Chapters 14, 15, and 16 Reading Notes

These chapters explain the basis of European supremacy in the latter half of the 19th century. Europe had the best technology, the best economy, and the most effective political systems which allowed them to overtake and dominate the rest of the world until well after WWI. These chapters form the basis of why we even study European history because this was the high-tide mark of European power throughout the world. It also sets the foundation for how and why Europe has played such an influential role in modern world history.

The “Civilized World”Europe prided itself in being more civilized than anywhere else in the world at the time.

This was partially a result of materialistic ideals-meaning the actual goods that Europeans had access to comparative to others in the world. Europeans considered themselves better than everyone else because they generally had a higher standard of living. This meant they ate and dressed more adequately, slept in softer beds, and had better sanitation. This could also include quantitative facts (based on numbers) like the death rate dropping, infant mortality dropping, and life expectancy. In Europe at this time, the average life expectancy rose from 40 years in the1840s to 59 years in 1933. In India, comparatively, it was less than 27 years in 1931. Objects were not the only things that made Europe believe they were better than their contemporaries. Europeans believed they had better political, social, and economic institutions. An Englishman named Isaac Taylor wrote a book entitled Ultimate Civilization in 1860. He decided how civilized a country was by how many “relics of barbarism” they still contained. These “relics of barbarism” included “Polygamy, Infanticide, Legalized Prostitution, Capricious Divorce, Sanguinary and Immoral Games, Infliction of Torture, Caste and Slavery.” Virtually none of these relics could be found in European countries, but there were few countries in the rest of the world (not including former European colonies) that did not have at least two or three. Europeans hoped to spread not only their government and economics to the rest of the world, but also their moral values.

The “Zones” of CivilizationWestern Europe including Great Britain, Belgium, Germany, France, northern Italy, and

the western portions of the Austrian Empire comprised the “inner zone” of civilization which meant that it was industrialized and could export manufactured goods to the rest of the world. Other places, both in Europe and the rest of the world, made up the “outer zone” which mostly relied on agriculture. This terminology changed to 1st, 2nd, and 3rd world countries during the Cold War and now to the developed world and the developing world. Basically, a country has to be industrialized or post-industrialized to be considered developed.

Population GrowthAll continents except Africa gained enormously in population after 1650, but Europe

grew the most. Some reasons for the great population increase were the Agricultural Revolution (so Europe could feed more people), civil peace (governments making it so people were not killing each other as often), better transportation (to move food from areas of plenty to areas of shortage), and better sanitation (which meant fewer people died from disease). By 1900, Europeans and those of European descent made up 1/3 of the people on the planet. After 1900

the number began to fall. It is estimated that by 2100, Europeans (and their descendants) will make up only 1/10 of the people on the planet.

This stabilization in European populations occurred due to a decline in birth rates. Because of increased technology, women had to get pregnant and bear children fewer times to ensure the same number of living children. Whereas in the time of agriculture, families might have ten or more children, in the times of industry, family sizes were limited to two to four children. Lots of children to work the farm was beneficial, but lots of children in an urban environment was very expensive, especially after the advent of child labor laws which restricted the use of children in the workforce. Families could not afford as many children because children could no longer earn part of the family’s income.

Smaller families were also the result of urban living where there was less space to grow. Urban development was rapid during this time period. For example, in England, 2/3 of the people lived in places of 20,000 or less in 1830; in 1914, 2/3 lived in places of 20,000 or more. In 1840, only Paris and London had one million people. By 1914 the following cities had joined the list: Berlin, Vienna, St. Petersburg, Moscow, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Calcutta, Tokyo, and Osaka

Cities were much more impersonal and anonymous with fewer links to tradition and religious ties. Newspapers became exceedingly popular in cities. People started to rely on the national government for more such as schools and sanitary improvements.

The population growth also influenced the Atlantic Migration in which almost 60 million people left Europe (of which, 1 in 5 returned later). Most of the immigrants came to the United States, but significant portions also went to Latin America, Asian Russia, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. Most migrants before 1850 fled as political dissidents (as a result of the revolutions of 1848) or those with no other options (as with Irish immigrants during the potato famine). After 1850, many left Europe in search of better economic opportunities or to escape ethnic persecution (as was the case of Jews leaving Russia).

The World Economy of the Nineteenth CenturyThe 19th century constituted what is now known as the “New Industrial Revolution” or

the 2nd Industrial Revolution. During this time, steam power was greatly improved and used to power not only machinery but also means of transportation such as steamboats and locomotives. The Bessemer process made it possible and even inexpensive to transform iron into steel which greatly improved the railways. The internal combustion engine was invented and soon afterward came the advent of gasoline powered cars and airplanes. Electricity was discovered and harnessed. The telegraph, telephone, and radio were all invented. Medicine was greatly improved adding such things as anesthetics and X-rays. Germany, though late to industrialization, started producing more than Great Britain by 1900. America, likewise, became an industrial giant.

This global system of industrialization relied heavily on imports of raw materials from the “outer zone”. Thus, Europe was importing more than it was exporting during these years. It kept its balance of payments virtually even, though, by providing services to other countries like insurance or investing capital or by having other countries ship their goods on European ships. The balance of payments was made somewhat easier by the push toward free trade. Free trade is where countries purposely keep their tariffs low to encourage more trade with other countries.

Europeans also spent their money and means of wealth (capital) on other countries to increase the market for European goods. Europeans invested in companies everywhere from Argentina to Japan because the rate of return was higher than in Europe. These investments were

loans that had to be paid back and most of the loans were repaid once the foreign businesses began being profitable. This helped the world economy grow, not just Europe.

Another benefit to globalization was the ability to trade money in any country for the money of another country. It greatly increased the efficiency of business transactions. The reason why currency could be exchanged was because most countries conformed to the gold standard. This meant that the country’s money was backed by a certain amount of gold held in a federal reserve. A dollar, or a pound, or a franc could, at any time, be exchanged for the amount of gold that it corresponded to. This made money very secure, but it also hindered those countries that had small reserves of gold. The gold standard also caused prices to either stay the same or even fall which was hard on people who continually live on borrowed money such as farmers.

Never before nor since has the world been so unified and dependent upon each region to specify in what it was good at producing. There was truly a global market. An English economist marveled in 1866 that Britain now had its granaries in Chicago and Odessa, its forests in Canada and the Baltic, its sheep farms in Australia, and its gold and silver mines in California and Peru, while drinking tea brought from China and coffee from East Indian plantations. The price of any good depended upon world values. For example, wheat would cost the same in Argentina, in America, and Europe even if the crops differed that year because of weather conditions. This meant that farmers might have to sell their grain at a price so low they could not make a profit in order to be able to sell it at all. Similarly, businesses could fail if competitors successfully undersold them or created a newer or better product. Workers were only hired when needed and fired when business cycles went down.

Another thing that contributed to European economic supremacy was the advent of big business. Businesses would come together to form monopolies (meaning they were the only company in that type of business so they could charge whatever they wanted for their product). Monopolies sometimes have different names; they were called trusts in the United States and cartels in Europe. Regardless of their names, they relied on two types of integration (bringing business together). The first type was horizontal integration which is where business at the same level combined with each other to reduce competition and to protect themselves against fluctuations in prices and markets. In the oil industry, for example, if all the oil refiners got together to form one oil refining business, this would be considered horizontal integration. The other type of integration is vertical integration. This is where all aspects of a business come together to form a supply chain. In the oil industry, for example, this would be like a business that pumps oil combining with a refinery and combining with a shipping company and combining with a gas station. All levels of the business are then controlled.

Advance of Democracy

French Third RepublicGetting back to political history, it will be recalled that France had again established a

republic after Napoleon III was captured in 1870 during the Franco-Prussian War. As Bismarck besieged the city of Paris, he demanded that a National Assembly, elected through universal male suffrage, be established to consider the peace terms he offered France and write a new constitution. The elected Assembly was pro-monarchy and were considering making a deal with Bismarck which made the people of Paris angry because they had been holding the Germans back for four months. The city of Paris refused to accept the authority of the National Assembly and set up its own government called the Paris Commune. Thus, civil war broke out in France

with the National Assembly sending troops against the Paris Commune. The National Assembly violently suppressed the Paris Commune which had socialistic tendencies. At the end, 38,000 were arrested, 20,000 were put to death, and 7,500 were deported.

After the Paris Commune was suppressed, the National Assembly began to establish a republic in France (though they only voted on a republic by a very thin margin). France would have a president, a parliament in two chambers, and a cabinet. The upper house was elected through a complicated process of indirect election while the lower house was elected by universal male suffrage. The president eventually became a ceremonial figurehead and the real governing was done by the cabinet.

The Third Republic was on shaky ground from the beginning since there had been so many regime changes in France since the French Revolution. No one was sure how long the Third Republic would last. One event that caused people to question the integrity of the regime was the Dreyfus Affair. Captain Alfred Dreyfus was a Jewish army officer found guilty of treason in 1894 for leaking secret military documents to the German embassy in Paris. He was deported to life-imprisonment at Devil’s Island. Then, new evidence accumulated to show that Dreyfus was innocent and to indicate the guilt of another officer. The government refused to reopen the case for fear of shaking the country’s faith in their ability and in the military. After several years and a passionate pro-Dreyfus campaign by writers such as Emile Zola, Dreyfus was pardoned by the president in 1899 and was granted complete legal exoneration in 1906. The Dreyfus affair showed the weakness of the new Republic and the clear anti-Semitism that existed during the 19th century.

BritainThe British constitutional monarchy in the half-century before 1914 was the great

exemplar of reasonable, orderly, and peaceable self-government through parliamentary methods. It was the Victorian Era (the time when Queen Victoria ruled England) that became known for its material progress, literary accomplishment, and political stability. The two parties that emerged during the 1850s were the Liberals led by William Gladstone and the Conservatives led by Benjamin Disraeli. The parties had different interests, but both did much to help the common man in England in order to woo the votes of the working class. The Liberals leaned somewhat more toward industrial and commercial interests while the Conservatives leaned more toward the landed aristocracy both sought to win over the working class vote.

Both Liberals and Conservatives enhanced the suffrage in Britain. Conservatives passed a 2nd Reform Bill in 1867 to further male suffrage. Then, when the Liberals were in power, suffrage was again broadened in 1884. It was not until 1918 that Britain adopted universal male suffrage, also giving women over 30 the right to vote at that time.

The Liberals were more willing to pioneer. Gladstone encouraged laws that supported public education, the secret ballot, legalized labor unions, and abolished religious tests at Oxford and Cambridge. Disraeli and the Conservatives furthered labor legislation by increasing safety and sanitation laws in factories and to regulate housing conditions for the poor. Liberals responded by reducing labor hours and providing disability insurance.

In 1900, a new Labour party emerged that challenged the Liberals and Conservatives. Though the other parties knew it was not popular enough to gain control of parliament, the Labour party could take away much needed votes from either the Liberals or Conservatives. As a result of the challenge, the Liberals abandoned their traditional laissez-faire stance on economics and started supporting social welfare projects as much as possible. The idea was to reduce the

extremes of wealth and poverty by taxing the rich to pay for social welfare. Despite their best efforts, the Liberal party would be far outpaced by the Labour party later in the 20th century. Also, because the Liberals had turned their agenda around, the Conservatives took over as the main supporters of both the industrialists and the landed aristocracy by supporting laissez-faire economics.

The most major concern during the late 19th and early 20th century came from what was known as the Irish Question. Ireland was discontent, to say the least, for two main reasons. First, the Irish had no defense against their landlords, most of which lived in England and rarely visited Ireland. Second, the Irish had to pay taxes to the Church of Ireland (a sister of the Church of England) though the vast majority of Irish were Catholic. The Irish also wanted home rule and their own parliament.

Both Liberals and Conservatives attempted to help the Irish. Gladstone disestablished the Church of Ireland and Disraeli helped Irish farm tenants buy out their English landowners. Home rule was granted to Ireland in 1914, but the Protestants in the north (called the Ulsterman) objected because they did not want to be outnumbered by the Catholics in the south. The southern Catholics refused to accept a political division of Ireland. Although the southern part received dominion status in 1922 and eventually dissolved all ties with Britain, Northern Ireland remains part of the United Kingdom today. It has been and is still a cause for conflict.

GermanyGermany was neither strongly constitutional like Great Britain nor democratic like

France. It was essentially ruled by the Kaiser (Kaiser=Caesar=King) and his Chancellor (prime minister). As Chancellor, Bismarck attempted to initiate a number of reforms that would unify the new German nation. In 1871, Bismarck launched the Kulturkampf or “battle for modern civilization” which meant he opposed Catholicism because he saw it as a threat to the state. He later relaxed the restrictions he put on Catholics because he realized he needed their help, and he was more afraid of socialism.

The German Social Democratic party was founded in 1875 mixing Marxism and a more moderate view espoused by a reformist known as Ferdinand Lassalle. Whereas Marx believed that revolution was the only way to give the workers what they wanted, Lassalle believed that workers could use the democratic means provided them to initiate slow changes that would have huge benefits in the long run. Regardless, Bismarck drove the whole socialist movement underground, making all socialist meetings illegal from 1878-1890. Bismarck also attempted to combat socialism by providing for the poor and needy by giving them things like unemployment, sickness, and disability insurance (the forerunner of our modern Social Security). Despite his best efforts, Bismarck could not kill socialism, and it continued to grow in Germany. Some of the measures against socialist were relaxed in 1890 when Bismarck was forced to retire by Kaiser Wilhelm II.

Other PlacesWhile democracy was slow in coming to some like Germany and Italy, other countries

saw the advent of universal male suffrage much sooner. Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Spain, Greece, Bulgaria, Serbia, Turkey, and Austria (though not Hungary) all received universal male suffrage before the beginning of WWI. Female suffrage was slower in coming, though many countries instituted it after WWI and virtually all after WWII.

Chapter 15- European Civilization: Society and Culture

Many saw the advance of science and technology as the key to human progress. Nevertheless, as science advanced, society began to turn toward uncertainty in human character.

The Socialist MovementThe socialist movement, started by Karl Marx in 1848, saw a great amount of change

during the late 19th century. Part of this was due to the reality that people lived in and part of this was due to the uncompromising spirit of Marxism. Marx insisted that the only way to have pure socialism was for the working class to rise up in revolution. Marx believed that anyone that would seek to change the system through democratic means was actually selling socialism short. The workers, on the other hand, preferred gradual real changes as opposed to the idealistic revolution espoused by Marx. This is probably because the workers had the most to gain from even small advances such as restricting how many hours a person can work a day or increasing minimum wage. Workers were much more willing to ally themselves with labor unions that promised real results in the immediate future as opposed to radical socialism that held no promise.

Prosperity also increased the advent of labor unions. In the 1850s, workers were in short supply as businesses grew. This meant that factory owners were willing to make more concessions to workers in order to keep them in the factories. People began to join industrial unions in which all workers in the same industry, such as coal or transportation, join together no matter what their job. By 1900 there were approximately 2,000,000 union members in Great Britain and 850,000 in Germany. Labor unions reduced interest in socialism, though did not completely undermine it.

One thing that led to more interest in socialism was the revisionist movement that took place. Newer socialists believed that a revolution was not necessarily advantageous to the working class and that democratic reforms might be more effective in the long run. These were known as moderates or Fabian socialists (named after the ancient Roman general Fabius who delayed action in order to strategize for the best outcome.) Marxists resented Fabian socialists because they believed the Fabians were selling out their ideals to the capitalistic society in which they lived.

In 1864, a group referred to as the First International became an international socialist organization that met regularly throughout Europe to discuss ideals and problems within the socialist movement. In 1875, the German Social Democratic party was formed and grew rapidly, and thereafter many countries formed similar socialist parties. In 1903, the Russian socialist party was formed (later to lead the country to revolution). The members had all been exiled from Russia and were meeting in Great Britain. The Russians decided by a slim majority to follow the Marxist tradition favoring total revolution as opposed to the more moderate approach of the Fabian socialists. The majority group were called the Bolsheviks (meaning majority in Russian) and the minority group were called the Mensheviks (meaning minority in Russian). Though not essential right now, those terms will come to mean a great deal during WWI.

FeminismAs socialists fought for rights for the working class, women also fought for more political

rights. Though some were concerned about improving the working conditions for women, most feminists were most interested in securing the vote for women. European women joined with

American suffragists like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to establish the International Council of Women in 1888. Suffragists in Europe faced the same problems they did in America- the men that controlled Parliament refused to even vote on a bill that would allow women the right to vote. In Britain, a group of radical women led by Emmeline Pankhurst started destroying mailboxes, damaging government buildings, and disrupting sessions of Parliament to get their cause heard. If they were arrested, the women would go on hunger strikes, and then the police officers would brutally force-feed the women to keep them alive. Though the women stopped their attacks during WWI, popular support continued to grow and women over the age of 30 received the right to vote in England in 1918.

New IdeasThe late 19th century was also a time of expansion of knowledge, particularly about

humans and human character. Perhaps the most influential work of the time was the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin. Darwin hypothesized about natural selection and the resulting evolution of species. His main point was that species changed over time because the organisms with the best or “fittest” traits survived to pass on their characteristics to their offspring. In this way, an organism becomes perfectly suited for its environment or a species can change if the environment changes. This is also called “survival of the fittest.” Darwin’s ideas were generally accepted until he started to apply them to people in his book The Descent of Man. Scientists, especially the biologist T.H. Huxley defended Darwin and his theories while church leaders attacked him.

The most important contribution of Darwin was that he saw all life as a struggle. Before people had believed all nature was in harmony, but Darwin’s theory seemed to support humans becoming almost animalistic in their desire to survive. It meant that there was no moral code of conduct but rather that people and governments should do anything it takes to survive and thrive. His ideas also led to a concept called “Social Darwinism” that basically came to mean that those with wealth and power deserved it because they had the best traits. Social Darwinism drove imperialism and the desire of Europeans to impose their culture on other nations since they were clearly the fittest.

In addition to evolution, biology also gained knowledge about genetics and the inheritance of traits. The Austrian monk Gregor Mendel studied pea plants for years in order to understand how traits are inherited. His work became important in 1900 and spurred the study of heredity and genetics.

Social sciences advanced at this time as well. Particularly, psychology or the scientific study of human behavior became popular in the mid-19th century. Early Russian psychologist Ivan Pavlov proved that he could teach dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell. This showed that much of human behavior was trained just like animal behavior. Another psychologist of note, Sigmund Freud, studied how thoughts and memories beyond our conscious awareness can lead to problems in adulthood. His famous book The Interpretation of Dreams stressed the importance of understanding the unconscious. His work and that of his followers became known as psychoanalysis.

Physics also advanced near the turn of the century by better understanding energy. In 1896, Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity by studying uranium atoms that emitted particles. Pierre and Madame Curie furthered this work by recognizing that certain radioactive atoms are unstable by nature and release energy. Max Planck named these discrete units of energy emitted and absorbed quantum in 1900. Albert Einstein came up with the theory of

relativity in 1905 and Niels Bohr described the structure of the atom in 1913. Finally, Werner Heisenberg demonstrated with his uncertainty principle that it is impossible to determine both the position and velocity of an individual electron. All of these discoveries led to the invention of the atomic bomb during WWII.

Philosophy and the ArtsThe concept of agnosticism began to take root during the late 19th century. This is the

idea that anything unknowable to science must remain unknown forever. Basically, it questions the existence of a Supreme Being and focuses instead on scientific inquiry. The two main proponents were Herbert Spencer and Ernst Haeckel. Herbert Spencer was the person who came up with the idea of Social Darwinism because he believed the world was governed by Darwinian evolution.

Another important, though not popular, philosopher was Friedrich Nietzsche of Germany. He had a low opinion of modern, democratic society and believed that traditional values of humility, patience, helpfulness, hope, and love were a “slave morality” intended to keep those in power secure in their positions. He envisioned a new world made up of a group of supermen that would have developed qualities through Darwinian evolution such as courage, love of danger, intellectual excellence, and beauty of character that would make them much better than the average human. Nietzsche was considered unstable by his contemporaries and not much read.

Changes in art and literature also occurred during the late 19th Century. Realist writers like Emile Zola, Henrik Ibsen, and Charles Dickens became quite popular for critiquing social problems especially among the lower class. Art was still following the impressionist movement where paintings would be unclear, intending to give the viewer only the artist’s impression of what was going on. “Post-Impressionism” started becoming popular as well in which artists portrayed reality in increasing abstract ways.

As far as religion went, people became increasingly skeptical of organized religion and increasingly secular in their actions. Protestant groups tended to divide between modernists and fundamentalists. Modernists tended to accept scientific discovery more readily but had a harder time getting a sense of urgent spirituality. Fundamentalists tended to reject science completely and interpret the Bible literally. Many Protestants lost interest in religion altogether, though there was a significant Protestant revival after the First World War. Catholicism tended to reject most modern trends since many contradicted the authority of the church. In 1870, a general church council met for the first time in 300 years (since the Council of Trent during the Counter Reformation). Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of papal infallibility which meant that when the pope speaks in his position as pope, his word is final and no Catholic may question or refute.

Trends of the day also caused for the waning of classical liberalism. This means that as democracy increased in Europe, the foundational principles on which it stood started to wither away. This was first seen in the economic world. Classical liberalism proclaimed the important of laissez-faire, free trade, and individual competition. Nevertheless, workers constantly unemployed and reemployed as a result of business cycles begged for more stability than international markets produced. Likewise, business owners wanted to protect their interests at home and abroad. As a result, classically liberal economic ideals were replaced with tariffs, government responsibility to the poor, and big business ventures such as monopolies. This “new liberalism” accepted a larger government role in social and economic matters while straying from “classical liberalism.” Scientific trends also led to the decline of classical liberalism since it focused on the ability of the individual to reason and make good decisions whereas biology and

psychology of the day indicated that man was more a product of his environment than his individual decisions. Thus, liberalism changed form but continued to be an integral part of the intellectual world of 19th century Europe.

Chapter 16- ImperialismWhen we speak of Imperialism in the late 19th Century, it is often called “New

Imperialism” to distinguish it from colonialism that occurred during the 16th and 17th Centuries. In colonialism, the goal was not necessarily to change how another geographical region functioned; its sole purpose was to establish colonies of Europeans so that Europeans could claim territory and ship natural resources from that region back to Europe. Trade during colonialism depended on the goodwill of the natives, not the Europeans. Imperialism differed in that its purpose was only sometimes to set up European style governments in the conquered countries. The main purpose was to ensure the security of European investments abroad. If a region was rich in natural resources, a European country would imperialize it in order to utilize those resources. However, if a European county merely wanted to trade with the people, it might not send colonists; it would only send those necessary to ensure that trade went smoothly for the benefit of the European country. In this way, non-European countries came to be dominated by European foreign policy even though they might keep their original rajah or sultan or emperor.

There were hundreds of reasons for imperialism, but we will name just a few. First, the demand for natural resources was insatiable in Europe. People had grown accustomed to drinking tea or coffee, wearing cotton clothing, driving cars (ok, only the rich had these). They needed resources from all around to the world to maintain their standard of living. It is much cheaper for a European country to take over an area and exploit the natural resources than to work with local dealers. Second, as more countries became industrialized and started producing goods to sell on the world market, big businesses started looking for new markets to sell their goods. This was because with more competition, the price of goods started to drop which meant that businesses needed to sell more to continue making a profit. If everyone in Europe already had the good, it needed to be sold to others countries that did not yet have it. Europeans wanted to create “spheres of influence” or regions in which they had sole trading rights in order to be able to sell their goods worldwide. Third, European capital was invested everywhere in the world, and businesses did not want to lose money if a foreign government suddenly became hostile. It was safer for business enterprises if foreign governments could be controlled or even hand-picked by Europeans. Along with the economic justification came the social justification. European governments did not just want to control these regions economically, they wanted to modernize and civilize them. Social Darwinism was used to explain why Europeans needed to aid the rest of the world. Rudyard Kipling called it the “white man’ burden” to civilize lesser nations. While Europe was sending their political and economic systems abroad, they were also sending their missionaries, teachers, and social reformers.

Imperialism by RegionAmericas

Countries in the Americas were largely imperialized by their closest world power neighbor- the United States. It started as early as 1845 with the Mexican American War in which Mexico lost about half of its territory to the United States (including today’s Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah). This was widely seen as an act of aggression outside the United States, but

we tend to overlook it as being imperialism because those territories ceded generally like being part of the United States today. The next example of US imperialism was during the 1890s. In 1895, revolutionaries in what is now Panama rose up against their government in Colombia. The US supported the revolutionaries and essentially made Panama a protectorate so that the US could build the Panama Canal to connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. A few years later in 1898, the US decided to intervene in Cuba to stop “Spanish atrocities” against the natives. While in Havana harbor, a US ship called the Maine blew up. No one knows to this day why this happened, but the US blamed the Spanish and started the Spanish American War. The US won very quickly and took over the former Spanish territories of Puerto Rico and the Philippines (yes, those are on opposite ends of the world). Cuba was granted independence, of sorts, but was watched carefully by the American government. Cuba essentially became a protectorate of the US.

After the Spanish American War, President Theodore Roosevelt furthered the imperialist motives of the US when he added the “Roosevelt Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine. While the Monroe Doctrine was intended to keep European powers out of the Americas, the Roosevelt Corollary indicated that the US would step in to protect international interests in Latin America. Basically, if the US did not like the political or economic situation in a country, it gave itself the right to intervene on behalf of world security. Latin America greatly despised this action and it was later repudiated by the US government (much later).

A final example of US imperialism was in Hawaii. The Hawaiian Islands had been useful to world trade since the 1840s. Sailors, whalers, missionaries, and vendors flocked to the islands and the native ruler lacked the ability to control the situation. In order to ensure its independence, the Hawaiians accepted the protection of the United States in return for giving the US a naval base at Pearl Harbor. Americans established sugar and pineapple plantations on the islands that were dependent on American capital and export to the US. In 1891, Queen Liliuokalani came to the throne and tried to reduce the rampant westernization. The Americans overthrew the queen and sought annexation to the US which did not pass until 1898.

The Ottoman EmpireDuring the latter part of the 19th Century, Europe considered the Ottoman Empire to be

the “sick man of Europe” because the empire had been in slow and unmitigated decline for several centuries. Bits and pieces broke off from the Empire intermittently such as Greece and Romania. The concern for Europeans was how the breakdown of the Ottoman Empire would affect the balance of power in Europe and European influence in the Middle East- in Europe this was called the Eastern Question.

The Crimean War showed the weakness of the Ottoman Empire much as it had done for Russia. It exposed their political and military weakness against the nation-states of western Europe (mainly Great Britain and France). As a result, the Ottoman Empire attempted nationalistic reforms from 1856-1876. The attempt was to make all members of the Empire national citizens. Whereas before, the Empire was split up according to religious hierarchies in which each region of the Empire was subject to their own religious authority, after reform, everyone was made a citizen. Reforms provided for equality before the law, opened the army and public office to anyone, reformed taxes, and abolished torture. Unfortunately, there were not enough Turks with skill and expertise to continue the reforms. In 1877, the sultan Abdul Hamid II started repressing the people and doing away with the reforms. He even got rid of the constitution that had just been enacted a year prior. The sultan made many enemies and lived in

constant fear for his life. Many people, called the Young Turks, fled to western Europe to plan their revenge on the sultan.

The Ottoman Empire became an even bigger problem as European nations look to it to advance their holdings in the Middle East. The Suez Canal that linked the Mediterranean to the Red Sea was completed in 1869, was within the territory held by the Ottoman Empire, and the majority of the stock was held by Great Britain in order to secure their interest in India. Britain feared any intervention in the Ottoman Empire by another European country that might endanger the canal. Such intervention occurred in 1877 when Russia invaded the Ottoman Empire (for the sixth time in one hundred years) and the Ottomans fell before the Russians. The Ottoman Empire signed the treaty of San Stefano with Russia ceding strategic territory. Great Britain prepared for a war with Russia to protect the Suez Canal.

To protect Europe from an Anglo-Russian and potentially all-European War, Bismarck of Germany invited the European powers to Berlin to discuss the Eastern Question. At the conference, Russia agreed to give up the treaty of San Stefano in order to keep peace. Instead, Russia got to keep the territory it had gained and independence was given to Serbia, Romania, and Montenegro. Bulgaria was given partial independence, though was still considered within the Ottoman Empire. Austria-Hungary was allowed to occupy Bosnia, but not annex it. Great Britain got Cyprus from the Ottoman Empire, an island close to the Suez Canal. The French were allowed to expand from Algeria into Tunisia, and the Italians secured a vague promise that someday they might get to expand into Albania (Italy was far too weak to really accept any such offer). Germany took nothing intending to be an “honest broker” to keep Europe out of war. The Turks, both in the Ottoman Empire and those abroad hated the treaty for breaking up the Ottoman Empire.

The Young Turks would return to the Ottoman Empire in 1908 and overthrow the sultan. They restored the constitution of 1876 and introduced many reforms. It was too little too late, however, as the Ottoman Empire would not survive WWI but rather emerge as a significantly smaller Turkey after the war.

Of final importance in the Middle East was the British occupation of Egypt. Egypt was technically within the Ottoman Empire but was considered independent of the government at Constantinople. The khedive (ruler) Ismail greatly profited from the Suez Canal but not enough to avoid tremendous debt that led to his abdication in 1879. He was replaced by the pro-western khedive Tewfik. Egyptians wanted the Europeans out and resented Tewfik for catering to them. A Colonel Arabi started a nationalistic movement that was brutally put down by the British who bombarded Alexandria. Tewfik was put back on the throne and promised protection by the British against his own people. The British did not leave their new protectorate until 1956 despite protests from other European countries, notably France.

Africa- The “Dark Continent”Before the 1870s, very little was known about sub-Saharan Africa by Europeans. Their

only experience was with the coasts and trading with the natives (including the slave trade). Missionaries and individual explorers first opened the continent to the rest of the world. In 1841, a medical missionary, David Livingstone, set out to do humanitarian work among the natives of Central Africa. He was on extremely friendly terms with the natives, sometimes trading and sometimes exploring, but he had no other political or economic aims. However, word spread that Dr. Livingstone was lost and the New York Herald sent a roving journalist H.M. Stanley to find him, which he did in 1871. Shortly thereafter, Dr. Livingstone died, greatly honored by the

Africans with which he worked. Stanley, on the other hand, went to Europe to get backing for several economic possibilities he saw in Central Africa. He found a friend in King Leopold II of Belgium.

King Leopold and Stanley set up an International Congo Association (purely a private enterprise, not backed by the Belgian people) and started making treaties with the chiefs in the Congo basin in 1882. Other European countries, seeing the success of Belgium did not want to lose their holdings in Africa. The German Karl Peters started signing treaties with the chiefs of East Africa, the French moved inward from the west coast, and the Portuguese started building up their historic trading posts on the southwest and southeast coasts. Bismarck, realizing again the international importance of this conflict, called another conference in Berlin in 1885. The Conference set up the Congo Free State as an international territory that had to be respected by other European countries. Nevertheless, it also set up guidelines for how Congo should be administered (most of which were later ignored). The Conference also laid down rules for acquiring territory in Africa. It was determined that countries could not just draw lines on a map, but they had to have “real” occupation in the form of administrators or troops on the ground. Each European country also had to make other countries aware of what territory it considered occupied. This conference led to the “scramble for Africa” in which European countries rushed to send anyone that would go to Africa to push inland and occupy the continent for that country.

As a result, the European powers were at each other’s throats constantly and the native Africans suffered horrible abuses. Perhaps the worst of these abuses could be found in the Belgian Congo (renamed in 1908). Although slavery was outlawed by the Berlin Conference, King Leopold ignored this and enslaved most of the people in the Congo. He ravaged their natural resources and gave the natives nothing in return. Public outrage mounted at the abuses of the natives reported in newspapers throughout Europe. The Belgian government eventually relieved Leopold of his responsibilities with the Congo and stopped most of the worst abuses, though Congo is still one of the least developed countries in the world, having the lowest GDP per capita today.

In the ensuing scramble for the Continent, much friction was created among European nations. The Portuguese annexed huge domains in Angola and Mozambique trying to connect their holdings in the center of the continent. The Italians took over tracts of land in Somalia and Eritrea but were repelled by a native force in Ethiopia in 1896. The Germans established colonies in German East Africa and in Cameroon and Togo on the west coast. The French already had sizable holdings in western and northern Africa, and they started pushing east toward the Nile River and Egypt. The British hoped to control a whole north to south segment from “Cape to Cairo”. Cecil Rhodes started pushing northward from South Africa into what is now Zimbabwe. At the same time, the British pushed southward from Egypt up the Nile. The first attempted by General “Chinese Gordon” (so named for his previous successes in China) failed due to defeat at the hands of native Muslims. The second attempt under General Kitchener made it to Fashoda where he met the French General Marchand. This Fashoda crisis could have ended in war; instead, the French backed down because they were afraid of their vulnerable position against Germany in Europe.

Not long after the victory at Fashoda, the British were again brought to conflict as they tried to achieve their “Cape to Cairo” dream. Two independent republics, Transvaal and the Orange Free State, stood in their way and refused to deal with the British. These republics were occupied by Afrikaners, descendants of the Dutch who had originally settled in South Africa. The British called these people Boers after the Dutch word for farmer. The British bullied these

empires until war broke out in 1899. The three year conflict called the Boer Wars resulted in the subjugation of Transvaal and the Orange Free State at huge loss of life for Boer irregulars in the army and Boer civilians. These areas were later incorporated into the Union of South Africa. The Boer Wars demonstrated quite clearly the extent of British unpopularity in Europe. Every country (except the US) was pro-Boer. This made Britain start to rethink its international policy.

By 1914, all of Africa had been split up among the European powers except Liberia (a US-owned territory established in the 1830s as a place to send freed slaves) and Ethiopia (because they were the only country that had successfully existed). The territorial conflicts in Africa provided a wealth of possible sparks for war and contributed to the growing pressure in Europe prior to WWI. The results of the First World War also strengthened the British and French holdings in Africa.

AsiaThe Dutch East Indies (now called Indonesia) and British India were the ideal of every

imperialist nation. Other Europeans wanted to emulate the imperialism shown in these areas. Both areas were divided among themselves both politically and religiously. They had no strong national government and did not feel any sense of national unity. In this way, they were easier for the Europeans to take over because they were much less likely to combine in open rebellion. The Dutch exploited their colonies economically, but seemed to have no interest in political dominance. In fact, they encouraged instruction in the native languages of Javanese and Malay because it meant that European ideas of democracy and nationalism would spread more slowly.

In India there was a dangerous rebellion in 1857. It is called the Indian Mutiny or the Sepoy Rebellion because it was started by Indian troops in the British army called “sepoys”. The rebellion was mostly centered in northern India along the Ganges River. The rebellion was brutally suppressed, but it convinced the British they needed a new course of action in India. Instead of ruling over the native Indians, they decided to rule with them (or at least let the Indians rule under the British). They started taking over hundreds of territories and making each a separate protectorate of the British Empire still ruled by its historic rajah or maharajah. Queen Victoria took on the title Empress of India to be the appropriate figurehead to this mountain of royalty. The British also favored instruction in English as opposed to the native Indian languages in order to better assimilate the Indians to British culture. A select few natives were also admitted to civil service and governors’ councils. There were many native Indian businessmen. There were also a group of young Indians who were sent to Europe to receive an education. They became instrumental in the push toward self-rule after the Frist World War.

As the British pushed their imperial interests north of India, the Russians were also pushing south and east. Russia had secured a port in the far east on the sea of Japan called Vladivostok which they were willing to defend at all costs. Pressure from Russia on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea caused concern for Persia (modern-day Iran). Russia was given a sphere of influence in the country and had special trading rights with Persia. Russian and British interests might have conflicted in what I call the “stans” had they not come to an agreement to give Afghanistan a ten mile wide strip of land to separate British India from the Russian Empire.

China was the great prize for all imperialist nations and none refused the opportunity to take its share. Though China was in many ways more civilized that Africa or the Indian subcontinent, they were entering a period of political upheaval that made them vulnerable to European influence. The Qing dynasty which had ruled China since the 1600s was falling out of favor with many Chinese. The dynasty was unable to secure its own position because it was seen

as an era of foreign rule. The Qings had come from a region in northern China known as Manchuria and were seen as outsiders by the Han Chinese that made up the majority of the population. In 1850, the Taiping Rebellion started and lasted for 14 years. This was a Chinese civil war in which the country sank into complete disorder and as many 20 million people died. It was a purely anti-Qing movement in which people resisted the foreign rule and set up an independent nation in southern China. The Qing Dynasty was eventually able to suppress the rebellion with a little help from Europeans. Thereafter, the Europeans extorted concessions from the Qing Dynasty while ensuring that it stayed in power.

European conflict with the Chinese started in 1839 with the first Opium War. This was the first in a series of conflicts that would last throughout the decade and into the 1850s. The premise of the war was that China refused to trade with the Europeans, particularly the British, because Europe had nothing that the Chinese wanted. There was an insatiable demand in Europe for goods made in China such as tea, silk, and china, but the Europeans had nothing they could sell there or for which the Chinese were willing to trade. The only thing the Chinese had any demand for was opium that could be grow in India. So, since India was a British protectorate, the British sold vast amounts of opium to China. When the Chinese government attempted to restrict the flow of opium to its people, Britain went to war. This culminated years later in 1857 when Britain and France demanded that the Chinese receive their diplomats and deal with their traders. When the Chinese refused, French and British soldiers entered Beijing and vandalized the city, burning to the ground the emperor’s summer palace. The treaty of Tientsin that followed set up a “treaty system” that was later followed by other Europeans. It opened up over a dozen cities to foreign trade and gave the city of Hong Kong to the British. Other territories were granted to Europeans on very long leases (as long as 99 years in some cases). The Chinese also had to agree that Europeans were not subject to Chinese law, had to pay war indemnities, and had to agree to levy no tariff over 5% on imports. These treaties were by nature intended to benefit the Europeans, though the Qing government did get rich from the new increase in imports.

After the opening of China, other European countries greedily swept in. Russia cut away parts of land on the northern rim of China, Japan recognized the independence of Korea, and the French took a large chunk of land known as French Indochina (today Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam).

Japan decided to show its imperialist intentions in 1894 by going to war with China over disputes in Korea. It shocked the world when it won a handy victory in very little time and forced the Chinese to sign the treaty of Shimonoseki in which the Chinese ceded Formosa (Taiwan) and a peninsula in Manchuria with the port city of Port Arthur. Europeans had not been aware that Japan had become so powerful in less than 50 years. Russia saw Japan as a major threat to a railroad they planned to build through Manchuria to connect their city Vladivostok to Siberia.

Other European nations, alarmed at the growing power of the Japanese, also sought to further their interests in China. Germany, Britain, and Russia gained more exclusive trading rights. For a time it seemed that China would be partitioned much like Africa until the United States announced the Open Door Policy. Basically, this meant that China should remain territorially intact and independent but the countries who had gained special trading rights (like the 5% tariff) should open up that same privilege to everyone. It was not about keeping China free from domination; it was about keeping China open to trade from everyone.

Much resistance to westernization started to pop up in China. One secret society, the Order of Literary Patriotic Harmonious Fists (dubbed the Boxers), rose up in open rebellion in

1899. They started pulling up railroad tracks and besieging foreigners. A combined European and Japanese force put down the rebellion and imposed more restrictions on the Chinese government.

The two major powers that were most at odds in China were Russia and Japan because they were the only two countries close enough to be able to support a sizable land force. The Russo-Japanese War broke out in 1904 when Japan attacked the Russian occupied city of Port Arthur. Both countries deployed their armies to Manchuria where the Japanese destroyed the Russians at the battle of Mukden. (As an interesting side note-this battle engaged more men troops than any previous battle in human history- 624,000 men.) Observers from all the major European nations were present at the battle to see what the next European conflict would have in store. The Russians sent their Baltic Fleet around three continents only to have it defeated in the Tsushima Strait by the Japanese navy that had never before seen battle.

At this point, President Theodore Roosevelt of the United States stepped in to mediate. He invited the Russians and Japanese to America to work everything out. They signed the treaty of Portsmouth in 1905 which gave the Japanese preferred position in Manchuria and demonstrated the vast weaknesses of the Russian military and political system. It surprised the world that a nonwhite people, the Japanese, had defeated a European country. It demonstrated that Asian countries could learn and play with the Europeans on the world stage. The consequences for the Russians were severe. Frustrated in their expansion in the Far East, they turned their attention back to Europe and started paying particular attention to the Balkans. The Russian government was weakened by the defeat such that it precipitated the Revolution of 1905 resulting in the formation of a Russian parliament (called Duma). These concessions, however, would not be enough to stave off the great Russian Revolution of 1917.

It can be seen that imperialism came to be a term hated throughout the non-western world. The advent of European World Supremacy was ripe to be challenged in the First World War that started in 1914. All the conditions were set to make this a conflict of epic proportions never before seen in world history.

Vocabulary:Inner ZoneOuter ZoneVertical IntegrationHorizontal IntegrationMonopolyFabian SocialismSuffrageNatural SelectionAgnosticismSocial DarwinismImperialismProtectorateSphere of InfluenceYoung TurksSepoyOpen Door Policy