Atlas / Organisations / New Imperialism
New Imperialism
1870–1914 · Europe, Japan, US · Imperialist · Doctrine / school · coding confidence high
Each axis runs from −10 to +10, with zero a genuine mixed or balanced position rather than an absence of opinion. A score describes a stated position and a governing record; it is not a judgement of merit. What each score means →
Core principles
Civilisational hierarchy justifying territorial conquest, resource extraction and permanent rule over subject peoples.
Economic model
Chartered companies, plantation and extraction economies, captive markets, forced labour.
Organisation of powers
Metropolitan parliaments at home, unaccountable governors and military rule abroad.
Reading note
The clearest case in the dataset where the same regime is coded near opposite ends of the authority axis depending on who is being ruled.
Check a claim about New Imperialism. The interactive atlas measures the distance between any two organisations across all six axes and shows which ones carry the disagreement.
Open in the atlasThe evidence for every score
All six cells are sourced. A rationale explains what the score is measuring and each artefact is something a third party can check without taking anyone's word for it.
EC · Economic organisation · scored +06
Coded +6: chartered companies and extraction economies.
- Documented act or statuteThe British South Africa Company and King Leopold's Congo Free State held sovereign powers by charter.
CU · Social and cultural order · scored +08
Coded +8: civilisational hierarchy as explicit doctrine.
- Documented act or statuteThe Berlin Conference of 1884–85 partitioned Africa among European states without African participation.
AU · Organisation of power · scored +06
Coded +6: parliamentary at home, unaccountable rule abroad.
- Documented act or statuteGovernors ruled by ordinance with no local franchise; the same states held competitive elections in the metropole.
SC · Scale of decision · scored +10
At the ceiling: territorial sovereignty exercised at maximum distance.
- Documented act or statuteAdministration was directed from London, Paris, Brussels and Lisbon over territories a continent away.
ID · Rule of membership · scored +09
Coded +9: subject status assigned by race in law.
- ScholarshipThe Congo Free State's forced rubber regime is estimated to have caused millions of deaths.
CH · Method and tempo · scored +01
Coded +1: conquest by force, then administration by statute.
- ScholarshipThe Maxim gun and the punitive expedition were standing instruments of the period.
Nearest organisations by measured distance
Straight-line separation across all six axes, out of a maximum of 49.0. Proximity means similarity of stated position, not endorsement and not resemblance in outcome.
Countries
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Scores are revised on evidence, so a citation should carry the version it refers to. Version 4.3.1 is current; the revision log records every change.
Free to quote and reproduce with attribution. This is a synthesis rather than a peer-reviewed dataset — where an authoritative figure is needed, cite the Chapel Hill Expert Survey, the Manifesto Project or V-Dem.