The domination by one country of the political, economic or cultural life of another

 Due to the Industrial Revolution:  Need for natural resources/raw materials  Need for markets for products  Opportunities for capital investment

 Economic interests eventually precipitated political- military action to protect them.  For example, Britain establishes protectorate in Egypt to protect trade route to India.  Dutch-Capetown

 Nationalism sparks interest in establishing an empire for prestige & influence.  Imperialism fostered competition and rivalries.  Appease domestic desire for expansion

 “White Man’s Burden” syndrome. Idea that Europeans had a duty to spread Western culture.  Missionaries were zealous although often prejudice about those they sought to convert

 “Take 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 fold and wild---  Your new-caught sullen peoples  Half-devil and half-child  Rudyard Kipling

 Many justified imperialism by applying Darwin’s ideas about natural selection & survival of the fittest to human societies  Idea that Europeans were superior race and imperial conquest & even destruction of weaker races was nature’s way of improving the human species

 Imperialism found support among all classes of people from bankers to workers  WHY? Because all of them benefitted from imp  Soldiers, settlers, merchants, missionaries and explorers were all involved.

 Argued imperialism was tool of the rich  It was exploitive & immoral  Hypocritical for Western democratic nations.

 Began when King Leopold II of Belgium hired Stanley to explore Congo Basin and arrange trade treaties.  Publicly Leopold justified the mission claiming that Stanley would be “carry the light” to those “plunged in barbarism”  This set off a scramble by other nations

 International Conference to establish rules for colonizing Africa & avoid bloodshed among Europeans.  Agreed that no country could claim any part of Africa unless it had set up a gov office there.  This alone, prompted govs to send officials to exert power over local rulers  No Africans were invited

 Europeans drew arbitrary borders with little to no understanding of the peoples they were subjugating or dividing.  After 20 years of carving up Europe only Ethiopia and Liberia remained independent.

 Africa was known as “dark continent” because so little was known about it  Difficult to penetrate due to malaria and sleeping sickness from the tsetsi fly  Medical breakthroughs & steamships, however, allowed Europeans to explore  Europeans were able to exploit rivalries among different African tribes

 Strong economies, stable governments and powerful armies & navies, public opinion approval  Medical breakthroughs - quinine  Superior technology  Maxim machine gun, repeating rifles, steam driven warships were very convincing.

 Colony – outright complete control - France  Protectorate – Territory has its own government but it’s under the control of an outside power - Britain  Sphere of Influence – outside power claims exclusive trading & investment privileges  Economic Imperialism – when private business interests control a less developed country.

 Protectorates left local rulers in place even though they were expected to follow the advice of the European power.  Advantage of this type of control was that it cost less and did not require huge military or naval commitment.  Future leaders sent to mother country for education. Came back & became nationalists

 Area which one power claimed exclusive investment or trading privileges  This happened particularly in China among European powers.  Which area has the US claimed as its exclusive sphere of influence?  Latin America

 From the early 1800s US and Europe outlawed the slave trade  Britain & US promoted idea of returning freed slaves to Africa  Britain set up Sierra Leone 1787  US set up Liberia 1847 Arabs and Africans continued to sell slaves to Asia & the Middle East

 Missionaries followed explorers  Were paternalistic  Urged Africans to reject their own traditions in favor of Western ideas  Dr. Livingstone – explorer/missionary who had more sympathy & less bias  Missionaries wanted Africans to end slave trade

 Britain took over the Cape Colony (South Africa) from the Dutch in 1815  The Boers (Dutch farmers) resented British rule and moved North and founded new republics  In the late 1800s the discovery of gold and diamonds in the Boer republics led to war from  The British won.

 In 1910 Britain united the Cape Colony and the Boer republics into the Union of South Africa.  The constitution set up a gov run by whites and created a system of complete segregation (apartheid) that would remain in force until 1993.

 Colony:  A country or territory governed internally by a foreign power Protectorate A country or territory with its own internal gov but under the control of an outside power  Sphere of Influence :  An area I nwhich an outside power claims exclusive investment or trading privileges  Economic Imperialism  An independent but less developed country controlled by private business interests rather than other govs

 Colony:  Protectorate  Sphere of Influence  Economic Imperialism  Direct Control  Indirect Control

DIRECT CONTROLINDIRECT CONTROL  Foreign officials brought in to rule  No self-rule  Goal: Assimilation  Gov institutions are based on the European models  Paternalism  Local officials govern  Limited self-rule  Goal: Develop future leaders  Gov institutions are based on European model but may have local rules

 Ethiopia was only country to successfully resist colonization  Menelik II had modernized his country with European assistance.  When Italy attacked he was ready.  Ethiopia and Liberia were only two countries to preserve their independence

 By 1900s however, African leaders became nationalist movements to pursue their self- determination and independence