19th Century Imperialism Dbq

Imperialism is a policy of extending the rule or authority of an empire or nation over foreign countries. It originated in the 1800’s but flourished in Europe during the 1900’s due to the British expansion towards foreign lands. The factors in fueling the 19th-century imperialism consisted of racism, economics, religion, and politics: Racism, in my opinion, is the most important in fueling the 19th-century imperialism because the motives for expansion expressed prejudice. Racism means the prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior. Most events during the era of imperialism illustrated a trait of racism, which fueled imperialism throughout Europe. Document 3 (“The White Man’s Burden” by Rudyard Kipling) expresses the

The document compared the British to animals because the British spent years with different rulers to try to annex the islands. The manner may have been hostile since the British cared little about if the people wanted to learn from them. A quote from the document states, “these people having long steadily devoured all the western barbarians, and like demons of the night, they now suddenly exalt themselves here.” The meaning of the phrase is to emphasize the aftermath of the annexation from Great Britain. The civilization changed to comfort the British’s needs; therefore the natives were “devoured.” The natives are against making peace with the British because that shows that they’re giving in to the British annexation, which was what they were trying to prevent. Racism played a part in this by demonstrating the attitudes the British had towards the natives. Antagonism from the British directed towards the natives angered them because they realized that the British were trying to take over by forcing them to learn