Imperialism In The 19th Century

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Imperialism and Nationalism were both main ideas of the 19th century and both ideas that lead to countries wanting to control more land. Some countries wanted to control more land because after the industrial revolution they needed raw materials they could not gain in their own territories. Now other countries wanted to acquire more land because they just wanted to be able to say that they conquered more land, and wanted their people to be proud of the country they lived in. Then there were some countries that wanted to acquire more land for both reasons. However, Imperialism created a bigger impact not only in the world during the 19th century, but also the world we live in today. Imperialism was not just an idea that happened in the 19th …show more content…

Imperialism made some drastic changes to the world in the 19th century. One of the first major changes to the world because of industrialization was the gap between developed and undeveloped nations. Imperial powers controlled most of the world and “By 1914, imperial powers controlled 70% of the land on earth” (Schultz). This made it almost impossible for undeveloped nations to gain new land and other advances, as they could not stand up to the imperial powers, as they did not have the same resources. Another reason imperialism has such an impact on the world during the 19th century was that of the spread of European influences across the globe. Great Britain controlled the most land and had the most power during the 19th century. Since Great Britain had so much power they were able to spread their influences on almost anyone. A great example of this was in India, which was under British Rule for almost 200 years, and is the largest democracy and second largest English speaking population in the world (Schultz). England was also able to spread other ideas about religion, government, and education because of their influence due to imperialism. Another impact of imperialism was a rivalry. During the 19th century, almost every European nation wanted as much land as they could in Africa which led to what is known as The African Scramble. During this time almost, every single nation got a portion of Africa including Belgium. John Green put this into perspective by saying “even Belgium got in on it [ African Scramble], and they weren't even a country at the beginning of the 19th century. I mean, Belgium has enjoyed like 12 years of sovereignty in the last 3 millennia”. This rivalry eventually leads to the Berlin Conference to figure out what nations got what part of the land in Africa. This Conference lead to territory being divided by “watershed or river valley, not by ethnic or linguistic

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