IMPERIALISM - EffectsAP World History

Imperialism- Economic Effects Ways of Working

Colonial rule changed how subject population worked

Old ways of working began to fade awaySubsistence farming diminished in place of wage

work, or cash cropsArtisans suffered at the hands of cheaper,

machine produced goods from EuropeAsian and African merchants squeezed out by

European commercial firms

Economics of Coercion New ways of working came from demands

of colonial powers Compulsory (Statute) and unpaid labor on

public projects (railroads, gov’t. buildings, etc)

Cultivation system (Indonesia) – peasants required to use 20% or more of land for cash crops for tax obligations

Coffee plantation, Java

Economics of CoercionBelgian Congo (Leopold II of Belgium)

Most infamous case of colonial forced labor crueltyPrivate co. forced villagers to collect

rubber and ivory, punished those unable to meet quotas with death, dismembered.

Natives unable to grow own crops and starved.

Cash Crop AgricultureAsian and Africans had already been

part of international trade in cash crops Colonial rule occasionally benefitted local farmers

British encouragement of rice production in Burma Standards of living increased

Some Africans took initiative to develop export agriculture (cocoa from cacao trees)

When cash crops were compatible with food production, farmer’s income improved.

Wage Labor Another new form of working

Subject peoples needed money from loss of land Were forced on order of colonial authorities

Subject peoples sought employment in European enterprises (plantations, mines)

Wage Labor – Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia – huge plantations (sugar, tea, rubber, tobacco, sisal) Impoverished workers came long distances British facilitated migration of millions of

Indians to work sites elsewhere in Empire Mines (Malay) - tin

Horrible living conditions, extremely dangerous

Wage Labor - Africa Africa – plantations, people migrated to for

wage labor more due to loss of land In settler colonies, colonial gov’ts obtained

large tracts of lands that was previously home to African societies

Some Africans stayed on land as squatters, but most displaced to “native reserves”

Mines (South Africa) gold and diamonds

Economic Foreign Investment

Infrastructure projects to benefit European investment

Railroads, Canals, telegraphs Largely funded by Europeans, but built by

subject peoples