Economic, Social And Political Effects Of Industrialization And Imperialism
Industrialization in Western Europe mainly altered the nature of oversees expansion in Europe. By then the Europeans had sought to move against threats and gain material goods from their external enemies. They seized lands in the Americas for plantation crops. The European Christians sought to convert as many people in order to strengthen Europe and to contest with Islam.
New motives for expansion were developed with industrialization, in order to fuel the expansion and growth of industrialization; it became important to gain more raw materials and to open up new markets for selling the manufactured products. Industrialization also leads to a change of power in the West leading to the fear of imperial n rivalries of the Europeans. With this ambition, Europeans gained the capacity to expand and occupy new territories.
The industrialization of the nineteen century spread to the United States, Europe, England and Japan making the whole industrialization process to change considerably. Industrialization in the last three decades has seen the formation of larger businesses organization such as cartels, monopolies, and corporations and the growing finance capital importance. There was the introduction of electricity and petroleum as the main sources of energy. Finally industrialization has led to the application of innovative and new technologies especially in the chemistry field as used in various industrial processes.
Imperialism had both the positive and negative effects. The positive include the building of railways, canals, and roads in the nations taken over by the powerful nations. There was also the introduction of formal education. Use of newspapers, telegraphs, proper infrastructure and means of communication and economized the nations of the world. Health services were also improved, new faming methods, new crops and machinery used in the cultivation. The negative effects included the loss of freedom, forced labor with low wages, loss of culture and religion, loss of land and forced to accept Christianity among other aspects[i].
Reference
Thompson S (2005) The Empire strikes back? the impact of imperialism on Britain from the mid-nineteenth century, Publisher Pearson Longman, p 182
[i] Thompson S (2005) The Empire strikes back? the impact of imperialism on Britain from the mid-nineteenth century, Publisher Pearson Longman, p 182
