Notes

6.1, 6.2: What is Imperialism + Examples in History 

 

In this unit we delve into imperialism and its implementations. Before we begin, it is important to understand what imperialism even is. Imperialism may be defined as a policy through which a more powerful nation (may that be economic or political) exerts its influence on a smaller, less powerful nation. As a generalization, Westernized nations exerted their imperialistic influence on their colonies. But how did they never come to the conclusion that imperialism was detrimental to its victims? Imperialistic powers employed various ideologies that justified their dominance over other countries. Some of these include:

 

• Social Darwinism: the non-science backed, pseudoscientific idea that Charles Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” theory applied to humans. Since Western forces tended to industrialize and conquer land first and more expansively, they were the most superior race. 

• Civilizing Mission: various European forces believed that they held the moral duty to civilize non-Western societies through religion, education and governance. 

• Phrenology: pseudoscientists came up with the idea that skull size was indicative of competence and intellect. Commonly, white individuals had larger skulls, and therefore were superior to other races.

 

Aside from those factors, many states had nationalistic intentions behind expansion and imperialism. They wanted to be the “best nations” with the most power, and power often came out of land holdings. Various European nations competed against one another for territory to assert their influence. 

 

There were many other economic gains that nations hoped to achieve through their imperialistic endeavors. By exerting power over other countries and getting them under their control, various Western nations got access to a great amount of natural resources. These resources could be manufactured and commercialized for economic gain. Examples of these imperialistic endeavors for economic benefit include:

• The East India Company, who was an English corporation utilizing its access to Indian resources to profit off of manufacturing and textile exports. They decentralized local Indian economies to benefit their own business. 

• The Dutch East India Company, who monopolized off of Indonesian spice trade (as Indonesia was a Dutch colony). 

• King Leopold II’s establishment of the Congo Free State, where the Belgian king privately owned a large expanse of land in Central Africa. This colony was the private property of Leopold, and he exploited the land to extract rubber and ivory. The Congolese were forced to undergo brutal work and were heavily abused. Eventually, the Belgian Parliament took control over the colony. 

Now that we have a solid grasp on the concept of imperialism, we shall further explore its impact on the historical world. 

 

Imperialism Throughout Africa: Due to access to steamships and more advanced military technology, many Western forces resorted to imperializing and colonizing the resource-abundant Africa. Some of these sought-after resources included palm-oil, rubber, ivory and diamonds. In hopes of getting their hands on these materials, the Western world entered what is referred to as a “Scramble for Africa”. Industrialized nations simply competed for access to Africa’s resources. 

• In 1884, Otto van Bismarck held the Berlin Conference between various European forces. Here, not a single African leader was invited when these nations drew ignorant lines over the African map to split the continent amongst themselves. These lines completely ignored cultural, religious and linguistic borders, and completely shook the harmony of Africa. 

• The Suez Canal was constructed in 1869 in Egypt, which was a 100-mile long canal that was built by corvee laborers (who were forced Egyptians who were paid virtually nothing for their work). In hopes to expand its commercial reach, Great Britain colonized Egypt and took access over the canal.

 

Unfortunately, imperialism was evident all around the world. In China, the chaos of the Opium Wars led to the state being divided into various “spheres of influence”. The previous Taiping Rebellion against foreign domination split the population and made dividing the Qing Empire easier than ever. On the other hand, the Boxer Rebellion supported by the conservative Empress Cixi to eradicate all foreigners caused internal turmoil which made imperialism even more simple. 

 

Another product of the imperialistic attitude amongst many Westernized powers was the creation of settler colonies. Imperialistic powers would establish colonies and reside in them. Some examples include:

• The Penal Colony of Australia and New Zealand: prisoners were exiled from Great Britain to these lands to execute forced labor as means of punishment. 

• The United States: British settlers developed colonies here and went on to expand American land through the ideology of Manifest Destiny (where the westward expansion of the US was justified and could not be escaped). A result of Manifest Destiny included the Trial of Tears, where various Native Americans were forcibly relocated to distinct “Indian Territories", resulting in the separation of families and mass casualties.