Imperialism1875-1914

Red-coated British soldiers stand at attention around a royal pavilion during a ceremony in India. Britain’s Queen Victoria took the title Empress on India in 1876.

Vocabularyo Raw materialso Social Darwinismo Christianityo Empires

o Arbitrary borderso Technologyo Innovationo Ethnocentric

So What is Imperialism?Imperialism: a policy of conquering and ruling other lands

Competition Between NationsSo who do you think was the most powerful nation?Think Industrial Revolution!

CompetitionIn the mid 1800’s Britain was the most powerful nation in the world

Industrialization was higher than any other countryProduced more goodsBritish Navy guarded the oceans, why?British banks and industrialization

CompetitionLate 1800s two countries were challenging Britain’s economic leadership.Germany and the USFaced with possible decline of power, Britain looked to its colonies for markets and resources

Competition Pt. 3The French and Dutch as well as other industrialized nations needed raw materials (rubber, copper, gold, and cotton) to make manufactured goodsThese nations established colonies around the world and relied on raw materials imported from their colonies to make a variety of products

Who Colonized What?Spain and Portugal attempted to build new empires in Africa

Austria-Hungary moved to the BalkansRussia expanded into Caucasus, Central Asia, and SiberiaOther countries that had no colonies felt the need to acquire them

Belgium, Italy, and Germany all took over lands in Africa

Who Colonized What?US and Japan

Interested in overseas expansionInterested in East AsiaUS tied to Latin America

Europeans viewed an empire as a measure of national stature

Why?Needed Raw MaterialsSocial DarwinismBringing the “superior” civilization to conquered areas.Spread Christianity

Food For Thought

Why would the Europeans think they were “superior?”• Due to the Industrial Revolution,

Europeans regarded their new technology as proof they were better. (weaponry, telegraph, railroads)

• Reflection of racism. • Europeans believed that they had the right

and duty to bring the results of their progress to other countries.

National pride

Thus, the Race for ColoniesGrew out of a strong sense of national pride as well as from economic competition

Imperialism

Europeans altered the way of life on EVERY continent

Bell ringer: Read this selection from

Rudyard Kipling’s The White Man's Burden (1899) and

answer the following questions:Take up the White Man's burden--

Send forth the best ye breed--Go bind your sons to exile

To serve your captives' need;To wait in heavy harness,

On fluttered folk and wild--Your new-caught, sullen peoples,

Half-devil and half-child.

1. What does he mean by “the White Man’s Burden”? 2. What was the exile of which he spoke? 3. What does the word captives indicate?

Imperialism

Racism and MoralityIn Imperialism

What is racism?How is it tied to Imperialism?

PRIMARY SOURCEI contend that we [Britons] are the first race in the world, and the moreof the world we inhabit, the better it is for the human race. . . . It is ourduty to seize every opportunity of acquiring more territory and weshould keep this one idea steadily before our eyes that more territorysimply means more of the Anglo-Saxon race, more of the best, themost human, most honourable race the world possesses.(CECIL RHODES, Confession of Faith, 1877)

• What attitude about the Britishdoes Rhodes’s statement display?

Scramble for Africa• Pre-colonial Africa• Colonial Africa

Things to note:Europeans wanted more resources to fuel their industrial productionAfrica was a source for raw materials and market for industrial products

Before European Domination

Africans were divided into hundreds of ethnic and linguistic groupsMany continued their traditional beliefsMany converted to Islam and ChristianityAlthough Europeans were able to conquer some of sub-Saharan Africa, the powerful African armies were able to keep Europeans out for many years

Before African Domination

Explorers, Missionaries, and Humanitarians who opposed European/American slave trade were allowed in

Congo • Henry Stanley explored

the Congo River• King Leopold II of Belgium

became interested.. Wanted to obtain Congo

• 1908 gave the land to Belgium. Now known as the Belgium Congo

European SuperiorityRacismSocial Darwinism“Survival of the Fittest” was applied to human society

PRIMARY SOURCEI contend that we [Britons] are the first race in the world, and the moreof the world we inhabit, the better it is for the human race. . . . It is ourduty to seize every opportunity of acquiring more territory and weshould keep this one idea steadily before our eyes that more territorysimply means more of the Anglo-Saxon race, more of the best, themost human, most honourable race the world possesses.(CECIL RHODES, Confession of Faith, 1877)

• What attitude about the Britishdoes Rhodes’s statement display?

What is the Scramble for Africa?

The time period between 1880 and 1914 in which European countries competed to claim more African territory in an attempt to keep other countries from gaining too much power

Europe and AfricaHow did Europeans create great empires?

Expanded territorial claims in Africa

Why did they desire this?The belief that a large empire was needed in order to be politically powerful.

How were they able to conquer?Advanced technology (superior weapons, transportation technology [steamboat])Also technology and innovation brought positive change: Medical care improved