Hi and welcome back to Heimler’s History. And welcome to the first video of Unit 6 of AP World History which covers the period 1750-1900. And you might be confused because didn’t Unit 5 cover the same time period? Sho nuff did, boo. But the focus of Unit 5 was Revolutions. And going on during that same time period was a massive wave of imperialism. And that’s what we fittin to be talking about in Unit 6. So if you’re ready to get your brain cow milked, I’m ready too. Let’s get to it. So one of the major effects of the Industrial Revolution across the world was a new wave of empire building and the word for this is imperialism. And the question we’re going to try to answer in this video is: what caused that new spurt of imperialistic fervor during this period. And I’ve got three reasons for you: culture, nationalism, and economics. Now, most of the imperialistic advances during this period, but certainly not all, were made by European powers. And in general, Europeans believed in the superiority of the white race and the superiority of their culture. So if you had asked them why do they desire to expand their empire, well they would have thought of themselves as the benevolent protectors of, to use a phrase from William Howard Taft who was an American president, their “little brown brothers.” And because in the European mind they had been the recipients of such a magnificent culture, they were duty bound to go share that culture with others. And Rudyard Kipling called this duty the “white man’s burden.” (Am I the only white man who’s sweating a little bit right now?) A second cultural reason for imperialism had to do with science, namely, Darwinism. You see Darwin taught that in the natural order the strong eat the weak and only the fittest survive. And that made sense to a lot of people. And it made so much sense to some people that they applied that kind of rationale to social realities and political realities. They called it Social Darwinism, and the rationale went something like this: If nature is indeed red in tooth and claw, and the strong eat the weak, and only the fittest survive, then why shouldn’t strong nations eat weak nations? And by the way, they had some evidence for this thinking on their side. After all European nations were among the wealthiest of all nations in the world during this time, and doesn’t that prove that the strong had eaten the weak as is the way of nature? The third cultural reason for imperialism was religion. European Christians spread throughout the world during this period with a missionary zeal to convert the world. And if that endeavor was to succeed, empires needed a presence in as many places as possible. Now it’s possible to be critical of their efforts, but it’s true that in many cases these missionaries established schools in these imperial territories, and not just to teach religion, but also secular subjects like math and science. They also built hospitals, and, maybe most significant of all, through their writings and interventions helped abolish the slave trade. Okay, so those are the cultural motives for imperialism, now let’s look at the nationalist motives. And in case you forgot, nationalism is when a group of people have a strong common identity and become loyal to a single state. And what better way to flex a state’s nationalistic pecs than by colonizing a buttload of other countries? (Here, let me demonstrate...well, this shirt’s a little big. But trust me, it’s there.) Now I mentioned earlier that it was European nations that were doing an awful lot of the nationalistic pec flexing but let me name two in particular. First, Britain. After losing their American colonies, they began looking around the world to see where else they could establish an empire. And they ended up finding what they were looking for all across the globe and they liked to say that the sun never set on the British empire. And most of these colonies were extraordinarily valuable to them, but the crown jewel was India. France, not to be outdone by the British (which is a phrase that can explain an awful lot of European history) established colonies in North Africa, or more specifically Algeria, West Africa, or more specifically Senegal, and Indochina in Southeast Asia. But here’s where I tell you it’s not the Europeans alone who were getting their flex on. Nationalism also drove Japan towards empire building as well. In the late 1800s Japan was increasingly encroaching on Korea’s economy and politics. This angered the Qing leadership in China and that anger erupted into a war in 1894, namely, the Sino-Japanese War. And because Japan had already modernized their military via the Meiji Restoration, they handily beat the Japanese (correction: Chinese), and eventually established Korea as a colony of their own. Okay, those are the nationalist motives for imperialism, now let’s finish with the economic motives. So as the Industrial Revolution ground on, industrial powers began to grow hungry for more raw materials. (Daddy’s hungry!) But not only did they require more and more raw materials, they also needed new markets to which they could sell all these manufactured goods. So for example, the British, Dutch, and French governments chartered trade agreements with local rulers in India, the East Indies, and East Africa. And these agreements gave Europeans the right to establish these trading posts, but—big but, HUGE but—it also gave them the right to defend those trading posts. And in order to defend their interests in these far off colonies, European powers raised armies and eventually conquered territory in these places. And as a result of this, by the first half of the 19th century, Britain possessed the wealthiest economy in the world due to their sizable empire. And as the second Industrial Revolution progressed, other nations would challenge that title, specifically the United States. But while major Industrial powers were fighting over the top spot in the world, Asia, Africa, and many Pacific nations would become the losers in that transaction. Okay, that’s what you need to know about Unit 6 Topic 1 of AP World History. As always, if you found this helpful, subscribe and I’ll keep making videos for you. If you need help getting an A in your World History class, or a five on your exam, or It’s so tasty. Heimler out.