Age of Imperialism

Definition and Causes

Imperialism Rule by a particular country over a diverse

and different set of other, often distant, countries and peoples, generally as a result of military conquest

“The Plum Pudding in Danger,” James Gillray,

1805 (Napoleon and Pitt carve up the world)

Why Empire?Economic Motives:• To make money by expanding and

controlling foreign trade• To create new markets for products• To acquire raw materials and cheap labor• To export industrial technology and

transportation methods

Why Empire?Political Motives:• To gain power by expanding territory• To compete with other European countries• To gain ports for their navies• To gain larger militaries by using native soldiers• To gain prestige by winning colonies• To boost national pride and security

Why Empire?Religious/Humanitarian Motives:• To spread Christianity• To protect European missionaries in other

lands• To spread European values and moral beliefs• To educate peoples of other cultures/build

schools• To heal the sick/build hospitals/improve

sanitation

Why Empire?Exploratory Motives:• To explore “unknown” or uncharted territory• To conduct scientific research• To conduct medical searches for the causes

and treatment of diseases• To go on an adventure• To investigate “unknown” lands and cultures

Why Empire?Ideological Motives:• Belief that the white race was superior

and other cultures were “primitive”• Belief that Europeans should “civilize”

peoples in other parts of the world• Belief that great nations should have

empires and only the strongest nations will survive

Missionary school, Madagascar, ca. 1900

British cartoon “The Rhodes Colossus,” showing Cecil Rhodes’ vision of making Africa “all British from Cape to Cairo,” 1892

Diamond mining in Kimberley, South Africa, 1890

Henry Morton Stanley on an expedition to find Dr. Livingstone, who had disappeared in central Africa;

at the mouth of the Ruizi River, 1872

Advertisement for Pears’ Soap from the 1890s

The “White Man’s Burden”

Two Sides• Promoters of empire - champion its merits

and the benefits it brought to the colonizers and the colonized

• Anti-imperialists - focus on humiliating battlefield defeats, political domination, economic exploitation, social disenfranchisement, and cultural alienation