The Era of Imperialism:

Chapter 25

1870-1914

Late Nineteenth Century European Imperialism

Objective

To understand the causes of European imperialism of the late 19th century

To understand the extent of European imperial expansion

To understand the consequences of European imperialism for Europe and the developing world

Definitions

Imperialism“extending a nation’s influence directly or indirectly over weaker areas”

ColonialismTaking direct control of an area and turning it into a colony under a nation’s authority

NationalismBelief that an ethnic group should rule itself

Belief that one nation is better than all the others

IndustrialRevolution

IndustrialRevolution

Source forRaw

Materials

Source forRaw

Materials

Markets forFinishedGoods

Markets forFinishedGoods

EuropeanNationalismEuropean

Nationalism

MissionaryActivity

MissionaryActivity

Military& NavalBases

Military& NavalBases

EuropeanMotives

For Colonization

EuropeanMotives

For Colonization

Places toDump

Unwanted/Excess Popul.

Places toDump

Unwanted/Excess Popul.

Soc. & Eco.Opportunities

Soc. & Eco.Opportunities

HumanitarianReasons

HumanitarianReasons

EuropeanRacism

EuropeanRacism

“WhiteMan’s

Burden”

“WhiteMan’s

Burden”

SocialDarwinism

SocialDarwinism

Motivations for ImperialismMoney / Resources

Raw materials• Cotton, Oil, Rubber, Tea, Iron, gold, diamonds, silk, copper etc

People (cheap workers)

MarketsColonies with people who will buy your stuff

Dumping GroundSend your excess population / criminals there

• Canada, Australia

Strategic Control strategic seas and land areas to gain power

Keep OTHER countries from gaining them

Resources and Strategic Areas:

Where are the important geographical areas to control?

Co

R

R

G

R

British Landlords want to make money

Require farmers to grow crops they can sell for money – not for food

“Cash Crops”

Cash Crops”. The agricultural products are grown primarily for exporting purposes. Products such as indigo, banana, pineapple, coffee or sugar cane are grown to be exported to developed countries.

But what

will we eat?

Causes of Late 19th Century European Imperialism

Culture / ReligionBelief in European / Christian superiority

Desire to “spread civilization and Christianity to the heathens”

• Social Darwinism

PrestigeWhoever has the most must be the best

• “He who dies with the most toys wins!”

“The White Man’s Burden”Take up the White Man’s Burden--

Send forth the best ye breed--Go bind your sons to exile

To serve your captive’s need;To wait in heavy harness,

On fluttered folk and wild--Your new-caught sullen peoples,

Half-devil and half-child.Take up the White Man’s Burden

The savage wars of peaceFill full the mouth of famineAnd bid the sickness cease;

And when you goal is nearestThe end for others sought,

Watch sloth and heathen follyBring all your hopes to naught

--Rudyard Kipling, 1899

 

Take up the White Man's burden-

No iron rule of kings,

But toil of serf and sweeper--

The tale of common things.

The ports ye shall not enter,

The roads ye shall not tread,

Go, make them with your living

And mark them with your dead.

 

Take up the White Man's burden,

And reap his old reward-

The blame of those ye better

The hate of those ye guard-

The cry of hosts ye humor

(Ah, slowly!) toward the light:-

"Why brought ye us from bondage,

Our loved Egyptian night?"

 

 

Take up the White Man's burden!

Have done with childish days

The lightly-proffered laurel,

The easy ungrudged praise:

Comes now, to search your manhood

Through all the thankless years,

Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,

The judgment of your peers.

Take up the White Man's burden-

Ye dare not stoop to less-

Nor call too loud on Freedom

To cloak your weariness.

By all ye will or whisper,

By all ye leave or do,

The silent sullen peoples

Shall weigh your God and you.

 

Does the spirit of the poem make sense

now?

Social Darwinism and Imperialism

Some thought the theory of evolution justified the exploitation of “lesser breeds” by “superior races.”

Europeans (and Americans) would suggest that they had evolved more than Indians, Africans and Asians

After all, our countries are more developed and richer – doesn’t that prove it?

Thus, nature gave them the right to rule others.

Social DarwinismSocial Darwinists – sounds rather racist.

They applied evolution to the social order.Europeans felt they must “save the savages” and “civilize” them• Missionaries sought to convert “heathen” unbelievers in

faraway lands. • “The white man’s burden” – introducing civilization to

the “colored” races of the world.

In their view, war was nature’s way of eliminating the unfit.

Using terms such as “survival of the fittest” Social Darwinists insisted that nations and races were engaged in a struggle for survival in which only the fittest survive and deserve to win.

Social Darwinism: Lasting Implications

It promoted the military build-up that led to World War I.

It would become the core doctrine of the Nazi party before World War II.

Holocaust and Eugenics

Provided a “scientific” and “ethical” justification for genocides in the 20th century.

What is being advertised?

Where is this taking place?

How can you tell?

What is going on?

What does it tell us about imperialism / colonialism?

Who was the queen at the time?

Common advertisement during Imperialism

A British Merchant's Home in Colonial India

Britain (United Kingdom)Includes England, Scotland, Wales,Ireland

Largest colonial empire “Sun never sets on the British Empire”Colonies established to protect trading interests in Africa and AsiaTwo kinds of colonies

• “White” Colonies (Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa) Populated mainly by people that moved there from Britain

Given self-rule

• “Non-white” Colonies (India, Africa) Under indirect rule Populated mainly by people who are native to the area Few people from Britain actually live there – but control the

government

All the territories the British ever ownedNote: They also had a “sphere of influence” in China

as well

France

Northwest Africa and Southeast Asia

Took colonies to make up for loss of Alsace-Lorraine in 1870

Tended to use “Direct Rule”Control all aspects of the colony from Paris.

French Colonial Empire - 1905

Ignore these parts

Germany

Bismarck originally opposed colonial expansion

Unnecessary for Germany

Did not want to threaten France or Britain

Germany eventually took colonies in 1880s for status symbols

In Africa and Asia

United States

Did not get involved in European affairs

Became colonial power after 1898Spanish-American War

• U.S. gains control of Puerto Rico, Guam, Philippines

Monroe Doctrine allows US to extend influence into Latin America

American Territorial Expansion after 1898

Case Study #1

Imperialism in Africa

Scramble for AfricaEurope had been interested in Africa for centuries

Through the slave trade

Much of Africa still unexplored until 1880s

European influence restricted to coastline

Initially difficult to get to interior due to geography

Diseases made exploration difficult. (malaria, yellow fever

etc)

Technology Encourages Europeans to explore African interior

Steamboats

Advances in medicine• Quinine – stops malaria

Suez Canal

Geographical Impact of the Suez Canal, 1869

16,000 KM

10,000 KM

See why the Suez canal

is a “strategic” location?

Scramble for Africa

By 1914, 90% of Africa under European controlFrance Northwest Africa

Britain from Egypt to South Africa

Belgium in the Congo (central Africa)

Italy in Libya and Eastern Africa

Portugal in southern Africa

Germany in scattered areas

Berlin Conference in 1885 sets ground rules for European colonization of Africa

Berlin Conference

The scramble threatened European stability.

Bismarck called an international conference in Berlin in 1884 to lay some ground rules for the development of Africa.

They made the Congo a free trade zone

Outlawed slavery and the slave trade that the Arabs and Africans were still practicing.

Before European colonization of Africa in 1880

Africa 1914

Scramble for Africa

Consequences Traditional way of life disrupted

Economic exploitation of Africans

European racism imported into Africa

Spread of European culture

Spread of Western technology

Conquest of Africa

The consequences of European partitioning (dividing up) of the continent were devastating to Africa

newly drawn borders don’t match up with ethnicity, language, culture of people living there.

In the decades before World War I, opposition to European colonial rule in Africa gathered strength.

                                                                                               

                                                 

How do you control your empire??

British in South AfricaDutch had first settled the Cape Colony in South Africa

Dutch settlers called Boers (Dutch word for “farmer”)

Early 1800s -British take over South Africa from DutchBoers move north into the Transvaal Area to get away from British

Transvaal

“The Great Trek”

British in South Africa

Native Zulus and Dutch fighting

British push into Zulu’s lands

Dutch Boers ally w/ Brits

Zulu

land

The Zulu Wars

British pick a fight with Zulus

You lose some, you win some

Isandlwana

Rorke’s Drift

Discovery of Gold!1880s Boers find gold and diamonds on their new lands in the “Transvaal” areaBrits want that gold and diamondsThe “Boer War”

New methods of warfareBoers use guerrilla tactics

Hit and runOperate in small units called

“commando’s”

British counter this by rounding up Boer

in “concentration camps” to keep an

eye on them

Remember this one – it will come back again

End of the Boer WarBritish win and consolidate their lands in South AfricaEventually South Africa is given autonomyMost of the white settlers in South Africa are Dutch, but the land is owned by Britain.Most of the population is blackMinority, white dominated, government establishes system of “Apartheid”

Complete separation of the racesNon-whites made into second class citizens in their own landStays in place until 1996 when international pressure forces South Africa to eliminate Apartheid

European Imperialism in Asia

IndiaBritain trading in India since 1600s

• British East India Co. gradually took over parts of India

British government gradually took over India in the 1800s

• Sepoy Mutiny Indian soldiers revolt against British East India Co Rebellion put down by British army British government takes over control from British East

India Co.

Map of Imperialism in Asia

Growth of British Power in India

European Imperialism in India

• Consequences of British Imperialism in India British educational system established Spread of English language Railroads tie India together Rise of Indian middle class

European Imperialism in Asia• China

Potentially huge market Closed to European trade until 1800s Opium War (1840)

• Britain forces China to open trade to opium Millions of addicts Unequal Treaties (Treaty of Nanking) – China forced open

By 1900, China divided into European “spheres of influence”

• Parts of China under European control Chinese monarchy seriously weakened

Reaction to Imperialism

• Rise of Nationalist Movements India

• Indian National Congress (1885)

• Group of middle class Indians begin to demand independence (Mohandas Gandhi)

China• Boxer Rebellion (1900)

• Nationalist Party

Reaction to Imperialism• Japan

Long isolated from Western trade

U.S. opens Japan to trade in 1854 Meiji Restoration (1868)

• Faction overthrows Shogun and restores Emperor to power

• Japan imports Western ideas and technology

• Ever see ….

Reaction to Imperialism

• Japan adopts imperialism by 1890s Defeats China in 1895

• Takes over Taiwan

Defeats Russia in 1905• Gains control of Korea

• Japanese imperialism worries Europeans “Yellow Peril”

Conclusion

• Different reasons for European imperialism during late nineteenth century

• European imperialism causes reactions in Africa and Asia

• European imperialism disrupts traditional way of life and continues to affect the world today

•

Nations gaining independence post-WWII

Decolonisation

A troublesome experience

1. The economic problems they inherited

2. The need to find political systems that work for the individual nations.

Popular perceptions of Colonialism

(arguments for and against) Impact of ImperialismImperialism did:• Created infrastructure in colonies - eg British railway systems • Increase levels of formal education (albeit not universally) • Gave people access to Western medicines and hospitals (but

sometimes only after introducing Western viruses) • Bring with it ideas of freedom and liberty in the sense that the

European colonial countries were almost all liberal democracies. • Plunder natural resources • Create of dual economies • Create the loss of independent political power • Eventually bring about ‘imperial over-reach’

Criticisms of ImperialismColonialism as a Theory of oppression: • Colonialism is a distinctly western evil• The west became rich and the colonies

became impoverished. • The descendants of colonialism are worse off than

they would’ve been if colonialism had never occurred.• Walter Rodney : “White hoards have sallied forth from

their western homelands to assault, loot, occupy, rule and exploit the world. Even now the fury of their expansionist assault on the rest of us has not abated”

• Activists such as Jesse Jackson have called on the west to pay repatriations for slavery and colonialism to minorities of the third world.

• The West is in possession of the ‘stolen goods’ of other cultures and has a moral and legal obligation to make some form of repayment.

The above notions suggest that the west became dominant because it was oppressive.

Arguments In Defence of colonialism• There is nothing uniquely Western about imperialism

. E.g.. India was preceded by at least six colonial powers.

• Those who identify imperialism with the West have no sense of history.

• The West did not become rich and powerful through colonial oppression.

In Defence Of Colonialism• Science

It is a basic shared human trait. But science, requiring experiments, labs, the scientific method, induction, verification – THE INVENTION OF INVENTION – is a western institution.

• DemocracyTribal participation is universal but democracy involving free elections, peaceful transitions of power, and separation of powers is a western idea

• CapitalismAgain the impulse to trade is universal, and there is nothing western about the use of money, but capitalism – which requires property rights, contracts, courts to enforce them, corporations, stock exchanges, patents, insurance -, this practice was developed in the west.

Colonialism and imperialism are not the cause of the west’s success; they are the results of that success.

THE END

DON’T BE COLONISING ANYONE!!!