Imperialism (1750-1900)

Building an empire in Asia or Africa was a way for a country to assert its national identity.
Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, and the Netherlands possessed overseas colonies.
Britain sought new lands after losing American colonies, settling Australia in 1788.

Colonizers saw themselves as benevolent protectors on a "civilizing mission".
Colonial powers believed they were superior to those they subjugated.
Pseudoscientists claimed to have proof of intellectual and physical inferiority of nonwhite races.
Phrenologists believed skull size proved mental feebleness of Africans, indigenous Americans, and Asians.
Social Darwinism was used to justify imperialism by powerful countries.
Colonies combined peoples from several cultures, and colonizers introduced their language, institutions, and culture.
Missionaries combined conquest and evangelism, and critics charged that missionaries supported imperialism.
Missionaries set up schools and provided improved medicines and medical care.
David Livingstone worked to end the illegal slave trade in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Companies signed commercial treaties with local rulers, gaining rights to establish trading posts and forts.
Industrial Revolution increased the desire for raw materials and markets.
Imperial powers competed for resources, markets, and trade.
The English monarch granted the East India Company (EIC) a royal charter in 1600, giving it a monopoly on English trade with India.
The VOC concentrated on the islands around Java, replacing the Portuguese.

Britain was the leading economic power with colonies providing raw materials and markets.
Other nations challenged Britain's lead, seeking to expand markets and resources in Asia, Africa, and the Pacific.