“Pilfering Our Resources”: Teaching the Causes of New Imperialism with Primary Sources

By the end of the nineteenth century, the British enjoyed bragging about how much of the Earth they ruled over. They bragged about the size of their empire with phrases about the sun never setting on it. They bragged about the size of their empire, with maps of the world colored in red for all the locations they had colonized. If Greta Thunberg had been alive in 1900, she would have responded perfectly to any nation that bragged about the size of its empire or the number of its colonies.

Once we get past Britain’s boasting, how do we help students understand why the British and the other Western powers colonized much of the world in sixty-five years? It’s worthwhile to begin by showing the students the amount of territory Europeans colonized so that they can visualize the magnitude of the territorial changes. If we have students look at maps of the world from 1850 and 1914 (the eve of the First World War), they can see how much territory Europeans (as well as Americans and Japanese) had colonized.

In 1850, Europeans were less than 20% of the world’s total population, but they controlled most of the world’s territory by 1914. How and why were relatively few people able to assert power over so many people and so much territory? When it comes to teaching the causes of New Imperialism, there are two separate elements we want students to understand. There is the question of why Europeans wanted to colonize – the motives. There is also the question of why Europeans were able to colonize – the means or the methods. We can let Europeans speak for themselves about their motives and methods, but there is no reason to let Europeans’ arguments go unchallenged in the classroom. If we want to escape from Eurocentric interpretations of world history, students should consider how colonized peoples and Western opponents of imperialism understood the causes of European conquests.

Tools of Empire: The Methods of New Imperialism

Daniel Headrick’s The Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century may be over forty years old now, but the book is still relevant to how we teach imperialism. Catchy titles and acronyms help students remember and understand what they’re learning. The “tools of empire” can be found in many world history textbooks, even if the phrase is sometimes not used. These tools were new transportation technologies, such as railroad lines, steamships, and the Suez Canal; telegraph cables; new weapons, especially the Maxim gun; and recent medical advances, such as quinine. These “tools” helped a relatively few Europeans overwhelm and conquer significantly more people in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific.

One way to have students understand the significance of these tools is by having them closely examine illustrations from the era of New Imperialism for evidence of these tools. One of the more well-known examples is the Battle of Omdurman in Sudan in 1898. Using this illustration by Sutherland, students can identify the Maxims, steamships in the Nile River, and the hospital in the foreground. They may notice that the “British” army included colonized people. The image also highlights the numerical disparity between the combined British forces and the soldiers of the Mahdist State. A smaller number of soldiers with Maxims could overwhelm much larger armies.

The importance of quinine to New Imperialism can’t be overstated. For hundreds of years, African and Asian states in tropical regions blocked European access. Europeans frequently died from tropical diseases, such as malaria, but quinine changed these dynamics. Quinine was derived from the bark of the Andean Cinchona tree, which had been long known to indigenous Americans. In the early nineteenth century, two French scientists developed quinine, and European imperial powers quickly adopted it. One way that British colonial officials and soldiers got their daily dose of quinine was in tonic water mixed with gin. Many “mixologists” now like to brag about the gin and tonic as the drink of the British Empire. We can have students analyze this early twentieth-century French image to see how the importance of quinine was understood at the time. Students can see how quinine and mosquito nets were celebrated for allowing soldiers to return from “the Orient.”

It wasn’t only Europeans that were aware of the importance of these tools. Africans and Asians understood the significance of these new tools. We can have students analyze Ndansi Kumalo’s recollection of fighting in the Matabele Wars in the 1890s in modern-day Zimbabwe (then Southern Rhodesia). Kumalo described his awareness of the superior British weapons:

We knew that we had very little chance because their weapons were so much superior to ours…I had a gun, a breech-loader. They – the white men – fought us with big guns and Maxims and rifles.

During the Opium Wars in China, the British were victorious because of steamships, such as the Nemesis, and superior firearms. In this Chinese illustration after the Second Opium War, students can identify the British soldiers’ rifles and a steamship. They can also see the Chinese soldiers fighting with swords. Students can differentiate the soldiers by the hats each side wore.

In my last post, I discussed a painting of the Ethiopian illustration of the Battle of Adwa. This frequently reproduced image shows the Ethiopian army with the same weapons as the Italian army. It’s an important reminder that the tools of empire mattered to European success. European imperialists frequently bragged about their racial superiority to the people they colonized. When the Ethiopian soldiers had the same weapons as the Italian soldiers, a Black African army defeated a White European army.

European Justifications for Colonization

If the tools of empire enabled European conquests in the second half of the nineteenth century, we also need to help students understand why Europeans wanted to conquer. I intentionally emphasize “wanted” in that sentence. As we will see, European justifications for imperialism often include words such as “need” or “must,” and we want students to notice this tendency. No state or nation ever needs to conquer another group of people. The decision to conquer is a choice, and we want students to be aware of that choice. Late nineteenth-century imperialism was never something Europeans were forced to do; it was something Europeans desired and chose to do.

To encourage student analysis of the motives for European imperialism, I taught three types of motivation: cultural, economic, and political. Economic motives included gaining access to raw materials from colonies and finding export markets for the goods of the metropole. Europeans often presented political motives in nationalist terms: desiring to prove the strength of one’s nation and “beating” other Western nations in some imagined race. Cultural motives include different beliefs, such as Social Darwinism, scientific racism, and the Civilizing Mission. Despite the claims of the advocates of these beliefs, we want to make sure that students understand that Social Darwinism and scientific racism are not valid scientific theories.

One of the most useful sources for teaching imperial motives is Jules Ferry’s speech before the French National Assembly in 1883. In this speech, Ferry invoked all three types of motivation. When discussing economics, Ferry attempted to justify his belief in a few different ways:

In the area of economics, I will allow myself to place before you... the considerations which justify a policy of colonial expansion from the point of view of that need, felt more and more strongly by the industrial populations of Europe and particularly those of our own rich and hardworking country: the need for export markets… I will formulate only in a general way what each of you, in the different parts of France, is in a position to confirm. Yes, what is lacking for our great industry, drawn irrevocably on to the path of exports by the treaties of 1860, is more and more export markets. Why? Because next door to us Germany is surrounded by (tariff) barriers, because beyond the ocean, the United States has become protectionist, protectionist in the most extreme sense, because not only have these great markets... become more difficult to access for our industrial products, but also these great states are beginning to pour out products at a level not seen heretofore into our own markets… It is not necessary to pursue this demonstration any further…

We can have students analyze this speech to identify the different motives and how Ferry framed his arguments. He used the phrase “the need for export markets,” and he blamed that need on policies in Germany and the United States. Students can see how Ferry suggested that France was not at fault; colonial expansion was something France had to do rather than wanted to do. This rhetorical strategy is common throughout the speech. If students do not understand the economic arguments in this source, we can use the map below to help visualize how British imperialism contributed to a tightly integrated economic network exchanging finished goods and raw materials worldwide. Ferry wanted the economic benefits of the British Empire for France, but he presented his arguments differently.

Students can also analyze European motives for imperialism using a variety of images. “The World’s Plunderers” cartoon by the American Thomas Nast is helpful for having students think about both the political and economic motives. European nations believed they should compete to have the most resources. This cartoon is included in many textbooks, but the caption is often removed. This caption helps students analyze Nast’s perspective. Was Nash blaming the British for New Imperialism, or was he suggesting the English were the “winners” of imperialism?

Students can also see how Western nations justified imperialism using the rhetoric of Social Darwinism and the Civilizing Mission. Before we show these cartoons, I encourage teachers to warn students that they contain racist depictions of non-Europeans. One of the well-known images is Udo Keppler’s “From the Cape to Cairo.” It appeared in Puck magazine in 1902.

Students can see how Keppler juxtaposed the British under the banner of “Civilization” with Africans under the banner of “Barbarism.” Students can also analyze how Keppler depicted the British and the Africans. If we use a cartoon like this one in the classroom, we want to make sure we acknowledge its racism and make clear to students that we want them to see how racism influenced European imperialism.

Dissenting Views

Even though Europeans claimed they conquered because of a desire to “civilize” or the “need” to have export markets, many people in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries criticized and challenged these specious arguments. By introducing our students to these critiques of European motives, we avoid reinforcing problematic views and help students see that alternative visions of the world existed at the time.

Within Europe, many socialists and anarchists challenged the arguments put forth by the supporters of imperialism. It’s important to acknowledge that while these opponents challenged assertions of spreading civilization and drew attention to the excessive violence of European colonialism, many of these critics accepted the idea of the racial superiority of Europeans. When we use political cartoons produced by the European critics of empire, we should warn students ahead of time of racist depictions.

René Georges Hermann-Paul’s cartoon below is an excellent image to pair with Keppler’s cartoon. We can have students analyze Hermann-Paul’s dueling images and reflect on what determines if murder is “civilized” or “barbaric.” Is the person performing the murder more influential than the act of murder itself?

Some of the most ardent European critiques of imperialism appeared in the pages of the French magazine L’Assiette au beurre (“The Butter Plate” but better translated as “The Pork Barrel”). All the issues can be found online, so this magazine is an excellent resource to use with students. The two images of “Civilization” and “Colonization” challenge students to think about the meaning of these frequently used terms in the nineteenth century. There was the rhetoric about what European colonizers claimed to be doing, and there was the reality of how European colonizers behaved. The second image also asks if “civilization” is something Africans asked for. These images present a different vision of European imperialism.

Just as there were Europeans who challenged the claims of imperialists, there were also colonized Africans and Asians who questioned the rhetoric of imperialism. By the early twentieth century, many Vietnamese had begun to question both older Vietnamese Confucian values and the claims of the French colonizers. In Colonialism Experienced: Vietnamese Writings on Colonialism, 1900-1931, Truong Buu Lâm has collected a selection of Vietnamese authors describing the experience of French colonization. This book is an excellent resource to use with students since many of the authors directly respond to the claims of French colonizers. In the 1920s, Nguyen An Ninh presented a significantly different picture of the reasons for French colonization:

It was not to perform a sentimental deed that France came to Indochina, after covering a distance of 15,000 kilometers. Vietnamese who, over the last few years, talked about humanitarian motives on the part of the French with the sole aim of humoring the colonialists, are as naive as those Europeans who still believe in the civilizing mission of Europe.

There were also some Vietnamese who cooperated with and accepted the claims of French colonizers. An anonymous underground newspaper Lao Nong (Workers and Peasants), addressed this issue:

To this day, some naive people still think that France came to “civilize” the Vietnamese. Those people live in tall houses with wide gates; they occupy important jobs and powerful positions: they never open their eyes to see how the imperialists are pilfering our resources and how they squash our compatriots. Right now, imperialist France uses all of its exploiting power to steal from its colonies in order to support its own economy. That's why, in Indochina, they are busily laying down railroad tracks, clearing wild forests, confiscating ricefields and land, taking advantage of our cheap labor.

We can have students analyze these excerpts to compare them to the arguments put forth by European imperialists. Students will notice how these Vietnamese authors rejected French claims about a civilizing mission and focused more on greedy economic motives.

The Vietnamese were not the only ones who questioned the claims of their colonizers. In late nineteenth-century India, many Indians advocated for some form of self-governance and established the Indian National Congress in 1885. Debates about British rule began to show up in Indian media. The magazine Hindi Punch published this cartoon as a commentary on British rule in 1892.

If students look closely at the cartoon, they will see the female representation of India in the lower left. The elephant represents British rule, and a British Indian army soldier rides on the elephant with various weapons. Tied to the legs of the elephant is India’s wealth in the form of taxes and raw materials. India is trying to separate the natural resources from the elephant before it takes away this wealth to the British. The elephant is also blindfolded and dropping the demands of the Indian National Congress in a basket. Like the Vietnamese authors, this cartoon suggests that the main reason for British imperialism was economic – imperialism was a way for the British to profit off Indians.

Conclusion

Much European rhetoric about imperialism in the late nineteenth century focused on claims about racial differences and benefits for different groups. We can see the legacy of this problematic rhetoric in the present-day teaching and discussions of the “positives” of empire that I discussed in the last post. Taking time with students to understand the causes of New Imperialism helps students understand how causation is often complicated. Rarely did one person or event, or idea causes something. It’s typically multiple factors coming together. In the case of imperialism, not only were there multiple factors, Europeans often emphasized some factors more than others. Europeans sometimes presented imperialism as something they were forced to do. By having students look at the arguments of both the advocates of imperialism and their opponents, we can help students learn “both sides” but to do so in a more nuanced manner. Students not only gain a more in-depth understanding of New Imperialism, but they also become better critical thinkers who understand how politicians speak and write in ways that obscure brutal realities.

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Further Resources

Empires and Colonies in the Modern World: A Global Perspective is the best resource. Heather Streets-Salter and Trevor Getz have the most thorough discussion of the causes of New Imperialism.

Trevor Getz's short article "Tools of Imperialism" is a slightly different approach to the tools of empire concept. It's a useful introduction to students.

What I’m Reading or Listening to this Week

The Cargo Rebellion: Those Who Chose Freedom - an excellent new graphic history about a mutiny by indentured Chinese workers.

Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja’s “Patrice Lumumba and the unfinished business of liberation” - this is an older article, but a powerful one about Patrice Lumumba. Nzongola-Ntalaja describes the development Lumumba’s political consciousness and the events surrounding his assassination.

La Brega Podcast - I head a promo for the second season of the incredible La Brega podcast. It reminded me of the first season, which was an amazing exploration of Puerto Rican history and culture.

Bibliography

Headrick, Daniel R. The Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century. New York: Oxford University Press, 1981.

Lâm, Truong Buu. Colonialism Experienced: Vietnamese Writings on Colonialism, 1900-1931. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000.

Simonetti, O., Contini, C., & Martini, M.. “The history of Gin and Tonic; the infectious disease specialist long drink. When gin and tonic was not ordered but prescribed.” Le infezioni in medicina, 30 (4), (2022): 619–626. https://doi.org/10.53854/liim-3004-18