Colonization and Imperialism | The OpenBook

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The Industrial Revolution in Europe ushered in an era of machine made goods and scope for markets.
In order that the never ending demand for raw materials and also markets where these goods could be sold at cheap prices the European countries started their quest for territorial expansion.
Over a period of time this turned out to be a competition as to who could colonize and govern better.
The voyages of discovery undertaken at this time also propelled the need to occupy territory which had huge natural resources waiting to be exploited. The bonus was cheap labour also available.
This was the background with which imperialism started.
What does imperialism mean?
Imperialism is when a mother country takes over a smaller nation or colony for political, social, and/or economic reasons.
Imperialism can be broadly divided into two phases namely old imperialism and new imperialism.
Basically there was not much difference between the two but the policy of acquiring control was slightly different.
In the initial phase of imperialism the European countries found new trade routes and established factories in the places they had trade with.
Slowly on the pretext of safeguarding their factories they built fortresses and also gained power with the local leaders.
By dividing the kings amongst themselves they took over the territory for rule and soon became masters.
This policy they adopted in North and South America, Far East, Asia and Africa.
They exploited the raw materials and cheap labour available and took it for the thriving industries.
The finished goods were again sent to the colonies as they were called and sold there at exorbitant prices thus ruining the local industries.
In the age of new imperialism they established vast empires and set up administrative units for the benefit of the mother nation.
This was motivated by the economic needs of the second Industrial revolution that had taken place in Europe during this period and had created drastic changes in many industries and raw material for feeding the new demand became necessary.
What were the effects of this policy of colonial expansion?
It had both positive and negative effects.
The positive effects were new modes of transport and communication hitherto not available in the colonies now became a reality.
Good governance based on the rule of law came into existence. Setting up of judicial system also was a benefit for the colonies.
On the flipside these colonies were exploited thoroughly and caused a drain of wealth from the poorer nations.
Probably the worst effect of this was causing the first world war. #theopenbook #Education #Educationalvideos #Studyiq #learn #Cbse #icse #ssc #generalknowledge