The New Imperialism 1800-1914

1. The New Imperialism 1800-1914

2. What is Imperialism? The domination by one country of the political, economic or cultural life of another

3. Economic Motives of Imperialism? • Due to the Industrial Revolution: • Need for natural resources/raw materials • Need for markets for products • Opportunities for capital investment

4. Political-Military Motives • Economic interests eventually precipitated political-military action to protect them. • For example, Britain establishes protectorate in Egypt to protect trade route to India. • Dutch-Capetown

6. Nationalism • Nationalism sparks interest in establishing an empire for prestige & influence. • Imperialism fostered competition and rivalries. • Appease domestic desire for expansion

7. Humanitarian-religious goals • “White Man’s Burden” syndrome. Idea that Europeans had a duty to spread Western culture. • Missionaries were zealous although often prejudice about those they sought to convert

8. Poetry & Literature Aroused National Pride & Sense of Adventure • “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 fold and wild--- • Your new-caught sullen peoples • Half-devil and half-child • Rudyard Kipling

9. The White Man’s Burden

10. Social Darwinism • Many justified imperialism by applying Darwin’s ideas about natural selection & survival of the fittest to human societies • Idea that Europeans were superior race and imperial conquest & even destruction of weaker races was nature’s way of improving the human species

11. Widespread Support? • Imperialism found support among all classes of people from bankers to workers • WHY? Because all of them benefitted from imp • Soldiers, settlers, merchants, missionaries and explorers were all involved.

12. Critics • Argued imperialism was tool of the rich • It was exploitive & immoral • Hypocritical for Western democratic nations.

13. Belgium Leads the Way • Began when King Leopold II of Belgium hired Stanley to explore Congo Basin and arrange trade treaties. • Publicly Leopold justified the mission claiming that Stanley would be “carry the light” to those “plunged in barbarism” • This set off a scramble by other nations

14. Leopold’s Brutality in the Congo

15. Berlin Conference 1884 • International Conference to establish rules for colonizing Africa & avoid bloodshed among Europeans. • Agreed that no country could claim any part of Africa unless it had set up a gov office there. • This alone, prompted govs to send officials to exert power over local rulers • No Africans were invited

16. The rush to colonize was on…. • Europeans drew arbitrary borders with little to no understanding of the peoples they were subjugating or dividing. • After 20 years of carving up Europe only Ethiopia and Liberia remained independent.

17. Partition of Africa • Africa was known as “dark continent” because so little was known about it • Difficult to penetrate due to malaria and sleeping sickness from the tsetsi fly • Medical breakthroughs & steamships, however, allowed Europeans to explore • Europeans were able to exploit rivalries among different African tribes

18. How did West succeed? • Strong economies, stable governments and powerful armies & navies, public opinion approval • Medical breakthroughs - quinine • Superior technology • Maxim machine gun, repeating rifles, steam driven warships were very convincing.

19. 4 Types of Imperial Control • Colony – outright complete control - France • Protectorate – Territory has its own government but it’s under the control of an outside power - Britain • Sphere of Influence – outside power claims exclusive trading & investment privileges • Economic Imperialism – when private business interests control a less developed country.

20. Protectorates • Protectorates left local rulers in place even though they were expected to follow the advice of the European power. • Advantage of this type of control was that it cost less and did not require huge military or naval commitment. • Future leaders sent to mother country for education. Came back & became nationalists

21. Spheres of Influence • Area which one power claimed exclusive investment or trading privileges • This happened particularly in China among European powers. • Which area has the US claimed as its exclusive sphere of influence? • Latin America

23. Liberia and Sierra Leone • From the early 1800s US and Europe outlawed the slave trade • Britain & US promoted idea of returning freed slaves to Africa • Britain set up Sierra Leone 1787 • US set up Liberia 1847 Arabs and Africans continued to sell slaves to Asia & the Middle East

24. Missionaries • Missionaries followed explorers • Were paternalistic • Urged Africans to reject their own traditions in favor of Western ideas • Dr. Livingstone – explorer/missionary who had more sympathy & less bias • Missionaries wanted Africans to end slave trade

25. The Boer War • Britain took over the Cape Colony (South Africa) from the Dutch in 1815 • The Boers (Dutch farmers) resented British rule and moved North and founded new republics • In the late 1800s the discovery of gold and diamonds in the Boer republics led to war from 1899-1902. • The British won.

26. South Africa • In 1910 Britain united the Cape Colony and the Boer republics into the Union of South Africa. • The constitution set up a gov run by whites and created a system of complete segregation (apartheid) that would remain in force until 1993.

27. Africans Fight Back • Ethiopia was only country to successfully resist colonization • Menelik II had modernized his country with European assistance. • When Italy attacked he was ready. • Ethiopia and Liberia were only two countries to preserve their independence

29. Nationalism • By 1900s however, African leaders became nationalist movements to pursue their self-determination and independence

30. The End