Sub-Saharan African American Imperialism
Imperialization came about through the necessity of resources for industrialization and began in the 19th century when industrial progress drove nations to search for new markets for their products. The competition that was fueled by these nations would have lead to all out war without treaties and agreements being made on the side of the conquerors, however, at no time did they consider the desires of the conquered. They did not just claim land, but create social structures similar to theirs, which they believed superior. Many Europeans believed that these “savages” should be civilized and in many cases a group of humanitarians brought in their christian god. These Ethnocentric attitudes led to beliefs of racism and a superiority the
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Europeans felt When nations imperialize others, the conquered people lose their rights to their own countries and have to submit their freedom and way of life to the conqueror, which can lead to cultural adaptation and low self-sustainability in the future. This is evident in how the conquered people readjusted to their nations once imperialism ended. Through imperializing other nations the Europeans generally became wealthier, stronger, and economically stable, while the imperialised nations lost their freedom and were forced to agree to unfair negotiations, which affects the country's economy and politics, even in modern times.
Imperialists
Great Britain was a leader in western imperialization. A common phrase used to explain their empire was that the sun never set on the English Empire. This meant that there was always somewhere that Britain owned that it was daytime and that their influence and culture is everywhere. Britain was successful as an imperialist for different reasons in different areas of the world. The many different beliefs of theirs, such as the “white man’s burden” or social darwinism affected who they imperialized. Many of these beliefs gave justification to the imperialization in these regions of the world because these places lacked christianity, western teachings, and white skin. In some places the goal was obtaining trade routes, other for raw materials, and some for both. In China, Britain created a sphere of influence through the trade of the addictive substance, opium. There goal was to exploit the trade of China through their addiction to the drug. Also, because they had control over this trading market because of the addiction, they were able to control the goods that China had to offer such as tea and silk, which were both in high demand in Europe. Britain as a island nation has a strong navy as well as power that they have gained from imperialism elsewhere and the power they have gained from the Opium trade. So, when the Chinese tried to back away from this trade, they were too weak to fight back against the British (Opium Wars) and were forced to agree to treaties and participate in trade that favored Britain. Treaty of Nanjing is one of these policies, which allowed open trade for western nations that wanted to trade in China.[1]
Belgium, lead by King Leopold, was another one of the many western nation that became involved with taking advantage of the trade routes or the resources found in Africa. Belgium took control over the Congo purely for their abundance in resources such as rubber and precious metals. An odd aspect of the conquership was that the Belgians were not interested in imperialization, so King Leopold used Congo almost as a personal business venture. To pay for his expenses, he set up a “labor tax”, which was a way for him to gain free work in gathering and produce the resources and materials that Congo was so well known for. [2]. He gave the Congolese an incentive to do the work by setting punishments with limits that could easily be reached. He justified these actions with the popular European beliefs of ethnocentrism and social darwinism. In the early 1900s the Belgian government took the ownership of Congo away from Leopold and made it a colony of the country. Treatment of the natives became better as well as the income and economy of the actual country; not just the king.
Conquered
Congo is an sub-Saharan African nation that is rich with resources like rubber, tin, gold, and diamonds.
Belgium saw them as an easy target with big profits and imperialized. Belgium, as a western nation, also agreed to the ideas of Social Darwinism, the belief that the white European was better than the rest of the people in the world, chiefly based on their physical features. Simply put, they were racist. Most Europeans fell into this belief, but the Belgian people took this to an extreme. They enslaved the native people of Congo in their own country and forced work upon them. Quotas and taxes were created to ensure certain amounts of raw materials were gathered and harsh punishments were put into action for those who didn’t complete or meet their requirements. According to Mark Twain, “The amount of rubber needed to meet the tax requires the men to work for up 25 days each month harvesting the wild rubber vines in the Congo forest” [3]. According to this that would leave only 5 days a month for “regular” life for the Congolese people. They did not have the time or resources to educate themselves, make money, or to develop. In 1908 the Belgian government gave the natives better treatment, by taking away the direct ownership of the nation from Leopold and they made it an official colony of the Belgian government [4]. This decision came through by putting humanitarian pressure put on King Leopold. Conditions improved, schools, hospitals, and roads were built, but the cruelty and racism was still their because of the history they had of it. Also, the punishment, crimes, and cruelty was all that the people understood because they were forced to live in it their entire lives, and it was a hard to shift back. Even in today’s world, this industrialization and these policies have left a scar on the Congos. In both the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic Of Congo there is still political unrest and constant violence. On December 17, there were 22
people killed in a battle between the armed forces and a group of men loyal to a convicted colonel,who was convicted for his role in an explosion that killed 300 people, and this is an issue happening in what is known as the more peaceful Congo. [5]
China was a nation that was more advanced than the rest of the world until they realized that their culture could easily be compromised or changed through interaction and trade with other nations. After learning about this cultural adaptation and change that would occur, they shut their doors and became isolationists. China is different from most industrialized nations in the fact that they were not completely and directly controlled. China was in a sphere of influence directing from the British. The British gained this sphere of influence by introducing opium to the Chinese. The Chinese population became addicted the opium and became vulnerable to the desires of Britain. This brought about unequal trade that angered the government and rebel groups at times.
Comparisons:
Many differences can be found in the way that the British and the Belgian imperialised nations due to the various differences in their domestic and foreign policy, as well as their goals and motivations. In Britain, they “suffered” from the “white man’s burden”, while in Belgium, at least when King Leopold was the sole ruler of Congo, there was not the slightest bit of humanitarianism. Although it becomes a bit of a racist belief, the “white man’s burden helped connect nations in culture, language, and religion. This form of humanitarianism allowed for these conquered countries to centralize themselves and function better after they become their own nation. A good comparison to look at in modern times could be India or China against either of the Congos. India and China, although they both suffer from in different ways, do not suffer from the violence and death in the same way as the Democratic Republic of Congo does. Another popular policy of the British was to keep the ruling power of the imperialised nation as a figure and a representation of the British culture, custom, and ruling. This allowed for the British to gain some respect and some trust from the nations they had control over, meanwhile, the Belgian people were enslaving the natives of Congo, forcing them work long and hard, with little time for anything else and punishing them for doing nothing.
A similar aspect that can be found is the European feeling of superiority. The British expressed their superiority (most of the time) by teaching others the “better” way to live your life. While the Belgian expressed it by showing off to the Congolese that they had every right over them, and that they could step all over them, but they are both still representing the same thing. They both wanted to say “I’m better than you”, so that’s what they both did.
In the conquered nations of China and the Congo, there are more significant differences, which could be the result of the type of imperialism established in the nations. In China, the imperialism wasn’t established by direct rule, but by the dependency and addiction created by the trade of Opium. Meanwhile, in Congo King Leopold used force and cruelty to gain control over the people. Also, because of the Berlin Conference, conflicting African tribes were organized into boundaries that did not consider those conflicts[6], this caused internal unrest in the European settlements in Africa, which affected politics of African nations as well as politics in Europe. Since China was not a settlement of of Britain, the internal conflicts did not affect them. This allowed for Britain to benefit from the the markets of China, while not getting affected by internal problems.
A similarity in the type of imperialism was the exploitation of both nations. In China, they had resources that were popular in Europe like tea and silk, and Britain took advantage of China so that all the tea and silk trade in Europe had to be dealt with, through them. In Congo, they had an abundance of rubber, an important resource for industrialization. It was exploited through taxes and quotas set by the Belgian.
With this information, I can conclude that imperialization allowed for the exploitation of the conquered nations and left the conquerors with the benefits of trade. The examples I used from China and Britain, and Congo and Belgium give the required information to prove this.
Europeans felt When nations imperialize others, the conquered people lose their rights to their own countries and have to submit their freedom and way of life to the conqueror, which can lead to cultural adaptation and low self-sustainability in the future. This is evident in how the conquered people readjusted to their nations once imperialism ended. Through imperializing other nations the Europeans generally became wealthier, stronger, and economically stable, while the imperialised nations lost their freedom and were forced to agree to unfair negotiations, which affects the country's economy and politics, even in modern times.
Imperialists
Great Britain was a leader in western imperialization. A common phrase used to explain their empire was that the sun never set on the English Empire. This meant that there was always somewhere that Britain owned that it was daytime and that their influence and culture is everywhere. Britain was successful as an imperialist for different reasons in different areas of the world. The many different beliefs of theirs, such as the “white man’s burden” or social darwinism affected who they imperialized. Many of these beliefs gave justification to the imperialization in these regions of the world because these places lacked christianity, western teachings, and white skin. In some places the goal was obtaining trade routes, other for raw materials, and some for both. In China, Britain created a sphere of influence through the trade of the addictive substance, opium. There goal was to exploit the trade of China through their addiction to the drug. Also, because they had control over this trading market because of the addiction, they were able to control the goods that China had to offer such as tea and silk, which were both in high demand in Europe. Britain as a island nation has a strong navy as well as power that they have gained from imperialism elsewhere and the power they have gained from the Opium trade. So, when the Chinese tried to back away from this trade, they were too weak to fight back against the British (Opium Wars) and were forced to agree to treaties and participate in trade that favored Britain. Treaty of Nanjing is one of these policies, which allowed open trade for western nations that wanted to trade in China.[1]
Belgium, lead by King Leopold, was another one of the many western nation that became involved with taking advantage of the trade routes or the resources found in Africa. Belgium took control over the Congo purely for their abundance in resources such as rubber and precious metals. An odd aspect of the conquership was that the Belgians were not interested in imperialization, so King Leopold used Congo almost as a personal business venture. To pay for his expenses, he set up a “labor tax”, which was a way for him to gain free work in gathering and produce the resources and materials that Congo was so well known for. [2]. He gave the Congolese an incentive to do the work by setting punishments with limits that could easily be reached. He justified these actions with the popular European beliefs of ethnocentrism and social darwinism. In the early 1900s the Belgian government took the ownership of Congo away from Leopold and made it a colony of the country. Treatment of the natives became better as well as the income and economy of the actual country; not just the king.
Conquered
Congo is an sub-Saharan African nation that is rich with resources like rubber, tin, gold, and diamonds.
Belgium saw them as an easy target with big profits and imperialized. Belgium, as a western nation, also agreed to the ideas of Social Darwinism, the belief that the white European was better than the rest of the people in the world, chiefly based on their physical features. Simply put, they were racist. Most Europeans fell into this belief, but the Belgian people took this to an extreme. They enslaved the native people of Congo in their own country and forced work upon them. Quotas and taxes were created to ensure certain amounts of raw materials were gathered and harsh punishments were put into action for those who didn’t complete or meet their requirements. According to Mark Twain, “The amount of rubber needed to meet the tax requires the men to work for up 25 days each month harvesting the wild rubber vines in the Congo forest” [3]. According to this that would leave only 5 days a month for “regular” life for the Congolese people. They did not have the time or resources to educate themselves, make money, or to develop. In 1908 the Belgian government gave the natives better treatment, by taking away the direct ownership of the nation from Leopold and they made it an official colony of the Belgian government [4]. This decision came through by putting humanitarian pressure put on King Leopold. Conditions improved, schools, hospitals, and roads were built, but the cruelty and racism was still their because of the history they had of it. Also, the punishment, crimes, and cruelty was all that the people understood because they were forced to live in it their entire lives, and it was a hard to shift back. Even in today’s world, this industrialization and these policies have left a scar on the Congos. In both the Republic of Congo and the Democratic Republic Of Congo there is still political unrest and constant violence. On December 17, there were 22
people killed in a battle between the armed forces and a group of men loyal to a convicted colonel,who was convicted for his role in an explosion that killed 300 people, and this is an issue happening in what is known as the more peaceful Congo. [5]
China was a nation that was more advanced than the rest of the world until they realized that their culture could easily be compromised or changed through interaction and trade with other nations. After learning about this cultural adaptation and change that would occur, they shut their doors and became isolationists. China is different from most industrialized nations in the fact that they were not completely and directly controlled. China was in a sphere of influence directing from the British. The British gained this sphere of influence by introducing opium to the Chinese. The Chinese population became addicted the opium and became vulnerable to the desires of Britain. This brought about unequal trade that angered the government and rebel groups at times.
Comparisons:
Many differences can be found in the way that the British and the Belgian imperialised nations due to the various differences in their domestic and foreign policy, as well as their goals and motivations. In Britain, they “suffered” from the “white man’s burden”, while in Belgium, at least when King Leopold was the sole ruler of Congo, there was not the slightest bit of humanitarianism. Although it becomes a bit of a racist belief, the “white man’s burden helped connect nations in culture, language, and religion. This form of humanitarianism allowed for these conquered countries to centralize themselves and function better after they become their own nation. A good comparison to look at in modern times could be India or China against either of the Congos. India and China, although they both suffer from in different ways, do not suffer from the violence and death in the same way as the Democratic Republic of Congo does. Another popular policy of the British was to keep the ruling power of the imperialised nation as a figure and a representation of the British culture, custom, and ruling. This allowed for the British to gain some respect and some trust from the nations they had control over, meanwhile, the Belgian people were enslaving the natives of Congo, forcing them work long and hard, with little time for anything else and punishing them for doing nothing.
A similar aspect that can be found is the European feeling of superiority. The British expressed their superiority (most of the time) by teaching others the “better” way to live your life. While the Belgian expressed it by showing off to the Congolese that they had every right over them, and that they could step all over them, but they are both still representing the same thing. They both wanted to say “I’m better than you”, so that’s what they both did.
In the conquered nations of China and the Congo, there are more significant differences, which could be the result of the type of imperialism established in the nations. In China, the imperialism wasn’t established by direct rule, but by the dependency and addiction created by the trade of Opium. Meanwhile, in Congo King Leopold used force and cruelty to gain control over the people. Also, because of the Berlin Conference, conflicting African tribes were organized into boundaries that did not consider those conflicts[6], this caused internal unrest in the European settlements in Africa, which affected politics of African nations as well as politics in Europe. Since China was not a settlement of of Britain, the internal conflicts did not affect them. This allowed for Britain to benefit from the the markets of China, while not getting affected by internal problems.
A similarity in the type of imperialism was the exploitation of both nations. In China, they had resources that were popular in Europe like tea and silk, and Britain took advantage of China so that all the tea and silk trade in Europe had to be dealt with, through them. In Congo, they had an abundance of rubber, an important resource for industrialization. It was exploited through taxes and quotas set by the Belgian.
With this information, I can conclude that imperialization allowed for the exploitation of the conquered nations and left the conquerors with the benefits of trade. The examples I used from China and Britain, and Congo and Belgium give the required information to prove this.