Custom Trade Show Exhibits Knowledge Base
anyone want to proof read? just wrote a first draft some input and editing would be great if anyone has some tips Imperialism was the product of two earlier advancements, nationalism and the industrial revolution. Nationalism gave the people an urge to be a part of the best country and by best this meant strongest, wealthiest, and most powerful. Along with this attraction towards nationalistic power came the political aspects where the people of power were in search of territorial expansion. This quest for territory was lead by the pursuit of raw materials so the industrialized countries could continue to produce goods and build strong economies. Without this nationalism and the industrial revolution, imperialism would not have been possible. There are many different arguments as to which political, social, and economic forces were most responsible for imperialism. However, responsibility for imperialism is mostly held by the nations’ will to gain power, the industrialized producers and consumers in search of wealth, and the ideologies of the time period. In The Century of Total War, Raymond Aron said, “…none of the colonial undertakings was motivated by the quest for capitalist profits; they originated in political ambitions…the nations’ will to power”. (document 3) Aron was correct in that the leaders of the powerful countries of Europe and as well as the U.S. were not only motivated to imperialize Africa and the far East for economical benefits, but out of sheer pride for their country. Nationalism had set off a spark with these countries and everyone wanted their country to be the best and to dominate the world. American Senator A.J. Beveridge wrote in 1898, “Fate has written our policy for us; the trade of the world must and shall be ours.” (document 2) Beveridge exhibited the American spirit which was in many others. They wanted their country to prosper and be the very best. It was not just America, though. Cecil Rhodes also said in 1877, “ I contend that we [Britons] are the finest race in the world, and the more of the world we inhabit, the better it is for the human race.” (document 4) Because of the nations’ will to gain power, the stride for imperializing the rest of the world was so evident in the 19th and 20th centuries. Those who were imperializing looked at the situation much differently than those who were being imperialized. A famous poem by Rudyard Kipling, The White Man’s Burden, said “On fluttered folk and wild Your new caught, sullen peoples, Half-devil and half-child” was an example of how the already industrialized nations viewed the people they were conquering. (document 6) According to this poem, the natives were half-devil because they were not Christian and half-child because they were not advanced the same way as the Europeans. The Europeans felt responsible to teach the natives how to live “correctly”, despite their customs and cultures. President William McKinley wrote about how when the U.S. was in the Philippines, “We could not leave them to themselves… There was nothing left for us to do but to take them over. Then we would be able to educate the Filipinos.” (document 7) He then wrote of how the U.S. “could uplift and civilize and Christianize them.” In a letter from Phan Thanh Gian, a Vietnamese governor, when writing about the French and how the Vietnamese compared he said, “We are weak against them…No man can resist them. They go where they want, the strongest ramparts fall before them.”(document 8) This shows that although the modern nations claimed to be doing good by imperializing, they were doing it by force and those who they were doing it upon had no choice but to give in. The idea that the world was benefited by the Europeans was thought up by the Europeans and it was backed with European weaponry. The production of industries is what leads our nation to greatness. As stated in document one, imperialism thrives with products fresh of the assembly line, such as weapons, ships, and uniforms. An imperialist nation needs power through industry to provide, consume, and grow into an ever more powerful country. Furthermore, cotton and iron goods are an abundance in America, and a necessity to the rest of the world. As stated in document two, the countries able to supply the rudiments of imperialism to other nations, are the nations who they themselves prosper. The economic power is the true influence in an imperialistic world. Altogether, the responsibility for imperialism relied strongly on the nations’ will to gain power, the industrialized producers and consumers in search of wealth, and the ideologies of the 19th and 20th centuries. Without nationalism and the industrial revolution which had been discovered earlier, none of this would have happened. Also, the political, social, and economical forces were all related because without the strong nationalistic people of the countries, the countries would not have been as confident in their attempts to colonize and
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