Topic 6.5

📍Topic 6.5 Economic Imperialism

📖 AMSCO p. 407-416

Main Idea

Key Timeline

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Things to Know

Economic Imperialism in Asia

India

• After 1600s, The English East India Company began to dominate the cotton and silk textiles markets by having it as their biggest import from India
• After the First Industrial Revolution, India was supplying raw cotton to British textile mills and finished textiles from India were no longer in demand
• The Dutch East India Company dominated the spice trade in present-day Indonesia and had a monopoly on these islands
• By the 1700s, the Dutch government directly controlled the Dutch East Indies and began to shift their focus to using the East Indie colonies for agricultural production instead of shipping
  • Imposed the Culture System in 1830 and compelled villagers to either produce cash crops that could be exported or complete unpaid work

China

• Lack of Chinese interest in British goods prompted the English East India Company to grow the addictive opium drug to be sold in Chinese markets for silver; millions became addicted to the illegal drug
• Opium was criminalized by the Chinese emperor in 1729 but it did not deter the British
• Chinese refusal to import the drug led to the First Opium War
• British defeated the Chinese and as a result, Treaty of Nanking forced China to open up trade ports to foreigners and ceded Hong Kong to Britain
• China’s opposition to legalizing opium and anger about concession made prompted the British and French to join forces and led to the Second Opium War
• After the Opium Wars, many industrialized powers sought spheres of influence in China and pushed to be allowed to trade in its foreign markets to keep one country from having control

Economic Imperialism in Africa

• European colonial powers turned majority of African farming into cash crop farming to create the products used for raw materials in European goods and industries
  • Created a focus on growing single cash crop, leaving Africans vulnerable during periods of drought or economic turmoil
  • African regions lacked the ability to farm for domestic use and focus on cash crops led to food shortages
  • The American Civil War forced Britain to look for cotton sources in other countries like Egypt or Uganda where cotton became their next lead export
  • Crops like palm, cocoa, and peanuts were lead cash crops being grown on the Gold Coast and others African countries and exported back to Britain, Portugal, and France
  • Slavery trading was largely outlawed in the colonies of major European powers by the mid-1800s prompting a focus on crops rather than people as exports
  • However, there were still instances of slave labor being used to grow the cash crops

Economic Imperialism in Latin America

• The practice of “new imperialism” made European countries and the United States to seek low-wage labor, raw materials, and new markets while Latin American middle classes were eager for European news and fashions
• The second Industrial Revolution allowed the U.S. to enter the imperialism race with the world powers by maintaining an economic foothold in Latin America
  • Used the Monroe Doctrine to oppose European interference in the Americas
  • Banana republics began to pop up in Central America and Caribbean countries that were being dominated by foreign corporations and large landowners
  • This made these countries unstable and economically dependent
  • Investments in countries like Mexico, Cuba, Nicaragua, Honduras and other Latin American states allowed the U.S. to exercise influence over the region economically and politically
  • Hawaii’s constitutional monarchy was overthrown by a group of American sugar business leaders in 1893 and Hawaii was later annexed as a U.S. territory
• By the 19th century, Britain invested 10 percent of its foreign investment in Argentina, turning it into the richest Latin American country
• Britain financed infrastructure, building projects, railways and telegraph systems and improved farming throughout the Pampas
• Mining in Chile was a crucial practice as the country's wealth and economy became dependent on copper exports to Spain
• Rubber industry in Brazil boomed until industrialized powers began to favor Malaysia with lower cost rubber production

Terms to Remember