Colonialism and Imperialism’s Development Essay

Submitted By Toyin5000
Words: 2841
Pages: 12

How and why did European imperialism develop after 1850?
This essay will discuss the factors that contributed to the development of imperialism after 1850. This will be analysing through the economics, political and religious motives. It will also explore the restrictions on the colonised regions. Additionally, the idea of racial supremacy will be discussed. Lastly, the conclusion will summarise the illustrated arguments. Imperialism refers to an era of colonialism expansion that was adopted in Europe during the late 19th century; this was a period that the Europeans power travelled far and faster, controlling almost the rest of the world. However, the reasons and causes of this imperialism had long been debated by intellectuals and one argument for this development was due to the drastic changes in the social structures of society, economic and political developments of Europe (Rostow, 1971).
The Industrial Revolution was predominantly an economic development in the 19th century Europe, which led to the increase in population, increased demands for food supplies and raw materials, and an excess of home-produced goods arising from the mass production through the use of technology. These instigated the European nations to search for territories outside the European continent in order to resolve the difficulties of living space, land and supplies. This inevitably intensified the search for colonies, culminating into what was known as the ‘Age of High Imperialism’ as the Europeans believed that the acquisition of colonies would solve the complications (Rostow, 1971). According to Hobsbawm (1995) the ‘new imperialism’ was a result of advanced industrial capitalist nations rather than that of merchant economies that were prominent in the centuries before 1800. Consequently, colonized areas such as the Africa and South East Asia did provide an avenue for the Europeans’ products while raw materials such as tin, rubber, which were in abundance and of extreme importance to the Europeans, were extracted (Hobsbawm, 1995).

Imperialism, without a doubt, leads to profits; creating an empire, into the neighbouring regions and expanding its dominance far. The benefits colonists gained extended from items such as exclusive trade rights in these regions and the creation of property rights and laws favouring them, usually by force of arms or under the pretences of religion. This could be especially identified during the imperialism of Indian (Abernethy, 2000). However, the rebellions of Indian’s army in 1857 against the British East India Company (EIC) could be argued as another reason for the development of Europeans imperialism after 1850; this is because the India army revolted which resulted in numerous bloody battles instigated British to take direct rule of the nation and led to a shift in its role from trading to authority. This included the inscription of British culture and values onto the Indian society after helping the East India Company regain control of India. In addition to this, the British practices of using the Indian army as a source of manpower without funding from the tax payer arguably, contributed to the development of imperialism after 1850 (Levine, 2007).

In discussing the causes and motives behind European building empires in another region, it is important to understand that the theory of imperialism stranded on a particular convincing motive will be complicated for the reality of the ‘Scramble for Africa’ after the Berlin Conference (1884) of which the Europeans failed to consider the cultural and linguistic backgrounds of African before segregating the regions (Hobsbawm, 1995). Although evidence suggests that the ‘scramble for Africa’ was the result of economic needs, due to the recession in the economy and trade of the 1870s in Europe. However, it could be argued that over production of materials in industrialised countries and increased competition between industrial powers from Britain, Spain, Portugal