HW#1 Cause of new imperialism (807-814;790-792)

Rosa Luxemburg

A radical member of the German Social Democratic Party argued that capitalism needed to expand into noncapitalist Asia and Africa to maintain high profit.

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)

British writer who wrote about Anglo-Indian life. His famous poem "The White Man's Burden" - justification for Western imperialism.

Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)

Polish born novelist reprimanded the "pure selfishness" of Europeans in supposedly civilizing Africa in "Heart of Darkness". The main character once a liberal scholar turns into a savage brute.

Vladimir Lenin

The Russian Marxist and future revolutionary leader concluded that imperialism represented the "highest stage" of advanced monopoly capitalism and predicted that its onset signaled the coming decay and collapse of capitalist society.

Reason for opposing the Europeans

1. Non-conformists wanted human dignity, economic freedom and political independence. 2. They found that Western world wanted to same thing. They discovered liberalism and civil liberties and political self-determination. They echoed the demands of anti-imperialists in Europe and America that the West live up to its own ideals. 3. They were attracted to nationalism, which stated that every people had the right to control its own destiny. After 1917 anti-imperialist revolt would find another European-made weapon in Lenin's version of Marxist socialism.

Orientalism

A term coined by literary scholar Edward Said to describe the way Westerners misunderstood and described colonial subjects and cultures. It was used to refer to the was Europeans viewed "the orient" or Arab societies in North Africa and the Middle East. Politicians, scholarly experts, writers and artists and ordinary people adopted "us vs them" view of foreign peoples. Westerners were modern, white, rational, Christian. Non-West was primitive, colored, emotional, pagan or Islamic ad a place of mystery and romance, populated with exotic, dark-skinned peoples. The emergence of ethnography and anthropology as academic disciplines in the 1880s were part of the process of North American and European scholarship, arts and literature to learn about foreign culture and societies. Inspired by a new culture of collecting, scholars and adventurers went into the field where they studied supposedly primitive cultures and traded for, bought or stole artifacts from non-Western peoples. The results of their work were reported in scientific studies, articles and books, and intriguing objects filled the new public museums. Writers portrayed romance and high adventure in the colonies and so contributed to the Orientalist worldview. Artists drew dramatic paintings of ferocious Arab warriors, Eastern slave markets and the sultan's harem. In the end the artist helped spread the notions of Western superiority and justified colonial expansion.

Pattern of response

African and Asian response to Western expansion: 1. Drive the foreigners away (especially in China, Japan and Sudan). Superior Western military power always won against Asians and Africans. 2. Africans and Asians concentrated on preserving their cultural traditions at all costs. 3. others reconsidered their initial hostility. Ismail of Egypt concluded that the West was indeed superior in some ways and they copy some European achievements especially if they wished to escape full-blown Western political rule. You can see the responses to the Western impact as "traditionalists" to "Westernization" or "Modernizers". After awhile the modernizers tended to gain the upper hand. 4. Political participation in non-Western lands was historically limited to small elites and ordinary people did what their rulers told them to do. European rules at times received support from both Traditionalists (local chief, landowners, religious leaders ) and modernizers (Western educated professional classes and civil servants) 5. Support for European rule among subjugated peoples was shallow and weak. Colonized lands were peasant societies and much of the burden of colonization fell on small farmers who fought for some measure of autonomy. 6. Peasants would not follow the European rules such as hiding their harvest and not pay taxes or crops. They would dragged their feet when colonists asked for increased labor.

Neo-Europes

Coined by historian Alfred Crosby. Settler colonies with established populations of Europeans, such as North America, (Canada, United States )Australia, New Zealand, and Latin America and Siberia, where Europe found outlets for population growth and its most profitable investment opportunities in the 19th century. Europeans found its most profitable opportunities for investment in construction of the railroads, ports and utilities that were necessary to settle and develop the lands in such places as Australia and the Americas. Europeans thus allowed white settlers to buy European rails and locomotives and to develop sources of cheap food and raw materials. Much of this investment was peaceful and mutually beneficial for lenders and borrowers. The expansion of Western economy and power was not good for indigenous peoples of Native American and Australian who were decimated by the disease, liquor and weapons of an aggressive expanding Western society.

Industrialization and the world economy

First developed in Great Britain and then spread to the continental Europe and North America. In the 19th Century that system expanded across the face of the earth. Some of this extension into non-Western areas was peaceful and beneficial but when peaceful methods failed, Europeans used their superior military power to force non-Western nations to open their doors to Western economic interests. The Europeans made sure that the global economic system led to gain for the West in trade, technology and migration.

Causes of the new imperialism

Following reasons led to the new imperialism: 1. Economic motives. Especially for Great Britain. They were losing its early economic lead as France, Germany and the United States were industrializing rapidly behind rising tariff barriers. Britain was facing increasing tough competition in foreign markets. Britain tried to expand their one empire just as Asian and African territories for being seized by other European powers. 2. New colonies were poor to buy much but they were still profitable investments. Colonies became important for political and diplomatic reasons. Colonies were viewed as national security and military power. Example: Protecting the Suez Canal, the British occupation of Egypt was important. 3. Many people of convinced that colonies were essential to great nations. The European nations, which saw themselves as racially distinct parts of the dominant white race had to seize colonies to show they were strong against the colonies minorities. Just like Darwinian theories, Europeans thought it was only right for the inferior races to be taken over. 4. Industrial work's advance in technology and military superiority 5. Social tensions and domestic political conflicts also led to overseas expansion. For example in Germany and Russia, conservative political leaders manipulated colonial issues to divert popular attention from the class struggle at home and to create a false sense of national unity. They stressed that colonies benefitted workers as well as capitalist, providing jobs and cheap raw materials that raised workers' standard of living. The conservative leaders defined imperialism as a national necessity which they used to justify the status quo and their hold on power. 6. Certain special-interest groups in each country were powerful agents of expansion. Example: missionaries and humanitarians wanted to spread religion and stop the slave trade within Africa. White settlers demanded more land and greater state protection. Shipping companies wanted lucrative subsidies to protect rapidly growing global trade. Military men and colonial officials saw rapid advancement and highly paid positions as empires grew. The actions of such groups pushed the course of empire forward.

J.A. Hobson (1858-1940)

His work influenced Lenin and others. He wrote "Imperialism". He stated that the rush to acquire colonies was due to the economic needs of unregulated capitalism, way for the rich to find outlets for their surplus capital. He argued, imperial possessions did not pay off economically for the entire country. Only unscrupulous special-interest groups profited from colonial expansion. Hobson argued that the quest for empire diverted popular attention away from domestic reform and the need to reduce the great gap between rich and poor.

Civilizing Mission

Imperialists developed their own arguments for imperialism to satisfy their consciences and answer their critics. 1. Their favorite idea was the Westerners could and should civilize more primitive nonwhite peoples. Africans and Asians would eventually receive the benefits of industrialization and urbanization, Western education, Christianity, advanced medicine and finally higher standards of living. In time, they maybe ready for self government and Western democracy. The French often used the term "civilizing mission". 2. Another argument was that imperial government protected natives from tribal warfare as well as from cruder forms of exploitation by white settlers and business people. 3. Peace and stability under European control also facilitated the spread of Christianity. Many African's first real contact with whites was in mission schools. The success in Africa was in contrast to India, China and the Islamic world. There Christian's effort to spread Christianity was in vain to people with ancient, complex religious beliefs. But the number of Christian believers around the world did increase.

The world market

In the 19th century, Europe directed an enormous increase in international commerce. Great Britain took the lead in increasing export markets for its booming industrial output, as British manufactures looked first to Europe and then around the world. Example: Cotton textiles. Britain exported 50% of tis production. India bought only 6 %. When European nations and the United States established protective tariff barriers to promote domestic industry, British cotton textile aggressively sought other foreign markets in non-Western area. By 1850 India was buying 25% and Europe 16% of cotton textile from Britain. Since India was a British colony, it could not establish tariff to protect its ancient cotton textile industry. India textile industry thus collapsed and Indian weavers became unemployed. Britain was also the world's largest importer of goods. It was the largest trader of agricultural products, raw materials and manufactured goods. Under free-trade policies, open access to Britain's market stimulated the development of mines and plantations in many non-Western areas. International trade grew as transportation systems improved. Transportation cost decreased with railroad expansion. It also opened new economic opportunities and called forth new skills and attitudes. European investors funded much of the railroad construction in Latin America, Asia and Africa which connected seaports with resource-rich inland cities and regions. Railroad development allowed Western economic interests by facilitating the inflow and sale of Western manufactured goods and the export and the development of local raw materials. The power of steam revolutionized transportation by sea as well as by land. Steam power began to supplant sails on the oceans in the late 1860's. Passenger and freight rates decreased as ship design became more sophisticated and the intercontinental shipment of low-priced raw materials became feasible. The time to cross the Atlantic Ocean dropped from 3 weeks to 10 days. The opening of the Suez and Panama Canals in 1869 and 1914 respectively shortened transport time to other areas of the globe.

Critics of Imperialism

The expansion of empire let to bitter critics. A forceful attack was delivered in 1902 after the unpopular South African War by radical English economist J.A. Hobson. Vladimir Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg all were critics of Imperialism. But most people were sold on the idea that imperialism was economically profitable for the homeland and the masses developed a broad and genuine enthusiasm for empire. Hobson and many other critics continued to point out moral condemnation of whites imperiously ruling nonwhites. They rebelled against crude Social Darwinian thought "the strong shall prey on the weak". Kipling and others were thought of as racist bullies. Critics of imperialism pointed out how Europeans had double standard and failing to live up to their own noble ideals. At home, Europeans had won or were winning representative government, individual liberty and a certain equality of opportunity. But in their imperial colonies, they imposed military dictatorships, forced Africans and Asians to work involuntarily, almost like a slave and subjected them to shameless discrimination. The critics provided colonial peoples with a Western ideology of liberation.

The rise of Global Inequality

The gap between the industrialized Europe and North America and the soon-to -be colonized or semi-colonized regions (Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America) emerged and widened throughout the 19th century. Industrialized nations gained enormous wealth and power. 1. In 1750, the average standard of living was no higher in Europe than the rest of the world 2. It was industrialization that opened the gaps in average wealth and well-being among countries and regions. 3. income per person stagnated in the colonized world before 1913. 4. Only after 1945 in the era of decolonization and political independence did former colonies make real economic progress

White man's burden

The idea that Europeans could and should civilize more primitive nonwhite peoples and that imperialism would eventually provide nonwhites with modern achievements and higher standards of living. This ideas was an important factor in the decision to rule rather than liberate the Philippines after the Spanish-American war. American felt that they have achieved higher way of life and that they should teach the less advanced peoples of Philippines.

The revolution in land and sea transportation

This allowed European entrepreneurs to open up and exploit vast new territories around the world. Improved transportation enabled Asia, Africa and Latin America to ship not only familiar agricultural products-spices, tea, sugar, coffee-but also new raw materials for industry such as jute, rubber, cotton and coconut oil. The export of raw materials to Western manufactures boosted economic growth in core countries but did little to establish independent industry in the non-industrialized periphery. New communication systems were used to direct the flow of goods across global networks. Transoceanic telegraph cables firmly in place by the 1880s enabled rapid communications among the financial centers of the world. The world commodity prices can be sent instantaneously via telegraph. As their economies grew, Europeans began to make massive foreign investments beginning about 1840s. By the outbreak of WWI in 1924, Europeans had invested more than $40 billion abroad. Great Britain, France and Germany were the principle investing countries. The wealthy and moderately well to do could and did send great sums abroad in search of interest and dividends. Most of the capital exported did not go to European colonies or protectorates in Asia and Africa. About 3/4 of total European investment went to other European countries or to settler colonies or neo-Europes (a term coined by historian Alfred Crosby)

Industrial world's advanced technology and military force

Three aspects were important: 1. rapidly firing Maxim machine guns was an ultimate weapon in many battle. 2. newly discovered quinine proved no less effective in controlling malaria 3. the combination of the steamship and the international telegraph allowed Western powers so quickly concentrate their firepower in a given area when it was needed.

Responding to Western Imperialism

To Africans and Asians, Western expansion represented a profoundly disruptive assault. It threatened traditional ruling, classes, local economies and long-standing was of life. Christina missionaries and European secular ideologies challenged established beliefs and values. Non-Western peoples experienced a crisis of identity, one made all the more painful by the power and arrogance of the white intruders.

The potential causes of these income disparities

Two main theories: 1. The West used science, technology, capitalist organization and even its rational worldview to create massive wealth and then used that wealth and power to its advantage. 2. The West used its political and economic power to steal much of the world's riches and continued with colonial expansion.