What is imperialism?
Imperialism is a policy of a strong state taking control over other lands and peoples. The control can be political (ruling them), economic (owning their mines, banks and trade) or both.
- Colony: a land ruled directly by a foreign power (for example, British India after 1858).
- Protectorate: local rulers stay, but a foreign power controls defence and foreign affairs.
- Sphere of influence: an area where one power has special trade rights, while the local state still exists (parts of China around 1900).
- Concession / treaty port: a small area inside another state run by foreigners.
Old and new imperialism. From the 1500s, European states built empires across the oceans (the Americas, coastal trading forts). The period about 1870–1914 is called New Imperialism: industrial powers such as Britain, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, Russia, the USA and Japan divided most of Africa and much of Asia and the Pacific among themselves.
Causes: why did powers want colonies?
- Economic: factories needed cheap raw materials (cotton, rubber, copper, tin, oil) and new markets. Banks and companies looked for places to invest money for higher profit. This link between industrial capitalism and empire is central.
- Political and military: ports and coaling stations for navies, control of sea routes (for example the Suez Canal, opened 1869), and rivalry between powers: if we do not take it, a rival will.
- Nationalism and prestige: a big empire was seen as proof of a great nation.
- Ideas used as excuses: racist theories and 'Social Darwinism' claimed some peoples were 'superior'. Some claimed a duty to 'civilise' or convert others. Historians today see these as justifications, not real reasons.
- Technology made it possible: steamships, railways, the telegraph, quinine against malaria and machine guns gave invaders a huge advantage.
Methods: from trading posts to colonies
Control often grew in steps.
- Trade through chartered companies (for example the British and Dutch East India Companies).
- Gunboat diplomacy and unequal treaties: after a war or a threat, a state was forced to open ports, pay money, fix low import taxes and let foreigners be judged by their own courts (extraterritoriality).
- Direct rule as a colony, or indirect rule through local rulers.
East Asia: the opening of ports
- China: after the First Opium War (1839–42) the Treaty of Nanjing opened five ports and handed over Hong Kong. More wars and treaties followed, and by 1900 several powers had spheres of influence.
- Japan: in 1853–54 US warships forced Japan to open ports. Japan responded with rapid modernisation (the Meiji Restoration, 1868), and then became an imperial power itself, taking Taiwan (1895) and Korea (1910).
- Korea: forced to open ports by the Ganghwa Treaty (1876), it lost control of its foreign policy in 1905 and was annexed in 1910. Korean people resisted through armed 'righteous armies', education movements and the March First Movement (1919).
Africa
At the Berlin Conference (1884–85) European powers set rules for claiming Africa, with no African present. By 1914 almost all of Africa was under European rule; Ethiopia and Liberia stayed independent.
West Asia (the Middle East)
After World War I, lands of the Ottoman Empire were placed under British and French 'mandates'. Wartime promises to different groups often clashed, and some of today's conflicts in the region grew from these decisions.
Effects of imperialism
On the colonised
- Loss of sovereignty: people could not choose their own government or laws.
- Economic drain: land taxes, forced cash crops, low prices for raw materials, and profits sent abroad. Local crafts (like Indian hand-woven cotton) collapsed under cheap factory goods.
- Famine and forced labour in many places; in the Congo Free State, forced rubber collection caused millions of deaths.
- Borders drawn by outsiders split some peoples and joined rivals.
- Cultural change: new schools, languages and religions; racist treatment and loss of pride.
- Railways, ports and telegraphs were built, but mainly to carry raw materials and troops, not to develop the colony.
On the imperial powers and the world: cheap raw materials and markets helped their industries grow; rivalry for colonies was one cause of World War I; a world economy linked by trade was created, with a lasting gap between industrial and colonised regions.
Resistance and decolonisation
- Armed resistance: the Indian uprising of 1857, the Zulu victory at Isandlwana (1879), Ethiopia's victory at Adwa (1896), the Boxer Uprising in China (1900), the Maji Maji rising in East Africa (1905–07).
- Reform and modernisation to stay strong: Japan's Meiji reforms; reform movements in China and Korea.
- Nationalist mass movements in the 1900s: India's freedom struggle (non-cooperation, civil disobedience), Korea's March First Movement, many African and Asian movements.
- Decolonisation after World War II: the powers were weak, colonised peoples were organised, and the United Nations supported self-determination. India became independent in 1947, Indonesia in 1949, 17 African countries in 1960 ('Year of Africa'). Some countries won freedom only after long wars (Algeria 1962).
The legacy is still felt: borders, languages, economies built around exporting raw materials, and debates about returning objects taken to foreign museums.
Try it: follow one product
Pick one thing in your home: tea, sugar, rubber (a slipper or tyre), chocolate or cotton. Find out where it was grown in 1900, who worked on the farms, where it was processed, and who earned most of the money. Draw it as a loop like step 4 of the 3D: raw material → factory → product sold back. Then draw the same loop for today. What changed?
Key formulas and definitions
- Imperialism: control over other lands and peoples (political and/or economic)
- Colonialism: direct rule of a colony
- New Imperialism: c. 1870–1914 race for colonies
- Unequal treaty: forced opening of ports, low tariffs, foreign courts
- Sphere of influence: special rights for one power inside another state
- Decolonisation: colonies becoming independent (mainly 1945–1975)
Worked examples
1. Explain two economic causes of New Imperialism.
1) Industrial factories needed large, cheap supplies of raw materials such as cotton and rubber. 2) They needed new markets to sell their goods and places to invest surplus money, because home markets were full and competition was rising.
2. What made the Treaty of Nanjing (1842) an 'unequal treaty'?
It was forced on China after defeat in war. China had to open five ports, give up Hong Kong and pay money, while getting nothing equal in return. Later treaties added low fixed tariffs and foreign courts for foreigners.
3. How did Japan react differently from China to forced opening?
Japan quickly modernised under the Meiji government: new army, schools, railways and industry. It ended the unequal treaties and itself became an imperial power, taking Taiwan (1895) and Korea (1910).
4. Why did the Indian hand-weaving industry decline in the 1800s?
Raw cotton was exported cheaply, and machine-made cloth from British mills came back with low or no duties. It was cheaper than hand-woven cloth, so weavers lost their market. Colonial policy protected the mills, not the weavers.
Common mistakes
- Using imperialism and colonialism as exactly the same. Colonialism is direct rule; imperialism also includes economic control and spheres of influence.
- Believing the 'civilising mission' was the real cause. It was mainly a justification; economic and strategic interests drove expansion.
- Thinking only European countries were imperial. The USA and Japan were also imperial powers by 1900.
- Saying colonised people accepted rule quietly. Resistance happened everywhere, in many forms, from the very start.