Imperialism- Europe Blog
Characteristics that allowed Europe to become the land of many imperialist countries.
Known as New Imperialism, this desire for expansion was
motivated by many things:
- Economic Growth
Europe needed to expand their trading to other places in the
world. Countries decided to expand their markets to Asia and Africa where the
materials were cheap and were used it in the European factories
- National Rivalry:
The more land a country could acquire, the more prestige and
power they could have across the globe, in other words, national rivalry was a
big characteristic in imperialism because with a country having more land, the
other countries would somehow see it as an important and powerful one and would
have “fear” to go against it if the opportunity had shown.
- Colonies were also a source of national prestige. To some people, "a nation could not be great without colonies"
- European population
The population had been increasing
more rapidly than non-European populations during the 19th century. Population pressure combined
with improved overseas transportation led to the greatest migration in history;
This means that having more people in Europe, this would grant that the
countries had more power over people and over the other countries in the world,
so that’s a reason why Europe had many imperialists countries.
- Moral Superiority
This was a great factor in the imperialism of Europe than in
other countries of the world.
It consisted on racist ideas believed by Europeans like whites were superior to non-whites.
So these beliefs gave the Europeans the security and was a reason why many countries became imperialists differencing to other countries in the
world.
Here is a representation of imperialism, which consisted in tacking over big amounts of territory. In this image, England is the one who's doing it.
Characteristics of the government system within
the imperialist countries with presence or absence of democracy
It began in the 19th century and it
basically was the desire of Europe to sell their products in Asia and Africa
This kind of system has of characteristics
to conquer, the expansion of territory, the over use of resources and the
control and power of its region.
During this period many countries
suffer changes but one of the most significant were France in its political
ways, on that time there were many changes, like the freedom of press and the declaration
of the rights of man. Because of the new ideas people were having changes of
ideas like the search for equality.
At the same time, Italy
was influenced by liberal ideas, which caused intellectual and social
modifications that lead to revolutionary movement. All this caused Italy to
began its transformation into a monarchy, that later it will become the kingdom
of Italy.
Characteristics of the government system within the imperialist countries
Imperialism refers to the building of an empire. Expansion just occur when one state is more powerful than the obstacles to expansion. The obstacles are mainly other states or people, geographic, physical or technological obstacles that can be presented during the empire building. The central core of the empire may be a nation-state, or in ancient times, a city state or a tribe.
European civilizations started a period of quick and unexpected expansion all around the world during the las third of the XIX century. The European nation-states had become powerful thanks to the process of industrialization and the efficiency of the organization of the mentioned nation-state. The global expansion of Europe begun in the XV century, but it was accelerated in a huge way in the XIX century.
Examples:
Seaports on Latin America were the first objective of European colonizers. Native Americans were quickly crushed and subjugated to the European rule. Most Latin American descendants, called “Latinos”, of the Spanish conquerors won their independence by the beginning of XIX century, but there still were indigenous that remained subject.
Climate, diseases and African geography delayed European colonization until the XIX century, even thought, Descendants of Dutch settlers (Afrikaans or Boers) came to South Africa in the XVI century. Slavery took a heavy interference on African development since the 16th century. Millions of young people of working age were taken away. Great conflict ensued. (European imperialism of the 19th Century)
¿How does Imperialism relate to monopoly capitalism?
Economically, the main thing in this process is the displacement of capitalist free competition by capitalist monopoly.
Imperialism began mainly as the development and a direct continuation of the fundamental characteristics of capitalism. But a capitalist system can only become capitalist imperialist when some of its fundamental characteristics begin to change or transform into their opposites, “when the features of the epoch of transition from capitalism to a higher social and economic system had taken shape and revealed themselves in all spheres”. (Lenin, 2013). In economics, the main point to analyze in this process is the displacement of free capitalist competition by capitalist Monopoly. (Lenin, 2013).
Map of Europe's Imperialism
Consequences of European Imperialism in the
current state of the world
Imperialism had good and bad consequences some of them are
that they expanded their markets to Asia and Africa, so they imported products to
the Europeans factories that gave them power. The countries wanted to acquire
more prestige and power they were a lot of rivalry between each other. It also brought racist beliefs, Europeans had the ideas that whites were superior to non-whites.
This made the world be full of competitions and lot of
people not being taken into account.
The world was in a constant change and made it unstable and
until now the situation hasn´t gotten any better, all though some countries had
been separated from their conquerors.
Their is a sent of grudge in the countries that were part of the imperialism and that made that the relationships between all the countries in the world is kind of tense.
APA Reference:
- Jessica Whittemore. (2002). european Imperialism: Characteristics, Motives & Effects. october 14th 2015, Sitio web: http://study.com/academy/lesson/european-imperialism-characteristics-motives-effects.html
- Norman R. West. (10/26/99). European Imperialism in the 19th Century. October 14th 2015, de Suffolk County Community College, Long Island, New York Sitio web: http://www2.sunysuffolk.edu/westn/imperialism.html
-
Capitalism [Monopoly Capitalism]. (2009), Retrieved October 14th 2015, Recovered from:Lenin, I. (2013). Imperialism: Monopoly Capitalism. International Communist League. Recovered from http://www.icl-fi.org/english/wv/1022/qotw.html
IMPERIALISM (IMPERIALISM), Retrieved: October 14 2015
http://www.historyhaven.com/APWH/unit%204/IMPERIALISM.htm
Team:
Selene Del Carmen Rodíguez Millán
Hernán Zenteno Barba
Monserrat Villegas Zapién
Sebastián Garcia Cano
Maria José Higuera
No hay comentarios.:
Publicar un comentario