Imperialism: British and French Rivalry

• Imperialism involves a state using superior military strength and technology to control the land, resources, and population of a less developed region.
• From 1880 to 1914, European powers expanded their direct control globally due to the Second Industrial Revolution's demand for new markets and raw materials.
• Imperialism differs from colonialism as it focuses on economic and strategic interests rather than settlement, with fewer Europeans settling permanently in Africa or Southeast Asia.

British and French Imperial Rivalry

• Rapid nationalism fueled imperialism, as nations sought to extend their interests rather than preserve the balance of power.
• France's imperial motives included revenge against Germany and a desire to remain a world power.
• France aimed to control north central and northwestern Africa and Madagascar, competing with Britain for resources and markets.
• Britain sought to protect routes to India by supporting Islamic Middle Eastern states against Russian expansion.
• In 1882, Britain established a protectorate over Egypt, angering the French.
• Central Africa became the next focus, with Leopold II of Belgium claiming the Congo through Henry Stanley's treaties, opening the area to great-power rivalry.
• France established claims to the western Congo, leading to a scramble for territory.
• France controlled much of northwestern and north central Africa, while Britain controlled northeastern and South Africa.

Germany and Italy Join the Race

• Initially, Bismarck was not interested in African colonies, focusing on European power politics.
• Bismarck later saw colonies as potential markets and a way to solidify political support and ease domestic tensions.
• In 1884, Germany established a protectorate over German Southwest Africa, with Britain acquiescing in exchange for German acceptance of British occupation in Egypt.
• Germany also established protectorates over the Cameroons and Togoland in West Africa.
• The Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, organized by Bismarck, divided the Congo basin between the Congo Free State (Leopold's territory) and France and declared the Congo River open to all.
• Germany controlled parts of Southeastern Africa and some territory on the west coast.
• Italy colonized Eritrea on the east-central coast of Africa.
• Italy's attempt to colonize Abyssinia (Ethiopia) failed when its army was defeated in 1896, leading to the Treaty of Addis Ababa, which recognized Abyssinia's independence but allowed Italy to keep Eritrea.
• Italy eventually gained Libya as a colony.

Standoff in the Sudan: The Fashoda Affair

• The Anglo-French rivalry in Africa climaxed at Fashoda in 1898, nearly causing war.
• Britain, after initially losing interest, sought to regain control of the Sudan, while France aimed for a foothold on the Nile River.
• In 1898, British forces under Lord Horatio Kitchener encountered a French expedition at Fashoda.
• The Fashoda Affair ended peacefully as France recognized British and Egyptian claims to the Nile Basin, and Britain recognized French holdings in West Africa.

The British in South Africa and the Boer War

• In South Africa, Britain faced resistance from indigenous peoples and Dutch settlers (Boers).
• The British took the Cape of Good Hope from the Dutch in 1795.
• Nine wars were fought against the Bantu people in the 1850s and 1860s.
• The Boers, strict Calvinists, resented British abolition of slavery and equal rights for blacks.
• They moved inland to establish independent territories, which Britain later annexed.
• In 1880, the Boers rebelled, and Gladstone's government recognized the South African Republic's independence but sought to control Boer trade through Capetown.
• The British goaded the Boers into the Boer War in 1899, which lasted three years.
• The British imprisoned Boer civilians in camps, causing thousands of deaths.
• In 1902, the Boers surrendered and swore loyalty to the king of England.
• The Boer republics were granted dominion status, but the new government implemented apartheid, the unequal separation of whites and blacks.

The European Powers in Asia

• European powers and the U.S. divided the Pacific region for resources, markets, and strategic advantages.
• During the Seven Years' War (1756-1762), Britain exerted influence and control over Burma.
• In 1857, the Sepoy Mutiny, caused by grievances over British policies and religious insensitivity, shook British rule in India.
• Following the mutiny, India was administered directly by the British crown, leading to reforms and infrastructure development.
• Railroads aided famine relief and production of export crops but also facilitated the export of raw materials to Britain, undermining local industries.
• The Dutch controlled most of Indonesia.
• France colonized Southeast Asia, creating the Union of Indochina in 1887, including Tonkin, Annam, Cochin, and Cambodia, later adding Laos in 1893.

Japan and China: Contrasting Experiences

• Japan maintained independence and modernized, building its military and economy through the Meiji Restoration of 1868.
• Japan became a world power and sought colonies in Asia.
• China was weakened by internal divisions and imperialist demands, slowly adopting Western technology.
• The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 resulted in an independent Korea and China's loss of Taiwan to Japan.
• European powers established spheres of influence, leading to the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, which was suppressed by international forces.
• Russia's competition with Japan in Manchuria led to the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05, increasing Japanese influence in the region.

Domination of Indigenous Peoples

• European imperialism was driven by the belief in European cultural and racial superiority.
• Social Darwinists used theories of natural selection to justify the conquest of Africa and Asia.
• Herbert Spencer coined the phrase "survival of the fittest" to support the idea that nations must struggle to survive.
• Europeans used technological advancements like railways, steamships, and the telegraph to dominate indigenous populations.

Imperial Economies

• Europeans established "plunder economies" by expropriating land, exploiting resources, and using indigenous labor.
• Commercial controls were imposed over natural resources.
• Britain favored informal imperialism, maintaining control through economic and military domination.
• In formal imperialism, European powers assumed "protectorate" status and directly administered colonies.
• Britain wanted colonies to be self-financing, with chartered companies bearing the expenses for profit.
• French colonial administration, highly centralized, relied more on military control and French officials than the British did.
• The French government took a greater role in economic decision-making and exploited ethnic rivalries.

Assessing the Goals of European Imperialism

• Colonists claimed divine justification for their actions.
• Missionaries aimed to convert and "civilize" people in Africa, India, and Asia.
• Reformers sought to end abuses and slavery.
• The French aimed to assimilate colonial peoples into French culture, later shifting to a theory of "association" focused on economic development.
• New markets and raw materials were sought to address underconsumption and fuel industrialization.
• Colonies provided some resources and markets, but investments primarily went to Europe and the United States.
• Economic benefits were not always worth the cost of colonial administration.
• The exploitation of resources contributed to underdevelopment in colonized regions.
• Imperialism was an extension of European power struggles, driven by aggressive nationalism and international rivalries.
• Britain expanded to prevent other powers from threatening its interests.
• Nationalism fueled the "new imperialism" and intensified rivalries.
• By 1914, European powers controlled 84 percent of the globe's land, up from 7 percent in 1500, solidifying international alliances while sharpening rivalries.

India

• Independence movements existed since the nineteenth century.
• The Indian National Congress, formed in 1885, became the umbrella party for independence.
• Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) and Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964) were key to India gaining independence through nonviolent resistance advocated by Gandhi.
• Gandhi's message garnered global support, and the Labour party in Britain advocated for Indian independence.
• Ethnic and religious conflict led to the formation of the Muslim League led by Mohammed Ali Jinnah (1876-1948), demanding autonomy in Muslim areas.
• In June 1947, India was partitioned into the Republic of India (Hindu) and Pakistan (Muslim).
• Over a million Hindus and Pakistanis were killed in subsequent conflicts.
• Gandhi was assassinated in January 1948 by a Hindu Zealot.
• Nehru, as Prime Minister, attempted to industrialize India by maintaining neutrality and receiving aid from both the USSR and the US.

Palestine

• During World War I, Britain encouraged Arab militants against the Ottomans and promised a home in Palestine to European Jewish Zionists in the Balfour Mandate of 1917.
• Conflicting promises caused an Arab uprising.
• By 1939, Britain limited Zionist settlement but faced the plight of Jewish refugees after the war.
• A three-way war ensued between Palestinian Arabs, Zionists, and the British.
• The UN voted to partition the region into Israel and Palestine.
• In May 1948, Israel declared independence and was attacked by neighboring states but survived.
• The armistice created over a million Palestinian Arab refugees, leading to residence in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank of the Jordan.
• Both the US and the Soviet Union recognized Israel.

Africa

• Most decolonization efforts in West Africa were peaceful.
• Britain, France, and Belgium granted independence without providing support beyond establishing governments.
• African countries lacked the tools to address harm from colonization.
• Violence erupted in Kenya when the Kikuyu population rebelled, resulting in British repression and internment camps.
• In 1963, Britain conceded to Kenya's independence.
• In Rhodesia, white settlers waged a civil war against native Rhodesians.
• In South Africa, the white Afrikaner population established apartheid, denying rights and segregating Africans, Indians, and people of color.

Rwanda

• The Rwanda genocide was a planned campaign of mass murder that occurred over approximately 100 days in April–July 1994.
• Extremist Hutu elements conceived the genocide to kill the minority Tutsi population and any opponents.
• An estimated 200,000 Hutu participated, incited by propaganda.
• More than 800,000 civilians were killed during the campaign, primarily Tutsi, but also moderate Hutu.
• As many as 2,000,000 Rwandans fled the country during or immediately after the genocide.
• Major ethnic groups in Rwanda include Hutu (more than four-fifths of the population) and Tutsi (about one-seventh).
• The Twa constitute less than 1 percent of the population.
• All three groups speak Rwanda (Kinyarwanda), suggesting centuries of cohabitation.
• The Twa initially settled the area, followed by the Hutu (probably between the 5th and 11th centuries) and then the Tutsi (likely beginning in the 14th century).
• Tutsi migrations from the north culminated in the 16th century with the emergence of a small kingdom in the central region, ruled by the Tutsi minority. This persisted until the arrival of Europeans in the 19th century.
• Social differences traditionally existed between the Hutu and the Tutsi.
• The Tutsi, with a strong pastoralist tradition gained social, economic, and political ascendancy over the primarily agricultural Hutu through a system of patron-client ties. Identification as Tutsi or Hutu was fluid.
• Physical appearance could correspond somewhat to ethnic identification, but the difference between the two groups was not always immediately apparent.
• Intermarriage and the use of a common language contributed to this fluidity.
• During the colonial era, Germany and later Belgium assumed ethnicity could be distinguished by physical characteristics.
• They used ethnic differences found in their own countries as models to create a system whereby the categories of Hutu and Tutsi were no longer fluid.
• The German colonial government, begun in 1898 and continuing until 1916, strengthened the hegemony of the Tutsi ruling class.
• The Belgian government, which followed the Germans, further reinforced Tutsi authority after World War I.
• Some Hutu began to demand equality, finding sympathy from Roman Catholic clergy and some Belgian personnel, leading to the Hutu revolution.
• The Hutu revolution began on November 1, 1959, when a rumor of the death of a Hutu leader led to attacks on the Tutsi.
• A Hutu coup on January 28, 1961, with Belgian approval, deposed the Tutsi king and abolished the monarchy.
• Rwanda became a republic with an all-Hutu provisional national government.
• Independence was proclaimed the next year.
• The transition from Tutsi to Hutu rule was not peaceful; from 1959 to 1961, some 20,000 Tutsi were killed, and many more fled the country.
• By early 1964, at least 150,000 Tutsi were in neighboring countries.
• Additional instances of ethnic tension and violence flared periodically and led to mass killings of Tutsi in Rwanda, such as in 1963, 1967, and 1973.
• Tension between Hutu and Tutsi flared again in 1990, when Tutsi-led Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) rebels invaded from Uganda
• A cease-fire was negotiated in early 1991, and negotiations between the RPF and the government of President Juvénal Habyarimana began in 1992.
• An agreement between the RPF and the government, signed in August 1993 in Arusha, Tanzania, called for the creation of a broad-based transition government that would include the RPF.
• Hutu extremists, strongly opposed to that plan, increased dissemination of their anti-Tutsi agenda, which had been propagated via newspapers and radio.