The New Imperialism

1. The New
Imperialism,
1870s-1914
Fake propaganda poster from the 21st century that
nevertheless embodies the spirit of imperialism.

2. Introduction to Imperialism
• Imperialism = extension of
a nation’s power over
foreign peoples and lands
• Age of Exploration
(1492 AD)  first European
overseas empires = control
of key coastal trade ports
and limited political and
social influence

3. Introduction to Imperialism
• 1860s-1914  “New Imperialism” =
extended Europe and the United
States' global influence and
increased contact with non-
European peoples.
• Empires moved inland into
continental interiors, subjugated
indigenous peoples, imposed
Western law and culture, and
exploited resources.

4. Introduction to Imperialism
By the
early
1900s,
Europe
& former
European
colonies
controlled
85% of Earth

5. Major Powers:
• Britain
• France
• Germany
• United States
• Russia
British Empire in 1920

6. Major Powers:
• Britain
• France
• Germany
• United States
• Russia
French Empire in 1914

7. Major Powers:
• Britain
• France
• Germany
• United States
• Russia
German Empire in 1914

8. Major Powers:
• Britain
• France
• Germany
• United States
• Russia

9. Major Powers:
• Britain
• France
• Germany
• United States
• Russia
Russian Empire in 1914

10. Ottoman Empire in 1914
Minor Powers:
• Ottoman Turks
• Austria-Hungary
• Belgium
• Portugal
• Spain
• Netherlands (Dutch)
• Italy
• Japan

11. Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1914
Minor Powers:
• Ottoman Turks
• Austria-Hungary
• Belgium
• Portugal
• Spain
• Netherlands (Dutch)
• Italy
• Japan

12. Belgian Empire in 1914
Minor Powers:
• Ottoman Turks
• Austria-Hungary
• Belgium
• Portugal
• Spain
• Netherlands (Dutch)
• Italy
• Japan

13. Minor Powers:
• Ottoman Turks
• Austria-Hungary
• Belgium
• Portugal
• Spain
• Netherlands (Dutch)
• Italy
• Japan
Portuguese Empire in the 20th century

14. Minor Powers:
• Ottoman Turks
• Austria-Hungary
• Belgium
• Portugal
• Spain
• Netherlands (Dutch)
• Italy
• Japan
Spanish Empire in 1898. By this time, the empire
was a fraction of its greatest size.

15. Minor Powers:
• Ottoman Turks
• Austria-Hungary
• Belgium
• Portugal
• Spain
• Netherlands (Dutch)
• Italy
• Japan
Dutch Empire, 1914

16. Minor Powers:
• Ottoman Turks
• Austria-Hungary
• Belgium
• Portugal
• Spain
• Netherlands (Dutch)
• Italy
• Japan
Italian Empire, 1914

17. Minor Powers:
• Ottoman Turks
• Austria-Hungary
• Belgium
• Portugal
• Spain
• Netherlands (Dutch)
• Italy
• Japan

18. Introduction to Imperialism
Major reasons for New
Imperialism:
1. Demands of industrial
economies
2. Nationalism and
militarism
3. Social Darwinism and the
“White Man’s Burden”
60 million Indians under British rule starved to death in famines
when they were forced to grow cash crops like cotton rather than food.

19. Industrial economies
• Industrial Revolution 
European economy 
• Factory production 
manufacturing exceeding
demand  surplus of
cheap goods  need for
new consumers  new
consumer markets in
Asia, Africa, and Latin
America

20. Industrial economies
• Need for raw
materials to feed
industrial factories
(metals and minerals
like copper and tin,
tropical crops such
as rubber and palm
oil, diamonds, etc.)
The population of Belgian Congo was enslaved to harvest rubber.
Many were mutilated and up to 10 million died.

21. Industrial economies
• Agricultural Revolution
 excess population 
urban crowding in
Europe  European
migration to Americas,
Africa, Asia, and Australia

23. Industrial economies
• Industrial
technologies were
used to expand
empires and
increase imperial
control.

24. Industrial technologies: Transportation
• Steamships and railroads connected imperial capitals to colonies

25. Industrial technologies:
Communication
• Telegraph lines allowed
global communication
“The Colossus of Rhodes” – British imperialist Cecil
Rhodes stretches a telegraph line “From Cape to Cairo”

26. Industrial technologies:
military weaponry
• Breech-loading rifles like
the Prussian Dreyse needle
gun (1841) allowed rapid
rate of fire.
• Claude-Étienne Minié's
muzzle-loading high-
velocity conical point bullet
(1847) cut straight through
bodies and shattered bone.
"KILL EVERY ONE OVER TEN.”
- Gen. Jacob H. Smith during the
US occupation of the Philippine Islands

27. Industrial technologies:
military weaponry
• Henry Stanley took
600 rounds/minute
Maxim machine gun
to "darkest Africa"
(1889). 5000
Matabele warriors
were defeated by 50
British South African
Police armed with
four Maxims (1893).

28. Industrial technologies:
military weaponry
• British Indian Dum
Dum arsenal made
the expanding bullet
(1896). It was ruled
"too inhumane" at
the Hague
Convention (1899).
A Soldier wounded in
World War I by
a Dum Dum round

29. Industrial technologies:
military weaponry
• German Krupp Big
Bertha howitzer
cannon (1900) fired
an 1800-pound shell
up to 9 miles.

30. Industrial technologies: military weaponry
• British HMS Dreadnought (1906) was a revolutionary battleship.
The American “Great White Fleet”, 1907

31. Industrial technologies: military weaponry
• British Indians and French North Africans
supplied military manpower.
British soldiers from Panjab, India in France, 1917 French soldier from Senegal

32. Industrial technologies:
tropical medicine
• Medical advances defeated
previously debilitating tropical
disease: quinine was given as a
prophylactic tonic to combat
malaria (1850).
• British Patrick Manson
connected mosquitoes to
disease (1877). American Walter
Reed fought yellow fever (1900).

33. Nationalism and Militarism
• After French Revolution, allegiance to monarch < allegiance to
nation
• Economic prosperity of middle and lower classes of Europe 
increased political influence  greater interest in their nation-
state’s success over neighboring nation-states  intense rivalries
between European nations

34. Nationalism and militarism

35. Political caricature
map of the
countries of
Europe, known as
the Octopus Map
from the brooding
presence of the
Russian Empire
depicted as a
massive octopus,
whose tentacles
stretch out
towards Europe.
China is shown in
the grasp of
Russia, as is Persia
and Poland. France
and Spain are
attractive women,
while Germany,
Italy and England
are military
commanders.

36. Nationalism and Militarism
• Colonies  To grow
national prestige and gain
advantage over rival
imperial nations.
• Wealth of colonies
increased standard of
living in Europe
European diplomats
partitioned Africa at the
Berlin Conference, 1884-1885

37. Nationalism and militarism
• Major improvements to
weaponry  itch to flex new
military might  Militarism
• National Militarism: Wilhelm II's
Weltpolitik foreign policy (1891)
demanded Germany take its
"place in the sun" through
aggressive diplomacy, overseas
colonies, and a powerful navy.

39. Nationalism and militarism
• Military & naval bases & fuel
depots for ocean steamships.
Gunboat diplomacy won
Indochina for France (1893)
and Zanzibar for Britain (1896).
• “Great Game” = whichever
European nation had most
imperial possessions would
“win” Political cartoon of US President Theodore
Roosevelt using “gunboat diplomacy” to keep
European powers out of the Dominican Republic.

40. White Man’s Burden
• Social Darwinism =
applied Darwin’s ideas
to human societies
• European nation-
states were competing
with one another and
they believed the
fittest nation-state
would survive

41. White Man’s Burden
• Europeans falsely
believed technological
superiority = proof of
racial, social,
intellectual, cultural,
and spiritual superiority

42. White Man’s Burden
• Believed European
civilization = more
evolved  ideal
towards which all other
peoples should aspire
Paris, France, 1900

43. White Man’s Burden
• Enlightenment views of
progress believed
civilizations evolve
through stages to a
superior capitalist, urban
society.
• "Backwards" people were
incapable of this stage
needed guidance or
extermination.

44. White Man’s Burden
• Native Americans,
sub-Saharan Africans,
Asian hunters,
fishers, and nomadic
herdsmen were
considered "savage"
societies living by
laws of nature
without higher law,
learning, religion, or
morals.

45. White Man’s Burden
• British colonists
exterminated
Tasmanian
aborigines in the
Black War
(1825–1832).

46. White Man’s Burden
• Germans conducted genocide of Herero and Nama natives of
Southwest Africa (1904-7).

47. Severed heads from victims of the
Herero and Nama genocide were
sent to Germany for race scientists
to study.
White Man’s Burden
• Germans conducted genocide of Herero and Nama natives of
Southwest Africa (1904-7).

48. White Man’s Burden
• Orientalists studied Asian cultures. Persia, India, and China were
seen as roughly on par with Europe in the 1600-1700s but were
incapable of more progress.

49. White Man’s Burden
• Europeans and
Americans had a
duty to “civilize” less
evolved “primitive”
peoples  save
Africans, Asians, and
Native Americans
from “ignorance,
paganism, poverty,
filth, and general
‘backwardness’”

50. White Man’s Burden
• British Rudyard
Kipling (Jungle
Book, 1894; Kim,
1901) wrote
"White Man's
Burden" (1899)
cheering on the
American civilizing
mission in the
Philippine Islands.

52. American Missionaries
in China, 1905

53. Christian missionary zeal
• European belief in superiority
of Christianity to other
religions  missionary call for
Europeans to convert
“heathens”
• Especially true of Protestant
Great Britain and United States

54. Christian missionary zeal
• British missionary
David Livingstone
disappeared exploring
southern Africa's
interior. NY Herald
reporter Henry Stanley
greeted him (1873)
with "Dr. Livingstone,
I presume?"

55. Types of Colonies
• Direct = ruled by officials
from homeland 
turn into province
(France)

56. Types of Colonies
• Indirect = use local rulers 
educate elite children 
transform to homeland’s
style (Britain)

57. Types of Colonies
• Protectorate = local rulers left
to follow imperial advisors
British soldiers in Egypt sent to protect the Suez Canal, 1882

58. Types of Colonies
• Sphere of Influence = exclusive trading privileges for imperial
power (Europeans in China, US in Latin America)