Week 9- The New Imperialism 1 and 2

Lecture 1

The New Imperialism: European colonization of an extraordinary percentage of the world during the 19th century (esp second half)

• By 1914, almost all of Africa, much of southeast asia were under European rule 

• From 1870-1900 a quarter of the globe’s land was under European rule

• The scramble for Africa alone saw europeans seize 90% of the continent in 1875-1902

Expansionist fever:

• Europe

• Japan engaged in imperial expansion in the far East

• United States 

1914 

Imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism

• Driven by finance and the dynamics of capitalism  

• Canal de Suez (1869)- in Egypt, extraordinary engineering feat, infrastructure project that cuts through hundreds of miles of deserts, dramatically shortens the path from Europe to Asia 

• Paid for through bonds that are issued by private companies backed by Egyptian treasury- the bonds were sold to Europeans. Egypt was having trouble paying off the bonds, British worried that there would be a default on the bonds they purchased, so Britain invaded in 1882 → soon Egypt becomes part of British empire 

• Finance drove this new imperialism 

Hyper-nationalism 

• Glory and great power rivalry on a global scale 

New forms of racism 

• Darwinism 

• Articulation of classification of difference going on in europe at the time, biological racism that was rampant in New Imperialism

• Not only internationally- occurred within European nations: Croatians (descended from Warriors) differentiated themselves from the Serbs (descended from Slavs)

• Scientists began to measure people's head- the flatness of people’s forehead to determine intelligence: Science of racism. 

• Europeans took on the role of a “civilizing mission”

• This racism drove genocides 

Imperialism 

British India  

• Current day India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar

• India had been British imperial interest since 17th century 

• Made up of multiple princes, rulers, because of its diversity 

• Northern and central Indian ruled by Mughal Empire

• The british first started trading in India via the East India Company- had a trade monopoly in Asia and was extraordinarily independent (referred to as a company state)  

• India emerges as the anchor point of the British empire in Asia  

• East India company defeats the Mughals in 1757 

• Many members of Indian parliament were shareholders in East India Company  

• Eventually the British government displaces the East India Company - India is now under direct government control, direct imperial rule begins in 1858  

• Britain deployed massive military presence in British India 

• The empire as a whole became oriented towards the state of India, the site of wealth (Aden (Yemen) served as a coaling station for ships to be brought to support India)  

• This increasing importance became pronounced when Victoria officially became Queen of England and Empress of India in 1878, supposed to create a new bond between Britain and its most importance imperial connection

• Indo-Saracenic Architecture in Chennai, infuses Mughal architecture with Roman to create a new imperial Idiom that the British are position themselves as the next Roman Empire in India

• India becomes Britain’s biggest export market 

• Bombay (Mumbai) Railway Terminus- railway system to the ports to support the export of raw materials and import of manufactured goods  

• Designed not to benefit the population, but to benefit the British industry  

• Anti-colonialist movements: Indian National Congress founded in 1885- want to boycott British manufactured goods, start a movement to buy homespun goods

The Opium Wars 

• China did not experience colonization in the same way as India  

• Force the Chinese through military markets, to open their market to Britain 

• China had high agricultural productivity, trade across the different regions, highly centralized state 

• European trade was restricted to only Canton (this process known as Canton system) 

• The only product the Chinese wanted was silver (coming from the America)  

• In return, they gave silks, porcelain, tea  

• By end of , silver supply was insufficient to supply Chinese trade for tea → Britain turned to India to find other goods to exchange. The most successful was Opium.  

• There was robust market for opium in China 

British Opium Trade

• Opium addiction grew→ now silver was leaving China to pay for opium 

• Chinese government tried to forbid the opium trade, but had trouble stopping it 

• The british respond by sending steam powered warships to destroy the Chinese ships and navy 

• British bombard Canton, China offers a ransom of money to get them to stop the invasions  

- Opium War ends, but Hong Kong falls under British rule, prohibits China from putting any tariffs from British industry, China had to pay reparations to Britain for cost of war 

- China was forced to open more ports to Western commerce ie. Shanghai  

- not only was Opium a product of India, but ⅔ of the British army in the Opium War were British soldiers 

- marked the beginning of Modern China, they could stay closed to western states no longer and were exploited by Europe 

Lecture 2:

The Russian Empire

• Continuous push to the East 

• Russia occupied ⅙ of the world’s land mass by end of Russian Empire period 

• Russian imperial expansion is a major part of the political rebordering of maps  

• Russia wanted to be an empire on the same scale as British or Austro-Hungarian empire, the expansion had to do to with catching up with the western world 

• Russia felt threatened by the expansion of Britain in South Asia and India

• Territories owned or acquired (bought): Kazakhstan, Poland, Persia, Outer Mongolia, Manchura, parts of China and India

Central Asia:

• Strong cotton economy  (esp. Uzbekistan)

• Central Asia becomes the region of the Russian Empire that would serve as a supplier of raw materials (cotton) towards Russian industry, and a market to import Russian manufactured goods 

• Expansion driven by racism; Russiasn thought they were bringing civilization to inferior peoples. “Bringing this area back to life” through agriculture  

• Russia became a multi religious multiethnic empire (104 nationalities, speaking 146 languages and dialects) 

• Russia goes to war with Japan in 1904, has a crisis when defeated by Japan in 1905

The Scramble for Africa 

• Considered the most emblematic moment of new imperialism 

• In 1870, about 10% of Africa had been colonized, in 1914, only 10% remained uncolonized 

• Began in the 1870s when a number of european states started staking out territories along the coasts  

• Belgium has private company to exploit the Congo  

• Africa at the time was minimally known by the Europeans 

The Berlin Conference, 1884-85  

• Alarm after Belgium came to Congo 

• Want to establish rules to prevent war amongst the European states

• Nobody from Africa in the conference 

• Framework for the division of Africa → 

• Occupation can't be on paper only, have to go in and establish the land 

• Diversity of ethnic groups and languages 

• Since the slave trade now ended, Europeans now saw goods such as rubber, beeswax, ivory, vegetable oils from Africa. Europeans were eying the material wealth  

Why did Euopreans want to colonize Africa so quickly?

• Imperial competition among European states

• Technology: Quinine (Malaria prevention) and Machine Guns  

- allowed the Europeans to push into Africa 

- Christian missionaries  

- Civilizing mission, Europeans saw themselves as bringing civilization and progress to these areas “Progressive Imperialists”  

- at the Berlin Conference, ending slavery in Africa was a stated reason to justify colonization. Because slavery was still going on in Africa, Europeans had to go in and put an end to it while bringing civilization.  

German Southwest Africa: the Herero people were displaced from their land by German settlers, began to resist and launch attacks on German farmers → the German Generals insisted on the suppression and extermination of Heroro people.  

   - he says will conduct a war of annihilation against the Heroro people

   - 1st genocide of the 21st century 

  - offered to pay 1.35 billion dollars of reparations in recent years 

Benin City (Nigeria): the British raided in 1897

Resource extraction that colonizers did completely changed the landscapes 

• At the time, the Europeans did not see this depletion as negative, they viewed that the races that possess them do not have the civilization to make use of the resources, thus, wasting the resources

• Immoral to let natural resources go undisturbed instead of extracting them for human use 

• Another justification for colonization