http://www.ahs.cqu.edu.au/humanities/history/52148/modules/imperial_colonialA.html

Central Queensland University : School of Humanities : History : Study Schedule

New Imperialism

USA - Japan - Germany - Britain and its colonies - French Imperialism

Most historians agree that imperialism entered a new phase in the 1870s, a phase which lasted until the start of World War I (1914), and that this new imperialism was different in a number of ways from the old. For one thing it was criticised from the beginning. In the late 19th century there were critics, especially in Britain and France, who consistently argued that imperialism was morally wrong. This had not happened in previous centuries. Because of this, imperialism became a party political issue in the newly democratic western Europe, and in particular there was a persistent anti—imperialist strain, though perhaps never dominant, among the emerging liberal and social democratic parties. (1)

New imperialism also happened very quickly, largely because of the capability afforded by new technologies—steam boats (1830s), machine guns of various sorts (1883), railways, the telegraph (1837), and advances in medicine which allowed Europeans to survive the tropics. New Imperialism was fast, it was technically sophisticated, and it was unrestricted by winds and other natural forces.

USA

Another important thing about new imperialism, especially in the Asia Pacific, was that it involved three new players. The USA had been anti—imperialist, at least according to its own foreign policy rhetoric, until the end of the 19th century. Then it purchased Alaska from Russia (1867), went to war (1898) to ‘free’ Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines from the Spanish, annexed Hawaii (1898) and Samoa (1899) in the Pacific, and imposed an open door policy on Japan (1854) and China (1901). We should keep in mind, however, that there had been a kind of imperialism going on in the USA for a long time, as Europeans moved west, south, and north, to take that vast continent from its original owners, Texas from the Mexicans (1836, 1848), and most of the Oregon Country from the British (1846). Also, in 1823 President James Monroe warned European powers that they should stay out of south and central America, and those regions came heavily under the influence of the USA. (2) Thus, it appears that the spirit of imperialism had been alive and well in the USA for at least a half a century before the Spanish American War (1898).

Japan

Another new player was Japan. In 1875 it negotiated with Russia to take control of the islands to its north. A year later it took control of the Ryukyu Islands to its south and Bonin Island in the east. Then in
1894-95 it went to war with China and won Formosa, present day Taiwan. It established protectorates over Korea and southern Manchuria after defeating Russia in the 1904-1905 Russo—Japanese War. For the first time in modern history an Asian nation had defeated a European nation in a war, and there was an Asian imperialist power in the Asia Pacific. (3)

Germany

The third player was Germany. Germany was a late starter in the race for empire because it only became a unified nation in 1871, but by the early 1880s it had adopted a policy of allowing the ‘flag to follow trade’ which resulted in German colonies being established in Africa (Cameroon 1884, South West Africa 1884, East Africa 1885) and the Pacific (German New Guinea 1884, the Marshall Islands 1884, the Bismarck Archipelago and Samoa 1899). (4) Germany’s interest in overseas colonies was always less significant to it than its desire to enlarge its territory in Europe, but towards the end of the 19th century even Bismarck, who was sceptical about the use of colonies, conceded that they were necessary if a nation was to be regarded as a world power.

Britain and its colonies

Although Britain’s enthusiasm for colonies waned in the latter part of the 18th century, it was still actively imperialistic. Now most of its new acquisitions were strategic, designed to protect trade. It established Singapore in the Straits of Malacca in 1819. The Falkland Islands, which controlled the eastern entry to the Pacific, were annexed in 1833. Aden at the entrance to the Red Sea was annexed in 1839. Perhaps the most striking example of Britain’s economic imperialism was the Opium Wars (1839-1842, 1856-1858), a series of heavy skirmishes fought against the Chinese over trade, which resulted in the hand-over of Hong Kong (1842) to the British and the opening of a number of treaty ports on the Chinese mainland. (5)

In the Pacific the British annexed Fiji in 1874 and south eastern New Guinea in 1886. However, it did so reluctantly, under heavy pressure from the British colonists in Australia and New Zealand. In the same way it was forced to play a role in the future of the Solomons and the New Hebrides (1887) as well. There was also an enormous expansion of British territory occurring, mainly in areas contingent to old holdings. New Zealand was annexed in 1840, and more territory was being opened up in Canada every year. Western Australia began to grow in the 1880s and 1890s. The Punjab region of Pakistan was beginning to be exploited. Thus the British Empire continued to expand, especially in economic and strategic terms, but new territory was mostly acquired in regions which had been ‘staked out’ many years before.

French imperialism

The next reading is from one of the recommended texts, Robert Aldrich’s Greater France: A History of French Overseas Expansion. It allows you to track through one western nation’s history of imperialism in the Asia Pacific. The reading gives emphasis to the way in which, in the era of new imperialism, the taking of territorial possessions was driven by rivalries in Europe. A good part of the reading is devoted to the acquisition of French ‘Indo China’, France’s most important possession in the Asia Pacific. However, Aldrich’s treatment of events in Africa is a reminder that colonialism was a global phenomenon, and that the attitudes displayed by colonisers in the Asia Pacific were often shaped elsewhere, be it Algeria or India.

Reading 9-1

Aldrich 1996 "The Conquest of Empire: Asia, the Pacific and the Austral Regions" pp. 68-88

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Footnotes
Heinz Gollwitzer, Europe in the Age of Imperialism: 1880-1914, Thames & Hudson, London, 1969, pp. 117-132.
H. William Brands, The United States in the World, vol. 1, Houghton Mifflin, 1994, pp. 100-147.
Denis Warner, The Tide at Sunrise: A History of the RussoÐJapanese War, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1975.
Moses, J. & P. Kennedy (eds), Germany in the Pacific and Far East 1870-1914, UQP, St. Lucia, 1977.
E.J. Hobsbawm, The Age of Capital, Charles ScribnerÕs Sons, New York, 1975, pp. 128-131.

Central Queensland University : School of Humanities : History : Study Schedule
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