The Era of Imperialism

Chapter 21

WHAT IS IMPERIALISM?

Building an empire by dominating other countries

Emergence of the New Imperialism • European history has been one of

expansion. In the 1500s and 1600s it was rush for colonialism, a period of settlement and trade. We saw the exploration, conquest, and settlement of many areas of the world.

• European influence over the rest of the world grew as European nations industrialized, expanding world trade.

• Industrialization created the new imperialism as Europeans struggled for raw materials, markets for their manufactured goods, and places to invest their capital for higher rates of return.

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• This cartoon shows a snake made of a rubber vine with King Leopold's head twisting around and trying to strangle a Congolese man. The King's demand for rubber from Congo was immense and led to the death of many people.

The MAIN reasons for Imperialism

Markets for goods

Industrial Revolution leads to new goods

Acquire Resources

Need Raw Materials to make products

Introduce Christianity

White Mans Burden

Nationalism

Every Country wants to be the Best

New Imperialism: Markets• In the late 1800s,

many politicians and industrialist believed that annexing overseas territories was the only way for their nations to ensure economic success. So, one reason for the new imperialism was economic.

European Expansion Worldwide

New Imperialism: Nationalism• Policymakers hoped that possession of empires

would unite together social groups with pride in national power. This was especially important to newly unified countries such as Germany and Italy.

– In other words, nationalism led to imperialism. Many leaders hoped that imperialism would win them the loyalty of their own people.

– The nationalistic competition among Europeans led them, for a time, to extend their power struggles to Africa and Asia, acquiring territories for strategic reasons or sometimes just to keep competitors from doing so.

New Imperialism: Social Darwinism • The most extreme ideological expression of

nationalism and imperialism was Social Darwinism.

• The theory of evolution justified the exploitation of “lesser breeds” by “superior races.”

• Europeans (and Americans) would repeatedly suggest that they had evolved more than Africans and Asians, and that hence nature itself gave them the right to rule others.

The White Man's Burden • Rudyard Kipling

– The Jungle Book– The White Mans Burden

• Introduction of Western ideas could playa role in lifting non-Western peoples out of "poverty and ignorance".

• View proposes that white people have an obligation to rule over, and encourage the cultural development of, people from other ethnic and cultural backgrounds until they can take their place in the world by fully adopting Western ways.

Joseph Conrad’s: Heart of Darkness

Causes of ImperialismEconomic Motives

The Industrial Revolution created an insatiable demand for raw materials and new markets.

NationalismEuropean nations wanted to demonstrate their power and prestige to the world.

Balance of Power

European nations were forced to acquire new colonies to achieve a balance with their neighbors and competitors.

White Man's Burden

The Europeans’ sense of superiority made them feel obligated to “civilize the heathen savages” they encountered.

The Scramble for Africa • The most rapid European

expansion took place in Africa. – As late as 1880, European

nations ruled only a tenth of the continent.

– By 1914, Europeans claimed everything except Liberia (a small territory for freed slaves from the U.S.) and Ethiopia (who defeated the Italians).

– Only Russia, Austria-Hungary, and the U.S. did not scramble for African soil.

Conquest of Africa • Britain occupied Egypt in order to build the Suez Canal

(1859-1869), linking them to India.

• Britain and France were brought to the brink of war after they both claimed the Sudan.

• Britain fought the Boer War (1899-1902) to maintain control of South Africa.

Germany had some of the most efficient colonies.

The tensions over the conquest of Africa contributed to the alliances that the Great Powers made in the decade before World War I.

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Panama Canal

Travel Distance

Panama Canal Locks

Panama Canal Facts

Maps

Berlin Conference• A scramble threatened European stability.

• Bismarck called an international conference

in Berlin in 1884 to lay some ground rules for the development of Africa.– They made the Congo a free trade zone – Outlawed slavery and the slave trade that the

Arabs and Africans were still practicing.

Conquest of Africa• The consequences of European

partition of the continent for Africa were devastating, as the newly drawn borders failed to correspond to older demarcations of ethnicity, language, culture, and commerce.

• In the decades before World War I, opposition to European colonial rule in Africa gathered strength.

European Domination of Asia & India • India (modern countries of India, Pakistan,

Bangladesh, and Myanmar, or Burma) was the jewel of the British Empire.

• In India, British expansion did not lead to territorial incorporation, nor were colonial subjects supposed to become part of a national citizenry.– They would be governed with an iron fist.– Suppressed the Indian Rebellion of 1857.– East India Company rule replaced with crown

government in 1858.

India and the Imperial Model• Public Works Project:

– By 1910. the Indian railways were the 4th largest railway system in the world.

• Economic Purpose:– India was to become a consumer

of British manufactures (especially textiles) and a supplier of primary staples like cotton, jute, tea (Lipton’s), wheat, and vegetable oil seeds.

– Indian exports balanced Britain’s huge trade deficits with the rest of the world and helped Britain retain its financial might.

Imperial Legacy in India• British administrative programs did turn India

into a unified territory and take the first steps toward becoming a “nation.”

• India would remain part of the British Empire until Mohandas Gandhi led drive for independence through civil disobedience and nonviolent resistance. – India would finally gain its independence

after World War II had exhausted Britain’s resources.

– The country would be split into Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India.

Mohandas Gandhi

The U.S. and Latin America • European influence in Latin America was very different than

in Africa and Asia.

• Europe penetrated South America with investment and trade and immigration. – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and other countries took in the

Irish, Germans, Italians, eastern Europeans, and Spaniards.

• Direct imperialism would only come from the United States.

– U.S. declared war on Spain in 1898 and captured the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Cuba.

Spanish American War

U.S. Imperialism – Yellow Press• The "Yellow Press" is based upon the distortion of facts to try

and make a exciting and more entertaining newspaper, in turn generating more readers.

William Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer. The two men owned their own New York papers, the Journal and the World Respectively.

                                                        

                   

The USS Maine

"USS Maine Blowing up in Havana Harbor 

on 15 February 1898"

The USS MAINE was sent to Cuba on a "friendly" visit.

The MAINE was shattered by two separate explosions and rapidly sank. Two hundred and fifty-two men were killed. Ammunition continued to explode for hours after the blast.

After the disaster, U.S. newspapers were quick to place responsibility for the loss on Spain. –Fueling war with Spain

Later studies have indicated the possibility that the USS MAINE sunk as a result of a coal bunker fire adjacent to one of its ammunition magazines, and not a result of a Spanish mine.

U.S. Imperialism – Yellow Press• Both of the papers were in competition with one another. Each

paper made up many stories

• As the two papers competed they became to play a major role in America's involvement in Cuba. Hearst and Pulitzer both jumped the opportunity with America's conflict and began running Anti-Spanish stories which played a big factor in fueling the notion for a war.

• The start of the Spanish-American War began April 25, 1898. Hearst hired several talented artists for his newspaper strips to create colorful pictures to provoke the war.

• The war did not go on for very long! Ten months later the war ended with the signing of the Treaty of Paris. Spain lost its control over the remain of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippine islands, Guam, and other islands.

The U.S. and Latin America• Following the Spanish-

American War, the U.S. regularly sent troops to many Caribbean and Central-American countries.– The Americans preferred to

make these regimes into dependent client states rather than making them part of the United States itself or converting them into formal colonies as the Europeans had done in Africa and Asia.

– Became the model of 20th-century U.S. expansionism.

The Legacy of Imperialism • The drive to found nation-states and subordinate colonies

provided an effective catalyst for integrating the global economy.– Labor, commodities, and capital moved across the world

more rapidly and in greater numbers than ever before.

• The political division of the world into imperial nation-states and colonial outposts shaped the economic division of the world into industrialized and non-industrialized societies.

• It would not be until the aftermath of World War II that we would see a widespread move toward the decolonization of most of the world.