The world in 1880 was made up of both nation-states and empires. You have learned about the idea of sovereignty (the ability to govern oneself). People across the world formed their own countries (nation-states). This meant that some empires were breaking up. At the same time, many great imperial powers still held on to colonies. This was true in South Asia and the Caribbean. Nearly all the industrialized states had hit the pause button on empire expansion by this time. But, this changed in 1880.

Empires again began to colonize new regions of the world. European powers colonized most of Africa between 1880 and 1914. France conquered much of Southeast Asia. Many Pacific Islands were occupied by the United States, Japan, Germany, France, and Britain. Japan conquered Korea. This rise of colonization is often called “New Imperialism.” What happened in this era that caused this rapid change?

Was the “New Imperialism” actually new?

To explain what was new about “New Imperialism,” we first have to define two terms: imperialism and colonialism. They are sometimes used to mean the same thing, but they are different. Both imperialism and colonialism occur in empires.

Empires are states where one community has control over many other communities. The ruling community has greater rights than other communities. Imperialism describes the ideas that one group uses to justify its control over the others. Colonialism is the experience of the other groups who are being ruled.

Empires go back thousands of years in world history. These empires ruled over different people and regions. They would divide their territory into communities and give the people few or no rights. So, we’re still not seeing the “new” part.

The empires of the “New Imperialism” were partly modeled on earlier empires. For example, British colonies in Africa were modeled after their colony in India. Their model in India was based on strategies the Mughal Empire had used to control India from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. One strategy was “indirect rule.” This is when the colonizer uses local leaders to manage the colony.

Some British policies were even older. This included the way they ruled their North American and Caribbean colonies in the 1500s and 1600s.

Nevertheless, many factors led to “New Imperialism” after the 1880s. There were new technologies, ideas, and beliefs. These gave Europeans, and a few other countries, a motive for constructing empires. Many of these were new, and so we call this a “New Imperialism”.

Why did the New Imperialism happen?

There are numerous causes for New Imperialism. These causes play off each other in important ways. These causes include technology, industrialization, racism and nationalism.

1. Technology: Before the late nineteenth century, empires could not conquer much of the tropical world. They died of diseases. Societies had low-tech, but effective weapons. This changed when several new technologies appeared. New medicines made it possible for colonizers to survive tropical diseases. New weapons made it easier to conquer the local peoples. Telegraphs, trains, and steamships better connected the world. It was now easier to govern a large empire.
2. Industrialization and capitalism: Industrialized countries needed raw materials for their factories. Korea, the African continent, and Southeast Asia had plenty of raw materials. For the most part, imperialists were also capitalists. So, they needed customers for all this great new stuff they were making. They went for a kind of two-for-one deal. They conquered territories that could provide the raw materials they needed. The people that lived in these territories then bought their finished products.
3. Racism: After the Atlantic slave trade, there were many false ideas about race. Many imperialists believed they should rule over people they thought were inferior. They used policies of racial segregation. One example is the post-slavery Jim Crow laws that existed in the U.S. at this time. These laws tried to reduce the freedoms and rights of African Americans. They then applied these inferior/superior racist ideas to people overseas. Some even believed they were doing a favor. They viewed empire expansion as a “civilizing mission.” This mission would improve the lives of the “uncivilized” and “inferior” people they conquered.
4. Nationalism: Nationalism is the idea that people (the “nation”) have the right to rule themselves. They did this by creating their own government (the “state”). This idea was twisted by some imperial nations (see “racism” above). They believed they had the right to rule over others. Nationalism also created a competitive attitude among nations. European powers were motivated to take new colonies before their competitors could.
5. “Men-on-the-spot”: The first four factors were the result of big trends. The term “Men-on-the-spot” refers to events that were caused by one person. In some cases, a man with an armed group was able to seize new territory. They were often motivated by greed or glory.

Each of these factors played a role in the New Imperialism. The trend depended on a combination of these factors. For example, a typical “man-on-the-spot” likely used new weapons (technology) to conquer people he thought were inferior (racism). He could expand his business (industrialism/capitalism) and be rewarded back home for making his country proud (nationalism).

The situation in those colonies was also influenced by local factors. How much were locals organized to resist colonialism? How did they react? What was the environment like? What did the people choose to do? As we will see soon, these issues also played a role in the New Imperialism.