Key Concept 5.2

Imperialism and Nation-State Formation

As states industrialized during this period, they also expanded their existing overseas colonies and established new types of colonies and transoceanic empires. Regional warfare and diplomacy both resulted in and were affected by this process of modern empire building. The process was led mostly by Europe, although not all states were affected equally, which led to an increase of European influence around the world. The United States and Japan also participated in this process. The growth of new empires challenged the power of existing land-based empires of Eurasia. new ideas about nationalism, race, gender, class, and culture also developed that facilitated the spread of transoceanic empires, as well as justified anti-imperial resistance and the formation of new national identities.

I. Industrializing powers established transoceanic empires.

• States with existing colonies strengthened their control over those colonies.
• British in India
• Dutch in Indonesia
• European states, as well as the Americans and the Japanese, established empires throughout Asia and the Pacific, while Spanish and Portuguese influence declined.
• British
• Dutch
• French
• German
• Russian
• Many European states used both warfare and diplomacy to establish empires in Africa.
• Britain in West Africa
• Belgium in the Congo
• In some parts of their empires, Europeans established settler colonies.
  • The British in southern Africa, Australia, and New Zealand
  • The French in Algeria
• In other parts of the world, industrialized states practiced economic imperialism.
• The British and French expanding their influence in China through the Opium Wars
• The British and the United States investing heavily in Latin America

II. Imperialism influenced state formation and contraction around the world.

• The expansion of U.S. and European influence over Tokugawa Japan led to the emergence of Meiji Japan
• The United States and Russia emulated European transoceanic imperialism by expanding their land borders and conquering neighboring territories.
• Anti-imperial resistance led to the contraction of the Ottoman Empire.
• The establishment of independent states in the Balkans
• Semi-independence in Egypt, French and Italian colonies in North Africa
• Later British influence in Egypt
• New states developed on the edges of existing empires.
• The Cherokee Nation
• Siam
• Hawai'i
• The Zulu Kingdom
• The development and spread of nationalism as an ideology fostered new communal identities.
  • The German Nation
  • Filipino nationalism
  • Liberian nationalism

III. New racial ideologies, especially Social Darwinism facilitated and justified imperialism.