preview

The Factors Of Economics Was Or Was Not The Primary Reason For British Imperialism

Decent Essays

The idea of expansion and migrating to other territories in search of quest and conquer has been prevalent in history time period after time period. There were the powerful militaries who came to a territory and conquered and prospered in wealth because of their strength and power. While there were other groups have failed to do such task. As time went on historians defined the task of extended a country 's power through force of diplomacy or military power as imperialism. Imperialism has been the most dominant powerful force in the last four to five centuries in civilization. Imperialism has formed civilizations in entire continents while pushing out the indigenous people and destroying other civilizations in the meantime. In this case, we look at whether the factors of economics was or was not the primary reason for British Imperialism.
Robert Huttenback believed that British Imperialism was a result from economic factor primarily. They thought “much, no doubt, remains to be said concerning the relationship between the empire and economics. but perhaps, when all is said and done, Cecil Rhodes came closest to summing the whole thing up when he said, not totally in jest, that imperialism was nothing more than philanthropy plus 5 percent!... A strange kind of philanthropy socialism for the rich, capitalism for the poor. (Huttenback 92)
Although Britain was receiving techonology from dependant empires, Such as India, they were not directly benefiting financially from these

Get Access