New Imperialism (DBQ)

Surrounded by the sea, Holland, Prussia and France, our frontiers can never be extended in
Europe. . . . [But] the universe lies in front of us; steam and electricity have made distances
disappear, all the unappropriated lands on the surface of the globe may become the field of our operations and of our resources. . . . Since history teaches that colonies are useful, that they play a great part in that which makes up the power and prosperity of states, let us strive to get one in our turn . . . let us see where there are unoccupied lands . . . where are to be found peoples to civilize, to lead to progress in every sense, meanwhile assuring ourselves . . . the opportunity to prove to the world that Belgians also are an imperial people capable of dominating and enlightening others.

I have never recommended, and I do not recommend now, this purchase either as a financial
investment or as a commercial speculation. I have always and do now recommend it to the country as a political transaction, and one which I believe is calculated to strengthen the empire.

We have suffered much in this country from depression of trade. We know how many of our fellow subjects are at this moment unemployed. Is there any man in his senses who believes that the crowded population of these islands [the British Isles] could exist for a single day if we were to be cut adrift from the great dependencies which now look to us for protection and which are the natural markets for our trade? . . . If tomorrow it were possible, as some people apparently desire, to reduce by a stroke of the pen the British Empire to the dimensions of the United Kingdom, half at least of our population would be starved.

An Empire such as ours requires as its first condition an imperial race—a race vigorous and
industrious and intrepid. Health of mind and body exalt a nation in the competition of the universe. The survival of the fittest is an absolute truth in the conditions of the modern world.

World and colonial policy is pursued for the purpose of capitalist exploitation and for displaying military force . . . [I]t corresponds first and foremost to the greedy desire of the bourgeoisie for new opportunities to invest its ever-increasing capital which is no longer content with exploiting the home market, and to the desire for new markets which each country tries to usurp to itself.

We went to new territories. We went there by virtue of the right of a civilized, fully developed race to occupy territories which have been left fallow by backward peoples who are plunged into barbarism and unable to develop the wealth of their land. What we exercised is a right, and if anyone denies this, you should firmly maintain that it is a right. We are entitled to go out to these peoples and occupy their territories; but, when we exercise this right, we, at the same moment are charged with a duty towards these peoples, and this duty we must never for one instant forget.

I found [in Algeria before the First World War] the image of a victorious and conquering France, which allowed me to forget the humiliated France on the other side of the water. I was in a country of empire, an empire in which I participated instead of submitting, as it was in our annexed provinces, Alsace and Lorraine.