New Imperialism “NEW” IMPERIALISM Beginning circa 1875 Renewed race for colonies Spurred by needs created by the Industrial Revolution New markets for.

New Imperialism

“NEW” IMPERIALISM

•Beginning circa 1875•Renewed race for colonies•Spurred by needs created by the Industrial Revolution

•New markets for finished goods•New sources of raw materials

•Nationalism•Colonies = economic and political power•Social Darwinism = racist justification

New Imperialism

• The years between 1870 and 1914 were the height of the age of imperialism.–Imperialism: domination of one country

by another.–Major players: France, Great Britain,

U.S. Japan, Germany, and Belgium.–Motives: Nationalism, Economics,

Culture, and Spreading Religion.

Cause: Excitement and Dangers of Exploration---The Thrill

Excitement and Adventure

• The exploratory motives were based on the desire to explore the unknown or uncharted territories.

• They wanted to conduct scientific research.• They wanted to conduct medical searches for

the causes and treatments of disease.• They wanted to go on an adventure and

investigate the unknown lands and cultures aka like Indiana Jones.

Examples of Excitement and Sense of Adventure to Explore

DAVID LIVINGSTONE (1813-1873)

• Scottish missionary• 1841-1873 – lived in central Africa

– Explored Africa• Named Lake Victoria after the British queen

– Converted many Africans to Christianity– Wrote books on Africa which piqued foreign interest

• 1871 – reported “lost”– “Found” by Henry Stanley– “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”

HENRY STANLEY (1841-1904)

• Welsh-American reporter• “Found” Dr. Livingstone in Africa

– “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”• Explored Africa

– Congo River– Lake Tanganyika– Lake Victoria

• Worked with Belgium’s King Leopold II and his African colonization company– International African Society

KARL PETERS (1856-1918)• German explorer in Africa• Organized and propagandized for

Germany’s colonial expansion– Founded the Society for German

Colonization• Acquired German East Africa

(modern-day Tanzania)• Convinced Otto von Bismarck to

take over German East Africa and increase Germany’s colonies in Africa

Cause: Industrial Revolution and New Technology

Definitions and Key Characteristics and Examples

New Technology

• 1787: Steam engine in boats

• 1804: Steam engine in locomotives

• 1820: Quinine from cinchona tree bark

• 1837: Electric telegraph• 1855: Bessemer

process making steel

• A more constant and forceful source of power than sails or horses; powered ships and railroads

• Treatment for malaria• Communication over long

distances• Quicker and cheaper method

for making steel that is lighter and more durable than iron

New Technology

• 1884: Maxim Gun

• Late 1800s: Repeating Rifle

• First machine gun---military more lethal and faster

• A faster loading gun that was able to fire multiple shots more accurately than older muskets

Communications Technologies

• Oceangoing steamships reduced the time required for imperial capitals to deliver messages to colonial lands

• In the 1850s engineers began developing submarine telegraph cables to carry messages through oceans

• By 1902, cables linked all parts of the British Empire throughout the world

Insignia of the British Indian Submarine Telegraph

Company

Cause: Economic Reasons

Definitions and Key Characteristics

• To gather, export natural resources, European entrepreneurs developed own mines, plantations, trade routes

• Entrepreneurs sometimes called on home countries to protect economic interests from European competitors

• In this way, drive for colonization came from ambitious individuals, not just European governments

Entrepreneurial Colonization

• Before early 1800s, several European nations profited from slave trade in Africa

• After some nations passed laws abolishing slave trade, Europeans looked to Africa as source for raw materials

• Materials like coal, metals needed to manufacture goods during Industrial Revolution

• Needs fueled Europeans’ desire for land with natural resources—available in Africa

Raw Materials

Economic Interests

ECONOMIC MOTIVES

•Markets for finished goods•Products of British Industrial Revolution sold in China and India

•Sources of raw materials•Egypt – cotton•Malaya – rubber and tin•Middle East – oil

•Capital investments•Profits from Industrial Revolution invested in mines, railroads, etc., in unindustrialized areas

Examples

Economic Motives: Natural Resources

• Angola: cotton, palm oil, coffee, and sugar• Used for fabrics, soap, candles, food products, and

food processing• Congo Free State: rubber, palm oil and ivory• Used for waterproof clothes, tires, electrical

insulation, soap, candles, some food products, handles, piano keys, and billiard balls

Economic Motives: Natural Resources

• French West Africa: gum, palm oil, cotton, peanuts, bananas, coffee, and cocoa

• Used for cosmetics, drugs, food products, soap, candles, some food products, fabrics, and food processing

• Rhodesia: copper, zinc, lead, and coal• Used for coins, metal alloys, electrical wiring,

rust protection, ammunition, and fuel

Economic Motives: Natural Resources

• South Africa: gold and diamonds• Used for banking, national currencies, jewelry,

industrial cutting tools• Tanganyika: sisal, coffee, rubber and cotton• Used for rope, twine, food preserving,

waterproof clothes, tires, electrical insulation, and fabrics

Cecil Rhodes: An Example• Went to South Africa in 1871

and by 1889 he controlled 90% of the world’s diamond production

• Also gained a healthy stake in the gold market

• Served as prime minister of the British Cape Colony from 1890-1896 and saw the Cape Colony as a base of operations for the extension of British control to all of Africa

Pair-Share Activity:• Cecil Rhodes was a famous British imperialist: • “We must find new lands from which we can easily

obtain raw materials and at the same time exploit

the cheap slave labor that is available from the natives of the colonies. The colonies would also provide a dumping ground for the surplus goods produced in our factories.”

• 1. How does this quote support the economic motives?

Cause: Political, Militarism, and Nationalism

Definitions and Key Characteristics

Nationalism• Nations believed

that others would respect them more if they had colonies.

• They saw a chance of gaining bigger armies.

• Since navies were important, they needed places to stop and fuel their ships (islands became very important).

• Large armies, large navies, fueling stations, and competition over colonies would eventually lead to war.

Examples

Nationalism a Factor

• Rise of Germany, Italy as powers contributed to the new imperialism

• Both nations jumped into race for colonization to assert status

• Nationalism also contributed to rise of new imperialism

• European leaders believed controlling colonies would gain them more respect from other leaders

Political Competition

• Imperialism in Africa reflected struggles for power in Europe, such as long-term rivalry between France, Britain

• France expanded control over West, Central Africa; Britain began to expand colonial empire to block French

Pair-Share Activity• John Ruskin said: “Will the youths of England,

make your country again a royal throne of kings;…for all the world a source of light, a center of peace?...This is what England must either do or perish: she must found colonies as fast and as far as she is able, formed of her most energetic and worthiest men;-seizing every piece of fruitful waste ground she can set her foot on, and there teaching these her colonists…that their first aim is to be to advance the power of England by land and by sea.”

• 1. How does this quote support Nationalism?

Pair-Share Activity• Cecil Rhodes “I think what [God]

would like me to do is paint as much of Africa British Red as possible.”

• 1. How does this quote represent the motive of nationalism?

Pair-Share Activity• Raymond Aron in The Century of Total War in

1954 wrote: “None of the colonial undertakings were motivated by the quest for capitalist profits; they all originated in political ambitions…the nation’s will to power…or glory or national greatness.”

• 1. How is this quote an example of the growing sense of Nationalism in Europe at that time?

Cause: Racism and Social Darwinism

Definitions and Key Characteristics

In addition to practical matters of economics and politics, the new imperialism was motivated by cultural attitudes.

• European imperialists felt superior to non-European peoples

• Some began to argue humanity divided into distinct peoples, races

• Claimed biological differences existed between races

• Racist view—people of European descent superior to people of African, Asian descent

Cultural Motives• As result, some Europeans

believed rule in Africa justified

• Teaching Africans good government

• Some imperialists believed actions noble, their duty to educate those considered inferior

• Referred to their influence in Africa as “the white man’s burden,” after poem by Rudyard Kipling

Rule Justified

Cultural Motives: Racism and Social Darwinism

The Social-Darwin DifferencesWestern (White Europeans)

• Inventive• Scientific• Rational• Self-Controlled• Democratic• Civilized• Economically

Progressive• Moral Christian • Independent

Eastern (Non-whites, Non-European)

• Ignorant• Irrational• Superstitious • Lazy• Childlike• Savage• Dependent

Examples

Darwin

• Defenders of imperialism often applied Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection to struggle between nations, races

• Darwin argued species more fit for environment will survive, reproduce

Cecil Rhodes

• Social Darwinism advocate Cecil Rhodes, “I contend that we are the finest race in the world and that the more of the world we inhabit the better…”

• Believed British-built railway would bring benefits of civilization to all Africans

Social Darwinism

• Social Darwinism notion stated certain nations, races more fit than others

• Social Darwinists believed “fit” nations came to rule over “less fit” nations, often showed discrimination against citizens of ruled nations

Justification

Pair-Share Activity

• How do each of the following primary sources represent the racist and Social Darwinist views of the Europeans? Explain.

The Seeds of Racism?• “Take up the White Man’s Burden-• Send forth the best ye breed-• Go bind your sons to exile• To serve your captive’s need;• To wait in heavy harness,• In fluttered folk and wild-• Your new-caught, sullen peoples,• Half devil and half child.

Rudyard Kipling 1865-1936

Imperialism was spawned by nationalism and industrialization, but it was justified by Social Darwinism – or what I like to call the white man’s superiority complex.

Pear’s Soap Advertisement

“Consumption of soap is a measure of the wealth, civilisation, health and purity of the people.”

Racism Primary Source Quote:

• British Professor argued in 1900: “The path of progress is strewn with the wrecks of nations; 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.”

Cause: Religion and Humanitarianism

Definitions and Key Characteristics

“Civilizing” Mission• Over the decades they set up hundreds of Christian

missions and preached to thousands of Africans and Asians

• The missionaries believed that Christianity and Western civilization together would benefit and transform the world

• They believed that, in order to become “civilized”, the people of Africa and Asia would have to reject their old religions and convert to Christianity

• Humanitarians and Religious Reasons:• Many humanitarians built schools to educate the natives

in European ways• Rudyard Kipling - most influential writer of the 1890s

wrote “White Man’s Burden”• Catholic and Protestant missionaries competed with

each other and Islam to gain converts to save the natives• Religious success in Africa conflicted sharply with failure

in Asia and India

Examples

Placard 3.2 B

• A Methodist Sunday School at Guiongua, Angola, 1925

Placard 3.2 H

• Mrs. Maria C. Douglas, doctor and missionary, and the first class of pupil nurses in Burma, in 1888

British Entrepreneur Cecil Rhodes– “We happen to be

the best people in the world, with the highest ideals of decency and justice and liberty and peace, and the more of the world we inhabit, the better it is for humanity.”

Pair-Share Activity• David Livingstone’s Epitaph: “Brought by faithful hands over

land and sea, here rests David Livingstone, missionary, traveler, philanthropist, born March 19, 1813, at Blantyre, Lanarkshire, died May 1, 1873, at Chitambo’s village, Ulala. For thirty years, his life was spent in an unwearied effort to evangelize the native races, to explore the undiscovered secrets, to abolish the desolating slave trade of Central Africa. Where with his last words he wrote, ‘All I can add in my solitude is may Heaven’s rich blessings come down to everyone, American, English, or Turk, who will help heal the open sore of the world.”

• 1. According to the epitaph, what were the religious motives for Imperialism?

Pair-Share Activity

• African Proverb: “When the whites came to our country, we had the land and they had the Bible; now we have the Bible and they have the land.”

• 1. What does this proverb reveal about the African’s perception of the Religious Humanitarian motive for Imperialism?

Civilizing Mission

•“White Man’s Burden”•Rudyard Kipling’s poetry and prose•Whites morally obligated to bring the “blessings of civilization” to “backward” peoples•Cecil Rhodes – imperialism is “philanthropy—plus five percent”

Pair-Share Activity

• How does the King Leopold quote represent the white culture “civilizing” view of the Europeans? Explain.

• Refer to next slide.

King Leopold on Civilizing Mission Primary Source

• “To open civilization the only part of our globe where it has not penetrated, to pierce the darkness which envelops whole populations, is a crusade, if I may say so, a crusade worthy of this century of progress.”

Pair-Share Activity

• Cecil Rhodes in Confession of Faith in 1877 wrote: “I contend that we are the first race in the world, and the more we inhabit, the better it is for the human race…It is our duty to seize every opportunity of acquiring more territory and we should keep this one idea steadily before our eyes that more territory simply means more of the Anglo-Saxon race, more of the best, the most human, most honourable race the world possesses.”

• 1. How does this quote represent the “Civilizing Mission” motive?

• 2. How does this quote also represent the Social Darwinist motive?

• 3. How might a native African react to this statement?

The Result of European ImperialismThe Result of European Imperialism

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