Methods of Imperialism:1. Forcing Countries to Open

their Economies(but they remain mostly politically independent)

China, Japan (at least initially)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Foreign_armies_in_Beijing_during_Boxer_Rebellion.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/24/PerryFleet.jpg

Methods of Imperialism:2. Taking Control of a Country’s Finances then Sticking Around to

Run the Country

The Special Case of South Africa – Europeans fight each

other to control a colony

“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

Methods of Imperialism3. If you can’t beat them . . .

Join them

Japan

Methods of Imperialism:4. Taking Countries Over

Leopold II:Belgian Congo• Sent an agent to

trick the natives out of the land

• Ran it as his own private plantation treating the natives with incredibly barbaric brutality

Britain: “Y axis” of Africa

• One defeat at Khartoum

• British revenge at Omdurman

• Allow an “elite” group of natives to assist in running the colony

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.”

French: “Y axis” of Africa

After much sword rattling, let British have Fashoda

French tried to make every-one in their

colonies “French”

But the natives could never be equal to the French

Why Imperialize?

Gain Money

Money Makers:•Looking for new markets since tariffs were closing off European markets

Counterarguments:• Few profits before

1914• Wealthy elite from

European countries just need an outlet for their surplus profits

• Europeans are just savage, selfish brutes

Increase Power/Prestige

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

• Colonies seen as a source of pride/nationalism “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.”

Chance to use new technology

• Machine gun

• Quinine

• Steamship

• Telegraph

Distraction from Domestic Social Tensions

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

Belief in Social Darwinism

• The idea that “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”

Duty of the 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