Empires, Colonialism, Imperialism, Decolonization, and Globalization 1900 to Present - AP World History: Modern

By 1914 only Ethiopia and Liberia remained independent from European rule. This was due to the military prowess of the Ethiopians, and the American protection afforded to Liberia. The rest of the continent had been taken over by the Europeans by 1914.

The forced abdication of Emperor Puyi and subsequent fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912 resulted in the rise of the Republic of China, and with it the emergence of Sun Yat-Sen’s government. This symbolized the shift away from the centuries old dynastic cycle and entrance into the 20th century. The Song Dynasty lasted from 960-1279 CE. The Yuan dynasty lasted from 1271-1368. The Tang dynasty preceded the Song dynasty, existing from 618-904. The Ming dynasty lasted from 1368-1644.

Ethiopia and Liberia remained independent despite European attempts to take control over them. This was in large part to the difficult terrain of the Ethiopian highlands, and the American protection of Liberia.

The Ethiopian military successfully defended Ethiopia from several attempted European invasions. The problem for the Europeans was the difficult mountainous terrain gave the Ethiopians the advantage in battle, one which they exploited very well and which attacking Europeans did not understand or plan for.

While France had a very large portion of Africa as colonies, their colonies were largely made up of the Sahara Desert, and had little in the way of resources. Britain's colonies, however, were the envy of the continent. They had all the great societies of the continent and access to all the best resources Africa had to offer. Add this to the shear volume of the colonies Britain received in the Scramble for Africa, and Britain was easily the dominant power.

Major ports had existed along the coastline of Africa since well before European colonization. Similarly, in the interior of Africa, where Europeans had never gone before, the primary form of transportation over long distances were animals.

Britain forced people in their colonies to adapt to British Culture in every way. They were told to live like British, talk like British, eat like British, dress like British, etc. The Europeans in general felt that their way was superior to the way of the Africans, and therefore the Africans should act like Europeans.

Europeans described the European way of doing things to Africans as the Western Way. The idea was that Europe was the Western world and it was the superior region of the world. Therefore the people of Africa should adopt this Western way of doing things.

When the British and French governments decolonized the Arab world, they left behind countries designed to be dependent upon Britain and France.

They did not want Arab independence, so they ensured no country would be powerful.

The modern problems in the Arab world all stem from this original systemic weakness, which is the cause of most other geopolitical problems in the modern Middle East.

The British and French did consult with certain local leaders, but made sure to hamper these leaders with linguistically and geographically disparate populations against the wishes of both the leaders and the populations.

The British and French colonial administrations were scared of the prospect of hundreds of millions of Arabic speakers coalescing into a single country, so they ensured that when they decolonized the region they left behind nothing formidable or powerful.

The Italians never attempted to colonize Vietnam.

Many Vietnamese fought against American influence in South Vietnam because they saw it as an obstacle to Vietnamese independence.

Many Vietnamese fought against French colonial efforts in Vietnam because they wanted an independence.

Chinese encroachment caused many Vietnamese to take up arms for the cause of independence.

During WWII, many Vietnamese fought against Japanese imperialism including Ho Chi Minh.

The Japanese used Pu-Yi as a puppet leader of their northern Chinese vassal state, Manchukuo.

The Japanese did not attempt to make Pu-Yi the leader of Taiwan, Vietnam, Cambodia, or Burma as a Chinese sovereign would not have been welcomed in any of these places.

The Sykes-Picot Agreement was an agreement between France and Britain to divide the Middle East into spheres of influence in 1916. This secret agreement took place during World War I, and was in part a result of the Ottoman Empire's collapse.

Britain got Iraq, Transjordan, and Palestine, while France took control of Syria and Lebanon.

The outgoing colonial administrations of Britain and France wanted to ensure continued European domination on the Middle East; therefore they wanted the region to be weak comparable to Britain and France.

The British and French were wary of the hundreds of millions of Arabic speakers and others who comprise the Middle East's population; they wanted to ensure the region remained divided and weak, rather than united and strong.

The British and French injected systemic weakness into the region by severing economic relationships between port cities such as Beirut, and large, workshop based cities such as Damascus.

Although the French and British created certain countries, such as Lebanon, with a democratic government, others, such as Iraq and Jordan, were created to be hereditary monarchies; democratic governance was therefore not an all important prerequisite.

The British and French wanted the Middle East to be as weak and poor as possible, expansion into other regions of the world that shared certain Middle Eastern cultural traits, such as religion or language, was absolutely the last thing they desired as it would increase their power versus the French and British.

The Herero and Namaqua Genocide is considered to be the first genocide of the 20th century. In the German occupied region of German South-West Africa, a campaign was led to exterminate the people of the Herero and Namaqua tribes. The German army pushed these people into uninhabitable desert and poisoned the only sources of clean water available to them. This systematically run campaign led to the death of anywhere between 25,00 and 100,000 people.

The Panama Canal was an ambitious imperialist project undertaken by U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt starting in 1904. The United States assisted Panama in gaining independence from Gran Colombia in 1903 and a year later they were granted the right to begin the massive project. Many people died during the construction of the canal but it was completed in 10 years, facilitating maritime trade by allowing access between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans by way of the Caribbean Sea.

Korea was one of the main targets of Japanese imperialism. The Korean peninsula, not divided into two states at the time, was one of the territories the Russian and Japanese fought over during the 1905 Russo-Japanese War. The Japanese emerged as victors and officially annexed the Korean peninsula in 1910, despite discontent from local populations.

After WWI, the fall of the Ottoman Empire lead the Allied Victors to divide up the land the Ottoman’s had formerly controlled. The French and British reached an agreement to divide the land in the Middle East along mostly arbitrary lines. This agreement did not take the affiliations of local tribes into consideration, often confining two warring groups within the same political borders. This agreement has been cited for both the negative perception of Western powers in the Middle East as well as a contributor to sectarian violence in the region.

The Great Partition took place immediately following Indian independence in 1947. The Indian subcontinent that was ruled by the British included a large population of Hindus and a large population of Muslims; populations that, historically, had not always gotten along. During the process of independence it was decided that a majority Hindu nation (India) and a majority Muslim nation (Pakistan) would be formed from the British-ruled Indian subcontinent.

The United States provided financial and military support to Panamanian rebels seeking independence from Colombia. Panamanian separation from Colombia was achieved in 1903. The primary purpose for American support for the rebellion was so that the United States could construct a canal through the country to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.