British Imperialism In India example essay topic

"New" Imperialism was beneficial to the imperial powers, but harmful to the colonized peoples because it left them politically, socially, and economically distraught. These colonized peoples were the Africans, Indians, Chinese, and the Japanese. While the imperial powers in Africa prospered off of the raw materials of the land and slavery (economic values), the African natives suffered from political and economic situations. Politically, most African Empires were emerging through new military technology and religious inspiration. The African Empires were prospering through their own imperialism or domination of other civilizations in Africa.

Yet, Western powers such as Britain, France, and Portugal scrambled for Africa. One situation in particular, is when the Zulu imperialist, Shaka, was embarking on imperial expansion, Portuguese invaders caused the Zulu imperialist to relocate peoples all across southern Africa. Economically, most African Empires flourished. They had new military technology and most importantly religious inspiration. The Egyptian Imperialists were probably the most extravagant. They modernized their Egyptian army along European lines, and expanded their control into western Arabia and Sudan.

They borrowed money from European banks and continued their imperial expansion into other parts of Africa. But they soon regretted their actions because they found themselves on the verge of bankruptcy and it made them very vulnerable to European invasion. The Europeans finally took control of Egyptian finances and plunged the Egyptian Empire into to an international debt commission. The British Imperialists used their own civil servants and created a new class of Western-educated Indians to help rule their Indian Empire. But, cultural interaction between the British and Indians caused reforms to emerge in Indian culture and society.

British imperialism in India was harmful because it destroyed India's most sacred traditions. The British Imperialists made sure that they did not interfere with local customs, but as their control increased, many people in Britain began to call for major social and cultural reforms in order to bring India the "benefits" of Western civilization. The reformers began to make certain that Indian practices were illegal. Indian practices such as suttee (suh-TEE), which is the ritual burning of widows on their husbands' cremation fires was made illegal. Also, child marriages and the practice of killing unwanted children were made illegal.

These cultural reforms made Indians lose their sense of culture and identity because these traditions have been handed down through their families for thousands of years. While China was already facing economic and political challenges from the over population in their country and the neglect of the basic functions of their government, they faced outside challenges from Westerners. In the British and American attempts to convince China into trade, they found themselves unproductive because the Chinese considered the Europeans to be barbarians and had little need for their products. But the Chinese government under their own people and soon opened a strictly limited trade through the port city Guangzhou.

This caused a trade imbalance in China's favor. But that all came to a close when British and American merchants discovered a product that the Chinese would pay silver to buy in very large quantities-opium. Western merchants illegally smuggled the opium into China in exchange for silver. Over the years, opium sales had grown so much that the imbalance of trade was in the Westerner's favor. This imbalance caused major problems in China's economy to even buy the opium. The illegal smuggling also caused health problems.

Many people were dying from the over smoking of the opium. The imperial commissioner, Lin Zex u, finally found out of the illegal trade and sent a letter to Queen Victoria. But his suppression of the opium trade sparked a the Opium War between the British and the Chinese, which left the Chinese at the mercy of the imperial powers. The Chinese were then forced to accept a new trade agreement and pay a large war settlement.

The British had finally succeeded in destroying China's economy and society. The Japanese were once uninfluenced by foreigners, but that all came to an end when the United States began to negotiate then demand that the Japanese open up trade. Since the Japanese were unable to resist the threat of a naval bombardment, they signed a treaty with the United States which influenced other Western powers to demand similar recognition. These demands threw Japan in a crisis.

They insisted that in order to drive out the foreign powers they must throw away their own traditions and shogunate to gain some of the technology the foreigners possessed. This became known as the Meiji Restoration. Summing it up, the Japanese just responded to Western imperialism by adopting Western methods of government and industrialization to become a great power. In conclusion, "new" imperialism was a harmful to the Africans, Indians, Chinese, and the Japanese because they were stripped of their power and identity, and underwent enormous changes in their culture, economy, society, and politics. Now if you look at part these countries today, you can still see the effects of imperialism in the environment. There is poverty, and no modern technology in these parts.

New imperialism was definitely a force for harm because it made these people prisoners in their own land even two centuries later.