Colonialism And Imperialism

What were some of the political, economic, social, intellectual, and military factors that explained the sudden increase in the pace and importance of European imperialism in the late 19c? The essential impetus was the Industrial Revolution which led to a search for (and control of) sources of raw materials and captive markets to sell manufactured goods, and become a world power with the most colonies and most money.

During the early 1900s, America’s reputation as a world power prospered by possessing the third largest navy in the world and a significant domain over smaller countries. It was able to acquire superiority internationally due to its intervention in the intense colonialism of the time, including fast extension, colonization, and rivalry. However, America’s colonial power did not suddenly develop. Though the United States expansionism of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century was an explicit continuation of cultural and social factors that had powered the country’s past expansionism, it was more of a departure from the strategies for the past in which financial and political motives were sought.

Throughout american history, examples of the United States’ domination of the political, economic, and social aspects of other countries can be seen. This domination, also known as imperialism, was primarily caused by a growing sense of nationalism, the influence of supply and demand, and a desire to maintain global military power. Imperialism is categorized into three different groups: colony, protectorate, sphere of influence. TRANSITION SENTENCE

The diseases that were brought over to the “New World”, includes Syphilis, Polio, Hepatitis, Encephalitis, and many other types of illnesses brought by the European. This had

Throughout history the human race has been faced with one key factor that no one civilization has even been able to beat, not the might of the Roman-Byzantine Empire, nor the combined efforts of the entirety of Europe and their scholars could defeat this recurring foe. Pandemics, from the Greek ‘pan’ meaning all, and ‘demos’ meaning people (Harper Etymonline.com), are these indiscriminate killers whom care not for your social standing be it wealth, fame, or glory. Humans have contested with disease ever since the infantile stages of the species, but the ability of it to spread was severely inhibited by the fact that humans stayed in small groups of 10-30 people at most, giving the virus or disease severely hampered virulence. It was not till humans began gathering in larger, more permanent settlements such as the early Classical cities of Athens, Ramses, and Rome, that the issue of sanitation and disease came into effect. This has not to say that our issues with sanitation and disease prevention have stopped, rather have they been brought forward into the limelight, many nations around the world today have issues with age old diseases and give rise to extremely deadly new viruses of their own. To fully understand the effect of pandemics in history, then one must consider three major plagues of our recorded history, the first pandemic ‘Plague of Athens’, the pivotal ‘Plague of Justinian’, and the infamous ‘Black Death’

Before 1492, the people of the two worlds, and their immune systems, had no knowledge of other diseases throughout the other world. In the Old World, diseases such as smallpox, bubonic plague, and influenza, were seen everyday by the people within that world, but in the New World diseases like that had never been seen before. Each world, brought new disease to its people. As the Europeans came to the New World, they brought diseases unknown to the Native Americans. The Native American’s immune systems were not immune to these diseases, and caused over 90% to die, due to sickness. With the integration of the Native Americans and the Europeans, a sexually transmitted disease, now known as syphilis, was spread from the Native Americans to the Europeans, introducing new sickness to the Old World.

Although populations in ancient societies suffered attacks, invasions, starvation, and persecution, there was a more efficient killer that exterminated countless people. The most dreaded killers in the ancient world were disease, infections and epidemics. In many major wars the main peril was not gunfire, nor assault, but the easily communicable diseases that rapidly wiped out whole divisions of closely quartered soldiers. Until the time of Hippocrates, in the struggle between life and death, it was, more often than not, death that prevailed when a malady was involved. In the modern world, although illness is still a concern, advances in thought and technique have led to the highest birth rates in recorded history. No longer is a fever a

Classical Colonialism occurs when metropolitan nations fuse new territories or peoples through means which are virtually involuntary such as war, conquest, capture, and additional forms of enforcement and control. (Biauner 1987,150) Classical colonialism is distinguished by economic exploitation, forced entry, and cultural imperialism through the establishment of new institutions and methods of thought. (

In the video “Guns, Germs and Steel: Episode 3.” The overall summary of the episode is how Europe dominated Africa, how they fought through diseases and land wars with local tribes. During this adventure major diseases spread across Africa, affecting Europeans and Africans, causing thousands to die. The main two diseases were smallpox and Malaria, for example in the video it stated that, “It was believed Smallpox originated in the tropical region of Africa, Africans were certainly similar with the disease, they had even developed methods of immunity for life.” This was the advantage they had over the europeans, they were able to protect themselves from Smallpox; avoiding such a dramatic incline their population. Not only did they develop immunization to Smallpox, they tried to fight off Malaria. For example in the video it says, “Native Africans had also developed antibodies against one of the most virulent diseases on the earth, Malaria.” This was because they settled and live in high or dry locations, away from wet and humid areas, which is where mosquitos are generally found, hence why thousands of Europeans died to this disease due to living by rivers and swamps. However, Malaria isn’t the most common disease in Africa now, the most common disease is “Pneumonia and Other Lower Respiratory Tract Infections….Pneumonia alone is responsible for 90% of all lower respiratory tract infections and is one of the most deadly diseases in

Throughout history, many diseases have come and gone, leaving waves in the water of human progress. And though illnesses have been numerous, only two diseases have truly affected entire civilizations, ravaging the culture and lifestyle of the peoples, and escalating to epidemical heights. The two scourges are bubonic plague, which influenced Europe during the 1300’s, and smallpox, which impacted Mesoamerica and the Native Americans from the 1500’s to the 1900’s. To understand how these sicknesses were so altering to their related societies, one must understand the disease.

Recognize through the reciprocal contributions to the Old and the New Worlds to the history of diseases, their treatment is America. It also shows the consequences of this discovery, as they are materializing in the fields of health, culture, and the environment.

History has been marked by plagues of infectious diseases. From the devastating Black Death of Europe to deadly outbreaks of tuberculosis and smallpox in the United States, society has faced many battles with infectious diseases. However, with new technology and economic prosperity, many think of infectious diseases as an antiquated threat. This belief is far from true. Since the end of the 20th century, there has been a trend of emergence and re-emergence of infectious diseases all over the world. Over 30 new infectious diseases have emerged since the end of the 20th century and outbreaks of old and new diseases are rising (Weiss and McMichael 2004). Through analyzing six sources related to this topic, many factors contributing to this rise

Imperialism has been noted to be practice of foreign rule in a context of hierarchy and subordination, which can eventually lead to the formation of an empire. Imperialism refers directly to the enhancement of power and military superiority.

A political-economic phenomenon whereby various European nations explored, conquered, settled, and exploited large areas of the world.

Imperialism – The act of stronger nations taking direct control of weaker nations in order to to create empires economically, politically, culturally, and/or militarily. Much of Africa and Asia were under European domination because of imperialism.