Through expansion and imperialism, the west had begun to dominate the world. The British imperialism spread into American culture even after the Revolution. The painting “American Progress” by John Gast shows imperialism in America as the American’s began to expand west. The painting is also relevant to the expansion of Britain in the Eastern world. Both American imperialism and British imperialism did whatever it took right or wrong to expand and grow. The expansion was not only of land but also the spread of beliefs and religious views. John Gast’s painting “American Progress” shows a woman with the Star of Empire on her head as she begins to head west of the Mississippi. The woman floats above the American imperialist as they are taking …show more content…
They built the East Indian Company. The East Indian Company created a charter and a monopoly in the trade industry. In 1615 the company began in Surat on the northwest coast of India. In 1634 the emperor of India allowed trade to expand to Bengal in the northeast. The major trades that Britain wanted were silk, tea, and manufactured textiles. In 1711 the company began a trade post in southern China for silver and tea after the Mughal Empire began to fall. The company had trouble trading with the Qing and Britain was not making much of a profit. The East Indian Company created a monopoly on opium in Bengal. The British would smuggle the opium into China causing them to become addicted to opium to make a large profit of tea off of the Chinese. Qing banned the import of Opium, but it was ineffective. The British used the opium to develop an empire on trade. The Chinese saw the western people to be barbarians. They had many inventions that made them superior to the west. Until the industrial revolution where the British developed the steam engine in which they could travel and transport goods much faster than …show more content…
The Americans’ used these beliefs to take over the land in the Western Hemisphere. The Americans’ treated the Native Americans much in a way the British treated the Chinese. In John Gast’s painting “American Progress” it shows how the American’s began to push west and drive the Native Americans and the animals of the western part of the country into a storm, which I think represents despair and destruction. The Americans expanded to the south and into the eastern world. To the south they took land from Mexico in the Mexican-American War. They also spread into the Philippines and Hawaii. Both Britain and America believed in spreading the Anglo-Saxon decency. In Conrad’s novel The Heart of Darkness he argues that madness is a result of imperialism. I would agree with Conrad because once these powers began to rise they would do anything to be the best. They did not care about the wars they started, but what was important to them was global expansion of the way they thought the world should
The United States of America was founded on the basis that we should be a free and independent country from Great Britain and its empire. Rather than simply being a part of its empire, America wanted to become its own country to fend for itself. Great Britain, after the American Revolution, realized that maybe it was the best idea to let America set off and accomplish their own endeavors. After America gained its independence from Great Britain, the Manifest Destiny became a popular idea to follow; it was God’s will for America to expand their land to the West Coast. However, after this was accomplished, Imperialism came about a short time period later. Imperialism is much like the Manifest Destiny, but in a more greedy way. Imperialism is most definitely glorified to seem like a favor America is doing—by becoming an empire—and taking these smaller nations and countries ‘under their wing’ to nurture them and teach them the ways of being a ‘civilized’ person. However, what is the reason for Imperialism being brought about? After claiming from the East to West coast in America, why would they need to expand their area further—other than ‘teaching’ right from wrong to the ‘uncivilized’ people of the world? America’s Manifest Destiny era and America’s Imperialism era definitely have similarities, such as their apparent motives or rewards, but they also have their differences, like their underlying motives and purposes.
The English accomplished this in several ways. Some of the “Unfair Treaties” forced the Chinese to allow the English ships into their ports and to allow them to have a major role in the trade market. The English wanted tea, porcelain, and silk from China. The Chinese, however, didn’t want the goods the English offered in return. The English began trading opium in return for the goods.
The East India Company enjoyed the exclusive legal right – a privilege granted by the British government – to import products from the Far East into Britain. Chinese tea, which was said to be more valuable than gold, was the company’s most lucrative commodity, accounting for over 90 percent of its commercial profits.
Imperialism is the practice by which powerful nations or peoples seek to extend and maintain control or influence over weaker nations or peoples. By the 1800’s, the Western powers had advantages in this process. They led the world in technological advances, giving them a dominance when conquering other countries. The European Imperialists made attempts to conquer China and Japan. In this process, they succeeded by influencing Japan greatly. However, they were not as successful with China.
Later, the Qing refused to accept European goods and demanded bar silver as payment. As a result, The Western powers began experiencing an outflow of silver to China. The countries, especially Britain, needed to find a way to reverse the flow of silver so the trade was even. So the British resorted to opium, a drug from the sap of the opium poppy. Originally used as medicine in western countries, opium was sold to China as a recreational dr...
John Gast’s painting titled American Progress perfectly portrays the idea of manifest destiny that engulfed the minds of Americans. Portrayed in the right side of the painting is indubitable western influence with boats, a bridge in the distance, and trains with little or no track in front of them which allows the mind to conclude the newcomers are pushing west. In the middle of the landscape are horses, buggies, and covered wagons, showing a slight increase in modernity compared to what is shown in the far left of the painting, Indians or better known by 18th and 19th century Europeans as savages. Gast also places the portrayal of western influence in the light portion of the piece, and the old primitive way of live portrayed by savages on the dark side of the piece. This is not coincidence, primitive behavior was viewed as improper and it needed enlightenment this is precisely what Gast presents in American Progress. In the bottom left corner an animal shows its teeth, which could be a signal of the dangers to moving west. What is probably noticed first however is the woman in the center of the painting. The angel, the guiding light of Manifest Destiny the one who is bringing the light that you see so prominently in the right side of the painting. Manifest Destiny was thought of as God’s call to bring western enlightenment to the west. Those who were enlightened and civilizations created by those who were enlightened were viewed as utopian. However, eleven years before Gast painted American Progress was the start of a war that rattled America. Westward expansion and subsequent acquisition of the west was fought over and the utopian ideal Gast portrays was...
Expansionism in America during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century shared many similarities and differences to that of previous American expansionist ideals. In both cases of American expansionism, the Americans believed that we must expand our borders in order to keep the country running upright. Also, the Americans believed that the United States was the strongest of nations, and that they could take any land they pleased. This is shown in the "manifest destiny" of the 1840's and the "Darwinism" of the late 1800's and early 1900's. Apart from the similarities, there were also several differences that included the American attempt to stretch their empire across the seas and into other parts of the world.
There are several reasons why the United States sought to found an empire. For theses reasons, American began it’s divine quest. Foremost were the economic prospects of empire. There were several commercial and business interests involved with the American imperialist movement. Overproduction in America caused economic depressions. In order to curve these slumps, America needed new markets. Also, as American business increased there was an ever-growing demand for raw materials. America glanced heavily at the potential of the Far East, especially China, and it’s southern neighbor Latin America as a new market, and a source of raw materials. These are the economic factors that contributed to the rise of American imperialism. For military and strategic reasons America needed to forge and empire. In 1890 Thomas Mahan published Influence of Sea Power upon History 1660 - 1783. In his book Mahan pointed out that Great Britain’s phenomenal growth as the world power was because of it’s unsurpassed naval power. America saw that in order to become a world power, it needed to expand it’s own navy. In order to maintain this new navy, America would also need to increase the number of harbors, refueling and repair stations, and trade ships around the globe. America also came to realize that the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans needed to be connected closer to home. This raised the demand for an isthmian canal. These are the military and strategic exponents that sparked America to...
When it comes to imperialism and colonialism, Great Britain is a major employer of the two concepts. Though, at one point in history many regions of the influential country was ruled over by another. The entity which ruled over the kingdoms of England and Wales for over four centuries was the Holy Roman Empire.
During the time of Imperialism, motivations to colonize regions such as Asia, Africa, and the Muslim World were greatly influenced by economic, political, and social interests. The imperialist nation of Great Britain especially demonstrated economic interest when it came to the Opium War with China. Leading up to the war, China enjoyed a trade surplus, exporting more than it imported. Westerners, on the other hand, had a trade deficit with China, buying more from the Chinese than they sold to them. Consequently, Great Britain decided to illegally sell an addictive drug called opium. After this product was outlawed by the Chinese Government, Great Britain decided to go to war. Great Britain's main motivations for the war were expanding their
New imperialism was the mid nineteenth and twentieth centuries cultural equivalent to a modern day mafia, its roots entangled in the economic, cultural, and humanistic aspects of life. The sole objective of the nations entailed the exploitation of their controlled state. Gestating from the change in control of Asian and African nations to the Europeans by means of political deviance, malicious sieges, and strategic military attacks. The juxtaposition to the modern equivalent endures as the aforesaid is sheltered by the fairytale that these nations were in need of aid and by doing so the Europeans were the good guys. The ideas of new imperialism are greatly influenced by those of the enlightenment. Taking place during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the enlightenment was an intellectual movement with the goal of social progress (Genova, 1/11). Armed with scientific thought and reason, enlightenment thinkers set out to explore the fields of science, economics, and human nature. Brilliant minds such as Voltaire, Kant and others all across Western Europe collaborated to further knowledge. The enlightenment laid the foundation on which new imperialism sprung, embedding the ideas of an incessant need to explore not only the scientific world but the physical world as well. The enlightenments goals and ideas significantly influenced new imperialism, because the enlightenment created a need for new means and a purpose to accrue them.
It seemed as if tea was a drug for the Europeans because for them it was just so addicting, to the point they would do anything just to get more and more. The only things that were worthy of trading with the Chinese were gingko (type of plant), shark fin, a soft type of wood (used for incense) and silver. As the demand for tea rose, Britain gradually ran out of silver to trade with, and was desperate to find what China wanted. Then, the British resorted to trading in opium. China was very picky about their opium.
Having understood that the world has taken the form it has through the domination or imperialism of Western countries, it is said that they are the agents that have greatly influenced the world; their ideologies in addition to their political as well as economic influences have spread across the globe through time (Headrick, 1981).
America had definitely played its role in its imperialism. First of all imperialism is the control from one country doing to another. America has controlled a lot of countries in its time. In this essay I will talk about the causes and effects that America’s imperialism played a role in. We have really controlled a lot of countries in our time but this essay will focus more on the 19th and 20th century. We play a pretty big influence in the world today as in status wise. A lot of countries respect us because of our integrity and greatness that we have achieved. Overall I will talk about how imperialism existed in the time of American in 19th and 20th century as well as explain the causes by this time and effects that resulted on our lives today.
The concept of imperialism is one that has pervaded nearly every major society or empire throughout human history. It seems to be a natural consequence of societies growing in size, power, and knowledge. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries vast changes occurred in Western Europe (and soon spread elsewhere) that spurred a new round of imperialism the likes of which had not been seen before. The changes were the industrial revolution that was taking place. Countries were rapidly advancing to industrial societies producing much greater quantities of goods at much lower costs. The goods produced ranged everywhere from cotton textiles to military machinery, all of which would play important roles in rounds of imperialistic expansion that would follow. The imperialistic displays by Western European nations also brought about several other industrial revolutions in other regions including the Ottoman Empire, Russia, and Japan. I will take a look at how the industrial revolution encouraged imperialistic expansion, as well as some of the results of that expansion in other regions.