British Imperialism Essay

After the civil war, United States took a turn that led them to solidify as the world power. From the late 1800s, as the US began to collect power through Cuba, Hawaii, and the Philippines, debate arose among historians about American imperialism and its behavior. Historians such as William A. Williams, Arthur Schlesinger, and Stephen Kinzer provides their own vision and how America ought to be through ideas centered around economics, power, and racial superiority.

During the period of Colonialism, the English settlers arrived in America from Europe looking for religious freedom, land and the opportunity for wealth. While the Spanish Settlers arrived at Hispaniola unexpectedly, like the English; however, the Spanish did not leave Europe because of religion persecution; rather, they wanted to expand their religious belief to the New Word. While in both the English and the Spanish colonization, the Indigenous people were oppressed and enslaved but the English took a different approach. Thereby, although both the English and the European colonized in order to obtain gold and silver to help their countries wealth, the Spanish explorers took a more forceful method of gaining land.

Josiah Strong, a reverend and famous Protestant clergyman, wrote in his book, Our Country, about why the United States should support imperialism. He himself is American, but where exactly in America is unknown. It is important that this established, as it makes it easier to understand his motivations for promoting what he thinks are best interests for America. The exact date of this publication is not given, but further research states it is from 1885. At around 1885 was a period of time where imperialism was a concept which was spreading quickly to many large countries, and there were many who supported it in the United States. His book, given the quote, appears to embrace American imperialism for spreading the ideals of the United

From: Romesh Dutt, The Economic History of India Under Early British Rule Englishmen…have given the people of India the greatest human blessing – peace. They have introduced Western education. This has brought an ancient and civilized nation in touch with modern thought, modern sciences and modern life. They have built an administration that is strong and efficient. They have framed wise laws and have established courts of justice.

The Scramble for Africa in the late 19th and early 20th centuries encouraged many different nations to become involved in colonialism. In this time period, competing European powers carved up the continent of Africa between themselves, due to a variety of political and economic motives. Generally, these powers benefited from these land acquisitions. However, Germany’s neo-imperialist experience was unlike that of the other powers. Within the colony of Namibia, located in South West Africa, the real advantages that Germany received were far outweighed by the disadvantages the German empire faced. Although Germany received elevated political status from occupying colonies, the economic and military efforts that were invested in

The British Empire was an empire on which the sun never set. Lasting for over three hundred years, Britain became the global hegemonic power of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. From the wilds of Australia, to the fertile lands of Africa, the British Empire ruled over a quarter of the world’s population. With the empire ever expanding, visual and material culture became relied upon to help consolidate the empire. Overall, whether an advertisement for soap, or the funeral for Dr. Livingstone, visual and material culture was at the forefront of British imperialism.

The Indian National Congress has already foreseen the Ware Danger and prepared the country to resist the Indian manpower and resources from being utilized for the purpose of British Imperialism. The manpower and resources vested in the First World War has already threatened India and suffered from exploitation. They condemned the transfer of troops from India to the war theaters. The proclamation of the Viceroy of 3rd September 1940 brought India under the war. To this Congress resented that neither them nor the Indian Legislature was consulted, not even they were informed by the Viceroy before declaring such proclamation for the war.

He also wanted to bring the Boers and the British together on this northern policy. The ideas were in good intension because Kruger’s obstinacy isolate the cape Dutch. The isolation was to secure and ensure the commercial traffic did not have reached the Transvaal via the cape colony, Kruger had built a railway to Delagoa Bay. In 1894 he closed all the roads to prevent transportations of the Vaal River to prevent the transport of goods by wagon. Rhodes went to Transvaal’s biggest city and protest, without a success. President Kruger heard Rhode’s grievances after a declarations from Rhode’s lawyer, who was in the London Convention, with coupled with a threat by Joseph Chamberlain, who later became British secretary in 1895, to encourage a military

Following World War II, the concrete nature of imperialism, or the subjection of people or groups based on a social, economical, or racial hierarchy, was seemingly in decline. For instance, India and Pakistan had both gained their independence from Britain in 1947 (p.761), and the French, though unwillingly, gave up their colonies in Vietnam (p.754), but with the development of the Cold War there became a need to ideologically separate the free “First World”, which was made up of western Europe and the United States, from the communist “Second World”, which was primarily made up by the Soviet Union. This separation unintentionally formed yet another hierarchy, and further perpetuated imperialistic notions.

On 31 May of 1902, a treaty named The Treaty of Vereeing was signed to end the Boer War (Droogleever, R. 2015). This treaty provided an end to the war and ultimately in 1910 a self-government to the Transvaal (South African Republic). In 1926, this government gained a complete independence and became republic in 1961. Thus, it can be said that this gave the white Africans power over the black South African. In 1910 itself, there are about 1.3 million white South African citizen, the majority are Afrikaners and the rest are British (refer to figure1). Due to an enormous antipathy between these two communities, there have always been a disagreement on the level of rights that the four million black South African should get. However, the two communities have one mind in seeing the Black South African as a supply of significantly cheap manual labour (Gascoigne. B, 2015). Therefore, it can be said that this is the main origin of discrimination and segregation of black South African.

At this time Sayyid Mohammed formalized peace treaties with his opponent Somali tribes which later paved the way for large flock of youth embracement his Dervish forces whose motto under his outstanding nationalistic agenda was to kick altogether the colonist out of the Somalis soil. Whilst, the second reason why the British protectorate could not take any action at the time was the very challenging wars that erupted between the British colonial forces and the Afrikaners. The South African Boer War begun between the British Empire and the Boers of the Transvaal and Orange Free State. The Boers, also known as Afrikaners, were the descendants of the original Dutch settlers of southern Africa. Britain took possession of the Dutch Cape colony in 1806 during the Napoleonic wars, sparking resistance from the independence-minded Boers, who resented the Anglicization of South Africa and Britain’s anti-slavery policies. In 1833, the Boers began an exodus into African tribal territory, where they founded the republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. The two new republics lived peaceably with their British neighbors until 1867, when the discovery of diamonds and gold in the region made conflict between the Boer states and Britain inevitable. Minor fighting with Britain began in the 1890s, and in October 1899 a full-scale war ensued. By mid-June 1900, British forces had captured most major Boer cities and formally annexed their territories, but the Boers launched a guerrilla

England, a old power in Europe, sought greater success and power during a time when the world was changing. England made innovations in industry and business while using politics to further benefit those innovations. Building an overseas empire at the time further fueled the economy, which resulted in Englands power growing exponential. During the turn of the Victorian Age1, to the Modern Era, politics in England were relatively simple and saw few conflicts with the surprisingly successful reign of William IV2. During his reign aristocratic houses were at new heights and the middle class was growing steadily. With a liberal government in place for England, massive social reform was at work. These changes would lay foundations for what would be known as “the welfare state.”

The Boers were simply outnumbered this time and the British had far more effective weapons. This meant that the British won the second Boer-war.

Politically it impacted the British’s strong need to govern the hinterland parts. The results of this was the incorporation of diamond field at Kimberly by the British http://myfreeschooltanzania.blogspot.co.za/2014/10/the-effects-of-mineral-revolution-It in.html. It also continued into creating a feud between the British and Boers. The Boers lost their land and interest to the British http://myfreeschooltanzania.blogspot.co.za/2014/10/the-effects-of-mineral-revolution-in.htmlt. It can be said that the American period among the Witwatersrand mining engineers closed in 1914, when there was a noticeable reduction in their numbers (E Kartz p.10). Mineral revolution also led to the disproportion of power between the whites and blacks (Africans). Africans lost their independence

Although there are many other important factors, the main cause of the rise of imperialism was most certainly economic. The Age of Empire, by Eric J. Hobsbawn, provides an interpretation of New Imperialism. Hobsbawn calls imperialism “a natural by-product of the international economy” (Sherman pg 177). He is basically saying that imperialism is dependent on the rivalries of competing industries, which continually drive the international economy. Hobsbawn also dictates the need for external markets. The Industrial Revolution created many products that needed markets, thus creating a need of colonies. Hobsbawn believed that the overproduction of the Industrial Revolution and the Great Depression could be solved. He also realized that