New Imperialism

What is imperialism?

● Imperialism is the state policy of extending a country’s power and dominion, especially by
direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas.

● Colonialism is an act of political and economic domination involving the control of a country
and its people by settlers from a foreign power.
● In most cases, the goal of the colonizing countries is to profit by exploiting the human and
economic resources of the countries they colonized.
● In the process, the colonizers—sometimes forcibly—attempt to impose their religion,
language, cultural, and political practices on the indigenous population.
● Simply: Colonialism is the action or process of settling among and establishing control over
the indigenous people of an area.

● Watch - Defining Imperialism & Colonialism

 Difference

● While colonialism is the physical act of dominating another country, imperialism is the
political ideology that drives that act. In other words, colonialism can be thought of as
a tool of imperialism.

● However, unlike colonialism, which always involves the direct establishment of physical
settlements in another country, imperialism refers to the direct or indirect political and
monetary dominance of another country, either with or without the need for a physical
presence.
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 Old Imperialism
● About 2,000 years ago imperial Rome controlled most of the Mediterranean world.
● From the 16th to 19th century European nations sought trade routes with the Far East, explored
the ‘New World’ and established settlements in North and South America, as well as Southeast
Asia. They set up trading posts and gained footholds on the coats of Africa and China, working
closely with local rulers to ensure protection of European economic interests. Their influence
however, was limited and this was called Old Imperialism.
 New Imperialism
● Between 1870 and 1914 Europe went through a ‘Second
Industrial Revolution’ which quickened the pace of change
as science, technology and industry spurred economic
growth.
● In the Age of New Imperialism that began in the 1870s, the
growing industrial economies of European needed new
avenues to seek expansion and the European states
established vast empires mainly in Africa, but also in Asia
and the Middle East.

● However, in the first half of the 19th century colonialism

became less popular - the struggle for nationalism and
democracy, the cost of industrialisation exhausted
European nations. Many leaders also thought that the cost
of supervising colonies was too much.
● However, the Second Industrial Revolution stirred
ambitions in many European countries and renewed their
confidence to embark on a path of aggressive expansion
overseas.
● Thus, the time period from 1800 to 1914 is known as the
Age of Imperialism.
 Political Rivalries
● In the mid-1800s, European countries saw themselves as actors on the world stage, and each
country wanted to play a starring role. If Great Britain started a small colony in distant Asia or
Africa, France had to start one too - and so did Belgium, Germany, Italy, Holland, Spain, Portugal
and Russia.
● Once begun, the quest for colonies became a continuing enterprise that seemed to have no limits.

● Also slow and difficult communication between territories and European countries often enabled
colonial governors and generals to take matters into their own hands.
● If a colony’s borders did not provide military security, for instance, military officials, based in the
colony used their armies to expand the colony’s borders. This strategy would work well enough until
colonial governments started claiming the same territories. The new conflicts arose and European
troops found themselves facing off in remote battlefields in Asia or Africa.

● Many people were also convinced that the possession of colonies was an indication of a nation's
greatness; colonies were status symbols. According to the 19th-century German historian
Heinrich von Treitschke, all great nations should seek to conquer barbarian nations.
 Military Reasons

● Leading European nations also felt that colonies were crucial to military power, national
security and nationalism.
● Military leaders claimed that a strong navy was necessary in order to become a great power.
Thus, naval vessels needed military bases around the world to take on coal and supplies.
● Island or harbours were seized to satisfy these needs. Colonies guaranteed the growing
European navies safe harbours and coaling stations, which they needed in time of war.

● National security was an important reason for Great Britain's decision to occupy Egypt.
Protecting the Suez Canal was vital for the British Empire. The canal, which formally opened in
1869, shortened the sea route from Europe to South Africa and East Asia. To Britain, the canal
was a lifeline to India, the jewel of its empire.
 Desire for new markets
● The Industrial Revolution of the 1800s knew no borders. Factories in Europe and the United
States consumed tons of raw materials and churned out thousands of manufactured goods.
● The owners and operators of these factories searched constantly for new sources of raw
materials and new markets for their products. They hoped to find both in foreign lands.

● Rubber, copper, and gold came from Africa, cotton and jute from India, and tin from Southeast
Asia. These raw materials spurred the growth of European and American industries and
financial markets, but they represented only the tip of the iceberg.
● Bananas, oranges, melons, and other exotic fruits made their way to European markets. People
in Paris, London, and Berlin drank colonial tea, coffee, and cocoa with their meals and washed
themselves with soap made from African palm oil.

● The colonies also provided new markets for the finished products of the Industrial Revolution.
Tools, weapons, and clothing flowed out of the factories and back to the colonies whose raw
materials had made them possible.
 Seeking new opportunities
● Imperialism involved more than just guns, battles, raw materials, and manufactured goods.
● Colonies needed people who were loyal to the imperialist country. Great Britain, France, and Germany
needed British, French, and German citizens to run their newly acquired territories and keep them
productive.
● Throughout the 1800s European leaders urged their citizens to move to far-off colonies. Many of them
responded. In the 1840s, for example, thousands of French citizens sailed across the Mediterranean Sea to
Algeria, where they started farms and estates on lands seized from local Algerian farmers.

● The British, meanwhile, emigrated to the far corners of the globe, hoping to find opportunities not
available at home. Many rushed to Australia and New Zealand in the 1850s in search of gold. As the British
government continued to acquire vast tracts of land in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific, the phrase "the sun
never sets on the British Empire" became a popular way of describing Great Britain's vast holdings.

● Strong-minded individuals saw emigration as a chance to strike it rich or make a name for themselves.
Perhaps the most spectacular success story of the era belonged to Cecil Rhodes, a British adventurer who
made a fortune from gold and diamond mining in southern Africa. Rhodes went on to found a colony that
bore his name: Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).
 ‘Civilising’ Mission
● Some emigrants had motives that went beyond mere personal glory and profit. Religious and humanitarian
impulses inspired many individuals to leave their secure lives at home and head for the distant colonies.

● During the Age of Imperialism, growing numbers of Catholic and Protestant missionaries decided to bring the
Christian message to the most remote corners of Africa and Asia. Over the decades they set up hundreds of
Christian missions and preached to thousands of Africans and Asians. Like many other Europeans and
Americans of this period, these missionaries believed that Christianity and Western civilization together could
benefit and transform the world.

● The missionaries were not military conquerors, but they did try to change people's beliefs and practices. They
believed that, in order to become "civilized," the people of Africa and Asia would have to reject their old
religions and convert to Christianity. To achieve this goal, missionaries built churches and taught Christian
doctrine. Missionaries often set up schools and hospitals as well.
 ● Other Europeans also believed that Western civilization was superior to the civilizations of colonial peoples. As
a result, some colonial officials tried to impose Western customs and traditions on the people they conquered.
● These officials insisted that their colonial subjects learn European languages, and they encouraged Western
lifestyles as well. They also discouraged colonial peoples from practicing traditional customs and rituals.

● Some Europeans seized on the theory of social Darwinism as proof of their cultural superiority. This theory
adapted Darwin's ideas about the evolution of animals-particularly his notion of "the survival of the fittest" to
explain differences among human beings. Social Darwinists believed that white Europeans were the "fittest"
people in the world and that they had a duty to spread Western ideas to "backward" peoples.

● In 1899 the British writer Rudyard Kipling captured the essence of the imperialist attitude in his famous poem
"The White Man's Burden." Kipling addressed the poem to the United States, which at this time had just begun
to acquire and govern colonies of its own:

● Stanza 1:
"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" is a poem by the British
Victorian poet and novelist Rudyard Kipling. He
exhorts the American people to conquer and rule the
Philippines. He defines white imperialism and
colonialism in moral terms, as a “burden” that the
white race must take up in order to help the
non-white races develop civilization.
The phrase "white man's burden" remains notorious
as a racist justification for Western conquest.
Political cartoon
showing Uncle Sam
lecturing a group of
childlike
caricatures
depicting the
people of Hawaii,
Cuba, Puerto Rico
and the Philippines.
The "more
advanced
students" of Texas,
California and
Alaska sit in the
back of the
classroom, while
the African
American student
is forced to clean
the windows, the
Native American
student is confined
to a corner, and the
Chinese student is
halted outside the
door.
 Western Technology
● Superior technology and improved medical knowledge helped to foster imperialism.
● Quinine enabled Europeans to survive tropical diseases and venture into the
mosquito-infested interiors of Africa and Asia.
● The combination of the steamboat and the telegraph enabled the Western powers to increase
their mobility and to quickly respond to any situations that threatened their dominance.
● The rapid-fire machine gun also gave them a military advantage and was helpful in convincing
Africans and Asians to accept Western control.
 Watch & Recap
Click! - Britain owes reparations to India
 Forms of Imperialism
● Imperial nations gained new lands through treaties, purchases, and military conquest. Once in power, they used
several forms of territorial control.
● A colony was a territory that an imperial power ruled directly through colonial officials.
● A protectorate had its own government, but its policies were guided by a foreign power.
● A sphere of influence was a region in which the imperial power had exclusive investment or trading rights.

● Within these general forms of control, each imperial nation exercised its power differently. The French used
their colonial officials to govern, to spread French culture, and to make territories overseas extensions of
France. The British, by contrast, focused strictly on administration and often allowed local rulers to govern
territories as their representatives.