15. Imperialists and Boy Scouts

European Civilization, 1648-1945 (HIST 202)

The boom in European colonial expansion in the second half of the nineteenth century, the so-called New Imperialism, can be seen to follow from three principle factors, in ascending order of importance: religious proselytizing, profit, and inter-imperial political strategy. With respect to the latter concern, the conflicts emerging from imperialism set the stage for World War I. Along with its military and industrial consequences, imperialism also entailed a large-scale cultural program dedicated to strengthening support for its objectives among the domestic populations of the imperial powers. The creation of the Boy Scouts is an exemplary form of such a program, founded upon a mythology of the American frontier reformulated to encompass Africa and Asia.

00:00 - Chapter 1. The Age of New Imperialism: God, Gold and Glory
08:19 - Chapter 2. The Domestic Influence of Social Imperialism
11:31 - Chapter 3. The Great Game: Colonial Rivalries Leading Up to the First World War
15:30 - Chapter 4. Violence and Atrocities in the Colonial System
22:26 - Chapter 5. The Culture of Imperialism: The Origins of the Boy Scouts and the Frontier Ideology

Complete course materials are available at the Open Yale Courses website: http://open.yale.edu/courses

This course was recorded in Fall 2008.