Session 1 - Imperialism Flashcards
Imperialism & the Collapse of the Concert of Europe
Isolationism
- Isolating one’s country, avoiding foreign entanglement
- popular with US in the interwar period
New imperialism
- Europe dominated the globe
- Population, machine power, technical edge
- Stability at home
- scramble for Africa
Great Powers
France, Britain, Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia
- Power: size of pop, territory, finance, industrial output
- “courtesy power” - Italy & US
Monroe Doctrine
-1823, US would not tolerate European intervention in Western affairs
Great Powers
- States capable of shared responsibility for the management of the international order
- Based on military & economic influence
- Britain, France, Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Russia
Isolationism
- policy of isolating one’s country by avoiding foreign entanglements and responsibilities
- popular in the US during the interwar years
Monroe Doctrine
- 1823, by President Monroe
- Announced that the US would not tolerate intervention by the European Powers in the affairs of the Western Hemisphere
Self-determination
- idea that each national group has the right to establish its own national state
- Associated with Wilsonian internationalism, key driving force in the struggle to end imperialism
Concert of Europe
- 19th century European system of regulation of international affairs by the Great Powers
- Balance of power, shared rules of conduct, values, goals, & diplomatic practices between the Great Powers
Entente Cordiale
- coined to describe the Anglo-French rapprochement that took place in 1904, used for general relationship in 20th century
Reichstag
- lower house of the German parliament during the Wilhelmine & Weimar periods
Schlieffen Plan
- German pre-1914 plan for pre-emptive military offensive against France
- Would involve troops passing through neutral Belgium
Young Turks
- 1908, young army officers who pushed the Ottoman Empire towards reformist policies & a more overtly Turkish nationalist stance
Bolsheviks
- 1903 - a faction led by Lenin within the Russian Social Democratic Party (originally) - became separate party
- led October 1917 revolution in Russia
- After, used to refer to Soviet government/communists in general
Fourteen Points
- Speech by Woodrow Wilson, Jan 8th, 1918
- Post-war world vision
- Open diplomacy, self-determination, & a post-war international organization
- Reformist reply to Bolsheviks’ peace manifesto
Weimar Republic
- German parliamentary democracy that existed between Nov 1918 and Jan 1933
- Never won the loyalty of the majority
Danzig
- Important port city in the Baltic Sea
- 1919 - made it a “free city” under the League of Nations - give Poland free access to the sea
- Return of the city to German sovereignty was a key issue for German nationalists btwn wars
- The Danzig question was exploited by Hitler as a pretext for attack on Poland in 1939
Versailles Treaty
1919 - ended the Allied state of hostilities with Germany
- German territorial losses, disarmament, war guilt clause & demand that reparations be paid
Anschluss
- political union of Germany & Austria
- specifically prohibited under the Versailles Treaty
- Carried out by Hitler in 1938 w/o resistance
Sudentenland
- Area of Bohemia mainly inhabited by ethnic Germans
- 1919 - Czech side of the Czech-German border
- 1938 - led to an international crisis ending in the infamous Munich Agreement
Locarno Treaties
- October 1925, Switzerland
- Rhineland Pact - France, Germany & Belgium - demilitarization of the Rhineland, turning point in international affairs
Kellogg-Briand Pact
- 27 August 1928
- US Secretary of State - Frank Kellogg, suggested that the two states should agree to renounce war
- Others agreed to join the US & France (65 total)
- Often seen as an empty gesture indicative of the idealistic internationalism of the inter-war years
Young Plan
- 1929 financial scheme, by American businessman
- Informally agreed upon that reparations would be scaled back further if the former European Allies secured a reduction in debt repayments to the US
- German, French & British delegates
Nazi Party
- National Socialist German Workers Party
- Oct 1918 - founded to oppose capitalism & Marxism, more notorious title began in 1920 - one year later Hitler became the leader
Protectionism
- regulating imports through high tariffs with the purpose of shielding domestic industries from foreign competition
Manchuria
- the 3 north-eastern provinces of China
- 1932-1945 - became Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo
Pacific War
- 1941-1945 - Allied war against Japan
pan-Asianism
- idea that Asia should free itself from Western imperialism, unite in a common effort to modernize
- Mainly from Japan before 1945
Open door
- maintenance in a certain territory of equal commercial & industrial rights for the nationals of all countries
- By the US, 19th century for safeguarding American economic interests in China
mandates
- the colonial territories of Germany & the Ottoman Empire
- entrusted to Britain, France, Japan, Australia, and South Africa by League of Nations
Comintern
- Communist or Third International founded in Moscow in 1919 as an organization to direct & support the activities of the Communist parties outside Russia
- Abolished in 1943 - short-lived effort by Stalin to reassure Britain and the US that the Soviet Union no longer sought to export Marxism-Leninism
Guomindang (GMD)
- the Chinese Nationalist party founded in 1913 by Sun Yatsen
- 1928 - came into power, initiated a modernization program before leading the country into war against Japan in 1937
- Lost control in 1949 due to communist victory
- Controlled Taiwan from 1949-2000
autarky
- a policy that aims at achieving national economic self-sufficiency
- commonly associated with the economic programs espoused by Germany, Italy & Japan in 1930s & 40s
Axis Powers
- 1936 - Fascist Italy & Nazi Germany
- reinforced by the Pact of Steel - May 1939
- Often referred to relationship of Germany, Italy, & Japan
- Tripartite Pact - Sept 1940
Dominions
- a completely self-governing colony which is freely associated with the mother country
- British Empire: Australia, Canada, Irish Free State (1922-49), New Zealand, South Africa
Princely States
- the states in British India that remained formally under the control of local rulers rather than British administration (i.e. Hyderabad and Kashmir)
Khalifat Movement
- the protest movement that swept through the Islamic world from 1919 to 1923
- In opposition to the harsh treatment meted out by the Christian powers to the Ottoman sultan, who as Caliph was one of the protectors of the faith
pan-Arabism
- movement for Arab unity as manifested in the Fertile Crescent & Greater Syria schemes
- Attempted unification of Egypt, Syria, and Libya
Suez Crisis
- Failed attempt by Britain & France in 1956 to take advantage of a war between Israel & Egypt by seizing control of the Suez Canal and bringing down the government of Gamal Abdel Nasser
- Often taken as a symbol of the collapse of European imperialism & the rise of the Third World
import substitution
- process whereby a state attempts to achieve economic growth by raising protective tariffs to keep out imports & replacing them with indigenously produced goods
Atlantic Charter
- Signed by Roosevelt & Churchill, Aug 1941
- Committed US & Britain to support democracy, self-determination & the liberalization of international trade
What is an empire?
- Stephen Howe - “a large, composite, multi-ethnic or multi-national political unit, usually created by conquest, & divided between a dominant center and subordinate, sometimes far distant, peripheries”
- Michael Doye, “A relationship, formal or informal, in which one state controls the effective political sovereignty of another political society”
Imperial features
- dominance of one over another
- cultural & political hierarchies
- domination + direct & indirect control
Pre-19th Century Maritime Empires
- Portugal
- Dutch
- French
- Spanish
Pre-19th Century Land Empire
- Russia, Austria-Hungary, Ottoman
- Hapsburg Monarchy - very multinational
- U.S. - imperialism w/o colonies
Imperialism of the late 19th century
- nation-state, age of “territoriality”
- European geopolitical stability & balance of power - look elsewhere to expand
- technological innovations & greater mobility
- capitalism & industrialization
Power
- how exploitable this territory is & your ability to exploit
Drivers of New Imperial Race
- the security dimension
- economics
- ideology
Driver - security
- global projection of European equilibrium
- security dilemma & vicious cycle - victory for one was an automatic loss for the others
- naval competition
The Influence of Sea Power Upon History
- 1890
- Alfred Mahan
- if you control the sea routes, you control the world
Driver - economics
- search for raw materials
- surplus of capital & goods
- specific interests - “imperial elites”
- colonial elites
- proto-globalization - increased global trade
Driver - ideology
- race - entitled to conquer others
- prestige (“place in the sun”)
- mission & Christianity
Driver - domestic factors
- nationalism
- imperial elites
- political & electoral advantages
Main imperial theaters?
- Africa
- The Far East
- The Middle East
Bernhard Von Bulow
- 1897
- demand our place in the sun
- metaphor used to justify imperialism
Africa
- divided among many European powers (1875-1900)
- Scramble for Africa & Conference of Berlin (1885)- regulate & discipline imperial race in Africa
- principle of effective occupation
- free trade in the Congo Basin
- free navigation
The Far East
- China - conflict/collaboration among Great Powers - Open Door Notes
- Collapse of China
The Middle East
- Gradual implosion of the Ottoman Empire
- Connection to Northern Africa
- Anglo-Russian competition
Imperial Conflicts I: Franco-German Competition in North Africa
- 1905: I Moroccan Crisis: Germany Isolated
- 1911: II Moroccan Crisis: Morocco became a French protectorate
Imperial Conflicts II: German-British Competition in South Africa
- German hope to partition the Portuguese colonies
Imperial Conflicts III: Anglo-French Competition in Eastern Africa
- Fashoda, 1898
- French attempt to control the Nile River & Sudan
Imperial Conflicts IV: Anglo-Russian Competition in Perisa
- Britain: Afghanistan & Pakistan to protect India from Russia
- Division in spheres of influence
Imperial Conflicts V: Austrian-Serb Competition in the Balkans
- 1908: annexation of Bosnia
Imperial Legacies
- Crisis in European balance of power & rigid polarity in terms of alliances
- global hierarchies of power
Historiography: Two Dualities
- Internal & external - European/colonial, core/periphery, developed/underdeveloped
John Hobson
- imperialism as an outlet for surplus
Lenin
- core-periphery model, highest/latest stage of capitalism
- role of financial capital benefitting from imperialism
John Gallagher & Ronald Robinson
- importance of local collaborators, strategic/geopolitical considerations before economic ones
Immanuel Wallerstein
- world-system theory, full integration & disappearance of core-periphery duality
Edward Said
- post-colonial studies, imperial discourse, subordinate subjects
- Europe’s dependence on those whom it subordinated
Samir Amin
- Eurocentrism, emphasis on proto-capitalist & non-European regional systems