15. English Atlantic Exploration, Trade and Plunder in the 16 th Century · John Cabot, a Venetian citizen, made the first verifiable English-sponsored contact with the North American continent. Like Columbus, he thought he could locate a western route to the east. · In 1519-20, Ferdinand Magellan rounded Cape Horn and proved that there was a south-west passage to Asia at the bottom of South America. · In 1562, John Hawkins began carrying human cargo and other merchandise between Africa and the Spanish Caribbean. · Francis Drake and a fleet of six ships led by the Golden Hind attacked Spanish ships and settlements near the Isthmus of Panama and encourage slaves to destabilize the Spanish Empire. · In 1570, Martin Frobisher set out on the first series of voyages to find a north-west passage.
16. The Lost Colonies of Roanoke · In 1584, Sir Walter Raleigh dispatched captains Arthur Barlow and Philips Amadas to explore and claim the region and islands from Chesapeake Bay to the Carolinas. · When Armada got to Roanoke in 1590, the colonists of Roanoke had disappeared, leaving behind only the word “CROATOAN” carved in a doorpost and “CRO” carved in a nearby tree. 18 th Century Empires · Plantation economies in the Atlantic world, fueled by the West African slave trade, provided sugar, tobacco, and cotton for consumer demand. The Decline of the Dutch · Dutch Netherlands had been Europe’s greatest maritime power, but it now suffered from demographic and political stagnation. · The Dutch economy suffered when French and English merchants sought to eliminate them as middlemen of maritime commerce and when their industry failed to compete effectively. The Dutch Netherlands was the first to perfect the uses of paper currency, a stock market, and a central bank.
17. The British and French Commercial Empires · Great Britain now began its rise to domination of the seas. · British colonies each had a royal governor but also a local assembly of sorts, and most developed traditions of self-government. Mercantilism · Mercantilist doctrine supported the regulation of trade by the state in order to increase the state’s power against its neighbors. · Mercantilism helped create trade patterns such as the triangular trade in the North Atlantic. The transatlantic slave trade shipped slaves, cash crops, and manufactured goods between West Africa, Caribbean, or American colonies, and the European colonial powers. · Colonies could promote a favorable balance of trade by producing valuable raw materials or staple crops for the parent country and by providing protected markets for the parent country’s manufactured goods.
18. The Profits of Global Commerce · The West Indies seemed to be ideal colonies. · The islands produced valuable crops difficult to raise elsewhere: tobacco, cotton, indigo, and sugar. · The islands could produce little else and therefore depended on exports from Europe. Triangular Trade · A triangular trade is trade between the home country and two oversea areas. · After the 1780s, participation in the Atlantic slave trade tapered off, and the supply of slaves was replenished, mainly from children born to slaves already in the New World. Mounting Colonial Conflicts · As French fishermen and fur traders prospered in Canada, French soldiers established a series of strongholds to support them, including the bastion of Fort Louisbourg at the entrance to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and a string of forts near the Great Lakes.
19. Conflict on the Frontier · A large land investment company, the Ohio Company of Virginia, attempted to break the French and Indian hold on the Ohio Valley by sending an expedition against Fort Duquesne. Led by George Washington, the raid failed. The Great War for Empire · The Seven Years’ War was Europe’s last large-scale war before the French Revolution. · The Seven Years’ War centered on the bitter rivalry between Austria and Prussia, but included Russia, France, and Britain as well. This protracted war ended in 1763 with a peace treaty that essentially restored the status quo. Pitt’s Strategy · William Pitt became Britain’s prime minister in 1758. · He had the chance to lead Clive to oust the French and to suppress any native opposition to British influence in the huge and populous province of Bengal. The East India Company exercised the most oppressive kind of domination in Bengal: unchecked power without responsibility. The company collected taxes, controlled trade, and increased its military control.
20. · When Parliament passed the India Act of 1784, the British government effectively replaced the company as the ultimate authority and named a new ruling official, the governor-general of India. · Lord Cornwallis was the first to fill this position. The British Raj · Lord Cornwallis turned India’s rural gentry into landlords by giving them title deeds. · The governor-general reserved the highest positions in the army and civil bureaucracy for whites. In each district he appointed two British magistrates, one combining the functions of police superintendent and tax collector and the other responsible for administering justice. · The salt monopoly extracted money from the Indian population, while opium was exported to China in exchange for Chinese tea. · By the 1830s, the British were not extracting wealth or strategic advantage from India but considered India as their own dominion in which they were duty bound to impose their own values on the Indian people.
23. 19-Century Empires · Liberal Empire o Steadily expanded influence overseas · Independence movements starting with American Revolution drove European colonial powers from New World · Slave agitation = central part of assault on mercantile colonial world · Secular reformers joined forces with religious abolitionists · Enlightenment universalism – belief in basic sameness of all humans · Denmark outlawed the Atlantic slave trade first in 1803, followed by Britain and US in 1807 · 1850-European slave trade essentially ended · 1834-Britain abolished slavery itself · Enlightenment natural scientists o Swede Carolus Linnaeus o Frenchman Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon · King George III told Cook to establish British authority in Hawaii in 1779
24. 19-Century Empires · Early 19-Century-Britain conducted most ambitious civilizing experiments in India o Sati-practice of widow burning herself to death on funeral pyre of her dead husband o Indian Rebellion of 1857-British civilizing efforts came to halt · British East India Company o 1757-decisive victory over nawab of Bengal in Battle of Plassey Significance: crushing blow to already weak Mughal Empire gave Britain access to enormous Indian wealth. Capture=firm base for territorial expansion in India · Ottoman Empire o Sultan Mahmud II Tanzimat (reorganization) – initiate program of administrative, legal, and technological westernization o 1838-dependency on Britain o During Crimean War (1852-1854), borrowed money from French and British to subsidize its military mobilization · China o Opium War of 1840-1842 ended in Chinese defeat 2 nd Opium War (1856-1858), fought over same issues also ended in Chinese defeat Taiping Rebellion of 1850-1864
25. 19-Century Empires · Southeast Asia o British dominated trade economy abrupt halt with passage of Charter Act of 1833. British East India Company lost monopoly of China trade & company’s interest in India-China trade route waned sharply. · Pacific Rim o Emigration soared after Australian Gold Rush of 1851 o 1850s-Britain granted New Zealand & Australia limited autonomy o European diseases killed most of local inhabitants · Japan o Only Japan managed to escape European rule · Greatest imperial shit of 19-century was in European stance toward Africa · Africa o Source of raw materials, outlet for its new manufactures o Dysentery, yellow fever, typhoid, and above all, malaria decimated European visitors (“White Man’s Grave) Cure to malaria-quinine: substance from bark of South American cinchona tree o David Livingstone-famous missionary explorer o Military genius built powerful & extensive Zulu empire in Natal region Anglo-Zulu War of 1878-1879 · Egypt o Napolean seized opportunity to invade Egypt in 1798
26.
27. The Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in 19-Century · 1800-Europeans occupied 35% of land · 1878-Europeans occupied 67% of land · 1914-Europeans occupied over 90% of land · Steamers, quinine, rifles & machine guns, steamship lines, Suez Canal, submarine telegraph cables, colonial railroads · Maillot idolized as hero of French science · Mossing-cutting strips of bark and wrapping the trees in moss · Niger River-earliest and most active use of steamers by invading Europeans because it was easiest to navigate all of tropical Africa · Standard weapon of European infantryman was muzzle-loading smoothbore musket · French Army (1822)-1 st military to adopt percussion locks · 1800-British created 1 st Rifle Brigade · China-led world in most fields of technology · Burmese&Chinese had 2 weaknesses: armed with antiquated weapons and vulnerable to attack by river steamers
28. The Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in 19-Century · 1873-74, General Wolseley defeated Ahanti (one of West Africa’s most powerful kingdoms) · Famous of all colonial campaigns-Kitchener’s conquest of Sudan in 1898 · Samori Toure-1 st African leader in region to arm all troops with guns o 1898-year he was finally defeated · Most common method of fighting-frontal assault (rush) o October 1893-battle took place near Zimbabwe in southern Africa · November 30, 1854-Said gave de Lesseps the concession to build Suez Canal o Mediterranean to Red Sea o Built mostly with Egyptian labor, French money and machinery, and served mainly the interest of Great Britain · Iron shipbuilding
