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Unit 20
Imperial Designs
Section 1
Unit Materials
Questions To Consider
Question 1.
What were some of the social, economic, and environmental consequences of imperialism?
Question 2.
How did industrial capitalism shape the development of European imperialism in the nineteenth
century?
Question 3.
How did imperial designs — in the forms of political structure, economic organization, vision, and
ideology — change between the sixteenth and the twentieth centuries?
Question 4.
In what ways could the experience of imperialism shape the identities of both colonizers and
colonized peoples?
The Big Picture
How is this topic related to Increasing Integration?
Between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries, most of the world’s population came to live under
the shadow of imperialism. Imperial systems, in turn, integrated distant peoples via complex
economic, political, and social relationships.
How is this topic related to Proliferating Difference?
Imperialism magnified global inequalities, because imperial states used their power to exploit the
resources of colonies for their own benefit. In addition, imperialism was often justified in terms of
difference — especially racial difference.
Unit Purpose
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Imperialism was a process with a long history, and its form and nature evolved over time.
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Between the sixteenth and twentieth centuries, imperialism shaped and changed the
destinies of individuals, societies, and entire continents.
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Imperialism usually began as informal territorial claims on the basis of economic interest.
Over time, these interests caused powerful states to exert increasing control over the
territories they claimed.
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By the nineteenth century, powerful nation-states were able — through violent conquest,
religious missions, economic might, and technology — to more fully rule and exploit the
territories they claimed.
Unit Content Overview
After 1500, empires became one of the most common forms of economic and political
organization around the world. But the period between 1815 and 1914 stands out as the “Imperial
Century,” because during this time nearly three-quarters of the earth came to be dominated by a
handful of empires. This unit explores the complexities of imperial history as seen from a world
historical perspective. Viewed from such a perspective, imperial history is the story of the
introduction — usually by force — of new peoples, technologies, products, languages, plants,
animals, values, and religions to many parts of the world. Imperialism depended on the physical
occupation and administration of overseas dominions to utilize and exploit labor, resources, and
raw materials for the benefit of the nation state. By the nineteenth century, imperialism was more
aggressive than in any previous era.
Nineteenth-century imperialism was largely a European phenomenon, although the United States
and Japan participated as well. As colonizers gained control of diverse territories, they tended to
justify their actions in terms of “civilizing missions” to the “backward” peoples of the world. In
addition, colonizers came to share common beliefs about the racial inferiority of the peoples they
colonized.
The meaning and experience of imperialism varied widely from place to place. In some places, it
meant little more than staking a claim to territory on a map. In others, it meant forced labor or
genocide. In still others, it meant the restructuring of social classes, gender relations, and political
realities. Wherever imperialism occurred, however, it was usually accomplished by violence and
oppression. Moreover, the unequal relationships caused by imperialism sparked resistance all
over the world; the movements such resistance inspired led to nationalist movements that
eventually destroyed all of the once-great empires.
The legacies of imperialism have affected the world in profound ways. In most parts of the world,
imperialism organized economic life to feed into the international economy of exchange — usually
by the production of raw materials or resources for the global market. These changes significantly
altered human relationships to natural resources, and usually resulted in damage to local
environments. Political life was altered as well, as new elites were created and old loyalties were
disrupted. It is safe to say that nineteenth-century imperialism permanently changed economic,
social, and political traditions around the world, and created the context for all subsequent global
development.
Unit References
W. G. Beasley, Japanese Imperialism: 1894–1945 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987).
Charles R. Boxer, The Golden Age of Brazil: Growing Pains of a Colonial Society: 1695–1750
(New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1962/1995).
Daniel R. Headrick, The Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in the
Nineteenth Century (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1981).
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Susan Newton-King, Masters and Servants on the Cape Eastern Frontier 1760–1803
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).
Anthony Pagden, Lords of All the World: Ideologies of Empire in Spain, Britain and France,
1500–1800 (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1995).
Leonard Thompson, A History of South Africa (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990).
Global Historical Context
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Time Period: 1600–1914
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The period 1600 to 1914 witnessed the expansion of many powerful states. Europeans
established colonies and settlements in the Americas, Asia, Africa, and the Pacific, and
eventually created massive global empires. The Qing Empire in China also vastly
expanded its territories in this period to include what is now western China and Tibet. The
Islamic empires first expanded and then contracted in this period, as European powers
became strong enough to dominate some or all of the Islamic territories. The United
States expanded dramatically after its independence from Britain in 1783. While it is not
often treated as an empire, the United States acquired territories through imperial
methods of conquest, settlement, and political and economic assimilation. By 1853, the
United States stretched from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts after having both
purchased and forcibly acquired millions of acres of territory.
AP Themes
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Examines interactions in economics and politics by focusing on the ways that some
societies expanded through trade and war to establish colonies and empires.
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Explores change and continuity because imperial expansion nearly always meant great
social, political, and economic change for indigenous communities.
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Discusses technology, demography, and environment because imperial expansion
frequently changed the composition of local populations, resulted in increased
exploitation of the natural environment, and depended on technological innovations to
dominate indigenous populations.
Related Units
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Unit 11. Early Empires: “Empire” is a familiar term, with examples throughout history and
across the globe. Through case studies of the Eurasian Mongol Empire, the West African
Mali Empire, and the Andean Inka Empire, this unit traces the construction of empires,
the administrative structures that made empires work, and the ideas that legitimized
them. This unit also looks at the environmental and technological conditions that shaped
these empires and influenced their rises and falls. It is related to Unit 20 because it
documents an earlier — and globally important — period of empire building.
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Unit 19. Global Industrialization: Industrialization was and is a global process, not just a
European or American story. This unit links Latin America, Europe, Africa, Australia, and
India, examining the impacts of industry on trade, environment, culture, technology, and
lives around the world. It is related to Unit 20 because industrialization was a critical
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factor in allowing a few nation-states to become powerful enough to dominate much of
the world through imperialism.
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Unit 21. Colonial Identities: How did the colonial experience affect the colonizer and the
colonized? Colonialism was not simply a system of government. The colonial fashioning
of new identities was expressed on, in, and around the human body. Decolonization was
a process by which the new identities of the modern world were forged. From India to
Africa to Latin America, embodied human identities are the focus of this unit. It is related
to Unit 20 because it explores identity formation as it relates to imperialism.
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Unit 24. Globalization and Economics: The forces of globalization have shaped the
modern world, including how we define its consequences for global inequality. This unit
quests to understand the changes wrought by globalization — from the role of technology
to the impacts of economic and political changes — and how individuals, local
communities, and environments have been affected. It is related to Unit 20 because the
process of imperialism accelerated economic globalization.
Section 2
Video-Related Materials
Video Segment 1: Imperialism in Portuguese Brazil
This segment uses the Portuguese colony of Brazil to explore early imperial strategies as well as
the ways those strategies could prompt change over time. Between the sixteenth and eighteenth
centuries, the Portuguese government sought to treat Brazil as an extension of the nation, and to
integrate the two economies into a larger national framework. The government gave large tracts
of land to Portuguese nobles, called captaincies, for the purposes of development and
colonization. Initially, this strategy proved extremely profitable for the Portuguese government
—first because of the success of sugar plantations on Brazil’s northeastern coast, and then
because of the gold that was discovered in 1693. By the 1700s, Brazil was producing large
amounts of gold — much of which was appropriated by the Portuguese government to pay its
own debts. These debts were substantial as a result of an unequal alliance Portugal had made
with Britain in 1703 (the Methuen Treaty), and thus the gold was seen as critical to the
Portuguese economy. Over the next century, the Portuguese government increasingly tried to
direct Brazil’s economy toward the benefit of Portugal. These policies led to conflicts with the
captaincies. Many wished to limit their dependence on both Portugal and Britain by establishing
their own industries. By 1788, a movement for Brazilian independence had begun, and by 1822,
the nobles who had once been under the thumb of the Portuguese government became the
leaders of an independent Brazil.
Video Segment 2: Imperialism in South Africa
This segment uses the example of South Africa to demonstrate the ways imperial strategies
tended to become more formalized over time, and to demonstrate that imperial designs were not
only the province of European states. European contacts with South Africa began in the fifteenth
century with Portuguese traders, but accelerated by the seventeenth century when the Dutch
began using the Cape of Good Hope as a fueling station. Soon, Dutch settlers began to call
themselves Afrikaners, appropriated the surrounding land for themselves, and pushed the original
inhabitants aside. By the turn of the nineteenth century, the British had also established
themselves at the Cape, and they began to impose a much more formal style of imperial rule on
both Afrikaners and Africans. This new imperial style brought the British into conflict with the
Afrikaners, who migrated into the interior. However, this migration led the Afrikaners into conflict
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with the Zulu, an African kingdom that was in the midst of its own territorial expansion. By the last
half of the nineteenth century, these overlapping conflicts were superseded by the imposition of
formal British rule over South Africa’s interior — an imposition prompted by the discovery of
diamonds in 1867 and gold in 1885. Quickly, diamond and gold mines became critical to the
British Imperial economy, and steps were taken to ensure that the profits from those mines
remained in the hands of Europeans. Resulting policies increased control over African labor and
African movement on the basis of race — policies that would eventually lead to the twentiethcentury system of Apartheid.
Video Segment 3: Imperialism in East Asia
This segment explores the effects of imperialism in China as well as Japan’s success in
becoming an imperial power in its own right. Imperialism in China began in the aftermath of the
Opium Wars, fought between China and Britain in the mid-nineteenth century. The resulting treaty
gave victorious Britain privileged trading rights along parts of China’s coasts. Soon, other
European powers sought to create their own spheres of influence on the Chinese coasts. By the
late nineteenth century, China had been carved into a multitude of such spheres, which were
used to the advantages of European business and missionary interests alike. Meanwhile,
Americans had forcibly opened Japan to international trade in 1853. This imperial challenge led to
a political revolution in Japan in 1868, and to the emergence of a government committed to
reform on the Western imperial model. By 1895, Japan had defeated China in a war over Korea,
which resulted in the cession of Taiwan to the Japanese. In 1900 Japanese troops helped
Europeans and Americans put down the Boxer Rebellion in China (which developed out of
resentment toward Western imperialism). In 1904, Japan also defeated Russia in war. Finally,
after World War One, Japan—as Britain’s ally—was awarded the former German territories in
China’s Shandong peninsula. By then, it was clear that Japan had become an imperial nation on
the Western model. China, in contrast, had been reduced from a powerful empire to a victim of
imperialism.
Perspectives on the Past: The Legacy of Imperialism and the Multinational
Corporation
Can multinational corporations function like empires? Historian Pat Manning argues that even
during the age of imperialism multinational corporations owned by Britons, Dutch, Americans, or
Japanese came to exert tremendous powers in the territories where they had economic interests.
Now, although formal imperialism is uncommon, multinational corporations — like those involved
in the international arms trade — continue to wield enormous power in the global economy. Their
power, in fact, can undermine the independence of nations in many parts of the world.
Video Details
Who Is Interviewed
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Candice Goucher
Peter Winn
Linda Walton
Pat Manning
Primary Source Materials Featured in the Video
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Pombal, colonial Portuguese diplomat
Dingane, Zulu chief
Takasugi Shinsaku, Japanese samurai
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Program Contents
Begins
00:00
01:35
03:40
10:43
18:41
24:58
Ends
01:34
03:39
10:42
18:40
24:57
26:19
26:20
28:25
Contents
Show tease, show opening credits
Program overview/introduction
Video Segment 1. Imperialism in Portuguese Brazil
Video Segment 2. Imperialism in South Africa
Video Segment 3. Imperialism in East Asia
Perspectives on the Past: The Legacy of Imperialism and the
Multinational Corporation
Show close and program credits
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