New Imperialism

New Imperialism was an era of expansionist economic policies, in part resulting from the breakdown of Pax Britannica. A new age of Imperialism developed amongst the more powerful of the nation-states, primarily in Europe, during that period of time betwixt the Franco-Prussian War and World War I (during the late-Victorian Era), and which is also known as, "The Era of Empire for Empire's Sake", "The Great Adventure", and "The Scramble for Africa". During this period, Europe added nearly 23,000,000 km² (20% of Earth's land area) to its collection of overseas colonial possessions, with the majority of this territory being in Africa.

Scholars continue to debate the causes and ramifications of this period of colonialism, most notably, the relationship this period might have to the First World War.

For Old Imperialism see: mercantilism and free-trade colonialism

New Imperialism?

The term, "imperialism", was a new word in the mid-19th century. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, it was first recorded in 1858, in regards to the British Empire. Soon after its invention, it was applied to the policies of the Roman Empire.

In modern times, the period has come to be called new imperialism though it was not called such at the time. J.A. Hobson's 1905 work, on this subject, was simply called, Imperialism. The newness of this era, does not have to do with imperialism being new (except as a term), but rather, to do with a new rise of imperialism, a new shift in imperial powers, and new understandings of what an empire was.

In later years, imperialism has been used to describe the 20th century policies of both the Soviet Union and the United States, although these forms of imperialism differed greatly both from one another, and from earlier forms of imperialism.

The Collapse of Mercantilism and Pax Britannica

Prior to the Franco-Prussian War, Britain became known as, "the workshop of the world", being the world's most advanced industrial nation. Following the defeat of Napoleon, British goods were produced so cheaply that they could often undersell the locally manufactured goods of almost any other market. At its height, Britian was supplying half the manufactured goods of nations as Germany, France, Belgium, and the United States.

The decline of Pax Britannica, was made possible by changes in economics and the balance of power, such as the breakdown of the Concert of Europe and the establishment of nation-states in Germany and Italy. As France, Germany, the United States, and Japan, increasingly became industrial powers, Britain's comparative advantages began to decline.

The collapse of the English and Spanish empires of the New World, following the revolutions there, are often seen as another indicator of the changing balance of power. It is often argued that the comparative decline of the British, and mercantilism, led to the rise of classical liberalism.

Loss of Britain's Comparative Advantage

German textiles and metal industries had, by the beginning of the Franco-Prussian War, surpassed those of Britain and usurped British manufactures even within their own domestic market. Meanwhile, Britain was growing incapable of dominating its captive markets, such as India, and was likewise witnessing market depletion in the industrializing regions of central Europe, Latin America (where the United States was becoming the primary investor), and China. Britain had lost, and would continue to lose, much of its comparative advantage. Britain’s share of world trade fell from 25%, in 1880, to 16% in 1913, to 12% by 1948.

The Balance of Trade

Since 1813, Britain’s balance of trade had shown a deficit and British leaders began to feel that a trade surplus could be garnered from expansion into the African markets. During this period, financial services became an increasingly important sector of the global economy, particularly in regards to the developing and open markets of Africa, the Middle East, the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia, and the South Pacific.

Increasing Competition

The economic, political, and technological developments, of the late 19th century, rendered imperial competition feasible, in spite of Britain’s centuries of naval superiority. As mentioned, by the end of the Franco-Prussian War, Britain was no longer the world's only industrialized nation.

Germany, Italy, and France were no longer embroiled in continental concerns and domestic disputes, as they were prior to war. The industrial nations began to enter an era of aggressive national rivalry, particularly in regards to trade and colonialism, this era being known as that of the New Imperialism.

As unification of Germany, by the Prussian "Garrison State", proceeded, the Germans began to compete against the British, for control of foreign markets, notably in southern Africa.

The rise of Napoleon III and the Third Republic rendered France more capable of challenging Britain’s global preeminence. French colonies tended to be closely situated to Britain’s; Nigeria, for instance, was surrounded by French territory, and India was near French Indochina.

At the same time, Italy began to desire expansion into Africa.

In the Pacific, since the Meiji Restoration, Japan’s development followed a similar pattern, following the Western lead in industrialization and militarism and enabling it to gain a foothold or ‘'sphere of influence'’ in Qing China.

Many statesmen and industrialists wanted to accelerate the rise of formal colonialism, securing colonies before their economy needed them. This reasoning argued that markets might soon become glutted, and a nation’s economic survival would depend on its being able to offload its surplus products elsewhere.

The Long Depression

The abovementioned problems coincided with the ‘Long Depression’ of 1873-1896, which had followed fifteen years of economic instability. Business, after 1873, suffered from lengthy periods of falling profits. During this period, production often exceeded domestic demand. The capitalists, being powerful political forces, urged the European nations towards securing new markets in Africa.

The Power Vacuum

The continent of Africa was largely unclaimed by nation-states of significant military power, although Portugal did manage to retain some territory there. There was a power vacuum created by the ‘dying nations’ (i), (most notably the Ottoman Empire and China) and the non-industrialized nations of Africa, none of which were significant powers by the begining of the twentieth century. As a result, the major European powers felt that the entire continent was open to colonization. This led to what is known as, "the scramble for Africa" and the increasing interest of the industrialized nations in securing colonies within southeast Asia.

Technology and Innovation

New techonologies also played an important role during this era. The development of steam ships greatly decreased transportation costs and made previously unviable markets, in Africa, of great economic interest. New techniques, especially that of mass production, reduced production costs, further increasing the potentials for profit.

The Second Industrial Revolution, resulted in greatly expanded output and lowered production costs. As a result, production often exceeded domestic demand. People, such as Joseph Chamberlain, concluded that profits were falling because, "too much capital was chasing too few markets". He argued that formal imperialism was necessary for Britain because of the relative decline of the British share of the world’s export trade and the rise of German, American, and French economic competition.

Strategic Expansions

For Britain, the 1869 completion of the Suez Canal prompted the strengthening of control over Egypt. Battles over the headwaters of the Nile led Britain to expand in Sudan, and the close proximity of Russia's expanding empire, to India, triggered strategic wars in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Rhodes and Milner advocated a “Cape to Cairo” empire, which would link, by rail, the Suez Canal to the mineral rich regions of southern Africa. Though hampered by the German conquest of Tanganyika, Rhodes continued to lobby on behalf of a vast British empire, in East Africa.

Likewise, Puerto Rico and the Philippines were seen as strategic colonies of the United States.

The Entente Cordiale and the Franco-Prussian Alliance

Germany's Otto von Bismarck argued in favor of imperial expansion, “Colonies are new markets for German industry, for the expansion of trade, and a new field for German, activity, civilization, and capital”. Eventually German expansion would result in the Entente Cordiale, an agreement, between Britain and France, regarding the necessity of curtailing further German expansion. Likewise, the Franco-Russian alliance came into being during this period.

The 1890 Census and The Panic of 1893

The United States was a newly industrializing nation, like Germany. The findings of the 1890 Census, popularized by historian Frederick Jackson Turner, in his paper, The Significance of the Frontier in American History, contributed to fears of dwindling natural resources . The Panic of 1893, during President Cleveland's second administration, led American businessmen and politicians to come to the same conclusions as their European counterparts, that industry had over-expanded and was producing more goods than domestic consumers could purchase. Politicians, such as Henry Cabot Lodge, William McKinley, and Theodore Roosevelt, advocated a more aggressive foreign policy, arguing that such a policy would pull the United States out of the depression.

The Panic, not unlike the Long Depression, bred doubts about the strength of capitalism. Similarly, in Europe, the post-1873 period had seen a reemergence of militant working-class organization. Like the Long Depression, the Panic of 1893 contributed to fierce competition over those markets which lay within the depressed nations' spheres of influence, which, in the case of the United States, tended to overlap with Britian, especially in the Pacific and South America.

The Berlin Conference

The Berlin Conference (1884-85) regulated the imperial competition between Britain, France and Germany, defining "effective occupation" as the criterion for international recognition of colonial claims, a feat usually accomplished by armed force.

The Cape Colony, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda

While some British colonies were already a century old, Egypt was occupied by British forces in 1882 (although not formally declared a protectorate until 1914); Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda were subjugated in the 1890s and early 1900s; and in the south, the Cape Colony (first acquired in 1795) provided a base for the subjugation of neighbouring African states and the Afrikaners.

Chamberlain and the Zollverein

Joseph Chamberlain, argued on behalf of a grand imperial Zollverein, or customs union. This campaign failed, in the 1890s and for another forty years afterwards, until the premiership of his son, Neville.

Hobson and the Financiers

Just as industrial capitalism had replaced mercantilism and commercial capitalism in the 18th Century, finance capitalism supplanted industrial capitalism in the late 19th Century. Late-Victorian political leaders, most of whom were stockholders , “shared a common culture with the financial class.” This prompted critic J.A. Hobson to conclude that the financiers were unfairly manipulating events and in possession of far too much power.

Impact of Capitalism on African Society

Capitalism, being a formal economic system, was quite different from the traditional customs of African and Asian societies. Maximizing production and minimizing cost did not necessarily coincide with seasonal patterns of agricultural-based production. The ethic of wage productivity, in many respects, a new concept.

It is sometimes argued that capitalism is an exploitative economic system. (See anti-capitalism). The Congo Free State is often used as an example of how capitalist nations exploit impoverished peoples. In this case, the fortunes of the Belgian King Leopold II were earned off the production of Congolese rubber. Note, the Congo Free State was 76 times larger than Belgium itself. It is believed that, between 1880 and 1920; over 10 million (50%) natives were the victims of murder, starvation, exhaustion induced by work, disease, or genocide.

Human rights issues, during this era, were similar to those of earlier imperialist eras. (See also: Social Darwinism)

World War I

By the eve of World War I, Europe, represented the largest share (27 percent) of the global zones of investment, followed by North America (24 percent), Latin America (19 percent), Asia (16 percent), Africa (9 percent), and Oceania (5 percent) for all industrial powers. Britain, was clearly the chief world investor, though the direction of its investments had undergone a striking change, becoming oriented less toward Europe, the United States, and India, and more toward the rest of the Commonwealth and Latin America.

Dependency Theory

During the post 1870 period the amount of foreign trade increased. For western European nations in 1840, 7.7 million pounds of its export and 9.2 million pounds of its import trade was done outside Europe; in 1880 the figures were 38.4 million and 73 million. Europe’s economic contacts are sometimes argued to have destroyed native industries and created dangerous political and economic pressures which are described in Dependency Theory.

Literature Set During This Period

Beau Geste Wren
Great Expectations Dickens

Notes

i -- The term "dying nations" is attributed to Lord Salisbury, during the 1890s.