AP World History Chapter 20 - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

AP World HistoryChapter 20“Colonial Encounters (1750-1914)”

Identity and Cultural Change in the Colonial EraSlide2

Cultural Change in the Colonial Era: Education

Many generated a new identity as a result of Western education = provided by missionary and government schools

Education = helped many escape undesirable tasks, such as forced labor

Education provided many opportunities:Access to better-paying jobs in government agencies, missions, business firms, etc.Access to imported goods and luxury itemsSocial mobility and elite status within the communityEquality with whites (as much as possible)

Leopold

Senhor

West African writer and political leader in the early 1900sSlide3

Cultural Change in the Colonial Era: Education

Many Western-educated people embraced other aspects of European culture as well:

Dressed in European clothes

Learned French or EnglishBuilt European-style housesGot married in long, white dressesEducation created a new cultural divide = between the minority who had mastered the ways of their rulers and the majority who had not

The King of Siam and other young students, all dressed in European clothingSlide4

Cultural Change in the Colonial Era: Education

Western-educated elites believed they were the key to modernizing their societies

Believed they could do so within a colonial framework and in association with colonial authorities

These educated elites = had these hopes crushedEuropeans generally declined to treat their Asian and African subjects as equalsEuropeans constantly referred to their cultures as primitive and backwardResult = Western-educated elites turned against colonial rule and foreign imperialism and became leaders in struggles for independence

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”

Slide5

Cultural Change in the Colonial Era: Religion

Religion = provided the basis for new or transformed identities

Widespread conversion to Christianity in: New Zealand, the Pacific Islands, non-Muslim Africa, etc.

By the 1960s = about 50 million Africans had converted to ChristianitySlide6

Cultural Change in the Colonial Era: Religion

Attractions to Christianity:

Military defeat shook confidence in the old gods and local practices

 led to openness to new sources of supernatural powerChristianity = associated with modern education (because missionary schools provided education)Oppressed groups (young, poor, women, etc.) = found new opportunities and greater freedom with missionsSpread of the Christian message = mainly by African teachers and pastors, not European missionaries

German Missionaries in Southwest Africa, c. 1910Slide7

Cultural Change in the Colonial Era: Religion

In India = many turned toward a revived Hinduism

More distinct and unified

Purposes of this revived Hinduism:Provide India with an accessible religion on an even keel with ChristianityProvide Indians with a feeling of worth when faced with the humiliation of colonial ruleUplift India’s village communitiesOffer spiritual support to a Western world caught up in materialism and militarism

Swami Vivekananda

One of India’s most influential religious figures of the 19

th

centurySlide8

Cultural Change in the Colonial Era: Race

New cultural identity = an “African identity”

Before = no one in Africa identified themselves as “African”

Based their identity on their: local community, religion, state/empire, etc.Goal = to revive the cultural self-confidence of people in Africa by creating a larger, common, and respected “African tradition” equivalent to “Western culture”Slide9

Cultural Change in the Colonial Era: Race

Scholar Edward

Blyden

argued that: the world’s races are different, but each has its own distinct contribution to make to the worldAfrican CultureEuropean CultureCooperative and egalitarian societiesCompetitive, individualistic, class-ridden societies

Harmonious relationship with natureDominate

and exploit the natural order

Religious sensibility

Religious sensibility lost

– more attention now to material gainSlide10

Cultural Change in the Colonial Era: Tribe

Most important new sense of belonging that developed during the colonial era = the idea of “tribe” or

ethnic identity

Idea of an Africa sharply divided into separate and distinct “tribes” = a European ideaTo help with colonial administrationPeople even had to identify their “tribe” on applications for jobs, schools, and identity cardsSlide11

Cultural Change in the Colonial Era: Tribe

Africans gradually found ethnic and tribal labels useful

 especially in large urban cities

Helped them to categorize themselves and others in these massive cities with a wide variety of peopleSense of security in being part of a tribeTribal and ethnic associations created to provide mutual assistance while in the cities

Women from the Igbo Tribe of southeastern Nigeria