Chapter 16Chapter 16 Europe’s World Europe’s World SupremacySupremacy

1871-19141871-1914

DevelopedDeveloped vs. Third WorldThird World

Growing gap between those who are industrializedindustrialized

(Europe, N. America, Japan)(Europe, N. America, Japan)and those who are

not industrializednot industrialized(Africa, Asia, Latin America)(Africa, Asia, Latin America)

GB is the most

powerful country in the

world by 1914

World Colonial Holdings Prior to World War I

Developed meets UndevelopedEgypt

Ottoman loss from Nationalists,

French, and UKOpium WarsMid 1800sTreaty ofNanking with UK

Suez Canal Opened 1869UK stayed until 1956

ChinaEuropeans

covet potential markets 1854 Treaty of

Kanagawa with the USA began modernization

JapanFrom isolation

to success

European Imperialism 1880-1914• Economic DominanceEconomic Dominance

–Modernized colonial trade markets

• Political DominancePolitical Dominance–Colonies = national security and power

• Charitable workCharitable work–“civilizing” the “savages”

Technologies and military superiority fostered imperialism

Quinine

TelegraphMachine

Gun

Steamship

“It was not a battle but an execution. The bodies were not in heaps…but they spread evenly over acres and acres.”

-British Soldier from J. Ellis, The Social History of the Machine Gun

Direct and Indirect RuleCooperation (why?) and Rebellion

Special Interest Groups -BusinessesBusinesses --MissionariesMissionaries --MilitaryMilitary --SettlersSettlers

Forced Labor: Construction Projects, Resources, taxes

Wage Labor – Skilled and Unskilledplantations, mining, govt work, construction

“Scientific” Racismsuperior and inferior “child races”

A “Civilizing Mission”children and parents

Traditionalists vs. Westernizers

British AuthorRudyard Kipling

(1865-1936)The White

Man’s Burden

Take up the White Man's burden--Send forth the best ye breed--Go bind your sons to exileTo serve your captives' need;To wait in heavy harness,On fluttered folk and wild--Your new-caught, sullen peoples,Half-devil and half-child.

Take up the White Man's burden--In patience to abide,To veil the threat of terrorAnd check the show of pride;By open speech and simple,An hundred times made plainTo seek another's profit,And work another's gain.

Take up the White Man's burden--The savage wars of peace--Fill full the mouth of FamineAnd bid the sickness cease;And when your goal is nearestThe end for others sought,Watch sloth and heathen FollyBring all your hopes to nought.…Take up the White Man's burden--And reap his old reward:The blame of those ye better,The hate of those ye guard--….Comes now, to search your manhoodThrough all the thankless yearsCold, edged with dear-bought wisdom,The judgment of your peers!

Social DarwinismHerbert Spencer applied“Survival of the fittest” humans

German historian Heinrich von

Treitschke claimed colonies show racial

superiority and national greatness

Racism and Social Darwinism

The Scramble for Africa1881-1914

Berlin Conference (1884-1885)“effective occupation”

1878

By 1910

Friction Between European Powers1898 Fashoda CrisisFrance and UK almost went to war

1899-1902 South African “Boer” War

Cecil Rhodes(1853-1902)

British Imperialist

Diamond Business

(De Beers)

Rhodesia is now Zimbabwe

“We must find new lands from which we can easily

obtain raw materials and at the same time exploit the cheap slave labor that is

available from the natives of the colonies. The

colonies would also provide a dumping ground for the

surplus goods produced in our factories.”

“Africa is still lying ready for us it is our duty to take

it. It is our duty to seize every opportunity for

acquiring more territory and we should keep this one idea steadily before our eyes that more territory

simply means more of the Anglo-Saxon race more of the best the most human, most honourable race the

world possess.”

"To think of these stars that you see overhead

at night, these vast worlds which we can never reach. I would annex the planets if I could; I often think of

that. It makes me sad to see them so clear and

yet so far."

KingKingLeopold II of Leopold II of

BelgiumBelgium(1835-1909)(1835-1909)

Conquest and Conquest and personal personal

ownership of the ownership of the CongoCongo

“I do not want to miss a

good chance of getting us a

slice of this magnificent

African cake”

Leopold’s wealth came from harvesting rubber

Leopold’s conquest was bloody and brutal

Critics of Imperialism

Economic and Moral

Missionaries and Journalist began to speak out against Leopold

“… It is curious that the most advanced and most enlightened

century of all the centuries the sun has looked upon should have the

ghastly distinction of having produced this moldy and piety-mouthing hypocrite [Leopold II], this bloody monster whose mate is not findable in human history

anywhere, and whose personality will surely shame hell itself when

he arrives there--which will be soon, let us hope and trust.”

Edmund Morel

(1873-1924)British

Journalist against

Leopold’s rule of the Congo

British Economist John A. Hobson

(1858-1940)• Imperialism =

greed that benefited few

• Distracted from problems at home

“The condition of the white rulers of these

lower races is distinctively parasitic; they live upon these

natives, their chief work being that of organizing native labour for their

support. ... All the hard manual or other severe routine work is done by

the natives…”

Joseph Conrad

(1857-1924)

Heart of Darkness

Western educated colonial subjects developed a sense of nationalism

Ottoman Empire: The Sick ManLosses to Russia, UK, France and rebellions

Tanzimat Reforms 1839-1876 modernize to save the empire

industry, education, rights to non-Muslims

1908 coup = power to Young Turks

Westernization and

Secularization

antagonized many, but laid foundation for modern Turkey

Imperialism in Asia

Chinese “Spheres of Influence”

Dutch expanded control of East Indies

French Indochina

Russian expansion

USA took Philippines from Spain

Japanese indust. and expansion

British India

“The Great Game” 1813-1907UK and Russia compete for supremacy

in Central Asia (esp. Afghanistan)

Tsar Nicholas IIRomanov

(1868-1918)r. 1894-1917

1905 Unexpected and Humiliating Defeat in the Russo-Japanese War

Tsarist Army Returns from Russo-Japanese War