3. Imperialism

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3.1. The causes

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There were also other reasons for the development of imperialism.

• For European countries, colonies were a symbol of international prestige; it was also important to control strategic locations to gain greater security and mobility in the case of armed conflict.
• The growth of the population in Europe and the use of machinery in factories caused high levels of unemployment and many people emigrated to the colonies to look for work. To avoid possible social conflict, some governments encouraged emigration to the colonies.
• Scientific progress required geographic expeditions to unknown areas of the world such as the African continent, or expeditions to discover new plants, animals and minerals.
• At this time, people believed in the supremacy of white people and that it was their duty to bring European culture and Christian values to indigenous societies that were considered to be less civilised.

3.2. The colonial empires

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The European powers, the United States and Japan colonised most of Africa, Asia and Oceania. However, the largest colonial empires belonged to France and Great Britain, who competed with each other to gain control of colonies in Africa and Asia.

The other industrialised countries began building their colonial empires between 1870 and 1914.

 

Cartoon of Cecil Rhodes, a British businessman and politician who built a railway line from Cairo in Egypt to the Cape in South Africa, to ensure British domination of Africa

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THE COLONIAL EMPIRES IN 1914​ The British Empire had begun to establish colonies centuries before, when Britain gained control of strategic locations such as Gibraltar, Malta, Ceylon and the Maldives. During the 20th century, Britain's maritime hegemony allowed it to extend its area of influence to areas of America, Asia, Africa and Oceania. Its most important possessions were in India and Australia. In 1877, Queen Victoria of England was crowned Empress of India. From this point on, Britain's colonial expansion accelerated. This was particularly true in Africa, where the British Empire occupied almost all of East Africa from the north to the south.   The French Empire was not as extensive as the British Empire. It included large areas in north-west Africa and the island of Madagascar; South-East Asia; and in America, French New Guinea and some islands in the Caribbean that it had possessed centuries before.   As well as Great Britain and France, other countries also had colonies in Africa. - Portugal colonised Angola and Mozambique. - Belgium colonised the Congo. - Germany colonised South-West Africa (Namibia), Togo, Cameroon and Tanzania. - Spain colonised the north of Morocco, part of the Sahara (Rio de Oro) and Equatorial Guinea. The United States extended its influence in Latin America, for example, in Panama, Cuba and Puerto Rico, and didn't allow the European countries to colonise there. In the Pacific, the United States annexed the islands of Hawaii and the Philippines.   Japan focused its attention on Korea and Manchuria. It fought against Russia for control of Manchuria in the Russo-Japanese war of 1904–1905.   Russia, after it was defeated by the Japanese, abandoned Manchuria and concentrated on Siberia and Central Asia.

3.3. The occupation and administration of the colonies

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There were three stages in the colonisation of an area.

• Occupation by conquest: the colonising power used its military advantage over the peoples or countries it wanted to conquer.
• Political and administrative control: this was executed by a small group of Europeans: the governor and high-level civil servants organised the administration and military commanders were in charge of maintaining order by controlling indigenous rebellions.
• Organisation of the colonial economy: this involved the exploitation of the natural resources and the indigenous population of the colony in order to supply the colonising power with raw materials and sources of energy. The colony then bought the products manufactured in the colonising country.

Each colony had a specific value for the colonising country.

• Exploitation colonies had economic value. The indigenous population were governed by a white minority originating from the colonising country, who exploited the area economically. For example, India was an exploitation colony of Great Britain.
• Settler colonies had a socio-economic value. The majority of the population of these colonies were emigrants from the colonising country. These colonies were considered overseas provinces and enjoyed a certain governmental autonomy. Examples are Canada, Australia and New Zealand, which were all under British control.
• Protectorates were areas of strategic interest. The indigenous population maintained its own government and administration, but under the supervision of the colonising power, who controlled foreign policy and the defence of the area. For example, Morocco was a protectorate of France and Spain, and Egypt was a protectorate of Great Britain.

Important

The Franco-Spanish protectorate in Morocco

At the start of the 20th century, Morocco was practically the only African territory that had not been colonised by European powers [...] For Spain, the main concern was to avoid being displaced from the area.

On the 27 July, 1900, a treaty with France was signed in which Spain was assigned territories in the Gulf of Guinea (Equatorial Guinea) and in Río de Oro on the Saharan coast.

In 1902, Spain and France signed a possible division of Morocco, and in 1912, the Protectorate was established.

Magazine of Military History:Centenary of the Morocco Protectorate,Ed. Ministry of Defence (Translated)

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EXPLORERS OF NEW TERRITORIES​ Explorers and missionaries were the first to enter the new territories. The most famous explorers of the era were the British explorer Henry Morton Stanley, the German explorer Karl Peters and the French explorer Pierre de Brazza. They were sent by their governments and helped establish their country's influence in the areas they explored. Their methods sometimes included domination and the indigenous population felt threatened in their own lands because of the Europeans' superior weapons. Henry Morton Stanley describes his meeting with a Sub-Saharan African tribe A large canoe approached my boat, as if planning to board it. About 50 metres away, it veered and, when it was almost in front of us, the warriors on the prow gave a shout and threw their lances. The noise was swallowed up by the sound of our guns firing. Our blood was boiling in our veins. This is an unforgiving world, and for the first time we felt hate. This is why we raised our anchor and chased after the cannibals. P. Herrmann, The Audacity and Heroism of Modern Discoveries, Labor (Adapted and translated)   The story of the meeting of Henry Morton Stanley told by the indigenous chief Mojimba to a missionary When we found out that a white-skinned man was coming down the Luaba, we were shocked. [...] ‘We will throw him a party; I ordered. ‘We will solemnly greet our brother and we will accompany him to the village'. We decorated ourselves and then met in large canoes. We set off [...] but as we approached the boat, we heard: Bang! Bang! And the fire sticks threw iron at us. We were rigid with fear. This was not a brother, but the worst enemy our people had ever faced. P. Herrmann, The Audacity and Heroism of Modern Discoveries, Labor (Adapted and translated) Female explorers Delia Akeley was born in 1876 in Wisconsin, USA. In 1905, she accompanied her husband, Carl Akeley, a taxidermist and photographer, on an elephant hunting mission in Africa organized by the Museum of Natural Art in New York. In 1924, after her divorce, she set off alone on an expedition across Africa from the east coast to the Atlantic Ocean, in exactly the opposite direction to David Livingstone in 1854. Financed by the Brooklyn Museum of Art and Science, she crossed the Belgian Congo, met the Mbuti tribe of pygmies in the Ituri jungle and crossed the Zambeze River without the help of guides or safari professionals. She was convinced that ‘a woman, alone and unarmed, could befriend African women and get valuable authentic information about their tribal customs.' When she returned to New York, she published her work and photographs of the pygmies. A. Lucas, Pioneers, El Mundo (Translated)

3.4. The consequences of imperialism

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Political

• The colonies, because of their strategic and economic value, became the scene of political rivalry between the colonising powers for dominion of territories, sometimes leading to war. The climate of tension and competition that developed in colonial areas between 1870 and 1914 was one of the causes of the First World War.

Economic

• The colonists displaced the indigenous tribes from their land to establish their single crop plantations, such as tea, coffee and cocoa and used the indigenous people as labourers, often with very poor conditions. They also acquired rights to extract mineral resources. The result was the imposition of a single crop and extraction economy, which left the indigenous people without their traditional resources and means of survival.
• Indigenous artisan crafts could not compete with the colonists' manufactured products, and gradually disappeared. The colonising country dominated the colonial market.
• Infrastructure such as ports and railways focused on importing and exporting products.
• The world economy was organised unequally because the exploitation of valuable resources (raw materials and sources of energy) and the organisation of trade were controlled by the colonising countries. This led to the economic dependence of the colonies on their colonising country. This was the origin of the huge differences we can see today between developed and developing countries.

Demographic

• The pressure of population growth in colonising countries, especially in European countries, was lessened by the emigration of inhabitants to the colonies.
• The population in the colonies increased because of the decrease in mortality rates due to improvements in hygiene and health (vaccinations) introduced by the colonising countries. The birth rate remained constant though, which led to rapid population growth. Resources were insufficient to maintain the population, causing starvation and poverty.

   

Social and cultural

• The colonising countries imposed Western culture and the indigenous people and their culture were relegated to a second-class status.
• Social and racial segregation developed because the colonists considered themselves superior to the indigenous people. This racial segregation continued until recently in many colonies.

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COLONIAL TENSION AND CONFLICTS​ ANTI-COLONIAL PROTESTS In the colonies and colonising countries, protest movements arose against colonialism. In some colonies, the indigenous people revolted against European exploitation and the disregard for their traditional cultural values, although these uprisings all failed. The biggest revolts were the Zulu Wars against the British in South Africa and the Boxer Rebellion in China. In colonising countries, socialist parties protested against what they considered unjustified abuse. Other voices of protest were the missionaries, such as the British missionary David Livingstone, who fought against slavery in Africa. INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT Conflicts over the colonial possessions between the colonising powers became more frequent. At the Berlin Conference (1884–1885), the European countries interested in controlling the Congo agreed to delegate control of the region to the King of Belgium, Leopold I, and imposed a procedure for European countries that wanted to acquire African territory: in order to claim a territory, they first had to militarily occupy the area. This decision accelerated the process of the division of the African continent because the main European powers raced to be the first to arrive in the areas they wanted to occupy. The Fashoda Incident (Sudan,1898) between the British and the French, who both wanted to occupy the area, ended with a British victory. The Boer War (1899–1902): the British wanted to gain control of the area of the Cape, in South Africa, because it was rich in gold and diamonds. They declared war and defeated the Boers, colonists from the United Provinces (the Netherlands), who had been settled in the area since the 17th century.   THE BOXER REBELLION During the first half of the 19th century, the Europeans, after winning the Opium Wars, signed various treaties with China, which favoured their presence in the Manchu Empire. Great Britain gained control of Hong Kong; Shanghai and Canton became European colonies, which were not subject to Chinese laws; Christian missionaries had the right to preach; and there was only 5% tax on foreign products. In June 1900, the Empress CiXi declared war on all the foreign powers that interfered in the political and economic life in China. The Boxers (a Chinese secret society that wanted to expel the foreigners) started an uprising in which 300 foreigners were killed and they besieged the European embassies in Peking for two months. The European powers (Russia, Germany, Great Britain, Austria-Hungary and Italy), as well as Japan and the United States sent an international army to Peking. It arrived in August 1901 and defeated the Boxers easily. The Chinese government was forced to pay 330 million dollars in compensation, and foreign troops were posted in the region permanently to protect their ambassadors.