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Modern European Empires

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Modern European empires are certainly a contentious topic, now and during their growth. Philosophers and academics wrote extensively on their legitimacy; Whether Europeans had any right to partake in imperialism. There was some opposition to it, as shown in some of Vitoria and others' work. There was however, also substantial work on the justification of it, which won out, as evidenced by the historical actuality of European Empires, and our modern concepts of social hierarchy, which I will be exploring in more depth later.

In response to the Spanish in South America, but also the Dutch in Indonesia, the British in India, and all three in North America, intellectuals such as Grotius, Vitoria, and Locke proposed justifications based on evangelisation, …show more content…

This renewed and further enforced the belief in English cultural superiority over the Irish. It is this idea that increasingly became central in justification of Empire. Catholics, half-castes, and Hindus came to be seen as irremediably degenerate: their religions as a corruption to both political structures and morality. Ideas of 'civilising missions' and ethnic supremacism were widespread in nineteenth-century Britain, and Empire came to mean the protection and glorification of the Crown, church, and culture. Lord Palmerston, twice British Prime Minister (1855 – 1858 and 1859-1865), and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (1830 – 1834, 1835- 1841, and 1846 – 1851), among other positions, claimed that “Britain stood at the head of moral, social, and political civilization. Our task is to lead the way and direct the march of other nations”7. Thus the emergence of Rudyard Kipling's 'white man's …show more content…

In taking possession by occupying and cultivating land, the English had the right to possession where the indigenous never had. This argument would come to be the most important justification for colonialism by the British, even over evangelisation and trusteeship. Again, highlighting my point that the use of rights in the justification of empire had far more to do with assuaging guilt in some philosophical terms in order to continue the plunder and conquest than actually creating legitimate humanitarian

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For example, why would a female Native want to own a hunting knife if her job was to harvest the corn fields? The Natives also worked as a community, willingly giving away objects and tools that no longer served a purpose to them to others that needed them. The lack of desire for ownership confused the English colonists greatly, but also allowed them to easily take advantage of the Native Americans since they were not aware of the land they were sitting on. The only way that an English colonist could own land was if it was given to him by the Crown or if it was purchased from the Natives, which led to colonists making ridiculously unfair deals with Native Americans for monumental amounts of land. For example, one

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427 Words | 2 Pages

How could these documents be used to explain a driving force behind European imperialism in Africa? These document could be used to explain through a few of different things like technological advancements, African colonies and raw materials they had, and economic factors. These are three reasons to help explain the driving force behind European imperialism and also could answer questions that go along with the main question like why the Europeans imperialized Africa. Why did it have to be Africa at all? These are all questions and ways to explain the main question.

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137 Words | 1 Pages

Gunpowder empire are very similar and complex in the same way. They grew empires and provided empires with deadly weapons at the same time. I personally think that gunpowder helped grow empires because they were able to defeat many empires at a faster rate since battles didn't last all day. The Russians expanded their territory because they had gunpowder. Portugal was able to defend their ships better because they had cannons.

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After the Roman Empire had fallen, the region had split into two areas: the West just being Western Europe, and the East officially becoming the Byzantine Empire. Although Western Europe and Byzantine were similar in the way the populations of both regions had retained the similar daily lifestyles and material culture of the fallen Roman Empire, they had developed drastic contrasts over time; they differed in how each of their regions were politically organized, and each had their own dominant belief system. Even after the split of Rome, the regions were similar in the way that both of their populations had become so accustomed to the previous empire’s lifestyle and material culture, that it had not faded as time gradually passed into the Middle Ages. Farming continued to be a stable source of food for both Western Europe and Byzantine, the area and condition being able to supply beans during the spring, and wheat during the fall season. The preference of agriculture comes from the Byzantine Empire being wealthy

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514 Words | 3 Pages

Imperialism is a term used to define a country extending its power through military or diplomacy over another country. The term, in the nineteenth century, included various actions, such as economic exploitation and cultural imperialism. This could include anything involving two groups with one having some degree of control over the other for their own gain. The cause of this change in world relations in the nineteenth century cannot be traced back to one reason. Possible contributing factors comprise of nationalism, social darwinism, and the hope for economic power.

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The Americans believed that it was their right that was given to them by God to colonize the land with their people. They were trying to create a new country to live on to escape British rule. At this time, they believed that the land was available for them to

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3407 Words | 14 Pages

Portraying white men as the building blocks of society who will modernize the world, Kipling ignores the many benefits the European countries gain from imperialism, as well as the suffering, erasure of culture, and gentrification of native peoples, such as what occurred in Apartheid. Additionally, referring to “best ye breed”, Kipling’s diction implies his perspective, in calling out white men as the “best” of mankind. Contrastingly, Kipling refers to the colonized people as “half devil and half child”, his diction revealing his perspective on non-white people. With “devil” and “child” connoting evil and immature or ignorant, Kipling alienates non-white people with inhuman characteristics. In referring to colonization as a“burden”, Kipling hints that non-white people are undeserving of humanity, which serves as a common viewpoint in the early 1900s, and a building principle of Apartheid.

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It proves that people want to start their own cultural beliefs, take away from Africa, and have their power. As a result, they played a significant role in European imperialism in Africa. Document F Kipling says, "Send forth the best ye breed. " Kipling is

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Perspectives To imperialize is to take control of a culture or a group of colonies and teach them the value of another culture. Historically, Imperialism began in Europe because of Social Darwinism, the desire for humanity to make the best possible traits. Therefore, Europe began the idea that it was their duty to influence other colonies and help civilize them. However, imperialist took control of the power they gained and it later became a controversial topic. Imperialist gained power and control economically, politically and socially over the colonies while the colonized people lost cultural values and wealth.

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Rudyard Kipling was an English poet who wrote poem named “The White Man’s Burden” in 1899. The poem talks about the burden of the white man which is “To serve your captives’ need; To wait, in heavy harness,”(Document 6). Many saw imperialism as a way to bring a sense of civilization and democracy to people who lacked the ability to cultivate it themselves. The burden is to sacrifice their time to serve and guide those who are inferior. This is a very racist way of thinking since people the way of thinking perceives minorities as unable to be civilized and inferior to Caucasian people.

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History of American West changed forever when James Marshall found gold at Coloma on the American River in California on January 24th, 1848. It started Westward expansion. People from all over the world start coming to the west. Mexico was still dominating the western area. Mexican- American war ended their reign and they forced to surrender.

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896 Words | 4 Pages

Shakespeare’s Richard the Third would probably not be considered his greatest of works; it is preformed with much less frequency then some of his better-known pieces such as A Midsummer Nights Dream or Much Ado About Nothing. What do these works have that Richard doesn’t? Richard is just as well written; its monologues have proven excellent choices for actors for many years. There is no denying that Richard is a bloodthirsty man driven towards the only thing that he seems to truly want; power. Not simply any kind of power though, Richard the duke of Gloucester and brother of the king has his heart set on the throne of England, what Richard doesn’t seem to realize however is that he is already quite powerful at manipulation of others, as one can see throughout his journey to the throne.

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516 Words | 3 Pages

The Empires Throughout history, there has been a wide discovery amongst the early age empires. Most discoveries found before our common era has made such a huge impact on the technology and tools we have today. Though we have improved on most innovations, our ancestors still established our cultivations. There were many decades where people developed their lands, but the main western empires were the Persian, Greek, Roman, and the Han Dynasty. Each territory had their own inventions, but most of them were very similar.

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The White Man’s Burden: As Kipling sardonically claimed, it was the self avowed burden of the White man to civilize the brown and the black races. The average British officer and administrator lived by the theory of Social Darwinism. Indians were little better than wild beasts and the only way to rule them was to abandon the paternal methods of the company and rule them henceforward with a rod of iron. (Chand, 479) With this mission in mind, the British gave many gifts of western civilization to India.

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787 Words | 4 Pages

Rudyard Kipling’s “The Man Who Would Be King” is a story involving imperialism. Kipling tells of the adventures of two men who go from British India to Kafiristan with the goal of becoming Kings of the area. Throughout the story, Kipling shows his feelings for the British Empire. Besides the positive benefits the Empire can bring to the opposing country, Kipling is unsatisfied with the British Empire in its entirety.

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