Imperialism

1. Imperialism 1875-1914 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.

2. Vocabulary • Raw materials • Social Darwinism • Christianity • Empires • Arbitrary borders • Technology • Innovation • Ethnocentric

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

4. Competition Between Nations So who do you think was the most powerful nation? Think Industrial Revolution!

5. Competition • In the mid 1800’s Britain was the most powerful nation in the world • Industrialization was higher than any other country • Produced more goods • British Navy guarded the oceans, why? • British banks and industrialization

6. Competition • Late 1800s two countries were challenging Britain’s economic leadership. • Germany and the US • Faced with possible decline of power, Britain looked to its colonies for markets and resources

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

8. Who Colonized What? • Spain and Portugal attempted to build new empires in Africa • Austria-Hungary moved to the Balkans • Russia expanded into Caucasus, Central Asia, and Siberia • Other countries that had no colonies felt the need to acquire them • Belgium, Italy, and Germany all took over lands in Africa

9. Who Colonized What? • US and Japan • Interested in overseas expansion • Interested in East Asia • US tied to Latin America • Europeans viewed an empire as a measure of national stature

10. Why? • Needed Raw Materials • Social Darwinism • Bringing the “superior” civilization to conquered areas. • Spread Christianity

11. Food For Thought 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. Why would the Europeans think they were “superior?”

12. National pride Thus, the Race for Colonies Grew out of a strong sense of national pride as well as from economic competition

13. Imperialism Europeans altered the way of life on EVERY continent

14. 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 exileTo 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?

15. Imperialism In Imperialism Racism and Morality

16. What is racism? How is it tied to Imperialism?

17. PRIMARY SOURCE I contend that we [Britons] are the first race in the world, and the more of the world we inhabit, the better it is for the human race. . . . It is our duty to seize every opportunity of acquiring more territory and we should keep this one idea steadily before our eyes that more territory simply means more of the Anglo-Saxon race, more of the best, the most human, most honourable race the world possesses. (CECIL RHODES, Confession of Faith, 1877) What attitude about the British does Rhodes’s statement display?

18. Scramble for Africa Pre-colonial Africa Colonial Africa

19. Things to note: • Europeans wanted more resources to fuel their industrial production • Africa was a source for raw materials and market for industrial products

20. Before European Domination • Africans were divided into hundreds of ethnic and linguistic groups • Many continued their traditional beliefs • Many converted to Islam and Christianity • Although Europeans were able to conquer some of sub-Saharan Africa, the powerful African armies were able to keep Europeans out for many years

21. Before African Domination • Explorers, Missionaries, and Humanitarians who opposed European/American slave trade were allowed in

22. 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

23. European Superiority • Racism • Social Darwinism • “Survival of the Fittest” was applied to human society

24. PRIMARY SOURCE I contend that we [Britons] are the first race in the world, and the more of the world we inhabit, the better it is for the human race. . . . It is our duty to seize every opportunity of acquiring more territory and we should keep this one idea steadily before our eyes that more territory simply means more of the Anglo-Saxon race, more of the best, the most human, most honourable race the world possesses. (CECIL RHODES, Confession of Faith, 1877) What attitude about the British does Rhodes’s statement display?

25. 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

26. Europe and Africa • How 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