Why Did European Powers Seek Overseas Empires After 1850?

Due to competitive state system, the Europeans competed with each other and this is how the Industrialization revolution came into being as well; to compete with each other. Many problems arose which ended up being the cause of Europe’s rise to end, such as most of the wars were caused by the state systems. The huge Battle of Nations Memorial, which begun in 1871, after

The point of it was to get hold of natural resources, subdue enemies, accumulate wealth, and to win power, supremacy, and glory. Nations turned to imperialism for economic gain. This was, also, true for European Imperialism. Europe had turned to imperialism for their own gain. This would then lead to Africa and India being influenced

Toward the end of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, the United States was becoming an increasingly powerful nation and world power. The country was competing with other nations also expanding. Their motives for expanding were to gain land and resources. While there was a slight departure from past expansionism, the United States mostly continued as it had been in the previous years. In order to accomplish expansionism, the United States needed to acquire foreign territories to increase their global presence.

As a product of the Revolutions of 1848, European sentiment towards Nationalism grew extensively among the middle and lower classes. European ethnic groups and nations desired a self-determined state that represented their group and culture. As a result, both Germany and Italy would experience unification movements within several decades. By 1871, the Italian states would be unified under the Italian tricolour flag; and in the same year, the German states would become integrated into Germany under Wilhelm I of Prussia. Nationalism is both a political and social system in which the nation-state is of utmost importance -- in which nation-states act in their own self-interest and are of full sovereignty.

But what was the more important factor in expanding foreign policy and imperialism during this time period, self-interest or idealism? If the evidence is examined, this becomes crystal clear. Self-interest was the most important factor in driving American foreign policy during this time

Jules Ferry’s economic argument for imperial expansion was how largely his interests were in major continental expansion. The only way to expand is to have economic ideas such as trading and industrialization to produce enough wealth for the population, ideas of civilization within people, roads, money, and ideas of politics and patriotism. Other colonies had recently gained greater economic value through expanding export markets. Which, produced enough trade in different parts of France or other colonies, making them be able to sell and

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.

During the triangle trade, they basically sent everything to Europe. They were taking advantage of all the resources that they received and the European Imperialists took majority of the resources. There were many changes that

Europe’s insatiable capitalist quest led to its conquest of many parts of the world, including the Caribbean island and mainland states. The process started with the ‘discovery’ of the West Indies in the late 15th Century by Christopher Columbus, and continued through the Triangular or Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. The need for land for the extension of Europe’s value-added assets resulted in colonisation of the West Indies, while the need for labour to till the soil led to slavery. Colonisation and slavery, therefore, are agents of capitalism. Imperialism is considered the plateau or highest point of capitalism, for imperialism is the conquest of lands and peoples for the imperialist regime’s extension of power and influence.

Imperialism is the demonstration of extending a nation's domain through the utilization of power, colonization, or pressure. Amid the hundreds of years, vast and effective European nations, similar to Spain and England, set forth significant push to secure and run different nations and domains. For instance, the colonization and improvement of the United States was begun on the grounds that England needed to grow its realm to new regions that could give it more noteworthy force and assets. In spite of the fact that it has a genuinely straight-forward definition, imperialism is really an extremely muddled procedure that has a tendency to unravel through the span of many reasons and numerous races.

At that time period, the representative western imperialism and colony county was British Empire and Indonesia. British Empire used

The European monarchs and rulers of the 17th and 18th centuries wanted to increase their power both domestically and globally by adding to their territories and populations so they used the three features of state-building: control, extraction, and integration. In the late 1700s, both the Industrial revolution and French revolution of 1789 strengthened the idea that Europeans were different from the rest of the world. It also strengthened that “Europeans were “progressing” rapidly while the rest of the world appeared to be stagnating, that Europeans were somehow exceptional—better--, even than the rest” as Robert Marks puts it in his words. (Robert Marks, Origins of the world, p-4).

After the XVI century, Europe had a resurgence that allowed their nations to explore the world. European nations looked for how to extend its political and military power among the world. However, economic power appears as an important matter for the Empires´ maintenance and hence, trade appeared as a tool to create such Economic control. European Empires found opportunities to develop trade in Asian countries that faced instability. Developing political agreements in order to establish monopolies was the initial stage for future trade companies’ economic expansion.

From the sixteenth century, Europeans were satisfied with establishing colonies and carrying out trading and missionary activity in foreign continents. However, in the late nineteenth century, countries were determined to take control over large territories in order to expand their empires, a surge known as the new imperialism. Creating colonies acted as a symbol of prestige and dominance over rival nations. The Europeans also hoped to discover riches and valuable natural resources to open regions to commerce. Additionally, they felt it was their duty to civilize the native people by governing them and converting them to Christianity (Spielvogel and McTighe 226).

Between the 1870s and the 1920s, imperialism increased because of economic, social, and political forces. Economically, many groups were interested in colonizing other countries because of their natural resources. Socially, they wanted to make themselves the highest and they wanted to look the best. Politically, they wanted to make more income and be the richest country. Two groups in particular were the most interested in imperialism.