Imperialism is expanding a country’s influence and power using military force or diplomacy. This greatly helped many countries, such as Great Britain, France, and Germany. However it hurt other countries who were not in favour of imperialism, such as Egypt, China, and India. Peoples in colonized countries developed nationalist resistance movements to protest imperialism, both violently and nonviolently, whereas supporters of imperialism claimed it brought modernity, civilization, and education to “backward” colonized people. Imperialism is more easily understood when put into context. Imperialism started in the 1850’s when Europe began to expand their empires into Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. It started mainly for financial gain, as raw materials were cheaper in these areas and the Europeans could make higher profit from controlling these areas and their people. …show more content…
The British however did not realize that by utilizing India’s resources, they were supporting India’s economy enough for them to no longer depend on Great Britain. As shown in document 1, this made it almost impossible for India to accomplish any of their goals because England did not trust them enough to support them. This can be reflected in Indian politician, Dadabhai Naoroji’s statement, “Our great misfortune is that you do not know our wants.” However Cecil John Rhodes, like many other Englishman at this time, believed that “[English] are the finest race in the world and the more of the world we inhabit the better it is for the human race.” This statement from document 2 shows heavy ideas of Social Darwinism, which made the lesser nations angry as they believed they did not need help by being brought culture. It would also lead to even stronger rebellion from people, such as Bal Gangadhar Tilak, who believed in boycotting reclamation of all of India as described in document