18.3: The Second Industrial Revolution

Technology also created a motive for imperialism. The Second Industrial Revolution consisted of the development and spread of a new generation of technological innovation:

• modern steel was invented in 1856
• electrical generators in 1870 (leading to electrical appliances and home wiring by 1900 in wealthy homes)
• bicycles and automobiles by the 1890s
• the telephone in 1876

These advances created a huge demand for the raw materials – rubber, mineral ores, cotton – that were components of the new technologies.

During the First Industrial Revolution, the raw materials necessary for production were found mostly in Europe: coal deposits and iron ore. Cotton was available via slave labor in the southern United States and from weaker states like Egypt, which had seized virtual independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1833. However, the raw material of the Second Industrial Revolution was mostly located outside of areas under European control. This lack meant that European business interests pressured their respective governments to seize as much territory overseas as possible. For example, when oil fields were discovered in Persia in 1908, European interest in Middle Eastern imperialism reached a fever pitch, with European powers cultivating contacts among Arab nationalist groups and undermining the waning unity of the Ottoman Empire.

Mines and plantations were crucial in the imperialism of Africa and Asia. In particular, mining offered the prospect of huge profits. There were Canadian nickel deposits for steel alloys, Chilean nitrates, Australian copper and gold, and Malaysian tin, just to name a few mineral resources coveted by Europeans. (Of course, in the case of Canada, the people being colonized were Indigenous Canadians, and the colonists were themselves of European descent). Thus, while the motives behind imperialism were often strongly ideological, they were also tied to straightforward economic interests. Many of the strongest proponents of imperialism had ties to industry.

Although the United States did seize control of the Philippines from Spain in 1898 and exercised considerable power in Central America, it was not considered a major imperial power. However, it did play a supporting role. The US eclipsed Europe as the major manufacturing power and the major source of exports in a shockingly short period - from about 1870 into the early 1900s - driving Europeans to sometimes-hysterical levels of fear of being rendered economically obsolete. Thus, European politicians and businessmen focused on territorial acquisition overseas to counterbalance the vast natural resources of the US. It's important to note that the US did not join in the Scramble for Africa or assert direct control of East Asian territories.

Figure 18.2.1: U.S. resource production and industrial output vastly outpaced European production over time. By the 1870s, astute European observers correctly anticipated the rapid acceleration of American production.