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History Notes World Imperialism, 1850 - 1914 Notes

World Imperialism Notes

Updated World Imperialism Notes

World Imperialism, 1850 - 1914 Notes

World Imperialism, 1850 - 1914

Approximately 130 pages

Exhaustive notes on every major, and almost every minor, empire of the nineteenth century. Though starting in 1850, they record the background - sometimes as far back as the eighteenth century - as well as the development, extent, rule, and domestic reaction of every empire from Japan to Portugal, Italy to America, Austria to Holland. Complete with timelines, illustrations, quotes, maps, and a lengthy discourse on theories of imperialism from Marx to Hobhouse....

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Imperialism

Contents

  • Past questions

  • Quotes

    • Historiography

    • Expansion

    • Rule

    • Domestics

  • Maps

    • The British Empire in 1882

    • The British Empire in 1914

    • The Scramble for Africa

  • Chronology

    • Domestic developments

    • Imperial acquisitions

    • Imperial events

  • Historiography

    • Definition

    • Informal empire

    • Overview

    • Lenin

    • Hobson

    • Schumpeter

    • Hildebrand

    • Robinson and Gallagher

    • Fieldhouse

    • Cain and Hopkins

    • Diplomatic explanations

    • Financial explanations

    • Militaristic explanations

    • Social imperialism

    • Religious imperialism

    • Men on the spot

    • Technology

    • Imperialism and nationalism

    • Imperialism and globalisation

  • Colonial rule

    • Oppression

    • Enlightenment

    • Collaboration

    • Administration

    • Technology

  • Domestic reaction

    • Culture

    • Science

  • British imperialism

    • Formal empire

    • Informal empire

    • Reasons for expansion

    • Rule

    • Domestic response

  • French imperialism

    • Formal empire

    • Informal empire

    • Reasons for expansion

    • Rule

    • Domestic response

  • Belgian imperialism

    • Formal empire

    • Reasons for expansion

    • Rule

    • Domestic response

  • German imperialism

    • Formal empire

    • Informal empire

    • Reasons for expansion

    • Rule

    • Domestic response

  • Italian imperialism

    • Formal empire

    • Reasons for expansion

    • Rule

    • Domestic response

  • Russian imperialism

    • Formal empire

    • Informal empire

    • Reasons for expansion

    • Rule

    • Domestic response

  • Portuguese imperialism

    • Formal empire

    • Reasons for expansion

    • Rule

    • Domestic response

  • Dutch imperialism

    • Formal empire

    • Reasons for expansion

    • Rule

    • Domestic response

  • Spanish imperialism

    • Formal empire

    • Reasons for expansion

    • Rule

    • Domestic response

  • Austrian imperialism

    • Formal empire

    • Informal empire

    • Reasons for expansion

    • Rule

    • Domestic response

  • Japanese imperialism

    • Formal empire

    • Reasons for expansion

    • Rule

    • Domestic response

  • American imperialism

    • Formal empire

    • Reasons for expansion

    • Rule

    • Domestic response

Past questions

  • How useful is the suggestion that colonial expansion was driven mainly by metropolitan concerns? You should answer with reference to at least two countries.

    • Trinity 2013

  • To what extent did ‘technological superiority’ drive imperialism? You may, if you wish, restrict yourself to any one empire.

    • Trinity 2013

  • Was European global expansion driven mainly by domestic concerns? (You should answer with reference to at least two empires.)

    • Trinity 2012

  • With what consequences did colonial powers in this period employ modem forms of knowledge in order to rule? (You should answer with reference to at least two empires.)

    • Trinity 2011

  • Is it possible to offer a general explanation of the change from informal to formal empire? You should answer with reference to at least two countries.

    • Trinity 2010

  • Was the race for imperial possessions driven more by inter-state competition than by social importance?

    • Trinity 2010

  • Was European imperialism an inevitable consequence of inter-state rivalry? You should answer with reference to at least two countries.

    • Trinity 2009

  • How important was the mass media to the development of imperialism?

    • Trinity 2009

  • How important was the mass media to the development of imperialism? You should answer with reference to at least two countries.

    • Trinity 2008

  • What role did colonial warfare play in the rise of militarism in Europe? You should answer with reference to at least two countries.

    • Trinity 2008

  • Was European imperialism an inevitable consequence of inter-state rivalry? You should answer with reference to at least two countries.

    • Trinity 2007

  • Were domestic political pressures the main driving force in the Scramble for Africa? You should answer with reference to at least two countries.

    • Trinity 2006

  • Is it disingenuous to blame the ‘Scramble for Africa’ on imperial adventurers?

    • Trinity 2005

Quotes

Historiography

  • “Imperialism is capitalism in that stage of development in which the domination of monopolies and finance capital has taken shape”.

    • Vladimir Lenin.

  • Imperialism is “the objectless disposition on the part of a state to unlimited forcible expansion”.

    • Joseph Schumpeter.

  • ‘Foreign policy-makers have never operated in a vacuum’.

    • Andrew Porter.

  • Empire was ‘omnipresent in the lives of ordinary people’.

    • Catherine Hall and Sonya Rose.

  • That ‘the empire had no everyday relevance’ for the British majority.

    • Frederick Madden.

Expansion

  • “We have the power in our hands, moral, physical, and mechanical; the first, based on the Bible, the second, upon the wonderful adaptation of the Anglo-Saxon race to all climates, situations, and circumstances… the third, bequeathed to us by the immortal Watt.”

    • Macgregor Laird.

  • “I have added two provinces to Your Majesty’s dominions”.

    • Cecil Rhodes, 1895.

  • In front of world technology, “il n’existe ni mers, ni montagnes, ni distances, ni obstacles”.

    • Théophile Gautier, 1855.

  • “It is thanks to Maillot that Algeria has become a French land; it is he who closed and sealed forever this tomb of Christians”.

    • The Scientific Congress of Algiers, 1881.

  • “Take your banner! Onward go! / Christian soldiers, seek your foe, / And the devil to refute, / Do not hesitate to shoot.”

    • Truth, 16th April 1891.

  • “If the sun is not ascending it is descending… If the country is not flourishing it is declining.”

    • Yoshida Shōin.

  • Seizing Korea would “eliminate recrimination and jealously among its people” (the Japanese people).

    • Kido Takayoshi.

  • “I insist on war with China to transform Japan, hitherto a contracting nation, into an expansive nation.”

    • Tokutomi Sohō.

  • “France would not easily be content to count for no more in the world that a big Belgium.”

    • Jules Ferry, 1882.

  • “If a nation wishes to remain or become great, it must undertake colonisation.”

    • Bélbin, President of the Valenciennes Society.

  • ‘What he was after was not political grandeur but economic advantage.’

    • Jean Stengers on King Leopold.

  • The “magnificent African pie”.

    • Leopold II of the Belgians.

  • It “is on distant shores that we need to recover the lost half-provinces”.

    • Leopold II, December 1861.

  • “I deplore the internal situation...

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