Why Do Non-Westerners Viewed Imperialism?

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Imperialism is the dominance by one country of political, economic, or cultural life of another country's occupied areas. Imperialism was caused by many things including the industrial revolution, nationalism, exploration, and economic expansion. While Westerners viewed imperialism as economically and culturally enhancing for themselves, Non-Westerners viewed imperialism as economically and politically destructive. The Westerners had a very strong positive opinion on imperialism and thought what they were doing to other countries was enhancing their own economics and culture. The Westerners would be proud to Westernize people from different countries thinking that it made people feel better and be a better person. They also thought it would enhance their own culture, …show more content…

This is shown through the author giving examples of things that non-westerners have made in their land being broken up such as “shipbuilding, metalwork, glass, paper--and many crafts were broken up.” This evidence shows that the British were taking and splitting up everything in the non-western countries just so they could gain resources. The economic development of India was stopped and the growth of a new industry there was prevented because of the British wanting to get all of the profits from Indian trade. This shows that because they could not make a new industry and got many crafts broken up, it was very economically destructive. In “Nigerian Inaugural Address” by Azikiwe, Nnamid, “We demand the right to take over responsibility for the government of our country. We demand the right to be free to make mistakes and learn from our experience." (Azikiwe, Nnamdi) The Non-Westerners viewed imperialism as politically destructive. This is shown through the author wanting to demand taking responsibility for his own

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