Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
KEY QUESTIONS:
How did the Industrial Revolution create a demand for raw materials and new markets?
What were the political, economic, and social justifications for imperialism?
How did cultural differences cause conflict between groups?
How did native people respond to foreign imperialism?
Why did Japan turn to imperialism and militarism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries?
What were the benefits and disadvantages of foreign imperialism on native people?
Nationalism
Imperialism
Racism
Social Darwinism
Direct Rule
Indirect Rule
Berlin Conference
Self-Determination
Cecil Rhodes
Cash Crop
Sphere of Influence
Guangzhou (Canton)
Extraterritoriality
Opium War
Matthew Perry
Meiji Restoration
1. How does the cartoon above relate the concepts of nationalism and imperialism?
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2. In your opinion, which of the colonies above was most important for European industry? Why?
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Imperialism Case Study Page 3
Rudyard Kipling, The White Mans Burden, 1899.
3. How does Kiplings poem describe native people? How does it portray their rulers?
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4. In your own words, explain what Kipling thought the White Mans Burden was?
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5. Who do you think this poem is intended for? How do you think his audience responded to it?
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1. How did the Berlin Conference relate to the concept of 2. How did the Berlin Conference impact self-determination on the
imperialism? continent of Africa?
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For some years my eldest son had been going to told you is a fact. You have now a kinga good and
a school kept by some Pink Cheeks only two hours great king who loves his people, and you are among
journey away. These were not the White Fathers, to his people. In the town called Nairobi is a council or
whom my brother had gone, but were quite government that acts for the king. And his laws are
different. They wore clothes like the Pink Cheeks your laws.
who farmed, and many of them were women. They For many moons this thing was much talked of
had a medicine house where there were many ill by us. Then, when no more Pink Cheeks came and
people; there were good medicine men and good things went on as they had always been, we spoke
thitngs were done and sick people were made well. no more.
Every day my son would go before the sun was high
and would come back before the sun set. Then he Sometimes we heard of strange happenings, or
would eat and fall asleep, too tired to sit around the even saw them ourselves, but for the most part life
fire and be told the stories and history of our people was still as it had always been. The Iron Snake
and their laws and conduct. [railroad], which I had never seen, had come and
had carried men on it, not of our people; then a big
It was in these days that a Pink Cheek man came path was made through the country half a day from
one day to our Council. He came from far, from our land. It was wide enough for three elephants to
where many of these people lived in houses made of walk abreast. And stones were laid on it and beaten
stone and where they held their own Council. flat, so that grain could have been threshed there. As
He sat in our midst and he told us of the king of the years passed and more and more strange things
the Pink Cheeks, who was a great king and lived in a happened, it seems to me that this path or road was
land over the seas. a symbol of all change. It was along this road now
This great king is now your king, he said. And that came news from other parts; and along it came
this land is all his land, though he has said that you the new box-on-wheels that made men travel many
may live on it as you are his people and he is as your days journey in one day and that brought things for
father and you are as his sons. the market that the women wanted to have, clothes
or beads to wear and pots for cooking. Along this
This was strange news. For this land was ours. road the young men went when they left to work
We had bought our land with cattle in the presence with the Pink Cheeks and along it too they went
of the Elders and had taken the oath and it was our when that day came that they traveled to fight in the
own. We had no king, we elected our Councils and war over the sea that the Pink Cheeks made against
they made our laws. A strange king could not be our each other.
king and our land was our own. We had had no
battle, no one had fought us to take away our land It was along this road that many did not come
as, in the past, had sometimes been. This land we back and some came with no legs, or who could not
had had from our fathers and our fathers fathers, see. Two of my sons went and only one came back,
who had bought it. How then could it belong to this and he brought only one hand and many strange
king? new ideas and tales. Along the road, too, went the
trees that men cut down when they made more and
With patience, our leading Elder tried to tell this more farms. Without trees to give shade the ground
to the Pink Cheek and he listened. But at the end he was hot and dry and food grew not well.
said: This we know. But in spite of this, what I have
Imperialism Case Study Page 7
By the time that my father, Kimani, died and his But all this talk did not make more food nor
spirit joined those of our ancestors, our own land bring us rain.
was poor too. For even though many of our family As there was now so little land and we were so
had gone away to work for the Pink Cheeks, our many, the boys as they became men would go away,
numbers had increased and there was now no room some to work on farms for the Pink Cheeks, some to
for the land to rest and it was tired. The food it grew a new kind of school-farm for men, where they
was poor and there was not enough grown on it for learned the new customs and also some curious
all to eat. Those of our family who worked for the ways; for these grown men were made to play
Pink Cheeks sent us food and coins that we could games like little boys, running after balls which they
buy food with, for else we could not live. threw. This they did instead of good work.
Little by little, too, the rains fell less. When I was Munene, one of my younger brothers, had been
a boy I remember the rains came in plenty twice one of these. He had been away a long time, and
every year, the little rains and the big rains, and on when he came back he wore clothes like a Pink
the hottest days there would be heavy dews, for the Cheek and he came with one of them, in a box-on-
trees kept the land cool. wheels, which is called motorcar, along the new
Now it was different; now the little rains had road.
gone and the big rains had become little rains. The The Pink Cheek called a Council together and
big rivers had become little ones and dried up in the when all, both Elders and the young men, were
hottest time, and I saw this was not good. Now that ssembled and sat round, he spoke. He spoke of
my father, Kimani, was dead, I had been chosen Munene; he told us of his learning and of his
Muramati of our mbari. I was also now a ceremonial knowledge of the customs of the Pink Cheeks and of
Elder, a member of the Sacrificial Council. his cleverness at organizing.
It seemed to me that Ngai was tired of us. He Because of this, he said, and because he is a
sent so little rain. We must ask him to look upon us wise man, the Government, the Council of Muthungu
again and must sacrifice a ewe to please him. that meets in Nairobi, have honored him and, in
I spoke of this one evening, and the Elders said honoring him, are honoring you all.
it was good to make sacrifice, for the time of rain had He paused and looked around at us. Beside him
long passed. So the day was fixed and I was chosen Munene stood smiling.
to be the leader.
He has been appointed Chief of this district and
Little Kabongo, my eldest grandson, who bore he will be your mouth and our mouth. He will tell us
my name according to our custom, sat with us; he the things that you want to say and he will tell you
spoke then as do the young age group today before the things that we want to say to you. He has learned
their elders, but which when we were young we did our language and our laws and he will help you to
not. understand and keep them.
This is good, he said. For three weeks the We Elders looked at each other. Was this the
Pastor at the Mission School has prayed for rain. end of everything that we had known and worked
Which will send rain, do you think, the God of for? What magic had this son of my father made that
the Pink Cheeks or Ngai? asked a small boy. he who was not yet an Elder should be made leader
Neither, announced a young man, son of one over us all who were so much older and wiser in the
of my brothers, who was a schoolteacher. I have ways of our people? It was as if a thunderbolt had
read in books that it is the trees that make the rains fallen among us.
come. Now that the trees are cut down there is no
rain. In the Sacred Grove on the hills there is rain. Rule of the Pink Cheeks
The small boy was listening, full of wonder. Your new Chief will collect the tax on huts, and
And who makes the trees grow? Surely that is choose the places for the new schools that you will
God, said my grandson. build everywhere, so that your children may be
For the Pastor says that God made everything, taught to read and write. He will raise the money for
that God is greater than Ngai. that from you all. I have spoken.
Such discussions among the young were When the Pink Cheek had gone there was much
frequent, and to hear them made me sad. For this talk. We asked Munene to tell us how this had come
new learning seemed to pull this way and that way about and why he was set above the Elders in this
so that no one knew what was right. way.
1. What are some of the ways that the Pink Cheeks transformed Kikuyu culture?
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2. Why didnt the Kikuyu simply attack and drive out the Pink Cheeks?
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3. How was the new road a symbol of all the changes as Chief Kabongo says?
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4. How does the coming of the Pink Cheeks affect the Kikuyus relationship with Ngai (God)?
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5. According to the reading, what do the Pink Cheeks want? What are they after?
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Imperialism Case Study Page 10
PART 3: THE BRITISH IN INDIA
An excerpt from O.P. Austins Does Colonization Pay? in The Forum, January 1900,
1. According to this author, what are the benefits of imperialism to the colony?
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2. What are the benefits of imperialism to the European colonizers?
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An excerpt from Sepoy to Subedar: Being the Life Adventures of Subedar Sita Ram, a Native Officer
in the Bengal Army, by B. Sita Ram, 1861.
Sita Ram was a sepoy who remained loyal to the British during the Sepoy Rebellion. This text is an excerpt from his
memoirs, likely written in the 1860s.
It chanced that about this time the English Government sent parties of men from each
regiment to different garrisons for instruction in the use of the new rifle. These men
performed the new drill for some time until a report got about, by some means or other, that
the cartridges used for these new rifles were greased with the fat of cows and pigs. The men
from our regiment wrote to others in the regiment telling them of this, and there was soon
excitement in every regiment.
Some men pointed out that in forty years of service nothing had ever been done by the
English Government to insult their religion, but as I have already mentioned the sepoys'
minds had been inflamed by the seizure of the city of Oudh. Interested parties were quick to
point out that the great aim of the English was to turn us all into Christians and they had
therefore introduced the cartridge in order to bring this about, since both Muslims and
Hindus would be defiled by using it. []
I had never known the English to interfere with our religion or our caste in all the years
since I had been a soldier, but I was nevertheless filled with doubt. . . . I had also remarked
the increase in Missionaries during recent years, who stood up in the streets of our cities and
told the people that their cherished religion was all false, and who exhorted them to become
Christians.
An excerpt from . The Causes of the Indian Revolt, Sayyid Ahmed Khan, 1873.
Sayyid Ahmed Khan was a Muslim scholar who worked as a legal expert for the British East India Company.
Although he remained loyal to the British during the 1857 mutiny, he later published a pamphlet called The Causes
of the Indian Revolt, first published in 1858, that primarily blamed British policies for the uprising.
The evils which resulted to India from the non-admission of natives into the Legislative
Council of India were various. . . . The people had no means of protesting against what they
might feel to be a foolish measure. . . . Whatever law was passed was misunderstood by men
who had no share in the framing of it. At length the Indians fell into the habit of thinking that
all the laws were passed with a view to degrade and ruin them. . . . Although the intentions of
Government were excellent, there was no man who could convince the people of it; no one
was at hand to correct the errors which [the government] had adopted. And why? Because
there was not one of their own number among the members of the Legislative Council. Had
there been, these evils that had happened to us, would have been avoided.
Summary: To sum up the whole, the British rule has been: morally, a great blessing; politically, peace
and order on one hand, blunders on the other; materially, impoverishment, relieved as far as the
railway and other loans go. The natives call the British system "Sakar ki Churi," the knife of sugar.
That is to say, there is no oppression, it is all smooth and sweet, but it is the knife, notwithstanding. I
mention this that you should know these feelings. Our great misfortune is that you do not know our
wants. When you will know our real wishes, I have not the least doubt that you would do justice. The
genius and spirit of the British people is fair play and justice.
6. Overall, has British rule of India been more beneficial or detrimental to India and its people? Explain.
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Imperialism Case Study Page 13
PART 4: SPHERES OF INFLUENCE IN CHINA
An excerpt of a letter from Qian Long (the Qing Emperor) to George III (the British Monarch), 1793.
You, O King, from afar have yearned after the blessings of our civilization, and in your eagerness to come into touch with our converting influence
have sent an Embassy across the sea bearing a memorial. I have already taken note of your respectful spirit of submission, have treated your mission
with extreme favor and loaded it with gifts, besides issuing a mandate to you, O King, and honoring you with the bestowal of valuable presents.
Yesterday your Ambassador petitioned my Ministers regarding your trade with China, but his proposal is not consistent with our dynasty and
cannot be entertained. Hitherto, all European nations, including your own country's barbarian merchants, have carried on their trade with our
Celestial Empire at Canton. Such has been the procedure for many years, although our Celestial Empire possesses all things in prolific abundance and
lacks no product within its own borders. There was therefore no need to import the manufactures of outside barbarians in exchange for our own
produce. But as the tea, silk and porcelain which the Celestial Empire produces, are absolute necessities to European nations and to yourselves, we
have permitted, as a signal mark of favor, that foreign hongs [merchant firms] should be established at Canton, so that your wants might be supplied
and your country thus participate in our generosity.
The Reception of the Diplomatique and His Suite at the Court of Pekin, by James Gillray, 1792.
1. How would you describe the tone of Emperor Qian Longs
letter to George III?
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2. Examine the cartoon to the left. Compare how the British are
represented to how the Qing are represented.
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3. Based on the excerpt and the cartoon, how would you
describe the relationship between China and Britain?
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Imperialism Case Study Page 14
From Ida Pruitt, A Daughter of Han: The Autobiography of a Chinese Working Woman, 1967
This following excerpt is from a Chinese woman's account of the period ten years after the 1876-1879 famine, when another great
famine afflicted North China. When she was older, this woman, Ning Lao Tai Tai, narrated the story of her harsh life. At the time of
this story, she is a young woman with two children, married to a man who has turned out to be an opium addict. (By the late 19th
century, it is estimated that in some areas of China, as much as 80% of the population of villages were frequent users of opium, and
the average is estimated at perhaps 10% of the entire population.) This selection gives us a glimpse into what life was like for Ning
Lao Tai Tai in North China in 1887-88.
Day after day I sat at home. Hunger gnawed. What could I do? My mother was dead. My
brother had gone away. When my husband brought home food I ate it and my children ate with
me. A woman could not go out of the court. If a woman went out to work the neighbors all
laughed. They said, "So and so's wife has gone out to service." Or they said, "So and so's daughter
has gone out to service." I did not know enough even to beg. So I sat at home and starved. I was
so hungry one day that I took a brick, pounded it to bits, and ate it. It made me feel better.
How could I know what to do? We women knew nothing but to comb our hair and bind our
feet and wait at home for our men. When my mother had been hungry she had sat at home and
waited for my father to bring her food, so when I was hungry I waited at home for my husband
to bring me food.
My husband sold everything we had.
There was a fur hat. He wanted to sell it. But I begged him not to sell it.
"Let's keep this." It was my uncle's. "Take my coat." He took the coat and sold it for grain.
When he came home for food he drank only two bowls of millet gruel. I wondered why he ate so
little. I looked and found that the hat was gone, and knew that he had sold it for opium. Those
who take opium care not for food. ...
One year after my mother died I got a stick and a bowl and started out begging. It was the
spring of the year and I was twenty-two. It was no light thing for a woman to go out of her home.
That is why I put up with my old opium sot so long. But now I could not live in my house and had
to come out. When I begged I begged in the parts of the city where I was not known, for I was
ashamed. I went with my begging stick (the little stick with which beggars beat off dogs) up my
sleeve, that people should not see it. Every day we went out begging. My husband carried the
baby and led Mantze. When we came to an open gate I would send her in, for people's hearts are
moved by a child. ...
7. According to Lin Zexu, how are the British attempting to economically imperialize China?
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ExcerptsfromTheTreatyofNanjing, August1842
ARTICLEI
There shall henceforward be Peace and Friendship between Her Majesty the Queen of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and His Majesty the Emperor of China, and between their
respective Subjects, who shall enjoy full security and protection for their persons and property
within the Dominions of the other. []
ARTICLEIII
It being obviously necessary and desirable, that British Subjects should have some Port whereat
they may careen and refit their Ships, when required, and keep Stores for that purpose, His
Majesty the Emperor of China cedes to Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, etc., the Island of
Hong Kong, to be possessed in perpetuity by Her Britannic Majesty, Her Heirs and Successors, and
to be governed by such Laws and Regulations as Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, etc., shall
see fit to direct. []
ARTICLE V
The Government of China having compelled the British Merchants trading at Canton to deal
exclusively with certain Chinese Merchants, [] the Emperor of China agrees to abolish that
practice in future at all Ports where British Merchants may reside, and to permit them to carry on
their mercantile transactions with whatever persons they please.
8. How does this treaty demonstrate a change in how the Chinese and British interactions (p. 14)?
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9 . How does the treaty above demonstrate economic imperialism of China by Britain?
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Imperialism Case Study Page 16
The Boxer Rebellion by Fei Chi-hao, 1900
The people of Shansi are naturally timid and gentle, not given to making disturbances, being
the most peaceable people in China. So our Shansi Christians were hopeful for themselves, even
when the reports from the coast grew more alarming. But there was one thing which caused us deep
apprehension, and that was the fact that the wicked, cruel YU Hsien, the hater of foreigners, was the
newly appointed Governor of Shansi. He had previously promoted the Boxer movement in
Shantung, and had persuaded the Empress Dowager that the Boxers had supernatural powers and
were true patriots.
Early in June my college friend K'ung Hsiang Hsi came back from T'ungchou for his vacation,
reporting that the state of affairs there and at Peking was growing worse, that the local officials
were powerless against the Boxers, and that the Boxers, armed with swords, were constantly
threatening Christians scattered in the country.
From this time we had no communication with Tientsin or Peking. All travellers were searched,
and if discovered bearing foreign letters they were killed. So though several times messengers were
started out to carry our letters to the coast, they were turned back by the Boxers before they had
gone far. It was not long before the Boxers, like a pestilence, had spread all over Shansi. School had
not closed yet in Fen Chou Fu, but as the feeling of alarm deepened, fathers came to take their boys
home, and school was dismissed before the end of June.
Mr. and Mrs. Lundgren and Miss Eldred of the China Inland Mission had come to Mrs. Price's
about the middle of June, and after the Boxer trouble began they were unable to leave. Mr. and Mrs.
Lundgren soon heard that their mission at P'ing Yao had been burned.
During the two long months that followed not a word reached us from beyond the mountains.
The church in Shansi walked in darkness, not seeing the way before it.
The wicked Governor, Y Hsien, scattered proclamations broadcast. These stated that the
foreign religions overthrew morality and inflamed men to do evil, so now gods and men were
stirred up against them, and Heaven's legions had been sent to exterminate the foreign devils.
Moreover there were the Boxers, faithful to their sovereign, loyal to their country, determined to
unite in wiping out the foreign religion. He also offered a reward to all who killed foreigners, either
titles or office or money. When the highest official in the province took such a stand in favor of the
Boxers, what could inferior officials do? People and officials bowed to his will, and all who enlisted
as Boxers were in high favor. It was a time of license and anarchy, when not only Christians were
killed, but hundreds of others against whom individual Boxers had a grudge.
(Left to right: Britain, United States, Australian colonial, British India, Germany, France, Austria-Hungary, Russia Italy, Japan)
Imperialism Case Study Page 17
PART 5: THE OPENING OF JAPAN
Letter from Milliard Fillmore, President of the United States to the Emperor of Japan, 1852.
From Millard Fillmore, President of the United States of America,
to His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Japan
November 13, 1852
GREAT and Good Friend: I send you this public letter by Commodore Matthew C. Perry, an
officer of the highest rank in the navy of the United States, and commander of the squadron now
visiting your imperial majestys dominions.
I have directed Commodore Perry to assure your imperial majesty that I entertain the kindest
feelings towards your majestys person and government, and that I have no other object in sending
him to Japan but to propose to your imperial majesty that the United States and Japan should live in
friendship and have commercial intercourse with each other.
The Constitution and laws of the United States forbid all interference with the religious or
political concerns of other nations. I have particularly charged Commodore Perry to abstain from
every act which could possibly disturb the tranquility of your imperial majestys dominions.
The United States of America reach from ocean to ocean, and our Territory of Oregon and State
of California lie directly opposite to the dominions of your imperial majesty. Our steamships can go
from California to Japan in eighteen days.
Our great State of California produces about sixty millions of dollars in gold every year, besides
silver, quicksilver, precious stones, and many other valuable articles. Japan is also a rich and fertile
country, and produces many very valuable articles. Your imperial majestys subjects are skilled in
many of the arts. I am desirous that our two countries should trade with each other, for the benefit
both of Japan and the United States.
We know that the ancient laws of your imperial majestys government do not allow of foreign
trade, except with the Chinese and the Dutch; but as the state of the world changes and new
governments are formed, it seems to be wise, from time to time, to make new laws. []
I have directed Commodore Perry to mention another thing to your imperial majesty. Many of
our ships pass every year from California to China; and great numbers of our people pursue the
whale fishery near the shores of Japan. It sometimes happens, in stormy weather, that one of our
ships is wrecked on your imperial majestys shores. In all such cases we ask, and expect, that our
unfortunate people should be treated with kindness, and that their property should be protected,
till we can send a vessel and bring them away. We are very much in earnest in this.
Commodore Perry is also directed by me to represent to your imperial majesty that we
understand there is a great abundance of coal and provisions in the Empire of Japan. Our
steamships, in crossing the great ocean, burn a great deal of coal, and it is not convenient to bring it
all the way from America. We wish that our steamships and other vessels should be allowed to stop
in Japan and supply themselves with coal, provisions, and water. They will pay for them in money,
or anything else your imperial majestys subjects may prefer; and we request your imperial majesty
to appoint a convenient port, in the southern part of the empire, where our vessels may stop for this
purpose. We are very desirous of this.
These are the only objects for which I have sent Commodore Perry, with a powerful squadron,
to pay a visit to your imperial majestys renowned city of Edo: friendship, commerce, a supply of
coal and provisions, and protection for our shipwrecked people. []
For years several countries have applied for trade, but you have opposed them on account of a
national law. You have thus acted against divine principles and your sin cannot be greater than it is.
What we say thus does not necessarily mean, as has already been communicated by the Dutch boat,
that we expect mutual trade by all means. If you are still to disagree we would then take up arms
and inquire into the sin against the divine principles, and you would also make sure of your law and
fight in defence. When one considers such an occasion, however, one will realize the victory will
naturally be ours and you shall by no means overcome us. If in such a situation you seek for a
reconciliation, you should put up the white flag that we have recently presented to you, and we
would accordingly stop firing and conclude peace with you, turning our battleships aside.
Commodore Perry
The young Meiji Emperor, 1872. The young Meiji Emperor in military dress, 1873
3. How do the physical changes in the pictures above demonstrate cultural diffusion?
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