Colonial Encounters in Asia and Africa

Colonial Encounters in Asia and Africa

Europe: They had new economic needs. They wanted people to buy new products because eindurstial production was much more efficient. They had a lot of stuff but what can you do with all the product if you have nobody to sell it to? They needed solutions so they turned to sell abroad. It was unethical. They sold to people who didn't really need their product and changed their entire economy. The thing was that they wanted to expand; they made more profit abroad rather than at home. Imperialism would lead to solving their problems. They took resources of other countries in order to get cheap resources, sell their products, and grow. Britain grew and spread across everywhere.
The english imperialist: Cecil Rhodes believed that, "the British Empire is a matter of bread and butter. If you wish to avoid civil war, then you must become imperialist"

British Empire is taking over everywhere. England is dominant but many wanted to get their hands on Africa. There's a cartoon on page 882 that shows an octopus whose tentacles are already attached to many countries, while other tentacle is about to grasp yet another colony, Egypt. This was created by America and it kinda shows how greedy Europe was and how they are not leaving much for others.

If you look at page 883, theres and image of European Racial Images... it was a picture about how Europeans viewed evolution. The idea of this image is that the white European man was the most evolved. They were superior. Others were "less developed". It says that race is everything and they used it as an excuse for rationalization ...to take care of the ones who were "inferior". It was an excuse to take territory and rights. Personally, this picture was one of the worst ones. Its disrespectful in so many ways and it shows so much ignorance. They are saying some humans are lesser than other humans. Thats a huge red flag! The result of that is that real policies that happen after this. For example: education... who deserves education? who doesn't? This image really gives is a graphical idea that the Europeans truly believed they were superior. I believe they would even try to prove it scientifically.

The second wave involved: Asia, Africa, and Australia (Australia was mostly an outlet though). The French and British were on the move. The European colonizers went as business men, administrators and then (most) left home. They went for a specific reason and then returned home. Because of this, there was borders being redrawn. These powers came in an divided up Africa. The countries didn't exist there before. They drew borders. This was a problem because the borders had nothing to do with the reality on ground: people were divided, people were brought together even though they had no things in common. The Europeans forced the people to work and if they did not work hard enough then they were severely punched. There is a picture on page 894 where there are two kids with arms being chopped off. Its sad and dehumanizing. The people couldn't do anything to protect their families since they were being controlled by an outside power. Later the Europeans then withdrew... this left the people living there skill-less.

*cash crop economy... market economies