Imperialism & Colonialism
1750-1914
AP WORLD HISTORY
Two Views of Imperialism
“Take up the White Man’s burden—
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go send 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 […]
By open speech and simple,
An hundred times made plain,
To seek another’s profit,
And work another’s gain. […]
Take up the White Man’s burden—
The savage wars of peace—
Fill full the mouth of Famine
And let the sickness cease […]”
Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s
Burden”
“Whatever the overseas slave trade
has failed to do, the power of modern
capitalistic exploitation, assisted by
modern engines of destruction, may
yet succeed in accomplishing.
For the from the evils of the latter,
scientifically applied and enforced,
there is no escape for the African. Its
destructive effects are not
spasmodic; they are permanent. It
kills not the body merely, but the
soul. […] It wrecks his polity, uproots
him from the land, invades his family
life, destroys his natural pursuits and
occupations, claims his whole time,
enslaves him in his own home.”
Edmund Morel, The Black Man’s Burden
Definitions:
 Colonialism: the policy or practice of acquiring full
or partial political control over another country,
occupying it with settlers, and exploiting it
economically for the gain of the mother country.
 Imperialism: a policy of extending a country’s
power and influence through colonization, use of
military force, or other means.

Colonialism is a part of imperialism
Motives for Imperialism
 Europe sees Africa & Asia as critical to Industrial Revolution
 Import raw materials: oil, tin, rubber, etc
 Export manufactured goods – can’t sell enough @ home to make a profit
 Industrial countries want constant economic growth (depression is scary!)
 Colonies seen as crucial to national survival
 Social Darwinism
 Some Europeans saw it as moral
 The British Empire is “the greatest instrument for good that the world has
seen” – British colonial leader Henry Curzon
A Second Wave of European Conquests
First Wave of European
Colonialism
Second Wave of European
Colonialism
1500s - 1600s
1750 – 1900
In the Western Hemisphere (Americas)
In Africa and Asia
Spain and Portugal = were major
players at first
Second round = British, French, Dutch
New countries involved = Germany,
Italy, Belgium, the U.S., Japan
Devastated native populations through
disease
No massive devastation done to native
peoples (right away, at least)
Less direct control – focus on trade
network & key points
More complete control needed to fuel
industrial growth
Europeans chose the path of conquest
and outright colonial rule
Europeans preferred informal control
(cheaper & less likely to cause war)
 Construction of 2nd-wave European empires in Africa and Asia involved
military force or the threat of using new weaponry from industrialization
Colonial Asia in the Early 20th Century
Colonial Africa in the Early 20th Century
Various Paths to Colonial Status
 India and Indonesia = colonial
conquest grew out of earlier
interactions with European trading
companies
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British authorities meeting
with Mughal leaders
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India = became controlled by Britain
Indonesia = became controlled by the
Dutch
Neither country had a clear-cut plan for
conquest
Conquest evolved slowly as local
authorities and European traders made
and unmade a variety of alliances
Acquisition of India and Indonesia =
fairly easy because both were fragmented
territories with no political unity
Various Paths to Colonial Status
 Australia and New
Zealand = both taken
over by the British
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Similar to the earlier
colonization of North
America
Conquest accompanied by:
massive European
settlement and diseases that
reduced native numbers
Became settler colonies =
“neo-European” societies in
the Pacific
White Settlers in Australia
Various Paths to Colonial Status
 Africa, mainland
Southeast Asia, and the
Pacific islands =
occurred later = in the
2nd half of the 19th
century
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More abruptly and
deliberately than
anywhere else
The “Scramble for Africa”
 Until the 1800s = Europeans
knew very little about Africa
 1840 = David Livingstone went to
Africa
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Traveled around and explored
there for 30 years
He lost contact with the outside
world for 6 years in the 1860s
American Journalist Henry Stanley
was sent to look for him -- ended
up leading several expeditions
himself
 Journeys of Livingstone and
Stanley increased interest in
Africa and its many resources
Meeting of Livingstone and
Stanley
The “Scramble for Africa”
 One European country after another
began to claim parts of Africa

Able to take African territories easily
because they had superior weapons and a
lot of money
 1885 = the Berlin Conference = Several
European nations met in Berlin to decide
how to divide up Africa
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No African leaders invited
Peaceful negotiations made between the
European powers that officially decided
“who got what”
 By 1914 = Europeans controlled 90% of
Africa

The Berlin Conference
European powers often had to use
extensive and bloody military action to
maintain control within their acquired
African territories
Varying Responses to European Encroachment
 Some tried to enlist Europeans in
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their own internal struggles for
power or in their external rivalries
with neighboring states
Some tried to pit imperial powers
against each other
Some wanted to fight back against
the Europeans
Some believed resistance was futile
and acceptance of the situation was
the only option
Some negotiated with Europeans in
an effort to keep as much
independence and power as
possible
African Resistance to Colonial Rule
Under European Rule: Cooperation
 Many groups and individuals
willingly cooperated with colonial
authorities
 Many men found employment,
status, and security in the
European-led armed forces
 Colonial rulers = expensive, in
short supply, and could rarely
communicate with their subjects
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Result = local intermediaries needed
Local intermediaries = typically from
elite or governing families
Local intermediaries = could retain their
status and gain wealth by exercising
authority at the local level
Under European Rule: Cooperation
 Many found it beneficial
to pursue Western
education
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Western-educated class
served the colonial state,
European businesses, and
Christian missions as
teachers, clerks, translators,
and lower-level
administrators
Some with even more
education = became lawyers,
doctors, engineers,
journalists, etc.
Under European Rule: Rebellion
 Periodic rebellions (both
big and small) = a constant
problem for colonial
regimes everywhere
 Most famous colonial
rebellion = the Indian
Rebellion of 1857-1858
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Also known as: the Sepoy
Rebellion or Sepoy Mutiny
Sepoys = Indian soldiers in the
service of European powers
Indian Rebellion of 1857-1858
 Triggered by the introduction into
the colony’s forces of a new
cartridge smeared with animal fat
from cows and pigs
 Remember: Indian troops = Hindus
and Muslims
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Hindus = find cows sacred
Muslims = regard pigs as unclean
Both = viewed this military “innovation” as
a plot to harm them and convert them to
Christianity
 Indian troops in Bengal mutinied
against their British superiors
Indian Rebellion of 1857-1858
 Indian Rebellion spread from
Bengal to other regions and other
social groups
 Many social groups within India
were upset with British colonial
rule
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Local rulers = lost power
Landlords = deprived of their estates
and/or rent
Peasants = overtaxed and exploited by
urban moneylenders and landlords
Weavers = unemployed (displaced by
machines)
Religious leaders = opposed to Christian
missionary preaching
Indian Rebellion of 1857-1858
 Crushed in 1858  but important
results followed:
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Widening of the racial divide in colonial
India between native Indians and their
British rulers  eroded British
tolerance for their subjects
British = became more conservative
and cautious when it came to trying to
change Indian society  didn’t want
another rebellion
British government assumed direct
control over India  ended the British
East India Company’s rule there
Colonial Empires with a Difference
 Major factor
distinguishing the rulers
from the ruled = race
 Education for colonial
subjects = very limited
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Limited to practical subjects
Europeans were afraid that
education and knowledge
would lead to power for
colonial subjects
Colonial Empires with a Difference
 Colonies with large
European settler
populations = blatant
pattern of racial
segregation
 Example = apartheid
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Racial segregation in South
Africa
Racial system provided for
separate: “homelands,”
educational systems,
residential areas, public
facilities, etc.
Colonial Empires with a Difference
 European powers were much more
involved and “hands on” with their
colonial states in the 19th century
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European factories on the
west coast of Africa
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Affected the daily lives of people far more
than empires had in the past
Centralized tax-collecting agencies
New modes of transportation and
communication
Imposed changes in landholding patterns
Integration of colonial economies into
global trade network
Public health and sanitation measures
Colonial Empires with a Difference
 European colonizers felt the
need to count, classify, and
organize their colonial
subjects
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Wanted a way to manage the
unfamiliar, complex, varied, and
changing societies that they now
controlled
Made colonial administration
easier
Ex: In African colonies,
Europeans identified and
sometimes even invented
distinct tribes  each with its
own territory, language,
customs, chief, etc.
Colonial Empires with a Difference
 European colonial policies contradicted their own
values and practices at home
European Nations
European Colonies
Becoming more democratic
Were mostly dictatorships (used to
create order and stability)
Swept up in nationalism
Total opposite of national
independence
Christian and Enlightenment idea of
human equality
Racial divisions, ranked racial
classifications, etc.
Industrialization and modernization
Modernization discouraged because
Europeans did not want modernization
to cause opposition to colonial rule
African Women and
the Colonial Economy
 In pre-colonial times African
women:
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Were active farmers
Were responsible for planting,
weeding, and harvesting
Prepared the food
Cared for the children
Were allocated their own fields
with which they could feed their
families
Were involved in local trade
activity
Enjoyed some economic
independence
African Women and
the Colonial Economy
 Under colonial rule = men
moved into wage labor or cashcrop agriculture
 This put A LOT more
responsibility on women:
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Total responsibility for domestic food
production
Had to also supply food to men in the
cities
Took over traditionally male tasks 
breaking the ground for planting,
milking cows, supervising the herds,
etc.
African Women and
the Colonial Economy
 Result = many men and
women began to live separate
lives and develop different
cultures
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Men in the cities working for wages
Women in the villages focusing on
subsistence agriculture
 Many married couples no
longer lived together
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Women started to build closer
relationships with their own family
instead of their husband’s
 Many women became the
heads of their households
Portrait of a Luo Woman from
Kenya
Assessing Colonial Development
 Clear results of economic
development within European
colonies in the 19th-20th
centuries:
 (1) Colonial rule facilitated the
integration of Asian and
African economies into a
global network of exchange

More land and labor = devoted to
production for the global market
 (2) Nowhere did a
And, obviously, many of these excolonies have yet to develop a
modern industrial society
breakthrough to modern
industrial society occur
Assessing Colonial Development
 (3) The appearance of some
elements of modernization
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Modern administrative and
bureaucratic structures
Schools  used to train the
intermediaries that were so
crucial to colonial rule
Communication and
transportation  railroads,
motorways, ports, telegraphs,
postal services
Modest health care provisions
 part of the “civilizing
mission”
The Building of an African Railway,
1905