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Causes that lead Western European Countries to Imperialism

Topic: The causes that lead Western European countries to favour Imperialism asa foreign policy and the effects this had on Sub-Saharan Africa and/or Asian countries Nationalist movements. (pick either a region or regions as well as a country or countries).

NATIONALIST MOVEMENTS AGAINST WESTERN IMPERIALISM

Imperialism is the policy of a state defending to take economic and political control of an area for the access to hard resources and market advantage. (imperialism, globalisation, no date, p.1) Beside the economic point of view, the process of imperialism can not be defined without the cultural concepts such as imposing a religion, traditions or a language of a nation. With these two main perspectives, Europe always had the policy to exploit the underdeveloped regions of theworld. In contrast to European desires, the imperialistic policies was refusedby the nationalist movements of the public of exploited regions. The imperialistic policies of West to gain economic benefits and cultural expansion resulted with nationalistic counter policies created by the elite that were supported by the public of exploited regions in terms of liberation struggles and rebellions.

Western European countries favored imperialism as a foreign policy to reach theraw materials of underdeveloped regions and increase their market. By the indust

rial revolution, the production in Europe had accelerated immensely resulting with increasing importance and necessity of raw materials. Due to limited sourcesin Europe, contrary to the variety in Central Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, European countries favored imperialism. Moreover, not only the necessity of sources,but also the need of market because of the increased production led them to perform imperialism. In this sense, South Africa is a good example to emphasize thecauses of imperialism. In the 18th century, there was no colonial settlement inSouth Africa but after the discovery of diamonds, the situation was replaced with British settlement aiming to use those mine resources.(South Africa: History,1995, p.1)

In addition to the economic causes of imperialism, the desire of cultural expansion in terms of language, tradition and religion was another cause of European

imperialism. The reason for Europeans to have the desire to impose their culturewas the idea of being superior than the other civilizations. Moreover they accept neither any African civilization nor Africans as humans. Therefore the Euro centric idea based on creating an African civilization which did not exist forcedthem to use their language and be accustomed to their traditions and religion.For instance Cecile Rhodes was advocating British superiority and claiming thatBritish invasion was essential for a better civilized world. (Zartman W., 2000,p. 92)

Somehow, imperialistic policies crash with counter policies of the exploited regions that imperialism is not an easy continued process. The elite of exploitedareas created nationalism to prevent the imperialistic countries' policies whichis known as the "elite manipulation". Elite, being aware of economic damage of

imperialism on their own prosperity, tried to protest imperialism by nationalistpolicies. In fact these policies aimed to recover the economic prosperity of the country. However they seemed to be quite nationalist with the goal of gainingpublic's self determination. There appeared some institutions advocating these policies. One of these institutions was established in 1885 in India named "HinduIndian National Congress" aiming the self determination of the public.(The Beginnings of Indian Nationalism, no date, p.1) That was showing the significance ofthe policies of the elite through the process of self determination.

By the ideology of these institutions, the public accepted policies of the elit

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ation"a- Policies of the elite aiming to recover the economic prosperity of the exploited regionsb- Goal of gaining public's self determinationc- Appearance of some institutions advocating the policies- "Hindu Indian National Congress", established in 18855-) Public's acceptance the policies of the elite and beginning their own self-determination struggle in terms of nationalist and cultural rebellions.- "Bailundo" example about the protest against the European tax collectorsand traders.6-) Conclusion of the whole essay by re-stating the ideas that have been mentioned

Category : History

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