Imperialism

Imperialism is often excused as a way of liberating people from tyrannical rule or by introducing the policies of a “better” way of life. It is based on the ground of a variety of causes running the gamut of economic pressures, greed, security, power, prestige, religion, and many other effective measures that can be taken given the circumstances. Arguments about the roots and virtue of imperialism can be put into four basic groups. The first is whether or not imperialism is economically beneficial. The second relates to the social aspect of imperialism and the natural desire to rule others. The third is protection and security, building up military powers around the world in order to help the main country when trouble erupts. Finally, the last is morals and their religious aspects. Because imperialism has its basis on power, it is often considered morally reprehensible. The thirst for power drove the European nations into a frenzy to control the continent based solely on the false belief that they were superior, thereby inflicting numerous evils upon both the African land and its people.

Imperialism did benefit a small and favored group, but never the entire nation. For some people, capitalism and imperialism are the same and interpret imperialism as a late stage of capitalism when nations are forced to depend on monopolies in overproduction and surplus capital so that they can compete with other nations.

At enormous expense imperialism has created an unsafe increase of markets, and has jeopardized the entire affluence of a nation in stimulating the strong resentment of other nations.

During the nineteenth century, Great Britain had a huge empire, extending to many different regions of the globe. Before 1869, it only controlled a small amount of land in Africa. During the times before 1869, the British concentrated on imperialism in other, more profitable places around the world; places that would give them more markets for trade and more opportunity to increase their economy. Suddenly, the British were taking over land in places such as regions in Africa.

The main reason for Britain’s interest in Africa was for the survival of their empire. Britain's economy has always depended heavily on trade, and creating more colonies was the way to expand their trade. Before the 1870s, Britain had little competition with various colonies. Their first act was against F...

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...in reason for British imperialism in Africa was to bring Christianity, not to mention the European's idea of "civilization" to African countries.

This decade witnessed the high spirit of self-confident, often self-congratulatory and always aggressive imperialism in which Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States conquered and annexed in the name of civilization. If anything, Europe was doing the exact opposite of spreading Christianity, all under false pretences.

Imperialism was not economically beneficial, did not protect the “main” country by creating barriers, nor did it spread Christianity in mentionable portions. Nonetheless, imperialism did present upon a small portion of the elite a sense of power, though falsely earned. The animosities of imperialism did not help the people. Instead, it left them unprotected after the European nations had left, and left a hole in their culture.

Word Count: 1,341

Sources:

http://students.chs.lane.edu/~nbudu58/courses/intro2web/the%20dark%20continent/ http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/toc.html http://www.indiana.edu/%7Ejah/teaching/2002_03/article.shtml

http://www.boondocksnet.com/editions/morel/index.html