Imperialism began in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century’s affecting many countries, for example, China, India, Africa, and South America were all affected by imperialism. Although the New Imperialism resulted from industrialized nations seeking control of foreign territories, the conditions that motivated and fueled the great expansion for industrialized nations were mostly based on economic motives. As Europe gained significant power strongly centered nation states emerged. Several factors contributed to the Europeans conquest of Africa. One staggering advantage was Europeans technological superiority.
American overseas expansion was particularly predominant between 1898 and 1914. The Industrial Revolution that was occurring in the United States prompted enthusiasm in imperialism. During this period, imperialism was defined as, “the establishment of colonies and the building of empires.” In 1890s, the United States began to experience pressure due to competition in Canada and Argentina (Imperialism). The United States required a great amount of raw materials in to facilitate production in factories. Increased acceptance of imperialism echoes the capitalist nature of the international community.
European imperialism rose between 1870 and 1920 because of economic, political, and social forces. The Industrial revolution helped advance the European nations through technology. These nations were able to control over many areas around the world. Economic forces such as survival of the fittest, political forces such as growing powers of governments, and social forces such as racism. They were most responsible for the new imperialism.
According to Robert Tombs in his book ‘France 1814 – 1914’, Britain’s expansion was ‘motivated by finance, trade, strategy, ideology and accident’. There were several territories within the British Empire, ‘like the Transvaal, Egypt and the Yangtse valley’ which provided great profit. It is believed by some historians that the British conquest of Egypt in 1882 took place because the British wanted to gain a profit from the area. The same can be said about all the European powers and their presence in Africa. At the end of the nineteenth Century, The British extended their control in Sierra Leon, Ashantiland and Niger.
What exactly is imperialism? Imperialism happens when a stronger nation feels it is obligated to take over a weaker nation, or region, in order to control it politically, economically, and culturally. This practice also became important to growing nations to gain land, labor, and raw materials for the betterment and strengthening of the country. This type of foreign policy was mostly practiced by European nations and Japan, but the United States also began to join in imperialistic thoughts once it became a world power. Imperialism can also be known as colonialism.
Europe became the dominant power in the world, with other countries feeding on its increasing status. When the slave trade began, capitalism moved to its highest point, imperialism. Imperialism is the policy of extending the rule or authority of an empire or nation over foreign countries, or of acquiring and holding colonies and dependencies. This resulted in third world countries because they were robbed of their resources and raw materials and could not grow. Slave exploitation caused America to become the central power in economic, military, and political strength, instead of Europe.
Imperialism is defined as the creation and maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural and territorial relationship, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination. (1) With the freeing up of excess labor for many different functions and the Industrial Revolution in full swing, this saw the need for more resources and materials for production of unique items and the need for much larger amounts of resources. This led to nations wanting to expand their rule to gain access to resources. I personally believe that Colonialism led to Imperialism. European nations began by establishing colonies in foreign areas to gain access to new resources that could not be easily accessed in Europe.
On January 21, 1950 Orwell died from tuberculosis (Abcarian 1406). Among his many accomplished works is the non-fictional story, “Shooting an Elephant,” which boldly established his stand on imperialism. This story is of the time when Orwell went to Burma and served in the Indian Imperial Police as an assistant superintendent in 1922 since he lacked means to attend an university (Abcarian 1406). During the time of imperialistic rule, the great empires dominated many subordinate countries to exploit their resources. These European empires believed it was, “the white man’s burden” to civilize the people they called heathens and savages of these countries.
The Time Machine by H.G. Wells was published in 1895 in England, during the time called the Victorian Era. The ideas about evolution called Social Darwinism along with Marxist ideas of class-consciousness became very popular in English society. Those ideas find reflections in The Time Machine, bringing up the questions of the directions of social development and the problems of capitalist influence on human personality. The picture of society set in 802,701 A.D. encountered by the Time Traveller on the surface seems very different from the modern England the protagonist is familiar with.
He believed in the concept of comparative advantage, the idea of nations to specialize in specific industries and trade with other nations for products not produced nationally. (David Ricardo) Comparative advantage is the foundation of industrialization as a means for globalisation. Classical economics was very much in fashion till the early 20th century with the advent of the Great Depression. John Maynard Keynes, a British economist, was the founder of Keynesian economics and the concept was first published in Keynes' book The General theory of Employment, Interest, and Money published during the Great Depression. (Keynesian Economics) Keynes attempted to explain the causes of the Great Depression, and how to to deal with the recession.