The New Imperialism

The phase of the Anthropocene Era from 1871 to 1914 may be looked upon as the period of the ‘New Imperialism’, as the great powers struggled to carve up the rest of the world between them before the showdown of the First World War, and of the Russian Revolution – internal instability was another of the period's distinguishing features. Joseph Chamberlain was to talk at the turn of the century of his vision of an empire for the common man, of a broad patriotism that would maintain harmony between the classes, and similar remarks were made elsewhere. Thus, historians have put forward the idea of ‘social imperialism’ – the pursuit of a vigorous foreign policy with at least the partial aim of providing a safety valve for domestic discontent. At the time there was much talk too, following Darwin, of the ‘survival of the fittest’ at home and abroad.

There are a number of other features of the ‘New Imperialism’. A second industrial revolution of steel, oil, electricity and large-scale organisation began to push capitalism beyond national borders much more than before. Much of the investment and accompanying search for markets and raw materials was carried out in Europe itself, but more went to Africa, Asia and the Antipodes, while the largest injection of capital was in North and South America. Emigration now became a river in flood in comparison with the former modest stream as 25 million Europeans crossed the Atlantic to the USA in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, and a considerable if much smaller number moved in other directions, including Britons to outposts of empire and Russians to Siberia.