1. Imperialism Theme: How imperialistic nations were able to expand their power and control at the expense of weaker nations
Lesson 17

2. Imperialism
Imperialism is a term associated with the expansion of the European powers, and later the US and Japan, and their conquest and colonization of African and Asian societies, mainly from the 16th through the 19th Centuries
Was effected not just through the force of arms, but also through trade, investment, and business activities that enabled the imperial powers to profit from subject societies and influence their affairs without going to the trouble of exercising direct political control

3. Motivations
Many Europeans came to believe that imperial expansion and colonial domination were crucial for the survival of their states and societies
Motivations can be grouped as economic, political, and cultural

4. Economic Motives
Overseas colonies could serve as reliable sources of raw materials not available in Europe that came in demand because of industrialization
Rubber in the Congo River basin and Malaya
Tin in southeast Asia
Copper in central Africa
Oil in southwest Asia
Rubber trees in Malaya

5. Cecil Rhodes
Went to south Africa in 1871 and by 1889 he controlled 90% of the world’s diamond production
Also gained a healthy stake in the gold market
Served as prime minister of the British Cape Colony from and saw the Cape Colony as a base of operations for the extension of British control to all of Africa

6. Political Motives
Some overseas colonies occupied strategic sites on the world’s sea lanes
Others offered harbors or supply stations for commercial and naval ships
Foreign imperialist ventures were useful in defusing social tensions and inspiring patriotism at home, often between industrialists and socialists

7. Russians in Tashkent
The weakening of the Ottoman and Qing empires turned central Asia into a political vacuum and invited Russian expansion
In 1865 Russian forces captured Tashkent which served as an important location for trade between Central Asia and Russia, especially after the construction of the Trans-Caspian Railroad in 1898
As Russia encroached upon the ill-defined northern frontier of British India, Russians and British played out the “Great Game” of exploration, espionage and imperialistic diplomacy throughout Central Asia

8. Cultural Justifications
Christian missionaries saw Africa and Asia as fertile ground for converts and often served as intermediaries between imperialists and subject peoples
Other Europeans sought to bring “civilization” to subject peoples in the form of political order and social stability
Cecil Rhodes believed, “We (the British) are the finest race in the world and the more of the world we inhabit, the better it is for the human race.”

9. The White Man’s Burden Take up the White Man’s Burden—
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives’ need;
To wait in heavy harness,
On fluttered folk and wild—
Your new-caught, sullen peoples,
Half-devil and half-child.
Rudyard Kipling

10. David Livingstone
Went to Africa as a missionary but was a combination of missionary, doctor, explorer, scientist and anti-slavery activist.
Reached and named Victoria Falls in 1855.
In 1871 journalist Henry Stanley found him at Lake Tanganyika, greeting him with the famous words “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”

11. Technologies that made Imperialism Possible
Transportation
Military
Communications
Cartoon showing China being divided by the United Kingdom, Germany, Russia, France, and Japan

12. Transportation Technologies
The USS Monocacy was used to protect US interests along the Yangtze River in China
Steamships allowed imperial powers to travel upriver much further than sailboats so imperialists could project power deep into the interior regions of foreign lands

13. Transportation Technologies
The construction of new canals enhanced the effectiveness of steamships and the building of empires by enabling naval vessels to travel rapidly between the world’s seas and oceans
They lowered the costs of trade between imperial powers and subject lands

14. 1869 opening of the Suez Canal at Port Said
Between 1859 and 1869, the British constructed the Suez Canal which links Port Said on the Mediterranean Sea and Suez on the Red Sea
Allows two-way north-south water transport from Europe to Asia without circumnavigating Africa
In 1882 the British army occupied Egypt to ensure the safety of the canal which was crucial to British communications with India
1869 opening of the Suez Canal at Port Said

15. Gatun locks under construction in 1910
Panama Canal
Between 1904 and 1914, the US built the Panama Canal which links the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans without having to transit Cape Horn
Gatun locks under construction in 1910

16. Military Technologies
Breech-loading firearms with rifled bores provided European armies with an arsenal vastly stronger than any other in the world
European armies could impose colonial rule almost at will
British soldiers show a Maxim gun to an elderly Zulu chief in 1901

17. Communications Technologies
Oceangoing steamships reduced the time required for imperial capitals to deliver messages to colonial lands
In the 1850s engineers began developing submarine telegraph cables to carry messages through oceans
By 1902, cables linked all parts of the British Empire throughout the world
Insignia of the British Indian Submarine Telegraph Company

18. British Empire in India
In the 18th and first half of the 19th Century, the East India Company established a strong presence in India
(Remember the East India Company was one of the joint-stock companies we learned about in Lesson 3)
In 1858, the British government intervened, preempting the East India Company and establishing direct imperial rule in India
In 1857 Hindu sepoys mutinied against the East India Company

19. British Empire in India
A viceroy represented British royal authority in India and administered the colony through an elite Indian civil service staffed almost exclusively by the British
The British formulated all domestic and foreign policy for India
Indians served in low-level bureaucratic positions
Lord John Morley served as Secretary of State for India from 1905 to 1910

20. British Empire in India
The British transformed India by clearing forests, restructuring landholdings, building railroad and telegraph networks, encouraging the cultivation of valuable crops, and constructing canals, harbors, and irrigation systems
Established English-style schools for Indian children and suppressed Indian customs that conflicted with British values
The British forced the Indians to ban sati, the practice of burning widows on their husbands’ funeral pyres

21. 1905 watercolor painting of a temple scene in Burma
British in Burma
In the early 1820s, British colonial officials in India had conflicts with the kings of Burma (modern Myanmar) while seeking to expand their influence to the Irrawaddy River delta
By the 1880s, the British had established colonial authority in Burma
Burma provided teak, ivory, rubies, and jade
1905 watercolor painting of a temple scene in Burma

22. British in Singapore
In 1824, Thomas Stamford Raffles founded the port of Singapore, which soon became the busiest center of trade in the Strait of Melaka
Singapore Harbor

23. British in Singapore
Singapore was administered by the colonial regime in India
It served as the base for the British conquest of Malaya (modern Malaysia) in the 1870s and 1880s

24. Planter supervising workers on a Malayan rubber plantation
British in Malaya
Malaya provided outstanding ports that enabled the British navy to control sea lanes linking the Indian Ocean with the South China Sea ands also provided abundant supplies of tin and rubber
Planter supervising workers on a Malayan rubber plantation

25. French in Indochina
The French were unsuccessful in establishing themselves in India, but between 1859 and 1893, they did establish a large southeast Asian colony consisting of the modern states of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos
Indochina would become an important supplier of rubber

26. French in Indochina
Unlike the British in their colonies, the French encouraged conversion to Christianity and the Roman Catholic Church became prominent throughout Indochina, especially in Vietnam
We’ll talk more about this in Lesson 25

27. Africa Until 1875, Europeans maintained a limited presence in Africa
Around then, the adventures and reports of explorers such as David Livingstone, Henry Stanley, Richard Burton, and John Speke began to excite merchants about business possibilities in Africa
Richard Burton explored east Africa with John Speke, seeking the source of the Nile

28. Africa: the Congo
In the 1870s King Leopold II of Belgium employed Henry Stanley to help develop commercial ventures and establish a colony called Congo Free State in the basin of the Congo River
Leopold said the Congo Free State would be a free-trade zone open to all European merchants in order to forestall competition from his more powerful European neighbors
Leopold II

29. Africa: the Congo
In reality, Leopold ran the Congo Free State as a personal colony and filled it with lucrative rubber plantations run under brutal conditions
Humanitarians protested Leopold’s colonial regime
In 1908 the Belgium government took control of the colony and it became known as Belgian Congo
Clearing tropical forests ate away at Leopold’s profit margins so Congolese farming villages such as this one were leveled to make way for rubber tree plantations

30. Africa: South Africa
The Dutch East India Company had established a supply station at Cape Town in 1652 and settlers began expanding outward to take up ranching and farming
These settlers were called “Boers” (the Dutch word for farmer) or “Afrikaners” (the Dutch word for African)
During the Napoleonic Wars ( ), the British took over the Cape and established British rule in 1806

31. Africa: South Africa
British rule disrupted Boer society because it brought in English law and language
When Britain abolished slavery in 1833, Boer financial viability and lifestyles were further threatened
Chafing under British rules the Boer began migrating eastward where they established several independent colonies such as the Orange Free State (1854) and the South African Republic or Transvaal territories (1860)

32. Boer guerrillas during the Second Boer War
Africa: South Africa
The lenient British attitude toward this changed when diamonds were discovered on Boer-populated territories in 1867 and gold in 1886
Two “Boer Wars” were fought from and with the British winning and putting an end to the Boer independent republics
By 1910, Britain had consolidated the provinces into the Union of South Africa
Boer guerrillas during the Second Boer War

33. Africa: Berlin Conference
Tensions among the European powers seeking African colonies led to the Berlin West Africa Conference ( ), during which delegates from 14 European states and the US (no Africans were present) devised the rules for the colonization of Africa
The conference produced an agreement that any European state could establish African colonies after notifying the others of its intentions and occupying previously unclaimed territory

34. Africa: Berlin Conference
The Berlin Conference gave European diplomats the justification they needed to draw lines on maps and carve Africa into colonies
By the turn of the century, all of Africa was divided into European colonies except for Ethiopia, where native forces had fought off Italian efforts at colonization, and Liberia, a small republic populated by freed slaves that was effectively a dependency of the US

36. Colonial Rule Three types Concessionary companies Direct rule
Indirect rule

37. Concessionary Companies
This was the earliest approach to colonial rule
European governments granted private companies large concessions of territory and empowered them to undertake economic activities such as mining, plantation agriculture, or railroad construction
Stamps issued by the Mozambique Company which received a 50-year administrative charter from Portugal in 1891

38. Concessionary Companies
This system allowed European governments to colonize and exploit immense territories with only a modest investment, but the brutal practices of the private companies produced a public outcry and the imperial countries decided to establish their own rule
The Imperial British East Africa Company began work on the Uganda Railway in ,500 workers died during the construction.

39. Direct Rule
The concessionary companies gave way to direct or indirect imperial rule
Under direct rule, administrative districts headed by European personnel collected taxes, recruited labor and soldiers, and maintained law and order
Direct rule was typical of the French colonies
French colonial administrator Louis Léon César Faidherbe served as governor of Senegal from 1854 to 1861 and from 1863 to He transformed the colony into the dominant political and military power in West Africa.

40. Direct Rule
Administrative boundaries intentionally cut across existing African political and ethnic boundaries in order to divide and weaken potentially powerful indigenous groups
Direct rule aimed at removing strong kings and other leaders and replacing them with more malleable people
The underlying principle was to keep African populations in check and permit European administrators to engage in a “civilizing mission”

41. Indirect Rule
Indirect rule exercised control over subject populations through indigenous institutions such as existing “tribal” authorities and “customary laws”
Indirect rule work in places where Africans had already established strong and highly organized states, but elsewhere erroneous assumptions about the “tribal” nature of African societies caused problems

42. Later Problems
The invention of rigid tribal categories and the establishment of artificial tribal boundaries became one of the greatest obstacles to nation building and regional stability in much of Africa during the second half of the 20th Century
The arbitrary boundaries of the Berlin Conference did not take into consideration the natural divisions of the African people (religion, culture, language, ethnicity, etc)

43. Later Impacts
When decolonization began in the 1950s, loyalties to these natural groups were often stronger than those to the arbitrarily-created state, leading to civil unrest in many countries
After independence, the dominant nationalist movements and their leaders tended to install themselves in virtually permanent power and tried to establish single-party states

44. US in Latin America
In 1823 President James Monroe issued the Monroe Doctrine that warned European states against imperialist designs in the western hemisphere
Any European attempt to reassert control over former colonies or to establish new ones would be considered as a threat against the US and an act of provocation
The Monroe Doctrine served as a justification for US intervention in hemispheric affairs

45. Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine
In 1904 the government of the Dominican Republic went bankrupt
President Theodore Roosevelt feared that Germany and other nations might intervene forcibly to collect their debts 
Roosevelt asserted that “in the Western Hemisphere the adherence of the United States to the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, in flagrant cases of such wrongdoing or impotence, to the exercise of an international police power....”
Cartoon portraying Roosevelt as an international policeman wielding his “big stick”

46. Early 20th Century US Interventions in Latin America
Cuba
Dominican Republic
Nicaragua
Honduras
Haiti

47. US: Alaska and Hawaii In 1867 the US purchased Alaska from Russia
In 1875 the US claimed a protectorate over Hawaii, where US entrepreneurs had established highly productive sugarcane plantations
In 1893 a group of businessmen and planters overthrew Queen Liliuokalani and invited the US to annex Hawaii
Hawaii became a US possession in 1898
Queen Liliuokalani

48. US: Spanish-American War (1898-1899)
The US had large business interests in Puerto Rico and Cuba, the last remnant’s of Spain’s American empire
In 1898 the US battleship Maine exploded and sank in Havana harbor
US leaders suspected sabotage and declared war on Spain

49. US: Spanish-American War
The US easily defeated Spain and took possession of Puerto Rico and Cuba
In the Pacific, the US took possession of the Philippines and Guam
After the Spanish-American War the US emerged as a major imperial and colonial power
Commodore Dewey destroyed the Spanish fleet in a single day at the Battle of Manila.

50. Puerto Rico and Cuba Today
Today Puerto Rico is a commonwealth associated with the US
In 1917, Puerto Ricans were granted US citizenship in 1917
In plebiscites held in 1967, 1993, and 1998, voters chose to retain commonwealth status

51. Puerto Rico and Cuba Today
The Spanish-American War’s Treaty of Paris established Cuban independence, which was granted in 1902 after a three-year transition period
In 1959, Fidel Castro established a communist government in Cuba
However based on a series of agreements beginning in1903, the US has been able to lease Guantanamo Bay for $4,085 a year

52. Philippines and Guam Today
The Philippines were ceded to the US in 1898
In 1935 the Philippines became a self-governing commonwealth with independence to be gained after a 10-year transition.
In 1942, the Japanese occupied the Philippines
We’ll talk about this in Lesson 21
In 1946 the Philippines became independent
In 1992, the US closed its last military bases on the islands
Clark Air Force Base was once the largest overseas U.S. military base in the world

53. Philippines and Guam Today
Guam was ceded to the US by Spain in 1898 and remains an organized, unincorporated territory of the US
It was captured by the Japanese in 1941 and retaken by the US three years later
We’ll talk about this in Lesson 21
Guam continues to host important US naval and air force bases

54. US: Panama
In 1903 the US supported a rebellion against Colombia and helped rebels establish a breakaway state of Panama
In exchange for the support the US won the right to build a canal across Panama and control the adjacent territory known as the Panama Canal Zone
The Canal opened in 1914

55. Canal Zone Governor’s House
US: Panama
The Torrijos-Carter Treaties in 1977 caused the Canal Zone to cease to exist in 1979 and the US to relinquish control of the Canal on Dec 31, 1999
The US conducted Operation Just Cause in to capture Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega
Canal Zone Governor’s House

56. Imperial Japan Review from Lesson 16
In 1894 the Sino-Japanese War broke out over control of Korea
The Japanese navy quickly gained control of the Yellow Sea and then the Japanese army pushed Chinese forces off the Korean Peninsula
In the peace treaty, China recognized Korean independence which made Korea a virtual dependency of Japan

57. Imperial Japan Review from Lesson 16
The Japanese victory alarmed European powers, especially Russia, who shared interests with Japan in Korea and Manchuria
The Russo-Japanese War broke out in 1904 with Japan emerging victorious and gaining recognition as a major imperial power

58. Imperial Japan
Britain and the US began to see Japan as a threat to their naval dominance
In 1922 The Five-Power Naval Limitation Treaty establish a ratio of capital ships as
Britain 5
United States 5
Japan 3
France 1.67
Italy 1.67
In the 1930s, an increasingly militant Japan demanded parity with the U.S. and Britain.
When the request was denied, Japan gave notice in 1934 that it would withdraw from the treaty in two years and did so

59. Imperial Japan
Japan continued to see the US and others as a threat to its influence in Asia and in 1940 the Japanese began developing plans to destroy the US Navy in Hawaii
On Dec 7, 1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor
We’ll discuss this in Lesson 21
In May 1940, the main part of the US fleet was transferred to Pearl Harbor from the west coast

60. Next
World War I