Imperialism
Definition and Concept of Imperialism
The concept and definition of Imperialism is described as the expansion of a nation’s
authority over other nations through the acquisition of land and/or the imposition of economic and
political domination. It is also known as an economic, political, and social system in which one
powerful country holds another under its control and imposes its rule or authority over them, the
reason why it is often referred to as empire building. Accordingly, the word “imperialism” comes
from the Latin term “imperium,” which means “to command.” Motives for imperialism include
economic, cultural, political, moral, and exploratory control.
Consequently, the concept of Imperialism is often associated with colonialism, which is
similar in terms of control, but with the additional strategy of the imperial power sending settlers
to live in a colony. It always involves the use of power, whether military or economic or some
subtler form, hence why it is frequently been considered morally reprehensible. Also, the term is
frequently employed in international propaganda to denounce and discredit an opponent’s foreign
policy.
Imperialists believe that there is a finite supply of wealth in the world and that economics
is a “zero-sum” game. They believe that in order for someone to gain wealth, someone must lose
wealth. Imperialists also believe expansion by force is justified by the theory of social Darwinism,
or “survival of the fittest.”. Primarily, the typical goal of imperialism is to acquire as many resources
as possible, often through exploitation and expansion by force. As an economic system,
imperialism thus “works” for countries that seek to legitimize their conquest or exploitation of other
people. The strategy has typically led to the extraction of material, cultural, and mineral wealth
from conquered nations.
Historians broadly classify the arguments in favor of imperialism into four categories:
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Economic: Proponents argue the benefits of acquiring goods such as cotton, silk, tobacco,
gold, and land, as well as access to trade routes.
Cultural: This motive designates some groups as superior to others and therefore they are
equipped to rule over them.
Political or strategic: To protect themselves against potential challenges and establish
their power, nations aim to control as much territory as possible.
Moral or religious: This motive argues it will save people from the dangers of an oppressive
government or religion, often by imposing a different one.
History and Background
The Age of Imperialism spanned the year 1500 all the way to 1914. Therefore, there were
two periods that is often associated with Imperialism, these are the Old Imperialism and New
Imperialism.
During the early 15th to the late 17th century or the period of “Old Imperialism,” European
powers such as England, Spain, France, Portugal, and Holland acquired vast colonial empires.
The European nations explored the New World seeking trade routes to the Far East and—often
violently—establishing settlements in North and South America as well as in Southeast Asia. It
was during this period that some of imperialism’s worst human atrocities took place. During
the Spanish Conquistadors’ conquest of Central and South America in the 16th century, an
estimated eight million indigenous people died in the era of imperialism’s first large scale act of
genocide. Based on their belief in the conservative economic theory of “Glory, God, and Gold,”
trade-motivated imperialists of this period saw colonialism as purely a source of wealth and
vehicle for religious missionary efforts. The early British Empire established one of its most
profitable colonies in North America. Despite suffering a setback in the loss of its American
colonies in 1776, Britain more than recovered by gaining territory in India, Australia, and Latin
America.
Notes to Remember
The “Gold, God, and Glory,” concept was considered and used by historians as a standard
shorthand in order to describe the motives generating the overseas exploration, expansion,
and conquests that allowed various European countries to rise to world power between
1400 and 1750.
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“Gold” refers to the search for material gain through acquiring and selling Asian
spices, African slaves, American metals, and other resources. As merchants gained
influence in late-medieval western Europe, they convinced their governments to
establish a direct connection to the lucrative Asian trade, leading to the first
European voyages of discovery in the 1400s.
“God” refers to the militant crusading and missionary traditions of Christianity,
characterized in part by rivalry with Islam and hatred of non-Christian religions.
“Glory” alludes to the competition between monarchies. Some kings sought to
establish their claims to newly contacted territories so as to strengthen their position
in European politics and increase their power at the expense of the landowning
nobility.
By the end of the age of Old Imperialism in the 1840s, Great Britain had become the dominant
colonial power with territorial holdings in India, South Africa, and Australia. At the same time,
France controlled the Louisiana territory in North America as well as French New Guinea. Holland
had colonized the East Indies and Spain had colonized Central and South America. Due largely
to its mighty navy’s dominance of the seas, Britain also readily accepted its role as keeper of
world peace, later described as Pax Britannica or “British Peace.”
Nonetheless, by the 1870s and ’80s, these nations witnessed a retreat from the free market and
a return to state intervention in economic affairs. Following the first wave of imperialism, the
European empires built colonies on the coasts of Africa and China, but they had little overall power
over the local political elite. The huge empires of the European states, mostly in Africa, but also
in Asia and the Middle East, did not start to be established until the “Age of New Imperialism” in
the 1870s. Conceivably, it is when the period of Modern Imperialism commenced. Typically,
historians define the period of new imperialism between the end of the 19th century and 1914,
when the First World War began. Driven by the need to deal with the over-production and underconsumption economic consequences of the Industrial Revolution, the European nations pursued
an aggressive plan of empire building. Instead of merely setting up overseas trading settlements
as they had during the 16th and 17th centuries, the new imperialists controlled the local colonial
governments for their own benefit.
The rapid advances in industrial production, technology, and transportation during the “Second
Industrial Revolution” between 1870 and 1914 further boosted the economies of the European
powers and thus their need for overseas expansion. As typified by the political theory of
imperialism, the new imperialists employed policies that stressed their perceived superiority over
“backward” nations. Combining the establishment of economic influence and political annexation
with overwhelming military force, the European countries—led by the juggernaut British Empire—
proceeded to dominate most of Africa and Asia.
By 1914, along with its successes in the so-called “Scramble for Africa,” the British Empire
controlled the largest number of colonies worldwide, leading to the popular phrase, “The sun
never sets on the British Empire.”
Notes to Remember
To conclude, the reasons for the end of Old Imperialism were because Industrial
Development, Cost of maintaining colonies outweighed the benefits accruing from
them, Nationalistic movements, Napoleonic Wars while for the New Imperialism was
because of the World Wars and Native Uprisings.
Examples of Imperialism
The “golden age” of imperialism was the 19th century, during which European nations held
empires that covered much of the world. During this period, Germany, Austria-Hungary, France,
Russia, and Great Britain all relied on imperialism to build their wealth. European countries seized
about 9 million square miles of territory in Africa and Asia between 1870 and 1900, a fifth of the
world’s landmass. About 150 million people were subjected to imperialism during that time. The
scale of these empires was vast. The Austro-Hungarian Empire included countries in
southeastern Europe bordering Russia. Germany’s empire included the former French regions of
Alsace and Lorraine, and Germany’s and Italy’s empires included countries in Africa. The Russian
Empire included most of eastern Europe, including Serbia. The British Empire—the largest empire
in the world at the time—had countries in Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The French Empire had
Vietnam and most of northern Africa.
Nonetheless, in today’s modern time, Imperialism is no longer focused strictly on securing
new trading opportunities. Instead, modern imperialism involves the expansion of corporate
presence and the spreading of the dominant nation’s political ideology in a process sometimes
pejoratively called “nation-building” or, specifically in the case of the United States,
“Americanization.”
As proven by the domino theory of the Cold War, powerful nations like the United States
often attempt to block other nations from adopting political ideologies counter to their own. As a
result, the United States’ failed 1961 Bay of Pigs Invasion attempt to overthrow the communist
regime of Fidel Castro in Cuba, President Ronald Regan’s Reagan Doctrine intended to stop the
spread of communism, and U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War are often cited as examples of
modern imperialism. Aside from the United States, other prosperous nations have employed
modern—and occasionally traditional—imperialism in hopes of expanding their influence. Using
a combination of hyper-aggressive foreign policy and limited military intervention, countries like
Saudi Arabia and China have sought to spread their global influence. The first is Saudi Arabia,
which is China’s largest trading partner in West Asia and the wealthiest country in the region.
China, in turn, is Saudi Arabia’s largest trading partner and largest oil customer. Chinese
construction firms have been playing a growing role developing Saudi infrastructure; meanwhile,
Saudi Arabia has been especially eager to build refineries and petrochemical production facilities
in China that are specially tailored to use Saudi grades of crude oil. Saudi Arabia seems to be
developing China as a hedge against a decline in Western oil consumption, as a well as a hedge
against Western discomfort with authoritarianism within Saudi Arabia. In addition, smaller nations
like Iran and North Korea have been aggressively building their military capabilities—including
nuclear weapons—in hopes of gaining an economic and strategic advantage. Iranian Armed
Forces are the largest in the Middle East in terms of active troops. Their military forces are made
up of approximately 610,000 active-duty personnel plus 350,000 reserve and trained personnel
that can be mobilized when needed, bringing the country’s military manpower to about 960,000
total personnel. North Korea on the other hand, has one of the largest standing armies in the
world, with more than one million soldiers they are expected to build the world’s strongest army.
And lastly, although having fewer actual colonial possessions than it had during the time
of conventional imperialism, the United States continues to have a significant and expanding
economic and political impact throughout a wide range of regions of the globe. Puerto Rico,
Guam, the Virgin Islands, the Northern Mariana Islands, and American Samoa are the five
permanently populated traditional territories or commonwealths that the United States still holds.
In the past, most former US territories, including Alaska and Hawaii, eventually became states.
Other areas held primarily for military purposes during World War II, such as the Philippines,
Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, and Palau, later gained independence.
References
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“Gold, God, and Glory.” International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences. Retrieved
November 29, 2022 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/socialsciences/applied-and-social-sciences-magazines/gold-god-and-glory
Longley, R. (2020). What Is Imperialism? Definition and Historical Perspective.
https://www.thoughtco.com/imperialism-definition-4587402
Alterman, J. B. (2019). Chinese and Russian influence in the Middle East. Middle East
Policy, 26(2), 129-136.
Amadeo, K. & Webber, M. (2022). What is Imperialism? How Imperialism Works?
Retrieved from https://www.thebalancemoney.com/imperialism-definition-and-impactson-us-history-4773797
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