Nationalism or Imperialism: Which Had a Greater Impact?

Nationalism or Imperialism:

Which Had a Greater Impact?

      Throughout history, countries across the globe have held either Nationalistic or Imperialistic ideals—sometimes both. Countries such as China, held Nationalistic views of themselves as early as the 1600’s, and Russia held Imperialistic views as early as the 1700’s, and the United States held both views in the 1800’s. A larger wave of Nationalistic and Imperialistic views took root in the 18th and 19th centuries, in European countries as well as other countries across the globe; often with undesirable consequences. However, the Imperialistic methods of conquerors during the 19th century would leave the greatest impact on the world; partly due to the vast number of European colonies that were established—which lead to a thirst for more direct power.

Imperialism

At its core Imperialism is the, “policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, by direct territorial acquisition. [It] always involves the use of power, whether military force or some subtler form” (Encyclopedia Britannica “Imperialism”). The extension of power results in the industrialized nations pushing their own economic amalgamation onto the less developed countries and then taking the perceived worth, in the form of resources or people,
from the lesser developed country. Contrarily, Nationalism stems from the thought that a group of peoples’ home country is better than all others. It is an ideology that requires the loyalty of a person to supersede the loyalty they have for any other interest, regardless of if their personal opinion differed. It is rooted not only in traditions, but through lineage, territories, and the soil the country sits upon. Those factors often led to feelings of superiority by the more developed country.
 

Nationalism

However, during the 19th century the lines that differentiated between Nationalism and Imperialism became blurred. This happened during the Congress of Vienna. This meeting of countries, spawned by the Napoleonic Wars, French Revolutionary Wars, and the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, was held to redraw the European continents political map. The Congress of Vienna established boundaries of France, Netherlands, Rhine, Saxony, and numerous Italian territories. The redrawing of the borders of these territories and countries was a major catalyst for Imperialistic change throughout the world. To balance the power and maintain the borders that had been created, leaders enacted the Concert of Europe, which was put in place to ensure that additional revolutionary wars, or another Napoleon like figure could not rise and usurp power away from the monarchs.

      Even though borders and stability had been established via the Concert of Europe and the
Congress of Vienna, France still had several financial issues. Those issues came to a precipice
after the monarchy, in their fear, began to withdraw the rights and freedoms from its
citizens—which led to much unrest and distrust in the monarchy itself.

So, in an action that was brought about by a desire for new National pride, and love for the monarchy, France attacked Algeria over a washed-up insult—which was more of an excuse to attack rather than a genuine insult. Through their Imperialistic efforts France won and immediately established colonies in Algeria. France began to spread its language, culture, Catholic faith, and national pride, to assimilate the Algerians—and effectively regained French National pride.
     
In other parts of the world, acquisition through Imperialistic pursuits were gaining
traction as well. In Russia, Alexander II established eight industrial regions which were separated into districts; one that produced and another that supplied the producers with raw materials. Belgium, under the direction of King Leopold, connected the upper and lower Congo, two completely different peoples, and united them into a single colony. He did this without regard to any indigenous culture. His only aim was to use the land of the Congo people and to subsequently civilize them.

King Leopold of Belgium

The Germans successfully displaced many West Africans, in modern day Namibia, after a skirmish that left many German colonists dead. Perhaps the best recognized Imperialists were the British. Although they are not necessarily the most successful, they certainly made their mark on the world.
      The British used Imperial force to conquer and colonize many territories across the globe. However, the privately owned British East India Company (BEIC) is responsible for many British successes. The British held a firm grasp over Bengal, in India, after the Seven Years War, in which they established several trading ports and successfully controlled a majority of Indian continent trade. The monopoly on trade eventually led to a bitterness towards the British from the Indian people, and that bitterness culminated in the Indian Mutiny of 1857, which ended with the British Government taking direct control of India away from the privately owned BEIC. With the British Government in control, more industry was brought in to India, as well as a rail system that connected major cities, which could possibly have been looked at as a positive aspect; however as with the Dutch and Russian Imperial rule, the indigenous and cultural aspects of the people were completely ignored during all the British progress.

 

      The British imperial progress did not stop with India, they moved steadily onward to
China, a country that held much national pride. In China, the British used the control they held
over Bengals Opium, and smuggled it into China to sell to Chinese merchants since the Emperor forbade trade with the British whom they deemed inferior to themselves. When the smuggling was discovered the Opium Wars were triggered, which ended with The Treaty of Nanking; which was not in the favor of the Chinese. The Treaty of Nanking ensured open trade with the Chinese for the British, and ultimately led to threats from other countries seeking similar trade. In one war, the nationalistic attitudes of the Chinese were undone by the Imperial might of the British. And the British influence that the Chinese sought to keep out, resulted in the British having open access.

The Treaty of Nanking

      With Bengals Opium and China's tea in hand, the British set out to expand their Imperial
reach farther, and looked toward Africa. Africa was a different continent than India or China.
Africa fought back. The failure of the British to easily conquer the Zulu in Africa led to two wars
known as the Bower Wars. The results of the British Imperial rule in Africa were explosive and
disastrous. Lending credence to their Nationalistic views, the British viewed the natives of Africa
as inferior, and made that very clear when they lumped all the different ethnic and linguistic
African groups into one, called the Hottentot. In an even more dismissive move, the British
referred to Africa in the derogatory term, “Negroland”.

British Imperialism

The British, becoming even more greedy with their conquests, and even more dismissive of those they conquered, eventually began to feel it was their Imperial duty to advance the power of England even farther. John Ruskin echoed the feeling of Imperial Duty that the British felt saying, “this is what she
[England] must either to or perish” (Feagin “Imperial Duty”). It was those types of sentiments that eventually led to the British becoming overzealous to the point that the United States tried to prevent farther Imperial spread of the British.

      However, the United States was involved in Imperialism of their own, as they sought to remove the Native Americans from the land as they conquered the North American continent. This example of the expansion and domination by the U.S. was another testament to the destruction of Imperialism, no matter what country was doing the conquering. The Native American identity, culture, and sacred lands would be erased by the U.S. and replaced with railroads, canals, industry, and forced Christian civility. The railroads secured the Imperial expansion of the U.S. through transporting manufacturing materials quicker, as well as moving people more quickly across the continent, to establish more settlements—taking over more land and leaving less places for the indigenous Native Americans to live.

      Despite the disapproval the U.S had for the British expansion, the U.S. began to expand its own Imperial rule outside of the North American continent. The U.S helped free Cuba and the Philippines from the control of Spain, but not without cost to the U.S., and not without making sure they received some benefit. The squabble with Spain over Cuba led to many U.S. sailors being killed and prompted the Spanish-American war. The U.S. not only won independence for Cuba, but secured favorable trade treaties with Cuba to protect its business relations; as a bonus prize the U.S. seized control of Guam. Assistance to the Philippines from the U.S. turned into occupation after the U.S. failed to leave—after helping them oust the Spanish. The unwanted occupation led to yet another war, the Filipino-American War. This time the U.S. felt more of a Nationalistic duty to “take them all, and to educate the Filipinos, and to uplift and civilize and Christianize them” (Feagin “Imperialism & Nationalism: Filipino American War”). Yet again, the Imperial reach of the U.S. extended well beyond the North American continent. However, with these two countries, it could be argued that Imperialism was just as beneficial for Cuba and the Philippines as for the U.S.—since otherwise they would have been under the control of the Spanish.

      It is evident, by the destructive nature of Imperialism, it had a much greater and lasting impact on the world than Nationalism. Imperialism changed borders, conquered countries, blurred ethnic, linguistic and cultural lines, and often subjugated the conquered country to cultural conditioning that went hand in hand with the conquering countries Nationalistic pride. And, if not for the Imperialistic rule used by countries to extend their power by force, then perhaps the eventual rush of Nationalism would not have been such a driving force.

Works Cited

"Concert of Europe." New World Encyclopedia. January 4, 2009. Accessed March 31, 2017.
http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Concert_of_Europe.

"Congress of Vienna." Princeton University. Accessed March 31, 2017.
http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Congress_of_Vienna.html.

"Imperialism." Encyclopædia Britannica. May 15, 2007. Accessed March 31, 2017.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/imperialism.

"Nationalism." Encyclopædia Britannica. January 21, 2009. Accessed March 31, 2017.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/nationalism.

Feagin, Jayme. “British Imperial Authority in Africa." Georgia Online Virtual Instruction.
Accessed March 26, 2017.

Feagin, Jayme. "Consequences of Imperialism." Georgia Online Virtual Instruction. Accessed March 26, 2017.

Feagin, Jayme. "Exceptions." Georgia Online Virtual Instruction. Accessed March 26, 2017.

Feagin, Jayme. "Expanding Outward from India." Georgia Online Virtual Instruction. Accessed March 26, 2017.

Feagin, Jayme. "Imperial Duty." Georgia Online Virtual Instruction. Accessed March 26, 2017.

Feagin, Jayme. "Imperialism & Nationalism: Filipino-American War." Georgia Online Virtual Instruction. Accessed March 26, 2017.

Feagin, Jayme. “Imperialism 15th-19th Centuries." Georgia Online Virtual Instruction. Accessed
March 26, 2017.

Feagin, Jayme. "Nationalism and Imperialism." Georgia Online Virtual Instruction. Accessed March 26, 2017.

Feagin, Jayme. "Nationalism and Imperialism in France." Georgia Online Virtual Instruction. Accessed March 26, 2017.

Feagin, Jayme. "Nationalism, Imperialism, and Industrialization: United States." Georgia Online Virtual Instruction. Accessed March 26, 2017.

Feagin, Jayme. "Origins of Imperialism." Georgia Online Virtual Instruction. Accessed March 26, 2017.

Feagin, Jayme. "Russia, Imperialism, and Industrialization." Georgia Online Virtual Instruction. Accessed March 26, 2017.

Feagin, Jayme. "The British in India." Georgia Online Virtual Instruction. Accessed March 26, 2017.

Feagin, Jayme. "U.S. Wars and the Expansion of American Imperialism" Georgia Online Virtual Instruction. Accessed March 26, 2017.

Greene, John. "Imperialism."Crash Course: World History." YouTube. August 23, 2013. Accessed March 31, 2017. https://youtu.be/cFbMqzDSVVg.

Greene, John, and Crash C. "Samurai, Daimyo, Matthew Perry, and Nationalism." Khan
Academy. Accessed March 31, 2017. https://www.khanacademy.org/partner- content/crash-course1/crash- course-world- history/nationalism-imperialism-globalization/v/crash-course- world-history- 34.