Module 2

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

Productivity of industrial technology and the growing wealth of Europe created the need for extensive raw materials and agricultural products that could only be found in other parts of the world. They needed to sell its own products, and foreign regions proved to be important markets. European capital sought investment abroad, both for promised profits and to stimulate demand for European products - in part to keep the working classes fully employed and therefore less inclined to class conflict.

What was distinctive about European colonial empires of the 19th century?

The nineteenth-century European colonial empires differed from earlier empires in several important ways, including the prominence of race in distinguishing between rulers and ruled. Also distinctive was the extent to which colonial states were able to penetrate the societies they governed. They had a penchant for counting and classifying their subject peoples. Their policies for administrating their colonies contradicted their core values and their practices at home to an unusual degree. Separated or "racially discriminated" against certain countries they conquered such as African-Americans and Indians specifically because of how dark they were which is the most common form of racial discrimination that has lived all through history.

How were the lives of African women in particular altered by colonial economies?

Studies often show that women lost power and economic autonomy with the arrival of cash crops and women's exclusion from the global marketplace. In some areas, the introduction of cash crops led to changes in women's agricultural work and in men's and women's control over land.  Before colonization, African women were almost everywhere active farmers in addition to food preparation and child care. 

Though clearly subordinate to men, African women nevertheless had a measure of economic autonomy. Following colonization, women's lives diverged more and more from those of men. Women dominated subsistence production, while men took a dominant role in cash-crop agriculture. Men migrated to the cities, leaving women to manage the domestic economy almost alone. Women were forced to take on traditionally male tasks in addition to their normal responsibilities. Women of impoverished rural families often became virtually independent heads of household in the absence of their husbands, while others took advantage of new opportunities in mission schools, towns, and mines to flee the restrictions of rural patriarchy.