Rise of national industrial empires

Advances in military technology after 1870

• Machine guns.
• Iron steam powered navies.
• Better range and accuracy for guns.
• All of this together gives decisive fire power to Europeans against rest of the world.

Battle for Africa.

• Ottoman empire is weakened, lost war with Russia, loses parts of it in Baltic to independent states like Serbia.
• Egypt is run by local military leaders and goes through economic boom and bust due to American civil war.
• To recover its debts, British forces occupy Egypt.
• Egypt is in war with Sudan where Britain intervenes.
• France and other Europeans compete with Britain to expand there presence in Africa.
• Berlin conference of Europeans decide to protect newly discovered central Africa and gives that responsibility to Belgium.
• Belgium king slaughters Congo natives and plunders natural resources.
• With in couple of decades, Europeans have divided Africa amongst themselves.

Types of imperialism

• Racial imperialism
  • New empires are being built with racial superiority narrative, specially in Africa.
  • Germans, Belgians plunder and commit genocides in Africa.
• Settler colonialism
  • Sparsely populated lands are being settled, similar to North America, Australia.
  • Russia epands to Pacific and to Alaska.
  • British expand in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa.
• Free trade imperialism
  • Europeans want to control lands with valuable resources to secure conditions of Free Trade.
  • Most of south east Asia is colonized.
• Liberal imperialism
  • Places like Hawaii, Philippines, Cuba, puerto rico are oppressed by Spanish empire.
  • United states goes to war with Spain and wins Hawaii, Philippines, Puerto Rico.
  • Cubans win independence.
• Americans are anti-imperialist as they don’t want to take responsibility for non white people.
• White majority areas of British empire, such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada win independence keeping allegiance to the British government and monarch.
• The great famine of 1877-78 in India kills millions of people and renews debate about future of India as part of British empire.

China Survives

• China and Japan fight a war, China loses.
• Large coal deposits are discovered in Manchuria.
• All Europeans and Japan want a share of the coal mines.
• China is weakened by loss of a reformist emperor.
• Some Europeans want to carve China, like Africa. - French, Germans, Dutch.
• United States want to maintain China empire but secure free trading conditions.
• Japan, Russia wants to acquire Manchuria.
• Chinese peasants rebel against foreigners - Boxer rebellion.
  • They are against missionary proselytizing.
  • Against presence of foreigners in Peking.
  • War between boxers and foreigners break out around Peking.
  • Empire sides with the boxers.
  • With reinforcements, boxer rebellion is defeated.
• Aftermath of boxer crisis
  • Europeans want financial reparations.
  • Russians are aggressively moving for a military action to acquire Manchuria.
  • Britain is fighting The Boer War which takes their resources.
  • Japan and Britain ally against Russia.
  • US does not want any part of the imperial cause in China.
  • Russia Vs Britain+Japan is a stale mate.
  • Chinese Empire gathers its strength and start reforming.
• China survives.

Start of end of imperialism

• Independence movement starting to gather pace in India which aims to run the unified India.
• Liberals in west are not critical of imperialism and dissuade US from any further imperial causes.
• Stories of genocides in Africa, British caused famines in India turn public opinion against such oppression.
• Japan expands empire to Taiwan and Korea, but believes that a Pan-Asiatic coalition is more important against imperialism of Europe.
• China loses Manchuria to Japan and Russia.
• Russia, led by Lenin, now sees an opportunity for a pan-slav coalition.
• Pan-islamic forces are uniting against the pan slav forces.