.

Vietnam - Life Under Colonial Rule

The French orchestrated the colonization of Indochina (the combination of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia) with a firm hand, repressing the Vietnamese beliefs in favor of European values. French officials were given places of power within the newly instated government, and violation of the laws or rebellion of any kind resulted in decrease of Vietnamese representation. Political actions common to repression such as censorship and limitation of education were common. The Vietnamese were encouraged not to participate in politics, for fear that they might be inspired with rebellious notions. Ironically enough, political ideas such as communism and nationalism would eventually defeat the french to bring independence to the people of Indochina. A quick note: it is interesting to note the parallels between the repression and the resulting brand of nationalism in the repressed people. In colonies of fairly liberal governments more moderate nationalist movements appeared, whereas in Vietnam they came up with hardcore communism that has only in the last few decades turn to socialism.  In any case, the condition of the daily life of the Indochinese was unpleasant, to put it lightly. The people were virtually slaves working for a meager bag of rice, only able to keep one bag out of every eleven that were harvested. The corrupt French  government often guillotined, tortured, or burned the whole village of their opposition. 

Methods of and Reasons for Colonization in Algeria

Timeline: 

• France invaded Algeria on May 16, 1830 and gained control by 1847
• Controlled all of what is now Algeria by 1914
• Revolution in 1962 ended French colonization in Algeria

Major players (key terms):

• Napoleon III took power in 1852 
• Frantz Faron was a Frenchie who was a social revolutionist and supporter of the nationalist movement for Algeria
• Abd-al-Kader was a young Algerian military commander that lead a national army of 100,000+ in jihad against the French
• Ahmed Ben Bella used soccer as a platform to become the first president of independent Algeria

How it happened:

• French brought over a huge fleet of ships
• the "dey" surrendered

Why colonize:

• open markets
• more trading outlets
• France was having some domestic problems with people questioning the authority of their government so a military victory abroad would help to establish the monarchy

How colonized/free:

• Depending on who ruled Algeria periods of limited and total occupation 
• Algeria requested independence after helping to fight off Nazis during World War II, but it was denied
• Led to revolution

Comparison between societies:

• Religious differences
• Algeria = Islamic country and France = Christian
• Difficult for Muslim Algerians to become French citizens during colonial rule

Cultural effects:

• Jihad (war justified by Islam)
• Napoleon III supported the Arabs

Political stability:

• Algeria built up its army under Abd-al-Kader in early French colonial rule
• Revolution started in 1954
• Both wars when French initially colonized and when Algeria started revolution in 1954 were very violent

South Africa was colonized by the Dutch East India Company and the British Empire. First it was occupied by Britain in 1795 as a strategic outpost against France so they could have a military advantage through sea and land. The Dutch came to make trading outposts and as a result Dutch settlements appeared. The British and Dutch exported wine and wool which Fueled the economy because of the vast amounts they were able to produce. When gold was discovered, British miners flowed in, angering the Dutch. The Dutch then reduced the status of british miners to secon class citizens, taking away their right to vote and instituting high taxes. The British rebelled, and when the army of the British Empire stepped in to help, the boer wars began.

The Boer wars were very unevenly matched, as it was farmers against the army of the powerful British empire. The native South Africans supported the British, because they believed they would be able to get more equal rights from their rule. In the end, the British put the Boers in concentration camps, and won the war. However, the South Africans did not immediately get their equality. 

South Africa remained under British rule until 1910, when they gained independence.

The Congo Free State: Belgian Colonization

During the Berlin West Africa Conference in 1884, the Congo region of Africa became known as the Congo Free State and was ceded to Belgium, more specifically King Leopold II. Several years beforehand, King Leopold II had established the Association Internationale du Congo (Committee for Studies of the Upper Congo). The formation of this committee and its title provided Leopold with an official reason to utilize Congolese territory. However, this committee was not state-formed; it was Leopold's private investment. Therefore, he must have either used his own money or money from the state, a questionable circumstance itself. 

King Leopold II had several reasons to imperialize the Congo. He wanted to obviously expand Belgium's worldwide influence, but his primary ambition was to take advantage of the Congo's rich natural resources and sources of human labor. Wild rubber, palm oil, and ivory were the three main resources that Leopold targeted for mass production. He also planned to prosper financially and economically from the production of these resources.

Although his economic ambitions were fair during the time, his methods for acquiring labor and resources were atrocious. He hired Congolese workers to harvest all of the three resources he desired, using menace as a motivator for laborers. If workers refused to work or did not work efficiently, Belgian officers would cut off a hand and/or a foot, or simply kill them. To further enforce this policy, the Belgians hired local Congolese men to act as local officers of the Belgian government, creating a divide in the Congolese people. The Belgians also brought European disease with them, killing countless Congolese people and disrupting the natural continental immunity system. 

Two journalists during this time looked into the Belgian imperialism: Edward Morel and Roger Casement. Both wrote journal entries on the horrible treatment of Africans and truth of the matter of what was actually going on in the Belgian Congo. To effectively convince and captivate the public, these journalists took photos of children and other Congolese people without hands and/or feet. These photos were soon published, which led to Leopold's eventual withdrawal from the Congo. Some consider Leopold's use of the Congo as a genocide. Regardless, the Belgian Congo reveals the dark sides of imperialism and its inevitable consequences.

British East India Trading Company

After the 7 years war, the British and French went to India to
colonize. The slow colonization began with the British East India
Company, a trading company that began in the Mughal Empire and traded
between India and the British. It began as just a trading company, but
slowly the Brittish began to take more and more power away from India
and putting it into the hands of Brittish rulers. The trade became
umbalenced when the Brittish began trading cottton for textiles which
was far more beneficial to the Brittish than India. The colonization
was purely economic, based solely on the expansion of Britan's
economy. The Brittish put in a string of puppet rulers into India and
by the 19th century they were in almost complete control of India. By
1857 it became a Brittish territory.