Chapter 21
THE HIGH
TIDE OF
IMPERIALISM
The Spread of Colonial Rule
• Q: What were the causes of the new
imperialism of the nineteenth century, and
how did it differ from European expansion
in earlier periods?
Motives for Colonialism
• Economic
– Raw materials
• Oil, tin, rubber
– New markets
• Needed to absorb manufactured goods
Imperialism
• Process of western economic expansion in
Asia and Africa
• efforts of western capitalist states to seize
markets, cheap raw materials, and
lucrative avenues for investment
Voices of Imperialism
• John A Hobson, Imperialism: A Study in
1902,
– modern imperialism was a direct
consequence of the modern industrial
economy
– wealth, national status, and political power
went hand in hand with possession of a
colonial empire.
Voices of Imperialism
• French politician, Jules Ferry, 1885
– expressed the relationship between
colonialism and national survival:
• a policy of containment or abstinence would
set France on the broad road to decadence and
initiate its decline into a 3rd or 4th rate power.
– theory of Social Darwinism
• in the struggle between nations only the fit will
survive.
Voices of Imperialism
• British professor of Math, Karl Pearson
– “the path of progress is strewn with the
wrecks of nation; traces are everywhere
to be seen of the [slaughtered remains] of
inferior races….yet these dead people are,
in very truth, the stepping stones on which
mankind has arisen to the higher
intellectual and deeper emotional life of
today.”
Voices of Imperialism
• Moral Arguments
– Promote Christianity
– Build a better world.
• Cecil Rhodes,
– purpose was to extend the British empire on
“which the sun never set.”
Colonial Rivalry
• Colonial rivalry
– scramble to acquire new territories in Asia and
Africa, primary motive, economic
– Africa
• British engaged in a struggle with rivals to protect
their interests in the Suez canal and Red Sea
– Southeast Asia
• US seized the Philippines from Spain and to keep
them from the Japanese
– Indochina
• The French took over in competition with Germany,
Japan or the US would usurp that territory
Scramble Complete
• By 1900 all societies of Africa and Asia
were under full colonial rule or on the
verge of collapse as was the case with
China and the Ottoman empire.
• Exceptions:
– Japan, East Asia, Thailand, Afghanistan,
Persia, Ethiopia in East Africa.
The Colonial System
• Q: What types of administrative systems d
the various colonial powers establish in
their colonies, and how did these systems
reflect the general philosophy of
colonialism?
Indirect Rule
• Cooperating with local elites
– Purchased loyalty
– Economic rewards for cooperation
– Confirming them in positions of authority and
status in an new colonial setting.
• In parts of Africa and Indian subcontinent,
• the Malay peninsula
– Countries that were most effective in resisting included
those who had along tradition of national cohesion and
independence:
» Burma, Vietnam, African Muslim states such as
Nigeria and Morocco.
Direct Rule
• Directly imposed or replaced indigenous
government, institutions
– Re-organized social, political, economic and
often, gender relationships
• Response to resistance efforts
• Policies designed to eradicate source of resistance
• Destroy sources of tradition
Philosophy of Colonialism
• “Might makes it right”
– pseudoscientific validation from the concept
of Social Darwinism
• “White mans burden”
– Moral justification:
• bringing the benefits of western democracy,
capitalism, and Christianity to the tradition-ridden
societies of Africa and Asia,
– (civilizing mission)
Association
• The French adopted the terms association
& assimilation:
• Association:
– implied collaboration with the local elites
while leaving local traditions alone
Assimilation
• Assimilation
– Implies an effort to transform colonial
societies in the western image
• French approached colonization both ways
India Under the British Raj
• Q: What were some of the major
consequences of British rule in India, and
how did they affect the Indian peoples?
British India, 1800
• Empire of the Muhgals colonized
– British sought to consolidate their control over
Indian and expand into the interior
– Direct Rule
• East India company
• Later by the British crown
– Indirect Rule
• through their local Maharajas and rajas.
The East Indian Co. Resident and His Puppet
•company’s resident dominating a procession in Tanjore in
1825, while the Indian ruler, Sarabhoji, follows like an
obedient shadow
© Art Media, Victoria and Albert Museum, London/HIP/The Image Works
Colonial Reforms
Benefits
• British government brought order and
stability to a society rent by civil war and
• Benefits
– Increase in access to education
• Girls had some increase access – wifely duties,
– Sati outlawed of Sati
– widows allowed to remarry legally
– new infrastructure of railroads and telegraph,
postal service, health and sanitation
improved.
Costs of Colonialism
• High price for stability
• Economic costs: hardship to the majority
of millions of people
– Introduction of British textiles put thousands of
Bengali women out of work and severely
damaged the local textile industry
Costs of Colonialism
• British introduced the Zamindar system:
– To facilitate the collection of agricultural taxes
and create a new landed gentry who could
become the conservative foundation of British
rule.
• local gentry increased the tax burden on peasants
and forced many to become tenants or lose their
land entirely.
– Rebellion led to new legislation protecting farmers from
eviction and unreasonable rent increases as a
concession
India Under
British Rule,
1805–1931
•This map shows
the different
forms of rule that
the British
applied in India
under their
control.
The Cost of Colonialism
• Economic costs
– Limited industrialization,
• remiss in bringing the benefits of modern science
and technology
• Psychological impact:
– British arrogance, contempt and
discrimination
• cut deeply into the pride of many Indians,
especially those of high caste
Colonial regimes in SE Asia
• Q: Which western countries were most
active in seeking colonial possessions in
Southeast Asia, and what were their
motives in doing so?
Colonial Regimes in
Southeast Asia
• 1800 only two societies were under
colonial rule
– Spanish Philippines
– Dutch East Indies
• 1900 the entire area colonized by the
west
The Effects of Dutch
Colonialism in Java
•Dutch administration buildings in Batavia
© William J. Duiker
Singapore
and Malaya
•“Opportunity in the
Orient”
•1819 Stamford
Raffles founded
British colony in
Singapore
•Strategic
shipping port in
the region
Government Hill in Singapore
•Strait of Malacca, an important commercial seaport in
Asia.
© British Library/HIP/Art Resource, NY
Colonial Southeast Asia
•British
Burma
•Malacca
•French
Vietnam
•Laos
•Cambodia
•American
Philippines
The Nature of Colonial Rule
• Administration and Education
– Slow to adopt democratic institutions
• Albert Sarraut advised patience in in awaiting the full
benefits colonial policy
– I will treat you like my younger brothers, but do not forget
that I am the older brother. I will slowly give you the dignity
of humanity
– Slow to adopt educational reforms
• French officials in Vietnam voiced opposition to
expanding education
– Educating the natives meant not “one coolie less but one
rebel more
Cultural
Influences—
East and
West
© Archives Charmet/The Bridgeman Art Library
The Nature of Colonial Rule
• Economic Development
– Exploitation of raw materials
•
•
•
•
Burma: Teakwood
Malaya: Rubber and Tin
East Indies: spices, tea, coffee, palm oil
Philippines: sugar, copra (coconut flesh)
– Limited industrialization
• Industrialization to meet needs of European elite and
local elites
• Most industrial and commercial establishments,
banking, & trade, owned and managed by Europeans
The Nature of Colonial Rule
• Colonialism and the Countryside
– Majority of people agrarian
• Subsistence agriculture
• Plantation agriculture
– European Rubber & Tea Plantations
– Workers “Shanghaied”
• English term , practice of recruiting laborers, often from
the docks and streets of Shanghai: use of force, drugs or
alcohol
The Production of Rubber
• European
Cash Crop of
Asia
•Slave wages.
© William J. Duiker
The
Production of
Rubber
•.latex sheets
© William J. Duiker
Empire Building in Africa
• Q: What factors were behind the
“Scramble for Africa” and what impact did
it have on the continent?
18thC Africa
• 18th C interest limited to the coast and the
slave trade
– Indirect rule or influence through African
rulers and merchant intermediaries
• Factors that limited expansion
– Disease
• malaria
– Political instability
– Lack of transportation
Domestic Slaves, Zanzibar, 1890
•Slave trade in decline: growing outrage among
humanitarians in European countries over human
trafficking & increase in price coupled with decrease in
© Bojan Brecelj/CORBIS
demand
Decline of Slave Trade
• Dutch ceased the trafficking by1795,
Danes in 1803,
• Britain & America declared it illegal in
1808
– By 1815 only Portugal and Spain were legally
active.
– By the 1880s the institution was abolished in
all major countries in the world.
• It was finally abolished in America by 1863 and in
Cuba and brazil 17 years later
•
Empire Building in Africa
Informal Empire
• The Growing European Presence in
• West Africa
– Emergence of European educated elite class of
Africans who were then employed by Europeans
– Christianizing
– African social splits
– Tensions with African government
– British: Gold Coast, Sierra Leone
– America: Liberia
– French: Senegal River near Cape Verde
• Peanut plantations
Imperialist Shadow over the Nile
• Historical interest in building a canal between
the Mediterranean and Red Sea
– Turks, 16th C
– King Louis of France, 17th C
– Napolean,1798 toppled the Mamluk regime in
Cairo
– British restored the Mamluk Muhammad Ali,
Ottoman officer seized control for 30 years
– Ferdinand de Lesseps,1854, signed a contract to
have the canal completed by 1869
The Suez Canal
• French Egypt
– Project indebted the
government
– Dependent on
foreign aid
– Revolt against
foreign influence led
Britain to step in and
protect its
investments (1875
shares)
– Established an
informal protectorate
until WWI
The Opening of the Suez Canal,
1869
•Continues to be Egypt’s greatest revenue
producer
© Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz/Art Resource, NY
British Control of Egypt & Sudan
• Great Britain’s interest in region strategic
– Suez Canal shortened distance between Europe & Asia
• Designed by a French engineer & built by an international company
• Opened in 1869
• Far flung empire & trading network, Britain had the
greatest interest in its control
– 1875 Britain acquired control when the ruler of Egypt sold his
shares in the company to British government to avoid bankruptcy
– 1882 British advisors supervised all important Egyptian
government offices & became real rulers of the country
• Technically or nominally remained a province of the Ottoman
Empire
Suez Canal, 1869
• Canal opened
• Europeans directly controlled only a
scattering of outposts
– African Coast
– Algeria
– North Africa
– Southern Tip of Africa
Sudan
• Egypt claimed authority over Sudan
• Sudan controlled the water supply of the
Nile River
– Sudanese resented Egyptian control
– Revolted in 1883 under the Mahdi (Rightly
Guided One) the leader of the Nationalist
movement
– 1896 – 1898 General Sir Herbert Kitchener
undertook recon quest of Sudan
French Conquest & Settlement of
Northwest Africa
• 1830 – 1869 France conquered Algeria
– Used as a base for further advances into the
Sahara
– 1881 Made Tunisia a protectorate (in spite of
Italy’s claim)
– Expanded west into Morocco
French Empire
• Encouraged re-settlement, unlike Britain in
Egypt
– Algeria – French dispossessed people of best
land
– 1911 population 5.6 million, 752,000 were
European
– Tunisia 130,000 Europeans
• Friction between wealthy white minority & Arab
Majority
• Muslims treated like a conquered people
White Privilege
• French settlers or Colons had
representation in the legislature in
metropolitan France
• Muslims had no representation
– The Arab must accept the fate of the
conquered, he must either become
assimilated to our civilization or disappear.
European civilization can have no sympathy
for the life of a savage
1912
• Several European nations had completed
partitioning of Africa
• Incorporated territories into their Empire
• Only two states remained independent postpartition
– Liberia
• Settled by former slaves of America
• Remained economically dependent on U.S. companies
– Firestone
– Ethiopia
• Had successfully repelled Italy’s attempt to conquer it in 1896
The Partition – Science &
Technological advance
• Science and technology allowed for
partition
– Quinine (bark of Cinchona tree) defended
against malaria
– Dutch & British empires began producing it in
significant quantities to allow citizens to
colonize
Industrial development
• Demand for raw materials from Africa &
elsewhere increased
• Improvements in shipping reduced
transportation costs,
• Steamships, telegraphs, railways, superior guns,
military equipment facilitated European
intervention & control
• European mentality, economic system & morality
– the desire & justification to conquer other
peoples was present
Belgium
• King Leopold II, 1876
– “I want my share of this wonderful African cake”
• Organized private commercial organization to
exploit resources of Congo basin
– Established the Congo Free State
– Exploitation of land and people of Congo justified
accusations that modern tropical colonization by
Europeans was motivated by economic greed
• International outcry against repressive policies forced him to
appoint a Commission of inquiry in 1904
Commission of Inquiry, 1904
• Found enslavement & brutality of people
for extraction of rubber
• 1908 Belgium government replaced King’s
regime with less exploitative one
The Scramble for Africa
© Snarky/Art Resource, NY
Berlin West African Conference
1884-1885
• European colonial powers agreed on “first
come, first served” as basic rule for dividing
Africa
• Justified it as a civilizing mission
• 1884 scramble intensified
– Portugal, Spain, Great Britain, France, Italy, Germany
– 1871-1900 Britain added 4.3 million miles of territory
& 66 million by acquiring its African Empire
Serving the White Ruler
•African workers carry British officers across a
mangrove swamp in Central Africa. Two porters
in the rear bring the liquor.
© Mary Evans Picture Library/The Image Works
Resistance
• invasion disrupted to traditional life ways,
political, socio-economic systems
• 25 conflicts with Europeans before WWI
– Key resisters
•
•
•
•
Ethiopia
Ashanti in present day Ghana
Followers of the Mahdi in Sudan
Zulus in Southern Africa
– All lost in the end with exception of Ethiopia who skillfully used modern
weapons they purchased
South Africa
• 17th C Dutch Colonists began settling among the
San & Khoi (hunt/gath) & the Bantu speaking
peoples who engaged in herding & agriculture
• Zulu
– Forged people into a fighting nation that defeated and
subjugated other tribes and fought white colonists in
several Zulu wars
– Although eventually defeated
– Bantu people moved into Southern Africa
– Black Majority and white minority = racial caste
system
Rise & Fall of Boer Republics
• 19th C attracted white colonists
– Climate, soil, gold & diamonds
– Great Britain acquired the Dutch Colony at
the Cape of Good Hope in 1815
– Inherited Dutch colonists of the land
– The Boers or Farmers
• Resented British rule and law ending slavery in
1833
– Forced them to free their slaves
The Sunday Battle
•To escape British control, Boers made a mass
migration called the Great Trek into the interior of
Africa between 1835 & 1841
© Mary Evans Picture Library/Everett Collection
•. Boer’s
established 2
independence
republics:
Orange Free
State and
Transvaal
•British
established Natal
in Cape Province
Struggle over resources (Gold)
• 1899 Anglo-Boer War
–
–
–
–
Guerilla tactics
Scorched earth policy
Concentration camps
1902 Boers surrendered
– Union of South Africa
• Two Boer Colonies federated with British colonies of Natal
and Cape in 1909
• Established white supremacy, denied suffrage to black
majority
Rhodesia
• Orange Free state – previously had been
called Great Zimbabwe, an African State
– Cecil Rhodes made a fortune in diamond
mining in South Africa and carved out two
new colonies for Great Britain
– To be governed by Rhode’s South African
Company
• Northern Rhodesia
• Southern Rhodesia
1890s
• Rhode’s South African Company
– Army won Portuguese acquiescence in the
British takeover of that area
– Defeat of Matabele & Mashona tribes
• Resentful of exploitation of land and labor
• 1897 fighting ended
• Sponsored British immigration
– 5% of population European
Impact
• Many suffered
• Especially where Europeans re-settled or
extracted resources
– Tribes were split under different jurisdictions
– Previous hostile tribes were grouped under a
single administration
• Kenya & Rhodesia
– 100,000s lost land, forced to live on inferior lands as
native reserves or become tenants & laborers on new
white owned lands
Indirect Impacts
• Slavery abolished in Britain in 1808
• continued to enslave Africans enslaved for
public works and mineral extraction
– Imposed through violence
Christian Missionaries
• Missionary teacher and preacher more
likely than colonial administrator to be in
contact with more remote peoples
– “Bush Schools”
– Western Education & Religion expanded
• Islam remained dominant
– Majority of Algerians, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya,
Egypt and Northern Sudan resisted
conversion
Revere the conquering
heroes: Establishing British
rule in Africa
© Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
New African Leadership
Anti-colonial movements
• Educated
– Wanted to seize new opportunities created by
colonialism
– Began to develop anti-colonial movements
• Prior to WWI, demanded African Christian
Churches be placed under black African
leadership
• New African independent states be established
based on modern democratic principles
Revolts in North Africa
• Nationalist Political movements
– Morocco
• Rif Rebellion led by Krim Brothers
• Brutally crushed by French and Spanish forces
– Algeria
– Libya
• Italians bombed rebellion
– Tunisia
• French crushed movements in early 1900s
Africa in 1914
•.
Cultural Influences—East and
West
© Werner Forman/Art Resource, NY
Royal Palace at Bangkok
© William J. Duiker
Gateway to India
© William J. Duiker