Imperialist Powers

Throughout history, many empires have succeeded one another – they were very different in geographical, economic or political terms, but most of them clearly relied on and fostered a sense of racial superiority or ethnic difference. The essay will first show that such a sense of superiority served as a means to justify imperialist enterprises, and also shaped the way empires exercised their power on remote territories. The essay will then acknowledge the paramount role of this feeling in both metropolitan and dominated cultures, arguing that it became a ‘state of mind’ going far beyond military domination. The necessity of such a sense of superiority will then be demonstrated by the fact that empires are facing decline when it is challenged. Finally, some exceptions will be investigated, as several empires tried on the contrary to downplay ethnic differences to ensure cohesion.

No consensus can be expected on the causes of imperialism, considering the mix of economic and political factors that considerably differ in each specific case – but it can easily be shown that a sense of racial superiority was often present along imperial ambitions. For instance, even if trade interests were driving Portuguese expansion in the sixteenth century, the enterprise was also motivated by the crusading ambition of bringing Christianity to the heathen and expelling Muslims (Unit 6, p.195). Racial superiority was also a means of justification for imperialism: reference to a mission civilisatrice (civilising mission) was put forward to justify the colonial enterprise undertaken by European powers in the late nineteenth-century. The Earl of Cromley argued that that the British had to rule Egypt because it was ‘led by men of […] poor ability’ and inc...

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... culture of Imperial China. Its sphere of influence reached foreign powers, which were expected to acknowledge Chinese superiority through the payment of a tribute: when the British government sent Lord Macartney as ambassador, the Chinese Emperor answered with a condescending letter considering the envoy to have done ‘the kowtow’ and paid tribute (Primary Source 11.6, p. 1). It might even been argued that the ‘naturalness’ of Chinese superiority was so taken for granted that it contributed to the technical stasis of Imperial China and its incapacity to cope with the threat of colonial powers in the nineteenth century. In short, a sense of racial superiority permeates the culture of the imperial power in a kind of vicious circle: imperialist achievements are fostering a sense of racial superiority, which is in turn reinforcing the drive for imperialist enterprises.