Introduction to ImperialismUsing the following documents, articulate a response to the following question:

What were the various motivations for and opinions about the practice of European Imperialism?

Document One: Imperialism by J.A. Hobson, a British scholar, 1902The period of imperialism has witnessed many wars. Most of these wars have been caused by attacks of white races upon so-called “lower races.” They have resulted in the taking of territory by force. . . . The white rulers of the colonies live at the expense of the natives. Their chief work is to organize labor for their support. In the typical colony, the most fertile lands and the mineral resources are owned by white foreigners. These holdings are worked by natives under their direction. The foreigners take wealth out of the country. All the hard work is done by natives.

Document Two: African Proverb When the whites came to our country, we had the land and they had the Bible; now we have the Bible andthey have the land.

Document Three: Balance Sheets of Imperialism by Grover Clark, 1936The struggle for colonies does not result only in cash losses. There were also lives lost, wars fought, and hatreds aroused which threatened new wars. . . .Italy’s trade with her colonies in 1894-1932 was worth 5,561 million lire [about $1,100 million]. This was less than one percent of her total foreign trade in the same period. In fact, her expenditures on colonies for that time was 6,856 million lire. Obviously colonies cost more than they are worth in trade.

Document Four: Rudyard Kipling, The White Man's Burden, 1899Take 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.

Document Five: CLIFTON AND CO., COLLOTYPE Inoculation against plague, Bombay 1897 - 1914

Document Six: Dadabhai Naoroji: Excerpts from The Benefits of British Rule, 1871To sum up the whole, the British rule has been: morally, a great blessing; politically, peace and order on one hand, blunders on the other; materially, impoverishment, relieved as far as the railway and other loans go. The natives call the British system "Sakar ki Churi," the knife of sugar. That is to say, there is no oppression, it is all smooth and sweet, but it is the knife, notwithstanding. I mention this that you should know these feelings. Our great misfortune is that you do not know our wants. When you will know our real wishes, I have not the least doubt that you would do justice. The genius and spirit of the British people is fair play and justice.

Document Seven: Excerpts from The People of Canton: Against the English, 1842[Tappan Introduction]: From a paper that was agreed to at a great public meeting in Canton.Behold that vile English nation! Its ruler is at one time a woman, then a man, and then perhaps a woman again; its people are at one time like vultures, and then they are like wild beasts, with dispositions more fierce and furious than the tiger or wolf, and natures more greedy than anacondas or swine. These people having long steadily devoured all the western barbarians, and like demons of the night, they now suddenly exalt themselves here.

From that time, linking themselves with traitorous Chinese traders, they have carried on a large trade and poisoned our brave people with opium. Verily, the English barbarians murder all of us that they can. They are dogs, whose desires can never be satisfied. Therefore we need not inquire whether the peace they have now made be real or pretended. Let us all rise, arm, unite, and go against them.

We do here bind ourselves to vengeance, and express these our sincere intentions in order to exhibit our high principles and patriotism. The gods from on high now look down upon us; let us not lose our just and firm resolution.

Document Eight: Jesuit Convent, Macao by William Heine, Facade of St. Paul's Church, 1854 Facade of St. Paul's Church, 1854 Hong Kong Museum of Art

Document Nine: “In the Rubber Coils” , London Punch 1906

Document 10: German Missionary School Early 1900’s

Document 11: Colonial Holdings (1914)

Great Britain France Belgium Netherland Germany (1914)

Area (sq. miles) 94,000 212,600 11,800 13,200 210,000Population 45,500,100 42,000,000 8,300,000 8,500,000 76,500,000Area of Colonies 13,100,000 4,300,000 940,000 790,000 1,100,000Colonial Population

470,000,000 65,000,000 13,000,000 66,000,000 13,000,000

Document 12: Africa 1914

Document 13: Vladimir Lenin, Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism 1921Imperialism is capitalism at that stage of development at which the dominance of monopolies and finance capitalism is established; in which the export of capital has acquired pronounced importance; in which the division of the world among the international trusts has begun, in which the division of all territories of the globe among the biggest capitalist powers has been completed.

Document 14: Jules Ferry, Prime Minister of France: On French Colonial Expansion

Gentlemen, we must speak more loudly and more honestly! We must say openly that indeed the higher races have a right over the lower races ....

I repeat, that the superior races have a right because they have a duty. They have the duty to civilize the inferior races .... In the history of earlier centuries these duties, gentlemen, have often been misunderstood; and certainly when the Spanish soldiers and explorers introduced slavery into Central America, they did not fulfill their duty as men of a higher race .... But, in our time, I maintain that European nations acquit themselves with generosity, with grandeur, and with sincerity of this superior civilizing duty.

Spreading light without acting, without taking part in the affairs of the world, keeping out of all European alliances and seeing as a trap, an adventure, all expansion into Africa or the Orient-for a great nation to live this way, believe me, is to abdicate and, in less time than you may think, to sink from the first rank to the third and fourth.