The Age of Imperialism

Ch 27

1850-1914

• Imperialism • A policy by which strong nations tried to dominate other

countries politically, economically, or socially

• Spurred by:

1. industrialism (industrialized nations sought

resources + markets for their products) [Gold]

2. Belief in European superiority [Glory]

- A strong empire was a measure of

national greatness

- Racism – (belief that one race is superior

to another)

- Social Darwinism is the belief

that those (Europeans) who are

the fittest for survival enjoyed

wealth + success and were

superior to others

- thought it was their duty to

“Westernize” the rest of the world

3. Desire to spread Christianity [God]

The White Man’s Burden

• Africa Before

European

Domination

A map drawn in Spain

and dated to 1375,

showing the king of Mali

holding a gold nugget

• By mid-1800s, African people were divided

into hundreds of ethnic + linguistic groups

w/ most following traditional beliefs while

some converted to Islam + Christianity.

Politically, they ranged from large empires

that united many ethnic groups to

independent villages

• Originally Europeans had been discouraged

from widespread exploration of Africa due

to powerful African armies, difficulties

traveling in the interior, + diseases

• Africans had trade networks w/ each other

+ foreigners

1885

• Beginnings

of European

Exploration

into Africa

• 1st few explorations were done by explorers,

missionaries, or humanitarians opposed to the

slave trade

• They published stories about their travels

• Newspapers hired reporters to write about these

exotic places

• A reporter (Henry Stanley) made news after

finding a missing missionary (Dr. Livingstone)

in Africa’s interior. Stanley was then hired by

the king of Belgium to obtain land in the Congo

• After Stanley got local chiefs to sign the

necessary treaties, Belgium’s king controlled

that land (which was 80% larger than

Belgium!)

• France gets nervous + signs treaty giving it

control of more land by Belgium’s Congo

• And the race is on w/ Britain, Germany, Italy,

Portugal + Spain following…

• Factors

Promoting

Imperialism

in Africa

1. Technological superiority (1st

automatic machine gun is invented)

2. improved transportation +

communications allowed the mother

countries to keep up w/ their colonies

3. Development of the drug quinine (in

1829) protected Europeans from

malaria which plagued Africa’s

interior

4. Divisions among the African tribes

discouraged Africans from unifying

against the Europeans – a weakness

Europeans capitalized on

• The Scramble for Africa

• Discovery of diamonds + gold in South Africa intensify Europe’s interest in colonization

• To prevent war among European countries over Africa, 14 countries participate in the Berlin Conference (1884-85), at which they agreed any European country could lay claim to parts of Africa by notifying other European powers of its claim + showing it controlled the area

• No African ruler was invited to attend this conference

• By 1914, only Liberia + Ethiopia remained free

• Europeans cash in on Africa’s rich natural resources

• Developed cash-crop plantations which displaced food crops grown by Africans to feed their families

1914

• Clashes Occur B/w Africans + Europeans

• Zulus fight against British for 8 yrs before being defeated

• Dutch 1st settled South Africa. They become known as Boers (Dutch word for “farmers”) + as Afrikaners. They take Africans’ land + establish large farms. British + Boers clash. Boers moved northward in a movement known as the Great Trek. They then fought w/ other African tribes.

• British + Boers fight in the Boer War (the South African War) for control over South Africa.

• 1st modern war (used commando raids, guerrilla tactics, burning of farms, + imprisonment of women + children in disease-ridden concentration camps)

• Africans also participated

• British won both territories were combined under British control (modern day South Africa).

End Section 1

• European

Control Over

Colonies

• During the explorations of the 15th +

16th centuries imperial powers often

didn’t penetrate far into conquered

areas

• By the 18th + 19th centuries Europeans

demanded more influence over the

economic, political, + social lives of

their colonies for the economic benefit

of the mother countries

Forms of ImperialismColony A country or a territory governed

internally by a foreign power

Protectorate A country or a territory w/ its own

internal gov.’t but under the

control of an outside power

Sphere of

Influence

An area in which an outside

power claims exclusive

investment or trading privileges

Economic

Imperialism

An independent but less-

developed country controlled by

private business interests rather

than other gov.’ts

2 Methods of Control1. Indirect

Control

• Favored by US + Britain

• Relies on existing political rulers

• Had to accept colonial power’s

authority to rule

• Local ruler handled most of the daily

management of colony

2. Direct

Control

• Favored by France + most other

European countries

• Believed colonies were incapable of

running a proper gov.’t

• Led to a policy of paternalism

(treating colonies as if they were

children, providing for their needs,

but not giving them rights)

• Brought in foreign bureaucrats

+ did not train local people in

European styles of gov.’t

• Also led to a policy of assimilation

(one nation forces or encourages a

colony to adopt the mother country’s

institutions + customs)

Imperial Management Methods

Indirect Control

• Local gov.’t officials

used

• Limited self-rule

• Goal: to develop

future leaders

• Gov.’t institutions are

based on European

styles but may have

local rules

Direct Control

• Foreign officials

brought in to rule

• No self-rule

• Goal: assimilation

• Gov.’t institutions are

based only on

European styles

• Ethiopia • Only African country to never be

successfully colonized

• Due to efforts of Emperor Menelik II

1.He played British, French, +

Italians against one another

2.He stockpiled modern

weapons

- Was able to defeat

Italians after being

tricked by them into

signing away Ethiopia

Effects of Colonization:

• Positive 1. Reduced local warfare

2. Improvements in some schools +

hospitals

- literacy rates + life-spans

3. Economic expansion

4. RRs, dams, telephones, +

telegraphs

• Negative 1. Lost control of land + indep.

2. Many died of new diseases

3. Thousands die resisting colonial rule

4. Famines due to planting cash crops

instead of food for Africans

5. Breakdown of traditional cultures

6. Men left families to look for work

7. ***European boundaries broke up

kinship groups + often combined rival

groups

- leads to conflicts that

continue today

End Section 2

• Europeans

Look to the

Middle East

• Ottoman Empire had been power

for the last couple of hundred years

• Geopolitics is an interest in or taking

of land for its strategic location or

products

• The Ottoman Empire controlled

access b/w the Atlantic Ocean +

Mediterranean Sea

*Important trade route which

made its territory very

desirable to European

powers

• Russia + the

Crimean War

• Every generation of Russian czars had

fought a war w/ Ottomans to try to gain land

on the Black Sea coast

• (1853) The Crimean War was a Russian

attempt at gaining a warm-weather port.

Britain + France didn’t want Russia to gain

any Ottoman territory + so fought w/

Ottomans against Russians

• Results:

– Russians lose

– Revealed how weak Ottoman Empire

really was

– Slavic people on Balkan Peninsula

(Romanians, Bulgarians, Bosnians, etc)

gain indep. from Ottomans w/ Russia’s

help

• The Great

Game

• War waged b/w Britain + Russia over

central Asia (specifically India,

Afghanistan, + Persia – modern day

Iran).

• Britain keeps control of India.

• Neither successfully conquer

Afghanistan

• Persia suffers from unrest + is split into

spheres of influence b/w Britain +

Russia

• Egypt • Watches Ottoman Empire decline + get taken apart by Europeans

• Decides to modernize

• (1831) Muhammad Ali was sent by Ottomans to govern

• He breaks away + fights Ottomans

• Recognized by European powers as the ruler of Egypt

• Reformed military + economy

- Had them plant cash crops

• Grandson Isma’il supports the construction of the Suez Canal which connects Red + Mediterranean Seas

–Led to debt + British occupation of Egypt

End Section 3

• British

Involvement

in India

• Started in the 1600s when the British East

India Company set up trading posts in

several Indian ports.

• By the 1700s, India’s ruling dynasties were

weakening + the British East India Company

became the ultimate political power in India

(although “officially” the British gov.’t held

power)

• The British East India Company had its own

army led by British officers w/ Indian soldiers

called sepoys

• Britain considered India to be its “jewel in the

crown” (most valuable colony) due to its vast

raw materials + large population (could be a

major market for British manufacturers)

• Forbid Indians from competing w/

British manufacturers

• Impact of

the British

in India

• Negative:

1. British held political + economic power

- Restricted Indian-owned industries

- Emphasized cash-crops (led to famine)

2. presence of missionaries + racist attitudes against Indians threatened traditional Indian life

• Positive:

1. Laid world’s 3rd largest RR network

- Led to modern economy + unified divided regions

- Also led to a modern road network, telephone + telegraph lines, dams, bridges, + irrigation canals

2. sanitation + public health

3. Schools founded ( literacy)

4. End of local warfare among competing rulers

• The Sepoy Mutiny

• Indians resented British racism + attempts to

convert them to Christianity (most Indians are

Hindu – some Muslim)

• Rumor spreads that British were greasing rifle

cartridges w/ beef + pork fat

• This offends Indians + they refuse to use

the cartridges

• Jailed

• Rebellion begins + spreads over much

of Northern Indian until British establish

control 1 yr later

• British take direct command of

India (Raj: British controlled parts

of India from 1757-1947)

• distrust b/w British + Indians

• Indian nationalism

End Section 4

• Europeans +

Southeast Asia

• Western imperial powers desired lands

around the Pacific Rim for their strategic

location along the sea route to China

• (Pacific Rim: countries that border

the Pacific Ocean)

• Also for sources of tropical

agriculture, minerals + oil

• Colonies 1. Dutch – Indonesia (known as Dutch East Indies)

• Colonists stayed + established a rigid class system:

1. Dutch

2. Wealthy + educated Indonesians

3. Plantation workers

• Forced farmers to plant cash crops on 1/5 of their land

2. British – Malaysia, Singapore, + Burma/Myanmar

• Encouraged Chinese to migrate to Malaysia to mine tin + tap the rubber trees

• Malays became a minority in their own country (still a source of conflict today)

3. French – Indochina (modern day Vietnam, Laos, + Cambodia)

• Forced locals to plant 4x as much rice to export (but had even less for themselves to eat!)

• Results: • Positive:

– Economies from cash crops

– Roads, harbors, + RRs built, which

improve communications +

transportation

– Education + health

• Negative:

– Changes in social structure + loss of

political power

– Migrations cause a mixing of

populations that led to current racial +

religious conflicts

• Siam (Modern

Day Thailand)

• Remained independent

• Surrounded by British + French

colonies

– Promoted itself as a neutral zone

• Kings modernize Siam

– Started schools

– Reformed legal system

– Reorganized gov.’t

– Built RRs

– Ended slavery

– b/c these changes were

made from w/in, Siam

avoided turmoil common in

surrounding countries

• US

Imperialism

• Most Americans disliked idea of colonizing

foreign lands except for:

1. Empire builders who thought US had a

destiny to be a world power

2. Big businesses who wanted new

markets + raw materials

• Hawaii: Americans established sugarcane

plantations

– Eventually, sugar plantations account for

75% of HI’s wealth

• Wanted the annexation (adding

territory) of HI to USA for profits

• Overthrow Hawaiian monarchy

• Annexed to US in 1898

• The Philippines: gained from Spain (along

w/ Puerto Rico, + Guam) after Spanish-

American War (1898)

• Filipinos claimed they had been

promised indep.

– War b/w US + Philippines (1899-

1902)

• US wins but promises to

eventually give them self-rule

• Built RRs, roads, schools, + hospitals

• Encouraged cash crops

• Led to food shortages there

End Section 5