Imperialism Essay

Nationalism is about having the greater love, pride for one’s state, its about loyalty and devotion to the shared cause of nation building. For the most part of early nineteenth century it played a uniting role in European politics which gave them some form of stability and common cause to fight for. So, when the fervor of nationalism crosses that invisible line then it leads to Imperialism. Imperialism is about forcing other people, foreign territory into subjugation who are different. Japanese attack on China and Korea before and during second world war was a form of Imperialism.

Nationalism in its classical form was very much helpful in uniting different warring factions in European politics. It was a positive, liberal movement that became widespread political force. It was groups of people with same race, language, religion united under one banner protecting one’s land and home from foreign invaders. It was unification of states and territories of the same nationality. Italian liberal national revolutionary Giuseppe Mazzini on his paper titled “Duties of Man” P-414, he states that “To you who have been born in Italy, God has allotted, as if favouring you

I think the idea of civilizing other nations or culture in European ways was somewhat crime against humanity. The forcible trade of opium to China by British East India Company was a form of imperialism. An imperial commissioner from China, Lin Tse-Hsu writes “Letter to queen Victoria” P-431, he states “Your honorable nation takes away the products of our central land, and not only do you thereby obtain food and support for yourselves, but moreover, by reselling these products to other countries you reap a threefold profit.” What the letter makes abundantly clear is that the native people are being robbed off their products by the foreign invading power, their economies in