Unit 6 Overview: Consequences of Industrialization

Unit 6 Overview: Consequences of Industrialization

Contextualizing the Unit

• Britain, France, the British and Dutch East India Companies, Portugal, and Spain all began this period with colonial possessions in the Americas, Africa, and Asia.
• Industrial developments, such as mass-produced goods, steamships, railroads, and more effective firearms, allowed states with them to expand their power
• British abolition of the slave trade in 1807 contributed to the resurgence in indentured servitude.
• Charles Darwin’s publication of the Origin of Species in 1859 contributed to justifications for imperialism later in the 1800s.

Main Events

Major Trends

• European, American, and Japanese states expanded overseas
• Racist justifications for this imperialism encouraged more expansion
• Indigenous people fought back
• New states formed
• Armed resistance
• Religion united some resistors

• State power contributed to more globalized capitalist systems that benefited businesses from imperialist centers and impoverished labors in colonized areas

• Before 1800, European countries were not more powerful than advanced societies in Asia and did not control any territory in Africa outside of armed trading posts on the coast.
• China and India deindustrialized, as factory-made goods from Europe and the US replaced their manufactured goods
• European imperialists forced colonized people in Africa to produce and sell industrial products at disadvantageous prices
• Rubber
• Palm oil
• Diamonds and gold

• Economic imperialism: Imperialist governments interfered in the economies of other countries to allow businesses to profit💸 

• British investments in the Suez Canal and the Port of Buenos Aires
• American investments in Hawaiian sugar cane

• Settler colonialism: Imperialist settlers took land from indigenous people.

• Euro Americans in the United States
• British in Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Africa
• French in Algeria

• Migration: New transportation technology and larger empires led to massive movements of people 🚶‍♀️

Key Concepts

1. Industrialization changed the production and consumption of goods, and this had profound effects on the global economy, social organization, and culture.
2. Imperialism: Industrial states expanded or created overseas empires, established new colonies and transoceanic relationships.
3. Revolutions: An intense period of revolutions and rebellions against existing authorities began in the middle of the 1700s. Some of these revolutions produced new nation-states around the world.
4. Migration: Global migration patterns change dramatically as many more people migrated across larger distances than previously occurred.

Key Questions

1. How did racist ideas result from and contribute to imperialism?
2. How did the global balance of power shift in the 1800s?
3. How did indigenous people respond to and influence Imperialism?
4. How did environmental factors affect the global economy in the 1800s?
5. How did global capitalism provide advantages to some and disadvantages to others in the 1800s?
6. Why did millions of people migrate in the years from 1750 to 1900?
7. How did economic factors contribute to patterns of migration in the years from 1750 to 1900?

Vocabulary