What is Imperialism?
Imperialism is about one country holding power over others. It can mean direct rule by a governor, settlers taking land, a weaker state forced to accept a protector, or quieter pressure through trade and debt. Empires are very old, but the word is mostly used for the European, American and Japanese expansion of the last few centuries. Supporters at the time said empire brought security, trade, law, religion and progress. Critics, then and now, answer that it rested on force, racial ranking and the taking of land and labour. Most historians today treat empire as a story of both lasting change and deep harm to the people ruled.
Core beliefs
- A great power has a right and a duty to extend its influence abroad.
- Colonies bring raw materials, markets, naval bases and prestige.
- Some peoples are said to need guidance from a more advanced power.
- Empire spreads religion, law, commerce and what supporters called civilisation.
- Strength abroad keeps a state safe from rival powers.
- Subject peoples should not have the same political rights as the ruling nation.
History
Ancient Rome, the Persian and Chinese empires and the Ottoman state were all empires long before the modern idea. Portugal and Spain began overseas empires in the 1400s and 1500s, followed by the Dutch, French and British. Between about 1870 and 1914 came a rush for territory known as the New Imperialism. At the Berlin Conference of 1884 and 1885, European powers set rules for dividing up claims in Africa, with no African rulers at the table. Supporters included Cecil Rhodes, Joseph Chamberlain, Jules Ferry and the American naval writer Alfred Thayer Mahan. Rudyard Kipling's poem of 1899 told the United States to take up the White Man's Burden. The twentieth century brought the violent expansion of Italy, Germany and Japan before and during the Second World War. After 1945, independence movements ended most European colonial rule, with the last major cases settled by the 1970s.
Variants
Historians separate settler empires, where large numbers of colonists moved in, from rule through local officials, and from trading outposts with few people. Informal empire means control without formal annexation, such as pressure on a weaker state through loans or gunboats. Economic explanations of imperialism, by J. A. Hobson and Lenin, said that capitalism pushed for new markets and places to invest. Others stress strategy, national pride and missionary zeal. The word is also used by critics for cultural or economic dominance in the present day, which is more contested.
Criticisms
Anti-colonial writers and most historians stress the violence of conquest, forced labour, famine, the seizure of land and the slave trade. In the Congo Free State under Leopold II, millions died. Critics also point to racism built into imperial rule and to borders drawn without regard to local peoples, which left lasting conflicts. Defenders in their own time pointed to railways, schools, health care and law. Even some who accept those claims say they came at an unacceptable price, and that colonial subjects were denied any say. Free-trade economists have also argued that empire cost its owners more than it earned.
In practice
Imperial power was exercised through armies, navies, colonial administrations, chartered companies, missionaries and schools. Colonial economies were often shaped to export crops or minerals to the ruling country. Legacies include borders, official languages, legal systems, migration flows and bitter memories that still shape politics and trade. On the 12 axes imperialism scores very high toward Strength on Foreign policy and toward Central on Structure, with a strong tilt toward National identity on Culture.