The Modern World, Part One: Global History from 1760 to 1910 -- Week 6 class notes

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Video 1: The Age of Imperialism

In the 1860s-70s, there is a movement away from global imperial expansion. But in the late 1870s into the turn of the 19th century, there is imperial growth again. History is not linear! Why this ebb and rise?

Gladstone in England thought that imperialism clashed with liberal ideals. During this period, Australian, Canada, and eventually South Africa and New Zealand are increasingly given independence. They only remain strong in India.

France had significant holdings like in Vietnam. In the beginning of the 1870s France has suffered significant defeats in Mexico, and turmoil at home.

In Germany, Bismarck tries to maintain balance at home rather than expanding outwards.

So why does a big wave of imperialism begin in the 1870s?

  • More military power -- a "second" military evolution
    • Better rifles
    • Artillery
    • Chemical explosives
    • Steam-powered iron warships -- Navalism
    • Machine guns
    • Advances in communication: telegraphs rather than messengers
    • The gap between advanced militaries and traditional militaries becomes huge
  • Identity, power, "survival"
    • Nations "need" to conquer domains for raw materials because they "need" to prove superiority to other nations
  • Fear and markets
    • Everyone's trying to survive and prove they're the fittest
    • Protectionism (heavily regulating imports)
  • Moral obligation
    • British Christians aimed to prevent the burning alive of women together with their husbands
    • The British missionary David Livingston aimed to end slavery in Zanzibar
  • Mass culture, adventure, and manliness
    • Conquering is sexy and manly. Peeps want to be sexy and manly
    • Fiction like King Solon's Mines promoting manliness and adventure.

Video 2: Tipping Points

Problems people had and how they solved them --> imperialism

The British Occupation of Egypt

In the 1870s, Egypt (under Ottoman Rule) is progressing nicely with the Suez canal, but the Ottoman Empire is behind the rest of Europe in terms of progress. The OE borrows money from Europe to grow their armies and they're having trouble paying it back. In addition, they have an expensive war with Russia. Egypt specifically is struggling because after the American Civil war international demand for cotton decreased and they are having trouble paying their debts too. International debtors (British and French) decided to control the Egyptian treasury to make sure they get paid. The Egyptians push back against the Ottoman Empire (and I guess against European influences) and put Colonel Arabi in charge. There's a revolution and European colonialists get slaughtered. Gladstone, the liberal Prime Minister is in a pickle.
  • Considerations against seizing control of Egypt
    • Liberalism
  • Considerations for seizing control of Egypt
    • Suez canal
They end up occupying Egypt "temporarily" because they don't want to risk losing access to Suez.

The Egyptians have been fighting with the Sudanese, so the Brits end up occupying this cause, too. Part of the reason is that there's slavery there. General Gordon, a devout Christian, leads the Egyptian army against Sudan and is killed along with his army. They end up controlling Sudan too because they're already involved. Europe is incited! The French follow suit with this imperialism and take control of Algeria and Tunisia.


A Conference in Africa 1884-5

David Livington the Scottish missionary is exploring Africa. He meets Stanley and Livingston, other Westerners. They convene the Berlin humanitarian conference to discuss the situation in which the natives are less powerful and the foreign Westerners have more power. They have more choices:
  • Destroy the natives -- Nope, not humanitarian
  • Protect the natives -- Yes, let's do this
  • Treat the natives as subjects or slaves -- Nope, not humanitarian.
  • Assimilate them as equals -- Nope, not a good fit
How do they protect them? They decide to create a sanctuary for the locals in the Congo "Free" State. The Belgian King Leopold is tasked with this. His father was a humanitarian but he isn't. He ends up plundering the natives and enslaving them, making them provide raw materials for him under threat of great violence -- and violence there was. Joseph Conrad's The Heart of Darkness reflects this moral deterioration.

By 1900, Germany, Britain, France, Italy have established claims in Africa. France have expanded out of Algeria into Tunisia, Morocco, and further into West Africa. Ethiopia and Liberia are the only independent states left in 1912. 

Video 3: Varieties of Imperialism

Empires aren't new but an age-old way to attain more resources and wealth. This round of imperialism is characterized by: 
  • It is enacted in the name of nationalism and racism
  • Plunder and massacre of locals (by Germany for instance)
  • Settler colonialism -- Europeans coming to the colonies to settle



Varieties of imperialism
  • "Imperialism of free trade"
    • Defined by historians Robinson and Gallagher, who focused on the British
    • There is no master design for empires
    • No necessity for formal control
    • Governments are looking to establish free trade
    • The result is haphazard control of the colonies by the West, with problems being solved as they arise
  • Liberal imperialism (late 1800s -- early 1900s)
    • Not a contradiction then!
    • The Americans become involved. Mostly, they don't seek to control but to do good.
    • CARTOON
    • Rudyard Kipling, for instance, writes invocations for people to "save the natives" of various non-Western locales. It is sincerely well-meaning and racially patronizing. This is "The White Man's Burden"
    • Anti-imperialists
      • Some were racist because they didn't want whites to "assume this burden" and help non-whites
      • Socialists: Imperialism is a mask for greedy capitalism
        • Europeans lead the Second International, which is the contemporary international socialist movement
    • Instilling a legal system in the colonies
    • Instilling order in the colonies
    • Old American movie: The Real Glory
  • Imperial Partnerships
    • In the traditional world there's the ruling elite, the subjects, and an intermediary group that arises like nobles, scholar-gentry, learned imams (depending on the locale). 
    • British example of imperial partnerships: a very small number of British officials ruling a large number of Indians. 1:50,000 Brits to Indians. Also some military people to keep the peace. Also a colonial elite made up of locals. In India these are the local feudal princes. So there's a British elite and a colonial (local) elite who are partners in running the country.
    • In cases where the local partners are white the British end up giving power to them (in countries like Canada and Australia which became autonomous.
    • Where the local partners are non-white like in India, the Brits never relinquish power
    • India, 1877:
      • Queen Victoria is queen empress and Earl Lytton is the viceroy ruler of India. 
      • In South India there are horrors due to:
        • Bad crop yield
        • Large portion of crop yield is allocated to export instead of to India, resulting in famine
        • The British government is doctrianarian = dogmatic = rigid. They believe in not interfering with local rule but duh these are extenuating circumstances.
        • The Brits distribute some rations but not enough and millions of Indians die.
        • The Brits are at fault, as are the local Indian partners who are complicit in turning a blind eye

Video 4: China in the Balance

Just like Africa was carved up by Westerners in the 1880s and 1890s, China is carved up around 1900.

In Week 5, Video 2,  we discussed the state of Japan and China in the 1870s.

In the 1890s, the two countries go to war. It ends in 1895. The Japanese have won thanks to their adoption of modern war technologies. A Chinese emperor tries to reform the Chinese to keep up with the times, but the Dowager Empress nips these attempts in the bud and he and his advisors must flee to Japan.

After the defeat of the Chinese, Japan seizes control over areas of China including Taiwan. European powers follow suit, with the British, French, Germans, and Dutch controlling parts of Southeast Asia. Siam retains precarious independence.

Around the same time, the Spanish-American war was fought and they won a battle in Manila bay. They didn't want to give Manila back to the Spanish, and they didn't think the Filipinos would be able to keep it from the Europeans or govern it themselves. The Americans ended up keeping it, a very controversial decision.

The eastern part of China is the wealth-producing part. Manchuria has a lot of coal which was important at that time. There is a lot of fighting between Japan and European powers over control of key ports like Port Arthur (Liaodong Peninsula). The German bite pieces off that area, as well as the British. In the second half of the 1800s the Russians jump in too so they can have access to mineral deposits as well as hold in the Pacific world. They really want Port Arthur and other Eastern ports that are less icy and dangerous in the winter. Of course they are contending with Japan over this area and the European powers.

Even in 1899, China is the most populous country on Earth.

What do the Chinese think about all these occupations?
  • Let's build our strength -- not so possible now; they're weak
  • Let's pitch all the foreigners against each other
What did the Chinese think about this?
  • The Manchu empire led by the Dowager Empress. Aided by her advisors. Rumors have it that he colluded with foreign enemies.
  • Other nobles -- Yangtze viceroys who rules the Yangtze valley and formed partnerships with foreign powers + military chieftains
  • Chinese reformers and revolutionaries like Sun Yat-sen who wanted a republic
What did foreigners think about this?
  • The Russians want careful, deliberate expansion. To this end, they's want to 
    • Partner with key Chinese people
    • Control of infrastructure
    • Control of finances via loans that are hard to pay back
  • The British want the Passive Open Door policy
    • Everyone should be allowed to trade
    • Protect their traders
    • They want to not necessarily control China but make sure they're not disadvantaged
    • Lord Salisbury gave a great speech about dying nations and new nations
  • The US wanted the Active Open Door Policy
    • Commercial access
    • Security and protection for their traders
    • But as opposed to the Brits they want to actively oppose active imperial attempts
    • Because they have no chance at a piece of China
  • Germany and France are into active partition
    • Divide China between nations
    • Have people in China in order to have a claim
The German Kaiser thought the Europeans had a moral obligation to advance civilization in China.

The Boxer Crisis

Lots of poor Chinese people organized themselves into military groups to rebel against the foreigners in China in a popular uprising. There's lots of hunger and people are upset with foreigners who are promising protections to Christian converts there. So they burn a church for instance. Lots of foreigners die.

The Chinese are divided in their views on this. The Qing Empire is afraid this will turn into another Taiping rebellion so they are careful and neutral. The Yangtze viceroys on the other hand are partnering with the British.  But finally the Empire decides to align itself with the peasants and declare war on all foreigners. So the Empire troops work together with the peasants and besiege the foreign holdings in Peking (Beijing), where all the Europeans are grouped together for nearly 8 weeks. A relief expedition is mounted to save the besieged foreigners, with different countries taking credit for saving the day. Crappy but interesting film: 55 Days in Peking. During the siege the Yangtze viceroys collaborate with Brits and Americans to help the besieged.

Negotiations ensue. John Hay the American opposes the dividing up of China. The foreigners consider getting China to pay reparations. The Russians are getting ready to jump in and take China. The Americans withdraw: American president McKinley is trying to get reelected and overseas expansion is unpopular so they pull out of China. The Brits and the Germans try to cut a deal and that fails. The Russians get closer to expanding into China. The Japanese reach out for other allies and they ally themselves with the British to hold back the Russians. A Japanese-Russian war ensues over the Peninsula and Port Arthur in 1904-5 which the Japanese mostly win. 

The outcome: China manages to get through this without being carved up. How did they manage it?
  • Some "constructive" voices among the Chinese
  • Confusion and division between foreign powers
  • Rivalry among foreigners
  • The Brits and Japanese help preserve the Qing Empire just so the Russians don't control it
  • The Brits are embroiled in another war in South Africa so they can't give their full attention to the China situation
Next time: the imperial fever starts to break.

Video 5: The Wave Breaks

In the early 1900s imperialism begins to slow because:
  • Independent nations were beginning to acquire advanced technologies
    • Ethiopians have modern weapons that they use against the Italians
    • In South Africa there are Brits and Afrikaners, who are originally Dutch but consider themselves natives. The two sides fight and it's bloody; the Brits win but are like what is all this for.
    • The Filipinos fight against the Americans, with the Americans committing atrocities and the American public isn't happy. Eventually in the 1930s-40s the Filipinos gradually get their freedom.
    • The Americans give up the chance to grab the Dominican Republic in the Carribean.
    • With literacy continuing to grow, tons of people are reading newspapers. Also Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad continues to grab attention, as well as Mark Twain's writings including King Leopold's Soliloquy which is a parody about imperialism.
Anti-imperialist sentiments are gaining momentum. With whites having gained independence in Canada and Australia, liberalists are finding it harder and harder to argue that imperialism is a good cause and locals shouldn't be allowed to self-rule. Indians are demanding similar rights. Some of the opinions include:
  • Wanting to destroy all of British India and go back to having a Hindu or Muslim state (and similar opinions for other nations)
  • Create an Indian nation-state rather than a religious state, and run it themselves (an idea put forth in the Indian National Congress) like Australia and Canada do. Similar opinions are held by people in China about the Qing Empire: it should be replaced by a Chinese repulic.
  • A more radical critique that views global imperialism as a systemic problem. The Filipino Jose Rizal spoke out worldwide against global imperialism, including the Spanish rule in the Philippines. He wasn't violent but executed by the Spanish. Another example is JA Hobson, who argues that imperialism is a product of the capitalist world system. Capitalism is pushing governments to acquire the things they need via imperialism. Socialists find this argument compelling, and Lenin, a Russian revolutionary, will build the Communist movement on top of this argument.
  • Pan-responses: A countermovement against Imperialism. For instance in Asia, Japanese are divided regarding attitudes to the goings-on in China. Some are very sympathetic and want to create a Pan-Asian alliance to stand strong against European powers. (Similar sentiments are felt around the world regarding Pan-Islam and Pan-Slavic empires). This is essentially responding to imperialism with imperialism. The Japanese want to lead such an alliance (an ambition that was perceived by some as self-aggrandizing). The Japanese slowly expand their empire. They annex Taiwan in 1895 and Korea in 1910. Meantime, China weakens, with its resources increasingly exploited by foreign forces.

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