ImperialismMr. Wilson

10th Grade U.S. History

What is imperialism?

Give me some examples of early imperialist countries.

Extension of a nation’s power and control over other lands

Britain, France, Belgium, Germany and Japan

European Nations gained more than 20% of land on Earth

Imperialism

Economy: Looked to other nations for new customers and new places to invest

Africa, Asia, and Latin America also had raw materials for the Industrial Factories

Why?

Military: Industrialized countries created strong navies to defend shores and protect trading interests

Needed bases in strategic places

Nationalism: Territorial conquests enhanced a nation’s power and prestige

Cultural Superiority: “White Man’s Burden”

Africa, Asia, and L.A. had less industry and urban development and were “backward” nations

Take up the white man’s burden Send forth the best ye breed—Go bind your sons to exile To serve your captive’s need;To wait, in heavy harness, On fluttered folk ad wild—Your new-caught sullen people, Half devil and half child.

“The two great needs of mankind…are, first, a pure, spiritual, Christianity, and second, civil liberty, past, have contributed most to the elevation of the human race…It follows, then, that the Anglo-Saxon, as the great representative of these two ideas…is divinely commissioned to be, in a peculiar sense, his brother’s keeper”

Political MotivationsNew technologies like railroad, steamship, vaccines, telegraph and rifle made it possible to go deep into Africa and Asia

Berlin Conference: Split up Africa to preserve “Balance of Power”

Define Imperialism. Give me at least 3 different motivations with specific examples of why different countries engaged in imperialism in the late 19th, and early 20th centuries.

3.8 format

European Powers had carved up Africa and Asia

Americans believed it was time for U.S. to claim its territory abroad

Mid-1800s: Manifest Destiny

Scramble for Territory

Asia: In 1890s, China, weakened by years of warfare, looked as if it might be partitioned into spheres of influence by England, Japan, Germany, France, and Russia

China

A geographical area where an outside nation exerts special economic or political control

All of previous nations had this in China

Spheres of Influence

Secretary of State John Hay wrote notes calling for “open door” policy that would ensure trade access to all maintain semblance of Chinese sovereignty

1900 announced this as policy

Goal was to give all nations equal trading rights to China

“We ask no favors, we only ask that we shall be admitted to that great market upon the same terms with the rest of the world”

Open Door Policy

Western Hemisphere was an “American Sphere of Influence” and warned European powers to keep their hands off or risk war

Monroe Doctrine

Hawaii was a good spot for coaling stations and naval bases for ships traveling to and from Asia

Early contact included traders and Christian missionaries

Taking Control of Hawaii

Hawaiian League formed to overthrow monarch and establish democracy in Hawaii under American Control

All motivated by the power of the American Sugar Companies in the Territory

President William McKinley favored annexation and Congress approved in 1898

Became the 50th state in 1959

Annexation

Roosevelt negotiated a peace treaty and won the Nobel Peace Prize

Japan wanted territory, needed natural resources and balance U.S. power in pacific

Russo-Japanese War