Essential Question: How did environmental factors contribute to the global economy between 1750 and 1900?

A:

-In India, the British built a complex railway network that stretched from the interior to the coasts in order to ship raw materials out of the country easily.

-After the development of more effeicient steam engines in 1870, steamships became practical for long distances. In the 1870s, the development of compression refirdgeration equipment made it possible to ship perishibles such as meat and dairy products across oceans.

-Telegraph service was introduced in India in 1850, just five years after it started in Britain. Telegraph lines often followed railroad routes, submarine telegraph cables soon crossed oceans. In 1866, the first permanent transatlantic cable was laid between the United States and England.

S:

-Colonial peoples provided the labor for large-scale projects, like building railroads or telegraph lines. They were paid meager wages for difficult and dangerous labor.

-Most colonies had few roads, and those that existed were usually poorly maintained and often unusable during rainy seasons.

-Europeans often used railroads as evidence that imperialism helped the poeple of Asia and Africa. However, the interest mostly resided with the colonies.

-When Europeans arrived in Asia and Africa, they found mainly agricultural economies, with most people raising enough food to live on- substinence farming- with perhaps little left over to sell.

P:

-Connecting all of the British-held colonies with a transportation network would make governance easier and aid in mobilizing for war if necessary, however Britain never got control of all the land they needed to make that happen.

I:

-Guano, bat and seabird excrement, is rich in nitrates and phosphates, making it an excellent natural fertilizer.

R:

E:

-In order to feed industries’ desires for raw materials, such as cotton, copper, and rubber, Europe looked to Asia and Africa. American agriculture looked to South America for fertilizer. The people of these continents were also potential consumers of European and American manufactured goods.

-Natural resources, new markets, and low-wage labor drove economic imperialism.

-The introduction of railroads lowered the cost of transporting raw materials for shipment to Europe, they helped open up colonial markets for manufactured goods.

-Under the control of imperialist powers, substinence farmers abandoned their traditional ways and grew cash crops instead such as tea, cotton, sugar, oil palms, rubber, and coffee. Imperial demands for cash crop had a damaging effect on subject nations because it caused food prices to rise.