4. Imperialism
Definitions
The process of extending one state’s control over another
Formal imperialism
Colonialism or direct control
Annexed territories outright
Established new governments
5. Imperialism
Definitions
Informal imperialism
Conquering nations reached agreements with indigenous leaders and governed
through them
Allowed weaker state to maintain its independence while reducing its sovereignty
Carving out zones of European sovereignty and privilege
6. Imperialism
Imperialist endeavors
1875–1902: Europeans took up 90 percent of Africa
1870–1900: small group of European states colonized one-quarter of the world’s
lands
9. Imperialism
Nineteenth-century imperialism
Appeared against the backdrop of industrialization, liberal revolutions, and the
rise of nation-states
The need for raw materials
Imperialists sought to distance themselves from earlier histories of conquest
10. Imperialism
Nineteenth-century imperialism
Colonial resistance and rebellion forced Europeans to develop new strategies of
rule
Nineteenth-century empires established carefully codified racial hierarchies
Guided more by ―settlement and discipline‖ than independent entrepreneurial
activity
The creation of new kinds of interaction between Europeans and indigenous
peoples
12. Photograph of a group of Afghani women posed in front of a tent in Afghanistan, taken by an unknown photographer in the 1890s.
During the nineteeth century it was the scene of conflict between the expanding British and Russian empires and led to three
Anglo-Afghan Wars, to stop Russia gaining control of the Khyber Pass.
13. Imperialism in South Asia
India and the British empire
The ―jewel of the British Crown‖
The British East India Company
Had its own military divided into European and Indian divisions
Held the right to collect taxes on land from Indian peasants
14. Imperialism in South Asia
India and the British empire
The British East India Company
Held legal monopolies over trade in all goods (the most lucrative was opium)
Constituted a military and repressive government
British policy divided
One group wanted to Westernize India
Another thought it safer and more practical to defer to local culture
15. Imperialism in South Asia
The Sepoy Rebellion (1857–1858)
Uprising began near Delhi
Social, economic, and political grievances
Indian peasants attacked law courts and burned tax rolls
16. Imperialism in South Asia
The Sepoy Rebellion (1857–1858)
A protest against debt and corruption
The British response
Systematic campaign of repression
Rebel-supported towns and villages were destroyed
Defeat of the rebellion fired the imagination of the British public
17. Imperialism in South Asia
After the mutiny: reorganizing the Indian empire
East India Company was abolished
British raj governed directly
Military reorganization
Reform of the civil service
Missionary activity subdued
18. Imperialism in South Asia
India and Britain
India as Britain’s largest export market
India provided Britain with highly trained engineers and bureaucrats
1.2 million Indian troops fought with the British in World War I
19. Imperialism in South Asia
India and Britain
British indirect rule sought to create an Indian elite to serve British interests
Large social group of British-educated Indian civil servants and businessmen
20. Imperialism in China
Europe and China
Forced trade agreements
Set up treaty ports
Established outposts of missionary activity
21. Imperialism in China
The opium trade
A direct link between Britain, British India, and China
Opium—one of the few products Europeans could sell in China
Northeast India as richest opium-growing area
Opium production was labor-intensive
23. Imperialism in China
The Opium Wars (1839–1842)
The first Opium War
Drugs not the main focus
The issue was sovereignty and economic status
Treaty of Nanking (1843)
British trading privileges
Hong Kong
24. Imperialism in China
The Opium Wars (1839–1842)
The second Opium War
Britain granted further rights
Other countries demand similar rights and economic opportunities
The United States and the ―open door‖
Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895)
Forced China to concede trading privileges
The independence of Korea
25. Imperialism in China
The Opium Wars (1839–1842)
The Taiping Rebellion (1850–1864)
Radical Christian rebels challenged the authority of the emperor
China’s agricultural heartland was devastated
26. Imperialism in China
The Boxer Rebellion (1900)
The Boxers
Secret society of men trained in martial arts
Antiforeign and anti-missionary
Attacked foreign engineers, destroyed railway lines, and marched on Beijing
27. Imperialism in China
The Boxer Rebellion (1900)
The European response
Great powers drew together
Repression of the Boxers
The rebellion highlighted the vulnerability of European imperial power
28. Imperialism in China
The new imperialism in 1900
Asia is partitioned
Japan alone retains its independence
British: India, Burma, Malaya, Australia, and New Zealand
Dutch: Indonesia
29. Imperialism in China
The new imperialism in 1900
French: Indochina
Problems
Struggle between great powers exacerbated nationalist feelings
The destabilizing effects of the new imperialism
31. Imperialism in China
Russian imperialism
Policy of annexation
Southern colonization
Georgia (1801)
Bessarabia, Turkestan, and Armenia
Brought Russia and Britain close to war, especially over Afghanistan
33. The French Empire and
the Civilizing Mission
The French in Algeria
Algeria as a settler state
Under the Third Republic (1870), Algeria was made a department of France
Gave French settlers full rights of republican citizenship
Consolidated privileges
Disenfranchised indigenous populations
34. The Scramble for Africa
and the Congo
The Congo Free State
The 1870s
A new drive into central Africa—the fertile valleys of the Congo River
European colonizers under the Belgian king, Leopold II (1835–1909, r. 1865–1909)
Herbert M. Stanley and his ―scientific‖ journeys
35. The Scramble for Africa
and the Congo
The Congo Free State
The 1870s
International Association for the Exploration and Civilization of the Congo (1876)
Signed treaties with local elites
Opened the Congo to commercial exploitation (palm oil, rubber, diamonds)
Other colonizers reacted (especially Portugal)
36. The Scramble for Africa
and the Congo
The Congo Free State
The 1870s
The Treaty of Berlin (1884)
Chaired by Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898)
Established ground rules for a new phase of European expansion
The Congo would be open to free trade and commerce
The Congo Free State
Actually run by Leopold’s private company
Slave trade suppressed in favor of free labor
The Congo becomes a Belgian colony (1908)
38. The Scramble for Africa
and the Congo
The partition of Africa
Britain
Southern and eastern Africa
Cecil Rhodes (1853–1902)
Made a fortune from South African diamond mines (DeBeers)
Prime minister of Cape Colony (1890)
Personal goal was to build an African empire founded on diamonds
Carved out territories in Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, and Botswana
39. The Scramble for Africa
and the Congo
The partition of Africa
Colonial powers increase their holdings in Africa (1880s)
Germany
Bismarck was a reluctant colonizer
Seized strategic locations (Cameroon and Tanzania)
France
Aimed to move eastward across the continent
40. The Scramble for Africa
and the Congo
The partition of Africa
Britain
The ―Cape-to-Cairo‖ railway
Making Britain self-sufficient
41. Imperial Culture
Images of empire
Advertising
Museums displayed the products of empire
Music halls and imperial songs
43. Imperial Culture
Empire and identity
The ―civilizing mission‖ of the French
Bringing progress to other lands
Women and empire
44. Imperial Culture
Theories of race
Arthur de Gobineau (1816–1882)
Race as the master key to understanding the world’s problems
The racial question overshadowed all others
Houston Stewart Chamberlain (1855–1927)
Making racial theory more scientific
Tied racial theories to Darwinism and Herbert Spencer
45. Imperial Culture
Theories of race
Francis Galton (1822–1911)
Eugenics: the science of improving racial qualities
Selective breeding
Karl Pearson (1857–1936)
Systematic study of intelligence and genius
The rhetoric of progress, the civilizing mission, and race
Provided a rationale for imperial conquest
46. Imperial Culture
Critics
Hobson and Lenin criticized imperialism as an act of greed and antidemocratic
arrogance
Joseph Conrad argued that imperialism signified deep problems
The Pan-African Congress (1900)
The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of race
48. Imperial Culture
Colonial cultures
Growth of Bombay, Calcutta, and Shanghai
Colonialism created new hybrid cultures
Annexed areas as laboratories for creating orderly and disciplined societies
Worry over preserving national traditions and identity
Compromises about ―acceptability‖
49. Crisis of Empire at the Turn
of the Twentieth Century
Europe in 1900
Sharp tensions between Western nations
The expansion of European economic and military commitments to territories
overseas
Fashoda (1898)
Britain and France faced one another for dominance of Africa
50. Crisis of Empire at the Turn
of the Twentieth Century
Ethiopia
Italy developed a small empire along the shores of the Red Sea (1880s to 1890s)
Annexed Eritrea and parts of Somalia
An expedition sent to conquer Ethiopia (1896)
The Ethiopians killed six thousand Italians at Adowa
51. Crisis of Empire at the Turn
of the Twentieth Century
South Africa: the Boer War
Afrikaners (Boers)—Dutch and Swiss settlers who had arrived in the early
nineteenth century
Troubled relationship with the British in South Africa
Afrikaners set up two free states: Transvaal and the Orange Free State
Afrikaners and British went to war (1899)
53. Crisis of Empire at the Turn
of the Twentieth Century
South Africa: the Boer War
British army was completely unprepared for war
British government refused to compromise
A guerrilla war dragged on for three years
British used concentration camps where Afrikaner citizens were rounded up
The Union of South Africa—British and Boers shared power
54. Crisis of Empire at the Turn
of the Twentieth Century
U.S. imperialism
Spanish–American War (1898)
Antecedents
War with Mexico in the 1840s
The conquest of new territories
Conflict with Spain
Spanish imperial authority face problems in the Caribbean and Pacific colonies
American press sided with the rebels
55. Crisis of Empire at the Turn
of the Twentieth Century
U.S. imperialism
Panama
U.S.-backed rebellion in 1903
Recognized Panama as a republic
The Panama Canal (1914)
Intervention in Hawaii and Santo Domingo
Renewed missionary activity
ImperialismImperialism is the process whereby one state extends political, economic, and social control over another. It was not a new phenomenon in late nineteenth-century Europe. The antecedents of imperialism are perhaps as old as human society itself. However, by the last half of the nineteenth century, European imperialism had grown more complex and varied. Economic changes brought about by the Industrial Revolution created an environment in which European capitalists and financiers came to realize the huge profits that could be made by overseas trade. The Industrial Revolution forever changed the pace at which raw materials were consumed and goods were produced. The Europeans needed to seek new sources of raw materials and expand the global markets for their goods.
The French Empire and the Civilizing Mission Historians have called the late nineteenth-century quest for empire “new imperialism.” This new imperialism was multifaceted. Some nations sought a direct form of imperialism called colonialism; other nations opted for a more indirect form of rule whereby agreements were reached between Europeans and indigenous leaders. Regardless of what form the new imperialism took, it is certain that economic interests played a major role. However, focusing solely on economic causes would necessarily overlook other significant factors that caused late nineteenth-century imperialism. For instance, some historians have stressed strategic or nationalist motives over economic interests. Meanwhile, the great powers of Europe—Britain, France, Germany, and Russia—and the United States supported imperialism as a means of restoring national prestige and honor. There were cultural forces at work as well. The “civilizing mission” of France highlights the notion that there were regions outside of Europe that needed to be civilized. In England, Rudyard Kipling wrote about the “white man’s burden” to civilize what he and others considered the “barbaric” territories outside of Europe. This cultural dimension was indeed important since nations could never have embarked on the perilous path of imperialism without the support of their own people. Newspapers, magazines, and popular literature made significant contributions to the popular support for imperialism by making it appear to be both natural and necessary. In addition, the Social Darwinists and proponents of eugenics all made clear that the survival of the fittest, which meant the fittest race, depended on subduing the “uncivilized” peoples of the world.
Crises of Empire at the Turn of the Twentieth Century Today’s world is based on the principles of globalization, a sort of “new” new imperialism. In the twentieth century, the new imperialism would haunt the great powers, which took such pains to build their empires in the late nineteenth century. All the great empires of the nineteenth century have been dismantled to some degree. But something remains: a much more subtle form of imperialism—neocolonial relationships—that has had profound ramifications throughout the twentieth century and beyond.
