Describe the motivating issue behind imperialism
By: Danielle W
Modern Imperialism
Political MotivesEven if colonies were not economically beneficial, imperialists held that it was crucial for political and military reasons to maintain them.
Cultural JustificationsSpiritual motives gave a great deal of support towards imperialism. Missionaries would flock to African and Asian lands in search of converts to Christianity.
Their spiritual campaigns provided a powerful religious justification for imperialism. Others worked to bring subject peoples "Civilization" in the form of political order and social stability. French imperialists routinely invoked the Mission Civilisatrice ("civilizing mission") as justifying for the expansion into Africa and Asia. The English writer Rudyard Kipling defined the "white man's burden" as the duty of European and Euro-American peoples to bring order and enlightenment to distant lands. |
Many Europeans insisted that imperial expansion and colonial domination were a crucial part of survival especially for their states and societies.
Cecil Rhodes (1853-1902) Worked in behalf of the British imperial expansion mining across the ocean. Economic MotivesPointed out that overseas colonies could serve as reliable sources of raw materials that are not available in Europe.
These supplies consist of rubber, tin, copper, and petroleum. Proponents of imperialism also held that colonies would consume manufactured products and provide a haven for migrants in an age of rapidly increasing European population. Cecil Rhodes is the man who supported British Imperialism!
|