Nineteenth-Century Empires

The Birth of the Liberal Empire European Expansion in Mid-Century The New Imperialism, 1870-1914 Imperialism at its Peak
Sunday, March 4, 12

Guiding Questions: European colonial rule changed the face of much of the non-Western world during the nineteenth century. How did the imperial experience affect European identity? European colonialism caused immense suffering among subject peoples. Did any segments of colonized societies benet from colonial rule? In what ways did Europeans themselves contribute to the eventual downfall of their empires?
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The Birth of the Liberal Empire

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Europeans lost their Atlantic empires and built new ones in Asia and Africa The expansionism of this period had its economic foundation in the growth of a capitalist market economy and its philosophical roots in the Enlightenment culture of liberal universalism New sources of raw materials and new markets for their industrial manufactures as an opportunity to civilize the non-Western world
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The Decline of the Mercantile Colonial World The threat to empire came primarily in the form of independence movements and slave revolts and the gradual rise of a market economy
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External Challenges Independence movements drove European colonial powers from much of the New World Slave agitation constituted a central part of the assault on the mercantile colonial world Haitian Revolution in the French colony of SaintDomingue in 1791
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The Antislavery Movement in Europe

A rapidly expanding European movement to end slavery further threatened the Atlantic colonial system during the late eighteenth century Quakerism condemned slavery as a sin antithetical to religious tenets of brotherly love and spiritual equality
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The inuence of the Enlightenment

Secular reformers joined forces with religious abolitionists John Lockeshaped arguments mounted against slavery by Enlightenment humanists Enlightenment universalism, or belief in the basic sameness of all humans, undermined the acceptance of slavery and allowed eighteenth century thinkers to link oppressed Africans to the disenfranchised poor of Europe

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Equality before the law clashed deeply with the concept of human bondage The new Western sentiment cast the slave as innocent victim and the civilized European as heroic savior Elite women and men of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century joined abolitionist circles and signed antislavery petitions
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The Free-Trade Lobby

European manufacturers objected increasingly to protective tariffs Capitalists in favor of free trade based their arguments on both theory and realworld experience market competition was both natural and rational because it afforded economic liberty to individuals
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The End of European Slavery

The convergence of religious and humanitarian sentiment and economic support for free market competition led to the abolition of the European slave trade Britain abolished slavery itself in 1834, emancipating the remaining 780,000 Britishowned slaves in the West Indies
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New Sources of Colonial Legitimacy The Growth of the Market Economy New economic rationale to empire From 1830 to 1870, European nation-states competed with one another for spheres of economic inuence abroad
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Enlightenment Universalism
Liberal empire had roots in Enlightenment theories of human biological and cultural sameness and belief in human improvement through the application of reason to social reform Enlightened Europeans posited that all societies developed along a similar path and could be guided and accelerated
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Cultural Relativism Cultural relativism exalted New World societies as models of virtue and freedom for a decadent Europe European cultural relativists still insisted on their own supremacy, even while acknowledging the achievements of other cultures
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Assimilation to a European way of life had occurred largely as an unintended consequence of missionary efforts to impart Christian faith to New World peoples universalism had humanized the colonial subject Assimilation became a moral imperative and colonial domination became the ideal means to achieve this end
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The Civilizing Mission in India India was the laboratory in which Britain conducted its most ambitious civilizing experiments They sought to stamp out Indian superstition and eradicating the barbaric Indian laws and customs such as Sati British civilizing efforts came to an abrupt halt with the Indian Rebellion of 1857
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European Expansion in MidCentury

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Europeans acted to protect their economic interests in new, more assertive ways This intensication was driven primarily by industrialization

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The British conquest thus transformed the Indian economy into a closed system, forcing India through taxation to effectively give away its exports to Britain and serving its independent trade connections with the outside world India is transformed into a supplier of war materials for British textile mills as well as a major market for British manufactures
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India and the Rise of British Sovereignty

The British East India Company

Further British Expansion in Asia

The British East India Companys conquest of India also promoted British expansionism elsewhere in central Asia Their chief adversary was Russia When the British tried to do the same to Afghanistan, they met with stubborn resistance in the Afghan Wars (1839-42 and 1878-1880) leading to it becoming a client state by the 1880s
Sunday, March 4, 12

The Sick Man: The Ottoman Empire and China

Europeans took a fundamentally different approach to the other two major non-Western empires the Ottomans and the Qing China Sick Man of Europe and Sick Man of the East Europeans exploited the Chinese and Ottoman empires through nancial subjugation and political maneuvering
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The Ottoman Empire The empire was still vast and its power had declined sharply from its peak point in the 16th century The ambitions of provincial governors were challenging the authority of the Sultan, Mahmud II Administrative, legal, and technological Westernization Tanzimat (reorganization)
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China

Qing Dynasty, members of the foreign Manchu minority who had ruled China since the midseventeenth century They hand no interest in European manufactures Opium smoking became an entrenched practice at all levels of Chinese society and was exploited by Britain The Opium War (1840-42) and the Second Opium War (1856-58) Taiping Rebellion of 1850-64

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The European Awakening to Africa New Interest in Africa

European ignorance and indifference stemmed from a lack of contact with Africa Africa came into focus as a potential marketplace and source of raw materials to feed its industrial economy Dysentery, yellow fever, typhoid, and malariaThe White Mans Grave
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Missionaries and Explorers Abolitionist evangelicals seeking to end slavery in Africa They strove not merely to save souls, as their early modern predecessors had, but to Europeanize natives David Livingstone and Henry Stanley
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The New Imperialism, 1870-1914

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