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role did the different late 19th and 20th century ideologies played in European imperial

role did the different late 19th and 20th century ideologies played in European imperial

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What role did the different late 19th and 20th century ideologies played in European imperialism?
Increasingly, Europeans viewed the culture and achievements of Asian and African peoples through the prism of a scientific racism, expressed now in terms of modern science. Although physical differences had often been a basis of fear or dislike, in the nineteenth Europeans century increasingly used the prestige and apparatus of science to support their racial preferences and prejudices. craniologists, sometimes physicians used allegedly Phrenologists, and scientific methods and numerous This nineteenth-century chart, depicting the "Progressive Development of Man" from apes to modern Europeans, reflected the racial categories that were so prominent at the time. It also highlights the influence of Darwin's evolutionary ideas as they were applied to varieties of human beings. instruments to classify the size and shape of human skulls and concluded, not surprisingly, that those of whites were larger and therefore more Nineteenth-century biologists, who classified the varieties of plants and animals, applied these notions of rank to varieties of human beings as well. The result was a hierarchy of races, with whites on top and the less developed "child races" beneath them. Race, in this view, determined human intelligence, moral development, and destiny. Furthermore, as the germ theory of disease took hold in nineteenth-century Europe, it was accompanied by fears that contact with "inferior" peoples threatened the advanced. health and even the biological future of more advanced or "superior" peoples. These ideas influenced how Europeans viewed their own global expansion. Almost everyone saw it as inevitable, a natural outgrowth of a superior civilization. For many, this viewpoint was held with a condescending sense of responsibility to the "weaker races" that Europe was fated to dominate. "Superior races have a right, because they have a duty," declared the French politician Jules Ferry in 1883. "They have the duty to civilize the inferior races." That "civilizing mission," as Europeans regarded it, included bringing Christianity to the heathen, good government to disordered lands, work discipline and production for the market to "lazy natives," a measure of education to the ignorant and illiterate, clothing to the naked, and health care to the sick, while suppressing "native customs" that ran opposite to Western ways of living. All of this was defined as “progress"| and "civilization." Another, harsher side to the ideology of imperialism originated from an effort to apply, or perhaps misapply, the evolutionary thinking of Charles Darwin to an understanding of human history. The key concept of this “social Darwinism," though not necessarily shared by Darwin himself, was "the survival of the fittest," suggesting that European dominance inevitably involved the displacement or destruction of backward peoples or "unfit" races. Such views made imperialism, war, and aggression seem both natural and progressive, for they were based on the idea that weeding out "weaker" peoples of the world would allow the "stronger" to flourish. ?
Transcribed Image Text:Increasingly, Europeans viewed the culture and achievements of Asian and African peoples through the prism of a scientific racism, expressed now in terms of modern science. Although physical differences had often been a basis of fear or dislike, in the nineteenth Europeans century increasingly used the prestige and apparatus of science to support their racial preferences and prejudices. craniologists, sometimes physicians used allegedly Phrenologists, and scientific methods and numerous This nineteenth-century chart, depicting the "Progressive Development of Man" from apes to modern Europeans, reflected the racial categories that were so prominent at the time. It also highlights the influence of Darwin's evolutionary ideas as they were applied to varieties of human beings. instruments to classify the size and shape of human skulls and concluded, not surprisingly, that those of whites were larger and therefore more Nineteenth-century biologists, who classified the varieties of plants and animals, applied these notions of rank to varieties of human beings as well. The result was a hierarchy of races, with whites on top and the less developed "child races" beneath them. Race, in this view, determined human intelligence, moral development, and destiny. Furthermore, as the germ theory of disease took hold in nineteenth-century Europe, it was accompanied by fears that contact with "inferior" peoples threatened the advanced. health and even the biological future of more advanced or "superior" peoples. These ideas influenced how Europeans viewed their own global expansion. Almost everyone saw it as inevitable, a natural outgrowth of a superior civilization. For many, this viewpoint was held with a condescending sense of responsibility to the "weaker races" that Europe was fated to dominate. "Superior races have a right, because they have a duty," declared the French politician Jules Ferry in 1883. "They have the duty to civilize the inferior races." That "civilizing mission," as Europeans regarded it, included bringing Christianity to the heathen, good government to disordered lands, work discipline and production for the market to "lazy natives," a measure of education to the ignorant and illiterate, clothing to the naked, and health care to the sick, while suppressing "native customs" that ran opposite to Western ways of living. All of this was defined as “progress"| and "civilization." Another, harsher side to the ideology of imperialism originated from an effort to apply, or perhaps misapply, the evolutionary thinking of Charles Darwin to an understanding of human history. The key concept of this “social Darwinism," though not necessarily shared by Darwin himself, was "the survival of the fittest," suggesting that European dominance inevitably involved the displacement or destruction of backward peoples or "unfit" races. Such views made imperialism, war, and aggression seem both natural and progressive, for they were based on the idea that weeding out "weaker" peoples of the world would allow the "stronger" to flourish. ?
What made imperialism so broadly popular in Europe, especially in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, was the growth of mass nationalism. By 1871, the unification of Italy and Germany made Europe's always competitive political system even more so, and much of this rivalry spilled over into the struggle for colonies in Asia and Africa. Colonies and spheres of influence abroad became a symbol of national "Great Power" status, and European governments urgently tried to acquire as many colonies as possible, even if they possessed little immediate economic value. Imperialism appealed on economic and social grounds to the wealthy or ambitious, seemed politically and strategically necessary in the game of international power politics, and was emotionally satisfying to almost everyone. New Perceptions of the "Other" Industrialization also led to a marked change in the way Europeans perceived themselves and others. In earlier centuries, Europeans had defined others largely in religious terms. "They" were heathen; "we" were Christian. Even as they held on to this sense of religious superiority, Europeans nonetheless adopted many of the ideas and techniques of more advanced societies. They held many aspects of Chinese and Indian civilization in high regard; they freely mixed and mingled with Asian and African elites and often married their women; some even saw the more technologically simple peoples of Africa and America as "noble savages." During the industrial age, however, Europeans developed a secular arrogance that fused with or in some cases replaced their notions of religious superiority. They had, after all, unlocked the secrets of nature, created a society of unprecedented wealth, and used both to produce unsurpassed military power. To Europeans, the Chinese, who had been praised in the eighteenth century, were reduced in the nineteenth century to the image of "John Chinaman," weak, cunning, stubbornly conservative, and a distinct threat, the "yellow peril" of late-nineteenth-century European fears. African societies, which had been regarded even in the slave-trade era as nations and their leaders as kings, were demoted in nineteenth-century European eyes to the status of tribes led by chiefs as a means of emphasizing their "primitive" qualities.
Transcribed Image Text:What made imperialism so broadly popular in Europe, especially in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, was the growth of mass nationalism. By 1871, the unification of Italy and Germany made Europe's always competitive political system even more so, and much of this rivalry spilled over into the struggle for colonies in Asia and Africa. Colonies and spheres of influence abroad became a symbol of national "Great Power" status, and European governments urgently tried to acquire as many colonies as possible, even if they possessed little immediate economic value. Imperialism appealed on economic and social grounds to the wealthy or ambitious, seemed politically and strategically necessary in the game of international power politics, and was emotionally satisfying to almost everyone. New Perceptions of the "Other" Industrialization also led to a marked change in the way Europeans perceived themselves and others. In earlier centuries, Europeans had defined others largely in religious terms. "They" were heathen; "we" were Christian. Even as they held on to this sense of religious superiority, Europeans nonetheless adopted many of the ideas and techniques of more advanced societies. They held many aspects of Chinese and Indian civilization in high regard; they freely mixed and mingled with Asian and African elites and often married their women; some even saw the more technologically simple peoples of Africa and America as "noble savages." During the industrial age, however, Europeans developed a secular arrogance that fused with or in some cases replaced their notions of religious superiority. They had, after all, unlocked the secrets of nature, created a society of unprecedented wealth, and used both to produce unsurpassed military power. To Europeans, the Chinese, who had been praised in the eighteenth century, were reduced in the nineteenth century to the image of "John Chinaman," weak, cunning, stubbornly conservative, and a distinct threat, the "yellow peril" of late-nineteenth-century European fears. African societies, which had been regarded even in the slave-trade era as nations and their leaders as kings, were demoted in nineteenth-century European eyes to the status of tribes led by chiefs as a means of emphasizing their "primitive" qualities.
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