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Imperialism as a cause of World War I

imperialism
A satirical illustration of Spanish imperialist growth within the Caribbean (Cuba) and Asia (the Philippines)

Imperialism is a system the place one highly effective nation conquers, controls and exploits a number of colonies, often on different continents. Imperialism was a big supply of competitors and rigidity within the many years previous to World Warfare I. A number of European nations had been main imperial powers and sought to keep up or develop their colonial possessions, notably in Africa and Asia. Coupled with intensifying nationalism, this imperial rivalry fuelled important tensions.

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What’s imperialism?

Imperialism is a system the place one nation dominates a number of others, often for financial acquire. Most often the imperial nation, usually euphemistically known as the ‘mom nation’, establishes management over one other area by coercion – for instance, via infiltration and annexation, political stress, warfare and army conquest. As soon as conquered, this territory is claimed as a colony.

Colonies are ruled and administered by both the imperial nation, a puppet authorities or native collaborators. A army presence is usually stationed within the colony to keep up order, suppress dissent and uprisings, and to discourage intervention by rival imperial powers.

Colonies might have army or geopolitical benefits however their principal goal is financial: they exist mainly to revenue and enrich the imperial energy. Most often, this entails the provision of valuable metals or different sources, reminiscent of timber, rubber, rice or different foodstuffs. Colonies can be invaluable sources of low cost labour, agricultural land and buying and selling ports.

The British Empire

Previous to World Warfare I, the world’s largest and wealthiest imperial energy was Nice Britain. The British Empire famously occupied one-quarter of the globe (“the solar by no means units on Britain” was a well-known slogan of the mid nineteenth century). British colonial possessions within the late 1800s included Canada, India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Burma, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, a number of Pacific and Caribbean Islands, South Africa, Rhodesia, Egypt and different components of Africa.

Many of those colonies had been acquired with little problem; others took extra time, effort and bloodshed. Britain’s acquisition of South Africa, for instance, got here after expensive wars towards the Zulus (native tribes) and Boers (white farmer-settlers of Dutch extraction).

British imperialism was centered on sustaining and increasing commerce, the importation of uncooked supplies and the sale of manufactured items. Britain’s imperial energy was bolstered by her highly effective navy, the world’s largest, and a fleet of mercantile (industrial) vessels.

imperialism
A illustration of British imperialism in Africa, ‘from Cairo to the Cape’

Different European empires

One other important imperial energy was France, Britain’s closest neighbour. French imperial holdings included Indochina (Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia), some Pacific islands and a number of other colonies in west and north-west Africa. The German Empire included Shandong (a province of China), New Guinea, Samoa and different Pacific islands, and a number of other colonies in central and south-west Africa. The Spanish Empire had as soon as included the Philippines and huge components of South America, although by the early twentieth century Spain’s imperial energy was dwindling.

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Empires nearer to residence included Russia, Austria-Hungary and the Ottoman sultanate. Russia dominated over Finland, Poland and a number of other central Asian areas as an imperial energy; its disastrous warfare towards Japan in 1904-5 was an try to increase Russia’s imperial attain additional into Korea and northern China.

Regardless of frequent condemnation of European imperialism in America, the US additionally engaged in a level of empire-building, notably in direction of the top of the 1800s.

World empires in 1914

The British Empire took in India, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Hong Kong, components of North Africa, islands within the Pacific and Caribbean and concessions in China.

Russia dominated modern-day Poland, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Ukraine, Georgia and a number of other areas in central Asia, reminiscent of Kazakhstan. Russia additionally had colonial pursuits in East Asia, together with a concession in China.

France maintained colonies in modern-day Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, areas of West Africa and India, small possessions in South America, and islands within the Pacific and Caribbean.

Germany had seized management of modern-day Tanzania, Namibia and Cameroon in Africa, German New Guinea, some Pacific islands and an essential concession in Shandong (China).

Austria-Hungary possessed no colonies outdoors Europe however was an empire nonetheless, ruling over a number of totally different areas, ethnic and language teams. Amongst its areas had been Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Galicia, Transylvania, the Tyrol and, after 1908, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Spain as soon as possessed a big empire that included Cuba, the Philippines and huge areas of South America – however by 1914 the Spanish had been left with solely tiny colonial territories within the Americas and north-west Africa.

The US was a relative newcomer to imperialism however by 1914 had gained management of the Philippines, Guam, American Samoa, Puerto Rico and a number of other islands within the Pacific. Although later absorbed into the US, each Alaska and the Hawaiian Islands could be thought-about colonial acquisitions.

The Ottoman Empire was as soon as the biggest empire on this planet, taking in jap Europe, the Center East and far of northern Africa. Ottoman territory had shrunk considerably however by 1914 the sultanate retained the center of its outdated empire: modern-day Turkey, Egypt, Syria, Palestine, Armenia and Macedonia.

Portugal in 1914 was the imperial ruler of modern-day Angola and Mozambique in Africa, Goa (India) and East Timor (Indonesia).

Belgium was one of many smallest nations in Europe however nonetheless possessed a big African colony (Belgian Congo), in addition to a small concession in China.

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Holland had a number of small colonial possessions in South America (Dutch Guyana), Asia (Batavia, or modern-day Indonesia) and the Pacific.

Italy by 1914 had moved into northern Africa, annexing modern-day Libya, Somalia and Eritrea. It additionally held a small concession in China.

The scramble for Africa

imperialism
Imperial powers usually condemned the opposite for his or her mistreatment of native peoples, reminiscent of this British cartoon ridiculing Belgian rule in Africa

The second half of the 1800s produced a big rush to construct and develop empires. This determined push for brand new colonies was fuelled by rising nationalism, growing demand for land and dwindling alternatives at residence. Two relative newcomers to empire-building had been the newly unified nations of Germany and Italy.

The person who helped assemble the German state within the 1870s, Otto von Bismarck, had proven little curiosity in gathering colonies. Bismarck’s view was not shared by different Germans, nevertheless. Organisations just like the Colonial League (fashioned 1882 in Berlin) whipped up help for German imperial growth.

The Kaiser and his advisors formulated their very own imperial designs, most of them centered on Africa. In 1884 Germany acquired Togoland, the Cameroons and South West Africa (now Namibia). Six years later a sizeable swathe of East Africa was below German management: this territory was renamed Tanganyika (now Tanzania). African colonisation was properly acquired by the German inhabitants however it created concern in Britain and France. Many in London dreamed of a British-owned railway operating the size of Africa (“from Cairo to the Cape”) and German colonies in jap Africa had been an impediment to this imaginative and prescient.

Diplomatic incidents

The scramble for empire in Africa additionally sparked a number of diplomatic incidents. Two important crises adopted from occasions in Morocco in north-west Africa.

Although not a French colony, Morocco’s location positioned it inside France’s sphere of affect. As Paris sought to ascertain a protectorate in Morocco, the German Kaiser intervened. In 1905, Wilhelm II travelled to the Moroccan metropolis of Tangier, the place he delivered a speech supporting the thought of Moroccan independence. This antagonised the French authorities and precipitated a sequence of indignant diplomatic responses and feverish press experiences.

A second disaster erupted in 1911. Because the French had been trying to suppress a rebel in Morocco, the Germans landed an armed vessel, the Panther, on the Moroccan port of Agadir – a touchdown made with out permission, prior warning or any apparent goal. This incident triggered a fair stronger response and introduced France and Germany to the brink of warfare.

These acts of German provocation weren’t designed to encroach into Morocco or develop its empire, relatively to drive a wedge between France and Britain. In truth, it had the alternative impact, strengthening the Anglo-French alliance and intensifying criticism of German Weltpolitik and ‘gunboat diplomacy’ in each France and Britain.

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The weakening Ottoman Empire

Imperial instability was one other contributor to European tensions. Important issues within the Ottoman Empire additionally affected the steadiness of energy in jap Europe.

Described by satirists because the ‘Sick Man of Europe’, the Ottoman sultanate was in fast political, army and financial decline by the second half of the 1800s. The Ottomans had been defeated in a number of wars together with the Crimean Warfare (1853-56), Russo-Turkish Warfare (1877-78) and First Balkans Warfare (1912-13). These defeats, together with rising nationalism and revolutions in Ottoman-controlled areas, resulted in gradual however important losses of territory.

With the Ottoman Empire shrinking and prone to full collapse, Europe’s different imperial powers clamoured to safe territory or affect within the area. Austria-Hungary hoped to develop into the Balkans; Russia moved to restrict Austrian growth whereas securing entry to the Black Sea; Germany wished to make sure the safety and completion of its Berlin-to-Baghdad railway.

Britain and France additionally had colonial and commerce pursuits within the area. The ‘Japanese query’ – the problem of what would occur in jap Europe as the Ottomans withdrew – was an essential speaking level of the late nineteenth century. These developments drew the Nice Powers of Europe into the Balkan sphere, creating alternatives for rivalry and elevated tensions.

imperialism world war i

1. Imperialism is a system the place a robust nation-state seizes or controls territories outdoors its personal borders. These territories are claimed and ruled as colonies.

2. A number of European nations maintained empires within the many years earlier than World Warfare I. The British Empire was by far the biggest, spanning round one-quarter of the globe at one level.

3. The pre-war interval noticed European powers scramble to amass the brand new colonial possessions. A lot of this occurred in Africa, the place Britain, France and Germany all vied for land and management.

4. This ‘scramble for empire’ fuelled rivalry and led to a number of diplomatic incidents, reminiscent of two Moroccan crises that had been largely precipitated by the German Kaiser.

5. The decline of one other imperial energy, the Ottoman Empire, attracted the eye of European powers, who sought territory, affect or entry within the Balkans and jap Europe.

Quotation info
Title: ‘Imperialism as a reason behind World Warfare I’
Authors: Jennifer Llewellyn, Steve Thompson
Writer: Alpha Historical past
URL: https://alphahistory.com/worldwar1/imperialism/
Date printed: August 14, 2018
Date up to date: November 10, 2023
Date accessed: September 14, 2024
Copyright: The content material on this web page is © Alpha Historical past. It will not be republished with out our specific permission. For extra info on utilization, please seek advice from our Terms of Use.