EUROPEAN IMPERIALISM AND MODERNIZATION IN AFRICA , ASIA

AND LATIN AMERICA

Timothy O. Ellah
Introduction
The dawn of the nineteenth century marked the beginning of the grand
age of European imperialism, as the leading European powers - Britain,
France, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy, and even Russia - exerted
their control over all corners of the globe. From 1800 onward, advances
in military and production technologies rapidly occurred in several
Western European countries and in the United S tates. It is significant to
list the changes to get a sense of what was happening. In Britain, the
United States, Holland, Belgium, France, Germany, Austria, Italy and
Russia, engineers began to use steam power to run mining operations,
making vast quantities of coal, nickel, copper and iron available (Jack
68). New techniques for using coal to refine iron and other metals gave
rise to huge increases in the availability of low -cost wrought iron and
steel. Steam power was put to use to drive steamships and r ailroads,
steam shovels and steam threshers. Steam power was also used in
factories to drive bellows for refining steel and to drive spinning and
weaving machinery to produce cotton and woolen textiles of unrivaled
low price and uniform quality (68).
By the 1860s, steam -powered warships under American and European
flags were spanning the globe, and networks

European Imperialism and Modernization in Africa

Of rail lines moved goods and people at unprecedented speeds across
national and continental borders. Mass production was applied to guns
and new designs increased their accuracy and rate of fire. The result of
all these changes was that over the course of the nineteenth century,
European countries and the United States were able to control huge new
stores of energy and manipulate huge amounts of materials at near
incredibly low costs. At the same time, however, most Asian and African
countries were in huge political and economic difficulties.
China's economy and administration failed to keep pace with its
population growth, leading to revolts and eventually a vast civil war
(the Taiping Rebellion) that lasted 13 years (1851 -1864), killed tens of
millions, and destroyed central authority in the empire. In Japan, the
shogun (the supreme generalissimo) too faced rebellion from the
provinces, as did the Ottoman sultan (68). In Africa, the strains of
centuries of slaving and increasingly rapacious demands by traders and
colonists undermined many once -independent and powerful African
kingdoms.
The result of these opposing tendencies was that in the course of the
nineteenth century, European nations (and the United States) brought
vastly increased capabilities to project force and to produce cheaper
goods for exporting markets in Latin America, A sia and Africa.
According to Jack Goldstone, not surprisingly, the Europeans and
Americans used their advantages to expand their authority and control,
employing new steam -powered gunships and battle cruisers to impose
conditions on China and Japan, respectively, and using rail lines and
modern weapons to wrest control of Africa (69). Goldstone asserts
further, it was not colonialism and conquest that made possible the rise
of the West, but the reverse - it was the rise of the West (in terms of
technology) and the decline of the rest that made
Possible the full extension of European power across the globe (69). This
chapter examines the beginnings and central trends in the development
of European imperialism and the quest for global modernization that
accompanied it.
Trends in European Imperialism in the World
Trade and conquest run together like inseparable partners in world
history. Trade played a central role in the mercantilist period of
European history from 1500 to 1750 - sometimes referred to as the early
age of capitalism or trade capitalism - than in almost any other period
(Ball 23). In human history, the process of exchange of goods between
Europe and the other four continents of Africa, Asia, America and
Australia was primarily determined by Europe from about the fifteenth
to the twentieth century (Walter 30). From the sixteenth century to 1914,
trade within Europe at all times constituted the most significant portion
of global trade, and the volume of that trade grew disproportionately
during the early modern period and into the modern period.
Conversely, national markets became increasingly interconnected,
driven by numerous innovations in the areas of infrastructure,
transportation, energy supply, and institutions (rules, constitutions,
division of labour, currency standards, etc.). The transi tion from
individual production to mass production and the convergence of prices
of goods and materials made transactions considerably easier, thereby
accelerating integration and heralding what was later known as
industrial revolution (24).
Starting in the late Middle Ages at the latest and continuing at least into
the nineteenth century, Europe dominated most developments in the
international system. From the end of the nineteenth century, North
America began to exert a stronger influence on the global economy.
Around the beginning of the twenty -first century, the Asian

European Imperialism and Modernization in Africa

States – most notably China – gained influence and the USA became
financially dependent on its East Asian creditors, while China seems to
become the engine of growth of the current century (24).
Despite coming in contact with the different regions of the world,
European diplomacy was centered on conquest. Conquest was often
necessary to trade, to persuade reluctant and recalcitrant rulers to open
their ports to foreign merchants or to obtain acces s to precious
materials. Europe's desire to increase its trade with Asia prompted
Europeans to make conquests in the New World and along the shores of
Asian states; Europe's conquests in the New World then provided the
silver that allowed Europe to expand its Asian trade. Later, the growth
of Europe's colonies in the Americas created the conditions for a new
Atlantic trade, tying together Africa, Europe, and the Americas from
Canada to Brazil. Thus, trade led to conquests, and conquests led to
trade (Jack 52).
European Imperialism in Asia before and after 1800
For a century or more, the Portuguese were the major European power
that occupied Asia. From 1500 to 1600, most other nations in Europe
were consumed in fighting wars of religion at home – Protestants and
Catholics battled for power in Britain, France, and Holland – while
Spain focused on its conquest of the New World. However, by the
seventeenth century, merchants in various parts of Europe had seen
enough of Portuguese successes that they too sought to obtain valued
goods directly from Asia and Africa (Ja ck 54). Yet unlike Spain or
Portugal, whose rulers sent military expeditions to America and Asia,
the rulers of England, France, and Holland simply encouraged
companies of merchants to develop their Asian trade by granting them a
monopoly on the import of Asian goods to the respective countries. Thus,
the English East Indian Company (founded in 1600), the Dutch East
India Company (founded in 1602), and the French East Indian Company
(founded in 1664) became these countries' representatives in Asia.
Operating partly like private companies (buying and selling goods and
selling shares in their profits on some of the earl iest stock markets in
Europe) and partly like small states (with their own armies, navies, and
territorial administrations), the East Indian Companies became the
creators and builders of empires (57).
Using a combination of superior naval firepower with alliances with
friendly local rulers (that is, following the pattern established by the
Portuguese), the English, Dutch, and French East India companies
carved out their own territories in Asia and large ly drove the Portuguese
out of business (57). Over time, England, Holland, and France created
huge empires in Asia – the English mainly in India, Holland in
Indonesia, and the French in Indochina (present -day Vietnam,
Laos, and Cambodia). During their first century in Asia (roughly from
1600 to 1700), the East India Companies acted like the Portuguese,
seeking fortified outposts for trade along the coasts; the Dutch even
captured the established post of Malacca from the Portuguese. The
English established forts at Madras, Calcutta, and Bombay in India, as
the French did at Pondicherry; while the Dutch established settlements
in Java, Ceylon (modern Sri Lanka), and Nagasaki, Japan (57).
European Imperialism and Modernization in Africa
In the early modern period, Africa became the preferred region of
operation of the privileged European trading companies. Britain,
France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and a number of other European
countries delivered manufactured goods made of glass, met al and
textiles, as
European imperialism and modernization in Africa

As well as weapons and alcohol to Africa in exchange for slaves,

provisions, gold, etc.
European-African trade was often just one aspect of the so -called
triangular trade between Europe, Africa and the Americas. Trade
remained dominant from the seventeenth to the early nineteenth century,
at which point the increasingly pervasive ban on slave trading shifted
the focus of trade in Africa to African commodity trade (Wallestein 80).

Although Africa was generally known in the West as the "Dark

Continent", it remained scientifically unknown to the outside world until
the late nineteenth century because interior deserts, mountains,
plateaus, jungles and prevalence of mosquitoes discouraged European
exploration. Britain's occupation of Egypt in 1882 and Belgium's
penetration of the Congo in 1884 -85 started the race for colonial
possessions in Africa (Fage 20). In 1875, Britain purchased a controlling
interest in the Suez Canal from the bankrupt ruler of Egypt who was
unable to repay loans that he had contracted for the canal and
modernization of the country. The French, who organized the building of
the Suez Canal under Ferdinand de Lesseps in 1859, owned the other
shares. The Suez Canal was important because it shortened the route
from Europe to South and East Asia. The canal also provided a lifeline to
India, which Britain had made part of the British Empire in 1858
(Wallestein 85). In 1882, Britain established a protectorate over Egypt,
which meant that the government leaders were officials of the Ottoman
Empire, but was really controlled by Great Britain. The British
occupation of Egypt, the richest and most developed land in Africa, set
off "African fever" in Europe. To ensure its domination and stability i n
the area, Great Britain extended its control over the Sudan as well (The
Age of imperialism 147).

In 1878, Leopold II of Belgium (1835, ruled 1865 -1909) sent Anglo-

American newspaperman Henry Stanley (1841 -
1904), to explore the Congo and establish trade agreements with leaders
in the Congo River basin. Stanley, in 1871, met the great Scottish
explorer and missionary, David Livingstone (1813 –1873), who had
traveled throughout Africa for over thirty years. When several years
passed without a word from him, it was feared that he was dead. Stanley
was hired in 1869 by the New York Herald, an American newspaper to
find Livingstone. His famous greeting, Dr. Livingstone, became
legendary, even though there are some questions about its authenticity.
Stanley's account of their meeting made headlines around the world and
this helped make him famous. Stanley eventually sold his services to
Leopold II, who had formed a financial syndicate entitled "The
International African Association" (The New Herald 12). A strong-willed
monarch, Leopold II's intrusion into the Congo area raised questions
about the political fate of Africa south of the Sahara, a situation where
other European nations were fearful that Belgium wanted to extend
control over the entire area.
Strategically, sub-Saharan Africa, one of the last regions of the world
largely untouched by "informal imperialism" and "civilization," was also
attractive to Europe's ruling elites as a result of economic and racial
reasons. At a time when Britain's balan ce of trade showed a growing
deficit, with shrinking and increasingly protectionist continental
markets as a result of Long Depression (1873 –1896), Africa offered
Britain, Germany, France, and other European countries an open market
that would garner it a trade surplus – a market that bought more from
the metropole than it sold overall. The imperialist felt that surplus
capital in Europe was often more profitably invested overseas, where
cheap labor, limited competition, and abundant raw materials made a
greater premium possible. An inducement to European imperialism in
Africa, of course, arose from
The demand for raw materials unavailable in Europe, especially copper,
cotton, rubber, tea, and tin, to which European consumers had grown
accustomed and upon which European industry had grown dependent.
Finally, the scramble (or the race) for Africa was the proliferation of
conflicting European claims to African territory during the period of
New Imperialism, between the 1880s and the start of World War I. While
de Brazza was exploring the Kongo Kingdom f or France, "Stanley" also
explored it in the early 1880s on behalf of Léopold II of Belgium, who
would have his personal Congo Free State. France occupied "Tunisia" in
May 1881 (and Guinea in 1884), which partly convinced "Italy" to
adhere in 1882 to the German-Austrian Dual Alliance, thus forming the
Triple Alliance. The same year, Great Britain occupied the nominally
Ottoman Egypt, which in turn ruled over the Sudan and parts of
Somalia. In 1870 and 1882, Italy took possession of the first parts of
"Eritrea," while Germany declared Togoland, the Cameroons and South
West Africa to be under its protection in 1884. To this end the scramble
culminated in partition of Africa by 1884 -1885.
The Scramble and Partition of Africa, 1884 -1885
Otto von Bismarck (1815-1898), then Chancellor of Germany and Jules
Ferry (1832-1893), then Premier of France and considered the builder of
the modern French Empire, organized an international conference in
Berlin, Germany to lay down the basic rules for c olonizing Africa. The
Berlin Conference (1884-1885) established the principle that European
occupation of African territory had to be based on effective occupation
that was recognized by other states, and that no single European power
could claim Africa. The scramble for Africa between 1878 and 1914 led
to the European powers dividing among themselves the entire

Continent of Africa except for the independent countries of Ethiopia and

Liberia. As a "Province of Freedom", settled by free black from Britain
and British North America, Liberia became an independent republic in
1847 and Ethiopia, which was already indep endent, routed an Italian
invasion in 1896. The country's defeat of the Italians assured that it
would remain independent throughout the period of the partition and
beyond. On several dubious grounds and without any African ruler in
attendance in the Berlin Conference, Africa was shared among European
nations as if it was terra nullius, belonging to no one. We will now turn
attention to briefly highlight what the befitting European nations
(including France, Britain, Germany, Portugal, Spain, Italy and
Belgium) got from the scramble and partition of Africa.
Great Britain
Britain's holdings in Africa were not as large as France's but it
controlled the more populated regions, particularly of Southern Africa,
Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, etc. which contained
valuable mineral resources such as diamonds and gold. In 1806, the
British displaced Holland in South Africa and ruled the Cape Colony.
However, the British soon came into conflict with the Boers (Dutch
farmers), the original Dutch settler s who resented British rule. In the
1830s, the Boers left British territo ry, migrated north, and founded some
republics— Natal, the Orange Free State and Transvaal. The Boers soon
came into conflict with the powerful Zulus, a native -African ethnic
group, for control of the land. When the Zulus and the Boers were unable
to win a decisive victory, the British became involved in the Zulu Wars
and eventually destroyed the Zulu empire (The Age of Imperialism 148).
In the 1890s, Cecil Rhodes (1853 -1902), became prime minister of the
Cape
European Imperialism and Modernization in Africa
Colony. He wanted to extend the British African Empire from Cape Town
to Cairo and decided to annex the Boer Republic. In the Anglo -Boer War
(1899-1902), the British, with great difficulty, defeated the Boers and
annexed the republics. In 1910, Britain com bined its South African
colonies into the Union of South Africa. The Whites ran the government,
and the Boers, who outnumbered the British, assumed control. This
system laid the foundation for apartheid regime (racial segregation)
that lasted until the 199 0s.
France
The French had the largest colonial empire in Africa, of over three and a
half million square miles, half of which contained the Sahara Desert. In
the 1830s, France had conquered Algeria in North Africa. Between 1881
and 1912, France acquired Tunisia, Moro cco, parts of West Africa:
Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Niger,
Senegal, Togo and Equatorial Africa.
Germany
Late unification delayed Germany's imperialistic ventures in Africa, but
it also wanted its place in the global system. Germany took land in
eastern (Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania) and southwestern Africa
(Togoland, the Cameroons and Namibia) and was dispos sessed of such
territories after World War I as a result of the fall out of the Treaty of
Versailles of 1919 which ascribed war guilt to Germany and imposed
upon it huge reparation payments, territorial and colonial losses and
restrictions on military powe r (Iain & Alistair 557).

Italy
Italy was another late comer to the imperialistic venture in Africa. Italy
took control of Libya, Italian Somaliland and Eritrea, which is the
north-most province of Ethiopia near the Red Sea. Italy's efforts to gain
control of Ethiopia ended in bitter def eat in the battle of Adowa.
Portugal
Portugal created and held out large colonies and enclaves in Angola in
South-West Africa and Mozambique in South-Eastern Africa.
European Imperialism and Modernization in Asia
From the seventeenth century, the Netherlands played a leading role in
trade between Europe and the rest of the world, particularly trade with
Asia. In the eighteenth century, Great Britain dominated the Asian
markets, though its focus was on India instead of Indonesia and
Southeast Asia. The British East India Company, founded in 1600, and
the Dutch East India Company, founded in 1602, dominated markets in
the Indian Ocean and - to a lesser extent - in the South China Sea. Their
powers extended far beyond trade, and it resulted in a "golden age" in
Holland and its main city, Amsterdam (Israel 19).
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, parts of Asia were
increasingly drawn into the process of European industrialization. India
in particularly became an important source of raw materials
(particularly cotton) as well as food and stimulants (partic ularly tea).
The period of industrialization and of the rise of the middle class in
Europe would not have been possible without these supplies and the
intensification of exchange with Asia (20). The building of railways
which is a European innovation began in the ninet eenth century in
Turkey, India, Japan and China, wit h lasting support for the economics
and trade. This development provided the basis for further trade. The
establishment of a telegraph line between Calcutta and London, which
was constructed by Siemens an d opened in 1870, gave an important
stimulus to trade and the exchange of information and services between
Europe and Asia (Israel 20). In all regions of Asia, enclaves and cities
remained in European ownership until relatively recently, as in the case
of Hong Kong which the British only rel inquished in 1997.
In the section that follows, we will attempt a country by country
analysis of European imperialism and modernisation in some of the
countries in Asia.
India
The British took control of India in 1763, after defeating the French in
the Seven Years' War (1756 -1763). The British controlled India through
the British East India Company, which ruled with an iron hand. In 1857,
an Indian revolt, led by native soldiers called sepoys, led to an uprising
known as the Sepoy's Mutiny. After suppressing the rebellion, the British
government made India part of its empire in 1858, as mentioned
previously. The British introduced social reforms, advocated education,
and promoted technology.
Britain profited greatly from India, which was called the "Crown Jewel
of the British Empire" (The Age of Imperialism 149).
The British traders, particularly the British East Indian company, joined
with British officials as rulers, assuming the dual roles of businessmen
and representatives of the sovereign state. Some Indian princes accepted
British domination, but others who r esisted such domination lost their
lands and valuable estates to the British. Until 1858, the administration
of the subcontinent was divided into two sections: British India was
ruled directly by officials sent

From London, while in Indian India, the local dynasties ruled under
British supervision. The British Parliament, being concerned with a
profit-seeking motive controlled the lives of millions of people while its
agent filled their pockets with graft, enacte d legislation in 1773 and
1784 that gave it power to control company policies and appoint the
governor-general (Robert et al. 772). The Dutch held the Dutch East
Indies and extended their control over Indonesia, while the French took
over Indochina (Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam). The Russians also got
involved and extended their control over the area of Persia (present day
Iran).
China
At the dawn of the seventeenth century, China had isolated and closed
itself from the rest of the world and refused to adopt Western ways and
modernization. The Chinese permitted trade but only at the Port of
Canton, where the rights of European merchants were at the whim of the
emperor. Imperialism in China began with the First Opium War (1839 -
1842), when the Chinese government tried to halt the British from
importing opium and tagging the trade as illegal. The ban resulted in a
war in which Britain's superior military and industrial might destroyed
the Chinese military forces ( Mgbada 9). The Treaty of Nanking (1842)
opened up five ports to the British, gave Britain the island of Hong
Kong, and forced China to pay a large indemnity (10).
In 1858, China was forced to open up eleven more treaty ports that
granted special privileges, such as the right to trade with the interior of
China and the right to supervise the Chinese custom offices. Foreigners
also received the right of extraterritori ality, which meant that Western
nations maintained their own courts in China and Westerners were tried
in their own courts (10). Between 1870 and 1914, the Western nations
carved China into spheres of influence, areas in which outside powers
claimed exclusive trading
EUROPEAN IMPERIALISM AND MODERNIZATION IN AFRICA
France acquired territory in southwestern China, Germany gained the
Shandong Peninsula in northern China, Russia obtained control of
Manchuria and leasehold over Port Arthur, and the British took control
of the Yangzi valley (13). The United States, which had not taken part in
carving up China because it feared that spheres of influence might hurt
U.S. commerce, promoted the Open -Door Policy in 1899. John Hay, the
American Secretary of State, proposed that equal trading rights to China
be allowed for all nations and that the territorial integrity of China
should be respected. The imperial nations accepted this policy in
principle but not always in practice. For the United States, however, the
Open-Door Policy became the cornerstone of its Chinese policy at t he
beginning of the twentieth century (13).
By the 1900s, China was in turmoil. There was rising sentiment against
foreigners because China had been forced to give up so many political
and economic rights. The anti -foreign sentiment exploded into the Boxer
Rebellion or Uprising (1899 -1901). The Boxers were members of secret
Chinese nationalist society "united in righteousness" (united in one goal)
and supported by the Manchu government, and their goal was to drive
out all foreigners and restore China to isolation (14). In June 1900, the
Boxers launched a series of attacks against foreigners and Chinese
Christians for embracing western religion. They also attacked the
foreign embassies in Beijing. The imperialistic powers sent an
international force of 25,000 troops to crush the rebellion, which ended
within two weeks (Mgbada 16).
The Boxer Rebellion failed, but it convinced the Chinese that reforms
were necessary. In 1911, revolutions broke out across the country and
the Manchu Emperor was overthrown (16). Dr. Sun Yat -Sen (1866-
1925), proclaimed a Republic and was named the new pre sident. He
advocated

Japan
Japan was the only Asian country that did not become a victim of
imperialism. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Japanese
expelled Europeans from Japan and closed Japanese ports to trade with
the outside world, allowing only the Dutch to trad e at Nagasaki (150).
In 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry (1866 -1925), an American naval
officer, led an expedition to Japan. He convinced the shogun, a
medieval-type ruler, to open ports for trade with the United States
(150).
Fearful of domination by foreign countries, Japan, unlike China,
reversed its policy of isolation and began to modernize by borrowing
from the West (150). The Meiji Restoration, which began in 1867, sought
to replace the feudal rulers, or the shogun, and i ncrease the power of the
emperor. The goal was to make Japan strong enough to compete with the
West. The new leaders strengthened the military and transformed Japan
into an industrial society.
The Japanese adopted a constitution based on the Prussian model with
the emperor as the head. The government was not intended to promote
democracy but to unite Japan and make it equal to the West in terms of
technology and military strength. The leaders bu ilt up a modern army
based on a draft and constructed a fleet of iron steamships. The
Japanese were so successful that they became an imperial power. In
European Imperialism and Modernization in Africa
In the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95, Japan defeated China and forced
it to relinquish its claims in Korea (151). Japan also gained control of
its first colonies—Taiwan and the
Pescadores Islands—and shocked the world by defeating Russia in the
Russo-Japanese War of 1904 -1905. This victory marked the first time an
Asian country had defeated a European power in over 200 years (Robert
771-2).
However, the devastating events of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during
World War II profoundly impacted Japan, leading to greater openness
towards the US.
The Middle East held significant strategic importance for the new
imperial powers due to its location (a crossroads of three continents:
Europe, Asia, and Africa), vital waterways (canals and the Dardanelles),
and abundant oil resources. The European powe rs divided the Middle
East as follows:
Great Britain
Britain's control of the Suez Canal compelled it to take an active role in
Egypt and to acquire the strategically important island of Cyprus to
secure oil resources for industrial and military needs. Britain also
obtained concessions in Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, and Bahrain.
Pipelines were constructed to the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian
Gulf.
Russia
Historically, Russia aimed to gain control of the Dardanelles as an outlet
to the Mediterranean Sea and as a means of expansion. Russia played a
role in dismantling the Ottoman Empire and securing independence for
several Balkan states (The Age of Imperial ism 150).
Germany
In 1899, German bankers secured the Ottoman Empire's approval to
complete the BerlinBaghdad Railroad (150).

European Imperialism and Colonialism in the Americas

At the dawn of the sixteenth century, Portugal's double expansion in
Africa and the Americas continued with its turning westward and
commencing to colonize Brazil. Impressive colonial cities came into
being on the coast, such as Salvador do Bahia, the firs t capital city of
Brazil. The eastern part of South America had been granted to the
Portuguese by Pope Alexander VI
(1492-1503) in the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494). Around 1500, Pedro
Alvarez Cabral (ca. 14681520) claimed mainland Brazil for Portugal,
and expeditions during the course of the sixteenth century, such as those
by Martin Afonso de Sousa (1500 -1564) explored the Brazilian interior.
At about the same time, different Portuguese Jesuits founded towns and
the earliest sugar cane plantations in Brazil.
According to Walter Rolf and Jack Goldstone - renowned Eurocentric
historians, one of such sugar mill was acquired by the Schetz Company
of Antwerp in 1540 (Walter 9, Jack 69). Sugar production in Brazil was
able to increase vastly in scale because of the use of enslaved persons
from Africa; thereby paving the way for the basic forms of tropical
agricultural production that later became the predominant form in the
countries of Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as in the southern
part of North America. Brazil played a significant role in supplying
Europe with inexpensive sugar in the early modern period due to big
increases in productivity in the cultivation of sugar cane which brought
down the price of sugar (Jack 69). Similar development also occurred in
relation to the supply of cheap maize, cocoa, coffee, tobacco and cotton
from Brazil to Europe.
In the later part of the Sixteenth century, trans -Atlantic relations were
enhanced as a result of the discovery of precious metals in South
America. In the course of the exploration of the American continent, not
only did people

European Imperialism and Modernization in Africa

Of different ethnic backgrounds encountering one another, the material
culture was also greatly enriched, for example by the arrival of
previously unknown plants, animals, and goods in
Europe. Medieval Europe had no knowledge of cocoa and, consequently,
of chocolate (Pomeranz & Steven 23). Some present -day dietary staples
such as maize and potato, which like tapioca and nasturtium - are good
sources of carbohydrates, were previously unkn own in Europe (23).
Equally new to Europeans were sugar -rich plants such as sugar maple
and protein rich legumes such as beans. Other plants such as peanuts
provided oil and fat.
New vegetable types such as tomatoes, peppers, and pumpkins, and nuts
and fruits from avocados and pineapples to guavas and papayas
appeared on European dietary tables. Europe became acquainted with
intoxicants such as the products of the maté tree and the coca bush
(Walter 9). Spices such as vanilla, allspice, and chili contributed to the
refinement of European culinary tastes. Tobacco was also cultivated in
Europe for the first time in the early modern period.
It is beyond question that the exchange of new types of food and
stimulants has had an effect on patterns of behaviour - and even on
architecture - in the modern period. Smoking rooms or gentlemen's
rooms containing pipe stands, ashtrays, matches, and simi lar utensils
were given in the Eighteenth -Century and Nineteenth -Century villas.
Coffee houses were often popular meeting places for artists and literati,
and were consequently much -frequented places for meeting and
communication which had a considerable e ffect on the culture of large
European cities (10).
As a matter of fact, new categories of wood, such as rare pine species
and mahogany, appeared in the sitting rooms of affluent Europeans.
Quebracho trees and various species of mangrove provided tannic acid
which is used for preserving animal skin. Rubber trees and shrubs
provided rubber, while the wax palm, the carnauba palm and the jojoba
provided wax (10). The variety of dyes available was also increased by
access to tropical plants, ranging from the Brazilian redwood, the
logwood, the yellowwood, and in digo, which began to replace wood in
Europe (11). The New World was also a source of numerous plants which
provided insecticides, such as barbasco roots, the bitter wood, and the
cashew nut; even tobacco falls into this category. Today "American"
plants are even used as fuel sources, as exper iments with tapioca, maize
and species of copaiba in Europe (Walter 12).
Succinctly, Europe enriched the American continent with the
introduction of new animal and plant species, as well as new inventions,
cultivation techniques and ideas. These ranged from horses, cattle,
donkeys and hens to honeybees and silkworms and from ne w types of
cereals such as barley to apples, apricots, almonds, and various types of
cabbage, carrots, aubergines, flax and garlic (12). Europeans also
introduced a vast array of weapons and craft tools, as well as
institutional innovations such as Roman l aw which was established in
many states of North and South America.
There were also innovations such as the process for extracting silver and
gold from ores using mercury, or book printing, which accelerated and
intensified the transfer of information and knowledge from the Old
World to the New World (Walter 10).
The encounter between the material and intellectual cultures of Europe
and the Americas resulted in enormous mutual enrichment and
inspiration. However, it also had negative effects, such as the transfer of
diseases in both directions. Many more indigenous Americans died as a
result of "European" diseases than died in violent confrontations during
the course of the Conquista. It has been

Demonstrated that, the devastation wrought by European germs in the

New World was even greater than that caused by the Black Death in
Europe (Crosby 34). The Black Death, after all, was only one disease; the
Europeans brought not only smallpox, typhus, flu , and measles, but also
a host of other viruses, bacteria, and parasites that were unknown in the
New World. All combined to produce a huge variety of paths to illnesses
and deaths. The toll is perhaps similar to what Europeans encountered
when they tried to enter Africa, where malaria, sleeping sickness, and a
variety of tropical fevers made Africa a graveyard for Europeans who
sought to enter it.
Nevertheless, Netherlands, Britain, France, and other European
countries (Denmark, Sweden, Austria, Prussia, Switzerland, etc.) sought
to gain access to trade in Asia, Africa and America by means of
privileged companies like the Dutch East Indian company a nd its likes.
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, it took the form of the so -
called triangular trade, African trade then was largely synonymous with
slave trading. Slaves were bought in exchange for European
manufactured goods and subsequently tra nsported to the large estates of
the West Indies and America on special slave ships. In the early modern
period, millions of Africans were taken in this way to the New World,
from where colonial produce was transported to Europe. Privileged
European trading companies were also employed in Atlantic trade, such
as the Royal African Company and the Hudson's Bay Company, the
Dutch West Indian Company and corresponding French companies
(Maddison 10).
To this end, expanding European settlements in America then required a
growing number of labourers for the work on plantations and other
possessions. As a result, the triangular trade persisted until the abolition
movement of the nineteenth century. Denmark and Great Britain
abolished slavery in 1803 and 1807 respectively, followed by the USA in
1808, and Holland in 1814 and France in 1817.
In addition to the role played by the American and French Revolutions of
1776 and 1789 respectively in promoting freedom and human rights,
economic interests played a decisive role in this process. New economic
systems which emerged as a result of the indu strial revolutions began to
replace old mercantilist forms. The emerging polypolistic variety of
markets was accompanied by the intensification of market formation
and of competition. As at the 1880s an economic transformation had
occurred, this introduced new institutional forms, a liberal economic
and social order, and a radical integration of world markets.
Subsequently, global exports grew as a proportion of the world social
product from approximately 1% in 1825 to approximately 8% in 1900,
and finally to approximately 16% in 2000 (10). The global economy has
multiplied by 44% since 1820s, and global trade has grown in volume by
a factor of 600 in the same period.
Up to the First World War, Western Europe undoubtedly contributed
most to the world gross social product (Maddison 10).
Spanish colonization of the Americas was the result of the exploration,
conquest, settlement and political rule over much of the western
hemisphere by the Spanish Empire. It was enhanced by the Spanish
conquistadors and supported by the Monarchy of Spain through its
administrators and missionaries. The motivations for colonial expansion
were trade and the spread of the Christian faith through indigenous
conversions. It lasted for over four hundred years, from 1492 to 1898.
Beginning with the October 1492 arrival of Christopher Columbus,
nearly over four centuries the Spanish Empire would expand across: -
most of present day Central America,

European Imperialism and Modernization in Africa

The Caribbean islands, and Mexico; much of the rest of North America
including the
Southwestern, Southern coastal, and California Pacific Coast regions of
the United States; and though inactive, with claimed territory in present
day British Columbia Canada; and U.S. states of Alaska, Washington,
and Oregon; and the western half of South America (Bourne 1). In the
early nineteenth century, the revolutionary movements resulted in the
independence of many Spanish colonies in the Americas, except for Cuba
and Puerto Rico, given up in 1898 following the Spanish -American War,
together with Guam and the Philippines in the Pacific. Spain's loss of
these last territories politically ended Spanish colonization in the
Americas (1). However, the cultural influences remain to this day.
By the 1820s most countries in the Western Hemisphere won their
independence and began the challenging process of nation building.
Despite significant differences, these fledging and fragile states
grappled with similar issues over the next century, includ ing creating
new national identities and government; finding a proper balance
between regional autonomy and central government; coping with
political instability, civil wars and foreign interventions; dealing with
indigenous people; ending the slave trade and slavery; attracting
immigrants and promoting trade, economic development and
industrialisation (2).
The first to win independence was the United States of America through
the war of independence which laid a foundation for unity as the
thirteen original colonies confronted a common enemy in Great Britain
and later found a constitutional formula for joini ng together as one
union with a central government in 1789. By 1825 the US had expanded
to 24 states and nearly doubled its territory through the Louisiana
Purchase. The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition of the Louisiana
territory by the United states from France in 1803. The U.S. paid fifty
million francs and a cancellation of debts worth eighteen million francs
for a total of sixty-eight million francs (Herring 1). It remained intact
while surviving a war with Great Britain and experiencing sectional
tension over slavery that later lead to the most severe test to the republic
during the American Civil War.

Finally, in contrast to the United States of America, the former Spanish

colonies that make up most of Latin America won their independence
without any expectation to unite (2). From the beginning, they were
unstable. Their wars of independence left a bitt er legacy that was
difficult to overcome. Hundreds of people in the conflict remained and
civil war was a constant prospect. Some of the most productive areas
were devastated, and communication and transportation were severely
disrupted. Moreover, the colo nial political cultures of autocracy and
patronage were a poor foundation for new nations aspiring to become
stable democratic republics.

Conclusion

Imperialism irreversibly changed both Western society and its overseas

colonies. Through imperialism, Western countries established the
beginning of a global economy in which the transfer of goods, money,
and technology needed to be regulated in an orderly way to ensure a
continuous flow of natural resources and cheap labour for the
industrialised world. Imperialism adversely affected the colonies - under
foreign rule; native culture and industry were destroyed. Imported
goods wiped out local craft industrie s. By using colonies as sources of
raw materials and markets for manufactured goods, colonial powers
held back the colonies from developing industries. One reason why the
standard of living was so poor in many of these
Countries was that the natural wealth of these regions was funneled to
the mother countries in the West.
Imperialism also brought about confrontation between the different
cultures of the world. By 1900, Western nations had control over most of
the globe. Because the Europeans were convinced that they had superior
cultures, they forced other races to accept Western ways and worldview.
The pressures to westernize forced the colonial people to reevaluate their
traditions and to work at discouraging such customs as foot binding in
China and sati in India. Although imperialism exploited and abused
colonial people, Western countries introduced modern medicine that
stressed the use of vaccines and more sanitary hygiene that helped to
save lives and increase life expectancy.
Imperialism created many political and socio -cultural problems.
European nations disrupted many traditional political and cultural units
and united rival peoples under single governments that tried to impose
stability and order where local conflicts had ex isted for years. Ethnic
conflicts that developed in the latter half of the twentieth century in
many of these areas can be traced to European imperial policies. Finally,
imperialism contributed to tension among the Western powers. Rivalries
between France and Great Britain over the Sudan, between France and
Germany over Morocco, and over the Ottoman Empire contributed to the
hostile conditions that led to the First World War in 1914, a war which
millions of people outside Europe fought and died without even good
knowledge of its causes.