New Imperialism

The New Imperialism was a period of intensified imperialistic expansion from the latter half of the 19th century until the outbreak of World War I in 1914. British imperialism in the late nineteenth century was “new” because, compared to previous decades, Britain had been comparably less colonialist. From 1815 to the 1860s, Britain acquired comparably less colonies than it did from the 1870s onward. This New Imperialist Age gained its impetus from economic, military, political, humanitarian, and religious reasons. Simultaneously, Britain was the dominant core economy in the world-system. Unlike the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century method of establishing settlements, the new imperialists set up the administration of the native areas for the benefit of the colonial power.

In the 1880s, Great Britain was rapidly striving for an expanded empire. Although a parliamentary committee recommended withdrawal from some colonies in 1865, many industrialised nations, including Great Britain, suddenly became interested in further territories. Around 1870, it became economically necessary for European industrialised nations to expand their markets globally. The need for labour and raw materials, such as oil, rubber and steel, drove this expansion. The imperialists saw direct control over these regions as crucial to the effective functioning of their industrialised economies. New technologies, medicines for tropical diseases and improved weapons, such as the machine gun, were additional drivers of the new imperialism in the 19th century.

In the last quarter of the 19th century, the British Empire increased in size and was seen as the means of arresting Britain's decline in the world. In 1870, art critic, social reformer and the Professor of Fine Art at Oxford, John Ruskin, made a speech in which he announced a new role for Empire. He introduced the theme of Imperial Duty as Britain's destiny and how Britain had a mission to found colonies and settle them with young men who would advance the power of the home country. Consequently, from 1881 to 1902, Britain competed with other European empire-builders in what became known as the “Scramble for Africa”. By the early 1900, huge parts of Africa. including Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria and large areas of southern Africa, all came under British rule. Britain’s holdings in Africa were not as large as France’s but it controlled the more populated regions, particularly of southern Africa, which contained valuable mineral resources such as diamonds and gold.

References

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Getz, Trevor. “Industrial Imperialism, the ‘New’ Imperialism.” World History Project, pp. 1–6.

Go, Julian. “‘New’ Imperialisms: the British and US Empires in Comparison*.” American Sociological Association, Aug. 2009, pp. 1–20.

Magdoff, Harry und Walter A. McDougall. „New Imperialism | Definition, History und Causes“. Encyclopedia Britannica, 12. Dezember 2023, www.britannica.com/topic/New-Imperialism.

McGowan, Patrick J., and Bohdan Kordan. “Imperialism in world-system perspective: Britain 1870-1914.” International Studies Quarterly, vol. 25, no. 1, 1981, p. 43, https://doi.org/10.2307/2600210.

The Age of Discovery - Tamaqua Area School District, www.tamaqua.k12.pa.us/cms/lib07/PA01000119/Centricity/Domain/119/TheAgeofDiscovery.pdf. Accessed 10 Jan. 2024.