Preview

Global History Research Paper

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1314 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Global History Research Paper
How did Western ideology of imperialism affect the response of Eastern and other nations to growing Western dominance?

Throughout the nineteenth century, European imperialism spread through a large section of Asia, Africa and the Pacific. European dominance in this time can be evidenced in examination of events such as the British power over China during the Opium War, the French takeover of Egypt and British conquest of India. Fuelled by great advances in European weaponry and industrial productivity, colonial expansion was seen as being crucial in this continued industrial advancement of Europe as well as a moral obligation of “the duty to civilize the inferior races” . The Eastern nations affected by this colonial occupation and spread of imperialism had mixed approaches to the Western culture they were faced with; in particular the approach to the learning of Western ways of science and mathematics in Asian and Eastern countries was controversial and an understanding of these attitudes is reflective of the overall response to the growth of Western dominance in the Eastern world.

Jules Ferry, French Prime Minister, gives an account in his 1884 speech of the value of colonialism and the justification of the ideology of imperialism based on political and economic necessity. He argues that colonial expansion is necessary, for the “crying need, or our industrial population” as there is a need for outlets for exports and that competition in this field is no long just limited to the European states. He describes the situation as “today as you know, competition, the law of supply and demand, freedom of trade… all radiate in a circle that reaches to the ends of the earth” and therefore there is a great economic difficulty in supplied and maintain these connections without a solid colonial and imperialistic stance.
Ferry also highlights the value of imperialism in that it is civilizing inferior races and advocates for open vocalisation of the higher races

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Nineteenth century imperialists wanted the Western nations to culturally, politically and economically dominate the non-Western world, especially in the regions of Asia and Africa. Britain and France were especially active in asserting their imperialistic dominance in these regions.…

    • 467 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    One point to take into consideration when it comes to a negative outlook of imperialism is the fact that the states need from one another. He argues in numerous occasions that neighboring states are being protectionist and forming trade barriers, which in the long run affects them. This is very much one sided because these neighboring states are able to dip into their market, but are not allowing them any form of help themselves. Ferry goes on to describe how when Spanish soldiers and explorers brought upon slavery into Central America that they did not fulfill their duty as the higher race. He continues by saying that the European nation will basically not incorporate the same aspect of that of the Spanish. The higher man has a duty to the lower man. He believes that the more fortunate individuals have the responsibility or obligation to help those who are less fortunate. He also goes on to say that they needed Tunisia, Saigon, Vietnam and Madagascar places of supply, shelters, ports for defense and provisioning. And as gratitude he goes on to say that they will not leave them due to the fact that they need from one…

    • 540 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    This letter, a case of conflicting promises is better understood as described by Edward Said. He describes “Orientalism” as the way European’s viewed the inhabitants of the Orient as inferior politically, economically and culturally.…

    • 979 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ferguson presents the argument that the Western superiority and the fortuitous weakness of the West’s rivals led to the conquest and colonization of the rest of the world. He makes comparisons between “Oriental civilizations” and the West, showing contrasts between the two. He mentions that the West’s accomplishments led to the Western civilization becoming a template for the way the rest of the world aspired to organize itself – stating that it’s becoming a kind of universal standard.…

    • 337 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    [16] K. M. Panikarr, Asia And Western Dominance (Great Britain: George Allen & Unwin Ltd, 1959), 104.…

    • 2702 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The British Empire at the turn of the 19th Century was a diverse array of culture that many English subjects, both abroad and home in the metropole, consumed. Through such ways as culture and religion, the British were able to grow and maintain the empire by using popular culture to reinforce the idea that the “Western” individual was superior to anyone from the Orient. While many modern historians write about the atrocities the British made on the peoples of the empire, the British were able to successfully hold the empire together through times of adversity by traveling to places, like India and Africa, and make them feel as if these people were contributing to the empire and its citizens.…

    • 1084 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Imperialism experienced its peak development by the late 19th century with numerous European nations leading in the movement. Referred to as “the creation and maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural and territorial relationship, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination”(Johnston, 2000, p.375)1, European states such as Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Russia engaged themselves in excessive aggression to influence and control weaker nations, especially those in Asia and Africa. These imperialistic activities were largely “shaped by expansionist and capitalist systems” (Johnston, 2000, p.375)2 and were featured by spread of rulers’ sovereignty outside their own countries; annexation of foreign territories, exploitation of economic benefits in foreign lands; military occupation and cultural manipulation. There was “tremendous inequality” (Galtung, 1971, p.81)3– nations succumbed to the threat of imperialism were exploited, suppressed and marginalized.…

    • 1478 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    One undeniable characteristic of colonialism in Asia between the 1800s and mid-1900s was the immense control it had over the economies and politics in Asia. Trade and production were tailored to serve colonial needs, and opposition to colonial rule was suppressed easily. In this context, claiming that colonialism was inevitable seems valid as Asian countries could neither resist colonial expansion, nor throw off the colonial yoke. However, when one considers the wider history of Asia, this claim falls apart. This is because there were time periods where colonialism was unachievable, notably during the seventeenth century when Asian empires were at their peak. This essay will argue that Asia was only “doomed to be colonised” between the 1800s and 1940. I will briefly explain what conditions in Europe and Asia allowed colonisation to be inevitable or impossible over the years.…

    • 1564 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    If we think about what is the West, what answers do we get? The West is the sunset, all that were born in the East is died in the West, the West is the darkness and the East is the light. And the paradox is that despite of all for historical reasons humanity used to think in terms of the West, takes cue from the West. What are the causes of Western predominance, what allows the West to dictate one’s terms to the rest of the world?…

    • 300 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Orientalism

    • 1063 Words
    • 5 Pages

    “Unlike the Americans, the French and British—less so the Germans, Russians, Spanish, Portugese, Italians, and Swiss—have had a long tradition of what I shall be calling Orientalism, a way of coming to terms with the Orient that is based on the Orient’s special place in European Western Experience. The Orient is not only adjacent to Europe; it is also the place of Europe’s greatest and richest and oldest colonies, the source of its civilizations and languages, its cultural contestant, and one of its deepest and most recurring images of the Other” (Said, 1)…

    • 1063 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Subaltern Studies

    • 2789 Words
    • 12 Pages

    The ground breaking text Orientalism written by Edward Said widened the arena for the post-colonial thinkers to consider the text with a new mechanism in Third World context. Orientalism has developed a purported approach of binary opposition to dismantling the East/West dualism in relation to Eurocentric edifice. The focal point of Said’s study is the ‘West’ and its observation of the ‘East’. The former having all positive traits: white, brave, dynamic, civilized, cultured, educated, rich of the ‘Empire’ identifies the ‘Eastern countries’ as the ‘Other’ with all the negative attributes: black, coward, static, barbaric, natural, uneducated poor people of the ‘Colony’-subjected to their contempt. The post –colonial intellectuals challenge the Eurocentric view by drawing the attention towards the ‘people’ of the ‘decolonized nation’ in which the ‘Other’ belonging to the elite or bourgeoisie sections of the society emerges as the neo-colonizers to exploit its other (the subaltern or other’s other) who are inferior to them in terms of caste, class, office and gender.…

    • 2789 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rudyard Kipling

    • 9894 Words
    • 40 Pages

    10.^ Said, Edward. 1993. Culture and Imperialism. London: Chatto & Windus. Page 196. ISBN 0-679-75054-1.…

    • 9894 Words
    • 40 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Orientalism as an academic discipline is oftentimes given a place of primacy in colonial discourse. Colonial politicians invoked it as a justification for colonial conquests. Administrative officers looked to it to accommodate their governance to the natives’ traditions and laws. Orientalism had been unavoidably political. And yet, this characterization had little explanatory power: it punctuates the orientalism’s histories and chooses to highlight its function for the age of western imperialism. It should not be the case. Orientalism did not exist for imperial agendas. Social, cultural, artistic, economic, technological, and intellectual studies of the East emerged first; colonial statesmen and diplomats modified it for political use afterwards. The purpose of orientalist scholarship was about intellectual curiosity to understand peoples and their cultures perceived as different, however inaccurately and prejudicially.…

    • 1776 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Rise Of Post Colonialism

    • 1840 Words
    • 8 Pages

    No one will fail to grasp the importance of the post-colonialism as a literary movement if they come to an understanding about Colonialism at first. Marshal has expanded the definition of "Colonialism" in the Dictionary of Sociology. It is important to clarify what is meant by "Colonialism”, firstly: it can be defined as "The establishment of by more developing countries with the explicit political authorization of Asian, African, Australian, and Latin American Society. It should be regarded as analytically distinct from the domains of influence, indirect effects of constraints, semi-colonialism, and neo-colonialism. As the 15th Century dawned, Colonialism was actively considered as [Sic.] by Spain, Portugal, Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, and finally The United States of America, and it had been extended to all parts of Asia, and Africa by the close of the nineteenth century. Colonialism rose back towards its 19th-century peak. The Imperial Power started to have an exhaustive experience of being plugged into chaos and downfall came with the World War I and the World War II, and authority over their dependent territory was overplayed. They were unable to account for their settlement in the colonized countries because their tarnished reputation rested on a mad scramble for Africa. Consequently, around the 1950s, the Colonized began to make their voice heard, while the Colonialism was…

    • 1840 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Imperialism too does not lend itself to a complete conclusive definition, though it is more easily comprehensible than the word culture. For a meaningful discussion, Solomon Modell’s definition of imperialism makes a good promise. He says,…

    • 1123 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays