Chapter 20 Colonial Encounters (pg. 589-606)

European cultural conquests lasted between 1750 and 1900 which was focused in Asia and Africa rather than in the Western Hemisphere. It featured a new number of players which included Germany, Italy, Belgium, United States, and Japan. The construction of the second wave European empires in the Afro-Asian world, like anywhere were involved with military force or the threat of using it. New technological advances in weaponry such as machine guns and rifles were created which increased the firepower and provided advantage for countries using them. I thought this was interesting because with any new technological advances, countries use them to overpower weaker countries and take control over them. It goes to show that new inventions change the world, sometimes for the better or sometimes for the worse. It mostly depends on how people use them and if they abuse the power that they have. For example, there is a chart on page 593 that shows in 1900, several of the great population areas in Asia had come under the great colonial control of Britain, the Netherlands, France, the United States, or Japan.