Benefits Of Imperialism

What is imperialism? Imperialism is an approach to expand a nation’s power and their influences over other lands. Empires would look for expansion in their rule over other countries like Africa, Asia, and the Middle East starting in the 1870s and continued until 1914. But, was Imperialism beneficial for developing nations? Imperialism benefited developing nations from the positive aspects of technological advancements, economic gain, and political power. European imperialism played a significant role of the evolution of transportation, military, and communication technologies. Since the Industrial Revolution occurred before the age of imperialism, the production of weapons and tools became more efficient and quicker. Thus, inventing the

Having the use of trade available to different nations made it easier to focus on aspects of receiving the raw materials to make countries more valuable. According to a reliable source, “Overseas colonies could serve as reliable sources of raw materials not available in Europe that came into demand because of industrialization” (911). This meant that they could get rubber from rubber trees in the Congo River basin and Malaya and use it to make many things, from tires to pipes. Tin came from colonies in southeast Asia and copper came from central Africa. Tin and copper were mostly used to make tools and weapons. Baron Kentaro Kaneko, the Japanese minister of commerce and agriculture, stated, “Japan . . . occupies a small amount of land and has a large population, with little material out of which to manufacture, hence has to rely upon the material imported from other countries” (Document 37- DBQ 14). By industrializing, Japan was able to dominate in the sale of manufactured goods like textiles, to those areas abroad that it was closer to than the more powerful Western countries. The success in economics greatly advanced imperialism in nations with more money, trade, and raw

This caused wars between countries because no ruler wants to give up or have their land taken from them. The national prestige in a country also caused wars, because their nation couldn’t be great without possessing colonies. This clearly explains in this article that “Patriotism and growing imperial power spurred countries to compete with others for supremacy” (5). While trying to expand their territory, they also had to defend it. To do so they looked for territory that they could access for their armies and navies. “As imperial powers consolidated their hold on foreign lands, colonial administrators reorganized subject societies so they would become efficient suppliers of timber, rubber…” (931). The hold of trading and the more raw materials that are valued led to have more control on power over lands, because you have things that other nations want which makes it great for receiving land. Political dominance was a great deal to have, especially to claim land for growing