Research Topics
The New Imperialism
How important was the importation of European culture into these new colonies? Did native populations welcome or resist the Europeans?
In the last quarter of the 19th century, the great powers of Europe colonized 90% of the African continent. The "Scramble for Africa" was part of what European historians call the new imperialism and although economic causes were certainly paramount, there were other, sometimes more subtle, explanations that forced Europe to "colonize the uncolonized." For instance, the ideas of the Social Darwinism, eugenics and racial supremacy also played a major role in justifying the new imperialist endeavors. The United States also entered "the game" of territorial expansion.
- John Arthur Hobson, Imperialism (1902)
Hobson's critique of imperialism argued that the new imperialism was driven by the search for new markets and capitalist profit alone.
- Rudyard Kipling, The White Man's Burden
Kipling's controversial poem that some interpreted as a plea for "enlightened" empire while others saw it as imperialist propaganda.
- Jules Ferry, On French Colonial Expansion
Following French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, Ferry proposed the acquisition of a great French colonial empire.
- Theodore Roosevelt, Review of Houston Stewart Chamberlain's The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century
Rossevelt's clearly sympathetic review of Chamberlain's book that promoted the idea that moral, cultural and technological progress was due to the influence of the German race.
- Francis Galton, Eugenics - Its Definition, Scope, and Aims (1904)
A cousin of Charles Darwin, Galton proposed that the science of eugenics would create new policies that would produce genetically superior racial stock.
- Joseph Chamberlain, Birmingham Speech on the Need for Foreign Markets
Chamberlain's speech to manufacturers and workers of Birmingham that illustrate the connection between politics and the new imperialism.
- Mary H. Fulton, On Christian Missionaries
A member of the American Presbyterian Mission in China, Fulton describes how missionaries tried to change the habits of the people among whom they encounter.
- The Treatment of Natives in the Congo
An American writer offers his criticism of the harsh treatment of the natives of the Congo Free State under Leopold of Belgium.