Imperialism

Imperialism: The takeover of a country or territory by a stronger nation with the intent of dominating the political,economic, and social life of the people of that nation.

How did imperialism help?

• the french and other European colonies preferred a more direct approach of controlling their colonies. based on attitude of children unable to handle the complex business of running a country, the Europeans developed a policy called Paternalism. using this policy, Europeans governed in more of a fatherly way. more of an emotional feel between the controllers and the people!
• the french also supported a policy of assimilation. this was based on the idea of the time that the local populations would become absorbed into the french culture itself. no clashing cultures!
• direct and indirect control
• indirect- (assimilation) Goal: to develop future leaders, and example would be: Nigeria, India and Burma; U.S.: colonies on pacific islands.
• direct- (paternalism) government institutions are based only on European styles, thus creating an all over similarity between all people. example: (french) Somaliland, Vietnam, (German) Tanganyika, and (Portuguese) Angola.

How did imperialism hurt?

• the belief in racism (the idea that one race is Superior to others) and Social Darwinism (social theory) caused groups to have different opinions about the rights they had, and the duty to bring their results of their progress to other countries. 
• the division of Africa. at the Berlin conference in 1884-85 14 European nations mat to lay don rules for the division of Africa. they agreed that any European country could claim land in Africa by notifying other nations of their claims and showing they could control the area. NO indication on how they were to control that area; they could all govern as the darn-well pleased to. and with that the Europeans divided the rest of the continent without little thought to how African ethnic or linguistic groups were distributed. no African leader attended these meetings, and by 1914 only Liberia and Ethiopia remained free.
• demand for product. when European countries began colonizing, many believed that Africans would soon be buying European goods in great quanities. they were wrong: European goods were not bought. European businesses still needed raw materials from Africa. businesses developed cash-crop plantations to goods and products, these products displaced food crops grown by farmers to feed their families. nice going guys.