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Unit 5 Overview
Unit 5 Overview
Empires were fundamentally unequal. Yet they existed at the same time as sovereignty, free trade, and reforms like abolitionism. How?
As this video progresses, key ideas will be introduced to invoke discussion.
Think about the following questions as you watch the video
How does the video define empire? What’s surprising about the nations that held empires in this era?
What’s the difference between imperialism and colonialism? How are they connected?
Did empires keep growing throughout this time? Why or why not?
What happened to global income inequality from 1800 to 1975?
What changes did the French make in Hanoi? How did people respond?
: You know how to tell the difference
: between imperialism and colonialism?
: - How? - Well, imperialism is like,
: "I should have all the stuff."
: And colonialism is like,
: "What am I going to do with all this stuff?
: "I can't keep track of my stuff.
: My stuff hates me and is rebelling against me."
: - Okay, that's, that's nearly perfect,
: but there's one other way to tell the difference.
: - Is it an eight-minute video?
: - (whispers): Yes.
: (music playing)
: Hi, I'm Kim Lochner, and along with Colby Burnett,
: we're introducing Unit 5:
: Imperialism, Colonialism, and Responses.
: The transformation we've seen so far
: in the Long 19th Century
: were positive in many ways.
: Political revolutions helped develop ideas
: about individual rights,
: the sovereignty of the people, and citizenship.
: The Industrial Revolution allowed humans
: to produce many more consumer goods.
: Capitalism established an efficient free market.
: Reform movements and socialism introduced strategies
: to fight for the rights of workers and their families.
: But we have also seen
: that all of these great ideas had their limits.
: Rights, privileges, and wealth
: came to some people, but not others.
: Large portions of the world's population
: lived on the margins of these positive transformations.
: Whether it was because of gender, social class,
: occupation, ethnicity,
: or even just location,
: some people did not benefit
: from these new ideas and changes.
: One of the major factors
: that kept some people from the benefits
: of reformism, industrialization, or democracy
: was empire.
: - By definition, "empire" describes
: an unequal relationship between the people who rule
: and the people who are ruled.
: In the Long 19th Century, almost a third
: of the world's landmass and population
: were part of industrial empires ruled by Britain, France,
: and newcomers like Germany, Japan,
: and the United States.
: And even though many of these states
: were at the forefront of democracy for their time,
: they ruled very unequal empires.
: We can understand this inequality
: by looking at two particular concepts
: that were important in this era.
: The first concept is imperialism.
: Imperialism is the set of ideas and beliefs
: that a society holds
: that justifies taking over other people and ruling them.
: The second concept is colonialism.
: Colonialism describes the actual practices
: that empires carry out in their colonies
: which keep people in those colonies
: from getting the rights of citizens,
: and rules them through an often violent
: and oppressive system.
: Of course, the empire was not a new type of state.
: In fact, as the era opened in 1750,
: there were already plenty of empires,
: some of them which were centuries-old.
: The Ottoman and Mughal empires ruled diverse populations
: across large parts of Asia and the Mediterranean.
: European states had also built empires in the Americas
: beginning more than 200 years earlier.
: But at the start of this era,
: it looked like the size and number of empires
: was on the decline.
: The revolutions in the Americas--
: Haiti, the United States, and Latin America--
: dramatically decreased the overall reach of empires
: in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
: KIM: But empires bounced back
: late in the 19th century, and in a big way.
: Britain's gradual conquest of India,
: with its immense wealth and large population,
: began this trend, and, by the 1880s,
: Britain was competing with many other imperial states,
: all vying to acquire vast empires
: in South and Southeast Asia, Africa, and Oceania.
: European, Japanese, and American governments
: all looked to create colonies in these regions
: for military advantage, national pride,
: and economic gain.
: They were able to take these territories
: largely because of the technological advantages
: they had acquired through the Industrial Revolution.
: The new industrial empires were more invasive,
: more extensive, and more exploitative
: than those that had come before.
: Each empire connected the imperial country
: to its colonies,
: and the colonies to each other,
: by industrial transportation and communication networks
: that made it possible to rule much larger areas
: than was previously imaginable.
: These networks tied together an exploitative system
: of production and distribution
: in which the colonies produced raw materials,
: which were sent to the imperial state
: for manufacturing into consumer goods.
: The colonies then bought back those consumer goods
: at a higher price.
: This meant that money flowed
: from the colonies to the imperial state,
: impoverishing some in order to enrich others.
: All of this was made possible
: by the inequality of the empire as a community,
: divided between imperial citizens and colonial subjects.
: - We can see the results
: of this imperial inequality and exploitation
: in these two simple charts of global income--
: the amount of money made by people in different regions.
: The first chart looks at the world in 1800,
: before the rise of the new imperialism.
: This chart shows that most people everywhere
: were quite poor, making the equivalent
: of less than a dollar a day in current prices,
: no matter where they lived.
: The majority of people lived in Asia,
: so we see a large number of Asians
: in that big hump of people
: living in quite poor circumstances.
: But most Africans, Europeans, and people in the Americas
: were similarly not wealthy.
: Only a small number of people were comparatively wealthy,
: and they came from different parts of the world.
: Now look at the same chart for 1975,
: when the large empires of the world finally collapsed.
: Here, we see two humps, rather than one.
: There is still a hump of people living in poverty.
: Most of them lived in Asia or Africa,
: two regions that were heavily colonized
: in the intervening years.
: By contrast, people in Europe and North America
: mainly fit in the second, wealthier hump to the right.
: Was it empire and colonialism that created
: this "double-hump" of poor in one region
: and wealthy in another?
: If so, how?
: How were modern empires created, administered,
: and contested in the Long 19th Century,
: and how did these tensions
: help to create the world we live in today?
: - If we want answers, we have to look
: into the histories of the colonies themselves.
: For people living in the colonies,
: empire destroyed old, local systems
: and replaced them with new, foreign ones.
: These new systems disregarded the needs of local people
: in favor of the desires of the colonizers.
: The result was dramatic change.
: Take the city of Hanoi,
: the capital of the independent state of Vietnam
: at the beginning of this era.
: In 1883, the French annexed Vietnam,
: so Hanoi became a French-ruled city.
: In an effort to modernize the city
: and make it easier to rule,
: the French destroyed many old neighborhoods
: and replaced them with straight roads
: and orderly districts.
: Because imperialism relies on hierarchy,
: the French segregated the city,
: with white districts in the center
: and indigenous Vietnamese neighborhoods
: in the less desirable areas.
: From there, the Vietnamese commuted
: into the white districts
: for low-paying jobs.
: They had almost no say in the process.
: Not everything was destroyed--
: some large buildings were preserved,
: but only as tourist sites
: reflecting "history" and "local culture."
: The city had been fundamentally transformed.
: Outside of town, the French seized small farms
: and turned them into vast rubber plantations
: to feed French industry,
: instead of the Vietnamese people.
: But of course, the Vietnamese fought back.
: Sometimes, their resistance was almost invisible.
: It took the form of work slowdowns,
: or hiding from French labor gangs,
: or just not following the law.
: Sometimes, it was loud and dramatic.
: In 1908, for example,
: Vietnamese farmers surrounded the office of the governor
: and protested against French rule.
: They marched, made speeches,
: and even threatened the colonial state.
: Their protest was eventually put down violently.
: Nevertheless, it was part of a long history of resistance
: that would ultimately bring down French rule.
: COLBY: Elsewhere, colonial subjects responded to empire
: by finding ways to resist.
: Market women boycotted British goods in Nigeria.
: Cuban peasants armed themselves
: and conducted a guerrilla war against Spanish rule.
: In India, resistance ran the gamut from work slowdowns
: all the way up to a widespread, armed rebellion
: against British rule in 1857.
: So the history of empire in this era
: is a history of both imperial rule and of resistance.
: Both, in the end, contributed to the making
: of our modern world.
: I hereby claim this classroom as my own,
: and it shall be called Colbytown.
: - Okay, this is their classroom.
: - Yes, but I'm colonizing it
: as a part of a demonstration.
: - So, you're going to be in charge of cleaning it
: and paying the electricity bill...
: - Imperialism fails again.
: - (sighs): Yup.