Causes And Effects Of Imperialism

The age of imperialism brought about the colonization of smaller weaker countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East by the major powers of the world, most notably Britain and France. These colonized countries were used for the benefit, mostly economic, of the mother countries for much of the 19th and 20th centuries. As time went on problems facing the colonial powers toward the end of the 19th century sparked a rapid change of decolonization. Although the decolonization was a major victory for countries seeking independence, in many cases these the damages of colonization caused many issues. The newly independent nations faced countless challenges such as continued interference from colonial powers, neo colonialism, social issues within the state itself, and most notably economic instability.

European Governments justified their actions of imperialism through the argument that they were in reality helping these developing countries. That they were uncivilized and involvement was necessary in order for them to thrive. We see this in Africa using Rudyard Kipling’s “White Man’s Burden.” “Take up the White Man’s burden – the savage wars of peace – fill full the mouth of famine – and bid the sickness cease,” (Kipling, 1899-1902). Decolonization was more or less inevitable as there was increased tension between the native countries and the colonial powers after World War I and World War II. Some countries were able to gain independence through peaceful revolutions while others gain independence through bloodshed. Following WWII the colonial powers were faced with economic trauma which caused them to bleed their colonies dry of their resources once again leaving them in poverty and hunger. This lead to an increase in uprisings whic...

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...em into, “three distinct political regimes in the North, the Center and the South of Vietnam in order to wreck our national unity and prevent our people from being united,” (Minh, 1945).

In summary, although the colonized nations of Africa, Asia, and the Middle East gained their independence from their European rulers the effects of imperialism were lasting. The hardships these countries faced still go on today. African countries still remain some of the poorest and unstable in the world, India and Pakistan both face economic problems that are overshadowed by the nuclear crisis due to the hatred of their differences, differences that can be argued were somewhat fueled by Britain. The economic and political hardships faced by the newly independent countries, begs the argument of whether or not they had it worse when they were still being drained of their resources.