The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were time periods of expansive colonisation in which countries particularly those in Asia and for focus of this essay, Europe, wanted to expand their influence. This influence was portrayed in colonies, in this time period of the beginning of the eighteen-seventeen’s western European countries were at the forefront of their influence. The plane of Africa was one of the main focuses of this period for the Europeans. The United Kingdom, France, Portugal, Germany, Italy, Belgium and Turkey all had a respective representative proportion of Africa under their influence. Only Liberia and Abyssinia had been left untouched.
Following the end of the Industrialist Era and the emergence of countless technological advancements, the United States entered the world stage. The United States was attempting to create an empire by expanding to land outside of its own borders in order to benefit the country’s economic interests. Many citizens, whose views were greatly influenced by their understandings of national identity, saw this overseas expansion in conflicting ways. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, these groups differed in their opinions on the idea of expansion due to either their wanting to remain a democratic country built on the ideals of freedom and liberty to preserve their sense of national identity, or their wanting to expand for economic reasons and nationalism. Imperialism, which is the extension of a country’s power and influence through expansion, began as early as the 17th century, when Britain colonized the New World in order to expand economically and gain natural resources for manufacturing.
Imperialism is the ambition of a powerful nation to dominate the political, economical, and cultural affairs of another nation or region. The idea of imperialism occurred after the Industrial Revolution in the late 19th century and early 20th century. The specific years of imperialism are from 1870-1914. The regions that were affected by imperialism include Africa, Asia, and Latin America. These region were wanted by the imperialist powers of this time, which were: Germany, Great Britain, Belgium, France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain.
The systematic expansion of the Europeans which involves the control of territory and people across the world is what is known as “colonialism”. Although colonialism did not take its root in Africa as it dates back to the 16th century, but Africa was the last wave of colonialism. This European expansion in Africa had occasioned a scramble at the Berlin Conference of 1885 and was not the first of
The empires also built schools in colonies and improve the medical level in the backward countries. Imperialism has significant contribution to form modernization and industrialization of the undeveloped countries at that time. The British Empire also brought technology to India, such as railroad, canals, telephone etc. (Maier, 1968) It helped to fasten the modernization of India. Before the aggression of imperialism toward Qing in the nineteenth century, Qing Empire were implemented the policy of isolationism.
Imperialism benefited developing nations from the positive aspects of technological advancements, economic gain, and political power. European imperialism played a significant role of the evolution of transportation, military, and communication technologies. Since the Industrial Revolution occurred before the age of imperialism, the production of weapons and tools became more efficient and quicker. Thus, inventing the
Expansion has long been a part of American history. From the Louisiana Purchase to the addition of Alaska and Hawaii, expansion has played a large role in the development of our country. However, with expansion playing the role it has in our nation’s history, imperialism was bound to make an appearance at some point. Imperialism is when a nation uses inhibited territory it has acquired to extend its power. It was prominent in the late 1800s and the early 1900s.
The capitalist world-system is said to have begun in Europe in about the 1500’s and it expanded over the next few centuries to cover the whole world, as a result of the significant accumulation of capital. This significant accumulation of capital in Europe was enabled as a result of the capitalist world-economy being created by establishing long-distance trade in goods and linking production processes worldwide. In the process of this expansion the capitalist world system has consumed small mini-systems, world empires, as well as competing world-economies. But, these economic relationships were not created in a vacuum. The modern nation state was created in Europe along with capitalism to protect and to serve the interests of the capitalists.
Towards the close of the nineteenth century and the start of the twentieth century, European imperialist governments in their quest to expand their territories for various reasons aggressively scrambled and invaded the African continent. Initially, the gullible African societies, most of which were decentralized, welcomed the foreigners but after realizing the stakes some mounted resistance (Johnston,43). As expected, the more sophisticated imperialist governments prevailed in most of the colonies and subdued the natives. The effects of the foreign presence were monumental, and it would take more than half a century for these colonies to free themselves from the oppressive rule and become independent governments. Until the late 1800’s,
The reason that iImperialism became so popular was because it was economically quite profitable, which in turn created competition amongst the European countries to colonize the most countries. Without this competition between nations, there would be no driving force for colonization. In other words,“Colonies and spheres of influence abroad became symbols of ‘Great Power’ status for a nation, and their acquisition was a matter of urgency” (882). Note that possessing tTerritories and colonies became a source of pride for the citizens of a nation, thus putting pressure on governments to continue colonial expansion. From this quotation, it can be inferred that the creation of industrial societies gave rise to nationalism and state unity, which eventually lead to the rebirth of imperialism throughout Europe.