In Italy the Balkans were seen as a possible field of future expansion, while most politicians in Vienna regarded this region as the natural backyard of the Habsburg Empire. Tensions in the Balkans, such as the Austrian annexation of Bosnia in , seriously threatened the relationship between Austria-Hungary and Italy.
Although both countries were members of the same military alliance, they built systems of fortresses against each other at the Austro-Italian border and initiated an arms race.
The Second Moroccan Crisis, which reached its climax in September , was a watershed event. Even though the French had violated some articles of the Algeciras Treaty of , which had regulated the status of Morocco, most of the European governments regarded the German step as an overreaction not justified by German interests in the region.
As the French government could count both on Russian and British support, it saw no reason to retreat. Both sides escalated the conflict until in September Europe was on the brink of war.
To make matters worse, public opinion in both countries left little room for diplomatic maneuvering. In France, the German gunboat was seen as a direct attack on the French semi-colony Morocco. The nationalist press mobilized the public to stand firm against German imperialist demands. Consequently, the nationalist press initiated a public outcry in favor of annexing West Morocco.
However, this strategy failed. The government had little trouble setting the nationalist outcry in motion, but rather more trouble stopping it.
After contentious negotiations, a compromise was found. France received the right to establish a full colonial regime in Morocco. As compensation it handed over territories in central Africa that it barely controlled. For the French nationalists the concessions were too much, while for their German counterparts they were much too little.
Germany acted as the main aggressor. The diplomatic constellation of the July Crisis had already become visible.
Although neither the Entente Cordiale nor the Anglo-Russian Entente contained any military regulations and Great Britain did not join any European military alliance before August , at the climax of the crisis British and French talks started between the army leadership. Over the following years the informal military cooperation intensified. The imperialist policy in the Balkans contributed significantly to the July Crisis.
Between and , the region was in permanent turmoil. Nation-building at the expense of the Ottoman Empire went hand in hand with processes of decolonization. Moreover, to a growing extent ethnic cleansing became a weapon used against civilians. However, in these multilingual and multi-religious regions it was impossible to define territorial borders according to nationalities.
In a newly formed coalition of Balkan states started a war of aggression against the Ottoman Empire. Within a couple of weeks the Turkish army collapsed. Some of the Great Powers were drawn into the struggle against their wishes and were forced to define their interests. On several occasions, leading officers of the Central Powers demanded a preemptive war.
However, even if some Russian intellectuals and young officers supported a pan-Slavic ideology, it hardly influenced the decisions of the Russian government. However, in the situation in the Balkans was still dangerous, as the Great Powers were unable to control the strong revisionist and nationalist tendencies. Especially in Austria-Hungary, influential politicians and the general staff were pushing for a great war in order to realize far-reaching imperial ambitions.
Unlike other imperial powers, who saw war as a threat to the integrity of their imperial domains, the Young Turks regarded war as a chance for national and imperial renewal.
Even if imperialism was one of the crucial factors that led to World War I, it is striking that by early all colonial disputes between Germany and Britain had been solved. After long and difficult debates and diplomatic maneuvers, the agreements concerning the Baghdad Railway had resulted in compromise solutions in which all parties except the Ottoman Empire profited.
British diplomacy stopped resisting the German-Turkish project of building a railway from Constantinople to the Persian Gulf. However, the Germans agreed that the last section of the line would be built only by British investors and would be under sole British political and economic control.
A compromise was also found in the question of the Mesopotamian oil fields. The secret Anglo-German treaty of concerning the partition of the Portuguese colonies was a German success as well. Britain agreed to act against the political interests of its traditional ally, Portugal, and used the question of the colonies to appease Germany. From this perspective, World War I began as a European war but then had global and imperial consequences because of the nature of the states that took part in it.
Barth, Boris: Imperialism , in: online. International Encyclopedia of the First World War, ed. DOI : Version 1. By Boris Barth. Imperialism was responsible for reforming the European alliances. Imperialist expansion played a major role in the growing tensions between Germany and Great Britain after the turn of the century. The growing imperialist rivalry was responsible for the slow formation of an anti-German alliance system in Europe.
Because of the increasing imperial competition and the naval race, the British decided to work with France and to sign the Entente Cordiale in , thus putting an end to long-standing Franco-British colonial rivalries. German diplomacy was based on the conviction that the Anglo-Russian antagonism would remain a central factor for Great Power diplomacy no matter how Germany acted.
In Eyre Crowe formulated his famous memorandum predicting that Germany, not Russia, would become the most dangerous threat for Britain. In the same year the Anglo-Russian treaty on the partition of Persia was signed, ending any major imperial rivalry between the two countries. Neither of these treaties was a military alliance, but they shaped British foreign policy, as the British continued to view Germany as the only dangerous international competitor.
Between and the British concluded that relations with the aggressive Wilhelmine state had to be improved to avoid the danger of a major European war. After the failure of the famous Haldane Mission, British statesmen looked for initiatives in imperial affairs for which compromise solutions with Germany could be found. The difficult negotiations for the Baghdad Railway were successfully finished in the spring of Additionally, with the treaty partitioning the Portuguese colonies, the British allowed Germany to acquire territory in Africa at the cost of its traditional ally Portugal.
As a result, by the summer of the period of Anglo-German imperial rivalry had ended. By the end of the Second Moroccan Crisis most of the colonial disputes between Berlin and Paris had also disappeared. The French colonial administration focused on penetrating and stabilizing its newly acquired African territories. In the Balkans, however, the combination of conflicting Austro-Hungarian, Italian, and Russian imperialist aspirations, the breakdown of the European region of the Ottoman Empire, and aggressive processes of nation building in Greece , Bulgaria , Serbia , Romania had been an increasing threat since Ultimately, the explosive combination of these events contributed to the constellation of the July Crisis in Imperiale Weltverbesserung seit dem Jahrhundert, Konstanz The Advocacy of War and Rearmament , London Roger: Imperialism.
A Short History, Princeton Sir Charles Addis, , London , p. Barth, Boris: Die deutsche Hochfinanz und die Imperialismen. Banken und Aussenpolitik vor , Stuttgart Steiner. Bayly, Christopher A. Global connections and comparisons , Malden Blackwell. Bentley, Jerry H. Cain, Peter J. Chickering, Roger: We men who feel most German. Hobson, Rolf: Imperialism at sea.
Naval strategic thought, the ideology of sea power, and the Tirpitz Plan, , Boston Brill Academic Publishers. Kennedy, Paul M. Louis, William Roger ed. Mommsen, Wolfgang J. Morris, A. Anthony: The scaremongers. A theoretical overview , Princeton; Kingston M. Wiener; Ian Randle Publishers. A short history , Princeton Princeton University Press.
Porter, Andrew N. The nineteenth century , volume 3, Oxford Oxford University Press. British Protestant missionaries and overseas expansion, , Manchester Manchester University Press. Rosenberg, Emily S. Citation Barth, Boris: Imperialism , in: online. Metadata Subjects. Author Keywords. GND Subject Headings. LC Subject Headings. Rameau Subject Headings. Regional Section s. Thematic Section s. Caricature Boxer Rebellion. Globalization generally refers to the period since , following the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the break-down of the Cold War system.
In contrast to the earlier, colonial era, globalization is characterized by the decay of national boundaries and state institutions in favor of transnational economic activity. Others see the structure of the global political hierarchy, as well as the patterns of economic growth and development where some countries have grown fabulously rich while others have largely languished, or been exploited for low-level labor as roughly similar to that achieved in the high imperialist era of the s.
The beginning of the steady decline in the British empire. Most become. Before the revolution, Cuba had been largely a U. The word imperialism comes from the term empire. Imperialism refers to the practice of domination of one country by another in order to expand territory, power and influence.
It usually carries with it the idea of cultural superiority on the part of the imperialist, judging the way of life, traditions and beliefs of those colonised as inferior and worthy of replacement:. Imperialism takes the form of political control and creating economic dependence. In Europe, the period of imperialism coincided with growing nationalism and unification when previously divided political units were united under a single monarchy.
Unification allowed for empire building because people were gathered under a monarchy that claimed the right to rule them. Examples are German and Italian unification. Towards the end of the 19th century, imperialism became a policy of colonial expansion pursued by different European powers. The Prime Minister of France, Jules Ferry in his justification of this policy told his parliament that:. They have the duty to civilize the inferior races [non Europeans] France and Britain saw imperialism as a way of carrying out their responsibility to civilise non-European societies.
Other imperialists believed imperialism was necessary for their country's economic growth. They argued that Europe's high import tariffs government fees allowing foreign traders to bring in goods for sale made it difficult to access customers and markets there.
They had no choice but to look for other markets outside Europe. Lord Lugard of Britain said that:. Lugard further justified the policy of colonial expansion by saying that the benefits were not limited to Britain. Colonies would gain access to superior European goods and influence. The Scramble for Africa in the s to was motivated by these ideas.
Imperialist ambitions in Africa were boosted by the expansion of competitive trade in Europe. The main aim was to secure commercial and trade links with African societies and protect those links from other European competitors. Europe established trade relations with African rulers and encouraged them to trade with them exclusively.
European traders were at first not interested in expanding into the interior of Africa. As long as African rulers assured them of a supply of slaves from the interior, they felt no need to expand into the interior.
The rapid expansion of industries made European countries look to African for a supply of cheap raw materials and slave labour.
West Africa was particularly important for the development of industries in Europe. The production of African palm oil used as industrial oil was in high demand for European industries.
Greed for ever-greater profits meant intensifying and expanding industrial production. European countries realised that by taking control of African territories they could secure a very cheap supply of raw materials that would ensure industrial success and overall economic prosperity.
Colonial governments organised agricultural production in the colonies to match the demand for raw materials in Europe.
Imperial expansion of Europe into the African interior saw many African farmers forced off their land and turned into farm labourers on white-owned plantations, where they were usually subject to cruel exploitative practices.
European governments encouraged their citizens to become permanent settlers in their African colonies, providing them with farming land. The loss of land caused much resentment among African people. Those who remained on their land and plantations found themselves forced to farm cash crops such as cotton, tobacco, coffee and sugar that were important for European industries instead of their traditional staple foods in order to survive.
The price they were paid for these harvests was also very low especially when compared with the selling price of it after processing in Europe. It is not surprising then that early resistance to colonial rule in Africa revolved around the use of land and its restoration to its traditional owners. Not all European countries had imperial ambitions for Africa. It was only the major powers in Europe that competed for the control of Africa.
Britain and France were at the forefront of imperialism in Africa. These two countries were in competition with each other to dominate European politics and economics. They each aimed to beat the other through vying for greater control of Africa and thus her natural resources and labour supply. They also claimed exclusive trading rights with their colonies. These practices guaranteed them markets outside Europe for the sales of surplus goods and led to the practice of dumping.
Dumping refers to the practice of offloading goods at very low prices to crush local competition for customers. African producers could not match these prices especially in the absence of similar government support and so they were unable to withstand European competition. This undermined the development of African industries and wealth and locked the continent into an unfair economic relationship with Europe in which African producers were barely able to survive by supplying cheap cash crops and primary goods.
Moreover, African countries became dependent on European aid and loans, a state of affairs that remains today. Many African countries have been crippled by the burden of repayment of these loans. The map shows how major imperialists, England and France used Africa to extend their competition for dominance in Europe. As the map shows, England came to be a dominant power in southern Africa, with only two Portuguese and French colonies in the region. France took control of most parts of West Africa.
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