Take up the White Man's burden—
Send forth the best ye breed—
Go bind your sons to exile
To serve your captives' need;
To wait in heavy harness
On fluttered folk and wild—
Your new-caught, sullen people
Half devil and half child."1
This poem, "The White Man's Burden," written by the British poet Rudyard Kipling, channels the ideology behind the new imperialism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. European colonizers shared practical interests such as access to resources and labor abroad. However, they also subscribed to paternalistic, hierarchic, racialized views of the non-European colonized peoples and perceived it as their duty to "civilize" them.
Fig. 1 - the five races, as seen in the German Bilder-Atlas Zum Conversations-Lexikon. Ikonographische Encyklopädie der Wissenschaften und Künste, 1851.
New Imperialism: Definition
Typically, historians define the period of new imperialism between the end of the 19th century and 1914, when the First World War began.
New imperialism involved the colonial acquisition of territories and people, primarily in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The colonial powers exploited the raw materials and labor and attempted to "civilize" the native populations. Colonial powers, primarily from Europe, competed for new markets and territorial control.
However, things were not that simple. First, countries outside Europe-proper were engaged in imperialism, including the Ottoman Empire and Japan. Second, the First World War did not stop imperialism.
Did you know?Some historians consider the First World War a global imperialist war because one of its causes was the imperialist competition between the European powers.
On the one hand, this war led to the dissolution of the Ottoman, Austro-Hungarian, and Russian Empires. On the other hand, many countries remained colonized until after the Second World War (1939-1945) and beyond.
Fig. 2 - Wells Missionary Map Co. Africa. [?, 1908] Map.
One of the essential outcomes of the First World War was U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Peace Points which professed national self-determination. Another important aspect was the founding of the international peace organization, the League of Nations—the precedent of the United Nations. However, self-determination was not applied equally.
For example, countries like Czechoslovakia arose from the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Europe. In contrast, the collapse of the Ottoman Empire did not necessarily lead to independence in the lands it occupied in the Middle East. Saudi Arabia and Iraq became independent states, but Lebanon, Syria, and Palestine did not. The League of Nations granted mandates to France and Britain to rule over them. In practice, these countries went from one imperial power to another.
Old Imperialism vs. New Imperialism
There are similarities and differences between old and new imperialism. Old imperialism is typically dated to the late 15th and 18th centuries, whereas new imperialism reached its height from 1870 to 1914. Both old and new imperialism focused on extracting resources, commercial ventures, territorial acquisition or control, cheap or slave labor, colonial competition, and cultural domination of the native population through missionary work, administration, and education. Both forms of imperialism also featured a scientific component focused on exploring, documenting, and systematizing geography, animals, and people in faraway lands. However, old imperialism emphasized colonizing and settling new territories with Europeans, whereas the new counterpart focused on cheap resources and labor.
Old imperialism primarily involved:
- Portugal
- Spain
- Britain
- France
- The Netherlands
New imperialism featured additional countries such as:
Causes of New Imperialism
There were many causes of new imperialism, including:
- competition with other European powers
- Europe's (and Japan's) insufficient resources domestically
- commercial interests and trade
- military growth and control of the perceived spheres of influence
- territorial expansion, acquisition, or indirect control
- access to cheap resources or those inaccessible domestically
- white man's burden and "civilizing" initiatives
- missionary work
White man's burden is a term used to describe Europeans' perception of one's own racial and cultural superiority and their mission of "civilizing" those they believed to be below them. The term is sourced from the British author Rudyard Kipling's 1899 poem "White Man's Burden," which extolls imperialism and colonization. In it, Kipling describes non-Europeans as part "devils," part "children" not unlike the "noble savage" concept from the Enlightenment period.
Fig. 3 illustrates Kipling's "The White Man's Burden,” 1899, featuring racial stereotypes.
A critical factor for new imperialism was the relationship between population size and resources in Europe after 1870 as a result of the Industrial Revolution. Its population grew while the continent depended on cheap supplies sourced in the New World. Europe needed to continue having access to affordable resources to maintain its relatively affluent lifestyle. Of course, it is essential to note that the European working class had a much lower standard of living than the middle class, nobility, and big business owners.
For example, between 1871 and 1914, Germany's population increased from approximately 40 million to 68 million. Germany was a latecomer when it came to European colonialism. However, on the eve of the war, Germany came to control parts of present-day Nigeria, Cameroon, and Rwanda. An economic powerhouse, Germany's most serious competitor, was Britain.
Despite the rivalries, European colonial powers sometimes cooperated regarding their imperialist pursuits. In 1884-1885, they split the African continent among 14 European countries at the Berlin Africa Conference.
New Imperialism: Effects
For the colonizers, the benefits were numerous:
- access to land and the rich resources of new colonies, from coffee and rubber to diamonds and gold
- the ability to use various resources to manufacture products and sell them domestically and internationally
- underpaid or slave labor
- having colonial subjects serve in the colonizer's military
There were many adverse effects on the colonized:
- loss of political sovereignty
- lack of immunity to new diseases
- loss of national resources to the colonizers
- loss of ethnocultural identity
- underpaid or slave labor
Some historians point out that the new imperialism featured benefits for the native populations, such as infrastructural development, education, and modern medicine in the colonies. However, by and large, these benefits came at a price of grossly unequal social and political relations.
Examples of New Imperialism
The examples of new imperialism vary and depend on the cultural specifics of the colonizers and the colonized.
Japanese Annexation of Korea
In 1910, Japan annexed Korea into its Empire through the Japan–Korea Treaty and occupied it until 1945. The complete annexation followed Japan, making Korea its protectorate five years prior. The Japanese government began to call Korea Chōsen. At this time, the Europeans considered Japan a great power on par with their imperialist pursuits.
On the one hand, Japan's rule over Korea involved industrializing that country. On the other hand, Japan suppressed local culture and crushed independence movements. Also, Japanese landowners gradually came to own more and more Korean agricultural land.
Did you know?
Korea's Righteous Army militia resisted the Japanese takeover and lost thousands of soldiers. After 1910, its members entered neighboring countries and continued their resistance underground.
While some European empires fell apart in 1918, the Japanese Empire continued to grow. By 1931, Japan had invaded Chinese Manchuria, and by 1937, it was in an all-out war with China—the Second Sino-Japanese War. Japan invaded parts of Burma (Myanmar), Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia during World War II. During the war, Japan also occupied the Philippines—a U.S. colony until 1946. The example of the Philippines shows how some places went from one colonial power to another. Japan called its colonies the Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. Despite the idealized name, Japan used its colonies as a source of supplies, to improve its economic conditions, and to manage an increasing population.
During the Second World War, Japan used young Korean women and girls as "comfort women"—they were forced into sex work for the Japanese imperial army. As Japan was losing the war by 1944, it also drafted Korean men into its army, which was voluntary before that year. Japan lost its colonies through surrender in September 1945.
Congo Free State and Belgian Congo
In central Africa, Belgium occupied Congo in 1908 and established the Belgian Congo. The latter had a precedent, the Congo Free State (1885) ruled by the Belgian King Léopold II. The European exploration of the area began ten years prior. The colonial administration focused on combining state and private commercial interests and Christian missionary work.
- King Léopold II’s rule of the Congo Free State was, perhaps, the worst example of new European imperialism. The Belgian colonizers exploited the local population differently through forced (slave) labor. New diseases brought by the Europeans resulted in many deaths.
- Léopold II controlled a personal army called Force Publique, known for many indiscriminate human rights violations, including mutilating enslaved workers by cutting off their hands for failing to fulfill the quotas in the lucrative rubber industry.
- The king never actually traveled to Congo. However, in 1897, he imported over 200 Congolese to display in a human zoo in Tervuren, Belgium.
- The Belgian king’s rule was too much even for other Europeans who had their colonial indiscretions. Under pressure, Léopold’s colony ended, and the Belgian state formally annexed Congo.
The government of the Belgian Congo was relatively more humane than the sadism of Léopold II. The Europeans pursued infrastructural development and urbanization. However, the relationship between the colonizers and the colonized remained unequal. Unlike South Africa, which had an official policy of apartheid, racial segregation in the Belgian Congo was not codified into law but existed in practice.
Fig. 4 - Rwandan migrants work at a copper mine in Katanga, Belgian Congo, in the 1920s.
Did you know?
Joseph Conrad's famous novel Heart of Darkness (1899) is about the Congo Free State. The text is highly acclaimed for addressing the subjects of European imperialism, colonialism, racism, and unequal power relations.
Congo attained independence from Belgium only in 1960 and became the Democratic Republic of the Congo. However, European interests in that region persisted.
For example, the Congolese independence leader Patrice Lumumba was assassinated in 1961 with the backing of multiple intelligence agencies, including the Belgians and the American CIA.
Fig. 5 - Missionary worker in a rickshaw, Belgian Congo, 1920-1930.
New Imperialism - Key Takeaways
- New imperialism is typically dated between 1870 and 1914, although some countries retained their colonies until after World War II.
- This imperialism involved European countries and Japan, and most colonization occurred in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.
- The reasons for new imperialism and colonialism included territorial expansion, cheap labor, access to resources, colonial rivalry, missionary work, and the white man's burden. In Europe and Japan, population growth and insufficient resources were some of the causes.
- The colonized people faced the suppression of cultural identity, new diseases, loss of economic and political control over their own land and resources, and underpaid or slave labor.
- Some examples of colonies established at this time include the Belgian Congo and Korea.
References
- Kipling, Rudyard, “White Man’s Burden,” 1899, Bartleby, https://www.bartleby.com/364/169.html accessed 30 October 2022.
- Fig. 2 - “Africa,” by Wells Missionary Map Co., 1908 (https://www.loc.gov/item/87692282/) digitized by the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, no known restrictions on publication.
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