Significance of Empires and Imperialism - Research Paper Example

? IMPERIALISM Introduction Imperialism, which is the practice by people with power to enlarge their political ity over other weaker nations and people, has been the most successful strategy of expanding territories. This was especially in the pre-colonial period where the power of nations was measured by the size of their territories. The gaining of empire does not necessarily mean colonization is formal political control involving annexation and the definite loss of independence. An empire is broader and can involve control direct or indirect, formal or informal economically or politically. Imperialism has existence since time immemorial taking different forms. In the ancient times, imperialism was in the form of one type of civilization or ethnicity having control of all then other around it. A good example is the Roman Empire. The earliest form of modern imperialism was in the form of colonial expansion overseas in the 14th to 19th century1. Countries in Europe were fighting over territories in Asia, the new world and Africa. The main aim of this form of imperialism was to be in control of trade and raw materials from its colonies thereby monopolizing the benefits from the transactions2. In the 19th century, there was a new form of imperialism which came with free trade. In this, countries would have control over others through diplomacy and economic agreement. Most formal empires came to an end after World War II. This did not last long but have been replaced by neocolonialism. This is the situation where the economic powerful countries such as the America have a lot of influence of third world countries. This article reviews the significance of empires, the motives behind empirial expansion and finally compares Alaska and Guantanamo. Significance of Empires Imperialism has had both positive and negative impact on the countries or people who were incorporated into the powerful states or nations depending on the form of imperialism. Some of the positive impacts of imperialism have been development of infrastructures such a roads, railways and communications networks3. This is because these are important for trade to take place efficiently. They also benefitted from the development of other social amenities such as schools, better sanitation and medical care. This ensured that the members of the weaker nations could now have better living standards, with reduced mortality compared to their earlier lives. However, Imperialism in the form of colonialism had several devastating impacts on the colonies. This I despite the fact that the mother countries invested in the development of these countries, their main focuses was in development of those areas related to the specific raw material that eh countries were interested in and not the others4. These developments did not therefore benefit these colonies but benefitted their master. In the end, this form of relationship ended up benefitting the mother colonies booting the development of these economies at their expense. A major significance of empires is that it results in the bringing together of people from different backgrounds. As a result, wealth from the different people and land is amassed and this creates an empire which now becomes more economically powerful5. This has been the case in American which is made up of different states. Some of these states were bough for instance Alaska was bought from Russia. Because of this union of states and use of a common currency, America is today the most economically powerful nation in the world. Other important empires whose contribution has been significance to the world today are the British Empire which introduced the parliamentary democracy to countries around the world6. The Greek empire has had a lot of legacy in the present day society in terms of academic contribution, culture and art. The Roman Empire has also contributed to the development of the contemporary society7. Other empires whose impacts are felt today are the Muslim and Christian empire which dominates two thirds of the world8. Nevertheless, the impacts of imperialism in terms of economics and social effect have been viewed to be both positive and negative. What is clear however that is some weaker nation have benefited more through the contact with the developed nations than others. Some of the countries which have been seen to have benefitted from this contact are Brazil and India among others which have considerably grown and have now reached the status of even competing economically with their former colonial masters. Post colonialism imperialism in seen in cases where Powerful countries such as the America has had a direct influence on third world countries with weaker economies. America, because o fits economic and political power greatly influence the decision of international organization such as the World Bank and International monetary funds. Most of these third world countries depend on these institutions for financial aids and grants to run their economy. America requires these nations to practice certain ideologies such as democracy in order to get fund form this organization9. Failure to adhere to these rules leads to sanctions which definitely would weaken thee economies further. In avid to avoid such sanctions, the third world countries are forced to adopt ideologies that America promotes. This has had a positive impact with the spread of democratic rule all over the globe10. With increase in transparency in governance, public fund in these countries are now used appropriately and this has prompted economic growth. Nevertheless, the third world countries have also been forced to get into trade agreements that promote free trade and globalization which may sometimes not benefit the weak economies. This is because the expose the companies of these countries to the risks associated with global competition. Because of technological backwardness and lower developed human capital, these industries may not be well adapted for this kind of competition and they end up collapsing. The foreign companies then supply to the gap created by these local company11. Open trade therefore ends up benefitting the powerful economies while the weaker one continue to grow weaker. Motives behind Imperialism There are several motives behind the development of imperialism. The motives have been broad classified into three major groups such as ideological, political and economic aspects. Economic motive is the dominant motive of imperialism. The stated are led to dominate other weaker states with a bid of expanding their economic influence. This is through having easy access to raw material for their industries, getting ready markets for their surplus products and find areas of investing the excess capital that they may have. This has well been explained in some theory such as Carl Marx theory of capitalism12. This theory links imperialism with capitalism. In this theory Marx, explains how the expansion of the America into the third world countries after the second world war as a way of getting an outlet for the country’s surplus capital. By investing in these countries American would be able to make a lot of money since they countries had unutilized raw material and the human resource was also cheap compared to America. The country would thus gain a lot of profits through paying the workers wage lower that the value of their actual contribution to the production process. They would also pay less for raw material. This process has been seen to be exploitative. For instance, American has thrived also on the use of cheap labor in China where it has based several of its industries13. This is because the low labor costs allow for increased profit margins which would not be possible if the company operated within America where it has to meet certain minima wage requirements which are relatively high compared to those in China. Prominent company such as Apple whose factories are in China attributes their success to this cheap labor among other things. In his theory, Lenin also explains economic concerns as the main cause of the European spreading out in the 19th century. Another motive behind imperialistic expansion has been in order to expand a country’s political motives. In the past, powerful nation have increased their territories so that they could gain prestige and power. A good example is the French imperialism which wanted to have control of as many territories as it was possible in a bid to restore its pride after the Franc-Prussian war. Russia also had similar motives in its expansion into the Eastern Europe after the World War two14. This is because it had lost the war and saw the expansion as a form of increasing its national security. This is because it aw this expansion as a way of guarding its western borders from invasion. The last motive behind imperialism has been to spread ideologies. For a long period of time, the European viewed their culture a being superior to the culture of other ethnic group. As a result, they resolved to spread their civilization to other people who were then viewed to have inferior culture15. This would only be successful if these countries or regions were under the control of the European nations. For instance, colonial Britain was convinced that it was her role to civilize the unsophisticated people in her colonies. Germany under Hitler rule was expanded on the basis that German saw the German nationality as being very superior while viewing the Jews as half human. Comparison of Alaska and Guantanamo America, which is currently the world most powerful nation, was formed as an empire made of different states which came together and were under a single rule with the activities between the different states being coordinated by the federal government. Each state has its own state governments which are under the supreme power of the federal government. Although each of these states has their own rule, in case of a conflict of these rules, the federal laws take supremacy16. America had been a British colony and in 1775, 13 colonies demanded for their independence for their colonial masters. In 1776, these colonies were given their independence in the declaration of independence making America the first colony to get independence. After this, the country continued to expand its territories especially in the western frontiers through treaties and those who resisted were forced to give in through military attacks. Others such as Alaska got into the union through purchase. In order to understand imperialism in America, we will compare the state of Alaska and Guantanamo Empire. Alaska was formerly a Russian territory and was purchased by the United States in 1867. Russian was afraid that that Britain would take this territory and was thus quick to sell it America. Alaska was then incorporated in the American union has today developed into Alaska state having equal opportunities as the formers states that already existed before it was purchased. In this form of imperialism, Alaska benefited in its association with other states. It gets equal representation in the senate as other states and this has promoted economic growth and other forms of advancement in this state. Nevertheless, Alaska remained as a territory, then district of Alaska and later as a state after being admitted in the union in 1952. It has also been argued that the value of Alaska became more than it had actually been purchased for. This is because after the purchase, important resource such as gold, oil and copper were discovered which contributed greatly to the economic development of America as a whole17. Guantanamo bay which is found in south eastern Cuba is large harbor surrounded by sharp hills which have secluded it from the adjacent Hinterland. This harbor was leased to America by Cuba through a treaty signed in 1903. As a result of this treaty, the America ha the de facto control of this region while Cuba retain the absolute sovereign power of this territory. Currently, the government of Cuba asserts that the presence of America on Guantanamo bay is illegal since they say that the treaty was signed with coercion18. This is where the famous Guantanamo bay detention camp is located and is controlled by U.S. The detention camp was used to detain person who were seen as a threat to American security. In the year 2010, president Barrack Obama ordered for this detention camp to be closed down but it is still operation as per today. This territory unlike the Alaska territory has not been incorporated into the American union. As such it does not benefit as the other states which are part of the union does. However, the people in this territory have been allowed to enjoy rights and immunities of the American constitution on the American people. This has been seen as a bid to incorporate the people and not the territories. Other unincorporated territories include Puerto Rico, American Samoa, United states Virgin Island among others. Conclusion From the discussions above, it has been observed that the there has been various forms of imperialism and as such the impacts have been different. The worst form of imperialism is colonization has had the most devastating effect on the weaker economies. However, in some cases, the developing economies benefitted a lot from the contention with the rich countries through imperialism. The most beneficial form of imperialism was been where the enemies of the weaker countries have been fully incorporate into the storing economies. Take for instance the French West Africa where the countries benefitted a lot from their relationship with France and even got to be represented in the France parliament19. Nevertheless, all for of imperialism have been seen to have more negative effect on the weaker economies than good. Even in the case of post colonialism, the contacts with the richer economies such a through globalization. Bibliography Frank Tenney. Roman Imperialism. New York: Macmillan, 2012 Frank Ewald. The Roman Empire & its significance in the end time. 2010 http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/bb931015.htm (accessed Dec.4 2012) Human Rights watch. Guantanamo, Ten Years On.2002. http://www.hrw.org/news/2012/01/06/guantanamo- ten-years, (Accessed Dec. 4 2012). Harrison mark & Cain Peter. Imperialism: Critical Concepts In Historical Studies, Vol. 2. New York: Taylor & Francis Group, 2001 IAP. What is Imperialism? Workers Solidarity'.  No. 76, 2003.20 Koebner Richard. Imperialism. London: Cambridge University Press, 1964. Longfellow Brenda. Roman Imperialism and Civic Patronage: Form, Meaning and Ideology in Monumental Fountain Complexes. Cambridge University Press. London 2010 Noble, Thomas. Western Civilization: Beyond Boundaries. Cengage Learning. London, 2008. Patching, L. The New Imperialism. 1976. http://chip.choate.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/HPRSS/WorldTech/backonclass/Unit8Proj ect/new_imperialism-Patching.htm (accessed Dec.4 2012) Tyrrell Ian. Empire of Denial: American Empire, Past Present and Future. “American Empire, Past Present and Future: The Uses of History”. October 2008. http://iantyrrell.wordpress.com/empire-of-denial-american-empire-past-present-and- future/ (accessed Dec 4 2012) Woolf Leonard. Economic imperialism. Michigan: The Swarthmore Press Ltd, 2007 Western Civilization II Guides. The New Imperialism: Motives and Methods. 2009. http://westerncivguides.umwblogs.org/2009/12/04/the-new-imperialism-motives-and- methods/ (accessed Dec.4 2012) Read More