AMSCO 6.4 Global Economic Development Notes

📍Topic 6.4 Global Economic Development

📖 AMSCO p.398 - p.406

Main Idea

Key Timeline

Things to Know

Technological Advances

• Before railroads, people had to travel by water or poorly kept roads
• Railroads lowered the cost of importing raw materials from Asia and Africa → Europe
  • Ex. British colonizers built many railways all across India to ship their raw materials
• Steamships carried people, mail, and goods across rivers
  • Became more efficient in 1870s when better engines and refrigeration were invented
• Telegraph helped people communicate faster
  • Invented in 1832

Agricultural Products

• Before colonization, Asian and African farmers mainly practiced subsistence farming — lived off of their own crops
• Colonizers encouraged them to instead grow cash crops to be sold in markets
  • tea, cotton, sugar, coffee
• Cash crops made food prices rise in these nations

Raw Materials

• As demand for raw materials rose, colonies became export economies
• In 1721, Britain banned Indian cotton textiles because they were a threat to the local wool industry
  • Colonies began to only produce raw materials, while England manufactured textiles
• Rubber — harvested in Southeast Asia and transported to Britain as an important industrial material
  • Many workers were punished brutally for not extracting enough rubber
• Palm oil — required to lubricate factory machines in England
  • A commodity in West Africa for 5,000 years before
• Ivory — used for luxury or ornamental goods; known for its beauty and durability
  • Ivory Coast was named after its trading posts to purchase ivory and enslaved people
• Diamonds — 90% were produced by the De Beers Mining Company in 1891

Mineral Production Locations

• Mexico → silver
• Chile → copper
• Zambia and Belgian Congo → copper
• Bolivia, Nigeria, Malaya, Dutch East Indies → tin
• Australia and South Africa → gold

Global Consequences of Industrialization

• Industrialized nations got richer → stock exchanges grew
  • Investments and global markets were protected
• Developing nations were able to grow few crops due to damaging cash cropping methods
  • Their environments were damaged to clear up land for farming
• Many former colonies still struggle to fertilize their lands today due to extensive environmental decay

Apartheid in South Africa

• British Empire captured the Dutch Cape Colony in the early 1800s
• Although slavery was abolished in the British Empire in 1833, slaves became indentured servants and received almost the same harsh treatment
• Cecil Rhodes became Prime Minister of the Cape Colony in 1890
• Legislation was passed to place restrictions on indentured laborers, which further increased the racial inequality and set the stage for the future apartheid

Terms to Remember