The Age of Empire is a very well-known historical analysis of the “Age of Empire”, written by Eric Hobsbawm , the time period from 1875 - 1914, right before World War II.1This historical analysis talks about the happenings of empire, colonialism, and imperialism, why they came forward, and how they impacted society in the late 19th and early 20th century. There is no simple one or two reasons why the age of empire was so prevalent, there are lots written in this article itself, however the three most important reasons why the age of empire happened is the global economy, the need for westernization, and also global dominance over countries neighbours.
Before we talk about the reasons for empire it’s important to talk about who were the “empire” …show more content…
The fact of the matter is even though some of the countries are long lasting friends, allies, or even enemies, everyone was competing with each other to be the dominant empire. A great point gets raised in that “once a status of a great power thus became associated with raising its flag over some palm-fringed beach, the acquisition of colonies itself became a status symbol, irrespective of their value” 9 The impressive thing is colonies were starting to take land not just for the actual land, they were just taking land for power, and to be looked at very strong. The scramble for Africa for example, was just a race of all the major European powers to not let one have more influence than another. One specific example of imperialism for strategic advantage is the British strategy revolving around India, Many historians have claimed that a huger major part of the British expansion in Africa is in terms of the need to defend the trade routes to and from India from potential threats. 10 The impressive thing is Britain basically colonized routes all the way to India as a safe haven, for example Egypt, the Middle East, Red Sea, Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia, but also over the entire Indian Ocean which established the British relationship with the India not to be messed with. 11 This is an example of colonial powers “protecting from each other” in way of claiming land strategically. The global …show more content…
“It had been clear for several decades that they had to westernize or go under.” 13 No country wanted to be left behind technologically but even ideologically behind other great powers. The ideas of imperialism had dated back several hundred years before, but it was now at the end of the 19th century where it all came to fruition. One example is Mahatma Gandhi the man in poor clothes himself was very influenced by western-democracy politics. Gandhi who had gone to Britain to study, learned his techniques from westernization and imperialism and he embodies it very well. 14 One of the most powerful forms of western influence was the Christian missionaries sent to Africa to try and convert them to Christians. The Christians would send missionaries and convert thousands at a time especially to the colonies in Africa, and these countries have had the long lasting of effect of westernization to this day. What they got from the missionaries was not only the faith imported from the west, but all the values that made sense to them from western colonial powers. Many intellectually minded administrators and soldiers produced impressive theoretical reflections which transformed western social societies. 15 The important thing to know is how dominant the imperialists were, for example in India 6000 British officials governed over 300 million Indians. 16 Even though imperialism lasted for a relatively short
Before we talk about the reasons for empire it’s important to talk about who were the “empire” …show more content…
The fact of the matter is even though some of the countries are long lasting friends, allies, or even enemies, everyone was competing with each other to be the dominant empire. A great point gets raised in that “once a status of a great power thus became associated with raising its flag over some palm-fringed beach, the acquisition of colonies itself became a status symbol, irrespective of their value” 9 The impressive thing is colonies were starting to take land not just for the actual land, they were just taking land for power, and to be looked at very strong. The scramble for Africa for example, was just a race of all the major European powers to not let one have more influence than another. One specific example of imperialism for strategic advantage is the British strategy revolving around India, Many historians have claimed that a huger major part of the British expansion in Africa is in terms of the need to defend the trade routes to and from India from potential threats. 10 The impressive thing is Britain basically colonized routes all the way to India as a safe haven, for example Egypt, the Middle East, Red Sea, Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia, but also over the entire Indian Ocean which established the British relationship with the India not to be messed with. 11 This is an example of colonial powers “protecting from each other” in way of claiming land strategically. The global …show more content…
“It had been clear for several decades that they had to westernize or go under.” 13 No country wanted to be left behind technologically but even ideologically behind other great powers. The ideas of imperialism had dated back several hundred years before, but it was now at the end of the 19th century where it all came to fruition. One example is Mahatma Gandhi the man in poor clothes himself was very influenced by western-democracy politics. Gandhi who had gone to Britain to study, learned his techniques from westernization and imperialism and he embodies it very well. 14 One of the most powerful forms of western influence was the Christian missionaries sent to Africa to try and convert them to Christians. The Christians would send missionaries and convert thousands at a time especially to the colonies in Africa, and these countries have had the long lasting of effect of westernization to this day. What they got from the missionaries was not only the faith imported from the west, but all the values that made sense to them from western colonial powers. Many intellectually minded administrators and soldiers produced impressive theoretical reflections which transformed western social societies. 15 The important thing to know is how dominant the imperialists were, for example in India 6000 British officials governed over 300 million Indians. 16 Even though imperialism lasted for a relatively short