In which area of the world did European imperialism result in the introduction
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However, Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands were pushed aside by the British and the French. During the 1700s, Britain and France industrialized, emerged as the strongest world powers and spent the next 100 years struggling for dominance. France’s advantages were its central location in Europe, large population and rich agriculture. Britain’s advantages were its island location (it has not been successfully invaded in modern times), stronger industrial development and strong navy. Improved agricultural productivity in the 1600s and 1700s increased food supplies and European populations, and the industrial and scientific revolutions increased their lead in military technology, leading to lopsided battles between rapidly-improving European small arms and artillery versus traditional low-tech weapons around the world. The industrial revolution also increased European competition for overseas territories, raw materials, captive markets and cheap labor. The result was the outright takeover or domination in the 1700s and 1800s of virtually the entire world. The so-called ‘scramble for Africa’ in the late 1800s was particularly blatant, with the European powers drawing straight border lines on maps with complete ignorance and disregard for which peoples lived where and sometimes without even knowing the actual location of landmarks. The resulting artificial borders split populations and put traditional enemies in the same country, while captive trading in mercantilist economic systems distorted local economies in favor of export crops and minerals. Those decisions still affect these nations today in the form of ethnic conflict and dependence on colonial-era exports. Wars in this period were limited in time and scope by slow transportation and restricted material and human resources, lack of motivation by mercenary armies and rulers’ unwillingness to engage in total war against other monarchs who were sometimes relatives. There were several great powers (i.e. those with large populations and territory, a strong military and strong economy) competing in this multipolar environment. They engaged in constantly changing alliances and constant wars. Britain won the Seven Years War vs. France and its other rivals in 1763. The French struck back by helping Britain’s American colonies become independent in the 1780s. However, after the bloody French Revolution and Napoleon’s rise, international conquests and eventual defeat in the early 1800s, Britain again emerged as the strongest world power. Britain’s manufacturing, financial and naval muscle resulted in its gaining the largest share of colonies and trade around the world, with France second and others with smaller shares. By 1900, Britain controlled a quarter of the world. In Asia, they held what are today India, Pakistan, Bangla Desh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Singapore, plus special rights in parts of China. In the Middle East, they controlled Egypt and the crucial Suez Canal. They held Canada and Australia. In Africa, they held Nigeria, Sudan, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Botswana and South Africa. (“The sun never sets on the British empire.”) France held much of Northern Africa (Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco), much of Central Africa (today’s Ivory Coast, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Central African Republic, Chad, Mali, Senegal, etc.), Madagascar and what is today Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. On a smaller scale, the Dutch had Indonesia and the Portuguese had Angola, Mozambique and some small ports. Meanwhile, in the early 1800s the Spanish lost their colonies in Latin America to home-grown revolutions. This page titled 2.2: European Imperialism is shared under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Lawrence Meacham. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Select Citation Style Copy CitationShare Share Share to social media Facebook Twitter URL https://www.britannica.com/topic/imperialismGive Feedback External Websites Feedback Corrections? Updates? Omissions? Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). Feedback Type Your Feedback Submit FeedbackThank you for your feedback Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. External Websites
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By The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Last Updated: Dec 1, 2022 Edit History Table of ContentsPersian empire See all media Key People:Napoleon I Charlemagne Alexander the Great Frederick II Augustus...(Show more)Related Topics:empire amban home rule tributary system expansionism...(Show more) See all related content → Top Questions What is imperialism in history?Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other territories and peoples. Because it always involves the use of power, whether military or economic or some subtler form, imperialism has often been considered morally reprehensible. Examples from history include Greek imperialism under Alexander the Great and Italian imperialism under Benito Mussolini. Does imperialism still exist today?Today the term imperialism is commonly used in international propaganda to denounce and discredit an opponent’s foreign policy. International organizations, including the United Nations, attempt to maintain peace using measures such as collective security arrangements and aid to developing countries. However, critics say imperialism exists today; for example, many in the Middle East saw the U.S.-led Iraq War as a new brand of anti-Arab and anti-Islamic imperialism. Did imperialism cause World War I?Following the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, European nations sought to extend their economic and political power overseas, especially in Africa, in a period dubbed “the New Imperialism.” This competition led European elites and the broad literate classes to believe that the old European balance of power was over and a new world order was dawning. Some scholars argue that this process intensified imperial rivalries and helped provoke World War I. Summary Read a brief summary of this topicimperialism, state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas. Because it always involves the use of power, whether military or economic or some subtler form, imperialism has often been considered morally reprehensible, and the term is frequently employed in international propaganda to denounce and discredit an opponent’s foreign policy. Imperialism in ancient times is clear in the history of China and in the history of western Asia and the Mediterranean—an unending succession of empires. The tyrannical empire of the Assyrians was replaced (6th–4th century bce) by that of the Persians, in strong contrast to the Assyrian in its liberal treatment of subjected peoples, assuring it long duration. It eventually gave way to the imperialism of Greece. When Greek imperialism reached an apex under Alexander the Great (356–323 bce), a union of the eastern Mediterranean with western Asia was achieved. But the cosmopolis, in which all citizens of the world would live harmoniously together in equality, remained a dream of Alexander. It was partially realized when the Romans built their empire from Britain to Egypt. More From Britannica 20th-century international relations: The impact of industrialism and imperialismThis idea of empire as a unifying force was never again realized after the fall of Rome. The nations arising from the ashes of the Roman Empire in Europe, and in Asia on the common basis of Islamic civilization (see Islamic world), pursued their individual imperialist policies. Imperialism became a divisive force among the peoples of the world. Track the League of Nations' continual failure to check via diplomacy the Axis powers' pre-World War II rise See all videos for this articleThree periods in the modern era witnessed the creation of vast empires, primarily colonial. Between the 15th century and the middle of the 18th, England, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain built empires in the Americas, India, and the East Indies. For almost a century thereafter, relative calm in empire building reigned as the result of a strong reaction against imperialism. Then the decades between the middle of the 19th century and World War I (1914–18) were again characterized by intense imperialistic policies. Russia, Italy, Germany, the United States, and Japan were added as newcomers among the imperialistic states, and indirect, especially financial, control became a preferred form of imperialism. For a decade after World War I the great expectations for a better world inspired by the League of Nations put the problem of imperialism once more in abeyance. Then Japan renewed its empire building with an attack in 1931 upon China. Under the leadership of Japan and the totalitarian states—Italy under the Fascist Party, Nazi Germany, and the Soviet Union—a new period of imperialism was inaugurated in the 1930s and ’40s. Get a Britannica Premium subscription and gain access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now In their modern form, arguments about the causes and value of imperialism can be classified into four main groups. The first group contains economic arguments and often turn around the question of whether or not imperialism pays. Those who argue that it does point to the human and material resources and the outlets for goods, investment capital, and surplus population provided by an empire. Their opponents—among them Adam Smith, David Ricardo, and J.A. Hobson—often assert that imperialism may benefit a small favoured group but never the nation as a whole. Marxist theoreticians interpret imperialism as a late stage of capitalism wherein the national capitalist economy has become monopolistic and is forced to conquer outlets for its overproduction and surplus capital in competition with other capitalist states. This was the view held, for instance, by Vladimir Lenin and N.I. Bukharin, for whom capitalism and imperialism were identical. The weakness in their view is that historical evidence does not support it and that it fails to explain precapitalist imperialism and communist imperialism. A second group of arguments relates imperialism to the nature of human beings and human groups, such as the state. Such different personalities as Machiavelli, Sir Francis Bacon, and Ludwig Gumplowicz, reasoning on different grounds, nevertheless arrived at similar conclusions—which Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini also endorsed, though not for intellectual reasons. Imperialism for them is part of the natural struggle for survival. Those endowed with superior qualities are destined to rule all others. The third group of arguments has to do with strategy and security. Nations are urged, proponents of this viewpoint say, to obtain bases, strategic materials, buffer states, “natural” frontiers, and control of communication lines for reasons of security or to prevent other states from obtaining them. Those who deny the value of imperialism for these purposes point out that security is not thereby achieved. Expansion of a state’s control over territories and peoples beyond its borders is likely to lead to friction, hence insecurity, because the safety zones and spheres of influence of competing nations are bound to overlap sooner or later. Related to the security argument is the argument that nations are inevitably imperialistic in their natural search for power and prestige. The fourth group of arguments is based on moral grounds, sometimes with strong missionary implications. Imperialism is excused as the means of liberating peoples from tyrannical rule or of bringing them the blessings of a superior way of life. Imperialism results from a complex of causes in which in varying degrees economic pressures, human aggressiveness and greed, the search for security, the drive for power and prestige, nationalist emotions, humanitarianism, and many other factors are effective. This mixture of motivations makes it difficult to eliminate imperialism but also easy for states considering themselves potential victims to suspect it in policies not intended to be imperialistic. Some states of the developing world have accused the former colonial powers and other nations of neocolonialism. Their fear is that the granting of aid or the supply of skilled personnel for economic and technical development might be an imperialist guise. Under international organizations, attempts have been made to satisfy by peaceful means the legitimate aspirations of nations and to contain their illegitimate ones. Measures for these purposes have included collective security arrangements, the mandate and the trusteeship system for dependent areas, the stimulation of cultural relations between nations, aid to developing countries, and the improvement of health and welfare everywhere.See alsocolonialism. In which area of the world did European imperialism result in the introduction of destructive and addictive oppium?The first phase of the forceful penetration of China by western Europe came in the two Opium Wars.
What did European imperialism lead to?This led to the colonization of Egypt, Northern and Southern Rhodesia, Nigeria, and British East Africa. While Africa was the main area of focus for colonial expansion during the 19th century, other areas, including the many islands of the Pacific, were also targets.
What areas of the world were affected by imperialism?Between the 15th century and the middle of the 18th, England, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain built empires in the Americas, India, and the East Indies. For almost a century thereafter, relative calm in empire building reigned as the result of a strong reaction against imperialism.
What is the introduction of imperialism?Imperialism is a form of international hierarchy in which one political community effectively governs or controls another political community. It is one of the oldest known political institutions, characterizing relations between peoples in ancient Mesopotamia, China, and Rome through modern Europe.
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