NY State Curriculum Notes     

Imperialism

1. Reasons for imperialism—nationalistic, political, economic, “The White Man’s Burden”, Social Darwinism

2. Spatial characteristics—“new imperialism”

3. British in India

   a. British East India Company

   b. Sepoy Mutiny

4. British, French, Belgians, and Germans in Africa

   a. Scramble for Africa

   b. The Congress of Berlin

   c. African resistance—Zulu Empire

   d. Boer War

   e. Cecil Rhodes

   f. 19th-century anti-slave trade legislation

5. European spheres of influence in China

   a. Opium Wars (1839 - 1842 and 1858 - 1860) and the Treaty of Nanjing

   1. Unequal treaties

   2. Extraterritoriality

   b. Boxer Rebellion

   c. Sun Yat-sen (Sun Yixian) and the Chinese Revolution (1910- 1911)

6. Multiple perspectives toward imperialism

   a. Immediate/long-term changes made under European rule

   b. Long-term effects in Europe and the rest of the world

Using primary and secondary sources, students should be able to analyze and evaluate conflicting viewpoints regarding imperialism.

• To what extent is there a relationship between industrialization and imperialism?

• Why did Japan turn to imperialism and militarism in the late-19th and early- 20th centuries? Here again, students should have a clear appreciation of the world in spatial terms.

• What was the relationship between nationalism, industrialization, and imperialism?

Suggested Documents:  Maps of migration, charts, graphs, rural and urban demographics, maps of colonial possessions, journals, writings of people and groups showing contending perspectives on imperialism,  Sun Yixian, History of the Chinese Revolution, Rudyard Kipling’s, “The White Man’s Burden”