Imperialism

Ross Kaplowitz 4/8/10 MMW A Block 1 Imperialism Essay The positive effects of imperialism outweigh the negative effects. I both disagree and agree with this statement, but the facts pull me towards disagreeing. Though imperialism greatly benefited the colonizer and brought some economic growth to the colony, the colony was more negatively affected because of how much more land and people there was to be affected. Overall, the three most severe effects on colonies were crop and trade limitation, radical political alteration, and racism. The colonizer would often limit which crops their territory could and could not plant. This negatively impacted the area’s food supply because they were usually only allowed to plant cash crops and then were forced to trade them directly to the mother country. For example, in India, Britain only permitted them to plant indigo, tea, cotton, coffee, and opium. India was only allowed to trade with Britain and was often ripped off. Though Britain thrived from this, India was much larger and suffered greatly. When a country would claim a territory, there was a radical alteration in the political system for the colony. This disrupts the natives and often confuses them. Also, in the case of Africa, it forced them to unite with their enemies. In Africa, a mother country would claim a huge area, consisting of many different tribes that are enemies, and force them to learn one language and work with each other. This greatly upset the African people. A big issue with imperialism is that the mother country felt superior to its colony and would treat the natives cruelly. They were forced into the lower class by the mother country underpaying and forcing them to be laborers. For instance, in India the natives were made into servants and paid very little. Over time, the British became racist and used beef and pork fat as grease for bullets. This went against the religion of a lot of Indians. Though many people in the mother countries benefited from imperialism economically, all of the colonies suffered greatly because of crop and trade limitation, radical political change, and racism. The colonies had more people to suffer. Overall, imperialism was negative.