820 Ch. 21 • The Age of European Imperialism

Bismarck and Disraeli meeting during the Congress of Berlin, 1878.

out to get rubber, cartridges are given to him. He must bring back all not

used; and for every one used, he must bring back a right hand. ... In six

months, they had used 6,000 cartridges, which means that 6,000 people

are killed or mutilated. It means more than 6,000, for the people have told

me repeatedly that soldiers killed children with the butt of their guns.”

The Belgian Parliament, stung by revelations of brutality uncovered by

international investigations, demanded more humane standards. In 1908,

it took the Congo away from Leopold and made it a colony of Belgium, a

country one-eightieth the size of its colony.

From Colonialism to Imperialism

Imperialism is the process by which one state, with superior military

strength and more advanced technology, imposes its control over the land,

resources, and population of a less developed region. The repeated exten­

sion of Chinese control over the Vietnamese people of Indochina would fit

most definitions of the term. At the same time, Japan emerged as an impe­

rial power itself during the first decades of the twentieth century, as did

the United States. Imperialism has above all characterized the relations of

the European powers with Africa and Asia.

From the 1880s to 1914, the European powers expanded their direct

control over much of the globe. Imperialism reflected and contributed to