HIST103 Study Guide

Unit 8: Expansion in the Industrial Age

8a. Explain what the Second Industrial Revolution was and where it took place

  • What is the significance of the Second Industrial Revolution?

The Second Industrial Revolution (1870–1914), also called the Technological Revolution, transformed societies based on agricultural production and industrial manufacturing. The invention of steam power during the first Industrial Revolution (1760–1840) led to the expansion of the railroads and steamboats. It also ushered in mechanized textile production, the telegraph, and large-scale manufactured goods. The Second Industrial Revolution featured advancements in the steel, electrical, and oil industries. The internal combustion engine was innovated in addition to the Bessemer process for steel production.

Inventors such as Alexander Graham Bell (telephone, 1876) and Thomas Edison (light bulb, 1879), revolutionized communication and enabled factory production into the night. This led to an explosion of cheap consumer goods and advancements in medicine and military technology.

To review, see The Second Industrial Revolution.


8b. Analyze the different reasons for European imperialism, including criticisms

  • Why did Europeans imperialize the world?
  • How did advanced technology help Europe imperialize the world?

A new era of European imperialism began in the 1850s. Industrial technologies, guns, and weaponry allowed Europeans to conquer more countries, exploit the raw materials, and install new colonial outposts. Inventions like the machine gun in 1844 by Hiram Maxim and the airplane in 1903 by Wilbur and Orville Wright led to new forms of warfare. J.A. Hobson (1858–1940), the British economist, attributed this new imperialism to the quest for profit spurred by middle-class demand for foreign goods like coffee, tea, sugar, cotton textiles, and ivory. Many promoted the European mission to civilize the world, which Rudyard Kipling professed in his 1899 pro-imperialist poem, The White Man's Burden.

To review, see:


8c. Identify the structure of different European empires, including which territories they controlled

  • What were the various European empires?
  • What territory did each control?
  • How was the structure of European empires different?

During the 19th century, newly unified Germany and Italy joined England, Belgium, and France in their quest to control Africa. The British Empire was the largest, most extensive colonial power during the 16th–20th centuries. At its height, it controlled one-quarter of the earth, promoting the claim that the sun never sets on the British Empire.

The Opium Wars and the Russo-Japanese War determined which colonial powers would control Asia. The first Opium War (1839–42) was fought between China and Britain, and the second Opium War (1856–60), also known as the Anglo-French War in China, was fought by Britain and France against China. During the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05), the newly industrialized Empire of Japan forced Russia to abandon its expansionist policy in East Asia. By the early 20th century, Great Britain controlled large parts of China, France controlled Indochina, and Japan controlled Korea. 

To review, see Colonial Empires.


8d. Describe how people in Africa, Asia, and elsewhere resisted European rule

As we saw in the Americas, European colonialism often saw resistance which turned into rebellion. South Africans resisted British rule in the First Boer War or Transvaal War (1880–1881) and the Second Boer War (1899–1902). Meanwhile, Chinese fighters, led by the Righteous Harmony Society, were unable to resist the encroaching influence of the British Empire and the Empire of Japan during the Boxer Rebellion (1899–1901).

India resisted British colonialism during two separate independence movements. The first was the Indian Rebellion (1857), also known as the First War of Independence. This rebellion was a violent, extensive mutiny against the British East India Company's rule, which ultimately failed and prompted the British to tighten their authority over India. During this movement, Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856–1920) pushed for independence but was ultimately defeated. We will see that many of these resistance movements proved successful in the aftermath of World War I.

To review, see Exploitation and Resistance and The Boxer Rebellion.


Unit 8 Vocabulary

  • Alexander Graham Bell
  • Bal Gangadhar Tilak
  • Boxer Rebellion
  • British Empire
  • First Boer War
  • First War of Independence
  • Germany
  • Hiram Maxim
  • Indian Rebellion
  • Italy
  • J.A. Hobson
  • Opium Wars
  • Rudyard Kipling
  • Russo-Japanese War
  • Second Boer War
  • Second Industrial Revolution (technological revolution)
  • steam power
  • telegraph
  • The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen
  • The Leviathan
  • Third Estate
  • Thomas Edison
  • Thomas Hobbes
  • Toussaint Louverture
  • Transvaal War
  • Two Treatises of Government
  • U.S. Constitution
  • Viceroyalty of New Granada
  • Voltaire
  • White Man's Burden
  • Wilbur and Orville Wright
  • World War I
  • Year of Revolution