Pogroms Methods of Imperialism: Forcing Countries to Open their Economies (but they remain politically independent)

Pogroms

Methods of Imperialism:Forcing Countries to Open

their Economies(but they remain politically

independent)

Methods of Imperialism:Taking Control of a Country’s

Finances then Sticking Around to Run the Country

The Special Case of South Africa

“I contend that we are the finest race in the world and the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race” – Cecil Rhodes

“If there be a god, I think what he would like me to do is to paint as much of Africa British red as possible” – Cecil Rhodes

Taking Countries Over

Characteristics of Belgian Colonialism

• Overt exploitation: complete control by Leopold’s administrators

• Dehumanizing: barbaric treatment

• Authoritarian direct rule: An army of trained Belgians was always ready to put down any insurgencies..

Characteristics of British Colonialism

• Indirect rule: Britain told an upper class of Africans how to run the colony.

• Rule of Law: British law always overruled local law

• Military influence: Britain was not afraid to use military power to keep order

It was “like a pantomime scene” in a play. “These extraordinary foreign figures . . . March up one by one from the darkness of Barbarism to the footlights of civilization . . . And their conquerors, taking their possessions, forget even their names.” – Winston Churchill

“It was not a battle but an execution. The bodies were not in heaps. . . But they spread evenly over acres and acres.”

Characteristics of French Colonialism

• Assimilation: Supplant traditional African culture with French culture. Teach the Africans French language, French dress, French mannerisms.

• The basic problem: How is one to truly become French if your skin tone is different?– Evolues: Africans who were educated in the

French language, manner of dress, and etiquette.

Why Imperialize?

Money

Arguments:•Britain looking for new markets since tariffs were closing off European markets •Britain also fearful that European powers would close their colonies off to Britain

Counterarguments:• Few profits before

1914• Wealthy elite from

European countries just need an outlet for their surplus profits

• Europeans are just savage, selfish brutes

Power/Prestige

• Colonies needed for national security and military power – place to station troops and refuel ships

• Colonies seen as a source of pride “There has never been a great power without colonies” and “Every virile power has established colonial power . . . All great nations in the fullness of their strength have desired to set their mark upon barbarian lands and those who fail to participate in this great rivalry will play a pitiable role in time to come.”

• Increased nationalism

Social Darwinism

• “Superior” people had the right to take over “inferior” people.

“The path to progress is strewn with the wreck. . . Of inferior races. Yet these dead peoples are, in very truth, the stepping stones on which mankind has risen to the higher intellectual and deeper emotional life of today.”

“O Evolution, what crimes are committed in your name?”“Blessed are the strong, for they shall prey on the weak”

Use new technology

• Machine gun

• Quinine

• Steamship

• Telegraph

Domestic Social Tensions

Leaders bragged about colonial conquests in order to keep citizens’ minds off of class conflict and economic troubles at home

Criticism: Takes people away from the more pressing need for domestic reform and the need to limit the great gap between the rich and the poor

White Man’s Burden

• European’s could and should “civilize” more primitive, non-white peoples

• Native peoples should be encouraged to develop modern economies, cities, medicine and standards of living THEN they might be ready for self-government

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

On fluttered folk and wild –

Your new-caught, sullen peoples

Half-devil and half child

Pile on the Brown Man’s burden

And if ye rouse his hate,

Meet his old-fashioned reasons

With Maxims up to date,

With shells and Dum-Dum bullets

A hundred times plain

The Brown Man’s loss must never

Imply the White Man’s gain