NAME:___________________________ Directions: As you read, practice the strategies we’ve been using in class: either on sticky notes or directly on the page, highlight new vocabulary words and summarize each chunk of text. In addition, note the evidence (primary source quotes, events and facts) that helps answer our unit’s essential question, Did imperialism do more to help or harm indigenous people in Asia and Africa? Finally, respond to the prompt at the end of each section. 10 pts. British East India Company reached. Early action was taken to stop [the killing of girl Early British imperialism in India was not carried out babies] and the practice of sati…The slave trade was ended by the government, but by a trading company, the and the owning of slaves was forbidden…” British East India Company. Created to control trade between Britain, India, and East Asia, the company The Sepoy Mutiny Some Indians began to believe the soon became embroiled in Indian politics. British were trying to destroy their society and culture. In 1857, these concerns exploded into a rebellion, the The British Take Control As long as the Mughal Sepoy Mutiny. Sepoys were Indian soldiers who Empire remained strong in India, the East India fought in the British army. The spark that set off the Company’s Activity was limited to coastal trading rebellion was the introduction of a new type of British cities. When the empire began to break apart into rifle. Before inserting a cartridge into the rifle, a soldier small states in the mid-1700s, though, leaders of the had to bite off the end of an ammunition cartridge, East India Company sensed a chance to take over which was greased with pork and beef fat. This Indian lands. They manipulated the rulers of these offended both Muslim sepoys, who did not eat port, new states, suggesting to each ruler that he needed and Hindu sepoys, who did not eat beef. British support to keep his throne. By playing rules Thinking that the new cartridges were a plot to against each other and keeping them from make them abandon Hindusim and Islam, sepoys in cooperating, the British kept India in chaos. The the town of Meerut refused to use them. For their company then swept in with its own armies and took protest these sepoys were punished. In response, over much of India, claiming to have done so just to sepoys all over northern India rose up against British restore order. officers. The violence of the rebellion was ferocious, with Changes in India Once in control, the East India both sides committing atrocities. Sepoys killed not Company made changes to Indian society. They only their officers, but also British women and introduced a new education system and the English children. The British responded with extreme language. They also introduced British laws that brutality. Captured mutineers were strapped to banned certain customs, such as sati, the practice of cannons and shot. Villages suspected of supporting Hindu widows throwing themselves on their rebels were burned. The fighting continued for two husbands’ funeral fires. The practice was described by years. the 16th-century adventurer Vikrama: As a result of the mutiny, the British ended the rule of the East India Company in 1858. From then on, the “…the dead hero’s wife said [to the king]: ‘Sire, my husband British government would rule India directly. has been slain by the enemy…I will go to where he is. Let Although the British moved away from some of the fire be provided for me.’ social regulations that had angered many Indians, Hearing her words the king said: ‘My daughter, why will you distrust continued between the British and the Indians. enter the fire?’ She said: ‘My lord, for whom this body of mine exists, has Respond with a thesis statement (position + road map): been slain…The wife who enters the fire when her husband How did the Sepoy Mutiny lead to “New Imperialism” in dies enjoys bliss in heaven…What good is there in the life of India? a wretched woman who has lost her husband?” The end of sati, among other policies, led British writer Sir Reginald Coupland to proclaim in his book, India: A Restatement, that “British rule brought with it from the West certain standards of humanity that Indian society had not yet NAME:_____________________ India as a British Colony India was Britain’s most important colony – the Although India had been a major exporter of textiles to “jewel in the crown” of the British Empire. Ruling Asia until the early 1800s, the British closed Indian India gave the British great political and financial textile factories to prevent competition with British rewards, as well as national pride. But for many companies. By the mid-1800s, India primarily exported Indians, British rule was a source of frustration and raw materials rather than manufactured goods. This humiliation. This frustration gave rise to powerful shift led Jawaharlal Nehru to write in The Discovery of feelings of nationalism. India that The Raj The era of British rule in India is often “…the economic development of India was stopped and the called the British Raj, a Hindi word meaning “rule.” growth of new industry was prevented…India became an The administration of India was carried out by a agricultural colony of industrial England. It supplied raw government agency called the Indian Civil Service materials and provided markets for England’s industrial (ICS). Though they were ruling India, most officials of goods…The poverty of the country grew. The standard of the ICS were British. The ICS employed very few living fell to terribly low levels.” Indians, leaving many educated Indians frustrated at having no say in their own government. The Rise of Indian Nationalism Many groups in India found the changes that came with British rule Many British officials in India believed themselves deeply disturbing. Indian elites and middle classes superior to the people they governed. As a result, they resented having so few opportunities to participate in lived in segregated neighborhoods and belonged to government. exclusive clubs. Most of these officals believed that Still, it took more than resentment to build a they were improving the lives of the Indian people nationalist movement. That movement did not take off through westernization. Yet many prejudiced British until Indians began to see themselves as having the officials believed that Indians were utterly incapable of same rights as Europeans. This idea was first governing themselves. expressed by the reformer Ram Mohun Roy in the 1820s. Roy felt that the British were violating the During the Raj, the /British built railroads, roads, Indian people’s rights, including the rights of free and canals in India. By 1910, India had the fourth- speech and religion. largest railroad network in the world. Britain interested in transportation for two reasons: to move troops to troubled spots more easily and to help sell Respond British products throughout India. British historian J. A. R. Marriot wrote in his 1932 book, The English in Marriot and Nehru offer strikingly different assessments of India, the impact of British imperialism in India. Which do you find more believable? Why? “British brains, British enterprise have changed the face of India. Means of communication have been developed. There are great numbers of bridges, more than 40,000 miles of railway, and 70,000 miles of paved roads…India now has improved sanitation and a higher standard of living.” India was an important market for British manufactured goods, but that was not its only economic significance. It was a source of raw materials, such as cotton, tea, indigo, and jute. In fact, India became one of the most significant sources of raw cotton for British textile factories in the 1860s, after cotton in the United States became unavailable during the American Civil War. In addition, taxes collected from Indian landowners paid for the administration of India and the Indian army. NAME:_____________________ .