Case Study: A Change in Attitude
The dual phenomena of industry and empire transformed Europe and the world during the late 19th century. With domestic industries booming, European leaders looked abroad for new markets and raw materials. The widespread belief that a nation's imperial holdings were an indication of its strength and racial superiority also fueled the quest for empire.
The dual phenomena of industry and empire transformed Europe and the world during the late 19th century. With domestic industries booming, European leaders looked abroad for new markets and raw materials. The widespread belief that a nation's imperial holdings were an indication of its strength and racial superiority also fueled the quest for empire.
Guiding Question:
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Topics for Discussion
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Reading:
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For this case study you are to analyze Chapter 24 Industrialization and the World Economy and review the sources provided below. You are expected to be able to answer the guiding question in full depth with specific historical evidence and supporting details.
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Sources
Source 1: Joseph Chamberlain, British Industrialist, Speech to Parliament, 1888
(Note: Reform Bill of 1884 was just passed) |
We have suffered much in this country from depression of trade. We know how many of our fellow-subjects are at this movement unemployed. Is there any man in his senses who believes that the crowded population of these islands could exist for a single day if we were to cut adrift from us the great dependencies which now look to us for protection and assistance, and which are the natural markets for our trade? The area of the United Kingdom is only 120,000 miles; the area of the British Empire is over 9,000,000 square miles…If tomorrow it were possible, as some people apparently desire, to reduce by a stroke of the pen the British Empire to the dimensions of the United Kingdom, half at least of our population would be starved.
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Source 2: Resolution of the German Social Democratic Party Congress, 1900
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World and colonial policy is pursued for the purpose of capitalist exploitation and for displaying military force…[I]t corresponds first and foremost to the greedy desire of the bourgeois and for new opportunities to invest in ever-increasing capital which is no longer content with exploiting the home marker, and to the desire for new markets which each country tires to usurp to itself.
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Source 3: Martial Merlin, Governor General of French Equatorial Africa, Speech at Unification of French Congo, Gabon, Chad, and French Cameroon, 1910
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We went to new territories. We went there by virtue of the right of a civilized, fully developed race to occupy territories which have been left fallow by backwards peoples who are plunged into barbarism and unable to develop the wealth of their land. What we exercised is a right, and if anyone denies this, you should firmly maintain that it is a right. We are entitled to go out to these peoples and occupy their territories; but, when we exercise this right, we, at the same moment are charged with a duty towards these peoples, and this duty we must never for one instant forget.
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Source 5: Winston Churchill, Member of Parliament, Fought in the Sudan in 1890s, Speech on India to Parliament, 1930
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To abandon India to the rule of the Brahmins would be an act of cruel and wicked negligence…These Brahmins who mouth and patter the principles of Western Liberalism, and pose as philosophic and democratic politicians, are the same Brahmins who deny the primary rights of existence to nearly sixty millions of their own fellow countrymen whom they call 'untouchable’…There are also nearly five million Indian Christians in India, a large proportion of whom can read and write, and some of whom have shown themselves exceptionally gifted. It will be a sorry day when the arm of Britain can no longer offer them the protection of an equal law… It is our duty to guard those millions from that fate
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Source 6: Crash Course World History, John Green, "The Amazing Life and Strange Death of Captain Cook."
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Source 7: Jules Ferry, Speech before the French National Assembly (1883) - French politician Jules Ferry took the lead in France's colonial expansion in Africa and Asia. In this speech he defended his views against critics.
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M. Jules Ferry: ...Gentlemen, I speak from a higher and more truthful plane. It must be stated openly that, in effect, superior races have rights over inferior races.
M. Jules Maigne: Oh! you dare to say this in the country which has proclaimed the rights of man! M. De Guilloutet: This is a justification of slavery and the slave trade! M. Jules Ferry: If M. Maigne is right, if the declaration of the rights of man was written for the blacks of equatorial Africa, then by what right do you impose regular commerce upon them? They have not called upon you. M. Raoul Duval: We do not want to impose anything upon them. It is you who wish to do so! M. Jules Maigne: To propose and to impose are two different things! M. Georges Perin: In any case, you cannot bring about commerce by force. M. Jules Ferry: I repeat that superior races have a right, because they have a duty. They have the duty to civilize inferior races... |
Source 9: China Trade and the East India Company, The British Library
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The first British ambassador to China, Lord George Macartney (1737 - 1806), a distinguished diplomat and colonial administrator, set sail for China in September 1792 and the voyage lasted nearly a year.
In September 1793 Macartney was finally granted an audience with Emperor Qianlong to whom he presented the valuable gifts and a letter from George III, in which the King of England requested permission from the Emperor to establish a British Resident Minister in Peking in charge of overseeing trading affairs. A few days later, Macartney and his entourage were invited to the Emperor's eightieth birthday party but to Macartney's disappointment, the Emperor himself did not show up. On 3 October, he received a reply from Emperor Qianlong in a formal ceremony in the Palace. The reply confirmed his worst fear that the request for a Resident Minister in Peking was not granted. Knowing that it would be futile to insist on his first request, Macartney sought the approval of the Emperor to lift some of the trading restrictions to the English traders. The second letter was again unconditionally rejected. The first British envoy to China was thus dismissed. |