The “New Imperialism” and the Scramble for Africa 823domination. Britain’s strength also rested on the pillars of its settlement
colonies. In search of a more secure future or simply adventure, more than
a million people emigrated from the British Isles in the 1850s alone, most
of them to Australia, New Zealand, and Canada, as well as to the United
States. Australia had become the world’s largest exporter of wool by 1851,
when the discovery of gold in New South Wales and Victoria brought
another wave of immigrants dreaming of making their fortune, like those
pouring into California at the same time. The Australian colonies and New
Zealand received the right to maintain their own governments in the
1850s, under the watchful eye of the British Foreign Office, although
Western Australia remained a convict colony until “transportation” to Aus
tralia ceased to be a punishment in England in 1865. Canada achieved
Dominion status (that is, nominally autonomous within the empire) in
1867 with passage of the British North America Act by the British Parlia
ment. The crown would grant Dominion status to Australia and New
Zealand in 1907.
The “New Imperialism” and the Scramble for Africa
In the early 1880s, the hold of the European powers on the rest of the
world was still relatively slight, as Map 21.1 demonstrates. Many leaders
still could conclude that the cost of maintaining colonies outweighed the
benefits. In 1852, British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, later an out
spoken advocate of imperialism, had referred to the colonies as “wretched”
and “a millstone round our necks.” William Gladstone, Disraeli’s rival,
reflected the prevailing liberal view when he pontificated, “The lust and
love of territory have been among the greatest curses of mankind.”
Distant, underdeveloped lands still seemed remote from urgent Europe
an interests. But this changed rapidly. Before the age of imperialism, Shaka,
a renowned leader of the Zulus, who had established one of the two domi
nant African kingdoms in what is now South Africa, prophesied before his
death in 1828 that his people would be conquered by the “swallows,” white
men who build mud houses. The prophecy came true.
The Second Industrial Revolution whetted the appetite of the powers
for new sources of raw materials and markets for manufactured goods. The
enormous resources generated by large-scale industrialization and the rapid
spread of a contentious nationalism fueled the new imperialism. Despite
rivalries between the powers, during this period they were not involved in
wars with each other, allowing them to concentrate their energies and
resources on imperial expansion, which new technological advances facili
tated. Imperial powers Britain, France, Germany, and Italy no longer nec
essarily looked to preserve the balance of power on the continent, but
rather to extend what each considered its national interests.