Towards ModernisationClass 11 History Notes

European Imperialism and Settler Colonies

From the eighteenth century, European powers like France, Holland, and England began to establish colonies in America, Africa, and Asia. This was an expansion of the colonisation started earlier by Spain and Portugal. These new colonies, driven by the prospect of profit, varied in nature.

• Trading Colonies: In places like South Asia, trading companies such as the East India Company transformed into political powers. They defeated local rulers, took over their territories, and used existing administrative systems to collect taxes.
• Settler Colonies: In North America, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, Europeans immigrated and settled permanently. These individuals are referred to as 'settlers'. When these colonies gained independence, they became states or countries where European and later Asian immigrants formed the majority, while the native populations became small minorities.

Naming the 'New World'

European explorers and settlers gave new names to the lands they colonised, often reflecting their origins or interpretations.

• 'America': Named after the explorer Amerigo Vespucci.
• 'Canada': From 'kanata', a word meaning 'village' in the language of the Huron-Iroquois people.
• 'Australia': A sixteenth-century name meaning 'south' in Latin (austral).
• 'New Zealand': Named by Tasman of Holland in 1642; 'zee' is Dutch for 'sea'.

NORTH AMERICA

The continent of North America is geographically diverse, with vast forests, mountains like the Rockies, deserts, great plains, and major rivers like the Mississippi. Its rich resources of oil, gas, minerals, and fertile land for agriculture were developed extensively by immigrants over the last 200 years. However, people had been living there for thousands of years before Europeans arrived.

The Native Peoples

The earliest inhabitants of North America migrated from Asia across a land bridge over the Bering Straits more than 30,000 years ago.

Lifestyle and Society:

• They lived in bands and villages, often along river valleys.
• Their diet consisted of fish, meat (especially bison), and cultivated vegetables and maize.
• They were nomadic hunters, but only killed what they needed for food.
• Unlike the empires of Central and South America, they did not practice extensive agriculture or produce surpluses, so they did not develop large kingdoms.
• Land was not seen as something to be 'owned'; it was a source of food and shelter for all.
• A key part of their tradition was forming alliances and exchanging gifts. Goods were not bought or sold but given as tokens of friendship.

Culture and Knowledge:

• They spoke numerous languages, though none were written down.
• History and beliefs about their origins were passed down orally from one generation to the next.
• They were skilled craftspeople, known for weaving beautiful textiles.
• They possessed a deep understanding of their environment, able to 'read the land' and interpret climates and landscapes.

Encounters with Europeans

In the seventeenth century, European traders arrived on the north coast of North America. They came primarily to trade for fish and furs, and the native peoples, being expert hunters, willingly helped them.

The Nature of Trade:

• For Europeans: The trade was purely commercial. They sought fish and furs as commodities to sell for profit in Europe. Prices fluctuated based on market demand, a concept foreign to the natives.
• For Native Peoples: The exchange was based on friendship. The blankets, iron vessels, guns, and alcohol they received were seen as gifts.

The introduction of alcohol, to which the natives were not accustomed, led to addiction. This gave the Europeans an advantage, allowing them to dictate the terms of trade. The natives were also disturbed by the Europeans' greed, particularly the slaughter of hundreds of beavers for their fur, fearing it would anger the animal spirits.

Mutual Perceptions

The Europeans and the native peoples had vastly different worldviews, which led to misunderstanding and conflict.

The European View:

• Europeans defined a 'civilised' person by literacy, organised religion, and urban living. By this standard, they saw the natives as 'uncivilised'.
• Some thinkers, like the French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau, romanticised them as the 'noble savage', untouched by the corruptions of civilisation.
• The English poet William Wordsworth, who had never met a native American, described them as having limited imagination and emotion because they lived so close to nature.
• In contrast, American writer Washington Irving, who had met native people, found them to be witty and observant, often mocking the seriousness of the white men among themselves.

The Native View:

• They could not understand the European concept of a 'market' or why the value of their goods changed.
• They were saddened by the Europeans' greed and their destructive impact on the environment.
• They saw land as a sacred, shared resource, not a commodity to be bought and sold.

The Arrival of Settlers and the Loss of Land

Following the traders, European settlers began to arrive, seeking a new life. Many were fleeing religious persecution in Europe and were eager to own land.

• Clash over Land Use: Settlers used iron tools to clear forests for farms. They saw the forests as resources to be cleared and replaced with profitable crops like rice and cotton. The natives, who grew crops only for their own needs, saw this as a violation of the land.
• The Idea of 'Ownership': The settlers' desire to own land was incomprehensible to the natives. Thomas Jefferson, the third US President, envisioned America as a country of small farms owned by Europeans. He viewed the natives' lack of interest in private land ownership as a sign of being 'uncivilised'.

The Expansion of the USA and the 'Frontier'

The United States of America and Canada were formed at the end of the eighteenth century. Over the next 100 years, they expanded across the continent.

• Territorial Acquisition: The USA acquired large territories through purchase (the 'Louisiana Purchase' from France) and war (from Mexico). The consent of the native peoples living in these areas was never sought.
• The Shifting 'Frontier': The western boundary of the USA was a constantly moving 'frontier'. As settlers pushed westward, the natives were forced to move back, pushed further and further from their ancestral lands.
• Slavery and the Civil War: In the southern states, the hot climate led plantation owners to buy slaves from Africa. The northern states opposed slavery, leading to the American Civil War (1861-65). The abolitionists won, and slavery was ended, though African Americans fought for civil rights for another century.

The Native Peoples Lose their Land

As American settlement expanded, natives were pressured into signing treaties to sell their land for very low prices. Often, they were cheated, with settlers taking more land than agreed upon.

• The Case of the Cherokees: The Cherokee tribe in Georgia made significant efforts to adopt American ways, including learning English. Despite this, they were denied the rights of citizens.

  1. In 1832, US Chief Justice John Marshall ruled that the Cherokees were a 'distinct community' where Georgia's laws had no force.
  2. However, President Andrew Jackson refused to honour this judgment.
  3. He ordered the US army to evict the Cherokees and force them to move to the Great American Desert.
  4. Of the 15,000 Cherokees forced on this march, over a quarter died. This journey became known as the 'Trail of Tears'.

• Justifications for Displacement: Settlers justified taking the land by claiming the natives were lazy and didn't use it "to the maximum." They argued that people who didn't develop the land for profit deserved to 'die out'.

• Reservations: Natives were pushed into small, isolated areas called 'reservations', often on land they had no connection to. If minerals like gold or oil were discovered on this land, they were forced to move again.

The Gold Rush and the Growth of Industries

The discovery of gold in California in the 1840s triggered the 'Gold Rush', drawing thousands of Europeans to America hoping to get rich quick.

• Building Railways: To connect the continent, transcontinental railways were built. The US railway was completed by 1870 and Canada's by 1885. Thousands of Chinese workers were recruited for this dangerous work.
• Industrial Development: Unlike in England, where industrialisation was driven by displaced peasants moving to factories, in North America, industries grew to meet specific needs:
  • Manufacturing railway equipment.
  • Producing machinery for large-scale farming. This led to the rapid growth of industrial towns and factories in both the USA and Canada. By 1890, the USA had become the leading industrial power in the world.

Constitutional Rights and Inequality

The American identity was built on a 'democratic spirit' and a constitution that protected the individual's 'right to property'. However, these rights were not extended to everyone.

• Democratic rights, like voting, and the right to own property were exclusively for white men.
• Native peoples were not considered citizens and were denied these rights.
• African Americans remained enslaved until after the Civil War and faced segregation and discrimination for another century.

The Winds of Change...

By the 1920s, attitudes towards the native peoples began to shift.

• A 1928 survey, The Problem of Indian Administration, revealed the terrible health and education conditions on reservations, leading to sympathy from white Americans.
• The Indian Reorganisation Act of 1934 was a landmark law in the USA that gave natives on reservations the right to buy land and take out loans.
• In the 1950s and 1960s, both the US and Canadian governments tried to end special provisions for natives, hoping they would 'join the mainstream' and adopt European culture. The natives resisted this.
• In 1954, native peoples in the USA issued the 'Declaration of Indian Rights', accepting US citizenship on the condition that their reservations and traditions would be protected.
• In Canada, after the government tried to deny 'aboriginal rights' in 1969, natives organized protests. This led to the Constitution Act of 1982, which officially accepted the existing aboriginal and treaty rights of the native peoples.

AUSTRALIA

Like the Americas, Australia has a long history of human habitation. The 'aborigines' (a term for the native peoples) began arriving from New Guinea over 40,000 years ago.

Indigenous Society and Beliefs:

• In their traditions, they have always been in Australia. The past is referred to as the 'Dreamtime', a concept where the past and present are blurred.
• In the late eighteenth century, there were between 350 and 750 distinct native communities, each with its own language.
• Another indigenous group, the Torres Strait Islanders, live in the north and are considered a different race.
• Today, indigenous peoples make up only 2.4% of Australia's population (as of 2005).

The Europeans Reach Australia

The European story in Australia began nearly 300 years after it did in the Americas.

1. 1770: Captain James Cook reached Botany Bay and named the region New South Wales. Initial reports noted the friendliness of the natives.
2. 1788: The British established a penal colony at Sydney. Britain had previously sent convicts to its American colonies, and after American independence, it began sending them to Australia.

Most early settlers were convicts who, after their jail term, were allowed to live freely in Australia. Having no other home, they took over native lands for farming without hesitation. This led to the death of nearly 90% of the native population from disease, loss of land, and battles with settlers.

The Development of Australia

Australia's economic development was based on:

• Vast sheep farms and mining stations.
• Vineyards and wheat farming.
• The use of native people as farm labor under slave-like conditions.
• Later, Chinese immigrants provided cheap labor, but were eventually banned due to fear of non-white dependency. Until 1974, Australia had a government policy to keep 'non-white' people out.

The Winds of Change...

A significant shift in Australian society's view of its past began in the latter half of the twentieth century.

• In 1968, the anthropologist W.E.H. Stanner gave a lecture titled 'The Great Australian Silence', highlighting how historians had ignored the aborigines.
• From the 1970s, there was a growing movement to understand and respect native cultures, stories, and art. This led to the question, "Why Weren't We Told?", condemning a version of Australian history that began with Captain Cook's 'discovery'.
• Multiculturalism became official policy in 1974, giving equal respect to native cultures and those of immigrants.
• A key legal concept was terra nullius, meaning 'belonging to nobody', which the government had used to claim the land. In 1992, the Australian High Court declared that terra nullius was legally invalid and recognised native claims to land from before 1770.
• There was also public acknowledgment of the painful history of forcibly separating mixed-blood children from their native families. This led to the establishment of 'A National Sorry Day' on May 26, 1999, as a public apology for this injustice.