Justifying Empire
Introduced| English | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Social Darwinism/ˈsəʊʃl ˈdɑːwɪnɪzəm/ | An ideology that misapplied ideas about biological competition to justify social inequality, domination or imperial expansion. |
| civilising mission/ˈsɪvəlaɪzɪŋ ˈmɪʃn/ | A claim used to justify imperial rule by portraying the spread of the coloniser's culture and institutions as a duty. |
Four justifications, named by the CED
- A range of cultural, religious and racial ideologies were used to justify imperialism, including Social Darwinism 社会达尔文主义, nationalism, the concept of the civilising mission 文明教化使命, and the desire to religiously convert indigenous populations.
- The CED's verb is used to justify — these are arguments made for empire, not explanations of why it happened.
- Keeping justification separate from cause is the whole skill of this subtopic.
Select all the justifications the CED names.
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The desire to religiously convert completes the four; free trade is an economic policy.
Social Darwinism
- Social Darwinism took language from biology and applied it to peoples and states.
- It claimed that competition between human groups produced a natural ranking, and that conquest confirmed it.
- It is a racial ideology in the CED's category list, and historians treat it as a justification advanced at the time, not as a scientific finding.
Three justifications making different claims: a duty, a supposed natural hierarchy, prestige
The CED's verb for these ideologies is that they were...
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They are arguments made for empire.
Nationalism, pointed outward
- Unit 5 met nationalism as a force that made and unmade states at home.
- Here the same idea is turned outward: a nation proves its standing by the territory it holds.
- So colonies became a way of competing with rival European states — which is why the scramble accelerated once one state started.
Which kind of ideology is this?
Sort each justification by the CED's three categories.
The objective treats ideologies as contributing to imperialism's development.
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So say what each argument made politically possible, not just that it was insincere.
A justification is not the same as a cause, but the CED treats these as causes too. The objective asks how ideologies contributed to the development of imperialism — so the answer is what the argument made possible politically, not simply that empire was really about profit.
In this unit nationalism is turned ____: a nation proves its standing by the territory it holds.
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Which is why the scramble accelerated once one state started.
Mission, civilising and religious
- The concept of the civilising mission presented conquest as an obligation to improve the conquered.
- The desire to religiously convert indigenous populations is listed separately, because it is a distinct motive with its own institutions.
- Both are moral arguments, which is what makes them effective — a state can pursue an interest while describing a duty.
Match each ideology to what it claimed.
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All three are moral or scientific-sounding arguments for an expensive policy.
Justification is evidence about the justifier
- The objective is how ideologies contributed to the development of imperialism — so an ideology is treated as a cause, not only as a cover.
- An argument that persuades a public makes an expensive policy politically possible.
- So an answer should say what the ideology enabled, not merely that it was insincere.
A parliament will not vote money for a distant war on the grounds that a company wants a monopoly. It may vote that money to end a practice it has been told is barbarous. The civilising mission does not explain why the state wanted the territory — it explains how the state was able to pay for it.
Cultural, religious and racial ideologies were used to justify imperialism — Social Darwinism, nationalism, the civilising mission, and the desire to religiously convert indigenous populations. The objective treats these as contributing to imperialism's development, so say what each argument made politically possible.
Write from a civilising-mission speech
- A speaker said empire would bring European law and Christianity to people described as unable to govern themselves.
- Other justifications used race science and nationalism.
Which justification is the speech?
The civilising mission claimed empire was a moral duty.
What justification promised law and Christianity?
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The speech cast rule as uplift.