There are two links between industrialization and the “new imperialism” of the 19th century. First, the industrialization allowed the new imperialism to happen. Second, industrialization made people in various European countries (and in the US and Japan) believe that they needed to engage in imperialism.
When the European countries industrialized in the 19th century, they gained the ability to mass produce advanced weapons. They could churn out thousands of rifles very easily by using their factories. They could not build thousands of ships rapidly, but they could build large steam-powered ships that could carry big guns. None of this would have been possible if the countries had not industrialized. They would have had rifles, but not as many. They would not have had huge guns or large, steel ships. Because they industrialized, they had weapons that could easily defeat the people of any of the countries that they imperialized. In this way, industrialization made imperialism possible.
Once the European countries industrialized, they started to need huge quantities of raw materials to feed their factories. In addition, they needed large markets in which to sell all the goods that they could now produce. They believed that imperialism would solve both of these problems. If they gained empires, they would have new territory from which to extract raw materials. If they gained empires, they would also have captive markets who would essentially have to buy manufactured goods from them. In these ways, imperialism would (they thought) solve the economic problems that imperialism had created.
From this, we can see that industrialization and imperialism are linked in two ways. Industrialization made imperialism possible, but it also made imperialism necessary, at least in the minds of the leaders of the imperial powers.
No comments:
Post a Comment