IMPERIALISM
AP European History
Chapter 26
I. The World Economy
A. “Old Imperialism” (1816-1880)
1. economic not political
B. Rise in global inequality
1. 1750 – average
standard of living
2. Industrial Revolution
opened the gap
developed v. non-developed
3. Third World –
stagnated income
C. World Market
1. Great Britain & Industrial Revolution
2. Transportation Revolution
3. Growth of trade and conquest of distance
encouraged Europeans to make foreign
investments.
D. European Migration
1. Population growth
2. 1815 to 1932 – 60
million left Europe.
3. Migration provided
further impetus for
Western expansion.
4. Characteristics of European Immigrants
a. small peasant landowner or village
craftsmen
b. typically returned to homeland
1) Swallows
5. Asian Migrants
a. indentured laborers who worked on
plantations and mines
b. “Great White Walls” – discriminatory
laws designed to keep Asians out
II. “New Imperialism” (1880-1914)
A. formal political control
B. Causes of New Imperialism:
1. Industrialism = Search for markets and
raw materials
2. National Security = military power
a. naval bases
3. International prestige = colonies were
essential to great nations
a. Heinrich von Treitschke
4. Social Darwinism & harsh racial doctrines
5. Technological & military superiority:
a. machine gun
b. quinine – prevented malaria
c. steamship & telegraph
6. Jingoism – extreme patriotism in the form of
aggressive foreign policy (propaganda)
7. Special-interest groups: missionaries
C. Imperialism in Africa
1. Egypt
a. Muhammad Ali (r. 1800-1849)
1) Reform & modernization
b. Ismail (Khedive, 1863-1879)
1) Suez Canal (1869)
2) massive debt
c. Tewfiq (r. 1879-1892)
1) Bankruptcy & Insurrection
d. British protectorate
1882-1956
D. The Scramble for Africa
1. 1880, Euro nations controlled only 10%
2. Between 1880 and 1900 Britain, France,
Germany, and Italy scrambled to carve up
Africa.
a. Ethiopia and Liberia remained independent.
b. New Imperialism based on British model in
Egypt – protectorate
1) military force, political domination, and a
self-justifying ideology of beneficial reform
North Africa in 1880
South Africa, 1880
E. South Africa
1. Cape Town – Dutch Afrikaners
a. Great Trek
b. Boer War (1899-1902): Jingoism
1) Cecil Rhodes – Rhodesia
2) Transvaal gold mines
3) Kruger Telegram
b. Union of South Africa, 1910
F. Belgian Congo
1. King Leopold II of Belgium
a. Central Africa
b. Henry M. Stanley explored
Congo Basin & established
trading stations
2. Triggered “African Fever”
G. Berlin Conference (1884-85)
1. International conference to establish
basic rules for African Imperialism
a. Jules Ferry & Bismarck
b. “effective occupation”
2. Germany becomes imperial power
a. protectorates in 1884-85
H. British objective
1. connect Southern
& Northern colonies
a. Cairo to Cape
Town
Cecil Rhodes, depicted in
a Punch cartoon reflects
the attitude of British
imperialism
American
cartoon
German
cartoon
French cartoon
2. Sudan
a. Khartoum (1885) – Muslim massacre of
British force
b. Gen. Horatio Kitchener
Battle of Omdurman (1898)
(11,000 to 28)
3. Fashoda incident (1898)
a. Diplomatic crisis
1) French & British
standoff
2) Dreyfus Affair
Imperialism in Africa, 1914
III. The “New Imperialism” Ideology
D. European Ideology
1. Nationalism
2. Social Darwinism
3. “White man’s burden”
 Rudyard Kipling
4. Protect and improve lives of nonWesterners
The White Man’s Burden
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.
D. Critics of imperialism
1. J. A. Hobson –
Imperialism
the quest for empire diverted
popular attention away from
domestic reform
2. Joseph Conrad –
Heart of Darkness
the main character, once
a liberal scholar, turns
into a savage brute
Henry Labouchere – mocking Kipling
Pile on the Brown Man’s burden!
And if ye rouse his hate,
Meet his old-fashioned reasons
With Maxims up to date,
With shells and Dum-Dum bullets
A hundred times plain
The Brown Man’s loss must never
Imply the White Man’s gain.
IV. New Imperialism in Asia
A. Responses to Western imperialism
1. China – Qing Dynasty
a. refused diplomatic relations with
Western governments
2. Opium Wars (1839-1842)
a. Treaty of Nanking, 1842
1) Hong Kong, $100 million, 4 cities open for trade
3. 2nd Opium War (1856-1860)
a. Tai Ping Rebellion (1850-1864)
1) Civil War in southern China (20 million killed)
b. British & French soldiers occupied Beijing
1) further opened China to foreign trade
4. Hundred days of reform (1898)
a. Chinese response to foreign occupation
b. Boxer Rebellion, 1900
5. Open Door Policy
“American Diplomacy”, 1900
B. India – Great Britain
1. Mogul Empire – Hindu & Muslim
2. “Crown Jewel”
2. British East India Company, Robert
Clive
3. The Great Rebellion
Sepoy mutiny
(1857-58)
The mutiny began in Meerut, and
soon the angry Sepoys moved on to
Delhi. The massacre at Cawnpore,
now Kanpur, became a rallying cry
for outraged Britons.
Sepoy Mutiny
4. British women in India
a. managed plantation
household
5. High-caste Hindus
a. British educated
b. Indian elite
1) Irrigation projects
2) Railroads
c. Hindu Indian National
Congress (1885)
C. Japan: Commodore Mathew Perry (1853)
1. Japanese isolationism – preserve culture
a. feudal society: emperor, shogun, samurai
2. Meiji Restoration (1867)
a. patriotic samurai seized
government & restored
emperor
b. goal: meet foreign threat
1) modernization
2) dual revolution
c. Japanese imperialism: Sino-Japanese War
(1894-1895)
3. Russo-Japanese War (1904)
a. Japanese naval victory
b. Treaty of Portsmouth