Chapter 18

How did cash-crop agriculture transform the lives of colonized peoples?

Africa and Asia were major producers of cash crops such as peanuts and palm oil. Other trading items included cotton in Egypt, spices in Indonesia, and pepper and textiles in India. In some areas, there was an increased cash-crop production by local farmers like rice. European colonization of the Indies and Africa shaped the lives of many people as infrastructures such as railroads and roads were constructed. This forced many indigenous people to live under colonial rule and inherit European customs into there societies. Not only did the production of cash-crops improved, so did the wellbeing of others because of how they were living. Also, this practice of colonial development was also reached in the Mekong River where there were environmental consequences. There were mass destruction of mangrove forests, dikes and irrigation channels that use of the soil's resources, and large amounts of methane gas being generated. African farmers also took the initiative to develop and export cacao, used to make chocolate. There was less labor time and essentially easier to produce than cotton. Although as something as good as producing their own crop and being successful at it, problems awakened. There was a labor shortage that "brought a huge influx of migrants from the drier interior parts of West Africas, generating ethnic and class tensions." 

What contributed to changing European views of Asians and Africans in the 19th century?

As the dawn of the industrial age, Europeans developed an arrogance that fused with or replaced their previous notions of religious superiority. As they established and contained military superiority throughout the colonized world there views on the cultures they subjugated were of inferiority to theirs. Still to this day Spain and Latin America struggle over this racial arrogance brought upon by European conquest. After all, they had unlocked the secrets of nature, created a society of unprecedented wealth, and had used both to produce military power that was unsurpassed.  Such things became the criteria that Europeans used to judge themselves and the rest of the world. Since other nations and cultures were unable to compete or merely achieve what they had European’s believed themselves as a superior culture.

In what ways did the Industrial Revolution shape the character of 19th-century European imperialism?

The Industrial Revolution caused the need for massive amounts of raw material incapable of being satisfied by mainland European economies. This lead to the search for raw materials in resource-rich areas such as Africa, Asia, and the Oceanic Islands. These regions provided Europe’s opportunity for uncontested dominance as the inhabitants of these regions had nowhere near the same amount of power required to resist conquest.