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Imperialism - Contenido educativo
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Hello class, today we are going to explain another important consequence of the Second
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Industrial Revolution, the last one, I promise, which is called imperialism. Imperialism emerged
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in the second half of the 19th century as a result of the Second Industrial Revolution.
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Due to this important process in terms of the economy, the European countries needed
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more raw materials and markets to sell their products. As a consequence of that, as we
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can see here in this image, Lord Nelson, the most important sailor and general in the Battle
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of Trafalgar, is fighting against Napoleon, the French general Napoleon, because the British
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and the French together with the Germans became the main rivals in order to get more products,
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more materials in Asia and in Africa above all. So we are going to explain today this
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process because maybe last year you studied colonialism, whose main objective was to dominate
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the economic resources of the colonies. So colonialism, in general, broadly speaking,
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the main objective of colonialism was only to dominate the economic resources of the
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colonies. It happened, for example, in South America when the Spaniards, when the Spanish
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Empire took over some parts of South America and also the Portuguese in Brazil. But imperialism
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was something more. Imperialism was the military, political and economic control of the European
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minority, such as the British or the French, over the territories in Africa and in Asia.
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So imperialism was something more than colonialism because colonialism only implied the economic
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control. But by contrast, imperialism implied the military, political and economic control
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of Europe over the territories in Africa and in Asia. As we can see here in this picture,
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we have the image of China and here we can see several countries in Europe, such as Great Britain
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under the rule of Queen Victoria, the Germans under the rule of Wilhelm I, here we have the
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Tsar Nicholas II in Russia, the French and the Japanese who were fighting in order to get
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their portion of a slide in China. China was in decline at that moment and for that reason the
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European powers, together with the Japanese, wanted to get more territories, more raw materials
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and markets in China. Here we have another image which depicts the idea that Bismarck
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is fighting against the Tsars in Russia and also the British are looking to get their portion,
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their slide, in Africa and in Asia. And this one, which is great from my point of view,
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is very original because we have here Cecil Rhodes, who is one of the most prominent
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figures in imperialism. Cecil Rhodes was British, together with the British Empire,
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had the idea in mind to control from the north of Africa to the south and we will see the result
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and the consequences of that. Here we have another map of the result of imperialism before
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the First World War and we can see that the British managed to control from the north,
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from Egypt, up to the south, what is now South Africa. The British built a railway system
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from Egypt, Sudan, Uganda, northern Rhodesia and southern Rhodesia, what is now Zambia and
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Zimbabwe, up to South Africa. And the French, by contrast, wanted to take over from the west
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in Senegal to the east in Africa. We have some exceptions because the Germans
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controlled the territories of Cameroon, Togolan, or Namibia, where they built the
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first concentration camps and also they controlled Tanzania. The Belgians controlled Congo in the
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center, which was 70 times bigger than Belgium and it was under the hands of only one man,
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but we will explain that. Maybe you know that it was King Leopold.
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Also, we have some exceptions because the Empire of Ethiopia was independent. It wasn't controlled
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by any European power, but the Italians were in the Eritrean-Somali line. They were threatening
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Ethiopia. So, now we are going to explain the causes of this important process in history.
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There were political reasons to promote imperialism. Why? Because the European countries
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wanted colonies in order to get more prestige, more power, in order to control the trade routes.
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Because if you control the trade routes, you will get more money. And at that moment in history, the
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European powers, the European empires, had an area of influence. The British were from the north to
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the south of Africa, the French from the west to the east. Basically, they had an area of influence
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because they wanted to hinder their competitors' expansion. For this reason, there were
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some fights in Africa, for example, between the British and the French. We will see that.
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Also, there were demographic causes because the European countries, the European empires,
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if you remember that, had an important growth in population. And due to this growth in population,
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the European powers wanted colonies. Because due to the situation of overpopulation in Europe,
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the European countries, such as Great Britain, France, and Germany, needed colonies in order
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to reduce the level of unemployment. Because they can send the overpopulated people there,
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they can send them to the colonies in order to reduce unemployment and social tensions.
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There were also economic reasons because the European countries needed new markets
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so as to sell, in order to sell their surplus products, I mean,
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so they needed new markets. And when they got more colonies, they got also more markets.
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They could sell their surplus products there. And as a consequence of that,
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there was an increase in the levels of production. When they got more colonies,
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they could send their manufactured products, machines, for example. And in exchange for that,
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they could get raw materials, which were really important for the industrialization process.
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Also, the European countries needed colonies because it was one way to get cheap labor.
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Because if they wanted to produce something in Europe, obviously, they had to pay,
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they had to pay even more salaries than in Africa. And when they were in the colonies,
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also, it was another advantage for them because they could get cheap labor among the indigenous
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people. And also, they could invest more capital, more money. So also, the European countries
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found one way to invest more money to get good businesses because they could invest
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their capital. And when they invested more money in the colonies, also, they earned more money,
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which was for the European powers, obviously, because this money
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didn't go for the natives in Africa and in Asia, regrettably.
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And also, there were finally ideological reasons because some ideologies at that moment,
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which were very racist, by the way, they manipulated the ideas from Charles Darwin.
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And as a result of that, one ideology, which was social Darwinism, emerged. Social Darwinism
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believed in the superiority of the white race. They thought that the white race was mentally
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physically superior than the rest. And as a result of that, social Darwinism believed that the main
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goal, the main mission of the white people was to civilize the world. For this reason, they were
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allowed to conquer more territories in other continents, such as Africa and Asia. So this
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new ideology was a complete change in mentality for some people. And remember that later on,
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the Nazis took these ideas when they got into power in Germany in 1933, because people started
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to believe that Europeans had a duty to spread their culture and civilization among peoples who
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were considered inferior. That's why the British, the French, and the Germans, together with other
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countries such as Spain, who had colonies also in Africa, in the north, together with the Portuguese,
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which controlled from Angola to Mozambique. Spain had the territories of the
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Sahara and the Spanish Morocco. The Italians were in Libya. So this ideology changed completely
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the mentality for some people, regrettably, in the European countries. Let me finish with one test,
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which is important to understand what was imperialism at that moment.
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It was written by Cecil Rhodes in Great Britain, and he said the following.
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I was in the east end of London yesterday and attended a meeting of the unemployed.
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I listened to the cry for bread, bread, and on my way home I became more than ever convinced
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of the importance of imperialism to save the 40 million thousand inhabitants of the United Kingdom
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from a bloody civil war. We colonial estatesmen must acquire new lands to settle
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the surplus population, to provide new markets for the goods produced in the factories and mines.
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This is the mentality in terms of the economy at that moment, and I explain the ideology,
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social Darwinism, which allowed the European countries to conquer more territories in Africa
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and in Asia. That moment was the perfect breeding ground which led to more tensions and rivalries,
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and as a consequence of that the first world war began.
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- Autor/es:
- Luis Horrillo Sánchez
- Subido por:
- Luis H.
- Licencia:
- Dominio público
- Visualizaciones:
- 133
- Fecha:
- 5 de enero de 2024 - 11:50
- Visibilidad:
- Público
- Centro:
- IES CERVANTES
- Duración:
- 15′ 21″
- Relación de aspecto:
- 1.83:1
- Resolución:
- 3840x2100 píxeles
- Tamaño:
- 1.49