AMSCO 6.1 Rationales for Imperialism Notes

Overview

AMSCO Topic 6.1, Rationales for Imperialism (AMSCO p. 367-374), explains why European powers and Japan built overseas empires between 1750 and 1900. The chapter groups the justifications into three big buckets: nationalist motives, cultural and religious ideologies (including racism dressed up as science), and economic interests tied to the Industrial Revolution. It opens with Rudyard Kipling's 1899 poem "The White Man's Burden," which imperialism's supporters used to argue that Western nations had a duty to "civilize" supposedly inferior peoples.

This topic kicks off Unit 6 of AP World History: Modern, the unit on consequences of industrialization from 1750 to 1900. Everything that follows in the unit, from the Scramble for Africa to indigenous resistance movements, flows from the motives covered here.

Key Timeline of Imperialism (1750-1900): Pivotal events marking the rise of global empires and the reshaping of world politics

Image Courtesy of Nora Anzer

Nationalist Motives for Imperialism

Nationalism, the strong identification with and loyalty to one's nation-state, pushed countries to compete for colonies as proof of national greatness. The 1800s in Western Europe were defined by revolutions, rising nationalism, and the creation of nation-states. Building an empire in Asia or Africa was a way to flex national identity on the global stage.

Britain and France Expand

Britain looked for new lands after losing its American colonies, and France used empire to rebuild its pride after a military humiliation.

• The first British settlers arrived in 1788 in the colony of New South Wales on the east coast of today's Australia (originally a penal colony).
• Britain gradually took control of India from the East India Company. Control began with the Battle of Plassey in 1757 and, by 1857, Britain controlled the entire Indian subcontinent.
• Britain also held Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Burma (Myanmar), the Malay States (including Singapore), and parts of Borneo in Southeast Asia.
• France compensated for its defeat by Prussia in the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871) by expanding overseas. It already held Algeria in North Africa, Senegal in West Africa, Indochina in Southeast Asia, and New Caledonia and other South Pacific islands.

The Newcomers and the Has-Been

Italy and Germany were both newly unified states in the late 19th century. Each wanted colonies for economic and strategic reasons, but also simply for prestige. Neither started acquiring an empire until the mid-1880s.

Spain is the contrast case. It led the first wave of imperialism in the 16th and 17th centuries, but its power had faded so much by the 19th century that it played no dominant role in this second wave. That first wave vs. second wave distinction is a useful comparison for essays.

Japan in East Asia

Japan proved that imperialism wasn't just a European project. Japanese incursions into Korea irritated China, which had exerted a strong presence there for centuries. The conflict became the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). Japan won, gaining control of Korea and seizing Taiwan (called Formosa from the era of Portuguese colonization in the 16th century until the end of World War II). The victory announced Japan's arrival as an imperial power.

Cultural and Religious Motives for Imperialism

Imperial powers told themselves they were helping the people they colonized. Kipling's poem captures the attitude: colonized peoples are described as "half-devil and half-child," and colonizers cast themselves as benevolent protectors on a "civilizing mission" rather than as invaders.

Racial Ideologies and the Misuse of Science

Colonial powers generally believed they were inherently superior to the people they subjugated, and pseudoscience gave that racism a fake stamp of authority.

• Pseudoscientists presented theories as science even though they were incompatible with the scientific method. Phrenologists studied skull sizes and shapes and claimed smaller skulls proved the mental "feebleness" of Africans, indigenous Americans, and Asians. These ideas have been proven false.
• Legitimate science got twisted too. Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection held that biological competition "weeded out" weaker species over millions of years. Some thinkers applied this to human societies, creating Social Darwinism.
• Darwin himself was not a Social Darwinist. But advocates used "survival of the fittest" to argue that European and U.S. power proved white biological superiority, and writers and politicians used that claim to justify more imperialism.

Cultural Ideologies

Pointing to their technological edge over indigenous societies, colonizers felt justified in imposing their own cultures on colonies. For administrative convenience, colonies often lumped together peoples with different languages and customs, and the colonizer's language became a unifying tool. Colonial powers also exported their political, educational, and religious institutions, and even influenced architecture and recreation.

Congregationalist minister Josiah Strong put the mindset bluntly in 1885, predicting the Anglo-Saxon race was "destined to dispossess many weaker races, assimilate others, and mold the remainder" until it had "Anglo-Saxonized mankind."

Religious Motives

Missionaries were among the most tireless "civilizing" influences. Just as Spanish and Portuguese Catholic missionaries combined conquest and evangelism during the Age of Discovery, British Protestant missionaries of the 18th and 19th centuries participated in colonization.

Critics argued missionaries paved the way for imperialism by persuading people to abandon traditional beliefs like ancestor veneration and adopt Christianity, opening the door for those focused on economic gain. Missionaries countered that they combined religion with humanitarian work:

• They set up schools that taught religion plus secular subjects, preparing students to become teachers, lawyers, and other professionals.
• Many provided improved medicines and medical care.
• Some, most famously David Livingstone of Scotland, worked in Sub-Saharan Africa to end the illegal slave trade.

Economic Motives for Imperialism

Some historians argue the ideologies above were really just cover stories for the pursuit of profit. Companies chartered by the British, French, and Dutch governments signed commercial treaties with local rulers in India, East Africa, and the East Indies, gaining rights to build trading posts and forts. These companies originally formed for the spice trade, but many held quasi-governmental powers, raising armies and conquering territory to form colonies. A private company with its own army is the key idea here.

East India Company (EIC)

The English monarch granted the EIC a royal charter in 1600, giving it a monopoly on England's trade with India. After driving out the Portuguese, it traded primarily in cotton, silk, indigo, and spices. By the early 18th century it was the major agent of British imperialism in India, and after 1834 it served as the British government's managing agency there. Its record was ugly: it engaged in the slave trade starting in 1620 and illegally exported opium to China in exchange for tea during the 19th century. (After 1707 it's often called the British East India Company to distinguish it from the Dutch company.)

Dutch East India Company (VOC)

In 1602 the Dutch government gave the VOC (Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie) a monopoly on trade between the Cape of Good Hope and the Straits of Magellan. The VOC concentrated on the islands around Java, replacing the Portuguese there. Corruption and debt led the Dutch government to take over the company's possessions in 1799, creating the Dutch East Indies (today's Indonesia).

The "New Imperialism"

The Industrial Revolution turbocharged the economic logic of empire. After the Napoleonic Wars, Britain was the world's leading economic power through the first half of the 19th century, and its colonies fed that economy in two directions:

• Colonies supplied raw materials for factories (cotton, wool, jute, vegetable oils, rubber) and foodstuffs for growing cities (wheat, tea, coffee, cocoa, meat, butter).
• Colonies, especially settler colonies like Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, served as markets for British manufactured goods.

As the Second Industrial Revolution progressed, other nations challenged Britain's lead and looked to Asia, Africa, and the Pacific for markets, raw materials, and food. Demands for low-wage labor, market access, and control of natural resources fueled fierce competition among imperial powers. That competition sets up the Scramble for Africa and the state expansion covered in AMSCO 6.2 State Expansion notes.

Key Terms to Know

Practice and Next Steps

These notes pair with the Topic 6.1 Rationales for Imperialism study guide, which frames the same content the way the exam tests it. When you're solid on the why of imperialism, move on to how empires actually grew in AMSCO 6.2 State Expansion and how colonized peoples fought back in AMSCO 6.3 Indigenous Responses.

To check yourself, run through AP World guided practice questions on Unit 6, drill vocabulary with the key terms glossary, and find the rest of the chapter notes on the AMSCO notes unit page.