Introduction
Imperialism is the act of domination of one country over the
political, economic and cultural life of another country or region. While such practices have existed for many
hundreds of years, the Age of Imperialism refers to a period in the second half
of the nineteenth century to the early part of the twentieth. Most of the imperialistic activities were
carried on by Western European nations.
However, Japan and the United States also participated.
European Imperialism
What were the sources driving the imperialistic
movement?
The imperialism resulted
from three key factors:
1.
Nationalism prompted rival European nations to
build empires in their competitive quests for power. If one country started a colony in Africa,
other European nations felt pressure to do the same. It was a feeding frenzy to acquire property
and power.
2.
The Industrial Revolution created a tremendous
demand for raw materials and expanded markets for the products, which prompted industrialized
European nations to seek new territories.
3.
Both
religious fervor and feelings of racial and cultural superiority inspired
Europeans to impose their cultures on distant lands. Religious and humanitarian
impulses inspired many people to travel to distant colonies. The desire to
spread Western technology, religion, customs and traditions also fueled colonial
expansion. Probably the most popular were
Catholic and Protestant missionaries who attempted to bring the Christian
message to the colonies
African Colonization
Before 1870
Europeans had little presence in Africa mainly because of their lack of
resistance to the area's tropical diseases. The Industrial Revolution gave
them two new weapons: vaccines for combating the diseases and rifles and
machine guns for combating the African natives. The publicity generated
by an expedition by the journalist Henry Stanley to find the explorer David
Livingston acted as a catalyst to seek expansion.
This started a
frantic scramble by European nations to gain a presence in Africa. In 1885, 14 nations met in Berlin and agreed
to divide Africa. By 1914 European nations
controlled 90 percent of that continent.
Effects of African Imperialism
The impact on
colonies was generally negative. The colonial boundaries drawn by the European
nations at Berlin often cut across old tribal boundaries or combined peoples of
different and hostile tribes. This mess is still being sorted out today,
a continuing legacy of European rule.
The colonial peoples
were subjected to humiliation and suffering. While Europeans did work to
abolish slavery, they still killed thousands through forced labor in order to
complete their building projects and bring the "benefits" of European
civilization to Africa.
The colonies
suffered the negative effects of imposing European culture upon native peoples
because it was supposedly superior. For example, Europeans imposed their
agricultural techniques on Africans and, in the process, ruined the soil.
In the end, this cultural policy backfired against Europeans. Many
colonial subjects went to Europe to get college educations and brought back the
dangerous ideas of liberalism, nationalism, and Marxism. That, combined
with the fact that many colonials served in European armies and had picked up
on European firearms technology, helped lead to the ultimate downfall of the
European colonial empires.
The multinational European
companies gained substantial economic power during the period.
American Imperialism
The primary source
of American imperialism was the concept of Manifest Destiny, a belief widely
held by Americans in the 19th century that the United States was destined
to expand across the continent. It was used repeatedly to justify their imperialistic
acts.
Seeing the rapid global
expansion of European nations, America desired to gain a presence in other lands
and also prevent European countries from encroaching on their borders. Protecting their local interests and
attempting to help Cuba from Spanish oppression, America entered into a war
with Spain which they very quickly won. As a result of this war the United States
gained the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico. Although independent, Cuba was under
American protection.
To further their imperial
ambitions United States made many other significant territorial gains. They purchased
Alaska from Russia and annexed Hawaii after American entrepreneurs had
overthrown the Hawaiian queen. In 1917 the United States purchased the Virgin
Islands (St. Thomas, St. John, and St. Croix) from Denmark.
In 1845 Texas joined
the American republic as a state. With their
eyes on the great expanse of land in the West and under the theory of Manifest
Destiny, they soon invaded Mexico and quickly won the war. With this action the US almost doubled in
size.
East Asia – Japanese Imperialism
A few years after
the arrival of Commodore Perry, Japanese leaders made Japan into a great power
capable of competing with Western nations. They strengthened the military, and worked
to transform the nation into an industrial society. Their ever expanding industries
needed more natural resources and the government felt they needed a buffer zone
from the giant to the West – China. To
accomplish this they began to establish their own overseas empire. The first nation
to fall to them was Korea. They continued to expand for the next few decades.
By the end of the
1800s, a handful of European countries, together with the United States, controlled
nearly the entire world thus giving this age the appropriate name as the Age of
Imperialism.
