Imperialism: Power Over Peoples - Essay Example

? Power over Peoples Introduction Imperialism refers to inequality of humanity and territorial relationship in the aspect of empire with regard to dominance or superiority. It involves extending control and power of the state or a person above another, as did the Europeans for many centuries in the past. Imperialism and technology usually co-ordinate in that technology assists imperialism as it gives imperialists more advantage over inferior others, naturally. On its part, imperialism assists the advancement in technology in that there are responses that arise from that force the affected to find better means of survival. Western Imperialism or ‘the expansion of Europe’ manifested itself in two phases: the Old Empires of the 16th century, and the New Imperialism of the mid 19th centuries. Technology counts as one of the major contributing factors to the success of the western imperialism mostly in the New Imperialism as it advantaged the Europeans and their associates, making them succeeded in controlling many states of the globe. They could travel over long seas in steamships and boats, travel and transport widely by use of railways, conquer more states because they had better armor, and lastly their development in medicine saw them withstand such in the different cultures they embarked on. Technology here refers to the extensive ability that humans can acquire from the use of environmental energy and materials in doing what the body cannot do on its own. When technology changes for the better, or advances, it is referred to as superior technology, superior in that it gives one powers more than nature, such as using a machine to travel farther, and faster. Technology favored the Western Imperialism as they had two main sources of innovation that is culture and the competitive nature of the West. Culture enabled them to rule over nature through scientific experiments and research. The competitiveness of the western states made each state to strive for gain of advantage over the other in a bid to control more of the outside world than other states. Historians have long tried to define some occurrence in the Western Imperialism without much success. The myth in it is that the New Imperialism spread so fast in less time, and was more successful than the Old Imperialism. Did the use of fast growing technology facilitate the success of the New Imperialism in a shorter time than did the Old Empires? In addition, did the impact of imperialism force the affected to react by innovating means of survival? From Chapter 1: Discovery and conquering of the Seas Headrick (2010) explains the mastering of the Pacific, Indian, and Atlantic oceans, revealing that the move was not for exploration. Rather, it was due to the quest of religious, commercial, and military dominance over other cultures. He uses Portugal to elaborate the onset of nautical innovations that saw it rise to form an empire of the Indian Ocean. At first, it was so unlikely for Portugal to raise to such heights, owing to its approximate population of a million people, most of who were fishermen and farmers, and its lack of resources that made it a poor state. In addition, it appeared unstable because of its ever-in-war status with North African Muslims and the Castile (Headrick, 2010). However, they defied these odds and went on to acquire their empire status, a first in Europe, powered by some factors such as the urge of Christians to fight Muslims even after leaving Portugal that made them find means of pursuing them. Then there was the craving for gold and spices, both of which led to them inventing navigation and ships. To add to their success was Henry the Navigator, son of King John I, an explorer and soldier who trained people in map-making and navigation. He is responsible for the success of the Portuguese in sailing to the African West Coast to defeat the Muslims, spread Christianity, and establish new trade routes (Headrick, 2010). The English and Dutch later joined in exploring the Asian coasts and offered stiff competition to the Portuguese in that they had cheaper, faster, and more powerful sailing ships. In addition, they had joint-stock companies. In 1502, Portuguese sailor Vasco Da Gama went on the second exploration to India to take spices and triumph over more territories. His aim was to eliminate Arab in the Indian Ocean. On this second expedition, he was able to conquer Sofala and Kilwa, convert many to Christianity, and bring along with him monks to preach. From Chapter 2: The Ottoman challenge To conquer and dominate the seas, it required a power to have not only mastery of the environment but also strong fleets, means of communication, armory such as firearms or cannons, and capacity to move on land. Both Portuguese and Ottomans were fierce gunpowder empires, using military to rule and conquer, however differing in that Portuguese ruled the waters and the Ottomans were well with land combat. The Portuguese to combat the Ottomans placed a blockade of the Red sea to paralyze their trade, and established a military control point in the Persian Gulf at Hormuz. To counter these, the Ottomans annexed Eritrea and Yemen to create a Muslim-only shipping alliance. Second, they came up with a mighty military, intelligence tactics, diplomacy, science, and technology in countering the Portuguese and carry on with their bid of expanding trade in the Indian Ocean. However, the Portuguese, though with fewer ships and sailors always succeeded in winning battles in the seas. This is because they had advanced naval warfare: they had large ships that housed heavy artillery and supplies, and were wind-powered (Headrick, 2010). The Portuguese-Ottomans conflict resulted from both empires’ quest to control the Indian Ocean, and heightened after the Ottomans fought the Ethiopian Empire that the Portuguese supported. The Dutch also joined the race of establishing overseas empires. Their exploration and new interest in the South West Asia region was mainly for establishing and capturing spice trade and creating their own empires. The main difference between the collective Iberian and Dutch kingdoms is that the political climate of the Dutch was encouraging to social mobility and private enterprising whereas the Iberian Kingdoms’ view of trade was at a mean of enriching their governments. The Dutch gradually ousted the Portuguese’s trade in Asia because they had better innovations in sea travel, had large capacity cargo ships, made their own cheap ships, and these saw they have the largest merchant marine all over (Headrick, 2010). The Dutch later came to take over the Portuguese domination of the Asian spice trade by forming cartels that came up with the Dutch East India Company, which after acquiring from the government to colonize territories and trade enabled it to monopolize the spice trade, driving the Portuguese out of the trade between 1641 and 1658. In china, the Portuguese received a warm welcome and mingled with the Chinese traders, acting as intermediaries between the Chinese and Sino-Japanese in Macao, to make booming businesses. Unlike in the other regions, Japan and China did not fall for the technological advancements of the West as they were not lagging behind in those, and they did not embrace trading with many European states (Headrick, 2010). From Chapter 3: The western hemisphere Chapter three of Headrick’s book talks about how the Spaniards were busy trying to establish their empires on American soil as the Portuguese were bustling with their quests to dominate the Indian Ocean. It describes the role of technology that includes steel weapons and horses in the conquest that took place in the western hemisphere. During this era, the Spaniards depicted many advantages above the Native Americans, making them succeed in their endeavors. Their weaponry was better, they had better infrastructure, better military tactics, and were immune to disease. However, the Spanish did not conquer Northern Mexico, the Great Plains, and southern South America until the nineteenth century because they were elaborated with Webby relationships of kinship, conflicts, ethnic tension, and friendship that forced them to exist with the natives thus being unable to treat or view them as their subordinates (Headrick, 2010). From Chapter 4: Europeans in Asia and Africa When the Europeans went to Africa, it was not possible for them to access the interiors because of the occurrences of diseases like malaria, which they could not handle them. They feared acquiring and dying from them, and they usually referred to the African interior as the white man’s grave. On their landing in India, they found it much easier to invade and conquer them. This is because India consisted of several warring princely states, which the British took advantage of, and made them fight one another. In addition, the British maintained unbeaten competition ahead of other colonial powers, wiping all the other out to gain vast control of the larger India. The British would also train Indian soldiers and employ them into their own army. In the 1950’s, the military revolution, a radical alteration of military strategies and tactics making major changes in the European style of war after portable firearms came into existence. The biggest effect it had was to vary the size of armies in that firearm training took less time than bows or earlier forms of combat. This therefore meant armies grew in numbers as it became possible to equip more men with portable artillery. The British lost in Afghanistan, Algeria, and Caucasus, even with their many advances in artillery and organization, meaning it had exhausted its power limits (Headrick, 2010). From Chapter 5: During this time, the European and the western nations made three inventions that made them to edge ahead of other nations in terms of power. In essence, the western used the advancements that included steamboats, weaponry, and medicine to exercise their authority over nature and above all other developing nations. With these innovations, Western states focused on achieving their ambitions as this enabled them to act out the intentions they had for the nations that they had a stake in. The steamboat invention gave the westerners the overall advantage as this made their quests maneuverable especially to the states that were from the mother empire (Headrick, 2010). For one, the steamboat innovation was a valid invention as this made the conquering to be easier because the western nations could sail to regions that the sea had made them to be distant. Ideally, political acquisition used to be achieved through land only but now the invention of the steamboat opened opportunities for making conquests in the seas. Most of the western nations that used the sea as the entry point to their conquests met resistances in which the non-westernized states built forts and mounted their guns at their shores to combat the enemy. Two of the empires that used the sea as their other empires were Britannia and Portugal. Subsequently, the steam boat innovation was one of the principal results of the industrial revolution as those presented to travelling and exploring other regions that could have provided raw materials that would have sustained their industries The impact in North America Before the successful development of the first steamboat by Robert Fulton, there had been several attempts to that experienced numerous challenges at the production stage, but this did not deter the innovators from realizing their goals. The North River or the Clermont was the first successful steamboat creation followed by the Pyroscaphe developed in 1783. The development of the steamboats was an opportunity for financial expansion in North America as many as this had become the accepted way of travelling and expansion of empires (Headrick, 2010). This was because many of the territories that had plenty of rivers and inadequate road transport systems demanded for steamboats, which influenced the increased production of the same. Therefore, the developer of the Clermont, Fulton Robert and his financier Livingstone Robert sought to capitalize on this transport demand hence influencing them to establish a commercial empire. With this, Fulton and Livingstone grew their business empire by also invoking the services of Nicholas, who was the financier’s younger brother to source for other steamboat markets across North America. The impact on South Asia, Niger, and China Ideally, the Asian continent was one of the early adopters of the steamboats concept unlike the European nations that had better developed road systems and infrastructure hence making them not to be swift in taking up the technology. Therefore, steamboat transport became a supplementary mode of transport unlike in Asia where it became a prime transport avenue. Bell Henry’s steamboat the Comet was the first successful steamer to operate on a commercial basis in Britain as a transporter of passengers, but in India the establishment of steamboats was for warfare purposes. The governor of Eastern India established the river warfare in 1824 as in which Lord Amherst sought to castigate the King of Burma for attacking his region. Therefore, steamboats in East India were for military use while in other instances it was an avenue for voyages where the Indian Ocean route attracted insecurity because of pirates. The invention of the steamboat also facilitated Britain into gaining access to China between the 1920 through the East India Company owned by the British empire that facilitated the one sided trade. In essence, Britain was on the only partner that benefitted in this trade as they only acquired products from China without having to export any products to them (Headrick, 2010). However, Britain had to give in to the pressure to allow China to benefit from this trade because they also discovered a commodity that China was in dire need of. This was the beginning of corrupt dealings in China as the demand for opium was there, but there was no supply hence making way for the illegal importation of opium by 1839. In the end, this created friction between Britain and China because the two did not share the same ideologies about development. As part of their expedition to Africa, the Englishmen sought to explore this largely untapped continent with the first voyage heading to Niger under the guidance of Beecroft. This voyage attracted intense competition for the traders in Niger Delta as the voyages changed from that to regular trading journeys. This in turn attracted the animosity between the natives of Niger and the British hence makes the steamboat voyages to be tricky. In essence, this occurred when the sea got an infestation from water vegetation that made navigation to be hard making the traders to be susceptible to attacks. Subsequently, the steamboats changed into ones that had guns fitted on them and metal protection because of the competition that the European traders brought to the Niger region hence influencing a rise in the skirmish level witnessed in the region. Conclusion Headrick intimates that the opium war in China and the Anglo –Afghan war that occurred between 1839 had similarities because they shared the same motives, which was to resist the expansion of the East India Company owned by the British. From Chapter 6: The changes that medicine brought in the nineteenth century The greatest contribution that medicine brought into this century was the fact that people no longer died of treatable diseases as compared to other countries. Further, medicine reduced the spread of communicable diseases that was a challenge to the non-westerners. How medicine facilitated the conquering of Africa As much as this factor sought to establish friendly ties with other regions, it was also a way for western states to expand their empires as this made colonization easier. Therefore, medicine influenced less loss of the livesof the non-westerners make areas that were previously inaccessible due to diseases permeable hence influencing the westerners to be the prime beneficiaries of medicine. Difference between empirical knowledge and scientific explanation The most shared empirical knowledge that the westerners shared during this time was that the disease that they suffered from resulted from contacts with humans that had this infection. This was more of a miasmatic theory in which the westerners quarantined non-westerners for the view that they were the cause for this infection (Headrick, 2010). However, the opposite of this theory, which is the scientific explanation for the so called malaria inclined that this infection was common because of the swamps that surrounded the areas that they lived in. Therefore, the logical explanation for this would be for them to move to drier areas in order to avoid getting this disease that they had not yet associated with Malaria. Relevance of scientific theories using the germ theory In many cases, using the contagionism or the empirical knowledge theory was avenues for doctors makea wrong diagnosis as this did not provide the evidence that they required in order to make the correct conclusions. Therefore, the germ theory of disease is the most applicable way of explaining the causes of diseases as this implies that these infections occur because of magnify able micro-organisms and not through human contact. Actions for preventing epidemics by governments and why they took the time before implementing the applicable solutions As much as the likes of Doctor Livingstone took medicines to prevent them from getting sick, other explorers died even after taking this preventive medicine meaning that this did not guarantee them of living forever. However, the secret lay in them taking preventive measures for the infections that they could and expounding on research to make the treatment plans better (Headrick, 2010). Therefore, their governments of origin had to capitalize on research and crop up new generation doctors that could have provided new insights on ways of combating these diseases. The challenge that they had in implementing this resulted from the costs attached to the disbursement of quinine while the other was that some were adamant to try advanced treatment options. Evidence that supports or negate that public health benefitted all In the beginning, the concept of public health intended to benefit only the westerners, but this later changed to include the non-westerners because they were valuable to the process of empire expansion. However, the medicine did not prevent people from dying as quinine only provided prevention for Malaria and not for other causes of death. The medicine proved ineffective to those that did not observe the practices that public health required such as waste disposal and water filtration among a list of other practices. Therefore, public health was relevant to those that applied the principle requirements of health and hygiene. From Chapter 7: The third advantage that technology presented to ‘New imperialism’ The era of imperialism characterized the westerners’ quest to gather raw materials to field their expansive industries meaning that they sought surpluses from other regions. With this, communication became the advantage that technology brought to this quest coupled with the development of railway systems for transporting these raw products. Other than this, technology also allowed Europeans to develop explosives that were essential in combat and further advancements led to the creation of lighter machinery for war. Therefore, the machine gun technology gave Europeans a war advantage as compared to the resisting non-westerners that used primitive weapons in war. The causes of innovation and creation of firearms The principle causes for these innovations were for the imperialists to instill fear on those that resisted their intentions because they used crude weaponry in warfare. Therefore, firearms became a symbol of power to those that owned making them to have the advantage over the other western nations that did not have the massive gun weaponry to expand their empires. The advantage that firearms gave Europeans over Africa North America, and South American states Those that had firearms experienced minimal resistance from the regions that they sought to colonize making them to earn more friends than enemies. Using this technology, western states were able to implement their strategies in Chile, North America and Africa with ease because firearm possession made Europeans to be synonymous with power. The reason why Europeans did not subject Ethiopia to their rule Ethiopia formerly, Abyssinia did not fall under any colonial administration although the Italians attempted to do son twice, but ended up being unsuccessful. The empires that surrounded this region had well established security systems and a mountainous environment that made this colony impermeable by European nations. From Chapter 8: Advantages of airpower to Europeans and the first region that used this technology Ideally, Ethiopia was the first region to have used this mode of combat in Italy in 1896 followed by the Japanese that used this to defeat the Russians in 1905 (Headrick, 2010). This implied that the non-western states adapted the use of weapons and turned to these tactics on those the westerners that came up with the concept. Therefore, the Europeans used this innovation to their advantage as they incorporated weaponry to aircrafts that became essential in war as a way of regaining their position in the imperialism process. Major Douhet Giulio’s doctrine Giulio Douhet was an Italian military man that practiced a queer doctrine in which he believed that raids through bombing were essential in influencing people towards submission. This belief led the likes of Marshal Goering Herman to command the bombing of the Rotterdam and London regions and also contributed to the development of aviation strategies for war. Reasons why air control became the preferred combat strategy The overall advantage that air control gave was that it allowed for the targeting of those that resisted power by themselves rather than launching attacks on an entire population including those that had surrendered to western rule (Headrick, 2010). However, air control also invokes the application of intelligent thinking in order for it to be successful such as the nature of the opponent in the war and the consequences of such attacks. From Chapter 9: The paradox of the postwar world Essentially, the postwar era attracted a paradox in terms of leadership in which the liberation aimed at acquiring domestic leaders that ended up being dictatorial. The implication of this was that colonies liberated themselves with the view that their states would become better to deteriorate to non-performing states. In essence, there was a rise of Stalinism and fascism ideologies that had spread across Europe making the liberation quest to have no impact on the improvement of living standards or authority (Dunn, 2010). The outcome of applying air power in Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and in Algeria The use of air power influenced the establishment of the Red Army that sought to prevent police imperialism and the spread of ideologies that were non-Communist. The air power that the military had launched in these regions left scores dead and many other homeless where the Red Army sought to put an end to this suffering (Dunn, 2010). The uprising grew larger recruiting civilians across these regions as a way of protecting their rights that the imperialists and dictators had infringed on them. Therefore, one of the outcomes of using airpower was that civilians became radicals in order to liberate themselves from other forms of oppression that had developed after the end of colonialism. Conclusion Headrick seems to be of the idea that western imperialism had both positive and negative effects to both the westerners and thenon-westerners. For instance, technology favored the Western Imperialism as they had two main sources of innovation that is culture and the competitive nature of the West. Culture enabled them to rule over nature through scientific experiments and research. However, the competitiveness in terms of trade also presented effects in that it led to the development of firearms that fueled the acquisition process to be violent. The use of medicine did not start as a way of helping the non-westerners, but it later included them because the imperialists later realized that they also needed them for their colonization aspect to be successful. The author’s argument appears persuasive because European imperialism had both positive and negative effects because it influenced the start of principle wars all through history. The positive influence imperialism brought is that it influenced civilization to the non-western states and reduced the deaths that resulted from treatable diseases in non-civilized societies. References Dunn, W. S. (2007). Stalin's keys to victory: The rebirth of the Red Army. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books. Headrick, D. R. (2010). Power over peoples: Technology, environments, and Western imperialism, 1400 to the present. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press. Read More