Imperialism, Race, and the "Other": Colonial Ideology Examined

Introduction: Imperialism as Intellectual Aggression

Imperialism in the 19th century was not simply the physical act of political, economic, and military domination of European powers upon colonized nations. Imperialism was an intellectual act of aggression as well, one that presumed the inferiority of the "race" being colonized. In his transcribed lecture "Empire, Visual Representation, and Punch Magazine 1853–1899," Peers describes the process of "essentializing" — that is, "reducing peoples or nations to a couple of essential aspects" — as the primary mechanism by which imperialists established a sense of racial superiority. This sense of superiority was mainly manifested through the creation of dichotomies. (Peers, 2001)

The ideas of civilization, economics, and political organization that polarized the white colonial powers against those they wished to colonize involved stark binary oppositions: "science vs. superstition, reason vs. unreason, progress vs. tradition." The colonized were also gendered and infantilized — cast as "female" against the colonizer's implied masculinity, and as "child" against the colonizer's adult authority — even though colonial populations encompassed people of all ages and genders. Christian whites were seen as obligated to educate the racial "other," whose civilization was deemed backward and childlike, passive and subservient to false traditions and myths. (Peers, 2001)

Essentialism and the Binary Logic of Racial Othering

Thus, imperialism became a tool for implanting Western institutions — religion, formal education, and ideas about race — upon a population deemed different, living in a more primitive and passive state of existence, like a distant species of human. This is why imperialism is so closely connected with the process of racial "othering." While European powers were aggressively expanding their empires, ideas of racial difference and race as a social problem were being exacerbated by the rising middle classes produced by industrialization, and also by Darwinism, which threatened Christian institutional beliefs about human centrality while simultaneously justifying the "survival of the fittest." Of course, imperialism has existed since the days of the Roman Empire — but the Victorian stress upon morality in a morally confused and volatile England, the dominant colonial power of the era, brought an added dimension to the military domination and exploitation of the 19th century. (Greenberger, 2004)

This is not to deny imperialism's economic and military components. Industrialized nations often produced more manufactured goods than their own people needed or could afford to buy, and colonies served as ready markets for these surplus products. Military strategy was another important motive for imperialistic activity, as colonies provided important buffer zones within military spheres of influence. Both industrial production and militarism experienced tremendous expansion in the 19th century.

Economic, Military, and Nationalist Motivations

During the late 1800s, a strong feeling of nationalism had also swept most European countries, pushing expansion beyond purely economic and military rationales. Many people genuinely "believed their nation's greatness depended on the size of its territory. They encouraged expansion and the planting of their nation's flag on foreign soil." The lack of industrial development in colonized lands reinforced pre-existing prejudices regarding racial inferiority, because colonial subjects were not "civilized" — that is, not industrialized. (Greenberger, 2004)