The Age of Imperialism
Ch 27
1850-1914
• Imperialism
• A policy by which strong nations tried to dominate other
countries politically, economically, or socially
• Spurred by:
1. industrialism (industrialized nations sought
resources + markets for their products) [Gold]
2. Belief in European superiority [Glory]
- A strong empire was a measure of
national greatness
- Racism – (belief that one race is superior
to another)
- Social Darwinism is the belief
that those (Europeans) who are
the fittest for survival enjoyed
wealth + success and were
superior to others
- thought it was their duty to
“Westernize” the rest of the world
3. Desire to spread Christianity [God]
The White Man’s Burden
• Africa Before • By mid-1800s, African people were divided
into hundreds of ethnic + linguistic groups
European
w/ most following traditional beliefs while
Domination
some converted to Islam + Christianity.
Politically, they ranged from large empires
that united many ethnic groups to
independent villages
• Originally Europeans had been discouraged
from widespread exploration of Africa due
to powerful African armies, difficulties
traveling in the interior, + diseases
• Africans had trade networks w/ each other
+ foreigners
A map drawn in Spain
and dated to 1375,
showing the king of Mali
holding a gold nugget
1885
• Beginnings • 1st few explorations were done by explorers,
of European missionaries, or humanitarians opposed to the
Exploration slave trade
• They published stories about their travels
into Africa
• Newspapers hired reporters to write about these
exotic places
• A reporter (Henry Stanley) made news after
finding a missing missionary (Dr. Livingstone)
in Africa’s interior. Stanley was then hired by
the king of Belgium to obtain land in the Congo
• After Stanley got local chiefs to sign the
necessary treaties, Belgium’s king controlled
that land (which was 80% larger than
Belgium!)
• France gets nervous + signs treaty giving it
control of more land by Belgium’s Congo
• And the race is on w/ Britain, Germany, Italy,
Portugal + Spain following…
• Factors
1. Technological superiority (1st
Promoting
automatic machine gun is invented)
Imperialism 2. improved transportation +
in Africa
communications allowed the mother
countries to keep up w/ their colonies
3. Development of the drug quinine (in
1829) protected Europeans from
malaria which plagued Africa’s
interior
4. Divisions among the African tribes
discouraged Africans from unifying
against the Europeans – a weakness
Europeans capitalized on
• The Scramble • Discovery of diamonds + gold in South
Africa intensify Europe’s interest in
for Africa
colonization
• To prevent war among European countries
over Africa, 14 countries participate in the
Berlin Conference (1884-85), at which
they agreed any European country could
lay claim to parts of Africa by notifying
other European powers of its claim +
showing it controlled the area
• No African ruler was invited to attend
this conference
• By 1914, only Liberia + Ethiopia
remained free
• Europeans cash in on Africa’s rich natural
resources
• Developed cash-crop plantations which
displaced food crops grown by Africans to
feed their families
1914
• Clashes
•
Occur B/w
Africans + •
Europeans
Zulus fight against British for 8 yrs before being
defeated
Dutch 1st settled South Africa. They become
known as Boers (Dutch word for “farmers”) + as
Afrikaners. They take Africans’ land + establish
large farms. British + Boers clash. Boers moved
northward in a movement known as the Great
Trek. They then fought w/ other African tribes.
• British + Boers fight in the Boer War (the South
African War) for control over South Africa.
• 1st modern war (used commando raids,
guerrilla tactics, burning of farms, +
imprisonment of women + children in
disease-ridden concentration camps)
• Africans also participated
• British won both territories were combined
under British control (modern day South
Africa).
End Section 1
27.2
• European • During the explorations of the 15th +
Control Over 16th centuries imperial powers often
Colonies
didn’t penetrate far into conquered
areas
• By the 18th + 19th centuries Europeans
demanded more influence over the
economic, political, + social lives of
their colonies for the economic benefit
of the mother countries
Forms of Imperialism
Colony
A country or a territory governed
internally by a foreign power
Protectorate
A country or a territory w/ its own
internal gov.’t but under the
control of an outside power
Sphere of
Influence
An area in which an outside
power claims exclusive
investment or trading privileges
Economic
Imperialism
An independent but lessdeveloped country controlled by
private business interests rather
than other gov.’ts
2 Methods of Control
1. Indirect • Favored by US + Britain
Control • Relies on existing political rulers
• Had to accept colonial power’s
authority to rule
• Local ruler handled most of the daily
management of colony
2. Direct
Control
• Favored by France + most other
European countries
• Believed colonies were incapable of
running a proper gov.’t
• Led to a policy of paternalism
(treating colonies as if they were
children, providing for their needs,
but not giving them rights)
• Brought in foreign bureaucrats
+ did not train local people in
European styles of gov.’t
• Also led to a policy of assimilation
(one nation forces or encourages a
colony to adopt the mother country’s
institutions + customs)
Imperial Management Methods
Indirect Control
• Local gov.’t officials
used
• Limited self-rule
• Goal: to develop
future leaders
• Gov.’t institutions are
based on European
styles but may have
local rules
Direct Control
• Foreign officials
brought in to rule
• No self-rule
• Goal: assimilation
• Gov.’t institutions are
based only on
European styles
• Ethiopia •
Only African country to never be
successfully colonized
• Due to efforts of Emperor Menelik II
1. He played British, French, +
Italians against one another
2. He stockpiled modern
weapons
- Was able to defeat
Italians after being
tricked by them into
signing away Ethiopia
Effects of Colonization:
• Positive
1. Reduced local warfare
2. Improvements in some schools +
hospitals
- literacy rates + life-spans
3. Economic expansion
4.
RRs, dams, telephones, +
telegraphs
• Negative
1.
2.
3.
4.
Lost control of land + indep.
Many died of new diseases
Thousands die resisting colonial rule
Famines due to planting cash crops
instead of food for Africans
5. Breakdown of traditional cultures
6. Men left families to look for work
7. ***European boundaries broke up
kinship groups + often combined rival
groups
- leads to conflicts that
continue today
End Section 2
27.3
• Europeans • Ottoman Empire had been power
Look to the
for the last couple of hundred years
Middle East • Geopolitics is an interest in or taking
of land for its strategic location or
products
• The Ottoman Empire controlled
access b/w the Atlantic Ocean +
Mediterranean Sea
*Important trade route which
made its territory very
desirable to European
powers
• Russia + the
Crimean War
• Every generation of Russian czars had
fought a war w/ Ottomans to try to gain land
on the Black Sea coast
• (1853) The Crimean War was a Russian
attempt at gaining a warm-weather port.
Britain + France didn’t want Russia to gain
any Ottoman territory + so fought w/
Ottomans against Russians
• Results:
– Russians lose
– Revealed how weak Ottoman Empire
really was
– Slavic people on Balkan Peninsula
(Romanians, Bulgarians, Bosnians, etc)
gain indep. from Ottomans w/ Russia’s
help
• The Great
Game
• War waged b/w Britain + Russia over
central Asia (specifically India,
Afghanistan, + Persia – modern day
Iran).
• Britain keeps control of India.
• Neither successfully conquer
Afghanistan
• Persia suffers from unrest + is split into
spheres of influence b/w Britain +
Russia
• Egypt
• Watches Ottoman Empire decline + get
taken apart by Europeans
• Decides to modernize
• (1831) Muhammad Ali was sent by
Ottomans to govern
• He breaks away + fights Ottomans
• Recognized by European powers as
the ruler of Egypt
• Reformed military + economy
- Had them plant cash crops
• Grandson Isma’il supports the
construction of the Suez Canal which
connects Red + Mediterranean Seas
–Led to debt + British occupation of
Egypt
End Section 3
27.4
• British
Involvement
in India
• Started in the 1600s when the British East
India Company set up trading posts in
several Indian ports.
• By the 1700s, India’s ruling dynasties were
weakening + the British East India Company
became the ultimate political power in India
(although “officially” the British gov.’t held
power)
• The British East India Company had its own
army led by British officers w/ Indian soldiers
called sepoys
• Britain considered India to be its “jewel in the
crown” (most valuable colony) due to its vast
raw materials + large population (could be a
major market for British manufacturers)
• Forbid Indians from competing w/
British manufacturers
• Impact of •
the British
in India
•
Negative:
1. British held political + economic power
- Restricted Indian-owned industries
- Emphasized cash-crops (led to famine)
2.
presence of missionaries + racist attitudes
against Indians threatened traditional Indian
life
Positive:
1. Laid world’s 3rd largest RR network
- Led to modern economy + unified
divided regions
- Also led to a modern road network,
telephone + telegraph lines, dams,
bridges, + irrigation canals
2. sanitation + public health
3. Schools founded ( literacy)
4. End of local warfare among competing rulers
• The Sepoy • Indians resented British racism + attempts to
convert them to Christianity (most Indians are
Mutiny
Hindu – some Muslim)
• Rumor spreads that British were greasing rifle
cartridges w/ beef + pork fat
• This offends Indians + they refuse to use
the cartridges
• Jailed
• Rebellion begins + spreads over much
of Northern Indian until British establish
control 1 yr later
• British take direct command of
India (Raj: British controlled parts
of India from 1757-1947)
•
distrust b/w British + Indians
•
Indian nationalism
End Section 4
27.5
• Europeans + • Western imperial powers desired lands
Southeast Asia around the Pacific Rim for their strategic
location along the sea route to China
• (Pacific Rim: countries that border
the Pacific Ocean)
• Also for sources of tropical
agriculture, minerals + oil
• Colonies
1. Dutch – Indonesia (known as Dutch East Indies)
• Colonists stayed + established a rigid class
system:
1. Dutch
2. Wealthy + educated Indonesians
3. Plantation workers
• Forced farmers to plant cash crops
on 1/5 of their land
2. British – Malaysia, Singapore, + Burma/Myanmar
• Encouraged Chinese to migrate to
Malaysia to mine tin + tap the rubber trees
• Malays became a minority in their
own country (still a source of conflict
today)
3. French – Indochina (modern day Vietnam, Laos,
+ Cambodia)
• Forced locals to plant 4x as much rice to
export (but had even less for themselves to
eat!)
• Results:
• Positive:
– Economies from cash crops
– Roads, harbors, + RRs built, which
improve communications +
transportation
– Education + health
• Negative:
– Changes in social structure + loss of
political power
– Migrations cause a mixing of
populations that led to current racial +
religious conflicts
• Siam (Modern
Day Thailand)
• Remained independent
• Surrounded by British + French
colonies
– Promoted itself as a neutral zone
• Kings modernize Siam
– Started schools
– Reformed legal system
– Reorganized gov.’t
– Built RRs
– Ended slavery
– b/c these changes were
made from w/in, Siam
avoided turmoil common in
surrounding countries
•
• US
Imperialism
•
Most Americans disliked idea of colonizing
foreign lands except for:
1. Empire builders who thought US had a
destiny to be a world power
2. Big businesses who wanted new
markets + raw materials
Hawaii: Americans established sugarcane
plantations
– Eventually, sugar plantations account for
75% of HI’s wealth
• Wanted the annexation (adding
territory) of HI to USA for profits
• Overthrow Hawaiian monarchy
• Annexed to US in 1898
• The Philippines: gained from Spain (along
w/ Puerto Rico, + Guam) after SpanishAmerican War (1898)
• Filipinos claimed they had been
promised indep.
– War b/w US + Philippines (18991902)
• US wins but promises to
eventually give them self-rule
• Built RRs, roads, schools, + hospitals
• Encouraged cash crops
• Led to food shortages there
End Section 5