lecture 11 - high imperialism and world war Flashcards
high imperialism - when? + definition
ca. 1875-1914
it was new/different (no consensus though in the scientific world)
- from pre-capitalist/merchant-capitalist + not fully integrated market -> industrial capitalism + no major rivals outside of Europe
- imperialism not just about resource extraction or land theft, it was to open new markets
- rivalry between nationalist capitalists
- direct rule and military domination
!!all the myths were now true: economic + military superiority
Berlin Conference 1884-85
= scramble for Africa (+Asia)
- promote civilization in Africa + assure navigation Congo and the Niger
- obviate future misunderstanding/disputes from new acts of occupation on the coast of Africa
- ensure access to African territory by imperial latecomers like Germany
-> European expansion into Africa and Asia
= General Act of the Berlin Conference
two related theories of high/new imperialism
Arendt on the new expansionism - novelty of expansion
- expansion as permanent/supreme aim of politics
- expansionism has origin in business speculation (expansion means broadening industrial production and eco. transactions characteristic of the C19)
!new imperialism as imperative of capital accumulation and growth - bourgeoisie turned to capitalism: wanted to keep the capitalist system (as it means eco. growth) -> imposes expansion as ultimate goal of foreign policy
- modern empire not as extension of the nation-state, but it is a victory of economics over politics
Hobson on imperialism as maldistribution
- eco. root of imperialism: private markets for their surplus goods and capital
- capitalist crisis of overproduction -> new foreign markets solves problem
- imperial expansion not inevitable (contra Marx and Arendt), but the result of maldistribution of consuming power and capital within the country (surplus capital can be used to domestic needs)
movements of capital 1875-1914
movement from UK + within EU
looks like an octopus
-> Kraken metaphor for/against imperialism and capitalism
- e.g. UK grasping all corners of the world
- e.g. standard oil company with tentacles all over the US’ state institutions
WW1
- downfall several empires
- new techniques revolutionary for later wars
- industrial war with destruction on previously unimaginable scale
1914-1918
Schlieffenplan = Germany going through Belgium to attack France, enormous battles and casualties
- industrial trench warfare on the Western front
- use of tanks + airplanes (necessitated by advantage of defense trench strategies)
- use of poisoned gas
!colonial troops fought for the British, French and German Empire
!US entering war made a big difference
two interpretations of the causes of WW1
!!WW1 = war of empires
main thesis = compound and multi-causal
- miltarism
- alliances
- imperialism
- nationalism
the long fuse = more mono-causal = Lafore’s thesis on the Austro-Hungarian anomaly
'’MAIN thesis’’ WW1
militarism = intense arms race in time of high imperialism
- diff with earlier arms races (e.g. C16-C18 during military revo + in early C19 Prussia): Germany great power -> excellerated attention to militarism in whole Europe
- C19 wars against Japan empire (rise of Japan)
imperialism: competition
alliances (designed to ensure security, problem: two main camps + secret alliances)
- complex system of secret alliances
- obligated states to go to war, even when not directly threatened
- potential for chain reaction
nationalism
- ideological means of generating popular support for war: manufacturing consent
- nationalistic friend-enemy worldview taught in schools + stoked by mainstream newspapers + legitimized by politicians, artists and intellectuals
Lafore’s thesis on the Austro-Hungarian anomaly
Austria-Hungary as multi-national-empire (under the Habsburg dynasty) operating alongside imperial nation-state = cause of the war
- safeguards of alliances were based on agreements with like-entities (nation-states)
- Austria-Hungary prone to internal issues
'’the long fuse’’ = Europe as powdercake that just needed a spark to explode
The spark = Serbian nationalist terrorist association plodded assassination archduke (wanted to establish independent state) -> Serbian gov. investigation, Austria-Hungary tried to intervene
!chain reaction between alliances was triggered -> Russia, Germany etc. began to mobilize
(they were ‘‘sleepwalking’’ into a war)
effects of the war
- many casualties (8.5 million died, 21 million wounded)
- Spanish flu pandemic 1918-20 (large movements of people (temporary mass migration)): 500 million cases (1/3 population), 25-50 million died
- war neuroses / PTSD
- changed society on the home front: women had worked during the war
- postwar expressionist art
