The Era of Imperialism: Part I

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The Era of Imperialism Part I
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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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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
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New Imperialism

• Contradiction
• Many of the areas claimed by Europeans and
  Americans, however, were not profitable sources
  of raw materials or wealthy enough to be good
  markets.
• The economic justifications for imperialism
  cannot be separated from intensely nationalistic
  ones.

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Nationalism The Sacredness of the Nation

• Definition Nationalism is a common bond shared
  by a group of people who feel strongly attached
  to a particular land and who possess a common
  language, culture, and history, marked by shared
  glories and sufferings.
• Nationalists contend that ones highest loyalty
  should be given to the nation.
• They exhibit great pride in their peoples
  history and traditions and often feel that their
  nation had been specially chosen by God or
  history.

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New Imperialism Nationalism

• Policymakers hoped that possession of empires
  would unite together disparate 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.

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New ImperialismSocial 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.

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Charles Darwin, 1809-1882

• Charles Darwins Origin of Species (1859)
• Darwins theory of evolution holds that
  environmental effects lead to varying degrees of
  reproductive success in individuals and groups of
  organisms. (Natural Selection)
• Descent of Man (1871)
• Applied Evolution to the social order (people).

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Herbert Spencer, 1820-1903

• Spencer coined the phrase survival of the
  fittest to describe the outcome of competition
  between social groups.
• In Social Statics (1850) and other works, Spencer
  argued that through competition social evolution
  would automatically produce prosperity and
  personal liberty unparalleled in human history.

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Social Darwinism

• Social Darwinists were blatantly racist.
• They applied evolution to the social order.
• Ideas of racial superiority associated with
  Social Darwinism gave Europeans the conviction
  that natural laws destined them to lead the
  civilizing mission.
• Missionaries sought to convert heathen
  unbelievers in faraway lands.
• The white mans burden introducing
  civilization to the colored races of the world.
• In their view, war was natures way of
  eliminating the unfit.
• Using terms such as survival of the fittest
  Social Darwinists insisted that nations and races
  were engaged in a struggle for survival in which
  only the fittest survive and deserve to win.

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Social DarwinismLasting Implications

• Social Darwinism had long-lasting implications.
• It promoted the military build-up that led to
  World War I.
• It would become the core doctrine of the Nazi
  party.
• Provided a scientific and ethical
  justification for genocide in the 20th century.

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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.

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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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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.

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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.