19th Century American Imperialism

Assignment

Name: Malik Muzammil Ali Khan

Student Number: 412998

Date: 18/09/15

Course: Economic History and International Relations

Course Code: CH2201

Tutorial group: 1

Imperialism and Colonialism

By the late 19th century Europe had established itself as far superior both economically and militarily compared to the rest of the world. The scientific revolution and the industrial revolution helped Europe with advancements in technology and made the other countries around the world no match for the European states. The European powers had already started international trade with other countries around the world. This ended up being vey profitable for them as it helped develop their economy even more. The European countries then began to

This ship, however, not only set sail for scientific reasons but also for the needs of the empire. The French had just lost Canada and they along with the British were looking for a new island which captain Cook discovered, known as Australia. This is just a small example of how the British slowly kept on gaining more and more territory around the world. By 1850, the British controlled Canada, Australia, India and the southern part of Africa. After the start of Imperialism they expanded their empire even further. At its largest in 1920, the British Empire controlled Canada, parts of Honduras, Jamaica, British Guiana, Egypt, Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Kenya, South Africa, Rhodesia, the Indian Empire, Australia, and more (Atlas of British

They did end up doing some positive things in their respective colonies. The British for example created lots of infrastructure in almost all of their colonies. The infrastructure they built like bridges and roads and railway networks were for their own purposes as they used the new infrastructure to transport soldiers in times of war and anything else that they needed from one end of the country to the other could be brought back with relative ease. Even though the building of the infrastructure was for selfish purposes, the British left all of this behind when they departed and their colonies gained independence. Not only did the British establish infrastructure in their colonies, but also created systems of governance that many of the colonies continued to use even after the British left. They introduced efficient civil service, an effective legal system and also abolished slavery (Engerman & Sokoloff, 2005).

Having read and analyzed the provided literature, it can be concluded that Imperialism began for a number of very important reasons. It came up with a few benefits but mostly caused damage to the rest of the world apart from Europe. Many of the former colonies are still dealing with the long-term effects of Imperialism