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FACTORS DRIVING IMPERIALISM (1870-1900) - Coggle Diagram
FACTORS DRIVING IMPERIALISM (1870-1900)
SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCMENTS
Rapid advancements in technological and scientific progress was a facet that allowed such extensive European expansion overseas possible after 1870.
Construction of steamships
Background:
Before 1800s, there was difficulty carrying passengers, weaponry & other miscellaneous items easily.
Keelboats: problems.
Used river currents to travel downstream but had no means to propel themselves upstream.
Had to pole boats against the current if they wanted to return upriver.
Speed of the boats depended on river current.
Steamboats:
Could travel against currents.
Could travel both ways on a river = easier to transport goods + more efficient.
Allowed Europeans to carry a larger amount of passengers + items.
Enabled merchants to sell manufactured goods and textiles for tropical products.
Example of use:
The use of steam as a weapon in imperial expansion came in 1824.
British created a fleet of steamboats in their naval yards in India. They mounted small cannons on the boats and sailed them to China.
Medicine
Important medical breakthroughs enabled explorers and missionaries to survive for longer periods in the tropical climates of Africa & Asia.
Eg: The use of quinine to treat malaria (1820).
Railways
Purpose
:
Connect commercial centres with seaports.
Transport soldiers and supplies.
Expand territories.
Russia:
Trans Siberian railway enabled Russian explorers to expand and tighten their hold on vast expanses of territory east of the Ural mountains and to the north of India and China.
Consequence:
Pace of exploration and of economic & humanitarian activity quickened.
David Livingstone (1813-73) & Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904)
Reached a wide and interested audience.
Cecil Rhodes & Karl Peters
Searched for economic and mineral wealth in south and east Africa.
Single handedly acquired treaty rights to vast expanses of land which they looked to their home gvt to annex.
Missionaries:
Increased number flocked to Africa & Asia to combat slave trade at source.
'Convert the heathen'.
SOCIAL DARWANISM
Belief
: European peoples were the most advanced and civilised in the world, and so they had a duty to try to civilise and educate the non-European natives.
Darwin's scientific research was distorted to demonstrate that the laws of evolution applied to races and nations as well.
The notion of 'survival of the fittest' appeared to explain why the white races had evolved to a higher level of civilisation to the yellow, black and brown races.
Many felt that it was their moral duty to help the less fortunate peoples of the world, and to teach them values and European skills. Others wanted it to wield their powers for economic and political advantages.
Belief II:
If life was indeed a perpetual struggle for existence, nations need to continue on their expansionist course, or they would inevitably fall from the ranks of the great powers.
Eg:
Britain believed that as long as they ruled over India, they would be 'the greatest power in the world' but that the loss of India would reduce her to the status of a third-rate power.
PRESTIGE AND NATIONAL PRIDE
France
Previously, France had been a dominant power in Europe under the ruling of Napoleon I and Napoleon II.
However, they were defeated in the Franco Prussian War in 1871 and, as a result, had to give up Alsace Lorraine- provinces that were rich in coal. Moreover, they were required to pay indemnities to a now unified Germany.
This defeat catalysed an ardent desire within the French to maintain/recover national prestige by compensating their European loss in overseas gain.
Excluding Libya, France controlled the rest of Arabic speaking North Africa as well as large federation’s in West and Central Africa.