Colonialism And Modern Imperialism In The Eighteenth-Century

Imperialism can be roughly defined as the forcible imposition of one country’s rule on the unwilling inhabitants of another. Between 1870 and the outbreak of WWI, nearly ¼ of the Earth’s surface was controlled by small, European nations. Nations such as Japan and the United States would follow suit in pursuing their own territorial gains. What all these nations held in common was a heritage of nationalism and expansive industrialization. They commanded large governments and oversaw vast amounts of wealth and firepower that were beyond the holdings of the nations they sought to control. Modern Imperialism was effectively a lopsided game that pitted “primitive” peoples against unimaginable superpowers. While modern imperialism was in many ways like the eighteenth-century mercantilism and colonialism of old. Modern imperialism was different in the fact that imperial powers set out to not only exploit their colonial holdings, but also transform and “westernize” the societies under their control. (Kennedy 596) Imperialists justified their occupation of less developed societies

Albeit, being pressured into signing the Platt Amendment into their constitution which effectively kept the nation under the gaze of America until 1934. (Kennedy 587) The liberty loving Filipinos assumed they too would be granted their freedom after the Spanish-American War, but were instead excluded from the peace negotiations with Spain. Seeing that they were now under American rule indefinitely, bitterness towards the occupying American troops erupted into insurrection on February 4th, 1899. Rebels soon vanished into the jungles as they waged a guerilla warfare campaign against 126,000 American troops sent to the nation. The insurrection finally ended 1901 after the capture of their leader, but at the cost of 4,234 Americans and over 600,000 Filipinos lives. (Kennedy