Chapter 18

In this chapter we learned about how Europeans turned to imperialism in order to sell their products and acquire raw materials. During this stage on Europe's industrial revolution;ution the views themselves as superior, and had the thought they were destined to rule over everybody else. This made me think about how many white people have this same mentality today, and made me question if anybody in our government has this mentality and thats the reason for systematic injustice. Further along in the chapter we learned that in some parts of Africa, Europeans turned African people against each other. In other areas the Europeans used military force to colonize Africa. When Europeans went to Australia and New Zealand, they killed off a lot of the natives with the diseases that they brought. The colonialism that Europeans were practicing around the world was negative and was killing off people and culture, along with destroying homes and land. We also that Europeans promoted western education in their colonies. Another thing that I found interesting was how in large European settlements there was racial segregation. I found this interesting because of how in America we had our epidemic of segregation that is still around today. I also learned that in the process of industrialization farmers were teased some of their crops, artisans suffered as they were out worked by machines, and blacksmiths were no longer needed because there were machines that could do the tasks they could. It was not shocking to me when I read that African and Asian merchants were replaced by European companies. It was crazy to me to learn about how in Congo there was an outbreak of aids because of the forced labor and interaction and the how Indonesian farmers were taxed some of their crops by the dutch. Another thing that kind of surprised me was how the British increased cash crops in Burma which actually lead to and increase in population and allowed farmers to own their own land. 

In Africa people moved to where there was gold and diamond mines, and in Asia workers moved to different parts of Asia such as south pacific to grow sugar cane, tobacco, and tea. People in colonies were taught western education and viewed it as an opportunity to escape forced labor and maybe a chance at higher paying work in the future. People in the colonies started to embrace European culture and started to dress like them and learn their language. 

In the scramble for Africa Europeans viewed Africa as a source of raw materials and opportunities for missionaries. This mindset kind of frustrated me because instead of viewing Africa as a land full of natives and their tribes, they had a selfish mindset to get to the materials of Africa, disregarding everybody else dependency on those materials.

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