History ( WW I, Russian Revolution and the rise of fascism in Germany)
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ImperialismintheEarly20thCenturySP22.pptxI. Age of Empire
1880-1914: major outburst of European empire building
1875: 10% of Africa controlled by Europeans
1895: 90% under control
By 1914: 4/5 of globe under American or European control
Fueled by industrialization
Justified, normalized by attendant cultural values
Motives for Imperialism
Economic (industrialization): raw materials, markets, strategic positions
Nationalism
Modern, new phenomenon in late 18th, 19th century
“Imagined Community”
Language, territory, culture, history, mythology, customs
Nationalism combined with economic drives and cultural ideologies cultivated a competitive drive for command of globe
II. Social Darwinism
1859, Charles Darwin publishes, On the Origin of Species
Introduces language of “evolution”, “natural selection”, “adaptation”, “progress”
Development of social sciences in 1870s
Erroneously apply Darwin’s theories to contemporary societies in the late 19th century
Natural, scientifically demonstrable, superiority of some groups; justifies inequality at home and imperialism abroad
Herbert Spencer: “Survival of the fittest”
Inferior bound by biology, impossible to fully ameliorate
Racial Science and Eugenics
Arthur de Gobineua: father of racial science
An Essay on the Inequality of the Human Races (1855)
Distinction between “yellow”; “black” and “white”
Race formed culture; whites had superior culture
Whites had traits to govern and develop world
Blacks: weak intellect, “sensual”
Asians: cruel and deceptive
Ironically de Gobineua opposed the imperialism of his era but his theories were seized by those seeking justification
Eugenics in early 20th Century: asserted traits inherited, certain groups inferior, but also society in decline but able to be redeemed through reforms in line with eugenic “truths”
Tarzan and The Fantasies of Eugenics
III. A New Era: Decline of Spanish Empire
Despite reform efforts, Spain outpaced and in decline in industrializing 19th century
Independence movements in its few remaining colonies
Cuba and the United States in 1890s
Forces driving imperialism in U.S. in 1890s
Industrialization and Markets
Politics
Culture: Social Darwinism and Modern Media
(1898): The Spanish America War, “A Splendid Little War”
American Empire in 1900
U.S.-Philippine War
Filipinos had established government in 1897
McKinley: uplift and civilize and Christianize” the Filipinos
Atrocities committed by American troops (rapes, execution of civilians, torture of prisoners of war, burning of villages)
American troops prosecuted for “water boarding”
Concentration camps—death rates of 20%
General Jacob Smith and the Samar campaign (1901)
War officially spans January 1899 to July 4, 1902
Over 4,000 Americans dead; 16,000 Filipino soldiers dead; 500,000 to 1 million civilians dead
America and Global Ideology of Empire
War and colonization justified by idea of Filipinos as “unfit” for self-government
Role of U.S. as teacher, protector, civilizer
William Howard Taft, first Philippine commissioner in 1901, “fifty or a hundred years” to exhibit “Anglo-Saxon political principles”
Sen. Albert Beveridge argued for America’s divine sanction “the mission of our race as trustees of God is the civilization of the world”
Gods demands we “govern the savage and senile”
