19th century Imperialism
& THE SCRAMBLE FOR AFRICA
The Age of Imperialism
 Imperialism
=
a policy of
conquering
and ruling
other lands
The Link… Industry and Imperialism
 Science and industry increase competition between
European powers
 Colonies essential to states that aspire to status as
great powers




Raw materials
Markets
A place for the unemployed masses
Pride
Technology Helps
 Improved communication and transportation 
easier for European governments to control what’s
going on in their colonies
 New military tech makes conquest easier!
Nations competed for overseas empires. Britain’s lead was
challenged.
 In the mid-1800s, Britain was the most powerful nation in
the world.



It’s factories produced more good than those of any other country.
The British Navy guarded the oceans so that those goods could be shipped
safely to ports around the globe.
British banks loaned the money needed to build factories, mines, and
railroads worldwide.
 By the late 1800s, however, Germany and the United States
were challenging Britain’s economic leadership.
 Faced with possible decline, Britain looked increasingly to
its colonies for markets and resources.
Nations competed for overseas empires.
Imperialism fostered rivalries.
 Other countries followed Britain’s lead and came to see
colonies as necessary for their economic well-being.




The French and Dutch expanded their holdings and by 1900 France had an
empire second in size only to Britain’s.
Spain and Portugal attempted to build new empires in Africa.
Austria-Hungary moved into the Balkans.
Russia expanded into the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Siberia.
 Countries that had no colonies set out to acquire them.

Belgium, Italy, and Germany all took over lands in Africa (with Germany
also taking an interest in East Asia & the Pacific islands).
Nations competed for overseas empires.
Imperialism fostered rivalries.
(continued)
 Two non-European countries, the United States and Japan,
also became involved in overseas expansion during this
period.


Both the U.S. and Japan were interested in East Asia.
The U.S. was also deeply tied to Latin America.
 Increasingly, Europeans viewed an empire as a measure of
national stature.
 Imperialism becomes intricately tied to Nationalism both
economically and politically.
 Thus, the race for colonies grew out of a strong sense of
national pride as well as from economic competition.
Nations competed for overseas empires.
Europe believed in its own superiority.
 Following the Industrial Revolution, Europeans regarded
their new technology (weaponry, telegraphs, railroads etc.)
as proof they were better than other peoples.
 This attitude is a reflection of racism, the belief that one
race is superior to others.
 Europeans believed that they had the right and duty to
bring the results of their progress to other countries.
Causes of New Imperialism
 Economic motives:
 Britain had the early lead
 By 1870’s France, Germany, US were rapidly
industrializing
 Britain valued India, a possession of over a century
 Colonies provide markets for European capital,
investment, and merchants.
 Colonies provide a means to get natural resources
needed for the new industrial machinery
Causes of New Imperialism
 Crucial to national security, military
power, and national prestige
 Social Darwinism: brutal natural
struggle between the races of the
world
British Empire 19th c.
Opening of Suez Canal, 1869
French English venture for access to the Red Sea from
Mediterranean; crucial for access to Asia by Europe.
akg-images
Congress of Berlin 1872
•Gathered to apportion the empires of
Europe
•Competition for colonies among nonempires sets up alliances for WW I
•Otto von Bismarck sets up this conference
to try to deal with
•Partitioning of Africa
•Decline of the Ottoman Empire
•Territories in Asia
•Stop expansion of Russia
The Conference
 1884-1885: Berlin Conference
 An international conference to lay down basic imperialistic
rules.
 Organized by Jules Ferry from France, and Otto Von Bismarck
from Germany
 No Africans were present
 No European country could claim the entire continent.
 European nations would push relentlessly from all sides to the
interior.
Pre-imperialism Africa
 1878: European nations control less than 10% of Africa
 By 1900, nearly the entire continent will be “carved up”
by European industrialized nations
South Africa
 African Chiefdoms, Dutch settlers (Boers, or
Afrikaners) and British Colonial Forces wages a
three-pronged war for control of South Africa

Shaka, of the Zulu tribe revolutionized warfare for the Africans
 With discovery of diamonds in 1867, Cecil Rhodes
and his De Beers financiers were energized for
takeover!
Boer War
 1899-1902: Anglo-Boer War, otherwise known as the
South African War.
 British forces defeated the Afrikaner forces using
450,000 soldiers from all over the empire.

Used the “total war” concept
European powers engaged in a “Scramble
for Africa” starting in the 1870s. By 1890,
most of Africa came under European control.
E. Napp
By 1890, only
Ethiopia
and
Liberia
remained
independent.
E. Napp
King Leopold, the king
of Belgium, ruled
the Congo like his own
private estate. Natives
that did not supply
enough rubber had
their hands cut off. While
the king profited, the
people of the Belgian
Congo suffered greatly.
E. Napp
Asia in 1914
Reasons why the Europeans were so
successful…
 Rapid Fire Machine Gun
 Quinine: immunization against malaria
 Steamship and Telegraph allowed European powers to
concentrate firepower
Nations competed for overseas empires.
Imperialism had mass appeal.
(continued)
 Novels and poetry also glorified Imperialism .



The most popular writer of the day was Joseph Rudyard Kipling
(1865-1936).
Kipling appealed not only to his readers’ sense of adventure but also
the their feelings of superiority.
He saw imperialism as a mission to “civilize non-Europeans” and
urged his readers to:
Take up the White Man’s BurdenSend forth the best ye breedGo bind your sons to exileTo serve your captives’ need…
The Seizure of Africa (1880-1902) (Early)
 David Livingstone: Protestant missionary who
wrote of the horrors in African Slave Trade


People felt that European rule would benefit the Africans
A moral justification for the conquest of Africa
Seizure of Africa (Early)
 Leopold II of Belgium
 “Steam and electricity have annihilated distance, and all the
non-appropriated land on the surface of our globe can become
the field of our operations and of our success.”
 Focused on gaining land in Central Africa
 Alarmed the French
A positive effect of European imperialism
was the introduction of modern
transportation and communication
systems, such as telegraphs, railroads,
and telephones.
E. Napp
The introduction of
European medicine and improved nutrition
led to an expansion of population.
E. Napp
Europeans divided Africa and ignored
the tribal, ethnic, and cultural boundaries
of the African people. This has led to
tribal conflicts in many African nations
that continue to this day.
E. Napp
I
Europe in 1914 at the outbreak of war