Chapter 20

The period 1750–1900 was a second phase of European colonial conquest which focused on Asia and Africa. Germany, Italy, Belgium, U.S., Japan were also in apart of this.

The second wave was not demographically catastrophic like the first wave, it was affected by the Industrial Revolution. Europeans preferred informal control. The original European military advantage lay in organization, drill, and command structure. There were numerous wars and the westerns always won them. The Europeans developed an enormous firepower advantage with repeating rifles and machine gun. India and Indonesia grew from interaction with European trading firms by assisted by existence of many small and rival states. In most of Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific islands deliberate conquest. “The scramble for Africa” was based on inter-European rivalry over only about 25 years (1875–1900) In Australia and New Zealand were more like the colonization of North America with massive European settlement and diseases killing off most of the native population. In Taiwan and Korea, the Japanese takeover was done European-style while United States and Russia continued to expand and Liberia was settled by freed U.S. slaves. Colonial rule had a deep impact on people’s ways of working.

The world economy increasingly demanded Asian and African raw materials; subsistence farming diminished the need to sell goods for money to pay taxes and desire to buy new products. Asian and African merchants were squeezed out by Europeans. Many colonial states demanded unpaid labor on public projects. The worst abuses were in the Congo Free State

personally governed by Leopold II of Belgium. The reign of terror killed millions with labor demands and forced labor caused widespread starvation, as people couldn’t grow their own crops. Belgium finally stepped in and took control of the Congo to stop abuses. In precolonial Africa, women were usually active farmers and had some economic autonomy. Women and mens roles were different: men tended to dominate the lucrative export crops, while women were left with almost all of the subsistence work and a large numbers of men migrated to work elsewhere while women were left home to cope, including supplying food to men in the cities. The colonial economy also provided some opportunities to women especially small trade and marketing, sometimes women’s crops came to have greater cash value, some women escaped the patriarchy of husbands or fathers which led to greater fear of witchcraft and efforts to restrict female travel and sexuality. By getting a Western education created a new identity for many people, the almost magical power of literacy, escape from obligations like forced labor, gave access to better jobs and social mobility and elite status. The widespread conversion to Christianity in New Zealand, the Pacific islands, and non-Muslim Africa. Around 10,000 missionaries had gone to Africa by 1910 and by the 1960s, some 50 million Africans were Christian. Christianity was associated with modern education, spread through native africans and gave opportunities to the young, the poor, and many women.