Chapter 18 Responses

Chapter 18 Responses

In what ways did the Industrial Revolution shape the character of 19th century European imperialism?

The Industrial Revolution led to new economic needs which Europeans found solutions to abroad.  For one, the enormous productivity of industrial technology created the need for extensive raw materials and agricultural products, the vast majority of which could be found on other continents.  Furthermore, Europe had to sell its own products that had come about as a result of the Industrial Revolution, as industrial capitalism periodically produced more manufactured goods than its own people could afford to buy.  In addition, European investors found it more profitable to invest their money abroad than doing so at home.

What contributed to changing European views of Asians and Africans in the 19th century?

With the advent of the industrial age, Europeans developed an arrogance that fused with or replaced their previous notions of religious superiority.  After all, they had unlocked the secrets of nature, created a society of unprecedented wealth, and had used both to produce military power that was unsurpassed.  Such things became the criteria that Europeans used to judge themselves and the rest of the world.  Because other cultures had not achieved such things, Europeans' views of them dropped sharply, coming to see them as "naturally" inferior using science to reinforce their racial preferences and prejudices.

In what different ways was colonial rule established in various parts of Africa and Asia?

Constructing the European colonial empires required military force or the threat.  In this area the Europeans had a massive advantage, not just in military organization but also in firepower.  The passage to colonial status, however, occurred in various ways.  In India and Indonesia, for example, colonization grew out of earlier interactions with European trading firms.  In contrast, for most Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific islands, colonial rule came later and more abruptly and deliberately, with European nations negotiating amongst themselves which areas of land were theirs for the taking, mainly through military conquest in Africa.  Meanwhile, Britain's colonization of Australia and New Zealand came about rather similarly to their earlier colonization of North America.