Impact of Imperialism DBQ

Credit
In the Cause of Humanity: Abolition of suttee (sati) and infanticide. Destruction of [various criminal groups] and other pests of Indian society. Allowing remarriage of Hindu widows, and charitable aid in time of famine. 
In the Cause of Civilization: Education, both male and female. Though yet only partial, an inestimable blessing … 
Politically: Peace and order. Freedom of speech and liberty of press. Security of life and property. Freedom from oppression caused by the caprice or greed of despotic rulers…
Debit
… Politically: Repeated breach of pledges to give the natives... a reasonable voice in the legislation … 
Financially: All attention is engrossed in devising new modes of taxation, without any adequate effort to increase the means of the people to pay.
Materially: The political drain...from India to England, of above £500,000,000, at its lowest computation. … The further continuation of this drain at the rate of above £12,000,000 per annum. … The Material condition of India is such that the great mass of the poor have hardly a tuppence a day and a few rags.

READER: Now you will have to explain what you mean by civilization.
EDITOR: This civilization is such that one has only to be patient and it will be self-destroyed. … I cannot give you an adequate conception of it. It is eating into the vitals of the English nation. It must be shunned. … Civilization is not an incurable disease, but it should never be forgotten that the English are at present afflicted with it. 
READER: I should like to know your views of the condition of our country.
EDITOR: It is a sad condition. … It is my deliberative opinion that India is being ground down, not under the English heel, but under that of modern civilization. It is groaning under the monster’s terrible weight. … Railways, lawyers, and doctors have impoverished the country so much so that, if we do not wake up in time, we shall be ruined.
READER: You have denounced railways, lawyers, and doctors. I can see that you will discard all machinery. What, then, is civilization?
EDITOR: ...The tendency of the Indian civilization is to elevate the moral being; that of the Western civilization is to propagate immorality. The latter is godless; the former is based on the belief in God. So understanding and so believing, it behooves every lover of India to cling to the Indian civilization.

The Emperor proclaims:
From time immemorial there have been only three strategies for opposing the enemy: attack, defense, negotiation. [Regarding the French], Opportunities for attack were lacking. It was difficult to gather required strength for defense. And in negotiations the enemy demanded everything. … With every passing day the Western envoys got more and more overbearing. Recently they brought in troops and naval reinforcements, trying to force on Us conditions We could never accept. We received them with normal ceremony, but they refused to accept a single thing. … It was decided, rather than bow heads in obedience, sitting around and losing chances, better to appreciate what the enemy was up to and move first. [To] those who fear death more than they love their king, who put concerns of household about concerns of country, mandarins [government officials] who find excuses to be far away, soldiers who desert, citizens who do not fulfill public duties eagerly for a righteous cause, officers who take the easy way and leave brightness for darkness--all may continue to live in this world, but they will be like animals disguised in clothes and hats.

...With heavy hearts, many Europeans here see how the Javanese, whom they regard as their inferiors, are slowly awakening, and at every turn a brown man comes up who shows that he has just as good brains in his head, and just as good heart in his body, as the white man. …
But we are going forward, and they cannot hold back the current of time. I love the Hollanders very, very much, and I am grateful for everything we have gained through them. Many of them are among our best friends, but there are also others who dislike us, for no other reason than we are bold enough to emulate them in education and culture. 
In many subtle ways they make us feel their dislike. “I am a European, you are a Javanese,” they seem to say, or “I am the master, you are the governed.” Not once, but many times, they speak to us in broken Malay; although they know very well that we understand the Dutcch language. It would be a matter of indifference to me in what language they addressed us, if the tone were only polite. …”

So we surrendered to the White people and were told to go back to our homes and live our usual lives and attend to our crops. We were treated like slaves. They came and were overbearing. We were ordered to carry their clothes and bundles. They harmed our wives and our daughters. How the rebellion started I do not know; there was no organization, it was like a fire that suddenly flames up. I had an old gun. They--the White Man--fought us with big guns, machine guns, and rifles. Many of our people were killed in this fight: I saw four of my cousins shot. We made many charges but each time we were defeated. But for the White men’s machine guns, it would have been different. 

...One thing which caused us deep apprehension, and that was the fact that the wicked, cruel YU Hsien, the hater of foreigners, was the newly appointed Governor of Shansi. He had previously promoted the Boxer movement in Shantung, and had persuaded the Empress Dowager that the Boxers had supernatural powers and were true patriots….
The wicked Governor, Yü Hsien, scattered proclamations broadcast. These stated that the foreign religions overthrew morality and inflamed men to do evil, so now gods and men were stirred up against them, and Heaven's legions had been sent to exterminate the foreign devils. Moreover there were the Boxers, faithful to their sovereign, loyal to their country, determined to unite in wiping out the foreign religion. He also offered a reward to all who killed foreigners, either titles or office or money. When the highest official in the province took such a stand in favor of the Boxers, what could inferior officials do? People and officials bowed to his will, and all who enlisted as Boxers were in high favor. It was a time of license and anarchy, when not only Christians were killed, but hundreds of others against whom individual Boxers had a grudge.

Dinizulu was king from 1884 to 1913, pictured here with his men in a combination of Zulu dress and European weaponry.