The Age of High Imperialism

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Read Hall, Carlyle (skim), and Kipling for sections tomorrow. Do not wait until the last minute to read Hall (it's long). You can earn a 2.5 (at least!) for discussion if you submit a discussion question to your TA by email today or tonight. Make sure you bring the readings (or at the very least your notes on the readings) to sections tomorrow.

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The White Man's Burden

age of high imperialism: 1870s-1910s

1880-1900: 95 territories formally added to the British Empire; 1/4 of the world's people and territory by 1900

 

I. Motivations

A) economic

shift in Britain's economic position

1870-1913 Germany's share of the world's industrial output rose from 13 to 16% and the United States' from 23 to 36%, while Britain's decline from 32 to 14%

B) geopolitical

Russian expansion into Ottoman territory, central Asia, and the Sea of Japan

Germany and Italy

Anglo-French rivalry

newcomers: the United States and Japan

C) ideological

Christianity, Commerce, Civilization

David Livingstone (1813-1873)

livingstone

 

 

II. Manifestations

A) European imperialism in Africa

the British: west coast trading stations + Cape Colony > Egypt, southern Africa (Cecil Rhodes [bio at PBS.org]; British South Africa Company, Anglo-Boer War [timeline]), west Africa, eastern Africa

rhodes

 

the French: Algeria > Tunisia, Morocco, equatorial Africa, west Africa

Anglo-French conflict over the Sudan

Khartoum (1966) [clip 1] [clip 2]

the "scramble for Africa"

Berlin Conference (1884-1885): Germany, Portugal, Great Britain, France, Belgium, Spain, Italy, USA, and the Ottoman Empire

scramble

 

B) shifting attitudes and ideas

racism [see Pagden, 141-148]

monogenesis/ perfectability of man (abolitionism, trusteeship)

social Darwinism (Arthur Gobineau)/ polygenesis

> Catherine Hall, "Imperial Man"

 

jingoism

We don't want to fight but by jingo if we do
We've got ships, we've got the men
We've got the money too
We've fought the bear before, and while Britons true
The Russians shall not have Constantinople

colonial exhibitions [timeline]

Queen Victoria

Victoria declared Empress of India (1876) [link]: Her Majesty, the Queen; Princess of Hanover and Duchess of Brunswick and Lunenburg; Princess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and Duchess in Saxony; Her Imperial Majesty, The Queen-Empress

Simon Schama, History of Britain, Disraeli and Gladstone [see also Mutiny]

Victoria's Diamond Jubilee (1897)

Kipling, Recessional