Imperialism Causes, Critics, Responses, and Organization (in brief)

Here are some things to think through and discuss:

Causes of Imperialism:

Political and Diplomatic - prestige, ports, national security, military power, colonial nationalism (Treitschke)

Altruistic - Kipling, medicine, education, democracy, Christianity, increased standard of living, end to barbaric practices

Ideological - Social Darwinism

Domestic - success means increased nationalism, distraction from domestic issues, more jobs, cheaper goods, yellow journalism

Special Interest Groups - shipbuilders to humanitarians to military officers to missionaries to settlers to colonial officials

Economic - driven by mercantilism, needed more raw materials and markets

Technological - now they could!, Maxim gun, quinine, steamship, telegraph

Critics

Hobson's Imperialism -
 - Economic argument (failed) - Marxist critique of capitalism
 - Moral argument (successful) - blatant hypocrisy

Labouchere's "Brown Man's Burden"
 - Imperialism as racist, exploitive, and brutal

Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness
 - Corrupting influence of Imperialism

Response by the Imperialized

Resistors - violent resistance (often a bloody failure)

Traditionalists - willing to accept foreign domination if they can preserve native culture

Westernizers/Modernists - adopted western ways (economics, politics, and/or military)

Conformers - tolerate and don't see a great change from their own rulers (vast majority of people)

Organization

Colony - direct rule

Protectorate - indirect rule

Sphere of Influence - economic domination