Economics Motivated Imperialism In East Asia

How Economics Motivated Imperialism

Nineteenth and twentieth century empires that imperialized East Asia were primarily motivated by economics. One example of this was Britain’s imperialism in China. Throughout most of the nineteenth century China was self-sufficient and rejected trade with western nations. China had no interest in foreign products which was not ideal for the newly industrialized Europe, as they had hoped for China to become a new market for them to sell their goods. European merchants became set on finding a product to increase trade with China and in the late eighteen hundreds they did, opium. This product was illegal in England but british merchants smuggled it into China. By 1835 more than twelve million Chinese people

The illegal opium trade in China led to more than just tension between Britain and China, it resulted in the Opium War of 1839. Britain came out victorious and forced China to sign a treaty that allowed them to greatly extend their influence over China. This resulted in more trade between Britain and China which shows that economics was a big motivation for East Asia imperialism. By the late nineteenth century Britain’s sphere of influence over China had increased significantly. Another example of economics motivating nineteenth and twentieth century imperialism in East Asia was Japan and Korea. Japan had gained military, economic, and political strength in the late 1800s and in 1905 they attacked Korea and turned it into a protectorate. Japan annexed Korea and soon began to use the land for their own profit. Japan took land from Korean farmers and forbade Koreans from going into business. Japan also encouraged its citizens to start industries in Korea. This shows that economics was the driving force for Japan's imperialism in Korea. In conclusion, for nineteenth and twentieth century empires, the driving force of imperialism

In the mid 1800s, before the Industrial Revolution, the African continent was divided into hundreds of different ethnic groups that spoke thousands of different languages. The raw materials of Africa quickly piqued the interest of many Europeans. After the Industrial Revolution and the rise of capitalism, as well as the increase in manufacturing, Europeans began to move into Africa. They sought minerals like copper and tin as well as cash crops such as cocoa and rubber. Nations as well as private companies began to claim African lands in order to extract these resources for profit. This shows that the primary motivation for Europeans to industrialize Africa in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was for economic profit. It is possible to infer that, had the Europeans had access to the right technology, the age of imperialism would have occurred earlier. One example is King Leopold II of Belgium, who was interested in the large amounts of rubber located in the African territory known as the Congo Free State. The king claimed the land for himself in the late 1800s and contracted private companies to extract the Congo’s resources at the lowest cost possible in order to gain immediate profit. He implemented harsh restrictions in order to reach this goal which resulted in the deaths of more than ten million Congolese people over twenty years. Leopold’s exploitation