Notes+on+Imperialism

=Domination and Resistance in Africa=

• Advances in transportation (steamships and railroad) and communications (telegraph and later the telephone) • Superior military weaponry o Bolt-action rifles gave the Europeans the ability to quickly reload o Maxim Gun and Gatlin Gun (an early machine gun) allowed vastly outnumbered Europeans to defeat Africans o Steamships with machine guns and cannons traveled up and down the rivers of Asia and Africa • Medical advances (especially a cure for malaria) __**BECAUSE OF THEIR GEOGRAPHY- SAME LATITUDE AS ASIA AND MIDDLE EAST, BENEFITED FROM THOUSANDS OF YEARS OF TECHNOLOGY TRADE.**__

Africa’s Disadvantages
• Variety of cultures and languages made unification difficult • Low level of technology readily available – most of the guns owned by Africans dated back to the slave trade (which ended two generations before) __**BECAUSE OF THEIR NORTH-SOUTH CONTINENT SHAPES (also India and S. America:) MOVING GOODS AND PEOPLE MEANT CHANGING CLIMATE AND TOPOGRAPHY ZONES. COULD NOT BENEFIT FROM TRADE WITH OTHER PARTS OF ASIA AND MIDDLE EAST (OBSTACLES: SAHARA DESERT, RIVERS OF CATARACTS, HIMALAYA AND ANDES MOUNTAINS).**__

Domination
• People of the Sudan resisted British rule and at the Battle of Omdurman. The British killed some 10,000 Sudanese with machine guns. • In Nigeria, some 500 British soldiers and African allies defeated 31,000 with machine guns • African religious leaders during the Maja Maja Rebellion in German West Africa claimed magic water would make bullets harmless – some 26,000 died as they attacked machine guns with spears • Zulus in South Africa put on formidable resistance to Boers and later the British, but are outgunned and defeated in 1879

Successful Resistance
• Ethiopia was the only country to successfully resist the Europeans • Its leader, Emperor Menelik II, skillful played the Italians, French, and British against one another along with his Ethiopian rivals • At the Battle of Adowa in 1896, the Ethiopians successfully defeated the Italians and maintained their independence • In the 1930s, Benito Mussolini would target Ethiopia as his first target in the years leading up to World War II – avenging Italy’s loss. (The Ethiopians then fought with the same guns that had defeated the Italians forty years before.)

=Age of Imperialism=

Who ?

 * • Britain, France, and Germany (Asia and Africa)
 * • U.S. (Latin America- and West and Pacific Islands)
 * * Japan (Pacific)

What ?
• Domination by one country of the political, economic, or cultural life of another country or region • A European “scramble” for lands around world

Where?
• Africa, Asia, and Latin America

When ?
• 1870s – 1914 (WWI)

Why ?
1. Political Control (Nationalism)= competing for colonies for power and prestige 2. Economic Competition = need for raw materials, new markets, and cheap labor. Directly linked to the Industrial Revolution! 3. Social Darwinism/Racism = Herbert Spencer and “Survival of the Fittest,” European culture viewed as superior to all others. 4. Missionary Impulse = spread Christian faith and teachings 5. Exploratory= Adventure/ discovery of new materials, resources

How ?

 * GEOGRAPHY -See above advantages and disadvantages.
 * Superior weapons (bolt action rifle, maxim gun)
 * Transportation and communication (Railroad, steamships)
 * Medical advances (cure for malaria, etc.)
 * Disunity in Africa (different languages, cultures, etc.)