The development of ideas, beliefs, and religions illustrates how groups in society view themselves, and the interactions of societies and their beliefs often have political, social, and cultural implications.

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

Explain how ideologies contributed to the development of imperialism from 1750 to 1900.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENTS

KC-5.2.III A range of cultural, religious, and racial ideologies were used to justify imperialism, including Social Darwinism, nationalism, the concept of the civilizing mission, and the desire to religiously convert indigenous populations.

ILLUSTRATIVE EXAMPLES

Ideologies used to justify imperialism:

§ Social Darwinism

§ nationalism

§ civilizing mission

§ religiously convert indigenous populations

§ Social Darwinism

• Charles Darwin ’s (1809–1882) famous books The Origin of Species (1859) and The Descent of Man (1871) were as shattering to traditional religious views as Copernicus’s ideas about a sun-centered universe had been several centuries earlier.

  • • laid out a complex argument that all of life was in flux,that an endless and competitive struggle for survival over millions of years constantly generated new species of plants and animals, while casting others into extinction.

    • Human beings were not excluded from this vast process,for they too were the work of evolution operating through natural selection.

§ nationalism (Domestic Policy)

• European politicians and national leaders sought to defuse social tension and inspire patriotism by focusing public attention on foreign imperialist ventures

• Cecil Rhodes himself once observed that imperialism was an attractive alternative to civil war

• German chancellor Otto von Bismarck worked to persuade both industrialists and workers that overseas expansion would benefit them all

• European leaders frequently organized colonial exhibitions where subject peoples displayed their dress, music, and customs for tourists and the general public in imperial lands, all in an effort to win popular support for imperialist policies

§ civilizing mission (mission civilisatrice)

• some Europeans worked to bring them “civilization” in the form of political order and social stability

• English writer and poet Rudyard Kipling (1864–1936) defined the “white man’s burden” as the duty of European and Euro-American peoples to bring order and enlightenment to distant lands

§ religiously convert indigenous populations

• Like the Jesuits in the early modern era, missionaries flocked to African and Asian lands in search of converts to Christianity

• Missionaries often opposed imperialist ventures and defended the interests of their converts against European entrepreneurs and colonial officials.

  • • their spiritual campaigns provided a powerful religious justification for imperialism

• missionaries often facilitated communications between imperialists and subject peoples, and they sometimes provided European officials with information they needed to maintain control of overseas colonies

• Missionary settlements also served as convenient meeting places for Europeans overseas and as distribution centers for European manufactured goods

§ General Economic Motives

• overseas colonies could serve as reliable sources of raw materials not available in Europe that came into demand because of industrialization: rubber, tin, and copper were vital products. Later, petroleum had also become a crucial resource for industrialized lands

• Rubber trees were indigenous to the Amazon River basin, but imperialists established colonial rubber plantations in the Congo River basin and Malaya

• tin were available from colonies in southeast Asia and copper in central Africa.

• The United States and Russia supplied most of the world’s petroleum in the nineteenth century, but the oil fields of southwest Asia attracted the attention of European industrialists and imperialists alike

§ geopolitical argument

• Even if colonies were not economically beneficial, imperialists held, it was crucial for political and military reasons to maintain them

• Some overseas colonies occupied strategic sites on the world’s sea-lanes

• some overseas colonies offered harbors or supply stations for commercial and naval ships

Activity

For each of the images below:

1.) Describe what you see, look for meaningful details.

2.) Identify ideologies to justify imperialism, use evidence from the image to support your answer.

Key Takeaways

A.) Imperialism was fundamentally motivated by the demands created by the rise of Industrial Societies

• Raw Materials Factories needed raw materials in order to produce goods

• Markets to sell goods

B.) Secondary justifications for Imperialism helped Imperial nations

• rationalize what was being done at home

• benefited Imperialist endeavors by providing essential services in colonies