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World history: The change in Imperialism Essay

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World history: The change in Imperialism

Social, economic, and political change altered the nature of imperialism in three principal ways. One was the amplified need for natural resources, two was the new understanding of economics, and three was the expanding sense of what it meant to be civilized. All of these events and ideas were lead up to by the industrial revolution. The industrial revolution altered the course of history in numerous ways but the most significant is certainly that of imperialism.

The industrialization created a rise in population and thus a rise in demand. This in it of itself did not lead to the need for conquest but it was certainly a contributing factor. The Industrial revolution began to produce goods …show more content…

Now what is civilization, well according to the Europeans it was white, privileged, European men and women. So this new idea plays into slavery. People would go on trips to “civilize” and enslave the people that they met. They would strip them of original culture and procreate their lands and resources. And coincidentally this worked right be side the Europeans need for resources, because these “mission trips” weren’t about mission at all they were about conquest and finding new territories and peoples that they could use to their benefit. “Everyone who knows little about aboriginal races is aware that these races which are low type mentally and who at the same time are weak in constitution rapidly die out when their country becomes occupied by a different race much more rigors and robust pushing themselves.” This idea stated by George Pullwiok was the general idea of most people in this time period. So how did this contribute to the conquering of people? Well this thinking also created the idea of the white means burden. Europeans commonly believed that it was their duty to civilize those who they saw to be inferior, so it was yet again another excuse for them to go and attack, conquer, and colonize countries.

The downfall of states that did not industrialize was clearly apart of the change in imperialism because allowed other superior states to gain control and to try and dominate. Countries like

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