Sourcing: Different Perspectives on Imperialism
WORLD HISTORY PROJECTAP/ LESSON 6.1ACTIVITYSOURCING: DIFFERING PERSPECTIVES ON IMPERIALISMUnless otherwise noted, this work is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Credit: “Sourcing: Differing Perspectives on Imperialism”, OER Project, https://www.oerproject.com/1PurposeIn this sourcing activity, you’ll read two primary sources that provide differing perspectives on imperialism. You’ll complete the Sourcing Tool for both excerpts and provide an analysis focusing on point of view, purpose, and importance. By comparing these two sources written from different perspectives on the same topic, you’ll refine your sourcing skills and become better at understanding how an author’s point of view and purpose impacts the why (importance) of a historical work.PracticesClaim testing, comparisonAs with the other sourcing activities in the course, this activity also asks you to use your claim-testing skills to evaluate primary sources. However, in this activity, you’ll also incorporate comparison as you compare two documents from the same time period, on the same topic, both written by authorities. Then you’ll use claim testing to decide how an author’s point of view and purpose influences the importance of their writing.ProcessIn this activity, you’ll work either in pairs or on your own to read two primary source documents, complete the Sourcing Toolfocusing on the point of view, purpose, and importance rows of the tool, and write a response to a prompt.Your teacher will either hand out or have you download the Sourcing—Differing Perspectives on Imperialism worksheet, which includes the excerpts and the Sourcing Tool. Read the excerpts—starting with the introductory paragraphs—and as you read, think aboutthis question: To what extent did ideology impact imperialism?After you’ve finished reading each source, complete the Point of View, Purpose, and Importance rows of the Sourcing Tool. Then, after you’ve completed these rows of the tool for each of the primary source texts, respond to these follow-up questions:1.How do the authors differ in their analysis of imperialism?2.What are the similarities between the documents?3.How does each author try to convince you of their argument regarding this topic?Be prepared to discuss your answers and the evidence you used to support these answers with the class.Then, write a one-to two-paragraph response that answers the question posed earlier: To what extent did ideology impact imperialism? Your paragraphs should make specific reference to the Point of View, Purpose, and Importance rows of the tool but can include other categories as well.Your teacher will collect your worksheets and responses to evaluate how your sourcing skills are progressing.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT AP / LESSON 6.1ACTIVITYSOURCING: DIFFERING PERSPECTIVES ON IMPERIALISM2Sourcing ToolDirections: Answer each of the questions below. If you are sourcing more than one document, provide responses for each.Name of document and/or source:Author’s name:Location and date source was written:Historical Context1.What was happening in the author’s location that might have influenced the document’s creation (for example, the location’s geography, demography, or the region’s political situation, religious influences, or industry)?2.What was happening at the time that might have influenced the document’s creation?3.What information that you’ve learned in this unit helps you understand this document?Audience1.Who was this created for (that is, was this written for anyone to read or was it private, for one specific person or group)?2.What were the readers of this source supposed to do or think once they read it?
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT AP / LESSON 6.1ACTIVITYSOURCING: DIFFERING PERSPECTIVES ON IMPERIALISM3PurposeWhat was the author’s goal, and what evidence supports your answer?POV (Point of View)Can you identify anything about the author that might explain why they wrote this? For example, their economic class, occupation, religion, nationality, political group, ethnic group, or gender?WhY (Importance)1.What is the main idea of the source?2.What parts of this document are most valuable and why?3.What are the limitations of this document? In other words, where does it fall short?
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT AP / LESSON 6.1ACTIVITYSOURCING: DIFFERING PERSPECTIVES ON IMPERIALISM4SOURCING EXCERPTS: DIFFERING PERSPECTIVES ON IMPERIALISMSource 1: Jules Ferry’s speech to the French Chamber of Deputies, 1884Jules Ferry (1832–1893 CE) was a French lawyer who became mayor of Paris in 1870 before becoming premier (prime minister) of France twice, first from 1880 to 1881 and then again from 1883 to 1885. The following excerpts are from a speech given in 1884 to the French Chamber of Deputies (lower chamber of the French Parliament) when he was serving as premier of France.Source: Ferry, Jules François Camille. “Speech Before the French Chamber of Deputies, March 28, 1884.” Discours et Opinions de Jules Ferry, edited by Paul Robiquet and translated by Ruth Kleinman. (Paris: Armand Colin & Cle., 1897). Accessed June 14, 2019. https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1884ferry.asp... a policy of colonial expansion may be justified; ... the policy of colonial expansion is a political and economic system; I wish to say that one can relate this system to three orders of ideas: economic ideas, ideas of civilization in its highest sense, and ideas of politics and patriotism.In the area of economics, I allow myself to place before you, with the support of some figures, 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 ...Gentlemen, there is a second point, ... it is the humanitarian and civilizing side of the question ...Gentlemen, I must speak from a higher and more truthful plane. It must be stated openly that, in effect, superior races have rights over inferior races ... They have the duty to civilize inferior races ...At this time, as you know, a warship cannot carry more than fourteen days’ worth of coal, no matter how perfectly it is organized, and a ship which is out of coal is a derelict on the surface of the sea, abandoned to the first person who comes along. Thence the necessity of having on the oceans provisionstations, shelters, ports for defence and revictualing. And it is for this that we needed Tunisia, for this that we needed Saigon and the Mekong Delta, for this that we need Madagascar ......something else is needed for France: ... she ought to propagate this influence throughout the world and carry everywhere that she can her language, her customs, her flag, her arms, and her genius.This text is part of the Internet Modern History Sourcebook. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts for introductory-level classes in modern European and world history.Unless otherwise indicated, the specific electronic form of the document is copyrighted. Permission is granted for electroniccopying, distribution in print form for educational purposes, and personal use. © Paul Halsall, July 1998.
WORLD HISTORY PROJECT AP / LESSON 6.1ACTIVITYSOURCING: DIFFERING PERSPECTIVES ON IMPERIALISM5Source 2: Wilfrid Scawen Blunt’s diary entries, 1896–1900Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (1840–1922 CE) was a British poet and diplomat. He and his wife traveled to Egypt, India, Syria, and Algeria before they settled in Egypt to raise Arabian horses.Source: Blunt, W. S. My Diaries: 1888–1914, 2 volumes. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1921). Accessed June 14, 2019. https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/mod/1899blunt.asp9th Jan., 1896. ... We have now managed in the last six months to quarrel violently with China, Turkey, Belgium, Ashanti, France, Venezuela, America, and Germany. This is a record performance, and if it does not break up the British Empire nothing will. For myself I am glad of it all, for the British Empireis the greatest engine of evil for the weak races now existing in the world—not that we are worse than the French or Italians or Americans—indeed, we are less actively destructive—but we do it over a far wider area and more successfully. I should be delighted to see England stripped of her whole foreign possessions ... The gangrene of colonial rowdyism is infecting us, and the habit of repressing liberty in weak nations is endangering our own. I should be glad to see the end. ...22nd Dec., 1900. ... All the nations of Europe are making the same hell upon earth in China, massacring and pillaging and raping in the captured cities as outrageously as in the Middle Ages. The Emperor of Germany gives the word for slaughter and the Pope looks on and approves. ... The Americans are spending fifty millions a year on slaughtering the Filipinos; the King of the Belgians has invested his whole fortune on the Congo, where he is brutalizingthe Negroes to fill his pockets. The French and Italians for the moment are playing a less prominent part in the slaughter, but their inactivity grieves them. The whole white race is reveling openly in violence, as though it had never pretended to be Christian. God’s equal curse be on them all! So ends the famous nineteenth century into which we were so proud to have been born...This text is part of the Internet Modern History Sourcebook. The Sourcebook is a collection of public domain and copy-permitted texts for introductory level classes in modern European and world history.Unless otherwise indicated, the specific electronic form of the document is copyrighted. Permission is granted for electronic copying, distribution in print form for educational purposes, and personal use. © Paul Halsall, July 1998.