This document provides an overview of imperialism and its history. It begins with definitions of colonialism, colonies, imperialism, and empire. It then discusses the major empires that existed in the late 19th century across Europe, Asia, and Africa. The document outlines the stages of empire from the 1500s to the present. It examines the justifications and key actors that drove imperial expansion, including missionaries, merchants, and the military. It provides details on specific imperialist events and conflicts like the Scramble for Africa and the Boer War. In the end, it discusses genocide committed by German forces against the Herero and Nama peoples in South-West Africa.

1. HISTORY OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION:
1648 TO PRESENT
LECTURE 17:
WHAT IS IMPERIALISM?

2. I. Introduction
A. Definitions
1. Colonialism/colony: settlement in a conquered territory
2. Imperialism/empire:
“Empire is a relationship, formal or informal, in which
one state controls the effective political sovereignty of
another political society. It can be achieved by force,
by political collaboration, by economic, social, or
cultural dependence.”
Michael Doyle, Empires (1986)

3. I. Introduction
A. Definitions
B. Empires in the late nineteenth century

4. Sir Thomas Brock and Sir Aston Webb. Victoria Memorial,
Buckingham Palace. 1911. Painted Bronze and marble.
Hundrieser and Schmitz. Monument to Kaiser Wilhem I. 1893-97.
Granite and copper. 37 m. Inscription: "Nimmer wird das Reich
zerstört, wenn Ihr einig seid and treu!” (The Empire will never be
destroyed, for as long as you stand united and loyal to each other,
quote from Max von Schenkendorf. Notre Dame Architectural Library.

5. I. Introduction
A. Definitions
B. Empires in the late
nineteenth century

6. I. Introduction
A. Definitions
B. Empires in the late
nineteenth century
John H. Mahoney. William Henry Harrison [comemmorating the Battle of Tippecanoe and the War of 1812].
Completed 1902. Bronze. Monument Circle, Indianapolis, IN.

7. I. Introduction
A. Definitions
B. Empires in the late
nineteenth century
The Opposition tells us that we ought not to govern a people
without their consent. I answer, The rule of liberty that all
just government derives its authority from the consent of the
governed, applies only to those who are capable of self
government. We govern the Indians without their consent,
we govern our territories without their consent, we govern
our children without their consent. How do they know what
our government would be without their consent? Would not
the people of the Philippines prefer the just, humane,
civilizing government of this Republic to the savage, bloody
rule of pillage and extortion from which we have rescued
them?
And, regardless of this formula of words made only for
enlightened, self governing people, do we owe no duty to
the world? Shall we turn these peoples back to the reeking
hands from which we have taken them? Shall we abandon
them, with Germany, England, Japan, hungering for them?
Shall we save them from those nations, to give them a self
rule of tragedy?
They ask us how we shall govern these new possessions. I
answer: Out of local conditions and the necessities of the
case methods of government will grow. If England can
govern foreign lands, so can America. If Germany can
govern foreign lands, so can America. If they can supervise
protectorates, so can America. Why is it more difficult to
administer Hawaii than New Mexico or California? Both had
a savage and an alien population: both were more remote
from the seat of government when they came under our
dominion than the Philippines are to day.
Albert Beveridge, Campaign Speech for Senator, Indiana,
September 16, 1898
Albert Beveridge (1862-1927, US Senator
1899-1911). Library of Congress,
Washington D.C.

8. I. Introduction
A. Definitions
B. Empires in the late nineteenth century
http://www.nationalatlas.gov/index.html

9. I. Introduction
A. Definitions
B. Empires in the late nineteenth century
The British Raj in 1947
(Britannica.com)

10. I. Introduction
A. Definitions
B. Empires in the late nineteenth century
Qing Dynasty in 1911
(Britannica.com)
1st Opium War (1839-42)
• ended in the "Unequal Treaties" (Treaties of
Nanking and Tianjin)
• opening of ports for unrestricted foreign trade
• cession of Hong Kong to Britain
2nd Opium War (1856-60)
• opened more ports to British traders
• permission of foreigners to travel throughout
country
Consequences included the weakening of
Qing Dynasty (1644-1912), the Taiping
Rebellion (1850-64), the Boxer Rebellion
(1899-1901), and the collapse of the Qing
Dynasty in 1912.

11. I. Introduction
A. Definitions
B. Empires in the late nineteenth century
Japanese Empire (Britannica.com)

12. I. Introduction
A. Definitions
B. Empires in the late nineteenth century
Southeast Asia, c.
1940

13. I. Introduction
A. Definitions
B. Empires in the late nineteenth century
Russian Expansion (Britannica.com)

14. I. Introduction
II. The Stages of Empire
A. Stage 1: Colonies in the Americas (1492-1800)
1. Warfare and disease
2. Migration
3. Slavery
Theodor De Bry, Map of the Americas
with portraits of Christopher Columbus,
Amerigo Vespucci, Ferdinand Magellan
and Francisco Pizarro. 1596. (Prints
and Photographs Division, Library of
Congress)

15. I. Introduction
II. The Stages of Empire
A. Stage 1: Colonies in the Americas (1492-1800)
B. Stage 2: Strategic Outposts (1700-1850)
1. Trading Companies
2. Informal Empire
Francis Hayman, Lord Clive meeting with Mir
Jafar after the Battle of Plassey [1757], c. 1762.

16. I. Introduction
II. The Stages of Empire
A. Stage 1: Colonies in the Americas (1492-1800)
B. Stage 2: Strategic Outposts (1700-1850)
C. Stage 3: Formal Empire (1850-1945)
D. Stage 4: Decolonization and Globalization (1945-present)

17. I. Introduction
II. The Stages of Empire
III. Actors and Justifications: “God, Gold and Glory”
A. Missionaries
1. Religion
2. Civilizing
Mission
3. White Man’s
Burden
Hardwick Christian Boys' School, Narsinghpur from Margaret B. Denning,
Mosaics from India: talks about India, its peoples, religions, and customs
(Edinburgh: Oliphant, Anderson & Ferrier, 1902).

18. I. Introduction
II. The Stages of Empire
III. Actors and Justifications: “God, Gold and Glory”
A. Missionaries
B. Merchants
1. Free trade
2. Markets

19. I. Introduction
II. The Stages of Empire
III. Actors and Justifications: “God, Gold
and Glory”
A. Missionaries
B. Merchants
C. Military
1. Nationalism/Competition
2. Social Darwinism/Racism
3. Masculinity
" Lord Randolph Churchill's Brilliant
Son” from [London] Sunday
Telegraph, February 18, 1900.
Moreton Frewen Papers, Library of
Congress

20. I. Introduction
II. The Stages of Empire
III. Actors and Justifications: “God, Gold and Glory”
IV. Scramble for Africa
A. Slavery and
Underdevelopment
B. Causes
1. New technology
a. Steamship
b. Guns -- rifle and
Gatling gun
c. Arms Race
d. Quinine

21. I. Introduction
II. The Stages of Empire
III. Actors and Justifications: “God, Gold and Glory”
IV. Scramble for Africa
A. Slavery and
Underdevelopment
B. Causes
1. New technology
2. Economics
a. Great Depression of 1873
b. S. Africa gold and diamonds
c. Suez Canal
d. King Leopold II’s Congo
Young Persons' Cyclopedia
of Persons and Places
(1881)

22. I. Introduction
II. The Stages of Empire
III. Actors and Justifications: “God, Gold and Glory”
IV. Scramble for Africa
A. Slavery and
Underdevelopment
B. Causes
1. New technology
2. Economics
3. Politics
a. Mass Politics
b. Ideology
Alfred Morgan, An Omnibus ride to Piccadilly Circus - Mr
Gladstone traveling with ordinary passengers (1885)

23. I. Introduction
II. The Stages of Empire
III. Actors and Justifications: “God, Gold and Glory”
IV. Scramble for Africa
A. Slavery and
Underdevelopment
B. Causes
C. Berlin Conference (1884-5)
1. “Effective Administration”
2. “Treaty of Protection”

24. I. Introduction
II. The Stages of Empire
III. Actors and Justifications: “God, Gold and Glory”
IV. Scramble for Africa
A. Slavery and
Underdevelopment
B. Causes
C. Berlin Conference
(1884-5)

25. I. Introduction
II. The Stages of Empire
III. Actors and Justifications: “God, Gold and Glory”
IV. Scramble for Africa
V. Cultures of Empire: Selling Empire at Home

30. I. Introduction
II. The Stages of Empire
III. Actors and Justifications: “God, Gold and Glory”
IV. Scramble for Africa
V. Cultures of Empire: Selling Empire at Home
VI. The Boer War (1899-1902)
A. Dutch Boers and British Expansionism
B. Diamonds (1871) and
Gold (1886)
Map of Southern Africa Showing the British
Colonies and the Boer Republics

31. I. Introduction
II. The Stages of Empire
III. Actors and Justifications: “God, Gold and Glory”
IV. Scramble for Africa
V. Cultures of Empire: Selling Empire at Home
VI. The Boer War (1899-1902)
A. Dutch Boers and British Expansionism
B. Diamonds (1871) and
Gold (1886)
C. Cecil Rhodes
1. Invested in diamond minds and by
1880s held virtual monopoly (founder
of De Beers)
2. Imperialist politician in S. Africa: British
S. African Company given charter in
1889  given rights to police and
expand empire in S. Africa
Edward Linley Sambourne. The Colossus
of Rhodes. Punch.

32. I. Introduction
II. The Stages of Empire
III. Actors and Justifications: “God, Gold and Glory”
IV. Scramble for Africa
V. Cultures of Empire: Selling Empire at Home
VI. The Boer War (1899-1902)
A. Dutch Boers and British Expansionism
B. Diamonds (1871) and
Gold (1886)
C. Cecil Rhodes
D. Technologies
1. Gatling gun
2. Barbed wire
3. Total war: scorched earth (burning crops, killing livestock,
poisoning wells, salting earth) and concentration camps

33. Destruction of Afrikaner farms in scorched earth campaign
(Anglo Boer War Museum, South Africa)

34. Waiting for water in concentration camp
(Anglo Boer War Museum, South Africa)

35. Mrs Mitchell and children in front of their tent, Bloemfontein camp
(Anglo Boer War Museum, South Africa)

37. The Boy Scouts
• Founded by Sir
Baden-Powell in
1908
• Uniforms based in
the British South
African Police Force

38. Jason M. Kelly, Ph.D. Associate Professor of British
History, IUPUI
@histback #H109
© 2011 Jason M. Kelly
I. Introduction
II. The Stages of Empire
III. Actors and Justifications: “God, Gold and Glory”
IV. Scramble for Africa
V. Cultures of Empire: Selling Empire at Home
VI. The Boer War (1899-1902)
VII. The Herero and the Germans
A. Genocide

39. UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime
of Genocide, New York, 9 December 1948
The Convention defines genocide as any of a number of acts
committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a
national, ethnic, racial or religious group: killing members of the
group; causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the
group; deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life
calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in
part; imposing measures intended to prevent births within the
group, and forcibly transferring children of the group to another
group.

40. I. Introduction
II. The Stages of Empire
III. Actors and Justifications: “God, Gold and Glory”
IV. Scramble for Africa
V. Cultures of Empire: Selling Empire at Home
VI. The Boer War (1899-1902)
VII. The Herero and the Germans
A. Genocide
B. Origins

41. Daniel Kariko (Under-Chief of Omaruru):
The result of this war is known to everyone. Our
people, men, women and children were shot like dogs
and wild animals. Our people have disappeared now.
I see only a few left; their cattle and sheep are gone
too, and all our land is owned by the Germans. . . .
After the fight at Waterberg we asked for peace; but
von Trotha said there would only be peace when we
were all dead, as he intended to exterminate us. I fled
to the desert with a few remnants of my stock and
managed more dead than alive to get away far north.
House of Commons, great Britain, Accounts and Papers, vol. 17 Colonies and British Possessions, 12
February 1918-21 November 1918 (HMSO, 1918); Report on the Natives of South-West Africa and their
Treatment by germant, Prepared in the Administrator's Office, Windhuk, South-West Africa, January 1918

42. Daniel Kariko (Under-Chief of Omaruru):
Manuel Timbu (Cape Bastard), at present Court Interpreter in native languages at Omaruru, states
under oath:
I was sent to Okahandja and appointed groom to the German commander, General von Trotha. I had
to look after his horses and to do odd jobs at his headquarters. We followed the retreating Hereros
from Okahandja to Waterberg, and from there to the borders of the Kalahari Desert. When leaving
Okahandja, General von Trotha issued orders to his troops that no quarter was to be given to the
enemy. No prisoners were to be taken, but all, regardless of age or sex, were to be killed. General von
Trotha said, "We must exterminate them, so that we won't be bothered with rebellions in the future."
As a result of this order the soldiers shot all natives we came across. It did not matter who they were.
Some were peaceful people who had not gone into rebellion; others, such as old men and old women,
had never left their homes; yet these were all shot . . . . While we were there a Herero woman came
walking up to us from the bush. I was the Herero interpreter. I was told to take the woman to the
General to see if she could give information as to the whereabouts of the enemy. I took her to General
von Trotha; she was quite a young woman and looked tired and hungry. Von Trotha asked her several
questions, but she did not seem inclined to give information. She said her people had all gone towards
the east, but as she was a weak woman she could not keep up with them. Von Trotha then ordered
that she should be taken aside and bayoneted. I took the woman away and a soldier came up with his
bayonet in his hand. He offered it to me and said I had better stab the woman. I said I would never
dream of doing such a thing and asked why the poor woman could not be allowed to live. The soldier
laughed, and said, "If you won't do it, I will show you what a German soldier can do." He took the
woman aside a few paces and drove the bayonet through her body. He then withdrew the bayonet and
brought it all dripping with blood and poked it under my nose in a jeering way, saying, "You see, / have
done it." Officers and soldiers were standing around looking on, but no one interfered to save the
woman. Her body was not buried, but, like all others they killed, simply allowed to lie and rot and be
eaten by wild animals.
House of Commons, great Britain, Accounts and Papers, vol. 17 Colonies and British Possessions, 12
February 1918-21 November 1918 (HMSO, 1918); Report on the Natives of South-West Africa and
their Treatment by germant, Prepared in the Administrator's Office, Windhuk, South-West Africa,
January 1918

43. Jan Cloete (Bastard), of Omaruru, states under oath:
I was in Omaruru in 1904. I was commandeered by the Germans to act as a guide for them to
the Waterberg district, as I knew the country well. I Avas with the 4th Field Company under
Hauptmann Richardt. The commander of the troops was General von Trotha. I was present at
Hamakari, near Waterberg when the Hereros were defeated in a battle. After the battle, all men,
women and children, wounded and unwounded, who fell into the hands of the Germans were
killed without mercy. The Germans then pursued the others, and all stragglers on the roadside
and in the veld were shot down and bayoneted. The great majority of the Herero men were
unarmed and could make no fight. They were merely trying to get away with their cattle. Some
distance beyond Hamakari we camped at a water-hole. While there, a German soldier found a
little Herero baby boy about nine months old lying in the bush. The child was crying. He brought
it into the camp where I was. The soldiers formed a ring and started throwing the child to one
another and catching it as if it were a ball. The child was terrified and hurt and was crying very
much. After a time they got tired of this and one of the soldiers fixed his bayonet on his rifle and
said he would catch the baby. The child was tossed into the air towards him and as it fell he
caught it and transfixed the body with the bayonet. The child died in a few minutes and the
incident was greeted with roars of laughter by the Germans, who seemed to think it was a great
joke. I felt quite ill and turned away in disgust because, although I knew they had orders to kill all,
I thought they would have pity on the child. I decided to go no further, as the horrible things I saw
upset me, so I pretended that I was ill, and as the Captain got ill too and had to return, I was
ordered to go back with him as guide. After I got home I flatly refused to go out with the soldiers
again.
House of Commons, great Britain, Accounts and Papers, vol. 17 Colonies and British Possessions, 12 February 1918-21
November 1918 (HMSO, 1918); Report on the Natives of South-West Africa and their Treatment by germant, Prepared in the
Administrator's Office, Windhuk, South-West Africa, January 1918

44. I. Introduction
II. The Stages of Empire
III. Actors and Justifications: “God, Gold and Glory”
IV. Scramble for Africa
V. Cultures of Empire: Selling Empire at Home
VI. The Boer War (1899-1902)
VII. The Herero and the Germans
A. Genocide
B. Origins
C. Consequences and Genocide
1. Concentration Camps
2. Sex Slavery
3. Medical Experiments
"So accord them just the
measure of protection they
may require as a race which
is inferior to us, in order to
continue their existence:
nothing more, and only as
long as they are of use to
us. Otherwise survival of
the fittest, ie, to my mind, in
this case, extinction. This
point of view sounds almost
brutally egotistic, but
whoever thinks through
thoroughly the notion of
race, can not arrive at a
different conclusion.”
Eugen Fisher

46. Jason M. Kelly, Ph.D. Associate Professor of British
History, IUPUI
@histback #H109
© 2011 Jason M. Kelly