Module 2

1.) In what ways did the Industrial Revolution shape the character of 19^thcentury European imperialism?

The Industrial Revolution produced technological innovations such as the steamship, the breech-loading rifle, and the telegraph that facilitated imperialism. The productivity of industrial technology and Europe's growing wealth created the need for extensive raw materials and agricultural products found in other parts of the world. Europe needed to sell its own products. European capital sought investments abroad both for the profits that they promised and to stimulate demand for European products, in part to keep the laboring classes fully employed and less inclined to class conflict.

2.) What contributed to changing European views of Asians and Africans in the 19^thcentury?

The accomplishments of the Industrial Revolution, including the unlocking of the secrets of nature and the creation of a society that enjoyed wealth, led Europeans to develop arrogance that fused with or in some cases replaced their long-standing notions of religious superiority. Europeans viewed the culture and achievements of Asian and African peoples through the prism of a new kind of racism, expressed now in terms of modern science. Europeans used allegedly scientific methods to classify humans, concluding that whites were more advanced. These studies created a hierarchy of race, with whites on top and less developed "child races" beneath them. The belief among Europeans that they were the superior race led to a further set of ideas that European expansion was inevitable and that Europeans were fated to dominate the "weaker races." They saw it as their duty to undertake a "civilizing mission" that included bringing Christianity to the heathens, good government to disordered lands, work discipline and production for the market to "lazy natives," a measure of education to the ignorant and illiterate, clothing to the naked, and health care to the sick, while suppressing "native customs" that ran counter to Western ways of living. The idea of social Darwinism made imperialism, war, and aggression in Africa and Asia seem both natural and progressive.

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

The passage to colonial status occurred in various ways, in India conquest grew out of the early interaction with European trading firms. For most of Africa, mainland Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands came later out of competition for resources and markets.