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Imperialism As An Economic Death Sentence Since Columbus Landed

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Anybody would be hard pressed to find a term associated with political geography with a worse connotation than imperialism. A word that encompasses the bloodiest of history, and is usually used in conjunction with colonialism and the stripping of all things deemed valuable from a foreign land. Specifically in Latin America, imperialism has been an economic death sentence since Columbus landed in 1492. Latin America has been depleted of raw materials and its natural resources by western conquerors (mostly Spain, Portugal, and the United States) for more than a half a century. Imperialism has usually been defined as the process of accumulation of land, resources, and labor, as well as the creation of power and influence through military force. In less neutral words, the claiming of already occupied lands, the overtaking of resources, and the establishment of slavery. A key part of imperialism is the mentality of being the oppressor country. Imperialism is supported by the ideology that suggests that people of certain areas and of certain races require assistance and to be shown “civilization.” Profit was the ultimate goal of imperialism, but behind this goal was the justification that people from lands far away should be ruled over and it is the empire’s duty to rule over uncivilized peoples, as they believed them to be. This fact in regards to Latin America can be seen in the evolution of the Monroe Doctrine, which I want to get into further along this paper.
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