Chapter 18 Learning Guide – Colonial Encounters

Main Idea 1 – During the second phase of colonial conquest, Germany, Italy, England, the U.S.,
Japan as well as other European countries began to take over Asia and Africa largely due to the
Industrialization Revolution in England.

1. How did Europeans want to handle conquest of other countries?

2. In what different ways did the colonial takeover of Asia and Africa occur?
1.

2.

3.

4.

3. “scramble for Africa” – Definition:

Significance –

4. During the scramble for Africa, what were the hardest territories to take over? Why?

5. Explain the British colonization of New Zealand and Australia.

6. What does the quote on the bottom of page 928 mean?

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Main Idea 2 – Europeans were not nice to the people they colonized.

1. How did colonized people use being colonized to their advantage?

2. How were such small numbers of Europeans able to communicate and govern such huge and
populous territories?

3. Why would colonial governments want to promote European education to its conquered people?

4. What triggered the Indian Rebellion (A.K.A. the Sepoy Rebellion) (1857-1858) and what was the
consequence of it?

5. What was distinctive about European colonial empires of the 19th century? (at lest 3 sentences)

6. What is the apartheid?

7. How did the British “scientifically” organize the racial/social structure of India?

8. Explain the brutal regime of forced labor in the Congo.

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Main Idea 3 – During the time of colonial expansion, ways of working changed dramatically in
Africa and Asia.
1. Describe the type of labor used in French Africa? The Congo Free State (ruled by Belgium)?

2. How did the Dutch make their money from the Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia)?

3. What was a consequence of the forced cultivation of cash crops in German East Africa and
Mozambique?

4. What did a shortage of labor foster?

5. What kinds of wage labor were available in the colonies for the colonial subjects?

6. “In some places, colonial rule created conditions that facilitated and increased cash-crop
production to the advantage of local farmers.” How did this happen (Burma and the southern
Gold Coast)
Burma –

Southern Gold Coast -

7. Why would people take wage labor jobs? How were these workers treated? What types of jobs
did they have? (should be at least 6 sentences long)

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 8. Describe the work and lives of the workers who worked on European plantations and mines.
European Plantations –

Mines –

9. What could unskilled, African mine laborers expect since they worked at a fraction of white
wages?

10. How were the lives of African women altered by colonial economies? (Before/After)

Before –

After -

11. Explain the overall economic impact of colonial rule on Asian and African societies.

Main Idea 4 – The idea of cultural identity is always changing and the catalyst during this time
was the imperializing of the African and Asian continents.
1. What impact did western education have on colonial societies?

2. How did some African and Asians see the westernization of their lands? What did they do to
participate in the westernizing of their homelands? (at least 6 sentences)

3. What were the attractions of Christianity within some colonial societies?

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4. How and why did Hinduism emerge as a distinct religious tradition during the colonial era in
India?

5. In what way were “race” and “tribe” new identities in colonial Africa?