Shaping of the Modern World

 

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Brooklyn College Core Curriculum:
The Shaping of the Modern World

Section 13: The Imperial Project

Introduction: This Week's Goals

By the mid-19th century all the various transformations we have studied in this course -- especially the Industrial Revolution -- had made Europe far more powerful economically and militarily than any other world civilization. One use of this power was to establish an expand a series of world empires by major European power. In this section we shall:

  • Establish which European state established empires, and where.
  • Understand the different between this "new imperialism" and old empires such as Ancient Egypt, Rome  or China.
  • Be able to discuss the explanations given for imperialism.
  • Learn how other civilizations reacted to the European empires.

Text

Kagan, 911-21

Multimedia

Sources

The sources for this section are all very interesting, but there are a lot of them! Make sure to read Hobson, Kipling and Morel and one other (you choose).

Analyses

China and the West

India Under the British

Africa

American Imperialism

Celebrations and Objections

The Japanese Exception

Outline

I. Imperialism

Marxists usually see Imperialism as the cause of WWI (they call it the great imperialist War).

What was Imperialism? The expansion of European Political Power around the globe: Americas, Africa, India, Asia, China. A new kind of Empire.

II. Causes of Imperialism

A. Economic

This was especially important for Britain. Marxists say it is main reason everywhere, but this is hard to justify if you mean colonizers made money out of the colonies.

B. Racism - Social Darwinism

Not a cause but a consequence.

C. Glory

The idea of la gloire in French politics, chez the Bourbons, Napoleon and even Louis Phillipe. Louis III Napoleon expanded the French Empire in Africa and South East Asia, and the Pacific. French also had aim of spread French Culture. This was sort of less racist than British racial superiority (?).

Certainly economic motives were not primary in France, which invested most heavily in Russia and the US. 

III. The British Empire

  • Europe
    • Gibraltar
    • Heligoland
    • Malta
  • N. America
    • Canada
  • S. America
    • Caribbean Islands
    • Guyana
    • {Argentina}
  • Africa: Cape to Cairo
    • South Africa
    • Kenya
    • West African Territories
  • Asia
    • India, Burma, Ceylon,
    • Malaysia
    • Aden/Yemen
  • Oceania
    • Australia
    • New Zealand
    • Pacific Islands
  • Importance of Suez canal

IV. The French Empire

  • N. America
    • Pierre and St. Miquelin {Quebec}
  • S. America
    • Caribbean Islands
    • French Guyana
  • Africa: Pacific to Indian Ocean
    • West African Territories
    • Algeria
    • Djibouti
  • Asia
    • Indian territories
    • Indochina
  • Oceania
    • Pacific Islands

V. Me Too Empires

Germany and Italy were only united in 1871. As full nations their governments came under pressure to found colonial empires. Bismarck was not keen on this. However, both Italy and German grabbed bits of Africa:

Italy

  • Libya
  • Somalia
  • failed in Ethiopia

Germany

  • SW Africa
  • Tanganyika.
  • Cameroons

VI. Russia and Imperialism

  • More the old fashioned kind of imperialism.
  • Russian Manifest Destiny

VII. The United States and Imperialism

Officially opposed to European imperialism, but might not look that way to Mexicans, Native Americans, Canadians, etc.

Doctrine of Manifest Destiny

  • Spanish American War 1898
    • Cuba
    • Puerto Rico
    • The Philippines.

VIII. Non-Conquest Imperialism

IX. Resistance to Imperialism

X. Celebrations and Objections

VIII. Imperialist Wars?

  • Boer Wars - 1896-1901: Trouble between the Kaiser and UK.
  • Russo-Japanese War 1905
  • Sino-Japanese war

These were peripheral and do not seem to have played a major role in the outbreak of European War. [The Alliance system and the Balkans seem more pertinent.]

Web Exercise

No web exercise for this section.

Discussion Questions

How were the European world empires of the 19th and 20th century different from earlier types of empire?

What were the causes of  imperialism according to Hobson?

What sort of views about the world does Kipling's White Man's Burden imply? What was Morel's response.

Was the United States an imperialist country just like the European nations?

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created 9/11/1998 : revised 5/16/1998