Unit 20 Imperial Designs - Annenberg Learner - Teacher … · · 2013-06-27Unit 20 Imperial Designs ... empires became one of the most common forms of economic and political organization

Bridging World History - 147 - Unit 20

Unit 20

Imperial Designs

Introduction to UnitAfter 1500, empires became one of the most common forms of economic and political organization around theworld. But the period between 1815 and 1914 stands out as the “Imperial Century,” because nearly three-quartersof the earth came to be dominated by a handful of empires during this time. This unit explores the complexitiesof imperial history as seen from a world historical perspective. Viewed from such a perspective, imperial history isthe story of the introduction—usually by force—of new peoples, technologies, products, languages, plants,animals, values, and religions to many parts of the world. Imperialism depended on the physical occupation andadministration of overseas dominions to utilize and exploit labor, resources, and raw materials for the benefit ofthe nation-state. By the nineteenth century, imperialism was more aggressive than in any other previous era.

Learning Objectives· Compare the methods used to gain overseas dominions and economic domination during the nineteenth

century.

· Analyze how industrial capitalism shaped the development of European imperialism in the nineteenth century.

Preparing for This SessionRead Unit 20 in the Bridging World History online text. You may also want to refer to some of the Suggested Readings and Materials. If you feel you need more background knowledge, refer to a college-level world historytextbook on this subject (look under the index for Cecil Rhodes, Boers, Silver [global trade], Portugal).

Unit 20 - 148 - Bridging World History

Before You Begin—15 minutesFrom what you have learned so far in world history, mark a fifteenth-century world map with the labels you thinkthe European colonizers would have used to describe the world as they saw it: civilized and uncivilized; free andenslaved; colonizer and colonized. Discuss what happened in the fifteenth century that made Europeans feelempowered to mark their maps with the above labels.

The video is about nineteenth-century imperialism. What do you predict will be the labels on the maps used forthe nineteenth century?

Watch the Video for “Unit 20: Imperial Designs”—30 minutes

Activity 1: Tools of Empire—45 minutesUse the following sources to compare the methods (tools of empire) the British used to gain economic advan-tages in the Portuguese colony of Brazil and Qing China. Compare the British methods with those used by theAmericans to gain economic advantages with Tokugawa Japan.

British Imperialism in Colonial BrazilThe Methuen Treaty of 1703 between Britain and Portugal guaranteed English merchants the same liberties, priv-ileges, and exemptions as enjoyed by the Portuguese in both metropolitan and colonial commerce. The treatyalso limited the tariffs that could be levied on British goods. The chief minister for the Portuguese, King Joseph II,and the Marquis de Pombal, however, tried to create a Portuguese textile industry based on a guaranteed Brazilianmarket. The Methuen Treaty guaranteed favorable treatment for English woolen textiles, the largest British exportat the start of the eighteenth century, but did not mention English cottons, a loophole which Pombal exploited topromote a Portuguese cotton textile industry. He also managed to get Portuguese wine a monopoly in the Britishmarket. The Brazilian colony attracted immigration during the eighteenth-century gold rush in the interior andduring the development of coffee plantations in the south. Altogether, nearly one thousand tons of gold andthree million carats of diamonds were taken from the region between 1700 and l800. Although the gold was con-trolled by Portugal and shipped to Lisbon, it did not remain there. Under the Methuen Treaty of 1703, Englandsupplied textile products to Portugal. These were paid for with gold from the Brazilian mines that ended up inLondon banks and helped to finance the Industrial Revolution.

British Imperialism in Qing ChinaEarly nineteenth-century British merchants profited from buying Chinese tea and selling it in England, but the Chinese merchants only accepted silver as payment. The British merchants sought to find some product that theChinese would buy from them without the use of British silver. After tobacco from the Americas was imported inChina, a few Chinese began to smoke opium-laced tobacco; historically, opium was used in small amounts asmedicine in China. In the 1820s and 1830s, British merchants dramatically increased the import of opium (madein areas of India controlled by the British East India Company) into China. Officials in the imperial Chinese gov-ernment debated the opium issue, until the Qing emperor finally decided to try to stop the opium trade. He com-manded that all opium be seized and foreign importers be put to death. In 1840, the British government reactedstrongly to the seizure of British merchants’ property (opium) and the imprisonment of British subjects. Britishnaval vessels bombarded the port of Canton, and they sailed up several major rivers with naval gunboats, threat-ening other cities including Beijing. After two more years of war, the Treaty of Nanjing was signed in 1842. The Chinese government agreed to pay 21 million dollars; abolish the Chinese merchant monopoly over trade in thesouthern ports; open four more new ports to British and other countries’ merchants; reduce and fix import andexport taxes; and surrender Hong Kong. After another war in 1856-1860, the Chinese government was forced tosign another treaty. This Treaty of Tianjin provided for 10 new ports of trade; foreign merchants’ right to travel in

Unit Activities


all parts of China; permanent diplomatic residence in Beijing; freedom of movement for Christian missionaries;lower tariffs on trade; and an indemnity of forty million dollars to the British, French, American, and Russian gov-ernments. The Chinese were further humiliated by having to relinquish legal jurisdiction over sections of theseport cities and over foreigners residing in China. Chinese were even excluded from facilities and areas controlledby foreigners.

American Imperialism in Tokugawa Japan The Harris Treaty of 1858 opened the ports of Japan under the threat of United States military intervention (American naval steam ships with loaded cannons). American merchants gained full access to all parts of the Tokugawa Shogunate’s realm, and all American citizens had extraterritoriality. The treaty also forced the Japanesegovernment to cease its 300-year persecution of Christians in Japan. A regulation, unfavorable to Japan, wasattached to the treaty determining the tariffs to be paid on U.S. imports. A low rate of five percent on the value ofgoods imported by the U.S. was set for machinery and shipping materials of all kinds, as well as raw materials suchas lead, tin, and zinc.

Activity 2: Imperialism and Capitalism—45 minutesUse the following source to determine how exploitation of overseas territories required certain trade networksand depended on investments of technology and capital. Investigate the case of South Africa to see the relation-ship between the changing material world and interconnections wrought from imperialist encounters.

In 1828, the king of the Zulus, Shaka, was assassinated and replaced by his half-brother Dingane (also spelled Dingaan). Dingane continued the Zulu opposition to the Boer settlements expanding in his region. “Sir,—This isan answer to your letter of 24th October ... as regards the request you have made to me as to the territory, I amalmost inclined to cede it to you; but in the first place, I desire to say that a great number of cattle have been stolenfrom my country by a people having clothes, horses, and guns. The Zulus assure me that these people were Boers.... My request is that you recover the cattle and restore them to me .... Signed, Chief Dingane Umgungundlovu.”(John A. Williams, From the South African Past: Narratives, Documents, and Debates, [Boston, New York: HoughtonMifflin, 1997]: 88.)

The Boers assembled their forces in the Battle of Blood River in 1838. They defeated the Zulu—a turning point inthe history of southern Africa. In 1837, the Boers made a great trek inland to protest the British ban on slavery.They moved east to areas dominated by the Zulus (now the Orange Free State and Natal); several wars happenedbetween the Zulus and Boers. At first the Zulu were victorious, but then by using reloading guns, the Boers wonand began to feel like a white tribe. By 1867, diamond mines were owned by British merchants but worked byblack and Indian miners. In 1886, gold was discovered in areas dominated by Boers. (The descendants of thefarmer colonists who speak a dialect called Afrikaans—a combination of Dutch and African languages—areknown as the Afrikaners.)

Discussion Questions· When did Dingane write this letter?

· How did the Boer victory at Blood River change the relationship between the Zulu and the British?

· How did the British policies toward the Boers change with the Boer victory?

Unit Activities, cont’d.


Activity 3: Mining As an Example of Industrial Capitalism—45 minutesUse the following photographs to compare the ways that industrial capitalism shaped the development of European imperialism in the nineteenth century. Look carefully at the pictures of miners in Brazil and South Africa.How do the pictures show similarities in the ways that industrial capitalism shaped imperialism in Brazil and SouthAfrica?


Item #1950. Anonymous, DIAMOND MINERS AT THE BOTTOMOF A GREAT SHAFT AT THE WESSELTON MINES, KIMBERLY,SOUTH AFRICA (1911). Courtesy of The Library of Congress.

Item #4156. Anonymous, MINERS POSING AT GOLD MINE (c. 1888).Image donated by Corbis-Bettmann.

Item #4134. Gardner F. Williams, WORKERS GOING INTOTHE MINES “FROM THE DIAMOND MINES OF SOUTHAFRICA” (1906). Courtesy of the Reed College Library.


Use the following two images to discuss how newspapers and photography were technological tools used toincrease support for empire.


Item #1943. Frederic Remington, BOER SCOUTS ON THE NATALBORDER (1899). Courtesy of The Library of Congress.

Item #1944. Underwood and Underwood, RESTORATION ANDDEFENSE OF BRITISH LIBERTY IN SOUTH AFRICA (c. 1900). Courtesyof The Library of Congress.


Read Unit 20 in the online text, Section 3, Reading 3: James Gump, “The Imperialism of Cultural Assimilation: SirGeorge Grey’s Encounter with the Maori and the Xhosa, 1845–1868,”Journal of World History 9, no. 1 (Spring 1998):89–106.

Reading Questions· Sir George Grey, a governor in New Zealand (1845–53 and 1861–68) and in South Africa (1854–61),

celebrated what “native policy” that he characterized as a program of “amalgamation”?

· What were the short-term effects of Grey’s amalgamation strategy between 1845 and 1868? In particular,what were some of the environmental issues raised by Grey’s policies?

· Compare the cultural rejection of colonial domination by the Xhosa and the Maori. Can you compare theirforms of resistance to other movements such as the Native American Ghost Dancers or the Boxer Rebellion?

· Do you agree with the conclusion that Grey’s policies helped pave the way for white supremacy in SouthAfrica as well as the alienation of millions of acres of Maori land in New Zealand?

Optional: Visit the Web SiteExplore this topic further on the Bridging World History Web site. Browse the Archive, look up terms in the AudioGlossary, review related units, or use the World History Traveler to examine different thematic perspectives.

Homework