Imperialism The takeover of a country or territory by a stronger nation with the intent of dominating the political, economic, and social life of the people of that nation.

*Why?  Political  Balance of Power  Prestige  Military victories, heroic

Economic  Industrialization:  raw materials  new markets  Cheap Labor  Investment Opportunities

Exploratory  Adventure  Hunting  Exploring  Medical Research  Scientific Research

Religiously  Christianize the “savages”  Protect the missionaries  Missions-Something new to talk about in Church  goal to assimilate natives- make them in to Europeans

Ideological  The belief that the white race was superior to other cultures  Europeans viewed other people as children or Paternalism  Might makes Right  Nation…Why not Empire!!!

Social Darwinism and “White Man’s Burden”  “Social Darwinism”  A Pseudo (fake) Science stolen from the ideas of Charles Darwin  Charles Darwin argued that there was a “survival of the fittest” on Earth and some animals were better at adapting than others  Social Darwinism (racist) agued that Europeans technically advanced—so therefore—Europeans fittest  “White Man’s Burden” to bring “civilization” to the world

How?

Inventions  Transportation  Trains speed of 35 m.p.h (stagecoach 10 m.p.h.)  Steamships, cross Atlantic in 15 days, not 3 months

Weapons  Maxim Gun, first automatic machine gun  Invented by an American  fire hundreds of bullets per minute  time to cool off  Took 2-3 people to fire/feed ammo

Communication  Telegraph  Lay wire on sea floor to connect countries

Medicine  Quinine, protects against malaria  White mans’ grave.  Sick and die  People who live there get sick, immunity  does not cure-it is a protection  Sap from a tree in S.America Cinchona

Africa “the Dark Continent”

Before Imperialist  Diversity  over 1,000 languages  various sizes of political bodies (from villages to empires)  large Christian, Muslim and Traditionalist religions  Europeans enter the scene 1450 AD  They only could build forts on the coasts because of disease and strong African Armies  Wanted slaves and refueling stations to reach Asia

Explorer, Dr. David Livingstone  Goal= bring “Christianity, commerce and civilization”  Took 3 trips into the interior of Africa between  Wrote travel-adventure books  Made Africa into an adventure area  “Discovered” Victoria Falls

Scramble for Africa  Started by King Leopold II of Belgium  Conquered the Congo Basin, to “end slave trade”  Brutally forced Africans to collect wild rubber

$$$$  Wealth discovered—minerals and cash crops  Minerals (Gold, Diamonds, Tin, Copper, Uranium, etc.)  Diamonds in South Africa in 1867  Gold in South Africa in 1886  Cash Crops (Peanuts, Palm- Oil, Rubber, tobacco, cocoa, etc.)

Rivalry  Britain wanted Cape Town to Cairo (north/south)  France wanted Dakar to Djibouti (east/west)  Germany and Italy fearing to be left out rush to claim the leftovers

Berlin Conference  Fearing a war Bismarck sets up Berlin Conference of  set up rules for nations to carve up Africa  colonies had to be "effectively occupied".  not enough simply to put up a flag and say the region was yours.  had to defend and administer the area  By 1913, only Ethiopia and Liberia were free of Europe

African Resistance  Running away, refusing to work, sabotages, and violence

Successful Resistance  Menelik II of Ethiopia (oldest Christian Nation in the world)  Played the Italians, British and French against each other  Bought modern weapons from Russia and France  Discovered that a treaty was misleading declared war on Italy in 1896  Ethiopia wins war and remains independent until WWII

Effects of Imperialism  Positive  Reduced local warfare  improved sanitation  Hospitals and Schools  Economic growth (telegraphs, railways, etc.)  United in their hatred towards Europeans  people live longer  Negative  lost lands, lost lives (to warfare and diseases)  Cash crops caused famine  destruction of cultures and traditional borders

Results of Imperialism in Africa  Most of these nations remained under European control until the 1960s, some as late as the 1990s Once independent they faced many problems:  Crazy boarders that divide resources & populations  Many ethnic groups in one nation  Little infrastructure  Corruption and dependency on imports