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Learn about the key factors that drove imperialistic expansion, including the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions, nationalism, and the ideology of Social Darwinism. Explore how these forces shaped the colonial ambitions of powerful nations.
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Causes of Imperialism: • Agricultural Revolution • Industrial Revolution • Nationalism • Explain… • Also: • 4) Social Darwinism
Causes of Imperialism: • Agricultural Revolution • a) more food = more people • b) more people need more space to live • 2) Industrial Revolution • a) need more and more natural resources to use in factories • b) need new supplies of labor to keep wages low • c) need to find new markets of people to buy products • 3) Nationalism • a) countries prove their greatness by acquiring colonies • b) countries compete with each other to get more colonies • 4) Social Darwinism • a) strong countries should rule over weak countries • b) spread Western Civilization
Social Darwinism said that strong people should rule over weak people…
One English writer put it this way: “Whatever happens, we have gotthe Maxim gun, and they have not.”
Rudyard Kipling, author of The Jungle Book, was an Anglo-Indian – an Englishman who was born in India. His ideas about imperialism can be seen in a poem he wrote in 1889, called The White Man’s Burden: “Take up the White Man’s Burden – Send forth the best ye breed – Go bind your sons to exile To serve your captives’ need; To wait in heavy harness On fluttered folk and wild – Your new caught, sullen peoples Half devil and half-child.”
The White Man’s Burden was the idea that Europeans had to conquer the rest of the world, to spread the benefits of Western Civilization. This was supposed to help them…
Mahatma Gandhi was born in India around the same time as Rudyard Kipling. Gandhi lived in India and Africa and studied law in England, but he had different ideas about imperialism. Reporter: “What do you think about Western Civilization?” Gandhi: “I think it would be a good idea!” Gandhi led India to independence from England through nonviolent resistance.
Gandhi and others thought that Europeans were just talking about helping the people they conquered. The West wasn’t really civilized. It was brutally conquering the entire world and taking foreign countries’ natural resources.
Vladimir Lenin was a Marxist who would one day lead a Socialist Revolution in Russia. Lenin thought that capitalism needed imperialism to survive. The Bourgeoisie had to cover the world, looking for new labor supplies and cheap natural resources – always searching for new markets of people to buy their finished products.
