Unit 6
Consequences of Industrialization (c. 1750–1900)
Notes
New imperialism
Industrial states needed raw materials (cotton, rubber, palm oil) and markets. Social Darwinism and ideas of a "civilizing mission" were used to justify imperialism.
- Africa: the Berlin Conference (1884–1885) divided Africa among European powers without African input. By 1900, nearly all of Africa was colonized.
- Asia: Britain ruled India directly after the Sepoy Rebellion (1857). In China, the Opium Wars (1839–1842, 1856–1860) forced unequal treaties and spheres of influence. Japan built its own empire (Korea, Taiwan).
- Settler colonies: Australia, New Zealand, South Africa.
- Technology made conquest possible: steamships, the telegraph, the Maxim gun, and quinine (against malaria).
Resistance
- The Sepoy Rebellion in India, the Taiping Rebellion and Boxer Rebellion in China, the Ghost Dance in the U.S., and Ethiopia's victory over Italy at Adwa (1896) under Menelik II.
Global economy
- Export economies in colonies and Latin America depended on single crops or minerals (sugar, rubber, guano, cotton).
- New financial tools: banks, stock markets and transnational businesses (like the British East India Company and HSBC).
- Economic imperialism: foreign control of trade and finance without direct rule (British and U.S. influence in Latin America).
Migration
- Millions moved for work: Irish and Italians to the Americas; indentured laborers from India and China to the Caribbean, Africa and Southeast Asia.
- Migrants formed ethnic enclaves (Chinatowns). Host countries often responded with discrimination, like the U.S. Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) and the White Australia Policy.
Reform
- Workers formed labor unions. Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto (1848) called for workers to overthrow capitalism. Governments passed reforms like child labor laws.
- Some states reformed to resist imperialism: the Ottoman Tanzimat reforms and China's Self-Strengthening Movement.
Practice
No Africans were invited.
Colonies supplied resources and bought goods.
The Treaty of Nanjing gave Britain Hong Kong.
Menelik II modernized his army.
Rapid-fire guns gave a huge military advantage.
They replaced enslaved labor after abolition.
Marx and Engels called for a workers' revolution.
It had limited success.
Free response
Write your answer first, then open the scoring guide.
Free-response question
Answer (a), (b) and (c).
(a) Identify ONE technology that helped European powers expand their empires in the 1800s.
Show the answer and scoring guide
Steamships (or the Maxim gun, the telegraph, or quinine) let Europeans travel inland, communicate, and defeat larger armies.
Check off the points you earned:
(b) Explain ONE way colonized people resisted imperialism.
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In the Sepoy Rebellion (1857), Indian soldiers rose up against British East India Company rule.
Check off the points you earned:
(c) Explain ONE effect of imperialism on the economy of a colonized region.
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Colonies were turned into export economies producing one cash crop or resource, like rubber in the Congo, making them dependent on European markets.
Check off the points you earned: