IMPERIALISM
CHAPTER 26:
SECTION 1:
THE MAIN IDEA
• Imperialism among the great powers grew
out of a complex mixture of political,
economic, and social forces.
• “It is our duty,” explained a famous
supporter of expansionism, “to seize every
opportunity of acquiring more
territory…”
MODERN IMPERIALISM
• Imperialism – one country takes control of
another country
• 1870 – 1914: the height of the age of imperialism
• By 1914, the great powers of Europe, Japan, and
the U.S. controlled almost the entire world
• In the beginning
▫ France, Germany, and Great Britain didn’t plan
their imperialism
▫ Would go to foreign lands and weren’t welcome;
their gov’ts would send soldiers to protect citizens;
engineers/builders would come and make
improvements the benefitted the Europeans
TYPES OF CONTROL
• Settlement colonies – large groups of people
from one country living together in a new place
▫ Ex: Australia was a settlement of Great Britain
• Dependent colonies – a few European officials
ruled the non-European people
▫ Ex: India was a dependent colony of Great Britain
• Protectorates – the local ruler kept his title, but
Europeans really ruled the area
• Sphere of Influence – an area in which one
nation had a special interest
NATIONAL RIVALS
• Nations believed that others would respect them
more if they had colonies
• Saw colonies as places to get troops for bigger
armies
• Navies were important to protect widely
scattered colonies as well as their merchant
ships
▫ Steam-powered ships could travel “from coal to
coal,” meaning from one coaling station to another
 Tiny islands became strategically placed coaling
stations and, therefore, were competed for
▫ All of this created bitter rivalries among the
imperial powers and led to world conflict
ECONOMIC MOTIVES FOR IMPERIALISM
• Industrialization spurred imperialism
▫ New machines, types of energy, industries
▫ Industrialized nations needed a lot of raw materials
and none wanted to depend on an outside source
 Countries tried to control regions that had the raw
materials they needed
▫ New markets were needed for all the goods being mass
produced
ECONOMIC MOTIVES (con’t)
▫ Industrialists wanted to control the new markets
 Wanted legal control as the sole seller in these
markets while also demanding protective tariffs to
keep their home markets from foreign interests
• Population growth came with industrialization
▫ So many Europeans needed jobs that they would
leave their homeland
 North America, South America, and Australia
swelled with European settlers
CULTURAL MOTIVES FOR IMPERIALISM
• “The White Man’s Burden” – people in
industrialized nations thought they had a duty
to spread Western ideas and knowledge around
the world
▫ Poem by Rudyard Kipling (see pg. 664)
▫ Non-Western people were considered “primitive”
 “helping,” “improving,” imposing their own values
and cultural ideas on other peoples
• Missionaries were sent by churches with the
hope of converting others, but also:
▫ Built schools, taught, cared for the sick
CULTURAL
REASONS
POLITICAL
REASONS
ECONOMIC
REASONS
Missionaries
wanted to spread
Christianity.
Imperialists
viewed colonies
as sources of
troops.
European leaders
wanted stable
sources of raw
materials.
SECTION 2:
MAIN IDEA
• Imperialism motivated both France and Great
Britain to establish colonies in North Africa
▫ “France…cannot be merely a free country... She
ought to propagate [spread] [her] influence
throughout the world and carry everywhere that
she can her language, her customs, her flag, and
her genius.”
- Jules-Francois-Camille Ferry,
Minister of Foreign Affairs, 1883
THE FRENCH IN NORTH AFRICA
• 1830 – French occupied Algiers in the Ottoman
Empire
▫ 40 years of rebellion
▫ Many French and Europeans settled in Algiers
• 1881 – France staged a military action against Tunis
(also in the Ottoman Empire
▫ Became a French Protectorate
• 1904 – France wanted Morocco, located on the
Strait of Gibraltar
▫ Entered into an agreement with Britain, Spain, and
Italy
 Britain had plans in Egypt; Italy in Libya; Spain wanted
to maintain a sphere of influence in Northern Morocco
THE BRITISH IN NORTH AFRICA
• 1854 – a French company began building the
Suez Canal in Egypt
▫ Would connect the Mediterranean Sea to the Red
Sea
▫ Egypt bought almost half the stock in the company
to ensure control of the canal
 Egypt was deeply in debt; decided to sell its stock
• 1875 – Britain bought the stock and gained
control of the Suez Canal
▫ Gave them a more direct sea route to their
colonies in India, Australia, and New Zealand
SECTION 3:
MAIN IDEA
• By 1914 most of the major European industrial
powers had colonies in sub-Saharan Africa.
SECTION 4:
MAIN IDEA
• Western imperialism affected Asia and the
Pacific in a variety of ways during the 1800s and
1900s.
BRITISH IMPERIALISM IN ASIA
• Early to mid-1800s – British East India
Company controlled a large area of India and
treated it as a private colony
▫ 1857 – Indian soldiers rebelled against the
company and Great Britain took direct control of
about 3/5 of the Indian subcontinent (pg. 678)
 The rest was divided into more than 550 states with
an Indian prince heading each one
THE NATURE OF BRITISH RULE
Pros:
Cons:
• Granted favors to Indian
princes who cooperated
• Treated Muslims and
Hindus equally
• Ended local wars
• Built roads, bridges, RRs
• Established factories,
hospitals, schools
• Dealt harshly with Indian
princes who didn’t
cooperate
• Europeans and Indians
had very little social
contact with each other
• British put themselves
about Indian society
JAPANESE RESPONSES TO IMPERIALISM
• Japan controlled its own gov’t, but was
influenced by the West
▫ Got rid of the old system of social classes
 All Japanese were free to choose what kind of job
they wanted to do
 Everyone was required to go to school
▫ 1899 – a new constitution was put into effect
giving large land owners voting rights
 2-house national assembly called the Diet
▫ 1900 – Japan was the first Asian country to
industrialize
THE SINO-JAPANESE WAR
• Fear of imperialist countries in Asia led Japan to
become imperialists as well
▫ Japan was interested in Korea, a dependent colony of
China
 1894 – rebellion broke out in Korea led by Koreans who
no longer wanted Chinese rule
 Both China and Japan sent armed forces to Korea,
beginning the Sino-Japanese War
 Japanese troops were more modernized, better equipped,
easily won on land and sea
 1895 – Treaty of Shimonoseki ended the war
▫ China gave Korea its independence
▫ Japan gained Taiwan (Formosa)
▫ Japan won trade rights in China
IMPERIALISM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA
• British colonies
▫ Burma – on the eastern border of India
▫ Singapore – on the tip of the Malay Peninsula
 Representative of the British East India Company
bought land for a factory site; later became an
important naval base for the British empire
• French gains
▫ French Indochina – made up of 3 small nations
who had unstable gov’ts and were influenced by
Siam (now Thailand)
 Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam (all regained their
independence in the 1950s)
IMPERIALISM IN SOUTHEAST ASIA (con’t)
• Dutch East Indies
▫ Series of islands that run from the East Asian
mainland 3,200 miles to the coast of Australia
▫ First colonized by the Dutch in the 1600s
▫ Late 1800s, several revolts
▫ 1949 – became the nation of Indonesia
U.S. INTERESTS IN THE PACIFIC ISLANDS
• Samoa Islands
▫ Originally the U.S. used the island of Tutuila as a
trading post, coaling station, and naval base
▫ 1899 – U.S. gained 6 other small islands, creating
American Samoa
U.S. INTERESTS IN THE PACIFIC (CON’T)
• Hawaiian Islands
▫ U.S. wanted these islands for a naval base, the rich
soil, good rainfall, and mild climate
▫ 1865 – business people from many nations set up
sugarcane and pineapple plantations; eventually
wanted control of the gov’t
▫ 1893 – business leaders gained enough control to
end Queen Liliuokalani’s reign
▫ 1898 – U.S. took over Hawaii
U.S. INTERESTS IN THE PACIFIC (CON’T)
• The Philippines, Guam, and Wake Island
▫ 1898 – First battle of the Spanish-American War took
place in the Philippines; Spanish fleet was destroyed
in a few hours; U.S. land forces took control of the
Philippines a few months later
▫ U.S. also took control of Guam, a small island east of
the Philippines
▫ U.S. also took control of Wake Island, giving them a
chain of islands running from its west coast to the
Pacific and Asia
SECTION 5:
MAIN IDEA
• Imperialist powers controlled Latin
America with economic influence and
political intervention.
ECONOMIC IMPERIALISM
• U.S. and Britain were buying products from
Latin America
▫ Americans - bananas from Central America;
coffee from Brazil, cigars from Cuba
▫ Britain – wool and beef from Argentina
• Europeans and Americans began investing
money into Latin America
▫ Built factories/textile mills; bought ranches,
plantations, mines; owned railroads
 Did little to help build the economy because business
owners sent their money back home
THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR
• 1898 – Spain controlled Cuba; Cubans wanted
independence from Spain
▫ A rebellion failed, alarming U.S. interests in Cuba
▫ The Maine, a U.S. battleship, exploded in Havana
Harbor
 Approx. 260 Americans killed; U.S. blamed Spain
for the “attack”; Spain refused to give up Cuba; U.S.
declared war against Spain in April, 1898
▫ Treaty of Paris ended the war in December, 1898
 Spain gave up Cuba; 2 years later Cuba wrote their
own constitution, including the Platt Amendment
 Cuba could only transfer land to the U.S.
 U.S. had the right to intervene in Cuba
 U.S. was given permanent naval base at Guantanamo
Bay
THE SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR (con’t)
• Treaty of Paris ended the war in December, 1898
▫ Spain gave up Puerto Rico; began a
commonwealth of the U.S.
▫ Spain gave the U.S. the Philippines and Guam
▫ Spain gave up Cuba; 2 years later Cuba wrote their
own constitution, including the Platt
Amendment
 Cuba could only transfer land to the U.S.
 U.S. had the right to intervene in Cuba
 U.S. was given permanent naval base at
Guantanamo Bay
THE PANAMA CANAL
• U.S. wanted a quicker way to move ships between
the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans
▫ 1903 – U.S. was granted the right to build a canal
across the Isthmus of Panama; work began in 1904
▫ Work on the canal was behind schedule due to Yellow
Fever which was carried by mosquitoes
 Carlos Juan Finlay realized this and the mosquitoes were
killed, making it possible for construction crews to work
in the Panamanian jungles
▫ 1914 – Panama Canal opened, shortening the sea
route from New York to San Francisco by 8,000 miles
MEXICO’S REVOLUTION
• Greatest unrest in Latin America happened in
Mexico
• By 1910, Porfirio Diaz had been dictator for
more than 30 years
▫ Allowed foreign companies to take much of
Mexico’s natural resources
▫ Allowed rich Mexican’s to control most of the land
 Most Mexicans were poor with no land
▫ 1910 – Diaz jailed his opponent for the presidency,
Francisco Indalecio Madero
 Rebellion broke out and Madero was in power
MEXICO’S REVOLUTION
• PORFIRIO DIAZ
• FRANCISO MADERO
MEXICO’S REVOLUTION (con’t)
• 1913 – Victoriano Huerta betrayed Madero and
then took control of the gov’t
▫ Madero was shot, leading to more rebellion
▫ Venustiano Carranza led a revolt against Huerta
that eventually left over 1 million Mexicans dead
 One of the biggest issues in the revolt was land; the
peasants wanted their land back!
 Thousands of Americans living in Mexico wanted
President Wilson to send in troops; he waited
MEXICO’S REVOLUTION
VICTORIANO HUERTA
VENUSTIANO CARRAZA
MEXICO’S REVOLUTION (con’t)
• 1914 – U.S. soldiers arrested in Mexico; President
Wilson sends in Marines and cuts off supplies and
money to the Huerta gov’t
▫ Carranza’s forces win the war
• Pancho Villa fights Carranza for control of the
revolution
▫ Attacked large landowners
▫ Moved his troops across the border into the U.S.,
killing more than a dozen Americans
▫ U.S. troops entered Mexico to capture Villa; war was
possible; the U.S. soon turned it’s attentions to WWI
MEXICO’S REVOLUTION
PANCHO VILLA
WOODROW WILSON