The Age of Imperialism

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The Age of Imperialism
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1. In 1750 the standard of living was no
higher in Europe than in any other part of the
world. The average income of the average person
in Britain in 1750 was less than twice as much of
the poor. By 1970 the average westerner made 25
times as much as a person in the Third
World. There are two ways of looking at this
gap. One that Europe used its ingenuity in
science, technology, capital, and value system to
create wealth. Two that Europeans took wealth
by force, whether military or political.
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2. Global trade was in its infancy before the
Age of Industry. By 1913 the value of all world
trade was 25 times what it had been in
1800. What caused this? The ability to cheaply
move goods over long distances was key.
Railways were constructed in Europe and
America, and in the Third World after 1860. By
1920 a quarter of all railroad were in the Third
World. The development of bigger, faster ocean
going vessels also made global trade feasible.
Steamboats plied the rivers of the world. Soon,
steel vessels replaced wood and steam replaced
the power of the wind.
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Refrigerated rail cars and ship compartments
made perishable goods a global commodity. The
Suez and later Panama canals made cut distances
and lowered the price of shipping. Port
facilities became huge investments for
governments and private investors alike, speeding
up the process of loading and unloading. Transoc
eanic telegraph communication linked the big
cities of the globe, enabling rapid communication
between financial centers.
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The bulk of European investment went to the U.S
and Canada after 1840. The great U.S. railroads
that crossed the continent were in fact heavily
financed by Europe. Americans dont realize
sometimes that our great industrial machine was
jumpstarted by foreign capital. In the 21st
century the country that is being most heavily
invested in is China.
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3. European settlement and investment into
sparsely settled North and South America and
Australia was relatively peaceful. (Aboriginals
notwithstanding). But trying to open up the
established cultures of the East was different
and sometimes required force. China and Japan
offer good examples. The Chinese were an ancient
culture who were self-sufficient. They didnt
want any European goods. They falsely believed
that their culture was still superior to the
West. European merchants were confined to the
city of Canton. By the 1830s British merchants
were bringing in opium, from India and
Afghanistan, to sell to the Chinese. As its
people became addicted, the Manchu dynasty
attempted to stomp out this drug incursion. The
British government backed its merchants and war
broke out. In 1842 the British forced the Chinese
to surrender Hong Kong and open up its coastal
cities to trade.
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The Chinese still failed to accept the fact of
European technological superiority. In 1856
another war broke out. European troops occupied
the capital of Peking, and the Chinese were
forced at gunpoint to accept new treaties, which
opened up its vast populations to European trade.
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European Spheres of Influence
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4. Between 1815 and 1932, 60 million people left
Europe, mainly to America, Australia and New
Zealand. As a result, the North American
population soared. By comparison, populations in
Africa and Asia were stagnant due to high IMR and
poor living conditions. By WWI Europeans and
people of European descent were 38 of worlds
population. Migrants from Britain and Ireland
moved steadily throughout the Empire from 1840 to
1930. They made up 33 of all immigrants. Migrati
on from Germany topped out in 1880. After that
time it never really grew again. Italian
migration was strongest at the beginning of the
20th century, slowing down at the onset of WWI.
Along with the Italians, Slavic peoples and
Greeks joined this group. Additionally, Asians
migrants moved across the globe. They could be
found in the Americas, Africa, and Australia. In
America for example, they along with the Irish
formed the backbone of labor in California from
1840 to 1870. By the 1880s there was a white
backlash, and governments placed restriction on
Asian immigration.
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5. Migrants went to the U.S, Canada, Australia,
and New Zealand. They also went to Brazil,
Argentina. As a percent of population, there were
more people going to South America than there
were to North America.
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6. The typical migrant was a poor peasant or
craftsman whose traditional way of life was
threatened by ever-larger farms or cheap factory
goods. They were hard workers who were usually
seeking a chance to make an honest living. They
not only left Europe, they moved from country to
country inside of Europe. The average migrant
was usually young, and unmarried, making them
great assets to the countries that received them.
Often, these people would return to their
countries of origin once they had acquired enough
money to buy land in there. Typically this was
more true of Southern and Eastern European
migrants.
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7. Italian migration, as has been said,
peaked from 1880-1914. These people came from the
Italian and Sicilian villages, whose rural way of
life had been in jeopardy for many years. Now
they were threatened by cheap grain from America.
They went to America, especially New York and
Philadelphia. They also went to South America,
where Italian workmen and architects gave many
Latin cities an Italianate air.
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8. He was talking about the Scramble for
Africa, whereby, between 1880-1900, nearly all
of Africa was carved up by the Europe powers. He
also meant that Egypt, along with most of Asia
and Africa, was being brought into the orbit of
Europe because of global economics and British
trade.
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9. The British annexed Egypt for two
reasons the Suez canal had become the linchpin
between the two halves of their Empire, and it
had to be under their control. Leopold of
Belgium had forced his way into the Congo in
1880. The British were alarmed at the prospect
that they would not control the best spoils, so
in 1882 they took Egypt from its Muslim
owners. The British in Africa had one overriding
goal to create a transAfrican Corridor, from
Egypt to South Africa. Cecil Rhodes was perhaps
the best known British representative there. It
was he that led the drive to build a railroad
from Egypt to S. Africa. The Germans checked the
British with their conquest of East Africa
(Tanzania).
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10. Old-fashioned colonialism had sought to open
new markets in the third world, but had left the
majority of these peoples independent. The New
Imperialism was about taking political control
of these areas. This new imperialism was
characterized by, simply put, a mad dash or
scramble to claim as much territory as possible
before it was all gone. In the late 19th century
European countries (and the U.S.) judged their
greatness by how big their empires were.
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11. Leopold wanted central Africa (the Congo or
Belgian Congo) for several reasons. It was the
deepest, darkest part of Africa thus its
resources were unknown. It was centrally located,
making Belgium a strategic player. The Congo
River drained all of Central Africa, making it a
valuable river.
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12. As Europeans scrambled for Africa, there
arose a very real threat that war could erupt
because of the tensions created by Imperialism.
To lay down the ground rules, a congress was
summoned in Berlin in 1884-85. Among the various
principles that were set down was effective
occupation. This meant that to actually control
a piece of territory, a country would have to
have an actual physical presence in the region it
claimed to control. Thus, two powers
(hopefully) would not each claim an unsettled
piece of land and fight over it. This actually
caused more imperialism, because obviously more
local control was needed to bolster claims of
ownership. Soon, nearly all parts of Africa were
being manipulated by Europeans.
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13. The British had been in Africa since the
days of the slave trade. Their early slave forts
had emerged as the territories of Sierra Leone,
Gold Coast, and Nigeria. They had conquered the
Dutch colony of Cape Town during the wars with
Napoleon. As a result, the Dutch farmers had
trekked into the interior, creating the
settlements of Transvaal and the Orange Free
State. These people came to be known as Boers or
Afrikaners and declared their freedom from the
British in 1853. From 1889-1902, the British
reconquered these people in a conflict known as
the Boer War, a bloody, unpopular conflict. As
noted earlier, the British wanted to link the
South African colony with Egypt. The Zulu people
had been conquered in the South, and their
territory had been named Rhodesia in honor of
Rhodes. They had previously conquered east Africa
(Kenya). They needed to secure the Upper Nile
regions of the Sudan.
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The Great Trek
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A British army was ambushed and massacred at
Khartoum in 1885. This was a setback, but 10
years later the British again pushed south. This
time, at Omdurman, they completely annihilated an
army of Muslim tribesmen. This battle became
famous because it epitomized the new imperialisms
and the technological superiority of Europe.
Using the Maxim machine gun and repeating rifles,
the British killed 11,000 while losing 23
men. Pushing south, they were unpleasantly
surprised to find a French force in their way at
a small village called Fashoda. The French had
tried to beat them to the upper reaches of the
Nile and claim it. It almost led to war but
eventually the British backed the French down.
They (at this time) had the sense to avoid a
European war.
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14. Christianity played a part in the white
mans burden. Europeans frequently questioned
the morality and need of these colonies. The
loudest voices argued that colonies
guaranteed future markets for industrial goods
safeguarded national security. provided
coaling stations for the great navies of the
West. made a nation great. It was widely
believed that a great nation had to have an
empire. Darwinism played a part. The idea of
survival of the fittest played directly into
imperialism. After all, those who could not
compete deserved to fall by the wayside. the
white mans burden.
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Take up the White Man's burden, And reap his
old reward-- The blame of those ye better The
hate of those ye guard-- The cry of hosts ye
humour (Ah, slowly!) toward the light-- "Why
brought ye us from bondage, Our loved Egyptian
night?" Take up the White Man's burden-- Ye
dare not stoop to less-- Nor call too loud on
Freedom To cloak your weariness. By all ye will
or whisper, By all ye leave or do, The silent
sullen peoples Shall weigh your God and you.
Take up the White Man's burden! Have done with
childish days-- The lightly-proffered laurel,
The easy ungrudged praise Comes now, to search
your manhood Through all the thankless years,
Cold, edged with dear-bought wisdom, The
judgment of your peers.
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Taken from a Kipling poem, it is the idea that
white people had an obligation to try to
civilize the primitive peoples that they
encountered, since they had been blessed with
prosperity. Chief among this was the spreading of
Christianity to pagan peoples. It was the
object of thousands of missionaries that the
gospel should be preached to all. They had more
success in Africa than Asia, since in China and
India the people had ancient complex religions
already in place. Critics of Imperialism did not
miss the double standards that Europeans implied.
(P. 888)
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With apologies to Rudyard Kipling Take up the
White Mans burden. Send forth your sturdy kin,
And load them down with Bibles And cannon-balls
and gin. Throw in a few diseases To spread the
tropic climes, For there the healthy niggers
Are quite behind the times. And dont forget
the factories. On those benighted shores They
have no cheerful iron mills, Nor eke department
stores. They never work twelve hours a day And
live in strange content, Altho they never have
to pay A single sou of rent. Take up the White
Mans burden, And teach the Philippines What
interest and taxes are And what a mortgage
means. Give them electrocution chairs, And
prisons, too, galore, And if they seem inclined
to kick, Then spill their heathen gore. They
need our labor question, too, And politics and
fraud
Weve made a pretty mess at home, Lets make a
mess abroad. And let us ever humbly pray The
Lord of Hosts may deign To stir our feeble
memories Lest we forgetthe Maine. Take up the
Whites Mans burden. To you who thus succeed
In civilizing savage hordes, They owe a debt,
indeed Concessions, pensions, salaries, And
privilege and right With outstretched hands you
raised to bless Grab everything in sight. Take
up the White Mans burden And if you write in
verse, Flatter your nations vices And strive
to make them worse. Then learn that if with
pious words You ornament each phrase, In a
world of canting hypocrites This kind of
business pays.
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15. Britain had a presence in India that
stretched back 200 years. They had taken control
from the French, Spanish, and Portuguese by 1763.
By 1848 they had conquered the last local Indian
raja or prince, and completely controlled
India. It was called their crown jewel for a
reason, as it provided huge amounts of labor, raw
material, and an endless market. In 1857 the
Indians tried once again in the traditional
manner-force- to drive out the British. Started
by bullets greased in bacon fat, the mutiny
spread throughout India. It took two bloody years
to suppress it.
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16. The clear disadvantage was ever-pervasive
racism. The British in no way considered the
Indians to be their cultural or intellectual
equals, and made that clear in every way
possible. Segregation was practiced in India, and
British law placed British colonists above their
Indian subjects.
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But the British did much to change India for the
better they introduced modern secondary
education in which all instruction was in
English. Eventually, many of these Indian
students would move on to Oxford and Cambridge,
and would become the highest-ranking people in
India, below only the British themselves. India
was developed economically. Railroads were
constructed, irrigation projects were completed,
telegraph wires were run. New plantations
opened. India was completely subjugated. As a
result, it was completely united for the first
time in its history. No longer did local rulers
fight each other. Laws were codified, justice
became standardized.
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The great masses of peasantry really gained
nothing substantial from British rule at this
time. They had no love of the British either but
for them, it was just a new kind of oppression.
For the well-educated Indians, though, inequality
became intolerable. Being educated, they knew
that segregation was in direct conflict to
Western traditions of liberty and natural
law. By 1907, the radical Hindu National
Congress was calling for independence, which
would not arrive until after WWII.
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Mahatma Ghandi
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17. Japan had been run by an imperial dynasty for
most of its history. By 1853, it was under the
control of a shogun, a hereditary military
governor. He was supported by the samurai,
warrior-nobles who had great prestige and an
intense code of chivalry and honor. Japan had
closed itself to the West from the earliest
contact with the Portuguese in the 1550s. All
Westerners had to stay on an island in Nagasaki
Bay, and were allowed no contact with the
Japanese population, only with Japanese
merchants. In this way they had secluded
themselves for 200 years. In 1853, Commodore
Perry along with a U.S. gunboat forced the
Japanese to open up to the West for trade and
diplomacy. By 1858, Western diplomats and
merchants had settled in Yokohama. When there was
resistance to this by the samurai class, an
international fleet bombarded the Japanese coast.
Deeply ashamed, a group of samurai seized control
of the government in 1867. This event is called
the Meiji restoration.
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It was a turning point because the Meiji leaders
fully realized, unlike the Chinese, that they
were behind the West. They launched a
comprehensive program of Westernization. They
abolished the old feudal structure, declared
social equality, and gave some freedoms to the
people. Most significant, they began to build
factories and a strong navy. By 1904, they would
be ready to shock the world. They defeated the
Russians in a short war that year. They gained a
foothold in China and a very Western desire for
an empire.
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18 . As noted, the Japanese were impressed by
Western industry, science, and technology. They
also admired Western unity, which is why the
abolished their old order. In 1877 they used
their modern army to put down a rebellion of
former nobles. They also admired the Western
military, and set about copying the French and
German armies.
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19. Both. On the one hand, the Chinese did try to
adopt some Western ways in an effort to slow the
decay of their system. They reformed their
customs system, for example. Also, the U.S. Open
Door policy helped keep them from being divided
by the European powers, like Africa. On the
other hand, there was violent reaction to the
West from conservative sand traditionalists. The
best-known example is the Boxer rebellion of
1900-1903, in which thousands of radical killed
Christian missionaries and stormed the city of
Peking. An international army entered the city
and destroyed the boxers. Finally, in 1912, the
Last Emperor, a six-year-old boy, was forced
off the throne. Thousands of years of imperial
history ended, and China declared itself a
republic.
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