building of global empires

  • cecil rhodes: british prime minister of cape colony, extreme white/british supremacist
    • came to south africa in 1871 to help his tuberculosis
    • by 1889 (age 35) had a monopoly on diamond mining (controlled 90% of the world’s diamond production)
    • served as prime minister (1890-1896) of the british cape colony
    • annexed bechuanaland (modern botswana) and rhodesia (modern zambia)
    • named rhodesia after himself (!!!)
    • thought british people were better than everyone else and they should rule the entire world
  • imperialism spread!
    • us and japan joined european powers
    • tightened links between countries: lots of trade, immigration, etc
    • made people feel superior to other people
    • LOTS OF RACISM
    • sometimes comes from conquest
    • imperialism method: usually from domination of trade/investment to make subject countries financially dependent on empire without the empire having to actually rule
  • colonialism:
    • direct colonialism: (north america, chile, argentina, australia, new zealand, south africa) the colonies were made up of people from the “home society”
    • indirect colonialism: (india, southeast asia, sub-saharan africa) there were only a few european officials but the economic/political domination was so complete that it became as westernized as other places
  • second half of 1800s, many europeans thought imperialism/colonialism was crucial to their survival (both culture wise and resource wise)
  • technological innovations: efficient transportation, communication, war, etc aka lots of steamships/railroads and canals (suez and panama)
  • cultural justification of imperialism: christianization, “civilizing backward people,” white man’s burden