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Hi, I'm John Green, this is Crash Course World
History, and today we're gonna discuss 19th
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century imperialism. So the 19th century certainly
didn't invent the empire, but it did take
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it to new heights, by which we mean lows,
or possibly heights, I dunno, I can't decide,
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roll the intro while I think about it.
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[theme music]
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Yeah, I don't know, I'm still undecided. Let's
begin with China! When last we checked in,
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China was a thriving manufacturing power,
about to be overtaken by Europe, but still
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heavily involved in world trade, especially
an importer of silver from the Spanish empire.
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Europeans had to use silver because they didn't
really produce anything else the Chinese wanted,
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and that state of affairs continued through
the 18th century. For example, in 1793, the
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Macartney Mission tried to get better trade
conditions with China and was a total failure.
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Here's the Qianlong Emperor's well known response
to the British: "Hither to all European nations
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including your own country's barbarian merchants
have carried on their trade with our celestial
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empire at Canton. Such has been the procedure
for many years, although our celestial empire
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possesses all things in prolific abundance
and lacks no product within its own borders."
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But then Europeans, especially the British,
found something that the Chinese would buy:
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opium. By the 1830s, British free trade policy
unleashed a flood of opium in China, which
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threatened China's favorable balance of trade.
It also created a lot of drug addicts.
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And then in 1839 the Chinese responded to
what they saw as these unfair trade practices
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with...a stern letter that they never actually
sent. Commissioner Lin Zexu drafted a response
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that contained a memorable threat to "cut
off trade in rhubarb, silk, and tea, all valuable
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products of ours without which foreigners
could not live."
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But even if the British had received this
terrifying threat to their precious rhubarb
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supply, they probably wouldn't have responded
because selling drugs is super lucrative.
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So the Chinese made like tea partiers, confiscating
a bunch of British opium and chucking it into
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the sea. And then the British responded to
this by demanding compensation, and access
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to Chinese territory where they could carry
out their trade.
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And then the Chinese were like, "Man that
seems a little bit harsh," whereupon the British
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sent in gunships, opening trade with Canton
by force.
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Chinese General Yijing made a counter attack
in 1842 that included a detailed plan to catapult
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flaming monkeys onto British ships. Stan,
is that true?
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All right, apparently the plans actually involved
strapping fireworks to monkeys' backs and
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were never carried out, but still!
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Slightly off topic: obviously I don't want
anyone to light monkeys on fire. I'm just
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saying that flaming monkeys lend themselves
to a lot of great band names, like the Sizzling
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Simians, Burning Bonobos, Immolated Marmoset...Stan,
sometimes I feel like I should give up teaching
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world history and just become a band name
generator. That's my real gift.
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Anyway, due to lack of monkey fireworks, the
Chinese counterattacks were unsuccessful,
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and they eventually signed the treaty of Nanjing,
which stated that Britain got Hong Kong and
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five other treaty ports, as well as the equivalent
of two billion dollars in cash. Also, the
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Chinese basically gave up all sovereignty
to European spheres of influence, wherein
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Europeans were subject to their laws, not
Chinese laws.
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In exchange for all of this, China got a hot
slice of nothing. You might think the result
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of this war would be a shift in the balance
of trade in Britain's favor, but that wasn't
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immediately the case. In fact, the British
were importing so much tea from China that
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the trade deficit actually rose more than
30 billion dollars.
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But eventually after another war and one of
the most destructive civil rebellions in Chinese
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and possibly world history, the Taiping Rebellion,
the situation was reversed, and Europeans,
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especially the British, became the dominant
economic power in China.
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Okay. So but when we think about the 19th
century imperialism, we usually think about
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the way that Europe turned Africa from this
[map] into this [map], the so-called scramble
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for Africa. Speaking of scrambles and the
European colonization of Africa, you know
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what they say--sometimes to make an omelette,
you have to break a few eggs. And sometimes,
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you break a lot of eggs and you don't get
an omelette.
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Europeans have been involved in Africa since
the 16th century, when the Portuguese used
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their cannons to take control of cities on
coast to set up their trading post empire,
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but in the second half of the 19th century,
Europe suddenly and spectacularly succeeded
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at colonizing basically all of Africa. Why?
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Well, the biggest reason that Europeans were
able to extend their grasp over so much of
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the world was the same reason they wanted
to do so in the first place: industrialization.
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Nationalism played its part, of course. European
states saw it as a real bonus to be able say
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that they had colonies--so much so, that a
children's rhyme in An ABC for Baby Patriots
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went, "C is for colonies. Rightly we boast.
That of all great countries Great Britain has the most."
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But it was mostly, not to get all Marxist
on you or anything, about controlling the
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means of production. Europeans wanted colonies
to secure sources of raw materials, especially
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cotton, copper, iron, and rubber, that were
used to fuel their growing industrial economies.
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And in addition to providing the motive for
imperialism, European industrialization also
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provided the means. Europeans didn't fail
to take over territory in Africa until the
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late 19th century because they didn't want to; they failed
because they couldn't. This was mostly due to disease.
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Unlike in the Americas, Africans weren't devastated
by diseases like smallpox because they'd had
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smallpox for centuries and were just as immune
to it as Europeans were. Not only that, but
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Africa had diseases of its own, including
yellow fever, malaria, and sleeping sickness,
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all of which killed Europeans in staggering
numbers.
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Also, nagana was a disease endemic to Africa
that killed horses, which made it difficult
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for Europeans to take advantage of African
grasslands, and also difficult for them to
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get inland, because their horses would die
as they tried to carry stuff.
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Also, while in the 16th century Europeans
did have guns, they were pretty useless, especially
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without horses. So most fighting was done
the old-fashioned way, with swords. That worked
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pretty well in the Americas, unless you were
the Incas or the Aztecs, but it didn't work
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in Africa, because the Africans also had swords.
And spears, and axes.
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So as much as they might have wanted to colonize
Africa in the 16th, 17th, and 18th centuries,
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Africa's mosquitoes, microbes, and people
were too much for them.
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So what made the difference? Technology.
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First, steam ships made it possible for Europeans
to travel inland, bringing supplies and personnel
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via Africa's navigable rivers. No horses?
No problem.
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Even more important was quinine medicine,
sometimes in the form of tonic water, mixed
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into refreshing quintessentially British gin
and tonics. Quinine isn't as effective as
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modern antimalarial medication, and it doesn't
cure the disease, but it does help moderate its effects.
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But of course the most important technology
that enabled Europeans to dominate Africa
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was guns. By the 19th century, European gun
technology had improved dramatically, especially
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with the introduction of the Maxim machine
gun, which allowed Europeans to wipe out Africans
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in battle after battle. Of course, machine
guns were effective when wielded by Africans,
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too, but Africans had fewer of them.
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Oh, it's time for the open letter? And my
chair is back!
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An open letter to Hiram Maxim. But first, let's
see what's in the secret compartment today.
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Oh, it's Darth Vader! What a great
reminder of imperialism.
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Dear Hiram Maxim, I hate you. It's not so
much that you invented the Maxim machine gun,
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although obviously that's a little bit problematic,
or even that you look like the poor man's
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Colonel Sanders. First off, you're a possible
bigamist. I have a long standing opposition
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to bigamy. Secondly, you were born an American
but became a Brit, thereby metaphorically
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machine gunning our founding fathers. But
most importantly, among your many inventions
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was the successful amusement park ride, the
Captive Flying Machine. Mr. Maxim, I hate
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the Captive Flying Machine. The Captive Flying
Machine has resulted in many a girlfriend
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telling me that I'm a coward. I'm not a coward,
I just don't want to die up there! It's all
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your fault, Hiram Maxim, and nobody
believes your story about the light bulb.
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Best wishes, John Green.
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All right. So, here is something that often
gets overlooked. European imperialism involved
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a lot of fighting and a lot of dying. And
when we say that Europe came to dominate Africa,
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for the most part that domination came through
wars, which killed lots of Africans and also
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lots of Europeans, although most of them died
from disease. It's very, very important to
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remember that Africans did not meekly acquiesce
to European hegemony: they resisted, often
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violently, but ultimately they were defeated
by a technologically superior enemy.
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In this respect, they were a lot like the
Chinese, and also the Indians, and the Vietnamese,
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and -- you get the picture.
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So by the end of the 19th century, most of
Africa and much of Asia had been colonized
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by European powers. I mean, even Belgium got in on it,
and they weren't even a country at the beginning
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of the 19th century. I mean, Belgium has enjoyed
like, 12 years of sovereignty in the last 3 millennia.
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Notable exceptions include Japan, which was
happily pursuing its own imperialism, Thailand,
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Iran, and of course Afghanistan. Because no
one can conquer Afghanistan,
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unless you are -- wait for it -- the Mongols.
[Mongoltage]
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It's tempting to imagine Europe ruling their
colonies with the proverbial topaz fist, and while
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there was always the threat of violence, the truth is a
lot more complicated. Let's go to the Thought Bubble.
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In most cases, Europeans ruled their colonies
with the help of, and sometimes completely
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through, intermediaries and collaborators.
For example, in the 1890s in India, there
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were fewer than 1,000 British administrators
supposedly ruling over 300 million Indians.
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The vast majority of British troops at any
given time in India, more than two-thirds,
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were in fact Indians under the command of
British officers.
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Because of their small numbers relative to local
populations, most European colonizers resorted
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to indirect rule, relying on governments that were
already there but exerting control over their leaders.
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Frederick Lugard, who was Britain's head honcho
in Nigeria for a time, called this "rule through
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and by the natives." This worked particularly
well with British administrators, who were
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primarily middle class men but had aristocratic
pretensions, and were often pleased to associate
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with the highest echelons of Indian or African
society.
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Now, this isn't to say that indigenous rulers
were simply puppets. Often, they retained
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real power. This was certainly true in India,
where more than a third of the territory was
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ruled by Indian princes. The French protectorates
of Morocco and Tunisia were ruled by Arab
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monarchs, and the French also ruled through
native kings in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam.
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For the most part, Europeans could almost
always rely on their superior military technology
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to coerce local rulers into doing what the
Europeans wanted. And they could replace native
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officials with Europeans if they had to. But
in general, they preferred to rule indirectly.
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It was easier and cheaper. Also, less malaria.
Thanks, Thought Bubble.
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So while we can't know why all native princes
who ruled in the context of European imperialism
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put up with it, we can make some pretty good
guesses. First of all, they were still rulers.
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They got to keep their prestige and their
fancy hats, and to some extent their power.
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Many were also able to gain advantages through
their service, like access to European education
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for themselves and for their children. Mahatma
Gandhi, for instance, was the son of an Indian
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high official, which made it possible for
him to study law in England.
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And we can't overlook the sheer practicality
of it. The alternative was to resist, and
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that usually didn't work out well. I'm reminded
of the famous couplet, "Whatever happens,
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we have got the Maxim gun, and they have not."
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But even with this enormous technological
advantage, it wasn't always easy. For example,
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it took 25 years, from 1845 to 1870, for the
British to fully defeat the Maori on New Zealand
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because the Maori were kick-ass fighters who
had mastered musketry and defensive warfare.
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And I will remind you, it is not cursing if
you're talking about donkeys.
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In fact, it took them being outnumbered three-to-one
with the arrival of 750,000 settlers for the
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Maori to finally capitulate. And I will remind you that the
rule against splitting infinitives is not an actual rule.
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Those of you more familiar with U.S. history
might notice a parallel between the Maori
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and some of the Native American tribes, like the
Apaches and the Lakota, a good reminder that the
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United States did some imperial expansion of its own
as part of its nationalizing project in the 19th century.
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But back to Africa. Sometimes African rulers
were so good at adapting European technology
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that they were able to successfully resist
imperialism. Ethiopia's Menelik II defeated
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the Italians in battle, securing not just
independence but an empire of his own.
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But embracing European-style modernization
could also be problematic, as Khedive Ismail
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of Egypt found out during his rule in the
late 19th century. He celebrated his imperial
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success by commissioning an opera, Giuseppe
Verdi's Aida, for the opening of the Cairo
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Opera House in 1871. Giuseppe Verdi, by the
way -- no relation to John Green.
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And Ismail had ambitions of extending Egypt's
control up the Nile, west toward Lake Chad.
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But to do that, he needed money, and that's
where he got into trouble. His borrowing bankrupted
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Egypt and led to Britain's taking control
over the country's finances and its shares
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in the Suez Canal that Ismail had built, with
French engineers and French capital, in 1869.
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The British sent in 1,300 bureaucrats to fix
Egypt's finances, an invasion of red tape
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that led to a nationalist uprising, which
brought on a full-scale British intervention
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after 1881 in order to protect British interests.
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This business imperialism, as it is sometimes
known, is really at the heart of the imperialistic
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impulse. Industrialized nations push economic
integration upon developing nations, and then
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extract value from those developing nations,
just as you would from a mine or a field you owned.
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And here we see political history and economic
history coming together again. As western
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corporations grew in the latter part of the
19th century, their influence grew as well,
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both in their home countries and in the lands
where they were investing.
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But ultimately, whether the colonizer is a
business enterprise or a political one, the
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complicated legacy of imperialism survives.
It's why your bananas are cheap, why your
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call centers are Indian, why your chocolate comes
from Africa, and why everything else comes from China.
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These imperialistic adventures may have only
lasted a century, but it was the century in
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which the world as we know it today began
to take shape.
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Thanks for watching. I'll see you next week.
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Crash Course is produced and directed by Stan
Muller, our script supervisor is Danica Johnson,
00:12:59
the show is written by my high school history
teacher Raoul Meyer and myself, and our graphics
00:13:03
team is Thought Bubble. Oh, our intern! I'm
sorry, Meredith the Intern. Our intern is Meredith Danko.
00:13:08
Last week's Phrase of the Week was "homogeneous
mythologized unitary polity." Thank you for
00:13:12
that suggestion. If you want to guess this
week's Phrase of the Week or suggest future
00:13:16
ones, you can do so in comments, where you
can also ask questions about today's video
00:13:19
that will be answered by our team of historians.
00:13:21
Thanks for watching Crash Course. Remember,
you can get this shirt, the Mongol shirt,
00:13:24
or our poster at dftba.com. Speaking of which, as
we say in my hometown, "Don't Forget to be Awesome."
