Benefits to European Countries from Conquest of the New World - Essay Example

Benefits to European Countries from Conquest of the New World Benefits to European Countries from Conquest of the NewWorld The conquest of the new world can be in other words be described as colonialism and as such, it a situation entailing implementation of social aspects including the economic, political as well as social policies in an efforts towards assisting a country to experience a maintained or an extended authority and outmost control over other states. In colonialism, it is usually that the country being colonized is much weaker as compared to the colonizing country and as such, the stronger country exploits the resources of the weaker country to enrich its own economy (Popov 2004). The 19th century can be attributed to the big boost in regards to the economic power experienced by the countries within Europe. This is the time that colonization was taking effect. It is during this time that countries such as Britain, Germany, Italy as well as France emerged as powers entailing industrialization and as such, due to this industrialization, the population in respective countries became high and production rose. During this colonialism era, social Darwinism was becoming increasingly popular and as such, it was natural that these four economic super powers were engaging themselves in fierce competition towards survival. The driving force that led to colonization by these countries was to strengthen themselves in an effort towards securing a competitive edge in regard to the underlying competition between them (Milios 2004). The main reason behind colonialism, regardless of the country colonizing, was to exploit their subjects as well as the individuals who were residing within the boundaries of the colonies in an effort towards generation of the colonizer’s wealth in regards to the economy for the colony as well as the corporations of that colony. The push for generation of the economic power is what led to the presence of slavery, particularly in Africa. People within the colonies being colonized became subjected to coerced labor, that is, slavery or a system of labor characterized by indent. Most of the areas, which were being considered vast in regard to the natural habitats, became cleared and as such, they were being transformed into monoculture plantations (Milios 2004). Therefore, this paper will put a focus on the colonialism endeavors in regard to the European countries during their conquest of the new world and thereby establish what economic gain that these countries actually achieved out of this conquest. In addition to this, the paper will also access the driving force that led to the European countries colonizing other countries. The Capitalist system In any economic system, the most important factor is the underlying surplus. When a country produces more as compared to the basic needs of the individuals in the society, then such a country can be said to be experiencing an upper hand in economy. In reference to some societies in the pre-colonial era, some countries were running in deficits as they were producing less than the needs of the residents. In other countries, the state was at balance as they produced just enough to cater for the basic needs of the citizens (Bukharin 2007). In some European kingdoms systems, people were forced to produce more such that the production would exceed what they actually needed and as such, this surplus would be assumed by the provincial ruler. While the surplus in other countries was used to enhance the ruler’s lifestyle; some other countries used the surplus to provide for the residents such that they would work in the army, exchange systems or art as well as for the justice system (Bukharin 2007). During the industrial revolution in the pre-colonial times, the European system evolved and as such, the European used the surpluses produced by their colonies to improve their own production levels. This is what was later referred to as capitalist system. In the 19th century, African and Asian states were being colonized and as such, there was creation of the global capitalism system. This led to the integration of the territories of colonies to fit into the system associated with the production as well as trade internationally (Lavine and Renelt 2002). The European super powers controlled this emergent capitalistic system and as such, they organized such that they would direct the surpluses produced in the developing countries such that their own production would be improved. This is indeed the reason why contemporary Europe is industrially developed (Popov 2004). To understand the economic benefits that European colonialism entailed, it is better that the concept be understood. As such, it can be said to be the internalization of the production related to the capitalism, its penetration of those regions that were previously non capitalistic and destroying of the non capitalistic attributes of social organizations (Lavine & Renelt 2002). Emergence of the contemporary European organization During the European colonial era, the colonies, especially the third word colonies were subject to an obligation such that they were required to produce for the needs of the Europeans as well as producing for their own in an effort towards obtaining of currency. There were taxes that these third world colonies had been imposed on by the European colonizers and as such, the currency was essential. In addition to this, the currency was vital since it had the power to buy the European goods (Hilferding 2010). During this time, The European colonizers were confiscating land previously owned by the natives of the colonies and thereby introducing a property system. Moreover, money was also essential as it would be used to purchase or even rent a piece of the land in these colonies (Hilferding 2010). It is from this that the currencies of the major super powers in the European economies started being used in the third world colonies’ economies. The European colonialism indeed can be attributed to the global economic system. The European super powers, after colonialism, having garnered much from the aspect of colonialism established vital institutions such as the international monetary fund and as such, this enabled the European countries to increase their economic power at the expense of the third world colonies and as such, the third world colonies had no option than accept to be controlled (Hilferding 2010). Due to colonization, the Western Europe was affected both in diplomatic and economic perspectives. Economically, the Western Europe colonizers benefited in a great way a thing that led to the industrialization. For instance, during the colonial era in Africa, most of the colonies had untapped vital resources and realizing this, the European super powers came calling and in the bend they achieved what they were anticipating to get. As such, the African colonies, influenced by the colonizers, channeled their own resources to Europe and as a result, new wealth was brought into the European super powers (Mitchell 2002). Particularly, it was the manufacturers as well as the merchants who profited in a major way. As such, the resources were sent to Europe and were utilized fully to establish a desirable product which had the capability of changing the lifestyles of the individuals who resided within the boundaries of European continent. Before colonization, Europe was importing sugar and this followed that the citizens could hardly obtain due to the high costs. Immediately after the European seized the opportunity to control these resources through colonization, European countries began producing its own sugar and as such, the rare product not only did it become available but it was also being retailed at low prices as compared to before (Lenin 2007). In effect, the life of the people within Europe now started changing for the best and as such, it followed that the living standards improved. As a result of colonization, capital in the European countries was rapidly becoming centralized and concentrated and as such, there was formation of big cartels as well as trusts. In addition to this, the imperialist European super powers were in a constant search for materials necessary for making up a product as well as a steady market for the finished products. It must be understood that imperialism had no relationship with the capitalistic market during the colonial era. The main reason behind this was that the power of the land was still vital. Contemporarily, the spread of industrialization is vast and as such, it has reached to a point where every country across the world is being involved in the global market and thus the international market competition has become of profound status (Mitchell 2002). During the colonial era, no matter how the European super powers tried, they were not able to establish settlements in countries within Asia that is, India as well as Iran. This is because; these two countries were stable in regard to their economic states. In sub-Saharan countries, the condition was a complete contrast of the Asian countries as the land was rich in raw materials but was untapped. There amount of raw materials was vast, For instance, the land was rich in gold and coal, resources that would greatly lead to industrialization if they were realized (Maddison 2009). It is from this reason that the countries within Europe, that is, the super powers saw the need of boosting their own economy and as such, they took advantage and took control. They took these raw materials with them to Europe and, this in turn boosted their economies as the raw materials were used to produce goods that were useful to the citizens, and of which could be traded with other countries and thus great boost to the economies within the European countries (Mauro 2005). Spain Conquest of the Northern and Southern America Before the arrival of Columbus in the late 1400s, the northern and, the southern America were being occupied by several Native Americans as well as the Caribbean. These Native Americans, before the Europeans arrived had already started rearing crops such as corn, tobacco and potatoes. In addition to these, the Native Americans land was rich in vitals and precious resources such as gold (Popov 2004). Driven by the quest for theses resources, Spain decided to forcefully obtain them and as such, they took advantage by using the powerful aspect of technology in regard to the military force. For instance, the Spanish used guns and as such, the Native Americans were defeated. Apart from gun use, this victory over the Native Americans was made possible due to the fact that the Native Americans were experiencing diseases such as small pox which was responsible for the high number of deaths (Mauro 2005). Initially, Spain’s driving motive was to attain the precious resources. As such, it had no intentions of establishing the Americans as their colony. It was not until other European super powers begin entering the America that Spain saw the need for establishment of permanent settlement in America. It is from here that the Spanish began exploring the land and in doing so, they decided to defend a policy attributable to mercantilist which was intended to reserve the rewards entailed by the new world, to Spain (Von der Mehden 2000). The Spanish explored the American land and as such, they were taking the precious resources and exporting them to Spain. They made use coercive power such that the labor came from the Americans themselves who were under duress. Indeed, this can be said to be slavery as it was the dominant aspect in regard to colonization. They made use of the Americans and as such, it was the Americans who would dig up to extract such resources contained in the underground such as gold (Popov 2004). The extracted resources would then be sent to Spain whereby they would either be traded or used to make some valuable products. The finished products would then be exported to other countries and as it is with trade, the Spanish economy was greatly boosted. Out of the foreign exchange, Spain experienced tremendous improvement in its economy and thereby increasing its status as a super power at the expense of the Americans. During this time, the Spanish economy was encompassed with high returns out of exports without using costly inputs, that is, not only did the Spanish exploited the precious resources but also took along Americans as slaves and as such, the labor to transform these precious resources into finished products did not cost anything (Von der Mehden 2000). These economic benefits accrued until the early 1640s when they began declining. The main causes attributable to this decline were; pressure from other nations encompassing imperialism such as the Dutch was mounting. In addition to this, at this time, Spain was experiencing some domestic problems and as such, the economic benefits were destined to decline. Furthermore, Spain had a mandate to maintain its colonies and as such, the profits were declining at a high rate and therefore the accrual of the economic upper hand from colonization of the Americans had to fall (Maddison 2009). Apart from these causes, there were also the tremendous expenditures associated with the maintenance of the military for the effective protection of the colonies. Moreover, the Spanish trade ships had to be protected and this involved big costs. Out of these expenses, the Spanish economy fell and as a result, Spin moved from being an economic superpower to as second rate economic power (Lucas 2000). The British conquest of the new world Early 1985s saw England establish an empire in Virginia in a region called Roanoke. The main aim of the English conquest of this region was to find a passage that would link them with the Northwest of Asia. However, there were more disguised motives held by the English. As such, they had already established that the investors buying into companies which at the time being involved in joint stock companies entailed some benefits which were regarded as lucrative. In addition to this, they had an increasing desire to exploit the raw materials as they saw it as a great incentive for them. In fact, the raw materials were essential for England since they could lead to an expanded manufacturing sector (Lenin 2007). In regard to the entire colonization by the European countries, the center motive was mercantilism. As such, mercantilism entailed such desires as; the need to obtain valuable resources, the desire to establish a balance in trade, that is the BOP between the colony and the colonizer as well as the establishment of the colonies such that they would act as a way to counterbalance the influence coming from other imperialistic nations (Milios 2004). From this analysis, it is evident that countries such as France, The Netherlands, and Germany as well as well as Britain were the major superpowers across Europe. During this era, countries had not yet established themselves and even though they had realized that their land was rich in raw materials, they could not make useful products out of these. The driving force that led to colonization by these countries was to strengthen themselves in an effort towards securing a competitive edge in regard to the underlying competition between them. The European super powers took advantage and established settlements in the regions with rich lands and thus the beginning of colonization (Lucas 2000). This in turn boosted the industrialization within Europe as signified by the wave of industrial revolution across the European countries. As such, from the raw materials recovered from the colonies, new products surfaced and this was the beginning of the advanced living standards among the European societies. In addition to the raised standards of living, the new products would then be exported to the countries within Europe as well as countries elsewhere and just like in the contemporary international trade, the economy grew tremendously. With reference to the colonial era, social Darwinism arose to become increasingly popular and as such, it was natural that these four economic super powers were engaging themselves in fierce competition towards survival, that is, survival for the fittest. The push for generation of the economic power is what led to the presence of slavery, particularly in Africa. With a deeper insight, slavery also contributed to the well being of economy of the European colonizers. People within the colonies were becoming increasingly subjected to coerced labor, that is, slavery or a system of labor, which was being characterized by indent (Popov 2004). Most of the colonial regions, which were being considered vast in regard to the natural habitats, became cleared and as such, they were being transformed to host monoculture plantations. Therefore, being involved in conquest of the new world, the European countries proved to be of major importance putting their economies into consideration (Von der Mehden 2000). References Bukharin, N., 2007. Imperialism and World Economy. London: The Merlin Press. Hilferding, R., 2010. Finance Capital. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul. Milios, J., 2004. Marx’s Theory and the Historic Marxist Controversy on Economic Crisis. Science and Society, 58(2), pp.56-67. Popov, Y., 2004. Essays in Political Economy. Imperialism and the Developing Countries. Moscow: Progress Publishers Lenin, V.I., 2007. Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism: A Popular Outline. Beijing: Foreign Languages Press. Lavine, R. & Renelt, D., 2002. Sensitivity Analysis of Cross-Country Regressions. American Economic Review, 82(1), pp.942-963. Lucas, R.E. Jr., 2000, Why Capital from Poor to Rich Countries? American Economic Review Papers and Proceedings, 22(1), pp.3-42 Mitchell, B.R., 2002. International Historical, Statistics, Africa and Asia. London: Macmillan. Mauro, P., 2005. Corruption and Growth. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 110(2), pp.681-712. Maddison, A., 2009. Monitoring the world Economy. Paris: OECD. Von der Mehden, F.R., 2000. Politics of the Developing Nations. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall. Read More