History is written by empires. Without empires the path of humanity wouldn’t lead to where it is today. Everything would beat with the sun as it did in ancient times, when civilizations had little to no knowledge of each other. The influence of empire is undeniable. The main purpose of conquerors is to convert the subjected peoples to a new way of living. This provided some benefit in ancient times, but the influence of empire has changed over the years. It wasn't until the 1800s that empire took a radical turn, giving birth to a new form called imperialism.
In ancient times, empires like Persia and Rome provided protection from outside tribes, so women and children could live without the threat of invasion. It allowed the social merging of tribes that were once warring each other. These empires also expanded knowledge in the world, as the addition of each new tribe into their empires brought new ideas and resources. Civilizations like Greece and Egypt built the first libraries, opened the first schools, and used their philosophies to form the first systems of government. The role of empire in ancient times was arguably positive for the development of humanity. But as the ancient world drew to a close in western society, and the Middle Ages featured a millennium of stagnation, this would soon change.
The 1800s presented a dramatic shift in the way empires impacted societies. The new form- imperialism- referred specifically to the European powers gaining empire status, and to the rising power of the United States at the time. During this period, the reason for gaining land not only changed, but the outcome of it affected the world in more ways than empires had before them. At this point in history, the whole concept of empire took a paradigm shift.
Imperialism in the 1800s largely came about from adapting to the demands of industrialization and overpopulation. “During the second half of the nineteenth century, many Europeans came to believe that imperial expansion and colonial domination were crucial for the survival of their states and societies” (Traditions and Encounters, 911). The Industrial Revolution featured a growing number of technological innovations that took center stage in Europe. To engineer these technologies, the European powers needed labor to harness energy and resources that couldn’t be found on their own continent. Places like China and California provided large amounts of valuable resources (like opium and gold), which strengthened the assets of the western powers. They also had a large number of indigenous people who would prove useful in mining the resources and building railroads to transport them. Large coal reserves in the United States and Britain also helped imperialist motivations.
Britain became the world’s first industrialized nation in around 1870. Their success was recognized by other European powers. This resulted in further expansion by countries like France and Germany, which would also become industrialized in their efforts to keep pace with Britain.
The effects of industrialization on imperialism are striking. It may be the single most important contributor to expansionism in the 1800s. Industrialization allowed populations to rise and global markets to expand. People began moving away from dangerous rural areas and into safer urban ones. As populations grew, further resources were needed as the cycle snowballed at an exponential rate. Similarly, the growing demand for resources like cotton, timber, and petroleum expanded markets and set up laissez-faire capitalism: “Led by railroads, the U.S. economy expanded at a blistering pace between 1870 and 1900. Inventors designed new products and brought them to the market: electric lights, telephones, typewriters, etc. Strong consumer demand for these and other products fueled rapid industrial expansion, suggesting to observers that the United States had found the road to continuous progress and prosperity” (Traditions and Encounters, 864). These developments might sound perfectly harmless to the average American or European in modern times, but the greed exhibited by these entrepreneurs would ultimately prove detrimental to the course of humanity, as countries like the United States and Britain continued to scour the Earth for resources.
The energy needed to keep imperialism running has degraded the planet’s environment and threatened thousands of its species. “This insatiable consumption of energy threatens mass deforestation, the destruction of more native cultures and the disruption of climatic stability worldwide” (Resource Rebels, 5). This is clearly an issue when we look at the effects of fossil fuels on the global climate. Other aspects, such as deforestation, water pollution, and waste disposal have disrupted the balance of sustainability on our planet.
The means to obtain these resources has also culminated in the stealth of land from native tribes. Much like in slavery, natives have been used as labor forces to extract these resources. As a result, many have suffered from poor nutrition, discrimination and poverty. In some cases, tribes such as the Tetetes of Ecuador have ceased to exist. Tribes like these weren’t the only ones in trouble though. Empires in general have a tendency to stratify races and social groups into classes, intentionally or not. It is in the best interest of the conquerors to subjugate the conquered for capital advantage. They must find the labor necessary to expand their cities and build their armies; slavery is one of the methods used to accomplish this. The United States and Britain had already shown this with the Atlantic slave trade in the 1700s.
While slavery is one issue, race is another. In the United States this class warfare has resulted in the isolation of certain minorities who earn lower incomes and are the victims of lifestyles that influence them to commit more crimes. Class warfare allows the majority of certain races to remain separated so that certain races at the top remain at the top, while those at the bottom earn very little and remain at the bottom. This is a conflict we are still seeing today in the United States. Most African Americans and Mexicans, who have done all our dirty work in the past (building railroads, picking cotton, mining coal), still get forced into working the kind of minimum-wage jobs that some members of the middle and upper classes would never even consider doing.
Finally, imperialism stifles the progress of humanity by calling for the competition of progressive nations to compete for control. The buildup to World War I and the U.S./Soviet arms race are two examples. “Aggressive nationalism (in the early 1900s) was also manifest in economic competition and colonial conflicts, fueling dangerous rivalries among the major European powers” (Traditions and Encounters, 947). So long as nations are competing for technological and scientific advantages, the cycle of war will continue.
The never-ending fuel for conflict is also presented in the principle of expansion. Expansionism is something characteristic of all empires. In the 1800s the rising European empires and the United States expanded their territories to claim more lands. These lands usually provided resources that were lacking in those countries' own lands. The drive to continually expand propagates the cycles of war that have continued through the ages. Regardless of whom you defeat, there will always be other people to conquer.
Looking at it from this perspective, empire building seems like a waste of time, and harmful to the environment. “The world’s armed forces are the single largest polluter on Earth” (Resource Rebels, 184). Modern empires have turned nations into viruses. They cut the Earth for coal and oil at the expense of the natives and the health of the planet. In many cases, these natives have been made “slaves” by providing corporations with the necessary labor to mine resources. Modern empires take from the Earth, but fail to give back to it.
The crucial difference between empires of the past and those of modern times is that they didn’t have to deal with the skyrocketing populations caused by industrialization. The Enlightenment can partly be blamed for this. As scientists and inventors found easier ways for us live, and cures for diseases helped us live longer, others felt we could use all this new technology to control nature. Some also felt that the first to embrace these technologies would dominate global economies and politics for years. While the benefits of the Enlightenment can't be denied, the greed exhibited by entrepreneurs, war profiteers, and the politicians who represent them would deem the Enlightenment one of the most overlooked farces in history. Instead of using science to better our lives, these people decided to corrupt it into worsening them (perhaps unintentionally). It resulted in a chain reaction that produced the monstrous superpowers we see today.
I think empires in the past had a better claim for expanding and making slaves of their mercenaries, not that I support that kind of thing. They didn’t threaten the environment and they weren’t as destructive on a global scale than the ones we see today. In general, I still feel that all forms of empire are unnecessary. They can only provide examples of political self-destruction in a cycle that never ends, from their rising and falling to expanding and contracting. I think that in our modern age it is recommendable that we abandon imperialism, instead utilizing our new technologies to create a global democracy with more regulation against corporations, injustice, and acts of war. This may take some time, but the one thing empires have provided is a new beginning for a large number of people. Whether or not they are a good are bad influence is for them to decide.
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