th
19
Century European
Imperialism
Out with the Old and in with the New…
The Old Imperialism (to 1870)
• During the first three quarters of the 19th
century, European powers showed little interest
in overseas expansion.
• In fact, it appeared that imperialism was on the
way out.
• Economic and political liberalism was largely
against imperial ventures of political oppression
and mercantilist trade.
The British Empire
• The British Empire was the largest overseas empire in
the early 19th century, but there was little interest in
further expansion.
• The American War of Independence still loomed over
British colonial policy.
• In the Western Hemisphere, British control in Canada
expanded westward, but discontent was growing.
• The British North America Act of 1867 established the
Dominion of Canada (extensive autonomy in domestic
policy.
• British continued to control much of the Caribbean.
The British Empire
• Africa
– The British had captured the Cape Colony during
the Napoleonic Wars and trading stations along
the coast.
– In the 1820s, British settlers moved in, causing
friction with the Boers (descendants of Dutch
colonists who settled there in the 17th century.)
– In the Great Trek of 1835-1837, Boers moved
north and established the state of Transvaal and
the Orange Free State.
The British Empire
• India
– In India, most of the British administration was
controlled by the East India Company.
– In 1857, Indian troops rebelled against British rule in
the Great Mutiny (aka the Sepoy Rebellion).
– This occurred as a result of BEIC abuses, cultural
frictions, and rumors of pig and cow fat used in
powder charges (insult to Hindus and Muslims)
– As a result, the British government took direct rule
of India in 1858 (British Raj)
The British Empire
• China
– The British established a trade system of importing
opium from India to China in return for tea during
the 19th century.
– When the Chinese government attempted to stop
this, Britain went to war with China in 1842 (the
Opium War).
– China was quickly defeated, resuming the import of
opium and Britain annexed Hong Kong in 1842.
– As a result of further conflict, namely the Taiping
Rebellion, China gave away more of its sovereignty.
The British Empire
• The British also continued to
control several key outposts.
– Gibraltar and Malta in the
Mediterranean
– Aden in the Red Sea
– Ceylon (Sri Lanka) in the
Indian Ocean.
– Singapore in the Pacific Ocean.
– Australia and New Zealand
were growing colonies for
British and Irish settlers.
Gibraltar
The British Empire
The Latin American Colonies
• The Independence movements
between 1804 and 1824 in Latin
America proved for the rest of
Europe what the American
Revolution proved for the British.
• Nationalism and liberalism assured
that Portugal would lose control of
its vast territory in Brazil, France
would lose Haiti, and Spain would
lose the rest of Latin America,
save Cuba and Puerto Rico (Spain
also retained the Philippines in the
Pacific).
The French Empire
• Through the Seven Years War, and the
Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, France had
lost most of its overseas territories.
• All of French North America was lost to the
British, Spanish and Americans.
• French influence in India was lost after the
Seven Years War.
The French Empire
• The French continued to have island colonies in
the Caribbean on Guadeloupe and Martinique,
as well as French Guiana in South America.
• In Africa, the French operated several coastal
trading stations and exerted some influence in
Egypt and the Middle East.
• In 1830, the French slowly began acquiring
territorial rights in Algeria and in Indochina.
The Dutch Colonies
• The Dutch, now a second rate power due to its
small size and domination by surrounding
powers protected what it had.
• They continued to exploit what they could
through trade and their island empire in the East
Indies.
• A revolt on Java between 1825 and 1830 was
crushed, bring harsher rule by the Dutch.
Russian Expansion
• Russia was the only European power to
aggressively continue its expansionist policies
throughout the 19th century.
• In contrast, however, Russian expansion was
over land and contiguous with its territory.
• Russian expansion came at the cost of the
crumbling Ottoman Empire along the Black Sea,
a power vacuum in Central Asia, and Chinese
weakness along the North Pacific Coast.
The Russian Empire
Austria, Prussia, and Italy
• During the first half of the 19th century,
overseas imperial expansion was not an option
for Prussia, Austria, and the states of Italy.
• Prussia and the Italian states were primarily
concerned with domestic affairs (Rev. of 1848)
and their unification movements.
• Austria as well was concerned with internal
affairs and any expansion came at the price of
the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans.
The New Imperialism
• In the late 1860s and 1870s, European powers
began to reverse their disdain for obtaining
formal colonies.
• In the period from 1870 to 1914, European
nations (as well as the U.S. and Japan) would go
on a colonization drive like never before.
• In just a couple of decades, nearly all of Africa
and large areas of Asia and the Middle East
would come under European domination.
Motivations for New Imperialism
• Nationalism and competition among states for
additional territory was a major political and
psychological factor.
• The influence of Social Darwinism pushed the
“strongest to survive” and to dominate the weak.
• Humanitarian and religious considerations led to
military interventions, missionary zeal, and the
“civilizing” mission.
• European industrial development caused the need for
natural resources and new markets to sell in and invest.
Imperialism and European Society
• Policies in colonial possessions were often used
as test beds for social policy at home; hospitals,
schools, law enforcement, and infrastructure was
often tested in colonies.
• Imperialistic ventures were used as nationalistic
propaganda at home and was a way of forming
national unity in the face of class tensions.
• Liberals often opposed imperial ventures where
conservatives favored them.
The British Empire
• Asia
– Consolidation of the British Raj continued as the
British government expanded its formal rule over
greater territories in northern and western India.
– In 1877, Queen Victoria was declared Empress of
India.
– British control expanded eastward into Burma, and
Malaya and northward to the border with
Afghanistan (created as a buffer against the
Russians)
The British Empire
• Egypt
– In 1875, the British bought a 44 percent share
in the previously French controlled Suez
Canal (1869).
– The British took a greater role in Egyptian
affairs until it was made a British Protectorate
in 1882.
• East and West Africa
– In East and West Africa, Britain expanded its
old trading posts into full colonies, leading to
conflict with the natives (example: AngloZulu War of 1879)
– These included Gambia, Sierra Leone, The
Gold Coast, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and
Somalia.
Battle of Rouke’s Drift
in the Anglo-Zulu War.
The British Empire
• South Africa
– Led by the efforts of imperialist and
capitalist Cecil Rhodes.
– Rhodes made fortune in diamonds,
discovered in Cape Colony in 1869.
– He pressed for British expansion in
Southern Africa.
– Tensions mounted in the 1880s with
the discovery of gold in Transvaal,
British prospectors moved in with the
blessing of Rhodes, the PM of Cape
Colony.
The Boer War (1899-1902)
• President Paul Kruger of Transvaal was convinced the
British were going to annex their state, Kruger then
tried to ally with Germany.
• Tensions led to war in 1899. The Boers led a
determined guerilla war that lasted four years (first
post-modern war?). The Boers were often placed in
concentration camps.
• With the end of the war in 1902 and the creation of the
Union of South Africa in 1910, the Boers were
integrated into the British Dominion and came to
dominate it.
The British Empire
The British Empire, 1914
The French Empire
• In the 1870s, the French extended their colonial
control over North and Western Africa.
• Algeria was made a full colony, with large
numbers of French settlers moving in to farm.
• Control was then extended to Tunisia and
Morocco and large amounts of territory in
French West Africa, Senegal, Guinea and the
Ivory Coast, as well as Madagascar
• In Asia, French Indochina was colonized.
Anglo-French Conflict in Sudan
• An uprising in the Sudan under the leadership
of the infamous Mahdi threatened British
interests.
• General Charles Gordon reached Khartoum in
1884 to evacuate the garrison but was besieged
by the Madhi, the British troops were massacred.
• In 1897, Lord Kitchener retook Khartoum. He
then set off down the Nile with a flotilla of
gunboats to confront French General Marchand
at Fashoda. This precipitated the Fashoda
Crisis when, ultimately unable to face a naval
war with Britain, the French backed down.
Scramble for Africa – Leopold II
• In the 1870s, King Leopold II of Belgium began
the process of creating a personal colony in the
Congo Basin, the Berlin Conference made his
acquisitions legal. Leopold used forced labor in
the production of rubber, ivory and minerals.
• As international protests intensified, the Belgian
government took control of the Belgian Congo
in 1908.
Scramble for Africa – Berlin Conference
• Intense rivalries among Belgium, France, Germany,
Great Britain, Italy, Spain, and Portugal for additional
African territory, and ill-defined boundaries of their
various holdings, instigate the Berlin Conference of
1884-1885 (organized by Bismarck)
• Powers defined their spheres of influence and laid
down rules for future occupation on the coasts of
Africa.
• No African states were invited to the Berlin conference,
and none signed these agreements.
Africa
Imperialism in China
• By the end of the 19th century, every major
European power had established spheres of
influence in China.
• The weakening of the Manchu dynasty made the
situation worse.
• The newly industrial and imperialistic Japanese
defeated the Chinese in the Sino-Japanese war
of 1894-95, seceding further control of China’s
territory.
Imperialism in China
Migration
• At the same time Europeans were colonizing for
nationalism, riches and religion, massed of
people were migrating from Europe to other
areas of the world.
• Estimates say that over 25 million people
migrated from Europe between 1875 to 1914.
• Nearly half migrated to the Americas, others
went to Australia, Africa, and Asia.
Effects of Imperialism
• European imperialism had dramatic impact on Europe
and the wider world.
• European society was altered due to its predominate
position, economic benefits and costs, external
influences, and competition among states.
• The colonized world was drastically changed, with
European cultural, economic, and political ideas
becoming the global norm.
• The positives and negatives for both sides are still very
much debated today and still affect today’s world.