Short And Long Term Effects Of Imperialism

1220 Words5 Pages

Imperialism is so profoundly intertwined with our world’s history that we are still feeling its effects today. It has ravaged races of people and yet lifted the powerful and wealthy. Imperialism is officially defined as the committed effort to incorporate a territory or country into the political, monetary, or cultural system of another power. Power is a word that commonly appears in the discussion of imperialism. This is not without cause because both of these definitions are greatly intertwined. Imperialism, at its most basic meaning, is about having power over other people. Imperialists have everything to gain from taking advantage of native people and their homeland. Usually, it came in the form of the slave trade and natural resources …show more content…

There started to be a shift in perspective on how foreign people identified themselves in imperialistic countries such as Britain. This was a hidden yet influential power that imperialism had over citizens and immigrants alike. It showed that imperialism can connect to the very root of who people believe they are and that in and of itself is very powerful. Imperialism has reached its way into many aspects of life, one such instance being the writings of prominent thinkers. Multiple 19th-century scholars provided a rudimentary understanding of the basic features of imperialism and what they perceived the definition to be. Their explanations also give us a broader perspective of how imperialism affected their everyday lives, as well as how it affects …show more content…

Lenin calls this group of world powers a “super-monopoly” and criticizes large corporations as they take advantage of the market of their home country and abroad. He provides clarification through an example using the competition between German and American electrical industries. He describes the agreement to a truce and the division of the world that each company received control over. Lenin also highlights the unfair nature of such deals by saying “Special agreements, naturally secret, laid down the rules for the branch companies exploiting new branches of production or new countries not yet allotted. The two trusts were to exchange their discoveries and their experiences.” This demonstrates that imperialism did not only control land and people, but entire economies and