Ideologies

Ideologies

Definition – Nationalism is a common bond shared by a group of people who feel strongly attached to a particular land and who possess a Common language, culture, and history, marked by shared glories and sufferings.

Nationalists contend that one’s highest loyalty should be given to the nation. They exhibit great pride in their people’s history and traditions and often feel that their nation had been specially chosen by God or history.

Q1: What is nationalism?

Nationalism: The Sacredness of the Nation

Policymakers hoped that possession of empires would unite together disparate social groups with pride in national power. This was especially important to newly unified countries such as Germany and Italy.

In other words, nationalism led to imperialism. Many leaders hoped that imperialism would win them the loyalty of their own people. The nationalistic competition among Europeans led them, for a time, to extend their power struggles to Africa and Asia, acquiring territories for strategic reasons or sometimes just to keep competitors from doing so.

Q2: How did nationalism lead to imperialism?

Nationalism and Imperialism

Imperialism: Social Darwinism The most extreme ideological

expression of nationalism and imperialism was Social Darwinism.

The theory of evolution justified the exploitation of “lesser breeds” by “superior races.”

Europeans would repeatedly suggest that they had evolved more than Africans and Asians, and that hence nature itself gave them the right to rule others.

Q3. How does Social Darwinism link to British Imperialism?

Charles Darwin, 1809-1882

Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859)

Darwin’s theory of evolution holds that environmental effects lead to varying degrees of reproductive success in individuals and groups of organisms. (Natural Selection)

Descent of Man (1871) Applied Evolution to the social order

(people).

Q4. What was Darwin’s theory of evolution?

{Social Evolution

Between 3 and 2 million years ago, they learned to walk erect.

The earliest ancestors of humans (hominids) diverged from apes about 8 million years ago

Q5. How did Darwin describe the evolution of the human race?

Between 2 and 1.5 million years ago, hominids began to migrate from Africa to other lands


First Europeans: approx. 780,000 years ago


About 100,000 years ago, those early humans went almost completely extinct as a result of a global ecological catastrophe

It is possible that as few as 10,000 survived…


It was from those few survivors that man (homo sapiens) emerged in Africa


As their numbers grew, homo sapiens began to move across the continents in search of food, water, land, and security


{ Social Darwinism

Herbert Spencer, 1820-1903

Spencer coined the phrase “survival of the fittest” to describe the outcome of competition between social groups.

In Social Statics (1850) and other works, Spencer argued that through competition social evolution would automatically produce prosperity and personal liberty unparalleled in human history.

Q6. What were the main arguments put forth by Spencer and how do you think they would lead to the expansion of imperial empires?

Social Darwinism refers to a set of now generally discredited theories that attempt to legitimize social inequality, and explain social classes and processes.

These theories related to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution.

Social Darwinism

See- What do you literally see in the picture?

Think- What you can see+ tying in background knowledge.

Wonder- What would you like to know that is not represented in the picture?

Social Hierarchy English culture, of course, was

placed at the top. Irish were classed as

"barbarians", and all the other races and cultures of the world similarly ranked.

The work served to justify many of the hard-to-justify political causes of the day, especially British imperialism.

At the time, it was popular to speak of the "white man's burden" to take over more "primitive" cultures and help them progress to a more "evolved" (that is, British) state.

Q7. How did the British justify their expansion?




Social Hierarchy Spencer's work also served to

revive the ideas of Hobbes and Malthus. Malthus's 1798 An Essay on the Principle of Population, for example, argued that as increasing population must outgrow its food supply, it was "natural", and inevitable, to allow the weakest to starve.

Some historians have suggested that the theory and similar concepts were used by the British to justify the continued export of agricultural produce from Ireland, even as the Irish were suffering from famine, in particular the Great Famine of 1845-1849.

Q8. How did the British justify restricting the food supply of other nations?




As you read, answer the following questions to guide your understanding of the poem.

1. According to Kipling, and in your own words, what was the “White Man’s Burden”?

2. What reward did Kipling suggest the “White Man” gets for carrying his “burden”?

3. Who did Kipling think would read his poem? What do you think that this audience might have said in response to it?

Read White Man’s Burden

Long term consequences It promoted the military

build-up that led to World War I.

It would become the core doctrine of the Nazi party.

Provided a “scientific” and “ethical” justification for genocide in the 20th century.

Q9. What were the long term consequences of Social Darwinism?

Mercantilism With the acquisition of colonies

came the recognition that their purpose was to satisfy the needs of the mother country.

The regulation of economic activities in the colonies, then, centred around the accumulation of wealth for the European powers, at the colonies' expense.

Q10. State and explain some of the general characteristics of mercantilism.

Mercantilism Nevertheless, as the colonies grew

and became more prosperous, the English realized that the colonies could provide increased trade, if competition could be eliminated.

Americans had established profitable trade with other countries, notably the Dutch. In order to increase her wealth, Britain tightened the economic noose around the neck of the colonies by implementing regulatory policies, thus changing her relationship with the colonies.

Q10. State and explain some of the general characteristics of mercantilism.

Mercantilism From 1650 on, England

instituted a series of laws of trade and navigation known as the Navigation Acts.

Their purpose was to limit colonial trade to the British only.

If colonists intended to trade with any other nations, all goods had first to be shipped to England, giving her an opportunity to handle them and collect revenue from taxation. In addition, there were certain products that could be traded only with Britain, such as tobacco, sugar and cotton.

Q11. Discuss the purpose of the Navigation Acts.

Mercantilism In keeping with the

general policy of mercantilism, England encouraged the colonists to specialize in the production of raw materials.

English factories converted raw goods to products which were then shipped back to the colonies. This provided the British with a profitable market, free from competition.Q12. How did

these policies affect the colonies?

State and explain some of the general characteristics of mercantilism. The idea that the colonies are there to support the mother country and supply them with resources. Also- trade restrictions. Money was made only for the mother country. This policy was at the expense of the colonies.Discuss the purpose of the Navigation Acts. Regulation of economic activities in the colonies. Limiting trade- only with Britain.

How did these policies affect the colonies? Colonies were starved, they had to send their goods/resources away and they were poor as a result of the taxes. (Eventually they were angry)

Questions to answer:

Ideologies

Documents

competition social evolution

applied evolution

social statics

darwins theory of evolution

human race

social darwinism link

disparate social groups

social order people