532 Chapter 27
the richest man on earth. His power was so enormous
that a colony was named for him (Rhodesia, today
Zimbabwe), and his fortune was so immense that it en-
dowed the famous Rhodes scholarships to Oxford. Not
surprisingly, Rhodes was an ardent imperialist who
lamented that he could not annex the stars. Even the
fantasy of striking it as rich as Rhodes, however, cannot
fully explain why governments ran deficits to pay for
empire.
The new imperialism must also be understood in
terms of nationalism, militarism, and racism (see illus-
tration 27.1). Imperialist politicians insisted that empire
was the measure of a nation’s greatness. Nationalist or-
ganizations, such as the Pan-German League, pressed
their government to take more territory. It would
“awaken and foster the sense of racial and cultural kin-
ship” of Germans to know that their country occupied a
city on the coast of China. Journalists, teachers, and
scholars promoted similar attitudes about the greatness
of empire. As a Cambridge historian wrote in 1883,
“[T]here is something intrinsically glorious in an empire
‘upon which the sun never sets.’ ” Even Cecil Rhodes in-
sisted that his motives began with his nationalism. “I
contend,” he wrote, “that we [the British] are the first
race in the world, and the more of the world we in-
habit, the better it is for the human race. I believe it to
be my duty to God, my Queen, and my Country to
paint the whole map of Africa red [the color typically
used to depict British colonies], red from the Cape to
Cairo.”
Militarism was also a significant factor in imperial-
ism. The conquest of distant lands required larger
armies and bigger budgets. Decoration, promotion, and
territory were more easily won against preindustrial
armies. Lord Kitchener became famous for command-
ing the outnumbered army that conquered the Sudan in
1896–98. Kitchener’s army of twenty-five thousand de-
feated an army of fifty thousand because they were
equipped with Maxim (machine) guns, which enabled
them to kill large numbers of Sudanese with relative
ease; at the decisive battle of Omdurman, Kitchener’s
forces suffered five hundred casualties and killed more
than fifteen thousand Sudanese—“giving them a good
dusting” in Kitchener’s words. Thus, while the nine-DOCUMENT 27.1
Jules Ferry: French Imperialism (1885)
Jules Ferry (1832–1893) was a wealthy middle-class lawyer
who served as premier of France in the 1880s. He was a moderate
republican and one of the founders of the Third Republic. His
greatest accomplishments came in the creation of the French educa-
tional system, but he also became a leading champion of imperial-
ism. The following document is excerpted from one of his
parliamentary speeches.
Our colonial policy... rests upon our economic princi-
ples and interests, on our humanitarian visions of order,
and on political considerations....
[Interruptions by hecklers: “Yes, 20,000 corpses!” and
“Ten thousand families in mourning!”]
Why have colonies from an economic standpoint?...
[C]olonies are, for wealthy countries, an advantageous in-
vestment. France, which has exported a great amount of
capital abroad, must consider this aspect of the colonial
question. There is, however, another point, even more im-
portant:... For countries like France, devoted to exports
by the nature of their industry, the colonial question is a
question of markets....
Gentlemen, there is a second point, a second set of
ideas, that I must also raise: the humanitarian and civiliz-
ing side of imperialism. The honorable Camille Pelletan
[another deputy] scoffs at this point.... He asks, “What is
this civilization that one imposes with cannon shells?”...
One must answer that superior races have rights with re-
gard to the inferior races. They have rights because they
have duties. They have the duty to civilize the inferior
races.... Can anyone deny that it was good fortune for
the people of equatorial Africa to fall under the protection
of France and Britain?... I add that French colonial policy... is inspired by
another truth which you must reflect upon: a navy such as
ours cannot survive with the shelters, defenses, supply
bases. Just look at the map of the world.... No warship,
no matter how perfectly organized, can carry more than a
fourteen day supply of coal, and a warship short of coal is
only a derelict on the high seas.
Journal officiel de la république française.Debates of July 28, 1885.
Trans. Steven C. Hause. Paris: Imprimerie des journaux officiels.