New Imperialism

Contrasting the old and new:

• Older forms of Imperialism, with the exception of Spain, Britain, and France in the New World, focused on cooperation and trade with local rulers in places like India, Africa, China, etc.

• Usually based on coastal trade centers.

The New Imperialism:

• New Imperialism used various strategies to reconfigure the political, social, economic and cultural structures of subject lands to provide natural resources and markets for the newly industrialized powers. (expansion of global capitalism)

• Unlike old imperialism, new imperialism brought entire territories, not just their coastal regions, under control.

• Emphasis on domination rather than cooperation.

New Imperialism: 1870-1914

• Britain• Belgium• France• Germany• The United States• Japan• Russia• Italy

Factors in the rise of New Imperialism:

1. Industrialization and acceleration of capitalist modes of production in the global north.

2. Consolidation of nation states in Europe = national competition.

Industrialization:• Rapid industrialization in the global north

required:

• 1. natural resources that could not be found at home such as: rubber, tin, tea, copper, cocoa, coffee, and petroleum (to name only a few).

• 2. The escalation in the capitalist mode of production also sought out new markets for the sale of commodities, (textiles for example).

Industrial capitalism included a mastery over technology

Weapons

Transportation

Locomotive Steamship

Communications

Undersea Cables

Emerging Nation States:

• Bt the mid-19th century, new nation states emerged in Europe, including Germany and Italy.

• Nation state formation was often fraught with conflict, especially defining who the “people” were.

A Definition of Nationalism:

• A belief among a group of people that they share a common heritage and future, and that they have a right to organize a political system with definite geographic boundaries to pursue their own self interest, both politically and economically.

Emerging Nation States (cont.):

• As nation building progressed in the north, standardization of laws, weights and measures, and compulsory education created a boom in literacy.

• Rising standards of living created a population boom in the global north.

• People increasingly came to see themselves as Germans or Frenchman, (for example) rather than as residents of Marseilles or subjects of the King of Bavaria.

Imperialism as a salve for domestic unrest:

• Class antagonism between the proletariat and bourgeoisie constantly threatened to undermine the social order in the global north.

• Industrialized workers realized that they had the ability to shut down the economy through general strikes and used this power to gain new rights.

Imperialism as a salve for domestic unrest (cont.):

• Much of this domestic social tension was diffused by focusing on the patriotism of foreign imperialist ventures.

• In this regard, one might argue that domestic unrest was shipped off to foreign holdings where democratization was kept in check through ruthless discipline and institutionalized racism.

Various forms of New Imperialism

• Settler Colonies

• Direct Rule

• Informal Rule (also known as spheres of influence)

• Open Door Policy

Settler Colonies:

• The United States (originally a British Colony)• Australia• New Zealand• Canada• South Africa

• (later iterations might include Algeria and Israel)

Settler Colonies usually focused on the acquisition of land and included systematic eradication or displacement of indigenous peoples (both through policy and disease).

Aborigines in Queensland, Australia

Direct Rule or Formal Imperialism:

The British Raj in India

India before 1857, and after

Informal Imperialism (Spheres of Influence)

The Scramble for Africa (artificial demarcations)

The Berlin Conference (1884-85)

Ideological Justifications for New Imperialism

• New ideas about society went hand-in-hand with the development of the New Imperialism.

• One example: Count Joseph Arthur de Gobineau (also known more simply as Arthur Gobineau, 1816-1882), wrote An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races, in four volumes, from 1853-1855.

• Gobineau compared the “white, yellow, and black races” and found the white to be far superior to the other two.

An excerpt from Gobineau’s essay

• “The dark races are the lowest on the scale. The shape of the pelvis has a character of animalism, which is imprinted on the individuals of that race ere their birth, and seems to portend their destiny. The circle of intellectual development of that group is more contracted than that of either of the other two [yellow and white].”

Social Darwinism/Scientific Racism• By the early 19th century, theorists began to think of the

human species as a series of racially distinct groups.• • The publication of Charles Darwin’s On the Origins of Species

(1859) was used by theorists to uphold the notion of the “survival of the fittest,” which seemed to support European domination over subject peoples.

• It is important to note that Social Darwinism was a perversion of Darwin’s ideas, which focused on adaptation.

• Again, Social Darwinism was not invented by Darwin!

Social Darwinism was invented by Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)

Used the theory of evolution to explain differences between the weak and the strong.

Argued that successful races had competed better in the natural world and therefore had attained a higher state in natural hierarchy.

Became a justification for imperial dominion which, under the reasoning of Social Darwinism seemed both natural and inevitable.

Social Darwinists held that:• Some people were naturally superior to others (for example, whites

to blacks, Nordics to Latins, Germans to Slavs, non-Jews to Jews)

• The bourgeoisie deserved to be comfortable because they had proven their superiority

• Big business should triumph over small concerns

• Powerful states deserved to rule the world

• War was morally justified because it proved the vitality of those who won

• In the end, Social Darwinism was a powerful ideological justification for the New Imperialism.

Social Darwinism as the White Man’s Burden

Social Darwinism anticipated the Eugenics movement of the early 20th Century

Which became an inspiration for these guys:

Interconnections--New Imperialism fueled by:

• Industrialization and expansion of capitalism= the increasing need for resources and markets.

• Consolidation of the nation state and national competition.

• Social Darwinism/scientific racism• As a concluding note--these factors would

precipitate many of the major conflicts of the 20th century including but not limited to WWI and WWII.

Rudyard Kipling “The White Man’s Burden” (1899) excerpts:

• 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.

• Take up the White Man's burden--The savage wars of peace--Fill full the mouth of FamineAnd bid the sickness cease;And when your goal is nearestThe end for others sought,Watch sloth and heathen FollyBring all your hopes to nought.