Colonialism and the big colonial empires

1. THE AGE OF EMPIRES

2. Colonialism is the practice of wealthy
or powerful nations (mother countries)
of extending their control over other
territories, in order to establish
settlements or exploit their resources.
The Age of Empires was an era
between the last decades of the 19th
century and the end of WW2 in which
the most industrialized countries
extended their control and influence to
other territories. They took advantage
of their technological superiority and
created colonies or submitted
territories to their interest.
1888 CARTOON REPRESENTING JOHN BULL,
PERSONIFICATION OF THE UK, AS AN OCTOPUS
SEIZING COLONIES ALL OVER THE WORLD

3. CAUSES OF
COLONIALISM
ECONOMIC REASONS: search for cheap raw materials
and workers, markets to sell manufactured products and
invest capitals
DEMOGRAPHIC REASONS: emigration was encouraged by
the governments to reduce the excess of population and
social conflicts
POLITICAL REASONS: control of strategic places or gain
international prestige by conquering territories abroad.

4. JUSTIFICATION TO IMPERIALISM
The Europeans tried to justify
their ambitions by saying that
they had the responsibility of
civilizing the least developed
territories of the colonies. This
was called “civilizing mission”
and “the white man´s heavy
burden”.
But this wasn´t true: it was an
excuse based on racism,
because it meant considering
the “white” people to be
superior to the rest.

5. These ideas were based on Social
Darwinism, a perversion of Charles Darwin's
ideas, which adapted Darwin’s theory of
evolution to explain how societies work. The
theorists of this current considered that there
were better fitted "races" (the "white"
people") and that was the explanation to
their superiority and their right to control
the inferior "races".
Social Darwinism was used to classify
people into different "races", depending
on the colour of people´s skin or the size
of their heads.
Social Darwinists also defended eugenics,
something similar to selective breeding, in
order to get "pure" individuals, by
sterilizing first and eliminating later the people
who had any physical of psychic flaw.
SOCIAL DARWINISM
http://todayinsocialsciences.blogspot.com.es/2013/03/more-about-social-darwinism.html

6. ATTITUDES TOWARDS COLONIALISM
JULES FERRY BENJAMIN DISRAELI
GEORGES
CLEMENCEAU
LENIN
-Most of the population didn´t have
an opinion about colonialism
-Most of the politicians and businessmen
were in favour of colonialism. Examples:
Jules Ferry (France) and Benjamin Disraeli
(United Kingdom)
- Only some thinkers, trade unionists and
socialist politicians denounced exploitation
and defended the right of the colonized
peoples
to decide by themselves. Examples: Georges
Clemenceau (France) and Lenin (Russia)

7. Some missionaries and civil
servants of the colonizing
countries also denounced
exploitation, such as reverend
David Livingstone and Roger
Casement, an Irish civil
servant who worked for the
British government.
DAVID LIVINGSTONE ROGER CASEMENT

8. THE CONQUEST
It was fast due to the technological and
military superiority of the colonizers.
The indigenous peoples tried to resist,
but they couldn´t stop the occupation.
The colinizers used tribal rivalries to
divide the indigenous peoples or hired
some tribes to fight against other peoples
The biggest revolts were the Zulu Wars in
South Africa against the British.
BATTLE OF ISANDLWANA, ANGLO-ZULU WAR

9. TYPES OF COLONIES
COLONIES OF EXPLOITATION: they
totally depended on the mother country
and didn’t have an autonomous
government. The colonizers owned the
lands, mines and export companies and
their main interest was exploiting their
economic resources. Most of the African
colonies belonged to this type
SETTLER COLONIES: colonies with an
important population from the
colonizing country. They were
considered overseas provinces, had an
autonomous government, but their
foreign policy was controlled by the
mother country. Examples: Australia,
New Zealand, Canada
PROTECTORATES: in theory they were independent,
because they had an indigenous government, but they
couldn’t have an independent foreign policy. Examples:
Morocco (controlled by France and Spain between
1907 and 1956) and Egypt (controlled by the UK)

10. CONCESSIONS were theoretically
independent countries that gave
commercial advantages to other
nations, like the control of ports
or tariff reduction. This was the
case of China, which was obliged
to open its trade to other
territories and give the control
of some coastal cities to other
countries.
CHINESE CONCESSIONS TO OTHER COUNTRIES

11. THE BIG COLONIAL EMPIRES
The big European powers, the USA and Japan started conquering territories in the last decades of
the 19th century and occupied most of Africa, Asia and Oceania. The largest colonial empires
belonged to the United Kingdom and France. Both countries competed to gain control of colonies
in Africa and Asia.

12. Caricature of Cecil Rhodes anouncing
a telegraph line from Cairo to Cape Town
THE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA
In Africa France and the UK wanted to create
continuous empires (the UK from North to South and
France from West to East). The British and the
French became quickly confronted in the center of
Africa.

13. BERLIN CONFERENCE (1885)
FIRST MEETING OF THE CONFERENCE
BISMARCK OFFERING SLICES OF AFRICA
TO THE EUROPEANS
In order to avoid a war between the European
powers in their race to occupy Africa, Otto Von
Bismarck sponsored an international conference
in Berlin to establish some rules, organize African
colonization .
Main decisions:
-the country that occupied the coast of a territory
could also seize the interior in order to claim it they
had to occupy it militarily
-free navigation of the African rivers
-creation of the Congo Free State, given to
King Leopold II of Belgium
Consequences:
The Berlin Conference meant a true scramble for
Africa. The main European countries started a race
to seize as many territories as they could. Only
Liberia, Abyssinia and Morocco remained free .

15. King Leopold II of Belgium as a rubber
snake entangling a Congolese rubber
collector
Rubber collectors who didn´t complete
their rubber collection quotas and
whose hands were cut off as a punishment
King Leopold II of Belgium exploited Congo as a private property

16. WESTERN IMPERIALISM IN ASIA

17. CHINA
QUEEN VICTORIA, WILHEM II, NICOLAS II,
THE FRENCH REPUBLIC AND A SAMURAI
DIVIDING CHINA
In Asia China was the most coveted territory. The
Europeans tried to control it. After the two Opium
Wars, the British obliged the Chinese to open
China to the foreigners.

18. At the end of the 19th century there
were some revolts against the
foreigners, like the Boxer Rebellion.
The Boxers, a secret society that
practiced martial arts, wanted to
expel foreigners from China. They
killed 300 foreigners. The European
powers, the USA and Japan sent an
international army to Beijing and
defeated the Boxers. The Chinese
government had to pay a
compensation of 330 million dollars
and foreign troops were stationed
permanently in China to prevent
further revolts.
BOXER REBELLION

19. After its independence the USA
expanded throughout North
America and reached the Pacific
Ocean. Some territories were
bought to other countries (Florida
to Spain, Louisiana to France and
Alaska to Russia), most of the
territory was snatched to the
native Americans and other
territories were won in wars
against Mexico.
The USA foreign policy followed the Monroe Doctrine: “America for the Americans”.
EXPANSION OF THE USA

20. In the Caribbean Sea the USA intervened in the War of Cuban Independence against Spain. After
the 1898 Disaster, the USA established a protectorate in Cuba and annexed Puerto Rico. Later they
established another protectorate over Nicaragua, controlled Panama and the exploitation of the
Panama Canal.
In the Pacific Ocean they seized the islands of Midway, Hawaii and Samoa. After the Spanish
defeat in 1898 they also annexed the Philippine Islands

22. JAPANESE COLONIALISM
Japan was forced to open to foreign
influence by the USA in 1853. This
meant the end of the feudal system and
the beginning of the modernization of
the country with the Meiji Period.
Population growth and industrialization
increased the need for raw materials,
food and markets for their products and
they started their expansion to
continental Asia and the Pacific Ocean.
The Japanese seized some
archipelagoes (Kuril, Ryukyu), fought
against China and Russia and annexed
the island of Formosa, half of Sakhalin
Island and the Peninsula of Liaodong.
In 1810 Korea became a Japanese
protectorate.

23. CONSEQUENCES OF COLONIALISM
They were apparently positive:
- they reinforced their political power, increased
their wealth and could avoid social tensions with
emigration.
But they also had other consequences:
- they had to spend public money to keep the
armies that controlled the colonies.
- colonial competition increased international
tension and this led to several wars, like the Boer
Wars in South Africa, between the Boers,
descendants of Dutch colonizers, and the UK.
- Colonial confrontation was also one of the
causes of World War 1.
CONSEQUENCES FOR THE MOTHER COUNTRIES

24. Their local governments were removed or were controlled by the mother
countries, whose rulers redrew the borders, separating peoples or including
enemy tribes in the same territories.
CONSEQUENCES FOR THE COLONIZED TERRITORIES

25. - Introduction of some advances: infrastructures, industries, technology, hygiene habits
and healthcare, schools, but only for the interest of the colonists.
- Acculturation process: loss of local cultures and their way of living
- Mortality decreased and population increased. But in many cases the balance between
population and resources broke up and starvation and poverty spread out
-

26. The economic exploitation of the colonies
was always made to favour the mother
countries:
- traditional crops were abandoned and
were replaced by big monoculture
plantations
- traditional crafts workshops were
ruined because of the import of
cheaper manufactured products from
the mother countries
- indigenous industrialization was
forbidden
- the introduction of a monetary
economy destroyed their traditional
economy.

27. The social structure of the colonized societies
also changed:
- tribal customs and the role of old people
were abandoned.
- Colonial society was unequal and
segregated: the white minority controlled
power and wealth, lived in separated
neighbourhoods, while most of the
population were forced to work and
occupied a secondary position in their own
countries.
- In some places colour was the pretext for a
complete separation between communities
(apartheid).

28. Colonialism created an unequal organization of world economy, controlled by
the colonizing countries. The colonies were submitted to a dependence role and
this was the origin of the huge differences between current developed and
developing countries