New Imperialism
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/* France and the New Imperialism */
{{NewImperialism}}
'''New Imperialism''' refers to the [[colony|colonial]] expansion adopted by [[Europe]]'s [[power (international)|powers]] and, later, [[Japan]] and the [[United States]], during the 19th and early 20th centuries; approximately from the [[Franco-Prussian War]] to [[World War I]] (c. 1871–1914). The period is distinguished by an unprecedented pursuit of what has been termed "empire for empire's sake," aggressive competition for overseas territorial acquisitions and the emergence in colonizing countries of doctrines of [[Race (classification of human beings)|racial]] superiority which denied the fitness of subjugated peoples for self-government.
==Background==
The term ''[[imperialism]]'' was used from the third quarter of the [[nineteenth century]] to describe various forms of political control by a greater power over less powerful territories or nationalities, although analytically the phenomena which it denotes may differ greatly from each other and from the "New" imperialism.
A later usage developed in the early 20th century among [[Marxism|Marxists]], who saw "imperialism" as the economic and political dominance of "monopolistic finance capital" in the most advanced countries and its acquisition — and enforcement through the state — of control of the means (and hence the returns) of production in less developed regions.
Elements of both conceptions are present in the "New imperialism" of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. But along with the adoption of [[ultra-nationalism|ultra-nationalist]] and racial [[supremacist]] ideologies, the period saw a shift to pre-emptive colonial expansion, fueled by the imposition of [[tariff]] barriers aimed at excluding economic rivals from markets.
[[English language|English]] [[writing|writers]] have sometimes described elements of this period as the "''era of empire for empire's sake''," "''the great adventure''," and "''the scramble for Africa''." During this period, European nations conquered 20% of the [[Earth]]'s land [[area]] (nearly [[1 E13 m²|23,000,000 km²]]). [[Africa]], [[Asia]] and the [[Pacific Islands]], the remaining world regions that had largely been uncolonized by Europeans, became the primary targets of this new phase of imperialist expansion; in the latter two regions, [[Japan]] and the [[United States]] joined the European powers in the scramble for territory.
== Rise of New Imperialism==
''For details see the main article [[Rise of the New Imperialism]]''
=== The breakdown of ''Pax Britannica'' ===
The expansions of the New Imperialism took place against a background of increasing [[competition]] (over [[Natural resource|resources]], strategic power, and [[prestige]]) between the [[industrialization|industrialized]] [[nation]]s. This activity followed the erosion of ''[[Pax Britannica]]'', during which [[United Kingdom|British]] industrial and naval supremacy underpinned an informal empire of [[free trade]] and commercial hegemony.
During this period, between the 1815 [[Congress of Vienna]] (after the defeat of [[Napoleon I of France|Napoleonic]] [[France]]) and the end of the [[Franco-Prussian War]] (1871), Britain reaped the benefits of being the world's sole modern, industrial power. As the "workshop of the world," Britain could produce finished goods so efficiently and cheaply that they could usually undersell comparable, locally manufactured goods in foreign markets.
The erosion of British hegemony after the Franco-Prussian War was occasioned by changes in the European and world economies and in the continental balance of power following the breakdown of the [[Concert of Europe]], the balance of power established by the Congress of Vienna. The establishment of nation-states in [[Germany]] and [[Italy]] resolved territorial issues that had kept potential rivals embroiled in internal affairs at the heart of Europe (to Britain's advantage).
Economically, adding to the commercial competition of old rivals like France were now the newly industrializing powers, such as Germany and the United States. Needing external markets for their manufactured goods, all sought ways to challenging Britain's dominance in world trade – the consequence of its early industrialization and maritime supremacy.
This competition was sharpened by the [[Long Depression]] of 1873-1896, a prolonged period of price deflation punctuated by severe business downturns, which added to pressure on governments to promote home industry, leading to the widespread abandonment of free trade among Europe's powers (in Germany from 1879 and in France from 1881).
The resulting limitation of both domestic markets and export opportunities led government and business leaders in Europe, and later the U.S., to see the solution in sheltered overseas markets united to the home country behind imperial tariff barriers: new overseas colonies would provide export markets free of foreign competition, while supplying cheap raw materials.
The revival of working-class militancy and emergence of [[socialism|socialist]] parties during the Depression decades led conservative governments to view colonialism as a force for national cohesion in support of the domestic ''status quo''. Also, in Italy, and to a lesser extent in Germany and Britain, tropical empires in India and Burma were seen as outlets for what was deemed a surplus home population.
=== Britain and the New Imperialism ===
[[Image:old disraeli.jpg|right|225px|thumb|Benjamin Disraeli and Queen Victoria]]
In Britain, the latter half of the 19th century has been seen as the period of displacement of [[industrial capitalism]] by [[finance capitalism]]. As the country's relative commercial and industrial lag encouraged the creation of larger corporations and combines, close association of industry and banks added to the influence of financiers over the British economy and politics.
The unprecedented control of industry on the part of London financial houses by the 1870s aided their pursuit of British "protection" of overseas investments —particularly those in the securities of foreign governments and in foreign-government-backed development activities, such as railroads.
Britain's lag in other fields deepened her reliance on invisible exports (such as banking, insurance and shipping services) to offset a merchandise trade deficit dating from the beginning of commercial liberalization in 1813, and thereby keep her "out of the red."
Although it had been official British policy for years to support such investments, the large expansion of these investments after about 1860 and economic and political instability in many areas of high investment, (such as [[Egypt]]), brought increased pressure for their systematic protection.
Britain's entry into the new imperial age is often dated to 1875, when the government of [[Benjamin Disraeli]] bought the indebted Egyptian ruler Ismail's shareholding in the [[Suez Canal]] to secure control of this strategic waterway, since its opening six years earlier as a channel for shipping between Britain and India. Joint Anglo-French financial control over Egypt ended in outright British occupation in 1882.
Fear of [[Russia]]'s centuries-old southward expansion was a further factor in British policy: in 1878, Britain took control of Cyprus as a base for action against a Russian attack on the [[Ottoman Empire]], and invaded [[Afghanistan]] to forestall an increase in Russian influence there. [[The Great Game]] in Inner Asia ended with a bloody and wholly unnecessary British expedition against [[Tibet]] in 1903-1904.
At the same time, some powerful industrial lobbies and government leaders in Britain, exemplified by [[Joseph Chamberlain]], came to view formal empire as necessary to arrest Britain's relative decline in world markets. During the 1890s, Britain adopted the new policy wholeheartedly, quickly emerging as the front-runner in the scramble for tropical African territories.
Britain's adoption of the New Imperialism may be seen as a quest for captive markets or fields for investment of surplus capital, or as a primarily strategic or pre-emptive attempt to protect existing trade links and to prevent the absorption of overseas markets into the increasingly closed imperial trading blocs of rival powers. The failure in the 1900s of Chamberlain's campaign for Imperial tariffs illustrates the strength of free trade feeling even in the face of loss of international market share.
=== France and the New Imperialism ===
<!-- [''To be expanded upon creation of article on France''] -->
Government leaders, such as [[Jules Ferry]] of France, concluded that sheltered overseas markets would solve the problems of low prices and over-accumulation of surplus capital caused by shrinking continental markets.
The expansion of the French colonial empire was also seen as a method of 'rejuvenating' the country after its humiliating defeat in the [[Franco-Prussian War]] of 1871; the military actions needed to secure empire were seen by colonial enthusiasts as 'the first, faltering steps of convalescence'. This plan, however, did meet with some popular resistance, and Ferry himself was removed from office twice over colonial disputes.
=== The New Imperialism and the newly-industrializing countries ===
Just as the U.S. emerged as one of the world's leading industrial, military and political powers after the [[American Civil War|Civil War]], so would [[German Empire|Germany]] following its own unification in 1871. Both countries undertook ambitious naval expansion in the 1890s. And just as Germany reacted to depression with the adoption of tariff protection in 1879 and colonial expansion in 1884-85, so would the U.S., following the landslide election (1896) of [[William McKinley]], be associated with the high [[McKinley Tariff]] of 1890.
United States expansionism had its roots in domestic concerns and economic conditions, as in other newly industrializing nations where government sought to accelerate internal development. Advocates of empires also drew upon a tradition of westward expansion over the course of the previous century.
Economic depression led some U.S. businessmen and politicians from the mid-1880s to come to the same conclusion as their European counterparts — that industry and capital had exceeded the capacity of existing markets and needed new outlets. The "closing of the Frontier" identified by the 1890 Census report and publicized by historian [[Frederick Jackson Turner]] in his 1893 paper ''[[The Significance of the Frontier in American History]]'', contributed to fears of constrained natural resource.
Like the Long Depression in [[Europe]], the main features of the U.S. depression included deflation, rural decline, and unemployment, which aggravated the bitter social protests of the "[[Gilded Age]]" — the [[populism|Populist movement]], the free-silver crusade, and violent labor disputes such as the [[Pullman Strike|Pullman]] and [[Homestead Strike|Homestead]] strikes.
The [[Panic of 1893]] contributed to the growing mood for expansionism. Influential politicians such as [[Henry Cabot Lodge]], [[William McKinley]], and [[Theodore Roosevelt]] advocated a more aggressive foreign policy to pull the United States out of the depression. However, opposition to expansionism was strong and vocal in the United States. Whatever the causes, the result of the war was that the U.S. came into the possession of [[Cuba]], [[Puerto Rico]] and the [[Philippines]]. It was, however, only the Philippines that remained, for three decades, as a colonial possession.
Although U.S. capital investments within the [[Philippines]] and [[Puerto Rico]] were relatively small (figures that would seemingly detract from the broader economic implications on first glance), "imperialism" for the United States, formalized in 1904 by the [[Roosevelt Corollary]] to the [[Monroe Doctrine]], would also spur on her displacement of Britain as the predominant investor in Latin America — a process largely completed by the end of the Great War.
In [[Germany]], Imperial Chancellor [[Otto von Bismarck]] revised his initial dislike of colonies (which he had seen as burdensome and useless), partly under pressure for colonial expansion to match that of the other European states, but also under the mistaken notion that Germany's entry into the colonial scramble could press Britain into conceding to broader German strategic ambitions.
[[Japan]]'s development after the [[Meiji Restoration]] of 1868 followed the Western lead in industrialization and [[militarism]], enabling her to gain control of [[Taiwan]] in 1895, Korea in 1910 and a sphere of influence in [[Manchuria]] (1905), following her defeat of Russia in the [[Russo-Japanese War]]. Japan was responding in part to the actions of more established powers, and her expansionism drew on the harnessing of traditional Japanese values to more modern aspirations for great-power status; not until the 1930s was Japan to become a net exporter of capital.
=== Social implications of the New Imperialism ===
The New Imperialism gave rise to new social views of colonialism. [[Rudyard Kipling]], for instance, urged the [[United States]] to [[The White Man's Burden|"Take up the White Man's burden"]] of bringing the European version of civilization to the other peoples of the world, regardless of whether they wanted this form of civilization. While [[Social Darwinism]] became current throughout western Europe and the United States, the paternalistic French-style "[[civilizing mission]]" (In [[French language|French]]: ''mission civilisatrice'') appealed to many European statesmen.
Observing the rise of trade unionism, [[socialism]], and other protest movements during an era of mass society in both Europe and later North America, elites sought to use imperial [[jingoism]] to co-opt the support of part of the industrial working class. The new mass media promoted jingoism in the [[Spanish-American War]] (1898), the [[Second Boer War]] (1899-1902), and the [[Boxer Rebellion]] (1900).
Many of Europe's major elites also found advantages in formal, overseas expansion: large financial and industrial monopolies wanted imperial support to protect their overseas investments against competition and domestic political tensions abroad; bureaucrats wanted and sought government offices; military officers desired promotion; and the traditional but waning landed gentries sought increased profits for their investments, formal titles, and high office.
The notion of rule over tropical lands commanded widespread acceptance among metropolitan populations: even among those who associated imperial colonization with oppression and exploitation. For example, the [[1904]] Congress of the [[Socialist International]] concluded that the colonial peoples should be taken in hand by future European socialist governments and led by them to eventual independence.
== Imperialism in Asia ==
''For details see the main article [[Imperialism in Asia]].''
The transition to formal imperialism in [[India]] was effectively accomplished with the transfer of administrative functions from the chartered [[British East India Company]] to the British government in 1858, following the [[Indian Mutiny]] of the previous year. Acts in 1773 and 1784 had already empowered the government to control Company policies and to appoint the Governor-General, the highest Company official in India.
[[Image:China imperialism cartoon.jpg|left|200px|thumb|A shocked mandarin in [[Manchu]] robe in the back, with [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Queen Victoria]] (United Kingdom), [[Wilhelm II of Germany|Wilhelm II]] (Germany), [[Nicholas II of Russia|Nicholas II]] (Russia), [[Marianne]] (France), and an [[Emperor Meiji]] (Japan) discussing how to cut up a plate with ''Chine'' ("China" in French) written on it.]]
The new administrative arrangement, crowned with [[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Queen Victoria]]'s proclamation as Empress of India in 1876, replaced the rule of a monopolistic enterprise with that of a trained civil service headed by graduates of Britain's top universities. India's princely states (with about a quarter of the country's population) retained their quasi-autonomous status, subject to British overlordship and official "advice."
In [[South-East Asia]], the 1880s saw the completion of Britain's conquest of [[Burma]] and France's takeover of [[Vietnam]] and [[Cambodia]]; during the following decade France completed her [[French Indochina|Indochinese]] empire with the annexation of [[Laos]], leaving the kingdom of Siam (now [[Thailand]]) with an uneasy independence as a neutral buffer between British and French-ruled lands.
Imperialist ambitions and rivalries in [[East Asia]] inevitably came to focus on the vast empire of [[China]], with more than a quarter of the world's population. China survived as a more-or-less independent state due to the resilience of her social and administrative structures, but can also be seen as a reflection of the limitations to which imperialist governments were willing to press their ambitions in the face of similar competing claims.
On the one hand, it is suggested that rather than being a backward country unable to secure the prerequisite stability and security for western-style commerce, China's institutions and level of economic development rendered her capable of providing a secure market in the absence of direct rule by the developed powers, despite her past unwillingness to admit western commerce (which had often taken the form of drug-pushing).
Western powers did intervene militarily in China to quell domestic chaos, such as the epic [[Taiping Rebellion]] of 1850-1864, against which [[Charles George Gordon|General Gordon]] (later the imperialist 'martyr' in the [[Sudan]]) is often credited with having saved the [[Qing Dynasty]].
But China's size and cohesion compared to pre-colonial societies of Africa also made formal subjugation too difficult for any but the broadest coalition of colonialist powers, whose own rivalries would preclude such an outcome. When such a coalition did materialize in 1900, its objective was limited to suppression of the anti-imperialist [[Boxer Rebellion]] because of the irreconcilability of Anglo-American and Russo-German aims.
== The scramble for Africa ==
{{main|Scramble for Africa}}
In 1875, the two most important European holdings in Africa were [[French Algeria]] and the British [[Cape Colony]], located on the continent's northern and southern coasts, respectively; Europeans controlled little of the interior of the continent. By 1914, however, only [[Ethiopia]] and [[Liberia]] remained outside European control. The transition from an "informal empire" of control through economic dominance to direct control took the form of a "scramble" for territory in areas previously regarded as open to British trade and influence.
[[David Livingstone]]'s explorations, continued from the 1870s by [[Henry Morton Stanley|H.M. Stanley]], opened tropical Africa's interior to European penetration. In 1876, King [[Léopold II of Belgium]] organized the [[Association Internationale Africaine|International African Association]], which, by 1882, obtained over 900,000 square miles (2,300,000 km²) of territory in the [[Congo River|Congo]] basin through treaties with African chiefs.
France and Germany quickly followed, sending political agents and military expeditions to establish their own claims to sovereignty. The [[Berlin Conference]] of 1884-1885 sought to regulate the competition between the powers by defining "effective occupation" as the criterion for international recognition of territorial claims.
Léopold was allocated the misnamed [[Congo Free State]] in 1885, which became his personal possession. There, the atrocities committed by his agents and European concessionary companies eventually led to international scandal, which forced him to turn over the territory to the Belgian government in 1908.
The codification of the imposition of direct rule in terms of "effective occupation" necessitated routine recourse to armed force against indigenous states and peoples. Uprisings against imperial rule were put down ruthlessly, most spectacularly in German [[South-West Africa]] and [[German East Africa]] in the years 1904-1907.
Britain's 1882 formal occupation of Egypt (itself triggered by concern over the Suez Canal) contributed to a preoccupation over securing control of Nile valley, leading to the conquest of the neighboring [[Sudan]] in 1896 -1898, which in turn led to confrontation with a French military expedition at [[Fashoda Crisis|Fashoda]] (September 1898).
In 1899, Britain set out to complete its takeover of the future [[South Africa]], which it had begun in 1814 with the annexation of the Cape Colony, by invading the [[Afrikaner]] republics of the gold-rich [[Transvaal]] and the neighboring [[Orange Free State]]. The chartered [[British South Africa Company]] had already seized the land to the north, renamed [[Rhodesia]] after its head, the Cape tycoon [[Cecil Rhodes]].
British gains in southern and [[East Africa]] prompted Rhodes and [[Alfred Milner]], Britain's High Commissioner in South Africa, to urge a "Cape to Cairo" empire linking by rail the strategically important Canal to the mineral-rich South, though German occupation of German East Africa prevented such an outcome until the end of [[World War I]].
Paradoxically the United Kingdom, a staunch advocate of free trade, emerged in 1914 with not only the largest overseas empire, thanks to its long-standing presence in India, but also the greatest gains in the conquest of Africa, reflecting its advantageous position at its inception. Between 1885 and 1914, Britain brought nearly 30% of Africa's population under its control, to 15% for France, 9% for Germany, 7% for Belgium and 1% for Italy: [[Nigeria]] alone contributed 15 million subjects to Britain, more than in the whole of [[French West Africa]], or the entire German colonial empire.
== Imperial rivalry ==
<!-- ''For details see the main article [[Imperial rivalry]].'' -->
The extension of European control over Africa and Asia added a further dimension to the rivalry and mutual suspicion which characterized international diplomacy in the decades preceding World War I. France's seizure of [[Tunisia]] (1881) initiated fifteen years of tension with Italy, which had hoped to take the country and which retaliated by allying with Germany and waging a decade-long tariff war with France. Britain's takeover of Egypt a year later caused a marked cooling of her relations with France.
The most striking conflicts of the era were the [[Spanish American War]] of 1898 and the [[Russo-Japanese War]] of 1904-05, each signaling the advent of a new imperial [[great power]], the United States and Japan, respectively. The [[Fashoda Crisis|Fashoda]] incident of 1898 represented the worst Anglo-French crisis in decades, but France's climbdown in the face of British demands foreshadowed improved relations as the two countries set about resolving their overseas claims.
British policy in [[South Africa]] and German actions in the [[Far East]] contributed to the dramatic policy shift, which in the 1900s, aligned hitherto isolationist Britain first with [[Japan]] as an ally, and then with France and Russia in the looser [[Triple Entente|Entente]]. German efforts to break the Entente by challenging French hegemony in [[Morocco]] resulted in the [[Tangier Crisis]] of 1905 and the [[Agadir Crisis]] of 1911, adding to tension in the years preceding [[World War I]].
==Theories==
{{Main|Theories of New Imperialism}}
The '''accumulation theory''' adopted by [[J.A. Hobson]] and later [[Lenin]] centered on the accumulation of surplus capital during and after the Industrial Revolution: restricted opportunities at home, the argument goes, drove financial interests to seek more profitable investments in less-developed lands with lower labor costs, unexploited raw materials and little competition.
Some have criticized Hobson's analysis, arguing that it fails to explain colonial expansion on the part of less industrialized nations with little surplus capital, such as Italy, or the great powers of the next century — the United States and Russia — which were in fact net borrowers of foreign capital.
Opponents of Hobson's accumulation theory often point to frequent cases when military and bureaucratic costs of occupation exceeded financial returns. In Africa (exclusive of what would become the [[Union of South Africa]] in 1909) the amount of capital investment by Europeans was relatively small before and after the 1880s, and the companies involved in tropical African commerce exerted limited political influence.
The '''World-Systems theory''' approach of [[Immanuel Wallerstein]] sees imperialism as part of a general, gradual extension of capital investment from the "core" of the industrial countries to a less developed "periphery." Protectionism and formal empire were the major tools of "semi-peripheral," newly industrialized states, such as Germany, seeking to usurp Britain's position at the "core" of the global capitalist system.
Echoing Wallerstein's global perspective to an extent, imperial historian [[Bernard Porter]] views Britain's adoption of formal imperialism as a symptom and an effect of her relative decline in the world, and not of strength: "Stuck with outmoded physical plants and outmoded forms of business organization, [Britain] now felt the less favorable effects of being the first to modernize."
== Other Readings ==
*Ankerl, Guy: [[Coexisting Contemporary Civilizations: Arabo-Muslin, Bharati, Chinese, and Western.]] INU PRESS, Geneva, 2000. ISBN 2-88155-004-5.
'''Recent imperial historians''' Porter, P.J. Cain and A.G Hopkins contest Hobson's conspiratorial overtones and "reductionisms," but do not reject the influence of "the City's" financial interests.
==See also==
*[[British Empire]]
*[[History of the United Kingdom]]
*[[Imperialism in Asia]]
*"[[The White Man's Burden]]"
*[[Commonwealth of Nations]] (successor to the British Empire)
*[[Dollar Diplomacy]]
*[[Social Darwinism]]
*[[Léopold II of Belgium]]
*[[Meiji Emperor|Meiji Emperor of Japan]]
*[[Napoléon III of France]]
*[[Wilhelm II of Germany]]
*[[Joseph Chamberlain]]
*[[Benjamin Disraeli]]
*[[Jules Ferry]]
*[[Rudyard Kipling]]
*[[William McKinley]]
*[[Cecil Rhodes]]
*[[Victoria of the United Kingdom|Queen Victoria]]
==External links==
*[http://www.yale.edu/iss/Hobson-Imperialism-Yale-ISS-Cain.pdf J.A. Hobson's Imperialism: A Study: A Centennial Retrospective by Professor Peter Cain]
*[http://www.britishempire.co.uk Extensive information on the British Empire]
*[http://www.btinternet.com/~britishempire/empire/empire.htm British Empire]
*[http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-459es.html The Empire Strikes Out: The "New Imperialism" and Its Fatal Flaws by Ivan Eland, director of defense policy studies at the Cato Institute.] (an article comparing contemporary defense policy with those of New Imperialism (1870-1914)
*[http://www.angelfire.com/nb/martian/newimp.htm The Martian Chronicles: History Behind the Chronicles New Imperialism 1870-1914]
*http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/modsbook34.html
*http://www.columbia.edu/~lt95/altlect14.htm (a course syllabus)
*[http://www.gpc.edu/~proseman/Imperialism.htm The 19th Century: The New Imperialism]
*[http://www.leftturnbooks.com/4000-008.html Marxism and The New Imperialism by Alex Callinicos, John Rees, Chris Harman, and Mike Haynes]
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[[Category:Imperialism]]
[[Category:Hegemony]]
[[Category:History of the United States (1865–1918)]]
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[[Category:European colonisation in Africa]]
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