Age Of Empire 1800 1914 Notes

‘Old’ vs. ‘New’ Imperialism

Classical Theories:

What came before the ‘New’ Imperialism?

John Seeley, The Expansion of England (1883)

• Focus on:

  • Decades before the ‘new imperialism’

  • Pax Britannica (1815)

  • North America, West Indies and India

  • Constitutional and political relations

• ‘Anti-imperialism’ and colonial retraction:

  • Abolition of the slave trade (1807) and slavery (1833)

  • Congress of Vienna 1815 – French colonial losses

  • Iberian colonial losses/weakness

  • Repeal of Corn Laws (1846)

  • ‘Responsible Government’ in Australasia from 1855 & Canada from 1867

• Implied that English expansion was not deliberate; more like accidental expansion

The ‘Old’ Historiography:

• 1800-70 anti-imperial years and focus on colonial retraction

• 1870-1914 emergence of ‘new’ imperialism

  • Transition from ‘anti-imperial’ period to ‘new’ imperialism is the main focus of the debate

John. A. Hobson (1858-1940):

• Imperialism: A Study (1902)

• Liberal tendencies; critical of capitalism but not socialist

• Argued that Imperialism was the outcome of long term, large scale economic developments

• Industrialisation, combined with nationalism emerging in the 19^th century, initiated the period of ‘new’ imperialism

• Hobson places sole significance on economics; neglects importance of international competition/military power & influence

• Argued that only a small section of society benefited from imperialism

• ‘New’ imperialism was distinct because there was no extension of political systems: autocratic

• Noble aims used to justify imperial expansion (White-man’s burden)

• Growth of production efficiency exceeded consumption potential; mal-distribution of consumption power (rather than increasing production efficiency) demanded the opening of new markets

  • Opening of new markets required overseas expansion

• Influenced by second Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) and ‘Great Depression’ 1873-1896

  • Focus on role of ‘sub-imperialists’

    • Cecil Rhodes, Nathaniel de Rothschild, Jameson raid

      • Significant role of individuals in imperial expansion and conflict

  • Dark side of the Boer War

    • Writing influenced by this; critical of imperialism

  • ‘Great Depression’ 1873-96

    • Uneven economic growth and contraction, and under-consumption combined with a drop in prices led to a crash in the Vienna stock market; nations adopted protectionist measures and searched for new markets overseas

      • Imperial expansion

    • Transition from industrial to finance capital

Vladimir. I. Lenin (1870-1924):

• Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism: a popular outline (1916)

  • Classical Marxist interpretation

• Massive influence from John Hobson

• Imperialism:

  • ‘monopoly stage of capitalism’

  • Beginning of the redistribution rather than initial distribution of the world would cause the inter-capitalist conflict that would eventually end in worldwide communist revolution

• Territorial expansion was not initially imperialism; imperialism began in the 1900’s

  • Focus on redistribution

• Writing to explain to origins of the First World War

  • Attempts to portray imperialism as the origins

• Colonialism needed because capital was not profitable in domestic markets due to uneven development

• Beginnings of investment of capital in potential

• Imperialism accelerated capitalist development through the expansion of existing economic disparity – uneven development caused decay

  • More imperialism = quicker decay

Joseph A. Schumpeter (1883-1950):

• Imperialism and social classes: two essays (1919)

  • Heavily influenced by the effects of WW1 alongside post-war colonial sentiment

    • Widespread anti-Imperialist feelings

    • Demise of German, Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires

    • Democratisation, domestic reform, ‘self-determination’

• Economist and sociologist

  • Focus on social effects unlike Lenin & Hobson

• Favours free trade and laissez-faire capitalism

• Imperialism

  • An irrational and ‘objectless’ inclination towards war and conquest

  • The effect of atavistic social structures and psychological modes of thought stemming from pre-capitalist times

    • Aristocratic values of militarism, power politics and autocracy

  • Believed Imperialism was destined to disappear

• Does not think that imperialism and capitalism are intertwined at all and that they should be treated as distinct notions

Classical theory conclusions:

• Focused on metropolitan impulses

• ‘New’ imperialism begins in 1873? Or 1900?

• Focus on tropics and sub tropics

• Finance capitalism – completely focused on economics

• Atavistic (Schumpeter)

  • Imperialism the continuation of ‘aristocratic’ modes of behaviour

• Nationalism and Jingoism prevalent

Challenges to traditional historiography:

John Gallagher & Ronald Robinson:

• ‘The Imperialism of Free Trade’ (1953)

• Africa and the Victorians: the official mind of imperialism (1961)

• Challenging ‘New’ Imperialism:

  • Contest the partition of imperialism into phases

    • Continuity in imperial policies

  • Continuity found by considering the ‘informal’ empires

    • Free trade IS and CAN BE imperialism

      • China

  • There were no colonial retractions, just transformations in the nature of control

    • Self-governing provinces were still under the control of the metropole

  • Territorial annexations continued throughout the 19^th century

    • Punjab, Singapore, Cape colony etc.

  • Difference between the two ‘phases’ was the pace and quality of imperial expansion

• Challenging ‘Economic’ Imperialism:

  • Can economics explain the colonial scramble of the late 19^th century?

    • Was the scramble for Africa and subsequent annexations economically beneficial to the nations involved?

      • Lenin’s point about investment in potential

  • New colonies in Africa and East Asia saw the least amount of trade and investment

  • Formal annexations were a reluctant, involuntary and defensive mechanism

    • Last resort

  • ‘Official mind’ of imperialism determines nature and method of expansion

    • Official mind is the ideas, perceptions and intentions of those who had a bearing on British imperial policies

  • National interest in...

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