The Imperialism Process Essay

Imperialism was the process of acquiring colonies with an aim of obtaining free land and raw materials to supplement for their deficiency in the western nations. Others define it as the spread of the western economy to the rest of the world (Sherman and Salisbury 655).

Imperialism was manly for profit making by finding markets for their products, but in some cases, some countries needed a colony to settle their people and avoid overpopulation in their land. The most vibrant people in imperialism were the politicians, and the noble men were in the upper social classes. Imperialism went along with colonization as the rich farms and industry owners sought to get slaves to work on their firms.

Another cause of imperialism is to spread civilization. The civilized states in the west took it to themselves to spread the civilization to the rest of the world. Therefore, they travelled all around the globe with an aim of spreading the western civilization. This is because they felt that the uncivilized people were those who were not doing or living as the Europeans.

Imperialism also sought to solve social issues, such as the civil strikes. The noble men lost a lot when their workers rebelled. They went out with an aim to capture slaves who would work for them under their tough working conditions.

Others went into imperialism to as a result of the western states diplomatic competition for colonies where each wanted to outdo the other and emerge to have the most colonies.

The western countries suited better for imperialism as they had voyages that could sail in the high sea. They used them to sail around the globe, and in their conquest, they came across different people around the world and also spotted the areas which would be of great benefit to them.

Another significant boost was their use of superior weapons, such as guns, and well-trained armies as compared to their colonies. The Africans who used bows and arrows were at a great risk

The non-western people were considered in the making the empires as they participated in the slave trade. The trusted people in the societies, fro example, the chiefs would organize raids and capture people. They also lure the mentally disabled and sell them as slaves to the Whitemen in exchange for gifts like shirts and shorts.

Effects of imperialism on the western powers. Imperialism was of substantial benefit to the western nations as they acquired cheap labor as the slaves would work on their firms and industries for long hours with minimal or no pay This immensely boosted their agricultural as well as industrial production. (Sherman and Salisbury 648).

They colonized countries which were highly fertile and rich in raw materials, and thus, they obtained these raw materials for use in their industries in no costs maximizing such raw materials as metals like gold and diamond as well as salt from North Africa on their profits.

Some went ahead to become settlers in these countries and utilized the fertile lands to grow crops in large scale with the use of the local cheap labor.

They created their empires in the non-western countries and used them to dump their excess finished products as well as sell them to the people there. Some of the powers used these areas to settle their people avoiding overpopulation in their countries.

They also used these colonies to train their armies and test their weapons. This caused serious dangers to the local people. Some of the land mines are still buried in some of this area till nowadays.

The western nations faced some negative effects from their empires because they seemed to concentrate more on acquiring and managing more empires and forget their own issues at home. This led to outbreak of civil wars in their countries as the citizens felt that their governments were neglecting them.

Effects of imperialism on the non-western countries. These lands lost their independence to their colonial powers, and their systems of governance were discarded. They had to abide by their colonial masters’ rules. Such a situation led to revolt that resulted in loss of lives.

Most of them lost their lands where they practiced agriculture. Instead, they were settled in dry areas where they faced starvation and were forced to work for the colonial masters to get food.

Families were dismantled as the strongest of their members were captured as slaves, and only women and the elderly were left behind. This led to mental an emotional imbalance to the society at large.

However, imperialism had some positive effects on the non-western countries because when they got machineries form, the colonies also became civilized (Sherman & Salisbury 649). They acquired new construction skills, weapon manufacture skills, and better feeding habits etc.

By the end of the colonial era, most of the bright students in these colonies would be offered scholarships in the European universities; this would help them to acquire higher education.

Works Cited

Sherman, Dennis, and Joyce Salisbury. The West in the World: From 1600. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 2008. Print.