Just as the British govern- ment took over from the East Company trading house, other governments became directly involved in expansion. Champions of nation building came to con- nect industrial prosperity and imperial expansion with national identity. "Nations are not great except for the activities they undertake," declared a French advocate of hugc imperial acquisitions in 1885. Conquering foreign territory appeared to heap glory on the nation-state. While the new aimed to advance Western religions and culture, the ex- pansion of the West simul- increased the The Great Staircase of the Bon Marché (c' 1880) taneously of local peoples, The Bon Marché ín Paris was one of the West's premier department stores. lt centralized subjugation radi- consumption in a single large place and in so doing became the object of wonder and inflicting violence a¡rd excitement as well as criticism. The vast array of goods caused customers to flock to these cally altering their lives. stores and gape in amazement at the luxurious displap and sheer abundance' Critics, how- ever, charged that these stores turned sober housewives into irrational shoppers, waste- Tamin$ the of famiy resources. lnstead of entering a fabric store, for example, with a clear idea ful Mediterranean of their neéds, they let their fantasies run wild in a store like the Bon Marché. As a result, respectable shopkeepers with only small establishments were driven out of business as European countries eyed the theìr customers defected. Consumption as a whole expanded with the birth of the depart- African and Asian shores of ment store shopper. @ Snork/Art Resource, NY' the Mediterranean for a pri- maС reason, basedDaseo onorr theLr. more civilized. Industry and empire jointly old imperialism: the chance to profìt through shaped everyday life, as a voracious desire to trade. Great Britain and were espe- consume and own-whether industrial goods cially eager to do business with ESæt' a or -took root in Western culture. convenient and profitable stop on the way to Asia. There, enterprising rulers had not only made into a bustling metropole but Review: What economic and political factors led also helped boost commerce and manufac- to the rise of the deþartment store? tuing, the combined value of imporls and ex- ports jumping from 3,5 million Egrptian pounds in l83B to 2l million in 1880 and to 60 million in 1913. European capital invest- * The New lmperialism ment in the region rose, first in ventures such as the in the 186Os and In tl e last ttrird of the nineteenth century, in- then in the laying of thousands of miles of dustrial demand and rampant business ri- railroad track, the improvement of harbors, vaþ added fuel to the contest for territoty in and the creation of telegraph systems. But all and Asia. The - of these ventures cost local entrepreneurs unlike the trader-trased domination of pre- dearly: Egætians paid 12 percent interest direct European rates on loans for improvements while Euro- ceding centuries -brought mle to many regions of these two continents. pearis paid 5 percent. Having invested in the i:.it!,l1i:rÌ:::Ìr.:.::"ì c-1 890

)vern- Suez Canal and in other businesses, the were not new, but contact between the two n the British and French in 1879 took over the continents had principally involved the trade :ading ÐSrpUan treasury, said to be a guarantee for of African slaves for Ðuropean manufactured fients their financial investments. After invading goods. The slave trade had drastically dimin- r/ed in Egapt in 1882, which they claimed was nec- ished by this time, and Europeans'principal )ns of essary to put down objective was expanding trade in Africa's raw o con- those Egptian na- materials, such as , cotton, diamonds, perity tionalists who pro- cocoa, and rubber. Additionally, with its in- nwith tested the takeover dustrial and naval supremacy and its empire rtions of the treasury, in India, Brjtain hoped to keep the southern br the the British effec- a¡rd eastern coasts ofAfrica secure for stop- take," tively seized cont¡ol over ports on the route to Asia. uocate of the government Except for the French conquest ofAlge- sitions as a whole. l)espite na, commerce had rarely involved Europe in oreign heated parliamen- direct political control in Africa. Yet in the heap tary opposition at 18BOs, European influence turned into direct .state. home, Britain forced control as one African territory after a¡rother ialism the reshaping of fell to European military force (Map 24.1 on ¡stern the Egrptian econ- the next page). The French, Belgians, Porlu- ].e ex- omy Ílom a system guese, , and Germans jockeyed to simul- based orr multiple dominate peoples, land, and resources- Tlie suez Ganal and British "the I the tnvasion of , ts82 crgps.th.at main- magnificent cake of Africa," as King :oples, tained the coun- Leopold II of Belgium (r. 1865-1909) put it. I radi- try's self-suffìciency to one that emphasized Driven by insatiable greed, Leopold claimed )s. the production of a few crops-mainly cot- the Congo region of , thereby ton, raw silk, wheat, and rice, which were es- initiating competition with Fralce for that pecially useful to European manufacturing. territory and inflicting on its peoples unpa.r- Colonial powers, local landowners, and mon- alleled acts of cruelty. German chancellor eylenders profited from these agricultural , who saw colonies mostly 'ed the changes, while the bulk of the rural popula- as political bargaining chips, established rres of tion barely eked out an existence. German control over and a section 'a pri- As further insurance for their Mediter- of . Faced with competition, the rn the ranean claims, the French occupied neighbor- British poured millions of pounds into pre- lIough ing'lunisia in 1881. Businessmen f:om Britain, serving their position by dominating the ) espe- France, and Germany flooded Asia Minor, the continent "from Cairo to ," as the ypt, a porüon of Asia at the eastern end of the Medi- slogan went, and the French cemented their way to terranean, with cheap goods, driving artisa¡.s hold on large portions of western Africa. ct only from their trades and into low-paid work The escalated ten- rle but building railroads or processing tobacco. In- sions in Europe and prompted Otto von nufac- stead of basing wage rates on gender (as Bismarck, now the German chancellor, to call md ex- they did at home), Europeans used ethnicity a conference of European nations at . yptian and religion, paying Muslims less t1.an Chris- The fourteen nations at the conference, held and to tians, andAnabs less than other ettudc groups. in a series of meetings in 1884 and 1885, de- invest- Such practices, as well as contact with Euro- cided that control of settlements along the ntures pean technology and , planted the African coast guaranteed rights to internal )s and seeds for anticolonial movements. territory. This agreement led to the strictly liles of linear dissection of the continent; geogra- phers and diplomats cut across indigenous rrbors, Scramble for Africa But all boundaries of African culture and ethnic life. 3neurs Sub-Saharan Africans also felt the heavier The also banned the sale rterest hand of European ambition after the British of alcohol and controlled the sale of arms to : Euro- takeover of the Ðgptian govemment. Economic native peoples. In theory the meeting was tin the relations between Africans and Europeans supposed to reduce bloodshed and temper OTTOMAN .t'r.,:'8.M.ÞIRE ] :f

MADE.IR4lS. (Pod.) r-

CáN,4RIIS (sp.) '"þ

..rr.

:

ATLANTIC OCEAN

lF,rn'+:ri'

mi Brirish Routes of Colonial Expansion UGUESE ::: ::GERMAN ÂFRICA j ffiE French 61 Routeof Rhodes'British BIQUE) i s S. African Company, i890 M L___l ^-._,-uerman - r;r French exPansion into W ltal¡an É WestAfriä, 1883-1896 Portuguese ffi ¡¡1 British expansion into K Spanish s NiSeria,1880-1902 lliJll C)ttoman 6 British invasion and H occuPation ofEgyPf, 1882 * Nominally Ottoman; L.É British controlled ¡ Non-European regimes tl (including Boer republia) 500 1,000 miles ___. Boundaryofthe O f_ 0 500 1,000 kìlomete¡s

MAP 24.1 Africa,c. 1890 The "scramble for Africa" entailed a change in European trading practices, which generally had been limited to the coastl¡ne. Trying to conquer, economically penetrate, and rule the interior ultimately resulted in a map of the conti- nent that made sense only to the imperial powers, for it divided ethnic groups and made territorial unities that had nothing to do with Africans' sense of geography or patterns of settlement. This map shows the unfolding of that process and the political and ethnic group¡ngs to be conquered. This map doesn't yet show the partitioning of Africa that will appear in chapter 25. How do these divisions compare to national boundaries in Europe? : :i :l'lìiiil:r- lrìr::ì'.

*l¡ition= in Africa, but in reality European were intent on maintaining and ex- ing their power, and savagely greedy iduals like King t eopold continued to the continent and terrorize its people shown in the photo on this page), Jour- nuli"ti" reports of vast chunks of land trad- ing hands onlywhetted the popular appetite fol more imperialist ventures. :, lþchnological development of powerful øuns, railroads, steamships, and ãramatically expanded and facilitated West- ern domination, accelerating European pen- etration of all the continents after more than three centuries of erçloration and trade. The gunboats that forced the Chinese to open their borders to opium played a part in forc- ing Ærican ethnic groups to give up their independence. and guns were also importånt factors in African conquest. Before the development of medicinal quinine in the 1840s and 1850s, the deadly tropical disease had threatened to decimate any Eu- ropean party embarking on exploration or military conquest, giving Africa the nick- name "White Man's Grave." The use of qui- nine, extracted from cinchona bark from the Andes, to treat malaria sent death rates among missionaries, adventurers, traders, and bureaucrats plummeting. While quinine saved white lives, tech- The Violence of Colonizatlon nologr to take lives was a-lso advancÍng. Im- King Leopold, ruler of the , was so greedy and ruthless provements to the breech-loading rifle and that his agents squeezed the last drop of rubber and other resources the development of the machine gun, or "re- from local peoples. Missionaries reported such atrocities as the kílling peater," between 1862 and the I88Os dra- of workers whose quotas were even slightly short or the amputation matically increased firepower. Europeans of hands for the same offense. Belgian agents collected amputated carried on a brisk trade selling inferior guns hands and sent them to government officials to show Leopold that to Africans on the coast, while peoples of they were enforcing his kind of discipline. What attitudes allowed for the interior still used bows and arrows. Mus- such amputations, and what might have prompted the photographer lim slave traders and Europear Christians to take this photo?,4ntí- tnternotionol. alike crushed African resistance with blazing gunfire: '"The whites did not seize thei¡ enemy as we do by the body, but thundered from other African peoples for control of the fron- afar," claimed one local African resister. tier regions of Transvaal, Natal, the Orange "Death raged everywhere-like the death Free State, , and the Cape . vomited forth from the tempest." Although the Dutch originally settled the Nowhere did this destrrrctive capacity area in the seventeenttr century, the British have greater effect than in , had gained control by 1815, Thereafter, de- where farmers of European descent and im- scendants of the Dutch, called ' (Dutch migrant prospectors, rather than military for "farmers"), were joined by British immi- personnel, battled the )trosa,' Zulu, and grants in their ffght to wrest farmland and

'Xhosa: KOH suh 'Boers: bawrs ¿,.q{¡nu.i¡ì,ijif'¡iÎ , lÍ,:t:r: ijêÞì¿.i8'tiiitÉ Þ,,tev, q¡Ì!t. -H I 870-l 890

'Wherever necessaÐ/ to ensure profìt a¡¿ domination, Europeans either destroye¿ Af,rican economic and political systems o¡ transformed them into instruments of their rule. A British governor of tÌe Gold Coast put the matter succinctly in 1886: the British would "rule the country as if there were no inhabitants," as if local traditions of politicql a¡rd.economic life did not exist. Indeed, most Europeans considered Africans barely civi- lized, despite the wealth local rulers and mercha¡rts accumulated in their interna- tional trade in ra'ù/ materials and slaves, and despite individual Africans' accomplishments in fabric dyeing, road building, and a¡chi- tecture. Unlike the Chinese and Indians, whom Europeans credited with a scientific and artistic heritage, Africans were seen as Malian Young Men's House valuable only for manual labor. By confis- Europeans claimed that sub-Saharan Africans had no culture and Africans' land, Ðuropeans forced na- especially no technical knowledge, Skilled road builders, textile de- cating peoples to work for them to earn a living signers, and manufacturers of weapons, Africans had also constructed tive intricate mosques, private dwellings, and communal buildings (such and to pay the taxes they imposed. Subsis- as this one for young men in ) long before the arrival of Europeans tence agriculture, often performed bywomen in the African interior. European painters, architects, and sculptors and slaves, thus declined in favor of mining soon adapted features from African styles and even wholly modeled and farming cash crops. Standards of living their designs on those of artists beyond the West. Carollee Pelos,/leon- dropped for Africans who lost their lands Louís Bourgeois. without realuvtgthe Ðuropeans were claim- ing permanent ownership. Systems of family ald community unity provided support net- mineral resources from natives. British busi- works for Africans during this upheaval in nessman and politician everyday life. (i853-1902), sent to for his health just as diamonds were being discov- Acquiring Territory in Asia ered in 1870, cornered the diamond market and claimed a huge amount of African terri- Britain justifìed the invasion of African coun- tory with the help of offfcial char[ers from the tries as strategically necessary to preserve its British govemment, all before he turned forty. control of India's quarler of a billion people, Pushing hundreds of miles into the interior of but in reality from the I870s on, the expan- southern Africa (a region soon to be named sion of Ðuropean power was occurring Rhodesia after him), Rhodes moved into gold around the world. Much of Asia, with India as mining too. His ambition for Britain and for the centerpiece, was integrated into W'estern himself was boundless: "I contend t.llatwe are empires, the finest race in the world," he explained, Although half a million Indians held bu- "and that the more of the world we irùrabit the reaucratic positions in India under British better it is." Although notions of European authority, British domination was blatant, In racial superiority had been advanced before, 1876, the British Parliament declared Queen racist attitudes now justified converLing trade Victoria the empress of India. British policy with Africans into conquest and political con- forced the end to indigenous production of trol of thei¡ lands (see "Imperialism's Popu- finished goods such as cotton textiles that larity among the People" on the next page). would compete with Britain's own manufac- V/ithin just a few decades, had tures. Instead the British wanted cheaper evolved from a contribution to science to a raw materials such as wheat, cotton, and jute racist justification for imperialism. to supply their industries. Enclaves of British lt,uÞtiiieris TH r N rw u .r g'2 ,' , l/o-rse;'' offt and I servants, who sought prosperity and eiIita,n<ãlr".tjil*'4,¡ilr:r.i.È1.i Itroyed advancement for governing the vast .ems or ntinent, enforced segregation and an of thei¡ status on all classes of Indians. Dis- I mperialism's Populâr¡ty rast pu¡ ¿¡minate¿ against but educated, the Indian British eÍte in 1885 founded t-l e Indian National among the People 'congress. i/ere no one group among its many pros- tolitical Derous members accepted British liberalism (1841-1904) l, most in economic and social policy, but others Henry Stanleg was o;nuÉcrupuøus ly civi- challenged Britain's right to rule. In the next Englishaduentuter ín AJrica, w\n rcgularlg killed qbused rs and century, the Con- and ûtdígenous peopLes to g aín.their land :terna- gress would de- and wealth on betwlJ ofsr-¿ch cl¿enfs as Leopold. oJ :s, and velop into a mass BeIg iuru Yet the pre s s boosted- s cLk;s Ag .iëAj_*-l@ qduentures rments rhovement. hís as tLnse oJ q braue ard. ruggted, a¡chi- To the east, soldler-an ambassador oJ ciuilízed. uahLes. T'r!e dians, British military celebraÍary toræ ffitraled.¡npulnr atlhre, as ínthe entific forces took con- song belau. Recoutttittg Stanleg's searchJõr an ht portan-ú 3en as trol of the Malay African Leade¡ Emín Pasha, it brought, :on_ts- peninsula n lB74 London musíc Lutll audience s to theír þet'in Ait orgg :d na- and of the interior oJ thunderous appla use Jor tLrcír hero. ofBurmain 1885, living Oh, I went to find Emin Pasha, In both areas, po- and started rbsis- away for fun, /omen litical instability With a box of weeds and a bag of beadS,lrand üning often threatened some tracts and a . Iiving secure trade. The I went to fìnd Ðmin, I did, I looked foi.,him British depended far lands and wide; on the region's tin, :laim- I found him right, I found him tight, and 'amily oil, rice, teak, and a lot of folks beside, ,"' rubber as well as ., t net- Away through Darkest Africa, though its access to the it cost ¡al in me lots of tin, nurnerous interior trade For without a doubt I'd rind him out, when I went routes of to find Emin! . The pres- British in ence of British Source: Ðrnest Short, Ff@ Years oJVaurleurlÞ:(Alsw y6¡¡, joun- the Malay Peninsula troops guaranteed Eyre and Spotteswoode, 19461,43. ve its and Burma, t826-I890 the order neces- ople, sary to expand pan- ¡ailroads for more effìcient export of raw ma- 'ring terials and the development of Western sys- gin integrating Siberia-considered a distant ia as tems of communication. Once secured, the colony in the eighteenlÍr and early nineteenth ¡tern relative tranquiJlity also allowed the British to centuries. Hundreds of thousands of hungry build factories and Ílom there to create an in- peasants moved to the region and trade dustrial I bu- base in China. routes to cities in the west expanded. France itish The British added to their holdings inAsia meanwhile used favorable treaties backed partly .t, in to counter Russian and French annex- by the threat of military action to create the leen ations. Since 1865, Russia had been absorb- Union of Indochina from the ancient states of ing rlicy the small Muslim states of central Asia, Cambodia, Tonkin, Annam, and Cochin China nof including Ttrrkestan and provinces of Afghan- in 1887 (the latter three now constitute Viet- istan that (Map 24.2 on the next page). Beiides nam). la.os was added to Indochina in 18g3. extending fac- into tJ e , Russian To those who opposed this expansion as rper tentacles reached Persia, India, and China, "spending our money on distant adventures," often encountering ,ii iute British competition. The advocates of imperialism pointed out that, Trans-Siberian tish Railroad allowed Russia to be- in the example of France, Ðurope had a i.i 1 870-1 8ñ

both traditional ways and the Western influence behind Japan's burgeoning po\¡/er (opposite). The picture's cos_ tumed women, strolling with their parasols amid flowering i' cherry trees, might have beeñ rendered centuries earlier; but a steaming locomotirre in the background symbolizes change. The Japanese em- braced foreign trade and ¡- dustry. "All classes high and low shall unite in vigorously promoting the economy and welfare of the nation," ran one of the first pronouncements of the new regime that had come to power in 1868. The Japanese had long ac- quired knowledge from other in Asia' 1865-1895 MAP 24.2 Expansion of Russia Unlike China, and military men continued enlarging Russia, bringing in Asians countries. Russian administrators Japan endorsed Western- of many different ethnicities, ways of life, and religions. Land-hungry peasants in western st¡rle modernization. Russia followed the path of expansion into Siberia and Muslim territories to the south. 1B7Os, Japanese ln some cases they drove native peoples from their lands, but in others they settled In the traveled unpopulated frontier areas. As in all cases of imperial expansion, local peoples resisted government officials any expropriation of their livelihood, while the central government tried various policies to Europe and the United foiintegration. t/Vhat differences do you observe about Russian expansion as opposed to States to study technological British, French, American, and Dutch expansion? With whom would the Russians most and industrial developments. likely clash? Western dress became the rule at the imperial court, and "." The French thus taught when fìre destroyed To\yo in 1872 a Euro- some of their colonial subjects to speak pean planner directed the rebuilding in West- French and lea¡n French literature and his- ern architectural style. Opposition to such tory. The emphasis was always on European, changes was not tolerated, as the new central not local people's culture. In Africa, an exarn government, led by some of the old samurai, for students in a school run by Germal mis- or warrior elite, crushed massive rebellions sionaries asked them to write on "Gerrnany's by those who resisted modernZation. The most important mountains" and "the reign of Japanese adapted samurai traditions such William I and tl e wars he waged." The deeds as spiritual discipline and the drive to excel of Africa s great rulers and the accomplish- for a large, technologically modern military' ments of its kingdoms disappeared from the filled by r-rniversal conscription. By 1894, Japan curriculum. While Europeans believed in Ín- had become powerfr;l enough to force traders structing colonial subjects, they did not be- to accept its terms for commerce and diplo- lieve that they were equally capable of matic relations, achievin$ great things. The Japanese government instigated the turn toward industry. Japanese legal schol- ars, following German models, helped draft a Japan's lmperial A$enda constitution in 1889 that emphasized state Japan escaped the new European imperialism power rather than individual rigþts. The state by its rapid transformation into a modern in- also stimulated economic development by dustrial nation with its own imperial agenda. building railroads and shipyards and estab- A Japanese print of the 1880s illustrates lishing financial institutions. Unlike other i i.-r..- ì.i....¡.- . -.r-::;. ...1..¡- :::r:, ; -...... : ,ãto-ts-99

nd i/er os-:: ith urg )en er; :i¡ zes m- in-'tt nd "' sly nd )ne rts rat t8, lC- ìer 1a, Modernization in laPan 'n- Japan modernized with breathtaking speed, as this view of a railroad station demonstrates. Japan both bonowed from the West and loyally supported its own traditions. Thus, while many Japanese lse donned Western clothes, others remained wedded to local costumes and to native scenery such of an artist imitated by many in the Ied as cherry trees. ln this woodcut by Ando Hiroshige ll-son appears across the top of the depiction. How do industrial and traditional :ed West-the train schedule cal values intermingle in this woodcut? Louríe Platt Winfrey lnc. ts. he modernizing economies it kept its borrowing goal. Like its Western models, Japan started nd fiom Europe to a bare minimum. Then in the intervening in Asian affairs in hopes of ro- lB8Os, when the expanding its influence and resource base. st- cost of moderni- ch zationhad drained The Paradoxes of Imperialism ral resources, t] e gov- ai. emmentauctioned Imperialism ignited constant, sometimes 'ns off its businesses heated debate because of the many para- he to private entre- doxes in its meaning and scope. Although it ch prenelrrs, thereby was meant to stabilize great-power status, cel collecting essen- imperialism intensified distrust in inter- ry, tial revenue to sta- national politics. New countries vied with old an bilize its fìnances. ones for a share of world influence. In secur- )rs State support led ing India's borders, for example, the British lo- daring innovators faced Russian expansion inAfghanistan and like Iwasaki Ya- along the borders of China. Imperial competi- he taro, for.mder of tÌe tion even made areas of Europe, such as ol- Mitsubishi firm, the Balkans, more volatile than ever as gov- ta todweþhearSzin- ernments tried to control disputed territory rte dustries such as of the weakening Ottoman EmPire. rte Politicians were at odds about the eco- The Union of lndochina, t89I mining and ship- by ping. In Japan, nomic value of empire. The search for new Lb- unlike the rest of Asia, the adaptation of markets often proved more costly than prof- rer Western-style enterprises became a patriotic itable to societies. Britain, for example, spent An ABC for Boby potriots (th99l Pride in empire began at an early age, when learning the alphabet from this kind of book helped develop an imperial sensibiliry The subjea of geogrãphy became irpo,tuni in scnools during the decades betr¡¡een t 870 and and herped ,l890 lou'ng peopre know what possessions they courd claim as citizens. ln British schools, the young .ã1"¡rãtu¿ the holiday erpir" óuy *ith ceremonies and festivities emphasizing impe.rial po*ur. if you were a nineteenih-century parent, how would you explain the importance of this book to yoúr child's development? ,iry r.l o'n,ur. Reference (shelf- mark) 2523 c 24. Bodleian Librory lJniversity of Oxford.

enormous amounts of tax revenue to main_ quest, and murder of local peoples_or the tain its empire even as its industrial base be_ ex?or[ing of culture and religion. The F.rench gan to decline. Yet for certain businesses, tried both in IndochÍna, building a legacy colonies provided of crucial ma¡kets: late in the resistance that continued unabated century, French until colonies bought 65 percent the mid-twentieth century. of Fra¡rce's exports of soap and 4t percent Hoping to spread their religion, Elrropean of its meta_llurgicai exports. Imperialism pro_ missionaries ventured to newly vided huge numbers jobs secured areas of to peoplã in of Africa and Asia. A woman missionary European port cities, but-whethei tfr"y working among the Tibeta¡rs reflected benefited or not-taxpayers a com_ in all parts of a mon view when she rema¡ked ttrat ilre nation paid for colonial native armies, increasingly peoples were "going down, down cosfly weapon_ry, into hell, and administrators. and there is no one but me Imperialism . . . to witness for did not always fulfill the in_ Jesus amongst them." Europeans tentions of its practitioners. were con_ Goals such as fident in their religious and cultural fostering national might, superi_ boosting national ority. In the judgment of many, Asians loyalty, a¡rd Christianizing and colonizãd peoples Africans were Lreneath Europeans, often proved unattainable. variously Many t¡ilieve¿ cha¡acterized as lying, lazy, self-induþnt, that, through imperialÍst *a or ventures, coun_ irrational. One English official try exhibits pontifìcated before the world its strength or that "accuracy is abhorrent weakness to the Oriental as a nation," as one French lohti_ mind." At the height of imperialism, cian arìnounced. such Governments worrieã that beliefs offered still another justification imperialism-because for of its expense a¡rd ttre conquest and dominion: ttre constant possibility civilizing process of wa¡_might weaken of colonization would eventually rather than strengthen them. -áÈ. Another French peoples grateful for what Europe "orr_ statesman argued ,,must -quered had tJrat France keep its brought them. pa¡adoxically, this cùltural role as the soldier of civilZation." But it was pride prompted "civilizers" unclear such as mission_ whether imperialists should em_ a¡ies to collaborate with phasize soldiering-that the most bmtal mili_ is, conflict, con_ tary measures to accomplish their goals. Í¡:¡r,,Ìr¡1i¡i.;.¡:¡, re,¡úrqlii;:ù¡;ì$,.ä¡.-- 1 890

Western scholars and travelers had long Industria-l and imperial advance affected sgdiedAsian andAfrican languages and cul- many working-class people in the West dif- ûrrcs or, Iike Marianne North, had sougþt botan- ferently than it did the middle classes. In icaJandother scientiûc Yet even the mary cases it replaced their labor with new best scholars' study of foreign cultures was machinery while offering them opportuni- 6nged with bias. Schola¡s of Islam cha¡acter- ties for mobility as European societies opened 1y.1edMrtharrunad as a mere imitation ofJesus, up the globe. From the mid-nineteenth cen- for example. Alternatively, some Europeans- tury on, millions migrated to the United from novelists to military men-considered States, Canada, Austra-lia, Argentina, Brazú., conquered peoples better than Europeals and Siberia. In the process they imported cul- because tJley were unspoiled by civilization, ture. Artists captured the imperial and in- 'At last some local color," enthused one colonial dustrial spectacle in increasingly iconoclastic officer, fresh from industrialcities of Ðurope, works influenced by non-Western styles. on seeing Constantinople. This romantic, Their art, like the everyday lives of those misinformed, "orientalizing" vision of an an- they depicted, rvas transformed in the in- cient center of culture, similar to eighteenth- dustrial, imperial crucible. century condescension toward the "noble had little to do with the reality of savage," The "Best" Circles and conquered peoples'lives, We see these para- doxes clearly in hindsight. At the time belief the Expanding Middle Class in the superiority of European ways hid many The profits from industr5r and empire added of them-above all the paradox that people new members to the upper class, or "best" who believed in national independence in- circles, so called at the time because of their vaded the territory of people thousands of members'wealth, education, and socia-l sta- miles away and claimed the right to rule them. tus. People in the best circles often came the from the aristocracy, which retained much of nch its power and was still widely emulated. In- yof creasingly, however, a¡istocrats had to share Lntil their social position with new millionaires from the ranks of the bourgeoisie. In fact, the rean very dislinction between aristocrat and bour- teas geois became blurred, as monarchs gratefirlly rary .-e. The Tra nsformation endowed millionaire industrialists and busi- om- nesspeople with aristocratic titles for their rtive of Culture and Society contributions to national wealth. Moreover, rell, down-at-the-heels aristocrats were only too ; for Advancing industrialization and empire not willing to offer their children in marriage to )on- only made the world an interconnected mar- families from the newly rich. Such arrange- reri- ketplace but also transformed everyday cul- ments brought a much-needed infusion of and ture and society. Success in malufacturing funds to old, established families and the :sly and foreign ventures created millionaires, cachet of an aristocratic title to upstart fam- t, or and the expansion of a professional middle ilies. Thus, the American heiress Winaretta rted class and development of a service sector Singer (of Singer sewing machine fame) mar- ntal meant that more people were affluent enough ried Prince Edmond de Polignac of France, uch to own property, see some of the world, a¡rd and Jeanette Jerome, daughter of a wealthy . for provide their children a cosmopolÍtan edu- New York fìnancier, married England's Lord ]CSS cation. Consumers in the West could pur- Randolph Churchill (ttreir son Winston later )on- chase goods that poured in from around the became England's prime minister). Million- had world. Marry Europeans grew healttrier, partly ailes discarded the modest ways of a century rral because of improved diet and partly because earlier to build palatial country homes and ion- of government-sponsored programs aimed villas, engage in conspicuous displays of nili- at promoting tJle fitness necessaС for citizens wealth, and wall themselves off from the of imperial powers. poor in segregated neighborhoods. To justify