British-French Wars.

Imperialism
When a country expands its influence or territory.

By conquering so many regions, Britain, Russia, France and many others could
maintain a very good trade balance.

Many of the Empires were set up just to do this, and some regions were
designated certain crops to grow or resources to produce. For instance in the
British Empire, Caribbean islands grew sugar, Northern Canada exported fur,
Southern USA grew cotton and tobacco and India produced tea.

This is called Mercantilism, where countries aim to maximise exports and

minimize imports, therefore keeping their money.

Why do countries not do this today?

Imperialism
When a country expands its influence or territory.

Does a country have to conquer another to be considered an Imperialist

nation?

How else could a country be imperialistic?

Lord Palmerston, the Prime Minister of

Britain during the height of the British
Empire.
Does Imperialism (neo-imperialism) still exist today?
He often spoke against colonies. Why?
 Neo-Imperialism
The International Monetary Fund and World Bank were created after
WW2. They were designed so no countries would endure financial
instability and high unemployment, and they believed this would stop the
rise of Communism and Fascism.

The World Bank agrees to loan countries moneys, while the IMF helps
them stabilise their economy and repay those loans.

However, in the World Bank, they make decisions based on voting, and
how many votes a country gets depends on how much money a country
puts into the bank.

If a country is struggling to repay their loans, the IMF can then enter the
nation and make reforms in their country. Sometimes they tell them to cut
back public spending on schools, roads and hospitals. And other times
they may force a country to accept an unequal trade deal, selling their
resources for cheap. If they don't do this, they could stop receiving loans.
Sometimes their forced reforms have caused huge civil wars, like in
Yugoslavia in the 90s.
Neo-Imperialism
Foreign Military Bases
in Africa.

Is this Imperialism?
US Independence
British Expansion in
India
End of the
Napoleonic Wars

Britain takes South

Africa
South American
Independence
British take Hong
Kong
TRADED GOOD:

Tea
 Tea
Tea has been produced in China for thousands of years. They traded it with
the Japanese and Koreans in the 6th Century, and they began to develop
elaborate tea drinking ceremonies.

They also traded with the Indians, often in exchange for horses. Along this
road, the Tea-Horse Road, Buddhism made it's way into China with Indian
merchants.

It arrived in Europe around 1600, but initially it wasn't very popular and too
expensive. In fact, most people considered it only good for medicinal reasons
and not tasty at all.

But, 1 lady changed all that, Catherine of Braganza. She married Charles II of England, and she loved tea.
Because she had married the King, many people wanted to copy her, and all the rich people in England began to
drink tea.
 Tea Trade
What did the Americans throw in the water at the beginning of the American Revolution?

Over
The 80%
American
of teaRevolution
in Americacould was smuggled
have began intodue
the
to country,
the tea trade.
so the British made very little on
duties. Plus the East India Companies
warehouses
This is because
beganallto
teabecoming
filled with
fromtea.
China
So the
was
British
bought passed
by thethe
East
TeaIndia
Act inCompany.
1773. They were
required to bring it to London and pay duties.
This
Fromallowed
the warehouses
the East Indiain London,
Company American
to sell their
tea
merchants
directly to
would
the Americans
buy it andand bringpay
it to
nothe
duties.
Socolonies.
a group of middle-men, smugglers and
American merchants found a group of ships
belonging
However,tobecause
the EastofIndia
the duties
Company
paid,and
teathrew
was
the
expensive
tea into in
theAmerica,
harbour.soThis many
waspeople
one ofjust
the
causes
smuggled
of the
inAmerican
Dutch teaRevolution,
for cheaper.and after
that the USA became a coffee drinking nation.
 Case Study: The Opium Wars
What do
you know
about these
wars?
As the demand for tea in Britain increased, the East India Company was worried about
their trade deficit, so they looked at ways to end it.

They first tried to grow tea in India, but this tea didn't taste particularly well. However, the
Chinese still held the secrets of manufacturing tea and the British still believed that
different types of teas came from different plants.

So they needed another solution. They decided to expand on the opium trade.

“Opium has a harm. Opium is a poison, undermining our good customs and morality...
However, recently the purchasers, eaters, and consumers of opium have become
numerous. Deceitful merchants buy and sell it to gain profit... If we confine our search for
opium to the seaports, we fear the search will not be sufficiently thorough. We should also
order the general commandant of the police and police... If they capture any violators,
they should immediately punish them and should destroy the opium at once.”
--- Jiaqing Emperor
 Canton System
The
“OurChinese
Empire tried to limit
possesses allWestern
things inpresence
abundancein China, especially
and lacks afterwithin
no product they found missionaries
its borders. working
There is secretly
therefore no
in China
need in the 18th
to import Century. So they
the manufactures only allowed
of outside them in
barbarians toexchange
trade in Guangzhou.
for our own produce.”

The
This Chinese
was the merchants who traded
Chinese response there paid
to a British a large
diplomat in fee to the
1792. LordEmperor in exchange
MacCartney for a monopoly
had travelled over
to Beijing to the
meet
trade. The East
the Qianlong India company,
Emperor, and
hoping to other large
negotiate businesses,
a trade deal. took responsibilty for every ship and person
associated with it. If they did not, their trading rights could be taken away.
So, if you were the leader of the English East India Company, what would you have done?
So, although a lot was traded between Britain and China, their governments had not established any diplomatic
relations or trade deals, as all the trade was done by private companies.

Why would the Chinese limit foreign trade? Why did they even trade at all?

If there were so many restrictions, how did

opium arrive in China?
 Destruction of Opium
Finally, the Chinese blockaded the British merchants inside of Guangzhou and demanded that they hand over their
opium. The British government tried to defuse the situation and told the merchants to agree to the Chinese
demands.
In return, the British merchants would receive compensation from the government.

So the opium was destroyed and the Chinese agreed toBut

continue trade sosome
in Guangzhou long as no one
British was got
sailors carrying
drunkopium.
and killed a
Chinese man. The British governor arrested them and
sentenced them to hard labour, but the Chinese believed they
should have been handed over to them.

So they placed a ban on trading with the British and thousands

could have died in Guangzhou without food and basic supplies.
This is when the first battle took place, the Battle of Kowloon in
1839.

The British won and supplies arrived, but this sparked a debate
in the English parliament.
 Free Trade
Many English people disagreed with the Opium trade on moral grounds. Many merchants even agreed to not
import opium in exchange for continuing trade with China.

But in Britain the works of Adam Smith had become incredibly popular. He
argued that trade should be completely free, without any intervention from
the government.

The ruling Whig party supported the idea of free trade, so in parliament they
called for war, even though some disliked the use of opium. They felt the
agreement to stop trading opium was a breach of international free trade.

A vote was called for and 271 members of parliament voted in favour of war
and 262 voted against. This shows how divided British trade and foreign
policies were at that time.
 The Opium War
The British won the First and then Second Opium War. They took Hong Kong and opened up China
to foreign trade. The Americans, Germans, Austrians, French and many other nations soon forced
China to sign treaties allowing them to trade.

What were the consequences of this?

 The Tea Industry in India
Just like the Byzantine silk heist centuries earlier, the British entered China to steal the secrets of
tea.
In 1843 Robert Fortune dressed like a Chinese person and travelled for a couple years around China.
He collected the best tea plants, learnt how to process it and brought these secrets to India.
The Indians then began to produce
nearly as much tea as the Chinese, and,
because Britain owned India, this
reduced their trade deficit even more
so.

Does Trade Espionage still happen

today?
 Gunboat Diplomacy

1903
1840 The Americans force
1893 Colombia to give Panama
Opium War
France takes Laos from freedom. This allows the
Britain forces China to open
Thailand Americans to build the
up.
Panama Canal.

1853 1896
1876
The Americans force the Britain Conquers the island
Japan forces Korea to open
Japanese to open the of Zanzibar in Africa. The
up.
country to trade war lasts just 27 minutes.
Trade War
Militarily, economically or diplomatically fighting another country to benefit your
trading capabilities.

This
This isis similar
similar to
to what
what the
the
Chinese
British Eastgovernment
India
thought
Companyabout thought
British
about
traders
trading at with
theChina
time.at the
time.
Trade War
Militarily, economically or diplomatically fighting another country to benefit your
trading capabilities.

How is the United States fighting a trade war now? They are not using
weapons, so what can they use?
TRADED GOOD:

Oats
Oats and Wheat
After the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 world markets opened up to British
merchants. This meant very cheap oats and wheat could be imported.
These were the staple foods of most British people at the time, and
vital for their survival.

But Britain placed tariffs on imported oats and wheat, why do you think
this is?
Case Study: The Corn Laws
Protectionism
Some argued that cheaper imported oats could lead to lower
wages for British workers and unemployment. So, they put tariffs
on any foreign oats and wheat.

Tariffs are a tax put on importers of a product. So, if an Englishman

wanted to import oats from Russia he had to pay a tax on it. This
meant importing the oats became even more expensive than the
already expensive English oats.

This is not true. American

companies will have to pay the
tariffs. China is not being
charged anything.
 Protectionism
Companies the
However, are suffering because
only people whoof benefited
US tariffs. from the corn laws were very rich
landowners. This is because they could continue selling their own expensive
BMW:for
food Thevery
carmaker
high tariffs
prices.have
Thenegative effects on
poor people investment
suffered and could
as they employment
affordinless
the and
United States.
less.
Boeing: The aircraft maker’s stock price dropped and they worried people would buy Airbus
The poor
instead (as people
it is builtprotested theUS).
outside of the laws and so did the followers of Adam Smith, but
the landowners were too powerful.
Caterpillar: The tractor company faces $200 million in tariff‐​related costs in the second half of
2018, forcing it to raise prices.
But, in the 1840s there was a great famine in Ireland and millions died. These
laws
Coca‐​Cprevented
ola: The softcheap food being
drink maker raised sent
pricesto
forhelp.
soda So,
andfinally the British
other beverages opened
to offset the
tariff‐​
country up to
induced cost cheapfor
increases food imports.
freight shipments and metals used in its bottling systems.
You decide --- Colonialism
This is your country, it is a small island in Europe. You are very
advanced and have a strong navy. You spend a lot of money to make
sure your island and it's trade is defended.

Your people love Russian furs and your trading company has been
spending a great deal of money to get it. Recently however, the
Russians have decided to stop buying your weapons and kicked out
all of your merchants.

Some continued to try and sell weapons, but they were arrested and
face execution. You could ignore them and look weak in the world,
maybe encouraging other nations to do the same. Plus, your people
would be angry if you let your own citizens be killed.

So, do you go to war? If you win will what will your demands be?
Will you take land?