During the cold war period USA was able to become the leader of the capitalist world, the survival of Western civilization and the guarantee of liberal-democratic values in the west. At the same time, it became clear that the US sought to obtain political and economical supremacy throughout the noncommunist world that is why Europe and Japan were persistently resisted. However, classical isolationist policy of the US that America have been spending during the 150 years, has transformed from protectionist into very active foreign policy. Korean war itself has been started as a civil war between North and South Korea but it suddenly changed its status and became an international conflict, when USA
Eighteenth Century Imperialism In the late nineteenth century, world powers scrambled to colonize and influence regions outside their borders with unprecedented commitment. Their efforts to empirically expand were imperialist efforts. Imperialism can be defined as a nation’s use of territorial acquisition and political and economic leverage to influence other areas and grow as an empire. While direct military colonization is the trademark image of imperialism, imperialism also manifests itself more subtly when a powerful nation impacts the cultural, economic or political state of a less powerful nation.
The second reason/cause is “Imperialism” - when a country increases their power and wealth by bringing additional territories under their control. Before World War 1, Africa and parts of Asia were points of contention amongst the European countries. This was especially true because of the raw materials these areas could provide.
Imperialism was all about power, because whether it was militarily or economically, the country taking over needed ascendancy to assert their influence and control onto another. It isn’t too hard for one to make the assumption that the small, underdeveloped countries are not going to be able to assert control, therefore, because the developing countries are not WEIRD, they will be the ones taken over. In addition to having their economy and government controlled for them, the long term imperialism drains their small scale industry and resources. Instead of being their own country, they are the epigone of another. So, imperialised countries had a pause button pressed on their political growth.
To begin with, the cause of militarism started growing because of the competition between European powers wanting to grow their militaries and preparing them for war. Countries wanted to built up a strong powerful army/navy to give the nations the means and will to start war. New weapons were created and produced before 1914. This lead to Great Britain and Germany increasing
Imperialism has been a prominent force throughout history, and the U.S. has and still uses it to gain influence and power across the world. Imperialism had previously been dominated by Western European countries, however the country that best exemplifies an imperial power in today’s world is the United States. Imperialism often occurs due to the need of countries that are economic powers needing raw materials or other sources of wealth to fund their dominant industries. As defined by Lenin: “Imperialism also arises because increased concentration of wealth leads to under consumption. However, since the state represents the capitalist interest it is not possible to reduce under consumption effectively through liberal strategies.”
Classism was a relatively long-lasting idea throughout the Enlightenment that was based upon Adam Smith’s invention of free-market capitalism, which forced the economy to turn political (Cannon). Therefore, it can be argued that the Enlightenment did not end the idea of a social hierarchy, but simply replaced it with a new form of hierarchy more connected to one’s economic standing rather than anything else. The social reforms that happened during the Age of Enlightenment were very influential towards movements later in history that involved early versions of nationalism in countries with growing stress on these hierarchies. In making the middle class stronger with nationalist movements, anti-colonial movements began throughout European empires, but the idea of classism remained in nearly every part of Europe and its colonies. A direct product of the Enlightenment’s ideas were peasant rebellions and colonial revolutions.
After they gained power in these countries they commanded parts of countries for naval bases and resource plantations. To take over most countries they used the big stick policy, give us this or we will use our power against you and ruin you, so make friends with us and it 's all good. Since the gaining economical and political power so crucial social darwinism started. whoever had the most power would take it all.
With a ready to fight mentality, they ultimately took the first chance to do so. If World War I never happened, they would just keep waiting for another chance. By desiring war as a way to spread their influence, countries’ imperialistic views helped them take the first opportunity to fight. This made the chance a world war unavoidable. World War I was necessary to fulfil the desire to prove themselves due to their imperialistic views.
Have you ever been stronger then someone, or tougher than someone and wanted to put them down and be the ruler of them? Well imperialism seeks to dominate a weaker nation politically, economically and socially. Imperialism has changed, some ways that it has changed is the industrial revolution, they used this for natural resources and new markets, this was helpful because it's a good place to grow and settle things, another way it was helpful was by they invested in profits so they had a lot of money into certain things that would benefit them down the road. They also did a lot of business with africa and asia, after the revolution, the western used their powers to basically take over, they later took over most of the lands in Africa and Asia. They wanted to stop this, so they decided to start adding more colonies.