Colonialism and Imperialism: 19th-Century Global Expansion
From Colonialism to Imperialism in the 19th Century
Political and economic competition among nations urged the renewal of old colonialism, extending its geographic projection. The continent, especially among Afrikaners, was explored and squatted by European powers.
From Colonialism to Imperialism
Around the mid-nineteenth century, the old Spanish rule was reduced to the possession of Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Philippines, and some African enclaves. Portugal kept small colonies on the South Equatorial African coast and in some Chinese coastal enclaves. The Low Countries retained Indonesia, and Java, among other islands. The causes of colonial expansion were Europe’s population growth and the economic crisis, which caused the need for raw materials and new markets without customs barriers.
- The Belgians went to the Congo for its mining riches.
- The English came to Egypt for cotton.
- The French supplied the Far East with silk.
The United Kingdom, France, Germany, Belgium, Italy, and the U.S. increased their possessions. Czarist Russia completed its expansion through Central Siberia and Asia. The transformation of the productive base of capitalism changed the role and function of former colonies: rubber was extracted from the Congo, Malaysian tin, gold and diamonds from the Union of South Africa, and tea from India. The already settled areas became more important as producers and consumers.
British Colonial Hegemony
The United Kingdom was ready to articulate strategic enclaves of world trade. The settlement colonies were populated territories that absorbed the demographic surplus of the United Kingdom and Northern Europe, such as Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and Canada.
Colonies of exploitation supplied raw materials and metropolitan markets, such as India, which supplied cotton. From Cochin, France achieved the occupation of Annam, Tonkin, Cambodia, and Laos, whose territories formed French Indochina, which provided coal, zinc, tin, and rice.
The Partition of Africa
In 1914, its territory was divided among the European powers; only Liberia and Ethiopia remained. France began the occupation of Algeria. The Algerian Coast was a colony of influence and settlement. It extended through Tunisia, which became a protectorate. France also conquered Morocco, Saharan and Equatorial Africa, and Madagascar and explored the Gulf of Guinea. Leopold II of Belgium explored the river and the valley of the Congo, creating in the center of the continent the state of the Franco-Congo.
Relationships conflicted when the United Kingdom and France occupied Egypt. Until then, both nations controlled the Suez Canal. Uniting the cities of Cairo and Cape Town clashed with the interests of France, which aspired to communicate its domains in the western territories from east to Senegal and Djibouti. The Berlin Conference was convened by Bismarck to establish the partition of Africa. Coastal possession gave the right to occupy the hinterland; the Niger and Congo rivers would be of free navigation, and the state of the Congo was under Belgian rule.
Consequences of Colonization
- Modern port facilities were built.
- There were fewer tropical diseases.
- The colonial division was very damaging to the African peoples.
- There was a profound impact of Western culture.