Second Wave Basics
This term describes the era from 1750–1900 when industrial powers intensified overseas expansion into Africa and Asia rather than the Americas.
What is the second wave of imperialism?
By 1750–1900, these two once-dominant maritime empires declined in global influence compared to Britain and France.
What is Spain and Portugal?
This European king personally owned the Congo Free State before his colony became a Belgian possession.
Who is King Leopold II?
This 1884–1885 conference in Europe set rules for carving up Africa without African representation.
What is the Berlin Conference?
In this type of colony, an imperial power sends its own population to live permanently in already-inhabited lands.
What is a Settler Colony?
In the earlier period 1450–1750, European expansion focused on these two regions far more than on Africa’s interior.
What is the Americas and coastal Asia/Southeast Asia?
This European power increased influence in Asia and Africa through trade and diplomacy instead of direct rule.
What is Britain?
Leopold’s Congo regime was justified with “humanitarian” goals but primarily extracted this key industrial resource, vital for bicycle and automobile tires.
What is Rubber?
The term, "Manifest Destiny" was used to justify U.S. expansion to this ocean.
What is the Pacific Ocean?
Britain created major settler colonies in these two southern-hemisphere lands, displacing the Aboriginal and Māori peoples.
What are Australia and New Zealand?
One major change between 1450–1750 and 1750–1900 was that this continent shifted from mainly coastal trading posts to a central target for full territorial conquest.
What is Africa?
This newly unified European nation joined the imperial race late but sought colonies in Africa and the Pacific to “catch up” with older empires.
What is Germany?
International outrage over atrocities in the Congo Free State led to this political change in 1908.
What is the transfer of the Congo from Leopold’s personal control to direct Belgian state rule?
Many European powers used this combination of tools—formal treaties plus military force—to extend their control over African societies.
What is diplomacy and warfare?
Conflicts between settlers and Indigenous peoples in New Zealand were largely rooted in this central issue.
What are land rights or control over land?
Industrial powers pursued imperialism largely for these two economic reasons tied to industrialization.
What is the search for raw materials and new markets?
This East Asian state rapidly industrialized after the Meiji Restoration and soon seized Korea, Taiwan, and territory in China.
What is Japan?
In the AP World framework, the Belgian takeover of the Congo from Leopold is the classic example of this broader pattern in imperial expansion.
What is states assuming control over colonies previously held by non-state entities?
At the Berlin Conference, European powers agreed that claiming African territory required this kind of presence, not just a flag on a map.
What is¨effective occupation” or actual administrative control?
This concept suggests that settlers stay and develop a new society, rather than returning to a mother country, often bringing their own sovereignty.
What is a contingent/sovereign claim?
National rivalries and ideologies like Social Darwinism helped justify this process of powerful states asserting control over weaker societies politically, economically, and militarily.
What is imperialism?
Between 1750-1900, shifts in imperial power were driven largely by this factor, which allowed some states to dominate through warfare and diplomacy.
What is Industrialization?
Name another region besides the Congo where a European government replaced a chartered company rule with direct state control.
What is the Dutch East Indies after the Dutch East India Company, or British India after the East India Company
France’s invasion of this North African territory illustrates how a relatively small diplomatic incident helped justify full-scale colonial conquest.
What is Algeria?
Name two aspects of colonies exploited in settler colonialism
What are land, labor, raw materials, and/or indigenous people?