The Various Structures Of Empires And Global History

Imperialism is the policy of extending the role of authority of a nation over a foreign country, usually in material gain. In the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, the United States went through an era of imperialism. At the time, the US was quite powerful, but was looking to continue to spread their territory, make themselves even stronger, and have multiple trade routes to have all the resources they needed and wanted.

It is evident that the two main largest classical empires were the Roman Empire and the Chinese Empire under the rule of the Han kings. These two empires had many social, political, and economic features in common, but likewise many of those features different from one another. A political feature that both classical empires shared was that both had powerful executive emperors who held absolute power. A second political feature that both empires had in common is that both empires had a central governmental body which maintained order, organized funds, collected taxes, and made executive decisions. Socially, the two empires also had features in common. The first similarity between the Roman social organization and the Han social organization

All empires were brought together by conquest and funded in part by extracting wealth from conquered peoples.

Imperialism began during the 1870’s, it was a process in which states, companies, and people exercised their dominance over the rest of the world. Some characteristics of imperialism are: a system of dominance rather than exchange, the investment of wealth brought in alternated the whole infrastructure, lastly it is based on treating other class divisions poorly just to benefit from their work. Imperialism came into power through the disproportionate European power, the unparalleled domestic support, the non-western power vacuum, and lastly due to divide and conquer tactics in which local leaders would support the imperialist dominating.

Foreign trade is one of the most important aspects of Asian and European Empires. Without trade, these empires would not have flourished in the manner that they did. Many different factors played a role in developing trade in their cultures. As various empires ruled from 2000 BC to 1911 in Asia and Europe, trade has had a major influence in the development of those cultures as seen today. The nation that has the most success in trading becomes the strongest nation and will last the longest.

Chau’s thesis that the rise and fall of empires was due to tolerance, inclusion, difference, and diversity is shown to be true of the Roman Empire because of the way that tolerance allowed and caused the empire to rise, enter its golden age, and fall. The Roman Empire was a “hyperpower” that lasted from 44 BCE to 476 CE. The empire contained Western, Southern, and Eastern Europe, along with North Africa; thus, there was an abundance of culture from many different conquered groups. Romans wanted to make these conquered nations provinces of Rome. The Roman Empire began (and the Roman Republic ended) with the assassination of Julius Caesar, who wanted to be a dictator. No longer a republic, the lands already ruled by Rome became part of an empire. The government became centralized with a single ruler, the emperor. However, even before the empire, during the Republic, there was also the similar feeling of wanting to conquer other nations was there.

Throughout history there has been times when empire building and expansion were very popular. During the Early Modern Era, from 1450-1750, this occurred a lot. The European, Russian, Chinese, Mughal and, Ottoman empires were all being built around the same time. An empire is a group of states or countries under one supreme ruler. When the empire is divided by an ocean or has part of it distant from the other, the part away from the mainland is known as a colony and the homeland is the Mother Country.

Between the period from 1880 to 1914, European powers went after overseas empires in Africa. The governments and political leaders of the European powers believed that this colonization of the African empires was necessary to maintain their global influence. A second group of people supposed that African colonization was the result of the greedy Capitalists who \only cared for new resources and markets. The third group of people claimed it to be their job to enlighten and educate the uncivilized people of Africa. Although the political leaders of European powers encouraged colonization of African empires to advance their nation’s global influence, others argued that it was only for the profiteering of the Capitalists who sought new

As these empires started expanding they gained new things. They gained new land, goods, services, people, food, animals, and more. With these things the empires became stronger and more powerful. They gained animals such as the Turkey. They gained foods like sweet potatoes, avocados, squash, pineapples, peppers, cassava, cocao beans, peanuts, potatoes, tomatoes, corn, beans, and vanilla. With more options of food it was easier to get food making it easier to things instead of worrying about getting food. They also exported food which was good for their economy. With gaining this they gained more power. This gaining of power was something all empires wanted, this is why they built their

Throughout time empires have risen and fallen and taken various approaches in doing so. Some of these society were warlike, while others focused on intellectual discovery. Among these various societies were great empires like the Ottoman, the Mughal, the Spanish, and the Ming. All four of these great empire ruled at overlapping times but all eventually fell for different reasons. All had strengths and weakness and can be used as a learning opportunity for an empire that came after them. From the Ming and the Ottoman you can learn strength such as religious tolerance and government structure. On the other hand, the Mughal and the Spanish teach us the dangers of over taxing and over centralizing government. In order for an empire to successfully function they must have an accepting culture, a balanced economy, and manageable size.

When the colonies become ruled by a mother country this means the natives will most likely become slaves (Document 2). The European countries will benefit from their labor. In Africa missionaries came and the natives didn't like them (Document 4). The Africans thought of them very negatively because they used religion as means to gain trust so they could conquest the natives land. Also, new diseases were introduced to the natives by the Europeans. There were many more negative effects of imperialism in Africa like their loss of dignity and their ability to lead themselves (Document 6). This is because the Europeans taught them that their culture was inferior to theirs. In the political cartoon in Document 7, it shows a cartoonist implying that Europeans work the natives in the colonies very hard all for the money. They don't care about the natives well being. In India, the British took over and many bad effects occurred as result to this. Like, Indian resources going straight to Britain. Also British manufactured good replaced Indian local industry. Farmers were forced to grow cash crops like tea and cotton and Indians went hungry. Also, top jobs were reserved for the British. This left many Indians unemployed. The Indians were treated as inferiors in their own country. Many wars broke out due to racism and which mother country wanted which colony. Like in Africa the Boers War in 1899 was a confrontation between the English and the Dutch when England wanted to take the Cape Colony from the Dutch. Another war in Africa caused by Imperialism is the Zulu war. The Zulu war was caused by British aggression. In China the Opium war was between Great Britain and China. It began in 1839 as a conflict over the opium trade that ended in 1842 with the opening of five Chinese ports to foreign merchants. But the worst effect of Imperialism is when the mother country tries to replace the culture of the

Empires have shaped world history in both good and bad ways. From changing regional and global power dynamics to diffusing goods, ideas, animals, vegetation, people, and even illnesses, empires have cultivated peace and instigated war (Spiegel 2012). Groups of people have been decimated while others flourished (Spiegel 2012). Before imperialism, empires did exist (i.e. Aztecs, Incas, etc) but were separated by geographical barriers, such as deserts, oceans, mountains, etc. It was with the invention of the sextant that allowed European

This book is a "Short History," of western empires which explain how European civilization and includes chronology of key events are influenced by the empires that was formed in it, like the Roman empire. It starts with Alexander and his Greek army and ends with the EU. Major events between these two events are empires like the Roman Empire, Byzantine Empire, the Catholic Church as an Empire, the Spanish Empire, British Empire, and the European Colonial influence into the 20th Century.

Many nations wanted to expand their territory and gain control of natural resources that are nonnative. As a result, Imperialism began in the late nineteenth century due to economic, political, and social forces including the Industrial Revolution, trade, and military conditions. Imperialism is the domination over an undeveloped, less industrialized country by a stronger, more industrialized nation. Although Imperialism has shaped the culture and customs all over the world, it had both negative and positive impacts throughout imperialized nations. The Perspectives on imperialism varied widely between those who imposed it and those who were affected by it.

Throughout the history of the world, different kingdoms have been competing to expand their territories. In most cases, the expansion of theses territories has been at the expense of weaker territories that are incapable of fighting back effectively owing to different barriers . For example, the Mongols expanded their territory in less than a hundred years to over 6,000 miles using lightning-fast archers who rode on horsebacks . An irrefutable fact about empires is the fact that they never hold together for long as they fall apart. However, as time has been passing, changes have been exhibited in the empires that are being formed. As such, historians normally divide imperialism into two types , formal, as well as informal imperialism. Consequently, this article explains the differences that exist between formal imperialism and informal imperialism by use of examples.