Introduction
New imperialism has drawn a lot of debate due to the controversies involved concerning its definition, origin, the reasons for its occurrence, and the impacts it caused. It can be defined as the colonial policies adopted by Europe, Japan, and the United States towards the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century.
The powerful and industrialized countries wanted control over other countries economic, social, religious, and even political purposes. The United States, for example, is believed to have adopted new imperialism mainly to reach economic benefits, for instance, to attain cheap raw materials, cheap labor, and markets from the countries it controlled to boost its economic status.
Nationalism was a major factor that led to imperialism as the powerful countries sought to provide national security to their territories. Religion also played a great role in bringing about the aspect of new imperialism as missionaries converted people of foreign countries by convincing them to change to their ways showing them of their benefits.
It is by visiting these nations that great potentials were realized, for example, raw materials and agricultural production. The military and navy growth and development also had great contribution to the imperialism spirit in the colonial powers and this led to great political power and control of strategic areas. Industrial revolution was another factor that accelerated imperialism as a need for competition for good markets and natural resources came about (Harvey 26)
Causes of New imperialism
The general causes of New imperialism were search for cheap and productive land, search for goods with high demand in mass consumption markets, search for raw materials needed for the process of industrialization, need for new and extensive markets for their products that are too much as a result of industrialization, search for affordable but experienced labor, expansion of territories among others.
Effects of New Imperialism
New imperialism had both positive and negative effects to the colonized nations in Africa, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe among other nations. As a result of new imperialism, there were new social views and debates about colonialism as it is associated with negative aspects like financial depletion and moral decay by interfering with traditional institutions and ways of thinking replacing them with western ways of life hence erosion of cultural values.
New imperialism enhanced the process of industrialization and promoted the creation of nation-states and nationalism. To the colonies, it led to the emergence of markets in mother countries as they exported their goods to them. It also led to domination of politics hence political submissiveness of the colonies, ethnic rivalries, and racism in the developing countries; for example, parts of Africa, India, and Asia.
New imperialism also led to the emergence of diplomatic crises among European nations as there were differences in the perception of the process of imperialism; some seeing it as a way of exploiting the poor countries for their own benefits and others seeing it as a process that brings about mutual benefits to both the colonizers and the colonies. Industrialization and technology enhanced imperialism in Europe, such as, development and revolution of firearms and quick spread of the European politics and economic policies worldwide.
It also made acquisition of colonies more efficient and transportation costs were cut down tremendously. In general, the impacts of imperialism have been received differently by different nations; some have attained economic benefits from coming into contact with the rich colonizers while others like Africa have faced the problem of fighting with ethnic, racial, and tribal rivalries among its communities.
New Imperialism in Africa: Rwanda
New imperialism was experienced in many parts of the world, Africa being one of them. There were both positive and negative effects of new imperialism in African countries.
The Rwandan genocide is one of the notable incidences of new imperialism in Africa due to the effects associated with it although not much of the happenings are understandable. In 1994, Rwandan population was made up of three ethnic group namely the Hutus who were the majority, the Tutsi who were relatively few and the Twa who were insignificant due to their number, the two groups of concern were the Hutus and the Tutsi and enmity existed between them as the Hutus blamed the Tusti for the pressures in the country.
It was on the sixth day of April that the ordeal commenced when a plane carrying the Rwandan president was shot down and chaos and violence started. Since the president was a Hutu, the Hutus were against the Tutsi as they associated them with the shooting.
The Tusti were killed wherever they were found and roadblocks set up to prevent them from escaping. Many Hutus were also murdered. Women were also raped during this time and the war ended when Tusti took over the Rwandan Patriotic Front group and President Paul Kagame took leadership. Imperialism comes in as the powerful states and policy makers were aware of the whole process of planning the massacre but did nothing to prevent it and control it even when the killings were too much.
Just like other genocide incidences the international community like the United Nations and the United States were expected to intervene in the Rwandan genocide to prevent the effects caused but they came in too late and did not offer full support causing some basis of suspicion of having perpetrated the genocide.
The United States tried to give justification for not intervening; one reason being that they were not aware of the genocide and even after the realization there was no need of peace keeping in a country experiencing civil war (Barnett 1).
New Imperialism in Asia: Indochina
French was responsible for the colonization of Asia and many effects emerged during and after colonization. French had lost its empire to Britain and therefore felt the need to compete to gain back its powers.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, French imperialism urge was felt with the main aim being to fulfill its nationalistic need to compete with Britain considering its competitive advantage of its strong culture that could be used to civilize other nations by forcing them to adopt the French culture. French used religious and commercial aspects in Indochina to counter the powers of Britain but it was not very successful.
There were conflicts among religions and at some point French united with the British against China and Vietnam. France had created an empire in Indochina by the beginning of the twentieth century and maintained the administrative structures and rulers used before and during the colonial periods to rule the region. Some of the existing institutions were maintained but had no freedom in decision making.
This brought about poor living standards of the natives and a very wide gap between the rich and the poor and erosion of culture and social systems. The reasons for new imperialism in Indochina was that French wanted to be at the same level with the UK, to spread its culture to large areas, to protect the religious missions and Catholicism in the area, enhance its trade and control trade in Indochina. There were several rebellions and great levels of nationalism due to new imperialism (Atkinson 307).
New Imperialism in Latin America
The United States economical, political and intellectual expansion was planned and executed in Latin America. The United States controlled almost everything in Latin America by dominating most political and economic aspects.
It is in Latin and Central America that the United States established testing grounds for war and strengthened its stand hence its strength during the cold war. There was racism in Latin America as a result of new imperialism and there was the problem of social Darwinism, which was used to spread and develop the imperialists’ spirit of domination and expansion. Some races were considered stronger and fit for survival.
Even as most countries attained independence, there was a close integration with Europe, for instance, on matters of trade, political, and socialization. Industrial capitalism and social changes were experienced in Latin America. There was slavery, which put the people into many dangers associated with poverty (Graham, Helg & Knight 2).
New Imperialism in the Middle East and Eastern Europe
The Ottoman Empire was the political power in the Middle East until the beginning of the twentieth century when it faced pressures from Europe and its powers became shaky. Due to influences of the West, the empire became weaker and had less influence in the Mediterranean. There were commercial ties between the Ottoman Empire and European countries to enhance trade and make access to raw materials and new markets easy.
This affected the local industry negatively due to high costs and strict price regulations and made it difficult for Ottoman Empire to compete with European countries and this led to dependence on the European economies for survival. The Ottoman Empire became inadequate and its economy was taken over by foreign capitalists as they took advantage of the situation and colonized its territories after its collapse. Great concern was the oil fields and the strategic locations of the Suez Canal and Palestine.
German took control over Eastern Europe through its imperialist activities (Berboroglu 7). There was Prussian influence on the Russian leadership on the basis of autocratic elements on anti polish interest and coldness demonstrated by Prussian diplomacy on the conflicts of the East. German imperialism excelled in Eastern Europe as a result of the mixed spiritual ancestry. Religion was used as an element of civilization in Eastern Europe (Namier 57).
The new imperialism aspect was shaped by theories of economic development, free market ideology, internationalism, expansion of the Bretton Woods’s institutions as well as strategic interests of the leading actors in the Cold War. Most imperialist powers performed their imperialism activities with different aims among them attaining economic development. Economic development implies a lot of aspects that ensures that the economy of a country is stable and it can satisfy its citizens and if possible offer support to other countries.
Many countries felt the urge of developing their economic status and this was thought in different ways for example industrialization. Industrialization leads to economic development as a country is able to produce massive products and services at a relatively low cost hence increasing the profit margin. The aspect of industrialization brought about the need for raw materials that could be acquired at low cost.
The powerful countries thought of their territories and the potential they had as sources of cheap raw materials that could be used in the industries. Labor was also an area of concern and the imperialists needed quality labor at an affordable cost. The only place to get this was from their former colonies.
To boost their economic status through industrialization the colonists had to take back their control over the colonies so as to create a favorable environment for integration sometimes using false ideologies to win their trust. The former colonies found themselves entering into contracts with their colonists with an intention of having mutual benefits but unfortunately the colonist benefited from the relationships at the cost of the colonies that were left in poor state as a result of exploitation.
Free market ideology came about as the imperialists needed markets for their products and services especially as a result of industrialization. The former colonies were good sources of markets. Some of the developing countries also had some advantages as they would export their products to their mother countries hence getting markets of their products, which were used as raw materials in the imperialist countries.
The aspect of free market aims at enhancing trade by reduction of restriction like taxes on movement of commodities or services from one country to another, which reduces the production cost and increases profit levels. Internationalism was another factor that contributed to new imperialism. Most powers wanted to be international or global in all aspects. They wanted to be known for their excellence in doing things.
One way of achieving this was through expansion of their territories, which was done by taking control over the colonies and exerting their powers by participating in the policy making of the native countries. The development and expansion of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund were meant to enhance economic development and help restructure the economy that was affected negatively by the Second World War.
The leading actors of the cold war, the United States of America and the Soviet Union, perpetrated new imperialism as both viewed the other as the one on the wrong and wanted to compete for powers which could be seen by the extent to which they executed new imperialism.
The colonies that were affected by new imperialism reacted differently to the effects caused. Some were completely helpless and were rescued by other colonists while other joined forces and were able to rise and rejuvenate their status though after long periods of time.
Conclusion
Just as any other aspect, new imperialism has both positive and negative impacts to the countries involved. However, the negative effects of new imperialism are more evident and they surpass the positive effects. There were many deaths and collapse of economies that took up a lot of resources to reconstruct and some have never been able to go back to where they were.
Works Cited
Atkinson, John. Imperialism a Study. New Jersey: Read Books, 2009.
Barnett, Michael. Eyewitness to Genocide: The United Nations and Rwanda. New York: Cornell University Press, 2003.
Berboroglu, Berch. Turmoil in the Middle East: Imperialism, War and Political Instability. New York: State University of New York Press, 1999.
Graham Richard, Helg Aline., & Knight Alan. The Idea of Race in Latin America, 1870-1940. Texas: University of Texas Press, 1990.
Harvey, David. The New Imperialism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
Namier, Lewis. Germany and Eastern Europe. New York: BiblioBazaar, LLC, 2009.