growth of imperialism 3 - keralascert.kerala.gov.in/images/text_books/unit 03.pdf · growth of...

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GROWTH OF IMPERIALISM

GROWTH OF IMPERIALISM3

ImperialismEmpires have existed from ancient times. You have learnt aboutthe Mauryan Empire and the Roman Empire. But imperialism isa new phenomenon. It was the developed form of capitalismwhich emerged in Europe after the Industrial Revolution.Industrial capitalism exported finished goods from the Europeancountries to the distant colonies through oceanic routes andimported raw materials necessary for the manufacture of thesegoods. Each European country competitively produced morethan what was necessary for its consumption. This caused toughcommercial competition among the European countries. Thissearch for markets led to the colonisation of the Afro-Asian andAmerican countries.

Was the surplus production caused by IndustrialRevolution a factor in colonisation?

You know about the emergence of working class movementsalong with the growth of capitalism. The growth of working classmovements forced the capitalists to accede to some of theirdemands. Besides, the cost of transportation of raw materialsfrom and finished products to far off colonies increased. Thusthe profit of the capitalists began to diminish. This led capitalismto a crisis. The attempts made to overcome this crisis led to thedevelopment of imperialism. This is how imperialism becomesa new experience despite the existence of empires in the past.

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Standard X - Social Science I

The colonies were centres for the collectionof raw materials and markets for the finishedgoods. Then why should not productionitself be shifted to the colonies? Cheaplabour and raw materials were aplenty in thecolonies. Capital was the only factornecessary for commodity production to bebrought from outside. Thus the system ofexport of capital in lieu of commoditiesbegan. This particular stage in the growthof capitalism is known as imperialism.

When money itself had become acommodity, there arose institutionsnecessary for its marketing. Thus beganmodern banking system. Neither aparticular entrepreneur nor a group ofentrepreneurs alone could mobilise capitalnecessary for starting an industry. This ledto the practice of raising capital by collectingmoney from many individuals. This was thebeginning of share capital.

When capitalism developed intoimperialism, it also faced a new crisis.Capitalists of particular countries began tocompete among themselves. Tension alsoarose between the capitalists and workingclass. To control world market, competition

arose among the capitalist countriesthemselves. This led to the outbreak of aseries of wars. Conflict arose between thecapitalist countries and the colonisedpeople. This was the background of theliberation struggles which occurred in thecolonies.

Imperialist countries adopted manystrategies to continue their policy ofexploitation. The liberation movements weresuppressed by military force. The colonialpeople were exploited through the collectionof taxes, administrative measures andjudicial system. The people wereintimidated and suppressed by thebureaucracy, judiciary and police.Literature, arts and local education systemwere either discouraged or destroyed. Theywere substituted by the western systems.Lord Macaulay stated that the aim ofeducation was to bring up a new generationof people who were Indian by birth andcolour and European by attitude and dress.The aim of imperialism was to create ageneration in the colonies owing allegianceto Western civilization.

Western education was one of the strategies adopted by imperialism to strengthencolonisation. Analyse.

IndiaThe conditions in the colonies werecongenial to the expansion of imperialism.By the 18th century the ruling Mughaldynasty had become weak. Similarly otherprincely states were also weak. The quarrelsamong these petty kingdoms, socio-economic decadence and the consequentanarchy were the features of India at thattime. Taking advantage of this situation,Europeans tried to strengthen their position.They interfered in the internal affairs of these Illustration of the Battle of Plassey

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states. The British and French Companieswere in the forefront of this. Each one ofthem tried to oust the other from the country.Their enmity in Europe was continued herealso. This led to three wars in India between1744 and 1763, known as the Carnatic Wars.The English East India Company becamevictorious in the war. The Battle of Plasseyof 1757 and the battle of Buxar of 1764brought the Mughal province of Bengal(present day Bangladesh, Bihar, West Bengaland Orissa) under British control. As a resultof the Battle of Buxar, the British obtainedDiwani Right from the Mughal Emperor.Diwani was the authority to collect taxesfrom the conquered province. The Britishexpanded their power by conquering otherprovinces and bringing some kingdomsunder their control by the SubsidiaryAlliance system. Thus by 1856 most parts ofthe Indian subcontinent including Burma(present Myanmar) were annexed to theBritish Empire.

China

From the 16th century onwards the Europeancommercial powers began to knock at thegates of China. The Chinese rulers weresuccessful in keeping them at bay. Realisingthe potential of Chinese trade, the Europeansrefused to turn back. They decided to takeon lease some islands adjacent to the Chinesemainland for trade and thereby tried toestablish good relations with China. TheChinese refused to purchase anything fromthe British as they were considered foreigndevils by the Chinese. Thus the Chinesetrade was unilateral. The British resorted tocertain crooked means to get control overChina. They began smuggling opium toChina. Through opium trade the English

Illustration of the Opium War

India under British rule

East India Company became rich; but itruined the Chinese materially and morally.The opium trade drained Chinese wealth ina big way. This compelled the Chineserulers to ban opium trade. The strictmeasures adopted by the Chinese led themto wars with the British. These were knownas Opium Wars in which the Chinese weredefeated.

The Opium Wars exposed the weakness ofthe Chinese. European powers began toinfiltrate into China. The sovereignty ofChina was weakened. European powerspartitioned China into their spheres ofinfluences. Virtually China became aninternational colony.

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The British demanded money from theAmerican colonies to compensate for the lossthat they incurred in the Seven Years’ Warwith France fought in both Europe andAmerica. But the colonies turned it down.The British Parliament imposed several newtaxes on the colonies. The imposition ofthese taxes generated anti-British feelings inthe colonies. They held the view that theBritish Parliament had no right to imposetax on the colonies because they were notrepresented in the Parliament. The colonistsraised the banner of revolt against the Britishby shouting the slogan 'no taxation withoutrepresentation'. In 1774 the representativesof the thirteen colonies met at Philadelphiain the First Continental Congress andformed a provisional government. In 1776they passed the Declaration ofIndependence in the Second Continental

The Declaration of independence of America

Thirteen British Colonies in America

Were the policies adopted by the English to colonise India repeated in the case ofChina also? In which factor did they differ?

The strategies adopted by imperialism to colonise the world were adopted by theEnglish in India also. Analyse the statement.

AmericaSeveral families from European countriesmigrated to the American continent in orderto escape religious persecution andovercome financial difficulties. The traderswho followed them established manysettlements there. The French were the firstto reach Canada. The British traders settleddown in the east coast in places likeJamestown, Virginia, Plymouth,Massachussets, etc. The British foundedthirteen colonies in north America. TheEnglish, French and the Portugueseconducted explorations for mining gold andsilver. But they failed in this. They startedlarge scale cultivation of tobacco, indigo andpaddy and exported them to Europe.

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Congress and elected George Washington asPresident. This led to a direct war betweenthe colonists and the British. The colonistsfought the war against the British with thehelp of the French. The American colonieswere led in this military campaign by

of Peru and Mexico were controlled by theSpaniards. The Portuguese who followedthe Spaniards discovered gold in the MinarGorais province of middle-east Brazil. Theexplorations for gold and other resourcesruined the native population. In their placea mixed stock of people called Mestizoesemerged and in due course they became themajority. By the end of the 18th century thepeople of South America revolted againstthe Spaniards and the Portuguese. Haiti,which freed itself from French dominationin 1804, became the first independent statein South America. By this time the rise ofNapoleon in France led to the decline ofPortuguese and Spanish power. The Britishand French took their place. The USAmotivated other South American states torevolt against their masters. Venezuelaunder Simon Bolivar and Argentina underJose San Martin declared theirindependence. In 1822 Brazil and Mexicobecame independent. By 1825 almost all thestates of this region except Puerto Rico andCuba had won their freedom.

George Washington

South America in 1825

George Washington. In 1781 the British armycommanded by Lord Cornwallissurrendered to the combined forces of thecolonists and the French. The British werecompelled to recognise the independence ofthe American colonies by the Treaty of Parisof 1783. Thus the United States of Americacame into being.

South AmericaYou are already aware of the Spanishpresence in South America. More Europeanpowers reached that continent in search ofgold and silver. The gold and silver mines

Simon Bolivar Jose San Martin

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Working Class MovementYou have studied the Industrial Revolution.One of the results of this was the emergenceof the working class movement. On the onehand, Industrial Revolution brought abouttremendous increase in production andwealth and on the other, it made the life ofworkers hard. Surrounding industrialcentres, there arose filthy and unhygienicslums where thousands of workers had tosettle down. The workers who were reallyresponsible for the profits of the capitalistsgot only poverty and misery in return. Lowwages, dangerous working conditions,excessive hours of work, etc. made the lifeof the workers miserable. In this situationthe workers organised themselves andformed labour unions. In 1830 John Doharthyformed the Confederation of NationalAssociation for the Protection of Labour. Theothers who gave leadership to thisorganisation were Robert Owen andWilliam Levit. The labour organisations layemphasis on improving the conditions oflabour and giving wages to workers. Thesocialist ideology was the guiding spirit ofthese organisations. As a result of thesestruggles led by he workers, improvementswere made in the conditions of workincluding reduction in the hours of workand increase in wages.

The struggle for reducing hours of work andincreasing wages resulted in the increase ofthe cost of production and reduction ofprofit. This was a crisis in capitalism. As aresult, the capitalists began to invest capitalin colonies. The availability of cheap labour,plenty of raw materials and market in andaround the colonies made these industriesprofitable. This motivated the entrepreneursto invest more in the colonies. Besidesindustries, the entrepreneurs invested

capital in plantations also. The profit thusearned from the colonies flowed to themetropolis and was used to purchase newmachinery from other countries. Theplantations and mines in the coloniesnecessitated the employment of labour atlow wages. This led to the capture of slavesfrom Asia and Africa and exporting them toother colonies.

Though slave trade was begun by thePortuguese and the Spanish, by the 17thcentury it was taken over by the British.Slave trade continued to flourish till themiddle of the 19th century. Millions ofpeople were captured from Asian andAfrican countries and sold as slaves to workin the plantations and mines. The life ofslaves was miserable. They were forced todo any work under their masters. If theytried to escape, they were put to severetorture and if they revolted they were put todeath by the masters. Those who preventedsuch escapes and put the erring slaves todeath were liberally rewarded. Thus theslave system became an integral factor ofcolonisation.

A slave from Louisiana in North America. Note thescars of whipping

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Advertisements for the sale of slaves

In addition to slavery,indentured labour was alsoutilised in the plantationsand mines. Such labourersmustered from India andother colonies underjobbers were exported toWest Indies, New Zealand,South Africa, Malaya,Singapore, etc. Theirconditions were no betterthan that of the slaves.Many of them settled downpermanently in thecolonies.

Conditions in the coloniesThe colonies were politically weak in the18th century. For example in India there wereseveral petty kingdoms such as Hyderabad,Mysore, Travancore and those of theMarattas and the Sikhs. They quarrelledamong themselves. This led to theirsubjugation by the colonial power. Thecolonial powers gained supremacy bymaking the native princes to fight amongthemselves. Though the Europeans werenumerically weak, they were able to win byresorting to this strategy. Their officers weregreedy. They suppressed the localpopulation. They never bothered about the

welfare of the people. Life of the peoplebecame miserable.

Besides, the colonial masters exaggeratedthe weakness of the colonies. They justifiedtheir domination as 'Civilising Mission' and'White Man's burden'. They claimed that itwas a 'holy mission' to civilise the paganArabs, Africans and Asians. It was necessaryfor them to justify their civil conquest of thecolonies and ill treatment of the nativepeople before the Parliament and the worldat large. Racial purity and religioussupremacy were utilised by them toestablish their hegemony.

Improvement of implements in each mode of production led to changes in lifeand rise of classes (Capitalist- worker, master-slave). Evaluate this statement.

The Indianness in the names of the West Indies Cricketers like Alvin Kallicharan,Shivnarain Chanderpaul etc. indicates this relation

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The colonial masters introduced severaladministrative measures to carry on theirexploitation. The colonial state was built onthe civil service, the army and the police.These three pillars maintained law and orderin the colonies and enhanced the fame andprestige of the colonisers. The traders andcapitalists could not have sold theirproducts in the colonies unless law and

order were maintained. Besides these threepillars, western jurisprudence was alsointroduced in the colonies which legalisedthe innumerable commercial treatiesconcluded by them. In order to create a classof trusted servants to carry out the colonialadministration, western education was alsointroduced. It was a powerful means to effectsocial and cultural transformation.

"More than military occupation, colonisation was an approved form of slavery. Itwas difficult to lead a people who considered the colonial masters as their protectorsto freedom." Explain the nature of the colonial society by analysing the abovestatement.

The Balkan CrisisImperialism wished to bring more statesunder their administrative control. We cansee such attempts in different parts of theworld. By the beginning of the 19th centurythe Sultanate of Turkey (Ottoman Empire)became weak. It was known as the 'Sick Manof Europe'. By exploiting the weak positionof the Empire, the West European powerstried to annex the various provinces underits control. The crisis created by this powerstruggle was known as the Eastern Question.The Balkan peninsula was a part of theTurkish empire.

Florence Nightingale was a military nurse who nursed the woundedsoldiers at one of the battle fronts of Crimea, namely, Scutari. Shenursed the soldiers day and night which earned for her the title'Lady with the Lamp'.

Balkan ProvincesThe Balkan peninsula is situated in Europe,surrounded by sea on three sides. Bulgaria,Serbia, Macedonia, Albania, Transylvania,Bosnia-Herzegovina etc., which came under theTurkish Empire, were known as Balkanprovinces.

Russia tried to occupy the Slav territorieslying adjacent to the Balkan provinces. TheWest European powers feared that theRussian occupation of these territorieswould alter the prevailing balance of power.This was the Eastern Question. It reflecteditself in many ways. One among them wasthe Crimean war.

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This war smashed the Russian planof imposing its domination overTurkey by occupying the Slavterritories. The Russians had to giveup their pretensions of protecting theOrthodox Christian subjects ofTurkey. The Eastern Questionproved that it was not a mere aboundary dispute among theEuropean nations. Many issues ofimperialist and colonial policies wereinvolved in this crisis.

Partition of AfricaThe Partition of Africa was anotherexample of imperialistaggrandisement and colonisation. Bythe middle of the 19th century theintensity of slave trade began todiminish. Thereafter the Europeanswho reached Africa were engaged inthe collection of raw materials necessary forthe industries in their own countries. As aresult, the Europeans competed amongthemselves and Africa was sliced into manycolonies. This partition had two importantfeatures. First, it was effected without anywar. Second, it was executed in a speedy

manner. This eventually led to colonialconflicts. For the most part, it was settledthrough bilateral discussions andagreements. Thus by 1914 all Africancountries except Abyssinia and Liberiabecame European colonies.

Partition of Africa

Chart showing partition of Africa

African Countries Colonial power

Egypt, Sudan, Rhodesia, Uganda, British East Africa, BritainSierra Leon, Gold Coast, Nigeria, South Africa

Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Sahara, French Congo, FranceFrench Guiana, Senegal, Madagaskar

German East Africa, South West Africa, Cameroon, GermanyTogoland, Tanganica

Libya, Somaliland Italy

Angola, Mozambique, Portuguese Giunea Portugal

Rio de Oro, Spanish Guinea Spain

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to the Vienna Settlement and the Matternichsystem. The best examples of this were theunification movements of Italy andGermany. Organisations like the Carbonariand Young Italy were functioning alreadyfor the unification of Italy. The leaders of

"Imperialism is greed and an aggression against humanity."Examine this statement in the context of the partition ofAfrica.

Nationalism in EuropeYou have studied about the nationalmonarchies which arose in the wake of thedecline of feudalism. In the modern sense, anation is defined as a people settling in adefinite territory, speaking a commonlanguage, having a common culture andhistorical tradition. The ideology andprogramme of action based on this conceptis called nationalism. Towards the end of the18th century, nationalism began to emergein many parts of Europe. During the time ofNapoleon this was further intensified.Nationalism became powerful after therevolutions of 1848 which brought an end

Unification of Italy

Joseph Mazzini

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Italian nationalism were Joseph Mazziniand Garibaldi. The unification of Italy wascompleted in 1870 under the leadership ofthe Sardinian king Victor Emmanuel II andhis Prime Minister Count Cavour.

Germany in 1871

able Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. In 1871the Prussian king became the Emperor

Garibaldi

About 38 German princely states joinedtogether and formed a customs union calledZolleverein. But the unification of Germany

Otto von Bismarck

(Kaiser) of united Germany after waging theDanish war, Austro-Prussian war and theFranco-Prussian war. The newly formedstates of Italy and Germany began tocompete with other European states.

When nationalism was used to protect therights and powers of a people within a state,it began to affect the interests of other states.The merits and traditions of nations werehighlighted and the leaders appealed to thepeople to uphold and protect this tradition.Italy and Germany behaved like big powers.The Germans believed in the superiority andpurity of their culture and they propagatedit. The Italians tried to uphold the ancientRoman civilisation. This excessivenationalism led to militarization and mutualenmity among the states. This was knownas aggressive nationalism.

was realised under the leadership of thePrussian king Frederick William IV and his

Though nationalism tried to protect the interests and powers of the people of acountry, it led to the exploitation of other people. Examine this statement.

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The enmity among the European nationswas influenced by the aggressivenationalism among the European nationsand the imperialist occupations of Asia andAfrica. This raised the fear among the states.Fearing aggression each state had militariseditself. Each European state enhanced itsmilitary and naval forces. This mutual fearand mistrust led to the signing of militaryalliances. No state was able to tell which statewas a friend or a foe. Russia which signed asecret treaty with Austria, threatened herover the issue of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Inorder to meet a possible Russian aggression,Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italyconcluded the Triple Alliance in 1882.Russia met this challenge by signing a treatywith France. The Russo-French secretagreement later led to the signing of theAnglo-French treaty of Entete Cordiale. This

was later developed into the Triple Ententeof Britain, France and Russia. These secrettreaties and alliances increased mutualsuspicion and fear. It was evident that if awar broke out between two countries, itwould not be confined to them alone andwould escalate into a great war.

Treaties and agreements areconcluded to avoid wars and crisis.But they became causes of war.Analyse this statement.

Triple Alliance and Triple Entente

Anticolonial MovementsAnticolonial struggles emerged in Asiatowards the end of the 19th and by thebeginning of the 20th century. The policiesadopted by the British in India led to the

emergence of anti-colonial nationalmovement. People realised that the policiesadopted by the British in India led toeconomic ruin, cultural decay and lack of

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political development in the country. Youhave already studied how the anti-colonialnational movement (defensive nationalism)was able to protest against the culturalenslavement sought to be imposed byEnglish education in India.

Similarly Dr. Sun Yat Sen invoked thenational feeling of the Chinese people,united the various revolutionary groups andled the country towards liberation. Thismovement was against the imperialistpowers which occupied parts of China andevil policies of the decadent Manchudynasty which ruled China. The leaders ofthe national movement tried to establish arepublic by overthrowing the Manchudynasty. The basic ideals which they upheld

were nationalism, democracy and socialism.

The Americans under Commodore Perrybecame successful in opening the ports ofJapan by the middle of the 19th century.Americans became successful in obtainingtax remissions for their goods and specialprivileges in the internal trade. Later otherEuropean powers also obtained similarrights. But the Japanese opposed theseattempts of the foreigners. Their protest wasaimed at the feudal administration of theShogunate and their policy of concludingcommercial treaties with foreigners.Struggles were organised to put an end tothe Shogun rule. Several attacks wereunleashed against the foreigners. In 1868 theShogun rule came to an end and the Meijidynasty was restored. In the next fourdecades Japan became a powerful state inthe East under the Meiji rule. The growth ofJapan as a nation which could compete withthe European powers encouraged the anti-colonial struggles in Asia. The victory ofJapan over Russia in the Russo-Japanese warexploded the myth of Europeaninvincibility. This incident speeded up theanti-imperialist agitations in Asia.

Dr. Sun Yatsen

The national movements were able to achieve the rights and powers of thepeople by recognising one’s own strengths and weaknesses. Examine thisstatement in the light of the various anti-colonial struggles.

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Activities

• The countries of North and South Americaachieved their independence throughdifferent means. Evaluate this statement byexamining the freedom struggles of thecolonies in the Americas.

• What were the circumstances under whichcapitalism grew into imperialism? What wasthe crisis of imperialism?

• How did the industrial progress of Europelead to imperialism?

• Prepare a note on the factors which helpedItalian and German unification movements.

• How did the working class movementsinspire the anti-colonial movements?

• The Eastern Question was not merely a boundary dispute. There wereimperialist and colonial designs behind it. Discuss

• The Partition of Africa was the best example of imperialistaggrandizement. Substantiate.

• Aggressive nationalism and defensive nationalism caused colonisationand anti-colonial struggles respectively. Examine.

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