British ImperialismBritish ImperialismBritish Imperialism

By: Bethany Aull

Old ImperialismOld Imperialism• Sixteenth Century

– New Trade Routes to the East– Missions– Resources, riches– Colonies

• Europe lost interest in colonization

• Britain expanded economically in the Victorian Era

Lopsided WorldLopsided World• Industrial Revolution widened the gap between

– Industrializing nations – higher standard of living

• Britain• North America

– Non-industrializing nations• Africa• Asia• Latin America

Market PowerMarket Power• By 1815, India, Canada, Australia, and

other scattered areas belonged to Britain

• Efficiency of production in Britain allowed it to sell goods easily in other countries, eliminating competition

• After the Corn Laws were repealed in 1846, Britain was like a market monopoly until 1914

Age of New Age of New ImperialismImperialism

• 1870 – 1914

• Reasons– Economic– Military/Political– Humanitarian/Religious– Technology– Social Darwinism

Economic ReasonsEconomic Reasons• Need for markets

• Raw materials

• Source of investments

Military and Political Military and Political ReasonsReasons

• Need for military bases

• National security

• Source of pride– Rise in nationalism

Humanitarian and Humanitarian and Religious GoalsReligious Goals

• White man’s burden

• Spread of Christianity

• Social Darwinism– Superiority of

Western society

Social DarwinismSocial Darwinism• Charles Darwin’s theory of “survival of the

fittest” applied to humans

• Justification for those higher on the evolutionary ladder to take over the lower

TechnologyTechnology• New medicine

• New weapons

• Transportation

The Suez CanalThe Suez Canal• Britain bought controlling interests in 1875

– Faster connection to the East, especially convenient with Britain’s India

• Protectorate over Egypt in 1882

• Other Western powers got “African fever”

• Britain took the Sudan to ensure its authority in Africa

Scramble for AfricaScramble for Africa• Africa unexplored

• Congress of Berlin 1884-85– No single European power could claim Africa– “Scramble for Africa”

• Between 1878 and 1914, continent divided – France – largest colonial empire– Britain – most populated territories

The Cape ColonyThe Cape Colony• Southern Africa

– Valuable mineral resources– Home of original Dutch settlers, the Boers

• In 1859, British sided with the Boer farmers against the native Zulus– Destroyed Zulu empire

The Boer WarThe Boer War• Cecil Rhodes prime minister in 1890

– Wanted to annex the Boer Republic

• War between British and Boers from 1899 to 1902

• Britain finally annexed the two Republics and in 1910 combined its South African colonies into the Union of South Africa

• Government run by white British and Boers

The Dark ContinentThe Dark Continent• Expanding Britain’s empire in Africa

• Khartoum massacre

• Horatio H. Kitchener– Omdurman (1898)– Winston Churchill– Fashoda Crisis

The Brightest JewelThe Brightest Jewel• Britain took control of India in 1763

• India became part of the British Empire in 1858

The Opium WarThe Opium War• Large quantities of opium sold to China

• Chinese government tried to stop the import

• War from 1839 to 1842– Treaty of Nanking – China open to European imperialism

The Open DoorThe Open Door

• Boxer Rebellion in 1899– Crushed in 1901

• United States Open Door policy

Imperialism in the Imperialism in the Middle EastMiddle East

• Britain got involved in– Island of Cyprus– Iran– Iraq– Kuwait– Qatar– Bahrain

• Pipelines in Mediterranean Sea and Persian Gulf

ConsequencesConsequences• Organization of a global economy

• Areas colonized – cultures stamped out– native industries obliterated– Exploitation of materials and labor disenabled

colonies to industrialize themselves– Conflicts within colonies

• Conflicts among imperialistic nations

The Sun Never Sets The Sun Never Sets on the on the

British EmpireBritish Empire

The EndThe EndWestern Society Western Society TextbookTextbookhttp://www.srprojects.de/Kl9c_2005/http://www.srprojects.de/Kl9c_2005/

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